Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Let there be snark.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

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

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

When I was faster i was always behind.

You are here: Home / Politics / Information Warfare / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Joe Biden, Still Our President

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Joe Biden, Still Our President

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******

Tuesday Morning Open Thread 17

(Clay Bennett via GoComics.com)

 
Not exactly happy breakfast reading, but informative… From the Forward, “Why Neo-Nazis marched in Ohio this weekend, and almost every weekend in the U.S.”:

About a dozen neo-Nazis marched on Saturday through downtown Columbus, Ohio waving swastika flags. The march was just the latest of hundreds of such rallies held across the nation in the past two years.

“Almost every single weekend, white supremacists are rallying in some neighborhood,” said Oren Segal, vice president of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. The group’s data found 282 such events in 2023. This summer alone, there were 64 white supremacist events across 25 states.

The regularity with which they happen can both numb and instill fear in Jewish communities. Segal said they are not part of a rising trend of antisemitism in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel, but have been occurring since 2016, “around the time of the first Trump administration.”

Segal said these rallies are usually organized by small groups hoping to get attention online, where they can attract new recruits. Additionally, the marches are sometimes the result of a turf war, almost a “soap opera” between competing white supremacist groups, as likely happened in Columbus…

The neo-Nazi march that had the most lasting impact was the one in August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Called the “Unite the Right” rally, it was organized to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general. Among the hundreds of attendees were a who’s who of extremists, including far-right militias, Klansmen, neo-Nazis and Richard Spencer, a supporter of then-President Donald Trump and a college friend of Trump adviser and incoming White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. The following day turned violent when rally goers clashed with counter-protesters. Dozens were injured and a white supremacist rammed his car into a counter-protester, killing her…

Marches similar to the one in Columbus — led by a small group hoping to cause a big ruckus — are what the ADL sees on a regular basis. For example: last weekend outside a performance of The Diary of Anne Frank in Michigan; outside the Broadway theater hosting the Tony-winning Parade, a musical about antisemitism; and multiple times in front of Disney World in Orlando.

“I don’t think these groups are cooperating in the same way that they did around Charlottesville,” Segal said. Instead, it’s mostly infighting between white supremacist groups “competing for attention.”

The dozen or so marchers in Columbus this weekend belong to a newly formed white supremacist group based out of St. Louis, Segal said. A rival group is based in Ohio. “Essentially, this was perhaps part of a turf war,” Segal said. He called it a “soap opera amongst white supremacists,” where one group “is trying to antagonize another by showing up in their area.”…

The rallies are usually not announced in advance; a spontaneous gathering is less likely to draw local authorities or counter-protesters. “They’re quick: get people in and out,” Segal said. “It’s to create imagery and propaganda that then has an impact well beyond the community that they target.”

Videos of the events are quickly shared online. “This is what they want,” he said. “One of their ultimate goals is to get this attention. If there was no social media, we would not probably see as many of these rallies.”…

These groups are all “very similar in terms of not only their beliefs, but their tactics,” Segal said. “But we don’t really have the luxury to call them rinky dink.”

He explained that these small marches are used to recruit people online. “You never know who online is going to see what they do and say, ‘Oh, I need to not only be part of this, but take it to the next level.’”

He said this is what led to the mass shootings at synagogues in Pittsburgh (2018) and Poway, California, (2019) and at supermarkets in El Paso (2019) and Buffalo (2022). None of the shooters “were card-carrying members of any of these alphabet soup of groups, but they subscribed to the exact same ideology,” Segal said. “Hundreds of these types of events, even as small as they are, are just normalizing the hatred of Jews and other minority communities. And there are consequences to that.”

Reader Interactions

80Comments

  1. 1.

