Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

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

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Crackling In The Air

Crackling In The Air

by | 148 Comments

This post is in: 

Things are happening.  Some good.  Some bad.

At first it felt like the world had somehow switched from 1x speed to 1.2.  In the last day or two, it feels like the world is running at something like 1.5, doesn’t it?

There’s a tension in the air, a crackling like just before a big storm.

We’ve got the lawlessness in the courts.  Activist judges doesn’t even begin to cover it.  Lawlessness in House committees.  Jim Jordan declaring war on New York.  No respect for separation of powers or rule of law.  Republicans in TN. Everywhere I look, at every level, they are turning over the table.

The Republicans are mad as hornets; like wasps that have been sprayed, and they are wild with anger. They don’t care who they hurt or what they hurt; all that matters is having the power.

In my mind, I see images from old westerns, where the folks in the wagon train could see the “Indians” appearing on the ridges above, and you knew something was about to happen.  I see battle scenes in the Lord of the Rings, where the battle hasn’t started yet but they are on horseback, helmets in hand, waiting for the signal that the battle has begun.

I’m not talking about physical battles in the streets, though I do think that Trump is trying to incite violence.  He wants another Jan 6, but I don’t think he’ll get it.

Instead our side is battling in the courts.  And in the voting booths.  We are winning big at times.  And experiencing breathtaking losses.

But with every table they turn over, it becomes more impossible for people to pretend that there’s no difference between the parties.

Republicans would rather crash the car than lose the race.

They are sacrificing children at the altar of guns, and they are too blinded by rage and quest for power to see that the kids who make it through the horror become voters, and those “kids” can see that both sides most definitely are not the same.

Speaking of no difference between the parties, just look at Michigan.  They are using their newly acquired powers for good.  They are taking nothing for granted, no lallygagging (!) and they are moving forward with lightning speed.  That can’t happen overnight.  People have been looking ahead and planning and believing this day could come, and they know exactly what to do with their power. Michigan had their list, and they are checking off one thing after another.

Never forget that we helped make that happen in Michigan.  And Wisconsin.  In Chicago, other people were fighting that fight.  We are legion.  Hang on to that when the road gets rocky.

Like this.

Interesting news about the DNC in Chicago.  With the indictments in NY and soon-to-be in GA, and a new Chicago mayor, it seems like a smart choice.  The Republicans are just arsonists at this point, and having the convention in either of the states that will be the focus of the legal fights for democracy would seen like handing gasoline to the arsonists.

There’s so much going on, so many things making the air crackle like pent-up lightning.  This battle is as big as anything in WWII, it’s just being fought in different ways, but now, just as it was then, everything is on the line.

I can’t begin to list all the stuff that’s going on, good and bad.  Can you help with that in the comments?

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

148Comments

  2. 2.

    bbleh

    Concur there is a sense of progress, but I’ll go with 1.2.

    Everywhere I look, at every level, they are turning over the table.  They are trying, and to me, it’s much more a sign of desperation than of strength.  They’re losing the war, even if they occasionally win some battles.

    The Republicans are mad as hornets. Yeah, ’twas ever thus, although it does seem more real than performative recently, and that’s a good sign!

    We are winning big at times.  And experiencing breathtaking losses.  Far more the former than the latter IMO, and I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks so — Republicans included!

    We are legion.  Hang on to that when the road gets rocky.  This.

  3. 3.

    WV Blondie

    Very sharp and evocative analysis – I love your writing, WaterGirl.

    And a local-government case in point: y’all probably saw or heard about the Frederick County (MD) sheriff indicted on gun charges. Well, apparently the Culpeper County (VA) sheriff said, “hold my beer.” The DC affiliate of NBC reports that he’s being investigated by the FBI. (I’d put the link if I wasn’t so inept.)

    Another hornets nest pissed off!

  4. 4.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    I’m not sanguine – we live in ‘Murka, where the common clay will always grasp the worst possible informational take.

    My current mood is

    Hymn 43

    Our Father high in heaven, smile down upon your son

    Whi is busy with his money games – his women and his gun

    Oh Jesus save me

    And the unsung western hero, he killed an Indian or three And then he made his name in Hollywood to set the white man free

    Oh Jesus save me

    If Jesus saves, well he better save himself From  the gory glory seekers who use his name in death

    Oh Jesus save me

    If Jesus saves, well he better save himself From  the gory glory seekers who use his name in death

    Oh Jesus save me

    Well I saw him in the city, and on the mountains of the moon His cross was rather bloody, and he could hardly roll his stone
    Oh Jesus save me

  5. 5.

    Almost Retired

    I’m still trying to process all of this but (1) the Republicans have seriously overreached; (2) the legal system is a mixed bag but folks like Marc Elias in election protection and the attorneys in the Trump investigations have the momentum; (3) the conservative court rulings are inspiring massive backlash: (4) the Dems are as united and focused as I can recall; and (5) to Watergirls point the states like Michigan that came under Democratic control are rapidly improving peoples lives.  We can point to achievements.  And our enemies are ridiculous.  I am optimistic about our long term prospects, although the short and medium term will be challenging for many.  Especially in blue and purple places in red states.

  8. 8.

    SpaceUnit

    @bbleh:

    I agree that it feels like desperation.  They’re largely losing the narrative, and for the media it has become increasingly difficult to find a both sides angle to unhinged shit like the Dobbs decision.

    On the other hand, desperate people and angry chimps can be exceptionally dangerous.

  9. 9.

    Dan B

    Sexton, the Tennessee Speaker of the House has paid the 2022 tax bill on his condo in Crossville but not 2021 yet because it can no longer be paid online.  The spotlight the Justins shine is bright.

