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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Consistently wrong since 2002

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

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

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

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

This really is a full service blog.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

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

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You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Friday Morning Open Thread: Earth Day, and Other Good Choices

Friday Morning Open Thread: Earth Day, and Other Good Choices

by Anne Laurie|  April 22, 20228:08 am| 148 Comments

This post is in: Biden Administration in Action, Climate Change Solutions, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat

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In the face of grave threats to democracy around the world, the JFK Library Foundation will honor five individuals with the #ProfileInCourage Award.

These honorees have demonstrated acts of extraordinary courage to protect democracy at home and abroad. https://t.co/ut2UNbdkUh pic.twitter.com/GLYBwGkvTD

— JFK Library (@JFKLibrary) April 21, 2022

Biden comes down from the podium and speaks directly to people at a Portland, Ore. fundraiser, about two feet away from them. “We’re gonna go through a tough period,” he says to this friendly crowd. “This is the United States of America. There’s not a damn thing we can’t do.”

— Katie Rogers (@katierogers) April 21, 2022


U.S. President Joe Biden marks Earth Day with a trip to lush but fire-prone Washington state and the signing of an executive order to protect old-growth forests https://t.co/5x0BJ8Kff4

— Reuters (@Reuters) April 22, 2022

The Biden administration is restoring federal regulations that require rigorous environmental review of major infrastructure projects such as highways, pipelines and oil wells. The longstanding reviews were scaled back by the Trump administration. https://t.co/1ryaCf4jhG

— The Associated Press (@AP) April 19, 2022

*NEW* Biden Admin is piloting a Rural Partners Network in 25 communities. Teams of federal employees will serve as “community liaisons” in economically distressed rural areas, who will work with designated bureaucracy busters in 16 agencies. https://t.co/wX92VzWIpl @GovExec

— John M. Kamensky (@JMKamensky) April 21, 2022

Biden thanked reporters in Ukraine documenting “brutal and bloody” acts by Russia. “I don't say this often, but I think we should give enormous credit to folks from your agencies on the ground in Ukraine in these spots,” he said. “I've spoken to several of them. So. We owe them.” pic.twitter.com/QqDtyElgqP

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) April 21, 2022

"Our view on this is that the 'Don't Say Gay' bill – is really crystal clear: it's wrong. That's our view, it is just wrong. We oppose the governor taking action against a company because their opposition to that bill," Biden spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre tells reporters on AF1 https://t.co/ARbdCNND8s

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) April 21, 2022

The Washington Post has lifted its paywall on all stories past and present until midnight Friday. Read today’s paper. Read the stories you missed. Read the series that is still shaping the congressional investigation into Jan. 6:https://t.co/a8Z5SLjM5V

— Aaron C. Davis (@byaaroncdavis) April 21, 2022

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Previous Post: « COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, April 21 – 22
Next Post: Incremental cost to add a choice on Healthcare.gov »

Reader Interactions

148Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    April 22, 2022 at 8:14 am

    ?

  2. 2.

    SFAW

    April 22, 2022 at 8:20 am

    I would like to see someone with a figurative megaphone talk about, on a daily basis, that since it’s all about projection with Rethugs — in FL and elsewhere — and since Every Accusation Is A Confession with them, one wonders which of the Rethugs are “groomers.” Are they talking about Matt Gaetz? Given Josh Hawley’s bizarre focus on pedophilia, are they talking about Josh Hawley (even though he’s in MO)?

    It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

    ETA: I have no special love for Disney, and at some level would not be upset to see them lose their “we’re our own not-so-magic kingdom” status, but allowing DeathSantis’s (and the FL lege’s) fascism to go unpunished is A BAD THING.

  3. 3.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 8:23 am

    NY Times has a good article on the Florida textbooks. I was surprised they were so direct in identifying the far Right activist and online influencer DeSantis takes direction from:

    But right-wing activists like Chris Rufo, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, have sought to tie social-emotional learning to the broader debate over the teaching of race, gender and sexuality in classrooms.

    It’s funny because conservatives supported textbooks like this in the past because they said these “5 core skills” are essential in the workplace. Rufo has so radicalized and dominated them they abandoned their own theory:

    the five core skills students should develop: self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, social awareness and relationship building

    Also-there’s no critical race theory or “grooming” in the textbooks, but you knew that :)

  4. 4.

    Steve in the ATL

    April 22, 2022 at 8:25 am

    In the spirit of the day, I’m not going to do my usual practice of printing all my emails, then stuffing the printouts into plastic bottles and throwing them in the river.

  5. 5.

    SFAW

    April 22, 2022 at 8:28 am

    @Kay:

    When I get declared God-Emperor of this country, there are a number of individuals who will have some ‘splaining to do. Rufo is one of them, of course. [Of course, the list is pretty effing long, but it’s almost completely populated by Rethugs and other RWMFs.]

  6. 6.

    debbie

    April 22, 2022 at 8:29 am

    Wonderful  that the president acknowledges and appreciates the reporting from Ukraine!

  7. 7.

    SFAW

    April 22, 2022 at 8:29 am

    @Steve in the ATL:

    I feel confident that the bottles you use are completely recyclable, so you’re good either way.

  8. 8.

    Leto

    April 22, 2022 at 8:30 am

    Was listening to a report about the Disney fiasco and it’s such a self own. Apparently people in the county/district will have their property taxes go up by almost 20% (and it’s already some of the highest taxed property in the country), and Disney paid for all the EMS services there. Idk if this will finally blow back in Deathsantis’ face, but we can all hope.

  9. 9.

    Nicole

    April 22, 2022 at 8:31 am

    @Kay: I should be unsurprised that the GOP are lumping Social Emotional Learning in with CRT (which, I know, is not actually a thing in K-12 anyway).  My son’s school focuses a lot on SEL in K-5, switching to calling it Life Skills in middle school (it’s even its own subject, included on the report card), and it really does affect the way kids treat each other and how they learn to articulate how they’re feeling.  The school culture is extremely kind.  No wonder the GOP hates it so much.  Bunch of insecure white guys figuring there are two kinds of people: the bullies and the bullied.  The idea of another kind of world terrifies them.

  10. 10.

    Baud

    April 22, 2022 at 8:34 am

    I wish someone had taught me social emotional learning.

  11. 11.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 8:34 am

    @SFAW:

    They had a whole theory about this! They promoted it in schools as “character training” and said it would develop “grit” that students were lacking. My own public school system adopted it.

    These textbook publishers must be baffled. They are going to have to start following far Right social media influencers to ascertain which direction conservatives are going with textbooks. Which lunatic they’re all following.

