Periodic reminder:
You're going to see a lot of bills introduced this Congress, some of which will not pass/and are showboating for the sake of showboating.
I really want to encourage everyone to go to govtrack.us to check the score, before putting forward calls to action.— Celeste Pewter (@celestepewter.bsky.social) January 8, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Ran into this thread on BlueSky. Anybody got an opinion about Govtrack.us?
Here's why:
1. Freshman Republican members WANT outrage from liberals, and will put forward bills to encourage that kind of online reaction/pushback.
This creates a cycle where they'll be able to say that they were attacked by liberals, which will put more eyes on their bill… etc.— Celeste Pewter (@celestepewter.bsky.social) January 8, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Don't give them that satisfaction.
This is basically like the idea that you shouldn't quote tweet a bad tweet, because you'll be amplifying it for your audience.
Don't bring attention to a bad bill that won't pass, because you're just helping freshmen members play the media game.— Celeste Pewter (@celestepewter.bsky.social) January 8, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Does that make sense?
I also want to encourage people pace themselves, especially for bills that won't pass. We're barely in January, and Trump hasn't taken office yet.
We HAVE to be mindful on what will actually pass/not pas, otherwise we're going to completely burn ourselves out quickly.— Celeste Pewter (@celestepewter.bsky.social) January 8, 2025 at 4:38 PM
It's okay to care about an issue and fight for an issue, but also recognize that sometimes, it's strategic to not reflexively react to what is clear baiting and provocation by the otherwise.
Please pace, please vet if something will pass, and please ask if you have questions.— Celeste Pewter (@celestepewter.bsky.social) January 8, 2025 at 4:38 PM
NotMax
SSDD.
Baud
Good advice.
I’m not always sure the sentiment isn’t reciprocated.
Steve LaBonne
Nothing will pass except via reconciliation. The whole ball game is one reconciliation bill vs two and what is in them. Everything outside that process is noise.
Hildebrand
The press will swing at every pitch, we don’t have to.
Starfish (she/her)
I thought this action from the Americans of Conscience checklist was a reasonable one. It asks to tighten up rules around “acting” heads of whatever so not too many horses can be appointed during recess appointments and serve a full term.
https://americansofconscience.com/01-10-2025/#action5
Baud
Finally, some justice.
KatKapCC
@Baud: I never saw the incident and just looked it up. Wow. The chutzpah of some people. Instead of banning him from games, they should make him clean the stadium with a toothbrush and his tongue after every game.
John Revolta
@Starfish (she/her): ISTR reading that Biden had just recently got legislation passed to limit the length of time an “acting” status is good for. Now I can’t find anything about it though….Does anybody else remember this?
dc
I follow GovTrack.us on Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@GovTrack
different-church-lady
Isn’t that the only thing we do here?
Timill
@dc: They also appear to be on BlueSky:
https://bsky.app/profile/govtrack.us
Tim
Baud
@dc:
@Timill:
The feeds are different.
cain
The GOP can’t live without liberal outrage and we need to funnel that messaging down to our local dem establishment.
Unfortunately, we have many liberal influencers who depend on that engagement as well. So, it’s important to train the influencers on what content we will engage on. Talking about shit bills that won’t pass – don’t engage.
Baud
@cain:
That sentiment was all over Blue sky after the election, but now it seems the influencers are doing their thing.
trollhattan
Setting aside for a moment that farmers and big ag all support Trump and his ilk, this is a hint of what’s to come.
The game is afoot; the foot is shoeless.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@KatKapCC:
Those two buffoon Fucking Yankees© were actually interviewed yukking it up in a bar after they got tossed.
The key will be how would MLB enforce it. Those two assholes don’t look like the types that actually travel to baseball games, just local-yokel jamokes who never leave the confines of the metro area. I bet tho that the Fucking Yankees© will have their photos plastered at every entrance.
scav
I mean, influencers. It’s like people now use their TIVO equivalents to fast forward through the programs and watch only the ads. Home-made ads.
JPL
@trollhattan: gosh Be prepared for trump and company to deport those working on the wildfires, because they could give a shit about life.
SpaceUnit
And while we’re at it let’s agree to not let trump pre-gaslight us. There will be time for outrage soon enough, but I want to break things when I see folks in the comments wetting their pants over stupid shit like trump’s gonna annex Canada.
Because that’s what he’s trying to do. You’re just playing his game. And just as importantly it’s what our big corporate media want. They’re delighted that we’re all being dragged back to a time when they can just repeat his obnoxious utterances and then sit back with a martini to watch the clicks and views pile up. Just sayin’.
