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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: KAMALA!

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: KAMALA!

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Once again: Proud to be a Democrat!



… Equal and opposite reaction…

Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) has introduced legislation to abolish the Office of Diversity and Inclusion of the House of Representatives.

Mooney’s bill, which has no Democratic co-sponsors, comes on the heels of the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices at the Pentagon…

The House Office of Diversity and Inclusion was created by the 116th Congress, after Democrats recaptured control of the House. It was the most diverse Congress ever elected, until the 2020 midterms.

But in a press release, Mooney called DEI efforts “the latest woke liberal method of injecting cultural Marxism into the workplace.” Mooney is a candidate for Senate, looking to take the seat held by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)…

The bill has several initial co-sponsors, including Reps. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), Bob Good (R-Va.), Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), Brian Babin (R-Texas), Andrew Ogles (R-Tenn.), Chip Roy (R-Texas), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Jack Bergman (R-Mich.), Mary Miller (R-Ill.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.).

Even if Mooney’s bill passes in the House, it’s unlikely to pass in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: KAMALA!

Reader Interactions

141Comments

  4. 4.

    Chris Johnson

    In fairness, building economies from the wealthy down DOES NOT WORK so there is no practical reason not to be populist in this way, and no practical excuse to be doing it as a cloak for giving everything to the rich.

    Functionally, this is the only way to build economies stronger for everybody including the capitalists. The predators depend on there being healthy prey to eat.

  5. 5.

    Betty Cracker

    Mooney called DEI efforts “the latest woke liberal method of injecting cultural Marxism into the workplace.”

    Listening to these assholes regurgitate the same incoherent conspiracy theories is so tedious! If the Dems thrash them in the next election cycle, there’s a possibility we can preserve democracy and mitigate climate change, and that’s super-important. But forcing these boring fucking Repubs to come up with a new set of dumb talking points is high on my list too.

  6. 6.

    eversor

    Biggest take from all this is the VP and Second Man looking happy.  One of the oddest things about Trumps admin was the tense issues obviously on their faces in their relationships.  I expect the odd day, or three, but they never looked happy to be with each other or went to do anything fun together.  Which is just odd.

  9. 9.

    Jeffro

    Mooney called DEI efforts “the latest woke liberal method of injecting cultural Marxism into the workplace.

    Whew that was quite the string of buzzwords there, Mr. Mooney.

    You left out “extreme soshulist dirty hippie” but other than that…

  10. 10.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I finished reading Yellowface, which is told in first person by a writer who steals someone else’s ms and publishes it as her own. The book has every bit of fuckery you’ve ever seen in writing and publishing, from twitter wars to editors who decide they can’t take on another Asian writer because they already have one. The unreliable narrator is so well done that you start to feel sorry for her, right before she does some other awful thing. It’s like a horror story for writers.

  11. 11.

    narya

    I still want to know WTAF they mean by “cultural Marxism.” Seriously. I’ve read Marx, FFS, and I cannot even begin to guess; they’re conjuring words.

    Also: I am so glad that Kamala is our VP!

  14. 14.

    Another Scott

    @narya: They just love category mistakes:

    His third example is of a foreigner being shown a cricket match. After being pointed out batsmen, bowlers and fielders, the foreigner asks: “who is left to contribute the famous element of team-spirit?”

    It’s a way to break people’s brains and keep them inside the cult.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  16. 16.

    Soprano2

    @narya: I think it’s a term they made up because it uses “Marxist”, and they know Americans react unfavorably to that. I don’t know what it’s supposed to mean either, but they use it to mean “anything people do that I don’t like or agree with”.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    @narya:

    Pretty sure it has something to do with the Marx Brothers.

    ETA: or maybe Richard Marx.

    ETA2: The left is right here waiting for you.

  21. 21.

    OverTwistWillie

    Why won’t wokety-woke Democrats acknowledge all of America’s race and gender issues were resolved in a S2 very special episode of “Growing Pains”?

