This is a Mexican fireman (“Bombero”) with a kitten – supposedly taken in LA, but it’s too good to check (via).
This is real — from Claudia Sheinbaum’s insta, a photo of Mexican aid leaving for LA.
Wouldn’t it be great if, while noting that Mexico stepped up to help, some Democratic politician said that the Mexican workers who will rebuild LA deserve a fair, humane work visa? (If you know of one, please leave it in the comments.)
Here’s Erin Reed live-skeeting the committee hearing and floor vote in the Montana legislature over an anti-trans bathroom bill that would affect two legislators, Erin’s spouse Zooey Zephyr and non-binary legislator SJ Howell.
Wouldn’t it be great if some Democrats other than Maxwell Frost, AOC and other progressives said something like this:
Mace is a “huge attention getter, so this is part of her attention-getting fetish,” said Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), a newly elected co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee.
- Frost added: “I just don’t understand why bathrooms are top of mind for her, why she’s thinking about where future members are going to piss and shit.”
I’m not going to give up on immigration, or trans rights. Every issue has a hook, a handle, a way in. One way in for immigration is that immigrants do all the work that we don’t want to do, so how about we stop pretending that we can’t see what’s obvious to anyone who lives in an area with lots of immigrant labor? The way in for trans rights is that Republicans who want to inspect genitals of others before they’re allowed to piss and shit are fucking weird and awful human beings. I’m sure there are other ways in — we just need to find them.
lowtechcyclist
It damned sure would.
Of course, the MAGAts probably don’t want L.A. rebuilt to begin with.
ETA: The more I think about it, the more blue state secession sounds like a good idea.
Terraformer
I just don’t get why Democrats, after all this time – and now with 4 more years of the orange felon and classified docs stealer – aren’t better (or even good) at messaging and responding forcefully and effectively to issues of the day – en masse, as a group
comrade scotts agenda of rage
I’m sure the same campaign stragetists who advised the Harris campaign to have Walz put a muzzle on the “wierd” comments would be the same ones to tell us why those kinds of comments by Frost work against electing better (or any) Democrats.
//
WaterGirl
I love that Maxwell Frost said that, and so graphically. But I can’t figure out where he said it and who he said it to. On the floor of the House? To a reporter? On twitter
Axios need better writers.
Citizen Alan
There is no form of “messaging” that will work when nearly the entirety of the American media apparatus exists as a GOP propaganda mill.
Scout211
Ugh. I don’t want him in California, but I do think that Newsom was right to push Trump to view the wildfire devastation.
Newsom:
Let’s see what those “conversations” produce. Will he or won’t he?
@mistermix.bsky.social
@WaterGirl:
Evergreen comment!
Tim C.
@Scout211: Trump is a dottard and a coward. Newsom is doing the exact right thing here. Trump is the kind of jackass who loves being on TV and shit-posting on the internet. He gets flustered when a smart person pushes back. The format and relative ignoring of the debate with Harris was the problem, put him in front of a challenging audience as much as possible. He’s a thin-skinned moron.
tobie
I can’t think of a single place in America that doesn’t rely on immigrants…be they farm workers or home aides or road workers, not to mention doctors, nurses, and so on. I once read an economist who said that even at full employment, you’ll have a 5% unemployment rate b/c of people moving or transitioning between jobs. We’re at 4% unemployment. Immigrants aren’t stealing jobs. They’re likely generating them by contributing to the economy.
lowtechcyclist
@Citizen Alan:
This. People often say, “I haven’t heard of any Dem saying X” but the problem isn’t that they’re not saying it, the problem is they’re saying it but it’s buried to the extent that it’s covered at all.
Old Man Shadow
@Scout211: I don’t want him here either. It’s not like seeing the devastation is going to make him feel anything. He’s not capable of it.
lowtechcyclist
@WaterGirl:
Axios exists to make Politico (aka Tiger Beat on the Potomac, h/t Charlie Pierce) look good by comparison.
Old School
@lowtechcyclist:
And some people will just say that the ones that are saying it don’t count.
TBone
ReplyGuys need not apply!
TBone
@WaterGirl: “he told reporters”
queerty.com/gen-z-rep-maxwell-frost-flushes-nancy-maces-shameless-transphobia-right-down-the-toilet-…
Which just links back to Axios so I dunno! What reporters?
