Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Let there be snark.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Come on, man.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

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

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Everybody saw this coming.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Something Good Open Thread / Late Night, New Week Pep Talk Open Thread

Late Night, New Week Pep Talk Open Thread

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President Biden and his administration are making progress, the pro-sanity people are fighting back against the anti-vaxxer snowflakes, and suddenly a narrow-but-noisy sliver of Our Failed Media-Industrial Complex wants us to throw up our hands and stop fighting. F*ck that noise.

Contrary to popular belief, flipping out and saying, “We’re lost! It’s all over!! Dear god!!!” is not actually an excellent game plan. Democrats are NOT sleeping. A bunch of you are just watching too much media and it’s mostly propaganda. You’re getting brainwashed.

I’m serious. Stop watching white men in the media entirely. It’s the only way to get a glimpse of actual reality. Look, it’s a mess, and I get it. Many of you are white men and you didn’t think this was going to happen. You thought, “We won the election! It’s all fine!”

I mean, okay, that was naive of you, but you haven’t been fighting oppression the way the rest of us have so you don’t know that each victory will be followed by doubling down from the other side of things. So, you’re panicking. What you have to do is watch Black women.

Black women will tell you where you are. They, if you look, are NOT panicking. They are working. They are fighting. They are getting in there. They are phone banking and calling reps and volunteering BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO.

Getting on the Internet, esp if you have a big following, and getting your followers to believe hope is lost IS. NOT. THE. WAY. TO. WIN. It’s not,as one incredible jerk said, namby pamby to know you have to have hope and a direction.

What in the world did you expect? These ppl have lots of money, lots of privilege, and they weren’t going to give up. Trump is falling; trust me, but the mechanism behind him is not. We’re going to have to continue to fight.

And can I tell you that hearing being strong is somehow NOT okay is pretty goddamned irritating. You assholes aren’t on the verge of losing the rights to your bodies, are you now? Right? Don’t talk to me abt concern, worry, fear, or anything else. Now.

GET UP OFF YOUR ASSES AND STOP WHINING. STOP SAYING SOMEONE NEEDS TO DO SOMETHING. YOU’RE THE SOMEONE. WE’RE THE SOMEONES, YOU FOOLS. IT’S UP TO US. Seriously, I know you mostly sat on your asses while we saved the day, but damn, get it together.

Reader Interactions

73Comments

  1. 1.

    phdesmond

    fresh news:

    heather cox richardson, historian, has this notice in her newsletter for 7/25/21: 

    In Georgia, law enforcement officers indicted 87 people in what they are calling the largest gang bust ever in the state. Seventy-seven are part of the “Ghostface Gangsters” gang of white supremacists whose network stretched from Georgia to South Carolina to Tennessee. “The gang’s culture, structure, leadership, chain of command, and all involved in the furtherance of this ongoing criminal enterprise have been charged,” law enforcement officers said.

    hello, anne laurie. this is off-topic, but interesting.

    peter

  2. 2.

    guachi

    The racism and sexism in the quoted tweet thread is just ridiculous. I’m glad I have no idea who Odette Roulette is.

  3. 3.

    Mary G

    Bill Kristol is on Twitter doomsaying that the Biden administration’s failure to get anything done will kill Democrats in the midterms. It’s like they all get the same orders and follow them immediately. His replies are 60% STFU and 40% “I have the same concern.”

  5. 5.

    HumboldtBlue

    I am absolutely entranced by the street skateboarding in the Olympics. The men’s competition was brilliant and the women’s competition today — featuring some 13-year-olds and an old 34-year-old American, is even more fun.
    So much skill and so much fun. What a wonderful spectacle.
    Except NBC fucked up the coverage which is why we have the CBC.​

  6. 6.

    Redshift

    I got involved in grassroots politics during the Shrub Administration, through the Dean campaign. We worked hard, we made a difference, and Shrub still got reelected. I kept on, rolled on through the midterms, and then everything built up to the Obama campaign, and We Had Won.

    I thought I’d be able to relax somewhat, and it definitely took me a while to realize that (in the words of Superman) “the never-ending battle for Truth, Justice, and the American Way” really is never-ending, and I’d probably have to keep at it for the rest of my life.

    Which sucks in some ways, because there are things I’d rather be spending my time on, but mostly it’s hopeful, because it’s not a war that’s won and over, so you can always help make things better.

  8. 8.