  23. 23.

    waspuppet

    @Soprano2: I think it has something to do with the fact that they spent the 2010s calling Obama a straight-up Marxist and even the Chuck Todds of the world were like “Wait, what industries are being nationalized? No industries are being nationalized” and of course rather than stop lying they changed up their lie slightly.

    The extra touch is that this racist congressman is from West Virginia, the place Trump’s lawyer spent Sunday claiming is more diverse than DC.

  24. 24.

    Eolirin

    @narya: As stupid as that phrase is, the best I’ve been able to make sense of it is that it’s a dogwhistle for white supremacy, effectively suggesting that white (male dominated evangelical) culture is superior and should be placed above all other cultures, and so cultural Marxism is the “violent suppression” (really any attempt to redress white supremacy by any means) of white culture by all of the outgroups and race traitors seeking to establish a world where white culture isn’t dominant.

    But I’ve probably just put more thought into it than almost all of the people who are using the phrase

    Tl;dr: Inclusion is being shoved down our throats and we’re not going to stand for it.

  26. 26.

    mrmoshpotato

    @narya:

    I still want to know WTAF they mean by “cultural Marxism.” Seriously. I’ve read Marx, FFS, and I cannot even begin to guess; they’re conjuring words. 

    Also: I am so glad that Kamala is our VP!

    Just replace “cultural Marxism” with “BOOGA! BOOGA!” and it makes perfect sense.

    Or they’re really into the effect the Marx Brothers had on American culture.

  28. 28.

    ETtheLibrarian

    In a related note of there being waaaaay too much money in a small number of hands, Simon & Schuster was just bought by PE firm KKR for $1.62 billion.

  29. 29.

    Nelle

    Thoughts and prayers for me please.  I’m going to have coffee this morning with a school board member who sought and received Democratic support but who has waffled on so many key issues that many see her as a huge disappointment.  The district admin just banned nearly 400 books, in an attempt to meet new state requirements that are vague but are very obsessed with people’s genitals.  State won’t give guidance, but reserves right to punish, so someone got carried away and removed the books without the school board’s knowledge.

    They’ve now reduced the number to 64, but still, it is shabby behavior.  I know that librarians and teachers shouldn’t have to risk a felony but one of Timothy Snyder’s cautions about fighting tyranny is not obeying in advance.

  32. 32.

    OverTwistWillie

    I tried to make small talk with a GenXer about bidness but he had run the family inheritance into the ground. That’s all the fault of… well these people aren’t complicated. I guess I should stick to chatting about the sport.

  33. 33.

    Scout211

    Good luck to Ohioans on Issue 1!

    HuffPost had a front page pic of a yard sign that I thought was very effective.  The phrase “attack on women” is very powerful and very effective.

              NO on ISSUE 1

    STOP THE ATTACK ON WOMEN

  34. 34.

    Jeffro

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Thanks again!  I’m not sure I can take on a trilogy (re: Poppy) but Babel looks like a stand-alone novel – is that right?  I’m going to add that one to my list too.

  35. 35.

    Betty Cracker

    I think several of y’all are onto something the “cultural Marxism” origin stories. Plain old “Marxist” smears were growing less plausible as, year after year, Dems failed to call upon workers to rise up and seize the means of production.

    So the current crop of Repubs modified “Marxism” with “cultural” so they could keep saying “Marxism” while also appealing to those afflicted with anxiety related to loss of cultural dominance.

    The phrase has a heaping helping of antisemitic connotations too, so that excites the Nazis while also pushing the buttons of the anti-communism hysterics. 

    TL;DR — it’s a Swiss Army knife of political smears.

  36. 36.

    WereBear

    Since I’m a Pandemic entrepreneur now, I love a booming economy.

    To paraphrase a famous NYC suit commercial, “You’re all going to need cats.”

  38. 38.

    WV Blondie

    ALEC Money (as I call him, since he’s been on the right-wing dole since he was a teenager) is my SoS (sack o’ shit – forgive the language) representative.

