On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
But is the Pope a Catholic?
And does JD Vance shit in the woods?
There are any number of Catholics who will tell you that the Pope is a Lutheran heretic.
The wacky, wacky world of Ultra Catholicism (No One More Catholic Than Us)….
Mind you, someone once counted up how many of Luther’s points have been implemented by the Catholic Church. Quite a few, IIRC.
Back in the day of Usenet circa 2004 I fell down a rabbit hole of mad Catholics over The Passion of Christ*.
Basically John-Paul II was an antipope because of Catholic ruling in the 60s and it didn’t matter if the film was antisemitic because Jews are Christ killers.
*I was interested in the film because of the use of Aramaic.
Did you know that Mel Gibson now thinks the film wasn’t Catholic enough?
Edit : and the star Jim Caviezel has gone Hyper Catholic *and* QAnon?
I did, and on your edit, it’s totally ruined Person of Interest for me.
Normally I can distinguish between an artist/actors performances and their political views, same with Mutya Buena of the Sugababes.
I don’t know if I dare ask, but what has Mutya done/said?
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
In his book he is quite scathing on Hillbilly's propensity to Charismatic Evangelicalism, seeing it as superficial and without mystery. I suspect that he doesn't speak too much on that any more.
Mostly Vance is a human chameleon, and an ambitious one. As a youth he was part Hillbilly then he went native in the Marines, then at Harvard. It was there he wanted to blend in with the preppy types, who were rather more established, and who were Episcopelian or Catholic. Hence he became a Catholic. He then was an anyone but Trumper while that was the established position, before flipping MAGA when that became the dominant tribe.
Think of him as the Talented Mr Ripley, or Oliver in Saltburn.
Zelig.
The person he reminds me of is the Matthew Macfadyen character in Succession.
It’s a fun comparison but I think he’s smarter and bolder than that
eg Hillbilly Elegy is a genuinely good and compelling book
How many other successful politicians anywhere on earth have been good writers BEFORE entering politics
Gordon Brown - His “The Labour Party and Political change in Scotland 1918-1929” is a classic. Funny, provocative, moving, enlightening. Nobody has ever created so many comedy characters in a book. Satire at its finest.
We should all use the word 'crotchfuit' instead of children/kids.
Mrs C and I don't like the use of the word 'kids' to describe children. She's not "Nanny' either, to the grandchildren; she's Grannie. I have a suspicion that 'kid' is related to the Anglo Saxon word for children. Anyone know?
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
But is the Pope a Catholic?
And does JD Vance shit in the woods?
There are any number of Catholics who will tell you that the Pope is a Lutheran heretic.
The wacky, wacky world of Ultra Catholicism (No One More Catholic Than Us)….
Mind you, someone once counted up how many of Luther’s points have been implemented by the Catholic Church. Quite a few, IIRC.
Back in the day of Usenet circa 2004 I fell down a rabbit hole of mad Catholics over The Passion of Christ*.
Basically John-Paul II was an antipope because of Catholic ruling in the 60s and it didn’t matter if the film was antisemitic because Jews are Christ killers.
*I was interested in the film because of the use of Aramaic.
Did you know that Mel Gibson now thinks the film wasn’t Catholic enough?
Edit : and the star Jim Caviezel has gone Hyper Catholic *and* QAnon?
I did, and on your edit, it’s totally ruined Person of Interest for me.
Normally I can distinguish between an artist/actors performances and their political views, same with Mutya Buena of the Sugababes.
I don’t know if I dare ask, but what has Mutya done/said?
This is from 2020 gives you a flavour.
Mutya Buena has sparked controversy and concern after sharing a number of bizarre conspiracy theories to her Instagram stories.
The Sugababes star has been flooding her stories with screenshots of increasingly strange theories, including fake allegations that Hillary Clinton is awaiting trial for ‘cutting off a little girl’s face and wearing it as a mask’ and that Covid-19 is a hoax to ‘distract’ the world from A-list celebrities getting arrested.
The 35-year-old took numerous screenshots from viral Facebook posts and shared them to her story, the first of which alluded to the already debunked Pizzagate theory – that Clinton was linked to a sex trafficking ring in Washington DC.
The post read: ‘WHY DOES NOBODY KNOW THAT HILLARY CLINTON JUST LOST HER APPEAL IN COURT OVER 600,000 EMAILS ABOUT CHILD MOLESTATION, TORTURE AND TRAFFICKING AND HAS TO TESTIFY THIS SEPTEMBER? Oh yeah cus they’re distracting us.’
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
In his book he is quite scathing on Hillbilly's propensity to Charismatic Evangelicalism, seeing it as superficial and without mystery. I suspect that he doesn't speak too much on that any more.
Mostly Vance is a human chameleon, and an ambitious one. As a youth he was part Hillbilly then he went native in the Marines, then at Harvard. It was there he wanted to blend in with the preppy types, who were rather more established, and who were Episcopelian or Catholic. Hence he became a Catholic. He then was an anyone but Trumper while that was the established position, before flipping MAGA when that became the dominant tribe.
Think of him as the Talented Mr Ripley, or Oliver in Saltburn.
Zelig.
The person he reminds me of is the Matthew Macfadyen character in Succession.
It’s a fun comparison but I think he’s smarter and bolder than that
eg Hillbilly Elegy is a genuinely good and compelling book
How many other successful politicians anywhere on earth have been good writers BEFORE entering politics
He is definitely incredibly smart. Bold I am less sure about. Where he's like MM in Succession is his ability to make the right friends and to adapt his beliefs to cement those relationships. That's a hugely underrated skill, IMO.
I’m tempted to agree just because I liked SUCCESSION so much. What a show. And it ended so brilliantly, which many great shows do not
But Vance is bold. Writing and publishing that book at a young age was brave
There are a few TV shows that almost literally take your breath away because they are so so uncannily accurate in how they depict the worlds they portray. Succession is one. Another is Silicon Valley. It is absolutely on the button in just about every way.
Succession was brilliant because it managed to skewer super rich powerful dynastic families like no one since maybe Shakespeare (and I KNOW a couple of families like this) but at the same time it had a script full of outrageous and scintillating wordplay that would make no sense in real life yet worked superbly on screen - again, like Shakespeare
I do wonder if it was the best drama of the entire Golden Age of tv drama. Along with Spartacus
But then I’ve never even heard of “Silicon Valley”?!
MAJOR BREAKING: Pope Francis has written a letter to US Bishops saying he’s following “major crisis” of “mass deportations;” takes on Vance saying “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the “Good Samaritan”
That's quite an intervention.
"I recognize your valuable efforts, dear brother bishops of the United States, as you work closely with migrants and refugees, proclaiming Jesus Christ and promoting fundamental human rights," he said in a letter to the U.S. bishops published by the Vatican Feb. 11.
Pope Francis said he was writing because of "the major crisis that is taking place in the United States" with the start of President Donald J. Trump's "program of mass deportations."
"The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality," Pope Francis said. ... "He also applauded the efforts of the U.S. bishops' to assist migrants and refugees and to counter the arguments of the Trump administration." ... "What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly," the pope warned.
He's specifically assaulting the deliberate callousness / cruelty of the Trump-Vance policy.
The interviewee starts off with emotional blackmail about how they are saving lives but ends up admitting that their work is about providing "nonlethal assistance" to "a movement" with the support of foreign policy hawks.
He says Americans will die because USAID-employed Americans in foreign climates have been suddenly cut off from any support.
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
In his book he is quite scathing on Hillbilly's propensity to Charismatic Evangelicalism, seeing it as superficial and without mystery. I suspect that he doesn't speak too much on that any more.
Mostly Vance is a human chameleon, and an ambitious one. As a youth he was part Hillbilly then he went native in the Marines, then at Harvard. It was there he wanted to blend in with the preppy types, who were rather more established, and who were Episcopelian or Catholic. Hence he became a Catholic. He then was an anyone but Trumper while that was the established position, before flipping MAGA when that became the dominant tribe.
Think of him as the Talented Mr Ripley, or Oliver in Saltburn.
Zelig.
The person he reminds me of is the Matthew Macfadyen character in Succession.
It’s a fun comparison but I think he’s smarter and bolder than that
eg Hillbilly Elegy is a genuinely good and compelling book
How many other successful politicians anywhere on earth have been good writers BEFORE entering politics
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
In his book he is quite scathing on Hillbilly's propensity to Charismatic Evangelicalism, seeing it as superficial and without mystery. I suspect that he doesn't speak too much on that any more.
