On Monday, Claudia Sheinbaum had a press conference about her plans for the economic future of Mexico. One of the dozen goals of “Plan México” is to make Mexico the 10th largest economy in the world by 2030 (they’re #12 now). A key to achieving that goal is to have more goods manufactured in Mexico rather than imported, which makes sense for a country full of young workers. (Median age in Mexico: 29, US: 39). So she’s going to institute selective tariffs to protect the Mexican clothing industry from companies like Shein. As you can see, most of the headlines were about the economic growth involved, except for Reuters, who made it all about Trump. It’s a bad habit, or perhaps even a sickness, for media to assume that everything that is happening around the world, or even here, somehow has something to do with whatever mouthfarts Trump has been making lately.
Totally unrelated, but from another good messenger, here’s AOC on trans issues:
This was in response to a question from Dave Weigel on how she came up with what she said about Nancy Mace’s desire to become the bathroom police, and how that primes women for assault.
Edit: I forgot another favorite, Jasmine Crockett getting under Nancy Mace’s skin.
Old School
I was curious how close they are dollar-wise, but this list per the IMF (Via Forbes India) doesn’t have Mexico in the Top 20.
Good luck to them!
RaflW
AOC is one of the few reasons I haven’t just totally run screaming from the Democrats. I mean, of course, I’ll still vote D, and I will engage in local and and state efforts. But I feel like the National Dems are still trying to find their asses with their hands in old woolen mittens.
Join AOC in putting on the boxing gloves! FIGHT. Goddamit.
sab
I am so old that I remember when a man of any age could go into a women’s bathroom as long as he was accompanied by a female relative. Nobody thought anything of it.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Old School: Yeah, that surprised me, too, but source below. They’ve really been growing, in part because more goods are manufactured there and sent to the US after the first set of China tariffs:
mexiconewsdaily.com/business/mexico-is-now-the-12th-largest-economy-in-the-world/
Dan B
Two women showing strength, and vision. I’d add Jasmine Crockett and Lauren Underwood, plus a few female Senators. I feel that our work for gay rights showed strength, at least courage when the establishment wanted to arrest us and when being openly gay meant loss of your job and your home. There was no compromising or trying to make people more comfortable.
Kosh III
Nod to Trump or middle finger?
Buttigieg/AOC 2028
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Kosh III: To quote Willy Wonka: “Strike that, reverse it”. (AOC for prez 2028 is what I mean.)
Dan B
@Kosh III: Sounds nice but AOC needs management / administrative experience. Pete’s got it and communication chops as well. The dream is still beautiful.
Raflw
I like this tone. Rep. Greg Landsman, OH, today in floor debate about a Republican anti-trans bill:
“You’re just picking on children. Our government is not supposed to be this intrusive. Your government has become incredibly intrusive. You’re in our doctors offices banning treatments. You’re in our classroom banning books. Now you’re in my daughter’s locker room.”
This is the right way to personalize it and make the Repub creepiness plain. I said above I want more fight, so I want to acknowledge it does happen!
Baud
@Raflw:
I like that too. Thanks for highlighting.
Jeffro
@RaflW: right??
all of this is nice but the Ds better figure out who their field marshal is, and quick
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Dan B:
Management experience can be hired out. Political skill can’t be. She has the juice.
Notthatproud
@Dan B: I’m probably one of the very few people who thinks Pete wouldn’t be a good nominee. One complaint with Kamala is that she was too practiced, unable to participate in a normal conversation. Pete is a good communicator, but it’s not normal. Very practiced, high school debater type stuff.
Melancholy Jaques
It’s their business model. Sports reporters and sports talk shows talk about the Yankees, the Cowboys, and LeBron James. “News” shows talk about Trump and whatever Republicans are angry about that day. Been this way for a while.
For all four years of the Biden administration, he was covered like he still held office.
Baud
The media didn’t support Trump to not cover him.
scav
@Notthatproud: Their needle has no hole to thread. So good luck with that.
WaterGirl
@Notthatproud: For you to write that, I wonder if you listened to any of Pete’s conversations in 2019. Q & A environments. He is amazing talking one-on-one with regular people.
Those weren’t questions he could anticipate, and his answers were thoughtful and he really connected with people.
I wish I still had a link to some of those events. He was really impressive.
Melancholy Jaques
@@mistermix.bsky.social:
Mexico is 10th largest in population, ahead of Japan & the Philippines, and just behind Russia.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Wasn’t there concerns about this Claudia Sheinbaum being an authoritarian and trying to stack the Mexican judiciary?
Geminid
@Notthatproud: I am also a Buttigieg sceptic. Buttegieg knocks the socks off of a certain group of Democrats, but he’s an unproven quantity when it comes to a larger electorate.
But that’s the case with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez too, so I guess they belong on the same dream ticket.
