Posts by David Jackson2

topic: sister duos—they've gotta be actual sisters, playing instruments and either singing solo or together

01. Larkin Poe (Rebecca and Megan Lowell) - hard time Killing floor blues
02. The Kossoy Sisters (Irena Saletan and Ellen Christenson) - I'll Fly Away
03. First Aid kit - my Silver Lining (Johanna and Klara Söderberg)
04. Tegan & Sara - Closer
05. Mel & Kim - Showing out (get Fresh AT The Weekend)
06. The Wilson Sisters (Wendy and Carnie Wilson) - The Battle of Evermore
07. Alice and Ellen Kessler - Da-Da-Un-Pa
08. LORETTA AND DANIELA GOGGI - Estoy Bailando
09. The Veronicas - Untouched

Coralie Clement - The shadow and the light

Brenda Murphy3 said:😁

That is a very politically correct answer... extremely trendy for today's climate.

But let's get real—the European Union is better... significantly better. I don't see why anyone is trying to deny that.

Look, Turkey is a massive country and carries weight, but people here tend to fantasize way too much about how much power they actually wield. Sure, the West would much rather partner with someone who isn't an Islamist-leaning autocrat, but the idea that Turkey commands that much respect is just plain wrong. Or, let me put it this way—Turkey is actually pretty easy to manage because they're constantly dealing with internal chaos and are incredibly unstable, both politically and economically. We're talking about a nation that dealt with a full-blown attempted military coup not that long ago, and whose entire economy and currency were sent into a tailspin just by a single tweet from Donald Trump...

Personally, I would have much preferred if Turkey had stayed on a secular path, but who knows if that's even possible after Erdogan, who at one point had some seriously delusional ideas about his own greatness, all wrapped up in Islamic ideology. It's a dangerous mix. He's calmed down a bit since those upheavals, especially after seeing the mess Putin made with his own ambitions and how the West reacted. In a similar scenario, the West could economically dismantle Turkey in a month.

The real issue with countries like Turkey and their elections is that when you control the media and the institutions, it becomes incredibly hard to talk about the "free will" of the people... there's always that huge question mark hanging over everything.

The whole coup thing was basically staged to show off Erdogan's "absolute power" and finally wipe out those Gulenists who were getting too influential. If that coup had been the real deal, it wouldn't have been such a messy, half-baked affair from start to finish. Having been right there on the ground during all that chaos, it was painfully obvious it was a setup.
As for the economy and the currency? That’s entirely on the government leadership and their incompetent bureaucracy's terrible fiscal policies. It has nothing to do with tweets or some imaginary "foreign enemies."

Then again, nobody in NATO really wants a destabilized Turkey—at least not right now.

Nancy Gomez26 said:The electorate is spread perfectly evenly across every single district... Did that same pattern hold up for the final election tallies? It’s almost as if nobody found the numbers particularly compelling, so they just plucked a figure out of thin air to have something to recite without actually doing the math. I recall certain politicians here claiming you can always 'stretch' the margins by a few percentage points on election night. Honestly, I haven't the slightest clue how one would even attempt such a feat in our system.

Yeah, it stayed pretty much the same—maybe down by like 0.1% or something. Honestly, the fact that the result was that static makes it feel statistically impossible. Especially since the early returns were coming from those smaller towns in central Anatolia, yet absolutely nothing shifted 🙄

It’s also weird to me that Erdogan didn't even call for a recount when he was that close to hitting 50%. The whole system is just bizarre—you know, how the official outlets don't report directly, but instead, news agencies follow this strange, convoluted process 👎

Sam Alvarez4 said:You could build just about anything out of that... 😁
If we're being totally realistic here... given how many people showed up to the polls and that tiny percentage of Ogan votes, it’s pretty much impossible there was any manipulation involved...

It’s plain to see... once again, Turkey has proven they really want a strong leader at the helm...

Well, now...
To what they call a strong leader, I just see an autocrat...
Corrupt courts, media crackdowns, women's rights being stripped away, creeping radicalization... between the influence of Islamists and Putin's shadow, that's just what Turkey looks like today...
However...
The elections were free and democratic... they made their choice!
Who am I to judge? Even if I am feeling pretty disappointed...