    Now for the thousands he stole by claiming he was commuting there every day.

  10. 10.

    bbleh

    @SpaceUnit: concur, cornered rat and all that (no I’m not thinking just of TFG).  But honestly, how much worse could they get? Is there any practical reason not to think of them as cornered rats?  (Tactically speaking of course; unlike them I still think their vote should be counted and they should have affordable access to healthcare, etc.)

  11. 11.

    Albatrossity

    When Joan Baez shows up to sing protest songs with young Black representatives from Tennessee, there is indeed lightning in the air. That warmed my heart so much I can’t even express it!

  12. 12.

    Dan B

    @Suzanne:  Good thing there’s no climate crisis!

     

    Here in Seattle where it rains all day every day (NOT!)  People have stopped watering their lawns.  They’re brown by August or earlier.  There’s limited water from two reservoirs that have gone perilously low after low snowfall winters.

  13. 13.

    Planetjanet

    I love the vivid imagery in your post, Watergirl. And I hope there is sunshine on the other side of this storm. But while it is crackling, it is dangerous. The Democrats in Tennessee really siezed the moment and give me hope. The songs. I have always loved VP Harris, but I saw another side of her in Nashville. It seemed instinctive on when to push hard and give the Republicans an anvil. We still have a lot to get through.

  15. 15.

    Soprano2

    Evidently TFG is doing an interview with Tuckums that’s more batshit crazy than usual. Lots of talking about “nuclear”.

    I hope the TN speaker is forced to pay all that money back, the money he stole from the people of TN.

  16. 16.

    Mallard Filmore

    @WV Blondie: 

    (I’d put the link if I wasn’t so inept.)

    You do not have to do special things to add a link. Simply paste the plain text link on your side, and modern browsers on our side will know how to turn it into an active link.

  18. 18.

    Dan B

    @WaterGirl:  Yes, per diem cheating must be close to ten thousand dollars.  The taxes were only $485 per year.  My taxes on a 1500 square foot house are $6,000.

  19. 19.

    TaMara

    TN was a spark that lit a bonfire we’ve been building. Or should I say, the young people have been building and suddenly it’s burning bright. It does not feel like it can be extinguished easily.  Still a long way to go, but I believe there will be many more bonfires lit along the way.

    @Dan B: This is the quiet battle being waged while everyone (especially the GOP/denialists) is distracted. There’s a lot going on and a lot of progress being made and I suspect the fact it’s in the background is a good thing – keeps the usual suspects from mucking in it.  Again, a long slog ahead, but progress

  20. 20.

    Ksmiami

    The GOP has to die for America to have a future. And billionaires need to pay more in taxes. The Republican Party is bat shit crazy and has crossed the event horizon. Time for them to shrink into a black hole

  21. 21.

    Another Scott

    The GQP is doing their usual “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” stuff. They haven’t found their butteremails yet, but they’ll keep looking.

    Meanwhile, … Stuart Rothenberg at RollCall (from April 4):

    The White House knows that Congress must raise the debt limit soon, but Republicans want to extract concessions from the Democrats before voting to do so.

    According to a report written by the Swiss-based UBS’s Office of Public Policy, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will announce sometime after Tax Day (April 18) a new “X-date.”

    “The X-date,” wrote UBS, “is the effective date when the government will run out of room to maneuver with extraordinary measures and can no longer meet all its obligations. The X-date will provide an operative deadline for negotiations, and no progress will be made other than further posturing until it is announced.”

    The GQP is desperate to break the economy so that Biden and Democrats cannot run on a good economy. So, too many of them are cheering for a default. In a sensible House, those 10-15-20 bombthrowers wouldn’t matter, but Squeaker McQarthy has no control over his people so who knows if he’ll let them drive the Treasury over the cliff (if only for a weekend or a few days or …).

    Some are saying the default date is around Friday August 18. The House and Senate are away for all of August.

    If history is any guide, negotiations will start around Monday August 14 and a deal will be announced late in the week, but “details” and “last minute snags” will either cause it to be agreed at the last possible minute, or the holdouts will get their default over the weekend maybe going into the early part of the next week.

    IOW, don’t get stressed out about the prospects. News outfits will want to sell lots of clicks, but no real work on getting a bill to raise the limit will happen until the last week. Probably.

    Good news? Johns Hopkins and MIT microscopists figured out how sandgrouse feathers hold so much water:

    […]

    Sandgrouse found in African deserts typically nest about 20 miles from watering holes to stay safe from predators. To get water home to thirsty chicks, the adult males perform one of nature’s best examples of carry out, gathering water and flying home with it, a feat made even more extraordinary considering the sandgrouse is holding about 15% of his body weight in water, and keeping most of it safe during a roughly 40 mph flight home that takes about a half hour.

    [image]

    Other researchers first documented these extraordinary belly feathers more than 50 years ago. But only here with modern technology the team can finally demonstrate how the feathers work.

    Mueller and MIT engineer Lorna J. Gibson zeroed in on the microstructure of the belly feathers using scanning electron microscopy, microcomputed tomography, light microscopy and 3D videography, looking closely at the shafts, each just a fraction of the width of a human hair, and the even tinier individual barbules.

    The team greatly magnified the feathers, observing them both dry and wet. Then, in a move as delicate as it was crucial, while magnified the dry feathers were dunked in water, pulled out, then re-submerged, just like a sandgrouse at a watering hole.

    [image]

    “When you do that type of work, you can’t even breathe or else you blow it away,” Mueller said.

    Mueller described the individual feather structure as “magnificent,” with components optimized in several ways to hold and retain water, including the way they bend, how the barbules form protective tentlike clusters when wet, and how tubular structures within each barbule capture water.

