1.) If you are a middle-aged man, you should not care about looking cool to teenagers
2.) Elon’s combination of “old authority figure,” “snitch who cries to the teacher,” and “weird nerd” has reached hitherto unfathomable levels of uncool— Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty (@irhottakes.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 10:14 AM
He’s certainly responsible for much worse things, but the single most pathetic Musk trait has to be him inventing imaginary friends he then forces strangers on social media to read. At least Trump’s infamous ‘John Barron’ shadow puppets were directed at specific journalists, not at an uncaring general public!
Given that “Adrian Dittman” is Elon Musk, this has to go down as possibly the saddest tweet of all time.
All that money.
All that power.And the man just wants validation. pic.twitter.com/s1T8HNgww6
— Alastair McAlpine, MD (@AlastairMcA30) December 29, 2024
yeah i’m calling it, elon musk is the most insecure person that has ever lived. and i’m going neanderthal to settled agriculture, indus valley civilization to mesopotamia to the industrial revolution. the number one most insecure. in all human history.
— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 9:52 PM
i could walk by elon musk and go hey nice fingers dude and there’s nothing actually wrong with this fingers but i could dagger him and he would go to therapy for ten years about the time a random guy said nice fingers. easy mark.
— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 9:56 PM
It’s actually sort of amazing someone this rich can be this pathetic pic.twitter.com/dhyU34Gr0X
— vituperativeerb (@vituperativeerb) January 1, 2025
Adrian Dittman (who some believe is Elon and sure sounds a lot like Elon) talks about Elon’s Ketamine use, claiming it’s prescribed and defending it because his companies deal with a lot of issues and he gets “attacked” and sued and works “more than most people should” pic.twitter.com/TJHSSSoOrX
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) December 30, 2024
The richest man on earth and he's investing endless hours propping up this incredibly unconvincing alt account so he can go on 4chan, of all places, and tell everyone "Elon has lots of sex." It's maybe literally the most pathetic thing I've ever seen in my life. https://t.co/KMJl0zZpyL
— Will Stancil (@whstancil) January 3, 2025
lmao Marc Andreessen saying employees are happy that Elon appears randomly, hopping off his jet, high on ketamine and adderall to “help” his employees solve problems
Wanna bet on how happy those employees are to see Elon?— Cas Piancey (@caspiancey.bsky.social) December 20, 2024 at 9:22 AM
What we are seeing today, and what we will see vividly in the months to come, is what happens when unloved and awkward men of great wealth and far greater narcissism are allowed to vent their profound and constant internal pain by wrenching the levers of power until they break off.
— Rex Huppke (@rexhuppke.bsky.social) December 18, 2024 at 11:37 PM
Insert “Let them fight” gif…
Steve Bannon is big mad at Elon Musk:
"We’re going to rip your face off. Because you can’t beat us.”
— Art Candee ???? (@ArtCandee) December 31, 2024
War for Ukraine Day 1,045: Chernihiv!
JoyceH
When a woman shows up for work with a toddler it means – her childcare fell through on the day a big project is due and she’s going to be run ragged all day to look after the tot while meeting the project deadline.
When a man shows up for work with a toddler it means – he doesn’t intend to get any work done today, he’s just going to hang around and schmooze for a while and leave early.
MagdaInBlack
You would think I’d get tired of seeing ridicule of Elno, but I have not yet. Thank you, AL
@JoyceH: A man shows up at work with his child, some overworked woman in the office gets to babysit. Ask me how I know ;-)
john (not mccain)
This reboot of Citizen Kane (d. Rob Schneider) sucks.
Now I’m thinking what’s Elon’s Rosebud. Tonka truck?
bbleh
“Weird.”
Jay
@JoyceH:
When a woman, when I worked in early tech, showed up with a child, toddler, baby,
It was like when the software crew, (who were allowed to bring dogs to work), would leave their floor with their dogs.
Sally Smith was lucky to get her baby back at all, because at 5:30pm, I was showing a 6 month old Trey how to properly read a Baltic Dry Index. We were only half way through.
