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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

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If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

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Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

We still have time to mess this up!

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / I’m In a Mood

I’m In a Mood

by John Cole|  October 22, 20189:44 pm| 112 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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And I probably best should not share it here. I’m just deeply pessimistic.

*** Update ***

PS I am still pissed about everything Russia.

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Previous Post: « Open Thread: An ‘Angry (But Positive!) Mob’ — of Women Voters
Next Post: Late Night ‘This Crap Again’ Open Thread: It’s A Boid… It’s A Plane… It’s BIZARRO TRUMP! »

Reader Interactions

112Comments

  1. 1.

    EBT

    October 22, 2018 at 9:47 pm

    Trans people were the Nazi’s first target too.

  2. 2.

    WaterGirl

    October 22, 2018 at 9:48 pm

    Pessimistic because of your experience today at Dem HQ?

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    October 22, 2018 at 9:49 pm

    I’m In a Mood

    Day with a “y” in it?

    :)

    A little mood music cover for ya.

  4. 4.

    TomatoQueen

    October 22, 2018 at 9:50 pm

    Hands on that plow. Eyes on the Prize.

    https://youtu.be/lHukQPyohB8

  5. 5.

    Spanky

    October 22, 2018 at 9:53 pm

    Maybe you should check out the post downstairs:

    … There is, I find, only one thing that soothes my galloping anxiety, and that is talking to women who are actually doing the work of campaigning. The people who are knocking on doors and organizing rallies tend to be much more cheerful and confident than those who spend too much time on Twitter obsessing over each new poll.

  6. 6.

    Vicki Harrison

    October 22, 2018 at 9:58 pm

    Colorado has vote by mail & I did. On the ballot sleeve there is a way to check the progress of your ballot & I did. So far they can’t verify my signature. I’ll keep checking.

  7. 7.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    October 22, 2018 at 10:00 pm

    Everybody hang in. We’re going to make it. We’ve dealt with worse shit than this before, and while it’s going to be hard and messy and ugly, we can do this. We have to.

    At times like this, I look at the history of Black people in America. They’ve seen shit far worse than what we’re dealing with now, and they just kept their heads down and did what they had to do to get through and make things better. Black Americans have never given up, not on themselves, not on this country, not even on us white people. When I feel down, I look to their history for inspiration. Nothing I have to get through is anything like what millions of them have gotten through. If they made it through 250 years of slavery, and then another 100 of beatings and lynchings, then, shit. I can carry on. We all can. So keep your God damned heads up, and keep on keeping on.

  8. 8.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    October 22, 2018 at 10:00 pm

    @EBT:
    I think our only saving grace is that Trump doesn’t have the charisma Hitler had. He’s too easy to hate and despise by a majority of the population.

  9. 9.

    Major Major Major Major

    October 22, 2018 at 10:01 pm

    You should spend less time on twitter, Cole.

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    October 22, 2018 at 10:02 pm

    Cole, have you watched this?

    https://twitter.com/Eleven_Films/status/1054398613835530242/video/1

    It really lifted my spirits.

  11. 11.

    frosty

    October 22, 2018 at 10:04 pm

    I mailed 10 postcards for Kendra today. Maybe that will help.

  12. 12.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    October 22, 2018 at 10:06 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:
    I second that e-motion

  13. 13.

    Elizabelle

    October 22, 2018 at 10:15 pm

    Get off this blog and go knock doors.

    I saw the FTF NYTimes website today — all the “Dems should be skeered, they’re losing again.” Didn’t click on any of that. Thought briefly about cancelling the sub. Again.

    Eff that shit. Go meet the people at the doors. Call voters. Do something other than paying more attention than they deserve to the Eeyores and the “horserace — must make this a horserace!” political types who probably pretty much interview each other.

    If you’re an introvert, prepare a delicious dinner and take it to a local campaign HQ. They’ll be in there at all hours, working the data and preparing voter contact materials. They are hungry. (And sleep-deprived.)

  14. 14.

    lgerard

    October 22, 2018 at 10:16 pm

    Every city needs a guy like this

  15. 15.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    October 22, 2018 at 10:18 pm

    I guess I should be clear here that I’m not saying pasty-assed white guys like me should just sit back and let somebody else do all the work for us. We need to do what we can, too. But when—and I choose that word because I choose to believe that we will make it through this—we’ll have the same old people to thank for it, the ones who always take the most shit and still find a way to help us become a better society in the end, women, people of color, sexual minorities—the usual suspects.

  16. 16.

    ant

    October 22, 2018 at 10:19 pm

    My husband the other day said “If i have to drive down there, I’m not going to vote. It’s too much of a pain in the ass”.

    He has missed the last two midterms, despite my protests about it. Some organizer has noticed this, and on both occasions, (2010,2014) someone has come knocking on our door trying to get him to vote. This time they filled out a vote by mail form, and sent it to him. He sent it in, but failed to include a photo copy of his ID.

