I won’t link to the post or even put up a screen capture of the photo, but if anyone else posted an image of any elected official tied up in a truck – let alone the President of the United States – law enforcement would be on it in a hot minute. This is so far over the line that you can’t even see the line from there.
Trump is a menace. If Trump isn’t above the law, he will receive a law enforcement visit in response to this.
And if any judge in any Trump case doesn’t think they will be the next person in a similar image, they aren’t good at connecting dots.
As I have been saying since November 2016, this is not normal.
Open thread.
Update: Timill shared this most excellent piece on this subject from Joyce Vance.
VA in SC
They are sitting on hands,till they could never have imagined….thoughts & prayers…
Josie
Much of the blame for the repulsive things he says and does goes to the people around him. They cannot fail to see his deterioration, and they hide it and use it for their own ends. I’d like to see an article naming and shaming each one of them.
JPL
If Biden’s camp said something, trump would say it’s a joke and btw Biden is destroying America. The news would say it’s a joke.
CNN was all over it yesterday. The republican operative was not happy about it, but I didn’t catch his name.
Raoul Paste
I only had to read the title of this post to know whom it was referencing
OzarkHillbilly
I guess I missed something.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly:
Trump posted an image of Joe Biden tied up in the back of a pickup truck – as if he had been abducted.
A candidate for president posted that picture of the President of the United States on his social media.
Trump is sick. If I were his lawyer (and of course I never would have been) I would resign on the spot.
Timill
@OzarkHillbilly:
Here’s Joyce Carol Vance on the kerfuffle.
WaterGirl
I would also not be happy if I were the Governor of Michigan.
It seems to me that now every single protective unit for any politician anywhere is going to have to up their protection.
I’m sure Nancy Pelosi thinks this is hilarious.
MattF
TFG figures he’s going to lose in November and is turning on the bat-signal. The significant number of insurrectionist leaders now in prison was unanticipated by the MAGA crowd and is actually making a difference.
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: Ah. Somehow or other, I am not surprised.
@Timill: Thanx,
WaterGirl
@Timill: That’s excellent. Adding it up top.
WaterGirl
Surely one of these judges will think this is a bridge too far and revoke his bail? (she said hopefully)
The Thin Black Duke
James Baldwin said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” The reality most Americans are afraid to wrap their minds around is there are enough people in this country who wholeheartedly embrace the hateful ideology Donald Trump represents and would gladly surrender democracy to get it. It can happen here if Americans don’t understand what’s at stake in November.
pat
I read that it is for sale on Amazon!!!
How is that possible????
WaterGirl
@pat: It shouldn’t be. If that’s true, hopefully whoever put that up on Amazon is getting a knock on their door any minute,
As I’m sure Amazon attorneys have already received a call.
beckya57
@WaterGirl: sorry no, not going to happen. The lesson of this era is that all of our institutions are far too broken and/or corrupted to control Trump, which isn’t surprising given that there’s been a concerted campaign to destroy them since the 1980’s by the right wing. Our only recourse is to vote against him while we still can.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
Ali Velshi refused to show the image, but he described it. He said you couldn’t tell if the Biden figure was asleep, unconscious, or dead. And the final image is of the truck driver flashing a big grin.
Just stomach-churning disgusting.
ETA: Maybe should go without saying, but the truck was festooned with Trump flags and bumper stickers.
beckya57
@The Thin Black Duke: correct. (BTW I love the David Bowie reference in your pen name.)
Spanky
@pat: Just did an amazon search (Incognito window!) for “Biden picture”. Seven pages, and fully half are “Biden sucks”, “fuck Joe Biden”, etc, but none of the picture we’re talking about
ETA: Most of those anti-Biden items are from Rqwaaed, which seems to be a store dedicated to anti-Biden items for inflated prices.
Googling gives:
Scout211
HuffPost has a front page story about it and they refer to TFG as “Deranged Don” in the front page headline.
I think Deranged Don is a very good moniker for Trump and I hope it gets used a lot. Just saying, jackals. 😉
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s beyond appalling, and what it’s revealing about our institutions is also appalling.
