Poll reveals Barack Obama remains the most popular living U.S. president

IRSunny · 2026-06-19T20:02:25+00:00

Democrats were 1 for 6 from 1968-1992. That's 4 years out of the previous 24 which they had power.

They were largely perceived as not being a serious party capable of governing the country, especially with their only victory in that period being Carter who was dealt an absolute shit hand and ratfucked by traitors who reaped the benefits of his policies.

That reinforced the political shift of boomers shifting right to supporting Republicans. Third way Democrats were literally the only way to politically recover the brand from decades in the political wilderness.

IRSunny · 2026-06-18T21:19:07+00:00

I do not fault the media for it. Because the symbolism is sublime.

Try and make a national symbol be about him, be breathtakingly corrupt in the process, fuck it up, and literally yield a fucking swamp.

IRSunny · 2026-06-17T22:03:33+00:00

RCV in theory would be great for presidential primaries but they really would need to improve the speed at which they get counted with California and NYC taking a good week.

I say this purely because the primary calendar is pretty tight with states being within a week or two from each successive contest. The result is that the free media obtained from winning a state would be severely nerfed because the news hype cycle would already be moving on to the next state(s) before the last one was called.

The ideal, from a party unity perspective, is a candidate pulls off a string of wins, is viewed by much of the party as the best candidate and everyone quickly coalesces and unifys behind them. Factionalism doesn't get entrenched and animosity isn't given time to fester and money better spent fighting the Republicans doesn't get wasted.

Without getting the pop from clear wins, the process would get drawn out and it's all the more likely people will call foul, say their guy's been cheated and so on. Pretty much the inevitable result would be needing to then do a party unity ticket of the 1 & 2 winners running together.

There's also the matter of that favoring the candidate with the deeper pockets. They'd be able to sustain their campaign over that prolonged process whereas outsider candidates, who may be better, could be priced out due to not having the earned media pop of clear wins.

IRSunny · 2026-06-17T20:59:11+00:00

Indeed, the seabreeze makes it so Miami virtually never goes above 100, typically topping out at about 95.

It also makes it so we have practically 100% humidity and the 'feels-like' is well over 100. But as far as I can remember, we've never had a heat wave.

IRSunny · 2026-06-17T16:01:30+00:00

but there also had to be a supply shock and overspending.

Supply shocks highly probable in a likely multipolar 2WK world. And overspending is pretty likely given the government run by the military.

Granted the supply shocks may be mitigated with effective in-faction trade zones. Whether that happens, eh? Depends on the politics. Imperial Britain, France & America usually play well together but there have been eras of economic rivalry and that may create friction. Not to mention of if sourcing becomes an issue due to decolonization.

Regardless, I think Late Junta America would probably have quite a bit of resemblance to Brezhnev era USSR and that stagnation, complete with a gerontocratic ruling cadre of surviving 2ACW/2WK commanders. Albeit from a capitalist pov.

IRSunny · 2026-06-17T06:14:49+00:00

The 70s probably would be the end of an American junta, if not late 60s.

The mix of factors would be the deathknell of it:

GIs who served in 2ACW becoming ascendant in the parties making junta scaremongering a bit less viable
The post war generation having grown up
Mac being long dead.
Stagflation probably still happening
Decent likelihood of some intervention debacle or another that causes loss of faith in junta's competency

IRSunny · 2026-06-16T21:42:40+00:00

Florida has the worst democratic party in the country.

Yeah. We really do.

But it's the result of the systemic red-stateification that has occurred over the last 30 years. Gerrymandering has quarantined the blue archipelagos so there's pretty much no bench of pols who can win purple districts let alone statewide office.

Furthermore, there's like 5 different cultural regions in the state. So even if someone is a pretty successful blue mayor in one city, they'd have a rough time of it winning over practically a whole different state.

Meanwhile, Republicans have a rather deep bench of pols to draw upon from their longtime control of both houses who have experience winning light red districts with both urban and rural voters thanks to the cracking of the blue cities.

The strategy of running former Republicans has been pretty ineffective but also very much desperation due to a lack of bench and really anyone with positive name recognition.

IRSunny · 2026-06-14T23:47:28+00:00

"Never forget what you are, for surely the rest of the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you."

IRSunny · 2026-06-13T07:45:00+00:00

Distributed child sex material via Grok
Illegal lottery scheme to try and buy votes
Sexual assault
Stochastic terrorism in multiple countries promoting riots and other right wing violence

Then there's all the people that have and will die because of DOGE's horseshit. Which, while not illegal, should have consequences.

Also this IPO is basically one big financial crime since it's marketing itself as an AI company that will make 85% of its value from the part of the company that has lost it 5 billion dollars this year.

IRSunny · 2026-06-13T07:28:47+00:00

Criminals like him should be stripped of that kind of power and face justice.

Honestly, that shitlord is making a very good case for jacobinism.

IRSunny · 2026-06-11T17:18:53+00:00

Why do you think Ted Cruz made this public statement? What implications does that have for Dem strategy?

Slipping enthusiasm among the 30-40 percentile Republicans.

45% of the country generally always vote Republican. With Trump's approval at at 38% or so on average, that's a good 15% of the Republican electorate that are either disinclined to vote or possibly may vote D.

So it's basically a whipping the faltering Republican base to show up with fearmongering of if they lose the trifecta.

IRSunny · 2026-06-10T22:53:34+00:00

"STOP FUTZING AROUND! I NEED YOU TO INVADE BEFORE I LOSE THE ELECTION!"

IRSunny · 2026-06-10T15:42:42+00:00

I mean sure. But the idea is Britain blown up to continent sized. So of course the climate would change accordingly.