    This is what we were arguing about. I was trying to convince him to go downtown and get his ID photocopied, so they will send him a ballet here in Wisconsin. Too much work for him.

    Apparently he can just make a copy at work, and then send it in. So I’m working on getting him to do that. Sigh.

    His idiot brother that lives with us still blathers on about Hillary would be no different than Trump. The last time he voted was for Nater in 2000. I’ve given up on trying to get him to vote. Too much “bad energy”, he says to follow that stuff. To much work.

    My other friend that I’ve known since high school is politically aware enough to drive 10 hours one way to South Dakota (or where ever the fuck it was) to protest the oil pipe line, but voted for Stien or whoever the fuck that idiot was that ran spoiler in 2016.

    People are fucking stupid. Nobody thinks things through. We are doomed as a species.

  17. 17.

    Matt McIrvin

    October 22, 2018 at 10:20 pm

    FWIW, I think I might have just swung a vote from No to Yes on Massachusetts Question 1. It isn’t Congress, but it’s something…

  18. 18.

    John Cole

    October 22, 2018 at 10:20 pm

    @ant: lysistrata

  19. 19.

    Gretchen

    October 22, 2018 at 10:20 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Yeah, Me too. I started the day feeling pretty upbeat about the long lines in Texas to early vote. Then read Stonekettle Station’s post about the similarities to 1930’s Germany, and Cole’s it’s hopeless Twitter, and started feeling hopeless. Then went to a rally for my candidate in an R+4 district, and we all walked across the street to early vote together, with cars honking encouragement at us, and I’m feeling hopeful again. I wish I could just delete Twitter until after the election. I really don’t think the pundits and pollsters get the amount of on the ground anger, fear,, and determination to change things. They’re handwringing about not getting to Hispanic voters. This campaign plans to contact every winnable voter in the district in the next two weeks. One question on my walk sheet was Spanish or other language speaker. They’re on it. I asked if they needed data entry help since we used paper sheets last weekend. The surprising answer? No thanks, we have enough. Ever heard of a campaign that had more help than they needed? There were a couple of hundred people at the office opening, and a good half of them were volunteers who have never volunteered for a campaign before. The grass roots energy is amazing. If it’s a fair election, we’ll win. They’re cheating every way they can, so we’ll see. I’m going to write a few postcards for Heidi Heitkamp tonight just for good measure.

  20. 20.

    Patricia Kayden

    October 22, 2018 at 10:23 pm

    @Elizabelle: Love the suggestion in your last paragraph.

  21. 21.

    JMG

    October 22, 2018 at 10:23 pm

    I honestly think you need to relax John. You may be proven right, but I don’t see any evidence that if Democrats don’t win, it’s because of lack of effort. This whole website argues otherwise.

  22. 22.

    Rick Taylor

    October 22, 2018 at 10:25 pm

    One of the advantages I’ve gained by being wrong so many times about what voters are going to do is that I’m now completely convinced I have no idea what’s going to happen. I’m neither optimistic nor pessimistic. We’ll all find out soon enough.

  23. 23.

    Gretchen

    October 22, 2018 at 10:27 pm

    I got at least one vote for Dems last weekend. I was Door-knocking, and an older lady answered. I asked if had decided who she is going to vote for. She said « Yes, and I don’t have to tell you ». I said, no, of course not, sorry to bother you, would it be ok if I just left you some literature to look over? She said sure, fine, and then got interested in talking. I’m walking neighborhoods with my (former) son-in-law, so I introduced him, and we had a nice chat about why we like Sharice Davids. She told me that I got her vote. Yay!

  24. 24.

    ant

    October 22, 2018 at 10:29 pm

    @John Cole:

    lysistrata

    No go. We’ve been together 15 years, never happens anyway.

    In any case, I have to pick my battles. And that one I can only fight so hard on.

  25. 25.

    Gretchen

    October 22, 2018 at 10:30 pm

    I talked to another moderate Republican. He said I probably couldn’t understand that. I said sure, I’d voted for moderate republicans too. I think I may have convinced him to vote for the Dem governor candidate, since no moderate likes Kris Kobach, but am still kicking myself that I didn’t do well enough about congress. He didn’t think Sharice had firm enough proposals. My son is in the restaurant industry, and has had a lot of jobs that didn’t provide health insurance. We did stuff like making him take a class so he could get student insurance. It was such a relief when the ACA passed and he could get good, affordable insurance on the exchanges. Cong. Yoder voted 40 times to repeal the ACA. Why didn’t I tell this guy my story – he was willing to listen – instead of dithering? Lesson learned for next weekend.

  26. 26.

    GregB

    October 22, 2018 at 10:31 pm

    I think the fascists have weaponized social
    media with pinpoint accuracy.

    They know how to sow discord, accelerate anxiety and foment literal hysteria. One of the latest memes is an old photo of a bloody police officer with a blurb about the members of the caravan causing his injury.

