We have 50 days left to do everything we can on behalf of the American people.
This is our final window to confirm independent judges who will make decisions based on the law – not for special interests.
Senate Democrats cannot leave a single judge behind. pic.twitter.com/xgxLtVTfQD
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) November 14, 2024
The November Project gets people outside to exercise and socialize together all winter long https://t.co/4F0otdx9ff
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 16, 2024
Community projects don’t necessarily have to be ‘political’, do they? (Or, for that matter, done under sub-zero conditions?
The sun had yet to come up in Edmonton, Alberta, and it was more than 20 degrees below zero. Tanis Smith layered up anyway, ready to run up and down hundreds of stairs among the trees in the Saskatchewan River Valley.
When she arrived at 6 a.m., 10 other people joined her. It wouldn’t be the last time they risked freezing their toes off to get in a workout before the rest of the world wakes up….
Since that winter of 2013, Smith has rarely missed a workout with the group, called November Project, a network of free outdoor group exercise classes that started in Boston. No matter the month or weather, participants roll out of bed before dawn at least once a week and shield their faces from the blistering cold.
One part intense training and one part abject silliness, the project is a model for how to stay motivated to exercise outside throughout the winter…
“A party is better when there’s more people around,” said Bojan Mandaric, who created the project with Brogan Graham in 2011. “We would talk to anybody who would listen.”
Soon, their meetings were attracting a few dozen people, who then brought the idea to other cities when they moved. Now there are 52 chapters in eight countries, including 44 in the United States and Canada…
@joshtpm.bsky.social has it right here, as usual. Don’t surrender in advance. Don’t confer to Trump a competence and ability he has never exhibited.
— The Fig Economy (@figgityfigs.bsky.social) November 14, 2024 at 6:08 PM
“The Most Pernicious Anticipatory Obedience Hides in Plain Sight”:
… During harrowing times some people become overwhelmed and even lose hope. It’s not a one-way progress. Almost everyone has their moments. But there’s a particular kind of militant doomerism afoot at the moment. Any discussions of next steps in the battle against Trumpism or the preservation of civic democracy, any suggestions or strategies, are met with a chorus of, “don’t you get how it worked under Hitler and Stalin!!?!” Or “don’t you know rules don’t matter to Donald Trump!?!?!”
In a sense, it’s a dialog genetically related to what I called “competitive hyperbole” two days ago. Strategies for the future or even the assumption that there will be a future get shouted down as a hopeless naiveté. And at least within that stream of conversation — which I’m certainly not saying is dominant, but it is there — it leads to the same escalating declarations of dystopia and totalism.
Is it possible that Donald Trump could push the American Republic into dictatorship or more plausibly the kind of soft autocracy or broken democracy we know today in places like Russia or Hungary or Turkey? Sure. Is it likely? I don’t know any way of putting odds to such a thing. But what I know is that it’s not easy. There’s Congress and the courts and even when they’re compliant the process is still difficult, time-consuming and hard to pull off. There’s also the double-level government of federalism, in which a great deal of the machinery of government remains in other hands. That’s more difficulty and time-consuming obstacles. And it’s the work of an opposition to make it as hard and time-consuming as possible, to make the consequences as visible as possible…
Certain people, growing out of trauma and exhaustion which I fully understand, believe there’s some power or badassery or even a species of courage in saying, “yeah, since when does Donald Trump follow the law!?!?” or “Just admit that we have no power!!!” But it’s actually precisely the opposite. That’s the most pernicious form of anticipatory obedience. Deciding that all of this stuff has already happened is not only inaccurate but self-defeating. It’s amplifying threats Trump hasn’t been able or willing to make good on. A better answer, both more effective and more dignified, is to say, “Okay, let’s see you try.” It’s not easy. There are lots of road blocks. It requires maintaining a lot of public support. It requires patience.
You may think there’s some kind of psychic or moral merit in jumping into every conversation and saying “No, it’s over! He said he was going to be a dictator! He said who he was! Believe him! Don’t be so naive!” But really that’s just rolling out a red carpet, the ultimate capitulation in advance. At the very least, put him to the task. Make him execute on what he’s trying to do. It won’t be easy and there are a lot of ways to make it even less easy. That’s the first role of a political opposition.
A lot of me wants to say this attitude is simply pathetic. But I also know that people feel beaten down, exhausted and scared. I fully understand where it comes from. And while a certain toughness, resolution and sang-froid is necessary in difficult times like these, so too is empathy, the presence and willingness to buck up those feeling tired, defeated and hopeless.
Baud
Is the obeying in advance, or people doing what they’ve always been doing since the Internet became a thing?
I don’t recall any time when people haven’t been pushing dystopian fantasies. They now have a boom market for obvious reasons, but it’s not new.
NotMax
Weekend listen. ‘Twas ever thus.
Before Yes, Prime Minister, before Yes, Minister there was The Men From the Ministry.
:)
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Since I find myself among them, I think it’s new.
I’m going to try to rein it in for my own discourse. It doesn’t do any good.
NotMax
@Baud
“Are you kidding me? Caesar will never cross the Rubicon. There are long standing political norms, y’know.”
;)
TBone
Part of my formal resistance is maintaining a joyous, positive outlook right out loud in public, skipping merrily around while whistling. It can be contagious and it’s exactly the behavior that the fascists DON’T want to see. I’ll not hang MY head for anyone or anything!
