.@POTUS and ?@FLOTUS? boarding AF1 for the flight to London wearing their Air Force jackets to commemorate its 75th anniversary as a service tomorrow. ?@Andrews_JBA? is holding an air show this weekend. pic.twitter.com/IAaSlz3aFA
— darlene superville (@dsupervilleap) September 17, 2022
I woulda slapped the stupid out that man’s mouth but that’s why I’m not president https://t.co/2XkNT6jOVB
— Dark Brandon High Cleric (@TonyMoonbeam) September 17, 2022
Someone should cut an ad about how Republicans' solution to every problem is to stick it on a plane and fly it to a blue state
Need an abortion? Go to NY/CA.
Immigrant? One way ticket to MA— The okayest poster there is (@ok_post_guy) September 17, 2022
It's also a tacit admission that they know you have a problem, and they just don't care. Like 20 years ago at least Republicans attempted to have solutions. They were bad, and frequently just giveaways to private interests, but at least they recognized the need to have something
— The okayest poster there is (@ok_post_guy) September 17, 2022
… But that can *feel* like a disadvantage, given the Disloyal Opposition and its Media Idiot enablers:
Unlike most other things, people notice gas price drops even absent news coverage. But every economic issue is seemingly like this – big coverage when the GOP is trying to rile up bad news for Dems, then news of the problem being solved or resolving gets no coverage. https://t.co/tEkp4v093T
— Michael Tae Sweeney (@mtsw) September 17, 2022
Or the shift from overriding concern with unemployment to overriding concern with inflation as soon as the unemployment report made a Dem President look good. Pretty interesting!
— Michael Tae Sweeney (@mtsw) September 17, 2022
— Michael Tae Sweeney (@mtsw) September 17, 2022
It's not cope to believe that Biden and his senior appointees have been dealing from the outset with a compromised system, the shit takes time and effort that could have been pointed elsewhere under normal circumstances. And maybe only now there's some sense of (limited) control.
— Nick (@getyrtrouserson) September 17, 2022
Everyone said the only way to get legislation passed was to take Joe Manchin's dog hostage and then the IRA got passed doing the exact opposite of that, so maybe the people who want maximally belligerent politics can take a step back for a bit.
— Le Brandón Sinistre (@agraybee) September 17, 2022
Ken
The list can be extended. Even relatively basic surgical care in places like Idaho and Wyoming often involves a trip to Spokane or Denver.
SFAW
Does Mehdi Hasan have a “platform” outside of Twit? I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything remotely useful from him — quite the opposite — but I’m an old fart and not a hep cat who sees him elsewhere in the Innertubez.
I mean, he’s not (yet) RWMF or Glemmy Greenwald level, but it ain’t for lack of trying.
ETA: The only place I’ve seen his stuff is here, and no, I ain’t a-gonna go looking for him.
ETA2: Third!
Anne Laurie
Per Hasan’s twitter bio: Host, @mehdihasanshow on @MSNBC and NBC’s @peacockTV
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
So, I guess I was wrong last night about Trump’s rally numbers for the Youngstown Save America Rally:
According to a local paper headline, about 5,500 were in attendance out of the 5,900 capacity. That’s nearly a full house
Geminid
@SFAW: Hassan has a show on MSNBC, I think. My second hand impression is that he’s more restrained on TV than on Twitter.
I’ve seen people advocate for Hassan to be given a higher profile spot. I hope this does not happen. Hassan encourages Democratic intra-party strife beyond a constructive level. A lot of “thought leaders” on the “progressive” side like to stir that shit up.
Their centrist counterparts like Third Way try to do this also, but they don’t seem to have the same reach now that they used to, except among pundits.
SFAW
@Anne Laurie:
Yet another reason not to watch TV. But thanks for letting me be lazy, i.e., giving me that info.
Lapassionara
I read somewhere that there will be a memorial service for Elizabeth II at the National Cathedral in DC, and that all former presidents have been invited, including TFG. Wonder if he’ll show up, and if Melenia will accompany him.
Ken
@SFAW: I didn’t catch Hasan’s name in this exclusive footage from Putin’s strategy meeting, but it’s more focused on the “tankie” pro-Russia pundits, not the “sure Democrats are winning but they’re doing it wrong” mindset represented by Hasan.
Ken
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I would instead say that his people have learned to book smaller venues so they can get close to a full house. (But they still didn’t manage to fill it.)
germy shoemangler
Lis Smith got a lot of practice covering for Republicans while she served the Cuomo administration
zhena gogolia
TFG is so disgusting. Now they play trance music underneath his words and the audience does Hitler salutes while he speaks (saw a clip on Aaron Rupar). He says, “In Ukraine, it’s so disgusting, they’ve killed hundreds of thousands of people. It didn’t happen for four long years on my watch. Next it will be Taiwan, just wait.” Notice he says “THEY’VE KILLED,” so you can read that as Ukraine being the aggressors. IT DIDN’T HAPPEN ON YOUR WATCH BECAUSE PUTIN WAS TRYING TO HELP YOU, NOT HURT YOU
hueyplong
Two years ago, the mere fact of Trump booking a “rally” venue seating under 6k would have been fairly big news.
