I’m slammed (short term) at work, but I’ve also been in a funk all day thinking about how poorly we (the country, our politicians, our party) responded to January 6. The conclusion I’ve come to is a simple one: Trump won the January 6 confrontation. I’ll outsource this post to John Ganz:
Today is January 6th and I feel a certain tedium and impatience about marking the anniversary of the Capitol Hill attack four years later. There seems to be a growing consensus that it, along with all of Trump’s other menaces to constitutional rule, is not worth taking seriously. The line on January 6th is that even if it was a coup or insurrection attempt, it was a farce and a failure. But this is wrong. In retrospect, it was a great political success for Trump. Not only because he got away with it, but because of how he could fracture and polarize the response. Attention paid to it is now considered sour grapes: part of a discredited political strategy and a remnant of liberal sentimentalism that is fast going out of style. He came back from it and rallied even those who initially condemned it or were frightened by it to his side. And he made the defense of the constitutional order a partisan issue.
We are accustomed to repeating now that Trump’s coalition is fragile or that there are intrinsic weaknesses in his governing style. True so far as it goes, but how fragile is a coalition that reformed and expanded after he attempted to overthrow the U.S. government? And how weak is someone who managed to suffuse the atmosphere with a sense of total credulity about himself and total cynicism about his opponents? This is an attitude now shared even among those who do not consider themselves his supporters. There is now a process of retrospective legitimation, as if the vote somehow wipes the slate clean, and makes lies the truth. There is a kind of spiritual Gleichsaltung going on: Trump is now the man and to continue one’s criticism forcefully makes you a sad deadender. Resistance liberalism is turning into Vichy liberalism and the NeverTrumpers suddenly discover they were AlwaysTrumpers. Some of that can be blamed on the failure of the media or the opposition party, but some credit has to be given to Trump himself. The great insult comic has landed his jibes: he has embarrassed the opposition, he has humiliated them. They are forced to laugh along now or look like spoilsports. Looking back in the 1960s, the Italian socialist Pietro Nenni remarked, “Everyone in Italy agreed in not taking Fascism seriously.” Not being taken seriously is probably the thing that helps Trump the most, on the one hand, it drives him, it torments him and everything he does can be read as a demand to be taken seriously, but it is also his greatest political gift and strength, it allows him to glide.
On January 6th Trump successfully broke the system: there is no neutral, recognized arbiter of the law and the constitutional order, there is just raw politics. That does not mean he will necessarily prevail in every political contest, but he should never be seen as the underdog. His political skills should not be underestimated. His appetite for risk has been rewarded. Why would he not be emboldened to try other desperate stratagems since he’s faced no repercussions thus far?
I don’t agree with everything he says here, but that last paragraph is about right, I think.
Guest Post: How from where we started did we ever reach this Hanukkah?
Baud
I choose spoilsport.
Ohio Mom
I have nothing to add. Those three paragraphs say it all.
geg6
Yep. It’s broken and can’t be fixed, IMHO. I’m going to hunker down, keep a watchful eye and keep my friends and family as safe and secure as I can. Otherwise, I’m hermiting. Everyone else can figure things out. If anyone comes up with any good ideas for going forward, I’m open to suggestions and will have their back, but as of right now, I see nothing I can do other than take care of my own.
Baud
@geg6:
Same here.
TBone
I couldn’t make it all the way through that yet, owing to the evidence of my own eyes and ears. As opposed to any narrative spun up about it by anyone else.
Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas.
Bite me, consensus. I ain’t no Droopy Dog.
rikyrah
Once again,
It was a victory for White Supremacy.
When it came down to it, White people were unwilling to hold other White people accountable.
Didn’t learn shyt from the Civil War.
Of all the things that Merrick Garland didn’t do… NOT appointing Jack Smith Special Counsel a week after he was confirmed as Attorney General is THE big one. He should be held responsible for that.
Baud
Gloria DryGarden
Little Allegories:
Pressing down the sour grapes
one is left with sour juice to ferment into
a wine
one doesn’t want to drink.
Gliding on ice, thick or thin,
sometimes the skater loses his edge
and slams down hard into the ice.
it won’t be the first time that risk
and danger
have led to serious injury.
Old School
@geg6:
Have we tried blaming Democrats and fighting amongst ourselves?
Oh, we have?
I’ve got nothing.
Archon
The only real question left now is, how far is the anti-Trump, anti-fascist opposition prepared to go to protect the liberal order?