🎶😆 Take THAT, fascists!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EVcpKjXYa5c
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I don’t judge people for dropping out. People continuing to talk politics and bringing the doers down get under my skin, however.
TBone
@Baud: hubby and my cousin in Michigan (both normies) have tried to wet blanket me, to no avail. IDGAF.
New Deal democrat
As promised in the last thread, from Cardiff Garcia:
https://nitter.poast.org/CardiffGarcia/status/1857532345953165708#m
The following factors, on a county by county level, correlated with an *increase* in the vote for trump:
1. Higher immigrant share
2. Lower educational attainment
3. Bigger share of Hispanics
4. More economic distress
The following correlated with absolute vote share for Trump:
1. Greater reliance on government transfers
The following did *not* correlate at all with vote share:
1. Federal stimulus spending directed to the local community.
A few quick comments:
– unlike exit polling, the above are not dependent on how any individual voted, I.e., they are not “instant analysis,” so more reliable.
– very importantly, as always correlation does *not* mean causation. For example, the data could mean that Hispanics shifted to Trump, or that *other* voters shifted to Trump in response to a Hispanic ‘invasion,’ although in at least some counties like in South Texas, there is very strong evidence of the former. And the correlation doesn’t tell you *why* there was that shift. Also, Lower education might be a result of economic distress, rather than meaning that ‘stupid people voted for Trump.’
– Biden’s stimulus was a complete bust in moving votes. If you don’t tell people in a way that they will hear it that Democrats exclusively did this nice thing for them, you don’t get credit for it.
Layer8Problem
@Baud: I have never understood the mindset of the performative doomer, the despairing nihilist, the “We’re all gonna die!” person one hated in the 1970s disaster movies and whose modern day incarnation comes out to let us all know from the safety of their couch that it’s all hopeless. Maybe someone can give a blow-by-blow on how those people are processing their post-election concerns. I’m not in a charitable mood this month. People I care about are worried and in pain and this sort of person is bringing firewood to a bonfire that hasn’t been started yet.
ETA Yeah, I still think comforting the fearful and panicked is important. It’s the ones that seem to be getting off on the whole thing that piss me off.
Marmot
Here Josh is way more patient, and maybe even a better person, than me.
I’m filled with dread, but I see these folks as reacting with an embrace of both cowardice and laziness. Some of them always have.
Suzanne
I saw this this morning, and laughed (because I’m terrible).
(Hopefully I can successfully link to a TikTok.)
I am here to be a Lucille Bluth liberal, 100%.
TBone
@New Deal democrat: where were all the huge signs at project sites labeling them as Biden Big Deal money? Obama had such signs in DelCo.
narya
I don’t know about projects for ALL of November, but today’s projects include baking some pretzel rolls for Friend to take with him (to go find Bambi’s grandfather so we can eat him), baking some bread, and making some pizza. I’ll probably roast the two spaghetti squash that are sitting on the counter (since I will have the oven on), and maybe make a dessert, too. Oh, and some tomato sauce for said pizza. Yesterday I was able to get rid of an old teakettle and tomorrow I’ll get to donate a winter coat to a teacher collecting them for refugee teens at her high school (local Buy Nothing group). Maybe my November Project will be to get rid of more stuff through the Buy Nothing group . . .
Ocotillo
I have seen countless comments within social media about “confirming as many judges as possible between now and 1/20, is that even beginning to happen?
different-church-lady
I don’t want to be a doomer, but this endless trench warfare has me completely worn down.
NotMax
@Suzanne
“What the hell? Have you seen the new prices at the banana stand?”
//
Suzanne
@narya: I am getting rid of a lot of stuff, too. And consolidating.
TBone
@Suzanne: time and place for that – it takes energy that I now prefer to spend elsewhere and, believe me, meangirl can come naturally to me so I stifle sometimes. Depending on context.
bluefoot
@Baud: I hope we’re all going to fight and that we’re all going to support each other. I hope we’ll each find ways to do that, and to take care of ourselves. I have friends who lived in Chile and Argentina in the bad days, East Germany, the USSR, fled the Cultural Revolution, were refugees during Partition, helped bury bodies after a firefight in Somalia. Those friends know there are always ways to help each other. But those friends also say you need to be prepared. For me, at least, thinking about what may come isn’t doomerism, it’s trying to game out what might happen so I can figure out what I can do.
Suzanne
@TBone: It’s always the right time to point and laugh at chunky highlights. Or frosted tips.
TBone
@different-church-lady: take breaks as necessary, we need you. Your wit has helped me immensely.
Princess
@Suzanne: It is absolutely beyond the right time for white women to call out maga white women. I’m here for it, by any means necessary. Time to stop pretending some female solidarity exists when it doesn’t. They chose white patriarchy. We didn’t. And their whole self-presentation — the burnt orange nails and chunky highlights she mentions is part and parcel of it, frankly.
TBone
@Suzanne: SO true 😆
Do they know what Stepford wives are? Prolly not.
Sometimes I want Nicole Wallace to cut her fucking hair SO much!
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin, y’all
Marmot
@New Deal democrat:
Man oh man, this. There’s that Atlantic article the other day quoting Biden saying the administration should have advertised its role in some big bridge or highway project; another thing I read (dunno where) about red state solar projects and how nobody connects it to the Infrastructure Act.