Mostly Vance is a human chameleon, and an ambitious one. As a youth he was part Hillbilly then he went native in the Marines, then at Harvard. It was there he wanted to blend in with the preppy types, who were rather more established, and who were Episcopelian or Catholic. Hence he became a Catholic. He then was an anyone but Trumper while that was the established position, before flipping MAGA when that became the dominant tribe.
Think of him as the Talented Mr Ripley, or Oliver in Saltburn.
Zelig.
The person he reminds me of is the Matthew Macfadyen character in Succession.
It’s a fun comparison but I think he’s smarter and bolder than that
eg Hillbilly Elegy is a genuinely good and compelling book
How many other successful politicians anywhere on earth have been good writers BEFORE entering politics
MAJOR BREAKING: Pope Francis has written a letter to US Bishops saying he’s following “major crisis” of “mass deportations;” takes on Vance saying “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the “Good Samaritan”
The Holy Father is an reader of my PH posts it seems -
Like @SouthamObserver when I look at J D Vance, I don’t see a guy having a bad time
He’s from a poor white Appalachian background and he is now the 2nd most powerful man in the western hemisphere. He’s a best selling writer, very rich, he has a beautiful wife and 3 lovely kids, he gets to hang around the world snubbing the jumped up French president. And he’s still very young with every prospect of going the whole way
There are worse gigs
He’s surely had to make some accommodations with his supposed intellect and supposed faith, I imagine that has caused some discomfort. Hopefully.
I don't think his conscience troubles him much.
Probably not. I recall Vance saying during the US election that the Haitians eating cats thing was probably untrue but worth it to tell a ‘bigger’ truth.
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
In his book he is quite scathing on Hillbilly's propensity to Charismatic Evangelicalism, seeing it as superficial and without mystery. I suspect that he doesn't speak too much on that any more.
Mostly Vance is a human chameleon, and an ambitious one. As a youth he was part Hillbilly then he went native in the Marines, then at Harvard. It was there he wanted to blend in with the preppy types, who were rather more established, and who were Episcopelian or Catholic. Hence he became a Catholic. He then was an anyone but Trumper while that was the established position, before flipping MAGA when that became the dominant tribe.
Think of him as the Talented Mr Ripley, or Oliver in Saltburn.
Zelig.
The person he reminds me of is the Matthew Macfadyen character in Succession.
It’s a fun comparison but I think he’s smarter and bolder than that
eg Hillbilly Elegy is a genuinely good and compelling book
How many other successful politicians anywhere on earth have been good writers BEFORE entering politics
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
In his book he is quite scathing on Hillbilly's propensity to Charismatic Evangelicalism, seeing it as superficial and without mystery. I suspect that he doesn't speak too much on that any more.
Mostly Vance is a human chameleon, and an ambitious one. As a youth he was part Hillbilly then he went native in the Marines, then at Harvard. It was there he wanted to blend in with the preppy types, who were rather more established, and who were Episcopelian or Catholic. Hence he became a Catholic. He then was an anyone but Trumper while that was the established position, before flipping MAGA when that became the dominant tribe.
Think of him as the Talented Mr Ripley, or Oliver in Saltburn.
Zelig.
The person he reminds me of is the Matthew Macfadyen character in Succession.
It’s a fun comparison but I think he’s smarter and bolder than that
eg Hillbilly Elegy is a genuinely good and compelling book
How many other successful politicians anywhere on earth have been good writers BEFORE entering politics
He is definitely incredibly smart. Bold I am less sure about. Where he's like MM in Succession is his ability to make the right friends and to adapt his beliefs to cement those relationships. That's a hugely underrated skill, IMO.
I’m tempted to agree just because I liked SUCCESSION so much. What a show. And it ended so brilliantly, which many great shows do not
But Vance is bold. Writing and publishing that book at a young age was brave
There are a few TV shows that almost literally take your breath away because they are so so uncannily accurate in how they depict the worlds they portray. Succession is one. Another is Silicon Valley. It is absolutely on the button in just about every way.
Succession was brilliant because it managed to skewer super rich powerful dynastic families like no one since maybe Shakespeare (and I KNOW a couple of families like this) but at the same time it had a script full of outrageous and scintillating wordplay that would make no sense in real life yet worked superbly on screen - again, like Shakespeare
I do wonder if it was the best drama of the entire Golden Age of tv drama. Along with Spartacus
But then I’ve never even heard of “Silicon Valley”?!
It's entirely different to Succession, which I agree was magnificent on so many levels. But I have spent a fair bit of time in Silicon Valley and it all rings horribly and very funnily true:
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
In his book he is quite scathing on Hillbilly's propensity to Charismatic Evangelicalism, seeing it as superficial and without mystery. I suspect that he doesn't speak too much on that any more.
Mostly Vance is a human chameleon, and an ambitious one. As a youth he was part Hillbilly then he went native in the Marines, then at Harvard. It was there he wanted to blend in with the preppy types, who were rather more established, and who were Episcopelian or Catholic. Hence he became a Catholic. He then was an anyone but Trumper while that was the established position, before flipping MAGA when that became the dominant tribe.
Think of him as the Talented Mr Ripley, or Oliver in Saltburn.
Zelig.
The person he reminds me of is the Matthew Macfadyen character in Succession.
It’s a fun comparison but I think he’s smarter and bolder than that
eg Hillbilly Elegy is a genuinely good and compelling book
How many other successful politicians anywhere on earth have been good writers BEFORE entering politics
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
But is the Pope a Catholic?
And does JD Vance shit in the woods?
There are any number of Catholics who will tell you that the Pope is a Lutheran heretic.
The wacky, wacky world of Ultra Catholicism (No One More Catholic Than Us)….
Mind you, someone once counted up how many of Luther’s points have been implemented by the Catholic Church. Quite a few, IIRC.
Back in the day of Usenet circa 2004 I fell down a rabbit hole of mad Catholics over The Passion of Christ*.
Basically John-Paul II was an antipope because of Catholic ruling in the 60s and it didn’t matter if the film was antisemitic because Jews are Christ killers.
*I was interested in the film because of the use of Aramaic.
Did you know that Mel Gibson now thinks the film wasn’t Catholic enough?
Edit : and the star Jim Caviezel has gone Hyper Catholic *and* QAnon?
I did, and on your edit, it’s totally ruined Person of Interest for me.
Normally I can distinguish between an artist/actors performances and their political views, same with Mutya Buena of the Sugababes.
I don’t know if I dare ask, but what has Mutya done/said?
This is from 2020 gives you a flavour.
Mutya Buena has sparked controversy and concern after sharing a number of bizarre conspiracy theories to her Instagram stories.
The Sugababes star has been flooding her stories with screenshots of increasingly strange theories, including fake allegations that Hillary Clinton is awaiting trial for ‘cutting off a little girl’s face and wearing it as a mask’ and that Covid-19 is a hoax to ‘distract’ the world from A-list celebrities getting arrested.
The 35-year-old took numerous screenshots from viral Facebook posts and shared them to her story, the first of which alluded to the already debunked Pizzagate theory – that Clinton was linked to a sex trafficking ring in Washington DC.
The post read: ‘WHY DOES NOBODY KNOW THAT HILLARY CLINTON JUST LOST HER APPEAL IN COURT OVER 600,000 EMAILS ABOUT CHILD MOLESTATION, TORTURE AND TRAFFICKING AND HAS TO TESTIFY THIS SEPTEMBER? Oh yeah cus they’re distracting us.’
To be fair, while I thought Hillary Clinton was a better candidate than Trump, the way she cut off a little girl’s face and wore it as a mask did seem a bit dubious.
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
In his book he is quite scathing on Hillbilly's propensity to Charismatic Evangelicalism, seeing it as superficial and without mystery. I suspect that he doesn't speak too much on that any more.
Mostly Vance is a human chameleon, and an ambitious one. As a youth he was part Hillbilly then he went native in the Marines, then at Harvard. It was there he wanted to blend in with the preppy types, who were rather more established, and who were Episcopelian or Catholic. Hence he became a Catholic. He then was an anyone but Trumper while that was the established position, before flipping MAGA when that became the dominant tribe.
Think of him as the Talented Mr Ripley, or Oliver in Saltburn.
Zelig.
The person he reminds me of is the Matthew Macfadyen character in Succession.
It’s a fun comparison but I think he’s smarter and bolder than that
eg Hillbilly Elegy is a genuinely good and compelling book
How many other successful politicians anywhere on earth have been good writers BEFORE entering politics
Disraeli, of course.
Churchill too.
Win one Nobel prize for literature and people are all, “Isn’t Churchill a good writer?”
