The latest from @crampell.bsky.social:
Oops! Consumers finally realize that Trump could worsen inflation.
Fearing high prices, some are stocking up for what could be an expensive four years.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202…— David Darmofal (@daviddarmofal.bsky.social) December 26, 2024 at 8:04 PM
Catherine Rampell, at the Washington Post — “Oops! Consumers finally realize that Trump could worsen inflation” [gift link]
A day late and a dollar short, Americans are realizing that President-elect Donald Trump plans to short them a few dollars. That’s right: Since the election, U.S. consumers have become more likely to say they expect prices to rise next year.
Trump based his 2024 campaign on a seductive promise: He’ll bring prices down. Alas, it is virtually impossible to reduce prices; the overall level of prices almost never falls unless an economy is really sick (as it was during the Great Depression, the last time we saw widespread deflation). The best that economists generally hope for is for growth in prices to slow and for prices themselves to more or less plateau. This is already happening for some consumer products, such as groceries.
However, none of this is intuitive to non-economists. And Trump has taken advantage.
Only after winning last month did Trump fess up, belatedly acknowledging he can’t bring prices down. “I’d like to bring them down,” he told Time magazine. “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.”
Got that? There was no plan, there is no plan, and there was never going to be any plan to reduce prices. The only thing surprising about this admission is that he said it out loud.
One thing Trump didn’t acknowledge, however, is how his economic agenda — tariffs, deportations, tax cuts and kneecapping the Federal Reserve — could worsen the problem that voters hired him to solve.
But Americans seem to be catching on anyway. Every month for decades, the University of Michigan has surveyed consumers nationwide about their views on the economy. Since the election, there has been a surge in respondents saying that now is a good time to purchase big-ticket items, because prices will probably rise. Respondents became more likely to anticipate price increases for major household purchases (furniture, appliances, etc.) as well as for vehicles…
#ETTD…
Is he stupid? I mean, we all joke about him being not as clever as he thinks he is, but signing up to be Kaiser of the Trumpenreich and being shocked by all the immigrant haters is like going to Disney World and having a nervous breakdown because you didn’t expect to see Mickey Mouse.
— Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty (@irhottakes.bsky.social) December 28, 2024 at 12:00 AM
Ancient Boy Scout ‘raisinettes’ joke, with the punchline “See? You’re getting smarter already!”
Corporate robber barons getting in bed with white nationalists is already reaching critically unstable levels a month before they're even in office https://t.co/4o2GlcDB3L
— Ranthony (@ChiefTeef8) December 27, 2024
But… but… America’s Bravest!
#FAFO pic.twitter.com/Rqgt3OKOLr
— Denise (@Denise10231976) December 27, 2024
Well, good luck to those people, they should start calling their Republican representatives right now pic.twitter.com/8NM4emrV81
— The okayest poster there is (@ok_post_guy) December 26, 2024
MisterMix already covered this story pretty thoroughly (and besides, it’s genuinely sad), but here’s a gift link just in case: “After backing Trump, low-income voters hope he doesn’t slash their benefits”.
different-church-lady
Dumbfucks. Every single one if them.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Let’s get back to them in the mid-terms (we’ll all be overdue for non-stop CLETUS SAFARIS!!!!!!!) after the leopards have eaten their faces and see how they vote.
Or in 4 years.
I’m not entirely convinced they’ll vote any differently.
Unless MisterMix’s “drive a car into a ditch” theory of electoral voting cycles holds true.
jonas
This is just a re-run of Trump’s first term where his trade and tariff wars often hit poor and rural communities hardest that had supported him the most. And once again, he’ll royally fuck them over. And once again absolutely none of them will change their votes because guns and Jesus matter more in the end than whether they have jobs or health care or a roof over their heads.
RepubAnon
This is one of the rare times that the problem is branding. Republicans successfully branded the Democratic Party as against the middle class, while branding the Republican Party as supporting the middle class. We need to reverse this.
Fortunately, branding Republicans as the party of inverse Robin Hood types that steal from the 99% and give to the 1% aligns with reality. However, we also need to recover the Democratic Party’s brand as defending fairness for the 99%. Note that this does not mean selecting which group to throw under the bus. Instead, it means sticking to our beliefs and losing the current batch of professional campaign consultants who specialize in losing elections.
Gvg
@different-church-lady: my maternal grandfather and Regan. Upset at the cuts to SS called and my father told him, “he ran on cutting SS, why did you vote for him?” In incredulous voice. I overheard the conversation on the phone as a child.
50 years later, after numerous repeat Republican cuts to all helpful programs with support by the groups that depend on them, here we go again. Republicans have a gift of salesmanship/lying that is just amazing. Or maybe too many voters have a gift of credulousness that I am grateful I didn’t get. Because really?
stinger
Hence, EDUCATION.
TBone
@stinger: Linda McMahon of WWE (accused of ignoring sexual predation of minors going on under her nose/before her eyes) is the incoming Secretary of Education.
Gvg
@RepubAnon: well we do think the poor should be helped to move them selves up into the middle class. That seems appealing to me. Both sides of my family started poor, and moved up in the last few decades. My dad did a bit better than average.
Baud
@Gvg:
Yep. That’s the problem. A large segment of the middle class wants to identify with the rich rather than the poor. That’s what Republicans offer them.
TBone
Every time time you read the words “the economy,” try substituting the words “rich peoples’ yacht money.”
jonas
And if there’s one thing people are pissed at more than “government” (at least the crazy caricature of it in their minds) it’s corporate greed. These people vote for Trump, but a second later, are talking like goddamn Trotskyites when it comes to their burning hatred of runaway corporate capitalism. There has to be a clever way of getting into that contradictory space and making people see that Trump isn’t some swamp-draining champion of the little guy — he *is* the swamp monster itself.
sentient ai from the future
“i will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend”
compare to the classic:
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I’m the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You’re fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You’re fucking dead, kiddo.
Ohio Mom
I don’t quite remember it and google isn’t helping but Anna Freuds said something along the lines of “All learning is overcoming defenses.”
What can we say, individuals like those NYC Firefighters pissed that Republicans killed 9/11 health funding are (in pyschoanalytic lingo) very well defended. There aren’t enough therapists in the world to help them face and work through their cognitive dissonance (as if they would chose to do so).
I know Democrats are never going to quite live up to what I want them to be but given the choices put before me, there is no question. I am Blue all the way. I am able to keep these two thoughts in my head at the same time and not be bothered.
Those firefighters can absolutely not look at their allegiance to the Republican Party dispassionately. So they are eternally surprised that they are disappointed and can’t move from that position.
artem1s
Not at all virtually impossible. Biden took numerous steps to deal with price gouging that occurred largely because of supply chain problems. He made specific examples of business that were using those supply chain problems to raise prices unrelated to inflation. Infrastructure improvements also have a huge potential to lower inflation. We also have a huge problem with banking and stock market generated inflation related to banking deregulation. Bailing out failed banks due to VC investments trickles down way more than wealth ever will. Keeping interest rates unnaturally low so banks can borrow for 0% also encourages banks and high end consumer to take on unnecessary debt to pay for luxuries or stupid get rich ponzi schemes (Ape NFTs).
