Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

So many bastards, so little time.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

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

Books are my comfort food!

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Second rate reporter says what?

People are complicated. Love is not.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Fight them, without becoming them!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Checking in with the Walz Family

Checking in with the Walz Family

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This post is in: 

Checking in with the Walz Family
Hope posted this on her Instagram.

I went to TikTok to watch a video, and the algorithm pushed Hope Walz’ TikTok to me.  She was very active on the campaign trail with her family, and she’s got some raw, honest reactions there.

Anyway, I think Tim Walz was the big discovery of this cycle.  He’s still Governor of Minnesota until 2026, and there are no term limits.  Going forward, I’d like to see him play a bigger role in the party as the progressive  Dad.  I think he did a good job on the VP run, given the constraints, and I don’t think that VP candidates get the same one and done treatment as Presidential candidates.

That said, another Californian VP, Dick Nixon, came back after losing a Presidential run, so don’t rule out Kamala Harris.

Reader Interactions

123Comments

  1. 1.

    laura

    You could not have custom design build a better Veep candidate. He is the absolute embodiment of the decent white man. My dad would have been over the moon about him. I sure hope others emulate his best qualities of decency and service to others. Le Sigh.

  2. 2.

    KatKapCC

    I would never rule out MVP, but if she has ruled us out, I will not blame her in the slightest. She got suddenly thrust into the most difficult damn role she could have, needing to take over as the top of the ticket just a few months before an election, starting out as someone with not-great approval numbers and a bunch of people claiming wE dOn’T kNoW eNoUgH aBoUt hEr or whatever, running against the most execrable piece of rancid trash this country has ever seen, and against a tide of simmering misogynoir that even most liberals will refuse to admit the existence of.

    And she did the best fucking job anyone could possibly have imagined. I will brook no whiny ass bullshit from anyone about how she didn’t do good enough, she didn’t do it right, blah blah blah. She was amazing. She was brilliant. She was brave and bold and powerful and joyful and wise.

    And this country let her down hard enough to leave a permanent bruise.

    So if after she leaves the Veep’s office, she decides she is fucking done, professionally, with the political world, she will have earned that.

  3. 3.

    Chris Johnson

    Thanks for the reminder about Nixon. Kamala didn’t even snarl ‘you won’t have Kamala Harris to kick around anymore!’. Of course that’s a natural rightwinger reaction, so fair on him ;)

    I think if more comes out about HOW they lost, and WHO Donald actually is (rather than the pretend guy that was voted for), they might not be as dead as folks think. They done good. Maybe one day they can be themselves rather than tied to Liz Cheney, pandering.

  5. 5.

    Chris Johnson

    @Michael Bersin: Yeah, I’d support her again. Absolutely. If the whole thing is just a fucking charade, I’mma send a message. The only two times I sent them money (not my usual thing!) were when she came in, and when she picked Walz. I’m pretty done with ‘send money, that’ll work’, but I’ll vote for ’em till I’m dead. And then I’ll stop, being an honest stiff :)

  6. 6.

    TBone

    Kurt Vonnegut, birthday boy, with a tribute that I hold dear:

    inthesetimes.com/article/i-love-you-madame-librarian

    I Love You, Madame Librarian
    Kurt Vonnegut August 6, 2004
    I, like probably most of you, have seen Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. Its title is a parody of the title of Ray Bradbury’s great science fiction novel, Fahrenheit 451. This temperature 451° Fahrenheit, is the combustion point, incidentally, of paper, of which books are composed. The hero of Bradbury’s novel is a municipal worker whose job is burning books. 
    And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles. 
    So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries. 

    This one is dedicated to my mom.  Happy Armistice Day, Mom!

  7. 7.

    Lyrebird

    @Michael Bersin: For whatever it’s worth, I want to tell you your work in the face of gloomy odds in your home state sure has inspired me.

    I don’t have any need to judge who should run in 2028, I just hope we still have elections then, and I am recuperating and looking around for people around me who need more protection than I do.

     

    Definitely glad the whole country got to know Gov. Walz.

  8. 8.

    Suzanne

    @KatKapCC:

    So if after she leaves the Veep’s office, she decides she is fucking done, professionally, with the political world, she will have earned that. 

    Oh man, if she wanted to go collect $1M per speech and lounge on a yacht while Doug feeds her strawberries…. I would absolutely understand.

  10. 10.

    Lyrebird

    @TBone: Oh thank you thank you!!!