  12. 12.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 8:34 am

    @SFAW:  are they talking about Josh Hawley (even though he’s in MO)?

    Lots of people here call him the 3rd senator from Virginia, since that’s where his actual house is. He uses his sister’s address in Ozark as his Missouri address, and claims he’s building a house here, but he and his whole family live in Virginia! I’ve often wondered why Democrats don’t talk more about the fact that most conservative people who wax poetic about the benefits of the heartland still live in big cities on the coasts.

  13. 13.

    SFAW

    April 22, 2022 at 8:36 am

    @Leto:

    It would not surprise me if the FL lege were to pass a bill mandating that Disney pay for any tax burden that might otherwise have to be absorbed by the residents. I have no idea whether something like that would be legal, but they’re such dickheads, I can see them trying it, even if not legal.

  14. 14.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 8:36 am

    @SFAW: Going after private companies because they disagree with the government is an extremely bad precedent to let stand, no matter how you feel about the individual company.

  15. 15.

    Elizabelle

    April 22, 2022 at 8:36 am

    @Leto:   Do you recall where you listened to the report?  Would be interested.  Thank you.

    Re Anne Laurie’s Biden items above:  I am struck by what a fundamentally decent guy he is.  No wonder the right wants to scream over his head.

  16. 16.

    Spanky

    April 22, 2022 at 8:37 am

    @Baud: So do we.

  17. 17.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 8:37 am

    @Nicole:

    I like it too and those skills are, IMO, also really important at work. I’ve grown to appreciate over the years how valuable they are at work, actually.

    Rufo’s just another wholly negative, poisonous person they’re all following like sheep. They’re lousy judges of character. They pick bad leaders, consistently.

  18. 18.

    SFAW

    April 22, 2022 at 8:38 am

    @Kay:

    I know you already know this, but expecting logic or consistency from Rethugs is like me expecting to wake up good-looking.

  19. 19.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 8:39 am

    @Leto: It’s really like they’re giving Disney a huge tax cut, because all of those services Disney pays for now will fall on the people of Florida. I think Florida will challenge this in court, and from what I’ve read they’ll probably prevail, but DeSantis will get his talking point about trying to punish Disney for daring to have an opposing view to that of conservatives.

  20. 20.

    SFAW

    April 22, 2022 at 8:40 am

    @Soprano2:

    As I said, their fascism should not go unpunished. Of course, since TFG was big into going after private companies to punish them for not (figuratively) fellating him, they figure it’s OK.

  21. 21.

    Spanky

    April 22, 2022 at 8:40 am

    @Leto: Did I not read somewhere that those are blue counties? DeSantis is the type to think that bumping up the tax burden is additional punishment for them.

  22. 22.

    Matt McIrvin

    April 22, 2022 at 8:40 am

    @Leto: The counties involved are Democratic-voting, so the prospect of punishing then is probably a plus to DeSantis.

    But this is likely not going to happen regardless of passage. The state government doesn’t have the power to repeal the district over the votes of locals, and it’s a thinly veiled bill of attainder aimed at punishing one entity for political speech disagreeing with the governor, making it massively unconstitutional two ways. It’s possible that doesn’t matter any more, but of course Disney’s lawyers are famously energetic.

  23. 23.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 8:41 am

    @Nicole: I have to believe that saying teaching kids to be nicer to each other is bad isn’t going to end the way Republicans think it will, just like calling everyone who disagrees with them about anything “groomers” isn’t going to end well for them either.

  24. 24.

    SFAW

    April 22, 2022 at 8:41 am

    @Soprano2:

    I think Florida will challenge this in court,

    Do you mean Disney? If you really mean FL, I’m not getting what you’re expecting they would actually challenge

  25. 25.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 8:41 am

    @Baud:

    They did. It’s “perseverance” and “treat people like how you would like to be treated” and “listen to others with an open mind”.  Only in Rightwingland could something so basic be depicted as something new and scary and evil.

  26. 26.

    SFAW

    April 22, 2022 at 8:42 am

    @Soprano2:

    just like calling everyone who disagrees with them about anything “groomers” isn’t going to end well for them either.

    You are much more optimistic, or less cynical — or both — than I am.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    April 22, 2022 at 8:43 am

    @Soprano2:

    from what I’ve read they’ll probably prevail, but DeSantis will get his talking point about trying to punish Disney for daring to have an opposing view to that of conservatives.

     

    I don’t know how that will end, but I’m confident if the roles were reversed, we would treat it as a defeat.

  28. 28.

    John S.

    April 22, 2022 at 8:43 am

    @Leto:

    FL-9 and FL-10 (which encompass Disney) are both blue districts. Deathsantis is more than happy to punish Democrats. They weren’t going to vote for him anyway.

  29. 29.

    Baud

    April 22, 2022 at 8:43 am

    @Kay:

    Trust me, they didn’t.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 8:43 am

    @Soprano2:

    It’s not just “nice”. There’s a heavy character component. Try hard. Persevere. Keep you word. Don’t lie. That’s why conservatives embraced it. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised they’re abandoning “character” huh?

  31. 31.

    SFAW

    April 22, 2022 at 8:45 am

    @Kay:

    ” ‘Character’ for thee, but not for me”

  32. 32.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 8:45 am

    @Kay: Rufo’s just another wholly negative, poisonous person they’re all following like sheep. They’re lousy judges of character. They pick bad leaders, consistently.

    I think these days they’re constantly angry that everything around them doesn’t neatly align with what they think and how they believe the world should be, so they like other angry people – it gives them an excuse for how they already feel. It started with Limbaugh – he would get them riled up about some little thing no one would have heard about before him. It’s hard to understand the stuff the ones who are really in the weeds say, because they refer to things most people don’t know anything about. They loved TFG because he was angry about the same things they are – immigrants, black people and women getting out of “their place”, the “sluts” having unapproved sex, Muslims, hearing languages other than English in the store, and so on.

  33. 33.

    SFAW

    April 22, 2022 at 8:47 am

    @Soprano2:

    Excellent crystallization of their “mind” set.

  34. 34.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    April 22, 2022 at 8:51 am

    @Kay: Well, they’re all-in on whatever will give them power. Since the question of character is now heavily skewed away from TFG, they’re desperate to minimize it, and to see how much mileage they can get out of Two-Minute Hates back to back to back to back to back to back to…

  35. 35.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 8:51 am

    @SFAW: I live among them, it’s not hard to understand what they’re angry about -it’s anything that doesn’t exactly conform with how they think they world should be. If you want to be different, they want you to go somewhere else so they don’t have to see or hear about it. I have a co-worker who said he wanted to run for mayor to do something about the homeless here. I asked him what his idea was, and he said “Just run them out of town. Get rid of them. Make them go somewhere else”. This is what I live among all the time.

