ShittyBeatlesFCPres

I imagine BYD is going to overtake them soon, as they already have in China. It’ll probably be hard for them to break into the protectionist U.S. market but I’m sure everywhere else would be fine with a cheap EV.

Plus, considering Elon Musk just mooched $60bn off of Tesla for doing K and tweeting rot all day, the writing is probably on the wall. I sure as fuck wouldn’t invest in a company where the executives are bleeding it dry.

Other people have mentioned phone apps so I’ll add that I got a Garmin device for hiking and it’s got road navigation. It’s better in some cases because the maps are downloaded so if you’re somewhere without service, it can still do navigation.

Obviously, they’re meant to supplement a phone for off-grid stuff like hiking, boating, etc. but the road directions seem perfectly fine. It knows where gas stations are. And some of their models are car-only so I guess they’re also used by drivers in areas with spotty phone coverage.

The downside is, obviously, that you have to update the maps and there’s no traffic details. But I just thought I’d mention it as an option. (You also don’t have to use their maps if you prefer OpenStreetMaps or whatever.)

I live in a tourism-dependent city and the main problem isn’t tourists as much as AirBnB and similar services fucking up residential neighborhoods, raising rents, etc. And even then, it’s not the original AirBnB concept (of renting your place or spare bedroom out) as much as investors (often institutional investors) buying up dozens of properties and acting as unlicensed, less regulated hoteliers.

I’d be fine with AirBnB if they voluntarily limited that sort of shit or were forced to do it via strong regulations or punitive taxes. We have some OKish regulations. There’s permits and restrictions on density — one per block in residential areas, basically — but lobbyists got involved so half the regulations are about protecting the hotel industry instead of protecting the limited housing stock. And it all relies on AirBnB enforcing the rules when they have the opposite incentive.

Putin is the opposite of left wing. He literally crushed opposition from socialists and communists and ushered in an era of revanchist fascism and oligarchy. He might be the purest example of a far right leader on Earth. Being pro-Putin almost by definition means you’re a reactionary and not far-left.

I mean, he’s not actually a contender, is he? His party is on the fringe of the left wing coalition. The other parties said they wouldn’t make him PM and he said he wouldn’t demand it. Macronists certainly aren’t going to accept him.

To me, the only 2 outcomes are gridlock or someone non-controversial from the left. Laurent Berger is a name I saw come up but I’m not the world’s foremost French politics knower.

I’m gonna have to stop you right there. Abraham Lincoln was ugly as fuck. Possibly the greatest president of all time. But he didn’t grow that beard until some little girl said, (paraphrasing) “U-G-L-Y, you ain’t got no alibi, you ugly. [clap clap] You ugly.”

Either Lincoln or FDR is probably the greatest president and both of them had to overcome a major disability. FDR had polio and was in a wheelchair and Lincoln without a beard was so ugly, you could have pressed his face in dough and made gorilla cookies. And I suspect that’s why they both had the resoluteness and empathy required to be a truly great leader. (And probably why Lincoln was so buff. He was getting no hoes with that craggy visage.)

They don’t exist to answer your questions. They exist to frustrate you into giving up.

Progressives aren’t doing shit right now. Bernie and AOC have said they’ll support Biden. This is a rat fucking from the establishment, not the left. The NY Times hasn’t published 400^1^ articles about this because the left wants it.

^1^ Someone counted 192 several days ago and it’s been more days. I used 400 as hyperbole but it might not be.

I don’t think either us are wrong since we’re in unprecedented territory. Almost any scenario could happen. My main concern is that calling for a different candidate is easy and no one is addressing the hard parts of a campaign and building a winning coalition.

The ad buys for September and October are probably just reserved at this point with content to come later. There’s probably lots of flexibility for presidential campaigns but, like any project, a last minute change with no new deadline will make it all worse.

And whether we like it or not, plenty of people support Kamala Harris. And not just her. All the potential candidates. We’re all imagining our fave will get the nod but only one will. People say Gavin Newsome but he had an affair with his campaign manager’s wife. How is that going to play with voters? No idea. Maybe Trump is so bad, it’s a footnote but maybe it makes enough suburbanites disgusted. I don’t know.

Why? Did something change with the climate?

Don’t blame progressives for any of this shit. The left wanted Biden to not run or have a primary challenger. Now it’s all centrists leaking shit to the New York Times, which is still churning out so many articles about the debate that I have to scroll down to see literally any other news. Whole UK and French elections happened and they’re still giving it top billing.

The only actual alternative is Harris. I wouldn’t guess anyone having a panic attack right now will listen to me but:

• she’s the only one who can legally use the campaign funds
• setting up a new campaign takes months
• ads have largely already been reserved
• passing over a qualified black woman for [insert the imaginary candidate of your dreams] would piss off a pretty key constituency (especially in Georgia and Michigan)
• the media and Republicans will have a motherfucking feeding frenzy destroying an untested candidate with no experience on the national stage

Am I happy about this? Nope. But those facts are just being hand-waived away while people ignore every risk to replacing Biden and, on top of that, the risk of replacing him with their favorite.