I think the liberal base would be more than happy to point fingers at Republicans. I think that’s potent messaging that shouldn’t be underestimated. Particularly in this moment, when Republicans look more extreme and corrupt than ever. There’s a reason Trump is shedding independents, and for the most part it’s not…

Most of the libertarians I’ve met who weren’t obviously Ron Paul-esque racists were decent people. Their political ideology is a complete mess and their supposed movement is a bunch of single-issue groups and bigots but most of them entered it with good intentions.

I don’t disagree with that. I do think getting some testimony first is fine. I think the problem is Pelosi and a (seemingly shrinking) set of Democrats refusal to consider the concept as valid.

The failure part is a good point, though I think that’s more easily handled by Democrats being clear in explaining the challenges. I also think Republicans will stonewall, which changes the game. Then the failure is more about them than the Democrats, which can fuel the base rather than depress it. The evidence so far…

Impeachment proceedings increase the investigatory powers available to Democrats. I don’t think that’s a valid point because of that.

I don’t agree with Amash on much of anything but his impeachment comments, but I think he may be able to rally. The whole “libertarian” brand is horseshit, it’s an incoherent ideology at best, but it’s a powerful brand nonetheless. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was able to rally a lot of people who self-identify as…

“Manipulate” is the wrong word. The process isn’t something that depends on the skill of the political elite, as counter-intuitive as that may seem. It’s really more about people internalizing the narratives of their own political wing. It doesn’t necessarily correlate with the substantive strength of the arguments. 

I linked to that below. Worth ungreying up here so people can see it. 

Go be a bad faith troll somewhere else. You don’t deserve respect if you state things contradicted by evidence and can’t defend your claims.

FYI, for anyone reading this, I was right about the polling data too.

I cited an academic paper. That’s not “bad faith”. You’re now just smearing me for daring to know more than you and being confident because I put in that work.

So you just made all those statements without an iota of evidence huh?

Based on what information? The most recent polling data I’ve seen has it in the mid-40s. That’s not “firmly against”. That’s before the media focus reaches largely tuned out voters. The idea that the issue is “firm” in voter’s mind doesn’t match any evidence I’ve seen.

The point of an impeachment process is to drive public opinion. I’ve been basically shouting this online for weeks now, but it DOES NOT MATTER if it fails due to Republican intransigence. Force them, on the record, to say “this criminal-looking behavior doesn’t bother us”. Hang Trump around their necks before 2020.

His new party to “distance from racists” is littered with the exact same racists the old one is littered with. Imagine being dumb enough to fall for such a mediocre rebranding. 

Very few people talk off the cuff without a ton of filler like that. It’s a well-documented linguistic phenomenon. It serves multiple purposes. Some people train themselves to just pause because it comes off as more authoritative, but it’s not really a useful skill. I should know, I do. On a good day I don’t use much…

I’m not sure you can do any finale without it feeling cliche. Every ending has been done, somewhere, in books or TV or movies. There’s only so many ways to end a story. All the creative stuff is usually in the middle. The end, well, it has to end.

This is niche knowledge, but there’s a genre of Early Irish literature called an immram, basically a “voyage”, usually to the Otherworld. One of the surviving ones is the Immram Brain (the Voyage of Bran).

“Everybody in the game wants to make friends to achieve their goals”

That works great, if you have friends who play WoW, are on a well populated server, are on when other people are on, and can find people to make a group with.