ComradeKayAdams

No idea…all I know is that Brittany presents herself as super plastic on her Instagram account. Josh is so down to earth that it makes sense the two never worked out as a long-term couple. Hailee, meanwhile, is widely known in Hollywood circles for being very down to earth. Brittany (maybe): “Luckily my boyfriend owns a team and doesn’t play for one.” Anyone know what team she’s referencing? A fantasy football team??

My second hobby is the Buffalo Sabres. So pardon me when I say that I hope Travis Kelce dies of Taylor's gonorrhea and rots in hell. But yes: GO BILLS, indeed.

Ugh…FAKE NEWS. I never glorify authoritarian leftist regimes. If I’m ever caught at a party speaking with great zeal about the political climate of mid-20th century China (or early 20th century Russia or late 18th century France), it’s because the turbulence found in history is always illuminating and instructive. Or I may just be ridiculously inebriated. But let’s now focus the conversation back on YOUR foibles, Leh-nerd. Specifically: your weight and your hygiene. Know that I body shame and olfaction shame because I CARE. I am reminded of the classic adage passed down among Haudenosaunee sachems: “never judge an upstate New York resident until you have walked a mile in his musty, mechanically fatigued moccasins.” Or something along those lines. Ew. I can’t even imagine walking one yard down midtown Manhattan in those things of yours. But I think I pretty much get it: you’re fat and smelly because you’re an unhappy MAGA. You’re an unhappy MAGA because you’re fat and smelly. It’s a vicious cycle, but one we must try to break. To paraphrase a famous academic administrator: “fat, smelly, and MAGA is no way to go through life…Leh-nerd.” So the first step to breaking the cycle is reading my verbally abusive comments found amongst the so-called “vast drudgery” of my subversive far-left manifestos. Really take them to heart! To paraphrase a famous Boston police sergeant: “My theory on MAGA is that they’re like mushrooms: they feed on sh!t and keep themselves in the dahk.” So start with some fresh walks outside, accompanied with an ethical diet: Meatless Mondays, Tofu Tuesdays, and so forth. But you must begin getting it together posthaste, Leh-nerd, because I really can’t stand the sight of you upstate MAGA people. I don't like to see you come down to this clean city with your oily skin, dressed up in those silk stretched overalls, and try to pass yourselves off as decent Empire Staters. I'll cheer on our state’s only professional football team with you, but the fact is that I despise your masquerade. The dishonest way you pose yourself. Yourself and your whole f*cking MAGA family. GO BILLS. Sure, several reasons: 1. Election forecasting and public policy comprehension are two distinct endeavors. 2. I have the humility (believe it or not) to admit when I’m wrong, so long as I’m presented with sufficient evidence and a persuasive counterargument. I’ll concede that I’ve been existing too long in the milieu of female yuppies; I drank a little too much “hopium” this election cycle, against my typically more economically cynical political instincts. 