MAJOR BREAKING: Pope Francis has written a letter to US Bishops saying he’s following “major crisis” of “mass deportations;” takes on Vance saying “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the “Good Samaritan”
That's quite an intervention.
"I recognize your valuable efforts, dear brother bishops of the United States, as you work closely with migrants and refugees, proclaiming Jesus Christ and promoting fundamental human rights," he said in a letter to the U.S. bishops published by the Vatican Feb. 11.
Pope Francis said he was writing because of "the major crisis that is taking place in the United States" with the start of President Donald J. Trump's "program of mass deportations."
"The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality," Pope Francis said. ... "He also applauded the efforts of the U.S. bishops' to assist migrants and refugees and to counter the arguments of the Trump administration." ... "What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly," the pope warned.
He's specifically assaulting the deliberate callousness / cruelty of the Trump-Vance policy.
The interviewee starts off with emotional blackmail about how they are saving lives but ends up admitting that their work is about providing "nonlethal assistance" to "a movement" with the support of foreign policy hawks.
He says Americans will die because USAID-employed Americans in foreign climates have been suddenly cut off from any support.
It's very sad.
I think there are a couple of court orders on those aspects, amongst the other (checks) 35 or so legal cases so far.
It is a work in progress, and maybe the most important, along with America's commitment to free speech and a free press, of the signposts to measure its possible travel towards fascism.
While Congress and the political democrats seem to have given up, there are a lot of people - academics, journalists, litigants, lawyers, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert - who have not. Among those worth following is Ezra Klein. This
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
In his book he is quite scathing on Hillbilly's propensity to Charismatic Evangelicalism, seeing it as superficial and without mystery. I suspect that he doesn't speak too much on that any more.
Mostly Vance is a human chameleon, and an ambitious one. As a youth he was part Hillbilly then he went native in the Marines, then at Harvard. It was there he wanted to blend in with the preppy types, who were rather more established, and who were Episcopelian or Catholic. Hence he became a Catholic. He then was an anyone but Trumper while that was the established position, before flipping MAGA when that became the dominant tribe.
Think of him as the Talented Mr Ripley, or Oliver in Saltburn.
Zelig.
The person he reminds me of is the Matthew Macfadyen character in Succession.
It’s a fun comparison but I think he’s smarter and bolder than that
eg Hillbilly Elegy is a genuinely good and compelling book
How many other successful politicians anywhere on earth have been good writers BEFORE entering politics
Disraeli, of course.
Churchill too.
Win one Nobel prize for literature and people are all, “Isn’t Churchill a good writer?”
Everything the Trump Administration is doing now strongly suggests that it is not expecting any electoral setbacks in any conceivable future. Read into that what you will!
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
In his book he is quite scathing on Hillbilly's propensity to Charismatic Evangelicalism, seeing it as superficial and without mystery. I suspect that he doesn't speak too much on that any more.
Mostly Vance is a human chameleon, and an ambitious one. As a youth he was part Hillbilly then he went native in the Marines, then at Harvard. It was there he wanted to blend in with the preppy types, who were rather more established, and who were Episcopelian or Catholic. Hence he became a Catholic. He then was an anyone but Trumper while that was the established position, before flipping MAGA when that became the dominant tribe.
Think of him as the Talented Mr Ripley, or Oliver in Saltburn.
Zelig.
The person he reminds me of is the Matthew Macfadyen character in Succession.
It’s a fun comparison but I think he’s smarter and bolder than that
eg Hillbilly Elegy is a genuinely good and compelling book
How many other successful politicians anywhere on earth have been good writers BEFORE entering politics
He is definitely incredibly smart. Bold I am less sure about. Where he's like MM in Succession is his ability to make the right friends and to adapt his beliefs to cement those relationships. That's a hugely underrated skill, IMO.
I’m tempted to agree just because I liked SUCCESSION so much. What a show. And it ended so brilliantly, which many great shows do not
But Vance is bold. Writing and publishing that book at a young age was brave
There are a few TV shows that almost literally take your breath away because they are so so uncannily accurate in how they depict the worlds they portray. Succession is one. Another is Silicon Valley. It is absolutely on the button in just about every way.
Succession was brilliant because it managed to skewer super rich powerful dynastic families like no one since maybe Shakespeare (and I KNOW a couple of families like this) but at the same time it had a script full of outrageous and scintillating wordplay that would make no sense in real life yet worked superbly on screen - again, like Shakespeare
I do wonder if it was the best drama of the entire Golden Age of tv drama. Along with Spartacus
But then I’ve never even heard of “Silicon Valley”?!
It's entirely different to Succession, which I agree was magnificent on so many levels. But I have spent a fair bit of time in Silicon Valley and it all rings horribly and very funnily true:
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
In his book he is quite scathing on Hillbilly's propensity to Charismatic Evangelicalism, seeing it as superficial and without mystery. I suspect that he doesn't speak too much on that any more.
Mostly Vance is a human chameleon, and an ambitious one. As a youth he was part Hillbilly then he went native in the Marines, then at Harvard. It was there he wanted to blend in with the preppy types, who were rather more established, and who were Episcopelian or Catholic. Hence he became a Catholic. He then was an anyone but Trumper while that was the established position, before flipping MAGA when that became the dominant tribe.
Think of him as the Talented Mr Ripley, or Oliver in Saltburn.
Zelig.
The person he reminds me of is the Matthew Macfadyen character in Succession.
It’s a fun comparison but I think he’s smarter and bolder than that
eg Hillbilly Elegy is a genuinely good and compelling book
How many other successful politicians anywhere on earth have been good writers BEFORE entering politics
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
I would have made a terrible Catholic.
I would have been excommunicated because I used confession to not confess but to brag.
My mother, a good Catholic, once went to confession in St Peters Basilica. She tells me that the priest complained to her that the sins she was confessing weren't sins and she was wasting his time. "Don't speak to me like that young man" she said to him angrily, which was a sin, which she duly confessed, and peace was restored.
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
In his book he is quite scathing on Hillbilly's propensity to Charismatic Evangelicalism, seeing it as superficial and without mystery. I suspect that he doesn't speak too much on that any more.
Mostly Vance is a human chameleon, and an ambitious one. As a youth he was part Hillbilly then he went native in the Marines, then at Harvard. It was there he wanted to blend in with the preppy types, who were rather more established, and who were Episcopelian or Catholic. Hence he became a Catholic. He then was an anyone but Trumper while that was the established position, before flipping MAGA when that became the dominant tribe.
Think of him as the Talented Mr Ripley, or Oliver in Saltburn.
Zelig.
The person he reminds me of is the Matthew Macfadyen character in Succession.
It’s a fun comparison but I think he’s smarter and bolder than that
eg Hillbilly Elegy is a genuinely good and compelling book
How many other successful politicians anywhere on earth have been good writers BEFORE entering politics
Siôn Simon? Wasn't he employed as The Telegraph's token Blairite before he became an MP?
MAJOR BREAKING: Pope Francis has written a letter to US Bishops saying he’s following “major crisis” of “mass deportations;” takes on Vance saying “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the “Good Samaritan”
That's quite an intervention.
"I recognize your valuable efforts, dear brother bishops of the United States, as you work closely with migrants and refugees, proclaiming Jesus Christ and promoting fundamental human rights," he said in a letter to the U.S. bishops published by the Vatican Feb. 11.
Pope Francis said he was writing because of "the major crisis that is taking place in the United States" with the start of President Donald J. Trump's "program of mass deportations."
"The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality," Pope Francis said. ... "He also applauded the efforts of the U.S. bishops' to assist migrants and refugees and to counter the arguments of the Trump administration." ... "What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly," the pope warned.
He's specifically assaulting the deliberate callousness / cruelty of the Trump-Vance policy.
JD Vance's response will be worth a look. He won't be as dismissive to the Pope as he is to Judges. Trump will bluster - he said once recently that he was not aware of anything he should need to confess .
All the evidence is that Vance is well trained in casuistry; I'm sure he'll have no problem at all dismissing the Pope's "misinterpretation" of the administration's actions.
Vance declares Pope fallible shock!
Honestly though, I have no truck with this pope. He might be right on this topic but he’s been consistently naive or borderline offensive on Russia-Ukraine. He and JD are welcome to argue the toss over US domestic issues but I’ll not be paying much attention.
I find Pope Francis’ views on Russia/Ukraine hard to fathom. Ukrainian resistance falls within the Church’s Just War teachings.
“Why can’t the nice people just surrender?” was the position of quite a few during the Balkan Wars in the 1990s
It's hard to think of a war that falls so clearly within the definition of "Just War" in modern times, as that of Ukraine.