Baud
@Geminid:
By larger electorate, do you mean a senator or governor level? Statewide?
Professor Bigfoot
@WaterGirl: The only thing about Pete is that he’s never won a statewide race.
Generally Presidents come from the Senate or from a Governor’s mansion, or have won a major war (Grant, Eisenhower).
Slayer Pete is a bad man; but I really wonder if he’s even interested in trying to get elected- he’s a dad with wee ones at home and who wants to inflict that on their kids?
He will be someone’s absolute kickass SoS or SecDef, that’s for damn sure.
Baud
There’s a theory that an unknown outsider would have a leg up. But who knows if that’ll still be the sentiment in four years?
Baud
I’m less interested in who our 2028 nominee will be and more interested in who the shadow president behind the scenes will be.
Dan B
@Notthatproud: I think that Pete / AOC is a nice dream but extremely unlikely in the media cesspool that is America. And Pete does come off as a technocrat.
lynno
Watch Mexico start making Chinese stuff they stop buying. Selling it South not north. Walmart/Amazon will love it.
Professor Bigfoot
PS— I mention that Slayer Pete has never won a statewide race, the same applies to AOC.
If we’re talking Pete/AOC 2042, yeah, I can see that. ‘28? Ain’t gonna happen.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
The fight is over election of all judges, and the Supreme Court justices are split 3 (for) / 8 (against) on whether that’s a good idea.
Here’s a piece on it: mexiconewsdaily.com/news/mexican-supreme-court/
Morena is a reform party and this is their position. The Mexican Supreme Court has been generally progressive (they are responsible for the overturn of an abortion ban and also the sorta-kinda legalization of weed in MX). But I sure don’t understand the subtleties of why AMLO and Claudia want Supreme Court elections.
The basic politics of Mexico at this moment is that AMLO is the tip of the spear and Claudia is the staff of the spear. She’s smarter and probably a better politician. He had an obsession with big projects (like the Maya train) and used the military for administration for things like the Mexico City Airport (which might sound bad, but he did it because they were the least corrupt option of the options available to him). Her big thing is advancing the cause of women in Mexico.
We’ll see where this goes. But, for now, my position is #EsClaudia. I want to see what Morena can do for a country plagued by corruption for 100 years+.
RevRick
@Old School: Mexico’s GDP was as $1.789 trillion in 2023 according to the World Bank, which would have ranked them as #14 on this list.
Geminid
@Baud: Statewide in the case of Buttigieg, if he runs for Governor or Lt. Governor next year he’ll have some good primary competition.
Unless she runs for Governor next year, Ocasio-Cortez won’t have a chance to run statewide in New York until 2028 when Chuck Schumer’s Senate Race. What she’s done so far is to beat a complacent incumbent in a low -turnout primary and go on to win elections in a 75% Democratic district.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez may in fact have “the chops” her fans attribute to her but she hasn’t proven this with a wider audience. I guess we’ll find out if she runs for President in 2028.
Both she and Burtigieg are relatively young though, so they’ll have chances for higher office in the next decade if they don’t make their move this decade.
Baud
@Geminid:
I don’t trust anyone over 30.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: Me either.
Not even me.
Tim C.
@Dan B: AND TAMMY DUCKWORTH ENTERS THE RING WITH A STEEL CHAIR!!!!!
Parfigliano
Wanna fight? Fire the consultant class dumb shits that wet themselves over Walz calling GOPers “weird”.
Princess
@Tim C.: Sounds like she gave it good to Hegseth today.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@@mistermix.bsky.social:
Thanks the article and the context. I guess we’ll see. I will note one critic of this reform is the current US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar:
Ken Salazar is a longtime Democratic politician and lawyer, who served in the Obama Admin and now for the Biden admin since 2021, so his word has some weight. However, weirdly enough, I saw this in his Wiki:
So 🤷♂️
oldgold
@RevRick: California had a GDP of $4.08 Trillion. As a stand alone country it would be the world’s 5th biggest economy.
Princess
@Parfigliano: Everyone says this happened. Do you have evidence? Not being a jerk — I’m just trying to figure out if it’s true or if it is just something that has become believed for no particular reason.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Parfigliano:
I always assumed the “weird” stuff was to rally and solidify the Democratic base, who were always going to vote D. I thought it was dropped because it wouldn’t have played well with a general electorate
TBone
Heh, haven’t seen the Butthurt Report meme (in the Jasmine Crockett BlusSky replies) in a few years. It’s a classic, sure to come in handy again hahaha
bsky.app/profile/sueinrockville.bsky.social/post/3lfqbzcpifk2j
Scout211
Here’s some news:
Last gasp?
persistentillusion
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): As a Coloradan of long standing, I feel comfortable saying that Ken Salazar is a twit as is his brother John. Establishment fetishists and cowards, both of them.
gene108
Do transgender men have to use the ladies room? Big bearded transgender men in the ladies room.