The US tax payer is going to spend the next century paying for W’s two $1.5 trillion dollar wars. And energy prices have been volatile since W privatization/deregulation push and our insistence on opting for more wars and ignoring the cost of climate change rather than investing all those $ on new stupid ways to get rich quick – crypto, gambling, and political campaigns rather than (gasp) spend taxpayer dollars on infrastructure for more reliable and renewable energy and keeping good paying jobs in the US so we don’t have to import everything.
Problem is consumers have been spoiled into believing the essentials that the US has managed to keep cheap aren’t subsidized by the government. They never see the collapses coming because they believe those invisible services (24/7/365 electric, water, sewage, etc) aren’t going to be effected by these idiot Ponzi schemers who promise them they’ll be rich with no labor whatsoever (perpetually rising stock market). Bain Capital and other predatory investors have also convinced ‘business’ owners that paying living wages causes inflation and the best way to bump your quarterly earnings is to lay off workers.
Matt McIrvin
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: 2018 was a big midterm for Democrats. They may not vote any differently but they may also not vote at all–differential turnout is a huge deal in midterm and off-year elections.
Even under normal circumstances, the first midterm of a modern Presidential administration tends to be a blowout for the opposition party. 2022 was in fact interesting in that it wasn’t as big a blowout as most people expected; it was a red squeaker. 1994 and 2010 had been overwhelming, destructive Republican landslides because the normal cycle was intensified by the Republicans having inherently higher-turnout voters, who would come out even when the Presidency wasn’t on the line.
But that seems to have inverted now–Trump’s coalition has a lot of low-propensity voters in it, who are interested in voting for Trump rather than for Republicans up and down the ballot, and Democrats have overperformed recently in midterm, special and off-year elections.
The question is just whether it will matter, given all the antidemocratic things Republicans do. But if a free and fair election can happen, it ought to be big for Democrats.
Trivia Man
@TBone: at least she isnt devos. Betsy has a long history of anti public education and had actually worked hard, throwing millions of dollars at the issue, and practiced strategies in michigan first. Dumb incompetence is sadly a relief.
FDRLincoln
My mantra
1) Trump voters deserve every single bad thing that happens to them.
2) their children and the rest of us don’t
3) focus now is on mitigating harm to the innocent and preserving the shreds of the constitutional order
4) fuck Trump voters. There’s no excuse this time.
Matt McIrvin
(All of the above is, of course, assuming that the 2024 loss hasn’t so demoralized Democratic voters that they’ll stay home just to spite their own party for its deficiencies. But I think the people who have that attitude are such very online political junkies that they’re not even the masses of blue voters.)
Trivia Man
@Matt McIrvin: 2010 in particular may have been the death blow. Just in time for redistricting, Wisconsin’s state legislature and the US congress haven’t recovered. Nothing did more to kneecap Obama than that, IMHO.
jonas
@Baud: As someone once said, America has no working class, just a large block of temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
Princess
I’m not an economist. I’ve never taken a class in economics. Yet I understand that tariffs will make things cost more (and btw so does Trump) and that prices may flatten but don’t go down unless demand collapses.
News media patronized Americans and treats them like idiots and tries to preserve them in idiocy by never explaining anything.
Baud
@Baud:
I should add, a large segment of poor people also want to identify with the rich rather than other poor people.
@Matt McIrvin:
Dems were demoralized by Biden. They can demoralized by anything.
Matt McIrvin
@sentient ai from the future: I don’t see the script of Bee Movie anywhere in there.
Elizabelle
Providing you a gift link to that WaPost article,
After backing Trump, low-income voters hope he doesn’t slash their benefits.
Free link, so you can read the reader comments, which are cathartic, but we are still stuck with The Felon these low info mofos stuck us with. Over 12,700 WaPost comments, and they are castigating these morons, some of whom claim in the article to be Democratic to Trump voters.
I am starting to feel rather badly for single mom Lori Mosura, profiled in the article. Although she is stupid. (And stupid enough to agree to the interview with the Post, too.) As in:
“He is more attuned to the needs of everyone instead of just the rich,” Mosura, 55, said on a recent afternoon. “I think he knows it’s the poor people that got him elected, so I think Trump is going to do more to help us.”
Mean of me, but I am not going to care if some of these weasels end up living in a vehicle. Lori and her son live in a $375/month apartment. Lori is already riding a bike, because her Ford F-150 pickup truck is broke. It’s got cargo space.
Professor Bigfoot
@jonas: It’s because they hate the crony capitalism, but they love the white supremacy. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Rose Judson
The news the last few days does feel like it’s cribbing from the Leopards Ate My Face subreddit. I am almost enjoying reading it.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: I bet you could put a demographic label on the majority of those poor people, too.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all!
Another yucky day ahead, it appears, with only occasional sunshine breaking through. More T-storms this evening.
I need to start taking down outside Christmas decorations but I need them to dry off first before I put them up. Won’t happen today.
Ten Bears
@sentient ai: Heeyyy … I got that form-letter too. Laughed, too …
Harrison Wesley
So when does that YouTube of Emperor Palpatine skipping like a dipshit come out?
Matt McIrvin
@Trivia Man: Also, Democrats had completely missed the usual midterm blowout in 2002: that 9/11 juice made it a big win for the Republicans instead. There were substantial gains in 2006 and 2008, but they were already showing weakness at the state level when the Tea Party happened. I remember all the worries about how Obama had no coattails and the Democrats had no farm team.
oldgold
After 9 – 11 firemen and fire departments across the nation were put on a pedestal. And, I get why that happened. To some extent, I was part of this. I am now over it.
Almost a quarter of a century later, what we have in many places across the fruited plains are over-funded, over-equipped, over-retired Fire Departments that answer to virtually no one.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: The other thing that could happen to fuck us over, is, of course, a giant terrorist attack.
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
This story is indicative of what I said previously.
They don’t mind socialism.
They want WHITE SOCIALISM.
Back when THEY could get benefits and the state could stop
THOSE PEOPLE
from getting them. It’s why they hate federalism.
The return of Mo Salad
Over at my Bluesky profile (click on my name), I put together a list called “Suspicious Moles”.
These are accounts that followed me. They have generic names, no avatar, no profile description, and no activity. They then followed a starter pack. About half of them followed the Jackal Pack.
Since setting up dormant accounts to use for future fuckery was a feature over at The Bad Place, I thought I’d gather them together for easy blocking.
IF YOU ARE A LURKER AND SET UP A BLUESKY ACCOUNT FOR FUTURE USE AND ARE ON THE LIST, TELL ME. Just by posting ANYTHING to your account, it will show up on the list activity. I will then drop you from the list.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
I’m not sure how the public would react this time. Dems certainly wouldn’t be as accommodating as they were in 2001.