TBone
@Gloria DryGarden: ha!
Baud
@Old School:
We’re pretty much one trick ponies.
TBone
@Old School: Pooty giggles
VFX Lurker
@geg6: Same here, too.
I’m also going to try follow Scout211’s advice last July and focus on what I can control (ex: diet, exercise, self-education).
Belafon
@Archon: I see a number of people on bsky planning on obstructing much of what Trump tries to do, and writing articles on how to resist. Interestingly, a lot of them are black.
Omnes Omnibus
@rikyrah: Why do you say that not appointing Smith right away was a mistake?
Nettoyeur
Head in the sand isolationist nativism didn’t work for the US in the 1930s and it won’t work now. Those who forgot the lessons of history are regularly forced to repeat the class.
As for me, growing up in Massachusetts, getting a world class education in science, engineering, and multiple foreign languages gave me a great international career, and that combined with the various socialism-for-the-successful economic policies of presidents from Reagan through Biden gave my spouse and me salaries, pension and investments sufficient to launch our children and fund a good retirement, not the top 1% but not too shabby.
And so I will sit back and watch the MAGAs try to ruin the rest of the country as they cut the taxes of relatively well off people like my family. I will give money to causes that matter, and laugh as the MAGAs step on one rake after another, just as they did in Trump I. . If we are lucky, they will cause an economic mess; if we are less lucky, we’ll end up in a war. I think the midterms will trigger a correction.
In the meantime, I am cheering Trump’s efforts to expand the US to include Greenland, Canada and (one can hope) Mexico, all multilingual, multicultural countries with governments that do useful things like fund medical care. Hell, let’s go for Sakhalin too…..it’s further from Moscow than from Anchorage. I speak Russian too, so, bring it on.
As far as Jan 6 goes, it is worth remembering that Storm Trooper coercion is nothing new for the post Gingrich GOP. The 2000 election count in Florida was terminated by what was callled the “Brooks Brothers Riot” where well heeled Bushies broke up the counting effort.
Belafon
@rikyrah:
For too many white people around me here in Texas, the lesson learned from the Civil War is that too many whites back then wanted to end slavery.
rikyrah
@Omnes Omnibus:
Trump ran out the clock. While he had help in the Florida case, Chutkin was ready, willing and able to proceed with the DC case.
Jackie
This. Made. Me. See. Red:
The embedded link goes to Musk’s social media.
Omnes Omnibus
@rikyrah: The investigation did not begin when Smith was appointed. Line prosecutors were already working on it. Appointing a special counsel was only necessary once Trump declared his candidacy for 2024. Had the DOJ waited to start until the every criticism of it would be justified. But that’s not the way it happened.
Old School
@Jackie:
Here’s a Bluesky link:
Archon
@Belafon:
I’m honestly not sure what the answer is but I do know liberals better steel themselves for what comes next if we want to keep our country.
eemom
Ya think? Maybe just a tad?
And the 6 fascist adoring fucks on the the supreme court?
And the republican whores in congress and their billionaire whoremasters?
And the billionaire right wing propaganda machine?
And — AGAIN — racism, sexism, ageism in the electorate, plus stupidity and ignorance?
Nah, fuck all that. trump won because he’s a political genius, pure and simple. We GOTTA hand it to him.
Fuck this guy and his head up the ass whining.
JiveTurkin
@Jackie: Occam’s Razor. Trump won, he doesn’t have to pretend anymore. He ain’t shaking the hand of a black person.
TBone
At least Giuliani was found in contempt of court today.
Chris
@Belafon:
The heck of it is, the real winners of the Civil War were white people. Black people were thrown under the bus pretty quickly, but white people benefited massively from the Civil War turning out the way it did. Literally every improvement in the last hundred and fifty years – pretty much everything from the Homestead Act to the ACA – requires the North breaking the South’s stranglehold on federal politics and imposing its social model as The American Way. If the South had been allowed to keep making the rules (especially since that would’ve required strangling the concept of “free states” at some point), at best, we’d have turned out like a continent-wide version of Noriega’s Panama or the Somozas’ Nicaragua. And that would’ve been miserable as fuck for white people too.
(Admittedly, white Southerners didn’t prosper the way their Northern and Western brethren did, especially for the first seventy years after the war, but that’s entirely on them: if you choose to keep electing the same caste of kleptocratic warlords that’s been robbing you blind since the colonies were founded, well, you get what you vote for).
