It took me too many years to realize that my worst depressive moods *inexplicably* start around mid-November, and dramatically improve around Martin Luther King Day. (There’s only so much lightboxes can do…)
I have come to believe that I am not alone in this physiological quirk… and I frankly hope that a gradual burst of optimism / energy right around the start of the upcoming maladministration is gonna be lit.
Have to wonder if the media has seen any of this? ??
— Rio Tazewell (@riotazewell.bsky.social) December 11, 2024 at 10:41 AM
Meanwhile… I fully understand that Kipling is ‘problematic’, but I can’t look at President Biden without thinking “If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken / Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, / Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, / And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools… “
From the Washington Post, “Biden administration finalizes new regulations amid GOP repeal threats” [gift link]:
The Biden administration is preparing new rules that would limit “junk fees,” cap bank overdraft charges and shield Americans from medical debt, as officials race over the next six weeks to finalize the remainder of the president’s economic agenda.
The 11th-hour push has drawn sharp rebukes from President-elect Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, who have signaled they plan to unwind any newly issued regulations — along with a vast set of older Biden-era programs — shortly after they assume power in late January.
At the Federal Trade Commission, for example, Chair Lina Khan is expected to ban businesses from hiding fees and misrepresenting the full cost of their products or services, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the confidential proceeding. An earlier version of her proposal targeted car dealers, hotels, ticket sellers and other large industries.
Another watchdog agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is preparing rules to restrict the ways that credit-reporting agencies can include unpaid hospital and doctor bills on patients’ credit reports. Under Director Rohit Chopra, the bureau also seeks to limit financial penalties that banks can assess on customers who overextend their checking accounts.
“I don’t think it makes sense for the CFPB to be a dead fish,” Chopra said at a congressional hearing Wednesday, stressing that “people between Election Day and Inauguration Day are still getting scammed.”
All of the new federal regulations have been in the works for months, sparking objections from industry lobbyists and Republican lawmakers, who have accused both the FTC and CFPB of engaging in regulatory overreach. In the meantime, those opponents have started strategizing over the best way to unwind the final acts of the Biden administration once the GOP takes control of the House, Senate and White House next year…
Under Biden, the federal government over the past four years dramatically expanded programs that aim to help the poor, lower prescription drug prices, combat climate change, pursue tax cheats, and reduce fees on everything from airline tickets to cable bills. To achieve these goals, the outgoing administration at times tested the limits of federal power, frequently sparking political battles with Republicans and constitutional showdowns with companies under scrutiny…
In response, Republicans in Congress have ratcheted up attacks on the CFPB and its leader. Sen. Tim Scott (South Carolina), the top Republican on the Banking Committee, blasted the bureau at a hearing Wednesday for having “pressed forward” with his agenda in spite of Trump’s election victory. Scott also called for significant changes to the CFPB, echoing Musk, who said last month that the government should “delete” the agency entirely…
Even after losing the White House and control of Congress in 2020, Republican lawmakers continued introducing repeal resolutions in a bid to scuttle Biden-era programs that reduce carbon emissions, improve overtime pay and impose coronavirus vaccine requirements on federal workers. But not one of the more than 100 rules targeted in the most recent session of Congress has actually been struck down, since Biden has vetoed the few resolutions that have reached his desk.
Looking toward next year, some senior Republicans now see the review powers as the quickest way to strike back at the Biden administration and unwind its signature accomplishments. Speaking on the chamber floor last month, outgoing Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) encouraged his colleagues to seize on a new political “opportunity.”…
People, especially people who had wanted Biden foisted out, have begun wishcasting his legacy. But the truth is, I think that his legacy is ripping off the mask of what people actually care about versus what they say they care about. But Biden is a good man and did good things.
— Cai (@annenotation.bsky.social) December 11, 2024 at 1:18 AM
People said that they would pay an extra dollar for a burrito to ensure that the person who serves it to them could afford to feed their family, and Biden put that to the test, and it's not his failure that you gave him the wrong answer.
— Cai (@annenotation.bsky.social) December 11, 2024 at 1:18 AM
I'll have always love for him in my heart. I will never blame him for what other people are.
— Cai (@annenotation.bsky.social) December 11, 2024 at 1:20 AM
Coda:
Also the 2024 voter
— Nick (derogatory) ? (@slothropsmap.bsky.social) December 11, 2024 at 8:32 AM
On The Road – Captain C – Road Trip, April 2024 Part 13: National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Part 5
Baud
Universal principle for anyone.
Lapassionara
Can someone explain the term “wishcasting” to me?
matt
@Lapassionara: saying something is true because you wish it was true.
NotMax
FYI.
Suzanne
Restated: People are irrational and make bad choices.
NotMax
Oh fudge. Format fix.
FYI.
Baud
@NotMax:
Working outdoors will do that to you.
Lapassionara
@matt: thank you. Now it makes sense.
ETA, I saw a headline earlier that Biden has issued a bunch of commutations and some more pardons. Chalk one up for the good guys.
Baud
@Lapassionara:
E.g., Baud! 20XX!
Lapassionara
@Baud: thumbs up emoji.
Quinerly
Anybody post this out of Fortune? Trump promising to fast track applications for permits if the application comes with a BILLION dollar payment to the government.
“Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals,” Trump said Tuesday in a post on his Truth Social network. “GET READY TO ROCK!!!”
https://fortune.com/2024/12/10/trump-permits-billion-dollar-investment-us-work-expedite/
stinger
Same here. You’d think that fun social occasions, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, seasonal concerts from grade school to professional, my own and others’ birthdays, parties, gift giving, and so on, would help. Instead, they are darker occasions than they should be. I count down every day along the lines of, “In five weeks, the days will begin to get longer,” “In three weeks, the days will be longer than they are now,” “In three weeks, the days will be noticeably longer than they are now,” and then suddenly I stop focusing on it.
Oh, to live in the Antipodes half the year!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Lapassionara:
They’re working overtime between now and 20 Jan. Go Joe!
I wonder how much of this can be essentially turned off via Exec Order?
Tony G
@Suzanne: … and most people are too stupid and lazy to learn from their bad choices, so they make the same mistakes again and again …
Rusty
I’m going to take an unpopular position on Christopher Wray resigning. I know lots of folks want him to stay on, to “fight”, to go to court. Lawyers are very expensive for an individual, whereas the government has effectively limitless legal resources. It’s also very time consuming and stressful. He might put his pension at risk or worse given the incoming administration. He has no obligation to be our hero. We had the obligation to vote for decency, we didnt. No one is going to step in and save us, we will need to do that ourselves. The same applies to lots of other folks. I’ve changed my opinion, Biden should pardon all the folks that Trump has threatened. They have no obligation to be our heros either.
Tony G
@Quinerly: In other words, legal bribery.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Oh and the latest on why the Dem party should make it a central messaging mantra of Tax the Rich:
https://www.propublica.org/article/medicare-tax-loophole-steve-cohen
Tony G
@stinger: Yes. There’s also the fact that “for some people” the stress of having to fulfill social obligations at this time of year exacerbate the depression that “those people” normally feel.
TBone
Semi-related (mental health), I read last night that Luigi Mangione also had Lyme Disease in addition to his other maladies. I wonder if neuropsychiatric Lyme caused his mental break (once happened to me in the distant past). It’s a well-documented phenom.
https://www.hcplive.com/view/neuropsychiatric-complications-associated-with-lyme-disease
Speaking of, I had a horrid outbreak of ugly, itchy, painful hive-like rash on both legs last night. Big, irregular, angry-red splotches of ugly raised skin with some central patches of white that looked almost like blisters but not quite. Same location on both legs simultaneously.
Josey Wales of the Nicked Ear has not improved and dealing with the (very expensive) vet has been a comedy of errors. I’d left a message for vet giving cell# because the batteries in both landline handsets died simultaneously. Went to get new batteries and found out the next day that vet had called the landline, not the cell as instructed, while we were out getting new batteries. Hopefully they will come through today with a new prescription they promised yesterday but never filled as promised. Appetite stimulant. Josey going back to vet’s office on Saturday. Cha-ching$
S.A.D. sucks, sorry you know that already, AL! And all fellow sufferers too.
Geminid
@Rusty: “Traveller” posted some analysis on Wray’s resignation at the end of yesterday’s Wray thread. It was that by resigning, Wray will prevent Trump from firing him and then immediately replacing him with Kash Patel.
It’s a technical argument and I won’t get into details, but if true it puts Wray’s resignation in a whole new light.
Suzanne
@Rusty: From what I have read, Wray’s resignation means that Kash Patel will have to go through the full confirmation process and can’t be appointed. So, given the reality, resigning is probably the least-bad option.
We’re going to be dealing with a lot of “least-bad options given the reality in which we find ourselves” in the upcoming years.
prostratedragon
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
From the White House:
JML
I hope Biden approves so many new rules and regulations that the moron crew spends the next 2 years trying to figure out which ones to undo and the Senate’s inability to accomplish anything slows down repeals to a crawl. Let these slimeballs spend all their time trying to repeal popular policies and accomplishing nothing. (does anyone actually think these idiots can pass a budget? they have a smaller margin than ever, the dem caucus is solid, and a bunch of these elected absolutely despise each other and only care about clawing their way into the spotlight.)
Quinerly
Drove down to Nogales, AZ yesterday. Good sized border town. I checked some stats before adding my observations to this thread. Most here probably know that Nogales is a port of entry on the Mexican border and is Arizona’s largest international border community. It’s also a major trade hub for produce and manufactured goods.
The town on the AZ side has a population of under 20,000. It is 95% Hispanic.
I had a nice lunch at a Mexican seafood restaurant…. recommended at the Visitor’s Center. It was on my list but I wanted to verify with a local. It’s in an alley on a gravel road. Kinda a shack with indoor seating, a patio set up marked for customers there with their dogs (very cute), bathrooms and handwashing outside. Parking lot full of fire and police department vehicles and ICE and Border Control vehicles. Everyone in the restaurant, patrons and employees, were Hispanic. Employees didn’t speak English. I had a brief chat with a young man in the fire department. He’s looking forward to a big Christmas. Great smile.
Drove all around Nogales. I like to check out cemeteries and housing stock. I had no idea how hilly Nogales was. Huge, colorful cemetery.
Trump/Vance signs everywhere… in front of homes and businesses.
Professor Bigfoot
I know this will infuriate a number of my fellow Jackals, but I don’t give a fuck:
We’re talking about how “Americans” voted for the mango menace once again, but you white people need to remember: “In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.”
It’s WHITE PEOPLE, it’s always been WHITE PEOPLE, and the fact that white people are unable to grapple with the tendencies of their demographic is why we have President Elect Trump right the fuck now.
TBone
The coveted Award (they also nominated Hitler in 1938 and he made the cover):
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-time-person-of-the-year-2024/
Chief Oshkosh
@Suzanne: And worse, they think they are being rational. Sometimes, when I walk some of my relatives or work associates through a particular path of their stupidity, sometimes, they ‘get it.’
I’m sure not saying I’m the smartest guy out there, nor that I’m the sharpest thinker – I’ve worked with way too many people who were or are much, much sharper (and nicer about it). BUT, there is much to the adage:
“Conservatives are not necessarily stupid*, but most stupid people are conservatives…”
*I think this should be changed from “stupid” to “unthinking, mean” because I’ve associated with a lot of people, many of them socioeconomically successful, who I am sure would score poorly on standard IQ tests, but being kind and considerate made all the difference in their lives and those of everyone around them.
prostratedragon
Before I Forget, Manchinema edition
JPL
Watch for Russia, Saudi and China to take advantage of his offer. Fox will say trump is a savvy businessmen allowing his buddies to build planes and such. Then they won’t have to hijack them.
TBone
@Quinerly: I posted about it (a link) the other day, it was in Reuters too. My headline said “Everything is for sale.”
Quinerly
@Tony G:
Firehose of corruption and outrages coming at us.
No way an average, normie can keep up. Most people will just time out.
TBone
@Chief Oshkosh:
The quote by Stephen Colbert, “Reality has a well-known liberal bias,” is a thought-provoking statement that highlights a common observation: that the truth often aligns with liberal or progressive values.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
JPL
@Quinerly: trump comes across as the tough bully, and that’s all they care about. trump is so tough that he refused to debate the VP again.
gene108
@Professor Bigfoot:
I think it’s also the fact 60% of the population is white, with percentages much higher in several states.
There’s no getting around needing to appeal to white people to win elections. They are the largest voting bloc in the country.
A lot of them live in a right-wing media fueled alternate reality. I have no idea how to handle this.
TBone
@rikyrah: good morning!
NotMax
@Quinerly
DOGB.
Department of Government Baksheesh.
WereBear
Before hating winter do check your vitamin D since MOST are deficient. After forty we don’t make it like we used to. And if you are pale, that is why. D3 is a hormone so supplements work.
Magnesium status is harder to test but our soil is deficient. Since it’s a mineral, supplements work. CHELATED. Not leafy green vegetables, nuts, seeds, and legumes. They don’t have it as bio available as once thought, and they get it from soil which is usually mineral deficient and petroleum fertilizer does not provide.