And I am a guy.
MagdaInBlack
@Jay: I did have a lot of fun playing “Hangman” with my managers 8 y/o. Little bugger beat me. Who knew an 8 y/o would use Maserati as his word for me to guess ?
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Betty Cracker
Here’s hoping Trump and Musk have a nasty, screechy, public falling out and soon. It’s bad enough that we’ll be relentlessly exposed to the grotesque visage and foul face-dribblings of the orange anal wart for the next four years. It’s doubly unfair that the flounder-faced, whiny cockwomble Musk is all up in our grill too.
Jay
My ex-brother told T that my 3 things were kids, dogs, interior.
It was a long standing thing.
When I was with my ex, we went to a New Years Party with what was at the the time, “The Group”, of whom only Steve remains for us. 2 of the “friends” had a newborn, who was not dealing with a New Years Party at all. So, eventually, I got permission to take the baby away from the living room.
I took the baby into a dark back bedroom, sang them “Home For a Rest”, low key and slow, while rocking them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crIk87-mPzY
Baby fell asleep, so I guess I was on key enough, slept though to the drive home.
That how somehow became “must have kids”.
Don’t have any kids. Have nieces and nephews, and none acknowledged by blood. (My ex-brother had 5, all became assholes).
NotMax
@john (not mccain)
A Big Wheel.
Baud
I thought loving ourselves was a metaphor for masturbation.
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all!
eclare
@NotMax:
I loved my Big Wheel. But I never named it.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits: Good morning.
Baud
@eclare:
Who doesn’t love their Big Wheel?
Jay
@Jay:
Martin had to come live with us for a while at “The Place”, issues with James, his autistic younger brother. Child Services were involved. It was an over reaction.
Living in the hills, meant a world change for Martin.
One day, he was especially pissy, upset and bored, ( late teens).
So I gave him my Gortex pants and Jacket, a daypack with water and snacks. pointed him towards Edith Hill, suggested he climb it. Showed him the map, told him how to climb barbed wire fences, how to make it back to the road, and if he could get a cell phone signal, I would come and get him.
He got back at 7pm and would not shut up about all he had seen.
2 years later, on a Cambridge Scholarship, out exploring small villages a ways away. Storm. flooding. roads are closed. Martin walked 30km back, wading rivers. Exams on Monday.
In asking how it was, he said, “you taught me that”.
eclare
@Jay:
Wow. That is a feel-good moment.
satby
@JoyceH: That kid is his hostage in his custody fight with the mother. And probably a little dominance display for Trump, who famously doesn’t like kids but has to put up with Elon’s baggage because Elon BOUGHT HIM.
Brent Wilson
@Baud: yeah. But that’s tough love.
Baud
@satby:
Probably because kids instinctively don’t like him and there’s nothing Trump can do to intimidate them into pretending.
gene108
Bannon should’ve stood trial for fraud in his “build the wall” scam, but Trump pardoned him. Really pisses me off that he’s not in jail.
The arrogance and insecurity of these rich white men is pathetic. I wish there was a way to shut them up.
satby
@Baud: True. And it’s too bad we’re socialized as adults (generally) not to recoil in disgust or alarm like kids do when confronted with such a repellent creature. That instinct should have been preserved.
Baud
Via Reddit, Dr. Elon.
Jay
@eclare:
Yeah. Martin called us to let us know that his girlfriend and partner was no longer Samantha, but now Sam, hoping we would be cool with that.
Before he told Dave and Vicki, his parents.
Thus a 1 hour phone call with Martin and “making” him put Sam on the phone as well to point out we were cool with that.
satby
@Baud: Whoa, so on reddit your nym is punkass_book_jockey8 ? 😂😉
Baud
@satby:
I’m confused. I don’t see that nym at the link.
ColoradoGuy
Trump really is a magnet for disturbed people. The more wealthy and/or influential they are, the stronger the attraction. By normalizing flat-out insanity, T gives permission to Musk and RFK Jr to really let their freak flags fly.