Nukular Biskits
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Nor am I.
And that goes right to the heart of the argument that Democrats need to address the concerns of of “REAL Murkans”. I vacillate on this but mostly think it’s a waste of time and resources trying to convince idiots.
And let’s not forget a lot (most?) of these Bubbas are motivated by #1, the cruelty and #2, “OWNING TEH STEWPIT LIBTARDS HYUCK!HYUCK!HYUCK!”
kalakal
@TBone: Like it!
We need more Orcas
Miss Bianca
@jonas:
And the truly sad thing is, Democrats have no fucking interest in taking away their guns OR their Jesus. Their persecution complex is all in their pointy little heads.
rikyrah
@FDRLincoln:
No more Captain Save-A-Ho
From the Democrats.
It’s our nature…
To try and mitigate Republican pain…and we never get any credit for it.
No more.
They should get what they voted for.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
IOW, this:
Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as the exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
sentient ai from the future
@The return of Mo Salad: one detail i noticed in perusing krebs on security the other day was that “aged social media accounts” as in those that have been sitting dormant for some time, are a convenience that criminals and online fraudsters (inclusive of nation-state psyops) will pay for. it had never really occurred to me that that was definitely the case, but it absolutely is.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Indeed. And may these lambs get what they voted for.
Good and hard.
(Good morning.)
khead
I’m sorry, but it is not sad.
Nope. Not feeling bad either.
Sorry to be the asshole here, but the proper response is “I am sorry the leopard has attached itself to your face. Call me if (and when) you want to get the leopard off your face.”
Miss Bianca
@Rose Judson: I check in on that Reddit thread every morning now, since the election. For a while there it was the only thing pulling me through the day.
sentient ai from the future
@rikyrah: id appreciate it if youd stop using that misogynist phrase
Harrison Wesley
I’ve done a little thinking about which movies could get me prepped the best for the coming year. First to come to mind was Marat/Sade.
Almost Retired
@Elizabelle: Thanks for the link, notwithstanding its effect on my blood pressure. Like you, I kinda sorta maybe felt a bit bad for the single mother who was a former Clinton supporter, stupid as she is.
But the asshole on SSDI and food stamps with the Trump flag on his truck, or the old bitch reading her Bible in the laundromat? Not so much. Lots of ignorance and magical thinking with these people. These next four years will not bring out the best in me.
different-church-lady
@RepubAnon:
Most of what you’ve said makes sense, but problem is we just had an election where vast swarths proved they were resolutely against aligning with reality.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Miss Bianca:
Derivative from the New Yorker:
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/870/781/04d.jpg
different-church-lady
You can all stop wishing and hoping they’ll get what they voted for. Because they’re going to.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Almost Retired:
To borrow a phrase from them that seems very appropriate toward them now and over the next 4 years:
Fuck Your Feelings.
Spanky
@khead:
You’re kinder than I am.
Fuck’em.
Betty
@Nukular Biskits: You cannot underestimate the importance of owning the libs when it comes to MAGAs. It’s what many of them live for. How sad is that.
BritinChicago
ETA: someone already said it!
FDRLincoln
@rikyrah: I’m interested in mitigating pain for children and adult Democrats.
GOP voters, fuck them.
different-church-lady
@sentient ai from the future: “You seem a bit upset.”
John S.
@TBone:
Everyone should be VERY concerned about a Trump pick that largely has flown under the radar: Frank Bisignano for head of Social Security.
I worked for that motherfucker for nearly a decade. He is a hatchet man who only knows how to tear shit down in the name of “efficiency”.
Rose Judson
@Miss Bianca: Same here, pal. Gets a bit repetitive but always has a few gems.
RevRick
@different-church-lady: I find comments like this #1 very much like those on the Allentown Facebook group page where people post photos of litter on the street and then complain about the “lazy, inconsiderate fill-in-the-blanks.”
What does that accomplish?
For me, the solution was to pick up the damn litter myself. Instead of being all riled up, I discovered the joy of a positive contribution to my community.
And, as a result of my efforts, there is now less litter to pick up!
Nukular Biskits
@Matt McIrvin:
If I were any adversary of the US, be it a state actor or a terrorist organization, I wouldn’t do anything but step back and watch Trumpian politics inflict the damage to the US.
Never interrupt your opponent while he is in the middle of making a mistake. – Sun Tzu
Steve LaBonne
@John S.: SS is already lean to the point of serious understaffing. Lots of luck to people turning 65 in the next couple of years.
Raoul Paste
@RevRick: Good attitude. It’s beneficial for everybody.
Steve LaBonne
@Nukular Biskits: Unless they come to feel that Trump needs to be propped up the way W was by 9/11.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I find the FAFO stories so satisfying that I’m suspicious of them. Maybe we’re just finding what we think should be there? Maybe this is mostly anecdotal? And yet… Please be real! Please be real!
Honus
@Baud: exactly. I remember the trope several years ago that the problem with US voters is that 90% of Americans think they’re in the top 10% Trump voters proved that is more true than ever today.
RevRick
@jonas: Ethan Gray at Medium made me aware of a socialpsych experiment where participants were asked to choose between:
Living in a neighborhood where they made $50,000 and their neighbors made $25,000
OR
Living in a neighborhood where they made $100,000, but their neighbors made $200,000
And half chose the $25,000 neighborhood, because they valued the feeling of superiority that much.
In other words, the unearned psychological benefits of white supremacy is worth at least $50,000 to many white Americans.
Elizabelle
@Almost Retired: Every store and restaurant they go into has Fox News on the air. And probably social media and ugly memes they send each other. It’s the miasma they live in.
I don’t see how we change until we pull down the rightwing magic chamber. It brainwashes them — these creatures over here are responsible for your troubles! Illegals!! Democrats!! Uppity types! — and then it’s impossible to fill Foxified minds with actual factual information. And this election made that even more impossible.
But. They are responsible for their actions, too. And their vote in 2024 is going to penalize them, badly, and us.
TLDR: Fuck ’em. And the rightwing lie they rode in on.
In their defense, it’s not hard for them to miss all the — or any — good Biden did. It was never acknowledged in the greater media sphere. How Biden was treated — ignored, unless he was being demeaned — is a tragedy, results to be seen in coming years.
different-church-lady
@RevRick: I’m pretty sure I already live in a neighborhood where I make 50k and everyone else makes 200k.
Elizabelle
@RevRick: Yay you! I pick up trash and plastic on my beach walks and park walks. Good for flexibility and balance (think of it as exercise!), and cleans up the environment too. Whatever little tiny bit.
different-church-lady
@Steve LaBonne: Well thanks, I… HEY!
different-church-lady
@RevRick: Tell me what not calling them what they are has accomplished.
raven
Lotta whining about WHITE voters. Mosura doesn’t look very WHITE to me.