Professor Bigfoot
@gene108: Since transgender women are women, then transgender men are men.
But that doesn’t scare them the same way, does it?
billcoop4
Most high school debaters are really good at eviscerating bullshit and talking about sports and gilrz/boyz/whoeverz. This is a stupid observation.
I’m not sure Pete is the one, but he clearly connects on all levels without condescension.
But fuck you with the stereotype.
BC
[Former HS Debate Coach. NSDA **]
billcoop4
Now here is a sane comment rather that notthewhatever’s stupdity. Yes, concur here, although I think they will both prove to have the chops.
BC
frosty
@Princess: I agree. Commenters keep saying that consultants reined in Walz and shut down “Weird”.
@Parfigliano: Got any citations?
FDRLincoln
We know Trump wants the military to shoot American citizens. Unlike last time, his SecDef would obey the order, and they are open about their plan to purge generals who would not. So that gets it down to the battalion and company levels…will low level officers and NCOs and troops obey such orders?
I have run this scenario by friends who are both active and retired military and their general view is that some units would obey, some would not, and you could end up with units rejecting the order trying to defend citizens from units obeying the order. In other words, the military would fracture.
TBone
Speaking of butthurt, it’s not going well for frivolous Lindell
…
crooksandliars.com/2025/01/another-day-another-court-order-against
Tim C.
@FDRLincoln: Which basically would be perfect for both Bejing and Moscow…. and Pyongyang….probably a few others as well.
Harrison Wesley
@FDRLincoln: Instead of Night of the Long Knives it would be Night of the Small Hands.
TBone
@FDRLincoln: the purge of the White House National Security Council has already started, I expect it to spread.
crooksandliars.com/2025/01/national-security-purge-begins
Harrison Wesley
@TBone: I thought he was joining up with Vance to market My Sofa.
TBone
@Harrison Wesley: heh
Professor Bigfoot
@frosty: I am disinclined to believe anything like that happened.
Just more “Democrats are all screwed up and I KNOW HOW TO FIX IT.”
I’m a bit disappointed in how many of us are so willing to believe it happened despite the lack of evidence that it did.
Of course if evidence is unearthed that this happened, then fine, let’s discuss it– but in this environment of RAMPANT misinformation, disinformation, and generalized Dem-hate, we’re fools to take ANYTHING for granted, until verified through channels WE judge credible, as individual Americans.
Jay
@frosty:
I did a search for this, and all I could find were a couple of panty clutching OP Eds claiming that going “weird” was improper discourse.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@FDRLincoln:
Reposting from below:
I recall reading a Mistermix post (maybe MM can tell me which one) that said Trump’s backtracked on a lot of the worst stuff he claimed he’d do from what I understand. Plenty of reports of corporations lobbying him to not deport their workforces, etc, for example, that there will probably be some deportations but not the mass deportations that were feared. I recall reading this from a mistermix post from a few weeks/a month ago
Professor Bigfoot
@FDRLincoln: 1860 redux.
They lionize that bastard Lee but overlook the Southern officers who kept faith with their oaths.
We do live in interesting times.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
Come sit next to me.
Dan B
@TBone: AND Trump is thinking of Joe Kent to head National Counterterrorism Center. Kent is from SW Washington. He’s a fan of Nazi’s and would be in a position to ignore far right groups while targeting left leaning and social justice groups.
TBone
@Dan B: we are really in for it on all fronts.
Exhibit eleventy thousand
digbysblog.net/2025/01/14/great-god-almighty-theyre-free-at-last/
Melancholy Jaques
@Dan B:
American voters rejected two completely anodyne yet qualified Democratic women in favor of a corrupt, lying bigot who never did anything for anyone but himself.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@TBone:
Let’s see what how quickly those top executives shift right back when they get hit with massive backlash.
Like, for fuck’s sake, it was one narrow election victory and they act like it was a landslide
Jackie
I thought the future FFOTUS didn’t like losers. Joe Kent is a two time loser, but, I guess there’s exceptions…
DanB beat me to it @ #60.
InMyRoom
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): All I’ve seen in some news reports is TFG saying how much more difficult it will be to curb inflation or how much longer and more difficult it will be to begin massive deportations. He is walking back things with qualifiers. The minions are still giving out “things will get done super fast and all will be wonderful” statements.
MagdaInBlack
@Jay: I did a search this morning and all I could find was that someone, somewhere, said something about ” a teacher shouldn’t use that word” or some such fussing over nothing.
Jay
@TBone:
Wonkette covered this a few days ago.
Turns out that Corporations adopted DEI, because:
DEI workplaces are much more profitable, stable, innovative and successful than non-DEI workplaces,
They also save hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance costs and lawsuits.
wonkette.com/p/hope-all-these-companies-cancelin
Of course even if the DEI Cancel claims are faux, having made public claims about cancelling DEI, weakens any defense against lawsuits.