    True story: I saw a recent picture of him and he’s really packed on the pounds since he got to Congress. So I called his office in DC and said to the young man who answered the phone, “I see that Alex makes a point of not missing any meals these days” – and the kid couldn’t help but laugh.

  39. 39.

    Kristine

    @ETtheLibrarian:

    In a related note of there being waaaaay too much money in a small number of hands, Simon & Schuster was just bought by PE firm KKR for $1.62 billion.

    Wonder what the plan is? Bust it up and sell off the parts? Create a new imprint, load it up with all the financial obligations, then declare bankruptcy? Turn it into the Regnery of the vulture capital world?

  41. 41.

    Eunicecycle

    @Scout211: I am keeping my fingers crossed, because the latest Yes on Issue 1 ads say that parents will lose parental rights, that children will be allowed to transition without parental approval, all kinds of crazy things. The actual issue of course is about changing the Constitution in Ohio.

  42. 42.

    jonas

    @ETtheLibrarian: Oh that’s just fantastic. What’s the plan? Fire all the editors and just have AI produce all the content until the outfit goes bankrupt? I mean, that’s the standard PE playbook

    ETA: or, what Kristine said upthread at #39

  43. 43.

    JWR

    “Cultural Marxism” the political smear, (as opposed to “Marxist cultural analysis”), has a Wikipedia page.

    Cultural Marxism is a far-right antisemitic conspiracy theory which misrepresents the Frankfurt School as being responsible for modern progressive movements, identity politics, and political correctness. The conspiracy theory posits that there is an ongoing and intentional academic and intellectual effort to subvert Western society via a planned culture war that undermines the Christian values of traditionalist conservatism and seeks to replace them with culturally liberal values.[1][2][3][4]

  47. 47.

    narya

    @JWR: Oh, sure, bring FACTS into the conversation! ;-)

    Not surprised that there’s anti-Semitism involved in this. Also, too, and, they’re all just mad that non-right-wing cultural products are more popular, funnier, more entertaining, etc.

  49. 49.

    Baud

    @JWR:

    The conspiracy theory posits that there is an ongoing and intentional academic and intellectual effort to subvert Western society via a planned culture war that undermines the Christian values of traditionalist conservatism and seeks to replace them with culturally liberal values

     
    Except for the part about subverting Western society and “planning,” I don’t think this is far off. Especially the part about replacing social conservativism with liberal values.

  50. 50.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JWR:

    The conspiracy theory posits that there is an ongoing and intentional academic and intellectual effort to subvert Western society via a planned culture war that undermines the Christian values of traditionalist conservatism and seeks to replace them with culturally liberal values.[1][2][3][4]

    Does that mean we aren’t? Because it sure sounds good to me.

  51. 51.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @narya: ​

    still want to know WTAF they mean by “cultural Marxism.”

    “Cultural Marxism” is a very well established term internationally on the Right. It means the idea that diversity is good, that anybody except [insert whoever the user thinks is traditionally dominant here] has a place in society. Yes, anyone who uses the term is a stone-cold bigot, not even dog whistling, just using a phrase most people don’t understand to openly declare they’re a hardcore racist.

    What is its connection with actual Marxism? Some, but it’s pretty weak. The idea that equality is good. An emotional reaction of “Everything you have will be taken away and given to the Other!” A belief that everyone will hate something you apply the word Marxism to. And for many, a belief that evil Jews were/are the masterminds behind communism and are trying to destroy the white race by forcing integration with inferior races.

  52. 52.

    Tony Jay

    ‘Cultural Marxism’

    “When they won’t let you say Jewish-Bolshevik any more.”

