Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

He really is that stupid.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

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

Not all heroes wear capes.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

We still have time to mess this up!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Another Dawn Open Thread: A Note From Our Current (Excellent) President

Another Dawn Open Thread: A Note From Our Current (Excellent) President

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A new opinion piece in the Washington Post, “What Americans should remember about Jan. 6” [gift link]:

On this Jan. 6, order will be called. Clerks, staff and members of Congress will gather to certify the results of a free and fair presidential election and ensure a peaceful transfer of power. Capitol Police will stand guard over the citadel of our democracy.

The vice president of the United States, faithful to her duty under our Constitution, will preside over the certification of her opponent’s victory in the November election.

It is a ceremony that for more than two centuries has made America a beacon to the world, a ceremony that ratifies the will of the voters.

For much of our history, this proceeding was treated as pro forma, a routine act. But after what we all witnessed on Jan. 6, 2021, we know we can never again take it for granted.

Violent insurrectionists attacked the Capitol, threatened the lives of elected officials and assaulted brave law enforcement officers.

We should be proud that our democracy withstood this assault. And we should be glad we will not see such a shameful attack again this year.

But we should not forget. We must remember the wisdom of the adage that any nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it. We cannot accept a repeat of what occurred four years ago…

In time, there will be Americans who didn’t witness the Jan. 6 riot firsthand but will learn about it from footage and testimony of that day, from what is written in history books and from the truth we pass on to our children. We cannot allow the truth to be lost.

Thousands of rioters crossed the National Mall and climbed the Capitol walls, smashing windows and kicking down doors. Just blocks away, a bomb was found near the location of the incoming vice president, threatening her life. Law enforcement officials were beaten, dragged, knocked unconscious and stomped upon. Some police officers ultimately died as a result…

Four years later, leaving office, I am determined to do everything I can to respect the peaceful transfer of power and restore the traditions we have long respected in America. The election will be certified peacefully. I have invited the incoming president to the White House on the morning of Jan. 20, and I will be present for his inauguration that afternoon.

But on this day, we cannot forget. This is what we owe those who founded this nation, those who have fought for it and died for it.

And we should commit to remembering Jan. 6, 2021, every year. To remember it as a day when our democracy was put to the test and prevailed. To remember that democracy — even in America — is never guaranteed…

Breaking Dawn Open Thread: A Note From Our Current (Excellent) President

(Nick Anderson via GoComics.com)

Reader Interactions

117Comments

  2. 2.

    Anne Laurie

    @ryk: Yup.  I suspect that’s got something to do with President Biden taking the time to write this piece!

  3. 3.

    sab

    Four years from now should be interesting. Maybe that will give us a reason to lock up JD Vance.

  5. 5.

    Betty Cracker

    A classic sternly worded letter.

    And we should commit to remembering Jan. 6, 2021, every year. To remember it as a day when our democracy was put to the test and prevailed.

    I’ll remember it differently. It was a day when legislators regrouped and certified the 2020 election, yes. But then, after a series of massive institutional failures, the mob’s leader ran out the clock on the justice system, evading accountability for the attempted coup and then working a thoroughly corrupted political system to retake the office he tried to steal in 2021.

    A system that can’t protect itself from a criminal gang is nothing to celebrate. The addled loon MTG’s proposal to celebrate the violent mob on Jan. 6 is nauseating but perhaps more appropriate than the sense of national pride Biden refers to in his sternly worded letter. The mob won.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    Y’all are just going to skip over this part then.

    To remember that democracy — even in America — is never guaranteed

    Things are rotten because half of the people are rotten.

  11. 11.

    Suzanne

    @Betty Cracker: @Baud: I generally believe we get bad results out of bad systems (weakly empowered, poorly administrated, limited in scope, over- or under-processed, just run by idiots, etc.). And, in this case, those systems are bad because the actors are bad.

  12. 12.

    satby

    @Baud: yeah, thank you. The corrupted system exists because people keep voting for the people who corrupted it. You can debate the reason forever (and it sure looks like we will) but not enough people are voting against the corruption of our laws and government because they’re ok with it.

  13. 13.

    Betty Cracker

    “Too many people suck” is true but not the whole story. Systems (legal, political, social, informational, etc.) exist to restrain bad actors. If they can’t, they’re failures.

    It’s like when people say “guns don’t kill people; people kill people.” Yeah, but if they don’t have unfettered access to the fucking guns…

    Anyway, I’m not here to relitigate anything. It is what it is. But I’m certainly not “proud that our democracy withstood this assault” because it didn’t. 

