Wolff has been like this for decades. He’s as craven as the rest of them. But he’s also very often right.

I also don’t need to miss the context of the discussion…

Speaking of missing the context, my initial comment, to which you replied, was:

Still maddening [that so many vote for him], but…

Two things can be true at the same time. It’s maddening that so many vote for him, the electoral college is why republicans still win, and, I’ll throw you a bone, the electoral college probably wouldn’t be a problem if fewer people voted for Trump—but it would still be a damn stupid way to run an election.

Let me introduce a hypothetical: the electoral college didn’t exist, Republicans saw they couldn’t win on current policies as far back as 2012 and were forced to moderate to win the popular vote. We might not be in this current political climate in the first place

It is still bonkers that…

Yes, and my initial comment was:

Still maddening, but…

we’re in violent agreement

Depends how loose your definition of half is, I guess. Trump got 46.8% of the popular vote in 2020 vs Biden’s 51.3%.

2016: Trump 41.1% (still won) vs Clinton 48.2%. 2012: Obama 51.1% (winner) vs Romney 47.2%. 2008: Obama 52.9% (winner) vs McCain 45.7%. 2004: Bush 50.7% (winner) vs Kerry 48.3%. 2000: Bush 47.9% (still won) vs Gore 48.4%. 1996: Clinton 49.2% (winner) vs Dole 40.7% vs Perot 8.4%. 1992: Clinton 43% (winner) vs Bush 37.4% vs Perot 18.9%. 1988: Bush 53.4% (winner) vs Dukakis 45.6%. And that’s as far as I could be bothered to go back.

With the exception of Bush in 2004, every Republican president since 1988 won only because of the electoral college. See the problem?

Half the electoral college vote. Still maddening but let’s not forget that a shitty election system is the only thing keeping the Republicans in power now

Water is wet. More at 11

As a Norwegian: seconded. It’s tough to get real close and personal with Nordic people. We have smaller friend groups and don’t swap out friends often, but that is largely because we are quite loyal. So when you’re in, you’re in to stay.

NYT tomorrow: “Harris under fire for [placeholder] after controversial Trump radio interview”

I’m not going to do your homework for you. Suffice is to say China is still an emerging market and all indicators aside from exports are unusually low for the kind of economy China is. I don’t know what kind of point you’re trying to make because you seem to be skirting the issue. None of the pieces I linked proclaim China is about to collapse, only pointing out the challenges. Again: what the hell is your point?

https://tradingeconomics.com/china/consumer-confidence https://www.china-briefing.com/news/chinas-august-2024-economy-record-export-growth-amid-domestic-challenges/ https://www.euronews.com/business/2024/09/09/europes-luxury-goods-market-set-to-feel-the-pinch-as-china-growth-weakens https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/analysis-chinas-monetary-volleys-miss-key-threat-to-economic-growth/ar-AA1r9V9Q

Plus anecdotal stories from people I know that traveled to China in the past few months.

Basically, the post-COVID recovery was already slower than expected. Then the property sector all but halted. People are stuck with gig work and temporary contracts.

Why do you imagine the government is doling out money for the first time if everything is peachy?

Lots of people, especially the Chinese. The sentiment about work, investment, economic prospects, consumption are all quite bad. The central bank is cutting rates. Just today the government dipped their toes into the helicopter money game. The only thing keeping the party going is exports

It’s fine until it’s not. China is sort of notorious for such grey lines that can shift overnight. And if you are influential, you may just fall victims to the “kill the chicken to scare the monkeys” practice

Except no one is being “replaced”. We’re all still here. And if I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt you’re merely forgetting all that goes with GRT. The supposed intentionality, the inherent value judgment, the conspiracies, the implication that it’s somehow a “problem”… the less charitable interpretation is that you’re intentionally glossing over it and pretending naivety.

Brutally evident on my recent re-read after a decade’s break

Yes, absolutely agree. The Commonwealth Saga was what got me into space operas big time

Honestly, no one could do it justice. But I agree it would deserve a great adaptation

Yes, this is wildly stupid. But also it’s a local independent retailer according to the article so I feel less hostile towards it

Doesn’t work for network shares as far as I can tell. At least not without some funky magic

Yes, I figured the word “cache” was used loosely in this case. But you know, the server is down and/or irrecoverable for a while, and then one’s phone gets swiped. Not inconceivable. So I think I’ll follow some of the advice here about a backup service or password stash

Thanks for the reply! That makes sense. I’m still weary of the client somehow losing the cache while the server is down (two holes in the Swiss cheese lining up) but that is overly paranoid I know that