But that’s part of the plan – destroy faith in US institutions – so we need to not fall into that trap. What we need to do is fortify our institutions, but in order to do that, we have to win it all in November.
As I mentioned earlier this week, in the 2022 cycle I made a tag that says “This fight is for everything.”
I had no idea at the time just how much everything encompassed.
edit: sleeping is not an option with a tied up, abducted person.
Scout211
@Spanky: Are you wanting to see it? If so, here it is in a tweet by Brian Taylor Cohen. It’s very amateurish but it still is horrible.
Spanky
@Scout211: No, I am not wanting to see it. I wanted to see if Amazon carried it.
cmorenc
Nice little gig you have going, Biden. Gee, would be a shame should someone accidentally bind and gag you, like in this picture. Not that I would do anything like that, but sometimes people just can’t help themselves what they do, even though I posted the picture to show what they ought not to do. Sometimes they get a little pissed off and carried away, y’know?
Geez, Trump is blatantly using mob-boss tactics of the sort they use to intimidate business owners competing with their own enterprises. And even the most infamous mob bosses know how to be more subtle than what Trump posted.
Scout211
@Spanky: Got it.
pat
@pat: I just looked for it. Lots of crap. Did not see that one. Don’t remember where I saw it.
Another Scott
There is no bottom.
Meanwhile, …
Eyes on the prizes.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
Trump is awfully angry for someone who is supposedly cruising to victory against Joe Biden. He sure doesn’t sound as confident as media is that he will win.
Almost Retired
I think I’ll go google “Republican leaders condemn Truth Social video with hog-tied Biden.” I am sure there be many hits //
The Thin Black Duke
POC have seen the diseased underbelly of the American Dream from the cradle to the grave and understood the only way out is through. The problem is getting white Americans to realize that once the marginalized communities have been disposed of, they’re next. Italians, the Irish and whoever is left who isn’t rich will be the last ones loaded in the cattle cars to the camps. Time is not on our side.
Cut to the chase: whenever I encounter idiots supposedly on our side parroting right-wing talking points about Biden, I am not fucking polite anymore.
Baud
Kathy Griffin did something similar but that didn’t stop us from nominating her to be president of the United States.
bbleh
@MattF: I think there’s something to this. The truly diseased part of his psyche can’t / won’t even process the possibility of losing, but I think what remains of the clever WWE-style marketeer / con-man may well be going in that direction, and the reaction of both is to double down and push the envelope.
@WaterGirl: NAL, but I think not even remotely plausible grounds for doing so. He showed a video of a truck. He didn’t say he was gonna do anything, or even call for anything. Now if it were a picture of, say, the jurors in his trial, that might be different
@The Thin Black Duke: this indeed. I think in some ways the “Good Germans” are worse than the overt Nazis, because they refuse to see what’s in front of them at the same time as they secretly sympathize with parts of it and support it politically in any case. (This btw is a big reason I’ve given up trying to deal with “reasonable Republicans.”)
TBone
Glen Kirschner was good on this too (on with Nicole Wallace the other day):
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/most-dangerous-defendant-on-pretrial-release-expert-proposes-answer-to-trump-problem/ar-BB1kLWrf
Harrison Wesley
“Dallas loves you, Mr. President………….”
zhena gogolia
@The Thin Black Duke:
Me neither!
dirge
I get why we frame this problem around Trump, but it may not be all that helpful. He’s not the first or only one to use social media to organize harassment campaigns and promote stochastic terrorism. If there had been any meaningful legislative or enforcement response to gamergate and its ilk, there’d be no need for judicial gag orders and the like against Trump, because what he’s doing would already be its own crime.
Of course, none of it is really unique to social media either. Getting together with your friends to run your perceived enemies out of town is probably in the top five oldest social activities. And of course we’ve got laws on the books for that, we just don’t enforce them much.
TBone
@Another Scott: 👍
Harrison Wesley
@bbleh: People who think they’re on the safe shore really need to read (or re-read) Martin Niemoller.