    Some dear friends need to see this, even if it shows up in their inboxes 20 times because so many people forwarded it to them:

    The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.

  12. 12.

    KatKapCC

    Also, some repugnant jerks have been spreading rumors that Ella Emhoff had a mental breakdown or something. I hate people.

  14. 14.

    TBone

    @TBone:

    Breakfast of Champions:

    I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, and when Dwayne Hoover was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

    It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

    Armistice Day has become Veterans’ Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans’ Day is not.

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    Since it appears we’re not going to see a dedicated veterans thread, here’s the first march Sousa wrote after being named maestro of the U.S. Marine band.

    Quick research shows it was so popular it sold over a million copies in sheet music format.

  16. 16.

    citizen dave

    @KatKapCC: Well said–captured some of my thoughts.  I’m having a very hard time with this.  The (voting and 2020 voters who were no-shows) nation let her/us down.

    Looking through the wiki list of two timers who lost, I see Stevenson, Dewey, William Jennings Bryan, and Henry Clay (three times, 1824, 1832 and 1844).  At this point I have no idea what the fuck this nation will elect, in terms of decent humans.

  20. 20.

    narya

    A couple of random thoughts: even in Podcast Land, by and large the yammerers preface EVERYTHING they say with something like “She ran a near-flawless campaign and was absolutely amazing.” There is some Dem-bashing, but it has all been about the party rather than Harris. (A few folks have said that she should have gone on Rogan’s show, and most also say that they think that wouldn’t have made much difference.) I’m glad there hasn’t been Harris- (or Walz-) bashing by and large. That said, I’m still waiting for the final tallies. As others have been saying, hot takes based on incomplete information aren’t helpful and can be wildly misleading.

    Second, Pierce today linked to this clip, of the guns falling silent on November 11. I highly recommend it.

  24. 24.

    Suzanne

    @WereBear: Oh, me too. I wanted to vote for her in 2020, but she dropped out before I got a chance. I voted for Senator Professor Warren instead. That’s my dream ticket right there.

  25. 25.

    syphonblue

    I also hope we see a lot more Tim Walz going forward….. As long as he doesn’t have the stupid constraints the party placed on him for the campaign. Idiots.

  26. 26.

    Raoul Paste

    Both Harris and Walz are the essence of the American image that we have tried to project for decades .  Like Obama, they would have been met with cheering crowds around the world.

  28. 28.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @narya: Jesus, there is that one gun that fired late.  Everyone in that chain of command would be jumping on that one gun chief with both boots.  Firing on time is a sacred thing in the artillery.  Poor bastard.

  29. 29.

    TBone

    @NotMax: thank you from a former, very dedicated pacifist.  Former who still hopes to be one again some fine day.

    I had to tame myself for years to get peaceful.  Then it suddenly came naturally.  Fuck Donold Trump forever for screwing that up.

  31. 31.

    NotMax

    @Suzanne

    She’ll be 64 in 2028, which is nudging up against long in the tooth if you realize that means after two terms she would be 72.

  33. 33.

    narya

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, I caught that, too (though I don’t have artillery experience!). I found it very moving.

    Thanks to a TBone link last week to kd lang singing Leonard Cohen, I’ve finally been able to listen to that song again. I saw a netflix special on the song and . . . I heard it A LOT in 90 minutes, including multiple versions of the lyrics, so I had to take a break from it. But lang, and various choruses, have caused the hair on my arms to stand up. It’s a mournful dirge, but also surpassingly beautiful, which feels appropriate to our current situation.

  36. 36.

    Suzanne

    @NotMax: In all seriousness, I’m not thinking about 2028. We have a lot of talent, but I can’t predict what the general mood will be like.

  37. 37.

    narya

    I stumbled on this last night: free trainings from an organization, on bystander intervention to stop hate-based harassment. I have NOT done the training and cannot personally vouch for it (!), but I thought sharing it here might be useful. If others have taken it and have positive/negative info, please let us know.

  39. 39.

    artem1s

    Whoever posted about ordering TP from Cloud Paper in a previous thread, I’ve got bad news.
    I emailed them asking about where their bamboo is grown and why they bleach. they import their products. only the packaging is locally made.
    Our products are made overseas, and our bamboo is grown on local farms in Asia (where most bamboo is grown!), which are FSC certified, and we have sustainability-focused manufacturing partners who create the paper itself in China. We then 2x offset all carbon generated during the transportation of our product overseas. As we grow, we’ll continue to evaluate the best manufacturing partners across the supply chain!