    The media is feeding this story in the same way they fanned the Ebola story.

    It is an active information warfare campaign designed to juice one group and demoralize another.

  27. 27.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 22, 2018 at 10:33 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: You should spend less time on twitter, Cole.

    emboldened for being right

  28. 28.

    debbie

    October 22, 2018 at 10:37 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Paul Bronks has gone silent again because someone objected to a video. I don’t know why people who object to them just stop following him.

  29. 29.

    Sister Golden Bear

    October 22, 2018 at 10:40 pm

    @EBT: We were indeed.

    Remember that famous photo of Nazis burning books. Many of the books were the archive of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, which had advocated for LGBT people, and its head had successfully lobbied for more humane treatment of trans people.

    I’m defiant, but I’m not made of steel. I’ve spent the last two days alternating between crying and rage and trying to figure out the best way to fight the bastards, given the limitations of my recovery. (Between work and after care, I still don’t have much energy to do anything else, although im slowly improving week by week. But it’ll be another three months before I feel 100% again.)

    Hoping that I don’t need to think seriously about contingency plans to leave the country.

    And yes, I know that trying to terrorize me is precisely the point:

    https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-trauma-of-the-trump-administrations-attacks-on-transgender-people

    for transgender and intersex people, having rights taken away is just not a return to a time before those rights were gained. It is worse. It is traumatic. It can have the effect of leaving people exposed because they don’t have a closet to return to. It can create absurd legal situations—if, for example, state-issued identity documents are not recognized by the federal government. The revocation of rights feels violent because it Is violent, in part because the effort is aimed at preventing the rights from being reclaimed.

  30. 30.

    Brachiator

    October 22, 2018 at 10:41 pm

    I don’t know if anyone wrote about it yesterday, but last night’s Doctor Who episode, “Rosa,” was brutal, sad, and dramatically and emotionally satisfying. The Doctor and her friends go to 1955, the day before Rosa Parks, sat down and stood up for her rights.

    The Doctor’s companions, including a young black man and an Asian woman, experience Jim Crow directly as they help the Doctor prevent history from being changed.

    During the episode, one of the characters asks Mrs Parks why she persists when every day is a fight. She replies that the promise of tomorrow is what you have when today is rough.

    Great episode. And this is where we are now. Nothing is guaranteed except a fight to try to make it better tomorrow.

  31. 31.

    feebog

    October 22, 2018 at 10:42 pm

    Dems are going to pick up 44 seats. You can take that to the bank. And Cole, don’t you have some naked mopping to do?

  32. 32.

    Mary G

    October 22, 2018 at 10:44 pm

    Somehow I’m getting the feeling that we’re not the only ones nervous and stressed:

    Secret Service had to break up fight between Kelly and Lewandowski: report https://t.co/Gxpa1Jw4El pic.twitter.com/NMsdEsCTSO— The Hill (@thehill) October 23, 2018

    I’d bet on the old guy, if I wasn’t rooting for mutually assured destruction.

    ETA: I didn’t read far enough down in the story to see that this happened last February, but still. Who does this kind of shit in the White House? Can you imagine Obama tolerating this kind of crap?

  33. 33.

    Ohio Mom

    October 22, 2018 at 10:46 pm

    As someone famous and dead, I don’t know who, said: It is not necessary to hope in order to persevere.

  34. 34.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 22, 2018 at 10:48 pm

    @John Cole: Do the right thing. Go back to your nap.

  35. 35.

    feebog

    October 22, 2018 at 10:48 pm

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):

    That was inspirational. Gunna repost on my Facebook page. Full attribution of course. You are about to become famous.

  36. 36.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 22, 2018 at 10:50 pm

    @Mary G:

    Sheryl Gay Stolberg @ SherylNYT
    Fisticuffs outside the Oval! Lewandowski and Kelly nearly came to blows. Secret Service broke it up.

    killjoys

  37. 37.

    Elizabelle

    October 22, 2018 at 10:52 pm

    @Patricia Kayden: I am hearing the local office is getting a bit tired of … chili. But all food gratefully accepted. Veggie options and a lovely salad on the side are good.

    We will persist. We will vote. We will win.

  38. 38.

    Elizabelle

    October 22, 2018 at 10:53 pm

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Lovely comment, SDP Mumphrey. You’ve got it.

  39. 39.

    Poptartacus

    October 22, 2018 at 10:53 pm

    Chill out turkey lurkey
    https://youtu.be/ZCBIAmtaKuA

  40. 40.

    NotMax

    October 22, 2018 at 10:59 pm

    Something to chew on. For the ‘Peoples Are the Kwaziest Animals’ file.

    · A new website called Who Paid 99 Cents will show you everyone else who paid 99 cents — after you pay 99 cents.
    · Every time you want to see an updated list of who paid 99 cents, you have to pay another 99 cents.
    · That’s all the website does, and it seems to be made by a computer entertainment studio called Thinko.
    · The Thinko team made the website mostly for a quick laugh, but people are actually paying.
    Source

  41. 41.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 22, 2018 at 11:04 pm

    Hey, John. I don’t care.