And more. I should be collecting.
Remember when W. Bush gave us all $300? Of course you do. Trump delayed Covid stimulus to people so it could include his signature!
Why do Dems apparently believe the citizenry will magically understand where public goods come from? It’s inane!
p.a.
@New Deal democrat: Ah yes, the genius “Bipartisan XYZ Bill” promotions.
When (if) Dems get control again, first budget bill, couple million $s for giant gold sharpies to tag every fucking check, project, signage.
“Courtesy President X and the Democratic Party!”
Only half-joking, as this might resonate with the mentality of the target voter. Maybe give away some crappy, non-LGBTQ endorsed American beer too.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes, this. Most of this crap is just us white folks fucked up, piece of shit relatives trying to get our attention. Fuck em. They want my approval, or even my attention, they act like an adult.
Nukular Biskits
Maybe I haven’t had enough coffee, but I’m not sure I fully grasp the point Josh Marshall is making here.
I see no downside to pointing out the Trump has indeed said he was going to be a dictator, etc. But that should be followed by words and actions demonstrating we have no plans to accept such behavior on Trump’s part or the excuses, gaslighting, etc, on the part of his supporters.
ETA: What Baud said:
narya
@Suzanne: I keep trying–I pull stuff together, but the step of taking photos and posting them and following the damn post . . . . I keep promising myself I’ll do it. Also: go through the books. But I think I am going to actually get past those (self-erected) barriers and do it; welcome and useful distractions and all that. Also also: I started doing needlework again.
mrmoshpotato
Today’s project is for the Wildcats to go all Aggies on the Buckeyes and punch them in the nuts.
A potato can dream can’t he?
Layer8Problem
@different-church-lady: I know, same here. Certain fights don’t need to be relitigated and I’m worn out too from all the “wrong on the Internet” stuff but there are folks whose judgement I’ll question going forward.
TBone
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: plus it pisses the fascists off, bigly. Impervious I remain.
NotMax
@narya
Whatever you do, do not toss that shoebox labeled String Too Short To Save.
That way madness lies.
:)
New Deal democrat
@Marmot: Trump’s Covid stimulus was delivered as a check with his signature on it.
Biden’s got digitally deposited anonymously in bank accounts. And iirc, not timed at least in part to hit just before elections.
Suzanne
@narya: My task that I have to do is to put photos in albums. UGHHHHH.
TBone
@mrmoshpotato: I have no idea what you refer to, is it sports related? 😆 (I have an inkling, obvs.). Yesterday I was texting with my Black, ex-military friend in DelCo doing resistance messaging and he wondered if we’d seen the Eagles game. Two things in that question – a code AND a real inquiry.
Torrey
@TBone:
Reading Piet Hein confers a surprising amount of immunity to wet-blanketing.
“Sometimes, exhausted
With toil and endeavor,
I wish I could sleep
Forever and ever.
But then this reflection
My longing allays:
I shall be doing it
One of these days.”
TBone
@New Deal democrat: I used a sharpie on that check before I deposited it.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
Good morning.
TBone
@Torrey: thank you thank you thank you.
💜 He has got me out a scrape right here at BJ!
I love that “we’ll sleep when we’re dead” attitude.
NotMax
@TBone
Did someone say potato?
(Bit on the blue side for a morning thread but what the hell.) :)
narya
@NotMax: Hah! I’m way past that. It’s one of the advantages of being Old: I look at this Thing and am able to say, “No, I am NOT going to use/wear/need this Thing.” My friend moved from IL to WI in 2020, and also moved from a 3 bed/2bath large apartment to a small house. She also had retired from her job. She went through EVERY thing she had, and was able to get rid of a stunning amount of stuff on Buy Nothing. I haven’t accumulated quite as much, as I mostly lived in small apartments, but crap still does pile up.
Nukular Biskits
@NotMax: Where/How TF do you find this stuff?
Actually, the better question is WHY TF do you find this stuff? LOL
TBone
@NotMax: 😆😆😆
narya
@Suzanne: Srsly . . . I have the repository of family photos, but that means I have to actually label stuff so the nephew who would be interested knows who everyone is.
NotMax
@Nukular Biskits
Mutant abilities manifest differently in us all.
;)
TBone
@narya: is he close enough/old enough to be drafted into assisting?
Rose Judson
My current project is hoping that this second damn mortgage application goes through. Prior one was rejected Tuesday on a technicality that my broker said was “quite frankly, very silly.” I’ve been dealing with that all week in addition to a new account launch for a client.
I just want to buy the house I’m renting, real estate gods.
Starfish
@Baud: Dystopias are supposed to be fun cautionary tales and not a road map for “let’s do exactly that.”
mrmoshpotato
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
And they can invent a time machine that fits tens of millions of dumbasses. Try again, idiots!
AM in NC
@TBone: while running yesterday, every time I passed people I did a little clapping chant, like a cheer really, loudly yelling with a smile on my face:
TRUMP IS A SERIAL RAPIST (clap, clap, clap clap clap)
TRUMP VOTERS VOTED FOR A SERIAL RAPIST (clap, clap, clap clap clap)
GOOD PEOPLE DON’T VOTE FOR SERIAL RAPISTS (clap, clap, clap clap clap)
YOUR DAUGHTERS SEE YOU AND KNOW WHAT YOU ARE (clap clap, clap clap clap)
Dems cheered. MAGAS were fuming silent or grumbly. They need to know we see them and we know what they are and we won’t let them forget it.