3. I’m well-versed in most public policy topics, especially ones related to the environment, macroeconomics, health care, and American foreign policy. Please feel free to ask me specific questions if you doubt that is the case! 4. I have extensive experience as a campaign volunteer for progressive candidates, including Bernie Sanders and various local NYC politicians. These experiences have provided me with useful political connections and unique insights which you may or may not find interesting. Recent example: I just helped friend/big sis, “I’m So Julia” Salazar, get re-elected as a New York State Senator! Hurray! Ok, but can you specify the composition of this “left-wing agenda” that Americans rejected? I suspect you might be conflating many corporate establishment politics (as proffered by Harris/Biden) with actual progressive politics (under Bernie, our most wonderful exemplar!). As far as I’m aware, most progressive policies are actually very popular with Americans and regularly poll nationally above 60% (especially our economic ones). The only prominent exceptions with which I’m familiar: 1. Crime: I won’t defend because I’m a centrist on this topic. It should be noted, however, that Harris ran as a centrist public prosecutor. Furthermore, hardly any progressives in the country still support “Defund the Police” policies, contrary to right-wing media claims. It hasn’t been popular within far-left circles since 2021. 2. Immigration: Likewise, I won’t defend because I’m a centrist on this topic. Those who had properly sifted through the media rhetoric would have found that Harris did, in fact, run as a moderate here. 3. Transgender rights: the details concerning child transitioning and sports participation are the only reasonable sub-topics to debate; everything else is part of a greater American moral bankruptcy, that of bigotry rooted in scientific illiteracy and lack of familiar association, which needs to be rectified. Harris actively avoided talking about this topic, by the way; right-wing media personalities are the ones who obsessed over it. 4. Free speech: neither side is fully principled in this regard, depending on the particular topic of protected speech. MAGA, for example, seems to have developed a lust for shutting down peaceful protests against Israel’s genocide. 5. Unrestricted abortion: I’m 100% with the farthest of the far-leftists here. Keeping the American legal system completely out of the decision-making process between prospective mothers and health professionals is the safest course of action for victims of rape, i n c e s t, and reproduction-related medical complications. I’ll always prioritize the interests of the already born over those of the unborn. Those who don’t are people who probably think of females as nothing more than walking incubators with up to three entertainment holes. If you’re morally uncomfortable with abortion after 12 weeks (the earliest theoretical point of fetal pain recognition), as I am, then pray for these mothers and try to persuade them to carry the fetus to term. But forcing a woman to give birth, against her will, often leads to terrible outcomes for both the woman and for society as a whole. 6. Inflation causes and remedies: Probably the #1 reason why Bernie’s triad coalition of Gen Z/Millennials, the working class, and Latinos blew up on the Democratic Party in 2024. No one among the far-left or center-left did a good enough job articulating the causes; Biden, meanwhile, did next to nothing to alleviate its impact. Oof. I already discussed this topic in depth a while back, but I can provide links later to my earlier posts on inflation for those who care to read. Summary: had little to do with U.S. energy policy, government pandemic stimulus, or irresponsible monetary policy. The bulk of it was related to transportation logistics and oligopoly price gouging. I also have macroeconomics research papers on file to support this stance, for those who care?