  19. 19.

    satby

    “Difficult travel” is predicted for the D.C. area during the polar vortex coming. I hope it doesn’t negatively affect President Carter’s services.

  20. 20.

    mrmoshpotato

    @TBone:

    I read somewhere last night that there will be a “documentary” film attempting to resuscitate and rehabilitate John fucking Eastman broadcast at the inauguration. That fucking guy. Dunno if it’s true about inauguration but: 

    Gonna have to murder the motherfucker first before resuscitation.  Wikipedia says he’s still alive.

    Getting to Zombie John Eastman is gonna be more difficult than these morons think.  (Oh, wait.  They don’t think.  And I don’t think Eastman would agree to his homicide.)

    edited by WG: love you, mrmoshpotato, but that’s way over the line

  21. 21.

    TBone

    @mrmoshpotato: easy there, cowboy!  We can’t devolve into murderous chaos no matter how strongly we feel – fantasy is one thing, but putting that out there in black and white is not recommended.

    Myself, I choose to celebrate January 7 because that is the day I got to throw open my window like Scrooge on Christmas morning and needle my rump loving neighbors’ son who was skulking around outdoors in abject guilt and fear.  The day democracy LIVED through a murder attempt.

    ETA I understand that was a joke!

  22. 22.

    Soprano2

    @rikyrah: Mine either.

    Good morning from the frigid Ozarks, where it’s 15º with a little snow on the ground. I’m so glad I have a gas furnace! It’s wasn’t bad here, it got a lot worse north and east of us.

  23. 23.

    TBone

    Reposting a PSA from last night.

    Meta (Fascistbook) just bent the knee, hard.

    jewishbusinessnews.com/2025/01/05/meta-hires-former-republican-advisor-joe-kaplan-as-new-global-poli…

    Kaplan has at times been a divisive figure within Meta. In 2018, he attended the contentious Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a longtime friend, to show his support. This appearance sparked backlash among employees, many of whom expressed anger on internal message boards, interpreting his presence as an implicit endorsement of Judge Kavanaugh. The controversy was heightened by allegations of sexual assault against Judge Kavanaugh, which he denied. In response to the internal uproar, Mr. Kaplan later apologized to Meta employees who were upset by his actions.

  26. 26.

    Princess

    President Biden has completely lost the plot.

    Regardless of whether you feel our issues are voters or system or both, this was not the statement he should have released today. It feels cruel, given what’s happened and what we’re facing.

  29. 29.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Soprano2: 22 here in the  Chi-nw suburbs, prepping for my 25 mile commute to work. Seem to be some “icy roadways.”  Lake effect, I’m told.

    Glad you didn’t get hit too hard.

  32. 32.

    MagdaInBlack

    @mrmoshpotato: TY. I work for a body shop, I’ve already been my own customer once, last winter. Ugh.

    ( body shop group same name as a popular baby food (*hint*)

  34. 34.

    Suzanne

    @MagdaInBlack: We had some neighborhood drama….. some real smart guy decided to take a road down an icy hill at far-too-fast a speed. Hit a City vehicle twice on the way down, then stopped….. and did it again. Got in another collision at the bottom. Whole thing witnessed by multiple people and captured on video. People like this guy are why I am sure business will continue to be good for you!

  35. 35.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Suzanne: I will be towing in vehicles (mostly SUV’s) all day today and tomorrow.

    “God bless bad drivers, they keep me living indoors”

  39. 39.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Kay: The mask came off of our belief, Kay, and a lot of people are struggling with what we saw behind it. Some would prefer to put the mask back on and pretend it wasn’t a mask.

  41. 41.

    Princess

    @Kay: Biden ran in 2020 on the platform that he understood the real threat of Trump and would stop it.  That was basically his entire platform. I know many others contributed to where we are now.
    But this feels like a slap in the face.

  42. 42.

    Ohio Mom

    @MagdaInBlack: There is a baby-food collision shop down the street from my subdivision. It’s very tidy looking, unlike the body shop I’ve used in the past, a dad-and-lad outfit further down the road that is an eyesore.

    Anyway, hadn’t known it was a national chain.

  46. 46.