Miss Bianca
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Yeah, I’ve seen that one. That’s a laugh/wince if ever there was one.
Bupalos
@jonas: There certainly is a way to get into that space, but the party doesn’t seem ready to go there. You’d have to be willing criticize the idea of billionaires and inequality as such.
different-church-lady
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Yes, you’ve put your finger on something. Even MSM wants to focus on the freak show. It a very genteel version of a freak show, but it’s still freaks.
Fair Economist
@Rose Judson:
An amusing read. But one of the first posts I saw accused Eloon of “typing like an Indian”. WTH does that mean? I’m not aware of any typing quirk distinctive of either American Indians or Asian Indians. Has the RW developed another unfounded racist insult and gotten it so well known it can be deployed as an unsourced reference – and I haven’t even heard of it?
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
Replace the “corporate robber barons” in Ranthony’s comment with “reinvented plantation owners” and that about covers it. Especially viz H1Bs and undocumented labor.
Fair Economist
@RevRick: Wow, an actual scientific demonstration of Davis X Machina’s maxim.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@RepubAnon: the GQP is for the middle class in the same way cheetahs are for gazelles.
schrodingers_cat
OT Dad update.
He is home and we have texted several times. Thanks for sending good thoughts his way.
Dorothy A. Winsor
We’re not going to stop trying to save the fools because the policies we enact to do that are the policies we think are good. They help everyone. They reflect what we think a society should be.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Great.
Elizabelle
@raven: She does to me. Or, mostly!
Look again at all the photos in that story.
different-church-lady
@Fair Economist: Some day soon we can have A-I invent fresh racist slurs for us.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
We’re going to stop trying to save fools because we don’t have a majority that can enact our policies.
TBone
@kalakal: amen to that!
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I haven’t called him yet. I thought it would be good to give him a day to settle in.
Fair Economist
@khead:
FTFY.
schrodingers_cat
@different-church-lady: AI needs to just go back 75 years or so and find the slurs Brits had for Indians or trawl the web for the past 2 days.
Fair Economist
@schrodingers_cat: Glad for the good news on your dad.
different-church-lady
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s all just venting. The reality is we can’t let them be fucked without letting ourselves be fucked right along side.
But what we can do is stop offering them pity.
Bupalos
I’d say this accurately identifies an operative political dynamic, but there’s nothing you can “pull down” to change it, it’s just normal human psychology. Fox exists because of the psychology and situation of these people, not the other way around.
kindness
Elon is such a twit. Tesla wasn’t his idea. He just bought it. Karma is happening more quickly for some big wigs in Trumpworld than we’re used to. Needs more popcorn.
Honus
@oldgold: read William Langweich’s American Ground to see how the workers at the site felt about the firefighters. To say the least, they weren’t universally admired there.
Fair Economist
@different-church-lady: But, also, the reality is that we can’t do a lot to stop them. They may stop themselves, due to their narrow majorities, but that’s largely out of our hands.
Making FAFO into a big meme, however, might really help us in 2026 and 2028.
Steve LaBonne
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): “Funny” how all these bold Randian titans are completely dependent on the government both for contracts and for things like immigration restrictions.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@RevRick: I would love to see how the questionnaire was worded. Reading your comment, I hear an unvoiced assumption that the poorer neighborhood could survive on $25,000. It’s easier to live someplace where your neighbors are not starving and unable to keep up their premises. I wonder whether those who made that particular choice would stick to it when they realized they had the only house in a neighborhood of tents.
The Audacity of Krope
This.👏🙌
Steve LaBonne
@Fair Economist: They will be able to do a shit ton of damage via the executive branch even if the House can’t pass any legislation, because this time there are no “adults in the room”.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Steve LaBonne: Not to mention every Reichwing-loving business segment angsting that “deport all immygrunts” might actually affect their labor pool.
TBone
@Trivia Man: East Carolina University and also
She’s not dumb. But she is a liar.
Fair Economist
@kindness: I don’t think karma is coming for Eloon here. He’s got the platform, the half-trillion bucks, and the support of China (since he’s working for them). And China controls TikTok, which has a demonstrated ability to determine election outcomes. All the deplatformed anti-immigrant MAGATs have is Trump’s loyalty – and that doesn’t exist.
RepubAnon
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): If cheetahs had the con artist skills of Republicans, the gazelles would vote for the cheetahs because “the cheetahs tell it like it is” and the game wardens are “elitists that are out of touch…”
That’s why I call this a rare situation where the solution is better branding and a consistent message of support for both the middle class and the victims of discrimination.
Fair Economist
@Steve LaBonne: This is true – and also out of our hands. We can’t do much until we next vote – mostly in 2026, with a few state level exceptions. We may as well lean in to that and think about how to leverage the harm Trump will do for then.
TBone
@John S.: thank you and goddamnit.
The Audacity of Krope
Removing the filibuster is great policy, in the abstract. If a bipartisan group managed to get together to do this it would temporarily empower Republicans, appropriately giving people what they voted for in purely ethical fashion.
Fight them on ideological grounds, convince, persuade. All good ideas. But using parliamentary chicanery to stop voters from seeing the choices the people they voted for want to make just feeds the narrative that voting doesn’t matter and frustrates our efforts just as much when we have to clean up their mess next time
Steve LaBonne
@Fair Economist: Completely agree.
KatKapCC
Someone help me out here, I have zero clue what this is referring to and Google was no help.
Bupalos
@The Audacity of Krope: who are “they,” what did “they” vote for, and what would it look like in reality for them to get it? What would the situation look like for “us” in the world where “they” finally get what is coming to them?
RevRick
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): You’re overthinking this. A $25,000 neighborhood would have shit housing stock, shit transportation and likely shit food options.
Bupalos
@The Audacity of Krope: When Republicans and oligarchs use the machinery of government, they make life worse for the populace. And the reaction of the populace whose lives are made worse is not to become more informed and engaged citizens. This whole idea of “letting them get what is coming to them” is a kind of unwitting cooperation with the oligarchic project.
Glory b
@jonas: Dont forget black people.
The Audacity of Krope
Voters.
Deplorable ass Republicans
Fuckin’ deplorable
We’re all in this boat together. Doesn’t matter. Focus on state efforts to protect citizens.
This whole fixation with trying to save all humanity through our exceedingly flawed Federal Government is unwitting cooperation with this oligarchic project. Right now what we need are fires.
Elizabelle
@KatKapCC: Hmmm. My guess is rabbit droppings passed off as Raisinettes? Am probably no help there.
Ruckus
Americans are realizing that President-elect Donald Trump plans to short them a few dollars. That’s right: Since the election, U.S. consumers have become more likely to say they expect prices to rise next year.
However, none of this is intuitive to non-economists. And Trump has taken advantage.