MattF
@zhena gogolia: Saw that clip. Whining and lying.
SFAW
@zhena gogolia:
Much as I hate the motherfucker, I don’t “read” it that way. I think his point was that Putin and he got along so well (with a subtext that Putin feared TFG), and because of that Russia was afraid to invade Ukraine. It’s all a lie, but …
I think Putin’s only fear re: TFG was that some of TFG’s stupidity/moronitude would rub off on him (VVP) through frequent contact.
germy shoemangler
mrmoshpotato
Haha, dude is generous to a fault.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Yeah NPR Morning Edition is still flogging gas prices and inflation in general – they just can’t quit. They interviewed a retired couple this week about their economic concerns and the big complaint was they hadn’t been able to take the RV on road trips.
Then they did at least disclose that the couple they talked to were Republican voters, and noted that there’s a wide partisan split on attitudes about the current state of the economy. But…did they talk to a Biden voter about how they feel about the economy? No, of course not. We’re frickin invisible to the MSM. I mean I know the average Republican voter thinks everything has gone to shit every time there’s a Democrat in the WH because their partisan bias colors their entire worldview but the media doesn’t have to play along by talking to ONLY then.
germy shoemangler
germy shoemangler
tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat)
I’d like to believe that there is a plan to deal with the conservative capture of the Supreme Court and other parts of the judiciary. The WaPo had an editorial this morning that advocated against packing the court, but promoted term limits as a long-term solution. Of course, they didn’t mention that it would take a constitutional amendment, which in this hyper-political environment is unlikely to get the votes. Or explain why we all have to put up with this conservative court until they drop off (or we do) in the hope that there will be a Democratic president who can nominate a replacement. And we’ve seen how that works out.
I’m not trying to be all doom and gloom, but this is beyond my political chess skills. I hope there are others who do see a path forward.
lowtechcyclist
One thing what Hasan said brought to mind is that there’s really only so many issues that will fit on the front page over the fold.
And I’m not so much thinking about dead-trees newspapers as what goes on in our own heads: even political junkies like us can only prioritize but so many issues. So when you’re thinking about mobilizing your voter base to show up and vote several weeks from now, you have to do some triage. You can only throw so many messages at them and have them be effective.
And I’ll submit that, as outrageous as Judge Cannon’s conduct has been here, courtroom stuff has to be clearer than this to get people’s attention about.
This is already in front of the Circuit Court of Appeals. It’ll probably go to the Supreme Court. I think we can wait on this one until then.
Back in the 1960s, in his “L’il Abner” comic strip, Al Capp created a satirical student protest group called “Students Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything,” aka S.W.I.N.E. of course. He was right about one thing: being wildly indignant about nearly everything is not a good look for anyone. (It’s a look we should be pinning on the RWNJs – the shoe fits them quite well.)
Matt McIrvin
@germy shoemangler: And Michael Tae Sweeney quote-tweeted it, which is really falling into the trap.
SFAW
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat):
Bring the Fascist Five up on “Crimes Against Humanity” charges? That might impose term limits without a Constitutional amendment.
As you kids say: just spitballin’ here.
germy shoemangler
@Matt McIrvin:
I’m guessing more people saw the newspaper cover than the tweet. Even people walking past and only seeing the headline on display without buying the murdoch rag.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Yesterday, I went to an online writer’s workshop about publishing. The most depressing thing I learned is that Tiktok is the only social media that reliably sells books. I just lined up some you tube videos on how to tiktok. I can barely use Instagram!
mrmoshpotato
@germy shoemangler:
Matt Gaetz is on the prowl for a new girlfriend?
germy shoemangler
@mrmoshpotato:
some of the replies are hilarious
germy shoemangler
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I sometimes read the Writer Beware blog, and it’s depressing to see all the scams that target aspiring (as well as published) writers. It was horrible back in the late 1970s/80s when I was in the game but it’s more horrible now. The internet and email are tools for the scammers.
SFAW
@lowtechcyclist:
Your point re: how best to mobilize the anti-fascist/pro-America votes and voters is a good one (re: outrage overload). But the RWMF “outrage spaghetti” strategery is what they do, because their voters (A) thrive on it* and (B) are more than happy to latch onto any one item (out of 50) for which to hate Dems.
* If they didn’t, Fux, ONAN, and Newsmax would not be as successful as they have been.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@germy shoemangler: Yes. Most of the attendees were just starting out trying to get their work published. By their standards, I’m wildly successful, which is appalling. They were ripe for scams. The presenter had used a “hybrid” publisher. She praised them for what she learned, but she’s now going to try to self publish. It’s all just exhausting.