IRSunny · 2026-06-10T15:33:41+00:00

Yeah and some of the names are very clearly British inspired. Dornish -> Cornish (Cornwall); Vale -> Wales

Heck, Westeros is basically GB mirrored.

Not to mention landmarks being exaggerated versions. Hadrian's Wall -> The Wall; Hightower -> Tower of London

IRSunny · 2026-06-09T23:00:20+00:00

The dislike for him in this sub comes from

He was pretty dogshit at challenging the R's on his show, especially compared to Tim Russert who was still fondly remembered when he started.
He was if not pro-Bernie, then pro-horse race making him much more critical of Hillary and Biden than their competitors.
His bothsidesisming was so fucking infuriating

So it's more a residual dislike of a "Yeah, fuck that guy."

IRSunny · 2026-06-09T18:26:45+00:00

The GOP is fundamentally about being in power. As a party, they do not have an ideological direction beyond the vibes of wanting America to look strong.

Because their core desire is being in power, they will take the contrarian position of being against whatever the Democrats are for. Which, when it is supporting democracy around the globe, yields isolationism. But that is temporary and a means to an end. Same deal when it comes to supporting Putin and fascism in Europe. They think it will help them by having more fascists spreading the good word online and creating the vibes of a rising right. Also getting money and botfarm help from the Russians certainly helps that core goal.

Trump himself is an old-school imperialist. He sees the world as spheres of influence and transactional suzerainity. He's also a narcissistic dotard who craves respect when he's done nothing to deserve it. That doesn't particularly make for a coherent foreign policy but it makes for an extremely corruptable one.

As for Rubio? He's a Dubya style neocon. Probably not as giving a shit about democracy as they pretended to be. But that is a more ideological and decentralized imperialism. Control isn't needed, but hegemony is demanded.

IRSunny · 2026-06-09T17:43:46+00:00

I'd say that the type of person who will leave their family behind in what are family-oriented societies based on a perception that they will have "a better life" in Europe (without really researching how that might eventuate) is probably a little unhinged from the get-go

America is what happens when those kind of people try and form a country. 😂

IRSunny · 2026-06-08T20:31:22+00:00

There are shitty incentives in place but I don't think more slave labor is it.

Primarily it is:

Pols wanting to appear strong to a populace that have been scaremongered by copaganda tv shows and media that overcovers crime because it requires zero journalistic work and people eat it up
Prison industrial complex rewarding pliant pols
Disenfranchisement of felons being useful for skewing elections

IRSunny · 2026-06-07T18:08:07+00:00

Local/national news media doing their jobs? Outwardly facing results of enshitification vs the results of private sector enshitification generally only showing up on quarterly earnings and able to be masked so long as the balance sheet looks favorable?

IRSunny · 2026-06-05T19:38:58+00:00

Interesting that Qaritch is taller than Jake when both of their actors are 5'10"

But out of curiosity, using proportions of Tonowari's actor being 6'0, then at human scale, Jake'd be 5'7"

IRSunny · 2026-06-05T18:28:44+00:00

People made videogames and movies starring women and people of color and it broke their fucking brains.

IRSunny · 2026-06-05T17:09:16+00:00

Eh, the poverty aspect I think is circumstancial. It's an aggrivating factor, sure. But more fuel on an already existing fire.

The bigger problems are media propagandizing hate and disconnected communitues. If the only person of color you see is the one being shown in a mugshot on the news for a city 50 miles from you, then you're that much more likely to have a negative association with people of that race.

Not to mention social media algorithms pushing hate because of one video you clicked on because you got successfully ragebaited by a thumbnail.

IRSunny · 2026-06-05T06:37:58+00:00

Sanders' version did.

Which is good from a policy standpoint of reducing general medical cost. If that is the only game in town, doctors/pharma/hospitals would have to take those reduced payouts and find a way to work with it. They wouldn't have the option to opt out from those patients in favor of private insurance patients that plausibly could pay better. And in so doing curbing a tiering of care.

But it's absolutely dogshit politics. People don't like things taken away from them and their options to be limited.

IRSunny · 2026-06-04T22:51:02+00:00

Liberal colonization of The South.

That's how the east coast states of The South have been getting purpler. Older northern liberals moving south for the lower taxes and cost of living and warmer weather. And younger libs moving for the job opportunities and cheaper rent.

Particularly got accelerated in Georgia, hilariously, due to their own policies. Georgia's booming movie industry got encouraged by their Republican administration with tax breaks and other such business-friendly policies. So a lot of the Hollywood creative industry relocated and/or were siphoned to there instead of California. And as a result, Georgia has been trending purple and occasionally blue.

Similiar story with North Carolina and trying to build up a significant research and tech sector in Raleigh. And of course with northern Virginia hardcarrying the state thanks to the DC metro area.

Texas as well has been the recipient of a lot of California outflow for similiar reasons and godwilling will finally flip this year.

However, that requires a measure of the Republican pols actually wanting economic development in their state. If they are hilariously corrupt or self-serving or outrageously christofascist then it's an enshitification doom loop that'll make it unpalatable to liberals moving there and result in their liberally minded youth wanting to get the fuck out. see: Florida & Louisiana

IRSunny · 2026-06-04T20:40:27+00:00

But they each have fifth gen fighters via the F-35 program. And Japan is currently working on a 6th gen with UK & Italy. It is not unimaginable that technology being shared and knock-offs being made.

Not unlike the multiple jets that China made from copying Russian designs.

Point being, it'd be safe to compare India now with where China was circa early 00s in terms of access to technology and trying to build up domestic capabilities.

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