Nothing is intuitive to shitforbrains either. He’s never really understood much of anything. He goes through life thinking he’s the greatest human ever (just in case anyone is questioning he’s so far back in the running that he’s too far back to count) He also has his head so far up his own ass that he’s all ass, so what he sees and what normal people see are two completely different views.
@Elizabelle:
They follow him because he’s so wealthy (if he can fool himself he can fool people that see the world in the same manner as he does…)
Also, because of the way he sees the world, and they follow him because of that, they see the world in the way he wants the world to be, in all aspects. But there is just one problem, (OK there are a zillion problems with him, but in this instance….) The world does not work in the way shitforbrains sees the world. That stick up his backside is big but it’s not nearly big enough for the world to revolve around. The world does not work anything close to or like he thinks it does. And it never works at the concept of one of us, because none of us are the center of the universe, and neither is shitforbrains. I have no idea who or what is but it isn’t one person – no matter how much money they have. The very wealthy may think it’s them (my how the mirror lies!) but it’s not. This world existed long before money or cars or houses or laws or countries or humans did, and much of the concept of human history revolves around trying to find an explanation for why it does exist and revolve. We ain’t it. In my view humanity has spent it’s entirety trying to prove that it is humanity that is the reason. It isn’t. Part of it – maybe. But then how do you explain all the planets that have nothing living on them? We humans seem to believe that there is an explanation for everything. And there of course may be. But it was here long before humanity was. And so many of us seem to need the answer that we’ve spent effort since day one to prove that the reason is humanity. If that was the answer why is it that so many planets are inhabitable for living things? I say be glad you are here and get to enjoy being part of it. Because in the over all we live in a very, very, very small moment of the overall, even if we live longer than anyone else ever has.
different-church-lady
@The Audacity of Krope:
That’s the one.
Baud
@Glory b:
Yep. All these MAGA outraged at Elon over H1Bs would be just as upset about competing with US non-whites and women.
different-church-lady
@RevRick: it’s totally on paper. In reality these assholes wouldn’t even drive through a 25k neighborhood without wetting their pants in terror.
Elizabelle
Incidentally, WRT how Biden was treated: The FTF Vichy NY Times did a yearend quiz: can you name these 24 famous faces?
Trump was there. Vance was there. Musk was there. Harris and Walz too. Arianna Grande. Various rappers. But ….
Fucking Putz Sulzberger and Elitist of Elites Joe Kahn have been pretending that Biden does not exist. Unless it’s to lambaste for his age and now — his regrets!
raven
@Elizabelle: Mostly Filipina maybe.
Soprano2
@stinger: Except that Walmart has been highlighting a lot of price rollbacks for over a year. People wouldn’t believe me when I mentioned it. They just ignored it in favor of their belief that everything was too expensive.
different-church-lady
@Elizabelle: Sadly, the Times had the last laugh.
Captain C
@jonas:
FTFY
Nelle
@Steve LaBonne: I have seen how much Musk pays in taxes (laughable percentage of his “income” and wealth. What I haven’t seen is how much US taxpayer money he hoovers up. I hate to agree with Loomer, but yes, this isn’t about cutting American spending as much as redirecting it into his already overstuffed pockets. Putting him in charge of where the money goes??? That’s going to work out well for him. He wants it all – all the money, all the power, all the attention.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
Yep.
RevRick
@different-church-lady: Ccalling them dumbfucks only convinces them that we are elitist assholes and it negativity affects our own well-being.
I prefer to model what I want.
Elizabelle
@raven: Very possible, and then only partially, I would guess. She’s a lovely woman. Just wish she could think a bit better!
She got savaged so much in the WaPost comments, I was feeling sorry for her. Way to make the national news. (Although. She is still breathing.)
Barbara
@Elizabelle: I bet geg6 knows more of these people than she wants to. I do too. Lori Mosura might as well have been my brother’s girlfriend — she’s just a little younger than he would be now. My brother’s GF was a nice person, but she lived a life that was kneecapped by incredibly bad choices she made as a teenager — having two kids with a complete loser, and not graduating from high school. And she was also racist as fuck.
Indeed, I don’t recall that the article asked people at all about their views on race, but I have to admit that I couldn’t finish it. At least in Pennsylvania, it explains a lot. Which no one will ever admit to on the record, just you know, when you talk to them in private it’s usually pretty clear.
My mother once told me after we read a similar article in Politico in 2016 that most of the people with enough education and initiative had already left the kind of places that are profiled in this article. The Politico article was much more forthright about the role of racism, and the self-sabotage that many people who remained engaged in. For instance, the owner of a factory said that he found it almost impossible to remain fully staffed because so many people failed drug tests. Or the community college that said its most popular vocational course was for coal mining.
I don’t know where the future went for these people but the fact that they seem to have cast their lot with Donald Trump tells me that for most of them, as for Trump himself, the world stopped somewhere in the late 70s or early 80s.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@RevRick: Do the “I’ll take the $50k salary to live there” crowd grok that?
….
Then no, I am not overthinking it. They are UNDERthinking it.
The Audacity of Krope
To many of these Republican voters, somehow, the bolded portion reflects Jesus.
Elizabelle
@different-church-lady: So far. Alas.
Poe Larity.
So now he’s a fan of “Kathleen Kennedy’s” Star Wars?
Saw a friend before flying back home from TX. Wifey is going to inauguration. She’s an IVF Dr. Even he was a bit speechless.
different-church-lady
@RevRick: Yeah, well you go right on coddling these dipshits while they continue to vote for the cult leaders and I’ll see you on the other side if there’s still one left.
Elizabelle
@Barbara: Good comment, and very true.
Where those $375/month apartments came from.
RevRick
@Ohio Mom: Jjust more evidence of the premium many white folks place on white supremacy.
RevRick
@different-church-lady: This reality describes Appalachia
Parfigliano
@Miss Bianca: Jesus freaks are happiest imagining they are being persecuted.
Barbara
@RevRick: It’s a hypothetical for a reason. And just so you know, relative well-being as a contributing factor to the perception of happiness is not a new construct. People who are much better off than they were 25 years ago can still feel less well-off if they are not as well off as the people around them. This has been studied across cultures and nations.
The Audacity of Krope
In the abstract, I agree. In reality, no matter how gently and logically we explain any given Republican idea is wrong, they react as though being called an idiot.
Faking respect carries an emotional toll. We don’t have to go out of our way to call them dumb; but when they set up a bunch of logical hurdles with their lies, declaring the entire logical proposition dumb (not the person) saves a lot of work and is no less likely to change a mind.
cmorenc
@Baud: It’s also called the “embarrassed millionaire” phenomenon, whereby middle-and-working class voters identify with the opportunity to become a millionaire themselves over that of benefitting from being members of a larger prosperous society. “I could be a millionaire if only.,,(obstacles posed by others)”
RevRick
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): What matters is their gut level response. They weren’t supposed to think.