  40. 40.

    kindness

    I love Kamala, I’d vote for her forever.  But America has told us once more they won’t vote for a woman, not to mention a woman of color.  Misogyny is bigger than I thought it was.  It wasn’t ‘economic insecurity’ that caused those people to go vote for Trump.  Some of them are racists.  More of them are misogynists.  Lotta hating there.  I hope to get the chance to vote for a woman for president again in my lifetime.  But please, give it a cycle or two.  I’d kind of like us to win the presidency again soon.

  41. 41.

    trollhattan

    I think Kamala ran a perfectly fine campaign in relatively lightning time. Not so in 2016.

    Hillary ran a perfectly fine campaign in 2016, in the usual amount of time. She lost unexpectedly to a monster, because people suck and Russian interference.

    Neither shall be a nominee in ’28 and I’ll be quite surprised if Kamala runs. I think she has another life path now, even as I have no idea what that might be.

    Tim Walz was a great VP choice and I’m happy to have “met” him via the campaign. He’s a delight.
    In sum, America is a land of contrasts and I do not want to think about the 2028 campaign, not now, not in a year. Take a breath and then laser focus on 2026; it’s not a thing it’s the only thing.​​

  44. 44.

    ArchTeryx

    Y’know, I never for a moment thought that @lowtechcyclist, of all people, would show some sympathy for my position in this disaster. But it’s funny how my feelings have evolved.

    In 2016, I was scared shitless that my health care would be taken away and I would thus die a horrific death. That came within a single vote of happening.

    And yet, 8 years later, I’ve made my peace with my death if that’s how this ends up. I just want to make damn sure that my family lives. Most of them are LBGTQ+. Protecting them is what keeps me up at night now.

    All the endless talk about whose fault it was that we lost to a wannabe fascist dictator is just so much noise now. That’s the reality, and I have not the pettifoggiest idea how to protect my own. They have their own agency, but since a lot of them are in red states, it is very limited. Watching my Flock disappear into death camps one by one would be a far worse nightmare to me than dying. And I don’t know what I can do to stop it.

  45. 45.

    piratedan

    at this point, I am not even sure that there will be an election.

    If there is one, I am voting blue… even if its Joe Fucking Manchin.

  46. 46.

    ArchTeryx

    @piratedan: They intend there never be one in this country again. And once democracy is broken, it is very, very difficult to get back again.

    Whether they succeed or not, I don’t know, but as people have pointed out, a fair number of red states are not even close to democracies any more anyway. They’re illiberal authoritarian states, constrained only by the barest thread to our national Constitution. And now the people are lined up at the federal level that they don’t even have that constraint any more.

    Not the first time, either. Jim Crow was effectively an apartheid state covering more than half the country, and it was no more a liberal democracy than Russia. The original Nazis even borrowed a number of ideas from Jim Crow. We taught them how to subvert and destroy democracy.

  47. 47.

    TBone

    @NotMax: ❤️

    Now you made me remember the day Mom took me up there when I was just a tot, back when you could still do that. Scary and thrilling!

  48. 48.

    Chris Johnson

    In Harris/Walz’s defense, this appears to be real: tass.com/politics/1870713

    I assume this is a desperate ploy to make liberals riot before Trump voters are disenchanted by him, so he can send in Russian troops and stage a coup. That sounds like a Trump-grade plan if ever I heard one.

    I honestly can’t think of any possible reason for TASS to soberly note that Trump officially owes them one for help winning the election, which it appears they have publically done, unless it’s to try and provoke a reaction. It doesn’t help them with Trump voters at all. Those folks want to believe it’s all them, and totally legit, and that their hero is master of the world.

    How fucked up do things have to get, that THIS is their best option? It’s like Nick Fuentes gloating ‘your body my choice’! It has to be bait. What the fuck is happening that they have to bait this hard, this early?

    I stand with Harris/Walz. Looks like most likely they did just fine. Apparently it’s official now that they were cheated against? How does that help?

    Maybe they put a virus on the page to get all the libs pwned? I’m just at a loss here.

  50. 50.

    Chacal Charles Calthrop

    @ArchTeryx: all I can tell you is that I suspect the real feud in this administration is going to be the bitcoin-crypto boys vs. the tax-cuts-are-why-I-vote-Republican corporate oligarchs. They’re already feuding: Powell (head of the Federal Reserve) has already said Trump has no power to order him off the job.

