Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Usually wrong but never in doubt

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

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Alternative history is always a weak argument. Always.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

White supremacy is terrorism.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. Do not congratulate. This is not business as usual.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: At Least We’re All Democrats Here

Open Thread: At Least We’re All Democrats Here

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(Mike Luckovich via GoComics.com)


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134Comments

  1. 1.

    JPL

    ‘@hillzoy needs to see who donates to Senator Ron Johnson, and Senator Rand Paul to find the answer.

  2. 2.

    Edmund Dantes

    There is a lot of foreign money sloshing around US politics. And part of the reason it’s not rooted out, is a worry of the corruption angling hitting all when it comes out it’s sloshing in both parties.

    the whole 30 million NRA foreign money is a huge one not go after. Yet there is no appetite.

  5. 5.

    Betty Cracker

    A few fringe Repubs are already questioning the U.S. commitment to arming Ukraine. My guess is that’ll become the mainstream Repub position soon.

  6. 6.

    debbie

    The NYT needs to grow a pair and state that we could do something if the GOP stopped subverting the democratic process.

  7. 7.

    Jerzy Russian

    @Betty Cracker:

     

    A few fringe Repubs are already questioning the U.S. commitment to arming Ukraine.

    Someone should point out to them that Ukraine is full of teachers. The funding bill would double in size overnight.

  8. 8.

    Steeplejack

    @Edmund Dantes:

    The whole $30 million NRA foreign money is a huge one not go after.

    Inorite. In a normal world the NRA should be the equivalent of a modest outdoor group like the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (BASS, get it?), but we don’t live in that world. Unbelievable the amount of money they have to spread around. I can’t believe it all comes from their members (a significant percentage of whom are thought to be “lifetime” members kept on the rolls after their death). It’s a front for the gun manufacturers and a money laundry for the Russkies and God knows who else.

  9. 9.

    Layer8Problem

    Damn, I’m so happy to have numbered comments again.

    I’d think given the documented influence on democracy that foreign money has had that going after that would be top of the Democratic Party’s list, as a national security issue.

  10. 10.

    Another Scott

    Reuters tweet: “tried”.

    I hear that word a lot in reporting on Democrats. It’s grating, because of the often unsaid but intentionally framed “and failed”.

    Grrr…

    They’re being lazy and cribbing from The Pitchbot.

    Anyway, have an excellent day. Non-corborundum, and all that.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  11. 11.

    debbie

    So I started following Dan Gutman on FB after he first shared his friend Andrei’s “My Ukraine is in Pain.” This morning, he’s announced this:

    COMING TOMORROW! Chapter 5 of Andrei’s story “My Ukraine Is In Pain!”

  13. 13.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Just stumbled upon the choice quotes from the days of old.  They need to be on a tee shirt:

    “Governor Ronald Reagan, who was coincidentally present on the capitol lawn when the protesters arrived, later commented that he saw “no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons” and that guns were a “ridiculous way to solve problems that have to be solved among people of good will.” In a later press conference, Reagan added that the Mulford Act “would work no hardship on the honest citizen.“[3]”

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

  21. 21.

    Betty Cracker

    As we know, Republicans are openly modeling themselves after Viktor Orbán’s party in Hungary. We also know one of their most odious influencers, Tucker Carlson, famously admitted he was rooting for Russia. He had to half-ass walk that back because the rest of the party isn’t there yet, but they’re getting there, I think.

    Like Orbán, Republicans admire Putin, and they’ll eventually decide we shouldn’t favor Ukraine, and they’ll go after Dems for leading the effort to pour weapons and money into the war. We’re committed to Ukraine because we side with a peaceful democratic government over an aggressive autocratic regime, but Republicans no longer give a damn about democracy.

  32. 32.

    Steeplejack

    @Baud:

    Same. In a similar vein, I hate how every congressional bill’s title now has to make a cool acronym.

  33. 33.

    debbie

    @NotMax:

    Stacy Schiff’s The Witches recounts the entire sorry episode. Elizabeth attracted attention as a witch because she had the audacity to remain unmarried and surrender her property to a husband.

    Alito is only the latest embodiment of the Puritan ethic that continues to infest this country.

  36. 36.

    Ohio Mom

    @Baud: Well yeah, there are things I’d rather spend money on than war but it’s like paying for new gutters and a roof when you’d rather wallpaper the foyer (real life example). The urgent and structural goes first.