    Individual feathers held the water through a forest of barbules near the shaft, working together with the curled barbules near the tip acting almost like caps.

    […]

    Neat stuff.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  23. 23.

    Planetjanet

    I want to note one good thing happening.  The Washington Post is pushing hard on gun safety.  There are lengthy investigative reports they are rolling out with regularity.  Today is an article about a defective but popular handgun on the market that will fire without pulling the trigger.  They are going for gut punch reporting on the people who have been hurt by this gun, profiles of police fficers and innocents, whose lives have been irrevocably changed.  There was an investigation on how assault weapons have been marketed, tracking the rise in its popularity alongside increasing grotesque ads glamourizing retribution.  This is real journalism with consequences.  It’s like the editors are just not going to take it anymore.  No more accounting of how many thoughts and prayers have been offered.

  24. 24.

    WaterGirl

    @TaMara: I love your bonfire imagery. What’s going on in the background?  Are you talking about water rights there?

    edit: I read more carefully and I see that you are talking about climate.

  25. 25.

    SpaceUnit

    @bbleh:

    I suppose my biggest worry is that Republicans will increasingly use their angry dogwhistle nonsense to stir up the craziest members of their base.  I don’t think it will help them very much in the political theater, but desperate and angry people don’t think rationally.

    And people could be hurt or killed.  I don’t like to be a raincloud but I find it difficult to believe that we’re going to move past the age of Trump without more violence.  Hope I’m wrong.

  28. 28.

    bbleh

    @SpaceUnit: Agree, unfortunately.  The Frankenstein Monster, long nurtured by the Republicans, has broken free, and its mayhem — figurative and literal — has by no means ended.  Sadly, they’re gonna take a lotta people down with them, not all of whom deserve it. But that’s no reason not to send them down anyway.  The only solace is that the majority of people are like “WTF?!” which I think bodes well for the future.

  29. 29.

    NotMax

    In the last day or two, it feels like the world is running at something like 1.5, doesn’t it?

    No, not really.

  32. 32.

    bbleh

    @Planetjanet: This one just slayed me. FFS the death-penis manufacturers don’t even care about product quality anymore.  I would say “hello, wakeup call!” except there have been so many that it’s plainly pointless.

  33. 33.

    RobMidd

    This is maybe my 2nd or 3rd comment, previous one was 2 years ago? What can I say, the Fediverse is giving me the courage to interact online again! So, I think that’s part of it too. Not just Mastodon — I have read posts here (and everywhere) & I get that it’s not immediately appealing to everyone. BUT wanted to mention what MUSK is doing to Twitter as, I think, another inflection point. For some reason when it was just Fox News and AM radio it didn’t ring the alarm bells it should have. But everything on the right escalates. Fox has always lied but there’s little effort to pretend any more. Their “serious” journalists have left. They’re being gloriously sued, finally… And now another right-wing billionaire weirdo is destroying the remaining lifeline that so many worldwide have used to stay connected to news, their governments, social movements, celebrities, corporations…

    YES things are happening in double time. It’s scary but long overdue.

    We can only hope the obvious importance of the current moment reaches 3 difficult to reach groups:

    • The young seem to be on fire. ✅
    • Comfortably well-off but not insane whites. 😴
    • The disaffected. ¯\(ツ)/¯
  34. 34.

    Pennsylvanian

    Mitch MIA. Another day. what, 35? 36?

    Why does it seem that he is getting a pass from EVERYONE?

    Children being gunned down every day, and Mitch resting on the government dime. It’s a disgrace that he had the tragedy of polio, but he spent the crutch of a lifetime being a welfare queen aggressively targeting the working class and fucking us at every opportunity.

    WTF? Where is Mitch McConnell? Is he alive? If so, proof of life, please. I’ll wait.

  36. 36.

    Dan B

    @bbleh:  Nelle had a story about talking to an 18 year old barista who cried that she wouldn’t survive school and how she’s afraid for her little brother who’s still in school.  Great for Nelle to ask good questions and listen well.

  37. 37.

    Carlo Graziani

    I think that you’re basically right. A lot of the right-white-identity politics that suppurated into Trumpism had been quite visible beforehand, even in the Age of Saint Ronald and his “Welfare Queen” politics, and was getting downright knife-fight nasty with GHWB  and the Willie Horton ads, while meantime Pat Buchanan was literally telling White Churchgoing America that they were losing control of the country. Then, the Karl Rove-style imagineering made dog-whistling into a big-media industry, which worked great to keep the Wall Street/Chamber-of-Commerce people in charge of a thriving party, right up to the point that Trump, by demonstrating that you don’t need a dog-whistle at all if you’re willing to shout racist invective at the top of your lungs, swept the Republican board, at which point all the anxious, angry populism that had been fueling GOP political success for 40 years came boiling out, leaving the Plutocrats stunned and looking for a new game plan.

    I think that the point is that anxiety. It’s the tribe that grew up in the comfortable knowledge that they ran the place suddenly seeing success in the hands of people whose faces they never saw in church in the 1960s, feeling angry, and resentful, not wanting to believe that the country is moving away from them, and hence concluding that it is somehow being stolen from them, and demanding that it be seized back and returned to its rightful owners, irrespective of legal, and Constitutional norm-breaking.

    There are a lot of such people. That’s what we learn from the success of the Fox News Business Plan: making old white Christians angry and afraid is a recession-proof business. But we also learn something else from Fox News viewership demographics: These people are old, getting older, aging out of the census, and are not being replaced fast enough by young Tribal Warriors to prevent their influence from dwindling, year by year.

    That produces panic, and ugly, ugly desperation. They will stop at nothing, because they believe they’re on a rescue mission, to save a world that they felt comfortable with, which they cannot admit no longer exists.