A few deliberate responses to your post, in specific order: 1. Both manners of defeat were surprising to me, and losing the popular vote was far more shocking than the swing state sweep. I truly underestimated how badly our country has regressed to a state of Idiocracy in such a short amount of time. We are a cauldron of misinformation, anti-intellectualism, and late-stage neoliberalism. With the House and Senate and Supreme Court under party control, President Camacho now has his political mandate. 2. No, the fundamental problem with the particular 2024 Harris coalition was that the PMC (professional/managerial class) leadership became sclerotic to the economic anxieties of the working class. Bread-and-butter issues that actually challenged the corporate oligarchy were ignored in favor of frivolous fixations with Trump’s personality. Or to put it in classical Marxism-Leninism terms, I suppose: the bourgeoise stopped listening to the proletariat, and the proletariat responded by either staying home or turning to Trump. It would also be remiss of me to not add Israel’s ongoing genocide to the critical list of issues that Harris ignored. Progressives and Muslim-Americans responded accordingly, particularly in the blue Midwest firewall. Keep in mind that Gaza has been polling at enormous party electorate interest levels and is, thus, far removed from the panoply of boutique political issues. The immoral international aid benefits the military-industrial complex and settler colonialists alike, at the expense of domestic financial stimulus. Remember that Israel has universal health care; you decidedly don’t. 3. Do the MAGA variants of the right wing still care about the national debt?? I had no idea. I think working-class MAGA is set to learn some very painful lessons about trickle-down economics. They achieved their first objective that can be best described as “f*cking around.” Yay! Congrats! The second stage now involves “finding out.” 4. No doubt, the post-Roe landscape will involve legally contested interstate travel. The pro-choice movement will win every single one of these cases, just as it will eventually win the greater reproductive rights war within about a generation’s time. In the meantime, every woman in America should be made aware of national organizations like The Brigid Alliance. An entire Underground Railroad-esque network is being developed to help women stuck in retrograde red state regions like the Bible Belt. 5. I’m fine with some of these enumerated policy sections: “trade policy,” “border control,” “space and innovation,” “respect meritocracy,” and “kill bureaucracy.” The laughable idea, however, of RFK Jr. directing vaccine and health policy certainly fits the anti-science and pro-conspiracy nature of the MAGA movement. Crypto regulation is good, though cryptocurrencies are terrible for the environment (as if MAGA cares about that…). Regarding the “U.S. A.I.” section, I work peripherally in the microelectronics industry and can tell you that the GOP’s agenda to repeal the CHIPS and Science Act (as admitted by House Speaker, Mike Johnson) would be devastating to our country’s tech goals (as well as our national security objectives). I can only cry at the “expand housing supply” section. Sprawling suburbs are environmentally devastating and put extra strain on our country’s energy infrastructure. But yes, I do realize that I’m communicating with a football subforum community of morally repugnant far-right middle-aged/Boomery a-holes who only care about themselves and not posterity. Thankfully, many of you are as fat and smelly as you are old and wizened, so your eternal sleep shall be hastened by your gluttonous and unethical omnivore diet. <<< crosses skinny vegan fingers >>> 6. Rest assured, the far-left wing is coming to take over the Democratic Party by 2028. In one key way, Kamala’s ignominious defeat has facilitated this takeover because of the enormous power vacuum it created for the next 8 years. It took libertarians 16 years between Goldwater and Reagan; we’re only 8 years removed from Bernie’s first run. With a sufficient coalition size, the dismantling of the Supreme Court’s power via court-packing threats should be the far-left’s ultimate objective. 7. I can’t tell you who to idolize. You think it’s almost over, but it’s only on the rise. Calling, calling, for something in the air. Calling, calling, I know you must be there. The story of a woman on the morning of a war. Remind me, if you will, exactly what we’re fighting for? Throw me to the wolves because there’s order in the pack. Throw me to the sky because I know I’m coming back. <<< poignant John Frusciante guitar wailing >>> 8. Meh. My only plea for those who insist on political violence is to direct it at the powerful. Please don’t allow the powerless to catch strays!

