I had a thought as I was reading the morning thread.
What if we make a list of stories the mainstream media should be covering?
For instance, I really want to cover Project 2025, but I have not found the time yet to get started. Every week I move Project 2025 to the next week on my calendar. If others are interested and concerned, we could do a whole series on the key parts of Project 2025. Many hands make light work – chime in if you are horrified by what’s in the plan and you’d be willing to do some research and cover a particular chunk in a guest post.
Balloon Juice isn’t a big wave like the “we love Hiter, take 2” NYT, but we’re not salt in the ocean, either.
Open thread.
Nukular Biskits
Saw the title and my first thought was, “You don’t EVEN want to get me started on this subject!”
TBone
I think covering Project 2025 is a really, REALLY good idea. I’ll think about how I could best contribute…maybe email stuff I find to you for consideration?
Baud
I’d volunteer but I’m unreliable.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
Hi, Unreliable. I’m Nukular Biskits.
<rimshot>
Ksmiami
I’m happy to do some background research. Maybe we could invite Molly Jong Fast to guest contribute as she’s both horrified and been sounding the alarm on this fascist garbage from the Heritage Foundation
bbleh
Third on Project 2025.
Another thing I wish they’d cover — or more precisely, cover with better context and depth — is how the Former Guy depopulated, defunded and dismantled the organizations for dealing with undocumented immigrants (including asylum seekers who are NOT REPEAT NOT “illegal”), and how that has contributed heavily to the current, very real, increase in the numbers of undocumented immigrants being released in the US. IOW, it’s yet another case of Republicans deliberately breaking government and then wailing that government doesn’t work (in this case of course with a generous extra dose of OMG OOGA-BOOGA BROWN PEOPLE). But alas, all we see are the numbers (plus the ooga-booga), ie the MSM responding exactly as the Republicans intended.
TBone
This well-documented reporting threw me for a loop as well. The Dominionist tentacles are everywhere and still under the radar for the most part. I don’t know quite what to think.
https://crooksandliars.com/2024/04/desperate-zelensky-reaches-out-family
TBone
@Ksmiami:
@bbleh:
👍
Jackie
Why not cover Project 25 over a few Sundays as a Medium Cool topic?
Nukular Biskits
(waiting for water to boil so I can make hummer food)
Watergirl, I know you probably mean from a national perspective (both media and issues) but there are probably some local/state issues that would scale up.
I’m not saying that everyone should be interested in what’s happening here in BFE, MS, but I suspect there are a lot of issues in which we all have in common … or at least a lot of overlap.
Jackie
@Ksmiami:
I love that suggestion!
WaterGirl
@Jackie: On one hand, that’s an interesting idea.
On the other hand, I think hell no. :-)
Here’s the Medium Cool tagline:
Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We’re Living In
WaterGirl
@Nukular Biskits:
Can you say more?
p.a.
@TBone: Josh Marshall wading into Xtianist/Dominionist sewer also. Good tie-in is Bibi/Israeli Right fucking allying themselves with the “jews gotta burn to get heaven on earth” American Christofascists.
Steeplejack
@Nukular Biskits:
What is BFE? Google doesn’t help re Mississippi.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: BFE. Have some caffeine.
Nukular Biskits
@WaterGirl:
Oh, sure, throw it right back in my lap! 😂
Here in MS, some of my pet peeves that I don’t think are being covered adequately are (in no particular order):
Several outlets here in the state, including MS Free Press, MS Today, MS Public Broadcasting, do a good job but they, IMHO, are the exception. My local mullet wrapper, the Sun Herald, seldom addresses these topics other than to run reprints of a MS Today article, for example.
Nukular Biskits
@Steeplejack:
Don’t ask me the origin of this, but I’ve heard it all my life:
BFE = Bum Fuck Egypt
WaterGirl
@Nukular Biskits: I got as far as guessing Bum fuck, but I didn’t want to insult anyone by suggesting that when you say Mississippi, I think “bum fuck:.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m even more sheltered than I thought.
ETA: Possibly thrown by the fact that “BFE, Mississippi” is sort of redundant. (Said by somone who lived briefly in Biloxi.)
Ohio Mom
This reminds me a little like my old boss’s musing, “If the perfect crime had been committed, how would we know, we wouldn’t. Else it wouldn’t be a perfect crime.”
Anything I could list here I obviously know about, even if big media is (in our opinion) not giving it enough attention. It’s the things no one has reported on (yet) that are going to shape our future that we are not going to be prepared for.
Starfish
@WaterGirl: I am on team “Hell no.”
During the week, it’s great that you project manage everything and get things done.
On the weekend, it is terrible that you project manage everything and get things done.
You, on a Sunday: Let’s do this big ambitious thing.