    Kay

    Counterpoint:

    I never wanted to be a whistle-blower or a troublemaker. I grew up poor in the Dominican Republic, came to this country legally at age 12 and became the first in my family to finish high school and college. I lived in Brooklyn, just a few miles from where Mr. Trump grew up in Queens, yet the metaphoric distance between us was vast. My dad was a taxi driver who could give me only $100 to help pay for college. Mr. Trump’s father was a real estate developer who bequeathed him at least $413 million over the years. While Mr. Trump escaped the Vietnam draft with a medical exemption for bone spurs and never served in the military, I finished my degree with the help of the G.I. Bill after I enlisted and served in the Middle East. What I experienced defending the Capitol against rioters was worse than the combat I saw in Iraq.

    Mr. Trump is returning to the presidency at 78, while I had to leave the career I’d worked for my whole life at 42 as a result of injuries suffered while doing my job. I sometimes wonder why I risked my life to defend our elected officials from a mob inspired by Mr. Trump, only to see him return to power stronger than ever. It’s hard to witness a rich white man get rewarded for treachery while I’m punished for fulfilling my duty. Maybe that’s why so many people don’t do the right thing — because it’s hard and it hurts.

  47. 47.

    Matt McIrvin

    @TBone:

    easy there, cowboy!  We can’t devolve into murderous chaos no matter how strongly we feel – fantasy is one thing, but putting that out there in black and white is not recommended.

    I don’t think we’re going to have any choice in the matter.

  49. 49.

    lowtechcyclist

    The legal system failed – Trump should have spent the past year in a prison cell.  He did not, and that gave room for both his supporters and the media to minimize his crimes, which gave the low-info middle the room to vote for him.

    The media failed. No reason to flog that dead horse any more right here.

    And no doubt about it: if that had been a BLM mob, the Capitol would have been defended by an army, and the protesters would have yelled from the street but wouldn’t have dared set foot on the Capitol grounds.

    And Biden is failing us as well:

    The election will be certified peacefully.

    This is as it should be, even in this moment.

    I have invited the incoming president to the White House on the morning of Jan. 20, and I will be present for his inauguration that afternoon.

    He doesn’t have to do this, and he shouldn’t do this.  Peacefully handing over the Presidency is one thing, but anything beyond that gives unnecessary respect to the man who tried to hold on to the Presidency by force four years ago, despite having lost the election.  This may not be ‘complying in advance’ but it’s in that general direction, and basically says it’s A-OK to do so.

    Sorry, Joe, but you’re failing us here. Just be all packed up, moved out, and back home in Delaware by the morning of the 20th.

  50. 50.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Kay:

    You are not wrong. However (some) commenters on this thread have made it about Biden. Apparently he didn’t voter-proof democracy for us and restore us to Eden. Hence my comment.

    To wit, #49 above me. And it’s not the only one in this thread.

  51. 51.

    Kay

    @lowtechcyclist:

    That’s what it’s going to be like though. There were never going to be tanks rolling down the streets. It will all still look the same – ceremony and speechifying will continue. It will just be completely hollow.

    Immediately prior to and during the attempted coup a lot of people wanted to deny it. They essentially said “there won’t be a coup, you alarmists- coups are illegal!” People from all over the world who have actually lost their country had to say “umm, see, that’s the THING, there is no ‘illegal’ anymore”

  52. 52.

    Kay

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    You’re right. It’s just the opposite side of the coin.

    This country has been really good to me. I had a rough start and I have done really well. I am hugely grateful – I got a lot of help. This breaks my heart.

  53. 53.

    TBone

    @Matt McIrvin: if that comes to pass, I will be doing my part in whatever way makes the most sense.  I met an immigrant here in Pennsyltucky (my new dentist) who saw my baby blue Chucks and decided I was safe to talk to right after Election Day.  We are Antifa and ready is all I’m gonna say right now, but his female assistant was also ALL IN.

  54. 54.

    Professor Bigfoot

    White supremacy won, and some folks here want to blame Joe Biden and the Democrats.

    They’re white, of course.

  56. 56.

    BellyCat

    @Betty Cracker: Temporary victory of democracy that day. Ultimately, a failure of at least two central pillars: law enforcement and justice. Does not forebode well.

  59. 59.

    davek319

    @Betty Cracker: Yeah. The Confederacy used the weak-kneed opposition’s craven delusional reluctance to see this country as it truly was,  sacrificing justice for the illusion of some misty normalcy  winning out in the end, rather than fighting for lasting change– just like with Reconstruction.

  61. 61.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @davek319:

    Of course. Let’s blame the folks who, for example, who proposed the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, and not those who didn’t support it. As per usual, only Democrats–and especially only Biden–have agency.

