Outside the Beltway

Comments

1. Beth says:
   Friday, 27 February 2026 at 05:42

   Ok folx, let’s check in on the By-Election in Gorton and Denton:

   Speaking to journalists, Matt Goodwin says Reform were beaten by “a coalition of Islamists and woke progressives that came together to dominate the constituency.”

   He says “I don’t think the progressives beat us, I think the progressives were told how to vote.”

   I mean, ok, like don’t threaten me with a good time Mr. Nazi. Well, I guess that means that Labour has anoth- no, wait, I’m getting word now:

   Kier Starmer eats a hot bowl of Northern dogshit.

   A reminder of the final vote count: The Greens won the Gorton and Denton by-election with 14,980 votes; Reform UK came second with 10,578; Labour came third with 9,364 and the Tories finished fourth with 706.

   A response from yesterday:

   @JohnSF:

   Personnaly, I think Jennings is making a fundamental mistake in his analysis, in seeing the “progressives” as the core Labour vote.
   The Labour electoral problem is it has at least three key support groups: progressives/left (itself with internal divides), centre-left, and “Labour by habit” working class.
   The first can be eaten into by the Greens, the second by LibDems, the third by Reform-style populism.

   The last poll I saw puts Greens, Labour and Reform more or less equal on 27% each.

   Let’s see if I can get either of these charts to work.

   The BBC says that the Greens likely cannibalized the core of the Labour vote.

   I mean, I am innumerate, but Stats for Lefties has this chart that appears to support my thesis.

   This election should be a wake up call for brain dead centrists and right wingers in both Labour and the Democrats. They won’t, because they are morons. To be clear, JohnSF, I don’t include you in that. I don’t think we agree politically, but I’ve seen enough of your comments to respect you as a sort of imaginary, reasonable North Star as I work my way through British politics.

   I’m afraid I could not vote Green, due to their frivolity on defence.

   I’ve seen you remark this before and I suspect there is an age & cultural difference. If im not mistaken, I’m in my late schmorties and you’re a bit older than me. Two things have radicalized me against your view of defense. The first is growing up as a U.S. citizen* first during the bullshit wars of the 80’s & 90’s then as a young adult during the Afghanistan and Iraq fiascos. And absolute fuck ton of money was poured into killing people and all it did was make the U.S. less safe and way poorer. It destabilized the world and made us ALL worse off. The second is how we’ve all been taught that the Russians were going to destroy everything with their unstoppable military power and prowess. Then the Ukrainians started whooping their asses with pitchforks, old lawnmowers and moxie (fuck you Russian warship). I am convinced, that right now, today, with her present forces and supplies, the UK could single handedly drive Russia out of Ukraine. Maybe that’s a bit hyperbole. Maybe throw in the Lithuanians and some Polish resupplies.

   Honestly, I’m mostly in agreement with Polanski here.

   One of the worst thing about being a parent right now is having to relive the 80’s fear of getting nuked but having to think about that happening to my kids. While I don’t agree with Polanski on leaving NATO, that appears to be his position and not the parties (I could be wrong). He is absolutely right that the relationship needs to be rebalanced and maybe expelling some U.S. forces from the UK/EU will make us all safer by making it harder for the U.S. to go to war.

   Yes, I am a hippie crank and I’m just waiting for Dr. Taylor to join the drum circle.

   *since I’ve moved I’ve had a real dislike of calling myself an “American”. It’s not really shame, but a kind of rejected disgust. The Vances and Heritage American crowds have sort of pushed me into a much more antebellum view in as much as I’m much more likely to refer to myself as an Illinoisan (or, proudly, a FIB). You would not be wrong to refer to me as an Illinois supremacist/separatist, a firm believer in the Illinois Khanate/Greater Illinois.

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2. Beth says:
   Friday, 27 February 2026 at 06:00

   Crap, I knew I forgot something. Didn’t finish my thought on calling myself an American.

   Anyways, I was working my way through those feelings when Bad Bunny’s halftime show hit. It reminded me of a time in a social studies class where we had a visiting student from Columbia. She ended up crying during a discussion of who is an “American”.

   I don’t remember it as being a hostile racist thing. I remember it being a moment of genuine confusion, even for the teacher (who was one of my few protectors in that shithole). We believed we were the only Americans because we were from the U.S. she had the Bad Bunny view that we’re ALL Americans. She was, and remains, the correct side of that argument.

   That’s the kind of American I want to be. When I say I’m an American, I want people to think of the beauty of the end of that Bad Bunny performance. With all the flags and culture and power. That’s the signal I want to send.

   Not the cramped White nonsense 1950’s nostalgia. Not the brittle Heritage American racist bullshit. Not a garbage fake UK-Eurocentric image that doesn’t take into account who the Brits and Euros actually are today. Fuck all that.

   I’m still trying to figure out how to signal that. That’s the only vision of America I’m interested in fighting for. United, prosperous, and fucking weird from North to South, Atlantic to Pacific.

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3. Kingdaddy says:
   Friday, 27 February 2026 at 06:51

   Nearly blind refugee abandoned by US border patrol found dead in Buffalo

   Reply

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