    Quinerly

    I have seen some comments here about our judges. Republicans started throwing up roadblocks yesterday to slow down the confirmation process.
    “Senate Republicans moved to slow down the pace of judicial nomination confirmations in the waning days of Joe Biden’s presidency on Monday evening, forcing the chamber into hours of routine votes.
    Senators initially confirmed Embry Kidd to an appeals court post by a 49-45 vote on Monday evening. But then the roadblocks began.”
    politico.com/live-updates/2024/11/19/congress/senate-slowdown-00190335

  5. 5.

    TBone

    OT subject.  TCM had a few San Francisco themed movies back to back this morning. A heads up for West Coast peeps – bomb cyclone approaching.

    The areas that could see particularly severe rainfall as the large plume of moisture heads toward land will likely stretch from the south of Portland, Oregon, to the north of the San Francisco area, he explained.

    apnews.com/article/california-oregon-washington-atmospheric-river-bomb-cyclone-d5006d946cda1fc1f4ecb…

  6. 6.

    beckya57

    @Belafon: yup.  I saw a post on Bluesky yesterday showing Schumer dealing with the roadblocks.  I’m not a big fan of him, but did get the impression he was prepared for their strategy.

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    @Quinerly: Pre-obedience or whatever the term is for chickenshits lining up to kiss the orange fart cloud’s ring. Scarborough is a giant douchebag, so no surprise there. It’s good that the chickenshits are showing us who they are.

  10. 10.

    Betty Cracker

    General programming note: the gators put on a show this morning (singing! dancing!), and I will post about it after a while. I’ve been wanting to capture vid of their “booming” behavior for some time and finally got an opportunity. 

  13. 13.

    Old Man Shadow

    Judging from media reports, I’m pretty sure Joe Biden died of oldness sometime in 2021 and that is just a very good animatronic.

  15. 15.

    Chris Johnson

    @Baud: There’s a great deal of right-wingers trying to get on BlueSky under false pretenses, and a great deal of ‘Blueanon’ fake resistance stuff going on. A lot of it is heavily leaning on ‘follow farming’, as if there was an algorithm there to game.

    Blocking works on all that stuff, though it’s worth noting there are also right wingers and trolls like Kiwi Farms actively trying to clone and extend existing popular block lists. The idea is to take the existing list, get people to trust it under false pretenses, and then add false positives and ??? profit, I guess?

  17. 17.

    Elizabelle

    @Betty Cracker:  I am glad that Zbig Brzezinski did not live to see Mika’s recent behavior.  He died in May 2107 (aged 89); regrettably he did see The Felon elected the first time.

    Had not known that Mika’s brother, Mark, is current US Ambassador to Poland, since 2022.  Big posting, especially since so many travel to Ukraine via Poland these days.

    Dog only knows who The Felon will select.

  18. 18.

    Elizabelle

    @Betty Cracker:  I am glad that Zbig Brzezinski did not live to see Mika’s recent behavior.  He died in May 2017 (aged 89); regrettably he did see The Felon elected the first time.

    Had not known that Mika’s brother, Mark, is current US Ambassador to Poland, since 2022.  Big posting, especially since so many travel to Ukraine via Poland these days.

    Dog only knows who The Felon will select.

  20. 20.

    Shakti

    My mother and father get into it every day now it seems. On the family Whatsapp my father claims he didn’t vote for President (but other offices)  but he always wants to buttonhole me the stupidest political opinions known to man and then start yelling, with the least provocation.

    He announced very importantly that illegal immigrants were causing the housing bubble. And inflation. “Why haven’t I heard this on the news?”

    When I am over, I always try to turn it something inoffensive like children’s cartoons, family fare, movies from before 1970, cozy vicar cop British murder series, etc.  They joke my taste is juvenile, but really this is all they can both stand.  My brother is a sports bro, so when he’s there I encourage the habit of letting him watch whatever sports game is on, which commercials are still less stupid than Meet the Press or the evening news on any channel (and I include the BBC.)

    On Halloween,  I had helped my mother with information on her ballot, sat with her while she reasoned out the lower races and amendments and we had dropped off our ballots together. Usually she goes to the polls with my father but didn’t want to this year. Hmm.