    I’ve always identified with the left but they make it harder and harder.

  37. 37.

    jackmac

    Restored site looks great and loads smoothly but I’m sure there’s still plenty of work to be done. Thanks to all who worked so hard to get back to this point.

    Also, it’s  nice to be out of moderation. (I figured that was a glitch when I was sent to the Gulag on Sunday).

    Finally, I hope Adam Silverman will resume his Ukraine posts. They were indispensable reading as is — of course — the entire BJ site!

  39. 39.

    Another Scott

    If McConnell says he's open to a gun deal now, he gets headlines painting the GOP as reasonable, when public fury is at its height.

    Then after anger calms down he can blame Dem intransigence for killing a deal.

    He did the same with 1/6 and impeachment:https://t.co/hp41Rptv6H pic.twitter.com/0UwzKvsRLb

    — Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 29, 2022

    Well said.

    The GQP always tries to delay progress.
    We must hold the line or yet again there will be no action.

    Eyes on the prizes.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  41. 41.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: ​
     

    I have heard secondhand that the “better things to spend money on than war” talking point is being tested in lefty circles.

    The wormhole from 1966 must’ve opened up.

  42. 42.

    Eunicecycle

    I saw a thread on Twitter that was just pictures of people surrounded by their guns. Like, dozens of guns sometimes, for 2 people, or maybe a family. I don’t understand why. I wonder sometimes if it isn’t an obsessive compulsive disorder like hoarding. What are they going to do with all of them? If it’s to protect themselves from the government, how are they going to use more than one at a time? Buying lots of ammunition would make more sense to me. These weren’t just collections because there were lots of similar weapons.

  43. 43.

    Scout211

    365 349 Data Centers’ marketing team is already trolling for new business.   Really?

    Does this seem sincere? I think not.

    Reliable
    365 Data Centers is laser-focused on delivering reliable and secure colocation, network, and cloud services. Our data centers feature the security, monitoring, and support needed to ensure continuous protection of your equipment and the infrastructure that supports it.  The 365 experienced team and rigorous procedures ensure that you get the continuous service and support you need to meet the demands of a 24/7/365 world.
     

  44. 44.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @debbie: Don’t discount that she was a grandchild of a minister who spoke out against the prosecutions.  Several members of her family were accused and/or convicted.  The reason her conviction stay on the books so long is that, unlike  the others, she did not have direct descendants to advocate for her.  She was only 21 when she was convicted so I doubt that her choice not to get married played much of a part in her conviction.

  45. 45.

    Cameron

    @Betty Cracker: Well, of course we shouldn’t be arming Ukraine!  Those guns should be here so God-fearing Merkins can defend their homes and churches!  And, yeah, that includes howitzers and rocket launchers…..why are you looking at me funny?

  46. 46.

    Betty Cracker

    @Steeplejack: I hate that too. The “USA PATRIOT Act” being the most egregious example that springs to mind.

    There might be a genetic component to my distaste for the practice. My mom was a nurse, and she complained about hospital administrators encouraging staff to come up with snappy acronyms for processes and procedures. She actively subverted the practice by making up acronyms like TERD.

  48. 48.

    oldgold

    I remember when one of the most dangerous men in America, Alito, mouthed “Not true” when Obama warned Citizens United, a ruling as bad or worse than Heller, which are only eclipsed by Marbury, Dred Scott and Plessy in the Supreme Court’s Hall of Shame, would result in foreign money corrupting our politics.

    We need to either expand the Supremes or restrict their funding to the point these unaccountable black robed corrupt pols actually have to work – then, perhaps they would retire like the rest of us.

  50. 50.

    JPL

    @Betty Cracker: Hungary has a large safety net which includes retirement at 55 for women and 60 for men.   Health care is completely free.   I wonder which part of Orban the right worships.

  52. 52.

    CaseyL

    I’m beginning to think Biden’s switch to harsher, stronger rhetoric was planned. He is famously the guy who said he could work with the GOP. Then the message was, his door is always open to members of the GOP who wanted to negotiate with him. And at e ery step along the way, it was the GOP who refused.

    Now, after 2 years of offering an open hand and having it spat on, having established to even the dimmest observer that the GOP is not only obstructionist but actively destructive, Biden is upping the ante, calling them out in so many words. I am hopeful he, and all the other Democrats (real Dems,that is; I have no such hopes for Sinemanchin) get more and more forceful about it in coming months.