    Once the inflation caused by the tariffs meets the economic retraction caused by massive cutting of government spending, it’ll cause stagflation, and then the crypto boys will support defaulting on treasuries to keep paying Medicare, military & social security while still cutting taxes. Once that’s on the table, this administration is going to be so consumed by economic feuding that going after small fry like gay & trans people will drop to the end of their agenda.

    Keep a low profile & a stout heart & stay in touch with allies.

  51. 51.

    Glyph2112

    I don’t get it.  Everyone experienced the 4 years of trumps shit show.  He told everyone his immoral plans to deport 20 million people.  He told us about tariffs and experts explained how that is really bad.  He is barely coherent.  ANY democrat should have been able to simply say “Look at that dumpster fire “.

    I am of the opinion that anyone who voted for that piece of shit is either stupid, lazy, or just fucking evil.

  54. 54.

    TBone

    @MagdaInBlack: 🎯

    Of course, these things always contain a starting, tiny, microscopic grain or two of truth so they can then blossom into full fledged batshit.

    But I do believe the russkis will be calling the shots asking for favors to be returned.

  55. 55.

    ArchTeryx

    @Chris Johnson: A lot of the cheating was baked in by the Supreme Court a long time ago. They made it possible for foreign actors to contribute to PACs without limits, and that opened the door wide for Russian interference. Combine that with the neutering and probable repeal of the Voting Rights Act, and a constitution that elevates rural votes over urban ones, and you basically have everything you need for minority rule.

  57. 57.

    Chris Johnson

    @ArchTeryx: This is true, but they’re supposed to be coy about it. I don’t understand what they could possibly gain from publically shaming Trump that way unless it’s to just frantically try for a hail mary martial law event. I don’t think they’re going to get one.

    It’s possible my right-wing friends of many years were as jittery as they were, because they’ve been getting primed for this, but to them it’s ‘all the libs suddenly explode on Veterans Day and will have to be put down’. I have to check tomorrow to see if anyone fell for it, or if any uprisings were straight-up faked. It doesn’t have to be a good plan but it can’t be just some accident, their guy has not even taken power yet. It seems way the hell too early

     

    I want to check tomorrow to see if anyone fell for it. I have rightwing friends who were super jittery on Sunday. If they were being primed to put down a lefty uprising, they weren’t happy about what they’d been hearing. Now here’s ’cause’ for walking into the line of fire. NOPE. Stay home be good!

  58. 58.

    Gretchen

    @KatKapCC: Ella Emhoff was photographed crying during the concession speech. Loving your family’ and being disappointed in America is evidence of mental illness to wingers.
    Id love to see Harris as AG in the next Dem administration

  60. 60.

    Baud

    Apparently, AOC started posting on Bluesky a day after I posted my first comment there. Coincidence?

  63. 63.

    ArchTeryx

    @Baud: One of my predictions this election was that if The Convicted Felon won, that Xhitter was going to quite rapidly become Правда and BlueSky would become our самиздат. I hope it is so.

  64. 64.

    narya

    @Baud: a quote from a recent post: “We have to sustain each other. Making joy isn’t denial, it’s how we will survive.” That doesn’t sound Baud-like…

  69. 69.

    Chris Johnson

    I texted a right-wing friend with the TASS link. Saying ‘we’re getting fed this, I think it’s bait. Are you getting told left wingers are going to rise up? It would explain a lot’.

    Maybe enough of us are out there who can communicate, that we can defuse whatever the fuck Russia is up to with this.

    He says ‘I’ll look into it’. Good enough for me. That’s one stealth righty who has now heard of this latest twist.

  73. 73.

    RevRick

    I hate to be a pessimist here, but a huge motivation for TFG to run for President was to stay out of jail. Does that motivation magically disappear just because a little old thing like the Constitution tells him his stay out of jail time is over? We are in an entirely new era. Speculation about who might run in 2028 based upon all our previous history can no longer be counted on. It is more likely that America’s Top Fascist will take a page from the autocrats he admires and run roughshod over the lawful constraints. We know that a craven GOP Congress won’t stop him. The Supreme Court? He can ignore the three Democratic women justices and the six GOP ones are malleable, because, you know, their health might depend on it.

    We need to focus on the now. How will we do whatever we can to thwart him starting now?
    What power do we have and how might we wield it or withhold it? Us white folks need to learn the strategies and tactics of the Civil Rights Movement.