NotMax
@Starfish
To the MAGAverse 1984 is a user manual.
Nukular Biskits
@narya:
Best enlist some older folks (aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, etc) to help you with that.
After Momma died, I came across some 8mm home movies that I had no idea even existed. Sent the reels off to be digitized (had no way to play them). What came back was a window into the lives of my parents from the early 60s. Many of the people I saw in those movies have long since left this mortal coil. It took several of us (including 2nd, 3rd cousins) to identify all the people in those home movies.
It was a bit sobering to realize that my brother and sister (I’m the oldest) had never met some of the people I could still remember from my early childhood … and that I may be the last person to remember them.
TBone
@AM in NC: I FUCKING LOVE THIS!!!
mrmoshpotato
@TBone: Yes. Texas A&M beat Ohio State in basketball last night.
Northwestern is playing Ohio State in football today at Wrigley Field (yes, home of the Chicago Cubs).
Go Wildcats!
brantl
@New Deal democrat: From now on, we’re going to have to campaign all four years. We need to start coordinating the campaign advertising to the news; when we pass some kind of stimulus (all by ourselves, or nearly all by ourselves) we need to point out IN AN AD, THAT WE DID IT WITHOUT THEM, AND HERE’S THE PEOPLE THAT IT WILL HELP, AND THEN USE THE ORIGINAL AD, WITH AN ADDENDUM, TO SHOW THAT IT DID. ‘re going to have to prove that WE did it, NOT THEM, everywhere that it’s just US AND NOT THEM.
Trivia Man
At the very least, all republicans in government need to have their support for the shot show on the record. When shit inevitably goes south it will be harder for them to stick around.
Keep the recepits.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
NotMax
FYI.
Gosh, just checked. Hanukkah this year is about as late as can be, sundown Dec. 25 – sundown Jan. 2.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Nukular Biskits: From the article
rikyrah
@AM in NC: 🤣🤣🤣🤣👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾
narya
@TBone: No, he’s in another state. And, really, I have multiple other projects that need to come first. One of the best ones (apologies if mentioned here before): I found a crewel-work kit my grandmother must have purchased in the mid-1970s but never did. I figured I’d do it, partly in homage to her and partly to get back into needlework (I usually design my own), but didn’t know what I’d do w/ the finished product. Turns out that nephew WANTS it! And my mom will help me get it blocked & framed properly, so that’s also nice.
rikyrah
@Rose Judson:
Good luck 🤞🏾 🤞🏾
Starfish
@Suzanne: A Principal Ava Coleman liberal. That Abbott Elementary reference is just great.
mrmoshpotato
@AM in NC: Well done.
Chief Oshkosh
@Marmot:
I think some of it is lack of leadership. Not everyone is a self-starter, but they can be great warriors when led. In fact, the majority of all humankind fit this description much more than the resilient leader types.
And before the yowling jackals appear, I’m not blaming current Dem leadership. I’m saying that this will all go better as the new leaders emerge. I don’t have a good feel for who that will be, but I suspect it’s going to have to be people who are very different from the quietly competent leadership we currently enjoy. (Which, FWIW, is my very much preferred type of leader.)
schrodingers_cat
The inability of white liberals and leftists to listen to the minorities and the marginalized in the coalition is what is making me tune out. Check out the the discourse* after Biden dropped out and also the last two weeks to see what I mean.
Balloon Juice and other liberal, D friendly spaces.
Nukular Biskits
Leopards. Faces.
Reuters: Muslims who voted for Trump upset by his pro-Israel cabinet picks
Rose Judson
@rikyrah: Thank you!
narya
@Nukular Biskits: I actually got the photos from my mom, and she is the only one left of her generation, so . . . we really don’t have a lot of family. One cousin has photos from my dad’s side, and it turns out that younger nephew is absolutely identical to his great-grandfather. It’s startling how much they look alike. On that side, my grandfather, father, brother, and younger nephew look soooo much alike.
Marmot
@brantl:
Set agreement cannons to full!
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Marmot: The polling on “Biden’s policies have helped me personally” were awful. Almost nobody was saying yes. I guarantee there were who knows how many people who had thousands of tens of thousands of dollars of student loans forgiven who said Biden’s policies hadn’t helped them personally. It’s extremely frustrating but you really do have to beat people over the head on a daily basis by telling them exactly how you helped them and that the other guys said no to it all. Otherwise only the highly informed sliver of the electorate knows and that’s not a big enough slice to win elections.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Marmot: The polling on “Biden’s policies have helped me personally” were awful. Almost nobody was saying yes. I guarantee there were who knows how many people who had thousands to tens of thousands of dollars of student loans forgiven who said Biden’s policies hadn’t helped them personally. It’s extremely frustrating but you really do have to beat people over the head on a daily basis by telling them exactly how you helped them and that the other guys said no to it all. Otherwise only the highly informed sliver of the electorate knows and that’s not a big enough slice to win elections.
brantl
@TBone: Nicole Wallace is only on the left because the right moves SO FAR, she was in W’s administration, and they just wore jackboots with lower heels.