    Yutsano

    @Mary G:  I have a really stupid question. WTF is the hurry? Schumer is scheduling votes. Pelosi has already outlined her strategy. Things are moving. What the hell is all the damn haste about?

  14. 14.

    Morzer

    “Well, Grant,” Sherman said. “We’ve had the devil’s own day, haven’t we?”
    Grant looked up, and said: “Yes. Lick ‘em tomorrow, though.”

  15. 15.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Yutsano:

    What the hell is all the damn haste about?

    For myself, I’m worried that Cinemansion will torpedo any voting rights bill.  And so, every day that they delay, is a day that I fear the clock is being run-out on that.  Thing is, that’s got nothing to do with Schumer or Pelosi: it’s squarely on Cinemansion & all those who ride within them.  So I’m not getting angry at “Dems” about that.  And besides, if it happens, we just gotta do what we can do, until we either win or lose.  For most of our voters, there ain’t noplace to which they can retreat.

    This urge to pillory all “Dems” ….. that’s just stupid.  Ditto pillorying Biden’s Admin.  The problem here is the (few) Senators who seem to wanna make nicey-nicey with traitors.

  16. 16.

    Peale

    I’m sorry, but I don’t know why I’m supposed to be panicking this week. I’m learning about team handball. Again. And getting ready to be an expert judge of divers and pommel horsers. Is it ok if I sit this out?

  17. 17.

    JoyceH

    Okay, can I tell you folks what I think is going on? Maybe I’m a cockeyed optimist, but boy, do I hope I’m right.

    Here’s what I think Biden is doing. You recall at the town hall he said that if you eliminate the filibuster you blow up the Senate and it’s impossible to get anything done. Well, I don’t know how true that is, but it sounded like that’s what he believes.

    So I think his plan is to do infrastructure first, either both the bipartisan and reconciliation route, or if necessary roll it all into the reconciliation bill, add on the debt ceiling – and THEN go to voting rights and blow up the filibuster if necessary to get that through. Because then if the Senate becomes unworkable, it doesn’t much matter, because he’s already got this huge pot of money to rebuild infrastructure, create jobs, renewable energy, universal broadband, all that great stuff – AND with the voting rights bills, the executive branch has the power to tromp down all this voter suppression the states are doing. So not only would he be able, without any further assistance from Congress, to do the huge part of the stuff he became president to do, and keep them from keeping our voters from the polls, but it also gives an awesome message going into the midterms, maybe enough to keep control of both houses and do even more of the stuff that the majority of the voters really want.

    So that’s what I think he’s doing, and he can’t actually SAY it out loud, or the GOP would go to complete obstruction mode too soon.

    So – too optimistic?

  18. 18.

    Chetan Murthy

    @JoyceH:

    You recall at the town hall he said that if you eliminate the filibuster you blow up the Senate and it’s impossible to get anything done. Well, I don’t know how true that is, but it sounded like that’s what he believes.

    Lots of us don’t believe him, or more precisely don’t believe that he believes this.  B/c we don’t believe it’s true.  So we see him as basically giving up on voting rights, b/c he knows he can’t get it done.  Which …. well, again, there’s nothing we can do if that’s the case.  The die is cast, and we’re gonna fight the next election with the pols we have.  But it does make one fret, if one believes that blowing up the filibuster wouldn’t destroy the Senate.  Because what that really means, is that Biden knows that he can’t blow up the filibuster: Cinemansion (and maybe others) won’t go along with it.

    Again: not his fault, not Schumer’s fault.

  19. 19.

    Morzer

    @JoyceH: I think it’s a reasonable understanding of what Biden and his team are planning to do. I guess we’ll have to see just what gymnastic routine Cinemansion decide to perform on the parallel reality bars they love so dearly.

  20. 20.

    Elizabelle

    @JoyceH:   I hope you are right.  Always prefer optimism, with a hard look at the situation.  Cynicism and pessimism are cheap, cheap attitudes.

  22. 22.

    Fair Economist

    I’ve come to the conclusion that meaningful filibuster reform won’t happen in this Senate, because Cinemansion won’t go for it. I think Biden and Schumer and Pelosi are all trying to do the best they can given that limitation. Biden is dissembling with the “can’t get rid of the filibuster” statement; he knows better. I don’t really understand *why* he’s dissembling, but he’s done pretty well so far and I assume he has good reasons.

  26. 26.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Redshift:

    Huh. So now that a Democrat is back in charge, Kristol is back to being always wrong… 

    Do you have a timeline for when the Iraqi war pimp stopped being wrong? ?