  74. 74.

    Nukular Biskits

    He’ll probably kick me off of here for saying this, but someone check on Cole later if he doesn’t post an update/open thread.

    As for me, this cold is kicking my ass and I’m hitting the sack.

    Sweet dreams, y’all.

  76. 76.

    Starfish

    @ArchTeryx: I think that you do seem to be doing better than you were in the run up to the election. How are the people in your community doing?

    Trump being the candidate was especially hard on the mental health of a lot LGBTQ+ folks.

  83. 83.

    Bupalos

     I think Tim Walz was the big discovery of this cycle.

    we’ll, I think what really vibed about Walz is that he communicates at a much lower bandwidth. I sat through that whole debate with Vance and was constantly cringing and saying “OH NO” and thinking of the correct answer he should have given and generally thinking he “lost” but hopefully the damage isn’t significant…

    And it turns out the people who actually matter in this election were more like “oh, I like him!” And actually heard him say things.

    somewhere there we have some lessons about how we need to speak while staying true to our principles. I don’t think that had to come from “white male” either. He’s just from a place that isn’t completely sanitized to his own political sensibility. Which is getting rarer and rarer.

    But this is true of both Trump and Walz. Guys that have spent a lot of time in environments that are politically mixed, not artificially attuned to their own sensibility.

  86. 86.

    ArchTeryx

    @RevRick: And considering how strong the blocking and banning features of BlueSky are now, they’re the closest thing we’ve got. We can’t keep the right wing off it, but we can sure as hell isolate and shut them down. Let them sort through millions of messages, many of which they will have no direct access to, to find the samizdat.

    Yep, they can go after BlueSky’s owners, but they’ve allegedly made plans if a hostile takeover is attempted: Leave the country and run it from elsewhere.

    And if BlueSky fails, there’s other means of passing messages secretly and under heavy encryption.

  87. 87.

    Bupalos

    @KatKapCC: That is really interesting.

    That is really really good news, AFAIC. I mean, the scaramuchi clock may be ticking here, but that is a little shocking even to me… even with the high hopes I have that this administration will be completely incoherent and random.

  89. 89.

    artem1s

    @WereBear: ​
    I’d be happy to vote for her again, for anything.

    CA, the 6th largest economy in the world is going to need a governor soon, yes? I remember when governor Moonbeam aka Jerry Brown lost his (many) bids for the nomination to the WH he remade himself and eventually got elected as CA governor again. He could have decided less than the WH wasn’t good enough and retired from public service. But he didn’t.
    I wish more Dem POTUS and VPOTUS hopefuls had done what John Quincy Adams did – return to the Peoples House and fight the little, everyday fights. And be around in case there is a big, once in a century fight, that needs an experienced champion too.

  91. 91.

    Jackie

    @Jackie: Question to my own question: Any chance Pudd’n Boots puts himself in Rubio’s seat until his term expires in ‘26 or ‘28?

  97. 97.

    KatKapCC

    @Jackie: How could he do that? He can’t hold two offices at once. Unless, as is very possible, Florida law is as wacky as Florida people and he can…

  98. 98.

    tam1MI

    @KatKapCC:

    I would never rule out MVP, but if she has ruled us out, I will not blame her in the slightest. She got suddenly thrust into the most difficult damn role she could have, needing to take over as the top of the ticket just a few months before an election, starting out as someone with not-great approval numbers and a bunch of people claiming wE dOn’T kNoW eNoUgH aBoUt hEr or whatever, running against the most execrable piece of rancid trash this country has ever seen, and against a tide of simmering misogynoir that even most liberals will refuse to admit the existence of.

    And she did the best fucking job anyone could possibly have imagined. I will brook no whiny ass bullshit from anyone about how she didn’t do good enough, she didn’t do it right, blah blah blah. She was amazing. She was brilliant. She was brave and bold and powerful and joyful and wise.

    And this country let her down hard enough to leave a permanent bruise.

    So if after she leaves the Veep’s office, she decides she is fucking done, professionally, with the political world, she will have earned that.

    With the benefit of hindsight, I think that if Kamala Harris has told the Dems lining up to endorse her after successfully forcing out Biden, “No, thank you”, and then just decamped to California for four years, she would have emerged in 2028 as a top contender for the nomination.  As it is, her political career is dead in the water because she was set up to fail.

  102. 102.