  42. 42.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 22, 2018 at 11:07 pm

    @Sister Golden Bear: I fixed your hyperlink issue.

  43. 43.

    ruemara

    October 22, 2018 at 11:08 pm

    @ant: I don’t like your husband at all. I can’t believe any decent human could be that lazy, but I know how many are. It’s a cruelty to sit their and act like that.

  44. 44.

    patrick II

    October 22, 2018 at 11:10 pm

    I mentioned on the late night post last night that I had been cavassing for Elaine Luria over the weekend and the difference in the gender breakout. I would say over 80% of women I talked to were voting Democratic, with nearly the same for men voting Republican. Small sample size I know, but still remarkable to me.
    For those of you canvassing, I hand wrote the postcard URL on the handouts, and people who would not canvas or do phone calls said they would be happy to do postcards. People have good intentions, but one lady signed up on her cell phone right in front of me.

  45. 45.

    Nicole

    October 22, 2018 at 11:11 pm

    I’m sorry. And I feel you. I’m mad about everything Russia, too. And mad that so many people are so miserable that their only joy comes out of hurting others. If one can call that joy.

    But, as others have said, Americans who are not white have experienced this kind of America for longer and much worse than us white libtards, and the least we can do is keep our heads up and not give up. We are on the correct side and they are not and they know it. Ergo all their anger.

  46. 46.

    Aleta

    October 22, 2018 at 11:13 pm

    Re Facism and fighting it. It’s our turn.

  47. 47.

    NotMax

    October 22, 2018 at 11:15 pm

    FYI.

    Footage obtained by Turkish broadcaster A Haber late Monday showed Saudi consular personnel burning documents a day after Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance. Source

  48. 48.

    Marcopolo

    October 22, 2018 at 11:15 pm

    Whelp I just spent 6 hours w/ a room full of amazing Indivisible folks writing & stamping GOtV postcards one final time before they get mailed tomorrow. We had a full house, had to set up two extra tables, and had used 10,000 postcard stamps before we ran out. The rest of the postcards will get stamped tomorrow but all told we’ve written & will mail over 200,000.

    I have no fricken idea what the final outcome will be but everyone I know is giving (and leaving) everything out on the field.

  49. 49.

    patrick II

    October 22, 2018 at 11:16 pm

    Daredevil season 3 started on Netflix this past Friday. ( perhaps everyone here already knows it). Vincent D’Onofrio is back as Kingpin, and he is tremendous as the Devil’s Kitchen version of Donald Trump, but smarter (I just watched him call the press Fake News and saying he was falsely accused by the elite in a press conference). And while D’Onofrio gets widespread credit for his work as Kingpin, Charlie Cox is just as good as Daredevil — a quieter but complex part Cox does a great job with. Actually the whole cast is very good. Recommended.

  50. 50.

    NotMax

    October 22, 2018 at 11:27 pm

    Psst. Please don’t tell Musk about this lunacy.

    Chengdu to launch “artificial moon” in 2020

    Southwestern China’s city of Chengdu plans to launch its illumination satellite, also known as the “artificial moon”, in 2020, according to Wu Chunfeng, chairman of Chengdu Aerospace Science and Technology Microelectronics System Research Institute Co., Ltd.
    [snip]
    The illumination satellite is designed to complement the moon at night. Wu introduced that the brightness of the “artificial moon” is eight times that of the real moon, and will be bright enough to replace street lights.
    [snip]
    The testing of the illumination satellite started years ago, and now the technology has finally matured, explained Wu. Source

  51. 51.

    rikyrah

    October 22, 2018 at 11:27 pm

    Cole,
    As a Black woman whose parents grew up in the Police State known as Jim Crow America…. I have a healthy dose of pessimism. But, I also was taught to believe in America. We are the only group that had to find a reason to believe in America. But, believe in it, we do. And, fight for that to become reality is the main reason why a sizeable chunk of White people despise us.

    And, that is ok.

    The bitterness that I have been holding on to since November 2016.. is that it didn’t have to be this way.
    They were mad that a Black man wasn’t just President, but pretty much belongs on Mount Rushmore.

    They believe that non-Whites are going to humor them, as they try to go back to 1948.
    But, nobody is playing with them.

    Uh uh
    Not playing with them in the least.

    So , pound that pavement. Make some phone calls. Write some post cards. Offer yourself up as a taxi, if WV has early voting.

    This country has seen darker times. Maybe not for White people, but, you know….

  52. 52.

    Matt McIrvin

    October 22, 2018 at 11:27 pm

    @Brachiator: The episode wasn’t perfect (in one scene the protagonists take quite a while to get rousted out of a place where I doubt they’d even have been able to walk in the door), but it was better than I expected: it portrayed Parks’ act as a carefully planned civil-rights protest, which alone puts it head and shoulders above the standard US school treatment of the event.