Ohio Mom
@Raflw: I’m one of Greg Landsman’s constituents, voted for him twice now, and I am happily surprised he has so much fire in him. I’d thought he was going to try to not scare off the Republicans in our district by being wishy-washy.
As for AOC’s future, what’s wrong with hoping she has a long career right where she is now?
There are plenty of Reps who have made real differences from their places in the House. Would the country be better off if Pelosi had sought a Senate seat?
AOC uses her safe seat very effectively. Don’t fix what isn’t broken. Buttigieg, on the other hand, needs to find something to run for and I don’t know what, not being familiar with what offices are available and good bets in Michigan.
Kent
If current trends hold course I would expect Mexico to pass Russia in terms of GDP.
Sister Golden Bear
@gene108:
Under the laws Republicans are trying to pass, yes they would. In fact, it would be a lot easier for cis men with ill intent to claim they’re trans men in order to infiltrate women’s restrooms.
Trans men tend to be on the shorter side, often to their vexation, but many of them do love their beards. Some also have male pattern baldness, since unfortunately, hormones don’t let you pick and choose which effects they have (as is made extremely clear on informed consent form before you start them).
Matt McIrvin
@gene108: The intent is, of course, that they can’t use any public bathroom at all.
(But if they’re really butch-looking they’d probably have no trouble using the men’s room, because this is really about policing people’s gender presentation, and also mostly about picking on any woman who doesn’t look super femme.)
Kent
Technically he is from Portland.
He just co-plays at being from rural Yacolt in SW Washington in order to run for Congress in the WA-3rd where he has been beaten twice. But he certainly isn’t FROM here. No one here knows him or ever sees him around here except when he is running for Congress
But yes, he is a horrible shit stain of a person.
Dan B
@Jackie: You provided the details of Kent’s awfulness. There would be no investigations of right wing groups. And left wing infiltrates would be accused of any violence.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
So you’re saying they’ve screwed themselves?
Jay
@Dan B:
Will they keep also blaming the FBI for the “false flag” attacks?
Harrison Wesley
@Jackie: Jewish led colored hordes of the earth is kind of long for a band name, but sounds great for a musical revue.
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Kinda, they would have to prove in Court or elsewhere that while they have disavowed DEI publically they still have DEI programs and policies in place.
Dan B
@Jay: Any target that could wreak havoc with the gubmit or with social justice groups.
Citizen Alan
@Melancholy Jaques: I hate to say it because I mentioned my concerns before, but right now, I think I’m on Team Pritzger. A middle-aged white billionaire. Give the people what they fucking want. Hell, if Tom Hanks would run for President, I would vote for him.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
Interesting. Thanks for the answer
Dan B
@Harrison Wesley: Intergalactic Jewish led colored hordes. They could have cool uniforms!
Baud
Since some people have been wondering about Dems and trans issues, here are the weak Dems.
Looks like about 5 or 6 missed the vote.
Geminid
@Professor Bigfoot: I read that R.E. Lee was the only one of eight Southern-born U.S. Army colonels to throw in with the Confederacy.
George Thomas, the “Rock of Chickamauga,” was one of the seven who held true to their oaths. Thomas’s sisters never spoke to him again.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
I can see the Republicans are hard at work at making housing and groceries more affordable for the average American /s
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Geminid:
James Longstreet, arguably a better battlefield commander than the vastly overrated Lee, sure, fought for the rebels.
But, he spent most of the rest of the century trying, within the narrow dictates of Republican Party politics, trying to make amends. The fact he became a strident (for the time) critic of that shithead Lee, was a bonus.
Melancholy Jaques
@Citizen Alan:
2028 is a long way off.
Geminid
@Baud: Rio Grande Valley Democrats Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez are both members of the Blue Dog Caucus. Now that Mary Peltola lost reelection I think that kennel is down to seven Blue Dogs, so it sounds like five voted against the bill.
Unless Cullar can beat his federal corruption charges they’ll down to six before too long, and I think two of them are well into their 70s. A vanishing breed.
TBone
@TBone: Exhibit eleventy- thousand-one:
techcrunch.com/2025/01/14/openai-quietly-revises-policy-doc-to-remove-reference-to-politically-unbia…
Starfish (she/her)
I want to see either Julian Castro or Joaquin Castro run for president
Nancy Mace is an unruly child.
Jay
@TBone:
Kinda funny, as almost all research on AI model results document that AI “oversamples” Nazi’s and other fringers.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
From the Wonkette article you linked:
I had no idea it was this bad. I mean, Jesus Christ, one narrow election result and they’re willing to just throw it all out and not even punish calling women “property” on their platforms? What the fuck is this?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@TBone:
There will be a backlash to this stuff. It was an exceedingly narrow election result
Jay
@Starfish (she/her):
Aren’t they Fidel’s sons, along with Justin? //
MagdaInBlack
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Zuckerberg is having some mid-life issues…
wonkette.com/p/if-zuckerberg-wants-masculine-energy
Kay
@Citizen Alan:
Me too. I think he’s just great.