  55. 55.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @narya: Cultural Marxism means treating any other perspectives and cultures as equal to their preferred culture of Cis, Het, White, Dudes.  In the 40’s and 50’s there was a push for multi-culturism (you know, just acknowledging Black Culture, Native/Indigenous Culture, the perspective of Women etc.) so naturally, US Reactionaries lost their minds about it and dubbed it Cultural Marxism (treating all cultures as equals) because like they believe in superior races they also believe in superior (White) cultures and branding something as “Marxism” or Communism was an easy way to scare people.  This is what all this CRT/Woke freak-out is about, imo.  Recognizing and respecting other cultures scares the shit out of them and always has, because it is a slippery slope to making Whiteness, Masculinity, Heteronormativity etc. slightly less dominant and makes them just one of many options that are no better than any others.  They have always hated multi-culturism.  In 1946 the Brotherhood of Man educational video by UNESCO, caused an outrage due to these messages and was part of the justification for a radical activist organizing campaign to force out the progressive Superintendent of the Pasadena Unified School District.  The incident was made famous in Time magazine, Newsweek and the best-selling book, It Happened In Pasadena.  It also served as one of the early templates for the sort of radical, right-wing Massive Resistance that we see at school boards, libraries and other public education venues today.

  56. 56.

    JWR

    @Baud:

    Is it run by Soros? Heh, but not hardly. It’s one of those German skools fer thinkin’ founded in the 1920’s.

  57. 57.

    New Deal democrat

    Just thought I’d leave this here…

    Luke Combs’s version of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” is #1 on the music charts.

    I wondered what a mashup of the two versions of the song might sound like. And as you might imagine, I’m not the only one. There are several versions of a Chapman/Combs duet on Youtube. Here’s the one I thought was a little better:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPsyphyW_sg

    The duet has a different feel to it: like a young impoverished couple trying to come to grips with their desparate satuation.

    Worth a listen, I think.

  59. 59.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: “Marx” is up there with “Woke” as a one-syllable, scary label. The one is an especially potent dog-whistle because it comes put of Black vernacular and sounds like it. Marx has a very foreign feel, and can relate well to culture war issues because the fear conservatives are selling is a fear of economic transformation combined with a cultural and social transformation.

    I think Republicans understand that Americans aren’t buying their positive policy proposals, so they just sell fear of Democrats. Negative partisanship has long been one of the their best electoral tools, but now it may be their only effective one.

  61. 61.

    WereBear

    @OzarkHillbilly: We don’t have a new problem, because men allowed to be jerks are always a problem, we just have ones who got devolved through propaganda.

    Which is the kindest way to put it. There are others.

  62. 62.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @JWR: Thank you.  Closely related to Cultural Relativism.  Any time I read/hear either I just think: okay this person is just some kind of Supremacy (White, Male, Xtian etc.).

  63. 63.

    bjacques

    @JWR: And a football powerhouse whose chief rival is the Chicago School.

    Onward, Fighting Frankfurters!

    Ich nehm meine Jack

     

    @Leto: No, that’s Hebrew (National) School

  69. 69.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: Boy, you don’t work in academia, do you?

    I hate to say it, but there is a grain of truth to the accusation. It’s just a matter of whether you think undermining the existing order of things is good or bad.

    ETA: I see you got there first.

  71. 71.

    Jeffro

    @Highway Rob: Will the fly be there too?

    LOL

    I must have slipped back into normie-land for a moment there…at first glance, I was like, “What fly?”

    And now I have “Mysterious Ways” pinging around my brain, too!

  74. 74.

    PAM Dirac

    @waspuppet:

    The extra touch is that this racist congressman is from West Virginia, the place Trump’s lawyer spent Sunday claiming is more diverse than DC.

    That jerk was born in DC and lived in Frederick, MD a good part of his life. He won some elections in Frederick, but he is such a jerk that 15 or so years ago the folks in the fairly red part of MD kicked him out of office, so he sulked across the river to WV. No one in Frederick wants him back.

  76. 76.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Frankensteinbeck: And even many people who don’t use the phrase will still echo its’ principles.  Like claiming that poor people are only poor because they aren’t as good at managing their money.   Black People have 1/7th of the wealth of White People because they just don’t work as hard.  Etc.