Me: Let’s sit on porch swings and drink ice tea.
Baud
@Starfish:
Seconded.
Starfish
@Steeplejack: I grew up there, and like @Nukular Biskits, I have heard it my entire life.
I am conflicted about how I feel about it as a Middle Eastern American who definitely grew up in BFE, Mississippi.
I also love that Nukular Biskits called the Sun Herald, the local Mullet Wrapper.
Nukular Biskits
@WaterGirl: @Steeplejack:
As many of you know, I’m a native, born/raised Mississippian and a fierce critic of this state. I’m even recommending young folks and, particularly, young families NOT come to MS to try to build a future. At least until MS moves forward into the 20th century. And, yes, I meant “20th”
Having said that, I have admit to having my flabber gasted at the antics of AL, AZ and a couple of others. It’s almost the state equivalent of them telling MS, “Here, hold my beer.”
TBone
@p.a.: exactly!
Nukular Biskits
@Starfish:
I have often wondered about that term, whether it was originally a racist euphemism. I’ve never met anyone who could tell me how/when it came to be.
So, perhaps I should err on the side of caution in the future and not use it (?).
Starfish
@Nukular Biskits: There were things that I learned in Mississippi as a child that are definitely “We said what?!”
There was a playground taunt that was both racist and sexualized that started with the words “Chinese, Japanese.” And I am not even sure how that was almost like a nursury rhyme that kids in elementary school said.
Matt McIrvin
@p.a.: I figure that from the Israeli right’s perspective, the American Christianists’ futurism is a delusion anyway, TurboJesus is in fact not gonna come and melt them with his laser eyes, so if it leads the Christianists to support policies that are in their benefit, why not play along?
The infuriating thing is that it’s the same “eliminate the gray zone” play that Hamas and other terrorist organizations like ISIS are into. Turn up the heat, dial up hate and tension everywhere and the endless-war party is going to come out on top.
Nukular Biskits
@Starfish:
Don’t recall that one but there’s probably a lot of stuff I’ve forgotten since my elementary days 600 years ago (inside joke referencing something stupid I said yesterday … LOL).
Nukular Biskits
Well, well, well. Whaddya know:
What is the etymology of “BFE”?
Sorry, Watergirl, for going down the rabbit hole on this one. NotMax would be proud of me.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
It’s part of the right wing playbook. It’s effective enough.
TurboJesus won’t be coming back, but the Christian nationalists would get someone to attack Israel to bring on the end times. If Hamas didn’t exist, they would create them.
schrodingers_cat
OT India goes to polls starting next weekend. The polling will take place over several weeks lasting into early June. I have been following the developments pretty closely. Let me know if any BJers interested and or if you have any questions about it. If you would like me to do a Twitter Space about it or a Zoom let me know.
This will be an important election for the direction India takes for a long time to come.
WaterGirl
@Starfish: @Baud:
I’m not sure if you are both “hell no”-ing the idea of a series on Project 2025, or if you are “hell no”-ing the idea of doing that in Medium Cool.
There’s a big difference there, so let me know?
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Hell no to putting more work on your plate, especially on the weekends.
WaterGirl
@Nukular Biskits: It’s an Open Thread!
The only thing not allowed are apologies for going OT.
Besides, what do you have against rabbit holes? :-)
WaterGirl
@Nukular Biskits: Race to the bottom! :-)
WaterGirl
@Nukular Biskits: If you’re really concerned, you could just go with Bum Fuck, MS. Nothing racist there!
TBone
@p.a.: because these fucks have consolidated power in our government right now, I think it’s an important story that the MSM doesn’t cover enough, the subject and purpose of this post. Some coverage is being done, but not enough. Same with Project 2025. A lot of people don’t know it exists and who’s behind it. The puppet masters need huge exposure.
I guess my location, where I see how much power they have right down to the school boards, makes me want to shout it from rooftops
WaterGirl
Three in a row. The only thing worse than talking to yourself on a thread that is dead, or having a lull, is talking to yourself on your own post!
Kay
I wish they would cover Ohio political corruption. Ohio has very few newspapers left and they’re stripped down and weak. It really should be national news. Republicans have taken a state that had fairly clean government and absolutely polluted it. No one even expects the AG to enforce laws anymore. The norm is the white collar crimes either become federal and there’s an investigation and prosecution or nothing happens.
Ohio has had both of the largest political corruption scandals in state history in the last ten years, a period that coincides perfectly with the state taking a hard Right turn. DeWine is in it up to his fucking neck and he’s a former US Senator! DeWine’s LT gov, and likely the next GOP guv, is somewhat likely to be indicted soon. How is this not national news?
