DocWatts

Essentially, a white-guy as a DEI pick. Don't want to rock the boat too much with two women or people of color. (Not saying that I disagree with this tactic, since that's the political and cultural reality we're living in). In all seriousness though, AZ senator Mark Kelly seems like the best pick. If you're not familiar with him, look up his Wikipedia page, he's an incredibly accomplished person - almost the Platonic Ideal for what most people imagine as an 'All-American' Patriot. In addition to being a Senator who now occupies John McCain's former seat, he's a military veteran and highly accomplished astronaut. Additionally, he's a children author and a vocal advocate for gun safety reform, after a MAGA terrorist shot and almost killed his wife. Fun fact - he smuggled a gorilla suit into the International Space Station as a prank.

We're not living in the 1950s anymore. The whole world basically recognizes that what the Israeli government is doing is completely unacceptable. Israel should be treated as a pariah state on the world stage, similar to South Africa's apartheid regime.

People who try to defend the actions of the Israeli government by decrying that they're supposedly a 'democracy' probably would have tried to say the same thing about South Africa in the 1980s, or the American South under Jim Crow segregation, for that matter. At best all three of these governments were hybrid regimes, not full democracies. Sorry Israeli - you don't get to call yourself a full democracy when your government is systematically denying millions of people within your borders access to basic human rights.

If your aim is to steer the Republican Party away from MAGA extremism and back towards sanity and a respect for democratic norms, I wish you all the success in the world.

Proud of my local representative, Rashida Tlaib - and that he was snubbed by prominent Democrats like Bernie and Kamala Harris who chose not to attend this farce.

Ooof, I've had octogenarian grandparents whose health and mental acuity declined rapidly over a period of just a handful of months. It's sad to see. At the end of the day though, he was able to be persuaded to step aside for the good of the country - something that Trump could never do.

Dualities are only paradoxical if you presuppose that they are objective features of Reality - rather than anthropomorphized schemas that are created and sustained by our minds, for the purposes of making predictive generalizations. Taking everyday dualisms too literally is a good case study of mistaking the map for the territory.

In an alternate timeline where Arnold Schwarzenegger stayed in politics and had more influence within the Republican Party, the country would be in a much healthier place. So sometimes it can work out.

Kamala knocked it out of the park with her first campaign rally speech. She clearly and confidently called Trump out on his criminality, and elegantly articulated a vision of what this campaign is about and a vision of the country that people can be inspired by. 'We're not going back' is brilliant marketing, and something that this presidential campaign was sorely lacking. The contrast between Kamala and an aging Biden is night and day. Trump is right to be scared of facing her.

Thanks for the clarification, I can definitely appreciate that perspective.

Spotted in Pennsylvania. It's an angle that they should keep pushing. Kamala and Dems need to be relentless in hammering Trump on his criminality, and on the danger that he poses to American democracy. Due in part as a way of countering the media's irresponsible coverage of Trump, as a normal presidential candidate when he's anything but.

How would you differentiate your view from the perspective that Reality is 'experiential'? Like would this be a 'yes, and...' situation? Or a 'yes', but in a qualified way? Something more nuanced?

Source?

For what it's worth, I would caution against 'quantum mysticism' - where quantum mechanics is appended to spiritual beliefs in a sloppy, non-rigorous way. There are better, more epistemologically grounded ways to demonstrate that perception shapes Reality than delving into physics to try to prove the point. The problem with using quantum mechanics for this purpose is that you are trying to use an 'outside-in' vantage point to try demonstrate a phenomenological truth. When you would be better off using an 'inside-out' vantage point that begins by closely scrutinizing our direct experience, and the a-priori assumptions that we normally attach to that experience (for example, that Reality can be neatly divided into an 'internal' realm of thoughts and experiences, and an 'external' physical Reality - or that there's a single, correct god's eye view of Reality).

There are still plenty of low-information, disengaged Americans who aren't aware of Project 2025, or that a second Trump presidency would effectively be the end of American democracy. Having a presidential candidate who is able to confidently and articulately emphasize that Trump is not a normal presidential candidate is essential. Kamala has a background as a prosecutor - she should lean into that, since she's running against a criminal. Emphasizing that her administration is a vote for Law and Order, decency and sanity, while her opponent is a harbinger of lawlessness and chaos.