TBone
@TBone: furthermore
bbleh
@Harrison Wesley: yes, and I get that some of them don’t want to see not out of overt or casual malice but rather because they’re scared, but my sympathy for them is becoming limited as well, because they’re basically leaving the work to the rest of us.
laura
Not 24 hours between Ema’s ebullient video catching a glimpse of the President’s motorcade and this disgusting cartoonish abduction/lynching. A lunatic took time out from hawking a “bible” on Good Friday to post a cartoonish lynching. Absolute silence from Republicans.
The lights are all blinking red.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, ICYMI, … APNews.com:
[ womp, womp ]
(via BlueVirginia.US)
Cheers,
Scott.
TBone
OT but I’m getting repeated money beg emails from our local health system conglomerate/corporate hell/hedge fund wet dream. They are asking for donations constantly. As if!
Soprano2
For TFG the statement “when you’re famous they let you do it”doesn’t just apply to women’s private parts. In his mind, he’s famous so everyone should let him do whatever he wants. At this point only the Secret Service and judges can stop him. Remember, the same people who think this is hilarious put “liberal hunting permit” bumper stickers on their vehicles.
Jinchi
I think at some point we have to start saying “this is not acceptable”, because coming from people on the right, it’s completely normal.
Scout211
Deranged Don’s campaign spokesperson has made a statement and it’s all over the media reports about this. But he is the only Republican on record that I can find so far.
Cheung’s statement is also deranged and delusional but what else is new. Same old, same old.
And the Secret Service was asked about it.
Jackie
@MattF:
He thought he’d lose in 2016, too.
The main difference for 2024 is Democrats and independents won’t be complacent AND TIFG is trying to keep his ass out of prison. I’m more worried about the MAGAts trying to start another insurrection BEFORE the General Election, rather than after.
TIFG is unraveling in REAL TIME right before our eyes. The GQP has to see this, too. BUT will
enoughany of them act?Bill
Joy Vance seems to be expecting the secret service to do something about this. The same secret service that deleted their texts and wiped their devices after trying to get Pence in the car ? Please.
WaterGirl
@Jinchi:
I still think it’s not normal, but you’re right that it’s time to move into “this cannot stand” territory.
Lyrebird
AbsoLUTELY. So glad you’re there and so glad you’re here, if that makes sense. “diseased underbelly” is perfect.
I thought the country had come further. I was naive enough to be shocked at how many US voters, mostly white, would vote for the McCain-Palin ticket after the obvious ridiculous pander in choosing Palin. On that awful morning years later, 11 – 9 – 2016 or whatever it was, I wasn’t shocked, I was sick to my stomach. Then I thought, okay, maybe now I have a glimpse of what so many African Am. voters have felt over the years.
wombat probability cloud
@Baud: Hopefully, Trump will get at least as much pushback as she did. It’s notable that she apologized within a day or so, “It is never funny to joke about killing a president,” admitting bad judgment. I assume, but don’t know, that her intent differed from Trump’s.
Another Scott
Made me look…
It’s a tailgate wrap decal.
There’s a TIFG version.
Lots of stupid, ugly, insane other versions at that site. :-/
Their mailing office is in Delaware, their warehouse is in California, their marketing office is in Singapore. I wouldn’t be surprised if the CCP somehow has their fingers in it (to try to boost conflict in the USA), but it’s probably just people trying to make money as quickly as possible on the latest memes.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
Ugh. 🙄 Happy Saturday.
emjayay
@WaterGirl: Yes, as someone whose husband was almost murdered because there was no protection I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi thinks the whole thing is a big knee slapper.
Lyrebird
@wombat probability cloud: Good point (Baud’s too of course).
The person who said “Go [Cheney] yourself!” out loud at a parade, near Biloxi I think, received the attention of the Secret Service.
Can’t despair, must keep fighting…
Melancholy Jaques
@The Thin Black Duke:
True and it is a reality the political media not only refuse to acknowledge but work very hard to avoid mentioning.
I haven’t heard that euphemism for racism “economic anxiety” this cycle. What phrase are they using this time?
