Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

They spent the last eight months firing professionals and replacing them with ideologues.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

So very ready.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Stand up, dammit!

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

You would normally have to try pretty hard to self-incriminate this badly.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

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

We still have time to mess this up!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Thursday Morning Open Thread: President Biden’s Farewell Address

Thursday Morning Open Thread: President Biden’s Farewell Address

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Biden says farewell: "After 50 years of public service, I give you my word: I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands … now it's your turn to stand guard. May you be the keeper of the flame. May you keep the faith. I love America. You love it too. God bless you all"

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 15, 2025 at 8:22 PM

new eisenhower military industrial complex farewell address just dropped

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— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) January 15, 2025 at 9:09 PM

Here’s YouTube with the complete speech (to which I have not yet listened), and a promised transcription (which I have yet to read; we’ve got the weekend):

 
We Irish have always been in love with a bold, defiant farewell — sometimes a little too much in love, frankly — but I do get the impression that a lot of journalists, commentors and historians are going to watch Joe Biden’s farewell and discover a sense of shame, if not wonder. Especially given what we’ll be seeing over the next months and years!

Reporter: Who gets credit for this? You or Trump?
Biden: Is that a joke?

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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) January 15, 2025 at 2:24 PM

What a stupid M-F-ing question. Biden has been working on this for over a year. Anthony Blinken has traveled back and forth to Israel, and other Middle Eastern countries at least a hundred times. What has the First Felon done. Basically, stirred up trouble.

— captainwest.bsky.social (@captainwest.bsky.social) January 15, 2025 at 6:20 PM


 

Folks, let’s give President @JoeBiden his flowers. He’s been one of the most accomplished presidents I’ve seen in my lifetime.
? Created over 16 million jobs
? Lowest average unemployment rate of any administration in 50 years
? Brought manufacturing back to America through the CHIPS and Science Act

[image or embed]

— Jaime Harrison (@jaimeharrison.bsky.social) January 15, 2025 at 6:52 PM

Reader Interactions

192Comments

  1. 1.

    Starfish (she/her)

    All the journalists who had a sense of shame moved over to doing non-profit work a while back. The ones left are the ones who don’t report news because they are saving it for their books.

  5. 5.

    narya

    I watched in real time (because I still watch the MSNBC evening lineup, though I record it so I can skip anything that is too annoying), and they had Maddow, Hayes, Reid, Psaki, and Wagner commenting afterward. It was a quite pointed speech in several places. I have no faith that Our National Media Shame will take heed, but Joe put down some markers and also pointed to several accomplishments that we (all of us, not just Dems or the left or whatever) should have been singing from the rooftops. I thought his remarks on oligarchs were also spot-on, i.e., NOT a retreat from the message of the Harris/Walz campaign. An emphasis, actually, on that anti-oligarchy message

    ETA: the shoutout to Eisenhower on the military-industrial complex was also quite on point, and pointed.

  7. 7.

    Betty Cracker

    We discussed this a bit in the overnight thread. I didn’t watch and haven’t read the speech but was heartened to learn that Biden called out the oligarchy in such clear terms. I think that’s really important, even at this late hour. It surprised me — in a good way — that he was willing to go there.

  11. 11.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Hildebrand: Sure!

    Reporter: Who gets credit for this? You or Trump?

    Biden: Is that a joke?  Did your mother drink; smoke tobacco, marijuana, and crack; shoot heroin, and hit herself in the head regularly while pregnant with you?  Go fuck yourself, you right-wing, disgraceful pile of shit.

    Fixed.

  12. 12.

    Professor Bigfoot

    Maybe I’ve curated my BlueSky feed too well; but I’m really not seeing too much terrible.

    Not more than the usual blind, entitled stupidity, of course.

  14. 14.

    TBone

    I am a sweet, summer child as well, let’s get a brave explorer on this

    discover a sense of shame

  16. 16.

    gene108

    Reporter: Who gets credit for this? You or Trump?

    Trump.

    He already claimed credit very boldly, and Biden has not said much about any role his administration played in a possible ceasefire.

    The modern media environment doesn’t lend itself well to people understanding who did what unless the person states what they did.

    Edit: Don’t expect a third party, like the media, to report who did what and when accurately if there are competing claims on what happened.

  18. 18.

    John S.

    @gene108:

    Agreed. In this day and age, you gotta toot your own horn because nobody else is gonna toot it for you.

    As much as I will miss Biden, I will not miss the way the MSM treats him.

  20. 20.

    zhena gogolia

    BIDEN IS GOING YOU CAN STOP SHITTING ON HIM NOW

    OH, I FORGOT, WHEN HE APPEARS AT THE INAUGURATION LIKE A NORMAL U.S. PRESIDENT YOU’LL ALL SHIT ON HIM ONCE MORE

  23. 23.

