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brendan fka HoosierD42's avatar

"I'm in this race, and I'm the only one that can beat Mamdani."

[citation needed]

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michaelflutist's avatar

At this point, the candidate who could beat Mamdani appears to be Nobody.

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the lurking ecologist's avatar

The other day upon the stair

I met a candidate who wasn't there

He wasn't there again today

I wish, I wish he'd go away.

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MPC's avatar

So the clown show is fully behind Hinson for the open Senate seat in Iowa.

I hope she loses.

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Zero Cool's avatar

With Trump endorsing Hinson and her having voted for the BBB bill, she’s going to have both as a liability against her until the election.

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NewYorkTankees's avatar

Jonathan Kraft's enormous loss will be a pleasure for all of us in Boston to watch. The whiny, entitled younger son of our once great football team who ran (despite not living in the city) to force the city to build him a soccer stadium and try to drag down Wu's approval was always going to be DOA, but by this much? Impressive.

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michaelflutist's avatar

What happened with the soccer stadium?

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JanusIanitos's avatar

Boston wants to rebuild White Stadium, which sits in Franklin park. It was originally built in the 40s and has been too deteriorated for use for some time (I'm unsure of when, exactly). The current city plan is a public/private partnership with Boston Legacy FC, each paying half the cost of the new stadium.

Kraft is teaming up with NIMBYs to oppose this, arguing it costs too much. There might be some room to justify critique over cost; I don't know because I don't know how much projects like this "should" cost. But even if there is, Kraft has a glaring and obvious conflict of interest: until there is a new soccer stadium in Boston, that team will play at Gillette stadium, owned by Kraft's family.

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NewYorkTankees's avatar

Meanwhile, on the other side of (just outside) the city across from the Encore Casino, Kraft wants the city to build HIM a soccer stadium for the Revolution and have local AND state taxpayers foot the bill.

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alienalias's avatar

At this point, all of Norton's staff (or at least all of her senior staff--COS, LD, CD, DD) need to resign and come out with a public statement saying she is unfit to serve and should resign immediately to force a special election. It doesn't hurt margins is she leaves before 2026 and I just doubt there's much committee or bill work that hinges on her given how clocked out she is. If leadership can work with even her junior staff to place them in other places, then it might actually force her hand. (Acknowledge there might be some constituent services affected that staff have kept moving.) It is a constant embarrassment to have her doing this in public as a physicalization of decrepit Democrats serving past competence, and they need to directly intervene to quash it out of the headlines.

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michaelflutist's avatar

I don't remember seeing coverage of this election here: https://politicalwire.com/2025/09/08/milei-sticks-to-plan-after-landslide-defeat/

Summary: the Peronists defeated his party in the provincial elections of Buenos Aires: the count so far is 47-34% with 91% counted.

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Henrik's avatar

These elections are fairly bellwether in Argentina so this is likely to be a disastrous October for the Milei bloc

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michaelflutist's avatar

I hope there's no chance of a coup to keep him in power. I would imagine the Peronists have support in the military, but what do I know?

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Henrik's avatar

Very unlikely, if for no other reason that the Argentine military has been very underfunded since the post-Falklands era

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michaelflutist's avatar

Are the soldiers getting sufficient salaries? Poor soldiers are a huge security risk.

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ArcticStones's avatar

Precisely this goes a long ways towards explaining why the Taliban recaptured Afghanistan so quickly. Massive corruption bled off the money that was meant to pay the soldiers.

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ConsDemo's avatar

There are only legislative elections this year, the next Presidential election in Argentina will be in 2027.

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PollJunkie's avatar

I really wish there a sensible free marketeer politician in Argentina who is not batshit crazy or corrupt like the Mileis.

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Henrik's avatar

Well, there was, and his name was Mauricio Macri, and while he was a disappointment (to put it mildly) he was a good deal better than Milei

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Diogenes's avatar

RIP John Burton, former Congressman from San Francisco, head of the California Democratic Party, and mentor to Nancy Pelosi, Gavin Newsom, Barbara Boxer, Alex Padilla, and others.