Thanks, Pete! Good to see you around these parts! You still visit BillsFans.com? Points # 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 have absolutely NOTHING to do with “workers owning the means of production.” Not even tangentially. Point # 4 is a caustic rebuke of laissez-faire economics. Um…quite the egregious logical fallacy to conclude that such a rebuke is advocacy for socialism, no?? There’s a lot of middle ground between the two! I personally advocate only for social democracy at the national level, although I’ll also note that we do have plenty of evidence of democratic socialism succeeding at the very local level and for specific economic goods markets. Point # 5 is absolutely a call for greater government involvement in the American health care system. But if you somehow consider the adoption of something like a universal health care system as the acceptance of socialism, then you are also conceding that LITERALLY THE REST OF THE INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD are thriving bastions of socialism. Point # 8, on its surface, is simply about accepting a well-established subfield of the natural sciences. While the usual discursive corollary to this is a necessary call for more government intervention into the free markets (in the form of publicly funded R+D, energy/transportation public works projects, Keynesian stimulus bills for select companies, etc.), so to properly address the magnitude of the climate crisis in a timely manner, this is all still a far cry from a call for actual socialism. Now we COULD have a meaningful discussion on the nature of land/resource ownership in a modern society, but that might also require too many sentences for MAGA to read. I already assumed most of you MAGA types long ago stopped reading what I’m typing right now… To be VERY clear, Leh-nerd, there is no “gift exemption” in an ethical vegan lifestyle. You are to either return the product to the store or give it to someone else, with the idea that this other person receiving the product won’t then have the need to purchase their own. Absent these two options, however, there is no coherent ethical stance against consuming the product yourself. The animal has already suffered, unfortunately. Now regarding my personal situation with Juicy Couture, it was a (rather expensive) perfume set that my grandma bought for me as a combined birthday/high school graduation gift. I appreciated the effort she took to find out what kinds of products girls my age might like, and I also didn’t officially become a vegan until college. Furthermore, I was misinformed about Juicy Couture’s 100% cruelty-free stance for several years afterward. Now you COULD argue that I should be giving them to someone else, but to be honest…the various scents still trigger different positive memories from my college years….so you can say that I’m holding on to them for sentimental reasons, even though these perfumes are no longer part of my “regular scent rotation” now that I’m well into my 20’s. I think what I’ve always loved most about the Medusa story is the insight it provided into ancient Greek society: everything ranging from their fear of wild snakes to their resentment toward their gods (i.e. fate). I believe Ovid’s conception of Medusa’s hair was 100% snakes and 0% human hair, so these alleged “products used to tame it” would have simply been mice feedings, right? In any event, Leh-nerd, your commentary on housewives narcissistically “yammering” away on life’s trivialities can easily be construed as a deeply misogynistic trope derived from a legacy of patriarchal power systems. Moving on…let’s talk a bit more about my Medusa costume for tonight! Yay!!! So the key feature is neither the coiled serpentine hair, nor the green puffy long-sleeved bodycon dress, nor the gold hosiery, nor the gold heels…it’s all about the eyes, Leh-nerd. Imagine: yellow-colored contact lenses plus a meticulous charcoal-colored eye makeup application that produces the classic doe-like effect, thus making the entire eye region “pop” like a muthaf*cka. You seriously think male partygoers will avert my gaze and avoid turning into stone, Leh-nerd?? You even Medusa Halloween costume, bro??!! When I say “turning into stone,” of course, I’m referring to getting sucked into an hours-long discussion with me on everything ranging from Buffalo Bills superiority over the New Jersey Jests…to climate change-resistant hardwood tree species native to the Adirondacks. As you probably figured, there will be a fair number of Gordon Gekko-wannabe Strong Island frat boy dipsh!ts at this party, not quite prepared for this sassy upstate NY hippy…el oh el. Anywho…glad to see you here, Leh-nerd! Even though you are smelly MAGA “garbage” at the moment, I still think we can metaphorically pull you out from the trash can, wash you off, and toss you into the recycling bin. Just keep reading my posts and think deeply about what I say. Every word of mine has intention. <<< Narrator: Kay suddenly slithers away from Two Bills Drive. Leh-nerd checks his watch and realizes his entire afternoon has passed. >>> <<< Other Narrator: reminds the original Narrator to partly reassure Leh-nerd that tonight is daylight savings! >>>

