So, my safe Republican congressional district is now likely to swing Democrat. The Republican party can nominate a replacement for Edwards. I have no idea who that might be. The Dem has raised a lot of money and has lots of local connections.
Sorry to hear Kate but I know how you feel. My safe Republican district has entirely flipped to impossible-to-win. Wouldn’t even surprise me if a DSA type snuck in. Anyone who thinks folks moving from the city to the suburbs is fed up with the city, and will vote differently in the suburbs is dreaming. Most of them continue to vote the same way. Of course, there was some redistricting involved.
Everything seems to be subscriptions anymore or monthly or yearly—or whatever they want to call it. I have an X yearly sub, self-hosting @ Hostinger is like $335.52 this year for the FOUR year renewal price, and I just subscribed to Paramount+’s for a NO COMMERCIALs price of about $140 a year. Had subscribed to some AI’s like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and SuperGrok briefly but no more with X having their Grok included. Rest are just some monthly bills.
$140 a year is a steal compared to some of those TV subscriptions. Heck, DVDs and such can cost $12 easily for some, and even more for a series’ season. I’ve been pulling for David Ellison’s attempt to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. Here’s an article by him on it:
Many people have weighed in on Paramount’s agreement to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery — media analysts, power brokers, political commentators, competitors and, of course, lawyers. For a transaction of this size, that is expected and appropriate. The one person you haven’t heard from is me.
Illinois, Mike, is that right? In this case, Edwards was elected in 2022 to replace the scandal-ridden and unready Madison Cawthorn. As I recall, there were some others who might have wanted to run, but Edwards had support from the leadership in Raleigh. I will be interested to see how this goes. The district in theory still leans right. The Dem candidate is a well-known local farming executive.
Strong bladder or diaper required.
El-Sayed’s narrow primary win over Stevens is a clear victory for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in Michigan, but it is not evidence that America is shifting toward the DSA agenda nationally.
What actually happened: A progressive outsider who centers Medicare for All, reducing money in politics, and ending unconditional U.S. aid to Israel defeated the establishment-backed moderate in a high-spending Democratic Senate primary. The margin was tight (roughly 1–2 points). El-Sayed has historical ties to DSA events and received organizing help plus endorsements from Sanders, AOC, and Squad members, yet he is not a DSA member and has repeatedly rejected the “socialist” label, saying he supports regulated capitalism.
What it means: It shows real strength for left-populist candidates inside Democratic primaries, especially when issues like healthcare costs, frustration with big donors, and Middle East policy energize the activist base. Progressives have been scoring these kinds of primary wins in deep-blue areas for years; this one stands out because it happened in a swing state for a competitive Senate seat. The Democratic establishment’s late efforts (including Whitmer’s endorsement of Stevens) failed to stop him.
Is it a national win for the DSA? No. This was a Democratic primary electorate, not the broader American public. Michigan voted for Trump in 2024. The DSA’s actual platform (abolishing the Senate, public ownership of major corporations, subordinating the presidency and courts to Congress, etc.) goes well beyond what El-Sayed campaigns on and has very limited support in general-election polling. The real test is November against Mike Rogers. A progressive winning a closed primary does not equal national momentum for democratic socialism. It mainly signals that the left remains influential inside the Democratic Party’s activist and primary-voter coalition—and that the party’s internal fights over direction are far from over.
Why do these far-left agendas keep advancing through Democratic primaries—and why does the GOP struggle to contain their broader impact—despite holding the White House and competing nationally?
Some point to the party’s lingering image as primarily the ‘Party of White Men’—even though 2024 showed clear gains among Hispanic, black, and working-class voters across racial lines.
Others argue the conservative agenda itself can feel too restrictive to broader coalitions. That includes a heavy emphasis on incarceration and tough-on-crime policies that alienate some swing voters, or the handling of Project 2025. Trump repeatedly distanced himself from that Heritage Foundation document on the campaign trail (“I know nothing about it”), yet once in office many of its personnel and policy recommendations moved forward. Critics call this a bait-and-switch; supporters say it simply reflected overlapping priorities already present in his own Agenda 47.
A related credibility problem is Big Government itself. Republicans campaign on shrinking the federal state, yet actions often tell a different story. Federal spending hit about $7.01 trillion in FY 2025 and continued rising in the first nine months of FY 2026, driven largely by entitlements and interest on the debt. Deficits remain in the trillion-plus range. When the party that promises limited government still oversees high spending, it becomes harder to draw a sharp contrast with progressive calls for even more government programs.