KatKapCC
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Like in olden days when stores would have bad checks taped up behind the register to remind the employees not to accept any from those people.
Jeffro
@Baud: similarly, the Comet Ping Pong guy FAFO
karma, she is a…tough one
(cue the tiny violins)
trollhattan
@JPL:
Right? Although when Trump finds out we have inmate firefighters he might be conflicted.
Clearing out the labor at poultry farms will definitely lower those egg prices.
Jeffro
@Jeffro: btw the amount of time I had to take tonight to explain the whole backstory re: Comet Ping Pong, the DNC & RNC hacks, etc not just to Fro Jr (who is 19 and was only 11 when the whole thing went down) but to Mrs Fro…
…whew…
…people, the average normie’s attention span is SHORT
West of the Rockies
Excellent post, AL. For me it’s like Deb Fisher’s idiotic husband refusing to acknowledge Kamala. It was BS, but she’s got broad shoulders (so to speak) and he only made himself and his wife look bad.
My outrage was not required, and I would not have enjoyed it.
KatKapCC
@West of the Rockies: I just wish a reporter had asked him on live TV why he was so afraid of a girl.
Emily B.
The ACLU People Power team is urging folks to call their senators to oppose Laken Riley. My local activist group is doing postcards to support two bills in the NJ state legislature, a voting rights bill and a bill to provide privacy protections for undocumented immigrants accessing public services for which they are eligible.
Going forward, I’m going to try to take my lead from informed advocates when it comes to deciding when to set my hair on fire, and which bills really matter. Not sure I will succeed.
Baud
@KatKapCC:
Cooties.
BlueGuitarist
Govtrack has several useful features.
I think the BlueSky posts refer primarily to
prognosis: estimated % likelihood of enactment.
Govtrack also has a history section that shows
the bill has been introduced and whether it has
Passed committee
Passed House
Passed Senate
Signed by President
With the stages not yet reached grayed out.
Same info in a status summary.
For votes cast, they have each vote by state, district, party, and also a Statistically notable votes section at the outset – usually members who voted differently than majority of their party.
Another Scott
@John Revolta: There were various executive orders posted in the Briefing Room, but I don’t know about legislation. Lots of bills were passed recently, but I haven’ checked for things like this.
EO on Order of Succession in Homeland Security.
Many more listed on page 7 and earlier (pages will change as more stuff is added, of course).
HTH a little.
Best wishes,
Scott.
BlueGuitarist
@Emily B.:
Political wire has links to Politico and Axios articles on this:
https://politicalwire.com/2025/01/10/gop-immigration-bill-would-cost-more-than-3-billion/
Another Scott
The best thing I’ve found for up-to-the-minute news about stuff in the House is Aaron Fritschner’s Twitter thing. Like his pointers to the $3+T in cuts the MAGA folks propose to do to healthcare and all the rest.
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
Ben Cisco
Thanks, AL. Good post and good advice.
different-church-lady
@Baud: Remember earlier today when I was saying social media itself was the problem?
different-church-lady
@scav: OK, now I’m even more depressed…
cmorenc
Forgive a stupid question, but who are “democratic influencers”? Specific example(s).
Melancholy Jaques
@West of the Rockies:
Ah, but they only look bad to us. To our fucked up fellow Americans who voted for Trump & his ilk, he looked great. He did what they imagine they would do if they were in his shoes. They see that rudeness as strength and they love it.
They are childish assholes and they are delighted when the people the voted for act like childish assholes.
different-church-lady
@cmorenc: Uhhh… George Clooney?
Baud
@different-church-lady:
The dynamic reminds me a little of 24 hour news. People need something interesting to occupy the space, and Republican villainy is more interesting than anything we do.
different-church-lady
@Melancholy Jaques:
Sometimes I think the only reason people look for any other explanation is that the idea that half the country is childish assholes is too depressing for them to accept.
different-church-lady
@Baud: THE CONTENT MUST BE FILLED!!1!
Baud
@cmorenc:
I don’t know if they are considered influencers, but there are definitely liberal accounts on Blue sky that are more prominent, with many thousands of followers. They can often set the tone.
cmorenc
Forgive a stupid question, but who are “democratic influencers”? Specific example(s), please.
Are they deliberate enemies, or else a variety of nominal allies with their own agendas who are not good team players?
