The US was absolutely the world leader after WW2. The entire system for global trade and finance has been designed by and around the US, and everybody played ball.

Obviously “leader of the free world” should come with some annotations about what they mean with “freedom”, and the US has absolutely been complicit in overthrowing some democracies and supporting dictatorships, but it’s indisputable that they’ve had a position of leadership among free and democratic countries; the US did often set the standard, and got what they wanted.

And for a long time, the things they wanted weren’t always just for the good of the US, but good for many countries and possibly the world, at least from some perspective. The US has pressured many other colonial powers to release their colonies, for example.

Of course they were also often wrong, and often disastrously so, but that rarely hurt their position of leadership. Until now. Actually until Bush started the Iraq war; that was the first real dent in US credibility. Obama did a lot to repair it, and then Trump flushed it down the toilet.

Of course misogyny played a role. A million factors played a role, but most of those she couldn’t control. How she campaigns is something she could control, and that’s something she fucked up.

I was so excited after she picked Tim Walz. It was starting to look like the most progressive ticket in decades, she was ahead in the polls, and then she turned around and started campaigning with Republicans and CEOs. Total betrayal.

And yeah, she disappeared. I hear more from Biden and Obama than from her.

That’s always been his strategy: keep repeating the lie until it becomes true.

Same with people complaining that Star Wars or Star Trek is too woke or too liberal. When was it ever not?

People turn fascist only to discover that that’s exactly what all their favourite art always opposed.

That’s going to cost them votes in the long run, if their base can’t reproduce.

That’s what I thought.

It’s apparently also in Mexico and Canada, so you can still visit matches there.

Would be funny if the stadiums in Mexico and Canada were chock full while those in the US were half empty. You’d hope they’d finally get the message.