  53. 53.

    Major Major Major Major

    October 22, 2018 at 11:32 pm

    Baby capybara…Look at their tiny feet. pic.twitter.com/dvq3acD70S

    — Land of cuteness (@landpsychology) October 23, 2018

  54. 54.

    Marcopolo

    October 22, 2018 at 11:32 pm

    @Ohio Mom: As someone not so famous but most definitely alive (Sarah Kendzior a local St Louisan said in a piece the Globe & Mail published:

    “How do you maintain hope?” an audience member asked me at the end of the talk. This is another question I get asked everywhere I go. I told her that I don’t believe in hope and I don’t believe in hopelessness; I believe in compassion and pragmatism. Hope can be lethal when you are fighting an autocracy. Hope is inextricable from time, and as anyone who has studied the entrenchment of dictators knows, the longer they stay in, the harder it is to get them out. Every day passed is damage done.

    And there is probably no one who knows that more than the migrant parents who lost their children to the Trump administration, who spend every day wondering how their child is growing and changing without them – if their child is even alive. Time has always been the enemy, and hope its cruel accomplice. Learn from the past, fight for the future, but live the present not with hope, but with rage. Rage, unlike hope, knows no timeline.

    That’s where I am at: focused rage. I recommend reading the entire piece. Sarah has been studying autocracies in central Asia for over a decade & her thoughts & writing about the rise of Trump and what is going on in the US has hit the nail on the head over and over and over again.

  55. 55.

    Millard Filmore

    October 22, 2018 at 11:33 pm

    @NotMax:

    Chengdu to launch “artificial moon” in 2020

    2 questions (not for you) …
    1) will it work as advertised?
    2) what are the long term effects on the human body and brain? I read somewhere that we need more than just sleep, it has to be dark sleep.

  56. 56.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 22, 2018 at 11:34 pm

    And so it begins:

    Not good https://t.co/D3K7pLX2q5

    — Sam Stein (@samstein) October 23, 2018

  57. 57.

    Citizen Alan

    October 22, 2018 at 11:43 pm

    @NotMax:

    Remember that guy who made $55k off of a Kickstarter looking for funding to make a batch of potato salad?

  58. 58.

    Cacti

    October 22, 2018 at 11:43 pm

    I can understand why Wilmer wants the Dems to fail, and has gone back into his backstabbing routine.

    I don’t get why Tom Perez is going Debbie Downer on a blue wave at this point. I’ve heard the reverse psychology explanation, but I don’t think it’s a smart one.

    Dems are highly motivated, and the margin in the House race hasn’t changed at all. If anything, it’s widened a bit in the past week or so.

    Some Dem officials need a 12-step program for their addiction to losing.

  59. 59.

    Wapiti

    October 22, 2018 at 11:43 pm

    Just finished filling out my mail-in ballot. Postage is covered this year, but there are also ballot drop boxes all over the city and I’ll swing past one of those tomorrow.

    In WA state we have a strong initiatives system. I usually reflexively vote NO because the initiative system can and often is co-opted by corporation-people. But we have some good ones this year: a carbon tax, an initiative to better control gun purchases, and one that might make police more accountable for their actions. (Current state law is that prosecutors have to prove malice to charge a police office, even if they are negligent, breaking rules, whatever. This is apparently one of the worst states for holding police accountable because of the malice provision.)

  60. 60.

    NotMax

    October 22, 2018 at 11:44 pm

    @Millard Filmore

    One can practically already hear Dolt 45 yammering on and on about the ‘moon gap.’

    ;)

  61. 61.

    trollhattan

    October 22, 2018 at 11:46 pm

    Julia Louis-Dreyfus has received the Mark Twain Prize. (They should give her, like, three.) Guess who was a schoolmate of Christine Blasey-Ford?

  62. 62.

    MobiusKlein

    October 22, 2018 at 11:47 pm

    @NotMax: Probably a way to test stolen credit card info.

  63. 63.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 22, 2018 at 11:56 pm

    Here’s some clarification on the temporary hold the Supremes put on the Wilbur Ross deposition:

    Commerce Sec'y Ross's deposition is on hold while the NY AG finishes up discovery (the court gave the AG everything else she asked for). The deposition will likely happen in the future & the case goes forward. Inexplicable that it's being reported as anything other than a big win https://t.co/unePWBCQkF

    — Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) October 23, 2018

  64. 64.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 22, 2018 at 11:59 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: that’s good, I just saw a tweet about that and thought it didn’t bode well for an eventual case about trump

  65. 65.

    Sister Golden Bear

    October 23, 2018 at 12:10 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Thanks. Trying to write posts on the phone is a challenge.

  66. 66.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 23, 2018 at 12:15 am

    @Sister Golden Bear: We are here for you. Unless I’m away from my work station. Or working on something and can’t check in. Or doing something with the dogs. Or at the gym. Or doing other day to day things. But aside from all of that, we are here for you.