Motivated Seller
Have undocumented workers (or anyone for that matter) certify and attest that they assisted during a natural disaster. Yeah, Republicans would cry, “But they’re lying!” “Thats not good enough” “We’re full!” And then Joe Biden should grant them citizenship on the spot.
Scout211
IMHO, KamalaHQ was the best messaging team for the Harris campaign. That same team will be working for the DNC now.
Reposting from downstairs.
Butch
Probably because my nephew used to be my niece….I guess transgender is just an easy, defenseless way to punch down but I still don’t get it. To me, there’s nothing to “accept” about his transition because it doesn’t affect me at all.
TBone
Who said “ice floes” here recently?
crooksandliars.com/2025/01/goper-aims-make-nearly-all-homeless
That church door idea is a great hook! I’d put up a billboard-sized notice visible from the church door.
Belafon
@Old School:
You mean like “Wouldn’t it be great if some Democrats other than Maxwell Frost, AOC and other progressives said”?
Gretchen
AOC’s rant on Mace’s bathroom bill was on point and effective. Mace tweeted about it over 200 times before AOC spoke, and shut up completely for a couple of days after until she went on Fox to defend herself. AOC:
“If you ask them what is your plan to enforce this is, they won’t come up with an answer,” the New York lawmaker said. “What it inevitably results in are women and girls who are primed for assault because people are going to want to check their private parts in suspecting who is cis and who is trans and who is doing what. »
“And so the idea that Nancy Mace wants little girls and women to drop trou[sers] in front of who? An investigator? Who would that be? Because she wants to suspect and point fingers at who she thinks is trans?” Ocasio-Cortez said. “It is disgusting.”
Mace finally went of Fox and denied that she wanted to make girls « drop trou ». But she didn’t explain how she’d enforce it. I think continually asking them who your panty inspector will be puts them on the defensive.
AOC also made the good point that this endangers any woman or girl who doesn’t fit some random busybody’s idea of « feminine enough » – short hair, pants, boots, whatever. I think they’re vulnerable if challenged on this. If you really want to protect girls, you don’t do it by empowering random strangers to know what’s in their pants.
Belafon
@lowtechcyclist: Often, a google search finds someone pretty easily, but it’s generally in some small newspaper or in a tweet or bsky post.
scav
See also all the interpreters in Afghanistan and Iraq abandoned by the self-avowed patriots. Mexicans coming to support American interests will be viewed as equally disposable: that’s what the lower orders are for.
John S.
@Old School:
And sometimes they just don’t say the things we wish they would say!
Not getting traction with the MSM isn’t our only issue.
Glory b
Michael Moore, who is running against her, Travis Robertson, with the SC Democratic party, Jasmine Crockett, other SC Dems, have criticized her too.
Unfair to blithely make such assertions, especially when so many people on here are so eager to believe them.
Elizabelle
@Scout211: that is marvelous news. Will watch and learn from them.
sab
@Butch: My niece used to be my nephew. He was a sweet but morose kid. She is delightful
ETA It only affects me because I like to see her finally happy not depressed.
Butch
@sab: Definitely. If you had known “Alice” before he became “Al” and was surprised at the transition you are A Idiot. He’s much more content now.
Old School
Well, I’m not buying another Village People album.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@lowtechcyclist: I like the idea of a Greater Canada: down to Virginia on the East Coast, including the rims of the Great Lakes to incorporate Chicago, incorporate all of Minnesota, then back to the original border until a new line cuts down through the Cascades to incorporate only the West sides of Washington, Oregon, and California all the way to San Diego.
Not sure how to incorporate Colorado and New Mexico, though.
Steven Holmes
The hook brings you back
I ain’t telling you no lie
The hook
On that you can rely
– “Hook” by Blues Traveller
Old School
Always classy.
WaterGirl
@Old School: Low class.
dc
@Old School: I would hope that they simulate a variety of sex acts between men while on stage.
RaflW
There’s several causes, but I think one of them is that rank and file Democrats — that’s at least some of us here at BJ — don’t put enough pressure on our leaders to do so.
Write to your state party chair. If you have a Dem House member or Senator(s), write to their campaign account’s contact. Same if you have a Dem governor.
They need to hear from us that we expect better than we’re getting right now. Especially if they want any campaign dollars down the road.
RaflW
@Old School: I saw the Village People in a (gay) club in Austin TX in ’93 or ’94. Though that night, our sishet friends outnumbered the gays by good measure.
