Disqus - Latest Comments for m0nty

Re: A Post That Will Likely Receive No Comments

m0nty — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 20:18:34 -0000

That is certainly a take.

Lots of people were saying Harris wasn’t tested, and many of those people were attacking her for selfish and motivated reasons.

I think Harris could have used more time to develop a post-Biden strategy. The best line her team found was that the other side was weird. She only had time to be reactive, not to drive the agenda.

She was pushing the barrow uphill either way.

Re: The MOU

m0nty — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 20:02:50 -0000

The deal suits Iran and the US, its signatories.

The deal does not suit Israel or the Arab countries.

Trump has stiffed the latter group with the bill for a party he threw, as per usual.

It will break down if Israel resumes invading Lebanon, or if the Gulf states don’t follow through with reconstruction funds promised on their behalf.

The art of this deal is whether Trump can convince his contractors to take it in the shorts on his behalf. Many such cases.

Re: A Post That Will Likely Receive No Comments

m0nty — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:56:13 -0000

It’s easy to diagnose with hindsight. Was the inflation hangover front of Democrats’ minds pre-election? No, otherwise they would have made a lot more effort to offset it.

Without Democrat strategists understanding the problem at the time, it may even have been a bigger beating if Harris had to win a primary by associating herself more strongly with Biden’s inflation decisions.

See, counterfactuals are fun.

Re: A Post That Will Likely Receive No Comments

m0nty — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:51:34 -0000

As has been said elsewhere in the thread, incumbency is powerful.

Re: A Post That Will Likely Receive No Comments

m0nty — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:49:21 -0000

True, and maybe that would have increased positivity around Harris.

Re: A Post That Will Likely Receive No Comments

m0nty — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:47:42 -0000

Who would have won if not Harris?

Re: A Post That Will Likely Receive No Comments

m0nty — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:42:41 -0000

The primary would have been a debate about Biden’s legacy. Harris would be the front runner, and would not be able to shrug off the Biden inflation association.

There would have been a Biden lane and an anti-Biden lane. The Biden lane would have won, because Democrats were largely happy with Biden’s competency. In other words, Harris.

There wasn’t anyone who was going to unseat her. If you think there was, name them.

Re: A Post That Will Likely Receive No Comments

m0nty — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:33:37 -0000

She’s not wrong, but she’s not right either. Thats the thing about counterfactuals: you can’t test them against facts.

If one can cast one’s mind back to the point in time before the campaign where Biden had to make the choice: there really wasn’t anyone seriously challenging him. Harris would have carried much the same baggage, even if she tried to reject it. Maybe she might have squeaked it, maybe not.

One issue I have with these efforts at hindsight heroism: they tend to deny agency to Harris, or sideline her in favour of Johnny Unbeatable. There was no such beast, and there still isn’t.

Re: This Is The Centrist Position Now

m0nty — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 18:36:04 -0000

Quite right, he needs to concentrate on his soccer.

Re: Frigid Britannia

m0nty — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 22:12:46 -0000

I mean, Australia has its own problems like very high housing prices, One Nation and the resource curse without having planned for it like Norway… but at least it’s not Britain.

Re: Frigid Britannia

m0nty — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 22:02:24 -0000

No wonder the Pommy bastards are all emigrating to Australia.

Re: Maine Primary Open Thread

m0nty — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 21:40:22 -0000

You know that LGM-adjacent meme where some scraggly Ethan Hawke type is in bed with a beatific visage, talking about how his vote is imbued with magical spirits?

We need an inverse one featuring a still from Bart Gets Hit By A Car, the scene where Lionel Hutz coaches Bart to testify to “constant pain”. Which is apparently how voting is supposed to be.

Re: Maine Primary Open Thread

m0nty — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 20:33:29 -0000

Is there a law in Judaism about voting for shellfish?

Re: Maine Primary Open Thread

m0nty — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 20:32:32 -0000

Other people are hell.

Re: Maine Primary Open Thread

m0nty — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 20:30:52 -0000

Don’t get me wrong, I am about to block the word Platner on Bluesky because I am as sick of it as you. The discourse is interminable.

The issue being debated is a real one, nonetheless. The fact that it’s the sort of opaque enigma that everyone can have their own uniquely wrong take on is part of the problem.

But hey, it’s history in the making, and on a history blog you debate history as it is being made.

Re: Maine Primary Open Thread

m0nty — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 20:26:28 -0000

You don’t want to hear that Platner could be the new Fetterman?

You don’t want to hear that all this effort to unseat Collins could be for nought, with a fresh young Sinema to fill the seat on behalf of Republicans for another generation?

There is no Johnny Unturnable waiting in the wings here, granted, but grousing about Platner is justified. It’s hella boring, but it’s not wrong.

Re: The great circle jerk of looting

m0nty — Sun, 31 May 2026 21:17:36 -0000

Start a file on Mr Epshteyn.

Re: There Is a War and the Right Side is Winning

m0nty — Mon, 25 May 2026 20:29:12 -0000

It’s the acesulfame potassium that gives CZ the edge. Same thing as in Pepsi Max.

I find it interesting that CZ has less caffeine than DC.

Re: Why do Republicans have unlimited tolerance for Trump’s unprecedented corruption?

m0nty — Fri, 08 May 2026 18:59:36 -0000

I feel there is not enough discussion of affinity in this list. There are at least two more categories IMO:

- victims of affinity fraud, who thought Trump had their backs but are finding out there is no herrenvolk carveout for them in this democracy, nor much democracy (lots of Latinos in this sector)

- people who are not being defrauded because they are not stupid, but still vote Trump because they feel affinity with him; these are people who enjoy white patriarchy and care little about anything else, as its preservation and promotion benefits them more than anything else a politician could do

Re: Mission Accomplished

m0nty — Thu, 07 May 2026 18:15:07 -0000

Not sure if anyone has made this connection yet, but calling it Project Fredo is a bit on the nose. We all know what happened when Fredo went out on a boat.

Re: Kamala Harris and 2028

m0nty — Sat, 02 May 2026 09:12:53 -0000

Yes, that post COVID election was brutal for incumbents, which was unfair on some levels.

How many losing incumbent candidates have run again and won back government since then?

Re: The ADHD style in Trumpist politics

m0nty — Fri, 01 May 2026 10:35:40 -0000

No.

ADHD is not an accurate metaphor, or pop psych diagnosis, or analogy. Narcissistic Personality Disorder is far more accurate, and apposite.

Trumpism uses the language of abuse, echoing Cluster B personality disorders. Trumpism is not erratic in the same way as ADHD, it can all be explained.

Read your Phillip K. Dick. The clans of the Alphane moon are not the same.

Re: An Oily Reckoning

m0nty — Fri, 01 May 2026 10:18:58 -0000

Economics is about incentives.

We look at the markets’ facial irrationality and say they are stupid, or insane, or both. No. They are neither, within their incentive structure.

Market price setters are perfectly happy with how society is operating, even during war and famine, specifically to enrich them. They love Trump as the apotheosis of their Gekkoist creed, widening inequality to their benefit.

Their refusal to cause a stock market crash, or even a meaningful, lasting correction to track grim reality, is an expression of their endorsement of Piketty; their revelling in it.

Waiting for the markets to come to their senses is folly.

Re: Shots fired at White House correspondents dinner?

m0nty — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 22:08:35 -0000

Oh man, this so would have been a great event to invite Cordelia Cupp (in character). With Kylie Minogue as guest singer.

Re: Shots fired at White House correspondents dinner?

m0nty — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 22:06:02 -0000

If you throw enough of them on the fire, you might starve it of oxygen.