I wish they had made that show instead of Voyager. But then the Excelsior is my favorite Star Trek ship, so I’m hardly impartial.

Burnham doesn’t get promoted, though. Burnham’s old rank gets reinstated for her service during the Klingon war. Furthermore, she doesn’t regain the position as ship XO, who outranks the science officer.

If I remember correctly, Section 31 was already around in Star Trek: Enterprise as part of the original Starfleet charter proceeding the foundation of the Federation: One of their supervisors tries to coerce Malcolm Reed into becoming an operative for the organization at some point in season four, I believe. So that’s…

The EU already outspends Russia (the only threat in its realm) three to one. If every EU NATO member met the 2% goal, they’d outspend them five to one. It’s not a matter of money to enable Europe to deter Russian designs, but a matter of coordination - not just of armies and individual soldiers, but of the…

I’ve been away for a couple of weeks. Given the great greying that has happened in the meantime, I’d appreciate someone to ungrey me once again. Thank you!

A reform to take power away from the capitals will actually become easier to undertake, once the United Kingdom leaves the EU. However that is also not a position popular in the Visegrad states right now, especially in Hungary and Poland, whose only interest in remaining in the EU these days is getting those sweet…

A few political scientists and journalists wouldn’t hurt in the writer’s room, but then again, I have no idea what Univision pays, or how much they care about the quality of the reporting here.

Chuck Schumer has no leverage to “keep Joe Manchin in line”. That’s not indicative of Schumer’s leadership, but of the Democratic Party having no tangible assets they could withhold from Manchin in West Virginia. Joe Manchin is the Democratic Party in West Virginia. That makes it irrelevant how much Chuck Schumer…

The European Union isn’t a United States of Europe, and likely never will be - at least not in the next generation or two. Even the most fiercely pro-European Frenchman is French first and European second, but even the most fiercely state’s rights Texan is American first and Texan second.

We send the Enterprise back in time for the whales.

The time to get such a person ended when the primaries ended, and Manchin beat his primary challenger by +40. Unless Manchin retires, there won’t be another chance until 2024.

Chuck Schumer may be a weak minority leader, but he is entirely able to do basic math. 49 < 51.

The difference between both sides is that one side represents 450 million people (with the respective GDP), while the other side only wields one sixth of that power. Britain had a lot of leverage to extort special treatment from its neighbors when it was in the EU and could veto everything - that allowed it to punch…

They’ve pushed this take so many times during the last two years that even Russia Today would say “hold your horses, you’re overplaying your hand”. If they were Russian operatives and their goal was to cause apathy and depress Democratic voter turnout, they could not do a better job than they’ve been doing so far.

I suspect Amy Coney Barrett would have sailed through this nomination process and probably received more Democratic votes than Neil Gorsuch (who is an actual choir boy, unlike Kavanaugh, but did happen to steal Garland’s seat).

No, it wasn’t a moment worth losing a Senator for, because that Senator would not have made any difference. With Manchin toeing the party line, so would Murkowski - and if not, Mike Pence would have broken the tie. Manchin’s only hope to retain his seat is to depress Republican voter turnout in a rabid Trumpian state…

At this point I find it highly unlikely that the UK will manage to finalize a soft Brexit agreement, which needs to be delivered to Brussels until mid-November at the latest. The Tories have had two years to come up with a workable solution, but party inner fighting has rendered that impossible. They still want to…

Best band name since Soulless Minions of Orthodoxy.

The big tax break was always the big prize. The cultural war scraps (Roe) are for the suckers, so they keep voting for the millionaires who fuck their retirement funds. Bait and switch.

It’s crucial to add that all of these movements popping up after the 2008 world financial crisis are no accident. Other than a few small and isolated countries like Iceland, the bankers walked away with the loot everywhere. The inability to hold them to account made one pillar of liberal democracy - equal justice for…