This is likely the next governor of Ohio, 4 days ago:
It’s ALL of them. Every high profile Republican in the state is corrupt.
trollhattan
Climate change/global warming in a deeper fashion than “Hey, is this storm/flood/heatwave global warming?” and “Expert questions manmade human impact on climate so we give him fifty column inches telling us why.”
WaterGirl
@Starfish:
That’s how I feel about Medium Cool. Good, fun discussions and a break from the weight of everything that’s going on. Interesting times, indeed.
Baud
@Kay:
They must not be talking about it in Ohio diners. No way for the media to know what’s going on.
TBone
@trollhattan: another great idea. The current heat “anomaly” that is shocking certain payers of attention gets short shrift.
Kay
The NYTimes loves Ohio diners. Maybe they could take a safari to the incredibly corrupt statehouse and governors mansion. They could still do the diner trip to promote Trump! This would just be a little detour.
I think it’s kind of important that this big state has turned into one big GOP criminal enterprise.
TBone
@Kay:
japa21
@schrodingers_cat: I would very much want to know what is happening.
TBone
@Kay: I know Stoller is regarded as suspect by some readers here, but the insight in this edition is important.
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/the-silver-or-the-lead-how-white
Nukular Biskits
Hummer food made. Just waiting for it to cool down. Those little bastards better show up this year.
Next up: Clean up the colossal mess made yesterday to replace dead 65″ wall-mount TV with new 75″ wall-mount TV.
schrodingers_cat
@japa21: Thanks. Let me know if you have any specific questions. You can DM me if you are on Twitter.
WaterGirl
@TBone: Can you share the insight that you think is in the article?
TBone
Doing the important legwork but going mostly unnoticed.
https://buckscountybeacon.com/2022/10/dominionism-is-on-the-ballot-in-november-but-most-voters-have-never-heard-of-it/
WaterGirl
@Nukular Biskits: I use Baker’s Sugar for the hummingbird food – then you don’t need to boil the water.
TBone
@WaterGirl: yes, gimme a few moments to reread. It’s not easy to copy from a substack so I have to use my email for that purpose.
Ugh, I just tried to paste in a highlight but the entire email article copied.
Michael Bersin
Follow the money. That is, campaign finance.
Looking at this stuff via the FEC and state campaign finance agencies (like the Missouri Ethics Commission) as an individual is like trying to take a sip through a firehose.
One of the failures of Blogtopia is the general lack of a sustained examination of the great right wingnut political finance empire. Taking a look at this stuff and unraveling the connecting threads would be quite enlightening. But, it’s tedious work, and the reward in the online world is low (“Who cares? Have you seen my new MTG Meme?”).
Campaign finance needs crowdsourcing in the same fashion as the January 6th videos.
Tenar Arha
@WaterGirl:
Even if you don’t do a series, here’s a good resource in general, including a series of posts on Project 2025, done by Thomas Zimmer. He’s a historian at Georgetown, does the podcast Is this Democracy? & the associated substack Democracy Americana.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I am fascinated to find out that that the biggest, smuggest twats, that can easily put the entire NYT editorial staff to shame for complete douchyness, is British conservative intellectuals, and they are the ones who push the “history only begins in 1930’s with the election of Hitler” trope, because that way they can ignore how the Tory policy before and after WW1 screwed everything up, and set up WW2.
TBone
@TBone:
JoeyJoeJoe
@Nukular Biskits: in 1963 or so, former Congressman Frank Smith wrote a book about what it was like to be a congressman from Mississippi in the 1950s. He talks about what the people in his district were like back then. It’s an interesting read, maybe a little self serving
https://www.amazon.com/Congressman-Mississippi-Frank-Smith/dp/B000NX614I
TBone
@Tenar Arha: 👍 good work!
TBone
@Michael Bersin: I just read somewhere recently about how the Supremacist Court was influenced/paid to pass Citizens United. Can’t now remember where, dammit.
Kay
I wish they would cover the little girls who are being forced to give birth to the children of their rapists in southern states. The only place I read these stories is on Jessica Valenti’s blog. I don’t understand why these girls aren’t important enough to cover.
trollhattan
@Nukular Biskits: We’re lucky enough to have Anna’s year-round and a few other varieties other passing through or taking summer residence.
I hope you’re successful–few things more fascinating than the feisty hummingbird.
Bex
I repeat myself from the other day about getting at least some of the media to mention (often) that most of the money for Ukraine stays in this country!
TBone
@Kay: 🎯
Starfish
@WaterGirl:
I was “Hell, no” ing doing that in the Medium Cool slot.
I am going to take a little more space on things that have happened to the culture of Balloon Juice.
