Mike Wasson

@mikewasson.bsky.social

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Pittsburgher in London.

Posts Replies Media

This sort of coordination is hard and doesn’t always work. This is the value of ranked choice voting.

Left and center split the vote, far right wins. Left, liberals, centrists, and moderate conservatives ease the path for whichever of them has a better chance against the far right, the far right loses. We've seen evidence of that for a century, from Weimar Germany through France today.

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Mike Wasson

Fight against daunting odds, because it’s the right thing to do, and because sometimes you win.

BREAKING NEWS: Voters turned out in numbers not seen in decades to stop the far-right National Rally from taking power in the French National Assembly. Polls predicted a first-place finish for National Rally, which instead came in third in initial results as polling stations closed.

Projections in France's election show voters rejecting the far rightwww.npr.org Voters turned out in numbers not seen in decades to stop the far-right National Rally from taking power in the French National Assembly. Polls predicted a first-place finish for National Rally, which ...

Especially bizarre as “executive time” is such a great coinage for doomscrolling while taking a shit

"Executive Time" fell out of the coverage of Donald Trump in the most incredible way. Nobody writing about his quest to become president again ever mentions the fact that he hated the job when he had it and he couldn't and wouldn't really do it!

It’s about time that the crossword, Spelling Bee, and Wordle folks realize the news and opinion side of things is holding them back

I don't expect this, but it would be fascinating if the chief casualty of the sustained media campaign to ignore Trump's own age issues, his openly stated authoritarianism etc. in favor of wall-to-wall Biden/old was not POTUS but elite political media itself. Not likely, but a boy can dream...

Me, a fool: sure, I’ll just go to an Irish bar without checking the GAA schedule today

I am so glad that Liz Truss lost her seat, a curse upon her memory, but, like, this is kind of enbarrassing. First past the post doesn’t create good results. If we must have single member districts, this district *should* be represented by someone on the right. www.bbc.co.uk/news/electio...

South West Norfolk - General election results 2024www.bbc.co.uk Get the latest news and election results in the 2024 General election from BBC News

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Mike Wasson

The BBC’s “Seats Changed” map is wild. You can now walk from the coast of North Devon up to Bicester and then down to Eastbourne without ever leaving newly Lib Dem seats. Tired: The Blue Wall Wired: The YELLOW SNAKE

Omg lol

George Galloway *losing* his seat in an election where a bunch of single-issue pro-Palestine Independents were elected is really, really funny

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Mike Wasson

Some initial thoughts on the UK elections. 1. It confirms once again that when a center-right party veers to the hard right to weaken the far right, it ends up doing the opposite. After purging moderates and going full-on wingnuts and fever swamp, the Tories got decimated by Reform, not Labour. 🧵

Badenoch kept her seat. Goddammit.

Corbyn keeps his seat! Turns out massive visible local support means something www.bbc.co.uk/news/electio...

Islington North - General election results 2024www.bbc.co.uk Get the latest news and election results in the 2024 General election from BBC News

"the exit poll graphic? yeah boss, i made it really fucking unsettling, just like you asked"

And so it begins. Not staying up for this, though.

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Mike Wasson

In which the scrupulously objective NYT labels increased taxes and immigration and decreased troop numbers as "worsened." At least UK news media knows it's taking a side ...

5,000% increase in food bank use

making that an "o" is a bit of a stretch Anyway, if you haven't haven't voted yet today and can, please do so? It's a wonderful responsibility.

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Mike Wasson

Reply to

James Felix Black

Is the US flawed? Is Canada? Do they fall short of their ideals? Every day! But are they also made up of people, trying to live their fullest human existences? Hell yeah! People want to come here, and we all should try to extend to them the same grace we received from our friends and neighbours.

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Mike Wasson

When I took my oath to become a Canadian citizen, the judge was a two-time immigrant, and my fellow new Canadians were overwhelmingly not rich white Americans, like me, but families of folks from places all over the world. Immigration is wonderful and we should ALL be thankful for it.

just watched 74 people speaking at least a dozen different languages become american citizens in a ceremony at monticello, where the speakers were themselves children of immigrants. inspiring stuff and a vivid illustration of what reactionaries want to snuff out

Localisation.

Really cool how we have modern equivalents of Lord Haw Haw, Axis Sally, etc

A viral story that alleges Ukraine's Olena Zelenska recently bought a rare Bugatti car in Paris is the work of an AI-powered disinformation operation, run by an ex-Florida cop now based in Moscow, that pumps out a network of fake news websites aimed at Americans. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A Bugatti, a first lady and the fake stories aimed at Americanswww.bbc.co.uk A former US police officer runs an AI-powered network of misleading news sites turning its sights towards November.

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Mike Wasson

Reply to

Josh Chafetz

3/ We are in a moment of high and rising political violence. ~ 9% of all US presidents have been assassinated, and ~ 13% have been either killed or wounded in an assassination attempt.

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sort of half convinced swapping out Harris would be a marginal increase in Dem chances, but I am extremely sure that being stuck in this discourse for the rest of the campaign would be ruinous

the times continues its vigorous campaign to end democracy. literally the same playbook they ran in 2016 with the emails. we're so fucked. i'm existentially depressed.

"After years in the presidency, he's exhausted, looks more frail, occasionally gets confused, but there's no accusation of mental problems" is a description of Obama.

Read the Times story about Biden. They say he seems more visibly exhausted and physically frail than years ago, confuses names more. No real accusation of mental problems. Includes an anecdote of Biden yelling at Netanyahu. Sources speculate his schedule is too demanding relative to his age.

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Mike Wasson

Hubert Humphrey 1968

The most "The Democrats!" thing that could possibly happen is Harris getting swapped in and immediately losing

This is the Rosetta stone that makes me think I finally grok Rowling's transphobia.

Sorry wouldn’t normally put her on the timeline but this might be the most insane thing j k rowlings ever written

Today, every time I snooze an email in Gmail, it freezes. I need to refresh the page. Anyone else seeing this?

Go full Diamond Joe. Violate a cruising ordinance by driving past Alito’s house three times within two hours, while blasting heavy bass out of his Camaro. At 3am. Be old, do crimes

Okay, folks, who is putting together the list of the funniest crimes that Biden should be committing between now and election day to highlight the absurdity of today's immunity ruling? Not the stuff like assassinations. Just stuff to make a point.

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Mike Wasson

Like with Trumps guilty verdict, the Biden campaign is very obviously going to continue to attack this decision and hit SCOTUS specifically from now until November. Most poasters are just keyboard warriors who don’t actually understand how politics or campaigning works.

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Mike Wasson

On the other hand: this is usefully clarifying. No more fucking around. I will be voting for Biden in November to block Trump from re-ascending to power. No kings in America.

I’m genuinely shocked. I knew they were going to try and help him, but I really thought it would be in a more deniable way

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Mike Wasson

In a weird way, SCOTUS did the Biden campaign a big favor, because everyone knows the stakes now and no one should give a flying fuck about whether Biden spaces out every now and then. The alternative has become unimaginably bad.