Cramps, headaches. constipation & digestive issyes, lowered moods and energy are symptoms. Because it’s used for 600 electrical processes. Start slow and see how you feel.
My cold tolerance is really good now.
TBone
@Quinerly: great field report, thank you.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Starfish (she/her)
It turned out that the $1 extra that people were paying for the burritos was being stuffed into the pockets of the CEO and not given to that cashier. Also, burrito costs are going up next year.
Quinerly
@TBone:
I figured it had to have been posted. Under the best circumstances, retired me just doesn’t have the time to spend hrs and hrs everyday on BJ reading and posting. I can give it about an hr a day when at home. Oddly, more time now because I am traveling. I am up most days at 4AM no matter where I am. Just more time in the AM when road tripping.
Did see your comments this AM on an old thread about your hubby. Glad the insurance got straightened out.
Professor Bigfoot
@gene108: To be honest, I HOPED that all the “white guys for Harris” and “white women for Harris” zooms and such showed that white people were ready to move beyond white supremacy.
I was wrong. White people LIKE white supremacy; and there’s absolutely NO reason why any of us should expect anything other from the vast majority of them.
gene108
@WereBear:
I’ve had Mg and D3 tested via a bloodwork. If you think it might be an issue, see your doctor and ask to have those tests included in lab work along with the metabolic panel that’s usually ordered by the doctor.
thethinblackduke
@Professor Bigfoot: Thank you.
Kay
This hagiography of Biden baffles me. I absolutely agree he was great on domestic issues (much less great on foreign policy and practice – Gaza is a stain that will never be erased) but I don’t know why his biggest fans insist he be recognized as “good”. I don’t remember anyone doing this constant moral grandstanding with either Clinton or Obama. Is it because of a comparison with Trump? Doesn’t almost anyone beat Trump on character?
Professor Bigfoot
@WereBear: I’ve ALWAYS been the cold one, for years and years; and I hated winter just for that. (I didn’t much like summer either, because I had to dress for warm outside but to be cold AF while in the office;) and last year I was diagnosed as iron deficient.
After a whole SLEW of VARIOUS tests as she tried to figure out WHY I was anemic found *nothing,* she had me start taking iron pills (was already doing the Vitamin D).
And to my own amazement, now I’m not the coldest one around anymore.
I don’t LIKE it, mind, but I can handle it better. ;)
Professor Bigfoot
@Kay: Perhaps, but the vast majority of white Americans voted for Trump anyway.
Quinerly
@TBone:
Thanks. I am afraid my “wandering around with my dog, looking at things, and talking to strangers” will catch up with me at some point. Wrong place, wrong time kinda thing. So far only that crazy, old White store owner in Mayhill, NM pulling out his gun and fondling it while screaming at me has been my closest call (2017). If you can even call it a close call. It seems I was the only one around who didn’t know he was crazy. He had even been on CNN for being old White, crazy Obama hater/Trump lover.
Quinerly
@Kay:
Great comment.
Professor Bigfoot
@Quinerly: Conservatives are the real violent part of our society.
They’re unwilling or unable to live peacefully with their neighbors who look, believe, or love differently from themselves; and they’re always, but always itching to turn to violence against them.
Conservatism is nothing more than the defense of straight white male Christian domination of all aspects of American society and culture.
WereBear
@Professor Bigfoot: Probably need a genetic tendency to LIKE it.
Kay
@Professor Bigfoot:
But what does that have to do with the constant invocation of Biden’s personal “goodness”?
Bush supporters used to say that. They would tell me over and over what a ” good man” he was. Like they couldn’t be satisfied with just Right wing policy – it had to spring from a pure heart or something. I was always a little uncomfortable with it.
WereBear
Seems that Trumpists were fine with getting rid of Obamacare because they had the ACA for white people.
Joey Maloney
This is the nub of it, and I think the de-propagandizing is going to be a generational problem.
Nelle
@stinger: I had a friend who went between Wyoming for Northern summer and New Zealand for Southern summer. Twenty-five years of constant summer when I knew him.
Professor Bigfoot
@WereBear: There are those dudes who run around in mid-winter with sandals and shorts– my wife’s son-in-law– excuse me, that wretched man that married her daughter and fathered her granddaughter— is one of ’em. That boy only loves it outside when it’s below freezing.
Weird MF. LOL
TBone
@Quinerly: thanks, we are glad too!
I’m always in favor of anyone posting or reposting things that deserve attention and that billion dollar bribery scheme fits the description!
Professor Bigfoot
@Kay: In the same sense that “it ain’t name calling when it accurately reflects the facts on the ground,” perhaps it isn’t a hagiography when people talk about Biden being a *good man.*
That’s not just in comparison to Trump.
That’s in comparison to American white men in general.
The majority of them are wretched beings, pro Trumpers, misogynists, white supremacists, Christian nationalists.
Joe’s a *devout* Christian who believes in the right of EVERY human to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Unlike most white men.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
Seasonal affective disorder? Maybe. Can’t be too closely tied to ambient temperatures, because I’m definitely feeling it even though it’s almost summer-like temps here in Athens. I just don’t have the energy to deal with any of it today. I put it down to rage-induced exhaustion, but maybe SAD explains it. At least partially. All I know is that I dread the thought of reading the news, and see no respite over the next several years – my parents have both said they don’t expect to see the end of it before they die.
I have a horrible feeling that my general horrible feelings and helplessness are an intended consequence on the part of the fascists and their enablers.
TBone
@Professor Bigfoot: what is this “vast majority” of which you speak? It was almost a tie.
Professor Bigfoot
@TBone: If it was actually a tie then Harris would have won.
No, the majority of white people went for Trump; and I judge them thusly.
Now of course, if you want to intone the infamous “not all white people,” then I can reply “of course not all of you. Just so goddamn many of you that we are only rational to assume it of any one of you we run across, until proven otherwise.”
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
TBone
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: S.A.D. is not the result of temperature – it is the result of less sunlight.
And yes, the fascists count on us being exhausted by the shit-flooded zone. Hang in there and take breaks too.
WereBear
@Professor Bigfoot: I think that’s very much to do with it.
Character, at least visible evidence, used to be a compelling reason for choice. We had it thrown in our face. At first.
Trained in denial from childhood. That’s their cultures’ martial art.
TBone
@Professor Bigfoot: not tryna argue, I just get annoyed when it looks like Donold’s pipe dream notions of “landslide” and hence “mandate” are taken seriously when he barely eked out the win.
Jay
@TBone:
While the overall vote was pretty much a tie, Whipple, male and female went for Dolt 45 by a majority.
TBone
@Jay: don’t squeeze the Charmin!
(I don’t care what color rump voters are, they can ALL suck my used toilet paper.)
Roberto el oso
@rikyrah: one of the reasons I finally unlurked and started commenting was so that one day I would actually be up early enough to greet you back :)
Today is that day …
so …. good morning!
Starfish (she/her)
@Kay:
@Professor Bigfoot:
Every morning, we have selective tweets from randos telling us how great Biden is, and this type of post continues to feed the fires of political division. This one is better than most because it is leaning into the BlueSky and less into Elon’s Nazi Safe Space.
At this point, Biden is a lame duck. He is a lame duck who chose to run for a second term, and we don’t know what could have happened if he didn’t choose to run for a second term.
But instead of grappling with anything future oriented, we have to see posts filled with tweets from randos about how great he is.
We could get a constitutional amendment that adds an upper age limit for running for President, but instead we get this. Every day.
TBone
@Roberto el oso: aww that is very sweet.
Quinerly
@Quinerly:
To continue a bit…to add to my comment at 24.
I am staying in a very Trumpy area of AZ. Near Sierra Vista which has an army base (Ft. Huachuca). Going back over to Bisbee to shake off so many Trump signs with the old hippies who started migrating there in the 1970’s . Although Bisbee has become very gentrified with folks from Tucson buying up those old miner cabins for second homes. At the height of the market, a 1000 sq ft “cottage” in the heart of Bisbee was going for 1/2 million (at least that’s what I was told in February). I’m a getting a little off track….
Obviously, it was very disconcerting seeing Trump signs in the Nogales border community that is 95% Hispanic.
Yes, this country has a huge racism problem. And misogyny was at play in this election. But if those yard signs left up a month after election are an indicator, it’s not just White people who elected Trump. I just don’t think those Hispanic Trump supporters in Nogales would have stuck with Biden.
I’m not picking on Nogales nor am I slamming Hispanics. Just observing…..looking around. I was also l startled to see Trump signs in Columbus, NM on this trip. They were not there in February when I drove those back roads. Population less than 2000. 84% Hispanic. (Columbus is an interesting little village with a lot of history. Pancho Villa raids….Wiki can give you a basic background. Sweet museum and a NM state park with camping named after Pancho. 3 miles from the border).
TBone
J.F.K.
mardam422
@Rusty: No one ever has the obligation to be the hero. But…isn’t that what a hero is? Someone who steps up without obligation?
You? You don’t have the obligation, either.
Me? Nor do I.
If no one is the hero…who is the hero?
@Rusty:
Professor Bigfoot
@TBone: I understand, but I’m speaking of the majority of WHITE PEOPLE who voted fort him.
Black people and Jews voted HARD against him.
He only won because WHITE PEOPLE support him.
Professor Bigfoot
@Starfish (she/her): To be honest, I think a LOT of this comes down to just how comfortable Joe Biden is with *Black people.*
The majority of white people *do not like this.
David Collier-Brown
@TBone:
It used to be a conservative saying that “we have only one world, and we all have to live in it” That was originally meant to argue that nothing could be changed, but it really says that you can’t just make up your own world out of lies.
See also Mary Midgley for a different take on it: “Morally as well as physically, there is only one world, and we all have to live in it.”
H.E.Wolf
Oh yes. True of authoritarians, time out of mind.
As Mister Rogers said, “Look for the helpers” – and better yet, become one of them.
Taking an action, completing one small, concrete task, can make a difference for the better in one’s own mood.
(Those who scoff are invited to try it and see what happens. At worst, they will have helped someone else without feeling better themselves.)
artem1s
Billionaire Medicaid Tax Dodge
Let’s not forget Joe refunded the IRS and they were able to collect billions in uppaid taxes from the super rich. No one will ever be able to convince me that the push to oust Joe wasn’t largely because he announced intentions to make Billionaires pay their fair share. And his plans to tax AI and crypto server farms for their excessive drain on the energy grid and tax hedge fund managers brokerage fees. If we want Joe’s legacy to live on and not be besmirched by the GOP misinformation war, those ‘fair share’ policies need to become central to the Democratic platform.
cmorenc
@Professor Bigfoot:
Conservatism is about attempting to construct a more impressive intellectual framework around the core principle of IGMFY. Among the things too many withe “conservative” folks consider “mine” is preservation of their dominant place atop the socioeconomic hierarchy, and preservation of their bank accounts against being drained off by undeserving others, of whom they stubbornly presume are much more usually nonwhite than white. As they present their medicare cards at their doctors and hospital visits to pay for most of their ailments.
Doug R
@stinger:
I think that’s why we have so many family gathering holidays then, to stave off depression. I mean Christmas evolved from a solstice celebration culminating in a huge bonfire.
Geminid
Laura Rozen, who is on Twitter and BlueSky, reposted this item about a one-woman concert in Tehran:
Parastoo Ahmadi livestreamed her concert from an empty caravanserie courtyard. It’s out now on platforms including YouTube. I’m hoping someone with better skills than mine will listen to one of the several YouTube clips and link to it.
Ms. Ahmadi is a courageous woman, and quite a singer as well.
Denali5
I am a little tired of reading that the majority of white women voted for TFG. Could we not break it down into the majority of Republican white women. I am pretty sure that the majority of Democratic white women voted for Harris.
TBone
@David Collier-Brown: Putin should take note.
RevRick
@Tony G: Family Systems Theory calls that homeostasis, which means when the anxiety level of a system or the people in it reach a certain level, the system will drive it back to the comfort zone.
LAC
@Rusty: I am going to share your unpopular take. All this hand wringing over government officials heading for the exits ahead of this upcoming bullshit because we as voters DID NOT DO THE GODDAMN JOB! All this posing about what we are concerned about and still that mango mussolini is back for “Stupid Fascism II: Electric Boogaloo”.
Some of us survived working in his previous administration by the skin of teeth. Kept our heads down and worked our asses off, while our agency leadership was dragged up to the Hill, to face congressional hearings run by idiots. And yet, the average voter knows more about the Kardashians than what federal agencies do.
And what made Joe Biden great was that he was boring (in a good way) and competent and had, for the most part, “boring” and competent people around him. That made it possible for us to do our jobs on behalf of the citizens in this country.
Anyhoo, rant is over. Got a meeting…
Baud
@Starfish (she/her):
Sounds like you should skip the morning threads and focus on the multiple posts mistermix puts up. Complaining about AL content is pretty gross.
TBone
@Denali5: it also depends on where you get the news. For instance, this headline:
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-black-voters-gains-results-1982939
Words matter more than color of skin in my world. No I don’t think Newsweek is a good source. But they love them some clickbait.