  77. 77.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:

    Wouldn’t forced integration destroy the other races too?

    Anything the other races get would benefit those races, because the person complaining about Cultural Marxism thinks white men are the source of all civilization and are inherently superior.  They can get really bizarre in how they misinterpret history to prove it.

  79. 79.

    Geminid

    @OzarkHillbilly: It sounds like no one got hurt too badly in the waterfront brawl. I’m glad, because that’s one of funniest things I’ve seen this year. I saw 3 minutes caught on a cell-phone camera and the narrator, “Mic Tyson,” gave hilarious commentary. Someone here steered me to the video by way of Ragnarok Lobster, who retweeted it.

  80. 80.

    JWR

    TFG lawyer I’d never heard of goes on TV and says that whatever Pence said that night, (Jan 5?), it was what his lawyers told him to say, not what he would otherwise have said. (2:19 minute video clip)

    Acyn
    @Acyn
    Trump Attorney: If it ever makes it to trial, I think Mike Pence is going to be a star witness for Donald Trump
    Aug 8, 2023 · 2:27 AM UTC

    I can’t wait to hear what Pence has to say about that little smear on his character.

  81. 81.

    Yutsano

    @Geminid: I think Republicans understand that Americans aren’t buying their positive policy proposals

    Forgive my impertinence but: could you identify those positive proposals please? Asking for a friend of course.

  82. 82.

    SFAW

    But in a press release, Mooney called DEI efforts “the latest woke liberal method of injecting cultural Marxism into the workplace.”

    Woke. Woke, woke, woke, Woke! Wokewokewokewoke, woke woke woke? Woke WOKE woke!

    Woke-a-woke-a-woke-woke, a-woke-woke!

    WOKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     

    Fucking assholes, all of them.

  84. 84.

    Highway Rob

    @WereBear: You’re not confused, I’m just often not as funny as I think I am.  Frankfurt(er) school, was the joke I was going for.

    All notes cheerfully accepted.

  86. 86.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Soprano2: It’s all predicated on a fear that the govt wants to steal your hard-earned money/land etc., to give it to those people.  In America it is highly Racialized but every other country has it’s versions based on Class, Immigration Status.  IE- some people deserve to have nice things but those evil Liberals/Communists/Socialists want to take them.  Or as the Conservative notion goes: Tax = Theft.

  87. 87.

    laura

    @OzarkHillbilly: I spent all day wallowing in the nitter.net streams on the riverfront brawl. I haven’t had that much fun since the Queen died and it United Black Twitter and Irish Twitter. Uppity Crackers got all fisty when a worker insisted they move their pontoon boat from a place it wasn’t supposed to be- and where a riverboat was slated to dock. Uppity Crackers got a righteous beatdown- even beaten right through their crocs. Uppity Crackers showed their whole asses and a young man jumped ship, swam over, hauled himself up out of the water and joined a growing crowd of Black Men and Women who saw the hat toss signal and delivered swift and sure justice. The memes! My god, the memes. It was a day of little accomplishment because riverboatbrawl.

  88. 88.

    SixStringFanatic

    Went to  see “Oppenheimer” last night.

    Speaking of dropping bombs, what somebody did in the bathroom of that movie theater was definitely a crime against humanity.

  89. 89.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @JWR:

    Christian values of traditionalist conservatism

    Of course, Christ was in fact a radical Marxist before Marxism existed. You could look it up!

  90. 90.

    narya

    Thank you all for this morning’s education! I knew how the phrase was being used, but really didn’t know all of the detail you’ve all provided. I feel like I should have known a lot of this, not least because I’ve been running into variations on the theme for decades.

    It’s all so damned joyless. By contrast, for example, that outfit that Billy Porter wore at the 2020 Grammys, with the motorized hat–that was just FUN. I know that we on the left get accused of sucking the fun out of everything, but, as with so many things, that, too, turns out to be projection. They’re not just mad because they can’t use various slurs anymore; they’re also mad because people don’t laugh at their “jokes.”