  54. 54.

    dmsilev

    @Scout211:

    365 Data Centers is laser-focused on delivering reliable and secure colocation, network, and cloud services.

    It’s entirely possible to defocus a laser until it’s just a fuzzy barely-perceptible blob of light. Maybe that’s what they mean.

  55. 55.

    karen marie

    Testing testing 123 testing

     

    I have rarely been so glad to get an email as I was this morning when I saw the one from John Cole. .

    Thank you, kids!

  56. 56.

    karen marie

    @Scout211:

    I guess they have the same problem as their now former customers.

    Notice: Our new website is under construction. We apologize for the limited access at this time, and our new site will launch in the coming days. Thank you for your patience.

  58. 58.

    Betty Cracker

    @JPL: They worship the part where it’s a democracy in name only because the party in power has coopted the media, institutions and businesses through bribes and intimidation to prevent political competition. They also really like the part where the government scapegoats queer people and immigrants. (As with Israel, American wingnuts are cafeteria admirers.)

  59. 59.

    Jinchi

    I’ve always identified with the left but they make it harder and harder.

    I still don’t understand the need on this blog to kick ‘the left’ for things that are almost exclusive to the right. Russian propaganda is being spread by figures like Tucker Carlson, TFG and his clan, Senators like Rand Paul and Ron Johnson, and virtually all of righwing media led by Fox News. Dozens of House Republicans voted against sending aid to Ukraine including Greene, Gaetz and Cawthorne, and candidates like JD Vance speak out against it at campaign rallies.

    But someone heard, secondhand, that a talkingpoint is ‘being tested in lefty circles’….​​

  60. 60.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Scout211: Well, they have a “General Inquiries” option. Perhaps we should all contact them, ask how that class action lawsuit is coming along.

  61. 61.

    Mike in NC

    I recall once reading that the so-called Heritage Foundation was established back in the 1980s mainly to promote what some people then jokingly called “Star Wars”, the massively expensive missile defense program that the Reagan Administration wanted to build.

    Today Heritage has morphed into an all-purpose far-right wing movement that funds cranks trying to wreck our public school systems by banning books, inserting religion, telling teachers what to indoctrinate their students with, etc.

    In other words, another propaganda arm of the fascist Republican Party.

  62. 62.

    Gin & Tonic

    Is this the right forum to complain about the decline of the English language? I received an update on my phone about the son of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones having graduated from a nearby university. It linked to a ‘People’ article which led with this: “Catherine Zeta-Jones celebrated her son’s matriculation from …”

  68. 68.

    WaterGirl

    @MagdaInBlack: I suggested that we “release the hounds” when I saw that page days ago when they first put it up.

    Cole’s response was to ask me whether I thought a bunch of annoyed messages through a form would get them to do something that a lawsuit.

    He had a point, but I did write my own screed to them through their form anyway.

  71. 71.

    Steeplejack

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Is this the right forum to complain about the decline of the English language?

    No, because you will be reviled as a pedant.

    To your example: everybody wants copy editing unless it happens to them.

  73. 73.

    Gin & Tonic

    @WaterGirl: “Matriculation” is enrollment. He has finished his studies there and has graduated. He matriculated a bit less than four years ago (I presume.)

  76. 76.

    lowtechcyclist

    @WaterGirl: ​
    I’m not G&T, but matriculation is when you commence your undergraduate studies, not when you complete them. So she’d have celebrated his matriculation nearly four years ago.​
     

    ETA: Beaten to the punch by Steeplejack.

  77. 77.

    Ramalama

    Welcome back, Official Website of the Jackal Federation.

    Young relative of mine was shot by a rubber bullet in a Chicagoland school not long after this recent slaughter in Texas. Shooter was a white boy, early teens. Arrested because the other kid’s relatives said Hell yes get him. My own relatives didn’t know which of the awful steps to take.

    I’m in Canada where battling with the elements (power out going on 10 days due to microblast hurricane/tornado) and the French (I keed, I keed. I love the Quebecois and other French diaspora here) are hard enough.

    Looking down at my American family and friends being more and more trapped by inaction.

  79. 79.

    Geminid

    @dmsilev: I had to laugh at how those 365 statements kept talking about “transparency.” They were so transparent you couldn’t see a thing!

  80. 80.