    He loudly has taken to declaring mail in ballots fraudulent and triumphantly declared in person voting was the only way to prevent bribes.

    I would not have been able to vote had I not been able to drop off my mail in ballot because I’m pretty sure someone fucked up my tires on the day before. ( I had a doctor’s appointment and a Trump-DeSantis superfan antivaxxer was loudly listening to AM radio parked next to me. It was still there when I came out. Left side tires were completely fucked; and the right side tires had the air caps removed — and it took me weeks to even get them looked at and replaced between nobody answering the phone, AAA being a bag of dicks,  having to special order tires and tire places being booked out)

  21. 21.

    Quinerly

    @Betty Cracker:

    I am finding the responses interesting.

    “They don’t want to get audited.”

    I listened this AM. I wake up at 4AM. That’s when it’s on here. Rev Al gave his thoughts. He turned down a meeting with Trump in 2016.

  22. 22.

    TBone

    Harvard Gazette ties in my comment:

    Alligators and birds are part of the same larger group, called archosaurs, which has existed for 250 million years and which has given rise not only to birds and crocodilians, but also to dinosaurs. Though dinosaurs are now extinct, the crocodilians, such as alligators, crocodiles, and narrow-jawed gharials live on, and scientists see in them many characteristics of the primitive archosaurs.

    Tom Sullivan on Big Chicken (“inflation”):

    digbysblog.net/2024/11/19/chickenization-of-the-economy/

    Nifty video at link.

    Once chicken became a staple rather than a luxury (and under cover of the Covid pandemic), Big Chicken found it could raise prices and make more money selling to fewer customers. Without competitors in the market, they could simply set their own prices while blaming inflation, the inflation helped sink Kamala Harris.
    That economic model is now everywhere. Like chickens, under a Project 2025 administration it’s likely to get even bigger.

  25. 25.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: I kinda wish the MAGA dope next door had been here to witness the spectacle, but we haven’t seen him since the flood. His yard is still underwater, and from the sound of it, one of the gators was booming from his place. Maybe he’d sell and flee back to Puget Sound if he saw a monster like that singing in his yard!

  29. 29.

    ArchTeryx

    @Chris Johnson: The trouble is while that shit flew on Xhitter, it’s a lot harder to make it fly on BlueSky because everything is transparent. Get your block lists from trusted sources, and read through them to make sure someone didn’t sneak lefties in. If they did, you can always go in, screenshot their names and unblock them. It takes more effort than Xhitter, but that’s the price of having absolute power over your feed. Cockroaches scatter in the light.

    There are also volunteer watchers who are keeping a close eye on fake and troll accounts. I’ve been warned away from three different scammers by these volunteers, and the scammers were banhammered almost immediately. The BlueSky mods don’t fluff around. If they’re pointed to an obvious impersonator or troll account, over the gunwales they go.

    The shitbirds spewing off Truth Social II are never going to quit trying to ruin BlueSky, but the place is set up to make it as hard, frustrating, and humiliating for them as possible.

  31. 31.

    Old School

    CNN’s Dana Bash said it is unclear whether a group of Neo-Nazis marching in Ohio were far right or far left extremists.

    On Saturday in Columbus, about a dozen people marched through the city carrying Nazi flags and yelling racial epithets. CNN highlighted a video in which at least one marcher repeatedly shouts the n-word.

    Bash interviewed Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) on Monday’s edition of Inside Politics on CNN, where she asked the congressman to react to the far-right hate-mongers in his state.

    “A group of Neo-Nazis paraded through that city wearing, waving swastikas, covering their faces,” Bash said. “This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened in Ohio in particular. And, of course, it’s continuing to spread. We don’t know what side of the aisle this comes from. I mean, typically Neo-Nazis are from the far right. You had protests from the far left at your House as a Jewish member.”

  33. 33.