Whatever the mix of factors, progressive candidates keep finding openings inside Democratic primaries while the wider electorate remains far less enthusiastic about full DSA-style socialism.
Maybe the GOP needs to take a hard look at the plank in its own eye before pointing out the speck in the other side’s?
NPA advising the GOP, it never stops.
*PERFECT* example of: ‘the conservative agenda itself can feel too restrictive to broader coalitions.‘
No skin in the game, me thinks.
Great video… never occurred to me, but if you wear a corset and crinoline, you’d better tie your shoes first…
If only women had kept this up until the start of commercial airlines…
Regarding the DSA:
Conservatives are battling 2-3 generations of their own inaction and misplaced trust, which allowed virtually unchallenged cultural and political change. (I could easily start the clock even earlier with Wilson and Roosevelt). Many people now in the MAGA camp dismissed people like McCarthy as “alarmists and conspiracy theorists” and had no problem embracing popular liberal/progressive opinions up until Nobama ripped off the mask and the Left went full-tilt Marxist.
Waddya know – they really did hate America all along. The only people they ever wanted to “empower” was themselves…
Trump has acted like a wrecking ball on the American consciousness, bashing enormous holes in the “Liberal” narrative and giving the silent majority permission to express what they know deep down. But he and his Band of Merry MAGA Men and Women are still the outsiders challenging an Establishment captured by progressives….
We are in a race between the still-snowballing Preference Cascade kicked off by Trump, and 70+ years of entrenched “liberalism” and radical chic (plus Free Stuff!).
Million-dollar question: 60 years after the 60s, Is the Silent Majority still the majority?
Dr Abdul El-Sayed stood with controversial influencer Hasan Piker and mocked a man who is arguably the most famous political strategist in Democratic party history.
‘Why does anybody still listen to James Carville,’ El-Sayed said on Monday. ‘He said one smart thing once…’
The legendary Ragin’ Cajun, has been ranting and, yes, raging for days about El-Sayed, suggesting there is not room for both of them in his party’s coalition, no matter how big a tent it has grown to be.
What are the DEMs to do…
A lot of stuff for.women.
I recently read a book about Corsets and Crinolines (Dover Press reprint of an old best-seller) that gave a good history of those articles of under apparel, how they were made, ways to fit and wear them properly, and the necessity of training the growing figure from early puberty in order to find them comfortable.
There were glowing testimonials to the trade, which leads me to suspect that the publication may have had a stealth sponsor, but it gave interesting insights into why women wore them.
They were put aside only when WWI streamlined everything, and, after the Flappers became the rage, were totally discarded.
I have read some comments by people like this presenter who claim they actually are more comfortable than their replacements in the foundation department.
Me, I am very grateful for synthetic fabrics and t-shirts.
(Ongoing reminder that the Wokerati clamoring to outlaw fossil fuels do not understand how many of their modern conveniences would go away if that happened.)
”Maybe the GOP needs to take a hard look at the plank in its own eye before pointing out the speck in the other side’s?”
Socialism is not a speck, nor is the stated intention to destroy the Constitution of the United States.
NPA logic, can’t distinguish between a “speck and a plank,” or between a cranium and rectum.
The official said the investigation, known as Oxferd Comma, was a subcomponent of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI probe into potential collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian government — an investigation that has long drawn Mr. Trump’s ire. The predicate of Oxferd Comma was the newly elected president’s decision to fire Comey in 2017.
Techno from The Reactionary has interesting take on the Oxferd Comma…
It’s a tough job om, when one is inserted inside the other …
Top ten most slaveholding civilizations in History—
As we’ve seen, statistics are slippery things and, if you want to, or are sloppy, you can manipulate the hell out of them, or make a lot of mistakes which call those statistics into serious question.
As well, you have to be very careful of basic definitions i.e. what is a
slave,” how you construct your estimates, and what you are actually measuring.
With all that said, linked below is one ranking of the 10 civilizations which held the most slaves.*
The thing to remember about the DSA surge in the Dems is that Karmi is on to something. A lot of the people voting DSA don’t necessarily agree with all of their agenda, just as a lot of Trump voters don’t agree with all elements of the MAGA agenda. The Trump voters and the DSA voters agree on at least one point: both detest the establishment that has governed America since the early 1990s.
