The United States of Morons. E Pluribus Dum Dum.

Let's be very clear about one thing: Musk is not an engineer. He employs engineers, but he is not an engineer himself. He has given himself the title of Chief Engineer at SpaceX, but that's no different than me giving myself the title of Chief Surgeon. It's meaningless. The actual engineers at Tesla and SpaceX are very capable, though perhaps misguided, as one would have to be to work to further the interests of a megalomaniacal mega-dork like Musk. Unfortunately, many of these actual engineers must also have a kind of cult-like, sycophantic devotion to Musk, which is why none of them have the guts to tell him that AI data centers in space is a stupid fucking idea.

Does the author realize that everyone ran on Mamdani's affordability platform?

And wisely so. To their credit, moderates realized it was the right campaign strategy, so they embraced it. However, it's hard to say how many of them actually give a shit about affordability. I think it's likely at least some Democrats only put on the mask of an economic populist, and as soon as it's politically convenient, the mask will come off. Which is what the moderate Dem voters are counting on. They have nothing but disdain for economic populism, but they were willing to pretend like they loved it to win back power.

You almost have to feel bad for the guy.

Nope, schadenfreude. Buckets of it.

The reason your job is soul crushing is you have no alternative.

No, I have a few. I could put a bullet in my brain. That's one.

Downsize the corporations so they have competition, and you'll see better, more rewarding jobs appear.

Sure, sure. Downsize the corporations. Competition. Wonderful. Until it isn't. Until consolidation, again. Time to downsize again to promote competition. Repeat cycle until the heat death of the universe. That bullet thing is sounding better and better.

The rich aren't sitting on piles of gold, they're sitting on piles of...everything - all the stores, all the factories, all the jobs, all the hospitals. There's no freedom from them while they sit on their piles of everything.

Taxing them to pay for government social programs doesn't change any of that. It only reinforces our dependence on them. There's no tax revenue if there isn't profit or income first, and they generate their profit and income from the everything they own.

Sometimes I think about getting some like-minded people together and building a self sufficient commune. I'm sure it would be very hard but at least we wouldn't have to go to a soul crushing job everyday to make ungodly profits for some rich psycho.

I live in an area with a lot of Amish communities. They live simply and they work hard but they're free. They own their land, they build their own houses, they grow their own food. Idk, that doesn't sound so bad to me these days.

As tech bosses get richer and ordinary Americans struggle, Democrats put the case against the US’s grotesque unfairness – and voters responded

As time goes on, I care less about fairness and more about emancipation. I don't care about making the rich pay their fair share, I just want to be out from under their thumb. I don't want to be dependent on the rich anymore, for taxes or jobs or anything. I want to be independent from the rich, I want to be free from them. Let them keep their stupid money. Let them sit on their pile of gold like a dragon, as long as I don't have to have anything to do with them.

which means a Democratic president in 2028 could have real juice to get things done.

But what "things" would get done? My point is that there isn't necessarily a majority consensus in the Democratic party on the answer to that question, and there needs to be. You're absolutely right that essentially no major legislation is getting passed over the next couple years. I totally agree with that. I think the Democrats need to use that time building a majority consensus on what the party's legislative goals will be should they take back the Whitehouse in 2028.

No single Democratic coalition can claim victory after Tuesday’s resounding midterm results – all parts of the Democratic coalition can.

Let's hope the Democrats are able to form and govern as a coalition. There are real ideological differences between the different factions within the party. For this blue wave to matter, the different factions need to unify around the things they agree on the most. That means we're probably not getting Medicare for all or any of the more progressive policy goals, but I think we can get a very decisive reigning in of Trump.

All the Democratic factions agree that Trump is a dangerous threat to democracy and he's gotta go. They don't necessarily agree on exactly what the future of America should be, except that whatever Trump is doing ain't it. I think the Dems will be strongly unified in their opposition to Trump, which is unequivocally a good thing. That's exactly what we need to end the threat to our Democracy that is Donald J Trump.

However, while it is very good that it appears a majority of Americans have finally decided Trumpism is a dead end street and we need to go a different direction, I don't think there is a majority consensus on what that direction should be. I, for one, will continue to try and get centrist/moderate/neoliberal/third way, whatever they want to call themselves, to see that programs like Medicare for all are not just pie in the sky progressive daydreams, they're absolutely essential for America to have any kind of functional future. If the moderates refuse to get on board, then this country is fucked, plain and simple.

We should have one, year-round time but it should be standard time not DST. Here's why.

I know, I don't want to change my clocks ever again. I'm on standard time right now where I am in the US. Unless something changes, I'll have to change my clocks again in March, to DST. I don't want to do that, but I'll have to because of people like you who insist that EVERYONE must do what YOU want.

Then pick up an earlier shift, or move to Ecuador. Why do the rest of us have to adjust our clocks to accommodate you?