    Baud

    @gene108:

    Who cares? If they credit Republicans, then they can continue to elect Republicans. It’s our job to present an alternative, not to save people from themselves.

  24. 24.

    Chris

    @narya:

    ETA: the shoutout to Eisenhower on the military-industrial complex was also quite on point, and pointed.

    Unfair to Biden, I’d say.  Eisenhower spent eight years feeding the military-industrial complex and turning it loose in the worst possible ways (hello, Dulles brothers).  His speech was basically him saying “hey guys, this is a problem I’ve been contributing to for eight years and, uh, I really think someone should do something about it!”

    Whatever criticisms one can make of Biden, him contributing to the nation’s oligarchy problem isn’t one of them.  He’s probably had the most economically populist policies of any president since… probably the sixties?  There’s a reason every oligarch in Silicon Valley is spitting nails in a way they weren’t even in 2016.

  25. 25.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Baud: My New Rule for 2025: Not arguing with idiots. I’m going to be very careful with the people I allow into my space. Using that logic, anyone who’s going to argue that Biden was a bad POTUS isn’t anyone I’m going to engage with.

  27. 27.

    TBone

    @gene108: everybody has an opinion, they are like *

    President Biden did speak about his achievements in the Middle East, in his farewell address, which is our topic here.  Also, he invoked the Statue of Liberty and I remembered Emma Lazarus’s poetry, inscribed on that great lady breaking the chain at her foot.  He spoke of how she sways because she is designed to weather the storm and I also thought of Stephanie Clifford!

    The New Colossus

    Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
    With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
    Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
    A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
    Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
    Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
    Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
    The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

    “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
    With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
    Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
    The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
    Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
    I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

  28. 28.

    Baud

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    Same. That’s what I’m done with. I’m not done voting blue (unlike some other people who seem to want to take it on a case by case basis) or fighting Republicans and supporting those who do.

  29. 29.

    Old Man Shadow

    Don’t expect shame in our lifetimes from the media. Joe Biden will continue to be History’s Greatest Monster and a failed president to them.

  31. 31.

    narya

    @Chris: That may be–that Eisenhower was part of the problem he identified in a way Biden absolutely is not–but that doesn’t take away from what Biden said, IMHO. I’ll also argue that most? many? people know of Eisenhower’s warning but NOT about his involvement. And Biden’s point remains: there’s a dangerous accumulation of power that is a threat to our democracy, precisely because of the ways that accumulation is and is trying to be anti-democratic. I was glad he said it.

  32. 32.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Baud: This.

    As Toni Morrison pointed out, one of the more pernicious aspects of bigotry is distraction. If one isn’t careful, you’ll find yourself fighting endless battles that you can’t win. Besides being counterproductive, it’s exhausting. 

  33. 33.

    John S.

    @Chris:

    When only 79% of Americans are literate, and half of those people read below a 6th grade level, the MSM doesn’t need any help with dumb takes on complex issues.

  34. 34.

    Belafon

    @Chris: Biden’s attempts to raise the threshold for overtime, ending non-compete clauses, and other similar actions were very pro-worker, and employers hated them.

  35. 35.

    narya

    @Baud: @The Thin Black Duke: Yes, please and thank you. I find myself checking myself (and others) with a simple set of questions: Is this shitting on Democrats as a whole? Is this holding Democrats responsible for the behavior of voters? Is this advancing any productive discussion? If the answers are yes/yes/no, that’s all I need for now.

  36. 36.

    ...now I try to be amused

    As far as I’m concerned, Biden saved my life in the pandemic. He made it possible for me to go to public places again. One reason Biden is underrated is that too many people forgot what daily life was like during the pandemic. (Incidentally, the 1918-20 pandemic was also quickly forgotten.)

  41. 41.

    Belafon

    @John S.: Which is useful, except they also just completely forgot that things were bad. They basically went to bed, woke up after sleeping, and then complained that someone took seven hours away from them.

  42. 42.

    TBone

    Some positive press, granted it’s not the lede but Michael McFaul xits

    If Lavrov ever praises you, you are doing something wrong: Russian foreign minister praises Trump’s views on Ukraine conflict

    AP says

    …In its final days, the Biden administration is providing Kyiv with as much military support as it can, aiming to put Ukraine in the strongest position possible for any future negotiations. The U.S. also introduced new sanctions on Russia’s oil industry.

    Lavrov described those efforts as an attempt by the Biden administration to “slam the door” and leave a difficult legacy for Trump. “The Democrats have a way of screwing things up for the incoming administration,” he said.

    apnews.com/article/lavrov-russia-us-trump-putin-ukraine-67193b9633509a4e5ff1f5668a587c53

  43. 43.

    banditqueen

    @Hildebrand:  Agree, sigh. His speech was brief, dignified, inclusive, respectful–he continues to reach out to all, and it’s their job to hear what he’s done, he spoke of what has gone wrong, and what the road back might be. He worked at a level that I can only honor–I don’t have the knowledge base or depth of experience he cultivated over his 50 years of service (people need to recognize this-it matters), getting far more correct than wrong. Thank you, President Biden.