SFAW
@germy shoemangler:
That GIF is hilarious.
mrmoshpotato
@germy shoemangler: I’m sure they are. Clicking to see would risk seeing Gaetz’s face however. :)
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
germy shoemangler
@mrmoshpotato:
You need a thicker skin! Toughen yourself up!
Begin by staring (without blinking) for one minute at a photo of Lauren Boebert. Then stare for two minutes at MTG. Next, TFG.
Then McConnell, then Gaetz.
Do this every day until you gain control of your gag reflex. Then you’ll be able to gaze upon the visage of… Roger Stone.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@rikyrah:
Good morning
@Ken:
That’s a good point
SFAW
@germy shoemangler:
Life is too damn short to put oneself through that kind of trauma repeatedly.
tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat)
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I hear you. I pay someone to help handle the social media. I work full time in academia and don’t have the mental energy left to tweet, do Facebook, blog posts etc. If TikTok is the next ridge to be climbed, I’m sunk. It’s hard enough squeezing time to write.
@germy shoemangler: Agree on the scams. There are tons of people out there offering all kinds of services. Some are legit, but others…Writer Beware. Either way, it’s all about separating writers from their money.
SFAW
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat):
And for the low, low introductory price of $59.99 per month, I can pretend to help you avoid those scams. Call now! Operators are standing! Bye!
delphinium
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat): There was the Presidential Commission on this which included reasoning for increasing the number of Supreme Court justices as well as reasons not to. As the number of cases has increased (in part due to Republicans basically no longer legislating but instead turning to the courts to overturn laws they don’t like), it makes sense to increase the number of SC justices. This is not ‘packing the courts’, as the media suggests but a recognition that case loads have increased and changes are needed. This would seem the easiest change to make with the rationale that they could expand the SC to align with either the 12 district courts or 13 federal appellate courts. But I haven’t seen what the Biden administration plans to do yet to address this issue-they may be waiting until after the mid terms.
Bill Hicks
Sorry for ignoring the thread of comments, but can there be a few or more than a few posts about Desantis kidnapping immigrants? The repubs are at least good about screaming bloody murder when any dem supposedly even farts illegally (fours ls), and it gets results. These fuckers have broken many laws and we need to remind Garland and the rest of the shitty justice dept to do their damn jobs.
mrmoshpotato
@germy shoemangler: LOL! You said “thicker skin,” not “assault your eyeballs.”
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
We are a full generation into Newt Gingrich’s “Contract on America”, where no solutions are proposed for domestic problems and everything will be presumed to fix itself when left alone.
Unspoken is the human problem of economic devastation, illness and death which result from these conscious decisions, and the fact that the wreckage is commodified by Calvinist/Randian manipulators of great wealth.
For instance, failure to conserve energy by forging a greener lifestyle path forward benefits the holders of fossil fuel wealth, who lavishly fund those who stymie the progress. Also, failure to address the multiple flaws and ridiculous delays in our immigration system benefits the interests who exploit the labor of the undocumented (and as a twofer, satisfies the prejudice of racists who have no economic concerns about immigrants, but don’t want to see differently completed people).
On the global inflation and supply chain issue, it benefits the right to do nothing to alleviate it while complaining bitterly about it and blaming Biden for it.
On the Martha’s Vineyard thing, no new votes have been earned and probably quite a few are lost, but the MAGA assholes are grabbing on in a much tighter grip because “hurr durr, them Martha’s Vineyard libtards got rid of ‘em too” (while actually coming together as a community to solve the issue by putting them somewhere appropriate to services).
germy shoemangler
@mrmoshpotato:
Some scarring of the retinas is to be expected. These are not handsome people
WereBear
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Thank you! This was the sign I needed that my new marketing strategy will be on TikTok.
This is why I bought the ukulele. And I don’t even have to play it, so I have the skills.
My iPad and kitten do the tuning for me. Rather, Rhiannon supervises.
H.E.Wolf
Here you go! :)
https://www.justice.gov/contact-us
#LetMeGoogleThatForYou
tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat)
@delphinium: I hope they have a plan after the midterms. Unless we can correct course on the judiciary, any program is in danger of being thrown out for not being conceived in 1787-88.
@Bill Hicks: There was speculation in an earlier thread that the DeSantis move was intended to distract from the abortion decision. I’m all for the outrage and would love to see a roundup of how it’s playing in Florida and Texas, as well as any indications of investigations. But I also want full press coverage on the abortion decision. Republicans relegated women to second-class health care and second-class status. I want that wrapped around their necks in November.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
zhena gogolia
@SFAW: He never says the words Russia or Putin. He says Ukraine, then he says “they.” I know what game he’s playing.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@WereBear: You are so brave. It’s at moments like this that I feel old.