These are the Roman Catholic criteria, each one of which is met, on the part of Ukraine:
The damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave and certain.
All other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective.
There must be serious prospects of success.
The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.
And as Pope John Paul II pointed out, peace means more than simply the absence of war. Russian soldiers have practised mass murder, of civilians and prisoners of war; ethnic cleansing; the kidnap of children; and the use of rape as a terror tactic. Nobody should be required to tamely submit to such things.
There are a few TV shows that almost literally take your breath away because they are so so uncannily accurate in how they depict the worlds they portray. Succession is one. Another is Silicon Valley. It is absolutely on the button in just about every way.
Succession was brilliant because it managed to skewer super rich powerful dynastic families like no one since maybe Shakespeare (and I KNOW a couple of families like this) but at the same time it had a script full of outrageous and scintillating wordplay that would make no sense in real life yet worked superbly on screen - again, like Shakespeare
I do wonder if it was the best drama of the entire Golden Age of tv drama. Along with Spartacus
But then I’ve never even heard of “Silicon Valley”?!
In the US, one term used for those who pick and choose which parts of church doctrine they will follow is "Cafeteria Catholics". (I don't know of any similar phrase for Protestants, who vary so widely here.)
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
In his book he is quite scathing on Hillbilly's propensity to Charismatic Evangelicalism, seeing it as superficial and without mystery. I suspect that he doesn't speak too much on that any more.
Mostly Vance is a human chameleon, and an ambitious one. As a youth he was part Hillbilly then he went native in the Marines, then at Harvard. It was there he wanted to blend in with the preppy types, who were rather more established, and who were Episcopelian or Catholic. Hence he became a Catholic. He then was an anyone but Trumper while that was the established position, before flipping MAGA when that became the dominant tribe.
Think of him as the Talented Mr Ripley, or Oliver in Saltburn.
Zelig.
The person he reminds me of is the Matthew Macfadyen character in Succession.
It’s a fun comparison but I think he’s smarter and bolder than that
eg Hillbilly Elegy is a genuinely good and compelling book
How many other successful politicians anywhere on earth have been good writers BEFORE entering politics
He is definitely incredibly smart. Bold I am less sure about. Where he's like MM in Succession is his ability to make the right friends and to adapt his beliefs to cement those relationships. That's a hugely underrated skill, IMO.
I’m tempted to agree just because I liked SUCCESSION so much. What a show. And it ended so brilliantly, which many great shows do not
But Vance is bold. Writing and publishing that book at a young age was brave
There are a few TV shows that almost literally take your breath away because they are so so uncannily accurate in how they depict the worlds they portray. Succession is one. Another is Silicon Valley. It is absolutely on the button in just about every way.
Succession was brilliant because it managed to skewer super rich powerful dynastic families like no one since maybe Shakespeare (and I KNOW a couple of families like this) but at the same time it had a script full of outrageous and scintillating wordplay that would make no sense in real life yet worked superbly on screen - again, like Shakespeare
I do wonder if it was the best drama of the entire Golden Age of tv drama. Along with Spartacus
But then I’ve never even heard of “Silicon Valley”?!
It's entirely different to Succession, which I agree was magnificent on so many levels. But I have spent a fair bit of time in Silicon Valley and it all rings horribly and very funnily true:
CEO Luckey is of course the guy who originally developed the Oculus headset. Now he really is a self-made man.
Like most of the tech megalomaniacs, he's deeply inspired by Heinlein:
https://palmerluckey.com/turning-soldiers-into-superheroes/ As of today, Anduril Industries is taking the reins of the largest project of its kind in history: the United States Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program.
For me, this announcement is deeply personal. Since my pre-Oculus days as a teenager who had the opportunity to do a tiny bit of work on the Army’s BRAVEMIND project, I’ve believed there would be a headset on every soldier long before there is a headset on every civilian. Given that America loses more troops in training than combat, the Squad Immersive Virtual Trainer (SiVT) side of IVAS alone has the potential to save more lives than practically anything else we can imagine building.
Tactical heads-up-displays that turn warfighters into technomancers and pair us with weaponized robotics were one of the products in the original Anduril pitch deck for a reason. The past eight years we have spent building Lattice have put Anduril in a position to make this type of thing actually useful in the way military strategists and technologists have long dreamed of, ever since Robert Heinlein’s 1959 novel Starship Troopers. Not just day and night and thermal and ultraviolet, but peering into an idealized interactive real-time composite of past, present, and future that will quickly surpass traditional senses like vision and touch. Put another way, Superman doesn’t use menus – he just sees and does. If Anduril had been more than a dozen people when IVAS was first getting spun up all those years ago (at least the Tragic Heap guys didn’t win, our country really dodged a bullet there), I do believe our crazy pitch could have won this from the start – as things stand, though, there is no time like the present.
The IVAS program – one of the most important programs to the Army – represents just the beginnings of a new path in human augmentation, one that will allow America’s warfighters to surpass the limitations of human form and cognition, seamlessly teaming enhanced humans with large packs of robotic and biologic teammates...
..Whatever you are imagining, however crazy you imagine I am, multiply it by ten and then do it again. I am back, and I am only getting started.
It is a work in progress, and maybe the most important, along with America's commitment to free speech and a free press, of the signposts to measure its possible travel towards fascism.
While Congress and the political democrats seem to have given up, there are a lot of people - academics, journalists, litigants, lawyers, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert - who have not. Among those worth following is Ezra Klein. This
Serious electoral fraud is true but precisely how can someone transfer 83 votes from one Labour candidate to another?
If you mis-use your position of authority. Maybe they are just chatting shit, but the police will now be involved. Such stupidity from an MP, deserves to go just for that.
CEO Luckey is of course the guy who originally developed the Oculus headset. Now he really is a self-made man.
Like most of the tech megalomaniacs, he's deeply inspired by Heinlein:
https://palmerluckey.com/turning-soldiers-into-superheroes/ As of today, Anduril Industries is taking the reins of the largest project of its kind in history: the United States Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program.
For me, this announcement is deeply personal. Since my pre-Oculus days as a teenager who had the opportunity to do a tiny bit of work on the Army’s BRAVEMIND project, I’ve believed there would be a headset on every soldier long before there is a headset on every civilian. Given that America loses more troops in training than combat, the Squad Immersive Virtual Trainer (SiVT) side of IVAS alone has the potential to save more lives than practically anything else we can imagine building.
Tactical heads-up-displays that turn warfighters into technomancers and pair us with weaponized robotics were one of the products in the original Anduril pitch deck for a reason. The past eight years we have spent building Lattice have put Anduril in a position to make this type of thing actually useful in the way military strategists and technologists have long dreamed of, ever since Robert Heinlein’s 1959 novel Starship Troopers. Not just day and night and thermal and ultraviolet, but peering into an idealized interactive real-time composite of past, present, and future that will quickly surpass traditional senses like vision and touch. Put another way, Superman doesn’t use menus – he just sees and does. If Anduril had been more than a dozen people when IVAS was first getting spun up all those years ago (at least the Tragic Heap guys didn’t win, our country really dodged a bullet there), I do believe our crazy pitch could have won this from the start – as things stand, though, there is no time like the present.
The IVAS program – one of the most important programs to the Army – represents just the beginnings of a new path in human augmentation, one that will allow America’s warfighters to surpass the limitations of human form and cognition, seamlessly teaming enhanced humans with large packs of robotic and biologic teammates...
..Whatever you are imagining, however crazy you imagine I am, multiply it by ten and then do it again. I am back, and I am only getting started.
Command Information Centers (CIC) were then directly from the Lensman novels of E. E. Smith.
Everything the Trump Administration is doing now strongly suggests that it is not expecting any electoral setbacks in any conceivable future. Read into that what you will!
“Britain on Tuesday refused to join the EU in threatening a trade fight with the US over steel tariffs and followed Washington in declining to sign a global accord on artificial intelligence, in a sign of Sir Keir Starmer setting a new foreign policy in the era of President Donald Trump.
Lord Peter Mandelson, Britain’s new ambassador to the US, told the Financial Times that Britain had to embrace “any opportunities opening up as a result of Brexit” and earn a living in the world by being “not Europe”.”
“It’s funny that it’s a Labour government that has discovered the benefits of Brexit,” remarked one veteran diplomat.“”
Serious electoral fraud is true but precisely how can someone transfer 83 votes from one Labour candidate to another?
If you mis-use your position of authority. Maybe they are just chatting shit, but the police will now be involved. Such stupidity from an MP, deserves to go just for that.