A substantial number of twenty-somethings who say they hate capitalism don’t even think about that word in the same way we do. A lot of them just identify is with the post Cold War status quo, which they perceive as having failed.
That attitude is partly a function of corrupt/incompetent education, of course, but it’s also a rejection of the shared economic priorities of the ruling class.
As for Carville, I would have more sympathy for him if he had not spent the last 30 years laying the groundwork for this. Ditto quite a few other Democrats. There’s actually far less daylight between the goals of the ‘mainstream’ Dems and the DSA than you would think listening to the uproar, it’s really about who will be in control of the Democratic Party.
Same reason Donald Trump implemented or tried to implement a bunch of stuff that the GOP punditry claimed to want, and they got the vapors and stalked out because they weren’t in control anymore.
OK, but “stalked out” was all too often “obstructed”.
(Yes, I’m talking about McCain and ObamaCare, but not only him.)
Very likely that the issue here is the ambiguity that so many politicians seem to rely on (and profit from?) is endangered by those such as Trump and the DSA.
Trump says “gotta MAGA”, and the politicos (or some of them) say something along the lines of “But you CAN’T say that! That’s not how it works”…besides which they may think it could scare people by forcing those politicians to actually take a stand.
Similarly, the DSA says something like “You wanna destroy the country? Your way takes way too long. THIS is how you do it!”
@Ben David: “Million-dollar question: 60 years after the 60s, … ”
WOW! That phrasing of the situation really hits home as to how many years have passed!
@Ben David: “Million-dollar question: 60 years after the 60s, … ”
WOW! That phrasing of the situation really hits home as to how many years have passed!
— R2L
And yet the exact same debates and divides that erupted into the open in the late 60s and the 70s (what we call ‘the sixties’ really mostly happened in the seventies) are the same fracture lines that are being warred over today. Only some of the fine details have changed.
It’s no coincidence. The young college educated Boomers who drove ‘the sixties’ (though they were guided and inspired by Silent Generation teachers and others) are now in late life. Theie old causes are simultaneously running out of time and at the height of their political and social power.
A Fourth Turning, in other words.
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So, my safe Republican congressional district is now likely to swing Democrat. The Republican party can nominate a replacement for Edwards. I have no idea who that might be. The Dem has raised a lot of money and has lots of local connections.
https://wlos.com/news/local/north-carolina-rep-edwards-withdraws-re-election-campaign-jamie-ager-house-ethics-committee-allegations-sexual-misconduct
Sorry to hear Kate but I know how you feel. My safe Republican district has entirely flipped to impossible-to-win. Wouldn’t even surprise me if a DSA type snuck in. Anyone who thinks folks moving from the city to the suburbs is fed up with the city, and will vote differently in the suburbs is dreaming. Most of them continue to vote the same way. Of course, there was some redistricting involved.
Everything seems to be subscriptions anymore or monthly or yearly—or whatever they want to call it. I have an X yearly sub, self-hosting @ Hostinger is like $335.52 this year for the FOUR year renewal price, and I just subscribed to Paramount+’s for a NO COMMERCIALs price of about $140 a year. Had subscribed to some AI’s like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and SuperGrok briefly but no more with X having their Grok included. Rest are just some monthly bills.
$140 a year is a steal compared to some of those TV subscriptions. Heck, DVDs and such can cost $12 easily for some, and even more for a series’ season. I’ve been pulling for David Ellison’s attempt to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. Here’s an article by him on it:
David Ellison: In Defense of the Paramount-Warner Deal
Illinois, Mike, is that right? In this case, Edwards was elected in 2022 to replace the scandal-ridden and unready Madison Cawthorn. As I recall, there were some others who might have wanted to run, but Edwards had support from the leadership in Raleigh. I will be interested to see how this goes. The district in theory still leans right. The Dem candidate is a well-known local farming executive.
Strong bladder or diaper required.
El-Sayed’s narrow primary win over Stevens is a clear victory for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in Michigan, but it is not evidence that America is shifting toward the DSA agenda nationally.