    Ohio Mom

    Back to Nazis marching. This Jew says Ho-Hum. Not a threat to me and mine, there is lots worse going on in corners of the internet I don’t know how to get to and wouldn’t visit anyway.

    Here is the real threat to my family: slashing the social safety net. Ironically, that will hurt those matching Naxis and their families as well. Not as much time to march when you have to attend to demented grandma wandering around your house.

    In the meantime, the ADL et al, can keep themselves busy and raking in the dollars panicking about this violin concert while the country burns.

  36. 36.

    ArchTeryx

    @Old School: Fuck Dana Bash and the horse with two asses he rode in on. Even the fucking cops knew exactly who these shitbirds were, and arrested the lot of them on the way out of town. They assaulted at least one business owner with bear spray and there will be charges pressed over that.

    Here in the Capital Region of New York, the shitbirds have been probing continuously into our suburb from the exurbs, and while the local cops are as useless as tits on a bull, the state cops and Saratoga Country Sheriff’s Department is not impressed and chases their asses out of town if they start misbehaving. They’ve apparently tried running people with Harris stickers off the road and started rolling coal in our main shopping district, and our county and state LEOs don’t put up with that shit.

  37. 37.

    Betty Cracker

    @Shakti: That sucks that some asshole vandalized your car! Jesus. My sympathies for having to deal with “conservative” family members. I’m in the same boat and am lowkey dreading Thanksgiving because of it.

  40. 40.

    Ohio Mom

    @Old School: Sigh. Landsman is my Rep, just voted to re-elect him.

    Before redistricting, I was in a Republican district, had the honor of being represented by Mean Jean Schmidt. (When the Republicans in Columbus rejiggered their gerrymandering, they created a few Democratic districts as a diversionary tactic).

    So Landsman is an improvement, though he isn’t as smart as I would like. I would have liked him to challenge the statement that the protesters in front of his house were from the left and therefore somehow Democrats — didn’t their cohort mostly refuse to vote for Biden? Someone, somewhere, has got to end the false equivalency of Democrats=Leftists.

    And is protesting Israel’s war on Gaza really equivalent to protesting the very existence of Jews all over the world? Well, that would have been too  complicated for a television interview.

    Irreverent aside: Landsman  in Yiddish (often spelled as Lansman or Lanzman) means “someone from my neck of the woods”, similar to the Italian Pisano.

  41. 41.

    The Red Pen

    I have a couple of email addresses that get stuff from Republicans. It’s bad and getting much, much worse. Today, I got an email about a new book by David Horowitz titled America Betrayed: How a Christian Monk Created America and Why the Left is Determined to Destroy Her. Yeah, that didn’t happen. But what was worse was the sales pitch that started:

    Fellow Patriot, have you ever heard the leftist lie that White America enslaved Black America?

    It goes downhill from there. This used to be the kind of stuff that came from fringe groups handing out pamphlets on street corners. Now I’m getting it in emails that go to a list supposedly reaching out to mainstream GOP donors. There is no bottom for the GQP.

  42. 42.

    ArchTeryx

    @Betty Cracker: Gators can be pretty fascinating beasties long as you respect them. And right now, thanks to the idiocy of people bringing in those bloody Burmese Pythons, they’re once more an endangered species. I’ll take the gators any day, thank you.

  45. 45.

    Lobo

    Errata:

    Nazis marching.
    Haitians leaving Springfield
    Does using military under Insurrection Act really constitute martial law?
    Consumer Sentiment flipped after election.
    Trump victory small, but a win is a win.  The penalties we face add up.
    Why is it so hard to state the obvious from our side:

    RFK is a nut and a serially womanizer.
    Pete Hegseth is a sexual assaulter and skinhead(see tattoos.
    Rep. Matt Gaetz is a pedophile and sex trafficker.
    Tulsi is a Russian Asset.

    Why aren’t these part of our talking points, even as Democratic Legislators say we will work and support issues that benefit the people?  We don’t have to angry but at least we can be plain spoken and truthful.​

  46. 46.

