Garden is really starting to get into the midsummer groove. First good harvest of tomatoes yesterday, more sorrel though it’s slowing down with the heat. Had a few small eggplants but hoping the next batch will grow bigger.

I planted Persian basil which seems to grow really well in my climate but all of the basil is growing well, along with my sweet potatoes.

Peppers are sizing up but not ripe yet. Ginger and water spinach still struggling for unknown reasons but I’m wondering if the soil in that area is compacted or something.

Finally, my pepino is growing like crazy and getting very large. But it’s been flowing for a while now and hasn’t made any fruit. If anyone has experience with this plant and has advice, let me know.

Damn that sucks. Why are they planting grass? For cattle? Who owns the land?

“ongoing bilateral engagement”

Yeah this is gonna turn into another CECOT isn’t it.

More accurately, they’re both separate descendants of ethnonationalism which was a popular ideology at that time. And still today, evidently, though it seemed to be in decline for a bit during the post-war period.

Citation needed.

The shortage is so severe that any housing helps, though it’s certainly not the most efficient way to go about it.

And he’s just one of many sent there, most are still experiencing this.

Lesser evil voting is fully rational in the system we have. You don’t have to like it. You can fight to change it. But that’s just a fact.

These people need to get behind electoral reforms then. There’s no reason another party is going to do better than the existing third parties. There’s a reason there has never in American history been more than two viable parties at once. The duopoly is fully enforced by our electoral system.

For the record, he’s a democratic socialist, not a social democrat. These are distinct, though related movements. The difference between them, which you seem confused about, is that socialists do not uphold the capitalist class, despite your claims. Social democrats want to retain capitalism, while democratic socialists do not.

However, democratic socialists do have differences of opinion with more radical socialists on the best way to achieve the socialized means of production they aim for. They favor reform over revolution.

You are welcome to disagree with this view but it’s not a good reason to view their socialism as false or insincere.

No need to reply, since we already established that you’re not interested in good faith discourse. But I couldn’t leave this misinformation unchallenged.

I know what socialism means. I wanted to hear your interpretation of the facts regarding Mamdani, since this is a contentious topic, and socialism is a broad tradition. But I see now it was a waste of time to expect serious discourse from you.

I guess that’s a yes. I was genuinely curious to hear the case that he’s not a socialist but it doesn’t seem you have much basis for this opinion.

I’m talking about Mamdani specifically though. Or are you just assuming that based on your feelings about the US in general?

He calls himself one, do you have cause to doubt it?

There might be some things the mayor could do, like joining boycotts, etc.

Certainly he can stop or interfere with the crackdown on pro-palestinian dissent in the city which has been extreme under Adams and Trump.

That’s the conventional wisdom. But the power of the state was so much weaker back then.

Shifting baselines. It makes me wonder if people in the bad old times of monarchy might have actually been more free than we are now.

Won’t someone rid us of this turbulent shitstain?

It seems like it might finally be materializing. I don’t know every detail of Mamdani’s politics but they do seem genuinely left by American standards. I can’t think of a further left candidate that has won a prominent election in this country.

Should be, but NYC has a surprisingly conservative streak. Just look at their past mayors.