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Zero Cool's avatar

Should be noted that before his passing, John Burton endorsed Aaron Peskin for Mayor of San Francisco over Daniel Lurie and London Breed.

And it makes sense. Peskin’s pro labor history and warm relations with the unions made him an ideal choice for Burton to consider as Mayor.

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sacman701's avatar

That's John F**KING Burton, to use his favorite word. Living as he did to age 92, few people in history dropped more F bombs than he did.

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homerun1's avatar

And his attitude was: if you don't like his language, that's your f**king problem!

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Marcus Graly's avatar

His older brother, Phil Burton, who was also an influencal politician, called the 1980 Congressional map he got the CA legislature to pass "my contribution to modern art." Part of the goal of that map was to make sure that John had a safe seat to run in.

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Diogenes's avatar

Bruce Pearl must decide whether to give up his salary of about $6 million a year as coach of Auburn's basketball team in order to become a U.S. Senator from Alabama, which would pay only $174,000. The average salary of all head coaches at Harvard is $125,770. The difference accounts for Auburn's preeminence among academic institutions.

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PPTPW (NST4MSU)'s avatar

Pearl being a repub surprised me but also didn’t - if that makes sense. The guy is slimy and will do whatever is best for him.

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the lurking ecologist's avatar

He's going to make more on insider stock trading than he would as coach.

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Marcus Graly's avatar

Congress needs to pay significantly more. I made more money as a software engineer and I only only needed housing in one expensive real estate market. Yes, $174,000 is substantially above the median income, but it's a high stress, high profile job, which these days includes death threats and SWATting, especially if you're a woman. If we want to attract anyone who's talented and motivated, but not already wealthy, we should pay them more.

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ArcticStones's avatar

NORWAY holds its Parliamentary Elections today, 8 September. The campaigning and political debate has really been heating up in these final weeks. Earlier this year, conventional wisdom was that a Conservative-led coalition would be victorious, replacing today’s Labour-led coalition. But much has happened since then.

– The ruling coalition broke, the Centre Party withdrew from government.

– PM Jonas Gahr Støre brough in Jens Stoltenberg as Finance Minister.

– Stoltenberg is a highly-respected former PM and NATO Secretary General.

– The minority government now pursued much-clearer Labour policies.

– The advent of Trump and his extreme and erratic policies has greatly increased the Center-Left’s popularity in Norway, just as Trump did for Canada, Australia, Romania and other countries.

– The Labour Party’s popularity skyrocketed.

– The right-wing Progress Party has passed the Conservative Party in the polls.

– Their party leaders, Erna Solberg and Sylvi Lysthaug, are acrimoniously fighting like cat and dog about who should be prime minister if they get a majority.

– For centrist parties who might support Solberg, the thought of Lysthaug as PM is anathema.

– Opinion polls now indicate that Labour and allied parties hold a slight edge.

– Several parties, both Left, Centrist and Right-wing (by Norwegian standards) find themselves at the threshold, raising uncertainty whether they’ll make it into Parliament.

Which parties climb above or fall below the threshold may well decide whether Norway will have a Center-Left or Right-wing governing coalition after the election.

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ArcticStones's avatar

NORWAY: Since 1989, Norway has held "elections" in which school students voice their party preferences. Although these don’t count, as the youth obviously are not old enough to cast a real vote, the results can be telling and also a harbinger of future tendencies.

The "school elections" that were held just under a week ago brought a rude surprise: the right-wing Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet, FrP) was far and away the most popular party. (That said, what counts as "right-wing" in Norway is a far cry from America’s "right-wing"!)

Here is a Google translate English version on the results of these "school elections: (The link leads to English text.)

https://www-nrk-no.translate.goog/norge/frp-med-suveren-seier-i-skolevalget-1.17550696?_x_tr_sl=no&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

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Ben F.'s avatar

Far cry as in, far worse, or just different?