  91. 91.

    Roger Moore

    @Baud:

    Wouldn’t forced integration destroy the other races too?

    Not at all.  According to the one drop rule, when a White person has a child with a person of another race, the child is a member of that other race.  Thus forced integration will destroy the White race but not the other races.  This is what people mean when they say race is a social construct.  The rules about who is a member of what race have everything to do with social dominance and nothing to do with genetics.

  92. 92.

    JWR

    @laura:

    Uppity Crackers got a righteous beatdown- even beaten right through their crocs.

    Good! All I saw on TV news was the first maybe 30 seconds, when 3 or 4 Whipple decided to punch out the Black dude, and it was suggested that it might be a race thing. And now I wonder which 4 people have been detained?

  93. 93.

    Geminid

    @PAM Dirac: Rep. Mooney is running for Joe Manchin’s Senate seat. Governor Jim Justice, his opponent, has something better to sell than fear of cultural Marxism: effective governance. I heard some of yesterday’s news conference Justice held where he said he was calling the legislature back into session. He wants action on 44 measures, including $12 million dollars for West Virginia’s volunteer fire departments.

    That would be on top of an additional $10 million already going to EMS units. This is smart politics; the rescue squads and fire departments are importatant civic institutions in rural West Virgina rural communities, and most of their members vote.

    The Mooney/Justice fight will contrast an ideologue and a more pragmatic politician. The Club fof Growth backs Mooney and the national Chamber of Commerce will likely endorse Justice.

    It won’t be a very equal fight, though. Justice has some personal appeal, whereas Mooney is just a prick. And Justice is much better known, even in Mooney’s own district, and comes across as the down-homiest of down-home people.

  96. 96.

    Soprano2

    @New Deal democrat: I listened to both of them back to back because I was curious about why I suddenly had karaoke singers doing “Fast Car”. LOL His version is slower than hers, and has a different sensibility; they each convey the same message from the different singer’s viewpoints. I need to listen to the mashup, too.

  98. 98.

    Suzanne

    @Betty Cracker:

    So the current crop of Repubs modified “Marxism” with “cultural” so they could keep saying “Marxism” while also appealing to those afflicted with anxiety related to loss of cultural dominance. 

    They also like it because it sounds like a dumb person’s idea of an intelligent comment.

    See also, “we’re a republic, not a democracy”.

  99. 99.

    Tony Jay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Funny that the FTF Guardian has the gall to run that story. A month or so ago they were leading the charge for the narrative that black, British left wingers should shut their ignorant traps and listen when upper-middle class right wing ‘experts’ whitesplain real racism to them.

    But expecting consistency from that rag is a losers bet.

  101. 101.

    cain

    @JWR:  WTAF – that’s pretty much how the U.S. is pretty much established (other than the 2/3rds citizenship thing)

  102. 102.

    Tenar Arha

    @ETtheLibrarian:

    In a related note of there being waaaaay too much money in a small number of hands, Simon & Schuster was just bought by PE firm KKR for $1.62 billion.

    @Kristine:

    @jonas:  I don’t know what they’ll do but as Cory Doctorow coined, they’ll ‘enshittify’ it.

    I just found out that KKR owns Overdrive & Libby, and they’re already hiding a useful feature that used to allow borrowers to request books from their local library system. They’ve now made that an unfindable and non specific “Notify” tag for Libby users, and made seeing that information an extra feature you have to pay more for in Overdrive. Anyway, it really doesn’t sound like they’re good company stewards.

  103. 103.

    artem1s

    @Eunicecycle: 
    Yes on Issue 1 ads say…
    this whole thing is a PR/communications nightmare. In the end no one is going to understand why they are being asked to vote the way they vote. And I’m worried the turn out for the ACTUAL women’s reproductive rights vote in November will be compromised because everyone has been led to believe Issue 8 is about codifying abortion. The ‘fuck you I got mine’ GOPers will decide they don’t need to vote yes on the November abortions rights issue because they already took care of that in August – right?