Early on, the culture of Balloon Juice was some people being cranky about politics and wearing pants. They were cranky, but they were hilarious. During the pandemic, some people really needed an escape from that while some other people really needed everyone to acknowledge that the world was burning. But sometimes, the escape was needed due to terrible things going on in people’s personal lives, that no one else really knew about. I stepped in it with the lady who was talking about women’s figure skating being cool while I was like “women’s figure skating is a Russian child abuse factory that no one has reined in yet.” There was something else going on in that other person’s life, and I don’t know what it was, but she deserved kindness.
During election years, things are usually a contentious trash fire. And it is really odd that this year has not been like that too much on the Democratic side. Like the only thing we may really be disagreeing about is how significant the war in Gaza feels to people.
Anyway, because it is an election year, and things get more contentious during election years, it is important to maintain those places where the only focus is not politics.
WaterGirl
@Michael Bersin:
I agree about following the money. But do you really think that’s true?
I mean, the stuff ProPublica does has got to be tedious to the extreme, but they get a lot of attention for what they put together.
TBone
@Bex: 👍😍
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
I once used powered sugar for cooked version, only sugar in the house, and it turned out all kinds of wrong. Looking at the label I noticed it lists starch as an ingredient. Oops!
Kathleen
@Kay: Also Rethugs ignoring Ohio Supreme Court’s ruling that maps should be redrawn.
Starfish
@Nukular Biskits: That checks out that it was something that sweary veterans brought home in the early 1970s.
WaterGirl
I would like to see national coverage of the, let’s face it, awful stuff that goes on in the Tennessee legislature. Absolutely appalling and anti-democratic.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: Big oops! That sounds like a nightmare. I generally think that powdered sugar is the devil, but what else can you do when you’re making those pecan wedding cake cookies (they have a million different names). Though even there I use it much more sparingly than the recipe calls for.
Baker’s Sugar is just plain sugar, only finely ground so it dissolves right away. But not powdery!
Sister Golden Bear
I wish the media would cover the ongoing Republican trans genocide, and cover trans issues by talking to, ya know, actual trans people instead of the usual “just asking questions” to overly transphobe sources. Seriously, the FTFNYT has written numerous trans hit pieces without quoting a single trans person in them.
On a related note, I’d love to see some coverage of where this is leading to on TERF Island (i.e. Britain).
First, this week’s lowlight is the Cass Report, a “review” of trans healthcare research lead by a woman who helped DeSantis craft Florida’s trans healthcare bans. The report threw out literally 98% percentage of the research — because reasons — and claimed to find no evidence that trans healthcare for children had any significant benefit. And purposed the National Health Service set up a new system for people 17-25 seeking trans healthcare that would focus on exploring alternate reasons why they’re trans — i.e. purposing conversion therapy — before they could get treatments. Given that the NHS has ten year waiting list (contra assertions that trans kids are being railroaded into treatment — that would mean someone seeking trans healthcare would be 35 years old before they could receive it.
Also too, the Wizard Lady has gone completely off the rails in her trans hatred. Among other things she lashed out at Daniel Ratcliffe and Emma Watson, saying she’d never accept their apology for supporting trans people. <Narrator voice> Ratcliffe and Watson never offered an apology.
I realize this is Britain, but it’s where the U.S. transphobes want to go.
NeenerNeener
@WaterGirl: I read somewhere that you can run regular sugar through a blender/food processor to get it ground fine enough to be considered bakers/caster sugar. I’ve never tried it.
ETA: which reminds me, I need to replace the water in my hummer feeder today.
Starfish
@WaterGirl: The type of investigative research ProPublica does is extremely tedious. They may spend a year or more researching some of that stuff, and then it gets a day or two of attention in the news cycle.
What is interesting is that even though they may garner a couple of days of general attention, they do follow up if there are investigations or political changes that come out of the research that they have done.
WaterGirl
@NeenerNeener: I believe NotMax has mentioned that, too.
I just use Baker’s sugar for all things that require sugar. I never even buy the regular sugar.
Starfish
@WaterGirl:
Some states have very weak public transparency and accountability rules so you get stuff like this where the city hired an attorney so that they did not have to release a video where an officer was choking a man who was handcuffed with his hands behind his back.
The local news had been investigating this for months, but it never really became public until SOMEONE leaked the video.
The town got the video for their investigation and fired the officer, but then they hid the video from the public and did not refer the incident to the D.A.s office.
That means that police officer can just go right ahead and find a job as an officer somewhere else probably.
The town manager should probably be fired over this.
schrodingers_cat
Topics not covered well by the MSM
1, Immigration from the POV of immigrants. With real information, not just ooga booga border.