LOLOL…yup, sooo true!! MAGA has fashioned quite the image of themselves as a bunch of manly men manlying around with their manly manliness, driven by some masculine ideal of purely rational thought. They perceive Harris voters, meanwhile, as overly emotional and irrational types, driven by this stereotypically feminine decision-making construct. And yet here we are…the “f*ck your feelings” crowd losing their collective sh!t over a singularly random comment from a senile lame duck president. Imagine that!! The ”garbage” remark, however, was perfectly apt. Behind each MAGA’s veil of machismo lies a prisoner of their own combined low IQ and EQ…a Platonic ideal, if you will, of the “stupid a*shole.” Let’s delve a bit deeper into the dullardly mind of a MAGA, shall we? What specifically DEFINES these sh!thead simpletons? Here I shall emphasize PUBLIC POLICIES and not their personality peccadillos, as reflected from their Dear Leader/Boyfriend a.k.a. Donald Trump. I’ll only highlight a small handful of issues which I don’t think others here have already addressed: 1. Corporate oligarchy: MAGA dumb-dumbs like to think of themselves as heroic populists fighting some poorly defined “establishment,” and yet they have an equally poorly defined stance on Citizens United v. FEC (2010). They don’t seem all too perturbed that post-2016 Trump now embraces the concept of billionaires purchasing government power. 2. American imperialism: MAGA claims they are anti-war and against the MIC, but they also embraced various “might-makes-right” Trumpian foreign policies against not-white-enough peoples: thousands of Middle East drone strikes, keeping troops in Afghanistan, bombing Syria repeatedly, occupying countries over oil, provocatory assassinations of Iranian generals, organized coups in Venezuela, backing a Saudi-led Yemen genocide, etc… And what about reducing the bloated military budget?? Nope! “We need to maintain only the bestest, most tremendous military,” insist Trump and his acolytes. 3. Gaza: This issue is really just an extension of the broader American imperialism that MAGA idiots and Trump embrace. When you are a Judeo-Christian supremacist and an Islamophobe, Zionism is second nature to you. Apartheid practices, collective punishment war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and genocide are all rationalized. The Leahy Laws are ignored. Illegally occupying Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and now southern Lebanon are all condoned. Trump’s contributions, ultimately, to October 7 are conveniently forgotten (exiting the JCPOA, moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, mediating the Abraham Accords, and recognizing the Golan Heights annexation). 4. Economic philosophy: MAGA morons, ever the champions for the working class, willfully choose to embrace the free market fundamentalism of their slightly more intelligent libertarian sociopathic comrades. My Gawd…we could write lengthy doctoral dissertations, right here in this forum, on all the foolishness which stems from their ridiculous oversimplifications of the highly complex field that is macroeconomics. But let’s note only the most recent example of their foolishness: their blind support of Trump’s high tariffs/zero income tax idea, which is straight out of the famously progressive utopian era that was America’s Gilded Age. Even if one were to explain the blatantly regressive nature of this plan to these Austrian school sycophants, they’d probably just shrug their shoulders and tell you, “Meh. Go, like, pick yourself up from your bootstraps. Or something.” 5. Health care: Is your family overwhelmed with medical debt? Are you dying from cancer because you can’t afford treatment? Stuck in a terrible job because you’re afraid to lose your health care plan? “Too bad,” says MAGA. “F*ck off and die.” We’re all still waiting on Trump’s amazing health care plan, by the way. LOL… 6. Abortion: Simply put, you are every bit a “garbage” human being if you are okay with women in certain states being legally forced to carry their rapist’s fetus to term. Moreover, you are not very smart if you don’t understand exactly how legal abortions well beyond the first trimester (i.e. keeping reproductive health decisions strictly between a mother and her health care professionals, not the government) are necessary for prioritizing a mother’s health, life, and general safety. 7. Transgender rights: People who can understand science can understand that the concept of gender identity is linked to the gender-determining morphology and function of the human brain. In the vast majority of humans, this particular gender identity marker also happens to match the sex determined by that person’s chromosomes and reproductive equipment. For MAGA, however, science is really really hard; bigotry and bullying, meanwhile, are super duper fun! 8. Anthropogenic global warming: El. Oh. El. For many people, middle school earth science was a trivial endeavor. For MAGA, both their cognitive limitations and their complete disregard for negative externalities invite a horrifying (yet admittedly highly entertaining!) array of delightfully grand conspiracies. Scientific conspiracies, evidently, fill the vacuum that is their pathetic scope of scientific understanding. That’s all the morning polemicizing for now. Gotta get ready for work. Also, everyone please wish me luck on my Halloween party costume this weekend: Medusa, the tragic feminist martyr from Greek mythology (but the SEXY version…with a puffy long-sleeved bodycon dress, bedazzled with sequins and glitter and sh!t, while drenched in sundry floral aromas from Juicy Couture*). Woohoo! Enjoy the coming weekend, everyone! Yes, even all you MAGA dullards…you too! GO BILLS. CIRCLE. DEM. WAGONS. SQUISH. DEM. FISH. *-yes, I’m well aware that Juicy Couture isn’t 100% cruelty-free. These perfumes were gifted to me. This addendum is directed at all the disputatious TBD PPP posters** who are always trying to spot my hypocrisies, but who always fail spectacularly in doing so. **-namely, Leh-nerd Skin-erd.