Nettoyeur
“But I never thought the leopards would eat MY face, said the Trumper who voted for the the Face Eating Leopards Party.” And this time it’s universal, the oligarchs want their H1B visa wage slaves, and the MAGAs want lower prices for groceries, and both groups will get skinned. It’s shares in Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka, and Trump Casino for these morons. When you are playing cards and don’t know who the mark is, it’s you. I cannot wait for the 2026 mid terms……..
RevRick
@The Audacity of Krope: When I confront this on X, I use the Socratic method, asking questions that let them come to their own conclusion.
Kristine
@The return of Mo Salad: I’ve been blocking so many new followers. Most were pig butchering accounts at first—photo of attractive late-middle aged man, following only/mostly women, loved pets and kindness, etc. Now I’m seeing accounts with 1000s of follows/following and no clue as to why—most posts are photos or reposts of other accounts. Maybe simple follow-farming, but who knows?
https://bsky.app/profile/rahaeli.bsky.social is an experienced Trust & Safety admin who has been evaluating dubious accounts and reporting about same. Recommended follow.
Elizabelle
Uh oh. Just heard from my sister. Seems just about everybody I spent Christmas with is down sick. I am … feeling fine.
Does that make me the vector??
different-church-lady
@Kristine: Bluesky is not going to save us. It will get ratfucked just like all other social media spaces get ratfucked. Looking for the next online safe-space is just not a path out.
Baud
I bet I would have been rich if it weren’t for you filthy libs.
different-church-lady
@Baud: Oh come on Baud, you’re rich in… uh, rich in… hey, is that seagull?
The Audacity of Krope
I do this in real life and it generally leads to more lies until they’re cornered and declare the conversation over. Or aggression on their part because they know I’m trying to lay their ideas bare.
I’ve been making these efforts for almost 30 years. It only works on the very loosely politically affiliated. MAGAs won’t be helped and the ones who can be helped rarely jump into this type of conversation to provide the opportunity.
Too much work. I’m retired from that bull.
ETA: Especially once you consider a lot of them know they’re wrong, they’re just playing in your face.
Bupalos
@Barbara: “where the future went” was away, with the more advantaged people in the community that left. This impoverished communities of the human capital they needed to thrive.
A society based on ever increasing economic segregation and self-sorting creates ever increasing sacrifice zones. Even now that we’re seeing the beginnings of the systemic political collapse that this portends, we-the-fortunate still do this “anyone who doesn’t leave is an idiot” thing. As if there are no ethical complications.
Captain C
@Baud: We know you haven’t spent all your money on pants.
tobie
I see that there’s a new thread upstairs devoted to pets, so I’ll post here. Heather Richardson had this to say about the rift in the MAGA subculture. I found it illuminating.
TBone
@Captain C: he is not wearing the emperor’s new clothes.
The Audacity of Krope
Reboot plot twist: “The emperor has pants on! It was all a lie.”
Another Scott
Marcie Jones at Wonkette today – “buoyant fiancee”.
[ chef’s kiss ]
Best wishes,
Scott.
p.a.
Olds like me might remember CB radio. I think it was the result of some sort of radio frequency deregulation or some such. Became a thing, popular, goofy, a way to connect… for a while. I didn’t get involve (I’m a snob and it was kind of WWC, rural etc) but some friends did. It didn’t take too long before it became an absolute racist, misogynist sewer à la 4,8 chan and now X, tRumpchat etc.
It’s like there’s some sort of sociological law.
ArchTeryx
@oldgold: Yeah, firefighters are just as regressive as the cops are, but I still consider them a superior alternative. They’re at least trained to save lives, not go in shooting. Firefighters haven’t killed an innocent black man in cold blood on the street that I know of, but I’ve seen them pull plenty out of burning buildings and cars. They aren’t saints and they aren’t gods, but if the money’s going to a public service, take it away from the cops and give it to them
Which would you rather have, a bunch of oversized fire apparatus, or cops being gifted with a bunch of surplus Strykers?
TBone
@Elizabelle: eat lots of garlic and chase it with a double shot of apple cider vinegar hahaha (that’ll just scare it out of ya). I have actually done this but don’t know whether it worked or I just had an immune system miracle on those few occasions. My immune system is shot, so …
Rumpy neighbor dad just dug a cat sized hole for us out back and related that his eldest, home from a Congressional Staff position in Washington, D.C., has “the flu.” Despite being warned by parents to take a small trash receptacle to bed with him last night, he instead ran out of his room, down the steps, and vomited all over their lovely, deep pile carpet. Mom had to clean it up at 11:45 p.m. and dad lit a fire on his red ass today. I hope hubby didn’t get close enough catch it while assisting with the kitty grave.
Geminid
I see Senator Andy Kim will appear on CNN’s Sunday show State of the Union tomorrow. Fox News Sunday will feature blog favorite Rep. Ro Khanna for the umpteenth time, along with Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt.
And West Virginia Governor and Senator-elect Jim Justice says he won’t attend the new Congress until his successor is sworn in on (I think) January 17.
Bill Arnold
@RepubAnon:
How about saying, early and often and relentlessly and without respite, even when the Rs attempt push-back:
The Audacity of Krope
Would substitute “working Americans” for “middle class” because I think it’s supremely important to include the working poor.
Honestly this might be the most missed demographic in our politics. Too much income for assistance, too little income to function smoothly in America.
Sure Lurkalot
@Miss Bianca:
This Dem does have an interest in taking away guns. 400 million of them in circulation and assault weapons meant for war toted into public spaces like no other so called civilized country. All for a misinterpreted bunch of words in a 250 year old document.
As for Jesus, too many Christians have taken his words and life away from their faith, no effort on my part needed.
ArchTeryx
@kalakal: [pendant] A particular pod of orcas found out that yacht rudders make great playthings. They’re dolphins. Dolphins play rough. They’re big dolphins. Those play very rough – ask the poor baby seals that end up as an orca pod’s Plaything Of The Day.
Get back to me when they figure out that the people in the boats also make great playthings. Kind of like Tilikum, but with the rich instead of innocent trainers.[/pendant]
Miss Bianca
@Nelle: The thing is, Loomer and Musk – and all of MAGA now pointing bazookas at each other – *are* right about each other. A lot of MAGA really *are* a bunch of contemptible fools. Musk really *is* trying to stuff even more taxpayer money into his pockets.
The more they rip into each other, the more Democrats can lay back and watch. And maybe some of the MAGAts wake up, because they will pay attention to their own wretched hive of scum and villainy calling each other out on it, where before they could dismiss it as Demoncrap propaganda.
Or something. Maybe the only value in this whole flapdoodle currently erupting is as a source of cheap amusement for yours truly.
I’ll take it.
Lily
Suzanne
I know the stupid don’t like it when I point and laugh, but if they really don’t like it, they could stop being stupid.
The Audacity of Krope
@ArchTeryx: [pedant]
[pendant][pedant][/pedant][/pendant][/pedant]Professor Bigfoot
@Nukular Biskits: I thought that was Napoleon.