    The good news, in my opinion, is that we only need to hold on until they die out to politically irrelevant numbers. Maybe another 5-10 years, and we’ll notice that the threat that we were so afraid of, the self-harm that stalked our laws, our Constitution, our Nation itself, somehow went away of its own accord, like a mysterious, extended but finite-lived flu epidemic. We just have to be strong and unyielding for that long.

  38. 38.

    piratedan

    hoping that the DOJ has the nads to deliver indictments if its found that the WH and MOC were coordinating with the rioters on J6 to delay the election and put their fellow members in harms way.

    I can only see the fever breaking if we get those guilty out of office where they continue to try and slow motion a new coup.

  39. 39.

    bbleh

    @SpaceUnit: yup, or at a minimum out of what they think will be a political advantage.  That didn’t work out so well for them the last time (gov’t shutdown under Obama), but it seems pretty clear that, as a group, not only have they not learned from the (recent!) past, they’ve actually gotten dumber!

    But I’m definitely taking it into account in investment strategy.  They may be dumb, but they can still wreck things!

  40. 40.

    Dan B

    @Pennsylvanian:  Feinstein is still out with no return date.  Biden can’t get federal judges confirmed since everyone must be on the Judiciary Committee.  She’s gotta go!

  41. 41.

    JoyceH

    @Planetjanet: ​
     

    I want to note one good thing happening. The Washington Post is pushing hard on gun safety. There are lengthy investigative reports they are rolling out with regularity.

    Same with abortion bans. They had a rather gruesome article about two friends who each had miscarriages and almost died because of Florida’s abortion ban. One almost bled out, lost half her blood supply before she finally got medical care and got the bleeding stopped.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/04/10/pprom-florida-abortion-ban/

  44. 44.

    Planetjanet

    @JoyceH: They certainly have.  Last week was a Texas teenager who now has twins.  It helps to see these stories of how lives are changed.  So many people probably put no more thought into it than “babies are good, so those people must be bad”.  People need to see the consequences in vivid display.

  45. 45.

    NotMax

    @RobMidd

    that so many worldwide

    In gross numbers, respectable but not exemplary.

    Twitter was #14 worldwide in social media site audience engagement before Musk eviscerated it. Undoubtedly drooped below that since.

  46. 46.

    Dan B

    @Carlo Graziani:  I believe you but it’s going to be awful for LGBTQ, especially Trans, and the climate crisis may drive immigration and food crises that will provoke backlash.

    The future is fraught.

  47. 47.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Soprano2: it was one for the ages, a tearful sir story, fawning over Xi and remembering chocolate cake, and a lot of Putin-sucking

    Aaron Rupar @atrupar 2h
    Trump is very clearly on Russia’s side: “Putin — very smart. Now, he’s had probably a bad year. Don’t forget, that whole this is not … if he took over all of Ukraine.”

    that’s a direct quote, the ellipse represents a pause, a brain-fart, not an edit. At another point it sounded very much to me like he thinks Putin should use nukes. and lots and lots of sniffing

  48. 48.

    WaterGirl

    @RobMidd:

    BUT wanted to mention what MUSK is doing to Twitter as, I think, another inflection point.

    I think you’re right about that.  I think he is the billionaire that broke the camel’s back, so to speak.  Tax the hell out of them and maybe they won’t have enough $$ to ruin the world.

  50. 50.

    RobMidd

    @NotMax: Thanks for that info, it feels good somehow to know that. I probably really meant “that so many in the US used to connect to things happening worldwide.” — Or something. I’m very tired.

  52. 52.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Carlo Graziani: Its going to take more than that. The young right wingers are radicalized. They are dangerous. This fight to maintain democracy and justice is going to take a while and ongoing active effort.

  53. 53.

    trucmat

    @watergirl

    Excellent post. Agree the Republicans are spitting mad and en masse acting irrationally and anti-democratically. Seditious disregard for fundamental laws has been normalized. Collective insanity about guns. Denial of biological facts. Violent fantasies and incitement of stochastic terrorism. Disregard for expert knowledge. Corruption. Elevation of money above people. Encouraged by demogogues foreign and domestic the Republican base is lied to and only listening to the liars. They are a cult moving towards greater evils. Each new outrage fuels their pawns but also inspires good people to stand up and be counted. They will not take us down.

  55. 55.

    tobie

    @RobMidd: Glad the Fediverse helped you break out of your shell.

    Twitter could be a cesspool in the good old days and the algorithm set things up to outrage you so you would stay engaged. There was no golden age of Twitter, but it was easy to get in a with crowd and to have posts directed to you based on your likes. We all kind of became addicted.

    I left the moment Musk took over because I didn’t want to contribute to his profit margin and because I feared having a spoiled brat and rightwing loon controlling one of the most popular platforms.

    I wonder what social media young activists use. Maybe it’s Instagram, not Twitter. I don’t know. Twitter made it easy to live in a bubble. It never was good for democracy but now it’s even worse.

  56. 56.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Carlo Graziani: ​
    The only thing I would say you missed is the cataclysmic importance of Obama’s election. Trump was a direct response to Obama. Dog whistle politics failed to stop a black man from getting elected, being highly successful at his job, and getting reelected. Republican voters had no tolerance for such half measures anymore.

  57. 57.

    RobMidd

    @WaterGirl:

    he is the billionaire that broke the camel’s back

    Musk’s pettiness and mistakes are just so numerous, so immediately mocked — it’s a daily reminder that (to mix in another metaphor) the billionaires have no clothes!

    P.S. Are comments tied to Nyms or emails? I kinda wanna change my Nym to RobArt, like Robert but ART. I like how it sounds better.

