This is an outdated mindset. Design and manufacturing work best together in a tight feedback loop, and China has become perfectly capable of doing their own design work. America has positioned itself to become nothing but a nation of consumers and venture capitalists.

Your concept of Hedonism is uncritical and severely narrow. It is a broad term that encompasses lots of philosophies. For instance social hedonism is about minimizing pain and maximizing pleasure at a societal level. Chasing immediate pleasure for oneself is a popculture definition.

I think that happens in any black hole formation. At least that’s my understanding of how neutron stars are formed. The electrons get forced into the nucleus and turn the protons into neutrons. From there it’s quark gluon plasma then a black hole.

In any case, I have no idea how either a grain of rice or a mountain could be made to do such a thing.

It seems to me that “Americans” are doing quite a bit to fight back. Can’t say the same for the Democrats. THAT is why I want fingers pointed in the right direction. They are still doing it.

More like, “Why did the Dems run interference for Republicans for 50+ years running?”. If you think our problem with Democrats is that they weren’t “good enough” then you have fundamentally misunderstood the arguments.

Seems pretty straightforward to me. Democrats threw the 2024 election.

Thank the idiots who picked Biden over Bernie in 2020. That primary sealed America’s fate. The rest is just implementation details.

Theoretically you could make a black hole with a single grain of rice. You just have to figure out how to crush it down enough.

No shit. That’s the churn of the playing field where politicians compete. If they can’t overcome that shit to defeat a fucking reality show clown, then they are in the wrong line of work.

And anyways, this thread was about my response to you calling Obama a great president. The reasons I gave why he wasn’t had nothing to do with reelection. Maybe you’re pulling from a different thread because you have no answer to what I said?

But sure, let’s look at what happened to the Democratic project during and after his presidency. Obama was elected with a big majority in the House and a supermajority in the Senate. (With the caviot that Democratic cronyism resulted in the Democrats being plagued by health issues and deaths in office). Obama lost the House, lost the Senate, and lost over a thousand state level Democratic seats in his 8 years. Did the churn cause all of that?

I know Obama has cute dimples and an easy but confident demeanor, and half the Democratic voters have a para social relationship with him that rivals what MAGA has (had?) with Trump. But that’s not what makes a great president. History will remember him as mediocre at best, and I hope it doesn’t forget his role in manipulating the 2020 primary and ultimately giving us Trump twice.

Wut? It was very clearly not you I replied to. It’s not like you can’t look one comment up the thread lol.

We elected Obama, then suddenly became to racist to vote for other people in his party, most of whom weren’t even black? That’s some serious cope. At least if you dragged out sexism it would have been potentially relevant.

The idea is to win elections. I’ll care who wins the popular vote when that means winning the presidency.

Nope. He was pretty much a failure. He also sold out on day one, and collected millions in “speaking fees” from Wall Street firms within days of leaving office. If Obama had been a great president, Trump wouldn’t have been the next president.

That’s not exactly a high bar, and arguably not even true.

Uh, you do realize that the meme isn’t actually quoting Obama, right?

Uhuh. Read someones history before making that judgement. Disagreement with your bad takes does not make someone a centrist.

Not everyone. Just you. And just for the record, the party should absolutely listen to the left for the first fucking time. You just aren’t the left. Even if you are left, your bad takes aren’t representative of the vast majority.

You have no fucking idea what wing of the party I belong to.

To be clear, that’s the only thing you have ever been or ever will be.

Oh, fuck off. I’ve been brutal towards the establishment. I just want them beaten, and pretending elections are rigged is counterproductive to that end. You’re nothing but a right wing agitator.

they might respond to pressure to stop

Why would they? It’s apparently working. Now who is suddenly feeling charitable towards the establishment? You think they can be shamed into playing nice? You are so full of shit.

Well, it is fucking kids. That should at least count as something, but it’s still insane that anyone is surprised by it.

I don’t think the word “rigging” tells an accurate story. I do think they pulled strings to get all the establishment candidates to Voltron into Biden for super Tuesday. I do think they influenced their cohorts in the media to make Bernie look like he couldn’t win the general. I don’t believe they messed with the voting process itself, which is what “rigging” tends to invoke.

Rather than try to deny it, they went with the tactic of saying

Again, context matters. In a legal process there are different times to make different arguments, and a good lawyer makes use every argument available. This particular argument dealt with whether or not the court had jurisdiction in the matter, so it came early in the process.

This in spite of their own charter mandating that they stay neutral

What exactly does that mean? Is every member required to be personally neutral in even their personal relationships outside the DNC? Does that extend to Obama who is neither a board member or on staff at the DNC? Being neutral is a good idea, but that rule is pretty meaningless.

To be clear, I am no apologist for the Democratic establishment. I blame them more for Trump than the Republicans. That’s why I want progressives to show up and vote them out in primaries. Giving the false impression that their vote won’t count is counterproductive.