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→ New York Times columnist turns on progressives
Progressives have destroyed America’s west coast, according to a new article by NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof, who himself was a progressive until very recently.
Within a few years of moving from New York to his native Oregon, Kristof announced he was no longer a progressive. “Seeing the challenges in Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, have made me more wary of progressivism,” he told Time in May. He also recently called for more restrictive immigration policies.
The crime and homelessness problems of west coast cities made him reassess his politics — and he’s far from the first. Progressive shibboleths, particularly lax drug enforcement and generous benefits for the homeless, has a way of turning even the most devout Leftists toward the political centre and Right. You can only free-ride on your region’s good weather for so long.
→ Reform Zoomers pen open to letter to Farage
As Nigel Farage launched Reform UK’s “contract” — not a manifesto, he maintains — today in South Wales, the would-be Reform-voting Right-wing youth were scouring the document for policies aimed at them.
It seems they liked the gist of it, but they want more. So, what are they demanding? Beyond a “Reform Youth” wing, the Reform Zoomers have asked that the party “restore the Ukip promise to abolish tuition fees for STEM subjects, remove interest rates on tuition fees, and remove the Graduate route on student visas.”
In addition, the youth want to smoke. “Reform UK must repeal the smoking and vaping bans, and commit to no funding of any organisation which aims to curtail our speech and our ability to express our views.” Let the kids have fun again!
→ Bill Ackman and Mark Cuban spar over Biden
The billionaires are bickering on X once again, this time over the advanced age of our presidential candidates.
Not everyone ages at the same pace, according to Bill Ackman, who called Biden “an old 81 who can’t find his way off a stage or stay present and focused at a G7 conference”. Mark Cuban, who’s been in an online feud with Ackman since the latter’s shift to the Right last autumn, retorted that Trump is old too and accused Ackman of pandering to the X audience.
You guys both, @piersmorgan, @BillAckman, are so consumed with pandering to your twitter followers, you have lost all objectivity.
I’ll let you both in on a secret.
BOTH CANDIDATES ARE OLD. VERY OLD.
They both are going to have senior moments, mis-remember, forget… https://t.co/TVGpEDTGt4
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) June 17, 2024
It’s hard to imagine why either of these men — worth a combined $14 billion — are so locked in on social media. Most of us can barely be bothered to read their article-length tweets. Maybe they’re all obsessed with pandering to their twitter followers…
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SubscribeThey have nothing more to do. Bored billionaires are the bane of the West: disconnected from the everyday cares people, but rich enough to buy out-sized influence. If it were up to me, I would send them off to some luxury resort on Inaccessible Island where they can’t do any harm.
Two billionaires enter…one billionaire leaves!
Well yeh, the problem is how the ultra-rich channel their excess money, and the extent that these new inputs & networks can impinge on the previous freedoms they have benefited from
We are truly living in an Idiocracy.
“It’s hard to imagine why either of these men — worth a combined $14 billion — are so locked in on social media.”
Because the type of guy who becomes a billionaire through their own efforts tend to be highly driven, highly focused, and highly egotistical. They live for a good fight.
If I was a billionaire I would spend all my time swimming in a giant vault filled with coins, like Scrooge McDuck
What a grand way to choke to death!
I’d go full Ebenezer, living as a bitter miser until visited by literary ghosts on Christmas Eve.
Not sure where to put this, but keep an eye out for the burgeoning trade spat brewing between the EU and China, started because the EU tariffs for EV vehicles. It’s not getting much play in English-speaking press currently but would merit a deeper look.