Geminid
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: I think DeSantis advanced his prospects for the 2024 Republican nomination. But that is a zero sum game for Republicans.
And DeSantis can stake that claim all he wants, but if he doesn’t win reelection he’ll be out of the running. He may have damaged his appeal to Florida Independent voters, and among Florida’s 1st and 2nd generation immigrants (and not just the Venezuelans among them). I think this will be a close election, and DeSantis’ stunt could make the difference.
germy shoemangler
artem1s
@WereBear: here #letmegooglethatforyou
plenty of people screeching DO SOMETHING. plenty of folks also actully doing something.
Biden officials to discuss “litigation options”
Matt McIrvin
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat): The median US voter is, I think, fairly liberal on abortion but an evil, sadistic, paranoid motherfucker on immigration, so it’s ground on which Republicans do better.
(And the social-democratic Europeans that American liberals like to take as a model are even worse.)
delphinium
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat):
Agreed. Reforming the judiciary needs to be a priority in 2023. Given all that has happened recently, we do not have the luxury of putting this off any more.
Starfish
@Ken: The lack of rural medical access and the way Republicans were allowed to pretend people have good insurance that they want to keep!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: I actually saw someone (MTG I think) describing the situation as “using the military to deport them”.
Is she aware that “deporting” is different from “giving them residence in the state”?
In fact I heard an immigration lawyer saying that MA may be one of the best states for them to have landed in for gaining long-term residence.
Matt McIrvin
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: There’s a technique called “lying” that they’re masters of. Actually this is more “bullshit” in the Harry Frankfurt sense–statements whose resemblance to the truth is completely irrelevant.
They set up a situation where every possible response can be spun favorably to them with minimal effort.
Starfish
@SFAW:
That is what really happened though. The moronitude rubbed off, and he invaded Ukraine.
delphinium
@Geminid:
It should also be noted that Abbott has been governor since 2014. At any time he could have worked with the federal government on immigration. Maybe he needs to explain why Trump’s wall solution that he so eagerly backed isn’t working. Why aren’t his (and other republicans) border stunts not working? But we all know republicans have no agency and thus border/immigration issues are always the Democrats’ fault, even when they are out of power.
satby
I don’t agree. Even in the red state hellhole that is northern Indiana, people recognize that they’re descended from immigrants, usually at least one grandparent. And many are recent immigrants. I think the correction to your statement would be “but white supremacists are evil, sadistic, paranoid…)
Kristine
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’ve heard it, too, especially for YA. One bad thing I’ve heard that has made the rounds there is the advice to quickly read Kindle books and then return them. Readers read for free and writers lose the sales.
Geminid
@delphinium: More generally, Texas Republicans have controlled that state for two decades now, and a lot of Texas’ problems can be debited to them. Mr. O’Rourke and Texas Democrats have the “Throw the Rascals Out!” dynamic working for them, and this dynamic can be potent
Kevin
@Ken: Texas power grid is gonna need a big ass plane.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
Had another thought – every FedSoc judge perceives him/herself as a President/Legislator.
Seems kind of a backstory for Judge Dredd – “I AM the law….”
delphinium
@Starfish:
Several years ago, there was a really good show on this. It followed a Remote Area Medical pop-up clinic and completely exposed the lack of medical care. People lined up for days just to get very basic care (including limited dental-eg, pulling teeth rather than fixing them). One of the people who went along with this group was a very high level insurance executive (think his last name was Potter), and he was utterly appalled at how poorly these people were served.
Starfish
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I haven’t gotten into TikTok, but there is a part of TikTok called BookTok now.
What is happening with the demographic of people who have disposable income for stuff is that they are not watching television. They went to social media, but social media platforms eventually get abandoned, and new ones pop up.
When TikTok drama is big enough, it will spill over into Twitter.
I think there have been some BookTok dramas that have landed in Twitter (which is itself in the process of becoming abandoned slowly.)
What is wild is that I think someone said Gen Z’s preferred method for searching (like you would do with Google) is to search TikTok.
SFAW
@zhena gogolia:
“We are a nation that allowed Russia to devastate a country … Ukraine …” and then he goes on to the “hundreds of thousands of people” shit.
OK?
ETA: To be more clear: he’s pretending that he wasn’t kissing Putin’s ass and tacitly encouraging him (Putin) to do whatever TF he wanted, then trying to pretend Putin wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine were he still in the Oval Office.
germy shoemangler
Starfish
@satby: I was talking to some people who are probably more conservative than I am but not Republicans about how a couple of our coworkers had complex work situations due to immigration law and the rules for our country.
(With remote work, many companies are allowing workers to work from other countries for a month. However, some workers are still not living with their families (in other countries) because if they work from another country over six months, the business would have to figure out how to pay business taxes in those countries.)