2. WWC folks who vote D.
3. Cover the Republicans as they really are now, not what they used to be.
wjca
@Ohio Mom:
We wouldn’t know at the time. But I can see the perp writing something for posthumous publication, boasting. So we might know eventually.
schrodingers_cat
@Sister Golden Bear: Agreed MSM privileges the Republican POV as the default, whether it is immigrants or trans folks.
Kay
@TBone:
Compare the critical coverage of trans teenagers and gender affirming care to coverage of girls being forced to have the babies of their rapists. The NYTimes, centrists and the Right have basically created a cotttage industry criticizing trans care – they attack gender affirming care all the time.
The Right in the United States imposed a huge policy change that resulted in hundreds of little girls – some as young as 12 – being forced the carry the children of their rapists.
I guess girls only matter when centrists, the Right and media are launching and promoting an anti trans campaign. Dead silence on the pregnant little girls that the radical Right are forcing to have children.
Does Bari Weiss have any opinions on the little girl rape victims who are now being victimized by their own godammned government?
If you “care about girls” but your “concern” is limited to the now-fashionable critiques of gender affirming care then I don’t think you care about girls.
Another Scott
There’s lots of stuff that needs attention, and lots of people doing the work to try to bring that stuff to more eyes. Every little bit helps. Whatever anyone wants to talk and write about is fine with me.
One of my pet peeves is lack of historical perspective on many topics, and lack of putting numbers in context. In one tiny area, consider lack of US investment in upkeep of infrastructure, and lack of timely replacement as use and requirements change over time.
(No, working in a 60 year old building without heat in the winter, or cooling and humidity control in the summer, has nothing to do with my opinions on the topic. Why do you ask??)
On the infrastructure side, consider InfrastructureReportCard.org:
A good and important list there, and they make good arguments.
But note what’s missing from the list:
* Federal, state, and local facilities (office space, defense production facilities, warehouses, research facilities, hospitals, prisons, etc.).
* Public schools beyond grade 12.
E.g. Google tells me that a single modern research building can cost ~ $700/sq ft (even before it’s outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment – $184,000,000 / 263,000), even in areas where land is fairly cheap and available.
Plus, there’s the whole “re-inventing work” stuff (teleworking, how to sensibly pay for office space that is used a few days a week/month, what to do about data server farms that are exponentially increasing electricity demand, etc.) that needs to be done.
Doing this work and paying for it doesn’t set money on fire – it makes us all more efficient, safer, healthier, happier, and better able to do the jobs that need to be done. But it needs to be done smartly, and the public needs to be informed about the real issues in the choices that are being made.
If the popular press talks about this stuff at all, it’s in terms of “xxx BILLION DOLLARS!!1” with no context, and nothing about the very real costs of doing nothing.
[/rant]
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
JoeyJoeJoe
I believe that the perfect crime has been described:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PlIzKaGBeHk&pp=ygUcZHdpZ2h0IHNjaHJ1dGUgcGVyZmVjdCBjcmltZQ%3D%3D
wjca
Not particularly with respect to Mississippi, but I’ve always heard it as EBF. Where the E is East.**
** But somehow never WBF. Wonder what that means….
WaterGirl
@Starfish: Yes on firing. Maddening amounts of corruption.
NeenerNeener
@WaterGirl: That may be where I read it before. I’ve gotten Bakers sugar from Wegmans, and you get a lot less and pay a lot more so I should get off my duff and try grinding up regular sugar.
Denali5
I have been shocked to learn about the Dominionist movement. It explained the Republican connections with Putin. I still do not believe that Putin has allied himself with the Russian Orthodox Church for any reasons other than political. It is shocking to read about the destruction of Christian Churches in Ukraine..
The media has absolulely not covered this topic. They are afraid of it.
wjca
This.
The Infrastructure bill is a) a step forward, and b) an anomaly — at least so far. But even there, it’s far more new infrastructure than (long overdue) maintenance on existing infrastructure. Possibly because it’s a Federal initiative, and most existing infrastructure is state or local. But still, a serious problem.
Melancholy Jaques
Questions include which media and what kind of coverage?
The radical christian nationalists and their outsized influence on federal, state, and local governments cannot be done in the NYT or on cable shows. It is, at the very least, a ten episode Netflix series. Same with the history of Republican efforts to suppress the vote. Only one party is doing that and it has been doing it for years. Seems like a story to me.
Day to day coverage seems almost designed for horse race and outrage of the day types of stories. Every night, they want to say what is different about today from yesterday. They have no patience for longer or deeper thoughts and neither does the audience.
I would like to see a three to five episode HBO series on how fucking stupid American voters and their elected officials are. And I don’t mean a comedic approach like Jay Walking with Jay Leno. I mean something that shows the Shame of the Nation.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: My (possibly limited understanding) is that the boiling of the water is to kill any nasties in the water (and the sugar), in addition to making it easier to dissolve the sugar.