Craig
@Jeffro: I was watching old reruns of Guy Fieri and whoa, Comet Ping Pong and Pizza in DC. Wow. Pre Q weirdos, just a nice guy making cool pizzas and people playing ping pong.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
It does have a certain soap opera quality.
different-church-lady
Okay, so +2, maybe 3… which makes this seem insightful…
Despite the not-even-wrist-slap, Trump now has a criminal record.
Which means if they pull him over and he has a half-smoked joint from two weeks ago on the floor in the back, he gets arrested, right?
Poe Larity.
So how is this top 10000 blog supposed to generate clicks?
Melancholy Jaques
@different-church-lady:
I agree completely. It is depressing & for some people very difficult to face. Over the years I have found that tote-baggers in particular do not want to face things like that the other parents at their children’s private school are raging racists or their co-workers at the firm.
zhena gogolia
@different-church-lady: I hope he’s enjoying Lake Como these days.
different-church-lady
@Craig: Some people will not rest until they make everything shitty.
Steve LaBonne
@Melancholy Jaques: I mean, it’s legitimately depressing because it’s been going on for decades, it fucks up everything, and who really has any idea what to do about it? Denial is much easier than confronting that reality.
Scout211
The Harris campaign used influencers and content creators and many were invited to the convention.
The linked article lists 13 content creators/influencers who were invited to the convention and the social media posts that they do and a sample of their work.
So in answer to your question, here are 13 of them.
KatKapCC
@cmorenc: I would say people like Mueller She Wrote, JoJo From Jerz, Brett Meiselas, Jeff Tiedrich, etc.
Roberto el oso
I suppose I can understand pacing one’s outrage over every “little” thing, but refusing to respond might also be seen as burying one’s head in the sand. And how would it work? Someone writes an article or a post mentioning the latest atrocity but we refrain from commenting to show we won’t be “owned”?
I feel like I’m missing something here.
Starfish (she/her)
@cmorenc: I think Brian Tyler Cohen is one, but he is good at it.
I think Charlotte Clymer is one.
Mueller She Wrote is probably the one who pisses Adam off the most, but there are others who fall into this category. They tell you stuff that will make you angry and that you will share before you have had any time to really think about it.
John Revolta
@Another Scott: Good stuff. Thanks
Starfish (she/her)
@West of the Rockies: I think the thing about Deb Fisher’s husband was less weird than a lot of other things.
I think that pointing out what freaks these folks are may have some traction with the normies.
The constant “THE SKY IS FALLING. TRUMP WANTS TO SHOOT BABIES TO MARS IN A CANNON” type stuff is what is exhausting.
Jay
@Roberto el oso:
Basically, don’t respond, ( call Reps, Senators, twit, BlueSky, Book of Faces, etc) on shit bills that will not even get a vote, but are just created to “own the Libs”.
frosty
@different-church-lady: THE EMPTY HOURS MUST BE FILLED WITH CONTENT!!
gene108
I think Democratic influencers are the people on social media, including YouTube, have clickbait headlines like “People are outraged by latest Republican________”.
There’s information in what they post, but the biggest effect is to stir people up without any plan of action or advice what to do.
Starfish (she/her)
@cmorenc: Nominal allies who are not team players and may be making things up because they are narcissists who want attention
hitchhiker
I was thinking it would be good to have some very in-your-face way to highlight what they’re about to do the national debt.
Keeping the thug’s name out of it, def mentioning the irresponsible Republican congress. The thug is a lame duck who can do whatever he wants and pay no price. He’s boring and repetitive. The Republicans in congress have a scary-tiny majority, and they’ve got to run again starting like right now.
We should have figured out how to do this last time, when all those grinning fools stuck the country with a bill to cover their tax cut. How much does just the interest on that thing grow every day? What could we buy with that? That would be an easy message. Republicans are making the USA bankrupt.
KatKapCC
@gene108: No no, that’s not correct.
It would be: “People are OUTRAGED by this DANGEROUS Republican bill you DON’T EVEN KNOW ABOUT!!!!”
frosty
@Roberto el oso: This might help, from Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/greenland-panama-canada-none-of-that-is-going-to-happen/sharetoken/701c7cf3-e17e-4afb-8a66-eddcd0e61247
Starfish (she/her)
@different-church-lady: I hope not. All the weed bros would think he is cool if that happens.