Omnes Omnibus
@eemom: In your own inimitable way, you nailed it.
burritoboy
Jon Ganz ……you mean the guy who went to one Democratic Club meeting, was bored, and decided that the boringness of the meeting meant he knew how to do things better? You mean, another guy (of a whole long string of them by now) who decided he’s the font of wisdom because he has an Ivy League degree and you don’t and he’s now the understanderer of organizing?
Gloria DryGarden
@Old School: we’ve tried that, throwing stones at each other. And we don’t need more practice at it.
wondering what new ways to be productive and effective will be? I should open my emails from mobilize, the zoom I attended gave me hope.
Jackie
@Old School: The video shows what a small, petty man he is. So hope Sen. Fischer felt embarrassed by his behavior, but she knows who he is. And isn’t.
Rose Judson
Kinda with the political scientist Dan Drezner on this one, at least in terms of mood music, and in terms of agreeing with his identification of the party most to blame for our situation (that would be #7 in his article).
Back in 2017-19, I used to date a political scientist who assured me that Trump was a stress test on US institutions and that we were passing that test pretty well, all things considered. I didn’t believe him back then, either, but I let the fact that he had a PhD cow me into not saying so.
WTFGhost
Delete
dww44
@rikyrah: I’m there with you. If Garland had had the cojones to appoint a special counsel from the get go Trump more likely would have paid a legal and political price for his actions. Biden, by appointing Garland, picked a person who did not have the requisite temperament to prioritize holding Trump and his coconspirators accountable.
It was not a time for timidity. Our Democratic leaders here failed us and the country. This is why so many of us are depressed. Truth and Justice did not prevail. Lies and bluster won the day.
Kay
“Whatever the stated values of the system, the government was either unwilling or unable to act on them”
Elizabelle
The oligarchs and chaos agents won.
Parfigliano
@rikyrah: Merrick Garland should be shunned.
Gloria DryGarden
@Old School: reminds me of trump refusing to shake hands w Angela Merkel.
the guy must not have played team sports:
everyone always has to meet and shake hands, winners with losers. I’d heard, but I don’t know, that lawyers on opposing sides shake after, too, and then go to lunch together.
id have to google a thesaurus, to count how many adjectives would fit to describe the man’s behavior. Someone like that, isn’t worth my time.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Belafon:
They’re reacting like they always do:
Good on them and everybody else who acts like this going forward.
Old School
I am reminded that Jack Smith still needs to issue his final report on the documents case. I’m not finding any details as to when that’s expected.
I’ll guess it’ll come out next week.
Gloria DryGarden
@Parfigliano: shunning is pretty harsh. Have you ever experienced it?
Isn’t this an example of democrats tearing each other apart?
Parfigliano
@dww44: Occam’s Razor… Merrick Garland is OK with the coup attempt and had no interest in prosecuting the top dogs so he held off.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Gloria DryGarden:
Somebody said in here over the last week that Garland was a Republican. No links to back up that claim and I was too lazy and uninterested to actually check.
But hey, if he really is an (R), shunning is appropriate although I’m sure many others have a more drastic take on how to treat him going forward. ;)
RevRick
Our worst enemy is to succumb to despair. Throwing up our hands is not an option, at least not for me. My children and granddaughter are counting on me to use whatever power I have to limit the damage and constrain those who would do damage.
Whining about what has transpired and will soon be gets us nothing.
Elizabelle
@Old School:
You made me laugh. On a sad and sour day. So thank you for that.
Elizabelle
@Parfigliano: Oh for Gawd’s sake. Really?
Parfigliano
@Gloria DryGarden: Merrick is no Democrat. He pretends. Judge him by his actions/inaction. He’s Bill Barr in disguise.
WTFGhost
@Parfigliano: Please don’t abuse Occam’s Razor, just because you don’t understand it.
Occam’s Razor says to follow the evidence, and then *STOP* – don’t keep assuming more, like, “and the REASON he didn’t immediately move forward with the prosecution is the reason I want to believe, so I’ll say it fits Occam’s Razor, when it is actually exactly the kind of bullshit the razor is supposed to prevent!”
Just saying.
Elizabelle
Please, Anne Laurie, put up a thread that is not about Elon Musk.
Just cannot marinate in this misery.
Fuck Trump and the wretched puppetmasters he rode in on. Some in this country, many abroad.