Starfish (she/her)
@Professor Bigfoot: None of these posts are about Black people. They are about talking about how great Joe Biden is in the present.
Joe Biden’s legacy is complicated.
His treatment of Anita Hill did not cover him in glory, but he was a vice president to a Black president. He supported the presidential candidacy of a Black woman. He appointed many Black judges, and we would be hearing about their accomplishments and not about how great Joe Biden is if this was about Black people.
Quinerly
@Starfish (she/her):
My beef is with the same 2-4 commenters who are sure that an unpopular president with never much over 40% approval rating would have won. My question is if they are such brilliant political strategists why are they commenting on an obscure blog and not out there making 6 figures “advising.”
And, I’m not trying to blow up this thread. I mostly have started ignoring nyms when I see them commenting. I don’t doubt there are some here who feel the same about me. Doesn’t matter. I don’t get my strokes from BJ admiration. Thankfully.
It’s refreshing to see your comments and Kay’s…..and a few others pushing back on some of this bullshit.
Have a wonderful day.
Denali5
President Biden is a good man. He is not perfect-see Gaza. Character should matter, and one of my deepest disappointments is that voters seem to confuse good with weak. Of course, we want a strong leader, but a strong leader would stand up to Putin and not bow down.
TBone
@RevRick: related to osmosis, methinks.
We need thicker outer membranes.
TBone
@LAC: thank you for your service.
zhena gogolia
@Professor Bigfoot: It doesn’t infuriate me. I mean, the fact infuriates me, but your comment doesn’t.
Quinerly
@Geminid:
Thanks.
Bookmarked this.
Saw your hiking suggestions and your story on a dead thread. Thanks!
H.E.Wolf
Speaking of small, concrete tasks: a postcard GOTV campaign just commenced for a Jan. 7th special election in VA.
Democrat Kannan Srinivasan, a member of the VA House of Delegates, is running for VA State Senate, to replace Democrat Suhas Subramanyam who was just elected to Congress.
Postcards To Voters is writing for Srinivasan.
Volunteers provide their own cards and stamps.
The organization provides:
– addresses
– 3 required sentences to write
– 3 business days in which to send them.
Minimum is 4 addresses.
https://postcardstovoters.org/volunteer/
To hell with helplessness. I will do 5 cards.
Geminid
@H.E.Wolf: Good morning, H.E. I hope you saw my long reply to you the other morning, on the thread about Deb Haaland. I managed to give a shout-out to Xochitl Torres Small!
And while I’m at it, I’ve always wondered about your initials H.E. Do they stand for “High Explosive”?
zhena gogolia
@Starfish (she/her): Yes, how dare a highly successful and competent incumbent president run for a second term. Goddammit.
zhena gogolia
And now we’re going to get scolded for “relitigating” when IT’S ALWAYS THE OTHER SIDE WHO START THIS SHIT
zhena gogolia
@Professor Bigfoot: Amen.
Don’t forget those white women whose rage over Dobbs was going to give us a landslide.
TBone
@prostratedragon: thank you for that.
Professor Bigfoot
@Quinerly: Well… Rafael Cruz and Marco Rubio both identify as *white,* so perhaps calling these folks “Hispanic” hides the fact that they identify as white, and aspire to the privileges of whiteness.
Much like the Italians and the Irish during their immigration waves— they weren’t white until they adopted anti-Blackness, which is why we have the stereotypes of the “beefy Irish beat cop” and the “wily Italian detective.”
Quinerly
NYT reporting Kari Lake tapped to lead Voice of America.
TBone
Apparently, we’re still falling for the oldest trick in the book: divide and conquer.
TBone
@Quinerly: lol snort!
Professor Bigfoot
@cmorenc: I refer to Americans; in the same way that “authoritarian” presents in this country simply as “white supremacy,” and the majority of white Americans simply do not see their white privilege and will take umbrage if its mentioned to them.
American conservatives fight to maintain straight white male Christian domination of American society and culture.
Lynn Dee
Kipling has a lot of appeal. His is a simpler world if you give yourself over to it, one that can comfort and sustain when you have to “go it alone.” And therefore one that can lend itself to hubris. It has been both the strength and (sometimes tragic) flaw of many, perhaps including Biden.
Another Scott
Hang in there, everyone. Pace yourselves.
Best wishes,
Scott.
TBone
@Lynn Dee: I have adored and identified with Rikki Tikki Tavi since childhood.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
Professor Bigfoot
@TBone: It’s the lie that whiteness will always fashion to protect its privileges.
Baud
@Another Scott:
What’s up with the anti-reincarnation stance?
TBone
@Another Scott: good one! My track record of surving shit that usually kills mere mortals is 100% so far hahahaha!
Professor Bigfoot
@Starfish (she/her): It’s about how uncomfortable the majority of you are with Black people and with those who white people who ARE comfortable with folks who ain’t straight white and Christian.
Joe gives love and respect to everyone, even the hated Black people… and the majority of you simply aren’t comfortable with this.
TBone
@Professor Bigfoot: 🎯
Disclosure: as a yute, I spent some considerable time in emergency foster care with a Black family in a “ghetto” section of DelCo (City of Chester). The family was matriarchal so yeah, a Black woman saved my ass.
matt
@Quinerly: running a propaganda network seems like a pretty appropriate job for the lie lady.
PJ
@zhena gogolia: These people never liked Biden to begin with, and resented him getting elected (even if they occasionally begrudgingly acknowledge his accomplishments), but what really irks them is that others don’t agree with them and think he’s an appropriate chew toy for their anger. They need him to be the scapegoat for why Trump got elected again, why the Israelis destroyed Gaza, or why they feel crappy this morning, and it disturbs them that not everyone thinks like they do.
Chris Johnson
@TBone: Bingo.
Sometimes I wonder what the working trolls are doing over on our side when they’re not trying to keep the Republicans in line, and sometimes I really REALLY don’t wonder at all.
WereBear
@Lynn Dee: We’re all suffering under White Supremacy, including them.
Turns some grasshoppers into locusts under population pressure. People might be the same way.
On the other hand, half the House is going to become one big squirming ball of grasping careerism not unlike a Rat King.
If you don’t know, you don’t want to know.
But I’m sure a man who trusts his pron usage to his child is a good leadership choice. We’ll have a big complicated bill put together in no time!
Reminds me of those groups in college who wound up with no one competent to put the work on.
Lyrebird
I hoped that too..
I wish I had any “weird trick” etc to propose… when I hear calls for non-supremacist mayo nation peeps like myself to change MAGA minds, I just think of Sen. Warren, Sandra Flook, and others who have at times managed to strengthen the bigots side when they spoke up.
And especially with a multiracial family, I am not willing to put them through us moving back to MAGA land.
Professor Bigfoot
@PJ: There are those who have not and will never forgive Jim Clyburn and his demographic for bringing them Biden over Blessed Saint Bernard.
RevRick
@Chief Oshkosh: Have you ever read Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s mini essay on stupidity? He says that, in some ways, stupidity is worse than evil and is often a social phenomenon.
TBone
@Chris Johnson: thanks.
If we don’t stand together for something, we’ll fall for anything. (Paraphrased and made my own.)
Plurality was the recent theme by President Obama for a reason.
John S.
@gene108:
@Professor Bigfoot:
Jews as a demographic voted very strongly for Harris — something like 80%.
I know white people don’t consider us to be white, though many of us sure as hell look white on the outside. But the voting behavior also suggests that we are not white. I have to believe that being an oppressed minority group keeps us humble enough to not behave like white people.
A lot of that 20% who voted for Trump did so because of Israel. Biden’s lackluster handling of the crisis in Gaza also animated them, just for a very different reason than what is usually mentioned on the left.
TBone
@RevRick: don’t forget Hannah Arendt on that subject also too, please.
Professor Bigfoot
@WereBear: this, this right here, is one of the most painful aspects of living under white supremacy— it’s also bad for white people!
There’s a reason why the prayer, “Lord grant me the confidence of a mediocre white man” is even a thing!
PJ
@Lynn Dee: Whatever flaws you attribute to Biden, I don’t think you can blame a poet who’s been dead for almost 100 years for them. (And Biden always quotes Irish poets – I don’t recall him quoting any British ones.)
Melancholy Jaques
@Professor Bigfoot:
Hard to talk people out of a narrative that says they are #1.
Professor Bigfoot
@John S.: I’ve noted elsewhere that when Jews began immigrating to the US in the early 20th century, they found Black people suffering from the exact same pogroms and oppression under Jim Crow that they were escaping in Europe.
And that’s why Black people and Jews have been friends and allies for the last hundred years, despite every effort on the part of Nazis and Confederates to separate us.
Starfish (she/her)
@Professor Bigfoot: Telling everyone that they are racist and homophobic for not liking your favorite aged Presidential candidate is presumptuous. It presumes that you know the race, sexual orientation, and religion of the folks you are talking to. You are wrong on most of these things.
The way you are using “diversity and inclusion” as a cudgel against people who do not 😍😍 Joe Biden is ridiculous. I would quit telling you that you are ridiculous IF I saw positive uplift of minoritized folks happening, but that is not what is going on here.
Omnes Omnibus
If we are quoting English poets this morning, I would like to toss in something that IMO fits a good number of comment in this thread. “Terence, this is stupid stuff.”
Professor Bigfoot
@Melancholy Jaques: Can’t say it’s not *understandable…* but it’s still pretty fucking despicable.
So yeah, maybe putting Jim Crow back into effect is the best possible outcome… for white people.
Lyrebird
And me I will never forgive the Bernie staffer (Mike something maybe? I don’t know) who called SC Dems “low info voters” or something, people who have been voting strategically for decades & who were fighting strategically before that to be able to vote at all.
I guess all I can do is to continue to try to emulate those same strategic voters and keep pushing
Professor Bigfoot
@Starfish (she/her): Listen, and please listen carefully:
We all KNOW IT’S NOT ALL WHITE PEOPLE.
But it is so goddamn many of you that we are only RATIONAL BEINGS to assume it of any one of you that we run across, until demonstrated otherwise.
This last election showed Black folks exactly what white people think of us, so… *I said what I fucking said.
John S.
@zhena gogolia:
Respectfully, there is no other side. We are all Democrats here (for the most part) who despise Trump and the Republicans.
Please stop with the faction talk. That’s not how we remain united.
@TBone:
Exactly.
Quiltingfool
The comments here are very enlightening for me, in that I really think about my white privilege and that grace or fairness or a level playing field isn’t extended to all. I understand not trusting white people, I do. Why would you? Many white folks have destroyed any trust because of the desire to be superior over non-whites.
As a woman, I live in a world where women have to be flawless* to be considered as competent as the most mediocre man. We have to have a thick skin and fearlessness that many men don’t have to have to succeed. I’ve seen it and I’ve experienced it personally. It is so much worse for people of color. So, yes, I get the complete lack of trust that POC have towards white folk; I feel that way towards men most of the time. Even very good men can say or do things that cause me to freeze up a bit at the casual misogyny.
* There are incompetent women who attain high status because they have an appeal of some sort to status men. I’m not going to go into detail, well, you know, it isn’t after dark here!
Well, hate to leave such fine company, but our furnace went kaput last week and we finally got an affordable bid on a new unit, so time to scrabble some money together for a down payment and get the ball rolling. We are lucky we have a propane fireplace, and we put a couple of space heaters in the basement so the house temperature has been fine. Plus, the weather here has been okay, no subzero temperatures.
Doug R
@Rusty:
…and Wray was appointed by Trump-not that he’s been helpful in any attempts to take Trump down.
Professor Bigfoot
@Lyrebird: It’s this entirely. Like we don’t see, recognize, and understand the role of whiteness in these decisions.
White people* are congenitally incapable of grappling with the role of whiteness in their lives.
(*Obligatory “not all”)
Roberto el oso
@Professor Bigfoot: excellent point about Clyburn’s influence in the Biden-Bernie contest.
H.E.Wolf
Oh nooooo! I missed it. Which morning? I’ll go back and read it ASAP.
H.E. stands for [super sekrit] [I’m not saying], but High Explosive is a delightful alternative. :-)
ETA: Oh, you said “thread about Deb Haaland”. I’ll go and look.
TBone
@Quiltingfool: great comment and I wish you all the furnace success!
(Sometimes even my beloved hubby gets deservedly smacked upside the head.)
Omnes Omnibus
@Starfish (she/her): He didn’t tell everyone that they are racist and homophobic. He talked about the documented fact that the majority of white people who voted chose Trump. The majority of white people on this blog almost certainly didn’t, but we are outliers in a lot of ways. The vast majority of my close family (I have my suspicions about a first cousin) didn’t. My friends didn’t. I didn’t. But most white people did.
Chief Oshkosh
@RevRick: I have not read that piece. I’ll look it up. Thanks.
H.E.Wolf
@Omnes Omnibus:
Thank you for bringing a big smile to my face this AM.
May it one very far-distant day be said: Omnes Omnibus, he died old.