  37. 37.

    Comrade Colette

    @Martin: OH MY G-D!!1! HOORAY!

    (looks outside, in San Francisco)

    WTF, dude? There’s just the usual faintly smoky-smelling fog and wind. Yay for you, though.

  38. 38.

    West of the Rockies

    @James E Powell:

    Everyone in the video is looking at her like she’s weird.  It can’t be a serious effort.  Then again, Yoko and Bjork… never mind.

  40. 40.

    sab

    Robert Moses died. We really need to reminded about someone who spent his life doing useful work in the face of ferocious resistence.

  42. 42.

    Yutsano

    @HumboldtBlue: From the YouTube comments:

    Nice to see microtonal music finally catching on in the West!​

     

    EDIT: Which Steep promptly beat me to. :P

  43. 43.

    CaseyL

    These pep talks are good.  I should know better.  Deep lasting change, the kind Biden is trying to do with the American Jobs Plan (both parts), doesn’t happen quickly.

    I’m more confident that will get done than anything on voting rights, though.

  47. 47.

    sab

    @Cameron: Robert Moses, civil rights worker. Came down from Harlem to be field organizer in Mississippi during Freedom Summer in 1964. Registered voters. Later used his Macarthur grant to organize the Algebra Project to teach poor kids math skills. Mississippi’s approach to integrated schools was to harrass Black students relentlessly until they dropped out. He worked to counter that by helping the kids get the skills they needed to succeed in school.

    Starting in Harlem he went on to be a Rhodes scholar, a Ph.D in mathematics, and then a civil rights worker in 1960s Mississippi. An amazing man.

  49. 49.

    NotMax

    @Cameron

    I’m confused.

    You’re not alone. Sooner or later one reaches the stage where appellation confusion isn’t an incidental condition, it’s a steadfast companion.

    ;)

  54. 54.

    JWR

    I was reading this piece from Eric Boehlert, (Remember when Politico said DeSantis “won the pandemic”?), and was reminded of the way local networks here in SoCal have been covering the rise of the Delta variant. (Hint: not well at all.) They just say it’s up in all fifty states, illustrated by a map of the US, all in a single, deep red color. No more color-coding to show us which states are actually driving this rise.

    Also, there was a huge, 60K+, outdoor gathering in Nevada for the NBA finals. No mention of any masking rules or temperature screening, and definitely no social distancing.

  58. 58.

    Neldob

    I like to fight as much as anyone but the word is work, not fight. Let the repubs fight, I’m for work. More productive really.

  59. 59.

    WereBear

    @JWR: Yes, that article made me furious. I mourn the loss of “real news” and instead of subscribing to any corporate outlet, I send occasional money to the independent operations like that one.

    Media Matters, Mother Jones, and Pro Publica also deserve support.

  61. 61.

    Geminid

    @Fair Economist: Manchin and Sinema ard not the only Democratic Senators standing in the way of “blowing up” the filibuster. Virginia Senator Mark Warner says that he would go along with a narrow carve out for voting rights legislation, but nothing more extensive. I suspect Maine’s Angus King, elected as an Independent, is on the same page as Warner. There may be others.

    This will play out in the next few weeks. Whatever the result, Democrats will have to do what we lnow we have to do anyway: elect more Democratic Senators next year. There will be open seats in Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and possibly Wisconsin, where the odious Ron Johnson may not run again. Florida’s Rubio has a strong challenger in Florida, and Iowa’s seat is not out of reach.

    Kelly, Hassan, and Warnock face tough races in Arizona, New Hampshire, and Georgia. And of course we’ll need to hold the House in order to advance legislation in the next Congress.

    So once again, we face a very consequential election next year. There will be massive new infrastructure funding passed this session, though, whether in one bill or two. That will set the table for strong economic and income growth next year. Republicans can whip up their base about social issues all they want, but Democrats will have a strong economy behind them, and that is what wins elections.

  62. 62.

    Chris Johnson

    On the theme of pep talk, echoing from downthread a bit:

    I think a lot of what’s going on is Russian panic and all-hands-on-deck social media manipulation. For some reason it’s incredibly important right now to throw infinite squid ink and heighten the chaos. I think it’s for a specific reason and I’m not sure exactly what, but it’s gonna have something to do with the way all the Republicans flipped on vaccinations very suddenly.