  36. 36.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 8:52 am

    @SFAW: Yeah, I meant Disney, it’s morning brain.

  37. 37.

    Baud

    April 22, 2022 at 8:52 am

    @Soprano2:

    There’s a reddit thread right now about how the wingnuts are mad about and harassing people voluntarily wearing masks.

    They are a deeply insecure people.  It’s why they work so hard to make our side even feel even more insecure.

  38. 38.

    germy

    April 22, 2022 at 8:53 am

    pic.twitter.com/M2EOQ72PQr

    — Sean (@_sn_n) April 22, 2022

  39. 39.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 8:54 am

    @SFAW: Well, “pedophile” is about the nastiest insult you can call someone, and they’re now calling everyone who disagrees with them at all that word. I think the average person who doesn’t follow politics that much will be turned off by that. Maybe I’m wrong, time will tell.

  40. 40.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 8:55 am

    @Baud: I’m sure we would. All he wants is to be able to campaign on his effort to punish the “Woke” Disney company, and show them who’s really boss. He probably knows it won’t hold up in court, but that ruling won’t be final for at least a year or two, long after the election is over.

  41. 41.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 22, 2022 at 8:56 am

    @Soprano2: Lots of people here call him the 3rd senator from Virginia, since that’s where his actual house is.

    Surprise surprise surprise! Just like when he was AG and didn’t live in Jeff City as required by the state constitution.

  42. 42.

    germy

    April 22, 2022 at 8:56 am

    A FaceApp morph of every losing major party presidential candidate since 1968. pic.twitter.com/bOuPMWpcZY

    — Sean (@_sn_n) April 19, 2022

  43. 43.

    zhena gogolia

    April 22, 2022 at 8:57 am

    @Baud: We went to pick up a pizza yesterday, and although nobody said anything, we were stared at as if we were space aliens because we were masked. 7.8% positivity rate. I don’t get it.

  44. 44.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 8:57 am

    @Kay:I guess I shouldn’t be surprised they’re abandoning “character” huh?

    Nope, they’ve decided those things don’t much matter anymore, because TFG has none of these traits. I was using “nice” as a catch-all, the way a politician would.  Maybe ‘being a good citizen’ would be a better way to characterize it. What matters to them now is your ability to force how you want things to be on everyone else, even if most of those people don’t want that. They’ve normalized being a bully, making it seem like the “cool” thing to be.

  45. 45.

    debbie

    April 22, 2022 at 8:58 am

    @Leto:

    I’d like to see Disney announce they’re relocating to a friendlier state, if only to see DeSantis’s face.

  46. 46.

    Baud

    April 22, 2022 at 8:59 am

    @zhena gogolia:

    It’s because they are insecure about their decisions.

  47. 47.

    gvg

    April 22, 2022 at 9:00 am

    They aren’t just repealing the Disney district but 5 others too, one of which is in a red county. One of them is something to do with sewage…I have no idea why they are trying to do this. I mean, I don’t see the point. They seem to be acting on the odd theory that any attention is good for politics, but I don’t think it is.

    Also I think the law should be called the “require our teachers to lie” so that kids grow up knowing adults lie and have no faith in authority. Its repeating the mistakes of communism. I am struck by how many republicans don’t know history at all.

  48. 48.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 9:00 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Remember those dishonest commercials where he used ladders, and said he wouldn’t use the AG’s office to “climb the political ladder”? Yeah, that lasted about two seconds after he was sworn in.  Figures his family would live down here. They probably are building a huge house somewhere down in Ozark, but will hardly ever live in it.

  49. 49.

    Baud

    April 22, 2022 at 9:01 am

    @gvg:

    One of them is something to do with sewage…I have no idea why they are trying to do this. I mean, I don’t see the point. They seem to be acting on the odd theory that any attention is good for politics, but I don’t think it is.

    They want to be able to tell the court that they didn’t single out Disney.

  50. 50.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 9:02 am

    @Baud: I actually think it’s because the ones who do it can’t stand any reminder that there is someone who thinks differently than they do. Seeing a masked person reminds them that there are people who think we should still be wearing face masks at least some of the time, and they can’t stand that.

  51. 51.

    Baud

    April 22, 2022 at 9:03 am

    @Soprano2: I’m not sure we’re saying different things.

  52. 52.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 9:04 am

    @Baud: In the face of all their very public statements, that’s going to be an extremely hard lift unless they get the “right” judges.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    April 22, 2022 at 9:05 am

    @Soprano2:

    I agree.  But they might get the right judges.

  54. 54.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 22, 2022 at 9:06 am

    @Soprano2: They will come for one week in April and take a photo of the family with a sack of morels somebody else picked and another during deer season so he can parade around with a rifle and pretend to be a manly man.

    eta and no, I never saw any of those commercials because I don’t have TV. And that is one of the many reasons why.  :-)

  55. 55.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 9:06 am

    @Baud: I don’t think it’s just insecurity, but that’s a big part of it. They can’t stand the idea that there are people who think and believe differently than they do. I think they see it as an insult to their decisions. It’s why they are fighting more and more among themselves – they are distilling down, down, down. It’s inevitable.

  56. 56.

    Betty Cracker

    April 22, 2022 at 9:06 am

    Just straight-up authoritarianism here:

    Newsmax host Eric Bolling: "Is there an opportunity for Disney to change their mind and say we will disregard this whole 'woke' agenda…and would the governor then say, 'fine, you can keep your status but we're gonna keep an eye on you now'?"

    Florida Lt. Gov: "Sure!" pic.twitter.com/5E8UKGDVjF

    — Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) April 21, 2022

    Florida has trended redder in the last two cycles, and the conventional wisdom is that DeSantis will be reelected handily. That’s probably true.

    Still, I’ve gotta think there’s a chance that being so rabidly partisan will blow up in their faces. God, I hope so. I’ll have a bigger party than I had when Trump went down in flames!

  57. 57.

    NotMax

    April 22, 2022 at 9:06 am

    @SFAW

    Obligatory? The names may change but the isms don’t.

    We’re after Rosie Clooney
    We’ve gotten Pinky Lee
    And the day we get Red Skelton
    Won’t that be a victory
    – “The John Birch Society“

  58. 58.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 9:07 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I shouldn’t read that when I’m drinking coffee, I almost spit all over my monitor because you’ve summed up what he’ll do perfectly!! The idea of him trying to be a “manly man” is just…….geez, hard to imagine.

  59. 59.