Belafon
@Kay: You know how the murdered CEO was a stand-in for the entire health care industry? Biden is a stand-in for a lot of people’s attempts to try to make things better. And people are reminiscing about what has been done before we experience what is about to come.
Quinerly
@Starfish (she/her):
Some of this stuff/generalizations are ridiculous. I am a White woman who grew up in the segregated South in NC. Born 1961. My White Father who was born in the Deep South in 1922 broke curfew in the mid 1960’s to take me to a Black church to hear Rev Ralph Abernathy to preach. I have more stories of being a White woman with White parents.
My feelings about Biden has nothing to do with B/W. I supported him in 1988, 2008, and 2020. I wanted him to run in 2016.
I dislike Bernie Sanders.
Biden should have passed the torch after the midterms. Obvious reasons.
RevRick
@Professor Bigfoot: Kamala Harris received the same percentage of white votes as Biden did. What changed was the shape of the electorate, with three million more whites and fewer blacks, Hispanics and Asian voters. White people increased their share of the electorate for the first time this century.
prostratedragon
@Geminid:
This might be Parastoo Ahmadi’s concert
Rusty
@mardam422:
Heros aren’t going to fix our problems, and waiting around for one means we aren’t doing what we can. Thinking someone can show up on a white horse and wave a magic wand to solve everything you don’t like it some of what got into this problem in the first place. Lots of people voted for Trump because he is going to fix it all for them and they can just sit back. We don’t need the same on our side. Stuff gets fixed by going to meetings, working together, figuring out how the system works, building consensus and more. The sooner we start, the better.
Chris
@Chief Oshkosh:
Always thought that line was backwards.
Stupid people pop up everywhere. The remarkable thing about modern conservatism isn’t that it has stupid people. It’s the extent to which it has nothing but stupid people, and/or people who even if they know better have to nonetheless act stupid in order to not get excommunicated.
Stupid people are not necessarily conservative, but most conservatives are stupid.
TBone
@RevRick: also I wonder about the success of voter intimidation tactics and outright suppression in many areas. As well.
Ceci7
@Professor Bigfoot: So much umbrage. Just observing in this thread how often white folks demand to be spoken to (or about) in a certain way.
John S.
@Omnes Omnibus:
So many of us here are outliers in so many ways, but that’s what usually unites the BJ community.
Of my 5 siblings, I am literally the only liberal in the bunch. Most of my Gen X cohort are also very conservative. And of course despite being Jewish while looking white, I am often ashamed at the tendencies of many white people.
@Quinerly:
You seem to be an outlier, too. 😊
Geminid
@Geminid: Laura Rozen reposted some other good stuff last night. One was about Syrian leader Mohammed al-Jolani, from John Heltiwanger:
There is a link to a Q&A between Heltiwanger and Zelen published by Foreign Policy magazine. Unfortunately it is paywalled.
Rozen also posted this from Syrian reporter Sarah Dadouch:
Ms. Dadouch linked to her story in the Financial Times which of course is also paywalled.
But this meeting will be reported by many news sites, from the BBC to Sham News. Evidently Syria’s interim Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir inintroduced some of his new ministers.
Belafon
@Starfish (she/her):
So, why are you in this thread? You know Anne likes these. And you know it’s selection bias, and, if you’ve been on bsky, you know it’s not a majority opinion.
Belafon
@RevRick: Voter suppression worked, it seems.
RevRick
@Joey Maloney: There’s a huge rightwing ecosystem, and we need to finance a counter one of liberals to push our message in all directions. People like Brian Tyler Cohen and Politics Girl should be given bigger stages.
Radio Dave
@Professor Bigfoot: Hard Agree.
Aussie Sheila
@RevRick:
Stupidity is always worse, because at least with evil there is some rationale. If it’s grounded in someone’s nature its predictable and able to be avoided or mitigated.
But there’s nothing to be done with ‘stupid’.
Nothing. It’s random, dangerous and boring all at the same time.
Kathleen
@stinger: My seasonal marker (winter depresses me) is February, when pitchers and catchers report for the beginning of spring training.
Quinerly
@John S.:
I prefer “odd duck.”
H.E.Wolf
@Geminid: Thank you! I read your biographical comment about Deb Haaland with great pleasure… and of course I was delighted by the shout-out to Xochitl Torres Small!
Well worth a re-read, if anyone wants a lift to their spirits and an infusion of “can do” tenacity.
https://balloon-juice.com/2024/12/10/tuesday-morning-open-thread-president-biden-in-indian-country/#comment-9458169
Soprano2
Wouldn’t all of these things be popular with the people who voted for TCFG? In fact, they would be wildly popular with the average person in the U.S. TCFG would be smart to let them take effect and then take credit for them. The fact that R’s are talking about undoing all of it tells you who they really care about. Democrats should holler loudly about all of it.
Chris
@TBone:
Honestly, this is tautological. One of the founding principles of liberal and progressive values is that whatever those values are, they should be based on empirical reality. Reality has a liberal bias because liberals think reality matters and conservatives don’t.
Professor Bigfoot
@Omnes Omnibus: This is one of the symptoms of whiteness— the inability of white people to see anything referring to their demographics documented tendencies is an unwarranted attack on them, personally.
I’ve never had one give me a good reply for “why do YOU, PERSONALLY, feel attacked? Did you know that ‘hit dogs holler’?”
Geminid
@Lyrebird: You are likely thinking about documenter maker Michael Moore. He was more of a surrogate for the Sanders campaign than a staffer, but Moore is the who uttered that appalling insult to Black South Carolinians.
Professor Bigfoot
@RevRick: SO, once again, it’s white people.
Thank you.
RevRick
@TBone: I’m sure that played a role, but that doesn’t explain the huge rightward shift in voting in the poorest (read Hispanic) neighborhoods in Philadelphia, nor in places like Hudson county in NJ or in cites like Passaic, NJ or Lowell, Massachusetts. Or in Nogales, AZ and the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
Harris lost her election by 230,000 votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. All of which are under Democratic control.
TBone
On Hannah Arendt
https://www.loc.gov/collections/hannah-arendt-papers/articles-and-essays/evil-the-crime-against-humanity/
Sounds familiar somehow…
Quiltingfool
@John S.: You know, I’ve never understood why, in the history of the world, Jewish people get so much hate. I just don’t get it.
I was raised Southern Baptist (hoo, boy, don’t get me started) and was never around anyone Jewish, until my 20’s, when I was a secretary for a real estate developer (Jewish, but not devout) and then an attorney (Jewish, very devout). Guess what I learned? Jewish folk are pretty much like non-Jewish folk, except they have different worship practices, if they do worship. I was intrigued learning about it. But I didn’t see how that difference in worship inspired hate.
Now did I want to convert? No, I’m a pretty crappy Christian, and my outlook on organized religion would set the hair of the Southern Baptist (or any other denomination) folk on fire! I think it takes work to be one of the faithful, and I am way too questioning and cynical to swallow dogma uncritically. Then again, rabbis are trained to think critically, so…
The attorney I worked for had a guy come in the office (about what, I can’t remember) and the guy was really leaning hard on his “I’m A Good Christian, Jesus Is My Buddy” cred. After he left my boss said, “After talking to that guy, I had to check if I still had my wallet and rings.” I snorted and said, “Yep, I grew up with those folk, know what you mean!”
Soprano2
@Starfish (she/her): I read that American Apparel did that experiment when they were bought out. They sold some things that were identical, only one was made in USA and one wasn’t. The Made in USA one was a few dollars more. After a couple of years, they quietly dropped the “Made in USA” ones because they didn’t sell. Turns out people aren’t willing to pay a little more for “Made in USA”, no matter how much they say they are. They want “Made in USA” for the same price as stuff made overseas, and that’s impossible.
Professor Bigfoot
@Soprano2: It doesn’t matter.
It just doesn’t matter.
What matters is that they never have to look “up” to a woman or a Black person. That they never have one of their inferiors somehow “over them.”
NOTHING ELSE MATTERS to the majority of white voters, *as evidenced by this past election.
TBone
@RevRick: yes, I was wondering about it as one of many contributing factors.
WereBear
@RevRick: yes, two favorites.
Quinerly
@RevRick:
Yep. Keep posting this. Maybe some will finally read it.
I blame lots of White people not voting or voting for Trump and against their own interests. I blame those Hispanics and Blacks who have voted against their own interests.
And, I blame Biden and his old White man’s ego for not stepping aside after the mid terms.
There’s a lot of blame we all can throw around. I gots it to sling.
Thanks for your comments. I always look for your nym on threads.
frosty
@Kay: IMHO the hagiography is because he could get progressive bills through Congress with no margin for error. I also think that the commentariat here gives him credit for finally getting us out of Afghanistan – I know I do. We are the only ones in the country who feel that way, though.
Other foreign policy? He (or his cabinet) fucked up in Ukraine and Gaza.
Plus, he looks bad-ass in Ray-Ban aviators.
John S.
@Quinerly:
I’m a big fan of the “odd duck” moniker. Been wearing it for almost 50 years myself.
Soprano2
I don’t know what this means exactly – what am I supposed to “grapple” with? How am I supposed to change the attitude of everyone in my demographic? Do you think this is any more constructive than labelling all black people criminals because you once knew one who stole something from you? I will say the hate just radiates from these posts; not sure what I did to deserve that other than be born white, which I cannot change. I’m probably not any happier with the result of the election than you are, but I’m fully aware that I won’t be nearly as badly affected by it as many other people will. I hate it!!
UncleEbeneezer
@stinger: The Holidays also bring a bunch of stress. Trying to find $ for gifts, having to visit family that you may not like, employers “tightening their belts” so small/no year end bonus etc. And of course the realization that another year is in the books and you are older, have less time left etc. All with a major social pressure that we are all supposed to be feeling cheery. I get why many people struggle this time of year.
Omnes Omnibus
@Professor Bigfoot: I’ll confess that I will, on occasion, rise to the bait and think #NotAllWhitePeople or #NotAllMen. I think it a somewhat natural urge. But I usually stop myself before I say or type it.
Making that argument seems to me a bit too much like a mirror image of what minorities go through. “I’m one of the good ones,” or “you’re one of the good ones.”
Professor Bigfoot
@Soprano2: These are people who cannot recognize that we live in a GLOBAL economy now.
I snagged a pack of cookies the other day (never, ever, go shopping when you have the munchies!) and was enjoying them when I read on the label, “Product of India.”
COOKIES. Shipped thousands of miles to my local store.
It’s a GLOBAL ECONOMY, and these morons are so full of “‘Merica fuck yeah!” they are incapable of seeing it.
Won’t see it until the whole damn thing crashes *thanks their ignorant ass choices.
Starfish (she/her)
@Professor Bigfoot: I didn’t say “Look at me. I am a good white person.” I said you made assumptions about my religion, my race, and my sexual orientation, and I need you to stop presuming so much.
If you are talking in generalizations, then you need to re-read what you are writing to make sure it is not coming across as a personal attack because someone likes chocolate ice cream and not vanilla.
Professor Bigfoot
@Soprano2: Do you think about and examine the role of whiteness in your everyday life? How being white grants your privileges that non-whites don’t have? How being non-white means there are lots of things you can see but cannot do?
If you do, then, I’m not talking about you.
But most white people take their privilege as either a God-given right or at least a simple fact of life.
WereBear
@Professor Bigfoot: I was told, by someone raised by them, that White Supremacists know they are lying, and delight in tricking and confusing people who try to treat them as human beings.
Happy to make libs cry. That’s where it comes from.
Roberto el oso
@Lyrebird: Tim Robbins (the actor) was also very insulting about SC Dem voters, and said something along the lines that they weren’t as representative of America as New Hampshire (lol), which certainly sounded like a dog whistle to a lot of us.
Soprano2
Oh totally, I live among them. It’s not enough that they win, they want you to agree with them too. It’s the same thing as why we keep fighting about the election and Biden, each side wants the other to acknowledge they were wrong and the loss was their fault.
John S.
@Quiltingfool:
I think it’s the “otherness” that freaks people out — especially with regard to how we worship.
I was at my niece’s orthodox wedding last month in South Florida. It was an outdoor wedding at a temple. When I heard Hebrew, it filled me with a sense of spirituality. When the neighbors heard Hebrew, they probably thought it was Arabic, and were freaked out about how weird it sounds.
Also, all the strange outfits and did you see the men and women pray separately? And the children all have long hair and some of them have these crazy long sideburns. It’s all just so… different.
Professor Bigfoot
@Omnes Omnibus: Boy howdy, I remember the day back before Elon fucked Twitter when I just couldn’t help myself with the “not all men” thing.
Oh, the aunties and the grandmas that gathered me that day!
THEY are who made me understand that every MF body knows it’s not all of us. It’s just so many of us that any woman is only rational to expect asshattery from any given man she runs across, until demonstrated otherwise.
Same thing. They ain’t talking about us. But we damned well know the men they ARE talking about.
Quinerly
@John S.:
Heart emoji!
Kathleen
@Professor Bigfoot: I agree with you.
WereBear
@Quiltingfool: Couldn’t date in that pool.