  58. 58.

    NotMax

    @Carlo Graziani

    Unfortunately, cranky and gullible olds are not a finite pool. Pace Doritos, “they’ll make more.” Trimming the percentage so afflicted, not relying on demographic attrition, is the best case scenario.

  59. 59.

    WaterGirl

    @piratedan: I think that consequences, and not just for the little people, are the one thing that can stop this lawlessness in its tracks.  Come on, Jack.  And lightning fast turnarounds for the bullshit appeals.

    Only when the old game stops working will they stop.

  61. 61.

    Carlo Graziani

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Those people exist. Statistically/demographically speaking, however, they don’t matter, in my opinion. For each one of them that enters political consciousness, two or three tolerant people (in the sense of at least not having the same atavistic commitments) do the same.

    The country is moving away from their vision, which means that they are doomed to be demoted from “Potentially Violent Political Movement” to “Potentially Violent Political Fringe”, to (eventually) “Law Enforcement Nuisance”.

    That is, in my view, the explanation for the undeniable political progress that has occurred in our lifetimes, and continues despite the unarguable political barricades created by the stupid way the Constitution allocates power among the states. That shit has a finite shelf-life. Decades, perhaps, but finite nonetheless.

  63. 63.

    Urban Suburbanite

    Washington is set to pass a ban on assault weapons. And while it’s being praised as a real step forward for gun control, I have some real doubts on it. This bill won’t do anything about the weapons already in circulation (because possession isn’t touched), there are bunch of sheriffs who love to announce their refusal to enforce firearms regulations, and this state has some firearms groups who not only find the NRA too squishy, but are also very good litigators.

  64. 64.

    NotMax

    @RobMidd

    Can use the same e-mail for multiple nyms.

    And I hope you do comment more regularly. The choir can never become too large.

  67. 67.

    WaterGirl

    @RobMidd: It’s the nym email combo.  If you want to change your nym right now, I will watch for it and approve it right away.

    But I’m heading to bed in 5 minutes or so, so go for it now if you want the new nym approved right away. :-)

  69. 69.

    RobMidd

    @tobie:

    I wonder what social media young activists use. Maybe it’s Instagram, not Twitter.

    I am 50 but I have a few close, young connections. Of course the sample size is small but if the ones I know are any indication, their online habits are TikTok then Instagram. They have Twitter accts that they sometimes browse but rarely post. They also hang out on other sites like Twitch, Discord, places I’ve never been. Now I’m going to sound really old —because I haven’t played a game probably since Myst!— but they hang out with “their friends” while playing networked games online. (I put friends in quotes because many times they have never met in person, but we here understand that, right?) Many young folks I know count among their best friendships these virtual connections.

    Sigh. Apologies for talking about stuff I know little about!

  72. 72.

    WaterGirl

    @Planetjanet:  Apparently the judge who gets the case against Jim Jordan is a right-winger, so it may have to go to an appeal to get anywhere.  We’ll see. Still glad that Bragg brought the case.

    Dear Jim, don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.

  73. 73.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Night City Republicanism was like a deranged experiment in social Darwinism, designed by a bored researcher who kept one thumb permanently on the fast-forward button.

    — William Gibson

  74. 74.

    RobArt

    @RobMidd: @tobie:

    I wonder what social media young activists use. Maybe it’s Instagram, not Twitter.

    of course you asked activists and I said regular young folks

    but i think we do have to reach ppl where they are

  75. 75.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @WaterGirl:  I wrote in another thread, what is Jim Jordan thinking trying to get testimony from Mark Pomerantz?  I mean, this isn’t a knife to a gunfight, it’s coming unarmed to a battle of wits.

    Being an optimist, myself, I think we’ll make it through but the corruption of the federal judiciary worries me. That will take a long time to resolve.

  78. 78.

    tobie

    @RobMidd: I knew one young person addicted to Twitch. He tried to explain to me how it works…and I just thought I’m too old to learn this. It didn’t feel worth the effort.

  84. 84.

    RobArt

    @tobie: hahaha YES exactly — but what about Discord?!

    So, that’s part of the difficulty in getting into Mastodon / the Fediverse. I have started multiple accounts and it’s a learning curve. The people there are VERY quick to send a link and suddenly you’re on GITHUB. For me that is very confusing to the point of fear-inducing. I remind myself that many of the skills I have learned are confusing to others; that we are right now utilizing a technological wonder & of course there are going to be experts all around me who want to talk about what makes this doo-hickey run. I’m trying to have an open mind about new things, is what I’m trying to say.

    Ok ok, I promise this is Good Night.

    With one final aside: I think I was drawn into commenting tonight because of the hopeful and somewhat poetic nature of Watergirl’s post. I am seldom moved to comment on any specific news story. Even though I’m sure the folks who hang out on this site are paragons of exemplary values, commenting below news stories still puts me in mind of the horrid days when local news first began accepting comments online! I will have to put more thought into this…

  85. 85.

    Mel

    @WaterGirl: This!! I just keep thinking of every person I’ve known for whom even $500 would have made the difference between staying afloat or going under, and all I can say is tax the Musks and the Waltons and all the other despicable wealth hoarders until they get a taste of the “pay the water bill or buy the insulin, can’t do both” terror.

  87. 87.

    Mel

    Kitty Pixie has rallied enough to finally use the litter box!!!!! I have never been so happy to scoop a kitty turd in my life!!!’

  88. 88.

    C Stars

     

    @Carlo Graziani: I agree with you that it is not sustainable and its entertainment value has peaked. Now that it’s a philosophy based solely on hurting people–immigrants, teachers, women, trans people (and, of course, the ongoing sacrifice of scores of schoolchildren)–Republicanism just doesn’t have much to offer the 80% or so of this country who aren’t sadistic authoritarians at heart. Also young people who grew up under the terrifying imminent threats of gun violence and climate change are just operating with an entirely different set of political calculations.