    TBone

    Hubby goes to our PA State Rep’s office annually to receive a discount on his handicapped automobile registration and tags.  He told me he was glad I wasn’t with him today, because every other visitor there was loudly engaged in group conversation trashing President Biden and opining about how soon he’ll see a prison cell, Hunter, Hunter, Hunter, laptop, corruption, and “taking back all the money” received by all of the Bidens.

    BUT the crowning glory: he brought home a copy of a very slick, expensively constructed, color pamphlet issued by Rep. Stephanie Borowicz to her constituents and given away for free at her office. It is titled:

    Biblical Quotations in the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building.

    It invites us to tour all of the Capitol and contains depictions of all the religious artwork in our government buildings with Bible passage captions helpfully placed, and every PA government building in Harrisburg is included.

    Who paid for this???

    Fine (teeny tiny illegible) print disclaimer at the end of slick pamphlet:

    “This material is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as offering advice or making recommendations of any kind.  Neither the Republican Caucus of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives nor any individual member thereof shall be responsible for any errors or omissions in the material contained in this document, or the effect on such information by any subsequent amendment, passage, adoption, or repeal of regulations or legislation impacting the subject matter herein. Moreover, neither the Republican Caucus nor any individual thereof shall be responsible for the interpretation of any statutory provisions, administrative actions, or judicial decisions relative thereto.  Any user of this document should seek private legal counsel before taking action in reliance upon the material contained herein.”

  49. 49.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Betty Cracker:

    Looking forward to the booming gators!

    Yesterday was mild and sunny here in southern Maryland, so I got out for a short bike ride.  Didn’t exactly touch grass, but about 15 miles of asphalt rolled under my wheels, and there was still lots of color on the trees along the local back roads.  Got to grab the good days before the cold weather sets in.

  50. 50.

    Soprano2

    @Old School: So what exactly does Dana Bash think her job is? Perhaps CNN should investigate and find out for us “what side of the aisle the Nazi marchers come from”. Holy hell…..

  55. 55.

    Shakti

    @Betty Cracker:  @TBone:  It set me back a cool $400, which I could absorb. I had little old lady mileage (14,000! for original tires from 2019 that were rated for 60,000!)  on it but unfortunately tire companies only prorate tires for manufacturing defects not sabotage.

    I can hardly wait for the “bothsider agree to disagree keep the family harmony” articles that will come out or have already come out this holiday season. The family still relies on me to do a lot of the food prep and the pies.

    I think I may have to pointedly use my headphones more often.

  56. 56.

    TBone

    @TBone: I’m taking my new pamphlet to my new church to give it to the (very cool) Priest there so he can refute some of the bullshit in it (and make everyone there aware of it).

    Sometimes it pays to be living with a registered Republican hubby.

  60. 60.

    prostratedragon

    @TBone:

    Recommendation: Woman on the Run @1:30 Central. Vertigo fans in particular should enjoy it.

    Stay dry, or at least out of the torrent.

  61. 61.

    Quinerly

    @Betty:

    Manchin…always looking for attention. I liked that CNN piece because it gave us a list of names and districts. Had a couple more pieces on where we are on actul votes but seems like many here don’t bother with actually reading  links anyway.

    Hang in there. I like seeing your comments.

  64. 64.

    Shakti

    @TBone: I would never adulterate pies. I have never made blackeyed peas.

    Besides there’s a wave of e. coli and listeria outbreaks and recalls right now. Salmon, carrots, burgers, onions, what else?

    I reminded them they need to get their turkey arrangements in order. (I don’t eat them.) I do not actually know how to cook birds and I would be fearful of food poisoning but apparently I know more about how cooked meat is supposed to look than they do?

  67. 67.

    Elizabelle

    @Lobo:  None of those fools are confirmed yet, and perhaps some interesting news will drop between now and the inauguration.