Steve LaBonne
Trump would have won even bigger from prison as a “martyr”, and the Supreme Court would have made sure he could take office. It was Republicans who refused to convict him in two impeachment trials, Republicans who nominated him again, and Republicans who fell in line behind him. It was voters who decided he should have another term. Fixating on what Biden and Garland should have done is a way of not admitting to ourselves just how deep the rot goes in this country.
Elizabelle
@Parfigliano: OK, Mr. or Ms. Pastry. Whatever you say. You so smart.
Gloria DryGarden
@Belafon: is this your name on blue sky? I’d like to read the articles and suggested actions you mention, so I need to make sure I follow you.
I have not hung out much on blue sky, but maybe it’ll be worth it.
Elizabelle
@Steve LaBonne:
I don’t believe that for a moment.
Ksmiami
@Jackie: I guess I’ll be happy to physically take these people on. No, I don’t care if they die.
WTFGhost
@Parfigliano: And Bill Barr is Clark Kent, who is secretly Ralph Dibny, who is secretly Barry Allen, who is secretly Jay West, who is secretly Ella Fitzgerald. Which *really* gets confusing when she’s said to be the Elongated Man. Meh. Hazards of a public identity.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus: 😂
sab
Jim Crow was around for 100 years, and a lot of the Trump people remember it or participated in it or had parents who did.
Hitler learned from us, not the other way around. This is part of our national fabric, as is fighting it.
eemom
k, much as I wholeheartedly concur that merrick garland is a chickenshit coward who absolutely bears blame for chickenshit-cowarding the prosecution of trump, REGARDLESS of whether he would have prevailed in the end (as his apologists here love to argue), because every attorney has a responsibility to do their job for their client REGARDLESS of their likelihood of prevailing (no shit)….nevertheless, I will say something nice about MG on the eve of his well deserved deposit into the dustbin of history:
He would have been a much better supreme court justice than he was an AG. THAT job, suited his temperament.
Elizabelle
@sab: Don’t you get the impression those behind Trump studied Hitler carefully, so as to improve on his accomplishments the next attempt? And to avoid his fatal errors?
WTFGhost
@sab: I believe you’re incorrect in assuming Jim Crow is *over*, rather than just underground. There are people today who’d wear the white hood, except, it would hurt their polling numbers.
Elizabelle
@eemom: That is true. Tragedy it did not happen.
trollhattan
Make your own narration for the person who shot this video.
Steve LaBonne
@Elizabelle: I will say flatly that you are wrong. The voters who returned him to office knew perfectly well what he is and didn’t care. Process liberal thinking is of no value in thinking about Trumpism.
TBone
@Rose Judson: IMO that list is out of order. Donold Jessica should be #1
TBone
@RevRick: amen, brotha.
UncleEbeneezer
@dww44: Ah yes, because the SCOTUS that purposely delayed the trial for a year and then granted almost full immunity for Presidents and made it illegal to use ANY evidence from when they were President, totally would not have done the exact same thing in 2023 instead of 2024. If you believe that, I have some NFTs you should invest in…
Citizen Alan
@Old School: All Republicans are trash. Every one of them. There is not a single Republican with any redeeming characteristics. We praise trash like Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney because there was–FINALLY–a line they would not cross. But they are still trash.
gene108
@TBone:
What’s his punishment. Write “I have to behave better in court” one hundred times on the chalkboard?
*******************
Reactionary forces won. They’ve been grinding away for decades to undermine all the social gains made by non-white men, since Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.
They have the money to keep going indefinitely, even with setbacks like Obama winning.
The “kids these days” are growing up with a cutthroat political environment, where winning is the only thing that matters and corruption is more a personal choice of whether or not to indulge or refrain, than anything proscribed by law.
I don’t see how this gets fixed.
****************
@Gloria DryGarden:
I don’t think anyone is throwing stones here. People’s views of what America is and what America stands for were shattered by Trump’s win. I feel most of it is venting shock, disbelief, sorrow, and anger.