  89. 89.

    C Stars

    @Mel:

    I have never been so happy to scoop a kitty turd in my life!!!

    🤣🤣

    Oh, yay for Pixie! I’m so happy to hear that she’s rallying

  91. 91.

    Betsy

    @Carlo Graziani: I don’t know.  I remember all the talk about Republican demographic decline around 2007 before and during the first Obama campaign. ( I recall that one commentator observed that ever so many thousand people in the majority-republican voter demographic at the top of the age pyramid die every day.)  That was now sixteen years ago, and yet, here we are.

    Somehow the olds keep disappearing — and keep coming back!

  93. 93.

    Sister Golden Bear

    There’s a tension in the air, a crackling like just before a big storm.

     

    But with every table they turn over, it becomes more impossible for people to pretend that there’s no difference between the parties.

    Agreed. Republicans have gotten so extreme and so destructive and so transparently fascist that the normies can’t ignore it any more. Plus the “cruelty is the point” aspect has gotten people’s attention — both for abortion and the LGB-and-especially-T communities. Plus people are reaching the “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore” stage — see the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision, let alone the Tennessee state reps being expelled.

    That said, while the Fox-viewing rageaholics are dying off, younger Republicans have grown up entirely within the wingnut echo chamber. Look at all the J6 insurgents who were absolutely shocked to discover the vast majority disagreed with them. There’s also a serious incel problem, which acts as an on-ramp to white supremacism. Fortunately they don’t hold much political power (yet), but they’re behind much of the right-wing violence and threats of violence (e.g. the Proud Boys and others).

    So while we’ll win in the long-run, it’s going to be a bitter fight to the (metaphorical) death on par with what Reconstruction tried, but failed, to do. Likewise, I’m mindful of those we’ll lose along the way, from Black folks killed by police, women dying of illicit abortions or failing to get medically-needed abortions, trans kids and adults, and victims of mass shootings. I’m optimistic, but clear-eyed about the effort and costs involved in winning.

  95. 95.

    sralloway

    @Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: ​
     Christ Climbed Down
    from His bare Tree
    this year
    and softly stole away into
    some anonymous Mary’s womb again
    where in the darkest night
    of everybody’s anonymous soul
    He awaits again
    an unimaginable
    and impossibly
    Immaculate Reconception
    the very craziest
    of Second Comings.
    Lawrence Ferlinghetti

  98. 98.

    Anyway

    Still mad about the Friday 6:30 pm ruling. That a lone district judge was able to override the authority of the FDA — and the WaPo article talking to his sister and childhood friends just added insult to injury.

  99. 99.

    Mike in Pasadena

    Have not read the 100 comments above but a war on facts. And they (Rs) call it truth or fair and balanced.

  100. 100.

    cain

    @JoyceH: These people think that science is bullshit and have gone down some weird rabbit hole where belief matters more than science.

    One things these abortion bans are doing is educating the public about women’s bodies and the role of abortions. It’s probably doing a better job of cutting through the bullshit of pro-life messaging as women and their families experience the trauma and a life saving procedure that can no longer be done till near death or death.

    ETA: #100!! 🥳

  101. 101.

    Stuart Frasier

    @Betsy: Demographic change takes time.  In 2004, Bush beat Kerry by 23% in Texas.  In 2020, Trump beat Biden by less than 6%.  16 years, Republican still won, but the margin shrank by more than 17 points.  By 2024, it could be competitive.  Or 2028.

  102. 102.

    cain

    @Urban Suburbanite: Oregon is also doing something – and pro-guns both liberal and conservatives seem to be unhappy with Democratic lawmakers.’

    It’s mostly crying but I’m still not quite sure what they are crying about. Of course, gun reddit probably just showed up to whine – not sure.

  103. 103.

    Mike in Pasadena

    Have not yet read the 100 comments above but a war on facts comes to mind. And they (Rs) call it truth or fair and balanced.

    @Sister Golden Bear: Incels, hmph, more like volcels. Voluntary celibates. Look at the slovenly prizes on Jan 6. No wonder nobody wants to have sex with their beer bellies, ratty clothes, scruffy appearance, and nasty bigotry. Yuck.

  104. 104.

    Don K

    I’m so proud of our Michigan Democrats proving they know how to enact their agenda, Including everyone from the LGBTQ community to labor. And even at the local level, here in Bloomfield Township, of all places, we elected a Dem-majority government in 2020, and they figured out a way to reduce water bills for most people (while sticking it to the folks buying the starter castles quickly replacing the mid-century ranches that have predominated here). Produce results for your constituents, and let them decide.

    My impression is the Republicans in MI have so repulsed the normies in the suburbs, not jut of Detroit but also of Grand Rapids, that, although it will take work to retain the good guys in office, I’m not as worried about my adopted state as I was in 2016. And anyway, we’ve proven we can use the initiative to do good stuff for the state.

  106. 106.

    206inKY

    I’m not sure I’ve ever agreed more strongly with a post on here than this one. Perfect read on the lay of the land.

  107. 107.

    Kathleen

    @Planetjanet: Yes, I noted they have been reporting about impact abortion rulings are having on real people. I’m glad I renewed my subscription.

  113. 113.

    WereBear

    Recently, Trump has a lopsided smile.

    Maybe the smirk is permanent now… or maybe there was a vascular incident. Or he could have simply blown out some circuits with his known stimulant use.