    Further, I personally would prefer a jackass like Matt Gaetz be the public face of The Felon’s “Justice” Department, rather than a Bill Barr type who might pass muster with our cowardly mainstream media.

    No doubt these agencies will have some under the radar destroyer types working in the background.

  68. 68.

    The Red Pen

    @TBone: I’m going to guess that those inspirational Bible quotes are all about moral purity or fealty to religious authority and none about being kind to people or social justice in general…

  70. 70.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Old School: “A group of Neo-Nazis paraded through that city wearing, waving swastikas, covering their faces,” Bash said.

    Could be worse, they could be supporters of equitable treatment of Palestinians…

  71. 71.

    weasel

    Looks like there are a good handful! Just from searching for ‘Senator’ and ‘Representative’ I found these…
    <a href=”https://bsky.app/profile/wyden.senate.gov”>Senator Ron Wyden</a>
    <a href=”https://bsky.app/profile/smith.senate.gov”> Senator Tina Smith</a>
    <a href=”https://bsky.app/profile/whitehouse.senate.gov”> Senator Sheldon Whitehouse</a>
    <a href=”https://bsky.app/profile/fetterman.senate.gov”> Senator John Fetterman</a>
    <a href=”https://bsky.app/profile/markwarner.bsky.social”> Senator Mark Warner</a>

    <a href=”https://bsky.app/profile/anamariafortexas.com”> Representative Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos</a>
    <a href=”https://bsky.app/profile/repkavrosdegraw.bsky.social”> Representative Eleni Kavros DeGraw</a>

  73. 73.

    weasel

    Hmm, twice in a row. Wonder if I’m hitting moderation w/ all the links. One last, trimmed down try…

    Well nuts, I probably posted too many links and FYWP ate my post. Turns out there are half dozen of so Dem Sens and Reps on BSky. I just searched for ‘Senator’ and ‘Representative’. Here’s a smaller sample than what i tried last time, just links, no embedding…
    bsky.app/profile/fetterman.senate.gov
    bsky.app/profile/whitehouse.senate.gov
    bsky.app/profile/wyden.senate.gov

    At least a few seem active too!

  74. 74.

    weasel

    @Baud: I think my posts with lots of links are stuck in moderation, but I just searched for ‘Senator’ on BSky and got a handful of hits. Wyden, Whitehouse, and Fetterman are all there. Whitehouse looks to be fairly active too

  76. 76.

    KRK

    @Baud:

    Rep. Jasmine Crockett: bsky.app/profile/repjasmine.bsky.social

    Rep. Don Beyer: bsky.app/profile/repdonbeyer.bsky.social

    Rep. Chellie Pingree: bsky.app/profile/chelliepingree.bsky.social

    Rep. Greg Casar:
    bsky.app/profile/repcasar.bsky.social

    Rep. Ayanna Pressley: bsky.app/profile/reppressley.bsky.social

    Rep. Steve Cohen: bsky.app/profile/congressmancohen.bsky.social

    Rep.-elect Eugene Vindman: bsky.app/profile/gene4va.bsky.social

    Rep. Shri Thanedar: bsky.app/profile/shrithanedar.bsky.social

    Rep. Dwight Evans: bsky.app/profile/repdwightevans.bsky.social

    Rep. Madeleine Dean: bsky.app/profile/repdean.bsky.social

    Rep. Pramila Jayapal: bsky.app/profile/repjayapal.bsky.social

    Rep. Gwen Moore: bsky.app/profile/repgwenmoore.bsky.social

    There are a few others who have set up profiles but have no posts.

  77. 77.

    KRK

    @weasel:

    I also posted two replies with lots of links. Senators Smith, Wyden, Fetterman, and Markey are active. Several congresspersons. Some have only set up an account but aren’t active.

  78. 78.

    weasel

    @KRK: Thanks, had missed Markey!

    And from looking at his follow list, I see a lot more! Cory Booker and Tina Smith for example. Plus some good Reps.

    Note to self, remember to check others’ follows!

Comments are closed.