They both brought up difficulties experienced by people they knew from Canada, so they were all very empathetic to the plight of their Canadian friends.
lowtechcyclist
@SFAW:
Well, sure they are! But those are the unreachables. Maybe they’re 27% of the electorate, maybe they’re 37%. But they aren’t 50%, and the goal of characterizing them as Seniors Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything (hey, we’d get to reuse the S.W.I.N.E. acronym, and it fits the Fox News demographic) would be to make most of America see them like that.
prostratedragon
@zhena gogolia: Thank you.
WereBear
My arduous health journey started when I found doctors who put footnotes at the bottoms of their blogspots that were actual studies. That’s the kind of bedrock we should look for.
The kind anti-science people blow off, to the detriment of all of us.
Baud
@Starfish:
Agree. Five years ago Putin owned the president of the United States. Today, he’s a laughing stock (albeit a deadly one) around the world.
Layer8Problem
@germy shoemangler: I was mentally preparing to respond “what you really want to do is add ‘site:reddit.com’ to the search words,” and then saw this was from Reductress.
tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat)
@delphinium: This is where the media should come in. I’m sure there are journos on the ground who are filing those stories, but they rarely get the oxygen. Instead, we get to see stories with tough questions like how hard was it to pick out your socks this morning.
tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat)
Btw, it has been pouring buckets off and on all day, and Tokyo is not directly in the path. Tomorrow is a federal holiday, which should ease pressure on the train system. But, my university has classes. We’ll see how the trains are running tomorrow.
ETA: I’m talking about the super typhoon that is hitting and is supposed to be the largest in 70 years.
germy shoemangler
@Layer8Problem:
Someone (was it here?) said she stopped asking technical questions on reddit, because she doesn’t get replies.
She instead posts the wrong answer to the question. Then a million people reply to correct her and give the correct answer. It works every time.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
Tru dat, but by tomorrow, this story will have dropped out of the news.
I guess DeSantis and Abbott can continue to fly or bus immigrants to Hollywood or San Francisco or wherever, but each time, it’ll be that much more clear to everyone that liberal ‘outrage’ at the “see how they like it when we drop these people off on their doorstep” gambit is confined to “if you gave us a few hours’ advance warning, we could be a lot more ready to help them when they arrive.”
germy shoemangler
@WereBear:
WayOfCats and CatInfo.org are the only feline-related blogs I bother with nowadays.
My cat journey began in the early 1980s. I wish I knew then what I know now.
germy shoemangler
@Layer8Problem:
It’s a humor site but they’re right about “pinterest” clogging up too many search results.
WereBear
@germy shoemangler: Don’t we all?
lowtechcyclist
@satby:
And they probably think, “that was different,” and come up with varying reasons why Gramps who came over from Italy or Poland was coming here to work hard for a better life, but those brown folks from Latin America are just here to freeload off our system.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: Not all of them, I suspect.
Matt McIrvin
@satby: Maybe I should modify that statement: it’s more that Americans tend to draw a really sharp line between what they see as legal and illegal immigration, and are ignorant enough about the process that they think legal immigration is relatively easy and “illegals” are all these scary people. They know they were descended from immigrants, but they think their ancestors were on the right side of this sharp line (when they likely immigrated at a time when anyone who wasn’t Chinese could basically just walk in). So their sentiments are easy to game.
Layer8Problem
@germy shoemangler: And those million answers followed with a million other replies saying “this is the way.”
Starfish
@germy shoemangler: I think that has been going around for a while. Someone said they do it on GitHub.
1) Post a question
2) Use a different account to post the wrong answer
3) Wait for outraged people to give you a good answer
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
Definitely not all of them – three of my four grandparents were born outside the U.S. (Edinburgh, Kyiv, and a small village outside of Warsaw), and I certainly don’t feel that way.
But an awful lot of them do.
Starfish
@germy shoemangler: The problem has gotten worse than that.
In the past, when you would do a google search, you could put in some unlikely phrase and get zero hits.
Now, you can’t do that anymore.
There are AI generated pages that will use the words in your question to create a page. The content of the page is organized into phrases and sentences, but collectively the phrases and sentences do not mean anything and do not answer your question.
If you are not using search engine optimization tricks in the content that you create, it cannot be found at all.
That is why all those recipe bloggers have paragraphs and paragraphs about how eggplants remind them of visiting their grandmother in a village in Italy before they get to the recipe.
delphinium
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat):
Hope you stay safe and that any damage from the typhoon will be minimal throughout the country.
Baud
@Starfish:
That’s what I do here.