KatKapCC
@frosty: I agree it’s highly unlikely, but I’ll just note, there were a lot of men patronizingly telling us ladies to calm down, they’re not going to get rid of Roe.
cmorenc
Thanks for andwering my “influencer” question everyone. Sounds like it amounts to people who create a role of power and prominence for themselves within the D community not by holding office or formal organizing work, but through drum-beating to capture and hold an audience on an ongoing basis.
Jay
@Starfish (she/her):
It won’t be weed,…………………………..
Starfish (she/her)
@cmorenc: Yes! That sounds correct.
Someone mentioned the “influencers” for the Harris event, and I didn’t think they counted. You hit the nail on why. They were engaging in formal organizing work even though they were not getting paid.
Jay
@cmorenc:
Some do good work, some just stir the pot for shits and giggles.
Geminid
@BlueGuitarist: Capitol Hill correspondent Jamie Dupree provides excellent reporting on Congressional matters. He’s not at all an advocate, just a very objective reporter which is what I want.
I follow him on Twitter but he posts on Bluesky too, @jamiedupree.blsky.social.
Dupree writes long form reporting titled “Regular Order” at jaimedupree.substack.com.
Dupree used to report for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, also Atlanta’s WSB Radio. I got to know him back when he appeared on Neil Boortz’s show. Later on, Dupree had to give up radio when he developed a rare neurological disorder that left him unable to vocalize.
Jaime Dupree soldiered on though. His new pinned tweet is dated this January 1st. It has a picture of him smiling, with the Capitol in the background:
tobie
@frosty: It’s not my nature to be a glass-half-full kind of person but I’m going to give it a try. Trump’s talk about Greenland and Canada is pissing off the rest of the world and may lead to the election of anti-Trump candidates and parties elsewhere. Musk’s alienated people in Germany which has upcoming elections in February, Canadians pissed at the Liberal Party may now give them a second look.
frosty
@KatKapCC: Understood. I’ll just note that I haven’t seen Josh being one of those patronizing men talking things down. Also, TPM has broken some really impressive stories.
Baud
@KatKapCC:
No one should tell you that something can’t happen.
But I don’t think anything is gained by being fixated on everything that can happen.
Starfish (she/her)
@Jay: Well, if it is meth, I am not sure that you can create a RELIABLE set of voters out of meth heads.
Steve LaBonne
@tobie: Canadians are gonna hammer me for this, but it’s waaaay past time for the Liberals and New Democrats to merge. Splitting the left in a single member FPTP system is a disaster.
Starfish (she/her)
@KatKapCC: I think that this time, the motivation of the people asking for patience is different.
The request to be patient this time is not out of male skepticism about bad things happening or “it doesn’t affect me so it doesn’t matter.”
The request is more about taking care of your own wellbeing and establishing an ENDURING resistance movement to the actual bad things Republicans are doing and not the imagined bad things that they will use to wear us down.
With the Black Lives Matter movement, I think there were a number of activist suicides because you can go to a deep dark place if you are traumatized, afraid and hopeless.
tobie
@Steve LaBonne: I’m not going to weigh in on something as controversial as that ;-)
Miki
@Hildebrand: Nominating for rotating tag.
Melancholy Jaques
@Steve LaBonne:
I agree with you, but we aren’t like that, why are they? What happened to them? What happened to us? Can the situation be undone or are we just stuck with every election being the product of white paranoia?
Steve LaBonne
@Melancholy Jaques: I have absolutely no idea, which is why it’s so depressing. I finally got around to reading Dying of Whiteness and am most of the way through, and while it’s an essential book I really don’t recommend it to anyone whose mood is currently in need of elevation.
Scout211
I don’t think this is correct if you are talking about the Harris campaign social media influencers. They make their living doing content creation by having sponsors and according to many news sources, they were paid to promote Harris/Walz.
Eolirin
@Steve LaBonne: Rural communities are going to get fucked super hard if they get their agenda going, between killing off the immigration inflows necessary to bring jobs and spending into those communities, and the claw backs on Medicaid accelerating the failure of their hospitals and the last major source of good paying jobs in their communities.
Plus tariff driven increases on costs of goods will disproportionately hurt low income households. Which are disproportionately rural.
If so many other people weren’t going to get hurt by this, I’d have much more of a you get what you vote for you idiots feeling about it. But a lot of other people are going to be seriously hurt in the process
Also unfortunately, these economic hardships are unlikely to get these people to vote for Democrats, they’ll just double down on Republicans. And the people who can get out will get out. Which just makes them even redder.
KatKapCC
@Baud:
Congrats on not having an anxiety disorder.