    Gin & Tonic

    @lowtechcyclist:

    but matriculation is when you commence your undergraduate studies, not when you complete them

    And that, folks, is why the completion of studies is celebrated at the “commencement exercises.”

    Wait….

  83. 83.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Is this the right forum to complain about the decline of the English language? … It linked to a ‘People’ article which led with this: “Catherine Zeta-Jones celebrated her son’s matriculation from …”

    Billy Strunk says hi!

    (Go which hunting…)

  85. 85.

    Baud

    @Scamp Dog:

    Based on the results of this lefty circle, it seems to be failing

     
    That’s good to hear. Of course, the problem is that they only need to succeed with a portion to be successful.

  86. 86.

    Another Scott

    @JPL: Well done.

    Man, does WLaP look old and befuddled there.  As do the few dozen people in the audience.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  87. 87.

    Baud

    @Jinchi:

    But someone heard, secondhand, that a talkingpoint is ‘being tested in lefty circles

     
    FWIW, I wasn’t kicking the left. I was just noting that the propaganda effort was being made to the left. It remains to be seen how successful it will be.

    That said, with respect to Ukraine, there have been prominent leftists like Chomsky who have not covered themselves in glory in assessing the situation. I don’t think you can wish stuff like that away.

  89. 89.

    WaterGirl

    @eclare: Is it possible that the people in the auditorium are so stupid that they didn’t understand that he was not on their side?  The clapping sounded like people weren’t sure whether they had just been praised or smacked in the head.

    It’s reminiscent of the kid with the “curly hair” in Florida making the commencement speech.

    If this guy at the NRA hadn’t couched it this way, he would surely have been dragged out by security.

  92. 92.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Baud:

    That said, with respect to Ukraine, there have been prominent leftists like Chomsky who have not covered themselves in glory in assessing the situation. I don’t think you can wish stuff like that away.

    I think we’re only made aware of what Chomsky says about anything these days (in this case, the Russian invasion of Ukraine) when it suits rightwingers and the MSM to check in with him. It’s not like anyone anywhere really listens to him anymore. Chomsky and his musings are pretty weak tea compared to elected officials voting against funding for Ukranian aid.

    I know some like to highlight “stuff like that,” but really, it’s not too hard to wish away Chomsky on this topic.

  94. 94.

    Baud

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    If you’re going to do a comparison, yes, nothing on the left approaches anything on the right.

    If you’re trying to assess the left on its own terms, then I think things get a little ambiguous. Chomsky might be the most prominent leftist talking about Ukraine, but not the only one. And it’s not as if I see a lot of examples of other prominent leftists calling him out.

    Maybe that’s a problem with our information bubble, but that’s a perennial problem with all parts of the left of center.

  95. 95.

    RaflW

    @Edmund Dantes: “the whole 30 million NRA foreign money is a huge one not go after. Yet there is no appetite”

    I wonder if there is an ambitious state A.G. in the US who could open an investigation/grand jury to probe foreign money into a prominent state campaign? It really should just take one eye-opening, well documented probe into dirty & foreign money to state to whet journalists appetite for scandal.

  96. 96.

    James E Powell

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Who knows what matriculate means? Who bothers to look things up anymore? It sounds fancy, so it’s good.

    There are people who use penultimate when they want to intensify ultimate.

    14 years teaching high school English. Every day was like throwing a snowball into a volcano.

  97. 97.

    Another Scott

    Here’s an artist doing his part to get people to think. I wonder if the usual suspects will successfully wrest control of the memes and the narrative as they usually do, or whether it will be different this time…

    In Cincinnati, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, @realDanHils, wants an art exhibit shuttered. https://t.co/ZXesCajbiP

    — Adam Steinbaugh (@adamsteinbaugh) May 30, 2022

    It’s because of this: https://t.co/DTCLxU6nob

    — Adam Steinbaugh (@adamsteinbaugh) May 30, 2022

    (via Popehat)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  100. 100.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: ​
     

    The problem with a term like ‘the left’ is that a lot of people seem to use it to mean ‘people to the left of me.’ To the Rethugs, all Democrats and the occasional RINO are ‘the left.’ Here, it seems to be used to refer to Jill Stein and her fellow travelers.

    But as a (for the most part) mainstream liberal, I can’t see how I’m not part of ‘the left.’ I’m to the left of center, and would regard it as fighting words if you called me a centrist. So if I’m not on ‘the left,’ then where the hell am I? I’m not on the right, and I’m not in the middle. That really just leaves the left.

