Well, not for me anyway. Obviously the outcome is extremely important: and one could see why de Tocqueville found it a matter for serious study ... in the 19th Century, when it was all rather novel. And the US-historical novels of Gore Vidal are great stuff. But the minutiae? Today?
And yet many folks (OK, many folks within the chattering classes) are absolutely obsessed, and we are about to be bombarded with it. Why?
Open thread: what's up with that? And US situation generally.
ND
29 comments:
A lot to unbox there! I mean, the US, like Australia, is far away physically, but not really culturally, so there is that. Alien, but not too alien.
And there is the fact the US' own culture has so colonised many others so successfully, from Maccy D's to the Culture Wars, that we're psychologically invested in the US to varying degrees.
And like a precursor to social media, news from the US has always had an air of an unruly cousin you like to keep track off, who can be a lot of fun, but can, at the flip of a coin turn, into a one man riot.
Add in the propensity for projecting itself like a continent-sized rock concert - loud noises, flashing lights, louder costumes, and a stage show of razzle-dazzle that always threatens to descend into boorishness - it makes it hard to look away.
For the UK, a nation that rarely trumpets itself, to see our cousins so blatant and gauche, we can indulge in being horrified and envious about it all.
"And yet many folks are absolutely obsessed,"
Because whatever happens in the US comes down the line to us pretty soon.
Off topic, but have all our energy problems been solved?
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/moltex-reactor-can-consume-used-fuel-research-confirms
TRU = Trans-uranic elements
"The research concludes that an SSR-W fast spectrum molten salt reactor with a thermal power of 1200 MW eliminates 425 kg of actinides on an annual basis, or about 25 metric tonnes over its lifetime, with a fuel salt composition and isotopic vector that evolves to reach an equilibrium. At this point, the required top-up of TRUs from freshly recycled Candu fuel is constant and corresponds to the amount of TRU transmuted."
"Moltex is developing three unique technologies: the SSR-W that uses recycled nuclear waste as fuel; a WAste To Stable Salt (WATSS) process for recycling nuclear waste to produce SSR-W fuel; and GridReserve thermal energy storage tanks, enabling the SSR-W to act as a peaking plant."
I assume the last is non-nuclear molten salt - yes, it is.
https://www.moltexflex.com/blog/gridreserve-the-future-of-energy-storage/
American habits spread to us. But only the bad ones.
Seems it's the economy. Doesn't matter why there has been a spike in inflation, everywhere the incumbent gets it in the neck. Trump 2.0
Interesting times as the Chinese say.
We live in interesting times. Trump is nothing but a brash fairground barker and Harris' stupidity is legendary. Both candidates are ghastly people and the point to ponder is that in a country of the size of the USA, is there really nothing better?
Should Trump win, (and I think he will,) Zelensky had better not be standing on a rug, 'cos it might become somewhat unstable....
Trump has at least some experience of real world business. What does Harris have? Or TTK?
Not even close, it turns out. The Globalists get it wrong again. Globalist Socialists that is. Equalising the West with the third world and guess what ? The people of the West do not like it.
Now what to do about that phalanx of leftists Starmer sent to campaign for Harris ? The Republican's complaint's gone in so it's not going away. Then there's Lammy.
We are Donald Ducked. An island of Leftist turd in a sea of governments that are turning right wing.
Surely there is a case for a re-run of our general election based on Labour's blatant lies.
Blame the Trump/Harris options on the Globalists, Chris. Reaganism/Thatcherism has been outlawed so we get idiots instead.
The BBC would have been deliriously happy with Harris but cannot hide its extreme displeasure at the actual result.
A joy to behold and they cannot be trusted with our news.
The next Southport will be completely blacked out.
Oh, I forgot to add. Can’t wait to see what is going to happen to the Net Zero, Climate Change and assorted race / sex / gender grifters. What is the US equivalent of a P45?
You may want to use this link then
https://petition.parliament.uk/
I'm overjoyed to welcome an end to wokeism and a return to reality. I don't think Starmer will last very long now and as for the BBC well it is a delight to see them squirming. We've had 27 years of the globalist agenda since Bliar won in 1997 so it's about time it was reversed.
Yeah, like intervening twice now to keep the Germans from kicking your uppity arses.
Nothing can be as good as 2016, though - Hillary and her acolytes really expected a coronation.
Still, the hysterics in the Guardian comments are always a pleasure.
Amazingly, 14 million Dem votes vanished between 2020 and 2024.
81,283,501 votes were recorded for Biden in 2020, at the moment Harris has 67,030,608.
It must have been that huge wave of enthusiasm for Biden that saw as many as a couple of dozen people at his rallies, while they were queueing round the block for Trump, despite covid fears.
And the 2020 turnout was 94.2%, again a US record.
ZeroHedge have noted the remarkable leap in the Dem vote in 2020.
https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1854144250562429081
"Amazingly, 14 million Dem votes vanished between 2020 and 2024."
Trump may well have just become the first US President since FDR to have won 3 elections...........
OT - a sneaky Budget rise - apparently double-cab pickups, beloved by lots of small businesses, have had their allowances reduced massively and their benefit-in-kind value increased massively. To be fair, they are usually used as workhorse in the morning and family car in the evening.
I used to work with an IT contractor who arrived in a two seater van, because he could put it on the firm. Most of us used our own cars.
If that forces down the price of double-cab pickups maybe we should consider one for our next car. It's an ill wind ...
Yes, good for towing a caravan or trailer, most are 4x4. OTOH not great on fuel.
A brilliant move by the BoE today - house prices hit a record high, so they reduce interest rates!
Inflation over the last 20-odd years is more a function of Japanese/Chinese productivity than of anything happening in the UK.
It pains me to say it, but this was the right thing to do. Double cab pickups have their place, but the number of people running them purely to avoid the BiK rules has become very silly, and incentivising people who don't actually need to to drive around in monster trucks is pretty undesirable.
I have the opposite approach - run a £500 ecconomical diesel banger, charge my business mileage at 45p/mile (car costs about 18p/mile to run) tax free. It's a nice way to get £3-4k back out of the business tax free every year. Obviously it only works if you don't want a swanky new car....
"OTOH not great on fuel." We do such a low mileage that we're not much bothered by the cost of fuel. On the other hand our staple short trips are NBG in any diesel younger than 2006. So we need petrol-engined pick-up. Does anyone sell those in Britain?
Hmmm. Dems got.15,000,000 MORE votes in 2020. A record, it seems. Where did they all go, people ask?
Wrong question. Where did they all come from is what people should be asking. Well, now we know.
Clinton was right. It's the economy, stupid. Not gender. Not pronouns. Not diversity. We may have 4 1/2 more years of Statmetr, but truth is, he's history already.
Big pow wow in Budapest. Orban greeted all the big chiefs, shook their hands. Studiously ignored Starmer πππ
JP
While us Brits stood alone against the mightiest army in history, for a year. You forgot to mention.
Then you got beaten by tiny jungle people, big boyππ
JP
dearieme - you''ll just have to take it for a motorway burnup once a week to keep things unclogged. That's what I do with the wife's diesel. OTOH Ford sell the Ranger series which is petrol. Not cheap tho
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202410315809151
I suppose it's your military experience that makes you yawn at an election campaign where the Dems twice cocked up an assassination attempt on the Trumpster.
American elections mean something. There is still (something of) a clash of ideas. In the UK, that hasn't been the case since Blair re-made politics in his image.
Where does the 94.2% figure come from?
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