I could be a woman and bright but had to pick one to be marriageable.
Professor Bigfoot
@Starfish (she/her): Hit dogs holler, and that’s all I have to say.
Kathleen
@TBone: Cue classic Internet meme: “You know who ELSE appeared on the cover of Time…”
Professor Bigfoot
@WereBear: “The cruelty is the point,” ain’t it?
It’s part of how we know that the core of American conservatism is white supremacy, because *the cruelty is the point.
WereBear
@Professor Bigfoot: Pied. Too much Socratic styling.
Professor Bigfoot
Thus demonstrating PRECISELY what I’m talking about.
MANY IF NOT MOST WHITE PEOPLE, including a fair percentage of those on this esteemed blog, just *cannot deal with criticisms of white supremacy and its role in our politics and in their own individual lives.
Quiltingfool
@Professor Bigfoot: I am white and I don’t feel attacked. I am ashamed that many white people cheerfully cut their own nose off to protect their white privilege (and many of them can’t or refuse to believe they have white privilege). They refuse to walk in another person’s shoes.
I just want you to know I’m thankful that you come here and point out truths that may be hard for white people to hear. It isn’t your job to “fix” white people, that is on white folks to fix themselves (and dear Lord, what a never-ending, frustrating task). But your words make me examine my own beliefs, and that is so necessary. I appreciate you.
Baud
@John S.:
That’s how I feel when I’m surrounded by people with iPhones.
Captain C
@Quinerly: Nogales is also where Charles Mingus was born.
Geminid
@prostratedragon: Thanks. This digital dinosaur salutes your quick, mammal-like skills.
An incredible scene. Ms. Ahmadi and her four accompanists could be paid for that concert with prison time.
JoyceH
I’m feeling kinda bummed because when running errands yesterday I saw a sweet-looking little old lady whose car had a sticker saying “Jesus is my savior and Trump is my president”. What has happened to Christianity?! I know the MAGA so-called Christians point to Biblical characters who were flawed (but good overall) and smugly say that you don’t have to be perfect to do God’s work. Well, flawed fine, imperfect sure – but can anyone point me to a Bible story where God’s chosen had ZERO virtues and EVERY vice?
Kay
@Belafon:
Thanks. I asked because I am one of the people who think we in the US are in for a long, hard time. I think we would have been in for one if Harris had won, just delayed, she’s no more a miracle worker than Biden was and this country is basically ungovernable at this point. The “fever” Obama hoped would break after 2010 never broke, it just got worse and its all over the world, not just the US. We all watched the UK basically commit suicide.
My poorly formed “sense” right now is the most important thing is to hang onto what is true – to NOT tell ourselves stories to make us feel better. I actually believe telling ourselves stories to make ourselves feel better got us here. So the constantly invoked “good man” moral narrative interests me, in the sense of whether its an objective truth to people or another story.
WereBear
@Professor Bigfoot: Yes. It created cruelty to bolster the lies they told themselves. In their religion.
Many people don’t know slavery was a god given gift they must defend, which put the Southern in Southern Baptist Conference.
Baud
@JoyceH:
The stated values were contingent to maintaining a certain level of social status.
John S.
@Baud:
That’s exactly what my brother-in-law always says!
Jeffro
Dems should tax the rich for many good reasons (fund popular programs, strengthen the social safety net, decrease the deficit) and one great one (defund the billionaires who are destroying our society)
BUT
They should sell it, however, as “sticking it to the rich like they’ve done to us for decades”
Taxing the rich is popular just because; we don’t even have to give a reason. But if we make it a way for people to vent – which seems to be about the only way to get most Americans to vote – we’re talking landslide, baby!
Lynn Dee
@WereBear: “If you don’t know, you don’t want to know.”
At the very least, you have a strong incentive not to know.
Thinking too that, when your response to Kipling (I’m thinking in particular of poems like “Gunga Din”) begins to include a large portion of “cringe,” you’ve begun to know.
Harrison Wesley
USA has had a few shots at electing a woman President and couldn’t do it. Mexico doesn’t seem to have that problem.
Baud
@John S.:
I hope I didn’t dox myself.
Spanish Moss
@Denali5: This. I gotta say, I am beyond tired of hearing about the one true reason that Democrats lost, stated with absolute certainty. I am also tired of claims that paint groups of people with broad strokes. There is so much we are learning about why various people voted the way they did, and we have more to learn yet.
Quiltingfool
@John S.: It’s the differences that I like. I don’t want to live in a cookie cutter world. How terribly boring. The differences bring a richness, a vitality, to all of us.
I do understand the feeling of comfort one gets from hearing the familiar words of worship. Even though I won’t willingly step into a Baptist church, when I have to be there (wedding, funeral) the words, rituals, cadences are familiar and nostalgic (in a good way).
John S.
@Baud:
If your name isn’t Yehuda, you’re fine.
If it is, tell my sister I’m going to call her later this afternoon.
WereBear
@Kay:
Seconded.
I have been thrilled to see a “regular guy” actually grow as a man and function in ways extraordinary for someone born in 1942.
He grew up and regretted what happened with Anita Hill, and made a centerpiece of protecting women with legislation. He was VP to a Black man and chose a black woman as his own. Then he did his best to FDR us.
Understands NATO and kept Putin at bay. Certainly not perfect but dear heavens, from the whining I wouldn’t vote for a Democrat either!
Like President Obama… Damn good at what they accomplished. Signature legislation to take care of people. I’m proud.
Professor Bigfoot
@WereBear: I’ve long believed that “faith” is hope and love, “religion” is command and control.
gene108
@LAC:
My gut feeling is people who are into celebrity gossip have never been politically engaged enough to vote. There’s nothing wrong with following the lives of the Kardashians or other celebrities. It’s not a moral failing. It’s a fandom, like being a political junkie is a type of fandom where we obsessively follow political news.
NutmegAgain
One big thing I am wishing for is that student loan payback calculations would factor in medical debt. As I’ve somehow aged into being–well–older, and accruing medical debt for stuff like spine surgery I would really appreciate my student loan amount takes that into account…
Betty Cracker
Anyone watching “100 Years of Solitude” on Netflix? Bill and I were reluctant because it’s one of our favorite books, and it seems like it would be incredibly difficult to stage. But we were kinda impressed with the first (of 16) episodes.
Tazj
Sam Stein- on Twitter/X
Trump tells Time he’s not sure he can get the price of groceries down:
”It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know it’s very hard.”
Kathleen
@Professor Bigfoot: Also anger about his role of king maker. How dare he. I agree with everything you’ve said and have maintained for months that the visceral hatred against Biden his due to his choosing Black woman as VP and actively including Black people in his administration/court nominees. It also explains hatred of Democratic Party. Black people wield a lot of power as voters and elected officials.
Harrison Wesley
@Tazj: What kind of groceries? Viagra?
Quinerly
@Captain C:
Wow!
Did not know. Thanks for piping in.
Chris Johnson
@Professor Bigfoot: Did you used to have a whole lot of bad things to say about Christian people, under a different name that was also somewhat self-referential? I feel like there’s something oddly familiar about this, can’t quite put my finger on it.
Chris
@Denali5:
@Spanish Moss:
I mean, I’m generally of the opinion that the main demographic group we should be blaming for getting Trump elected is Republicans, but I’ve been learning that this is a much less popular view in the liberal blogosphere than one might expect.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Jeffro:
Heh heh, you’re preaching to the choir. We shouldn’t be getting all typical Democratic-nuanced in the messaging “Make them pay their fair share”. We should, as you say, *sell* it. Use every marketing and typical right-wing messaging technique and never stop.
The Horseshoe Lefty in me realizes that Dems don’t do that because of the large amount of big-money/corporate capture that’s happened to the Democratic Party, thus, we can *say* it in some milquetoasty way but we don’t really mean it at the level where it would make a fundamental difference.
Ohio Mom
@John S.: I know Jews who don’t consider themselves white. As a point of pride.
I could go either way. I do enjoy a lot of white privilege, even as I know it might be conditional.
Tazj
@Harrison Wesley: You know, I was so angry with his statement, that I never saw how hilarious it was until you pointed it out.
Time’s Person of the Year.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chris Johnson: Professor Bigfoot is not “ever sore” under a new ‘nym if that is what you are thinking. PB has been around for years and has been pretty consistent in style and substance. Don’t look for trolls were there aren’t any.
Professor Bigfoot
@Chris Johnson: I, who was raised by a Black Christian pastor; who, while while still atheistic humanist holds respect for all human traditions of faith… am not who you’re thinking of.
Now if you want to get into the “conservative Christians” such as represented by the Southern Baptist Convention, the white Christians who have made white male Christian supremacy their actual ideology… well, yeah, *fuck those people.
Professor Bigfoot
@Chris: Given that the GOP have identified themselves a quite literally “the party of the white man,” and when ONLY white people give the GOP the majority of their votes… well, what do you expect?
Kathleen
@Quiltingfool: Thank you. You expressed my feelings also. I’m not offended either. I’ve learned so much about my own feelings about white privilege though the past 50+ years and I’m still learning. I’ve learned a lot from the Black people I follow on Twitter, especially about staying in my own lane. IMHO white privilege is like white noise. A lot of “stuff” seeped into my bones and I didn’t realize it until I started paying attention.
Melancholy Jaques
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s also the fact that Trump has so little to offer other than bigotry. If one is not rich, it’s hard to think of another rational reason to vote for him. And it is certain that his most ardent supporters are with him for the racism.
I am at a total loss as to what Democrats can do to mollify white people who are so scared of a changing world that they will give up on all other considerations.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Chris:
Liberals never lose an opportunity to bash liberals.
Lyrebird
@Professor Bigfoot: Hey Prof! Appreciate the chat back. I tip my hat back to you and your gracious (not-for-me-needed) asterisk and I remain heartsick and motivated by those painful truths. Hope that made some sense.
@Geminid: UGH!!! I mean, thanks again, Geminid! I guess that’s why he couldn’t get fired from the campaign. I thought it was some twenty-something well-meaning doofus from a very white state, who should be demoted and educated but might well learn from the experience. Isn’t Michael Moore from Michigan or something? Even more shameful, if it was him. (I believe you, I just don’t wanna give more clicks to it…)
@Roberto el oso: Thanks Roberto as well! Dunno whether coming out of his mouth it was “dog whistle” or “showing his whole ignorant hiney in public”, but the general voting public is imnsho still racist enough not to immediately toss out that kind of ignorant remark. Makes the difference irrelevant except to someone maybe voting for or dating Robbins.
@RevRick: Based on what we saw when someone posted comments made to AOC why they voted AOC and Trump, I would say Penna. and Mich. may well have really been hurt by the “Genocide Harris” campaign, plus:
Do we have info on how many of those folks consider themselves white, or at least whiter than Haitians? Long-standing Hispanic families in NM and TX have been the white people in their communities for centuries. Lowell is heavily SE Asian. I’m not saying there is any ONE SINGLE THING that explains the whole election, I’m actually pretty vocal against that view, but having lived in/near several of the spots you are talking about, I just want to reflect what I have heard folks there say.
tam1MI
All where Biden had his strongest support in the primary. Those states should have been cakewalks for Harris, instead she struggled to get votes there and lost all three.
Gee, I wonder what happened between the primary and the election to cause those states to turn from being Democratic strongholds to Democratic losses? [/sarcasm]
Professor Bigfoot
@Ohio Mom: My observation from conversing with Jews elsewhere is that for most, they recognize that they present as white; that absent a kippah or a Star of David necklace that they’ll be treated like they’re white— but that they know down in their bones that whoever’s being oppressed at the moment, Jews will ALWAYS be on the oppressor’s menu.
TBone
@Kathleen: thumbs up emoji!
JML
Part of the reason that Dems struggle politically is we’re always looking to the next thing, or focusing on the limitations of policy/limitations, rather than celebrating the success and good that it can do. And there’s always the legion of people who when looking at an elected official (president or otherwise) and they could be great on 80-98% of the issues of the day and they’d rather focus on something that they haven’t fixed, addressed, or aren’t taking the best line on than giving them even a little praise for the many things and votes they’re getting right. It’s why democrats frequently don’t get credit from the electorate for things they accomplish.
recognition of this is probably partly responsible for why you’re seeing the promotion of Biden and the “good man” stuff during the lame duck. There are definitely people who want to lock in some legacy for Biden (for various reasons, and some of them are selfish) and try to set contrasts for the upcoming administration. And actually give credit where due for accomplishments, even if it’s too late to influence the election.
UncleEbeneezer
@John S.: Y’all have nothing to be ashamed about. The fact that even after all the Anti-Zionist dogwhistle bullshit and dismissiveness of the harassment/intimidation/gaslighting (of Jewish students) on the Left, that I know really pissed off a lot of my liberal, Jewish friends, your community still went strong for Kamala is amazing. And yeah, from what I gather from their statements, they are very much aware of the fact that y’all can’t really rely on White People any more than Black People can.
Professor Bigfoot
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: How is it “liberals bashing other liberals” to recognize the role of whiteness in the situation we now find ourselves collectively facing?