  67. 67.

    Sister Golden Bear

    October 23, 2018 at 12:22 am

    @Marcopolo: Good essay.

    Hope can be lethal when you are fighting an autocracy.

    Hope is what’s hitting me hardest right now. In the last few years trans people had made more gains than I’d ever expected in my lifetime. And that gave me hope that maybe, just maybe, we’d (mostly) be able to live our lives in peace.

    Seeing how quickly and completely autocrats are rolling back those gains is crushing. Worse than the days when I knew it was it was going to be a struggle for the rest of my life and beyond. A little hope can be a dangerous thing….

    Working on my focused rage.

    And thank you Adam.

  68. 68.

    Timurid

    October 23, 2018 at 12:25 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    B-b-but civility… will no one think of all the spoiled dinners?

  69. 69.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 23, 2018 at 12:29 am

    @Marcopolo: @Sister Golden Bear: I will not dispute Dr. Kendzior’s deep expertise in autocracies, nor her right to approach dealing with them based on that experience in her own way. But as someone who has spent a lot of time working on how one actually fights against extremists – religious, political, and both – including helping to plan and carry out counterinsurgencies and counterterrorism campaigns from the tactical to the strategic levels, I would argue that the old saw about hope is true. Hope is not a strategy. And to that I would add, but it is essential for continuing to resist and fight back.

  70. 70.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 23, 2018 at 12:32 am

    @Timurid: Or spoiled diners for that matter.

  71. 71.

    gene108

    October 23, 2018 at 12:32 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    portrayed Parks’ act as a carefully planned civil-rights protest

    From what I understand, at the time the Montgomery NAACP that planned it, did not want it out as carefully planned. They wanted it portrayed as spontaneous.

    They had another girl lined up to the heroine in the drama, before Rosa Parks, but she got knocked up and the person they were going to base the protest on had to be spotless.

    I don’t know, if 63 years is enough time for white people to get over the fact that the Civil Rights movement wasn’t kicked off by spontaneous outrage over Rosa Parks being wronged, but a carefully thought out protest and public relations campaign to get non-Jim Crow-state whites to support them.

    Part of me gets the feeling there’d be a backlash like what happened when Obama was elected.

  72. 72.

    Matt McIrvin

    October 23, 2018 at 12:33 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Hope is not a plan, but despair can directly kill you.

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 23, 2018 at 12:34 am

    @Matt McIrvin: That is my position. I’m not arguing people shouldn’t be angry or afraid or anything else. Just that a little hope is essential.

  74. 74.

    NotMax

    October 23, 2018 at 12:37 am

    @Adam L. Silverman

    Couple with a clear-eyed understanding that a setback is not the same as a defeat.

  75. 75.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 23, 2018 at 12:39 am

    @NotMax: Correct.

  76. 76.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 23, 2018 at 12:40 am

    @MobiusKlein: Damn! I never thought of that. Makes pefect sense!

  77. 77.

    Sister Golden Bear

    October 23, 2018 at 12:42 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I would argue that the old saw about hope is true. Hope is not a strategy. And to that I would add, but it is essential for continuing to resist and fight back.

    Actually, I agree. As Harvey Milk said: You got to give them hope.

    If I didn’t have some hope, I’d be selling the house and my possessions so that I could leave the country.

    But in other news, the lawyer who fought to ban trans people from bathrooms, a guy who’s spent his life defending discrimination, will lead the DOJ’s civil rights division.

    https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2018/10/lawyer-fought-ban-trans-people-bathrooms-will-lead-doj-civil-rights-division/

    and the man leading the “erase trans people” effort is the director of the civil rights division at HHS.

    http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/trumps-religious-right-team-schemes-to-legally-erase-trans-identity/

    #MakeAmericaBigotedAgain

  78. 78.

    Marcopolo

    October 23, 2018 at 12:44 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Well, if you read the piece (including just the snippet I clipped) she did say that she had no place for either hope or hopelessness. In their place she suggests holding onto pragmatism & compassion. So yeah, no, I don’t think you are grokking what she is saying. However, I am going to bed but I will leave the ball if you want to keep playing with it.

  79. 79.

    Ruckus

    October 23, 2018 at 12:45 am

    @debbie:
    That’s the entire point of social media for a lot of people. They get to be obnoxious where no one will knock their block off.

  80. 80.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 23, 2018 at 12:45 am

    @Sister Golden Bear: I’m aware of the unfortunate personnel divisions. These are all being driven by VP Pence and AG Sessions. My take is that Pence has been given carte blanche to push his people into these positions. And in the case of DOJ, that lines up with what Sessions wants/believes.

  81. 81.

    EBT

    October 23, 2018 at 12:45 am

    @Sister Golden Bear: The memorial is a glass sidewalk that opens over a white room with an empty bookshelf.