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ArcticStones's avatar

Far less extreme.

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the lurking ecologist's avatar

We did a school vote when I was in middle school in 1980 out-state Michigan and the yellow ribbons were on all the windows hoping for hostage release. John Anderson didn't beat Reagan, but he got way more support than he did a few weeks later irl.

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Marcus Graly's avatar

I feel like this is global trend, young people, especially men, are drawn to the populist right, since they're the only ones that have a coherent narrative to explain their diminished opportunities.

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brendan fka HoosierD42's avatar

Around what time should we have results? It's almost 8pm as I write this.

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ArcticStones's avatar

Results will start coming in at approx. 9pm Norwegian time, 3pm Eastern.

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brendan fka HoosierD42's avatar

Thank you!

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Aaron Apollo Camp's avatar

This is the election that could determine whether or not Trump gets the Nobel Peace Prize, although I don't know if there's any political party in Norway that openly supports awarding Trump the prize (which would be extremely controversial, even by Nobel Peace Prize controversy standards).

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michaelflutist's avatar

I can't believe there's really any possibility of that.

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Jacob M.'s avatar

NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) forecasting 89 seats for red-green left coalition. Labor at 28%.

https://www.nrk.no/

Had to use Google translate to understand. Right-wing Progress Party currently getting 24%. Centre-right Conservative Party down to 14.6%. Didn't realize that Erna Solberg (leader of the Conservative Party) has been leader since 2004.

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Alex Hupp's avatar

Chokwe Pitchford, the Berrien County Commission that Haley Stevens falsely claimed to have endorsed her, has instead endorsed Mallory McMorrow.

https://x.com/ComPitchford/status/1965021147797540925

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michaelflutist's avatar

Huge black eye for Stevens. What's the main reason for Michigan Democrats to support her?

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Sep 8Edited
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michaelflutist's avatar

"It's her turn" is a thing for party operatives, but I don't see how the voting public would have that attitude about anyone, really.

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Alex Hupp's avatar

Biggest name recognition, probably.

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michaelflutist's avatar

Which can probably be overcome.

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JanusIanitos's avatar

Institutional support is going to be risk aversion. Moderate members of congress being preferable to progressive or run of the mill democratic state legislators, in the minds of people with influence. In the minds of voters I suspect it is primarily name recognition.

I'd love to see McMorrow win this one.

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PollJunkie's avatar

There have been some polls and her primary support was generally between 22 and 34 a few months back.

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PollJunkie's avatar

Stevens and Gillibrand support her because she is a "moderate" as reported by multiple news outlets, even though she has always underperformed the top of the ticket before 2024; there also might be some role of a PAC and a forbidden topic.

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michaelflutist's avatar

I could especially see that in Michigan.

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sacman701's avatar

I suspect that basically all general election voters would see both Stevens and McMorrow as conventional fortyish white women and largely interchangeable except that McMorrow is more dynamic and telegenic. We aren't talking about a Slotkin v Tlaib primary here.

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brendan fka HoosierD42's avatar

Huge fan of Mallory myself!

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Alex Hupp's avatar

McMorrow > El-Sayed > Stevens in my humble opinion

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PollJunkie's avatar

Anyone who polls closest to Stevens > Stevens imho

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Mark's avatar

Why does everybody here hate Stevens so much? Just curious.

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Buckeye73's avatar

She's a moderate who doesn't agree with many people here on the forbidden topic.

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Sep 8
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PollJunkie's avatar

Also, she gets millions in direct and indirect contributions from corporate PACs, crypto, insurance companies not just AIPAC, supports Chuck Schumer, is generally uncharismatic and off-putting at campaign events and on cable news appearances like that of Jen Psaki. She gets almost no online reach even among X moderates who instead support McMorrow. She is a very cynical politician in my eyes. There is a ready-made ad of her shouting over the Democratic gavel wearing pink gloves in the House during COVID.

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JanusIanitos's avatar

I wouldn't say I hate Stevens, but I am not a fan and I strongly prefer McMarrow.