    Jackie

    @KatKapCC: Step down as gov? I don’t know!🤷🏼‍♀️ I was merely speculating; knowing rumors are that Pudd’n Boots covets to keep political power in some form once he terms out as Gov.

    My question wasn’t meant to be taken seriously, just pondering 🤔

  104. 104.

    RevRick

    @ArchTeryx: Great to hear about its protections, but nothing beats face to face. There are lots of mainline churches and reformed synagogues ripe for capture where there’s a ready place to meet and an easy cover story. “We’re doing Bible study. Why you ask?”

  106. 106.

    prostratedragon

    “That said, another Californian VP, Dick Nixon, came back after losing a Presidential run, so don’t rule out Kamala Harris.”

    In 2032 she’ll be 68. With decent health, not prohibitive in a sane world. (Which this clearly is not.)

  108. 108.

    Ruckus

    @KatKapCC:

    In a country, or actually any system with a lot of humans, and 335 million humans is a fair number, there will be problems. And this is a country that allows you to make some pretty large mistakes, and yes that doesn’t mean you get away with them, just that most often you have to make them to get into serious trouble. We value freedom in this country and a percentage of humans will look for trouble just on principle. And valuing freedom means that humans can be free to cause trouble or accept shit as a policy. Also in any relatively large population there will be humans that seem to delight in reveling in pure shit for revelings sake, if for no other reason than they can – or they can’t smell the shit they are reveling in. The old premise that it takes all kinds has the corollary that if it takes them, they will come, has a not insignificant percentage of willing partakers.

  110. 110.

    Dan B

    @ArchTeryx: Im a G in LGBTQ and I’m feeling constant fear, not that my partner and friends who are olds and less likely to be carted off but watching it happen would feel like AIDS 2.0.  In addition we have wonderful neighbors who are from Mexico with limited English.  We hope they have good support.

  113. 113.

    Ruckus

    @TBone:

    Armistice Day was about one war. We’ve been in too many to limit the day to one war, even if it was an important ending of a big and costly war. And we’ve lost a lot of humans in all of those wars.

    Now as one who served in the military (joined not drafted) during a war and never had to fire a shot in anger but did carry a loaded projectile weapon with orders to shoot to kill as necessary, and has a father that basically did the same, also during a war, I feel like I understand why this name change took place, and I see it as being realistic and proper. It’s not that I want the whatever or anything other than the VA, for the time, effort, work and leadership I did, because millions of other did the same, it’s this is about more than one war or one person. I’m an old and have lived a fairly long time and am still healthy(ish) and could make a couple more decades and I use the VA for my healthcare because I earned it, as millions of us have, men and women alike. And I know humans that gave up their health and their life doing this for their country. I know some that in for a short time and some that did it for decades. Those people that served and were honored with Armistice Day are veterans and are still honored as they were, but we’ve been in another world war, and 2 major fighting wars since then WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. And men and women serve in the military today and could die tomorrow in service of their country.

    The country got older, the wars were fought and hopefully will never need to be fought again, but then this is humanity and some humans are greedy, horrible specimens so one never knows. Honoring all that served and especially the ones that died is about the least we can do. Now I do understand why you might not agree with the above but think about all the extra holidays we’d have if we did every war on a different day. It’s serving, doing as you are told, with no choice once you raise your hand, it’s often a lot of risk, even if you aren’t being shot at. A side note, my best friend, who did serve in a war zone – Vietnam, as a Marine, and I are going to a lunch at the VA hospital tomorrow. And by the way I spent 2 months in hospital during my tour in the USN. And carried a loaded weapon for 28 months with orders to shoot to kill. IT AIN’T A PLAYGROUND, IT’S THE REAL (as said in the USN, USMC, USA, USAF) FUCKING DEAL.

  114. 114.

    Geminid

    @Jackie: So Rubio is headed to State. This could be Laura Loomer’s golden opportunity!

    More seriously, Trump apparently picked a Florida Congressman for his national security advisor and some Loomer fans are boosting Trump’s preposterous paramour as his successor.

    Loomer is wary, though. She reposted one fan’s endorsement and responded that her time spent trying to unseat Republican Rep. Daniel Webster was the most horrible experience of her life. Then Loomer recounted every last slight and dirty trick the RINO etablishment had inflicted upon her, and the toll it took on her. She is not a Happy Warrior.