Fun fact, the Conservatives actually came fifth in Gorton and Denton at the last election, with the LibDems in 6th.
They were both beaten by Labour, Reform, the Greens and the Workers Party.
Lee Anderson has joined Rupert Lowe in changing mind over Assisted Dying bill. Alistair Carmichael likely to follow.
Independent says 160 are potentially in danger of changing vote.
'Of these, 60 highlighted the High Court judge hearing safeguard as a reason for supporting the Bill. Another 20 had highlighted judicial oversight as crucial, and a further 60 had said publicly or privately that they wanted the debate to be heard but would make a final decision at the final third reading stage.'
Everything the Trump Administration is doing now strongly suggests that it is not expecting any electoral setbacks in any conceivable future. Read into that what you will!
There's one relatively easy pickup: I can't see Maine remaining Republican in the midterms.
And North Carolina is probably a slightly better than 50% shot for them.
But after that it becomes much harder.
Yes. Hard to see where they could get a third gain, as they need to take control of the Senate. Could Ohio be an outside shot?
OTOH, Trump is so sui generis that maybe he can turn even deep red states blue?
They need four to take the Senate, as three only takes it to 50-50.
Ohio was won by Sherrod Brown at the last Trump midterms, so it's not beyond the realm of possibility. But realistically, they'll probably just pickup 2.
MAJOR BREAKING: Pope Francis has written a letter to US Bishops saying he’s following “major crisis” of “mass deportations;” takes on Vance saying “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the “Good Samaritan”
That's quite an intervention.
"I recognize your valuable efforts, dear brother bishops of the United States, as you work closely with migrants and refugees, proclaiming Jesus Christ and promoting fundamental human rights," he said in a letter to the U.S. bishops published by the Vatican Feb. 11.
Pope Francis said he was writing because of "the major crisis that is taking place in the United States" with the start of President Donald J. Trump's "program of mass deportations."
"The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality," Pope Francis said. ... "He also applauded the efforts of the U.S. bishops' to assist migrants and refugees and to counter the arguments of the Trump administration." ... "What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly," the pope warned.
He's specifically assaulting the deliberate callousness / cruelty of the Trump-Vance policy.
JD Vance's response will be worth a look. He won't be as dismissive to the Pope as he is to Judges. Trump will bluster - he said once recently that he was not aware of anything he should need to confess .
All the evidence is that Vance is well trained in casuistry; I'm sure he'll have no problem at all dismissing the Pope's "misinterpretation" of the administration's actions.
Vance declares Pope fallible shock!
Honestly though, I have no truck with this pope. He might be right on this topic but he’s been consistently naive or borderline offensive on Russia-Ukraine. He and JD are welcome to argue the toss over US domestic issues but I’ll not be paying much attention.
I find Pope Francis’ views on Russia/Ukraine hard to fathom. Ukrainian resistance falls within the Church’s Just War teachings.
“Why can’t the nice people just surrender?” was the position of quite a few during the Balkan Wars in the 1990s
Many of the middle class did indeed surrender, and many of them were butchered. I spent time there in the mid nineties and have some difficult memories.
Serious electoral fraud is true but precisely how can someone transfer 83 votes from one Labour candidate to another?
If you mis-use your position of authority. Maybe they are just chatting shit, but the police will now be involved. Such stupidity from an MP, deserves to go just for that.
Fun fact, the Conservatives actually came fifth in Gorton and Denton at the last election, with the LibDems in 6th.
They were both beaten by Labour, Reform, the Greens and the Workers Party.
I'm not really sure what Labour would have to do to lose that seat, but it's nice that they are putting in the effort.
Everything the Trump Administration is doing now strongly suggests that it is not expecting any electoral setbacks in any conceivable future. Read into that what you will!
There's one relatively easy pickup: I can't see Maine remaining Republican in the midterms.
And North Carolina is probably a slightly better than 50% shot for them.
But after that it becomes much harder.
Yes. Hard to see where they could get a third gain, as they need to take control of the Senate. Could Ohio be an outside shot?
OTOH, Trump is so sui generis that maybe he can turn even deep red states blue?
The Senate looks pretty close to impossible in 2026, without a fairly major realignment - but the House ought to go Democratic pretty well automatically, unless the economy does very well indeed for the average voter.
MAJOR BREAKING: Pope Francis has written a letter to US Bishops saying he’s following “major crisis” of “mass deportations;” takes on Vance saying “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the “Good Samaritan”
That's quite an intervention.
"I recognize your valuable efforts, dear brother bishops of the United States, as you work closely with migrants and refugees, proclaiming Jesus Christ and promoting fundamental human rights," he said in a letter to the U.S. bishops published by the Vatican Feb. 11.
Pope Francis said he was writing because of "the major crisis that is taking place in the United States" with the start of President Donald J. Trump's "program of mass deportations."
"The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality," Pope Francis said. ... "He also applauded the efforts of the U.S. bishops' to assist migrants and refugees and to counter the arguments of the Trump administration." ... "What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly," the pope warned.
He's specifically assaulting the deliberate callousness / cruelty of the Trump-Vance policy.
JD Vance's response will be worth a look. He won't be as dismissive to the Pope as he is to Judges. Trump will bluster - he said once recently that he was not aware of anything he should need to confess .
All the evidence is that Vance is well trained in casuistry; I'm sure he'll have no problem at all dismissing the Pope's "misinterpretation" of the administration's actions.
Vance declares Pope fallible shock!
Honestly though, I have no truck with this pope. He might be right on this topic but he’s been consistently naive or borderline offensive on Russia-Ukraine. He and JD are welcome to argue the toss over US domestic issues but I’ll not be paying much attention.
I find Pope Francis’ views on Russia/Ukraine hard to fathom. Ukrainian resistance falls within the Church’s Just War teachings.
“Why can’t the nice people just surrender?” was the position of quite a few during the Balkan Wars in the 1990s
Many of the middle class did indeed surrender, and many of them were butchered. I spent time there in the mid nineties and have some difficult memories.
The intervention that ended it, was one of the few American military adventures abroad that can be said to have unquestionably worked.
The modulation of support and the cutting off of support when people stared misbehaving was almost elegant.
Has any pb-er actually read any books by Disraeli?
My sense is they will be horribly dated bollocks. But I am happy to be reproved
Yes. IMHO there are reasons why he isn't much read today. He isn't very good. Though there are far worse Victorian novelists. (Of which one of the most surprising is the otherwise wonderful perennial Jerome K Jerome. His serious novels are awful beyond description. Try the death scene in 'Paul Kelver'; the one called 'All Roads Lead to Calvary' is worse still. Whereas his anecdotal 'Diary of a Pilgrimage' is an almost unknown gem.)
Serious electoral fraud is true but precisely how can someone transfer 83 votes from one Labour candidate to another?
If you mis-use your position of authority. Maybe they are just chatting shit, but the police will now be involved. Such stupidity from an MP, deserves to go just for that.
Fun fact, the Conservatives actually came fifth in Gorton and Denton at the last election, with the LibDems in 6th.
They were both beaten by Labour, Reform, the Greens and the Workers Party.
I'm not really sure what Labour would have to do to lose that seat, but it's nice that they are putting in the effort.
It will be an easy Reform pickup, I'd have thought, with Labour possibly falling to third behind the Greens.
It is a work in progress, and maybe the most important, along with America's commitment to free speech and a free press, of the signposts to measure its possible travel towards fascism.
While Congress and the political democrats seem to have given up, there are a lot of people - academics, journalists, litigants, lawyers, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert - who have not. Among those worth following is Ezra Klein. This
for example is lengthy but excellent and goes quite deep.
I wouldn't call the Dems as having given up yet.
They have been organising at national level - new chair of the DNC last weekend, but I'm less sure about what is happening at Congress and Senate.
With a only minority in both houses, there's not a vast amount they can do, other than being awkward, and loudly remarking on the wort GOP excesses. For the next two years, Trump has only his own party to worry about - and his sceptics in the party have proven utterly spineless.
Serious electoral fraud is true but precisely how can someone transfer 83 votes from one Labour candidate to another?
If you mis-use your position of authority. Maybe they are just chatting shit, but the police will now be involved. Such stupidity from an MP, deserves to go just for that.
Fun fact, the Conservatives actually came fifth in Gorton and Denton at the last election, with the LibDems in 6th.
They were both beaten by Labour, Reform, the Greens and the Workers Party.
I'm not really sure what Labour would have to do to lose that seat, but it's nice that they are putting in the effort.
It will be an easy Reform pickup, I'd have thought, with Labour possibly falling to third behind the Greens.