    Scout211

    April 22, 2022 at 9:07 am

    Here in NorCal, we had a day yesterday that was a clear example of climate change—the stormiest stormy day of severe weather I have ever experienced in California. All day long we had rain, hail, wind, and downpours with few breaks. Then severe thunderstorms all afternoon and late in the afternoon we got emergency alerts on our phones screaming at us to get to the basement! because there was tornado activity in our area. [Narrator: “There are no basements in California homes.”]

    I guess our little corner of the world got top billing on the evening news because I got texts from family and friends checking on our welfare. We got through it with less damage than was expected around here but it was a day full of unexpected weather.  I’ve lived in California over 40 years and have never seen a day like this. It felt like I went to sleep and woke up in the Midwest.

    The climate, it is changing.

  60. 60.

    Baud

    April 22, 2022 at 9:08 am

    @Soprano2:

    I don’t think it’s just insecurity, but that’s a big part of it. They can’t stand the idea that there are people who think and believe differently than they do.

    What do you attribute that to other than their own insecurities?

  61. 61.

    Geminid

    April 22, 2022 at 9:08 am

    This morning’s Politico Playbook opens up with some reporting on Minority “Leader” Kevin McCarthy. Then it moves on to some interesting excerpts from a “Politico Deep Dive” podcast interview with Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallegos. The excepts include a critique of Democritic outreach to Latinos:

        “We don’t talk about the American dream to Latinos. We talk to them like they are white liberals. But they’re not white liberals! Latinos want to be rich, they want to be successful, they want to be secure, they want all these things.

    …And a bunch of fucking big, big donors [who] are white liberals end up hiring liberal consultants [who] end up hiring other very liberal Latino consultants. And they all have this massive fucking feedback loop.”

    Gallegos is not making this critique from a “centrist” position but rather from the viewpoint of a Latino member of the Progressive Caucus who is often described as a liberal.

    The Gallegos interview excerpts also include some very caustic criticism of Kyrsten Sinema’s role in the Arizona Democratic party.

  62. 62.

    zhena gogolia

    April 22, 2022 at 9:09 am

    @Betty Cracker: Maybe he can label Disney an inoagent (foreign agent). Every Disney movie must be preceded by a statement of self-denunciation.

    ETA:

    Once authorities slap a “foreign agent” tag on people or organizations, they are required to label anything they publish  — even a social media post  — with a disclaimer indicating their status as a foreign agent.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 9:11 am

    @Soprano2:

    It’s a real embrace of what is anti-social behavior. A reveling in it.

    “Works well with others” is now coded liberal? Because Rufo says it is?

  64. 64.

    ryk

    April 22, 2022 at 9:13 am

    @Soprano2: My daughter lives in the same gated neighborhood as Hawley’s sister. He purchased a lot in that neighborhood, but the last I heard he still hadn’t started building.

  65. 65.

    Baud

    April 22, 2022 at 9:15 am

    @Geminid:

    Hmmm.

  66. 66.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 9:16 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s ugly out there for Republicans, though. I don’t think you can discount the effect of this radicalized base they have developed. I went to a GOP primary debate last night for a county comissioner race. The first part was questions from a local reporter as the moderator and it was fine. Normal local stuff. Then they threw it out to the local GOP base and it turned into the loudest 20% of people belligerently demanding the candidates address whatever conspiracy theory they’re currently fixated on.

    There’s supply, but there’s demand too. The base they have created want this red meat. They gotta keep throwing it to them.

  67. 67.

    japa21

    April 22, 2022 at 9:18 am

    @Geminid:  Exactly the point Kay has been making over and over.

  68. 68.

    Elizabelle

    April 22, 2022 at 9:18 am

    @Geminid:  Thank you.  Sounds like a good read/listen (audio with transcribed excerpts), even if it is Politico.

    PLAYBOOK DEEP DIVE

    ‘You only win if you fight’: Will Gallego unseat Sinema?
    On this week’s episode of Playbook Deep Dive, co-author Ryan Lizza chats with Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallego, a Marine veteran and rumored primary challenger to Senator Kyrsten Sinema in 2024. Gallego has an unsparing take on challenging Sinema, Jan. 6 and why Democrats need to lead more.

  69. 69.

    lowtechcyclist

    April 22, 2022 at 9:18 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The state government doesn’t have the power to repeal the district over the votes of locals, and it’s a thinly veiled bill of attainder aimed at punishing one entity for political speech disagreeing with the governor, making it massively unconstitutional two ways. It’s possible that doesn’t matter any more, but of course Disney’s lawyers are famously energetic.

    The Emoluments Clause is dead, the guarantee of a republican form of government, ditto, and the Ninth Amendment too.  Bills of attainder? The RWNJs love ’em because they get to use the powers of government to bully those they dislike, so I’m sure the FedSocSix will love ’em as well.

    Oh, and state constitutions? That Federal court in Ohio has said they don’t really matter either, OKing one of several redistricting maps that Ohio’s Supreme Court had struck down as violating the Ohio Constitution.

  70. 70.

    Geminid

    April 22, 2022 at 9:20 am

    @John S.: I bet there are a lot of people in those counties who are not registered to vote. Yet.

    A lot of the unregistered are not reachable, but some are. And if Democrats can  get these residents to register and vote just once, the previously unengaged might decide they like political life in the big Democratic tent.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 9:23 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    One exchange was interesting. One of the candidates is a former sheriff. One of the 20% demanded he address the drugs coming over the border (like all red state rural areas we have a huge drug problem which they have all decided to blame on Mexicans) and he said “at some point you gotta look at demand- our people are buying it”. Off script! I clapped.

    He won’t win though.

  72. 72.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 9:27 am

    @Baud: Because of the religious ones. They are not insecure about their beliefs – in fact, they think everyone should believe the same way they do. What enrages them is the evidence that other people live differently is “in their faces” all the time because they don’t dominate the culture anymore. Especially in small towns, like the one where I grew up, it used to be easy to hide that fact that other places were different.  (I didn’t even know there was a such thing as homosexuality until I was in college, and I didn’t meet anyone who wasn’t a Christian until then either.) They don’t want their kids to know that homosexuality is an acceptable way to live, because they truly believe that it’s “of the devil”. They don’t want their kids to think that sex before marriage is socially acceptable, because to them it’s not. And so on. Their rage doesn’t come from insecurity about their beliefs; it comes from their belief that the whole culture is trying to “ruin” their kids and do away with their “way of life”.

  73. 73.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 9:31 am

    @Geminid: I think he’s absolutely right, the Democratic approach to Latin people treats them as if they are all the same. It’s dumb and needs to change. Quit thinking all they care about is immigration, because some of these people have been Americans longer than my family has!