TBone
C’mon ya filthy feckin’ animals!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q7vtWB4owdE
Kay
I’m going to plan something uplifting January 20th – its supposed to be a day of service anyway.
tobie
Thanks for the post. It’s been a brutal day. I think John Ganz’s piece captures the sense of the defeat that’s haunted me since Nov 5. I keep on returning in my head to another election result that shocked me to my core. The town of Uvalde voted overwhelmingly for Gregg Abbott in 2022 after the horrible school shooting there that exposed the dishonesty of the local and state police and the indifference of the governor to the lives lost. (Abbott beat O’Rourke by 22 points.) I couldn’t understand how a community shellshocked from the shooting of so many children would turn out for an ardent NRA supporter. I still don’t get it but my hunch is that for a lot of American voters being unapologetic, stubborn, and refusing to take responsibility for anything means strength. That’s what they like about Trump. He says, “Fuck you,” to norms and values.
superdestroyer
When Nancy Pelosi got on a military jet on the evening to fly back to SF instead of starting impeachment hearing that afternoon showed that the Democrats were not serious about the issue. When fund raising and dinner reservations are more important than immediately responding to a coup attempt, then the Democrats only have themselves to blame.
Citizen Alan
@Steve LaBonne: Or he would have keeled over dead after a week in prison. Hell, a mugshot of him without his makeup and toupee might have been enough to tank him. We’ll never know. Hitler came out of prison after the Beerhall Putsch stronger, but he was a much younger man capable of writing a whole book by himself. An awful, evil book, but he was capable of writing it. Prison Trump would have written a manifesto on a white board with a Sharpie.
Elizabelle
@superdestroyer: Oh shut up. Go wank somewhere else.
Sick of this thread. Good night.
trollhattan
“My Struggle to Get All the Boobies” by Donald J Trump would have been the bestest seller ever, believe me.
sab
@WTFGhost: I agree. That is kind of my point. It has always been a part of us, as has resistance. Their side won the 18th, 19th and half of the 20th century. We were winning for a while in the 20th. We have the infrastructure (Constitution) to win if we just keep at it, with the pendelum swinging back and forth.
Black people had almost no one else on their side for most of American history. That has changed a lot. Not enough, but still a lot.
Lily
In addition to white supremacy and misogyny, Citizen’s United, billionaires and voter suppression defeated the Democrats. The corrupt conservative Supreme Court worked together with the GOP to win (again).
It’s good to include that we are not weak —the election was close in some states and in the House, and people worked harder against fascism in 2024 than in 2000.
Authoritarians take advantage of Democrats who blame each other, even though there doesn’t seem to be a way to stop the latter.
I also feel like if 1/2 of the pundits and political podcasters would give up their talk rackets and instead join the grassroots to work on messaging and getting out votes during elections, democracy might have a chance.
raven
@superdestroyer: Who in the fuck are you?
TBone
Courtesy of John Cole
Hope Is Not a Bird, Emily, It’s a Sewer Rat
by Caitlin Seida
Hope is not the thing with feathers
That comes home to roost
When you need it most.
Hope is an ugly thing
With teeth and claws and
Patchy fur that’s seen some shit.
It’s what thrives in the discards
And survives in the ugliest parts of our world,
Able to find a way to go on
When nothing else can even find a way in.
It’s the gritty, nasty little carrier of such
diseases as
optimism, persistence,
Perseverance and joy,
Transmissible as it drags its tail across
your path
and
bites you in the ass.
Hope is not some delicate, beautiful bird,
Emily.
It’s a lowly little sewer rat
That snorts pesticides like they were
Lines of coke and still
Shows up on time to work the next day
Looking no worse for wear.
different-church-lady
So, after Hitler wound up in the slammer he decided the best was to seize total power was to work the system legally.
Apparently the electorate of the USA has come to the same conclusion on behalf of Trump.
sab
Another thing we need to keep reminding people- a lot of Trump’s minions did get held accountable. Pardons or not, their lives have been upended and most of them will never recover completely. Some of them are even sorry.
Trump is a lame duck. He will not be around ro pardon the next bunch of minions. And whoever is next will not care at all about his minions. This is a very back stabby movement and they know it.
CliosFanboy
@Citizen Alan:
and Hitler severed bravely in WW1, and was with the marchers in the 1923 attempted coup. Trump was too cowardly to do anything like that.
gene108
@Steve LaBonne:
Media saturation influences undecided voters who determine election outcomes. Negative press about stealing documents and J6 that would have been all over the media could have influenced voters.
Non-stop negative coverage about Hillary’s emails in 2016 had an impact on the election. Negative coverage of Trump’s handling of COVID had an impact on the 2020 election. Negative media coverage of the economy had an impact on the 2024 election.
We’ll never know because Republican federal judges, at every level, are partisan hacks who protected Trump at all costs.
frosty
It’s been a day of utterly depressing posts and this one is the capstone. I spent the day shoveling snow and now I’m going to start dinner. Dunno what else to do … oh yeah, online passport application while they’re still issuing them.
zhena gogolia
@frosty: Having “Trump Won” at the top of the blog all afternoon hasn’t been a mood lifter.
trollhattan
Meanwhile in New York.