Lyrebird
@Professor Bigfoot:
hear, hear.
I disagree on age cutoffs pretty strongly, but I appreciate ^this very very much.
Matt McIrvin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’m figuring Zuckerberg is a manospheric bigot of long standing and he’s just letting his freak flag fly now that he thinks he’s got an army.
Lyrebird
@Baud: Thanks for bringing those details here. So IIUC 95% or more of Congressional Dems went on record against the trans haters and grown-bullies-of-children. #proudtobeademocrat
Starfish (she/her)
@Matt McIrvin: Some people online were wondering if his wife is going to divorce him now because when you have a man get like this, you have to throw him out.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@MagdaInBlack:
That is disturbing on so many levels, that a narrow election is loss/victory is being treated like some landslide people like Zuckerberg, and he’s moving operations to a state hostile to a large chunk of his company’s workforce
Jay
@Matt McIrvin:
He was always a scumbag.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Matt McIrvin:
It wouldn’t surprise me given Facebook’s origins. It’s just, literally calling women “property” is so out of step with popular opinion, I can’t believe he thought this was fine to trot out. It’s overinterpreting the election results imo
Barbara
@MagdaInBlack: That was sick. What a complete and utter fuckface. I hope someone has a transcript of that ready to go at their next Title VII action against FB.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Barbara:
I agree. We have to hope there will be a backlash against this stuff and push back against it
Barbara
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It’s a sign that their user base has really shifted from people like us.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Barbara:
I guess so. FB has been known for years for an aging user base (which I assume would broadly be more right-leaning), at least here in the US. It was after the early 2010s that younger people moved away from it. Though I expect other Meta properties, like Instagram, would trend younger
Glory b
@Dan B: AoOC should also pass at least one bill while she’s on Congress.
As a practical matter, I don’t think she’d be elected president because she has said she actually considers herself to be a socialist.
bookworm1398
The US tendency to think everything is about them predates Trump.
On Meta, what they want is to get Trump to pressure the EU and Australia and UK to backtrack on the anti social media laws they have passed recently. And cancel the billion dollar fine against Facebook. And it’s possible that a deal could be made in exchange for US continuing to support Ukraine, not leaving NATO, Europe buying more US gas or something
KatKapCC
I’d love to know where everyone is getting this optimism that the electorate which refused to elect a smart, hard-working woman with a very long and proven resume who had been in the White House for eight years, and then eight years later refused to elect a smart, hard-working woman with a very long and proven resume who had basically been in the training-to-be-president job for almost four years would, four years later, totally for sure want to elect a smart, hard-working woman with a relatively short and sometimes-questioned resume and who has never had a job anywhere near, either literally or figuratively, the presidency.
Are we thinking that somehow misogyny is going to be cured during the second Trump admin?
Geminid
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: “Pete” Longstreet and “Sam” Grant became best of friends when they served together in the 4th Infantry. They were posted at Jefferson Barracks* in St. Louis until they were sent south for the buildup to the war with Mexico.
After the war, Grant married a young Saint Louis woman named Julia Dent. She was the sister of another officer. James Longsteeet was a groomsman at the wedding and Henry Heth was best man. Heth went on to serve as a Confederate general and help Lee botch the Battle of Gettysburg.
* Jefferson Barracks are now a National Historical Park. They overlook the Mississippi River a few miles south of downtown St. Louis. The old brick buildings are well preserved, with a grass parade ground; a nice, peaceful place to visit.
matt
We’re losing to these stupid, crazy losers? What the hell.
SEAN HANNITY (HOST): You know, the more we learn about these LA wildfires, the angrier that everybody, I think, should get. I think everybody should be very angry. Because this is what radical environmentalism is all about. It’s also rooted and deeply tied into the socialist, Marxist, statist agenda, hence the Green New Deal
The never-passed ‘Green New Deal’ caused the fire or is conspiring with the fire.
Jackie
Prepare for Defense Secretary Hegseth:
And:
This undoubtedly is the beginning for all of the FFOTUS picks to be confirmed.
MagdaInBlack
@Jackie: Of course.
TONYG
@Old School: When the U.S. is, once again, under the expert leadership of Donald Trump, maybe there will be caravans of Americans sneaking into Mexico!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jackie:
Why undoubtedly?
KatKapCC
@Jackie: He could literally have walked into the hearings carrying a woman’s corpse over his shoulder and start sexually assaulting it on the floor in front of everyone and the GOP would still support him.