  82. 82.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 23, 2018 at 12:46 am

    @gene108:

    the Civil Rights movement wasn’t kicked off by spontaneous outrage over Rosa Parks being wronged, but a carefully thought out protest and public relations campaign

    A friend once told me, lo these many years, that in fact, the people who led the Civil Rights movement ran teach-ins where people were taught how to protest: how to act, walk, talk, react, how to protect their vital organs when beaten, etc. And that in later years, white kids were invited to participate, and then went on to become the vanguard of the anti-war movement.

    No idea if it’s true.

  83. 83.

    Dan B

    October 23, 2018 at 12:46 am

    @Sister Golden Bear: Take time to feel how awful these days are. There will be resistance. It may take many days. Keep posting here. We need to hear your voice and your story.

    Danni Akini’s story is riveting Seattle. Together all the stories add up.

  84. 84.

    NotMax

    October 23, 2018 at 12:46 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    The line of human progressivism through history is nether straight nor narrow. It zigs, it zags, it doubles back, it bleeds into cul-de-sacs.. We as a species don't so much march as we lurch forward towards betterment.

  85. 85.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 23, 2018 at 12:47 am

    @Marcopolo: I read the piece. I’ve also seen her interviewed where she makes similar remarks. Have a good night.

  86. 86.

    The Lodger

    October 23, 2018 at 12:47 am

    @NotMax: This really does sound like something out of a Cixin Liu novel.

  87. 87.

    NotMax

    October 23, 2018 at 12:48 am

    Adam, could you fix that incorrect tag in #84 please? Hate when I do that and the eyes gloss over the coding error.

  88. 88.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 23, 2018 at 12:50 am

    @NotMax: I think I fixed it. If you were supposed to have a link in there, I couldn’t find it.

  89. 89.

    NotMax

    October 23, 2018 at 12:55 am

    @The Lodger

    Gotta mention it.

    Former President Barack Obama met with current Chinese President Xi Jinping on November 28 [2017] at the Global Education Summit in Beijing… but he also took some time out of his visit to ask award-winning science fiction author Liu Cixin for his next book!

    Obama has long been a reader of sci-fi/fantasy and has publicly spoken of the vision and impact Liu’s Three-Body Problem trilogy, starting with the titular first volume, before. The series’ exponentially expansive take on cultures interacting across the cosmos seems to have had a profound impact on the president’s imagination. Source

  90. 90.

    NotMax

    October 23, 2018 at 12:56 am

    @Adam L. Silverman

    Thanks. No, there was no link, just the mistyped closing anchor tag.

  91. 91.

    justawriter

    October 23, 2018 at 12:57 am

    I can dig it. I remember a 70s era Doonesbury comic, maybe even pre Watergate, where (shit, I can’t remember who is speaking, maybe Mark and Zonker, but anyway) one comments on the latest outrage from the Nixon Attorney General John Mitchell and (maybe Zonker) says “Yes, but what about my outrage over Attica.” It seems to me we are being overwhelmed by assholes to the point where it is hard to focus on a given asshole to eliminate his shit with the toilet paper of righteousness because there are JUST. SO. MANY. ASSHOLES.

  92. 92.

    Raven Onthill

    October 23, 2018 at 12:57 am

    Yeah, me too. I just explained on Twitter that “globalist” was Nazi for Jewish.

    Ah, well. Canvassing tomorrow, and we’re getting the Kurdish Kitties.

  93. 93.

    lamh36

    October 23, 2018 at 1:05 am

    We created a real hotline for a real problem: 1-844-WYT-FEAR (1-844-998-3327). In this satirical infomercial, @NiecyNash plays the inventor of a service for white people to call instead of 911. nyti.ms/2CvWDMc

    The video is funny but sad cause of all the truly bullshit calls.

    Oh and BTW, the phone number is REAL. You can actually call it!

    Go ahead and give it a try!

  94. 94.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 23, 2018 at 1:09 am

    @lamh36: Surely it shoulda been 1-488-…. no?

  95. 95.

    MobiusKlein

    October 23, 2018 at 1:12 am

    @Chetan Murthy: For credit cards, accounts, cash, it is a constant battle to keep it all safe from hackers. Every day, every night.

  96. 96.

    joel hanes

    October 23, 2018 at 1:17 am

    @Chetan Murthy:

    It’s true. Some of us remember.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_Nonviolent_Coordinating_Committee

    Back in the day, bigots hated on SNCC with the same fury they bring to Black Lives Matter today.
    J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI destroyed it.

    The struggle continues.

  97. 97.

    Sister Golden Bear

    October 23, 2018 at 1:39 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    These are all being driven by VP Pence and AG Sessions. My take is that Pence has been given carte blanche to push his people into these positions

    Absolutely correct. And carte blanche to push the Talibaptists’ policies. As mentioned, these and other moves are in line with a five-point plan by the Family Research Council.

