Dean
@lepetitanglais.bsky.social
Clinton would have won without Comey and Harris wins in different circumstances too. Granted they were facing a generationally unpopular opponent but a mid woman defeating a toxic GOP candidate is plausible.
I think to break the glass ceiling would require a woman who is a generational talent, like Obama was.
I actually disagree with your main point. I think an unusually charismatic woman with centrist appeal and a record of fighting Trumpism would be successful. I don’t have obvious names for that list though.
December 9, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Clinton would have won without Comey and Harris wins in different circumstances too. Granted they were facing a generationally unpopular opponent but a mid woman defeating a toxic GOP candidate is plausible.
This is likely explained as National Rally was founded as an explicitly far-right party, that has moderated (or pretended to). Do the BBC refer to Orban, Trump etc. as far-right?
Interesting that the BBC will call National Rally "Far Right" (in an article about Bardella meeting Farage) - when they would never use that term for Reform. Their policies are very similar. If anything Reform's are more authoritarian.
December 9, 2025 at 10:31 PM
This is likely explained as National Rally was founded as an explicitly far-right party, that has moderated (or pretended to). Do the BBC refer to Orban, Trump etc. as far-right?
If you combined self-driving with carpooling it could greatly reduce traffic.
I find this pretty convincing but as ever with these discussions, it doesn't answer at all the question of how we deal with the extra traffic congestion that will be induced by the fact that being driven is much nicer and more convenient than driving a car yourself
good piece on Waymo's self driving cars
we can reasonably begin to look at self driving as a potential public health breakthrough, Waymo cars are much better and safer drivers than people
the problem is the economics of the technology not the technology itself
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...
we can reasonably begin to look at self driving as a potential public health breakthrough, Waymo cars are much better and safer drivers than people
the problem is the economics of the technology not the technology itself
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...
December 2, 2025 at 3:26 PM
If you combined self-driving with carpooling it could greatly reduce traffic.
Reposted by Dean
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
Reposted by Dean
The thing to understand about this is that this catastrophe in the UK has redounded to the political benefit of the very same people and political movement that pushed for it! Extremely perverse.
I wonder if the United States can learn anything from the last time a major industrialized country decided to isolate itself from the rest of the world?
Almost a decade after the Brexit vote, GDP in the UK is around 6-8% lower relative to peer countries. (Source: www.nber.org/papers/w34459)
Almost a decade after the Brexit vote, GDP in the UK is around 6-8% lower relative to peer countries. (Source: www.nber.org/papers/w34459)
November 11, 2025 at 5:23 PM
The thing to understand about this is that this catastrophe in the UK has redounded to the political benefit of the very same people and political movement that pushed for it! Extremely perverse.
Reposted by Dean
We’re in this absurd space where the president has already pardoned every person who ransacked the Capitol as he watched on TV but only he is allowed to admit “that’s what I wanted.”
🇬🇧 The BBC is expected to apologise for editing a speech that suggested Donald Trump had directly instigated an attack on the US Capitol, resulting in the dramatic resignations of the broadcaster's top brass.
➡️ u.afp.com/Sni5
➡️ u.afp.com/Sni5
November 10, 2025 at 10:44 AM
We’re in this absurd space where the president has already pardoned every person who ransacked the Capitol as he watched on TV but only he is allowed to admit “that’s what I wanted.”
Disagree. It would be totally normal for, say, Rachel Levine to say something similar about the London mayoral election. And this obsession that people on the left* have with Mamdani's ethnicity/religion is creepy.
*and right
*and right
November 5, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Disagree. It would be totally normal for, say, Rachel Levine to say something similar about the London mayoral election. And this obsession that people on the left* have with Mamdani's ethnicity/religion is creepy.
*and right
*and right
Reposted by Dean
Call me old-fashioned, but as these election results come in, let me just say that I don’t think anyone’s ethnic background is a good reason to vote for or against them. There are plenty of much better criteria.
November 5, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Call me old-fashioned, but as these election results come in, let me just say that I don’t think anyone’s ethnic background is a good reason to vote for or against them. There are plenty of much better criteria.
Reposted by Dean
Purely policy-wise, it is objectively insane that we still have a hybrid between a poll tax and a property tax based on actual or retconned 1991 property values in England and we should obviously replace it, whether with a land value or a property tax.
October 14, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Purely policy-wise, it is objectively insane that we still have a hybrid between a poll tax and a property tax based on actual or retconned 1991 property values in England and we should obviously replace it, whether with a land value or a property tax.
Reposted by Dean
It might be hard to convey to people outside economics just how seismic this is. The Trump effect has most certainly arrived to US academia.
I am delighted to share that Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will join our Department of Economics @econ.uzh.ch at the University of Zurich on July 1, 2026, as Lemann Foundation Professors of Economics.
🧵 1/7
🧵 1/7
October 10, 2025 at 12:23 PM
It might be hard to convey to people outside economics just how seismic this is. The Trump effect has most certainly arrived to US academia.
@alexsaysstuff.bsky.social what are the best books on Yugoslavia / the partition of Yugoslavia, for someone who doesn't know much about the subject?
October 6, 2025 at 4:33 PM
@alexsaysstuff.bsky.social what are the best books on Yugoslavia / the partition of Yugoslavia, for someone who doesn't know much about the subject?
Turkey are literally imprisoning their main opposition figures and nullifying election results they don't like. Far gone from Hungary.
Correct. And one more addition: Fascism relies on a disciplined mass party, mass mobilization (that is, forced participation in state-run organizations), and the complete shutdown of any form of alternate pluralism.