In any case, *wise advice.
Citizen Alan
@Gvg: That gift is called the mainstream media, which goes to extraordinary lengths at every level to present itself as a liberal institution that only appears to lean conservative out of a desire for fairness, instead of the conservative propaganda industry it has been for my entire life.
TBone
@Lily: gah!
different-church-lady
@Suzanne:
Well, actually…
Miss Bianca
@Sure Lurkalot: Yeah, well…you have a point, but I have come to the conclusion living out here in the sticks that advocating gun control is ballot box poison for Democrats. At least out here it is.
The Audacity of Krope
White adjacency is a hell of a drug.
Shit, I said white three times. I hope I didn’t summon our new racial grievance troll.
Shit, I said it again.🤐
Elizabelle
@Lily: That’s horrible. We need to amplify that news. $60 million is a small sum, in government terms, and GEC’s work is important.
ArchTeryx
@The Audacity of Krope: Thank you for doing that AFTER my edit timer ran out. Gah.
Elizabelle
@TBone: my sympathies on Josey.
Something definitely going around. Staying home is appealing.
Ksmiami
@different-church-lady: I really don’t give a fuck about them… at all. They voted for national suicide. They can go first.
TBone
@Elizabelle: do eet!
The Audacity of Krope
Sometimes believing something idiotic helps validate prior idiotic behavior. Motivated reasoning.
Indeed, the Republican Party succeeds primarily by promising abdication from all responsibility*, especially consideration of others and taxes. “We won’t judge you for being greedy and cruel” is a hell of a sales pitch.
*Well, actually, they do hold us responsible to find our own food, shelter, and clean air in a situation where they enable people to hoard the two former and destroy the latter with reckless abandon. Then the only accepted responsible way to seek food etc. for ourselves is to submit to the rule of the very same capitalist overlords hoarding these things to begin with.
TBone
Coming in for a landing with a turnkey State Propaganda Network and social media empire
https://bsky.app/profile/fancysplace.bsky.social/post/3leeqmg3qpc2n
The Audacity of Krope
And ruin my own joke? Fuck that.
Not that I could have if I wanted to anyway. That required precise structuring.
Ruckus
@John S.:
Absolutely This.
The world does not revolve because of money. It’s been revolving around a lot longer than the concept of money has existed. Animals that do not have a monetary system still exist, born, live, die. There might be more of them than all of us. Money makes it easier to live, opens up opportunities for specific talents. But the world worked, humanity existed a long, long, long time before many/most/(all?) of those specific talents even existed. How long has it been that humanity got the concept of using electricity? How long has the concept of what we are doing now existed? In the overall time frame of humanity it’s a split second. Much of what we know has been discovered within 2 or 3 generations. Sure the basis for some of that discovery goes back quite a bit farther, but how much farther? A lot of human history is about power, who has it and who doesn’t. Because power over humans got someone something that the rest didn’t have, not having to do physical work to survive. And given history, many didn’t survive what we now consider a normal lifetime. Many not even close. How many humans today spend anywhere near the physical energy working that all but a few had to spend to survive, not all that many decades ago?
Bill Arnold
@Elizabelle:
From the bad place (an excellent microfiction account):
(Anthem/Leonard Cohen reference, if not clear.)
ArchTeryx
@p.a.: I certainly do remember CB radio. The trouble with CB radio is that it was self-regulating. You couldn’t BLOCK the misogynist, racists twats being idiots. Most of the serious people got the hell off of it and moved to ham radio. I know at least one professional meteorologist and storm chaser that uses ham and won’t touch CB with a 10 foot pole, even today. Ham is awesome. Much better culture, and the guy is using it to report touchdowns, location and motion vectors of tornadoes on the ground. That saves lives.
Long as you can block the trolls on BlueSky and you stay vigilant, they have a much harder time of it there than on Xhitter. Or CB.
scav
@The Audacity of Krope: It’s good to remember these shits can multitask. They will and have turned on their own children if they fail to uphold their simplistic hidebound worldview. And there is no generalized lack of melanin solidarity either: whatever socialism they are for, it is for people exactly like them in religion, sexuality, voting history, choice of football team and crunchy snack.
Sister Golden Bear
@ArchTeryx:
There’s a reason there’s no “fuck the fire department” songs.
emrys
@The return of Mo Salad: I am realemrys123. I just don’t post
apocalipstick
@stinger:
Education requires a student as well as a teacher.
Ruckus
@jonas:
It is possible that some of them will see what is right in front of them. Maybe not likely but it is possible. In the lifetime of this country there have been a lot of changes. Does anyone remember the income tax rates of not all that long ago? And remember than your tax rate depends on your income and that the highest rates have come down significantly. We the people are paying not a lot lower rate than the wealthiest. Look up the income tax rates. The highest rate used to be 95%, and some people were still hugely wealthy. Now it’s a lot lower and those wealthy people get to hold on to a hell of a lot more. They were still WEALTHY then, just not as much. But the rate got lowered too much. I don’t disagree that the prior high rate was too high but I do believe that it is now TOO LOW.
What that allows is some humans to become so wealthy that they think their shit doesn’t stink. But it does for everyone, and if the stink of one’s shit was based upon one’s wealth, many of them would now stink to way over anywhere near acceptable. Our country is based on the concept that we all equal. But in reality our bank accounts are still considered to be the ultimate measuring stick. Money talks, like it or not. At the high end of money there is shouting and buying of things and people.
Money is as money is earned, spent, and held. And cherished. The original saying never went far enough…..
The Audacity of Krope
So they want to build hell on Earth and name it heaven.
Professor Bigfoot
@Barbara:
I suspect this is the thread that ties them all together.
Professor Bigfoot
@RevRick: Calling them racist fucknozzles isn’t “namecalling” because it accurately reflects the facts on the ground.
If you can engage with that, good luck to ya.
The Audacity of Krope
@Professor Bigfoot: “If the truth hurts, we must avoid it” only protects the feelings of liars and ignorami. And, again, we don’t need to go out of our way to insult people. Though I trust individuals’ judgment in their life situations.
But we damn sure shouldn’t be going out of our way to sugarcoat things.
Omnes Omnibus
@RevRick: What someone calls people here while venting is probably very different to what they say in meatspace.
Elizabelle
@apocalipstick:
Thank you. That is exactly the problem, and why just saying “education” is a simplistic solution, although a good education is key. Civics too, as we are learning.
I suspect we could make a lot more of a difference with literature and popular culture. Make some values and ideas cool and interesting.
different-church-lady
@Omnes Omnibus: Thoughtcrime.
WTFGhost
@Ohio Mom: One branch of Buddhism counsels detachment from worldly things for *precisely* the reason the FDNY has a hard time realizing they’re getting screwed over and over again. Once you’ve built an identity in your head, or built up a hero in your mind, it’s like, you have to become *ashamed* of yourself to break that powerful attachment.