What I see is, once again, a collective unwillingness of white people, including liberals, to recognize the role of whiteness in their choices, desires, and beliefs.
In how difficult it is for them to support the Black, Jewish and female led Democratic Party.
Lyrebird
@Geminid: Thanks for sharing this, too:
Gotta rejoice in what we can today! That is amazing!
Butter Emails!
@Professor Bigfoot:
I’m not sure what the last election showed about white people that the previous 2 elections didn’t. The percentages of white people voting for Trump has been pretty consistent across all 3 elections and Trump has always been easily identifiable as a complete racist POS. I was shocked that he won in 2016, a little surprised it was so close in 2020 after four years demonstrating what a dumpster fire he is, but in 2024 I wasn’t.
I was shocked later. Trump’s Republican Party is now explicitly a white identity party. White support for such a party, while reprehensible and disgusting is on some level understandable. That support for such a party would grow among demographics which are not considered white is the type of thing that would cause you to laugh hysterically while ugly crying if you weren’t too focused on not to vomiting.
Chris Johnson
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s fair. I’ve been wrong about bigger and better nyms.
One of the things I keep an eye on is anytime anybody, under whatever nym, puts a lot of determined effort into convincing everybody in the vicinity that THOSE people over there are literal demons, monsters of ultimate evil whose every action is directed towards eating dogs and cats, oops I mean furthering their supremacy. I’m prepared to find fault with any exercise of that ‘seeking supremacy’, and I’ve seen people who are like that because I’ve seen Andrew Tate, except his behavior is entirely directed toward seeking supremacy over women.
I sure get a feeling anybody remotely normal (not even healthy, just a normal degree of fucked-up) quickly tires of this and goes to pursue other stuff. Perhaps with their supremacy-hunger lying in wait inside them?
Me, I’m a jazz guy in part, play guitar and like to solo over interesting chords. I’m 56 and aspire to be even a tenth as good as Coltrane was at the age of 34. If you have touchstones you’re somewhat vaccinated against ‘oh because of the color of my pale-ass skin I’m default better than the guys doing stuff that’s plainly twelve levels more sophisticated and genius than I can even imagine, wait hang on of course not never mind’. It’s like that.
I’m just suspicious of defining demons in all but name. Literal Tucker Carlson was going around trying to get MAGAs to be more into the threat of demons. I think the horrifying part is that you don’t need demons to get these behaviors. It’s the people walking by refusing to notice, it’s the assumptions. Back to jazz. Miles got beat outside Birdland. Nile Rodgers got refused entry into Studio 54 while his music was literally playing inside. What the actual fuck? Do you remember those things? I do.
The damage is not in this suggestion by the Professor that all white people seek these things and worse all the time, the damage is in how many people will just stand and watch.
Jeffro
@Melancholy Jaques:
It seems like the only thing we haven’t tried yet is asking, “so you voted for trump…what did you actually get out of it? and ‘vibes’ don’t count”
Of course, this is hard to do when majorities of Americans (not just white ones) think the economy is crap, all our tax money is going to Ukraine and welfare cheats, etc.
Professor Bigfoot
@Butter Emails!: I know many who feel *lied to.*
All the “White women for Harris” and “White dudes for Harris” and the like were just a complete fucking LIE.
Black folks and Jews voted for Harris, and AS USUAL white people voted for the felon.
UncleEbeneezer
@Chris: People like Oliver Willis are doing a lot of mental gymnastics right now to rationalize why “no, really I’m right to spend all my time/energy bashing Dems.” Like, we just lost a crucial election in part because too many voters have internalized the Anti-Dem propaganda we’ve all been marinating in for decades. But yeah, Dems Suck (but from the Left) is surely the solution…
Spanish Moss
@Chris: I agree.
The knee-jerk “blame the Democrats” analysis is not that interesting to me, there are too many complicating factors. I have been a TPM reader for ages, and I particularly appreciate Josh Marshall’s exploration of the many reasons we are where we are. I like his musings as he uncovers more information, they give me hope that we can get a better understanding of what happened and how to do better in the future.
TBone
@Professor Bigfoot: I passed for Italian and never corrected anyone because I didn’t know bio Dad was actually Jewish until I was about 35 y.o. and finally “did my own research.” When I “came out” to my friends, some of their bigotry was astounding. Mom was not into her WASP family’s religion and so only joked about my brother and I being Polish (we are Lithuanian) saying we were “Austrian” and should choose our own religion (or not any) when we were old enough. I was too young and dumb to fully grok the many hints given all along the way until that “mature” age.
https://www.lidsky.org/
Those women in the hammock are my ancestors, few (possibly only one) survived.
Omnes Omnibus
@Professor Bigfoot: Here I do feel like I should step in. Those White Men/Women for Harris things got a lot of white people. That was real. It’s just that there are so many white people in the US that you can have a shitload of them on your side without coming close to getting a majority. And, if it was a lie, we were lying to ourselves too.
UncleEbeneezer
@Professor Bigfoot: Absolutely. I would extend it beyond Biden to the way White People generally feel about the Dem Party, as well. My Libertarian/NPA/Independent relatives who aren’t Republicans but just won’t support Dems, for some strange reason…are a perfect example too.
Baud
You’re all wrong.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: So are you.
TBone
@Baud: thank you, good reminder!
Geminid
@Geminid: HTS leader Mohammed al-Jolani and his Prime Minister had an important meeting today. From Ragip Soylu:
Turkiye’s Foreign Minister is the formidable Hakan Fidan, who has been President Erdogan’s trusted trouble shooter since 2005. The head of Turkiye’s intelligence agency M.I.T. is Ibrahim Kalin. Those two men were likely more responsible for the success of Syria’s revolution than any non-Syrian.
I recently learned that Ibrahim Kalin earned a PhD from George Washington University in 2002, and taught at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts for several years after that.
Kalin plays folk music in his spare time. He plays a traditional long-necked lute called a Shwamblar (sp?) and his performances have garnered over a million YouTube views (according to Wikipedia).
He also a basketballer. I once saw a video of Kalin standing at half court bouncing a basketball. When it came up for the third time Kalin tossed it over his shoulder and it swished. He must have practiced that trick shot a lot.
Professor Bigfoot
@TBone: I follow the Auschwitz Memorial; and most of those stories leave me feels sick… but the stories the ones who survived, the ones who escaped, the ones who were liberated give me just the tiniest spark of joy. May their (and your) descendants live long, and prosper.
tam1MI
For a while there it looked like the ultimate goal of the Uncommitted folks was to push Jewish people out of the Democratic Party altogether. That Jewish people came out strong for Harris in the face of blatant anti-Semitism and hate crimes against them by people who were supposed to be on our side is a minor miracle.
Professor Bigfoot
@Omnes Omnibus: Intellectually, I get that, 100%.
But that’s intellectually.
It FEELS otherwise, which explains the disengagement I’m seeing in most Black folks.
WereBear
@Professor Bigfoot: Faith has known been doing a lot of heavy lifting, but I do believe in hope and love.
We add self defense and we’re there :)
Professor Bigfoot
@tam1MI: Once again, there’s an undiscussed part of that: the antisemitic leftists were overwhelmingly white.
Another example of how whiteness hides itself… that we talk about these “leftists” but never recognize that they are in no way the “base” of the Democratic Party and rightfully have very little power in it.
Black folks and Jews have stood together for the last 100 years, and that alliance is made physical in this Democratic Party.
Which goes a long way to explain why we are so hated.
Lynn Dee
@PJ: Pretty sure I didn’t blame anybody for anything.
Kayla Rudbek
@Chris Johnson: the trolls are to keep the Democrats in check. I can even see this over on the two patent law blogs that I follow; Patently-O has had problems for at least a decade with troll commenters and I would say that they are neutral politically. Contrast with IP Watchdog which is fairly pro-Republican (e.g. accepting awards named after Phyllis Schlafy) and has far less trolling in the comments. And the apparent breakdown of political affiliations for patent attorneys is 2/3 Democratic, 1/3 Republican so one would expect the comments to be in the same proportion on either blog, and patent law has unusual political alignments as compared to non-IP laws.
Melancholy Jaques
@Jeffro:
I have tried that on a person to person basis, along with “Name me one thing Republicans have ever done for ordinary people.” What I get is mealy mouth dissembling and culture war complaints.
prostratedragon
@Geminid: Such a horrible thought, though all too likely. I hope they at least get a large audience.
Miss Bianca
@Geminid:
I love all your international news highlighting in various threads.
Melancholy Jaques
@Baud:
But we are wrong for the right reasons!
UncleEbeneezer
💯 🎯
UncleEbeneezer
@Miss Bianca: Me too. I really appreciate them.
prostratedragon
@Harrison Wesley:
Also Argentina, Brazil, Germany, India, the UK, Barbados, New Zealand, Norway, Sri Lanka, .
..
John S.
@Professor Bigfoot:
That’s pretty accurate.
John S.
@tam1MI:
Antisemitism is very top of mind right now for Jews — even the ones who voted for Trump.
In the case of my relatives, they are concerned about it coming from Muslims. But I keep telling them that it will be the Christian Nationalists who come for us (again).
Betty
@stinger: Same here, early December birthday not bringing the joy of a celebration. I believe SAD is one reason I had a strong desire to move to the Caribbean and enjoy lots more sunshine.
dnfree
@zhena gogolia: Highly successful, yes. Able to convey that success to the public at large in a difficult political environment? Unfortunately, no.
Able to appear to be ready and able to successfully tackle another four years? Also, sadly, no. He was looking old and feeble. We may not like it, but appearance counts.
Captain C
@Professor Bigfoot:
This is one of those things that’s technically true but functionall irrelevant. The problem is that it’s ENOUGH white people to cause problems for everyone, especially nonwhites*.
(*Those particular white folks do also screw themselves in most cases, but see also Davis X. Machina’s law regarding sparrows and curtain rods)
TBone
@Professor Bigfoot: as well with you and yours, thank you!
Quinerly
@dnfree:
No truer words.
zhena gogolia
@Melancholy Jaques: Bingo.
dnfree
@PJ: I liked Biden to begin with, and I appreciate what he accomplished in his four years. I still like Biden. But the Biden I saw in the debate was a Biden who did not have another four years in him. Don’t overgeneralize about what people who disagree with you think about Biden. I wish those closest to him had been able to tell him the truth—that his spirit was willing but his flesh was weak.
TBone
@Quinerly: Jiminy cricket!
Missed seeing that comment earlier. Boy howdy I am glad you escaped!
Captain C
@Professor Bigfoot:
This is very good advice, which I should take more often.
PJ
@Kay:
We tell stories to make sense of the world. Some of those stories make us feel better or worse about ourselves or humanity, and some of the stories designed to make us feel better (or worse) have an opposite effect. And some of us may like certain stories because they make us feel good, but that does not make them good stories, just as fast food may taste good to some, but does not mean that it is healthy.
There are a lot of bad stories people tell, and they can lead people to believe or do bad things because they either ignore the truth or propagate falsehoods. But one of the helpful aspects of good stories is to reveal truths about human beings or nature in an articulable form which we either recognize because we have already experienced them, or which we can recognize, and hopefully grapple with better, when they happen to us in the future.
Your question is different, I think, and it’s not about stories, but judgment. I could be wrong, but I think the reason some people talk about Biden being a “good person” is because, for almost four years, he, and his administration, have been lambasted by the media and Republicans and many Democrats as a failure, and many of these people maintain that he is directly responsible for the return of Trump. Many others, myself included, think, on the contrary, that he was a very good President – best of my lifetime, in my opinion. (Which is not to say that he and his administration did not fail at many things.) This is a judgment, not a story, but people feel the need to make it to counteract the prevailing sentiment in the media because the judgment of failure is, in fact, prevailing, when someone who is among the worst of us as a human being, and was one of, if not the, worst Presidents of all time is about to return to do more damage.
Obama didn’t have that problem. His administration had just as many, or more, failures as Biden’s, but he wasn’t seen as losing to Trump (that was all Hilary’s fault.) And nobody was talking about Clinton being a good person for obvious reasons.
People want to have scapegoats (like Biden) because it is easier to believe that one person (or ethnic or religious group, etc.), is responsible for their and everyone else’s ills. This is a bad story, because it is not the truth, and accepting it as truth leads to very bad behavior.
This is my judgment: the bottom line about this election is that this country is still too racist and sexist. Voters had a clear choice, and more of them chose the racist and sexist moron who is only out for himself over the smart black lady who wants to help the country, (just as too many of them chose him in 2016 over the smart white lady.) Biden spent a good deal of time specifically working against bigotry in his statements and his actions. That, in the end, he didn’t prevail against it is not his personal failure.
tam1MI
Except, apparently, the appearance of idiot elected Dems going into a blind-eyed panic over a minor setback and throwing their own leader under a bus, while showing themselves to be utter hypocrites with their bleating about “democracy being on the line” while they make a mockery of it, and yammering about how they will “stand up” for the little guy while refusing to stand up for their own goddamn President, thus proving they will stand up for nothing and no one. That appearance doesn’t count for some mysterious reason.