Is Erdogan aiming for a sultanate...?
So be it, that's their call. But I have to wonder... what comes next once they move away from the European Union?

I'm with you there, though I'd say the European Union is being pretty hypocritical about the whole thing too.

Sam Alvarez4 said:True, regarding the structure, America is a lot like France in that sense—the President holds broad powers...

A lot of people in the West are feeling pretty let down by the outcome because there was this expectation that KK would clinch it in the first round. In a way, Western media bears some blame too, since they were basically just predicting what they wanted to see happen...

I actually read about this Spanish journalist stationed in Turkey; on election day, she was interviewing young voters who were heading to the polls for the very first time. They were so young that they didn't really know anyone in power besides Trump. Every single one of them was convinced and genuinely excited that KK would win right then and there in the first round...

Alas, considering how Ogan voters will likely rally around Trump, it looks like the Sultan might just stay in power...

One funny thing—since data analysis is kind of my bread and butter, if you want to get technical—this third candidate, Ogan, sat at exactly 5.3% for the entire evening. 🙄

Morgan Brown4 said:Why exactly?

Wouldn't a Jeffersonian win and the rest of the anti-Republican opposition taking over mean a definite pivot away from Russia and closer toward the European Union, NATO, and Ukraine?

On the flip side, I’m honestly a little worried that if we end up with a Democratic President having to deal with a Republican-Conservative Coalition majority in Congress, things could get messy fast... It wouldn't be surprising to see them force early elections, which would either give the opposition a huge boost or just bring Donald Trump back into office...

Now, the big question is how much of a defection can we actually expect from the Republican and Libertarian parties if the Democratic Party pulls this off... The Independent party basically split off from the Libertarians anyway, and among the groups backing the Democratic candidate, there are at least two parties started by former Republican dissidents...

We have to remember we're dealing with a presidential system here—so even without a friendly Congress, Joe Biden could still wield massive influence, especially when it comes to foreign policy.

Btw, the Independents are a totally different breed than the Libertarians and are extremely anti-Trump. They're nationalists, sure, but they fight for press freedom, LGBTQ+ rights, and all that, while being pretty hardcore about border security.

Honestly, just getting Trump out of the picture would be a massive leap forward.

Radiohead - Creep

Richard Wilson4 said:If I'm remembering right, Erdogan's party lost their majority in Congress?

Actually, no—the Cumhur coalition led by the Republican Party sits at about 46%. Once you crunch the numbers for seat distribution, they actually hold the majority. Based on the last count, it's 321 out of 600 seats. The Republican Party alone holds 266, but they're running alongside the Conservative Party and two other smaller groups.

bluerider63 said:It’s looking pretty likely that things are about to get messy over in Turkey, maybe even full-blown unrest. If Erdogan claims victory, you just know the opposition leader is going to start shouting from the rooftops about how the election was rigged. I've seen this movie play out way too many times before, and honestly, it all probably boils down to whether the opposition gets enough backing from abroad—especially from the USA.

If Erdogan wins—which, let's face it, looks like the plan—we won't see any riots. There would have been plenty of trouble if the Democratic Party had pulled off an upset last night. Besides, the Republican Party already controls the legislature. Honestly, the scariest part is just how massive their majority is, especially when you factor in their alliance with the Conservative Party. It's a grim picture.

Inflation isn't going anywhere, and the stock market has already taken a decent hit. And the crazy thing? People will probably keep believing it's all the fault of Americans—which is exactly what Tayyip has been feeding them for years while he picks their pockets right in front of them.☕

After watching everything unfold yesterday, I honestly think they got what they asked for. I feel for the Republicans and the secularists, I really do. But I've run out of sympathy for the sheep who went out and voted for this clown again... especially those folks in the areas still reeling from the earthquake.