Yep, this is basically what I’m predicting. More specifically, I have Harris winning 287 to 251 in electoral votes (i.e., all seven swing states minus Georgia and North Carolina). Two basic reasons why: 1. I’m expecting a systemic overperformance in the polls very similar to what was observed during the 2022 midterms, fueled by unmarried women’s opposition to Dobbs v. Jackson WHO plus independent voters’ revulsion to January 6 election results denialism. 2. Trump’s overreliance on low-propensity voter demographics (mostly male ones). Lots of mainstream political analysts seem to be forgetting that voter preference doesn’t fully equate to voter enthusiasm.

JOSH overrated?? Hawk Tua is going down. We spit on THEIR thang. “Not safe for work, Kay. Your mind is in the gutter. Message from the mods.” My fault, Two Bills Drive, But haikus I use to lube. Fish Squish Week excites. “What did we tell you?! It’s a family forum. Your final warning.” I can’t help myself… A five-seven-five format At least I maintain! “This is true, Adams. A haiku Hill you are not. The poet abides.”

Coach Babich to Big Play Tom, Coach Babich to Big Play Tom: Take your steroid shot and put your helmet on. “10” Coach Babich “9” To Big Play Tom: “8, 7, 6” Commencing kickoff, “5” Uniform on. “4, 3, 2” Check cleats… “1” And may God’s love “Let’s go!” Be with you. This is Coach Babich to Big Play Tom: You’ve really made the grade! And the media want to know which jersey number you wear. Now it’s time to lead the secondary, if you dare! This is Big Play Tom to Coach Babich: I’m stepping onto the field. And I’m floating deep in a most peculiar way, And the Cards’ formation looks very different today. For here am I sitting in a Cover One. Far behind my teammates. James Conner is running through, And there’s nothing I can do. Though I'm past one hundred thousand years, I'm moving very slow, And I think Beane knows which way my career is to go. Tell my baby mama I love her very much. She knows. Coach Babich to Big Play Tom: Your positioning’s bad, there’s something wrong. Can you hear me, Big Play Tom? Can you hear me, Big Play Tom? Can you hear me, Big Play Tom? Can you he…. Here am I floating behind Hamlin. Far beyond the play. Marvin Harrison Jr. really flew, Another Hail Murray we just blew…

Same! I grew up with two annoying older brothers: both varsity athlete mesomorph types, whereas I myself have always been disadvantaged with more of a diminutive ectomorph physique. Nevertheless, the one thing I have always been blessed with is a resourceful survivor spirit! So while there’s no way I could physically take on Coach McDermott, I do consider the brain to be the most powerful muscle in the human body. Coach McD strikes me as a guy wound just a bit too tight, perhaps secretly dealing with a multitude of mental health issues ranging from paranoia and insecurity to chronic anxiety and insomnia. My strategy of choice would therefore be to personally subject Coach McD to months of torturous psychological manipulation, ideally culminating in a life-threatening eating disorder. Once the eating disorder has advanced to a stage requiring in-patient hospitalization care, I will come visit Coach McD at the Catholic Mercy Hospital of Buffalo. Though to be clear: no mercy will be offered to him by me on that final day. As I saunter over to his hospital room bed, Coach McD’s eyes will fully widen as he sees me, like a woodland owl forced to acknowledge its indefatigable apex predator. “You again! Why?! Why did you do this to me?! Was it the 13 Seconds game? The pathetic Bengals playoff home game? Too many men on the field for the final play of last season’s ridiculous Broncos game? All I ever wanted in life was to bring gridiron joy to all you lovely Western New Yorkers! Why, Kay? Why?!” This is the moment where I then slowly lean in towards him, gently stroke his arm, massage his shoulder, and whisper softly into his ear, “Because I could, Sean. Because I could.” As I get up and walk away, a nearby nurse vigorously holds down Coach McD’s emaciated and flailing body to the hospital bed, as his pale Irish countenance turns bright red like an aged star approaching supernova status. “Curses to thee, of sly mind and small body, and with neither sling nor stone…another favorable victory I have blown!” Sean rather poetically screams out to yours truly. “May you welcome as your eternal abode the fiery pits below, you Baphomet-worshiping banshee! Arrrgggh!” << END SCENE. >> << BEGIN EPILOGUE. >> The rhythmic clicking of Kay’s VEERAH stiletto heels echo through the hospital hallway as she walks away from Coach McDermott’s room. The reverberating clicks grow louder, drowning out the distant flatlining emission from Sean’s electrocardiogram. Kay suddenly removes a wig and rubber facial mask, revealing herself to be…<<dramatic pause>>…Tyler Dunne in drag! Eeek! The “Go Long” journalist, evidently all along, was playing his own long game on poor ol’ Sean.