    I keep thinking of those unwise, or merely unlucky, stars who wind up doing dinner theater. There’s nothing wrong with that… a certain level of fame means America is big enough that they will have fans who show up for any venue they book. Like the bands at state fairs who have been living off that one big hit for decades now.

    At least that avenue has been closed off. The longer they delay the inevitable, the more normies are exposed to what Republicans really want.

  114. 114.

    NotMax

    @WereBear

    Did dinner theater — once.

    Of all things, it was a multi-week run of A Man for All Seasons. (Played the scenery chewing role of Cromwell.)
    ;)

  115. 115.

    WereBear

    @RobMidd:  For some reason when it was just Fox News and AM radio it didn’t ring the alarm bells it should have.

     
    An excellent point.

    I think it’s because our Media Overlords who craft the narrative do not consume the white bread and peanut butter of the masses.

    That’s the point.

  116. 116.

    NotMax

    What the ever lovin” f*ck?

    A court hearing was pushed back until next week for an Alaska children’s book illustrator charged with terroristic threatening after authorities said he posted around the capital city transphobic notes that referenced shooting children.

    Mitchell Thomas Watley, 47, was scheduled for a preliminary hearing Tuesday, but Assistant District Attorney Rexene Finley asked that it be moved to April 21. She said she expected an indictment prior to that date. State District Court Judge Kirsten Swanson granted the request.

    Watley’s attorney, Nick Polasky, declined comment to reporters.…
    [snip]
    Watley is known for illustrating several children’s books written by his wife, including “I Would Tuck You In” and “You Are Home With Me.” Their publisher, Sasquatch Books, owned by Penguin Random House, last week said it has ended its publishing relationship with Watley and would discontinue selling their books. Several book sellers in Juneau also pulled Watley’s works. Source

  117. 117.

    AlaskaReader

    Never forget, Republican voters are every bit as corrupt and depraved as are the people they elect.

  118. 118.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Carlo Graziani:

    These people are old, getting older, aging out of the census, and are not being replaced fast enough by young Tribal Warriors to prevent their influence from dwindling, year by year.

    “Educating” the next several generations of RW shitheels is a multi-multi-billion dollar industry. There is no comparable effort on the left, and at best weak efforts with any type of education at all wrt what we USED to call social studies or civics.

  120. 120.

    WereBear

    @NotMax: Oh, there’s nothing wrong with it! Patty Duke and John Astin apparently raised five boys that way. (We need not get all Bob Crane on it.)

    But it’s definitely a lesser venue. Yet, still pays okay.

  121. 121.

    Matt McIrvin

    I always remind myself that they could reverse all of these demographic trends in one stroke simply by killing us. It’s possible. Hitler failed to conquer the world but he succeeded in killing most of the Jews in Europe.

    They’re backed into a corner where genocide is the one thing that will save them. It feels like they’re about to try. Maybe already trying on a small scale. But imagine if every Republican with a gun went off at once, 50 million mass shootings turned into an organized wave. Who could stop them? We’d be gone overnight.

  122. 122.

    Anyway

    @Matt McIrvin:

    always remind myself that they could reverse all of these demographic trends in one stroke simply by killing us. It’s possible. Hitler failed to conquer the world but he succeeded in killing most of the Jews in Europe.

    They’re backed into a corner where genocide is the one thing that will save them. It feels like they’re about to try. Maybe already trying on a small scale. But imagine if every Republican with a gun went off at once, 50 million mass shootings turned into an organized wave. Who could stop them? We’d be gone overnight.

    Ok, this thread has jumped the shark. Finito. Done-zo.

  123. 123.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: That is certainly a vivid prospect that you are imagining. But I am curious. Do you know any Republican gun owners? Do they strike you as people willing to go out and start shooting down their neighbors?

  124. 124.

    Shalimar

    Elon Musk said in a recent interview that he wants to turn Twitter headquarters into a homeless shelter.  If that doesn’t perfectly sum up Musk’s malignant narcissism, I don’t know what does.

    Remember, Musk doesn’t own Twitter headquarters.  One of the first things he did when he took over Twitter was to stop paying rent to the company that does own Twitter headquarters.  But it’s good for PR and good for Musk’s brand, so fuck it.

  126. 126.

    MomSense

    @Ksmiami:

    It strikes me that the Republican Party began in Maine six years before the civil war.  Former whigs plus people who opposed the expansion of slavery and the Know Nothing Party.  Here we have come full circle to a party that is full of know nothings who have embraced the confederacy and openly sympathize with neo Nazis. What is that Mark Twain quote about history may not repeat but it rhymes?

    The GOP is not compatible with democracy.

  127. 127.

    Shalimar

    @Matt McIrvin: Maybe 1000 would go on a shooting spree even if the sirens started blaring at Fox.  All the rest would stack their guns in a corner of the living room next to the recliner and the tv remote and wait for the Antifa hordes to break in.

  128. 128.

    Geminid

    @lgerard: Trump on nuclear weapons: “All it takes is one madman…” That’s quite an election pitch!

    One observer noted that as bonkers as were the portions of Carlson’s interview that aired, producers must have left even crazier stuff out.

  129. 129.