PJ
@Betty Cracker:
Jose Rivera, who wrote the first drafts of the screenplays for 100 Years of Solitude, is a really good playwright. (He is Puerto Rican, so the scripts all had to be reworked for Colombian Spanish.) I didn’t know the series had started – I’ll have to subscribe to Netflix again.
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: I’ve been sucked in. I feel like these are momentous events, and they are playing out in full view of the world. I’ve learned from some really good reporters from neighboring countries like Turkiye’s Ragip Soylu and Levent Kemal, and British-Lebanese reporter Oz Katerji who has for now left his base in Kyiv to report on the ground from Syria.
I’ve also discovered really good Syrian reporters, many of them exiles. Some of these have had to report anonimously in past years for fear their family members left behind might be imprisoned or murdered. Now they have come out into the open, and some like Sarah Dadouch have returned to Syria.
And this revolution has played out in the Smartphone Age. Thousands of citizen journalists are providing fascinating video from many parts of Syria.
One very good thing about the culmination of the Syrian Civil War we’ve seen over last two weeks is that relatively few people have died. This could have been so much worse, and it’s a big contrast to the tragic Gaza war that has ground on endlessly for over 14 months.
So I guess this story has been a respite for me amidst a lot of dreary events. I’m learning new things everyday, and it’s a pleasure to pass some of them along.
PJ
@dnfree: We disagree on this. But it didn’t matter whether he had another four years left in him. The reason he ran again was because Trump was running again. All Biden needed was to get through the election and inauguration. I was for him because he’d been a good President but mainly because I believed he would beat Trump again, and there was no one else I was confident would do it. If Biden won, was inaugurated, and then immediately retired, I would have been fine with it – we had a good VP waiting to take over.
WTFGhost
Lightboxes can do a lot, but they do need to be used daily, for the right length of time, for optimum effect.
You’re right, though – in Seattle, sometime in November, people wake up, go to work in the dark, and come home in the dark (and it’s usually raining). A light box doesn’t fix *that*. It just clears melatonin from the body, saying “the sun has risen!” (Or so the suspicion was, back when I learned about it.)
And happiness isn’t just happenstance. In unhappy times it needs to be evoked, but it’s one of the most important things in the world, because sad people don’t have the energy to demand change, and angry people are too easily led by outrage, but happy people have the ability to make clear-headed choices.
Heh. One of my pet peeves are those who think, e.g., prozac, is “the opiate of the masses”. Despair is the opiate of the masses – anti-depressants make people feel less despairing, and more hopeful, and more willing to make demands, rather than just accept the dreary status quo.
Ruckus
@Chief Oshkosh:
There are a lot of humans on this planet – and not all of them play well with others. And a lot of them think that their way is the only way. Most of the time they are wrong. Sometimes very wrong. And of course we’ve had wars about this (not directly about some of the time but still – wars, often with lots of dead people) Have we learned better? Some (most?) days it’s difficult to tell.
Professor Bigfoot
@WTFGhost: Uggh, thanks for reminding me of my time as a young engineer in Seattle.
I loved the city, but that business of getting up and going to work in the dark, going to lunch in the gray and dreary, then going home again in the dark did truly suck.
But– the summers!
Soprano2
@Kathleen: I agree with this. I’ve said more than once that conservative white people see Democrats as the party of black people, and they don’t like that Democrats give black people so much power. It’s why people in MO could vote to legalize abortion, sports betting, recreational pot and raising the minimum wage, and also vote to have every state office occupied by a Republican and a Republican supermajority in the state legislature. They like the things Democrats want to do, but don’t like that Democrats include black people as equals.
WTFGhost
@Rusty: I’ll say the same thing to everyone who wants to pre-pardon: all that does is provide the excuse that “he was never going to do that anyway!”
Christopher Wray shouldn’t *resign*. He should have the balls to be fired. If he’s been threatened, and told to resign, he should emphatically have the balls not to resign, and should publicize the threat. He’s the head of the biggest federal law enforcement agency!
And if that means he gets crapped on, well, I’m not going to feel sorry for him getting crapped on for doing his job. He knew his fate when he was picked by Trump. Let him suffer in all his ball-less glory. If he never intended to lead the FBI, he should have refused the job in the first place.
Pauline
@Quinerly: My hometown. It’s really disheartening to hear about all the Trump/Vance signs. Santa Cruz county was pretty much a Democratic stronghold for a long time.
Professor Bigfoot
@Soprano2: William of Ockham stands and applauds.
TBone
@WTFGhost: THIS is why I project happiness everywhere, every time I go out in public. Today at the vet I made more momentary, smiling friends despite everyone being there because a beloved is ill.
Quinerly
@TBone:
I was there about a month after the below CNN story. Was alerted to the CNN piece when I told the story of walking in a side door that was open (I didn’t see the front until later). Store sits at an angle. Inoperable gas pumps. I dashed in to pee and buy some snacks. Had walked Poco on that side where I was parked with the open door. I didn’t see anything until the disgusting stuff in the bathroom. The owner was waiting for me when I came out of the bathroom. He was propped up leaning on a ledge with his gun laying flat, rubbing it and started screaming at me about coming in.
My heart was racing so fast that I didn’t even stop in Cloudcroft as planned. Drove straight to The Double-Eagle in Las Cruces. Guy there told me the owner lost his mind during Obama-era. Everyone used to stop there for worms for fishing. Not anymore.
It was stupid for me not to see the stuff when I pulled up. But I was in a parking space on the side….dealing with the dog, etc.
https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/04/us/mayhill-convenience-store-obama-signs-trnd/index.html
https://www.krqe.com/news/new-mexico/mayhill-convenience-store-to-reopen-under-new-ownership/
TBone
@Quinerly: holy shit balls. That guy needs 302d.
Not your fault in ANY way, he’s open to the public while being a danger to himself or others, the very criteria for a 302!
ETA the fudge and lemonade factory sentence at the very end made my inner 6 y.o. giggle.
Soprano2
@Professor Bigfoot: I’m aware of the role of whiteness in my everyday life, and how it means there are a lot of things I can do and say that wouldn’t be possible for a person who isn’t white. I’ve never felt insulted by the concept of white privilege – I immediately understood what they were talking about the first time I heard it. I’m also aware of how being a woman means I have to live differently than a man would (did you learn that you should always have your car keys in your hand when you leave the building both so that you can get into the car fast and so you can use them as a weapon if someone attacks you?) I have also learned how having money makes people treat you differently, because I inherited a serious amount of money from my sister’s estate and then my mother’s. I found out that there is actually a reason to have a personal banker, because the people at the bank who usually take deposits cannot handle large checks, they get freaked out and have to call other people. It makes me feel strange that I have a personal banker, but I do. Hubby and I still live in the same house he’s had since 1979 in the “bad” part of town (it’s not bad, but lots of people think it is because that’s where the black people live). I’ve had people ask me why we didn’t buy another house and move; I told them it’s because our house is paid for and we’re perfectly happy living where there is no HOA to dictate what color mulch we use in our yard, or what kind of mailbox we have, or whether we park on the street
What I object to is the broadness of the brush you use; it reminds me of people who tell me “it’s not racist if it’s true” when they opine about the criminality of people of color. I totally understand how you wouldn’t trust white people, but you know that the white people who are here are on your side or they wouldn’t be on this blog, they’d be somewhere else.
UncleEbeneezer
@Professor Bigfoot: When I heard that Ta-Nehisi Coates was going to write about Israel/Palestine in his next book, I was so excited. Here was someone who could eloquently write about the parallels/similarities between Black Americans and Jews.
• Being villainized/scapegoated as a group for centuries.
• Being subjected to official second-class citizenship.
• Being pushed/chased out of Sundown Towns/countries (pogroms) by horrific violence and discrimination.
• Living in constant terror of being surrounded by people who are hell-bent on murdering you simply for existing (KKK/Hamas/Hezbollah).
• Impossible barriers like jellybean tests to prevent Black People from voting vs. Coffin Problems used to keep Jews from Universities in Soviet Union.
• Being constantly (and unfairly) accused of “playing the race card”/bringing up the holocaust, any time you speak out about your oppression.
• The public being almost completely clueless/in-denial about the realities of Racism/antisemitism, but also supremely arrogant in claiming they are experts.
• Having that Racism/antisemitism frequently hide in plain sight under the guise of Liberal/Progressive language…Etc.
Which is what made it so disappointing when Coates decided to pass up that opportunity to only focus on a simplistic, one-sided narrative that repeats many of the Anti-Zionist smears sold to the Western/Global Left, by the Soviets for decades.
WTFGhost
@TBone: Good on you; I wish I could do the same. (When I’ve got it, I give it, but first you gotta *got* it.)
UncleEbeneezer
@John S.: Are they worried about Muslims in America? I can see that worry for Israelis for sure, but in America I think you are correct that it’s Xtian Fundies who are the biggest threat.
Kelly
@Tony G:
Oh my yes. I want a quiet spot by the fire until January. Even though January days are short I start feeling better just because the days are getting longer.
LAC
@gene108: Actually, it is civics 101. And I have seen people walk and chew gum at the same time, so it can be done. You do not have to be a political junkie either.
I do not relish our country turning into a Joni Mitchell song, that’s all I am saying.
Melancholy Jaques
@PJ:
I agree with this and especially the latter. I believe it was decisive in 2016 and 2024.
Professor Bigfoot
@Soprano2: Then you still don’t understand.
That broad brush is only RATIONAL, because we cannot know which of you is personally hateful to us.
When we all can acknowledge that the majority of white people support and vote for GOP led white supremacists.
You call it a “broad brush,” I call it defending my heart as well as my life.
You can talk about that broad brush all you want and it will not make me trust white people ever again, because I have damned good reason.
Professor Bigfoot
@UncleEbeneezer: That makes two of us, for EXACTLY the same reasons.
I’m deeply disappointed in Mr. Coates.
Soprano2
Oh, I acknowledge this – I live in an area that voted at least 65% for TCFG and Republicans in general (although my state rep is a Democrat). I grew up in a small town where a black person would have been afraid to step. Maybe it’s impossible for a white person to fully understand this. I see it as the same as people who say they’re afraid of all black people because they think most of them are criminals and can’t tell which ones aren’t, or the ones who follow black people around a store because they think all of them are there to shoplift. I don’t think things like that are particularly constructive in any context, but I understand why people use them.
RevRick
@tam1MI: The past three election cycles have not been cakewalks in any of those states and pointing to President Biden’s success in the primaries is meaningless, because only the most dialed in voters turn out. Ascribing Harris’ loss to Biden stepping aside is claiming facts not in evidence. On the contrary, Harris quickly erased Trump’s substantial polling lead at the time, and Democratic donors unleashed a floodtide of contributions.
One could argue that had Biden stayed in the race the Republicans would have ended up with 57 seats in the Senate and a much expanded House majority. And there’s a lot more evidence for that.
Professor Bigfoot
@Soprano2: The difference being, of course, that we literally have objective data showing that both are driven by whiteness– the fear of Black people being violent and dangerous is part and parcel of why the majority of you are against any social or financial gains for our community.
In other words, *it’s not much different from when Reconstruction was strangled.*
That majority of white people obviously affect the lives of Black people, but the alleged Black thieves really have no effect on the lives of that majority.
Quinerly
@TBone:
Cured me of stopping at indep country stores. Used to love poke around in them and shoot the breeze with owners/regulars.
Ruckus
@WTFGhost:
I find it difficult to recommend to someone that they wait to be fired. We are not in their shoes and most often do not know the entire picture. I see shitforbrains in a second term as the worst thing that I’ve seen in my 75 yrs. (And I’ve been following politics for over 6 decades) And I expect to see the results for each one of us to be rather personal. I have no idea what he will do but I suspect that if he has 2 or more choices about anything, he will ALWAYS take the worst choice. It’s his nature, his personality, his intellect. He’ll screw himself if it means he can screw others in any way worse. I also feel that it’s possible that this country won’t survive. I hope it does, this isn’t a bad place to live, but the wrecking crew will be doing their dammdest to destroy all of it. Out of spite. Because they have nothing else.
PJ
@RevRick: There’s no evidence for your claim. To the contrary, Biden got 7 million more votes in 2020 than Harris did. Opinion polls on popularity are not votes. (Trump had very negative favorable a both times he won.)
Geminid
@Geminid: It turns out Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan did not make the trip to Damascus. M.I.T. head Ibrahim Kalin did though, and he did a little sightseeing.
From Charles Lister:
Kalin mainly got to see the sides of security agents walking alongside the shiny sedan as curious crowds looked on from the sidewalks.
Al-Jolani was showing respect and appreciation for Kalin and his nation. Turkiye has stood by the Syrian opposition through thick and thin for over 12 years, while Western nations abandoned Syrians to their fate and averted their eyes.
The HTS leader was also demonstrating modesty. Most leaders in the Middle East and beyond don’t drive; they are driven.
This was consistent with an edict al-Jolani passed down yesterday by way of the HTS General Command. Syrians had begun putting portraits of al-Jolani up all over the country, and al-Jolani bumper stickers on their cars. Al-Jolani told them to knock it off.