Of course, hummers are eating stuff in the wild that wasn’t previously sterilized, so… :-/
We only rarely have hummers at our feeders here in NoVA. I don’t know if I usually get the timing wrong, or if they’re around when I’m not looking.
Fascinating beasties.
Cheers,
Scott.
TBone
@Denali5: I posted about the lack of MSM coverage above, especially the info in the crooksandliars article at #7. Also the Bucks County Beacon #53 is sounding the alarm but gets ignored. It’s getting worse every day too. I’m with you, I hear you!
Michael Bersin
@WaterGirl:
It’s in the details and making connections. And then in the granular details beyond that.
It’s the pass throughs to state legislative candidates – and then looking at the favored legislation (introduced and also passed). Pretty soon, your wall starts looking like a ball of yarn exploded in the room…
That, and one of the great Missouri campaign finance mysteries is the real source(s) of the $1,975,000.00 campaign contribution (a superPAC, Seals for Truth) to Eric Greitens’ (r) gubernatorial campaign. He only resigned when they were going to have to divulge that information. With the resignation all the inquiries stopped dead in their tracks.
WaterGirl
@wjca: I, too, have heard East Bum Fuck, but never West.
WaterGirl
@NeenerNeener: Let us know how that goes.
RevRick
@Baud: IMO, you have to be seriously fucked up to contemplate the deaths of billions of your fellow human beings with any measure of delight.
Baud
@RevRick:
I thought you were talking about me for a second.
Another Scott
@wjca: I had a grade school teacher in Georgia who would mention “West Overshoe, Nebraska”.
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
TBone
@Another Scott: 👍
WaterGirl
@Michael Bersin: The scope of that is shocking.
Yeah, that’s maddening. Not to mention all the companies that get to pay fines – after people have died because of whatever they have been up to – and then all the low level criminals who lose everything over something small they have done.
PaulB
For Project 2025, I’d start with the Media Matters Project 2025 overview.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Grade schools probably frown on the use of “bum fuck” with students.
cain
@schrodingers_cat:
Plus one from me
TBone
As an aside, has anyone looked at the photos of the architects of Project 2025 at the Heritage website? They look exactly like you’d suspect they look. I once emailed some particularly funny/alarming “glamour” headshots of them to a friend…
TBone
@PaulB: 👍
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Kids don’t learn geography anymore.
TBone
@WaterGirl: I once used beet juice instead of sugar and they loved it.
Ksmiami
@Another Scott: there’s actually a town in north Texas called Muleshoe…
Sister Golden Bear
@Kay:
Agreed. They obviously don’t. Their motto is: Love the fetus, fuck the mother (and the child once born).
And needless to say, the through-line in both cases is the ability to control — by force and the power of the state — other people’s bodies.
Sister Golden Bear
@wjca: I’ve also only heard it as East Bumfuck.
Never as West Bumfuck, however living near coast of California, there’s not much land west of us for thousands of miles.
AM in NC
1. I’d like normal media to cover the rightwing alternate media universe, and the lies and disinformation they pump out constantly.
Daily stories that talk about the FOX website and broadcast, Clear channel radio, Sinclair Broadcasting local news, etc., and how they poison America with both outright disinformation and incomplete context that serves to mislead. Not one story on this, DAILY stories unmasking the outlets, giving examples, contrasting it with normal news and making it a regular beat – to combat rightwing disinformation.
2. I’d like more stores on the billionaire networks funding rightwing media, propaganda networks, legal efforts, candidates. TONS of light on the billionaires and how they get what they want a the expense of the rest of us.
But because normal media feed off of conservative media and billionaires own regular media too, I’m not holding my breath.
Nukular Biskits
@WaterGirl:
Is Baker’s Sugar the same as confectioner’s sugar?
TBone
@AM in NC: this website covers the RWNJ “news” every day.
https://crooksandliars.com/
But of course, they’re not the normal MSM.
JoyceH
I would like to see individual acts of Trumpist lone wolf terrorism covered as part of a series rather than as isolated incidents brought on by mental illness. I’d like to see them numbered like mass shootings, and with coverage of how the perp got radicalized and did their friends and neighbors see any warning signs. I’d like to see Trump asked if he condemns acts of violence carried out in his name and on his behalf and same for every Republican who has endorsed Trump. And if they don’t answer (and they won’t) keep asking every time.
Geminid
@Nukular Biskits: I don’t know about this particular intance, but I would say in general that I wish people would quit using so many freaking acronyms. It’s just not that hard to type that stuff out and while they’re at it, they can stay off my lawn!