    So it bugs me that that rather broad term is used to describe what is essentially a splinter group. We need better vocabulary.

  105. 105.

    Abnormal Hiker

    @Gin & Tonic: I vaguely recall that my high school graduation in Ontario almost 60 years ago was called Matriculation.  So  your comment sent me looking through my old dictionaries. It seems that matriculation can be used for college enrolment or for qualifying to enrol. In the second sense it can be used for high school graduation. I further learned that matriculate is derived from the Latin word matrix which means womb or register.

  108. 108.

    burnspbesq

    @oldgold:

    I remember when one of the most dangerous men in America, Alito, mouthed “Not true” when Obama warned Citizens United, a ruling as bad or worse than Heller, which are only eclipsed by Marbury, Dred Scott and Plessy in the Supreme Court’s Hall of Shame, would result in foreign money corrupting our politics.

    Marbury? You really should stop hitting yourself in the head with a hammer before commenting on subjects about which you know nothing.

  109. 109.

    kalakal

    @Betty Cracker:

    You’re absolutely right.

    I seem to remember Adam a few weeks ago saying that if he was the Ukranian gov’t he’d be getting as much aid as possible from the US as fast as possible before the GQP get a chance to block it.

  110. 110.

    kalakal

    Duplicate comment * Deleted

    Hah! Taken me less than a day to demonstrate I have lost none of my incompetence during our sojourn

  111. 111.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: Dunno.  I think that trying to come up with better labels may be a losing battle.  The other side seems to spend about 2/3 of their time trying to weaponize words.  They know how easy it is to trigger our lizard brains with just a word or two. We know what happened to “liberal”. Look at what they’ve done to “work” in just a few years.

    One of the old mantras at work for oral presentations is “tell me what you’re going to do”.

    E.g. Guttmacher.org’s vision statement:

    The Guttmacher Institute envisions a future in which all people can realize their rights and access the resources they need to achieve sexual and reproductive health. This vision is aligned with a progressive and evidence-based definition of SRHR, grounded in human rights, which holds that sexual and reproductive health is not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction or infirmity but a state of physical, emotional, mental and social well-being in all aspects of sexuality and reproduction.

    E.g. FairFight.com’s about statement:

    We promote fair elections around the country, encourage voter participation in elections, and educate voters about elections and their voting rights. Fair Fight Action brings awareness to the public on election reform, advocates for election reform at all levels, and engages in other voter education programs and communications.

    Don’t get me wrong – I know how important bumper stickers and clever signs are. But we need to remember that it’s just a small part of the total picture. Worrying about better labels is a distraction, IMHO.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  112. 112.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Baud: Whaaaaa? I simply can’t concede that Chomsky is the most prominent of any group on any topic these days, much less “the left” in discussions about Ukraine.  And I’m a Chomsky acolyte for many issues. My point is that Chomsky is simply no longer prominent and is largely irrelevant. Nobody brings him up unless he’s saying something that makes “the left” look bad. Thus, it’s pretty easy to wish him away.

  113. 113.

    lowtechcyclist

    @James E Powell: ​
     

    There are people who use penultimate when they want to intensify ultimate.

    Oopsy.

    As the emcee at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe said, “there’s nothing penultimate about this one.”

  114. 114.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Another Scott: ​
     

    Good Lord.

    People that sensitive and thin-skinned shouldn’t be allowed to carry weapons, let alone enforce the law.

    I’d say something about ‘snowflakes’ and ‘cancel culture’ but that’s almost too easy.

  118. 118.

    livewyre

    @Another Scott: Fully on board with this. I’m convinced a critical distinction that needs to be made is between who we stand with vs. what we stand for. As important as it is to have others around to agree and affirm each other’s rights, when it comes to issues like this, the direction we’re going may decide who’s coming along – so not much point labeling an audience that changes as we go. We’re whoever we happen to be, but what really matters is what we’re about, so let’s focus on naming our actions rather than ourselves. Something like that.

  121. 121.

    Ohio Mom

    @debbie: That’s what I mean. You can’t have anything else if you don’t have a solid roof on your house and democracy in the polity. Else everything crumbles. Deferred gratification is what adulthood is about.

    I used to roll my eyes at comments about the far left and the far right meeting up but I was wrong. This “don’t spend money on Ukraine, spend it at home” is but one example.