What actually happened: A progressive outsider who centers Medicare for All, reducing money in politics, and ending unconditional U.S. aid to Israel defeated the establishment-backed moderate in a high-spending Democratic Senate primary. The margin was tight (roughly 1–2 points). El-Sayed has historical ties to DSA events and received organizing help plus endorsements from Sanders, AOC, and Squad members, yet he is not a DSA member and has repeatedly rejected the “socialist” label, saying he supports regulated capitalism.
What it means: It shows real strength for left-populist candidates inside Democratic primaries, especially when issues like healthcare costs, frustration with big donors, and Middle East policy energize the activist base. Progressives have been scoring these kinds of primary wins in deep-blue areas for years; this one stands out because it happened in a swing state for a competitive Senate seat. The Democratic establishment’s late efforts (including Whitmer’s endorsement of Stevens) failed to stop him.
Is it a national win for the DSA? No. This was a Democratic primary electorate, not the broader American public. Michigan voted for Trump in 2024. The DSA’s actual platform (abolishing the Senate, public ownership of major corporations, subordinating the presidency and courts to Congress, etc.) goes well beyond what El-Sayed campaigns on and has very limited support in general-election polling. The real test is November against Mike Rogers. A progressive winning a closed primary does not equal national momentum for democratic socialism. It mainly signals that the left remains influential inside the Democratic Party’s activist and primary-voter coalition—and that the party’s internal fights over direction are far from over.
Why do these far-left agendas keep advancing through Democratic primaries—and why does the GOP struggle to contain their broader impact—despite holding the White House and competing nationally?
Some point to the party’s lingering image as primarily the ‘Party of White Men’—even though 2024 showed clear gains among Hispanic, black, and working-class voters across racial lines.
Others argue the conservative agenda itself can feel too restrictive to broader coalitions. That includes a heavy emphasis on incarceration and tough-on-crime policies that alienate some swing voters, or the handling of Project 2025. Trump repeatedly distanced himself from that Heritage Foundation document on the campaign trail (“I know nothing about it”), yet once in office many of its personnel and policy recommendations moved forward. Critics call this a bait-and-switch; supporters say it simply reflected overlapping priorities already present in his own Agenda 47.
A related credibility problem is Big Government itself. Republicans campaign on shrinking the federal state, yet actions often tell a different story. Federal spending hit about $7.01 trillion in FY 2025 and continued rising in the first nine months of FY 2026, driven largely by entitlements and interest on the debt. Deficits remain in the trillion-plus range. When the party that promises limited government still oversees high spending, it becomes harder to draw a sharp contrast with progressive calls for even more government programs.
Whatever the mix of factors, progressive candidates keep finding openings inside Democratic primaries while the wider electorate remains far less enthusiastic about full DSA-style socialism.
Maybe the GOP needs to take a hard look at the plank in its own eye before pointing out the speck in the other side’s?
NPA advising the GOP, it never stops.
*PERFECT* example of: ‘the conservative agenda itself can feel too restrictive to broader coalitions.‘
No skin in the game, me thinks.
Great video… never occurred to me, but if you wear a corset and crinoline, you’d better tie your shoes first…
If only women had kept this up until the start of commercial airlines…
Regarding the DSA:
Conservatives are battling 2-3 generations of their own inaction and misplaced trust, which allowed virtually unchallenged cultural and political change. (I could easily start the clock even earlier with Wilson and Roosevelt). Many people now in the MAGA camp dismissed people like McCarthy as “alarmists and conspiracy theorists” and had no problem embracing popular liberal/progressive opinions up until Nobama ripped off the mask and the Left went full-tilt Marxist.
Waddya know – they really did hate America all along. The only people they ever wanted to “empower” was themselves…
Trump has acted like a wrecking ball on the American consciousness, bashing enormous holes in the “Liberal” narrative and giving the silent majority permission to express what they know deep down. But he and his Band of Merry MAGA Men and Women are still the outsiders challenging an Establishment captured by progressives….
We are in a race between the still-snowballing Preference Cascade kicked off by Trump, and 70+ years of entrenched “liberalism” and radical chic (plus Free Stuff!).
Million-dollar question: 60 years after the 60s, Is the Silent Majority still the majority?
A radical insurgent candidate humiliated Democratic party bosses in Michigan… but they’ll never admit the REAL reason they lost. Insiders tell me the truth is terrifying: MARK HALPERIN
What are the DEMs to do…
A lot of stuff for.women.