  62. 62.

    satby

    @Professor Bigfoot: Somehow it was a robust democracy before but it’s not now, according to what I’m reading. It never has been, it’s veered from autocracy to limited democracy for the entire history of this country. Easier to grasp when you and your people have been the targets of that imperfect democracy your entire life.

  64. 64.

    zhena gogolia

    @satby: This is so disgusting. Why did I bother to read these comments?

    Well, we didn’t deserve Biden and we still don’t.

  65. 65.

    Princess

    You people who are afraid to criticize your leaders — who think any criticism of anything your leader does is a wholesale denunciation of him root and branch — are going to be well primed for the Trump administration, where that’s going to be the rule. Those of us who think our leaders aren’t saints and who praise the good and critique the wrong-headed may not fare so well.

    Really, some of you need to ask yourselves why you need to think your leaders are perfect in order to support them.

  66. 66.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @zhena gogolia:

    Sadly true. I find it *curious* that some of those who were most eager to push him out are utterly mystified by the outcome that others said was likely to happen.

    Satby is correct: we were never a robust democracy for all of our citizens. We proceed in that direction in fits and starts. Right now we’re backsliding. It’s not fun being in a middle of major historical turning point and not knowing the outcome. I get that people are dismayed and lashing out. But daddy isn’t coming (can’t come) to our rescue. We gotta rescue ourselves.

  67. 67.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @satby: This country has only come within shouting distance of being the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural democracy it pretends to be since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

    White supremacy has worked HARD to reverse this; and now once again, *white supremacy won.*

    Again.

  69. 69.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Princess: Our leaders aren’t the problem.

    The willingness of THEIR leaders to use white supremacy to enrich themselves to the detriment of everyone who is not straight, white, Christian and male is the real problem, and you *white people* absofuckinglutely REFUSE to acknowledge this.

    (obligatory ‘not all white people’)

  70. 70.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Professor Bigfoot:

    White supremacy has worked HARD to reverse this; and now once again, *white supremacy won.*

    Again.

    Yes. Hopefully we can pull together to reverse their victory. Again.

    A necessary condition might be us white folks finally acknowledging that we are the problem, and doing something about it. Seems to be a hard row to hoe, even on this here “liberal” blog.

    ETA: One thing I’ve learned (and needed to learn alas) in the great Biden Go War was not only that liberal ≠ non-racist, but also that too many (white) liberals are unwilling to do the necessary self-examination about their unconscious biases. They’re as fiercely defended as their “non-racist” conservative counterparts. I get it: been there, done that, and probably need to continue doing that deeply discomfiting work. Fish do take water for granted, after all.

  71. 71.

    Ksmiami

    @Princess: it’s all so sad. America is over. The post ww2 era has fallen and the Democratic Party needs to find their fighting spirit or die.

  72. 72.

    zhena gogolia

    @O. Felix Culpa: Yes, disgusting sophistry.

    Trump was “brought to justice.” He was adjudicated a rapist by a jury. He was convicted of 34 felony counts of fraud by a jury. Two impeachment trials and the J6 hearings exposed his crimes and treason for all to see. White people didn’t care. They voted for him anyway.

  73. 73.

    zhena gogolia

    @O. Felix Culpa: It has really been an eye-opener for me. When anyone brings up whiteness as the problem, it’s “to the ramparts”! to deflect and equivocate. I really didn’t expect that.

  74. 74.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @zhena gogolia:

    Sophistry and displacement. We white people can’t blame ourselves, and we’re justifiably afraid of the consequences of our cohort’s vote, so we gotta blame Daddy who failed to rescue us and make our lives comfortable again.

    @zhena gogolia:

    Same.

  76. 76.

    gene108

    American democracy will survive Trump. The question is what kind of democracy will we have?

    I think it will be a corrupt democracy, run by a few billionaires at the top, and radical right-wingers in government. Republican corruption will be ignored, and attempts to curb or stop it will be prosecuted.

    The lesson I took from the 2024 election is right-wing propaganda is more powerful than anything else in this country when it comes to influencing people.

  77. 77.

    Quiltingfool

    @Soprano2: Hi, neighbor! Here in LakeoftheOzarksland, the storm wasn’t as  horrible as it could have been: electricity stayed on!  Yay!

    We do have a bit of snow over the ice, rather pretty.  My husband has been at work since Saturday noon.  He works for the county road department, and I guess he’ll be home today.  I’m sure he’ll have plenty of “stupid driver” stories.

