Vikram Bath

@vikrambath.bsky.social

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Former business school professor, current software engineer. Writes at ordinary-times.com

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I am in a solid blue state. My vote will never matter. But after 2016 I promised myself I would vote for every presidential election for the rest of my life no matter what, and I suspect this is the sort of attitude needed to get the kind of political power Boomers have

Even if you are in a solid blue state, please turn out and vote for Biden or whoever the Democratic candidate ends up being. It’s important to not only win but show democratic legitimacy by a wide margin. Or to continue to establish Trump’s democratic illegitimacy to mobilize against.

“biden is actually more DEI bc he was explicitly made VP to relate to white voters”

This is not it, chief. How is it that I would be more worried about you losing your job than you would be?

If the real Biden can show up for debates 2 and 3, all this goes away and we have our best shot at defeating Trump. I hope he and his campaign are asking themselves that question clearheadedly and deciding accordingly

This is indeed illegal, but at some point we have to come up with a plausible way for delivery vehicles to safely and legally operate in cities. Is the driver here supposed to go find a parking lot somewhere? For every stop?

Will Smith hand on chin

Yes, a barrier to Biden stepping down is that as soon as he steps down, you will pivot to “oh, so you admit to lying when you said he shouldn’t step down” And maybe you’d even be right to ask it, but these are the incentives you have set up

Retweeting to his banger from last year since it happened again this year

the clearest evidence that america is a manifestation of god’s will is that the fourth of july always occurs on july 4th. every. single. time. at which point does something cease to be a coincidence and start to become a miracle

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Vikram Bath

My Long Island swing district (that went Santos —> Suozzi) has a lot of these. They are fine w/gay (probably less so w/trans), pro-choice, pro-limitations on guns. They crave lower taxes, suspicious that gov’t programs are being abused, wildly pro-cop, fearful of crime/immigrants, pro-Israel. (1/2)

I have personally encountered people who voted for Trump in 2016 and then got too grossed out to do it again in 2020. They really do exist.

Plenty of Trump-is-bad stories exist but were priced in “He’s a White Supremacist!” They like that. “He says he wants to be a dictator!” They want that. “He wants to put people in detention camps!” They’re counting on it. “Biden stumbles!” This is the one that is new news and wasn’t priced in

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Happy 4th - gifting this to all of you who quit NYTimes. I'm hanging on. www.nytimes.com/2024/07/04/o...

Opinion | Loving America Means Expecting More From Itwww.nytimes.com On the other side of honesty is the possibility of change.

No one asked me either, but I know what I would do! Tonight, at the regular debate time, Biden dresses up and does a mock debate. Tape it. Compare it to his 2020 performances and determine whether he is still the same guy. If he is, great! Go crush debates 2 and 3. If not, resign Friday night

Not that anyone is asking me, but I have no idea what the Democrats should do right now. All the options seem bad, and there isn’t one that seems less bad than the others. And as a professional opinion-haver, it’s disorienting to have no strong opinion about something so enormously consequential.

We need to be cognizant of the fact that a lot of people saying pro-Harris things right now are doing so only because it functions right now as anti-Biden and as soon as that changes they will go back to being anti-Harris

Either it is President Harris running for reelection or it is President Biden running for reelection. And the former will become increasingly unlikely as time passes. If it doesn’t happen by Monday, it’s probably not happening

Stop proposing wonky solutions to replacing Biden. If it's anything, it's Biden dropping out and endorsing Harris, and hoping the delegates follow suit. There is polling evidence that this should happen. There is no evidence for your thing you made up in your head and somehow got published.

When pundits say things like this we should read it the same way we would read a PR release from TicketMaster saying musicians should hold way more concerts and everyone should buy tickets to them online

Wild to watch horserace journalists suggest the most politically suicidal shit and pretend it's savvy. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

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Vikram Bath

h/t @vikrambath.bsky.social

NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW NO, ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!

FWIW, South Korea banned dog meat this year! Farmers will be supported to find alternatives over a three year transition. Cultures can change www.humanesociety.org/South-Korea-...

Every single time American’s very negative reaction to eating dogs and cats comes up, someone has to show up to explain that it’s a cultural thing, as if the vast majority of reasonably-sentient people were not already aware of this.

Reflections on South Korea dog meat banwww.humanesociety.org Staffers and former dog meat farmers reflect on the decade-long fight to end dog slaughter

NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW NO, ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!

How he does this is banal. Trump tells his friends they won’t have a country anymore if his enemies aren’t stopped. He needles to see if there’s anything they can do. It was his MO for asking Ukraine to investigate Biden and Kemp to find votes for him in Georgia. Keeps plausible deniability

I would also absolutely bet *money* on a second Trump regime adopting the usual best practice of fascist regimes - beginning to murder journalists.

AOC’s birthday is in October meaning she will be more than a month older than necessary to run for president

If I were to go back to the Republican Party, they would embrace me with both arms. I might even get interviewed as a “former leftist” or something. Donald Trump was literally a lifelong Democrat until Clinton lost the 2008 primary. There’s no analogue for such redemption on the left

like i have many bad things to say about organized church and the catholic church in specific but the idea that sin is universal and that concrete actions can redeem it is one that is often lost in leftist spaces imo

“Voting is a lot like vaccination: it only works if enough of us do it, and the absolute dumbest motherfuckers on the planet try to talk you out of it.” From @torriangray.bsky.social

Yes, I think I should get to know what the law allows before you prosecute me under it

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Vikram Bath

If you can't manage how to vote and organize a violent revolution at the same time you can't organize a violent revolution at all.

If we let the courts decide who has and hasn’t committed crimes where would that leave us as a country?

The only crimes a president should be tried for are the truly heinous ones that shock the conscience—like forgiving student loans for instance

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The really bitter irony here is that SCOTUS is making the president a king while a Democrat is president. They aren't worried about it because they know Democrats won't accept Biden actually acting the way they are saying he can.

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"Mambo No. 5," but the singer is just listing the named hurricanes

I am open to replacing Jay-Z as Beyoncé’s husband if he’s unable to serve

How wild is being under oath? You have to just keep answering questions and the second you say anything false whether it matters or not you’re a criminal