https://bsky.app/profile/kschultz.bsky.social/post/3lfj7xr6lt22i
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And yet Bannon is no problem at allā¦
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Moronic. They arenāt forest fires. Those fires are essentially suburban. You can see multiple images of native trees (like coast live oaks) that are still intact and will survive the fire, but the dry invasive grass has allowed the fire to jump from house to house.
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At this point, Iām not sure anyone whoās a Republican politician is not either moronic or sociopathic (or a combination of both).
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The deep desire to dismiss the climate change angle is pathetic. Last January-March had 5x the normal average rainfall in the area, so plant growth was enormous. Now, much of that plant life has dried out in the unusually dry period that began in October, and unfortunately much of that plant life is invasive grass that serves as perfect fuel for fires that would be largely harmless if they were burning in open hills, but instead there are dense suburbs.
Malibu has burned eight times since 1930. It is crazy that the pattern of development has not been adjusted, but instead some of the worst box canyons and valleys have become the most expensive real estate.
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Are you genuinely surprised? Look at Florida. Itās not too different in a way, is it, with hurricane risks and beachfront property?
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But but but climate change isnt real because the mega rich are buying all the sea front propertyā¦
That is interesting. I was seeing them as natural allies, as they are both disgusting and defend far-right policies. But apparently, the vultures have started fighting among each other now.
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I think the battle is over how nativist MAGA is going to be. Bannon wants to appeal to the uneducated and xenophobic base. Get dem foreigners out!
Musk is more pragmatic, and knows tech companies need an influx of foreign talent.
Hopefully lots of MAGA blood is spilled in this fight. Since it is America I will add, metaphorically speaking.
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Early signs that the GOP House is going to put up a fight about disaster relief for California. That will make next hurricane season interesting.
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Good.
Get it out there.
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If America is going to do this crap, itās screwed. Hurricane, Florida, red state. Blue states veto it. Tornadoes Midwest. Red state. Blue states veto. Etc.
Unless something changes - and it is hard to see beyond things getting worse over the next four years - the prospect of proper, meaningful struggle between states, comes into play. UNITED States? My arse. Itās horrifying to say as I canāt see how it would play out in real life, but the ingredients for another civil war are starting to foment.
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MAGA is rife with significant ideological divisions. There is a common perspective that it will be more unified this time because he rid the party of people like Cheney and McCain. In reality thought what he did was open it up to people petitioning for favor, people who know the direction of the party is entirely at the whim of the most transactional politician in our history. The breadth of ideology and policy desires among this new group of people is considerable and in many cases diametrically opposed to other factions with stature within the movement.
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The red states are a financial drag on the blue states. California and New York are the two states with the highest net contribution to the Federal structure, and on a per capita basis most of the blue states are in the same range.
Until Floridians subsidize snow clearing in Minnesota, hurricane aid should be a non-starter. It is a known risk that private insurance can price effectively.
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Donāt both sides this. This is purely unidirectional.
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It is actually all but unprecedentedā¦until now.
Completely agree it is one wayā¦ and unprecedented.
Just wondering where it all leads?
The amount that red/blue states put into the pot, and take out from the pot, is a point well made too.
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FWIW, Ezra Klein of the NYT has done some exceptional work exploring the increased ideological divisions within MAGA this cycle. I think his best one was his autumn interview with Vivek, who was giving his description of the goals and priorities of the movement. time after time Ezra challenged him on the reality that these things were opposed by trump in his first term, have not been coherently backed by trump this cycle, are the opposite of what Vance says MAGA believes on the issue, and are often more inline with what Biden had actually done. Yet he is often uncritically presented as a voice of MAGA.
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Just wondering out loudā¦ but to what extent does it matter? Iām talking about what MAGA is and isnāt, and how it is portrayed and who has the main say so. Is it the likes of Steve Bannon? Or the likes of Musk and Vivek?
The reason for my question, what does it matter, is that we are in a post-truth era. I donāt see it making too much difference even if there are diametrically opposed positions within MAGA, as from the very top down, they just say what they like in the particular moment.
Hence Trump can be elected saying stuff like I will make sure prices go down for hard working Americans, and before he even gets into the Oval Office he is back-pedaling and saying once prices go up itās hard for them to come down.
I guess what Iām saying is the leader of the movement is Trump, and he has a long record of talking crap, out of both sides of his mouth, without any consequence whatsoever.
If serious journalists like Klein are doing good work to demonstrate that senior MAGA people like Vivek are out of step with Trump when they give their opinions, in a normal world it would be a big deal, but I suspect we are in an era of anything goes, and the actual words that any of them say in the MAGA sphere, and the positions they espouse, are just not reliable, and will change to suit.
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