  78. 78.

    satby

    @Princess: ok, that’s certainly a take. Completely the wrong one, but OK.

    NO ONE ever has said we can’t or shouldn’t criticise our leaders.  Some of us think criticism should be directed at the correct targets.

  79. 79.

    Miss Bianca

    @Princess: I don’t fucking think my leaders are perfect. I do, however, think that Adam Silverman is right: The last POTUS who tried to speak to the American electorate as if we were adults, not the pissy whiny mentally-child-aged people that a large majority of us apparently are, died on December 29.

    (And he got fucking hammered for doing so, btw.)

    But sure, let’s make this all about Biden’s failings, because apparently, he was never able to do anything right anyway.

  80. 80.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @TBone: OT, but your music link is such sweet smooth voiced singing, but also I love the beach walk video. Soothing, in the midst of this painful discussion thread.

  86. 86.

    schrodingers_cat

    @zhena gogolia:@O. Felix Culpa: The blogrunner jumps in to defend white fragility whenever a non-white person makes this point. She has done this twice last week. With Prof. Bigfoot and yesterday it was me who was reprimanded and questioned.

    Also, making this point makes you instantly unpopular because it makes many commenters defensive.

    I guess John Cole has to decide whether he wants the blog he started to be representative of the entire Democratic coalition or only the predominantly white liberal left.

  87. 87.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Yes. I’ve been far behind in my reading,  but have noticed the selective nature of the interventions. The continuing defensive responses by some white liberals on this liberal blog are also noted.

  89. 89.

    dnfree

    @Betty Cracker: Add me to the large number of people here who agree with you. Gerald Ford’s misjudgment in pardoning Nixon has had far-reaching consequences.

    Mitch McConnell’s cynicism has paid off for Republicans and cost the country dearly.

  90. 90.

    WaterGirl

    @schrodingers_cat:

    The blogrunner jumps in to defend white fragility whenever a non-white person makes this point. She has done this twice last week. With Prof. Bigfoot and yesterday it was me who was reprimanded and questioned.

    I have no idea what you are talking about.  Seriously.

    The only thing I recall with Professor Bigfoot is my jumping in with a comment when it looked like Glory b was being slammed and dismissed by Professor Bigfoot.  I could be wrong, but I’m fairly certain that Glory b s also Black.

  91. 91.

    WaterGirl

    @schrodingers_cat:

    As for this morning, if you read the comment policy, personal attacks are not allowed.   So, yeah, I spoke up.  And I spoke up today when another front-pager brought Mr. Potato’s comment to Cole’s and my attention:

    even jokingly advocating for the murder of a specific individual, no matter how loathsome, isn’t cool and presumably violates the commenting rules

    That front-pager was right, that does violate the comment policy, so I spoke up.  No time out, no shitty reprimand. It was a polite reminder that this isn’t a place where we can threaten violence and let that stand, even if we’re joking.

  93. 93.

    schrodingers_cat

    @WaterGirl:  I don’t recall you (or any other FP for that matter) ever intervening on my behalf when I have been attacked by commenters here. I have been stalked, called names and worse. The most recent episode was the H1B posts.

    In fact I have also been namecalled by more than one frontpager including you for expressing my political opinions.

    So the message is pretty clear. I should comment only if I am in agreement with the posts and the comments otherwise I should shut up.

    Or be insulted.

  95. 95.

    schrodingers_cat

    @WaterGirl: You totally singled me out on that thread and asked me to justify my comment. This is what you wrote:

     You frequently talk about the horseshoe left, and I am never exactly certain of who you are referring to.  I have questions, and I’m hoping you can answer them.

    Do you mean extremists on the left, who are just as damaging as extremists on the right?

    Can you share what kinds of people you are referring to when you use that phrase?  Do you think that’s a very large group?

    If you think that’s more than a tiny percentage of people on the left, are there familiar names that you consider to be part of the horseshoe left?

    Wondering if you can share names so who you are referring to so it’s more clear?

    Do you think Balloon Juice peeps are part of the horseshoe left?

  96. 96.

    WaterGirl

    @schrodingers_cat:

    In fact I have also been namecalled by more than one frontpager including you for expressing my political opinions.

    I assume you are referring to when I said you were sniping at Pete Buttigieg in 2019?  I don’t consider that name-calling.

  97. 97.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @WaterGirl:

    I have witnessed some really ugly, sustained, and very personal attacks on s_c, with no FPers coming forward to intervene. Perhaps completely unintentional, but the interventions don’t appear to be even-handed. Maybe something to be mindful of going forward.