  74. 74.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 9:33 am

    @ryk: I’m sure they’ll build a house someday. *snark* But it’s so expensive to build right now I’m sure he’s using that as an excuse. The truth is he wants his kids to go to the expensive private school in Virginia, not the excellent public school in Ozark.

  75. 75.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 22, 2022 at 9:33 am

    @Soprano2: Because of the religious ones. They are not insecure about their beliefs –

    That has not been my experience, especially with the hardcore Christianists: “The Bible is the inerrant word of God!”

    “Then why are there 62 versions of it?”

  76. 76.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 9:34 am

    @Kay: That’s why they’re fighting more among themselves now – they’re distilling down, down, down into the truest of true believers. No daylight between them is allowed on anything! That’s hard to keep up.

  77. 77.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 9:38 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: But you can’t shake them in their core beliefs no matter what you say. They believe the Bible they use (usually the King James version) is the one true Bible. They are truly offended that the culture no longer bows to their every wish. They can’t believe there are things on TV that offend them now, because they used to have the power to keep that stuff off TV and out of the movies. They have lost control of the culture, and they cannot stand that!

  78. 78.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 9:38 am

    @Geminid:

    Gallegos has the power to create his own campaign though. I agree with him on Latinos. I;ve said it here myself that we don’t approach them as Americans, we approach them as “Latinos”, which is really ridiculous and weird. But he’s ideally situated to take a wholly new approach to that and run it himself.

    Obama thought the Democratic Party campaign apparatus was weak and loaded with people who didn’t actually contribute to winning elections. So he made his own. He didn’t ask permission. He just did it. Now, it didn’t last without him and his people running it, but 8 years is a good run. Worthwhile.

    Who would be better at designing the new thing than Gallegos? Just don’t hire any of those people. Get his own people.

  79. 79.

    taumaturgo

    April 22, 2022 at 9:39 am

    “We oppose the governor taking action against a company because of their opposition to that bill.  And we’re just going to leave it there for now; we’re not going to say anymore to that,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said during a press briefing.

    For those in Florida, how do you interpret these remarks?

  80. 80.

    NotMax

    April 22, 2022 at 9:39 am

    @OzarkHillbilly

    Ask them if Adam gained entrance to heaven.

    After all, he never accepted that Jesus dude as savior.

    //

  81. 81.

    rikyrah

    April 22, 2022 at 9:41 am

    Good Morning Everyone ?? ?

  82. 82.

    Baud

    April 22, 2022 at 9:42 am

    @rikyrah:

    Good morning.

  83. 83.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 9:45 am

    @Soprano2:

    I went with my husband and as I have said I’m a “public Democrat” and there was a couple sitting close to us who kept up this running commentary pre-debate on how horrible liberals are that I think was directed at me.

    It had like…everything. God and voter fraud and Elon Musk and how mad I’ll be when they take back Congress. Okay, these people live in a 70% Trump county. I am AT a GOP primary debate. Republicans as far as the eye can see. That is not enough for them. Just my presence enrages them.

  84. 84.

    Nicole

    April 22, 2022 at 9:45 am

    @Kay:

    I’ve grown to appreciate over the years how valuable they are at work, actually.

    The more it’s studied, the more evidence shows that the single best indicator of success at work is if a person gets along well with other people.  “Plays well with others.”  It’s not just a comment written by a kindergarten teacher; it’s a life goal.

    And school culture really can influence.  One of my son’s friends came in from a different school with a much stricter, more “traditional” culture and I’ve watched the kid’s character evolve to much less aggressive over the two years he’s been in this school.  Some of it may just be developmental, but I think the school culture deserves credit, too.

    Less aggressive boys?  No wonder the GOP hates SEL.

  85. 85.

    lowtechcyclist

    April 22, 2022 at 9:46 am

    @Soprano2: That’s why they’re fighting more among themselves now – they’re distilling down, down, down into the truest of true believers. No daylight between them is allowed on anything! That’s hard to keep up.

    They’ve been keeping it up for 40 years.  They keep on sawing off the more moderate end of the GOP, over and over again, yet it hasn’t really hurt them even now.

  86. 86.

    MazeDancer

    April 22, 2022 at 9:47 am

    Marjorie Taylor Greene hearing live stream:

    https://youtu.be/LeSIMDEf7S0

    Law schools need to have courses on “How Not to Be Boring When Your Case is Live Streamed”.

  87. 87.

    Baud

    April 22, 2022 at 9:53 am

    @Kay:

    Just my presence enrages them.

     
    Nice.

  88. 88.

    Baud

    April 22, 2022 at 9:55 am

    @lowtechcyclist:

    They won presidential elections more easily between 1972 and 1988.

    And we’ve moved to the left.  It’s not symmetrical, but it’s not like we haven’t changed either.

  89. 89.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 22, 2022 at 9:55 am

    @Soprano2:But you can’t shake them in their core beliefs no matter what you say.

    No, you can’t, but that is the first sign of how insecure they are. A secure person can entertain the possibility that they may be wrong about something. These folks on the other hand, can’t even bare to have their beliefs questioned. Every single bit of them has to be the absolute word of God. And yet a single chink in the wall threatens the whole edifice. Their God is a paper tiger.

    They are truly offended that the culture no longer bows to their every wish….. They have lost control of the culture, and they cannot stand that!

    And it terrifies them..

  90. 90.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 9:55 am

    @Nicole:

    I’m a believer. It so shortchanges kid’s capacity to assume they can’t reach a higher bar as far as treating other people decently. I really think it goes back to “Lord of the Flies” and old ideas about kids as barbarians. It was a NOVEL, people.

    The success of the anti-bullying approach amazed even me and I thought they could do it. I knew they could do it. But boy they took to that like they had been waiting for someone to tell them to stop fucking savaging each other. Like it was a relief. Maybe it is a relief for the bullies too.

    It’s a higher bar for behavior, at base. It says “I don’t care if you’re 7, that’s not an excuse for cruelty or being unkind”. They’ll do better at work because they’ll do better at life.

  91. 91.

    Cameron

    April 22, 2022 at 9:57 am

    The sudden enormous concern over pedophilia displayed by various good citizens at school board meetings, local political debates, etc. has me wondering how many of them think that ‘pedophilia’ means ‘a sexual attraction to bicycles.’

  92. 92.

    Geminid

    April 22, 2022 at 9:57 am

    @Elizabelle: The account of January 6 that Gallegos gives must be fascinating. A Marine and a combat veteran, Gallegos is quoted:

        “To be honest, I was going to kill someone that day. I was not going to die that day. Like, I survived a war. …whatever it took, I was going to survive.”