(Said with light-hearted self-deprecation and honest envy.)
A Ghost to Most
Don’t trust anyone.
Melancholy Jaques
@Steve LaBonne:
It’s one of those books that the people who need to read it will never read it.
BlueGuitarist
@Another Scott:
Aaron Fritschner is also on BlueSky
@fritschner.bsky.social
@Geminid:
thanks!
wondering if either of you, or others here, know of a Senate counterpart to Fritschner – well informed staffer who posts frequently on social media.
Starfish (she/her)
@Scout211: I was wrong, and you are making a stronger case for the point that I wanted to make than the one I actually made.
Kayla Rudbek
@Eolirin: yeah, even back in the 19th century Robert Ingersoll had nothing good to say about tariffs on Canadian lumber (although he was a smart man who was against religious fundamentalism and he also had problems with millionaires).
Another Scott
@BlueGuitarist: Thanks! I’d looked for him, off and on, but could only find him on the Melon place. :-/
I haven’t been able to find anyone on the Senate side as good as Fritschner. It would indeed be very helpful if someone like that did exist!
Thanks again.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Princess
@Steve LaBonne: This Canadian agrees at least at the federal level. The NDP used to be a genuine labour socialist party. They’ve disavowed that and now they’re just a slightly more left version of the Liberals. Moreover they run to the centre ie. tothe right every election because they need those votes to win seats. It’s different at the provincial level. Provincial NDP parties have their own identities and histories.
Starfish (she/her)
The framing of this story about what Zuckerberg said on Joe Rogan is such that it requires us to forget that Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff, had the worst potty mouth. Also, I would argue that Zuckerberg and his people needed to be yelled at and cursed at, but these large tech companies that have been around a few decades now need some regulation.
Another Scott
driftglass is on fire, and making excellent points.
Orly Taitz died for your sins – part one.
Orly Taitz died for your sins – part two.
The second part, especially, should be read by everyone on our side who is a fan of rationality, policy, persuasion, etc. We need to understand when those things work, and when they don’t.
Even if one isn’t a fan of his brand of rhetoric, or if we think his brush is too broad, thinking about the case he’s making here is important.
This doesn’t mean that everyone who voted for Donnie is a monster, or those that didn’t vote at all are irredeemable. It does mean, I think, that we need to understand how the ones who are monsters keep folks on their side. And I think driftglass gives a picture of what we’re up against in their echo chamber.
My $0.02.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Princess
@Kayla Rudbek: with the fires in LA and possibly with the flooding in NC, building materials are going to be in short supply. Putting a 25% tariff on what you buy from Canada, where a lot of that comes from, won’t help.
sab
@Another Scott: But Orly Taitz isn’t dead. Fooled us!
Another Scott
@sab:
;-)
Best wishes,
Scott.
RevRick
@Melancholy Jaques: I was today years old when I learned I am an asshole… or rather my first name shares a common proto-European ancestry with said body part.
That proto-European word reght meant straight . And from there it drifted into the Latin root rect, as in erect, direct, correct and rectum. But also came to mean king, which in Latin is Rex, and in Germanic rix… and my first name is Richard (strong ruler).
I do take comfort, however, in the fact that this means all kings are assholes.
satby
That’s not totally correct. The better influencers include calls to action like registering to vote, getting others to register, etc. pre-election and ways to lobby your legislature post election. A lot do local or statewide issues.
satby
@Another Scott: driftglass and bluegal are always on point in my book.
Citizen Alan
True, but it doesn’t NOT mean that either.
The Lodger
@Kayla Rudbek: I bet Ingersoll liked tariffs on Canadian newsprint even less than those on lumber.
Kosh III
FWIW I wrote my Senator Marshamarshamarsha fraking Blackburn to oppose renewing the 2017 Tax Cut for Billionaires. Not that she give a frak about my opinion.
Kosh III
Re” the border and undocumented aliens: We should urge our congresscritters to go after the outlaw employers who hire them. Of course they are part of the Felon’s base but they should be reminded often and loudly who the real “Illegals” are.
Warren county TN where we live is a super agricultural area which bills itself as the Nursery Capital of the World. There is a huge tree farm behind our house and a huge nursery across the street. If there isn’t a tree farm there are corn fields. This is also a redrum county.
Miss Bianca
@Steve LaBonne: I tried to read that book a couple years ago and couldn’t even get into it – mostly because I can look around my county and see everything he’s talking about playing out IRL.