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Edward's avatar

Yeah I ended my Dispatch subscription when David French left.

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Mary's avatar

Same

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mel ladi's avatar

Hey, thatтАЩs exactly when I dropped my subscription. I only joined because of David (in particular his Sunday French Press) and now I can get that in my sub to the NYT.

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ЁЯРЭ BusyBusyBee ЁЯРЭ's avatar

I also signed up because of David and love reading him over at the NYT. I like NickтАЩs column on most days but he def falls into ruts. My sub ends in November and I will not be renewing either. Although, if Trump wins the nomination - as looks likely - it might be an interesting time over there watching them twist themselves into knots. ЁЯШЖ

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Edward's avatar

The other thing I noticed with The Dispatch is that their comments section is much less fun and congenial compared to here. Say anything outside NR/conservative orthodoxy in response to one of JonahтАЩs columns and the mad dogs come aтАЩrunnin.

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Oldandintheway's avatar

That really is the problem. The mad dogs are not going away. They have been unlashed and they are foaming at the mouth. It is unclear how many there are, anywhere from 15 to 35 % of Americans. But they display a combination of "don't know," and "don't care." That applies to democracy, the economy, the war, global warming, fake news, human rights of all kinds, and living in a sane society. Their fun is in the power of cruelty and destruction. Trump and social media have given them a voice and a cover. They are also well funded, whether they know it or not, by a bunch of greedy billionaires.

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Aug 3, 2023
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mollymoe222's avatar

I follow Jonah on Twitter (I frequently disagree with him, but admire that he is willing to go against the grain), and my strong impression is that he is an anti-Trumper.. I donтАЩt know about the rest of the staff, though.

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Lee B.'s avatar

I think anti-anti is too far, but they certainly are too infected with Long NR, though I do see green shoots periodically

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ЁЯРЭ BusyBusyBee ЁЯРЭ's avatar

Lol. Oh yes, my dear, the libertarian is quite strong over there. From Scott to Kevin to Jonah there is no getting away from it. I appreciate some takes (I live in New England and love when Scott rails against the Jones Act (all ships carrying cargo between US ports must be US built and crewed. Unfortunately, thereтАЩs are zero LNG tankers to travel between US ports so we buy all the gas that we canтАЩt squeeze through our meager pipelines on the open market - in times past, even from the Russians - which is contributing to higher winter heating prices for us). But aside from that, I find it all very painful sometimes.

Although they do have some awesome MAGAs that comment over there. Getting the pulse of that crowd is always a good thing to keep tabs on and I must admit that their comments sections make that task very easy - especially now that TwittтАж, errr, X is such a useless pile of crap for doing any research these days.

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Eva Seifert's avatar

The Jones Act was supposed to protect American shipping and encourage it back in 1920. It has turned into an albatross that now hurts American shipping and needs to go.

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BlueOntario's avatar

It needs to be fixed, but not thrown out. One word, "Reforger."

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ЁЯРЭ BusyBusyBee ЁЯРЭ's avatar

Exemptions for things like fuel should be made and written into law. I would say тАЬit would be great to open up places like Guam, Hawaii and Puerto Rico tooтАЭ, but interestingly , HawaiiтАЩs congressional delegation (all D) is part of the group who are fighting to keep it as is.

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redlineblue's avatar

Bless your heart.

Signed,

American Trucking Association

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Aug 3, 2023
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knowltok's avatar

I went through history and counted up all the Communist Utopias and all the Randian Utopias and came up with a statistical tie.

I do not have degrees in poli-sci, anthropology, sociology, history, or anything else remotely relevant, so make of that what you will.

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Edward's avatar

It's the zombie conservatism and inability to change with the times that drove me insane. For example, they would find this to be heretical: https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/how-misreading-adam-smith-helped-spawn-deaths-of-despair/

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mel ladi's avatar

Great article. Thanks for sharing. It does a very credible job of talking about free markets and healthcare.

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