    But Loomer has a new cause. She is boosting Rick Scott for Senate Majority Leader, and she’s not the only one. A number of Republicans including Donald Trump Jr are pushing Scott for the job. One particular complaint they make against Cornyn and Thune, the other two contenders, is that they helped pass Ukraine aid.

  118. 118.

    Ruckus

    @KatKapCC:

    Sort of an overall view.

    And absolutely not a negative aimed at you, just a comment on a blog, sometimes a comment sends me in a direction that I possibly should not reference with mine. I’ve read yours again and don’t actually disagree with your take. I have 2 VA visits this week and that can color my thinking

    Also I got up off my sofa for a few moments before I wrote it and that’s sometimes all it takes to move in a far different direction. IOW to be honest I have no idea.

  119. 119.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @RevRick:

    warning: lots of self-centered thoughts here, other people please feel free to skip this.

    I’m trying to decide whether to start attending the Unitarian church (I have been on an email list for one, I should check and see if they are still doing Zoom services to ease myself back into church attendance) or go look for an Episcopal church. I don’t have much if any religious faith anymore, but I need a community outside of work.

    Part of my hesitation is that I am not a sweetness and light person, that I can be a very angry person and I am totally down with justifying warfare and violence in certain situations (I am a Cold War army brat who vividly remembers visiting Dachau as a small child, Nazis and rapists deserve smiting and violence in my arrogant opinion, yes I would pick up a gun or other weapons myself to join a fight) and my perception of the Unitarians is that they are love and peace hippies who aren’t going to be cool with that sort of attitude or people who work for the Department of Defense or the intelligence community. But then again that may be from growing up in Minneapolis where the local Unitarian community would have been skewed towards the very far pacifist left, and here and now in DC/Northern Virginia the Unitarians may be more realistic about human nature.

    Since I grew up Roman Catholic, the Episcopal Church would probably feel more familiar, I think, in terms of liturgy and ritual, and my main problem would be getting over my Irish/Italian immigrant heritage that I am going over to the ancestral oppressor. But apparently from some of the family history which I learned later in life, the Irish side that was in Minnesota at the Territorial Census was a lot more friendly to the Episcopal Church than I thought, so some of my ancestors would understand me.

    In short, I think that the Episcopal Church would be more comfortable for me so it would be easier to fit in, and the Unitarian Church would be a challenge to my character and might make me a better person in the end.  I don’t know what to do at this point. Any advice, Reverend?

  120. 120.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Kayla Rudbek: when the Pollyanna from hell lived in Denver, he took me to his Unitarian church a few times. I was impressed with their inclusiveness, and their social Justice activism.
    They seemed to have people of a range of religious bents: atheists, Christian-ish, pagan,  nondenominational folk. The services had something in them for me, and I don’t fit in the usual boxes too well. Yes, they light a flame, sort of represents the light within you, that you are divine; not sweetness and light, hippy stuff. Sometimes Pollyanna comes by to lurk and read, chat him up about the Unitarians, if you like.

    If I had to go to straight up Jesus church, I would go Episcopalian. I grew up there. Seems like there were folks in mixed religion marriages there, and a fairly inclusive place. Interesting philosophical explanations of bible verses, seemed to just explain parts of human nature. Not pushy about what you should believe, but that’s my test limit.

  121. 121.

    Chris Johnson

    @RevRick: Shit, man, so much of what we unironically want and need to do to care for our neighbors IS Bible study. We’re not talking cover if we mean to care for our neighbors. We’re supposed to do that.

    I don’t think people quite understand Moscow Rules, or the panopticon, right now. The bonds you make loving your neighbors are not about turning you into a weapon! Democrats are able to work together in community! Don’t volunteer for making all of that a cloak for enemies of the state. Who the hell is the state anyway: the people who live.

    If you’re fixing to turn all the good things into secret antifa vengeance machines you’ll burn us all down. That shit GOT us this, because Russia is still trying to get its vengeance after the last eye-for-an-eye. We’re all Moscow now, there are no friends, there is no safe place to be the vengeance superhero.

    Some walls gotta collapse because they are rotten, not because you fling yourself against them. Your body props it up when you die. NO thank you.

    Love your neighbor, no exceptions (as the Episcopalians say and mean). They’re gonna need it.

  123. 123.

    No Nym

    @Chris Johnson: I think there is some level of surprise at there at how so many people have taken the attitude, “K, Trumpsters, you got what you want. Good luck with that” and decided to focus on their immediate communities and self-care. They don’t know what to do without an enemy to fight.

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