Manchester isn't exactly ripe Reform territory, mind.
Everything the Trump Administration is doing now strongly suggests that it is not expecting any electoral setbacks in any conceivable future. Read into that what you will!
There's one relatively easy pickup: I can't see Maine remaining Republican in the midterms.
And North Carolina is probably a slightly better than 50% shot for them.
But after that it becomes much harder.
Yes. Hard to see where they could get a third gain, as they need to take control of the Senate. Could Ohio be an outside shot?
OTOH, Trump is so sui generis that maybe he can turn even deep red states blue?
The Senate looks pretty close to impossible in 2026, without a fairly major realignment - but the House ought to go Democratic pretty well automatically, unless the economy does very well indeed for the average voter.
For the Senate to turn Blue, you need four Democratic pickups. If Sherrod Brown were to stand again in Ohio, then I think would be just about possible.
So: Maine, North Carolina and Ohio.
Of the rest, Iowa is the most plausible gain: Joni Ernst only got 51% of the vote last time around.
And it's *possible* that Texas or Florida could come into play.
For the Senate to turn Blue, you need four Democratic pickups. If Sherrod Brown were to stand again in Ohio, then I think would be just about possible.
So: Maine, North Carolina and Ohio.
Of the rest, Iowa is the most plausible gain: Joni Ernst only got 51% of the vote last time around.
And it's *possible* that Texas or Florida could come into play.
Serious electoral fraud is true but precisely how can someone transfer 83 votes from one Labour candidate to another?
If you mis-use your position of authority. Maybe they are just chatting shit, but the police will now be involved. Such stupidity from an MP, deserves to go just for that.
Fun fact, the Conservatives actually came fifth in Gorton and Denton at the last election, with the LibDems in 6th.
They were both beaten by Labour, Reform, the Greens and the Workers Party.
I'm not really sure what Labour would have to do to lose that seat, but it's nice that they are putting in the effort.
It will be an easy Reform pickup, I'd have thought, with Labour possibly falling to third behind the Greens.
Manchester isn't exactly ripe Reform territory, mind.
The Labour vote will halve: they'll get 25-26% max. If the Greens throw everything at it, they could win. But my money would be on Reform, who were second last time.
For the Senate to turn Blue, you need four Democratic pickups. If Sherrod Brown were to stand again in Ohio, then I think would be just about possible.
So: Maine, North Carolina and Ohio.
Of the rest, Iowa is the most plausible gain: Joni Ernst only got 51% of the vote last time around.
And it's *possible* that Texas or Florida could come into play.
Trump doesn't care. The Senate is irrelevant.
The Senate doesn't matter while the Republicans have no choice but to vote things through.
The Senate will really matter when the Democrats can say No to Trump..
Serious electoral fraud is true but precisely how can someone transfer 83 votes from one Labour candidate to another?
If you mis-use your position of authority. Maybe they are just chatting shit, but the police will now be involved. Such stupidity from an MP, deserves to go just for that.
Fun fact, the Conservatives actually came fifth in Gorton and Denton at the last election, with the LibDems in 6th.
They were both beaten by Labour, Reform, the Greens and the Workers Party.
I'm not really sure what Labour would have to do to lose that seat, but it's nice that they are putting in the effort.
It will be an easy Reform pickup, I'd have thought, with Labour possibly falling to third behind the Greens.
Manchester isn't exactly ripe Reform territory, mind.
Manchester Gorton, in 2019, was Lab 34,583 then in 2nd Con 4,244. Lab on 77.6%.
Denton and Renton was a lot closer. but Brexit party a long was back in third (2019).
UKIP, Brexit and Reform don't have a great record here, but at the moment, and with these stories, anything could be possible.
Everything the Trump Administration is doing now strongly suggests that it is not expecting any electoral setbacks in any conceivable future. Read into that what you will!
There's one relatively easy pickup: I can't see Maine remaining Republican in the midterms.
And North Carolina is probably a slightly better than 50% shot for them.
But after that it becomes much harder.
Yes. Hard to see where they could get a third gain, as they need to take control of the Senate. Could Ohio be an outside shot?
OTOH, Trump is so sui generis that maybe he can turn even deep red states blue?
The Senate looks pretty close to impossible in 2026, without a fairly major realignment - but the House ought to go Democratic pretty well automatically, unless the economy does very well indeed for the average voter.
For the Senate to turn Blue, you need four Democratic pickups. If Sherrod Brown were to stand again in Ohio, then I think would be just about possible.
So: Maine, North Carolina and Ohio.
Of the rest, Iowa is the most plausible gain: Joni Ernst only got 51% of the vote last time around.
And it's *possible* that Texas or Florida could come into play.
Nothing's impossible.
But it would require something well beyond the ordinary midterm dip (which is about voter enthusiasm as much as anying else) to flip two out of that three. Plus the Democrats having the confidence to seriously contest them, with good candidates and plenty of cash.
And heaven help us, the voters might even be fooled by Collins' threadbare shtick, yet again.
I am presuming that his priority is to get the full cabinet in place so he can implement the 25th Amendment. So, the fact that 2 of the looser screw nuts made progress in the Senate today and one is very likely to be approved tomorrow morning probably makes him feel pretty good.
Everything the Trump Administration is doing now strongly suggests that it is not expecting any electoral setbacks in any conceivable future. Read into that what you will!
There's one relatively easy pickup: I can't see Maine remaining Republican in the midterms.
And North Carolina is probably a slightly better than 50% shot for them.
But after that it becomes much harder.
Yes. Hard to see where they could get a third gain, as they need to take control of the Senate. Could Ohio be an outside shot?
OTOH, Trump is so sui generis that maybe he can turn even deep red states blue?
The Senate looks pretty close to impossible in 2026, without a fairly major realignment - but the House ought to go Democratic pretty well automatically, unless the economy does very well indeed for the average voter.
For the Senate to turn Blue, you need four Democratic pickups. If Sherrod Brown were to stand again in Ohio, then I think would be just about possible.
So: Maine, North Carolina and Ohio.
Of the rest, Iowa is the most plausible gain: Joni Ernst only got 51% of the vote last time around.
And it's *possible* that Texas or Florida could come into play.
Nothing's impossible.
But it would require something well beyond the ordinary midterm dip (which is about voter enthusiasm as much as anying else) to flip two out of that three. Plus the Democrats having the confidence to seriously contest them, with good candidates and plenty of cash.
And heaven help us, the voters might even be fooled by Collins' threadbare shtick, yet again.
Well, a lot of the shine will have come off Collins given she voted through Judges who overturned Roe v Wade, after having received "assurances". And it's a midterm election. So I reckon she'll lose fairly handily. (Indeed, it's possible she doesn't even stand.)
But you are right that even North Carolina is going to be barely more than a 50% chance for the Dems, and Iowa probably a 20% one. The probabilities are not independent, mind, so if the Dems are picking up Iowa or Ohio, they are probably picking up North Carolina too.
After Elon Musk complained about federal spending for housing migrants in what he called "luxury hotels" housing in New York City, the Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday four FEMA officials who it said made the payments had been fired.
The firings include the agency's chief financial officer, two program analysts and a grant specialist, DHS said in a statement that labeled them "deep state activists."
For the Senate to turn Blue, you need four Democratic pickups. If Sherrod Brown were to stand again in Ohio, then I think would be just about possible.
So: Maine, North Carolina and Ohio.
Of the rest, Iowa is the most plausible gain: Joni Ernst only got 51% of the vote last time around.
And it's *possible* that Texas or Florida could come into play.
Trump doesn't care. The Senate is irrelevant.
The Senate doesn't matter while the Republicans have no choice but to vote things through.
The Senate will really matter when the Democrats can say No to Trump..
Trump controls the Supreme Court which can therefore rule anything he chooses to do as constitutional, because reasons. Congress might as well pack up and go home.
In other news, do we think he actually means what he says about colonizing the Gaza Strip, or is it a ruse to try to cajole the Arabs into sending in soldiers to get rid of Hamas?
For the Senate to turn Blue, you need four Democratic pickups. If Sherrod Brown were to stand again in Ohio, then I think would be just about possible.
So: Maine, North Carolina and Ohio.
Of the rest, Iowa is the most plausible gain: Joni Ernst only got 51% of the vote last time around.
And it's *possible* that Texas or Florida could come into play.
Trump doesn't care. The Senate is irrelevant.
The Senate doesn't matter while the Republicans have no choice but to vote things through.
The Senate will really matter when the Democrats can say No to Trump..