And the mainstream media are all too happy to play along; more clicks for them as insanity is normalized.
eclare
@satby:
Kids and dogs (usually) are great judges of character. And you’re right, the willingness to display that judgment should have been preserved.
PS, William is currently snoozing right next to me.
eclare
@Jay:
I have a relative who was Amber and is now Sam. I doubt I will ever see him at family functions again, because I have some relatives who are not cool with that and would not be willing to keep their mouths shut.
Glad your family was cool with that.
Jay
@eclare:
I am a dom. T is bi,
my little family group is cool. None of them are blood.
RSA
My favorite social media reaction so far:
https://bsky.app/profile/philjamesson.com/post/3leu3bebgns2m
satby
@Baud: 7th or 8th reply down. Snarky and on point.
satby
@eclare: nice!
Baud
@satby:
I’ll look again. The replies on Reddit appear in a different order for everyone.
ETA: found it!
Suzanne
@gene108:
I don’t condone murder, but I also am not sad if Luigi has freaked them out a bit.
This is one thing I admire about the French. Guillotines cast a long cultural shadow.
TBone
@MagdaInBlack: that happened to me too, and the asshole boss who did it later reamed me for “not working” while I was keeping an eye on his TWO kids who were, let’s just say, getting into shit they shouldn’t because ornery little curs.
TBone
@Baud: oh my gawd. There is so much WTF in this whole post, I’m choking on it.
I knew it was bad but JFC this is horrendous.
Princess
This is great, AL. And you didn’t even need to include last night’s complete pwnage of Elon-Dittman on a Fortnite Twitchstream by a guy called ConnerEatsPants.
TBone
@Princess: I wish I didn’t know what any of that means. But I do.
Princess
@TBone: Same, TBone. Hard same.
Ksmiami
@ColoradoGuy: Again, America as we knew it is over. Just looking for our Robespierre…
Ksmiami
@Suzanne: you beat me to it…damn.
Another Scott
“Burn
Baby
Burn”
sippy cup is [ chef’s kiss].
And his hands keep getting smaller and smaller.
Happy weekend everyone. Hang in there.
Best wishes,
Scott.
different-church-lady
His last words are going to be the name of his sled.
evodevo
@Betty Cracker: LOL that’s a keeper!
Llelldorin
@Baud: So, apparently, does Musk.
Glory b
@Suzanne: Luigi’s family created their vast wealth by running a chain of low rated, poorly operated nursing homes.
He seems to have no qualms about using their ill gotten gains to fund his defense. If he wanted to strike a blow, he could have just looked at the people at his own dining room table.
Let’s be real, if he wasn’t rich, young, white, thin and good looking,he wouldn’t have this level of attention.
You don’t really want a system where a random individual can decide you’re dangerous and kill you, do you? That’s the same thing Daniel Penny did. And I’m pretty sure you don’t want to see what healthcare would cost then (quoting Gurwinder on Bluesky).
And you know who ended up under the French Revolution blade eventually, right? Even my “urban” high school taught me that.
No one ever seems to realize that the majority of revolutions don’t turn out well.
“Long shadow”, girl?
Currants
@JoyceH: 100%
Trivia Man
@Jay: how do you climb barbed wire fences?
Trivia Man
@Suzanne: I keep asking my friends, “is anybody building tumbrels yet?”
That will be a sign.
Trivia Man
@TBone: oh, you younguns
(also an old, also parsed that sentence- am i online too much? No, its the children who are entertaining me.)
RevRick
@Betty Cracker: Unfortunately, I think Trump wants to have Elon around as a foil to Steve Bannon in order to keep both factions unbalanced and looking for his approval.
Trivia Man
@Glory b: I am not hoping for a bloody revolution. I am not eager for it or giddy with excitement. No delusions it would spare me, not confident it would be a better future.
But i lack the vision to see how we end the current dystopia any other way. Desperation is building and it can only go on just so long.
I am frankly shocked it is still accelerating towards epic concentration of wealth with no end in sight. If not bloody revolution, what changes the trajectory?
