leicsmac

46 all out after batting first at home, good grief. What was that I said about India being practically invincible at home? Clearly no one told the NZers

Yep. And just like the discussion in here, when one candidate tries to write off an insurrection attempt in his name as no big thing and his VP appears on message with it, perhaps that should be pointed out at length. Of course, again like the discussion above, to get people on board you have to point out policies and why they would be better, rather than just going on about why the other candidate is worse. Harris is making a mistake by not doing that enough in the minds of many, clearly. I wish I knew what the best path is forward to neutralise the sentiment Trump has tapped into so well.

When the NZ bowlers click, they really click. Fantastic. England with their work cut out here.

And his successor is already on message about using the democratic process to destroy it, and violence and insurrection being acceptable means of gaining and holding power, if today's words are any judge. That would at least mean the damage done is limited, but I can only hope rather than expect this is true. More likely the consequences resonate for much, much longer than that.

I'll have to check that out, thank you. And yeah, entirely agreed.

Yep, you're absolutely spot on. But that doesn't stop such thinking leading to only one logical outcome. So, obviously privileged as it is, someone has to think of and act on the long game - or everyone, including Cory from Georgia - share in the consequences.

What was the saying? "A lie can go round the world before the truth gets its boots on"? Valuing perception and self-interest over facts and long-term outlook is one of the main reasons people vote for Trump and it leads nowhere good. It's truly sad that things have come to that. Everyone involved should know what Trump is and what he represents. Own voting for him and what that means for other people and the future, rather than using excuses IMO.

There's an argument to be made for that. Is that really a compelling reason to pick him, and what he and his followers will do, though?

Yep, and clearly that message is having trouble resonating, given the current polling figures. I just take issue with people looking round at that and then choosing something rather worse overall based on ignorance or malicious short term self interest, and then not taking at least some responsibility for the consequences that do result. People's concerns are legitimate, but I would think it's rather clear Trump is no short term answer to most of them and no long term answer to any of them at all. Edit: I would repeat that I agree a negative "never Trump" message is counterproductive because positivity and honesty should sell better, but for me that still doesn't detract from the facts about consequences.

This is undoubtedly true, given the evidence. However, I'm not sure why, given what Trump did last time round, what his policy platform is now, and what his supporters have gotten up to all the time, that isn't deemed an entirely legitimate position to take. It would be great to have a candidate much more inspirational, thoughtful and empathetic than Harris, but looking at the policy platforms and realising just what the alternative means for a lot of people outside very particular demographics right now and ever single human being in the future, the choice really should be crystal clear. And people cannot, should not, wash their hands of those consequences when they happen by simply saying Harris wasn't "x enough" or "too x". Edit: and as a reminder, this whole thing really shouldn't be a question in the first place as in any decent nation being involved in an attempt to overthrow the results of a free and fair election would end the political career of the person and people involved anyway.

I don't disagree that the Dems have been lacking in their choice of candidates... but at the same time if the dreadful consequences of a second Trump term do manifest themselves (and they most likely will), I reckon most of the accountability should be put at the feet of those of those who voted for them, in their own short term self interest. Hopefully, history will record the same. If there's enough people actually interested in such history and capable of interpreting it in the future, that is.

And that at least some Americans would consider Harris and her party in much way Liberal or socialist shows you just how messed up the Overton Window is there. There may also be a certain amount of misogyny in play, too.

Trump: "[there was a] peaceful transfer of power on January 6th." ...I know that politicians lie, but how is it possible to tell that big a lie while keeping even close to a straight face?

Yeah, fair points. The truly great 2009-2012 side won in Aus and in India. To be truly great, any England team has to emulate that. This team certainly can give both a match though IMO and the potential is there; the only weakness I can spot is a great spinner (again). Was thinking more about series than matches per se, but as every match counts towards that WTC total, this is totally fair too.

We should have won the Ashes 4-1 and I reckon the home series v India won't actually be that close. I think it's got to the stage where you have the three big nations all pretty much unbeatable at home even by each other and then win most of the other series home and away. Slow over rates really has messed things up, agreed there.

Unfortunate the way the Ashes and the away series in India panned out, really. England on this form can easily match anyone except those two away from home, and even then it would be interesting.

Oh, hey, it's one of those things the scientific community has been warning about for years. It's deeply depressing, but better to parley that into a certain amount of anger and action to attempt to avert the worst of the consequences.

Thing is though, that system cannot, will not, sustain itself in the long or even the short term. Consequences both natural and artificial will see to that. So either we pick a new system, or we simply allow the gates to open to Very Bad Things to happen to everyone, including those rich people.

Another master of astrodynamics. It would be nice to have a lander go there or to Enceladus sooner rather than later, though. Good. Well managed small scale fission is at least part of the way forward. Until we finally get fusion sorted.

I think there's evidence of that too. But I'm asking if there's any evidence that opposite is true right now and I'd like to know.

Misogyny isn't the only motivating factor, but it would be remiss to say it isn't a big one. A lot of it is about good old fashioned individualist self-interest.

Agreed. Which, I would posit, in most civilised countries is paid for mostly by taxation.

I think the US qualifies there (or certain parts of it), as does parts of Asia and (perhaps) the Middle East emerging economies. I certainly think there's enough evidence to make a correlation between low tax environments and overall inequality.

Well, yeah. And not only is working for the common person more morally square, it's incredibly utilitarian from the point of view of future survival of civilisation and the biosphere too.

Not sure that's the case all over the world, but certainly in a lot of places, it would seem. With respect to the bolded, I guess that comes down to one's definition of "working". No doubt the social Darwinists love it and think it's working fine - as misguided as that obviously is.