UncleEbeneezer
@satby: I haven’t seen current polling on immigration recently, but if the history of legislation in this country is any indication, the average US voter is VERY xenophobic. It’s also very common for white people to look fondly at say Irish, German etc., immigrants like their ancestors but think that Asian, African, Latinx and Middle-Eastern immigrants are a problem. There’s a reason that any meaningful Comprehensive Immigration Reform has been unable to pass for so long. I’ve been involved with some organizing on immigration issues and it is downright depressing how hard it is to get people to care, even on our side. Even in communities of color. The zero-sum premise that immigrants getting something means the rest of us don’t, is sadly very common in every community. Then add in the racism and it becomes a very difficult problem that goes well beyond just the open white supremacists.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: Also, a lot of European people have come to this country since the Immigration Reform of the 1960s. And some of tbem “illegally;” I remember reading that there were 500,000 Irish in the country without proper immigration status (I worked with at least two). Although that was over a decade ago and many have probably returned to their prospering homeland. This may influence views on migrants, in some cases towards a more liberal take.
I think tbere will be polling on the Martha’s Vineyard// migrant matter. I’ll be interested as to how sentiment breaks down among political and demographic groupings.
UncleEbeneezer
@lowtechcyclist: Yup. The sentiment is always: But my Irish/Polish ancestors were just looking for a better life and/or fleeing persecution! Unlike these lazy Hondurans, Somalians, Cambodians and Syrians…
Hell I knew a dude from Columbia who would say the same about Mexicans, and also Mexican co-workers who would say the same about him.
John S.
@Geminid:
More than you’d think.
I know someone who works for the DeSantis re-election campaign and is married to a Venezuelan asylum seeker. There is no outrage, only cognitive dissonance.
The mental salve conservatives use in these situations is FYIGM. They repeat this mantra to themselves like a Buddhist chanting “nam myoho renge kyo”.
delphinium
Now nominated for a rotating tag:
germy shoemangler
“Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse”
Layer8Problem
@germy shoemangler: Yeah, it was doing an astonishing job portraying a “this one weird trick to supercharge your Google searches is a game changer!” article from the tech/lifestyle sections of our popular media.
Starfish
The way that the people supporting women’s health issues have gone off is so incredibly funny because it is radically different from the “Oh, we need to accommodate these folks” stance that the Democratic Party took for such a long time.
This woman called in to her Republican Senator’s office with a uterus update that she posted on TikTok.
Some anti-choice people somehow found this video and are deeply offended. Some abortion rights advocates are just retweeting the video.
UncleEbeneezer
@Matt McIrvin: Not just Americans. Is there ANY country that doesn’t have a problem of virulent and well-organized anti-immigration movements. Even the Socialist nirvanas of Scandinavia struggle with it.
MisterForkbeard
@Ken: Red states have been subsidizing the homeless to travel to California for a decade now, on and off.
japa21
The issue that is not being directly addressed in the whole “ship them to the liberal states” program that Death Santis and Abbott (and soon to be others) cooked up is the actual cruelty of the situation. The media is really avoiding that. In reality, being able to move immigrants to other areas of the country can actually be good, so long as where they go to has services in place and ready to go.
Instead, these people are just being dumped like so much garbage after being lied to to begin with.
And yes, I know, the cruelty is the point with the GQP, but even among some Republicans there is a sense of decency.
MisterForkbeard
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: “deport” would have been “sending them back to Texas with no support just dropping them off at the airport”.
They know they’re wrong. As always, they don’t care.
O. Felix Culpa
@UncleEbeneezer: The socialist nirvana of Sweden just elected a far-right government, albeit narrowly. Sigh.
oatler
ABC’s Heidi Heitkamp and Marc Short have established that the Biden administration is solely responsible for the “busing” stunt, from Peru to Biden’s bedroom. Those two governors were barely mentioned.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@lowtechcyclist:
The more the buses come, the more likely it is that DOJ drops the hammer on drivers, guards and equipment through charges and seizures.
Ruckus
@Ken:
I wonder how many of those attendees attend other SFB appearances? IOW how actually impressive is the level of his followers. Most of them seem to be rabid, as infested with some parasite, like SFB. And therefore I’d bet that any appearances that they can get their racist hate on within unreasonable driving distance, they are going to attend. Because his only draw is his rabid, open racism, which they seem to really, really, really like. He has no other draw, none. He’s not even close to competent at anything other than racism, but at that he’s way up on the asshole scale. If he had any understanding or concept of history, all his signage would be 3 letters, all capitalized, all the same 10th letter of the alphabet.
Mike in NC
Just read a Sunday newspaper article about how the mentally-ill megalomaniac Trump has fully embraced the lunatic QAnon movement (his biggest fans) hoping to install him as fascist dictator who will have his enemies publicly executed on TV.
You just can’t make this shit up.
zhena gogolia
@SFAW: OK, I stand corrected.
ETA: I couldn’t stand to watch it again to see if I was right. I just came away with the impression that the casual listener could put “Ukraine” in for “they.”
zhena gogolia
@prostratedragon: SFAW at #67 corrects me. I missed where he said “Russia.”