Torrey
“When someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time.” Maya Angelou did not follow that statement up with, “and then, when they show who they are, get out of their way, because these folks are scary and there’s nothing you can do, because they’ve shown you who they are!”
(This does not mean that people who need a break shouldn’t take it. Everybody can’t do everything all at once. I have friends who are cocooning and friends who are getting active, and they’re all doing the right thing for them at this moment.)
Nukular Biskits
@narya:
Going through the old photos and those home movies, I was amazed how much my oldest son, when he was in his late teens/early 20s, looked almost exactly like my father at that age.
Starfish
@Ocotillo: Yes. They have already started to do that. Also, Manchin said he was not going to showboat and stop it.
Here is one article about it from four days ago.
Here is a list of judges. You can sort the table by confirmation date. It looks like they have two done.
They have to review the candidates and then confirm them. They have already reviewed some of the candidates. That websites says there are 45 vacancies with 15 pending nominees. It think Biden is going to nominate for the remaining 30.
different-church-lady
@AM in NC:
True.
And that’s the nut of the problem: not enough good people.
Nukular Biskits
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Something about the way I’m reading it just doesn’t compute … but it was a long week and I am moving slow this morning.
Marmot
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: It’s true. And you might even have a Dem announce something like that from a podium, expecting the FTFNYT to broadcast that message far and wide.
Hell with that. Sky-write it every day in every city, if you have to.
different-church-lady
@Nukular Biskits: Dumb fucks, plain and simple.
tobie
@Marmot: I’m thinking of printing up some red bumperstickers to place in the corner of building projects that are bound to creep up in my neighborhood with Trump’s name saying “Thank you, Joe, for the Inflation Reduction Act” or “Thank you, Joe, for the American Rescue Plan.” Or maybe I should stick to something simpler: “Thank you, Dems, for investing in America.” I’m open to suggestions.
NotMax
@Starfish
Profiles in minimal courage.
bluefoot
@AM in NC: Ooo I like this. One of the things I’ve realized is that I will feel better if I’m more physically in shape. My knees prevent me from running but I can find something else and do a little solidarity building along the way.
I had a nice chat with the woman owner of a locally owned business. Just an acknowledgement of yes, we see each other, was affirming.
New Deal democrat
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m pretty sure you and I woul disagree on a lot of things. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t listened to and appreciated.
Nukular Biskits
@different-church-lady:
Did someone call my name?🤣
JML
@Marmot: I don’t disagree, but part of the problem is almost every time we pass a critical piece of legislation and accomplish something, we have a crew within our own ranks who run to their favorite media outlet (or whomever will have them) to complain about how it didn’t go far enough, how it doesn’t do enough, they weren’t consulted enough or courted properly, or instead of celebrating the win immediately start harping on the next thing that hasn’t been fixed yet.
It’s hard to punch through the message of success when your own house is more interested in doing something else. And of course since the political media likes nothing more than a “Dems in Disarray” story, it’s the easiest way for someone with ambition to get themselves some cheap publicity.
But we have to keep working on this. Stop inviting GOP legislators who vote against a bill to the ground breaking photo op. Find enough unity to celebrate a success loudly and proudly (even if it’s incremental and not transformational) before moving on to the next thing. It can be done.
zhena gogolia
@AM in NC: Good for you!
NotMax
@tobie
Fully expecting Doofus 47 to wield a pair of golden shears for the ribbon cutting of the replaced Baltimore bridge and take credit for it.
bluefoot
@schrodingers_cat: My feeling right now is that white people are concerned about their money and influence and minorities are concerned about their lives. My mixed-race trans nibling has been talking to me about how difficult it has been trying to even be heard in her community. And many minority people I know are retreating for their own mental health, including a white, male gay lawyer friend of mine. His words, “I can’t even right now.”
E.
For me, part of the exhaustion is the awareness that if we ever want to win again we have to adopt their filthy and childish tactics. At age 59 I’m just coming around to this new understanding of my fellow citizens, and, to be honest, it’s hitting me pretty hard.
Nukular Biskits
@bluefoot:
As a straight white male, born/raised/lived here in deep red MS, I’m hoping you’ll caveat that first feeling as I definitely don’t list my money or influence at the top of my priorities with respect to a Trump admin.
ETA: Edited to add “or influence”
Fair Economist
@Nukular Biskits:
This is kind of “I didn’t think voting for the Leopards Eating *My* Face party would let them eat *my* face!”.
tobie
@NotMax: Well, if there’s one friggin place locals should be able to organize a protest to Trump or an alternative ribbon cutting ceremony, it’s Baltimore. I will look into this.
I talked to one Puerto Rican man while phonebanking in PA who angrily told me that he and his whole family do not vote because all govt is corrupt and all politicians are self-serving. I asked him about the bridge repair on I95 that happened at the speed of light. He said that was done by workers and construction companies. I tried to to talk to him about funding, permitting, coordination, etc. He wouldn’t hear it. Frankly it’s how every small business man I know thinks.