    @Dan B: Thank you. I am heartened by how many people I know on Facebook have spoken up. Yes, I know Facebook activism… But even accounting for self-selection, a large number of people are appalled. There will be resistance.

  98. 98.

    Major Major Major Major

    October 23, 2018 at 1:48 am

    @MobiusKlein: I read an interview with them, it’s a hobby art project by some professional software types.

  99. 99.

    frosry

    October 23, 2018 at 1:48 am

    @justawriter: Wipe the aasholes out with thentoilet paper of righteousness…I hope I can remember that in the morning so I can steal it!

  100. 100.

    Aleta

    October 23, 2018 at 2:09 am

    That Norweigian guy who died yesterday at 99, famous because he led a team that destroyed the heavy water production area of a nazi hydro plant on the coast of Norway. (Parachuted into the mts, skiied to the coast, barely escaped.). The story I read said they did not expect to succeed and they thought they would probably die in the attempt. (Allied soldiers had already died trying.). Also they didn’t fully understand the significance, full importance of that piece of effort at the time. He was said to have said that several things that made a difference along the way were just luck that broke their way. I think there’s always an element of ‘you can’t predict what’s going to happen’ especially when there are many variables. To me that’s a way of going forward that is realistic and reason for effort.
    I’ve used it a lot in simpler situations, but I think the truth of it is strong enough to continue on here too, at least for me.

    Also, the feeling of dread, the ‘I got a bad feeling’ is actually a form of anxiety, which for some reason is deceptively close to the feeling of ‘this is true.’ So, we easily confuse the two. (Judging someone for that human response just makes the picture worse for everyone.)

  101. 101.

    NotMax

    October 23, 2018 at 2:12 am

    @Aleta

    Six part miniseries The Heavy Water War may still be on Netflix.

  102. 102.

    Aleta

    October 23, 2018 at 2:22 am

    @NotMax: I was looking for it earlier. May be gone now, but should return soon I hope. It might be on Amazon right now.

  103. 103.

    NotMax

    October 23, 2018 at 2:29 am

    @Aleta

    It’s not a bad watch but is kind of plodding and drags in some sequences which go on for too long..

  104. 104.

    George Spiggott

    October 23, 2018 at 2:49 am

    @Aleta:

    Just came back from a trip of Scandinavia that included a tour of that site.

    No longer operational, even as a hydroelectric plant (bigger, more optimally located one over the hill), but it’s marvelously preserved as a Norwegian Industrial Workers Museum and the World Heritage Center.

  105. 105.

    Dan B

    October 23, 2018 at 2:54 am

    @Sister Golden Bear: Just watched the POV about Comfort Women, the young girls abducted and raped by the Japanese in occupied territories in WW II. The common theme was these women felt shame and felt alone and isolated. They didn’t tell their friends or families. When they did the emotions they brought forth in everyone were amazing.

    Be true to your feelings and know that I at least want to hear how you are feeling. The power of autocrats is making you ashamed to feel weak or angry or afraid. Please share your feelings. They resonate and echo.

  106. 106.

    Aleta

    October 23, 2018 at 2:58 am

    @Adam L Silverman:
    She’s offering practical advice, in response to being asked for that. Your description of the necessity of hope is useful in giving encouragement; not at all wrong, but a more traditional way of talking about hope. Apples vs melons; or maybe experimental vs theoretical loosely speaking.

  107. 107.

    David Evans

    October 23, 2018 at 3:22 am

    @Millard Filmore:
    1) From what I can see it is possible to build it. The technology of thin reflective solar sails has already been flown.
    2) Living in a city illuminated by this should be no worse for a human being than living with bright street lights. When you want to sleep, draw the blinds. I don’t know how animals will cope.
    I would worry that its pointing system might fail. Then you would have patches of super-bright moonlight sweeping over the Earth at random. Astronomers would not be happy.

  108. 108.

    Dan B

    October 23, 2018 at 3:30 am

    @Chetan Murthy: Ill address this in an open thread since this is probably a very dead thread, but… your friend was right about the Civil Rights Movement. It was carefully planned. People were taught how to behave. The image and message was precisely managed. Many of these techniques came out of Gandhi and the union struggles. There are many lessons to be relearned for our time.

  109. 109.

    Mohagan

    October 23, 2018 at 4:30 am

    @Major Major Major Major: OMG the cuteness!

  110. 110.

    daryljfontaine

    October 23, 2018 at 4:57 am

    @David Evans: Clearly this project is being spearheaded by Big Curtain.

    D

  111. 111.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    October 23, 2018 at 7:30 am

    @Aleta:

    The Heavy Water War is available on MHz Choice.

  112. 112.

    David Evans

    October 23, 2018 at 1:23 pm

    @NotMax: My feeling about Liu, based on Book 1 of the trilogy and on Ball Lightning, is that he is a good storyteller and interesting on Chinese society, but seriously wrong on the science. I don’t just mean that he speculates about we might discover (that would be legitimate), but that he misrepresents what we already know.

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