On the topic of local and state politics, I would say that your Twitter account seems like a good introduction to Mississippi politics.
WaterGirl
@Baud: If you can’t say bum fuck, what’s the point?
Nukular Biskits
@JoeyJoeJoe:
Interesting! Thanks for the suggestion!
Kay
@Sister Golden Bear:
Clownish, ridiculous, silly people. They’re ninnies.
Look how much work media companies put into counting the number of trans teens so they could do 500 hand wringing stories compared to the total lack of interest in finding out how many girls have now been forced to have children.
Oddly, no such investment or interest in counting the 12 year old mommies. We rely exclusively on 3 bloggers who collate local news stories, 2 of them unpaid. Our billion dollar media industry can’t be bothered.
Imagine the screeching if liberals had put forth a radical policy that destroyed hundreds of little girls every year, like the Right has done? The NYTimes would have 7 reporters devoted to it.
This is just the start too. Florida has 22 million people. Lotta little girls rape victims are going to be forced to be mommies. Oh, and Arizona.
WaterGirl
@Nukular Biskits: I think that confectioners sugar is powdered sugar.
UncleEbeneezer
@PaulB: What I’d like to see re: Project 2025 (and no, I’m not volunteering to do it) is a list of candidates that we can try to oppose who would be part of its’ implementation. Like, aside from re-electing Biden, what other races can we support to help thwart P2025? Raising awareness of the threat as another reason we must re-elect Biden is all well and good, but I’d rather try to kneecap it, even if Trump somehow wins another fluke election.
Steeplejack
@Nukular Biskits:
No, baker’s sugar, also called superfine sugar or caster sugar, is finely ground granulated sugar. It is different from confectioner’s sugar, which contains cornstarch as an anti-caking agent. That is no bueno for the hummers.
NeenerNeener
@Nukular Biskits: Nope. It’s like regular sugar only at a finer grind.
Kay
I’ve bored you-all with my opinions on student debt and I think this forgiveness “policy” is a mess and people need predictability and reliability to plan, but I do love these stories. I’m so happy they’re out from under the debt.
Citizen Alan
@wjca: Hercule Poirot once smugly told Inspector Japp that if Poirot ever murdered someone, not only would Japp never know he’d done it, the police would never realize a murder had been committed at all. He later did commit the perfect murder just before his own death, revealing the truth only to Hastings in a posthumous letter.
The killer in And Then There Were None committed the perfect murder 9 times over before taking his own life in a way designed to make it look like he was also murdered. But his ego compelled him to put a “how I did it” confession letter into a bottle and throw it into the see before dying.
TBone
@Sister Golden Bear: today’s Exhibit A
St. Louis judge has ruled that Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is entitled to Planned Parenthood’s transgender care records, ordering the nonprofit to turn over some of its most sensitive files to the man who has built his unelected political career on restricting health care access for trans people.
https://www.riverfronttimes.com/news/missouri-ags-sham-investigation-into-planned-parenthood-can-continue-judge-says-42313219
Nukular Biskits
@Geminid:
Believe me, I’m not as attuned to local/state politics as I (and every other Mississippian) should be.
PaulB
I’d love that, as well, but the way this has been carried out, there is a level of (im)plausible deniability between the candidates and Project 2025. I suspect that any candidate in a less than +5 Republican district is likely to say something like, “They have interesting ideas, but they do not speak for my campaign or for me as a candidate.” It wouldn’t surprise me to find Trump doing something similar.
With our political reporting as it is, those denials will be passed along unquestioned, with few willing to point out that they are lying.
Steeplejack
@Citizen Alan:
Poirot was quite often a bit of a dick. There was one novel—I’m blanking on which one—where his insistence on exposing some tangential scandal from the past caused a minor character (an army officer, I think) to commit suicide from shame. It seemed clear that he could have let that lie without affecting the current case.
Geminid
@Nukular Biskits: You re-post knowledgeable people, and while I usually don’t read the articles it’s good to find out that stuff happens in Mississippi because I’d never know otherwise. And you add value with your own comments.
Another Scott
@TBone:
From your link.
Here’s hoping that the HIPAA protections are broad enough that he’ll collect the empty set from PP.
Grr…,
Scott.
Starfish
@Geminid: In the case of BFE, these are acronyms that have moved into the speech. A lot of people spell out B-F-E in real life because they do not want to get caught saying the F word.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Thanks for adding more information to clarify that!
TBone
@Another Scott: I read somewhere that HIPAA was crafted to allow law enforcement requests to be an exception to privacy. Not sure how true that is.