  106. 106.

    mrmoshpotato

    @SFAW:

    Woke. Woke, woke, woke, Woke! Wokewokewokewoke, woke woke woke? Woke WOKE woke! 

    Woke-a-woke-a-woke-woke, a-woke-woke!

    WOKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Fucking assholes, all of them.

    Their assholes have woken up, and they’re talking out of them!

  107. 107.

    Jeffro

    @SFAW:

    Woke. Woke, woke, woke, Woke! Wokewokewokewoke, woke woke woke? Woke WOKE woke! Woke-a-woke-a-woke-woke, a-woke-woke! WOKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Haven’t you heard?  The GOP is moving on from “woke” – Vivek said so!  It’s in his ‘rearview mirror‘

    In an interview, Mr. Ramaswamy said the evolving views of the electorate were important, and he had adapted to them. “Woke” corporate governance and school systems are a symptom of what he calls “a deeper void” in a society that needs a religious and nationalist renewal. The stickers that read “Stop Wokeism. Vote Vivek” are gone from his campaign stops, he said, replaced by hats that read “Truth.”
    “At the time I came to be focused on this issue, no one knew what the word was,” he said. “Now that they have caught up, the puck has moved. It’s in my rearview mirror as well.”

  110. 110.

    RaflW

    @Maxim:

    Bidenworld

    Bidenworld Engineers

    Bidenworld Throne

    Bidenworld’s Children

     

    eta: I only ever read Ringworld & Ringworld Engineers, though I was a fan of other Niven books. Integral Trees was probably my favorite, but it’s been c. 40 years so … ??

  111. 111.

    Eunicecycle

    @artem1s: I absolutely think it’s confusing, even for normie liberals. I had to explain to my very liberal daughter and SIL why they needed to vote no. They were confused because some of their Trumpy neighbors had Vote No signs.

  112. 112.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @narya: I feel like I should have known a lot of this, not least because I’ve been running into variations on the theme for decades.

    I know what you mean.  I feel this regularly when I (at almost 50!) especially when I am just learning stuff that is 101, most basic-level, stuff for people in marginalized groups.  But then I remember that that White Supremacy, Patriarchy etc., are in part designed to make ignorance about Race, Gender, Systemic Oppression, and all the relevant history, the path of least resistance for us all.  I wish I had started becoming more well-informed sooner but I’m not gonna beat myself up over it either.  The truth is we don’t teach this stuff in school, most of our friends/family are pretty clueless about it, and it’s not stuff that is dominant in our culture/art (though that is thankfully, changing).  I try to give grace to people (myself included) for not knowing lots of things as long as they are willing to listen/learn.

  113. 113.

    Bill Arnold

    @JWR:
    Also, the RationalWiki piece on Cultural Marxism is useful.
    First paragraph:

    Cultural Marxism generally refers to one of two things:
    1 First — extremely rarely in popular discourse — “cultural Marxism” (lower C, upper M) refers to a strain of critique of popular culture by the Frankfurt School, framing such culture as being imposed by a capitalist culture industry and consumed passively by the masses.
    2 Second — in common usage in the wild — “Cultural Marxism” (both uppercase) is a common snarl word used to paint anyone with progressive tendencies as a secret Communist. The term alludes to a conspiracy theory in which sinister left-wingers have infiltrated media, academia, and science, and are engaged in a decades-long plot to undermine Western culture. Some variants of the conspiracy allege that basically all of modern social liberalism is, in fact, a communist front group.

  115. 115.

    Tenar Arha

    After all my troubles finding the problem and fixing the drains last summer and fall, it’s nice being indoors on a flood watch and heavy rains and thunderstorms day, and know that my basement is dry. 🎉

  118. 118.

    cain

    @laura: That hat toss was EPIC!

    You know? I just wished Arjuna did the same thing before kicking off the Pandava-Kauravas in the Mahabharata.

