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Quite an active courtroom evening shaping up here in Portland.

Why is messaging far more critical for Dems than GOP? Partly because GOP messaging and positions stir the archaic intuitions of voters, while Dem positions are the product of thoughtful solutions to complicated systems. Any bully can deliver the GOP message. Dems need oratorical artistry.

To put this in more concrete terms: moderation will help Dems if your messenger is Bill Clinton or Barack Obama. Without a messenger, voters will regard any Dem moderation is ephemeral, the moderation will be portrayed as such by the GOP, and Dems will wind up shedding support from progressives.

The tricky thing about the quote Attiah deployed is that it's 1. accurate in its meaning, but 2. only the 2nd sentence is a direct quote. You describe it as a "direct, verified quote" but it isn't. Now, critics of Attiah are quite wrong when they imply she missed the meaning. She did not. Thoughts?

My enduring proxy for this problem is the theory of evolution: in wide distribution since the 19th century--and all the while accumulating evermore evidence--but globally the acceptance level is still meh.

Whenever I read material claiming the ability to call peak FF consumption in real time, my first conclusion is an easy one: the claim can be dismissed, because FF consumption in the near term is governed by economic growth, not the incremental progress of energy-infrastructure transition.

And a final flourish. One of the my all time favorite essays that's so beautifully written it's kind of a story on its own. Barthes: The Eiffel Tower. Bonus: I thought of this essay when reading the new Cusk story, and it's probably not coincidental.

www.columbia.edu/itc/architec...

Here's another writer I only found this year, and her story is a mix of the traditional approach with modern touches. She is unique. harpers.org/archive/2023...