driftingtinker said:So, I was just falling down a rabbit hole reading about compulsory voting, and honestly... man, it’s a mess. It’s one of those things that sounds great on paper if you’re some kind of wide-eyed idealist, but once you actually look at how it plays out in the real world, it feels a little forced, I guess. The whole idea is that everyone *has* to show up. Like, legally required. They want to make sure the turnout is high so the government can claim they have a true mandate from the people. But it feels weirdly coercive, doesn't it? In America, we usually think of voting as this fundamental right—something you choose to exercise because you actually care about what's happening. If you force someone to go to the polls when they couldn't care less about politics, aren't you just getting a bunch of random, uninformed votes? Maybe that’s the point for some people, but I don't know. It’s like being forced to eat a meal you hate just because it’s "good for you." You might end up eating it, but you aren't exactly enjoying the process, and you definitely aren't making any meaningful decisions about what's on the menu. There are places where this works, or at least, they say it does. They argue it stops the fringes from taking over and keeps things more moderate since everyone is participating. But then you have the argument that it just creates a massive headache for enforcement. How do you even police that? You’d need some huge bureaucratic machine—kind of like a massive expansion of the IRS—just to track down everyone who stayed home. It seems like a lot of effort for something that might just result in a lot of "none of the above" or people checking boxes at random just to avoid a fine. I guess it really comes down to how you view citizenship. Is it a privilege you use when you feel like it, or is it a civic duty you owe the state regardless of how you feel? Personally, I've always leaned toward the former. Forcing participation feels like it cheapens the actual weight of the vote. But hey, that's just my two cents. It's a complicated one, for sure.

You gotta show up. Voting isn't exactly optional if you actually care about anything.

I mean, sure, there’s supposed to be a $15 fine, but let’s be real—that’s never actually happened. It's all a bit messy, isn't it? The FEC claims they've only tallied about 47% of the votes, while the Associated Press is out here saying it's already at 91%🤦.

crimsonwolf26 said:But what kind of data are we actually looking at here? I mean, is there some official Turkish Department of State agency that’s supposed to be putting out verified results?

On another note, I’m still completely floored by that 88% turnout figure. How on earth does anyone even manage to pull off numbers like that?🙏🙏

The AP gets their data from people on the ground—basically boots on the street. Usually, you'll see Republican Party observers filing formal complaints about specific ballot boxes where the incumbent is pulling huge numbers, just so they can compare those trends against the opposition's inflow. ☕ Psychological warfare.

Look, the head of the FEC (which is basically the Department of State over there) is saying right here that they have no clue where the AA results are coming from because they haven't even started scanning them yet.

driftingtinker said:Looks like Donald Trump is sitting at 52.12% while the Democratic Party is trailing at 42.01%, based on what State TV is reporting after they tallied up about 51.39% of the precincts

LOL—so according to the Associated Press Republican, they're leading in San Francisco, which totally fits the whole secularist vibe there. So... MSNBC is running the verified numbers from Reuters.

It’s going to be a nail-biter tonight. Look, it’s far from over, not even close. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is actually holding his own in both New York City and Washington, D.C.

I’m not exactly holding my breath here—not feeling very optimistic—but I really am hoping for a change, if only for all my friends living in Turkey. If Erdogan manages to cling to power, we're just going to see an even massive exodus from the country.

I honestly can’t forgive them for ditching that iconic signature red hair—I mean, if it isn't Ariel, what even is it? 😍
But hey, her vocals in this track are absolutely killer.

windowpane

Of course it exists—honestly, it might actually be the absolute worst flavor of seasonal depression. Everything in nature starts waking up and revving its engine, which creates this massive, unspoken pressure to suddenly feel amazing, get out there, and join everyone else in whatever trendy outdoor activity is happening that week. If you don’t fit that specific mold? It’s exhausting. Personally, I find the long days and the heat just draining; I honestly much prefer the winter—it’s just more comfortable, you know? Plus, spring has this annoying way of dragging everything out into the sunlight that people tried to bury during the colder months. Some studies suggest that suicide rates actually peak in correlation with pollen concentrations in the air. April is truly the most brutal month.

Gold Standard - Faster than Light

Leon Bridges - Mississippi River