Eolirin
@O. Felix Culpa: I don’t believe this is accurate. A center right party is looking at being able to put together a coalition including the far right party, which made huge gains and now holds the second largest number of seats, but no one is willing to allow to be in actual control. And they still have fewer seats than the party of the previous PM.
And it’s questionable whether that coalition will survive very long.
sab
We will see how the election turns out. Tim Ryan is not doing a Sherrod Brown this is who I am type campaign. Instead he is going after the indepependents ( Republicans who won’t admit they are Republicans.) So he is swinging rightward with a vengeance. Not who he is and not how he’ll vote, but it pisses me off. I hope Democrats are really energized on our own because he is not helping.
ETA He has been my Congressman for twenty years so I think I know how he votes.
SFAW
@zhena gogolia:
As you kids say, “Come sit beside me.” If I never hear his disgusting voice again, it will be too soon.
SFAW
@japa21:
Isn’t it pretty to think so?
Matt McIrvin
@UncleEbeneezer: The polling results seem very confused and depend heavily on what question you asked.
Most Americans, about 70%, will say that immigration is a net positive for the country. But if you ask them if immigration should be increased, decreased or neither/not sure, through most of history, a plurality are in the third category, and more will say “should be decreased” than “should be increased”. The “should be increased” fraction has been creeping up lately (it went way way down as a result of 9/11), but in very recent polls it’s gone down again and is back below “should be decreased”. All this is essentially independent of how much immigration is actually happening at any given time (such as the huge drop that happened during the Trump admin and COVID); it’s not responsive to changes in the reality at all.
And if you ask them about “illegals” of course an overwhelming majority will say they don’t want “illegals” coming in.
Princess
@UncleEbeneezer: I would say that socialist nirvanas struggle with anti-immigration and white supremacy *especislly*. And add Quebec alongside the Scandinavian countries. Socialist programs pass most easily when people think they will benefit “people like me.”
Matt McIrvin
@UncleEbeneezer: European social democrats are worse about this than we are. Canadians might be marginally better–but not by much; there’s definitely a loud xenophobic movement there.
Geminid
@sab: I read an article on Ryan’s campaign where one Ohioan said that after hearing Ryan’s ads he thought maybe the Republican primary had not yet occurred!
It wouldn’t bother me though. I live in a purple state that used to be red, and I’m accustomed to successful Democratic candidates appealing to the Independents who comprise 30% or so of the electorate.
It’s more a matter of style than of policy substance anyway. Given that Ohio voted for trump by 8 points twice, Ryan probably needs to rope in some Republican voters too. My attitude is, just win baby!
Villago Delenda Est
Scott Pelley, Villager dipshit.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@SFAW: YouTube has been giving me MSNBC clips, generally about his ever-deepening legal troubles. I watch them hungrily but they almost always unfortunately feature a clip of TFG speaking.
So I’m back to watching video with my finger over the mute button, the way I used to for 4 long years.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Well, a sense of “being in electoral danger if you don’t at least pretend to hate cruelty” anyway.
Bill Arnold
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
Martha’s Vineyard’s permanent population is less than 20000, much of it working class. Vs 29 million for Texas, 21 million for Florida. Each of those states has over 1000 times the population, and vastly more resources.
Martha’s Vineyard has right-wing propaganda value as the target of right wing attention seeking assholes; a few well known powerful liberals, mostly visitors, and the Brutal Snubbing Of Alan Morton Dershowitz, defender of D.J.Trump and Epstein.
Uncle Cosmo
My best buddy[1], whose Jewish forbears got the hell out of Germany in time, likes to ask me, Remember what it was like before we were white?
Answer: Not really…but as the US-born son of Sicilian immigrants, my dad sure as hell remembered being called d*go or w*p or gr**ser or g**nea as an adult.[2]
Neither of our ethnicities were godfathered ;^D into whititude until after WW2. Before that Italians were all dirty, greasy, garlic-chomping anarchists and crooks and murderers. (And Jews were, well, Jews.) You would think my people would remember that – but waaaay too many of them are eagerly yanking the ladder away from everyone else.
[1] Who at the moment is settling into his seat at M&T Bank Stadium for the Poe’s Crows-Fins game. (Go Crows!)
[2] Reportedly he’d reply, “So long as you’re smiling when you say that. When you stop smiling, we have a problem.” He was a mild-mannered but pretty muscular guy; few stopped smiling.
Matt McIrvin
@Uncle Cosmo: My impression is that many Americans do remember this but just use it as Oppression Olympics material– “my folks had it as bad as you and we just sucked it up; stop whining and get with the program.”
Making it better for the new arrivals would be unfair to the groups who had to suffer before, like student loan forgiveness.
Another Scott
@germy shoemangler:
Cheers,
Scott.