New Deal democrat
@Marmot:
Way back in the day, over at Daily Kos Hale Stewart (Bonddad) and I co-wrote a four part series I was particularly proud of on the Great Depression and the New Deal. Part two of that series began:
https://economicpopulist.com/category/meta-tags-blog-entry/new-deal?page=1
“ ‘At the end of February, we were a con-geries of disorderly panicstricken mobs and factions. In the hundred days from March to June we became again an organized nation confident of our power to provide for our own security and to control our own destiny.” – Walter Lippmann, 1933
FDR and his coalition knew how to shout something from the rooftops. And they and the Democratic Party were rewarded with a lifetime of loyalty.
AM in NC
Reading this thread, I think WE are going to have to be the meat-space messengers about the good things Dems to and the MAGOP horrors.
I have ZERO faith that any fact-based media will reach the MAGAs, who are so siloed inside rightwing media we can’t even see what they’re getting pitched.
I am serious about each of us printing out thousands of stickers with “Trump/Republicans did this” and sticking them everywhere EVERY TIME prices go up. Print out dozens of copies of articles when women die from no miscarriage care and tape them up everywhere with “Another Mom killed by Republican Politicians. Don’t want dead moms? DON’T VOTE FOR REPUBLICANS”. Or when interest rates are hiked, etc., etc.
And things like the cheer-leading while running that I mentioned earlier. These MAGAS need to be shamed but good and have the results of their votes made crystal clear to them. It is SHOCKING how ignorant most Americans are, and I think the central question for our time is how do we reach these people outside of their rightwing billionaire information spaces.
I welcome any and all suggestions of individual actions we can all take!!!
bluefoot
@schrodingers_cat: also you see it who gets empathy. Hispanic men who may have voted for TFG now worried about being deported, there’s glee. White women TFG voters not getting medical care following a miscarriage, empathy. We obviously aren’t fully human to many.
bluefoot
@AM in NC: I was just talking to someone I know about guerrilla art efforts. Great minds and all that!
p.a.
@Fair Economist: And these fucking types of voter (not speaking of tRump-Muslims specifically) might be good for one election cycle after part of their face is gone, then they’re right back to the face-eating party. “Oh well, I’m all healed up! Wheeeeeeee…”
p.a.
Anybody see this, via Atrios yesterday?
Chief Oshkosh
@E.: me too
TBone
@p.a.: yup BUT that quote needs his full comment around it! The surrounding context was left out by Atrios. An astute commenter there hipped me to Jeffries’s full sound byte.
TBone
Man o man eff you autofill corrector AI thingy. Eff you NOT egg you!!!
citizen dave
@TBone: Sometimes I want Nicole Wallace to cut her fucking hair SO much!
LOL! I don’t have cable so only see clips of Nicole Wallace, but every time I do I say (as a hair-challenged white dude) why oh why does she have her her coming out on each side of her head like some kind of hair wall? That would drive me insane if I had to work with her. It’s like hair blinders or something.
TBone
@brantl: am fully aware of that fact, but maybe others are not.
TBone
@narya: 💙
Eunicecycle
@brantl: and the opposite: this is what the R administration did that will be bad for you.
Baud
@AM in NC:
Our people would rather go to Trump Camps than do that.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
Unsure if trolling, serious … or both.
TBone
@citizen dave: 😆
citizen dave
I was going thru paper crap the other day and came across orange guy first term mailed material with his name all over it. One, COVID guidelines; and two, stimulus check.
I highly recommend this short book for our times (bought it on impusle at a brick and mortar bookstore pre-election) On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
by Timothy Snyder (one of them is Do Not Surrender in advance)
If you think about it, orange guy has a really rare opportunity to occupy the first and second worst-presidential terms in our history.
TBone
@citizen dave: an excellent book! I love his top ten list too.
TBone
Heading into supermarket to spread joy and helpfulness wherever I can!
Mai Naem mobile ¹
I finally got myself to look at the numbers on the decided+undecided toss up House races. Kind of redundant to mention this but the numbers are close. Some of them are going to come down to a few hundred votes. I know this goes both ways but the GOP winners are going to see those numbers and we need to make sure they own tfg’s agenda if they won’t stand up to him.
Steve LaBonne
Just wanted to note that any theory of what Democrats supposedly did wrong has to account for the fact that Harris actually improved on Biden’s 2020 vote totals in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. Trump leveraged the worldwide anti-incumbent sentiment to turn out a bunch of low-propensity voters who show up only for him (hence downballot Democrats faring better). The good news is that setting aside 22nd Amendment conspiracy theories (as I think you should), Trump will never be on a ballot again.
citizen dave
@AM in NC: I like your ideas! Blanket the nation with simple information. (Those fucking insipid “Joe Did This” photo stickers they put on gas pumps a few years ago. I saw a leftover one just a few months ago)
geg6
@Suzanne:
I feel like I will be back to my inner Lucille soon. I just need a little time. Some of my personal issues (aging and ill siblings) and the plumbing and sewer issues at home are stabilizing, taking a lot of my anxiety from before the election off my plate. Still with the partner whose cognitive issues are NOT getting better, though. And then the election…still working through that. Right now I need to take care of myself, which means I need to move my retirement funds to the safest investment my advisor can find and applying for Social Security. Gotta get the finances stabilized and that’s something I can do without thinking too much about the politics. I think doing that may be a catalyst to getting me out of my funk.
Baud
@Steve LaBonne:
Two hot takes. In light of election outcomes, Dems
1. Need to fundamentally change who they are and
2. Should not fundamentally change what they stand for.
geg6
@different-church-lady:
I feel you.