  122. 122.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Steeplejack: An old friends granddaughter is one of those hyper silicone enhanced youtube gun-bunnies. I thought for a second that was her there in the one picture…with her ex-marine bf.

  123. 123.

    Bex

    @Another Scott: In other art news, the Mona Lisa was “caked” by a man dressed as an old woman and in a wheelchair, tried to smash the glass and when he couldn’t he smeared the glass with frosting.

  124. 124.

    Steeplejack

    @Bex:

    Oh, I’m glad he didn’t get the actual painting. I only saw the photograph and didn’t know there was glass protection. Asshole.

  126. 126.

    Betty Cracker

    @Another Scott: Okay, but wouldn’t you agree it’s important to avoid misunderstandings that result in internecine strife? I think that’s what Baud was getting at.

  127. 127.

    kalakal

    @WaterGirl: Not always. In this instance I hit post comment and everything just hung. (this is using Brave browser in Android) I got a “Brave has ceased working, exit, wait” window. I exited came back and the comment was still sitting there unposted ( which surprised me) I hit post et voila! 2 identical comments.

    The site seems to running very nicely other than that

  128. 128.

    Another Scott

    @Betty Cracker: I’m a fan of clear language, sure.  But the language of politics – especially Twitterized politics – is messy and chaotic and a distraction in the greater scheme of things.  Especially when we are a big tent. Some misunderstandings are deliberate.

    EclecticBrotha/Ragnarok Lobster seems to enjoy beating up on performative “leftists”.  Maybe it helps in some cases, but it seems very inside-baseball to me at times. Even though I agree with him on some things, I dunno. I’m sure it helps keep the fire burning in like-minded people, and that can be important, but it doesn’t seem to do much to make the number of like minded people increase.

    FWIW.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  129. 129.

    Steeplejack

    @kalakal:

    If you’re getting an error message of “Brave has ceased working,” I think the problem is there, not with this site. Maybe reload/​update Brave?

    (I use Brave on my Android phone and have never gotten that error message.)

  130. 130.

    Baud

    @Another Scott:

    Language is hard.  On the other hand, branding has its value.  I feel like good Christians, for example, allowed bad Christians to hijack the Christian identity in the 1980s, and have never really recovered.  It’s important to push back sometimes.

  131. 131.

    Dopey-o

    @Eunicecycle: I saw a thread on Twitter that was just pictures of people surrounded by their guns. Like, dozens of guns sometimes, for 2 people, or maybe a family. I don’t understand why. I wonder sometimes if it isn’t an obsessive compulsive disorder like hoarding. What are they going to do with all of them? If it’s to protect themselves from the government, how are they going to use more than one at a time?

    They are prepping for war. Every one of their guns screams “Death to America!” They hate and fear an America where black / gay / female citizens walk without fear. The America i want to leave to my kids.

    Digby was a long post of these patriotic Americans. Never Too Many
    Anyone have a guess-timate of how many thousands of dollars are displayed there?

  132. 132.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: American Christianity is an obvious example, but even there it can be a less than clear one, IMO.  I grew up in suburban Atlanta in the ’60s.  You had some Christian groups like the SCLC and you had some like the Southern Baptists.  The politics of necessary change was easier for the majority to ignore than now if they wanted, but the tension and vociferous disagreements were there as now.  Given the demographic changes since then, and the increasing numbers of people who see little personal need for organized religion, it’s to be expected that the remainders get more strident.  Even if so many Christians weren’t co-opted GQPers and RWNJs, it’s not clear that there wouldn’t still have been big wrenching changes that would make lovers of Jesus cringe (Prosperity Gospel, Putinism, etc.).

    I’ve got no answers, and recognize that “eyes on the prize” isn’t a roadmap for the best way to get there.  People are complicated!

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  133. 133.

    oldgold

    @burnspbesq:

    “Marbury? You really should stop hitting yourself in the head with a hammer before commenting on subjects about which you know nothing.”

    If I were to stop hitting myself in the head with a hammer, could I then comment on subjects about which I know nothing?

    But before you answer that, please direct me to the language in the Constitution that confers on the Supreme Court the power of Judicial Review.

  134. 134.

    Chris T.

    @James E Powell:

    There are people who use penultimate when they want to intensify ultimate.

    They should consider “preantepenultimate”. It’s obviously four times as intense!

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