I recently read a book about Corsets and Crinolines (Dover Press reprint of an old best-seller) that gave a good history of those articles of under apparel, how they were made, ways to fit and wear them properly, and the necessity of training the growing figure from early puberty in order to find them comfortable.
There were glowing testimonials to the trade, which leads me to suspect that the publication may have had a stealth sponsor, but it gave interesting insights into why women wore them.
They were put aside only when WWI streamlined everything, and, after the Flappers became the rage, were totally discarded.
I have read some comments by people like this presenter who claim they actually are more comfortable than their replacements in the foundation department.
Me, I am very grateful for synthetic fabrics and t-shirts.
(Ongoing reminder that the Wokerati clamoring to outlaw fossil fuels do not understand how many of their modern conveniences would go away if that happened.)
”Maybe the GOP needs to take a hard look at the plank in its own eye before pointing out the speck in the other side’s?”
Socialism is not a speck, nor is the stated intention to destroy the Constitution of the United States.
NPA logic, can’t distinguish between a “speck and a plank,” or between a cranium and rectum.
White House declassifies info on secret FBI probe into whether Trump fired Comey at Russia’s behest, official says
Techno from The Reactionary has interesting take on the Oxferd Comma…
It’s a tough job om, when one is inserted inside the other …
Top ten most slaveholding civilizations in History—
As we’ve seen, statistics are slippery things and, if you want to, or are sloppy, you can manipulate the hell out of them, or make a lot of mistakes which call those statistics into serious question.
As well, you have to be very careful of basic definitions i.e. what is a
slave,” how you construct your estimates, and what you are actually measuring.
With all that said, linked below is one ranking of the 10 civilizations which held the most slaves.*
• See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hjwmZJhGII
If they gain power will they give it up?
This changer has had enough:
“Gangbanging NY police chief is a prime example of the Democratic political machine’s power”—
https://nypost.com/2026/08/05/opinion/gangbanging-ny-police-chief-is-a-prime-example-of-the-democratic-political-machines-power/
Truth sucks. (Interesting story, though…)
The thing to remember about the DSA surge in the Dems is that Karmi is on to something. A lot of the people voting DSA don’t necessarily agree with all of their agenda, just as a lot of Trump voters don’t agree with all elements of the MAGA agenda. The Trump voters and the DSA voters agree on at least one point: both detest the establishment that has governed America since the early 1990s.
A substantial number of twenty-somethings who say they hate capitalism don’t even think about that word in the same way we do. A lot of them just identify is with the post Cold War status quo, which they perceive as having failed.
That attitude is partly a function of corrupt/incompetent education, of course, but it’s also a rejection of the shared economic priorities of the ruling class.
As for Carville, I would have more sympathy for him if he had not spent the last 30 years laying the groundwork for this. Ditto quite a few other Democrats. There’s actually far less daylight between the goals of the ‘mainstream’ Dems and the DSA than you would think listening to the uproar, it’s really about who will be in control of the Democratic Party.
Same reason Donald Trump implemented or tried to implement a bunch of stuff that the GOP punditry claimed to want, and they got the vapors and stalked out because they weren’t in control anymore.
OK, but “stalked out” was all too often “obstructed”.
(Yes, I’m talking about McCain and ObamaCare, but not only him.)
Very likely that the issue here is the ambiguity that so many politicians seem to rely on (and profit from?) is endangered by those such as Trump and the DSA.
Trump says “gotta MAGA”, and the politicos (or some of them) say something along the lines of “But you CAN’T say that! That’s not how it works”…besides which they may think it could scare people by forcing those politicians to actually take a stand.
Similarly, the DSA says something like “You wanna destroy the country? Your way takes way too long. THIS is how you do it!”
@Ben David: “Million-dollar question: 60 years after the 60s, … ”
WOW! That phrasing of the situation really hits home as to how many years have passed!
— R2L
And yet the exact same debates and divides that erupted into the open in the late 60s and the 70s (what we call ‘the sixties’ really mostly happened in the seventies) are the same fracture lines that are being warred over today. Only some of the fine details have changed.
It’s no coincidence. The young college educated Boomers who drove ‘the sixties’ (though they were guided and inspired by Silent Generation teachers and others) are now in late life. Theie old causes are simultaneously running out of time and at the height of their political and social power.
A Fourth Turning, in other words.