    Kay

    Matt Taibii wrote (and testified before Congress) that CISA and CIS and EIP flagged 22 million Tweets using this process:

    Internal Twitter emails that have not been published before, that I obtained in December of last year, show how this partnership functioned on a practical basis. On October 1, 2020, for example, then-Twitter attorney Stacia Cardille reached out to Yoel Roth, the former head of Trust and Safety at the company, to forward on an email chain from both CISA, the government agency, and CIS, the nonprofit with which it frequently works, regarding conservative tweets warning about the supposed dangers of vote-by-mail.
    The tweet in question was a claim that a California man had found unopened ballots in the dumpster, and a concern that this claim could represent misinformation that was being amplified by Russian sources.
    A member of EIP’s team and someone working at the California Secretary of State were the first people to flag the tweet, forwarding it onto the consortium led by CIS. From there, CIS and EIP, both nonprofits, categorized the tweet as a potentially dangerous form of misinformation that required action by social media companies, and emailed both CISA and Twitter to have the tweet taken down.
    The email chain between CIS and EIP officials and Twitter’s security team over just that one tweet show how closely these nonprofits work with the U.S. government’s national security arms. Officials at those organizations copied DHS official Brian Scully, who worked at CISA, along with other CISA email accounts, in their emails to Twitter executives calling for the company to remove the tweet.
    “Our hope is the platforms can do more to take down the misinformation. The EIP has been tracking this spread under ticket EIP-243 and has more examples,” Aaron Wilson, an election security official with CIS, wrote in an email to CISA, which was sent on to Twitter.
    Twitter executives discussed the issue, noting there was no evidence of foreign influence. But they nonetheless decided to delete the tweet. An archive of the tweet is here.

    That was one Tweet. Best case, one Tweet took, what, a whole day?
    Matt Taibii’s crritics say the real number of Tweets that were flagged as disinformation and removed is 3000, not 22 million. 3000 is much, much more likely because 22 million is ridiculous and impossible.
    It’s the same thing he did with his “reporting” on the financial crisis, with his claims of “23 trillion” or whatever. He’s innumerate.

  131. 131.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Lee Fang is another Substacker in the Matt Taibbi anti wokster warrior genre (it’s a huge category) and in the piece I quoted Fang is defending Taibii. But to me it shows what sloppy junk Taibbi’s work is and (in contrast) how extraordinarily careful they were before flagging a Tweet. Each Tweet.

  133. 133.

    Kay

    Donald Trump argued late Tuesday that his historic indictment by a Manhattan grand jury requires a delay in another legal matter he faces: the defamation lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll, who says Trump defamed her when he denied and derided her claim that he raped her decades ago.
    The former president is slated to defend against those allegations in a civil trial on April 25, but his lawyer Joe Tacopina is urging U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan to postpone it for four weeks, contending that the surge in media coverage of Trump’s indictment has tainted potential jurors in the civil case.

    I hope there’s no delay. He’s lying about Carroll and I admire her tenacity for getting it to trial, which was not easy. I was looking forward to her vindication.

  134. 134.

    prostratedragon

    @Kay:  … and we await the Resurrection  and that great morning to come when we shall no more hear from TFG … Amen.

  135. 135.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Geminid:

    Do you know any Republican gun owners? Do they strike you as people willing to go out and start shooting down their neighbors?

    Yes, I do, and no, they don’t. But I’ve also learned that I have no reliable feel for what people are willing or likely to do.

  136. 136.

    Miss Bianca

    @NotMax:

    Did dinner theater — once.

    Of all things, it was a multi-week run of A Man for All Seasons. (Played the scenery chewing role of Cromwell.)
    ;)

    A Man for All Seasonings?

  138. 138.

    Miss Bianca

    @NotMax: “Praise from Sir Hubert is praise indeed.” : )

    Tho’ I’m still trying to wrap my head around the notion of that *particular* play as a dinner theater offering.

  139. 139.

    VOR

    Minnesota is also moving fast to pass a bunch of progressive legislation. Right now, Democrats hold all the state constitutional offices (Gov/LtGov, SecState, AG, Auditor), both US Senate seats, and have finally achieved majorities in both branches of the state legislature. Due to partisan gridlock, little passed in normal order for the last few terms. This term, with both houses controlled by a single party and a Governor of the same party, stuff has been passing. Some examples:

    Legal protections for abortion
    non-discrimination for natural hair
    Drivers licenses not checking for US citizenship
    Restored voting rights for felons who complete terms
    Free lunch for all students
    Juneteenth as a holiday

    Many of these things were discussed (had hearings) in prior years but were blocked. The Republicans are now complaining the Democrats are moving too fast and “rushing through their own top priorities without bipartisan support” – i.e. not allowing Republicans to obstruct.

  141. 141.

    opiejeanne

    @VOR: What is that one about that says non-discrimination for natural hair? Is this about AfAms and the way their hair is naturally?

  142. 142.

    Paul in KY

    @Planetjanet: Our Democratic leaders need to come out with concrete steps to remove all these war weapons from circulation. Another Assault Weapons Ban is good, but the 300 million ones already sold will be grandfathered in.

    A robust buyback program is (IMO) the only thing that can remove alot of them. By ‘robust’ I mean: give you good cash money for your weapon. Once it is bought, it goes immediately into a metal shredder.

  143. 143.

    Paul in KY

    @Urban Suburbanite: As I mentioned up above, a buyback program that is well funded would get alot of them off the street.

    I have an AR-15 and an M1A1.  These are both expensive weapons that are in great shape. When maintained like that, they can appreciate in value. I would sell mine to the metal shredder if I could get $1300 for the AR-15 and $1900 for the M1A1.

  144. 144.

    J R in WV

    @Matt McIrvin: ​

    But imagine if every Republican with a gun went off at once, 50 million mass shootings turned into an organized wave. Who could stop them? We’d be gone overnight.

    You leap to the conclusion that all left-wing liberal progressives are unarmed. This is not so at all. In the rural America most of my (all liberal progressive) friends are armed with deer rifles.

    It is needed for “varmit” control of predators of our chickens and dogs and cats, as well as home defense as law enforcement is at least an hour away in the wee hours.

    I have put down two deer with life ending injuries, for example, same as I would a beloved pet on death’s door. Also enjoy slaying plastic bottles for target practice…

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