Suzanne
@Glory b: Perhaps you missed the part where I explicitly said I didn’t condone murder? Right at the beginning.
The Masters of our Universe should have a bit more fear of the people. I think it’s a good reminder to them that they can’t entirely seal themselves off from consequences with their money. They’d do well to remember that.
Suzanne
@Trivia Man:
What changes is it looking back to bloody revolutions that did occur and heeding that as a warning. Learning a lesson. Changing your behavior prior to bloodshed to avert it. You might even say….. history should cast a shadow on the present.
Chief Oshkosh
@Trivia Man:
Carefully.
sentient ai from the future
@Trivia Man: VERY CAREFULLY.
but seriously, folks, barbed wire fences have to have posts. find those and make sure your hands and feet settle between the barbs and climb away
sentient ai from the future
@satby: i just posted elsewhere about his trans daughter’s spilled tea over his shitty non-present parenting
this bullshit is for show, for public consumption, to make sure that there are publicly available photos he can point to, now and in the future, when that kid and their mom probably rightly accuse him of being a piece of shit absentee father.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/25/elon-musks-transgender-daughter-in-first-interview-says-he-berated-her-for-being-queer-as-a-child.html
Trivia Man
just realized a huge advantage to shadowing orange man – free security. I am sure elmo pays for good security, but not USSS good. Whenever he is at the secure compound he can put his guys on unpaid leave.
Glory b
@Suzanne: Remember what? The threat of mob violence?
Doesn’t that make your refusal to condemn it meaningless?
Isn’t that the same threat Daniel Penny’s actions made to the homeless and mentally ill? “Don’t act out or you’ll get chocked to death.”
The bullet doesn’t care that you’re homeless or a CEO.
sentient ai from the future
@Trivia Man: it is extremely likely that jovan musk’s security detail, such as it is, includes a number of intelligence agents from disparate countries, probably to include russia, china, and saudi arabia.
so they probably get along great with the secret service.
Glory b
@Suzanne: When have Americans ever learned a lesson?
And on Twitter, people are saying yes, let’s start gunning down the actuaries, the accountants, the IT guys, they all support the health insurance system.
Soon, they’ll be down to the customer service representatives.
Glory b
@Suzanne: People always conveniently assume that it won’t be THEIR blood that gets shed.
Are you willing to make that sacrifice?
Trivia Man
@Suzanne: Agree 100%. I just lack the vision to see what can be done. It seems like self preservation should tell the MOTU that getting 100% of everything isnt possible. They DO have skin in the game (read a history book to see how bad it CAN get for the rich!) and THEY need to help find a solution so they can keep 50? 80? % without triggering that revolution.
suzanne
@Glory b: I condemn mob violence. You know how I condemn it? I vote to support universal public healthcare, and free and accessible mental health services, and a well-policed public sphere (not just more policed but well-policed), and a rule of law, evenly applied.
You’re right: bullets don’t discriminate. The rich people who profit from people’s misery and illness should remember that.
suzanne
I will note that violence and chaos are unacceptable; therefore the social systems that we live within need to work effectively on behalf of people. If they don’t, violence and chaos are inevitabilities.
sentient ai from the future
@Glory b: well your first mistake is paying attention to xitter
Trivia Man
@Glory b: I dont have any illusions i will somehow be spared from death or a collapse of civilization or crippling inconvenience. I just dont see how things change without A) a change in the trajectory or B) a GIGANTIC upheaval of some kind.
IMHO a Kamala presidency with a sane court system could have regulated us away from the oligopoly. Since a bare minimum of voters refused… here we are.
Jay
@Trivia Man:
Go to the fence post. Keep your feet close to the post. The wire acts as a ladder.
Plan B, go to the middle of the string. Take wire 2 and hook it around the lower wire, until the barbs connect. Take wire 3, hook it around wire 4. Now you have a 2 1/2 foot gap to pass through.
Replace the wires before a cow follows you.