Eunicecycle
@E.: at age 69 I am coming to that realization, too. It’s a gut punch, that’s for sure.
Marmot
@tobie: I heart this. I also want to be prepared with a zillion “I did this” stickers featuring that fool’s stupid mug, for when any prices rise.
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: Generational change will do a lot to take care of #1. But again, this was an unexpectedly high turnout election. Our voters showed up, but even more voters, some of whom may never bother voting again, showed up for Trump. To me that limits the value of any postmortem analysis of this election.
Eunicecycle
@Fair Economist: Trump literally lies about everything. Plus did they forget the Muslim ban? So I have very little sympathy for them. For the Palestinians? Yes.
Chris Johnson
Still thinking that anybody right now trying to pick a fight is working out of Moscow under false pretenses.
Funny how Jeffries is publically saying ‘gee I hope we can all be bipartisan’ even as Thune is saying ‘I hope we can get Democratic support’ and all. You know they can be lying, but did you know they can be lying because they’re in cahoots and want to get back to their old familiar grift, not the strange new grifts and dangers inherent in being a a minor non-socialist republic under the umbrella of Moscow?
I repeat, they can be down for that but only the stupidest (or most compromised) don’t understand how much of a bath they’d have to take. I say again, there are not enough cushy dachas in the motherland for any of these people. They have to rot in the corpse of whatever Russia’s able to do to us, and the intent is becoming obvious.
You don’t have to be a Dem to be smart enough to identify that. The tiger-riders were banking on the tiger being tame enough not to eat THEIR faces, to mix a few meowing metaphors :)
FelonyGovt
@narya: Good for you. My parents both passed young, and I have lots of sepia toned family photos of serious looking men (mostly) and ladies who are presumably my ancestors but I have no idea who they are.
Gloria DryGarden
@tobie: all of those
Starfish
@Ocotillo: Oh damn.
I just got an email from govtrack.us, and they were super serious.
This is the main body of the post that has nothing to do with the judges but is about the lame duck session.
In my email selection, I am following a certain Senator (mine), and here is what it looks like in the section customized for me bit.
Nov 12, 2024 5:31 p.m. — Vote
On the Nomination PN1960: April M. Perry, of Illinois, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois
Nomination Confirmed 51/44
Motion to Invoke Cloture: Jonathan E. Hawley to be U.S. District Judge for the Central District of Illinois.: Jonathan E. Hawley, of Illinois, to be United States District Judge for the Central District of Illinois
Cloture Motion Agreed to 50/48
Nov 13, 2024 2:20 p.m. — Vote
On the Nomination PN1903: Jonathan E. Hawley, of Illinois, to be United States District Judge for the Central District of Illinois
Nomination Confirmed 50/46
Motion to Invoke Cloture: David Huitema to be Director of the Office of Government Ethics.: David Huitema, of Maryland, to be Director of the Office of Government Ethics for a term of five years
Cloture Motion Agreed to 50/48
Motion to Invoke Cloture: Cathy Fung to be a Judge of the U.S. Tax Court: Cathy Fung, of California, to be a Judge of the United States Tax Court for a term of fifteen years
Cloture Motion Agreed to 58/37
Nov 14, 2024 11:38 a.m. — Vote
On the Nomination PN1744: Cathy Fung, of California, to be a Judge of the United States Tax Court for a term of fifteen years
Nomination Confirmed 59/37
On the Nomination PN923: David Huitema, of Maryland, to be Director of the Office of Government Ethics for a term of five years
Nomination Confirmed 50/46
Motion to Invoke Cloture: Embry J. Kidd to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit.: Embry J. Kidd, of Florida, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit
Cloture Motion Agreed to 49/44
Gloria DryGarden
@bluefoot: how to prepare?
schrodingers_cat
@bluefoot: Truth. And that’s true even in liberal spaces such as this one. There was more than a faint whiff of xenophobia in the comment threads trying to understand the election results on this blog
schrodingers_cat
@Ocotillo: Yes. They confirmed 3 last week IIRC.
Marmot
@AM in NC: I just got to this comment, and I see you’ve been thinking the same as me. Even better with your “No more dead moms. Don’t vote Republican.” flyers!
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: 3. Listen to the voices in the coalition before doing anything drastic.
4. Work on changing the media environment. Realize that the present media environment is savage and brutal to Ds.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Right.
All the talk about the media messaging. We’re the ones to take their bait, every fucking time.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Well many of us didn’t but many white liberals and leftists did. They are the audience for the MSM. Which needs to be boycotted. Because $$ are the only language they understand.
Belafon
@schrodingers_cat: they will still be the audience for the MSM if we boycott, which just means that they’ll be easy for some oligarch to buy. We need to start taking the opposite tack and start regularly watching and listening and telling them how they need to better.
Quiltingfool
@narya: I’m taking a tiny bit of a break from quilt making; I’m working on felt Christmas stockings. Way back in the dark ages, when I was a teen, Bucilla (a craft company) sold felt ornament projects. Sequins and beads and embroidery! I would save up money and buy them and make the ornaments. I still have some of them, they are about 50 years old now!
Well, lo and behold, Bucilla is still in business and still produces felt projects. I purchased several kits, and right now am making a stocking that features a sequined and beaded tree and two very charming kittens.