TBone
If you’re not familiar with the Voice of Europe fiasco yet (I snarked about it last thread) Tom S. at Digby does a good job on it:
https://digbysblog.net/2024/03/30/asymmetrical-disinformation/
UncleEbeneezer
@beckya57: He’s big mad because a judge imposed a gag order, he’s facing 88 felony counts that are still on track to go to trial, he’s being forced to post a gigantic bond and insurance companies are refusing to bail him out. If anything, he’s mad because institutions are not bending over to help him out the way he assumed they would.
Miss Bianca
@The Thin Black Duke: I agree. You know, the depressing/uplifting thing about studying American history is realizing how many times we’ve been in some particularly tight spot for the survival of America itself – and how often it’s been minority/disenfranchised cultures that have had to lead the way into saving the American experiment and expanding civil rights and liberties for all.
Today, no different.
Barbara
@JPL: Just look at what happened to Kathy Griffin when she joked about beheading Trump. I didn’t think it was funny and it annoyed me greatly that she “went there” for the reasons outlined by Joyce Vance. We won’t see any Republican outrage over this. They are totally cowed.
RaflW
Apparently Trump secured a “deal” (NYT, gift link) with Weisselberg that, while not directly suborning perjury, muzzled him from basically even talking to law enforcement. Anyone with prosecutorial experience have an opinion on the legality of said $2M hush payment?
RaflW
@UncleEbeneezer: He’s a vituperative wannabe mobster with no redeeming qualities who all too often stiffs the people who lend, work for or invest with him. So, yeah, institutions are not bending over to help him. Finally!
Barbara
@Another Scott: Thanks for this.
Peke Daddy
@WaterGirl: All about the destruction of the Gray Zone, the space of tolerance in civil society. All people who don’t share their ideology must be driven from the public square. Adam has written about this.
Quiltingfool
@The Thin Black Duke: This old white woman agrees with you. Folks who want to destroy anyone who doesn’t have white skin, or belong to the “right” religion don’t stop destroying. They don’t sit back and say, “Well, hey, we can rest easy now, we got rid of all the (fill in the blank).” Nope. They’ll pick another group to go after.
This is what people need to understand about Christian Nationalists. If they get to be in charge, which church denomination or doctrine will they pick? What happens if it isn’t YOUR particular Christian denomination? Hmm?
The founders of this nation weren’t too far removed from the bloody religious wars between Christian sects, so they made damn sure that freedom of religion was codified in the Constitution. Not that it didn’t stop bloodshed or discrimination over different religious beliefs here, but it was usually not state sanctioned.
If I were of the Mormon or Catholic persuasion, I’d be a bit concerned. Jewish folk have to always be concerned. I’m not sure the Catholic SCOTUS quite gets it; evangelicals and fundamentalists will use them, but deep down they don’t respect Catholicism. Ask me how I know.
Scout211
Sunday shows will be interesting to
watchread about later. (Who watches in real time anymore?) I do think some of the hosts will ask the Republican guests to comment on the video and image, but I don’t expect any condemnation or criticism from them. Republican spinmeisters will likely be very busy today crafting the perfect response that excuses Trump and blames Biden and the Democrats.Barbara
@Lyrebird:
When I was a law student I took a class in forensic psychiatry, easily the best elective class I ever took. The professor was a psychiatrist at the federal penitentiary that had a mental health ward, and she arranged for a secret service agent to lead one of the classes on the subject of presidential threateners. He said most people who received a visit were shocked that anyone could have taken what they saw seriously. I can’t imagine how difficult it is to handle such threats in the era of social media.
Frankensteinbeck
It’s disgusting and it’s unacceptable, especially for a presidential nominee, but no, I don’t think any regular person would be investigated by the FBI for it. People post disgusting shit all the time. If there’s no other evidence of an actual plot to make it happen, it isn’t illegal.
@Another Scott:
They called it that because that’s what it is. It’s meant to be.
Quiltingfool
@Quiltingfool: And Muslims are concerned, too. Didn’t mean to leave them out.
Barbara
@Frankensteinbeck: The Secret Service approaches it the same way but it also has to figure out whether it’s a one time thing, part of a pattern, whether the person participates in organized hate groups, whether the threat refers to places or times, etc. They cannot assume everything is just a random occurrence. They log the threats in order to be able to detect patterns. And this is true no matter ordinary someone seems.