Trump controls the Supreme Court which can therefore rule anything he chooses to do as constitutional, because reasons. Congress might as well pack up and go home.
In other news, do we think he actually means what he says about colonizing the Gaza Strip, or is it a ruse to try to cajole the Arabs into sending in soldiers to get rid of Hamas?
The Supreme Court had no difficulty saying no to Trump in his first term, and I suspect it will demonstrate (Alito and Thomas excepted) some backbone this time around.
I am presuming that his priority is to get the full cabinet in place so he can implement the 25th Amendment. So, the fact that 2 of the looser screw nuts made progress in the Senate today and one is very likely to be approved tomorrow morning probably makes him feel pretty good.
Who has this priority? Vance? You think Trump's handpicked Cabinet whackos are going to go along with Vance pulling the 25th lever?
Leon says he has now recognised the SKS Government is shite.
Just to say I recognised this in 2020
So i reckon i should be acclaimed as a visionary!!
I'd suggest that Leon has always thought the SKS govt is shite. Assuming that he votes in Camden, his vote is effectively irrelevant, so taking a position that he voted for the SKS govt but almost immediately became disenchanted with them was of no consequence.
For the Senate to turn Blue, you need four Democratic pickups. If Sherrod Brown were to stand again in Ohio, then I think would be just about possible.
So: Maine, North Carolina and Ohio.
Of the rest, Iowa is the most plausible gain: Joni Ernst only got 51% of the vote last time around.
And it's *possible* that Texas or Florida could come into play.
Trump doesn't care. The Senate is irrelevant.
The Senate doesn't matter while the Republicans have no choice but to vote things through.
The Senate will really matter when the Democrats can say No to Trump..
Trump controls the Supreme Court which can therefore rule anything he chooses to do as constitutional, because reasons. Congress might as well pack up and go home.
In other news, do we think he actually means what he says about colonizing the Gaza Strip, or is it a ruse to try to cajole the Arabs into sending in soldiers to get rid of Hamas?
The Supreme Court had no difficulty saying no to Trump in his first term, and I suspect it will demonstrate (Alito and Thomas excepted) some backbone this time around.
Enough backbone?
No, but certainly some backbone.
Hmmm, well, we shall see. Last year's presidential immunity ruling wasn't exactly an encouraging portent.
After Elon Musk complained about federal spending for housing migrants in what he called "luxury hotels" housing in New York City, the Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday four FEMA officials who it said made the payments had been fired.
The firings include the agency's chief financial officer, two program analysts and a grant specialist, DHS said in a statement that labeled them "deep state activists."
The question is which state Musky Baby is an activist for. It's not America.
After Elon Musk complained about federal spending for housing migrants in what he called "luxury hotels" housing in New York City, the Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday four FEMA officials who it said made the payments had been fired.
The firings include the agency's chief financial officer, two program analysts and a grant specialist, DHS said in a statement that labeled them "deep state activists."
The question is which state Musky Baby is an activist for. It's not America.
His own ego, as per.
It's been larger than most countries for a while now.
After Elon Musk complained about federal spending for housing migrants in what he called "luxury hotels" housing in New York City, the Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday four FEMA officials who it said made the payments had been fired.
The firings include the agency's chief financial officer, two program analysts and a grant specialist, DHS said in a statement that labeled them "deep state activists."
Do you post all this pro-Trump shite in earnest or with a comedic, end-of-days irony?
The hostages' families were praying and hoping for their safe return. But Trump and Netanyahu have decided to turn them into worthless pawns in a genocidal game. Neither of them care whether the hostages are returned safe.
For the Senate to turn Blue, you need four Democratic pickups. If Sherrod Brown were to stand again in Ohio, then I think would be just about possible.
So: Maine, North Carolina and Ohio.
Of the rest, Iowa is the most plausible gain: Joni Ernst only got 51% of the vote last time around.
And it's *possible* that Texas or Florida could come into play.
Like @SouthamObserver when I look at J D Vance, I don’t see a guy having a bad time
He’s from a poor white Appalachian background and he is now the 2nd most powerful man in the western hemisphere. He’s a best selling writer, very rich, he has a beautiful wife and 3 lovely kids, he gets to hang around the world snubbing the jumped up French president. And he’s still very young with every prospect of going the whole way
There are worse gigs
He’s surely had to make some accommodations with his supposed intellect and supposed faith, I imagine that has caused some discomfort. Hopefully.
I don't think his conscience troubles him much.
He has to stand in front of the world (much of which despises him) agreeing with everything that a man he privately thinks is "America's Hitler" says.
@chrisdmowrey BREAKING🚨: The Trump administration officially ended remote work today, forcing civil servants back to the office. He claims remote work is unfair to “people working hard at job sites”.
However, I received these images from an anonymous source, showing INTERNAL EPA directories listing Lee Zeldin, Cole Killian, and other high level staffers still being allowed to work remotely.
The full list I confirmed out of the office includes: Lee Zeldin (Head of EPA), Chad McIntosh (Acting Deputy Administrator), Travis Voyles (Assistant Dep Administrator), Eric Amidon (COS), Thomas Cornett (Senior Advisor), Michael Abboud (Senior Advisor in OPEEE), Jaide Barja (Special Advisor for House Relations), Daniel Gall (Special Advisor for Strategic and Regional Communication), John Rich (White House Liaison), and Cole Killian (DOGE)
These individuals are not required to show up to work. I also confirmed this directory to not show “remote” for ANY OTHER employees. Federal officials know this has nothing to do with “returning to the office”, but rather trying to root out people they disagree with politically.
For the Senate to turn Blue, you need four Democratic pickups. If Sherrod Brown were to stand again in Ohio, then I think would be just about possible.
So: Maine, North Carolina and Ohio.
Of the rest, Iowa is the most plausible gain: Joni Ernst only got 51% of the vote last time around.
And it's *possible* that Texas or Florida could come into play.
Trump doesn't care. The Senate is irrelevant.
When the rule of law breaks down and court orders are just ignored, what does it matter who controls the Senate or Congress? We've clearly passed that point already.
Comments
Mutya Buena has sparked controversy and concern after sharing a number of bizarre conspiracy theories to her Instagram stories.
The Sugababes star has been flooding her stories with screenshots of increasingly strange theories, including fake allegations that Hillary Clinton is awaiting trial for ‘cutting off a little girl’s face and wearing it as a mask’ and that Covid-19 is a hoax to ‘distract’ the world from A-list celebrities getting arrested.
The 35-year-old took numerous screenshots from viral Facebook posts and shared them to her story, the first of which alluded to the already debunked Pizzagate theory – that Clinton was linked to a sex trafficking ring in Washington DC.
The post read: ‘WHY DOES NOBODY KNOW THAT HILLARY CLINTON JUST LOST HER APPEAL IN COURT OVER 600,000 EMAILS ABOUT CHILD MOLESTATION, TORTURE AND TRAFFICKING AND HAS TO TESTIFY THIS SEPTEMBER? Oh yeah cus they’re distracting us.’
https://metro.co.uk/2020/06/30/sugababes-mutya-buena-alleges-listers-involved-child-sex-ring-conspiracy-theory-spree-12921082/
I do wonder if it was the best drama of the entire Golden Age of tv drama. Along with Spartacus
But then I’ve never even heard of “Silicon Valley”?!
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/5104884#Comment_5104884
He can thank me later.
I recall Vance saying during the US election that the Haitians eating cats thing was probably untrue but worth it to tell a ‘bigger’ truth.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/may/31/silicon-valley-the-best-and-only-comedy-you-should-be-watching
(Some may quibble on the success point.)
And Roy Jenkins.
Annoys the Dems and he retains influence.
My sense is they will be horribly dated bollocks. But I am happy to be reproved
While Congress and the political democrats seem to have given up, there are a lot of people - academics, journalists, litigants, lawyers, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert - who have not. Among those worth following is Ezra Klein. This
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak8hLat0_-Q
for example is lengthy but excellent and goes quite deep.
And North Carolina is probably a slightly better than 50% shot for them.
But after that it becomes much harder.
What about Jeffrey Archer? Or Boris Johnson?
And when Obama wrote Dreams from my Father he was working as a lecturer at the University of Chicago.
These are the Roman Catholic criteria, each one of which is met, on the part of Ukraine:
The damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave and certain.
All other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective.
There must be serious prospects of success.
The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.
And as Pope John Paul II pointed out, peace means more than simply the absence of war. Russian soldiers have practised mass murder, of civilians and prisoners of war; ethnic cleansing; the kidnap of children; and the use of rape as a terror tactic. Nobody should be required to tamely submit to such things.