Time consuming, but relaxing.
bluefoot
@Gloria DryGarden: They mean psychologically prepared – recognize how bad it can get and in what ways so you’re not blindsided, figure out how to build emotional resiliency for the long haul, create and strengthen community, etc.
Not exactly related, I was talking with a friend earlier about how things can change so quickly if you can’t see what’s happening out of line of sight. Like Pinochet in Chile, or conversely the Berlin Wall coming down. Or approval for gay marriage. We create networks and keep working even if we can’t see the effects because 1) it’s the right thing to do and 2) we can’t know what will trigger the wave that will be the change.I mean, for how long have Black women been fighting in ways big and small for equity?
brantl
@Nukular Biskits: A picture of that guy should be one pictorial example of the perrennial VSF, (V)oting (S)tupid (F)ucks, who don’t pay any attention to the complete platform of whomever they vote for. It just stuns me how little attention people pay to reality, or even how to verify what it is?
Baud
@bluefoot:
👍
Quiltingfool
@AM in NC: How about stickers that say “Trump Voters Did This.”
Too soon? Too inflammatory?
bluefoot
To follow on guerrilla art, can anyone recommend software to convert hand drawings to file types that graphics companies can/will use? Like companies that make custom stickers. Thanks!
eta: I have a scanner and okay computer skills.
bluefoot
@bluefoot: To follow on this comment: one skill I find most people lack is how to keep going when you can’t see an effect. I don’t have an answer, I also struggle. Now more than ever. Some is faith, some is believing it will lighten the load for someone else. Some is knowing that things have changed for the better quickly even when I couldn’t see it coming. Which I guess is faith.
someone will have to remind me I said this when I despair. 😂
Ebony
@citizen dave: You do know that some people’s hair grows out more than down do you? Especially people with curly and coily hair. I just you think people with curly/coily hair should keep their hair straight or short. Though, my hair is still big when I try to straighten it.
Quiltingfool
@bluefoot: A few days ago, I said that I think that white women (leaning into White Privilege, which they simply refuse to believe they have, btw) believe THEY will be able to access reproductive healthcare because doctors won’t let THEM die. They don’t consider women of color at all.
See, where I live there are very few women of color, just shit-tons of Trump voting white women. My only contact with sensible women seems to be here, and I’m grateful for it. Anyway, these crazy gals really think the abortion laws won’t apply to them, that doctors will be quite willing to sacrifice their license and freedom to treat them.
Boy howdy, they are gonna find out their white privilege is going to be ignored because they have lady parts. They allied with the wrong people, and the right allies may not be so willing to help.
brantl
@Eunicecycle: I’m thinking billboards witn 2D barcodes, scannable from passing cars with the URLs for the facts on the matter, from an unimpeachable source? On freeways and the Time Square displays. If we did this cyclicly (days or weeks at a time) or changed topics on LCD billboards, we could keep this in the public eye, constantly. We need an antidote to FUX Noise.
Citizen Alan
@schrodingers_cat: i don’t even think money matters to them. Twitter is a money loser for Apartheid Clyde, but he bought it anyway because it allowed him two shape the pro nazi narrative while shutting down a means of anti nazi organization. Why shouldn’t every oligarch, who owns a media outlet (and every media outlet of any importance is owned by an oligarch) care about whether that outlet makes any money?
brantl
@Quiltingfool: I am white and middle to old – aged, I have 4 sisters, and they are ENRAGED, as are their daughters, and their sons’ girlfriends at what’s being done to them.
brantl
@Quiltingfool: “Trump AND HIS VOTERS did this. You know what you did, and you know who you are.”
Quiltingfool
@brantl: Oh, I hear you. There are white women who realize what is really going to happen; I’m saying that I hear from several white women who believe (or they are in severe denial) that doctors won’t allow women to bleed out or die from sepsis from a pregnancy gone wrong. They are fine with the slutty girls not being able to access abortions.
Kay has remarked that you cannot “silo” abortion care (no slutty girl abortions but yes to pregnancy gone wrong abortions).
Will they learn? Hope so, but it will be a hard, tragic lesson.
AM in NC
@Quiltingfool: I would very specifically NOT attack Trump/ Republican VOTERS in these actions. People harden their stances when attacked.
I want to drive a wedge between voters and Republican POLITICIANS. I’d use that word (POLITICIANS), which has a negative connotation in their world. Make these horrors a REPUBLICAN POLITICIAN problem, and some of their former voters will stay home next time.
AM in NC
@Quiltingfool: I hate to feel this way, but too bad, so sad for them. When their daughters or their sisters start dying from lack of pregnancy care, maybe they’ll change. But even then I doubt it.
Their votes got them killed during COVID and it just made them vote harder for the death cult.
But it won’t stop me from rubbing their noses in it EVERY time someone like them dies from their choices.
UncleEbeneezer
@Layer8Problem: It’s a performative expression of savvy. You can always hear the “tut tut” superiority implied.
Mai Naem mobile ¹
This thread is probably dead but I kind of would like a twist on Harris’ ‘We’re not going back’ . Whenever tfg and his people do something negative or something negative happens the Dems should say ‘We’re going back’ local measles outbreak, water contamination issues, women’s mortality, higher unemployment, lower stock market whatever.