Always think “Orson Scott Card wrote some fine books,” not “Orson Scott Card is my HERO” because then, when he comes out all homophobic (yes, not merely “heterosexist”), you can say “damn. These books ain’t so precious any more, but… at least they were never anything but *books*.”
Um. This is probably not going to help the FDNY to have an epiphany.
@artem1s: It’s not that it’s impossible to “reduce the price of laundry detergent,” or to cut back on gouging (if you can define it carefully enough), but if you say to an economist that you can “reduce prices,” they’ll explain how deflation can kill an economy. Every purchase that can be put off will tend to be put off – economies are strong when people are confidently spending money happily.
@FDRLincoln:
@Nukular Biskits: it’s entirely possible you are seeing socialism as a positive good, and others, who reject it, do not.
@Nukular Biskits: That was before the days of cyberwarfare; also, too, 9/11, George W.
@Elizabelle: Another reason I wish I could walk (more than a couple hundred feet).
Kayla Rudbek
@Elizabelle: yes, if I were involved in Hollywood I’d option a lot of Eric Flint’s work, Revolt in 2100, John Scalzi, and the biopic on Robert Smalls, heck, David Eddings’ Belgariad might be a good one too. If they will only listen to white men, at least let it be white men with a clue.
Elizabelle
@Kayla Rudbek: shall be reading those! Thank you for the suggestions.
rikyrah
@different-church-lady:
It’s a new version of the Eternal Cletus Safari.
But, always, never ever, with any hint of those voters ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR VOTES.
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
Yeah 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
The Audacity of Krope
Such white men aren’t beloved of white supremacists or the passive white supremacy that occurs in our culture. They had no problem slandering Tim Walz about tampons.
jefft452
“(and besides, it’s genuinely sad)”
What is sad about it?
Dont you believe in Democracy?
They had to choose between a better life for themselves or bullying brown people and trans kids
They got what they wanted
Citizen Alan
@RevRick: when we don’t insult them, they fabricate insults anyway! They will seize any opportunity to stoke the fires of their own unwarranted sense of victimhood. Please stop coddling them.
The return of Mo Salad
@Kristine:
Followed. Thank you.
The return of Mo Salad
@emrys:
Fixed. Thank you.
Harry
@different-church-lady: This is why we lose. Enough condescension and we all drown. Or to put it another way, nobody likes a know-it-all.
The Audacity of Krope
If that’s true, Republicans would have died off as a party long ago. The simple fact of the matter is we’ve been far too tolerant of their nonsense.
Harry
@jefft452: ahhh Democracy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpq_SfTVK0w
It’s important to note that the character singing is Hillary Clinton. It turns out musicals about the China and US can miscast too.
Harry
@The Audacity of Krope: And you think intolerance is the solution? We are a first world country still, even if it is hard to believe. And by far, most people are able to get by and raise their kids. Those people don’t like risking their money on fancy new ideas, and yelling that to them won’t change their minds.
The Audacity of Krope
No one is saying yelling anything to anyone, least of all fancy new ideas. The idea is to point out lies, without equivocation.
I hope you didn’t hurt yourself stretching your argument that far.
ETA: And yes, intolerance is the only solution for people who knowingly spread bullshit. Sitting there debating someone who insists the sky is hot pink just validates the notion there is a debate to be had. Just say that’s wrong, however forcefully you deem appropriate, and be done with it.
Harry
@rikyrah: I’ve lurked on this blog since at least before Obama, and I had to leave last summer due to the toxicity here.
We think we are smart, and yet we keep doing the same thing over and over and wonder why it doesn’t work. Who will take responsibility for that?
Harry
@The Audacity of Krope: yes, everyone loves preachers and lecturers. I bet you were Teacher’s pet.
The Audacity of Krope
@Harry: I’m at a loss to understand what you even mean by this.
Harry
@Another Scott: Is she like Chef Boyardee? I guess not, but this is delicious.
Harry
@The Audacity of Krope: Standing over someone’s shoulder and pointing out their mistakes is the same as lecturing. And yes, I know I am a hypocrite, but I do have a point, somewhere here. Oh yes, stop acting superior to those you think are your lessors.
Or, do you like that when someone does it? It’s not an effective technique.
I’m sorry for my tone.
BubbaDave
@FDRLincoln: Cosigned, 100%.
The Audacity of Krope
It seems you fundamentally misunderstand me, then. My proposal is to dismiss nonsense and walk away*. That’s about as far from what you describe here as possible.
*If this conversation continues in this way, you will be able to witness this firsthand
Harry
@Citizen Alan: I think you are confusing the “online right” with people who voted for Trump. Both the online left and the online right (“very online people”? like people who comment on a blog ;) ) have trouble distinguishing reality.
Harry
@RevRick: you have my respect, sir.
Harry
@The Audacity of Krope: You are going out of the way to ignore the truth: that liberals don’t know how to talk about anything without looking like doofuses or worse.
Harry
@different-church-lady: but they are non-profit. that is key.
brantl
@sentient ai from the future: Who said that giant load of whale dreck?
brantl
@sentient ai from the future: Who in the hell is he talking about, anyway?
brantl
@John S.: Why did you work for him, for that long?
Bill Arnold
@brantl:
It’s the Navy Seal Copypasta (Know Your Meme)
Ruckus
@John S.:
I’m retired. I don’t have a pension. Without what I get from SS – and paid into it for over 60 years, first – I’m going to be rather pissed off. Second my rent got raised, not a significant amount but not an insignificant amount either. Twice the amount my SS goes up per month. So even with zero changes I’m out all most twice what I’ll gain from SS in 2025. Now my rent hasn’t gone up in 8 years so not actually complaining out loud, but if shitforbrains and his henchmen fuck all of us over as much as they want, I imagine that trouble will be at hand. Because they will be fucking over their voters as well. And that often doesn’t go over that well. Those smart fuckers really aren’t all that and a bag of cookies, are they?
Ruckus
@RevRick:
I say this as one of those of not a lot of color, this is no less true than it’s been for decades and decades and decades. IOW all of them. Now my experience is that skin color is bullshit. First we all have some of the chemical that creates skin color in the first place – the color of our skin is due to this, and we all have it in our bodies or we’d be the color of the back ground on my screen – actually WHITE, not just that pale skin tone. That chemical is melanin. We all have it. It’s the amount not anything else. Now the amount of it comes from genetics, but ALL humans have melanin in our bodies.
Ruckus
@Steve LaBonne:
Or over 65 now.
Ruckus
@raven:
Population growth over the last 75 years in the US is over doubled. From less than 150 million to over 340 million. Growth has slowed from what it was back then. Some of that is smaller household size and some is from immigration slowdown. When I was a kid it was not unusual to see families of 3-6 kids. But someone figured out what caused that…..
Ruckus
@Baud:
Really?
REALLY??