IheartIheartTesla

Known Middle East problem solver Jared Kushner will also in all likelihood turn down CoS position on account of it being too difficult a task for him to handle.

There are these things called rechargeable batteries, just as there are these things called food that can replenish your energy..... Next time any libertarian Rand acolyte talks about meritocracy just point to Trump. I said this before, but he has truly destroyed the idea of the US having any form of meritocracy.

ActBlue or nearly any other such organization asks for your employer when you donate, I'm not sure but I think its a legal requirement. So yes, Bernie Sanders did receive some small amount from a "big corporation". $430,000 wont buy you a whole lot of influence with any politician I think, particularly if it is spread over 20-30 individuals. Compared to his 69 million war chest.

Leaving aside unity tickets, it also seems that the 'conventional wisdom' through this and a bunch of other articles appears to be coalescing around the notion that to beat Trump, we need a centrist at the top of the ticket to pick off some moderate Republicans/independents. I'm not convinced yet this is the route to take. Maybe the best way is to have a firebrand at the top to jazz up the 'base' and drag along the rest of the party with them. After all, thats what happened with Trump in 16. Granted, the Democrats are different from the Republicans, but still...

Oh man, a Biden-Romney ticket. That would excite exactly 0 people (well, maybe 1 person, the writer of that fever-dream inspired article). I mean, I have already committed to voting for a progressive in the primaries and whatever lukewarm candidate the Democrats throw up in 2020, but this combination of bland and blander is really too milquetoast for me. I could go on, but I've run out of synonyms for boring.

This conversation is always a bit amusing to me, us (political) elites discussing the relative merits of candidates. The way primaries are set up, and I have no idea about the new format, is that name recognition plays a big role particularly when you get to Southern states, and the larger fraction of African Americans in the primary population. As good as Klobuchar may be, I suspect her name recognition in the Carolinas or even Florida is low. My fear is a lukewarm candidate like Biden gets an overwhelming lead until we reach the point of no return, and then we hold our noses and vote for him/her. Edit: I had her name right before the edit, but I blame Fez for changing it since I wasnt sure

The wall was never a priority for Republican lawmakers, or they would have found funding for the x billion dollars it required somewhere, somehow, Instead, they hung their hat on the stupid tax bill that has been no good to anyone except some companies and definitely didnt help them in the polls (I still cant believe they thought their tax bill would actually work). Of course the Admin didnt have the foresight to plan for the 2018 elections, and in the end I am pleased we wont have any kind of wall.

James Fallows had an interesting article in the Atlantic about something I had been thinking about; namely how association with Trump sullies everyone. In some cases this is how they always were and being with him just revealed it to us; in other cases they have been dragged into the mud due to their association. Its kinda fun to go through the rogue's gallery and see who falls in what bucket. For instance, Susan Collins would be in the latter, and Rudy Giuliani in the former. Not sure where Butters would be.....

Even world renowned d-bag Tucker Carlson said he was disappointed in Trump, so I feel something big is about to happen.

Look, Congress right now is packed with lawyers and business people (and the judiciary isnt all that diverse either, with everyone either from Yale or Harvard, maybe Columbia). In that sense the new batch of members in the House are definitely a breath of fresh air with more scientists and blue collar workers (IIRC, Ocasio-Cortez was a bartender). We need more of those people representing us. At the same time they dont have the experience to navigate the halls of congress quite yet, and some of the way things work may be new to them. So more leeway and time should be given, but in AOC's case, I think since she is such a big target, maybe she can be a bit more prudent when she speaks out (fact checking etc....maybe hire a staffer to be her social media person and do some basic fact checking).

Carbon capture technologies range anywhere from $150 (very optimistic) to $600/metric ton (bit more realistic) of CO2e. Carbon emissions reduction strategies are much cheaper to implement, on the carbon market you could offset your emissions with projects, for instance, that cost only $1-5/ ton. We are currently definitely focused on emissions reductions rather than carbon capture, but in crunch time we may have to switch to the latter as a last ditch effort. The technology already exists to do carbon capture. Whether it can be scaled up, and if we have the courage to spend all that money (probably greater than the GDP of the global economy) on capturing carbon from the atmosphere and....doing something with it is another question.

Its not that far from Sansa/Littlefinger to Sansa/Tiny Hands fan fiction (same wheelhouse really).

Yes, nearly everyone agrees it was a blue wave; 538 pointed out in its chat that there was probably an anchoring effect from Tuesday night where the Democrats weren't doing as well as they finally did. This cemented in a lot of people's minds the idea of a blue ripple. Speaker of the House is an important responsibility particularly since there is a non-trivial chance (still close to 0) the line of succession becomes relevant. I dont have strong opinions about Pelosi either way, but I'm not sure I would want her to be President in the event Trump/Pence are booted out of office.

Worth it if we can push through some Medicare-for-all or universal basic income in that time frame (and maybe swop out a couple of the older Supreme Court justices)

I understand it looks a bit grim, but didnt the Dems go to 57 seats in 2008 from 49 (or 51)? One of the hopes is to get a transformative politician who can redo the electoral map and carry along some Senate seats with his/her coattails. By the way, looking through the 2008 results, I am amazed Mark Pryor won Arkansas with no Republican opponent (and a Green candidate as opposition who got 20% of the vote)