  121. 121.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Eunicecycle:

    @artem1s:

    From what I’ve seen and my personal experience there’s been plenty of mailers for the Vote No campaign sent out over the last few weeks and apparently there’s been a huge turnout for Dem early voters. We’ll see

  123. 123.

    rikyrah

    CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) posted at 9:27 AM on Tue, Aug 08, 2023:
    BREAKING: A GOP lawmaker’s wife says she’s been replacing “terrible” “Unchristian” books with Bibles in local Little Free Libraries in Arkansas.

    Jennifer Meeks, wife of Arkansas State GOP Rep. Stephen Meeks, thinks people shouldn’t read books that “don’t align with our… https://t.co/7PRelgqxZz
    (https://twitter.com/CalltoActivism/status/1688919889938194432?t=8Z0Qn7vp2adqMykzAXVy6Q&s=03)

  124. 124.

    Scout211

    Another ”reset” for the guy from Florida. Ha ha ha.
    DeSantis replaces 2024 campaign manager in continued shakeup

    CNN — 
    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is replacing campaign manager Generra Peck, ending weeks of speculation about her future leading his struggling White House bid and continuing a shakeup of his 2024 presidential campaign that has lasted for a month.

    In her place, DeSantis will install James Uthmeier, the chief of staff for his gubernatorial office, a trusted adviser known in Florida as a ruthless enforcer of DeSantis’ agenda and devoted protector of the Republican’s political brand.

  128. 128.

    Miss Bianca

    @Soprano2: The mash-up is quite tasty, in fact. I was surprised by how similar in timbre I found his voice and hers – there’s not as much difference between the versions (to my ear, anyway) as I had imagined!

  132. 132.

    Matt McIrvin

    @JWR: While it is antisemitic, I’m kind of amazed that that characterization as antisemitic is allowed to exist on the Wikipedia page. Someone must be defending it furiously.

  133. 133.

    Betty Cracker

    Regarding DeFailure, a new poll says he’s tied with Chris Christie in New Hampshire. I think he’ll probably go all-in on Iowa. That’s probably the only shot he has at turning his shit-show campaign around because the FAIL narrative is hardening, and he can’t afford to bank on later states.

    Meanwhile, every day brings fresh headlines about breakdowns happening back home as a direct result of DeFailParade’s policies and shitty personnel decisions. Too many to summarize, but if I were him, I’d stay the hell in Iowa.

  134. 134.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Betty Cracker: I assume that all of the other Republican candidates are basically just banking that some legal development will take Trump out of the race, whether they’ll say so or not. Then it becomes a free-for-all.

    I think they’re all wrong, though–Trump will be the nominee even if he’s in prison.

  136. 136.

    Geminid

    @Frank Wilhoit: It’s all relative. Justice is more pragmatic than any other Republican governor I have observed. For instance, I heard a lot of excerpts from his news conferences during the pandemic and I thought he was good on preventive measures including vaccination.

    And while I think your statement about tapwater was intended as a rhetorical exaggeration, I will say I have drunk some very good West Virginia tap water.

  138. 138.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: I’d never vote for Justice, but I’d rather have him as my governor than the fascist creep DeSantis. At least Justice appears on camera with an adorable dog sometimes and seems capable of genuine affection for his own pet. That’s how low my standards for Repub governors are! ;-)

  139. 139.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: Justice strikes me as a decent man- for an earth-pillaging, woman-repressing, gun-humping Republican. I still wouldn’t give him a cookie, but he doesn’t need one anyway.

    If Justice is elected Senator, I expect we’ll see him on TV a lot. They’ll love his accent. Justice makes Joe Manchin sound like Alec Guiness.

  140. 140.

    greenergood

    Can’t read everything tonight – just want to say I ADORE Kamala – if she’s my next Pres after Biden then bring it on! If Biden dies tomorrow (I worry about my mom , she’s old) , then Kamala: bring her on!! She is smart, capable, experienced – and female, and not ivory white – everything a Republican could hate! So bring her on!

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