The fantasy that because Gaetz dropped out, we were gonna WIN TEH MORNING!!! on all of these things was always inane. It is not doomerism but rather pragmatism to realize that by and large, Trump is going to get his way, because he has always gotten his way, and if we want to pretend otherwise, that’s only going to make the pain more excruciating.
Jackie
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): If Hegseth can be confirmed, then the rest will be a walk in the park for the GQP.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jackie:
We can’t know that for certain. We’ll just have to wait and see
BlueGuitarist
@Jackie:
Ernst is up for reelection in 2 years.
any Iowa juicers around?
Rob Sands, the state auditor is the only Democrat elected statewide in Iowa.
meanwhile maybe some anger at Ernst can be channeled into
the Jan. 28, 2025 special election for a County Supervisor
in Black Hawk County, Iowa,
a swing county (cities: Waterloo, Cedar Falls).
Democratic candidate in the special election is Ritchie Kurtenbach, electrician, leader in the IBEW local.
ritch4supervisor.com/
TBone
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’m ready to throw hands if I see this “masculine domination energy” shit IRL in any public forum. I have Backlash! bail money.
Sure Lurkalot
@matt:
You mean to tell me Hannity left out “communist”? Must be off his game.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@TBone:
That’s the spirit!
Kent
@Starfish (she/her):
I honestly think if you are looking for a Hispanic candidate then Ruben Gallego would be a better candidate. He has more charisma and broader appeal I think.
TBone
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): inspirational and instructional entertainment music video
m.youtube.com/watch?v=gnPKYVkK_iA
Trigger warning for sensitive souls!
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: jaw dropping stuff.
along w permissions to refer to women as property. That’s actually not ok. We’ll think of something.
On the strange detail of no longer selling tampons in men’s bathrooms, over this transgender issue, there are times a man might need to buy supplies for a menstruating friend/ partner/adolescent child: someone who is disabled, or injured, or blind, etc.
Besides, menstrual pads are the best absorption pressure pads if there’s a bleed out injury; first aid teachers recommend them. These supplies need to be available. It also can’t hurt for men to think menstruation is normal for humans, either. Half of everyone does it for 40+ years. I mean, they sell condoms in the ladies room…
BlueGuitarist
@Jackie:
Sad & enraging that someone as awful & incompetent as Hegseth could be confirmed, for which Ernst’s support matters. Unfortunate that Republicans hate America.
in addition to possibly doing even more harm than the nazi tattoo guy, RFKjr and Gabbard, having been Democrats, have cooties.
BlueGuitarist
@TBone:
‘masculine domination energy’?
Isn’t Hegseth the one whose mommy went to talk to Senators to say that she didn’t really mean it when she said he lacked character and abused women, really he was a good boy?
Geminid
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Some of this over-interpretation of the election results is a bluff. I think that’s what a lot of elected Republicans and their media allies are up to now. It’s in their interests to exaggerate the magnitude of their win.
Zuckerberg doesn’t really have that excuse. I’ve never paid the guy that much attention, but the little I know makes me think Zuckerberg may have missed out on some important personal growth by having succeeded so easily and at such a young age. As a result he seems to lack mental.ballast, so to speak.
Now, I realize this might just be so many Boomer sour grapes. But I still want Mark Zuckerberg to stay off my lawn until he shows better character development.
YY_Sima Qian
36 hrs into the migration of “TikTok refugees” to RedNote, the kumbaya between Chinese and American users have largely persisted. Yesterday, it was Chinese pupils asking Americans for help w/ English homework, today it’s American pupils asking Chinese for help w/ math homework. Chinese users are admiring independent American artists playing bluegrass or heavy metal, & American users admiring Chinese scenery & traditional arts. Users are bonding over images of pets (of course), & commiserating over life pressures (the “996” work culture for the Chinese & working 2/3 jobs to make ends meet for the Americans).
RedNote‘s heavy & active moderation quickly erases anything that might run afoul of censors, or might be controversial & instigate arguments.
This wholesome feel goodness may not last long. The legislation that will force divestment/ban TikTok will also ban RedNote in the US, as soon as monthly average US users exceed 1 million. It is, after all, a Chinese App run out of the PRC & w/ all user data stored in the PRC, fully subject to the Chinese government’s censorship regime, so if TikTok is a natsec threat to the US then RedNote is an order of magnitude greater threat. At the same time, I would not be surprised if the Chinese government will soon push RedNote to virtually bifurcate the Chinese & international communities by tweaking its recommendation/search algorithm to take into account user geolocation & language, to reduce the amount of unscripted interactions. (The PRC government has taken something of a leap w/ its broadening visa-waiver policies to individual travelers from the ROW, both to help stimulate the domestic economy & helped w/ the country’s image, as Western travelers are generally positive surprised at how different the slices of China they experience are from the media coverage back home. However, this is a much smaller flow than hundreds of thousands/millions of Americans suddenly showing up on a hitherto almost exclusively Chinese social media platform w/in a day.) Alternatively, interactions between at least some Chinese & American users could become toxic, as social media tends to devolve to (although RedNote‘s moderation policies may constrain this dynamic).