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker: I described Muskrat as “that moon-faced fuck” a while back, but I like “flounder-faced” better. Alliteration, baby! As for the rest of your invective, it always leaves me helpless with laughter. Rock on, BC!
Trivia Man
@Jay: Thanks! You know, just in case it ever comes up. I seem to recall many years ago i used my coat to push up the bottom wire and rolled under that gap.
Full service blog!
schrodingers_cat
@sentient ai from the future: You don’t have to go to Twitter to find people cheering a cold blooded murder.
Bupalos
@Suzanne: Luigi the rich white man?
schrodingers_cat
@Glory b: Thank you for fighting the good fight.
Eolirin
@gene108: There is, but it’s morally unconscionable.
MoCaAce
@Trivia Man:
“They DO have skin in the game (read a history book to see how bad it CAN get for the rich!) and THEY need to help find a solution so they can keep 50? 80? % without triggering that revolution.”
unfortunately history shows they will cling ever tighter to their fortunes as the world burns around them. Greed, particularly the drive to accumulate obscene wealth, is a disease.
Bupalos
@schrodingers_cat: No one is fighting any fight by commenting on the internet. I’d say taking either “side” of the health insurance vampire slaying is just half-true moralizing.
That dude absolutely deserved to die a thousand deaths under any kind of retributive justice system. Society would be better off if people who made the choices he made paid with their lives. And… we don’t live in anything resembling that kind of society, and Luigi is a seriously messed up dude with a god complex who thinks he can force it by stochastic violence, when that is definitionally only likely to make things worse.
suzanne
@Bupalos: Point me to where I said Luigi did something positive. Go on, I’ll wait.
Until then, I’ll wonder why so-called liberals don’t have enough pattern recognition to recognize that bad social systems produce bad outcomes, and if you want to actually avert bad outcomes, you need to start at the root cause.
Bupalos
@suzanne: No I half agree with you. I was actually making fun of the algorithmic way people in these spaces just sub in “rich white men” as a category and erase the diversity contained therein.
The CEO dude and Luigi were both “rich white men” but they really aren’t a terribly similar and would appear to be on “opposite” sides.
Eolirin
@schrodingers_cat: Except no one here’s cheering for Luigi.
Suzanne’s point isn’t that this is a good thing. It’s that this is what happens, and that fear of the breakdown of society in a way they can’t control is one of the few things that helps to keep the powerful in check when institutions are failing.
The alternative to the horrors of the French revolution when you have the conditions that lead up to it isn’t a more functional democracy with voluntary loss of power on the part of the wealthy elites, it’s Putin’s Russia. Once the system is that broken, mob violence or state suppression of dissent are the only real ways things can go.
Not letting things get to that point is the only way to avoid either outcome.
And we may have already passed that point with the failure of the American people to elect Harris, depending on how badly the GOP uses the next four years to break the electoral system and erode safety net protections.
But even if we haven’t we’re getting dangerously close to it. Being bitterly accepting about that state of affairs is not the same as wanting it.
And seriously, we don’t need to be reminded that the mentally ill, and minorities, and women and the unhoused are at risk with that kind of breakdown. We’re at risk either way. The GOP is directing the same built up anger at us even when they win. There need to be release valves for the kind of built up societal pressure that’s being generated by the rich stealing everything and if there’s no method which provides that release via actually addressing the problems, mob violence and/or state sanctioned oppression is what we’re going to get.
That will kill many of us, no matter which way it goes. But it’s infinitely worse to end up with Putin’s Russia. There’s no coming back from that for anyone.
Raflw
@suzanne: As quite a few Black, Native and other writers and thinkers have pointed out many times, the United States is a system built on violence. The issue now is that the people in charge of state sanctioned power are operating with far fewer guardrails, and in ways that are much more unpredictable.
But marginalized communities have always faced violent threats (and actualities). King, Gandhi, etc have posited that responding to state violence with more violence just means more violence.
I am unsure what will transpire in this extremely fkd up time, but I currently am not hoping for more nonstate violence. But rather peaceful non-compliance & nonviolent action. And a Democratic Party at can be an effective fool and protester for what is right.