Mike in NC
Anybody who followed Fat Bastard’s antics since the 1980s should have concluded that he was a ruthless, repulsive career criminal. That such a piece of shit ever sat in the White House, and is still walking the streets, is a stain on this country that can never be erased.
Kay
I know Donald Trump hopes his followers will kill the people Donald Trump doesn’t like, but I live among his followers and I’m telling you they’re looking a little bedraggled and downcast lately. The flags have all but disppeared save a couple of torn, faded ones around houses that have had lunatic Trump shrines up for 4 years now. No one even sees them anymore- part of the landscape. Not sure where this rough and ready army he imagines he has is going to come from.
By all means stay alert and watch your back but this “movement” is running on fumes (and media promotion) at this point.
Barbara
@Frankensteinbeck: While it might make sense or be a legitimate policy to fund the study of the Torah, that funding need not be coupled with an exemption from military service for those who engage in it, much less a policy to subsidize their living expenses.
Baud
@Kay:
Trump 1.0 promised fun. Trump 2.0 requires sacrifice.
Barbara
@Kay: I think the January 6 prosecutions have had an impact on the people at the edges who might have thought it was all fun and games. Even a minor felony conviction is life-changing.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Mike in NC: Truer words were never spoken
Sister Golden Bear
@Scout211: What I haven’t seen much mention of is that there’s a dot in the middle of Biden’s forehead. As in Biden was shot in the head, and they’re on the way to dump his body.
Kay
@Baud:
It’s weird that he isn’t just calmly and confidently planning for the Presidency, isn’t it? Maybe the media drapes-measurers for his second term called the race too soon and this is NOT actually a Trump lock.
“Increasingly unhinged daily lashing out” doesn’t scream confidence to me. Watch what they do, not what they say.
Baud
@Kay:
The media could talk about how unhealthy he looks but they’ve committed that story to Biden.
Sister Golden Bear
@MattF: Prior to both previous elections, Trump had also been claiming they were going to be stolen from him. Because as a toxic narcissist he can never fail, he can only be failed.
Sister Golden Bear
@The Thin Black Duke: A-fucking-men.
Frankensteinbeck
@Barbara:
I’m told that the likelihood of punishment is a much bigger factor in deterrence than the severity of punishment. It was certainly clear how the Jan 6 attackers assumed there would be no consequences at all. Now any time Trump suggests violence, their online forums are full of “No, the FBI will set a trap!”
They’re chickenshit cowards. It’s the basis of the movement. Unless they think they have an absolutely overwhelming advantage, they’re too scared to do anything.
They see making threats as consequence free, though, so they really pile on the harassment.
Soprano2
@Kay: I agree, I see the same thing here. I think it’s not fun for them anymore. In 2016 and 2020 they were sticking it to liberals; now they’re being asked to do things for a guy who’s constantly in court and looks worn out, and they’re tired of it. TFG is like the cousin they’re constantly bailing out of trouble; they still love him, but are tired of the constant drama and roiling crap.
Soprano2
@Barbara: I was shocked when I read that the Israeli government pays for most everything for a huge and quickly growing part of their population, and gets nothing in return. That can’t last forever, the rest of the people won’t stand for it.
Soprano2
@Baud: I agree, the pictures where he has no makeup on and his hair is white are alarming. If I were in charge of ads for Democrats I would use those pics of him a lot. I think most people don’t know what he actually looks like.
JoyceH
@Kay: When I go to the other side of the county, I pass a house that is one of those “lunatic Trump shrines”. A couple years ago, the faded signs and flags were replaced with fresh ones. Last month when I drove by, all the signs and flags were gone but one Trump flag hanging by a corner. My immediate thought was that the owner had died or gone into sheltered care. Then it occurred to me that the notion that the owner got over it never even struck me as a possibility. Then this week I went by and the fence had a fresh coat of paint and there was an American flag. Thought “yep, new owner”.