I haven't read any of the silver fork novels* -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashionable_novel
- but read the political ones may years ago.
Where do you think "two nations" came from ?
*I might correct that, as early 19thC England is pretty interesting.
Everyone (who was anyone) knew everyone, and the politics were ferocious.
Also the Tory MP for Torquay in the 90s?
Also Nadine?
Being a writer-turned MP seems to be a Tory thing, on this evidence.
Allison?
https://x.com/liambillington/status/1889352379558203681
Feb 9th. Favorable 47% Unfavorable 50%.
Jan 26th Favorable 50% Unfavorable 47%
In a similar vein of "preposterous but uncannily realistic" - though drama rather than comedy - Halt and Catch Fire is also great.
Also, Rory Stewart. And Chris Mullin wrote A Very British Coup before becoming an MP.
Let us not forget either that Douglas Hurd wrote novels too, and I've actually read one
Basically. The contention about it being rare to be a successful writer before becoming a politician is... not supported by the evidence.
NEW: Government approval is now at minus 48%
16% Approve
64% Disapprove
https://palmerluckey.com/turning-soldiers-into-superheroes/
As of today, Anduril Industries is taking the reins of the largest project of its kind in history: the United States Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program.
For me, this announcement is deeply personal. Since my pre-Oculus days as a teenager who had the opportunity to do a tiny bit of work on the Army’s BRAVEMIND project, I’ve believed there would be a headset on every soldier long before there is a headset on every civilian. Given that America loses more troops in training than combat, the Squad Immersive Virtual Trainer (SiVT) side of IVAS alone has the potential to save more lives than practically anything else we can imagine building.
Tactical heads-up-displays that turn warfighters into technomancers and pair us with weaponized robotics were one of the products in the original Anduril pitch deck for a reason. The past eight years we have spent building Lattice have put Anduril in a position to make this type of thing actually useful in the way military strategists and technologists have long dreamed of, ever since Robert Heinlein’s 1959 novel Starship Troopers. Not just day and night and thermal and ultraviolet, but peering into an idealized interactive real-time composite of past, present, and future that will quickly surpass traditional senses like vision and touch. Put another way, Superman doesn’t use menus – he just sees and does. If Anduril had been more than a dozen people when IVAS was first getting spun up all those years ago (at least the Tragic Heap guys didn’t win, our country really dodged a bullet there), I do believe our crazy pitch could have won this from the start – as things stand, though, there is no time like the present.
The IVAS program – one of the most important programs to the Army – represents just the beginnings of a new path in human augmentation, one that will allow America’s warfighters to surpass the limitations of human form and cognition, seamlessly teaming enhanced humans with large packs of robotic and biologic teammates...
..Whatever you are imagining, however crazy you imagine I am, multiply it by ten and then do it again. I am back, and I am only getting started.
They have been organising at national level - new chair of the DNC last weekend, but I'm less sure about what is happening at Congress and Senate.
{Nat West 4 have entered the chat along with Alexander Blackman*}
*Describing, on a 4k video, exactly which war crime you are going to commit, before you commit it, takes a certain something.
OTOH, Trump is so sui generis that maybe he can turn even deep red states blue?
Even reluctant parents come round in the end
From the FT:
“Britain on Tuesday refused to join the EU in threatening a trade fight with the US over steel tariffs and followed Washington in declining to sign a global accord on artificial intelligence, in a sign of Sir Keir Starmer setting a new foreign policy in the era of President Donald Trump.
Lord Peter Mandelson, Britain’s new ambassador to the US, told the Financial Times that Britain had to embrace “any opportunities opening up as a result of Brexit” and earn a living in the world by being “not Europe”.”
“It’s funny that it’s a Labour government that has discovered the benefits of Brexit,” remarked one veteran diplomat.“”
They were both beaten by Labour, Reform, the Greens and the Workers Party.
Independent says 160 are potentially in danger of changing vote.
'Of these, 60 highlighted the High Court judge hearing safeguard as a reason for supporting the Bill. Another 20 had highlighted judicial oversight as crucial, and a further 60 had said publicly or privately that they wanted the debate to be heard but would make a final decision at the final third reading stage.'
Looks like it is getting very rocky.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/assisted-dying-mps-vote-against-b2696122.html
Ohio was won by Sherrod Brown at the last Trump midterms, so it's not beyond the realm of possibility. But realistically, they'll probably just pickup 2.
The modulation of support and the cutting off of support when people stared misbehaving was almost elegant.
For the next two years, Trump has only his own party to worry about - and his sceptics in the party have proven utterly spineless.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that upcoming Munich Conference would focus on ending Russia's war against Ukraine..
https://x.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1889366316630389090
Did they have to pick Munich ?
The US President reinstates 25% tariff on Ukrainian steel imports starting March, ending Biden’s exemption meant to support the war-affected economy.
https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/02/11/trump-ends-ukraines-steel-import-tariff-exemption-two-months-early/
So: Maine, North Carolina and Ohio.
Of the rest, Iowa is the most plausible gain: Joni Ernst only got 51% of the vote last time around.
And it's *possible* that Texas or Florida could come into play.
Just to say I recognised this in 2020
So i reckon i should be acclaimed as a visionary!!
The Senate will really matter when the Democrats can say No to Trump..
Denton and Renton was a lot closer. but Brexit party a long was back in third (2019).
UKIP, Brexit and Reform don't have a great record here, but at the moment, and with these stories, anything could be possible.
The courts already said no to Trump and he ignored them. Why would he take any notice of a bunch of Democrats saying no to him?
But it would require something well beyond the ordinary midterm dip (which is about voter enthusiasm as much as anying else) to flip two out of that three. Plus the Democrats having the confidence to seriously contest them, with good candidates and plenty of cash.
And heaven help us, the voters might even be fooled by Collins' threadbare shtick, yet again.
But you are right that even North Carolina is going to be barely more than a 50% chance for the Dems, and Iowa probably a 20% one. The probabilities are not independent, mind, so if the Dems are picking up Iowa or Ohio, they are probably picking up North Carolina too.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fema-officials-fired-after-musk-claims-paid-house/story?id=118692963
After Elon Musk complained about federal spending for housing migrants in what he called "luxury hotels" housing in New York City, the Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday four FEMA officials who it said made the payments had been fired.
The firings include the agency's chief financial officer, two program analysts and a grant specialist, DHS said in a statement that labeled them "deep state activists."
Noon ON Saturday - Gaza time, GMT, ET?
In other news, do we think he actually means what he says about colonizing the Gaza Strip, or is it a ruse to try to cajole the Arabs into sending in soldiers to get rid of Hamas?
Enough backbone?
No, but certainly some backbone.
Google removed Pride and Black History Month from our calendars and renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America on Google Earth in the US
You think Trump's handpicked Cabinet whackos are going to go along with Vance pulling the 25th lever?
Assuming that he votes in Camden, his vote is effectively irrelevant, so taking a position that he voted for the SKS govt but almost immediately became disenchanted with them was of no consequence.
“Trump is threatening Hamas with hell on earth - I would suggest he should be threatening Netanyahu.”
It's been larger than most countries for a while now.
I doubt he's at peace.
BREAKING🚨: The Trump administration officially ended remote work today, forcing civil servants back to the office. He claims remote work is unfair to “people working hard at job sites”.
However, I received these images from an anonymous source, showing INTERNAL EPA directories listing Lee Zeldin, Cole Killian, and other high level staffers still being allowed to work remotely.
The full list I confirmed out of the office includes: Lee Zeldin (Head of EPA), Chad McIntosh (Acting Deputy Administrator), Travis Voyles (Assistant Dep Administrator), Eric Amidon (COS), Thomas Cornett (Senior Advisor), Michael Abboud (Senior Advisor in OPEEE), Jaide Barja (Special Advisor for House Relations), Daniel Gall (Special Advisor for Strategic and Regional Communication), John Rich (White House Liaison), and Cole Killian (DOGE)
These individuals are not required to show up to work. I also confirmed this directory to not show “remote” for ANY OTHER employees. Federal officials know this has nothing to do with “returning to the office”, but rather trying to root out people they disagree with politically.
Rules for thee, not for me!
https://x.com/chrisdmowrey/status/1889181219318800798
No anointing of Don Jnr or Eric if nature takes its course over the next three and a half years.
If Hamas don’t back down, Trump is essentially giving Netanyahu a carte blanche.
Very worrying thinking where all this could end.
JUST IN:
Federal judges orders HHS, CDC, and FDA to restore “by no later than 11:59 pm” today their websites and datasets to pre-January 30th status.
Odds on this happening?