Glory b
@schrodingers_cat: Yeah, we’re sitting together at the mean girl’s table.
Eolirin
@Raflw: That analysis is rooted in the viewpoint of oppressed minorities and those without sufficient power to effectively resist, through direct means, the oppression being thrown at them.
It doesn’t work the same way when it’s the majority and when that majority can effectively engage in violence without being erased by the resultant crackdown.
If white people in this country turn to violence, things will go differently, regardless of what group they’re targeting. That’s also not a good thing.
But that’s effectively what the American Revolution was too.
Matt
@Glory b:
Have you heard of this thing called “the police”? We’ve already got that system, it just doesn’t generally apply to CEOs.
Geminid
@schrodingers_cat: Good morning, Ms. Cat.I ran across an article in New Lines Magazine* and thought you might be interested. Title:
An excerpt:
The link is to a biographical article about B.R. Ambedkar.
I had never heard of Ambedkar, and while I first heard of “Orientalism” long ago I never understood the meaning until I started studying Turkiye a couple years ago.
Anyway, you might find the article worth looking up. New Lines Magazine looks like a sound long-form reporting source. I ran into it last month when Lebanese-British war correspondent Oz Katerji recommended editor Hassan I. Hassan as a good reporter on Syria.
Glory b
@Bupalos: BUT why are so many people so smugly sure of what decisions he made?
Once again, it’s the Daniel Penny model of justifiable homicide.
The Thin Black Duke
@Glory b: Thank you, ladies. Sorry that you’re getting piled on. Again.
Geminid
@Glory b: Some people really romanticize the French Revolution and its guillotines. But when I read a history of the Revolution, the story of the prosecutor the revolutionary government sent to Lyon stood out. He was a Lyon bully who had made his way to Paris to rise in the revolutionary hierarchy. When he returned to Lyon he settled his old scores in the process of guillotining over one thousand of Lyon’s citizens.
schrodingers_cat
@Geminid: I do know who Ambedkar is, I have talked about him many times in the BJ comment section. He was very prolific. So you can find his written work online pretty easily. He had a PhD in econ from Columbia. He was the Chair of the Drafting Committee of the Indian Constitution. And he hails from my birthstate. I have helped transcribe some of his followers interviews in English from Marathi (mine and Ambedkar’s mother tongue)
schrodingers_cat
@The Thin Black Duke: Thanks. A lot bigotry is tolerated on BJ these days, so long as it comes from the left end of the spectrum wearing economic justice clothes. And it has the blessings of some frontpagers as well.
Geminid
@schrodingers_cat: The New Lines article about Ambedkar talks about his time at Columbia and the influence of his professor, John Dewey on his later work.
schrodingers_cat
@Geminid: I will definitely take a look, thanks.
Peke Daddy
There’s self love and there’s Narcissistic Borderline Personality Disorder.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Geminid:
This is how I lost respect for Thomas Jefferson. Reading the whole letter restores it a bit, but then there’s slavery. On the whole, a deeply flawed genius.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t think that shitforbrainsrump will last for 4 yrs. Of course he might just because his presence in DC, (or anywhere else actually) will be like a deranged 4 yr old being elected to the highest office – or what used to be the highest office until he disgraced it – and humanity. I wish I had a clue as to what some people think they see in him. He is an example that proves that some humans see money as end all be all of human existence. Too bad he has zero idea of how to EARN money because I’d like to know of ONE tiny, immaterial normal thing he’s ever done in his entire life. Just one. His siblings seem to have been rather normal humans, you know, two among billions but he has taken the opposite tact – and done nothing. His entire life he seems to have two things in mind, him, and his money, not one penny that he has honestly EARNED. Everything else seems to be reduced to somewhere around 50th or 60th place in his mind. At best. (I may have left off a zero or two) He’s our number one modern day example that money can cause mental derangement. And there are more than a few of those.
Suzanne
@Eolirin:
Thank you.