Yup, it’s true
https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/faq/505/what-does-the-privacy-rule-allow-covered-entities-to-disclose-to-law-enforcement-officials/index.html
Gemina13
Definitely Project 2025, and how the anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in many red states has affected Black & brown teens. After Nex Benedict’s death, I started searching for stories about BBIMP teens who’d been bullied and/or killed as a result of homo/transphobic harassment. The MSM has, as sadly expected, provided nothin’ but crickets.
NeenerNeener
@WaterGirl:It went pretty well. I did 1 cup of regular sugar at a time on Grind in my blender and I got some fairly finely ground results. You lose a little bit that sticks to the inside of the blender cup but otherwise I’m pleased with the results. Even cleaning up the blender wasn’t a big deal.
Kay
@TBone:
Absolutely true. And neccesary. It’s the only way they ever get medical records for child abuse cases.
TBone
@Kay: 👍😣 they’ll abuse that system in new and vexing ways
TBone
Someone mentioned wanting a list, here’s one
The Pennsylvania Seven, who don’t want you to remember their cowardice on January 6, 2021, and who don’t have the courage to speak against Trump even now, are Pennsylvania Republican Congressmen John Joyce, Mike Kelly, Dan Meuser, Scott Perry, Guy Reschenthaler, Lloyd Smucker, and Glenn Thompson.
They share responsibility for the continuation of the Trump cult that is a danger to their own party and to our country.
Courtesy of Bucks County Beacon.
WaterGirl
@NeenerNeener: Thanks for the update!
wjca
@Another Scott: Of course, hummers are eating stuff in the wild that wasn’t previously sterilized, so…
The stuff they eat in the wild may include rain water. But not water which, like your tap water, still has chlorine in it from commercial sterilization.
If you think your water doesn’t, get a water purifier, one of the ones with filters. Then, after running a few gallons of water thru it, give a sniff to the input reservoir. I can definitely smell the chlorine in mine.
WaterGirl
@wjca: I recently bought a water filter pitcher that has 5 filters in it. They even include a water tester so you can make sure it’s working right.
wjca
I’d say acronyms can be useful. But there’s no excuse for not writing them out in full the first time they occur in a particular document. Especially one which is going to go beyond a very small, and current, group.
Sister Golden Bear
@Kay: Plus 12-year-old mothers are literally far easier to find. There’s literally no trans athletes playing NCAA Divison 1 and 2 sports at the moment. And when they keep trotting out detransitiners as evidence that “trans regret” is common, it’s always the same half-dozen people. (After the UK’s Cass report only found 10 or fewer in the whole of the UK, latest TERF conspiracy theory is that doctors are hiding the “true” numbers
But 12-year-olds forced to become mothers don’t stoke the moral panic that FTFNYT and other media are trying to incite. And they obviously don’t consider forced bodily autonomy for women, and others who can get pregnant, to be important.
wjca
I realize I’m just talking about choices for other people, not myself. But this seems tailor made for some civil disobedience. Shred (and then then burn) the records, or the equivalent for electronic ones. Then tell the AG that they are no longer available.
No doubt get a citation for contempt. IANAL but I’d think even something like Destruction of Evidence would force him to demonstrate a specific crime had been committed.
Sister Golden Bear
@TBone: Worth noting that the Missouri AG’s
investigationwitch hunt is based on the accusations of a woman whose lies have been proven that false..
rylen
Speaking of Project 2025, remember how they tried something similar putting a bunch of ideologically pure folks in charge of Iraq and expecting that to work? Has there ever been a good “where are they now?” I’d like to hope it soured a bunch of them, but I expect a number just kept going in the conservative movement.
mrmoshpotato
@Nukular Biskits:
Same! And WG didn’t even say if we could use a time machine and yell about the past! :)
Soprano2
@Kay: If they can’t both sides it they don’t want to cover it.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: I would add what’s happening to regular women because of Dobbs. They cover the sensational stories, but not the everyday stuff. In general they’re terrible at anything they can’t blame on both sides.
DavidG
Rather than covering more issues, with all the extra work that entails, how about covering – or at least mentioning and promoting good local journalism, especially of the new model that is probably our only hope for.keeping local journalism: Non profit funded online news magazines?
Sorry to do this, but my sister editor in chiefs one here in the east county of San Diego that has won 120+ awards. They have to cover high school sports and stuff like that. But they also attend city council and board of supervisors and county planning mtgs. SD is the 8th largest city in USA and a county of 3.3m people, but its sole surviving newspaper daily is about to shut down.
— https://www.eastcountymagazine.org
— voice of San Diego is the more well-known, clearly progressive site. But it does not cover the rural ish east county. Miriam is doing exactly what they have been telling progressives to do for30 years and few do it: Start your own local news site and dig in and cover what people want to hear, plus as much civics engagement news as they can stand.
DavidG
More info on op cit.
https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/about