Yes. Even if you don’t think the goals of space exploration are important, we’ve made huge developments in medicine, engineering, solar panels, telecommunications, and road safety based on NASA technology. You’re probably reading this on a phone that wouldn’t exist with space exploration research. Scientific research is never a linear set of goals or inventions, and the ancillary benefits of our pursuit of space have already changed the world.

Schumer’s gonna pass the SAVE act so he can pass Iran War funding, isn’t he?

I feel you, but honestly, with this administration, who fucking knows what will happen. The Secretary of Defense is an alcoholic, the President is sundowning, and JD Vance appears to already be in hiding. This might end with our unconditional surrender to the next Ayatollah after we lose a ground invasion.

I don’t even think you can say, “America,” at this point; I think this 5 to 10 people at the top of the administration that thought they could repeat what they did in Venezuela. There are plenty of ghouls in both parties that have been dreaming of regime change in Iran, but even they wouldn’t be stupid enough to think they could just bomb the country for a weekend, kill the Ayatollah, and move on. Intelligence officials at the Pentagon directly contradicted the administration’s claim that Iran was planning an attack, and even John Fucking Bolton wrote an op-ed saying this was a bad idea. America is gonna get a kick in the nuts, but only a handful of people are actually responsible for this cluster-fuck, and they probably won’t learn anything or face any consequences for their actions.

People keep saying this is going to be America’s next forever war, but there’s a good chance we might just lose.

I did not know that, I just knew he liked French prostitutes.

Franklin would have, for sure, but I’m pretty sure the rest of them would have just kept raping their own slaves.

I disagree that there is nothing the states could do. They have armed personnel, they have citizens that support them, they have the law on their side. We outnumber them, we have a national guard, we have cops, and we could create militias, blue states not only should physically prevent the feds from marching in and running fixed elections, they have a duty to.

I mean, yeah, if the feds try to seize ballots, this is probably what’s going to have to happen, but please understand where this goes. Feds come in, demand the ballots to look for, “fraud,” local authorities refuse, and there is an armed standoff. Maybe a state calls in the National Gaurd for backup. Trump can then either nationalize that gaurd in response, leading to conflicting orders, and Trump almost certainly invokes the insurrection act, allowing him to send active duty troops into the state. That would be the beginning of the Civil War.

I doubt Trump wants something that messy though. He’ll almost certainly attempt to purge voter rolls wherever he can and suppress the vote with ICE. Dominion voting was also bought out by a Republican election official, so that could be another method to falsify the vote as well. Luckily those methods are imperfect (even Dominion voting requires a physical ballot trail), so we can still overcome that kind of voter suppression.

I mean, if you’re talking about Trump sending in federal agents to seize ballots, then yes, that would be bad and there is very little an individual state could do to stop it without an armed conflict. At that point, ballot stuffing would be a secondary concern over the fact that a second Civil War had broken out. I maintain that the more likely scenario, though, will be Trump sending CBP and ICE goons to stop, “illegals,” from voting, which would be a flimsy pretense for voter suppression. But, “federalizing the elections,” would require upednig Article 1, section 4 of the Constitution, and even with our deeply fucked up court system, I can imagine Trump getting that through in 9 months. Maybe I’m wrong, and a favorable court would allow him to proceed until he got it to the Supreme Court, but I think that’s a stretch.

What would stand between him are the state’s Attorneys General. They have been very successful in blocking Trump’s actions through the courts (at least until the Supreme Court, which has been ruling against lower courts’ decisions at an incredibly high rate). It’s likely that the AGs would block this long enough for the midterms.

That’s about ending the Electoral College. What Trump is talking about is the federal government taking control of how elections are run. The state’s are in charge of conducting their own elections, even federal elections, rather than the federal government, per the Constitution. This is what makes it difficult for Trump to rig elections through direct methods such as ballot stuffing.

Yes, but most of those have either not been achieved yet or have only been achieved because they were relatively easy. He tried to abolish the 14th Amendment through EO on day one, and it’s just getting to the Supreme Court now. He’s been able to illegally dissolve federal agencies because the Republicans in Congress have abdicated their power, and destroying something is much easier than building it.

