All forms of gov can be defined by what their adopters believe to legitimize power.

Democracy: the people's will
Monarchy: divine right
Communism: collective interest
Theocracy: religion
Plutocracy: wealth
Aristocracy: preexisting privilege
Fascism: strength
Nazism: blood and soil
Anarchy: nothing

This is widely spread internet/gaming lore which I supposed you would know/could confirm ;) but I guess the story went through the usual game of telephone. I suppose this account is closer to reality...

www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-xb...

When the XBox team presented their early design, Bill Gates threw a fit because it wasn't going to run standard Windows so MS couldn't push MSIE, MSN, Office etc. It took a lot of effort and probably some exec with cojones to convince billg to greenlight the project. Apparently those folks are gone.

She is fighting the authoritarian regime of Venezuela, the US is a common ally. Similar to Zelenskyy, she needs to court whoever is POTUS for any help America can provide. These people probably do that holding their noses but we won't know their real opinion of Trump until after he is long gone.

Well, experience counts. Trump was already defrauding and stiffing and betraying and cheating and tax-evading and criming, and getting away with all that, when Musk was in Kindergarten playing cops and robbers (always as a robber)

Anyway Kamala's book is excellent, just the usual grain of salt for obvious bias of any first-person account especially in defeat. I highly recommend the audiobook read by her.🔚

IMO Biden made three mistakes: 1 to run; 2 run like he did with a heavy load of POTUS work mixed in so he was constantly fatigued or sick; 3 to drop out. If he was to run should have taken it easy, minimal events, zero debates, fuck the media, double down on progressive agenda.

Back to Biden. The most progressive admin in half a century or more and it was WILDLY successful. Except he still suffered with low popularity in the end, but it wasn't the policies (or even the inflation, already low near the election). But that's a long talk, for another day.

And to her credit, she doesn't put much blame-barely mentions-misogyny and racism. I do. This fucking country is behind even most "shitholes" in this.

I will not forget how my 15yo daughter reacted to this male excrement elected, again, over an extraordinarily qualified woman.

I also watched a recent interview of Buttigieg (who Kamala wanted for VP) and he (another centrist) thinks Mamdani's success is just from affordability proposals and charisma. WAKE UP IDIOTS. What you need to win is left-wing populism. Up to the "S-word".

She defends the Liz Cheney stuff saying she had to try reaching conservatives & it was only 1.5 days together. Doesn't matter next to hordes of dems/libs HORRIFIED by that association with Cheney. That lost many votes on the left. We are now the only side with some principles.

The problem is, we don't live in that America anymore. Kamala Harris destroyed Trump in their single debate, in rallies, etc. None of that mattered, couldn't out-compete the Trump populist, fascist personality cult. She ran as-if against a normal opponent, with a normal playbook.

I think she misses some important stuff. Harris is a policy wonk and professional politician. She goes in detail about the usual campaign stuff like extremely elaborate debate prep and planning events and proposals; and she/her team were highly competent in doing all that.

She admits to some of her own blunders and her campaign's, but as the title of the book suggests, she puts significant blame on the calendar-not enough time. Also some expected, but very correct and fair, critique of media & some Dems. But does Kamala really get what happened?

More important will he be forced to issue some groveling apology in the next show? He will probably address what happened, this will be one interesting episode to watch live. I don't have cable or whatever subscription needed but will find some of these YT channels that cover TV live

For much of this stuff it's better to not even try so at least we don't create a precedent that can be difficult to roll back even after there's a more normal SCOTUS again.

Finally, and good riddance. I f**king hate every piece of 32bit code that I still have to run and Steam is a top offender.

My suggestions of answer:

"It's a Nazi Detector. See how it works?"

"My dad is the top civil rights attorney in the state. Smile for the hidden cam!"

"Just bought the truck from my MAGA cousin, I had to cover the sticker 'Patriots for Pedos'"