Should any of the above happen, it would be a shame. The interactions I have seen in the past 24 hrs is reminiscent of the earliest days of popularized internet.
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: a most fitting music video in the balance of things.
Some people have never imagined the shoe could be on the other foot. When domestic abusers go to court-ordered anger management classes and get confronted, they maybe start to think about the effect they have.
These politician folks we’re discussing, I’m not sure what it would take for them to comprehend that their privileged antics cause harm to others, or that those others might matter.
Gol darn it
Starfish
@Kent: I think that housing will continue to be an issue.
Jackie
@BlueGuitarist: We shall see… I’m going to assume the worst. Trump snaps his fingers and yells JUMP and the only thing I see is his MAGA congress injuring themselves trying to out jump each other. Lots of pulled groins.
TBone
@BlueGuitarist: that reference to “male energy” is taken from a direct quote by Fuckerberg in his Rogan interview. Plus all of this *waves hand at incoming:
digbysblog.net/2025/01/14/great-god-almighty-theyre-free-at-last/
“It’s a new dawn” does not mean what that banker thinks it means, at MY bank.
ETA I watched some Hegseth lie-spewing today and yeah he played his Victim card.
BlueGuitarist
@TBone:
ah, thanks.
Geminid
@Kent: Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes impresses me. Sen. Gallego is younger by 10 years or so, but Fontes also has a lot of potential.
Interestingly to me, Fontes and Gallego are both Marine Corps veterans.
BlueGuitarist
Elsewhere, Le Monde/AFP reporting
“South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested on Wednesday, January 14 [15?] over his failed martial law bid, after hundreds of anti-graft investigators and police raided his residence to end a weeks-long standoff. Yoon, who was impeached and charged with insurrection over his short-lived effort to impose martial law last month, is the first sitting president in the nation’s history to be arrested.”
lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/01/15/south-korean-president-yoon-arrested-over-failed-mart…
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … Phys.org:
They might be on to something??
Best wishes,
Scott.
YY_Sima Qian
@BlueGuitarist: Glad for this drama to be over. The South Korean ruling party did itself no favors by dragging this out, & the South Korean Left that is expected to take over in the next presidential election could be further “radicalized” by the whole experience.
Harrison Wesley
@TBone: So Stanley Kowalski is the new Merkin role model. How charming.
Sister Golden Bear
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It’s more than the election gave them permission to take the mask and stop pretending. Silicon Valley leaders have been sexist, racist, homo/transphobic bros for ages.
Signed, a trans woman who works in tech in SV.
Sister Golden Bear
@Barbara:
Not necessarily. SV CEOs have no fucking clue what their customers actually want, and these days don’t seem to care even less than they did before. Remember Zuck is the guy who burned through $50 billion as he kept trying to make Second Life Without Legs happen. Narrator voice: It didn’t happen.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Sister Golden Bear:
I always figured the reason they put on that mask was to appeal to liberal-leaning consumers, people who tended to have disposable income
NotMax
Heh.
96-year-old Mom called a little while ago to ask if I’d watched the confirmation hearing. Her conclusion about Hegseth: “He’s a real scumbag, isn’t he.”
tobie
@NotMax: God bless 96 year old Moms with zero patience for scumbags and dicks!
Kay
@YY_Sima Qian:
It is amazing, isn’t it? My son had to help me find Rednote – they’re copying the Chinese phrase from the Rednote logo (in media stories) to turn it up in a search. I couldn’t find it using the English word. I thought TikTok was interesting and then the banning and the users rebelling – its been fun to watch.
Kay
@YY_Sima Qian:
“millions of Americans suddenly showing up”
Just wild.
Gloria DryGarden
@NotMax:
There was a weird man who liked drink
His behaviors, a deep dirty sink;
He decided to try
For a position so high
(But) The hearings brought most to the brink.
YY_Sima Qian
@Kay: “RedNote” is not even 小红书’s official English brand (it does not have one, yet), the social media platform had not considered expansion overseas (outside of organic growth in the Chinese speaking sphere in Taiwan & SE Asia, as well as Chinese speaking immigrants in N. America & Europe). If it did try to expand internationally, it would probably have done what other Chinese origin platforms have done: develop an international platform wholly separate from the Chinese one, to avoid the headaches of trying to curate international discourse while complying w/ the wildly divergent regulations between the PRC & the ROW, of which CPC regime’s censorship is just one complication, see Douyin vs. TikTok, Pinduoduo vs. Temu, Billibilli versus. Billibilli International, Taboo/TMall vs. AliExpress, etc.
