I honestly think that both parties like to not be in power for this very reason. All the money and none of the responsibilities. Pretty sweet setup

because of a long established undercurrent of competition within departments (and even between professors) for recognition and advancement. That and there are some people that have very large but very fragile egos that can’t allow another person or discipline to grab more sunlight than them.

I understand not wanting to go 100% weird with most people, but damnit weird is interesting. So be a bit weird.

You know if you just use a sharpie to draw the line going up instead of down there isn’t a problem anymore.

It’s true that politicians don’t usually lead, they look to the voting base to see what they can do. I think the issue right now is that there isn’t (yet) a unifying leader that can mobilize a big enough population of people to make it impossible for the media to ignore. while I think smaller protests have their place they are useless if they don’t move to something bigger. And something bigger - that being millions of people filling the streets of multiple cities - won’t happen without a big charismatic leader like Martin Luther King, jr.

Yet the middle of the road, center right democrats that hold power see this as a challenge to their control. They only have to look to how the GOP was hollowed out by a big charismatic leader in trump. The more “moderate” republicans lost control to the more extreme right - the moderate democrats don’t want that and will do what they can to hold down that yet unknown person from gaining a voice for the left.

JFC I’d actually appreciate the maga version of the Democrats.

These fictional Democrats are organized, well funded, cohesive and seem to have a great long term strategy for ruining republicans. With an organization like that you’d think that they would be in control of the government?

I think nothing would elevate the hatred of billionaires more than if they buy up the national parks for their own private estates.

Great Smokey national park is now the walton’s family compound

Rocky Mountain National park is now the gates compound

Yosemite becomes musk’s outdoor playground

The grand canyon is bezo’s now

Just writing that elevated my blood pressure

Great list, thank you for putting it together!

Yes they did but they didn’t lose control of their narrative which is weak and feckless.

“give me more money and keep me in power and I promise to not do much.” and “don’t look left, they are crazy!”

Not saying it can’t be done, obviously it can but to many people saying “run for office” is like saying “build a car”.

Are there primers on how to start with a campaign for people that have the desire but not the knowledge?

What is all involved in starting and running a successful campaign?

How much time do you need to dedicate to the campaign?

What would be the personal cost for running for office?

Who do you need to hire to help you (manager, donation specialist, volunteer coordinator, etc)?

My guess to this is that the higher the office the more people and money you will need.

I’m not writing this to be contrary but to really get answers - I think more people would be more open to the idea if they could see what a campaign needs to be successful.

There is a reason the main Democratic leadership is not pushing a more left leaning agenda, they would lose. If the left got a foothold on the national conversation like maga did then the middle of the road Democrats fear they will go the way of the middle of the road Republicans and that is out of power.

My favorite phrase is:

“They have bad taste and the money to prove it.” Which is trump in a nutshell

Really you are ahead of the curve which is great!

I think one of the reasons that OWS struggled was a lack of a clear message and a lack of leadership.

But I think it finally ended with “necessary” outdoor camping laws that most cities put into place to breakup the camps. That and the moderates laughing at them instead of supporting them.

What the fuck are we supposed to do with this?

republicans remain cautious about directly confronting Musk, who spent $288 million supporting GOP candidates in 2024 and threatened to fund primary challengers against opponents.

There are systems to fund political campaigns that don’t involve kissing the boots of one billionaire. Systems that would allow these politicians to actually feel free to more closely represent their constituents. But I don’t see the current crop of politicians wanting to really work too much, they would rather sell their soul to one man and then impotently complain about it.

"You know the best strategy to counter this is to do nothing, it will burn itself out after awhile. If a few people die or get imprisoned well that’s okay as long as I don’t have to do anything difficult or will affect my portfolio and control. "

obviously I made this quote up but it is how I feel about the people in power that say they are against this administration but really are doing jack shit to support or engage the population. Sure there are some that are doing somethings and I appreciate that, but fuck man do most of the “opposition” party really not have a spine? Like what the fuck, there are millions of citizens that are genuinely scared for their life and freedom and all we are getting is crickets…

if one man can build a baseball field in a corn field that brings back the dead, then trump can do the same with manufacturing.

That’s how it works right?.. right?

It’s an idealized world that was created by ad agencies to sell shit to people.

in other words Norway has “fuck you money”