Conviction steak has lost its sizzle, dessert cancelled for everybody but Donny Two-Scoops.
Jim Appleton
@superdestroyer: Agreed.
It’s not so much that Trump won, it’s that the truth lost.
McConnell, Garland, et al. folded.
Trump himself has been an overrated wiz, in the context of weak opposition
ETA: a large part of this is fear of his base (McConnell), but also inexplicable timidity.
different-church-lady
@Steve LaBonne:
different-church-lady
I’m still thinking this is more of an electorate problem than an institutions problem.
chrome agnomen
@Jim Appleton: McConnell folded? really? he put that majority in place on the Supreme Court. he said himself that it was his most momentous act.
TBone
Comments from others
TBone
@trollhattan: convictions result in sentencing, hence, he will be a convicted criminal. Regardless of the stiffness of the penalty imposed.
Omnes Omnibus
This morning I said it was a good day to stay the fuck off Balloon Juice. I should have listened to myself.
eemom
@UncleEbeneezer:
I agree with you more often than not, but wrt garland: what part of a lawyer must do his job for his client REGARDLESS OF WHETHER HE IS LIKELY TO PREVAIL do you not understand??
(Technically, must “represent his client zealously within the bounds of the law”, as DeNiro famously screamed at Nolte in the closing scenes of Cape Fear.)
Jim Appleton
@chrome agnomen:
ETA:
He initially positioned as favoring impeachment conviction, then shrugged.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah. My problem is I’ve purged all other sources of news as well and I’m too tired to work.
different-church-lady
@Omnes Omnibus: We can face these ugly days or hide from them. I’m not going to condemn anyone’s choice either way.
kindness
No Trump didn’t ‘win’ January 6th. He escaped the consequences for what he surely sowed but that isn’t winning. We won. We, us… we won because Joe Biden was indeed sworn in later that month.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@superdestroyer:
Looks like you are competing with Matt for Team Captain of the Circular Firing Squad! Where the motto is, ‘No matter what the MAGA does, its {insert some member of the Democratic coalition}’s fault!’
wenchacha
I spent the last three days recovering from a two week visit from my son and his family. Caught an unnamed virus on about day 2 of the visit from my favorite and only grandchild, a delightfully active four year old.
Still coughing, so I binged on the free Apple streaming Slow Horses, then Hijack. Got my heart rate up, I’ll tell you what. Governments in disarray, shitty people at the top, transnational organized crime, and still lots of questions.
I hate what is coming. I loathe CFDJT and all his mobbed-up thug buddies. I still believe in being a Democrat, because I like most of what Dems have stood for, and can’t bear the pukes who call themselves GOP or Libertarian.
So. How about we array ourselves? Black Panthers fed the poor, at least for a while. What can we do to help those who need it, while throwing as much sand in the gears of the new maladministration as possible?
I admit, I’m afraid of gun nuts and vigilante types. It’s why I didn’t do the pink hat march back when. And it seems wise to wait to see what they move to damage first, before launching countermeasures.
I’m all hepped up still from make-believe, but I would like to be useful.
Thanks.
different-church-lady
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Murc’s Law.
KatKapCC
It just makes me so fucking depressed.
gene108
@Lily:
People on our side were not able to win. Trying to hash what it is, is not a bad thing.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@TBone: Nice!
@mistermix.bsky.social
@eemom:
Trump has a lot of political skills that we don’t value, yet the skills exist and he beat us. That doesn’t mean he’s a political genius – far from it.
TBone
Mood music for womens’ work
https://youtu.be/gnPKYVkK_iA?si=aXNwYoWPATeRdyVa
By Chinchilla
Sure Lurkalot
@dww44:
I believe:
Biden picked Garland because he thought he was robbed of a Supreme Court seat (and/or the confirmation process) and as a contrast to the hyperpartisan Bill Barr.
Obama picked Garland, a 64 year old institutionalist/centrist, as his Supreme Court nominee as another doomed to fail attempt to appeal to Republicans.
There is no reason, none, ever, to try to appeal to any assumed
“for the good of the country” on the part of Republicans. It is a fool’s errand.
Gvg
@Parfigliano: not until AFTER the real traitors and thugs and conmen get shunned and worse.