    I’m picturing, behind the scenes, the Trump kids losing their Secret Service details, and Trump (who is in control of the party with McConnell handling the actual mechanics of things and Tucker Carlson on message discipline, all three of the fuckers different types of Russian agent/asset)…

    Trump being Trump starts blathering on about how he’s going to get security details from Putin now because Americans are just assholes. This while Tucker Carlson’s connections are being investigated, and McConnell is holding the fort. And all of a sudden a bunch of useful idiots who’d believe anything are going OH SHIT THAT’S WHAT THE LIBS SAID WAS HAPPENING. Total panic, from a few key people going off-message and dropping the kayfabe, in secret. Sudden scramble to reverse message on COVID out of nowhere now that they can no longer pretend they weren’t played. That’s my speculation.

    The Russian side can only respond with sowing of total chaos: it’s a huge damaging setback to their position. Something went wrong for them, and we don’t know what it is, but the explosion of activity is meaningful.

    HACKER NEWS is getting heavy troll farm action. The BBC reported on some social media influencers getting directly paid off by Russia to push anti-vax bullshit and it appears to me the Russians freaked the hell OUT and have been scrambling to cover it up. I guess that’s one of those stories that is too close to real for their taste.

    So, over on Hacker News they suppressed several discussions through manipulating the voting systems. God knows what they’re doing on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook. Over here we have no voting systems to suppress, so they gotta cry out WE’RE ALL FUCKED AAAAAAAH HONESTLY I AM AN AMERICAN.

    Fuck’em.

    My gut reaction is that we are doing a lot better than it appears, hence the full-court press to create chaos while there is still time. FUCK them. Wear your mask, wash your hands, vote. Our shit is not that goddamn fragile. Stay alive and as sane as possible. This is war and we ain’t losing.

  63. 63.

    Kathleen

    @Geminid: And I think that’s why Biden is “setting the table” for voting legislation. He wants to keep the conversation focused in government helping people make lives better to lessen resistance to voting legislation.

  64. 64.

    Chris Johnson

    @Kathleen: 
    I agree. I think Dems have a plan. Don’t know all the details, but they are not messing around and after 1/6 the folks in control don’t have illusions about what they’re up against.
    The rest is kabuki theater. I’m interested in results, not whether everything looked encouraging every step of the way. I give my Dems a LOT of leeway as far as getting stuff done any way they can. It doesn’t have to look nice whilst the sausage is made.

  65. 65.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    A bunch of you are just watching too much media and it’s mostly propaganda. You’re getting brainwashed.

    What she said. Turn off the TV, it’s a liberating experience.

  66. 66.

    Chris Johnson

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: And Facebook, and Twitter!

    We actually have a pretty good idea of the vectors through which we are fed informational poison to put us in the Zone. It’s on purpose.

    Let them drive their OWN useful idiots to self-destruction and despair (which is how they groom them into becoming terrorists). Don’t play along, and get other people out of the trap when it’s possible. Often it isn’t.

  67. 67.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Chris Johnson: Facebook and Twitter you can filter.   It’s passively sitting there while someone spews BS that does the brainwashing.

    The theme common see I see in editorials seems to be “well just because you won Liberals doesn’t mean you won”.

  68. 68.

    JAFD

    Good morning, fellow jackals,

    Am celebrating my 71st birthday today.  Have had a few close calls, been lucky, still alive and kicking.

    As I have said repeatedly, was around for Nixon and Agnew, who were, maybe, not as evil as TFG, but were smart and competent.  But the USA got lucky, found some good people (Am looking out window at the Rodino Federal Office Building, monument to machine pol who became hero), and pulled thru.

    Have hope – and confidence – that mankind “will not only endure, we will prevail”

    And have a piece of cake, or hoist a drink, and with me some more good years (My father celebrated his 90th, my mother passed a few weeks short of hers, am trying to outdo them ;-; )

  70. 70.

    J R in WV

    @JAFD:

    Congratulations on reaching 71~!!~ and have a happy birthday!!

    I’ll catch up with you this winter; I’m running about 6 months behind you.

    It has been an interesting 70 years, hasn’t it? Starting with JFK, the space program, the Cuban Missile Crisis, etc, etc. What a dime store novel we have lived through so far!

  73. 73.

    Ruckus

    @JAFD:
    Welcome to geezerdom. I gave up on cake and candles, mainly because I can’t eat enough cake to hold 72 and second I’m not supposed to eat sweets at all. And it’s possible I’d burn the place down before I got them all lit. See how much fun geezerdom is?

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