    Gallegos recounted how he trained other Representatives for impending combat:

      “I was teaching [my colleagues] how to stab [the rioters] in the neck and stab them in the eye. …We had pens…I don’t give a fuck. Like, I would have killed all those motherfuckers to save this democracy. Fuck those guys.”

  93. 93.

    bluegirlfromwyo

    April 22, 2022 at 9:57 am

    @Baud: No one could have predicted that those cheering on beating up masked clerks were lying about mask choice.

  94. 94.

    Mike E

    April 22, 2022 at 9:58 am

    Ugh, do I have to read the WaPost? Oh alright, just for today.

  95. 95.

    Baud

    April 22, 2022 at 9:58 am

    @Geminid:

    ?

  96. 96.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 22, 2022 at 9:58 am

    @NotMax: Believe it or not, I’ve had some argue that Jesus was a Christian.

  97. 97.

    Betty Cracker

    April 22, 2022 at 10:00 am

    @taumaturgo: I’m not a lawyer, but DeSantis using state power to punish a business for wrongthink seems like a 1st amendment issue to me, and it may run afoul of other laws too, for all I know.

    My hope is Jean-Pierre’s reluctance to address the question means the legally appropriate entity DOES plan to take it up. Presumably that would be the DOJ, and maybe the Biden people don’t want to say anything that could be construed as influencing DOJ actions. Just speculating.

  98. 98.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 22, 2022 at 10:02 am

    @Kay: Just my presence enrages them.

    I still have all the glass in my truck, I’m not at all sure why.

  99. 99.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 22, 2022 at 10:04 am

    Apparently, there is a TERF group meeting at the Madison Public Library tomorrow.    A protest is being held.  Looks like I have some plan for tomorrow.

  100. 100.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 10:05 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think it’s a fine statement. As much as I loathe DeSantis Disney is what, a 200 billion dollar company? I think they probably have a plan to address this if it does in fact damage them.

  101. 101.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 10:08 am

    @Kay: Just my presence enrages them.

    You get what I’m saying then. I think it’s hard for liberals who live in liberal areas to understand what this is like. I have to be careful what I say at the bar because so many of our good regular customers who spend a lot of money are TFG fans. I can’t afford to lose their business. If I had only customers who didn’t like TFG I would be out of business in no time. They all know what my opinion is, and sometimes they needle me about it. I’m never dishonest, but sometimes I refuse to engage because it wouldn’t be productive.

  102. 102.

    Calouste

    April 22, 2022 at 10:08 am

    @Kay:

    Don’t lie.

    I think I’ve spotted the problem conservatives are having with this.

  103. 103.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    April 22, 2022 at 10:09 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    We’re not sure either.

    We docked in Ghent today in order to go to Bruges, which is a largely presented medieval town. There are a ton of buildings from the middle ages, included a set of them from a kind of commune women formed as an alternative to the convent. They took vows of obedience to the woman in charge, whom they elected every two years. They used their money to build housing for themselves and poor women who wanted to join. And they vowed chastity as long as they stayed in the community. They were free to leave whenever they liked. They treated the sick and served the poor. They offended the pope greatly.

  104. 104.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 10:10 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    My husband always think they’ll get physical but I never do. I think they’re chickens, basically. That may be delusional but it is what I think.

    It genuinely doesn’t bother me. I have pretty thick skin and I’m really confident in my views.

  105. 105.

    Geminid

    April 22, 2022 at 10:11 am

    @Kay: I think Gallegos will run against Sinema, and do it his way. Right now Job 1 for Arizona Democrats is reelecting Senator Kelly and putting Secretary of State Hobbs in the Governor’s chair this November. After that, I look for Gallegos to announce his Senate candidacy for 2024.

  106. 106.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 10:14 am

    @Soprano2:

    I think living in a really conservative area forces you to clarify your views and learn to defend them. The trick for me was kind of embracing political minority status. There’s more power in that than feeling outnumbered, which is inherently defensive. I do smile when I read about the poor widdle conservatives who have to live in liberal areas. “I am being CANCELLED!” It never occurs to these people that liberals live in conservative areas too?  We could whine a lot!

  107. 107.

    satby

    April 22, 2022 at 10:15 am

    @Steve in the ATL: Shit, what will I tell the partners who are awaiting replies from you at Dewey, Cheattham, and Howe?

  108. 108.

    danielx

    April 22, 2022 at 10:18 am

    From that Twitter thread earlier…yeah, it does seem like an easy win. But that is a misunderstanding of Protestant evangelical thought and mindset. My sister-in-law and her entire brood are converts to that faith, if you can call it that. She is formerly Catholic and now regards Catholicism as next thing to pagan worship. Idol worship! Ritual cannibalism!

    I mean,
    @POTUS
    is catholic … and a good catholic for that matter. Why the hell don’t they have shots of him going to church occasionally? Seems like such an easy win.

  109. 109.

    Betty Cracker

    April 22, 2022 at 10:18 am

    @Kay: I’m not clear on how the feds decide which rights violations cases to take up, but you’re right about WDW being capable of handling its own legal affairs. It’s also not clear that the Reedy Creek revenge bill will be harmful to WDW, aside from loss of control. It may get to offload its debt and service obligations onto taxpayers and ultimately benefit.

    If the statement is all the Biden admin is going to say on the matter, it comes up short, IMO. It’s not just WDW’s free speech rights at stake here. The government of the third most populous state in the union is going full authoritarian. It’s openly intimidating businesses (some without such deep pockets) as well as citizens. As Biden might say, that’s a big fucking deal.

  110. 110.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 22, 2022 at 10:18 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Bruges is gorgeous.  It is almost impossible to take a picture there that is not postcard worthy.

  111. 111.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 22, 2022 at 10:19 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: so you’re beginning with the Beguines?

  112. 112.

    The Moar You Know

    April 22, 2022 at 10:20 am

    In the spirit of the day, I’m not going to do my usual practice of printing all my emails, then stuffing the printouts into plastic bottles and throwing them in the river.

    @Steve in the ATL: I’m parking my wood powered car in the garage today.

  113. 113.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 10:20 am

    @lowtechcyclist: That’s true, but the cycle has sped up a lot, and at some point there won’t be enough of the “true believers” to sustain the party. Maybe they’ll never pay a price for it, but I have to believe that someday it will bite them in the ass.

  114. 114.

    danielx

    April 22, 2022 at 10:21 am

    @satby:

    I thought he left that firm and went to Gutt, Cutt and Flense.

