I'm not going to do a semantic analysis of posts to quantify the partisanship, TB. That's silly. But let's talk about the SS thread and what it says about you and ER (and henceforth I'm talking to both of you).

Read chronologically, the thread shows you two winding each other up, as you always do. The level of politicization increased over time. VRB started the ball rolling with a generic grumble about NASA not listening to taxpayers, which provokes Tom into explaining how NASA really works, in his usual absolutist and hyperbolic style (subtract the bombast, and who can deny that NASA's notoriously political?) You (two) plateaued the snarkiness for a couple of comments, then ER ended a post with the line about "peddling your political spam on Space/Science". Tom gets credit for trying for one comment to restrain an angry response, but inevitably the thread fell apart.

ER, you said a couple of things, across a couple of posts, that illustrate something that's been bothering me for a while now, as I observe you and Tom pounding on each other. It comes close to the surface here:

However, it is important to point out that even though there is no way we can stop you from peddling your political spam on Space/Science, we can still make sure you understand your efforts to do so have been recognized for exactly what they are.

The point is that you use this forum to push your political agenda, and punish even the slightest deviation from it from anyone else. You are a partisan propagandist.

Like I said, I can’t stop you from being one, but I can see to it you don’t think you’re getting away with it. And I can see to it that anyone else who might be visiting here who sees it knows your political superstitions are not automatically accepted by the space community.

Ya know, ER, that reads like a declaration of vendetta against Tom. You're going to have to become Tom's stalker to put your threat into effect, following him everywhere on the Zone just so you can follow his every post with your own rebuttal and warning to visitors.

Don't you have something better to do? Is retirement weighing so heavily on you that this is how you get your jollies?

Look, you know I'd have to agree that TB can be a royal pain in the ass sometimes. And he's said to me that in his view everything is political, but he's been able to control the partisanship pretty well on Space/Science, and his occasional forays to the other putatively nonpolitical boards. I haven't seen anything at all political on the ComestibleZone. (that's a joke, I'm trying to lighten the mood)

ER, if you want to see less of Tom's political side, do you really think the way to get that outcome is to fan these small sparks of political allusion into an inferno? I wonder if it's possible for anybody to turn down the partisanship when they're constantly being reminded of how partisan they are?

I've made reference to Tom's political obsessiveness too. I think we make Tom more political than he otherwise would be.