IheartIheartTesla

Australia Bazballing WI by declaring while 22 runs behind, and India equally Bazballing England by scoring at ~3.9 a clip, which is roughly what England scored at. The latter are in a world of pain right now, but maybe they'll do better in the 2nd innings.

The AP is reporting that the RNC is considering a resolution next week to declare Trump the presumptive 2024 nominee....which I guess they can do if they want, but surely this would tick off some voters? Heh, I kid, no conservative will bat an eyelid at this. At the same time, Senate Republicans are still negotiating the immigration bill, contrary to prior reports. It is possible we may have something soon. Edit: Oh, I didn't see the post....right above me, but it bears repeating.

It isnt just Trump vs Haley and percentage of support, I'd also keep a close eye on voter turnout compared to 2016. By the time PA/WI rolls around Haley may well drop out and that would be our only metric. I haven't yet looked up the NH primary turnout numbers for various cycles. Most voters, Republicans or Democrats want younger blood, that's for sure.

Americans arent crazy about tennis, but then again, with the possible exception of Serbia no other nation is. It'll find increased popularity if some new champions come through (on the men's side). I think the bigger problem is the lack of upcoming players who can crack the top 5. On the women's side Gauff went through to the semis after a tough match. Pity she has to meet the #2 seed while the other side is a bit more open.

Ah yes, the sordid Babri Masjid saga that began in '92 comes to and end with this gaudy and gauche display. I was Indian back then and remember well the events leading to the masjid being razed, and the subsequent riots that flared throughout India (including my home town of Mumbai, then Bombay, a quite secular city). As to why Modi, while officially the constitution does prohibit mixing of religion and state in numerous scenarios (for instance, no state religion, and no religious instruction in state funded schools), there's a fair bit of flexibility as well. No one in India would bat an eyelid at government functions having a religious component. My parents, while practicing Hindus, are disgusted by all this. They are also fairly liberal and probably outliers.

Yeah, I am hoping the 'reluctant Democrats' will come back to the fold too, in enough numbers. Keep in mind that while the polls right now show Trump slightly shading Biden, we'd the latter to have a comfortable cushion of 3-4 points (at least) because of the built in EC advantage for the Republicans, which concurrently would also show he's doing better in the key 'swing states' Only reason we are talking national polls at this stage is because those state polls are exceedingly sparse. The NYT/Siena one is the only one in recent memory.

Trump does have a wide lead over Haley in NH, and indeed nationally. However, if you squint closely its about 50% in NH and 62%-ish nationally so it looks like his support is a bit more squishy in the former. Dont have enough data to see if this is a pattern in non-red states. At any rate, most of those other 38% will come back to the fold eventually, but I was hoping for more reluctant Republicans than is visible.

DeSantis has dropped out of the Republican primaries, so it looks like the anti-Trump coalescence may happen sooner rather than later and we'll have a long time to see just how much of it there is in the party.

Gauff won the US Open when Swiatek was bounced out, so this does increase her chances (since she has such a lopsided record against the latter). Still, you make your own luck as they say. She does need to get that monkey off her back at some point to start inching towards greatness though.

DeepMind AI solves geometry problems at star-student level (nature.com) Its a pretty impressive feat, even unthinkable a few years ago, but as the article goes on to point out: I'm surprised that AI isn't as good at number theory, but I need to dig deeper as to why that is the case.

Never really got into Enterprise (the only Star Trek I havent), and now I fear its moment has passed since there is all this nuTrek to sample.

Yeah, I think Lara and Tendulkar flirted with opening but never settled on it.A weird experiment for sure. Anyway, Australia won comfortable in the end. Maybe WI can do an India and win the second Test, but not having high hopes.

I didnt pay attention to the bill itself (the latter of what you describe is indeed effed up) and was just responding to the discussion here. It was just an interesting extension of the prior discussion where we believe the worst of our political opponents and buy into stereotypes about them, when some dont have basis in fact.

Its also straight from the fascist textbook, with Goebbels proclaiming "Always accuse the other side of which you yourself are guilty" (paraphrasing). He also said something about repeating a lie often enough that it becomes acceptable as truth, which can be applied to the whole '2020 election was stolen' perpetration as well. What I dont understand is why Democratic strategists go through the historical archives to see how to tackle these fascist tactics.

First cousin marriage (as well as sexual relations) is legal in many liberal states including California and Massachusetts. Not sure this is something to cudgel Kentucky with

Using 2023 as a benchmark, he's already dropped an extra set. There was some talk of him having a cold, which is why he may seem lethargic on the court. Regarding doping....I'm not sure if a person who wouldnt take a vaccine would try potentially risky methods to maintain his physique/health. Thats just my opinion though.

If Trump becomes President, he's out for revenge. What many people dont seem to be fathoming is that his supporters are too, after 3 humiliations in the polls (2018/2020/2022), even seemingly 'normal' people are having dissonant views of reality. If anything, a vote for Biden is a vote for self-preservation in a sense.

Even with Biden's poor approval numbers, he is still about even or slightly shaded by Trump in most surveys now (although admittedly the swing state picture isnt looking too rosy). Hardly an insurmountable task in front of the Democrats, although I suggest they make peace with the choice they have and start organizing. All this hand-wringing is not useful (I'm calling out those with power, not folks on this board). If anything, focus on retaking teh House for sure, otherwise it'll be a long 4 years.

Sad to see Murray bounced out, pleased to see Gauff go through comfortably. Kinda happy to see Raducanu back in the game but dont expect her to go far I think Djokovic's wrist injury is a bit more serious than he is letting on, and I suspect he may lose earlier than expected this Open (just based on his relatively heavy going in the 1st round).

Luckily it isnt just his idiot followers who decide the election. Anyway, regarding practical advice, I'd probably look to 2012 when Obama's polling numbers were in the tank (not as much as now), and how he managed to pull it off fairly comfortably. I think Romney supporters were surprised they lost, but the polling was pretty clear leading up to the elections. The boring answer was GoTV with a highly advanced data-driven organization that did very specific targeting of voters. Obama didnt really go after independents, but this time around I would.

We got 8-12 inches slightly north of you. Lots of power outages (not me though), and I'm not looking forward to shoveling/blowing it off the driveway.

I dont think as an atheist we have to choose between these two less good options, but....if I were to, for polytheism I'd go with Hinduism since atheism can be a subset of it (or rather, there is no real dogma associated with it, so atheism can freely co-exist). For monotheistic religions, I'd have to say Judaism just from the sheer number of 'secular Jews' around, for whom the religion is pretty much a cultural thing.

The point though is to have a bruising primary, similar to the 2016 one but on the GoP side, People are still to this day debating the impact the Sander's campaign had on Clinton's eventual loss; and the hope would be to have something similar that would disgust at least a few and have them either sit out or vote for someone else.

In my opinion the numerous candidates were just splitting the anti-Trump GoP vote, and a 2 person race would make a long, drawn out affair that would highlight that there was a credible alternative to Trump. Similar to 2016 with the Democrats, and every little bit would help.

I guess there's a debate happening tonight, and Vivek couldnt meet the threshold (with Christie out too, its just DeSantis and Haley). Would have been better if all this consolidation happened earlier and it was just Haley v Trump