It might be!! Anecdotally, I can say that I know this under-30 female demographic quite well. I probably have about 500 or so of them in my extended social network. We are part of the “childless cat lady” demographic whom J.D. Vance and his WEIRD acolytes despise so much. Based on my Instagram surfing alone, I get the strong sense that we are pretty much all committed now to voting for Harris-Walz. I could analyze the “why” in a million different ways, but let’s start with the most obvious: we can’t be allowing any state in the union to force a 10-year-old girl to give birth to her rapist’s child. Reactionaries have failed “Team Menstruation” horribly with their interpretations of the Ninth, Tenth, and Fourteenth Amendments (plus the First, Fourth, and Fifth…). DEEP THOUGHT ALERT: I often find myself contextualizing contemporary politics through the prism of history. I’m seeing potential parallels on the horizon with Republicans and the Whig Party. Abortion could ultimately divide and destroy the Republican Party in a similar way that slavery divided and destroyed the Whigs. Anyone else agree?? Disagree??

Trump is their OG communist, actually! Anyone else remember Executive Order #13948 back in the summer of 2020?? Oh, Commie Kay remembers… Right-wingers were praising this price control on prescription drugs because political tribalism often trumps (pun delightfully intended!) political principles. “Communist” is just a label now that has been rendered devoid of any meaning beyond “someone conservatives don’t like.” My very limited (and possibly erroneous) awareness of Kamala’s grocery price control proposal is that it would be a sunset provision reserved specifically for proven food price gouging. Temporary price controls do have a history of success when restricted to societal emergency situations. Permanent price controls, on occasion, can also work; you already mentioned such an example involving a price floor (minimum wages) and one involving a price ceiling (trust busting). But while price collusion is a type of market failure like any other, it can sometimes be difficult to prove conclusively. So one’s educated opinion of Kamala’s policy efficacy will depend on how obvious one thinks the evidence of collusion may be (based heavily on corporate profit margin histories), along with what one thinks are the causal factors of our present inflation: corporate price gouging (yes), lingering cost-push international supply chain issues (yes, somewhat, due to strife abroad and what not), cost-push energy supply shocks (LOL…an eyeroll for those who don’t understand how international energy free markets work yet dogmatically cling to them…), demand-pull stimulus effects (sure, though not in the way right-wingers think because CARES and ARP also prevented dangerous deflationary collapses), a lax monetary policy (certainly not ruling out artificially low interest rates and aggressive money supply expansions), etc. Kamala is also proposing a price control on rent, and right now I’m equally unfamiliar with the details of this particular policy. My firm belief, however, is that you can’t just throw government subsidies at this problem without addressing root causes (namely: corporate oligopoly effects on local housing markets). Furthermore, I’m an unapologetic tree-hugging eco-fascist who rages deliriously at the specter of creeping suburban sprawl; when I so much as hear mere MURMURS of lowering housing costs via a widespread government promotion of increases to the supply…BIG TROUBLE. EDIT: Misspelled “murmurs.” Terrible.