Old Dan and Little Ann
@Kay: I drove down to Springwater, NY last weekend. It is a super depressing rural backwater. Not a trump flag in sight. Last time I went down that way they were everywhere.
catclub
David Brooks was saying that fundraising doesn’t mean anything — if it is Biden beating Trump at it. he also thinks all of it goes to broadcast ads.
Geminid
@Scout211: Senator Chris Van Hollen will be on ABC’s This Week. He’s been a vocal critic of the way Israel is blocking and slow-walking humanitarian aid to Gaza, and I think that is what he will be asked about. Van Hollen stays informed on this situation.
Maryland’s Senate primary may not come up, but Van Hollen endorsed Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks early on.
thruppence
I saw some jerk wearing a T-shirt this morning that said “I haven’t seen Democrats this mad since the Republicans made them give up their slaves.” What world are these people living in?
Baud
@thruppence:
1860s sounds about right.
Kay
@JoyceH:
My middle son does a lot of driving around NW OH and he tells me where he sees shrines – we share locations. He’s noticed the lack of upkeep too. I feel some sympathy for the household. I picture the Trumpster in the family blaring Fox and screaming at everyone else all the time about incomprehensible Right wing internet themes. They even lose me now when I talk to them – I don’t know what they’re talking about. The theories are so convoluted and lengthy now- it’s been 8 years.
kalakal
In news from the land of the endless search for Brexit Benefits, Lawrence Fox, ex-actor and full time nitwit has had to end his bid to stand in the elections for Mayor of London because it seems he was unable to fill in the application form correctly.
In a an echo of TFG he is whining that it is all the fault of “political corruption” rather than his own incompetence. In a further display of his mastery of the detail of the process he has announced he will appeal the decision despite the fact there is no right of appeal.
In reality he knew he’d lose, this way he gets to keep his deposit and now whine endlessly like TFG about how he would have won but was robbed by Deep Paperwork
Lawrence Fox Mayoral Bid
Lyrebird
@Barbara: You’re so right about the volume of threats exploding, and I recall reports that it’s really hard on the watcher-outers to be exposed to that all the time.
A friend of mine teaches forensic psych, btw, and needs a boost – I am going to quote you!
and hey @Melancholy Jaques:
“Biden is old” is doing a lot of the same work sfaict, bc it gives them a way to put down Madam VP with some cover.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@kalakal:
I’m too lazy to look up borough sizes but really,10 supporters ? He couldn’t arrange to get 10 valid signatures in two out of 32 boroughs?
This is not a serious candidate.
cmorenc
@Kay:
Trump isn’t, but Steven Miller, the Heritage Foundation, and Americans for Prosperity are busy as we speak picking out people and policies for a prospective 2nd Trump Administration.
Geminid
@Soprano2: The Ultra-Orthodox are now 13% of Israel’s population. I read that until the late 1970s, almost all of the men served in the IDF. Then, Likud leader Menachim Begin started the practice of widespread draft exemptions and subsidies.
Almost 20% of Israel’s citizens are Arabs and they are exempt from the draft also, so 67% of Israelis carry the responsibility for defending their country.
This problem is now acute because of the war, and Likud proposed legislation that would extend initial service from 30 months to 36, and raise the age of active reserve service from 40 years-old to 45. Some members of the government say they’ll bolt if the Haredi are not drafted, while the two Haredi parties say they’ll bolt if they are. Likud leadership’s solution: put the Knesset into recess until after Passover.
Subsole
@Kay:
That might be why they and their allies are so frantically hammering every single wedge they can into the Democratic coalition. They figure apathy and complacency are the only things that can save them.
AM in NC
@kalakal: I was a big fan of the show Lewis and was soooooooo disappointed to learn about the selfish, racist, entitled wanker that is Lawrence Fox. And he just won’t stop digging, will he?
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Quiltingfool: Oh yeah, my maternal grandmother was a Southern Baptist (born and raised in Virginia), and it wasn’t until college I realized how prejudiced she was against Catholics. Jews were OK because Jesus was a Jew, but Catholics were just WRONG. It was weird to figure that out about my grandmother since she always presented as so sweet and “Christian”.