Even if he signs an EO to take over the elections tomorrow, he’ll still face legal challenges that will likely wind up in the Supreme Court, and he’ll still need to build out the infrastructure to run these elections federally, something the federal government has never done. I’m not saying that he can’t steal the elections, or that we shouldn’t be worried, but the idea that he’s just going to, “federalize,” elections in fifteen states before the midterms seems pretty unlikely.

The thing is, there’s no mechanism for nationalizing voting, and I don’t really see a clear path for Republicans to do that in the next nine months. They’d have to pass legislation to do that, which would be extremely difficult given their margins in congress. Even then, states control elections as a function of the Constitution, and while the Supreme Court is happy to approve whatever unconstitutional bullshit Trump dreams up, it will take times to get through the courts. He could try to seize control of the voting process from states, but I don’t know that he has the infrastructure to manage the whole voting process through the executive branch, and the fact that he’s asking the Republicans to do this for him makes me think he knows this. Either way, any kind of coup on the election process would face the same legal challenges as legislation.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be extremely worried. I think it’s unlikely that the Republicans will, “nationalize the voting,” but I think it’s very likely he’ll send federal goons in to, “prevent voter fraud,” (AKA suppress the vote).

Honestly, I’m kinda impressed. I didn’t think you could start a diplomatic crisis wandering around Minneapolis, but ICE found a way.

Wow. Thank you for that limp-dick statement in these troubling times. Very inspiring, Mr. President.

He can’t pardon them for state crimes, only federal.

OK. Weird it took five comments on the potential of Democrats adopting Democratic Socialism for you to realize you don’t like Democratic Socialism, but I’m glad we got there in the end, I guess.

What makes you think the party elites give a shit what they think?

As I said, I think they’ll be out on their ass. Schumer will not get another term in leadership. Jefferies might, since he kept the House together on shutdowns, but his polling is still underwater and his days are numbered. The rank and file will go where the wind blows. We’ve already seen this when normie-centrists started dumping AIPAC money because of their base. I’m sure leadership will fight it until they’re ousted, and donor class will pivot to Republicans, but the average Dem politician would rather adopt a Democratic Socialist platform than lose their seat.

One anomalous Mamdani cannot reasonably justify hope in electoral reform.

Platner is also polling ahead or Mills despite the whole, “having a Nazi tattoo,” thing. Kat Abughazaleh is in a dead heat with Biss despite Biss having the establishment backing. Richie Torres is getting a DSA primary challenge after he had to drop his bid for governor against Hochul, and Hochul herself had to pivot to supporting Mamdani (she saw how the wind was blowing). There’s also Donavan McKinney primarying Shri Thanedar in Michigan, but I’m not following that one closely enough to say much about it. The point is, it’s not just Mamdani, there are several strong DSA or DSA-aligned challengers that are doing well.

Capital will do all it can to extinguish Socialism as it always does. This system was made by and for capitalists and cannot be used as the sole means of establishing a socialist system.

OK, well, the entire philosophy of Democratic Socialism is blending public ownership with heavily regulated private businesses using the current system of democratic institutions. If you think that Democratic Socialism is impossible, fair enough, you’re entitled your opinion and I’m not really interested in debating political theory. But even if you’re right, and Democratic Socialism will be a failure, I don’t think that means that the Democrats won’t adopt it.

Polling shows capitalism is on a downswing while socialism is on an upswing, especially within the Democratic party. Socialism is losing its status as a boogeyman. Beyond that, Mamdani’s Democratic Socialist platform is broadly popular across the country, and even as voters are voting heavily against Republicans in special elections, the democrats are still at historically low favorability levels.

Again, when I say Democratic Socialism will be the norm, I’m not saying that the majority of Democrats will identify as Democratic Socialists. I’m saying thst the majority of Democrats will adopt the policies of the Democratic Socialists or be primaried by candidates that do (and, again, they’ll probably frame it in the context of the New Deal rather than socialism). But the NYC mayoral election has made it clear that the corporate Democrats can no longer control the narrative, and I think it’s just the beginning.

There’s a reckoning coming for Democrats as well. Their poll number are still rock bottom in their own base. Primaries are coming for Torres and Jefferies, and it’s basically assumed Schumer won’t have a Minority (or, dare to dream, Majority) position in the next Congress. Despite the entire Democratic establishment lining up against him, Mamdani won. I think, with a little luck, Democratic Socialism will be the norm by '28 (though they’ll probably call it, “Getting back to our New Deal roots,” or some shit).