WTFGhost
@RevRick: Sometimes, watching this newsgroup is like watching a stressed family that’s showing dysfunctional problems.
People react to their pain; and other people react to the reactions, and then people react to the reactions to the reactions.
And a whole lot of it is on automatic, and people want to be right, about something in the past that is of literally no consequence any more. How could it be?
Do you really expect the exact same scenario to replay? Do you think there were good lessons learned, lessons that can be generalized? E.g., is the general lesson that we should have demanded an elderly gentleman, more vibrant and intellectually *there* than his opponent, step aside, for an uncontested primary, in spite of his many successes, and his opponent’s many failures, not realizing that Republicans bland insistence that Trump did nothing wrong would *work*?
I’d rather be crabby with each other about what strategies will surely succeed/fail in the future – rechewing used… thoughts… doesn’t gain much food for additional thought.
Or maybe I’m just cranky at seeing an old argument, and can be appropriately ignored as “cranky person venting”. If so, I’m not sorry for being cranky, or venting, but I’m sorry if hooking your name on the front made it seem personal/directed, like I’m grousing *at you*, when I am just grousing, in general.
(Look at the grouse! Look at the grouse!)
John S.
@UncleEbeneezer:
I think they characterize themselves as Islamophobes, so they assume the worst. They expect some sort of infiltration here that would result in Jews being targeted.
But they are very much concerned over the fate of Israel as we have quite a few family and extended family members who are either Israeli or live in Israel. That animates them more than anything else.
RevRick
@Lyrebird: Not being a mind reader I will only report on what people say is their reason. And yes, I know people lie all the time, including, and most especially, to themselves. But opinion poll data over the past number of years shows that the sentiment of Hispanic voters in America aligns pretty much with the general public opinion about the border. They don’t like the flood tide of migrants coming across. And part of the reason they give is that they resent what they perceive as special treatment of these migrants. Democrats have fallen into the trap of believing that the most progressive voices in Latino communities represented that of the communities as a whole.
When Hillary ran in 2016, she garnered 30% majorities. When Biden ran in 2020, that fell to around 20%, and this cycle it was in the low teens. We have been hemorrhaging Latino voters for at least eight years.
@Quinerly: Hispanic citizens don’t like the flood tide of migrants any more than the rest of America. And many of these communities feel overwhelmed and overburdened by having to care for them.
Starfish (she/her)
@Professor Bigfoot: You want to be offensive to first generation Muslim Americans and call them the real racists. Have fun with that.
[email protected]
@Professor Bigfoot: I agree with most, if not all of what you’ve stated here. What puts me off is when I read comments here that state, in this case, white people, men or, my group, white women, did whatever the subject matter is, in this case, voting for a repugnant racist misogynist, I prefer not to be included with that group. I did not vote for the racist. If you used the words most or majority of whatever group, I’d be fine with that because it’s true. Being inclusive is more often than not a good thing, but in the case of white women voting for trash, I would rather not be included in that group, especially here at Balloon-juice. I’m not a hurt dog. I have a very good idea of what an awful lot of white women do and how they feel about their white privilege
Kathleen
@Soprano2: Right! And one of the other things they hate as much as Democrats is the idea of lite rail transportation from the city to the suburbs for, um, “reasons”.
Kathleen
@Professor Bigfoot: I think he’s been a Bernie Bro since around 2016 or at least that’s been I noticed it. That’s when I stopped reading him.
WTFGhost
@Professor Bigfoot: Um. Obviously, I was mining this thread, and I came across this and, I’m interested.
I don’t see how Joe’s comfort with Black people harmed him, but, if you think you can explain, I’d love to hear it. If you can’t, if it’s just “one of those feelings,” well, I get that, too.
I’m… ready to believe you. And by that, I mean, I grew up east coast, and I know how much casual racism is there. I know how many people swear they’re not the least bit racist, and would never use the n-word where anyone with “sensitive ears” might hear it. But when they say it the n-word, they mean it.
They might not believe the (literal) racism laid out in Dred Scott, but they believe that Black people are not as good as white people, and it’s a pervasive, deeper, belief than most non-racist people can comprehend. When I ran against real racism, it was like biting into an iron bar in a piece of bread – “holy crap, you really *mean* that!!!”
I believe that East Coast racism might have delivered the race to Trump, but – that’s *Harris* getting hammered, not Biden, and, for her, racism is direct, not indirect.
So: I hope the lead in doesn’t sound like I’m demanding a college essay or something :-). Just, “here’s what I can already see, do you think you can open my eyes a bit differently.”
[email protected]
@dnfree: Does it really look to you that Trump has four years of this left in him? This is why we have Vice Presidents. I would have preferred a President Harris over a President Vance. Given Trump’s age and habits and the fact that he may actually have dementia, there is every bit as much a possibility that he may die in office as Biden. Trump nearly died in office the last time he was president.
satby
@Omnes Omnibus: Applejinx likes conspiracies.
WTFGhost
@Juju0817: (I edited the text in this link for obvious reasons)
(I snipped that from a longer response, to say what I feel like. I think that’s called “commenting” but I don’t want to be seen as a context thief.)
I used to be a Christian, and I loved Christianity, and I hated to hear BS about “Christianity” and “Christians” and wanted to insist the Westboro Baptist church wasn’t “real Christianity” but was forced to acknowledge there was no way to *exclude* them, other than to say “they’re embarrassing!” Ouch.
So: I get not wanting to be included in the bad guy group – it hurt, as a young man.
Hee. My dating life was fucked up by learning about rape before learning about sex.
Um. Not as traumatic as that sounds. I mean, I knew what rape did, before I knew what cuddling, necking, petting, intercourse, outercourse – yeah, dumb term, but it’s a *teaching* term, did, which really screwed up my sex life, because it felt like I could cause trauma far too easily, and joy was difficult. (Once I learned better, Joy was easy, if she was in the moo… um… is this my out-loud voice again?)
I hated hearing about “men” too.
Now, me, I made a decision. I’d rather people know that they won’t hear me complain if they want to talk about White people, or White men, or men, or Christianity.
That decision comes at a cost – I have to manage my emotions every time the subject comes up. It’s not necessarily the right decision for everyone – for some, “listen, dude, my white liberal guilt really twinges… I know what you say is *true*, it just feels too… personal,” is the right call.
Just remember, if guilt makes you too uncomfortable to look, you learn to ignore, unless you force yourself to look, long enough, to remind you of *why* you don’t like looking – why it *should* be uncomfortable. (*Then* you can look away – you don’t need to torture yourself.)
I’m not saying this to criticize what you said above, not in the least. I just realized one day that I *could* make a particular choice – to listen as best as I could – and that there was a cost with making that choice – managing my emotional reactions, and trying to question, not contradict.
Once it was *my choice*, in my control, a lot of my discomfort vanished, or became local. So I might think “this is an uncomfortable conversation,” rather than “I hate that they’re talking about ‘me'”.
If I do get flashes of “stop talking about ME!” well, I remind myself, I agreed I’d manage that thought/emotion. Usually it’s a bit of pain or fear that’s jabbing at me, and once I manage them, the “they’re talking about me!” thought goes away.
Quinerly
@Pauline:
Very late back to the thread. Just seeing your comment and wanted to acknowledge it.
I need to look up and see when the changes in the voting started.
Ruckus
@Soprano2:
As a rather senior citizen – male, I have similar concerns. Now are they the same level as a female of pretty much any age would have? I doubt it. But I’d bet I not all that far behind. Yes I know ways of disabling an attacker but you have to be fast and strong to do that and as a relatively old senior I’m not as fast nor as strong as I was not all that long ago. And I still like to walk. Just got back from a 1 mile walk. Ran into my last boss out on his 1 mile walk. Oh the days are so full in retirement……. (BTW this last line is somewhat BS) Still, I’ve had more than enough full days, a pretty much full time vacation is pretty damn nice after a nearly 61 yr long working life.
Quinerly
@Pauline:
I had a lovely time in Patagonia after leaving Nogales. I guess that’s Santa Cruz County too. Stopped into a restaurant/ bar owned by a woman from Ecuador (I believe that’s what the gal said). I fell in love with the place…”The Velvet Elvis.” Has to be seen to comprehend.
” Where Frida meets Elvis.” Already planning my next trip to Patagonia. Kinda wish I had saved room for a meal there. Nice menu.
No Trump/Vance signs around the town of Patagonia. But tons when you drive up thru that development going to the state park and lake.
Beautiful cemetery in Nogales. I spent a bit over an hr there walking around. I’m a true Southerner….we like cemeteries and the stories they tell.
Juju
@WTFGhost: I guess I was too wordy in what I meant to say. I’m a white woman. I am included in that group in general. When I come here to read or comment I’d rather not be included in that group. I’d prefer not to be included in that group in general, but I know that’s not going to happen. In real life and here I will do what I have always tried to do, and just keep doing my best to keep an open mind and be a kind and caring person.
RevRick
@PJ: Trump got lucky both times he was elected, and deservedly got unlucky against Biden.
We need to factor in that the general public has been in an absolutely pissy/angry mood for the last twenty some years…. And can we blame them? The last time there was a positive opinion was January 2002.
And what has transpired in the years since?
After an initial bout of patriotic fervor, it quickly turned nasty and paranoid, and then Bush lied us into Iraq, which quickly unraveled. He narrowly won reelection. Then there was the botched Katrina response, followed by the housing crisis, the financial meltdown and TARP. In the midst, Obama went from narrowly beating McCain to a solid win. But that broke the white racists’ brains, expressed in the Tea Party. The slow recovery from the Great Recession led to Democrats getting their asses kicked in 2010 and 2014, and Trump’s narrow victory in 2016. He coasted on the improving Obama economy, but COVID hit and derailed it. That led to Biden’s victory, based on his promise to rescue the economy. But then inflation hit, crime temporarily soared, and migrants, pushed out of their countries, poured over our borders.
For the average citizen, the past two decades have been one shit story after another, and they have screamed in inchoate rage: Make. It. Stop!
Trump promised to do that and seemed to accomplish that his first three years in office.(But not for us who pay attention.)
And when he promised he would again, he found a ready audience in the angry and confused. But he only won narrowly, despite the advantages given to him by COVID inflation.
Pauline
@Quinerly: Patagonia is lovely, I have such fond memories of it! It’s where the county fair used to be held (yes, it’s in Santa Cruz county) and more often than not, we’d drive out there for their 4th of July parade and Mexican barbacoa.
I sometimes think about moving back to Nogales, something that I never thought I would have entertained when I left AZ in 1986.
I’m glad that you liked the cemetery! I also find them wonderful places to explore.
Lynn Dee
@TBone: Thank you for the link. That might be the most evocative plot summary I’ve ever read! I wish I’d read the story when I was young and could’ve come to it “new.”
Who did you identify with in the story?
Quinerly
@Pauline:
When was the last time you were through there? I have a question about the most elaborate wayside shrine/roadside altar I have ever seen. I parked and spent some time with it. It’s between the lake and Patagonia. Candles burning in the middle of the day. Steps up the side of the little rock mountain. Really amazing. I took some pictures and looked up the lady’s obituary last night. I have to assume it was a car accident there but little information in her obituary. The most amazing and beautiful descansco I have ever seen. (I hope I am using the correct word. Apologies if not). This lady had passed in 2020. Obviously, her family goes every day and lights the candles. It all was so very moving.
A few years back, the NM History Museum had an incredible exhibit of photographs of them from the backroads of Northern NM. Many I had also photographed on trips. I became obsessed with them one year on a trip. I am still obsessed with Northern NM cemeteries.
WTFGhost
@Juju: First, I’m sorry if my comment seemed directed at you. Please, never assume anything I’m inspired to say is directed at “you” (the person I’m responding to).
I read what you said, and it gave me a flash of my journey, and I wondered would you (generic – the reader of the comment) find that journey interesting, because it was when I recognized my own discomfort, and *a* method (that worked for *me* :-) ) to get past it.
Just the idea that some folks feel uncomfortable, and might want to decide to get over it – that’s permission to be human.
Um. Which makes me feel a tiny bit bad, like, I wasn’t responding to all the glory that is *you*, within your comment :-), I was jumping to my own inspiration, but, we can’t have everything, every time, I suppose.
TerryC
@TBone: DOGE – Den of Oligarchs Grabbing Everything
Juju
@WTFGhost: Don’t worry. Im not upset. I just thought maybe I didn’t explain what I meant clearly enough.
evodevo
@NotMax: I’d say quite likely they are dying on the job, either construction or farming. The olds aren’t out there laboring in the hot sun, but the youngs are. We’ve got burley tobacco here in KY and the usual time of the year for cutting it by hand out in the field was August, and hanging it in a hot airless tobacco barn 20 feet off the dirt floor while balanced on a 4 inch wide “tier rail” used to be a common job, before Moscow Mitch did away with this cash crop. The ER was usually busy at that time of year, and it was 20-yr-olds with heatstroke, nicotine poisoning and occasional falls that filled them.