  115. 115.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 10:21 am

    @Kay: It’s not even true, either. There was a real life “Lord of the Flies” situation, and the kids cooperated with each other!

  116. 116.

    JPL

    April 22, 2022 at 10:22 am

    @MazeDancer: omg  I was concerned that the judge was going to nod off.

  117. 117.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 10:23 am

    @Geminid:

    Agreed, except this:

    Right now Job 1 for Arizona Democrats

    Arizona Democrats, all Democrats, need a long term plan and project. Frantically responding to “cycles” is no way to work. They have to do both. Gallagos can insert himself in disucssions of how campaigns to reach Latinos are run, as he is in the article you read. He can tell other Democrats running in Latino districts to stop hiring people who don’t help them get elected. He’s credible, right? Which white Democrat is going to second guess his ideas on Latino voters?

  118. 118.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 10:23 am

    @Geminid: My husband would have been the same. He says almost anything can be used as a weapon if the need arises.

  119. 119.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    April 22, 2022 at 10:25 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I was stunned by it. Unfortunately, it’s cold and windy so, after three hours, we decided we needed shelter. Mr DAW is currently snoring on the bed behind me.

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes! I had to look that up because I couldn’t remember what the guide called them.

  120. 120.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 22, 2022 at 10:26 am

    @Geminid: Gallegos needs to study John McCain and see if he can replicate that trick of talking about his military service in a way that makes doughy (mostly) white (mostly) male (mostly) journalists who never served think he really doesn’t like to talk about his military service

  121. 121.

    Geminid

    April 22, 2022 at 10:28 am

    @lowtechcyclist: From what I’ve seen in Virginia, moderates leaving the Republican party by one door were replaced by bible thumpers and tea party cranks coming in the other. I think the moderates started leaving around 2004; now there are very few left. I’m hoping that the party has maxed out it’s additions from conservative evangelicals and there radical secular allies. It’s hard to tell because those folks make so much noise.

    November’s Congressional midterms will be a good test of their strength. Republicans know their best shot to take out Elaine Luria (VA-2nd) and Abigail Spanberger (VA-7th) is this year. Luria has the tougher district.

    The big showdown will be in next year’s legislative elections when all 100 Delegate and 40 Senate seats will be contested. This will be on a new map for the first time since Republicans gerrymandered the old one in 2011.

  122. 122.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 10:28 am

    @Soprano2:

    When it came up on our school committee there were basically two camps. A larger group who thought perhaps they could be taught to stop smashing each other in the face and a smaller group who insisted this was “natural” and maybe even desirable in a sort of hyper competitive way.

    There was overreach at the beginning, I admit. Schools are rule-bound places and they tend to hyper interpret rules in an ultra cautious way so we had “bullying” that was not even close to bullying but they got the nuance eventually and used their own common sense and the excesses petered out.

  123. 123.

    bluegirlfromwyo

    April 22, 2022 at 10:31 am

    @Kay: I’d rather have that than the conservative attempts to be open minded and reasonable. That’s what the guys at my husband’s Knights of Columbus do, and it’s just them trying to get us to admit how horrible we are for being Democrats. They asks us to hate ourselves as much as they do, and like them for pointing out the error of our ways. Then they get pissy when we don’t oblige.

    Just talk trash about me instead. I can take it. I never asked for their version of reasonable. They took that on. I don’t have to play.

  124. 124.

    The Moar You Know

    April 22, 2022 at 10:34 am

     

    “We don’t talk about the American dream to Latinos. We talk to them like they are white liberals. But they’re not white liberals! Latinos want to be rich, they want to be successful, they want to be secure, they want all these things.

    …And a bunch of fucking big, big donors [who] are white liberals end up hiring liberal consultants [who] end up hiring other very liberal Latino consultants. And they all have this massive fucking feedback loop.”

    @Geminid:  Yep.  Dems persist mightily in not understanding the Latino vote, and they’re about to lose it.

  125. 125.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 22, 2022 at 10:34 am

    @Geminid: Speaking of Elaine Luria

    L. Louise Lucas @SenLouiseLucas 10h
    If we re-elect Elaine here in Hampton Roads Kevin McCarthy will never become Speaker.
    Let me repeat that. If we win here, the Republicans will never get the House.
    I hope @JenKiggans will immediately renounce his endorsement after McCarthy’s lies were exposed tonight.

    I’m becoming a long-distance Louise Lucas fan

    L. Louise Lucas @SenLouiseLucas Apr 20
    My name is Lillie Louise Lucas, I am a 78 year old great-grandma who legalized weed in Virginia as President Pro Temp of the VA Senate. Thanks to all of you who are recognizing me on 4/20. Please RT, I need to build my following to stop @GovernorVA from rolling back our progress.

  126. 126.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 22, 2022 at 10:39 am

    @The Moar You Know: confusing the loudest voices on twitter with the voters they claim to speak for has been one of the biggest mistakes of a handful of prominent Democrats since 2016, and more than a few internet commenters….

  127. 127.

    Geminid

    April 22, 2022 at 10:40 am

    @Kay: I’m not saying that Gallegos can’t do a lot now!

    I’m saying that his primary fight with Sinema is something better left implicit than explicit until after the polls close on Election day. And I think that Arizona Democrats are going to work very hard on the current contests, but this in no way inhibits longer term investment if they are good practical politicians.

  128. 128.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 22, 2022 at 10:40 am

    @Soprano2: A buddy of mine had a restaurant in Mountain View, AR. I spent a long wkend at his house in ’17/’18, drove into town to have breakfast at his diner every morning. The customers were overwhelmingly trumpist of course. Every morning he’d “argue” with them, actually they just traded insults, but the next morning they’d all be back there for another round of coffee, pancakes, and insults.

    At any rate, it worked for him. You know your crowd.

  129. 129.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 10:41 am

    @bluegirlfromwyo:

    Knights of Columbus is too far Right even for me. One of my idiot relatives plugged his car battery charger into their outside outlet and left it there “charging” for I don’t know, two days, and it started this big dispute I had to resolve. They were really mean about it :)

  130. 130.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 10:42 am

    @Geminid:

    Oh, I agree with that. Democrats need help with reaching Latinos. He can and should help them and they should accept the help. Kelly seems smart enough to take advice.

  131. 131.

    MisterDancer

    April 22, 2022 at 10:43 am

    @Kay: The base they have created want this red meat. They gotta keep throwing it to them.

    I’ve been thinking a lot about this.

    One of the things that I suspect anti-Reconstruction efforts, and esp. the KKK, did, was create a demand in poorer Southern whites for self-promoting racism. That demand was already there — after all, Oregon began and spent decades as a “No Blacks Allowed” state.