Note that I’m referring strictly to market socialism models in my response: 1. Taxation: You’re always going to have tax requirements, with all of the accompanying potential headaches, whenever you have public services. Market socialism is not necessarily any better or worse than other forms of government in this regard. Even societies practicing anarcho-capitalism will feature an annoying array of “tax-like” user fees that must be paid. 2. Nationalization: Market socialism definitely doesn’t forbid privatization! Private companies won’t be shut down as long as their ownership structures meet certain regulatory criteria. 3. Central Planning: The whole point of market socialism is to NOT have top-down micromanagement of a macroeconomic system! Government intervention into a free market isn’t the same concept as a centrally planned economy. No economic system of any practical merit is truly laisse-faire because many types of market failures are inherent. 4. Various Inefficiencies: On the microeconomic level, not all goods and services are the same. Some of them function better outside the profit motive (national defense, law and order, firefighting, transportation infrastructure, health care, water utilities, possibly all forms of energy, etc.). On the macroeconomic level, the theory behind market socialism is that societies are maximally efficient when socioeconomic mobility is optimal, and that socioeconomic mobility is optimal when labor exploitation is minimal (i.e., a laborer receives reasonable compensation for his/her contribution to the final product…so no cases of subsistence on food stamps while the capitalist accumulates wealth surpassing that of small countries…). The underlying theory is all rooted in standard Keynesian economics plus well-established Marxist critiques of capitalism. You basically want more people fully engaged in the economy, from both a consumer’s point of view and an investor’s one. You may recall from my previous post, however, where I did acknowledge my reservations with the ability of market socialism to set labor wages and generate entrepreneurial speculation. Successful food co-ops are succeeding within the framework of a decidedly capitalistic economy; billionaires can be genuinely unique in their risk-taking personalities. There are no simply defined problems with obvious solutions in the world of political economics, even though socialists and libertarians alike may implore you otherwise. That is my current belief.

For completeness, the number of states where abortion is on the November ballot stands at 11: Arizona, Nevada, Montana, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Missouri, Arkansas, Florida, Maryland, and our beautiful home state of New York. Arizona and Nevada are 2 of the 6 key swing states in the presidential election, while Montana has a hotly contested Senate seat in play. 5 of those 6 key swing states (including Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania…all but Georgia) also have a Senate seat up for election in 2024. Ohio’s Senate seat election could be influenced by the abortion issue, as well. It’s going to be a real challenge for the Democrats to sweep the 7 aforementioned Senate elections in order to reach an overall 50-50 Senate tie. But if they continue the trend of outperforming polls since Roe v. Wade was overturned, then it’s more than just possible and maybe even becomes the most probable outcome.

Oh…well that last sentence of mine was actually typed tongue-in-cheek, though your inability to recognize that was a failure of my writing style and not your reading comprehension! I’ll try to answer your questions: When market socialists speak of transitioning beyond the current U.S. mixed economy, they’re usually thinking of models that don’t meaningfully alter the existing ratio of private businesses to public services (well…aside from the health care industry…and maybe also the energy industry…). So all that would really change is the matter of who owns the means of production and the particular way this ownership is distributed. These ownership details, however, would then fall under government regulation. A simple example of what I mean: you want to start a business, but your business model involves you collecting 99.9% of all profits while the rest of your employees split the remaining 0.1% in the form of very low-wage jobs. The market socialist government steps in and tells you that, as founder/CEO, your personal profit collection is to be capped at, say, 51% while the rest of your employees are collectively entitled to the remaining 49%. So you can still make your high-quality products at lower costs to the consumer and with better worker compensation than your competitors. The key difference is that the socialist government more aggressively enforces minimum standards in the worker compensation component of your business plan. In case you’re wondering why I’m just a social democrat and not a full-blown market socialist: for me, it’s much more about data-driven macroeconomic optimization than it is about the restrictions to certain entrepreneurial freedoms. There ARE situations in which I believe supply-side solutions best promote growth (especially if there is greater national oversight of outsourcing, stock buybacks, taxation loopholes, etc.). My reservations with market socialism models are related to potential unintended consequences arising from supply-side market distortions as well as from labor market distortions. At least for the time being, I’d be more than okay with a robust social safety net that includes universal health care and the complete elimination of medical debt.