At this point I am both disinterested in the VP, and annoyed that they still claim the name Village People. I doubt more than a handful of people who actually inhabit the Village in NYC can tolerate Donald.
ExPatExDem
@Terraformer: The answer is because elected Democrats are pussies. The evidence:
Reagan/Bush faced zero consequences for Iran-Contra.
SCOTUS faced no consequences for stealing the election for Dubya Bush, and Gore accepted it and validated it in his official capacity as President of the Senate.
Trump faced no consequences for setting a mob on the Capitol and attempting to violently overthrow an election.
The doddering fool Biden and neocon Harris spent months telling us that “Democracy itself is on the ballot” and will now meekly hand the keys over to the fascist insurrectionist.
Democratic politicians are a pack of cowards. That’s why they don’t speak up or fight back.
Glad I could help.
Old School
Village People adjacent:
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
We have full employment right now. However, we have had immigrants doing jobs, like construction, that Americans do want to do. Unfortunately, for things like roofing, union shops struggle to compete with contractors using non-union and questionably legal immigrants. In some areas, at this point, non-union labor is all you find because of this. We need legal paths to citizenship that don’t undermine organized labor the way our current system does. All work is valuable and we need documented immigrants who are unafraid to be part of the labor movement.
Jackie
@WaterGirl: Apparently Moskowitz said it on X?
Baud
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
It would be great if those union shops could ally with Dems on this issue to prevent any construction employer from relying on nonunion labor. But I feel that would be a bridge too far for them.
Melancholy Jaques
@Terraformer:
The last three words reveal the problem.
Baud
I should do an experiment where I find a Dem who says something strong on an important issue like Ukraine funding, for example, and lament that another group of Dems, say the progressive caucus, aren’t saying the same thing at the same time. I wonder if that’ll be well received.
Melancholy Jaques
@Baud:
That shouldn’t be too hard.
Hildebrand
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: My apologies, but I really want to have someone show me when this happened. Do we have evidence that Walz was muzzled, or is this just one of those things that because enough people believe it, it must be true?
If it actually is true, ok, that’s a thing, and it was dumb, and those people shouldn’t run anything.
If it’s not true – maybe we should stop repeating it and move on to something more productive. Because if it’s not true, it’s just shitting on the Harris campaign for the sake of shitting on the Harris campaign, which isn’t instructive for the world we are in right now.
NobodySpecial
I’m having a hard time imagining that the people who 20 years ago wanted to kick out all the Afghanis who emigrated after helping the US military are going to be moved in the slightest to help Mexican firefighters saving California.
Jackie
@Chacal Charles Calthrop:
Is this the new version of the Mason-Dixon line?
I live east of the Cascades and I resent you and others continuing to
forgetignore there are large populations of Democrats in red parts of blue states, and large populations of Democrats in red states.Baud
@Hildebrand:
Yeah, I keep seeing it repeated without a source.
KatKapCC
@Scout211: I’d love for Newsom to ask Trump live on camera if he’s going to call him “Newscum” while they’re surveying the destruction. Put his toddler ass on the hot seat about it.
KatKapCC
@Old School: “won’t make you happy” like he’s saying they only serve Coke and not Pepsi at the restaurant
Jeffro
isn’t it strange that after a mass shooting of some sort, according to MAGA/GOP Reps, it’s ALWAYS “too soon” to discuss gun safety measures… …but it’s perfectly fine for these same folks to discuss attaching ‘strings’ to CA wildfire aid, WHILE THE FIRES ARE STILL BURNING? 🤔🙄
Jackie
@Jeffro: I don’t think it strange at all.
It’s who they are and who they’ve always been.
UncleEbeneezer
Wouldn’t it be great if just once you’d stop using every goddamn thing imaginable as an excuse to collectively bash Dems?
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Jackie:
Exactly. The people who continually trot out these idea never lived in a red part of a red state, or a red part of a blue state. Living in the reddest or second reddest county (depending on the election) in Central Misery for 22+ years provided a different aspect that it would sure be nice if our “politically geographically privileged” fellows would remember.
As was shown in 2020, more people voted for Hair Furor in TX than in CA. Lotta Dems in TX just like there are in other red states.
Captain C
@TBone:
This seems extremely unChristian to me. Like, pretty much the opposite of what Jesus instructs in the bible (of course, there are now so-called preachers claiming the Sermon on the Mount is too wimpy and Jesus should be ignored in these cases, but fuckem, per EF Goldman).