We're not even in that ballpark. We're headed for being Turkey or Hungary.
We're not even in that ballpark. We're headed for being Turkey or Hungary.
Like saying it’s a movement and they want it to be fascist but we can still vote and judges have held the line for some things so far so we aren’t there yet. Correct?
October 5, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Turkey are literally imprisoning their main opposition figures and nullifying election results they don't like. Far gone from Hungary.
Reposted by Dean
Jews, you do not need to read these replies on Yom Kippur. But leftist Gentiles who still insist there is not a problem with antisemitism on the left, you really do need to read these replies.
I am sickened by today’s attack in Manchester. Antisemitism is on the rise around the world, and we must do all we can to stomp it out. I am grateful to first responders and congregants who showed incredible bravery, and I am praying for those who were killed.
October 2, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Jews, you do not need to read these replies on Yom Kippur. But leftist Gentiles who still insist there is not a problem with antisemitism on the left, you really do need to read these replies.
I wish the BoD would stfu about Israel unless it directly affects British Jews. British hostages? Yes. anti-Semitism couched in anti-Zionism? Yes. Recognition of Palestine? Not their business.
September 22, 2025 at 3:26 PM
I wish the BoD would stfu about Israel unless it directly affects British Jews. British hostages? Yes. anti-Semitism couched in anti-Zionism? Yes. Recognition of Palestine? Not their business.
Reposted by Dean
Good thread
The H1-B visa thing is, like everything else in the Trump administration, set up to carve up exceptions for friends and punish enemies. It’s the authoritarian thru-line that stitches everything together.
September 21, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Good thread
Reposted by Dean
Reposted by Dean
My most centrist dad take is that most governing politicians deserve sympathy because almost every policy that's actually any good for the country is unpopular, and almost every popular policy is probably bad.
Johnson's Brexit approach was far worse than Chequers IMHO but 20ppts more popular 1/
Johnson's Brexit approach was far worse than Chequers IMHO but 20ppts more popular 1/
September 16, 2025 at 7:44 AM
My most centrist dad take is that most governing politicians deserve sympathy because almost every policy that's actually any good for the country is unpopular, and almost every popular policy is probably bad.
Johnson's Brexit approach was far worse than Chequers IMHO but 20ppts more popular 1/
Johnson's Brexit approach was far worse than Chequers IMHO but 20ppts more popular 1/
The actual quote is bad but Kirk didn't say this.
“Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person’s slot”.
-Charlie Kirk
-Charlie Kirk
September 11, 2025 at 1:46 PM
The actual quote is bad but Kirk didn't say this.
The White House will try to use this to gain extra powers. Declare Democrats s terrorist group etc.
I'm genuinely really worried about what's going to happen in the aftermath of this, everyone is going to see that video and it's going to bring out the absolute worse.
September 10, 2025 at 7:14 PM
The White House will try to use this to gain extra powers. Declare Democrats s terrorist group etc.
Yeah I accidentally saw video and wish I hadn't.
Highly recommend you don't go looking for the video of this, he's shot in the neck and it look like it hit his jugular vein.
September 10, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Yeah I accidentally saw video and wish I hadn't.
Reposted by Dean
I know people are overwhelmed by too much news from every angle, and maybe people are distracted by the "terrorist" language, or just plain exhausted.
But this is the President of the United States saying he is going to go around killing people because he thinks they're criminals. And already did.
But this is the President of the United States saying he is going to go around killing people because he thinks they're criminals. And already did.
Trump: "When I see boats coming in like loaded up the other day with all sorts of drugs -- probably fentanyl mostly -- we're gonna take them out. And if people wants to have fun on the high seas of the low seas they're gonna be in trouble."
September 5, 2025 at 9:32 PM
I know people are overwhelmed by too much news from every angle, and maybe people are distracted by the "terrorist" language, or just plain exhausted.
But this is the President of the United States saying he is going to go around killing people because he thinks they're criminals. And already did.
But this is the President of the United States saying he is going to go around killing people because he thinks they're criminals. And already did.
The one state the "pro-Palestine" folks advocate is de facto a state where the Jewish population is expelled. They (mostly) aren't in favour of a single democratic pluralist state.
Many "pro-Palestine" advocates in the West are out of the step with Palestinian views in OPT.
Preaching "one state" to people who don't want it is a form of Imperialism.
And I'm not a two-state advocate. I just realise the one state option isn't there, for now.
Preaching "one state" to people who don't want it is a form of Imperialism.
And I'm not a two-state advocate. I just realise the one state option isn't there, for now.
September 5, 2025 at 1:19 PM
The one state the "pro-Palestine" folks advocate is de facto a state where the Jewish population is expelled. They (mostly) aren't in favour of a single democratic pluralist state.
Reposted by Dean
Amid all the stuff about ‘dangerous London’ and ‘broken Britain’, new figures show the homicide rate in London is at a 10-year low. Killings dropped by 26% over the last year, from 78 to 58. No one under 25 was murdered during the school summer holidays.
September 3, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Amid all the stuff about ‘dangerous London’ and ‘broken Britain’, new figures show the homicide rate in London is at a 10-year low. Killings dropped by 26% over the last year, from 78 to 58. No one under 25 was murdered during the school summer holidays.
Reposted by Dean
its funny how Corbyn is who centrists said Bernie was, and Starmer is who leftists said Biden was
September 1, 2025 at 6:10 PM
its funny how Corbyn is who centrists said Bernie was, and Starmer is who leftists said Biden was