If we genuinely want to stop mob violence, want to avoid bloody revolution…. we would create a strong, just, fair society with institutions that serve people well. Or we can throw Luigi in jail and tell ourselves that that’s enough. And then be periodically and randomly “surprised” when something similar happens.
ETA: And I’m an experienced enough American to know that we’re going to go with Option #2! Throw Luigi in jail, tell ourselves the justice system is fucken great, and then act simply aghast when more “random” violence happens.
Geminid
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Right before he was sent to Paris as Ambassodor, Thomas Jefferson was instrumental in pushing the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 through the Aticles of Confederation Congress.
The Ordinance created the system under which Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin were admitted as states, and prohibited slavery in them.
I think this determined more or less the outcome of the Civil War fought 75 years later. So I hold that in Jefferson’s favor.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Fair enough. I’m thinking more about his personal life. I visited Monticello last year and the curators have been going for an honest assessment.
Geminid
@Mr. Bemused Senior: If you are interested in learning more about Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemings and her family, Annette Gordon-Reeds The Hemingses of Monticello (2008) is a must-read. Ms. Gordon-Read meticulously researched the lives of the Hemings family and told their story with a lot of perception. She won a Pulitzer Prize for this work.
brantl
@Baud:
I would bet that’s true, for Elno, Smuk!
Citizen Alan
@Trivia Man: the only reason we got FDR and the new deal was because of the great depression happening against the backdrop, the rise of the USSR. Because a critical mass of the one percent realize that they could work with the democrats to produce Socialism-Lite and keep most of what they had, or they would run the risk of Communism-Heavy and possibly die at the hands of a torch wielding mob.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Geminid: thanks, I will read it.
Citizen Alan
@Trivia Man: this is why I have joked over the years that I am rooting for the killer asteroid.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@schrodingers_cat:
Yup. Same people pushing the same nonsense nationally all take the same tact: a perversion of economic/housing justice language funded by some of the most powerful financial actors on the planet and their astroturfed lobbying groups that exist to promote a false narrative which goes to hiding a massive de-regulatory and racially biased agenda via misnformation, confusion and diversion; attack any who question the basic agenda, provide cover for politicians pushing the same and pressure those who don’t–basically acting no differently than the NRA or the fossil fuel lobby, none acting in good faith. Methodology is straight from the Big Tobacco, Big Pharma and Opiod pushers playbook.
WTFGhost
This is why I’ve never understood Ds not going after Trump’s famous “thumbs up” for a guy with such *bent* thumbs. Did the mob break his thumbs at some point? Or his dad? My thumbs up points to the sky; his points to *him*.
He’s such an ugly motherfucker, and, I know, you don’t like picking on the *weak* and ugly, but the strong and ugly deserve the mockery, if only to keep them humble. And the strong, and ugly, and evil, deserve the mockery to remind people that they are merely human. Face it; Trump is Bozo the Clown, given extra makeup, a crazier wig, and a whoopee cushion – hah, no, that’s no whoopie cushion, but he does toot ever so often! – a corset, shoe lifts, a sports bra, and the extra long tie that can double as a noose, the weapon of cowards and lawbreakers everywhere. (Not that he’d use any sort of weapon – he’s a rank coward. But he’d hand it over with his trademark smirk – ah, what a contemptuous smirk he has, saying “I’m the REAL DECIDER!!!” looking down at his unctuous followers humiliating themselves by pretending he’s kind, decent, ethical, and caring, each of whom knows he’s evil as the day is long.
Seriously: folks haven’t even jumped on the smirk, like they did for W.
TONYG
@Citizen Alan: That’s right. And it’s no coincidence that the Civil Rights movement was allowed to exist during the first couple of decades of the Cold War, when the United States was trying to compete with the Soviet Union for the support of the newly-independent nations of Africa and Asia. A lot of progressive policies in the United States were allowed to take place because of the Soviet Union.
Ruckus
@Baud:
Someone who had been old enough to drive a 4 wheeler before Big Wheels were invented.