I like the idea of billboards across from such churches, perhaps with just the name of a bible passage. A simple google search yields, for example:
Leviticus 19: 33-34 (since they luuuurve them some harsh Leviticus)
Romans 12: 20 (they also love them some Paul, especially when they can use flimflammery to use his passages to ignore Jesus passages about being helpful and compassionate)
Hebrews 13:2
Matthew 25: 31-40
Not text; make them look the verses up themselves.
(For reference, here are the passages, in order listed above:
“When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.”
***
“20 If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
***
“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” (NIV)
***
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, “I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (NIV)
(ed. to add blockquote on top)
KatKapCC
@Jackie: Pretty sure Jeffro was being sarcastic.
MagdaInBlack
@Hildebrand: I have googled, just now, tho I’m not really sure what to use as a search prompt. (Walz weird stifled? ) Anyway, I found nothing.
I too, would like to see the evidence.
scav
What a tragic life some people are doomed to live. Never the right mint left on their pillow.
kindness
Democrats are a herd of cats.
We aline on most things. We mostly want the same end results. Every coalition member’s focus is different though. Democrats aren’t monochromatic. It’s a big tent, and so getting everyone on the same page to push back against the MSM’s Republican framing of every issue doesn’t happen. Republicans have it easy. They’re a tribe (cult). Democrats…. we’re cats.
Jay
@Chacal Charles Calthrop:
Canada is already great. We don’t need to be Greater.
The US needs to learn to be “better”.
Jackie
@Captain C:
They’re too lazy to look up something they’re already not gonna like reading. I say post in huge font.
BlueGuitarist
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Re: “was shown in 2020, more people voted for Hair Furor in TX than in CA. Lotta Dems in TX just like there are in other red state”
sorry if I’m missing something here, but
based on the second sentence, do you mean:
More people voted for Biden in TX than in NY in 2020?
(2020 Biden Tx 5.259 million, NY 5.245 million)
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@BlueGuitarist:
Wasn’t looking at NY, just at CA as it compared to TX as that comparison has been brought up many times over the last 4 years whenever people start yammering about splitting up the USofA based solely on the red/blue state label.
Another Scott
@Baud: Made me look.
TheDailyBeast.com (from October 2):
(Emphasis added.)
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Harrison Wesley
@Old School: Old man, if you wank a giraffe/I said, old man, you’re commitin’ a gaffe..,. shit. Needs work.
Baud
@Another Scott:
Thanks. That doesn’t prove the point IMHO.
Another Scott
@Baud: Agreed.
Best wishes,
Scott.
MagdaInBlack
@Another Scott: Is that it then? Someone, somewhere, suggested that “as a teacher he should stop saying weird.”
( I’m not arguing with you, I’m just curious is that’s it)
Harrison Wesley
@Captain C: I dunno if those read the same way in the Trump Bible.
cmorenc
@Old School:
I was never going to buy a Village People album anyways, even before they recently started to get Trump-snuggly.
cmorenc
@Harrison Wesley:
In the Trump edition of the Bible, Moses comes down from the mountain carrying the Golden Calf.
Harrison Wesley
I’ll be waiting for news reports of Trump throwing rolls of paper towels at people in California.
TBone
@Harrison Wesley: hahaha!
My billboards would spell it out in the simple, 5th grade language of the Golden Rule, followed by
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
hedgehog mobile
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: I concluded we’d be the equivalent of West Berlin. (Coloradan here)
Ksmiami
@ExPatExDem: I want us to be mean and loud to MAGA. Ffs fight them.
TBone
Better yet, text of the offensive legislation with a huge stained glass type painting of Jesus doing a facepalm.
scav
Ksmiami
@BlueGuitarist: trust me I was a Dem in Texas and it sucks. The best thing going forward would be an amicable split with Blue states forming an alliance with Canada and Mexico. Tell me what exactly does California get out of paying the feds for very little in return…
Jay
@Ksmiami:
Never gonna happen. “Blue States” aren’t blue and “Red States” aren’t red.
It’s as much a fantasy as Cascadia. A brain fart from 1813 that has gained as much traction as sticking UV lightbulbs up one’s ass.
Old School
@Ksmiami:
The U.S. Currency?
Access to Social Security and Medicare?
The U.S. court system?
The Armed Forces?
Etc.
Ksmiami
@Old School: all of those things will be at risk with Trump. I think everyone is underestimating the destruction now.