Citizen Alan
@Quiltingfool: The shiite Opus Dei catholics on the supreme court feel that they have a greater ideological alignment with evangelicals than with the main catholic church. If Francis or whichever pope replaces him in a few years expresses enough opposition to Christian nationalism, I imagine they would all convert.
Citizen Alan
@thruppence: everyone of those motherfuckers would own slaves if they could and are bitter that the South lost.
JoyceH
Some time ago I watched a Rick Steves travel documentary series on streaming. It basically featured Steves traveling around to various destinations and showing and telling about the places, the obvious features that everyone hears about and also some little known aspects of the place. And turns out that Nuremberg has a museum of Nazism. Nothing about the war, strictly about the philosophy of fascism, the Nazi party, how it developed and grew and took power. Presented very much as a Cautionary Tale – know the signs! They give presentations to school groups and police departments. The Germans have learned their lesson! As I watched the episode, I thought, “We’re gonna need one of those…”
kalakal
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
London boroughs range between 150,000 and 400,000. And he couldn’t find 10 supporters in 2bof them. No he’s an obnoxious grifter with a topping of idiocy.
@AM in NC: So was I and feel the same way you do. To hear him whine about how the acting profession was stacked against outsiders like him who didn’t have connections was mind boggling. His dad is James Fox, there’s his uncle Edward, cousin Emilia etc etc he has more connections than O’Hare airport.
It’s a shame, he can act, but he’s a nasty jerk whose gone straight off a cliff
Captain C
@Baud: FTFNYT headline after the first (and only) debate, in which TIFG looked like a bedraggled, slurring, incoherent version of the stereotypical drunk Uncle MAGAt:
“Biden Looks Sprightly and Vigorous, While Trump Can Barely Speak or Stay Awake. Here’s Why That’s Trouble For OLD JOE BIDEN!”
Pink Tie
@JoyceH: I have a neighbor (whom I’ve never met) who used to fly a “Let’s Go Brandon” flag and has replaced it with the regular Trump 2024 flag. Gotta love how this household either realized how obnoxious and ugly it is to fly a flag essentially saying f*ck the POTUS, or they correctly came to understand that Biden took back the phrase.
Captain C
@Soprano2: Especially when the freeloading part makes a habit of showing open contempt for the people who pay their way and defend their (freeloaders’) lives with blood.
TBone
Chris Quinn ate his spinach, rolled up his sleeves, and did what needs to be done re: the MSM and believing your own eyes and ears:
https://www.cleveland.com/news/2024/03/our-trump-reporting-upsets-some-readers-but-there-arent-two-sides-to-facts-letter-from-the-editor.html
Soprano2
@Geminid: I think it’s unsustainable the way it is now. You can’t have that much of the population contributing basically nothing except more mouths for the government to support.
Melancholy Jaques
@TBone:
If only all the political media would just say the same thing.
Andrya
@Quiltingfool: Speaking as the token BJ Catholic, I am concerned- not just for my fellow Catholics, but for Jews, Muslims, Atheists, LDS, Baha’is, Hindus, Sikhs, anyone who is not part of the right wing Evangelical Christian world. The lesson of history is clear- the only decent path is complete freedom of conscience, and any weakening of that commitment is disastrous, including corrupting the religious community that is (temporarily) dominant.
Also, the quilt (by you!) that I won in a recent raffle is GORGEOUS! The only problem is, I think it’s too gorgeous to accumulate cat hairs from a cat snuggling into it, but my cat (emphatically) disagrees.
Gvg
@Soprano2: when it was originally started, right after WWII, Torah scholars were rare. Or so I have read. That was before many countries had large populations who got to college for example. So subsidizing scholarship of their religion was about preserving their religion right after Hitler and others tried to eliminate them.
since then, they have multiplied and there are quite a few living off the state for generations, demanding more and more from the government but avoiding the service themselves. I am not Jewish and haven’t seen this for myself, this is what I have read….