The primary reasoning is I want democrats that are strong communicators that will take the fight to republicans. Stevens isn't that person. McMarrow is. That is enough for me.

Stevens made a point to speak well of Schumer's leadership right after he and nine other dems signed on board with the CR at the start of the year, which is the exact opposite kind of leadership that I want from our elected officials. I don't want our party to be made up of people that agree with surrender, with stepping aside and normalizing the horrors of the present.

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Techno00's avatar

McMorrow and El-Sayed are mostly around equal for me -- the sole reason why not being that I fear El-Sayed would unfortunately lose due to his ethnicity and religion. (Maybe policy too, but I do think Americans are more progressive than they were in 2024 -- not progressive, per se, but more progressive, as in relative to then. I will also admit El-Sayed would probably also juice Arab turnout in places like Dearborn and other Arab-y parts of Michigan.) El-Sayed is more outwardly progressive but McMorrow is pretty progressive herself and I do really like her.

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Sep 9Edited
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michaelflutist's avatar

Most of the time, when people say that on this board it's because they think someone is too old. I take it, you think a 40-year-old is inherently too young to be a senator? Why?

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PollJunkie's avatar

I think he would also win over conservative Arabs, largely due to shared ethnicity—similar to how Mitt Romney won strong support from Mormons. I like both of them, but I find El-Sayed's immigrant background and academic achievements relatable.

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michaelflutist's avatar

If any state would be least likely to vote against an Arab, I'm thinking it would be Michigan, but is there more animosity toward Arabs from non-Arabs there than in other states?

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Nathan Cooper's avatar

Pedantic Moment: technically NH has the most pro-Arab voting record of any state - they love the Hassans, Shaheens, and ofc the Sununus.

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michaelflutist's avatar

Point taken. Are any of them Muslims?

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MPC's avatar

I saw Mallory's new football themed ad -- and she goes right to the point (Trump made our groceries more expensive), which I love.

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Guy Cohen's avatar

Shannon Taylor has pretty much locked up the primary in VA-01. State Sen. VanValkenburg, her biggest potential primary foe, is backing her instead.

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Ethan (KingofSpades)'s avatar

I had mentioned VA-01 as a potential sleeper race.

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John Carr's avatar

I could see that one ending up shockingly close and come up like 1,000 votes short because Dems didn’t think it was winnable and didn’t put resources into it.

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Techno00's avatar

You mean when the GOP gets a red wave?

I don’t know, Nellie Pou almost losing was a shocker. There were some Tea Party shockers too like Chip Cravaack and Blake Farenthold.

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Nathan Cooper's avatar

Idk man...I'm still haunted by us losing NV-04 in 2014

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Stargate77's avatar

A lot will depend on whether or not Spanberger wins VA-01 in the Governor's race this fall, and if so, by how much. If she wins it this fall, there will almost definitely be investment in VA-01 next year.

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michaelflutist's avatar

There might be, anyway, even if she merely comes fairly close there.

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Techno00's avatar

If internal polling has it at 41 R-40 D I'd certainly say so.

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AnthonySF's avatar

I saw that poll, promising. Oddly Trump was still in positive territory though (49-48, a slight slimming from his 51-47 win) so curious how Taylor gets that extra bump over a non-controversial Republican.

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Aaron Apollo Camp's avatar

Bruce Pearl was implicated in a major college basketball scandal in the late 1980s when he was an assistant men's basketball coach at Iowa. Basically, Pearl more or less tried to bait Deon Thomas, who played college basketball at Illinois, into claiming that Jimmy Collins, who was an assistant men's basketball coach at Illinois at the time, had offered Thomas money and an SUV (this was pre-NIL and pre-House v. NCAA, so blatantly illegal under NCAA rules at the time).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Pearl#Pearl/Thomas_incident_(1988%E2%80%931989)

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Aaron Apollo Camp's avatar

NBC/Survey Monkey poll did something interesting: they asked Gen-Z male Trump voters and Gen-Z female Harris voters to choose their top three definitions of success out of a list of thirteen phrases, and here are some takeaways:

- Gen-Z male Trump voters were far more likely to rank having children (#1) and being married (#4) than Gen-Z female Harris voters (#11 and #12, respectively).