Quit concentrating on blaming Democratic scapegoats of the day. Single men or women are not to blame for not being able to fix a whole set of systematic problems, multiple monied conspiracies that started decades ago and a large number of bigoted and/or ignorant voters. Plus the timing of the economic collapse of out news media.
We complain that people are not noticing that the US is doing better than the rest of the world economically, but we won’t take into account that their are authoritarian movements now worldwide among our closest allies and peer countries, all very similar. Maybe it’s not all about us.
I don’t think Russia is good enough to be behind it all either. I wish I did understand.
We can say next chance we need to push this more aggressively or faster, I propose this and critique usefully. But shunning Garland is performative waste of time and shooting in a circle. I can say I have less respect for him than if the prosecution had moved faster successfully, and then move on to something useful.
sab
@Omnes Omnibus: No. We need you. We need reasonable people here, aespecially lawyers.
I am still a big fan of due process, which is often slow and methodical. We need you here defending it. Next time it could be any of us on the line. Trump was good at manipulating the system, but when he got in front of a jury he fared badly every time.
zhena gogolia
@kindness: THANK YOU
VFX Lurker
Trump’s skillset:
He’s not the first politician in American history to ride xenophobia, misogyny and racism into office. Shame prevents most American politicians from doing that now. But Trump has no shame.
Harrison Wesley
Anger and anxiety have people lashing out at ally and adversary alike, frequently eliminating the distinction. We should look back to an earlier,simpler age. Consider the wisdom of Captain Kangaroo in his magic words: “abracadabra, jeez, and fuck you.” I think I might not be remembering that quite right.
TBone
@Harrison Wesley: thanks Mr. Green Jeans!
Oops, there goes another rubber tree
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f_nrfpPcxQw
Professor Bigfoot
I’m so monstrously late to this thread, but I’m reminded of this:
Same arc.
https://weeklysift.com/2014/08/11/not-a-tea-party-a-confederate-party/
Geminid
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Maybe this guy isn’t actually in the circle and is shooting from outside of it.
I saw a lot of this type of criticism in July, during the controversy about Biden heading the ticket: people who despise the Democratic Party tossing crabapples of discord for Democrats to fight over.
sab
@VFX Lurker: His blustery asshole persona appeals a lot to road rage bullies, and there are a lot of them out there. He would be a laughimg stock if Mark Burnett had not made him seem competent on the Apprentice.
I mostly used to ignore random white males out in the world, for good reason. I caught a keeper (my husband) but most of them are better ignored. With Trump I can’t ignore them. They are everywhere, being assholes in the grocery, running lights and tailgating while drivimg.
I am becomimg a bigot myself: white men are assholes until they prove otherwise. This is a toxic way of thinkimg.
sab
@Professor Bigfoot: So true. But nobody ever wins in the long run. There is always the fight.
eemom
@@mistermix.bsky.social:
But he would NOT have beat us were it not for the factors I listed that are much larger, older, and more endemic to this fucked up country than trump.
That is why extolling trump’s “political skills” is a worthless bullshit exercise.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Professor Bigfoot:
Thanks for that quote. Blinding flash of the obvious. Now in my clip file.
chrome agnomen
@Jim Appleton: yes but the SCOTUS actions predated that considerably. his later ‘conversion’ was pretty damn weak sauce.
dww44
@UncleEbeneezer: A more aggressive and timely pursuit of Trump and a commitment to hold him accountable would have put us in a better place sooner in Biden’s term. At the very least Jack Smith could have aired all his evidence.,,before the corrupt SC had a chance to grant broad immunity. We never got an airing of the evidence from the Justice Department and that’s on Garland.
Ksmiami
@eemom: he couldn’t hold a candle to Kagan, Warren, Breyer etc. No he’s a dithering coward. Forever and always.
frosty
@zhena gogolia: No shit. Dark, cold, gray and snowy isn’t much of a mood lifter either.
OTH chicken bouilliabaisse is on the stove. Saffron always helps.
sab
@Ksmiami: They were Justices. He is a chief prosecutor. Whole different job with entirely different responsibilities and limitations.
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: yes! Your poem fits the moment perfectly! Wonderful dark imagery.
They wrapped their tattered cloaks of hope an$ pestilential optimism
around their creaking bodies
and slunk through back Alleys looking for asses to bite
and balconies to roost in for small shelter.