I said yesterday the development is ironic on a multitude of levels, one of which is that 小红书 literally means “Little Red Book”, as in the little booklet containing Mao’s sayings that all of those radicalized Red Guards waved in rallies during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. I think the founders chose the same for a bit of ironic effect, because the platform had been the reserve of young urban professionals (majority women) living in the more developed 1st – 3rd tier cities, & the demographic skew cosmopolitan, bourgeois, & relatively liberal (in the Chinese context), & the content reflected their bougie consumerist tastes. It is probably the most friendly place for “TikTok refugees” to land among the Chinese social media platforms.
The interactions I have seen so far are really sweet & cute. It is astounding how quickly some of the American users are picking up on Chinese internet slang, & how many users on both sides of the Pacific (& the ROW) are willing to communicate via translation software (which RedNote has not yet even incorporated into the platform). Had these platforms largely grew organically, the different demographics probably would have gravitated to their own bubbles, as we typically see on other platforms (Chinese or international), but the sudden influx of a large number of “TikTok refugees” is having a scrambling effect on RedNote.
I suspect there is rich fodder for graduate theses for all you Sociology/PoliSci/Comms/IR PhDs out there.
Kay
@YY_Sima Qian:
Thanks so much for the info. I got the little red book reference and also that it was intended ironically. The TikTokkers (rightfully) say the US is hypocritical – they have a social media site that censors and spews political propaganda right here in the US – Elon Musk’s.
hitchhiker
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Yeah, I zorked my FB account in 2016, but just yesterday I was hitchhiking on mr h’s account* (which he doesn’t use, but hasn’t deleted) … and there were a couple of old women who live in my neighborhood blabbing about how THEY don’t read all that hate stuff, and THEY don’t ever click on ads, and besides they just love being able to connect with all their long lost friends. Also FB is how they run their little creative businesses that give their lives in retirement so much meaning.
I wanted to march out the front door and shout at them.
It is not harmless to choose to be a member of a club that you know includes thugs, that is run by a misogynist manboy, and that is actively working to ruin innocent peoples’ lives. It’s like going to a lynching because the refreshments are tasty, and anyway that’s just how you socialize.
* this is how I eavesdrop on people who are silly enough to broadcast their nonsense.
sab
@YY_Sima Qian: I don’t know what ROW is. Is it Rest of World?
YY_Sima Qian
@sab: Sorry, ROW = Rest of the World.
sab
I never had a Facebook account.
My husband did have one, just to keep in touch online with kids and nieces and nephews. He shut it down quickly. He was horrified by the amount of online sharing. Embarrassing kiddie pictures. Discussions of discipline problems with five year olds. This stuff, once online, will be there for several lifetimes if not forever.
He couldn’t stop the sharing, but he decided he didn’t need to be a willing witness.
YY_Sima Qian
@Kay: If you are curious what RedNote was like before the influx of “TikTok refugees”, when it was mostly populated by bougie young Chinese women, this WSJ article does a decent job (gift link) on one subculture on the platform at the time:
sab
Weird trivia. Mark Zuckerberg has a Chinese American wife. He speaks Mandarin, except he cannot do tones. My sister says she can usually follow what he says by the context, but it is weird with no tones.
According to Deb Fallows (linguist and James Fallows wife) who tried to learn Mandarin when they lived in China, homophones with the wrong tone are not homophones to Chinese. Sound the same to non-tonal listeners, but don’t sound the same to tonal listeners.
I believe Norwegian is the only tonal western language.
YY_Sima Qian
On a very light note, I think we have found the Lisan al-Gaib among us on Twitter.
YY_Sima Qian
@sab: I think Zuckerberg has separated from his wife
I think Deb Fallows is right on the learned sensitivity for tonal variations.
sab
@YY_Sima Qian: My sister sneered at Deb Fallows book (“newbie”) but my sister’s Chinese husband was interested. He teaches American students trying to learn Chinese, and he found her comments about her difficulties to be interesting and helpful.
NotMax
@sab
Good thing there’s no more ads here anymore. Otherwise we’d be bombarded with treatments for tonal fungus.
:)
sab
@NotMax:I love your puns, but you killed this thread.
Anyway
how’s that different from the “online” sharing that goes on here, for example? You’ve shared a lot about your parents, growing up anecdotes, places you’ve lived etc.
Sounds like dumping on young people …
Kay
@YY_Sima Qian:
When I first tried TikTok I didn’t register with the site so I was just shown a series of different accounts. One of them was created by a young Chinese woman, urban, in what looked like a huge city. It had no dialogue, but did have background sounds. It seemed like it was just an account of her days – you would see her buy flowers, visit her grandmother, argue with her grandmother, meet with her friends, etc. She was dressed fashionably. I watched all of her posts so I then saw all of them in the feed. I think she was one of the women you’re talking about.