- Gen-Z female Harris voters were far more likely to rank having emotional stability (#3) and using talents and resources to help others (#4) than Gen-Z male Trump voters (#12 and #10, respectively).

- #1 for Gen-Z female Harris voters was having a job or career you find fulfilling; this was #3 among Gen-Z male Trump voters.

- "Achieving financial independence" and "Having enough money to do what you want" are basically the same thing but worded differently.

- Fame and influence (#13 for both), was dead last for both Gen-Z male Trump voters and Gen-Z female Harris voters, even though it's one of Trump's biggest measures of success. I figured that would have been higher for both (especially Gen-Z male Trump voters) given how prevalent social media influencers are nowadays and America being, to some extent, a sports-crazy country.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DOWOOv4jDyG/

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PollJunkie's avatar

Gen Z MAGA men seriously take those memes. Gen Z Harris men have those ranked as 9 and 10.

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Techno00's avatar

Where did you see the Gen Z Harris men poll? I'd be curious to see what Gen Z Harris men rank, especially since I'm a Gen Z Harris man.

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PollJunkie's avatar

Slide the pics in the insta link.

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Techno00's avatar

Ah, missed that. Apologies, I don't use Instagram too much. Thanks.

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ArcticStones's avatar

Actually, I can’t do that, perhaps because I’m not a registered Instagram user. Also, it’s very limited how many posts Instagram allows me to see when I scroll down.

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ArcticStones's avatar

Nitter is a great workaround so you don’t have to visit Musk’s Xitter.

https://nitter.poast.org/ettingermentum/status/1965149383063928885

https://nitter.poast.org/ettingermentum

Here we can scroll to our heart’s content!

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PollJunkie's avatar

Why California's political class is begging Alex Padilla to run for governor

The senator is gaining traction as Sacramento insiders size up a wide-open governor’s race.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/08/california-insiders-alex-padilla-run-governor-00545818

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Zero Cool's avatar

There could be a flipside to this:

Katie Porter could be appointed by Governor Newsom to replace Senator Padilla if he becomes the Democratic gubernatorial nominee and wins the general election.

OR

We could see a two way match between Porter vs Padilla in the general election if GOP turnout isn’t enough to get any candidate to leave the top two primary next year.

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PollJunkie's avatar

Porter is not getting appointed; she has pissed off too many people in Sacramento.

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sacman701's avatar

Porter? Nah. Put Harris back in the Senate! She's tan, rested, and ready!

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homerun1's avatar

Nah, If elected, Sen Padilla would not resign his Senate seat until the moment he is sworn in as Governor. That way he gets to then pick the next CA Senator (I mean, why should he let Newsom make that appointment? Newsom has already appointed 2 CA Senators...)

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homerun1's avatar

Lt Gov. Eleni Kounalakis is looking smart now having preemptively dropped out of the Gov. race down to Treasurer.

Because if Sen. Padilla does get in, I'll bet several other Gov. candidates will be looking to switch to other races since their fundraising will drop to zilch.

Luckily for them, if the gerrymandering proposition passes in Nov., that opens up several new possibilities for them.

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PollJunkie's avatar

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/opinion/trump-senate-democrats-shutdown.html

https://archive.ph/1gtLe

Opinion

Ezra Klein

Stop Acting Like This Is Normal

If Democrats Have a Better Plan, I’d Like to Hear It

In a few weeks the government’s funding will run out. If Democrats vote for a new spending bill, they will be funding Trump’s autocratic takeover — and I don’t see how they can.

Ezra Klein indirectly calls for leadership change.

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michaelflutist's avatar

Why not be direct?

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rayspace's avatar

Because he's Ezra Klein

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