Ksmiami
@sab: he seems to have no convictions or strong opinions. We need people who can articulate and advocate for a more just America, not to just “preserve” hollowed out institutions.
eemom
@VFX Lurker:
Also, what you said.
Why exactly do you value demagoguery and shamelessness as “political skills”, MisterMix? Honest question.
Starfish (she/her)
@Old School: Since more older voters voted for Trump, I am going to just blame lead poisoning.
Starfish (she/her)
@Jackie: They are petty and pathetic, incapable of basic civility. They can’t see race because they pretend Black folks don’t exist, and glitch out when they come into contact with a reality that does not affirm their biases.
cmorenc
@Elizabelle: Hitler’s biggest error is a trait he shares with Trump: the absolute confidence of a man who thinks he knows better about anything than anyone else, backed by a track record of taking reckless risks rewarded by paying off for him. Until it doesn’t, and things eventually devolve into disastrous overreach.
Starfish (she/her)
I can see that everyone’s cranky because there is not going to be a White House pet to bite Mitch McConnell when he glitches out.
prostratedragon
Good thing the Union didn’t surrender at Chickamaugua.
cain
@geg6:
Yep. I know the pattern now and I’m not going to repeat it. I can at least get involved in my local politics and let the feds figure it out.
cain
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s when this subject matter comes up that I feel your frustration since you schooled me back in November in regards to Merrick Garland.
I’m not going to blame Merrick Garland for this – it’s too simplistic. This country wanted Trump, and even if he was in jail, they were going to elect him.
The man’s negatives were so in the toilet that nobody other than Trump could have won with all that baggage.
I agree, that the journalism and the GOP failed us.
Omnes Omnibus
@cain: I appreciate it.
YY_Sima Qian
If it is any comfort for USians, the US is far from alone in its political dysfunction. Case in point, the drama in Seoul is dragging on, & showing echoes of what has happened in the US, & in some ways much worse than Jan. 6, ’21:
The Presidential Security Service is defending Yoon from arrest, the South Korean police is refusing to make the arrest on behalf of the anti-corruption investigation organization, & the acting President (of the ruling party) is refusing to issue arrest warrants for the Yoon loyalists mounting the obstruction, all based on legal technicalities. As Yoon fan the flames of “Red Scare” hysteria, his approval rating has recovered from < 20% to ~ 40%, & thousands of protestors have gathered around the presidential residence to form a human wall protecting him from accountability, all the while chanting against “Communists” (i.e., the South Korean Left), “North Korea”, & “China”, and waving the Taegukgi & the stars & stripes while they are at it.
It should be noted that the police is paid from the budget of the executive branch run by the ruling party, while the anti-corruption investigation service was established by & paid from the budget of the National Assembly, run by the opposition.
This is becoming a fight between political tribes, rather than defense of constitutional order.
Elie
I am completely depressed. I will have to overcome this, but right now my grief and rage is just more than I can express. I am getting therapy but just mourn what has been lost — though I am willing and ready to eventually help in rebuilding — someday
Just hurting and hurting — today — this day of all
E.
@Elie: Me too.
Elizabelle
@Elie: Hugs. You speak for a lot of us.
The Truffle
@E.: Ditto. I predict that the man will regret winning. Already MAGA is turning on Musk. Said this weeks ago—2024 will be remembered as when Trump and MAGA jumped the shark.
It maybe written about in the future during a bright new period in American history when we are in a better place. Or perhaps it will be written after the country finally split up. Either way a president’s second term is generally worse than the first and his first term sucked.
Jim Appleton
@chrome agnomen: we agree
Randal Sexton
@Nettoyeur: WTF.
sab
@YY_Sima Qian: You have such an accurate take on us.
Did I tell you that my Chinese brother in law, 25 years on a green card, finally became a citizen? He loves China, but his wife and his daughter and grandchildren are here. Trumps’s election finally forced him to commit.
brantl
@Parfigliano: You’re an idiot.
brantl
@WTFGhost: Well said.
brantl
I firmly believe the second half would happen, if the first half came to pass.
brantl
@VFX Lurker: Trump is only a bull in a china shop, all of his effort is to break out of the china shop (imprisonment), he doesn’t care how much of the government he has to break in his play-acting president to keep out of prison, and to keep the grift going.
brantl
@eemom: He doesn’t value them, he just knows they work. QED.
Starfish (she/her)
@brantl:
Fixed that for you.
brantl
@Starfish (she/her): Those are no way exclusive of each other, although the first might be a requirement of the second…..