Bill Arnold
@Layer8Problem:
But it is a working trick. and using the google query language is a pain (particularly on a phone) and often adding a short keyword will do the trick. I regularly add “wiki” or “urban” (for Urban Dictionary) or “definition” or a few other keywords.
Villago Delenda Est
@Uncle Cosmo: The irony of Tom Tancredo whining about Spanish being spoken in the streets of Miami makes me, of Anglo-Saxon, Scots, German, and Dutch heritage double over in laughter. Tancredo’s surname ends in a vowel!
Another Scott
@UncleEbeneezer:
Yeahbut, …
Bob Goodlatte (GQP) of Virginia blocked the House from passing the immigration reform bill that passed the Senate. McConnell later blocked any different bill from passing the Senate.
There’s also the infamous example of 90+% of people wanting stronger gun laws and the Congress refusing to do anything about it for decades, until this year.
People are policy. It only takes a very few people to block progress. We have to vote the monsters out.
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
@Geminid: I hope what he is doing is the road to win. In Ohio Republican Lite doesn’t win since there are real Republicans. Maybe going against the JD Vance I despise all Ohioans since they didn’t go to Yale will work.
Another Scott
@sab: “Just Win Baby!”
He has a (D) after his name, and will vote for Democratic leadership. That’s the main thing that matters as long as the other party is insane.
IOW, I feel you, and I know you know this. I hope the rest of the good Buckeyes know this as well.
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
1:30 and the humans are sleeping in. Pitmix is not happy. Bubbling with energy and no way to spend it.
Tomorrow I am buying a muzzle and getting her toenails trimmed.
So glad she cannot read.
She will hate me but she will get over it. I let her sleep in my bed.
Geoduck
@MisterForkbeard: It happens everywhere. In my WA state county, one of the towns is somewhat less horrible towards homeless people, so all the surrounding towns “deal” with the problem by forcing their homeless to go there.
Starfish
@japa21: I am afraid to say there is not. My mom’s Trumper friends are yucking it up and gleeful about this.
You know even though her son hires people who are in the country illegally, and a lot of these small southern towns would not function if they had to pay living wages.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: I actually think he will be a good senator. Way better than a few of our Dems. He just needs to win!
Chris T.
@germy shoemangler:
For what it’s worth (nothing), I invented this same rule independently decades ago on Usenet. You don’t get the right answer by asking, you get it by posting the wrong answer, and then standing back as the flames roll in.
Chris T.
@UncleEbeneezer:
Of course, at certain times, the Irish, Germans, Italians, etc., were a (the?) problem.
I’m a grand-to-the-n’th child of two problem immigrant waves myself. And I just realized a few weeks ago that the old forms, that listed “Caucasian” instead of “white”, probably did so because “Irish” wasn’t “Caucasian”.
Geminid
@sab: Criticizing Democratic candidates for “centrist” messaging is pretty common. After the 2020 election I saw a fellow resident of the Virginia 5th CD complain about Democrat Cameron Webb’s ads which seemed aimed at independent voters. And a New Mexico jackal had a similar gripe about Xochitl Torres-Small’s messaging. I asked them if they thought that cost her any Democratic votes and they acknowledged that it probably had not.
True swing voters are becoming scarce these days, and savvy political analysts argue that base mobilization is much more essential than pursuing a “conversion” strategy- trying to flip voters. I think that this is true to some extent, but I don’t think the two methods neccesarily conflict if done efficiently.
Arizona in 2020 could be an example of a dual approach working. That was a high turnout election and I think both parties effectively maxed out on base turnout. Registered Republicans comprised 35% of the electorate, and Democrats only 32%, so Kelly and Biden needed a majority of the Independent voters to win and they got them.
Tim Ryan has a steeper hill to climb than Mark Kelly did. The only reason he has a chance at all is that this year there are a lot of moderate conservatives up for grabs, and Ryan’s gotta grab them. And he’s unfamiliar to voters outside his district, so he has to define himself as a moderate before Republican ads define him as the guy who wants to pal around with Liz Warren and Bernie Sanders.
But I know this drives some Democrats crazy.
VOR
@hueyplong: IMHO we need to be really careful about attendance at TFG events. Their standard line is that the place sold out, long lines to get in, etc… I saw pictures of the place half full, but MAGAts responded that those pictures must have been taken early, before the place filled. Without knowing exactly when the pictures were taken, can’t disprove.
We know TFG has a history of lying about the size of his crowds. Inauguration Day, for example. So I do not trust any claims coming from TFG or his camp on attendance.
Geminid
@VOR: The composition of trump’s crowds is another question. Some have remarked on all the people. in the center section of the arena raising their index fingers in unison. Other ralliers in the stands did not. Marcy Wheeler said the raised index fingers is a Q-Anon symbol, and speculated that event organizers were “mining” Q-Anon for participants.
It was a strange tableau: trump droning on to a bunch of people with their index fingers in the air, with eerie music in the background.