he/him 18 toronto/nyc
Joined June 2021
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sasha retweeted
🚨 Democrats win both houses of Congress. Quickie rundown on the effects for foreigners who don't follow US politics that closely, on what changes and what doesn't:
1) Domestic politics: Significant effect. Democrats can block Trump nominees -- including judges. Tonight's result might have prevented a 6-3 or 7-2 lock on the Supreme Court for another generation. Democrats can block his bills. Heck, they can even pass bills if there are topics where Trump wants to play ball with them. Don't hold your breath on the latter. Likeliest result is legislative inertia and constant conflict between White House and Congress. Most immmediate change: new investigations into (waves hands) ... everything we've witnessed over the last two years. Tonight's result also opens up a 2028 path for an I-told-you-so Republican -- on the war and on the alliance with big tech. Like DeSantis and maybe others.
2) Foreign affairs. Memo to Planet Earth: Here is where the legions of Trump haters around the world are likeliest to be disappointed. Tariffs? War? Threats to annex other countries? The US constitution, in theory, gives Congress control of these things like trade and war and presidential abuses. In practice, the founders did not anticipate the impossibility of cobbling together a 67% veto-proof majority on just about any contentious topic, let alone on impeaching and removing a president who ignores the constitution. So the president does what the president does. But I'll end with a caveat: Democrats now have the power to investigate. To hold hearings on things like: Why did Trump turn on Ukraine? What role did Kushner and Witkoff play? What do business owners hurt by tariffs have to say? Any whistleblowers out there with details on who's been insider trading war plans on betting markets? Hey -- why did a corrupt foreign businessmen get a pardon? Two years of this. Creates heat -- and heat means power, in this case limited power over foreign policy.
3) Investigate or legislate? Why not both. It's received wisdom that voters only care about bread-and-butter issues -- like health care and gas prices -- and investigations will be branded as witch hunts, certainly by the president. But polls show voters absolutely, deeply, do care about corruption right now. And if Democrats have any political skill in them, they'll be capable of holding those investigations, and of linking corruption to the same bread-and-butter issues that infuriate voters. "You hate that data center? That health policy? That tax policy? Here -- we're about to hold hearings with ballroom donors from such and such an industry who bought pardons/the status quo."
4) 2028 will be hell. I expect congressional investigations will turn up many, many potential crimes. Trump will pardon everyone he can. Democrats will transfer boxes of evidence to state AGs -- whatever they're allowed to. And within about three or four months, Donald Trump is going to realize he must do everything in his power to keep his friends in charge of the Justice Department and the FBI after 2028. Everything. And the extent to which he will go to achieve that is going to be the political story of next year.
And now I'm gonna get my morning coffee in Ankara, Turkey.
sasha retweeted
Not only are you required to have pronouns in bio, but you must have TWO nhl teams in your bio now
sasha retweeted
So Jon Ossoff and James Talarico can both run for President in 2028 as both of their states have now elected Democratic governors, amazingly.
sasha retweeted
Oct 28: Trump declares, “Montreal will pay if he loses the midterms.”
Nov 3, 10:02 PM ET: James Talarico flips Texas blue for the first time in 38 years.
10:04 PM ET: Winnipeg erases a 4-goal deficit in 2:40 and beats Montreal 5-4 in OT. U.S. Olympian Kyle Connor scores twice
sasha retweeted
If Texas turns blue it’s going to feel like OG’s tip in during the Knicks championship run
sasha retweeted
Reports are telling me that all $1 dollar bills are being replaced with Miku Binder Thomas Jefferson instead of George Washington following the blue wave
anyone with eyes and a brain can tell that the leader of the democratic party is mayor zohran mamdani of new york city
sasha retweeted
We may look back at Zohran Mamdani’s election as the most important pivot point in American politics since 2016
sasha retweeted
The entire Democratic Party owes a massive debt of gratitude to Zohran Mamdani.
Before his rapid rise, the party was largely rudderless, suffering from a loss of direction, momentum, and self-confidence. By drifting away from the working class, the party naturally saw voters walk away in response.
Mamdani single-handedly corrected the course, bringing vital energy, ideological clarity, and an authentic connection back to the very people who had been left behind.
Without his influence, the party’s current standing would look very different.
sasha retweeted
There's a saying on American social media:
"Be the American that Japanese people think you are."
I'm Japanese. I've lived in Tokyo my whole life.
So let me tell you what we actually say about you, when you're not in the room.
"When someone falls down on the street, we pretend not to see. We're protecting their pride. Americans run straight at them. They don't care about the pride. They care about the knee." (Office worker, 38)
"An American will stop four lanes of traffic for a family of ducks. And then everyone in the cars claps for the ducks." (Taxi driver, 61)
"If you lend an American a pen, you will never see it again. If you need a kidney, they'll ask your blood type." (Nurse, 45)
"At kids' soccer games, they cheer when the other team's kid scores. The other team's parents look confused. Then they cheer too." (Youth soccer coach, 52, lived one year in Ohio)
"A man sneezed on a bus in Chicago. Eleven strangers said 'Bless you.' He said 'thank you' eleven times. Nobody on that bus thought this was strange." (University student, 21)
"At an airport in Texas, I watched a soldier try to pay for his lunch. The cashier said someone already had. He asked who. She said, 'Somebody who didn't want you to know.'" (Retired teacher, 70)
"American fathers cannot braid hair. But they will watch a video at midnight for an hour so their daughter's hair looks right on picture day." (Hair stylist, 33)
"I ran the Chicago Marathon once. Strangers stood in the cold for hours holding signs for people they will never meet. At mile 20, a man I'd never seen read the name off my bib and screamed it like he'd raised me." (Runner, 48)
"When Americans get lost, they ask a stranger. If the stranger is also lost, they become a team." (Tour guide, 39)
"They ask the waitress her name. And then they remember it." (Restaurant owner, 66)
And one more. From my father. He's 76. He doesn't say much about anything. This is the longest thing I have ever heard him say about another country.
"Every time something terrible happens in America, I watch the news, and I look for one thing.
The people running toward it.
There are always so many."
So, America.
You don't have to become the Americans we think you are.
We're not imagining you.
We're remembering you.
sasha retweeted
I don't think Americans have an inkling of how we feel about Russia in the Nordics. Or how inseparable hockey is from Russian politics and propaganda. That's my main reason for why it's different from Israel/US. Hockey is not a major soft power tool for them. The real reason 1/5