    But the Lost Cause really helped kick-start this belief that it was in the hands of every white person to stop Blacks from, well, doing anything important. Fueled by Southern oligarchs, that became generational propaganda, I think, became something that was “true” to them. It made doing what they knew was wrong, easier.

    The 1970s on gave room, society-wise, to get out of that, to do what they knew was “right” in their hearts. But it’s clear hate still hid in the minds and anger, of far too many, spoken of in “safe” spaces of prejudice. And now that hate has so many and diverse targets, so many people to brutalize,literally and “legally,” to keep fueling that hate they have grown up in, marinated in for so long.

    They rule thru fear. And the pushback starts with refusing to give fully not that fear — to stay safe, yet also to fight back.

  132. 132.

    satby

    April 22, 2022 at 10:43 am

    @danielx: He did, but still emails the partners.

  133. 133.

    Geminid

    April 22, 2022 at 10:50 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Senator Lucas is hitting Youngkin hard and having fun while she’s at it. She now has her own line of blue fleece vests for sale.

    Early in her working life Louis Lucas worked at the Portsmouth Naval Yard as a draftsman. She was the first woman at the yard to become a Master Shipfitter. While working for the Navy Lucas earned a B.S. and a Master’s Degree from Norfolk State University. Then she ran for office and has represented Portsmouth as a Delegate and then a Senator since 1991.

  134. 134.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 22, 2022 at 10:54 am

    @Kay: ​I think they’re chickens, basically.

    I think they are like most people: they don’t want to stand out from the crowd. It’s a human thing. So if everybody else is just accepting my presence, they will too. But… if you find yourself among a more assertive crowd, it’s possible things could get ugly.

    I don’t know. The only places where I came even close to fitting in were the ones that didn’t care that I didn’t.

  135. 135.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 10:55 am

    @MisterDancer:

    The part I can’t bear is how they also insist they are victims while behaving so belligerently. Pick one. Strut around and call people names OR whine constantly about how no one lets you talk. They talk plenty. They never shut up. Half the country is jerked around by whatever ridiculous panic they’re promoting on a given week. How much do they want? What would satisfy them as far as “respect”? They are miserable now and they were equally miserable when Trump was in power.

  136. 136.

    kalakal

    April 22, 2022 at 10:57 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Bruges is wonderful. I hope you had a great day there

  137. 137.

    kalakal

    April 22, 2022 at 11:01 am

    @danielx: And from there to Sue, Grabbitt & Runne

  138. 138.

    Matt McIrvin

    April 22, 2022 at 11:05 am

    @Soprano2: I loved “Lord of the Flies” when I read it because it accurately described my experiences in junior high PE class. But looking back I now realize how much of that was happening because of tacit support from the teachers, who played the amiable goof but would always be looking the other way at just the right moment

    I think a large part of controlling bullying was just to not actively encourage bullying.

  139. 139.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 11:06 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: That sounds so amazing. You’re not on the same program we were, because we didn’t go to Bruges. Sounds like you have the same weather we had, though. I had to buy a scarf to put over my head because of the cold wind. We went in early October, and it was colder than I’d thought it would be.

  140. 140.

    tam1MI

    April 22, 2022 at 11:09 am

    @Baud: I don’t know how that will end, but I’m confident if the roles were reversed, we would treat it as a defeat

    Dems treat everything as a defeat.

  141. 141.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 11:14 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Awful. I’m so sorry. I once had a 70 year old magistrate have to leave the bench and recover after bullying testimony. He had a childhood illness that left him with a jerky walk and a built up shoe and he was just brutalized for years. It brought it all back and he was overwhelmed. It harms people for a long time. It’s unacceptable behavior and we can insist it stop.

  142. 142.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 11:21 am

    @Kay: I had an hour long discussion on the patio with one of our regulars last summer. Everyone else was holding their breath, but it was OK because we’re both relatively reasonable people. He’s from Illinois, so we were talking about that. He kept saying that people in downstate IL should have more say in the state government, and I said they have a say they vote for their representatives and that’s how it works. He just kept saying it, but could never articulate how it would work. He kept saying Chicago has too much power, but couldn’t really say how to change that. We all know that’s about wanting the downstate white people to control the state government even though they’re in the minority, but of course he’ll never actually say that because then it would show he’s biased against black people. He grew up in the city so thinks he can’t be prejudiced, but I know that’s not how it works.

  143. 143.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 11:23 am

    @Kay: I’m glad to know that there is an effective school program against bullying. I was bullied when I was in what they call middle school now; it was an experience that scars me to this day. I have this deep-seated belief that people aren’t going to like me, and I think it comes from that time in my life when it seemed like most of my classmates and the other kids didn’t like me. It was a damaging, toxic experience no one should go through.

  144. 144.

    zhena gogolia

    April 22, 2022 at 11:33 am

    @The Moar You Know: Fuck them if they can’t realize what’s at stake. Really. I’m sick of this discussion.

  145. 145.

    Matt McIrvin

    April 22, 2022 at 11:43 am

    @Soprano2: I grew up at the west end of Fairfax County in the 80s when that was deep Republican territory and the whole country was voting Reagan anyway. To this day, I still wince when someone I’m with expresses liberal opinions in a loud voice in public because I expect some kind of confrontation. I think things have gotten worse, though– the chance that someone might actually kill you instead of just shouting is higher than it was.

  146. 146.

    Matt McIrvin

    April 22, 2022 at 11:47 am

    @Kay: The kids with cerebral palsy or some other kind of visible physical difference always got the worst of it. I was just a nerd with weird posture and it was bad enough.

  147. 147.

    Kay

    April 22, 2022 at 11:57 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    It makes me cry because it was all just such unnecesary pain for people and they carry it so long. This magistrate didn’t even like me. We battled all the time. He abruptly left the bench and told me to follow him into chambers and just told this halting, awful story. His parents were Mennonite so they may have not gotten him medical care he needed. They avoid doctors and hospitals.

    I think it helps all of them. Kids who have ordinary empathy and observe and don’t intervene feel shame because they know it’s wrong. The bully makes everyone complict.

  148. 148.

    Soprano2

    April 22, 2022 at 1:18 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: They thought you needed to learn to be “tough” because life was hard. I can’t tell you how many times I heard, as a grade schooler, that if I just wouldn’t react they would stop. This is true, but how was I supposed to control my reaction – I was 8 and 9 and 10!!! It was an unrealistic expectation. No one said “maybe we should stop those kids from bullying you”.  No, I was supposed to adapt to them. I’m glad that’s not the expectation anymore.

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