Ruckus
@cmorenc:
Shitforbrains
wants to bethinks he’s the god king. I have zero idea how he came to hold that view but he’s been the joke on the last page of every social magazine (if he’s in it at all) for decades. He gets support from people who would be him but they inherited (stole from siblings) a hell of a lot less than he did.Denali5
@Old Dan and Little Ann
How is Springwater, NY any more depressing than most rural areas? I grew up in East Tennessee – that is a seriously depressing rural area.
@Joyce H. I had a chat with a tour leader in Nuremberg who explained the Hitler era from the point of view of a grandchild of a Nazi. It was clear that the Germans faced their past and taught about it in their schools. In the American South, the Civil War was barely mentioned except for the role of the damn Yankees who took over the farms.
Geminid
@Soprano2: Israeli labor economists have pointed this out. Israel is trying to build a strong tech industry, but the Haredi are too poorly educated to contribute even if they wanted to. They are poorly qualified for many other jobs.
The Arab community is taking up some of the slack. Their high school graduation and college degree rates are closing in on national averages after lagging behind for decades. A 2021 study showed that Arab Israelis accounted for half of all new nursing certificates, and they were not far behind in new medical licenses. Others are studying information and other technologies and entering the tech workforce.
But the Haredis’ special status involves more than the economy, and contributes to a lack of social cohesion. They also vote in numbers larger than average and that contributed to Netanyahu’s unexpected victory in the November, 2022 election. More secular Israelis were exhausted by 4 elections in 3 years, but the Haredi came out because their rabbis told them to. The government that followed was running the country into the ground even before October 7.
One of the darkly humorous videos I saw from this war was a group of overweight, bearded men standing on a rooftop in northern Israel. Hezbollah had launched a salvo of rockets and there were warning sirens in the background. One of the men was blowing on ram’s horn and the others were shaking sheaves of what looked like millet in the direction of Lebanon. Haredi air defense!
VFX Lurker
We sure will.
I’d also like a complete education on American history, not the edited one I learned in school. I also want removal of the rest of the Confederate monuments across the country. I don’t expect any of this overnight, but we need it.
Ruckus
@Mike in NC:
That stain should never be erased. Because it should never be forgotten.
Some in this country elected a human being that should never have been in charge of anything more than a grocery cart. And even that may be too far. ShitForBrains is and has long been a person who not only puts himself first above everyone else, he has been an asshole his entire life. When his father died he managed to get $400 million, and what did his siblings get? The same? To share in that? Nope, he took it all. He is the type of person to think that the entire world, the billions in it ALL owe him – because of his greatness. And BTW, while he may have gotten the money, he got ZERO greatness, earned ZERO greatness, has ZERO greatness.
He is the prime example of the concept that money can’t buy humanity, a reasonable personality, brains, in even the smallest measurable amounts.
Ruckus
@Barbara:
Aren’t those also federal charges? Sure in this day and age even state charges may follow you around but federal charges will.
Ruckus
@The Thin Black Duke:
The only, slight difference I have with your concept of them generally wanting to get rid of all of us is that we buy stuff too. Many/most of those wealthy rethuglicans likely really do not care who is making them wealthy, only that they are. Now if they could get the federal government to screw all those at the bottom in a manner so that they could make more money, I’m sure they’d go along with it, but if it’s going to cost them money……
JoyceH
@VFX Lurker: Complete education is an awesome idea. I live near a lot of Civil War sites, including the place where Stonewall Jackson died. Last time I drove by the turnoff I noticed a sign to the “Stonewall Jackson Death Site”. But when I first moved here thirty years ago, the name of the place was the Stonewall Jackson Shrine. This, remember, is a place owned and operated by the National Park Service. It was a SHRINE.
artem1s
@Kay:
Rural Ohio leading up to 2020 was frankly scary. I think the OH GOP spent every dime they had putting signs in every cornfield in every county surrounding Franklin Co (Columbus). East and south of Cleveland was pretty scary too. They have almost all disappeared. The one sad hold out I regularly pass on the way to a friend’s house is a lone yard sign. It still looks new. But not completely new. The owner found some paint or duck tape that matches the blue background exactly and taped over the Pence part of the sign. Says a lot that even the diehard ones won’t spring $20 bucks for a new yard sign 4 years after Dence ‘betrayed’ him.