  98. 98.

    zhena gogolia

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    @WaterGirl: I agree with O. Felix that SC seems to be targeted more often than other commenters, both by commenters and by front-pagers, and I’m not sure why. There are plenty of sharp elbows being thrown, and they don’t receive this treatment.

  99. 99.

    schrodingers_cat

    @WaterGirl: Of course not. Its not namecalling when a front pager says that his daughter’s cat has better English reading comprehension than I do.

    And no I was not referring to 2020 primaries but much more recent comments. You did not run the blog then, nor were you a FPer,  so your comments were only in the capacity of commenter and did not reflect the blog policy.

  101. 101.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @schrodingers_cat: referencing the above comment, #95, I have all the same questions watergirl has, in your quote box. I don’t read any of it as a request for justification, but rather as interest, curiosity, and a request for more information.

    to be honest, I have not understood your references to the horseshoe left, which I’ve seen mentioned over time. I’ve just scrolled past, assuming I just don’t have the background knowledge or the breadth of awareness needed.

    just chiming in, because I think answers to WGs questions might be helpful to others here. And that I thought her questions were apt, and useful.

    will you consider an informative reply to those questions?

    cheers,

    Gloria

  102. 102.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @O. Felix Culpa: I too,

    have noticed the selective nature of the interventions

    Sometime I understand the point of view certain criticisms come from, sometimes I don’t. I have received some of It my self. While I don’t always agree, and I have strong feelings, and it has stung quite intensely, I also assume people are doing their best.

    I try to give people the benefit of the doubt; it’s easier on me to think that way, even when I think there are unconscious biases, or that people are being unnecessarily mean and unfair.

    People are often, likely, doing their best. Me, you, WG, Joe Biden. It’s hard enough to accept that my best isn’t always where I’d like it to be.

    (And, No, I don’t extend this to people of harmful intents and intentional unfairness, like Voldemort and his upcoming cohort)

  103. 103.

    WaterGirl

    @schrodingers_cat: I do not see what I wrote as a reprimand at all. I was asking you questions.  When you asked why I singled you out, I replied that it was because I figured it was time to try to understand what you were saying instead of skipping over it.

    If you see any of that as a reprimand, I can’t do anything about that.

  104. 104.

    WaterGirl

    @O. Felix Culpa: @zhena gogolia:

    It seems to me that SC gives as good as she gets.

    I am unlikely to rush to defend someone who has thrown the first elbow.  Unless the comment policy is violated.

    I tend to skip most of SC’s comments, but I don’t want to ignore your input.  I can try to be more watchful about what’s going on.

    Will that help?

  106. 106.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @WaterGirl:

    Seriously? Just drop it, please.  Not a good look when FPers go after commenters. Which you have done with s_c more than once.  Context matters too, which is why your interrogatory comments to her might read as reprimand.

    Definitions of horseshoe left are available via google or wikipedia search, by the way.

  108. 108.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @WaterGirl:

    You are a front-pager, so there’s a power differential between you and rank and file commenters.  Please bear that in mind when you consider “questioning” a commenter, especially when there’s prior history between you.

  110. 110.

    WaterGirl

    @schrodingers_cat:

    That wasn’t even your thread. You came in after 250 comments in AL’s thread to cross-examine me. That was your first comment in the thread. You were not “just asking questions”.

    You don’t have to believe it, but I really was asking questions because I was curious what your thinking about that was.

    I am no longer curious.  WaterGirl, out.

  111. 111.

    Denali5

    I hope that we can take into account that many of us are feeling quite depressed and disheartened today. We are grieving for our country. We are grieving for all we will lose in the next few years. We don’t know what the future holds. I hope we can hold together as a community who doesn’t always agree, but who has always come together to support each other.

  113. 113.

    planetjanet

    @Princess: You are not listening very well.  There is pushback to criticism of system-wide failures are the blame of one man, particularly Biden, just as easily Garland.  Nothing that Biden said in that opinion was necessarily wrong.  It is stating our values in support of the rule of law and civic participation.  Yes, we need to fight for our values, and that takes all of us.  It is so much easier to sit back and blame someone than to stand up and do what we can to change things.

  116. 116.

    sab

    Watergirl,

    This thread was chugging along nicely,  then 17+% of this thread became you arguing with a single commenter on someone else’s thread. Do you not see a problem in this?

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