  45. 45.

    catclub

    @narya: people know of Eisenhower’s warning but NOT about his involvement.

     

    umm, the military industrial complex won WW2, and I  think they may know that Eisenhower was involved somewhere there.

  48. 48.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Belafon:

    I’m not sure where to position the biggest backlash…but this latest iteration of oligarchs and their idolizers do seem to have outsized animus for equity and civility in general and women in particular. Like children, they kick and scream at any suggestion of being told how to behave and they won’t admit much less improve on their inadequacies. Biden was right to call them out as incompatible with freedom  and democracy.

  51. 51.

    lowtechcyclist

    @gene108: ​
     

    Trump.

    He already claimed credit very boldly, and Biden has not said much about any role his administration played in a possible ceasefire.

    The modern media environment doesn’t lend itself well to people understanding who did what unless the person states what they did.

    Edit: Don’t expect a third party, like the media, to report who did what and when accurately if there are competing claims on what happened.

    First of all, I fervently believe that Joseph Robinette Biden has been the greatest President of my lifetime.

    Second, I have no idea why people in this thread are interpreting this post as dumping on Biden. Seems clear as day to me that it’s dumping on the media environment, not Biden.

    Third, I do have one mild disagreement. Just stating something isn’t enough to get it through the media filter, even if it’s the POTUS saying it, at least if he’s a Democrat. Dems either have to shout it from the rooftops in ways and in fora that force the media to report it, or publicize it in ways that get around the media chokehold.

    (Billboards would be good IMHO. However much they would or wouldn’t influence people’s thinking, the media can’t stop you from seeing a billboard. You have zero influence on people’s perceptions if they don’t even know you’ve said something.)

  52. 52.

    oldgold

    I thought after the election, as the vitriol of the campaign season abated and people had an opportunity to reflect in a more dispassionate manner on Biden’s presidency, that he might enjoy a political Indian summer of sorts. I was wrong.

  53. 53.

    Joe Falco

    I’m going to miss this presidency and lament what could have been if not for those who voted based on their hatred, their sense of entitlement and/or nihilistic view of governance. I hope you can retire with some semblance of peace that you did whatever good you could for your country, President Biden.

  54. 54.

    Geminid

    @Nukular Biskits: Good morning Mr. Biskits. I’m wondering if you caught my reply to you this past weekend, about the Turkish Navy’s ambitious shipbuilding program. I thought you might be interested since you’re in the industry.

  55. 55.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Belafon: If it’s the Angry one, well, I think she lost her goddamn mind a while back.

    I hate it, but well, now she’s blocked me so it don’t matter no more.

  66. 66.

    satby

    @Baud: I was going to lock my xitter account, but lately that’s been better since the toddler CEO is distracted by his co-presidency. I’m not grateful for that though, I much rather would have had Elmo consumed in debasing xitter and a Democrat in the WH.

  68. 68.

    satby

    @Baud: Nope, even the basic attempts to make it a little more fair for the bottom of the economic rung brought all the knives out against Biden.

  69. 69.

    Denali5

    I don’t think we deserved Biden. I will miss his decency and his willingness to work behind the scenes. I just read an article in Vanity Fair about his role in assembling a team to rescue hostages in Venezuela.  As for Israel/Gaza, he and his team have worked for the past year in an unbelievably complex situation. Of course, he has flaws, everyone does, but I admire him deeply.

  70. 70.

    Old School

    I remain confident that if for some reason there is not long-lasting peace between Israel and Gaza, Trump will have no responsibility for the horrible ceasefire Biden tried to put in place.

  72. 72.

    satby

    @Denali5: co-sign. I hope his retirement is long and happy. But I’m honestly afraid for the man that watching the impending destruction the felon and his minions plan will break that good man’s heart and shorten his life.

  73. 73.

    Llelldorin

    @gene108: This strikes me as accurately describing the media environment during the Bush administration.

    We’ve moved on from “Color of the Sky: Opinions Differ.”  These days it’s more often “Biden, in an attempt to shore up the hard-science wing of his fractious coalition, declared today that the sky is blue. Polls show weakening support…”

    You missed the part where any claim by a Democrat is treated as a political ploy.

  75. 75.

    Lyrebird

    @The Thin Black Duke: Great point.  Neatly explains the decision of the new Cong. Rep. from Delaware.

    Signed,

    Someone who thinks that one of the few silver linings of the book-banning wave is that more people are reading Morrison’s works.

  78. 78.

    cmorenc

    @catclub: People also forget that Eisenhower & the military-industrial complex were responding to the very real threat that the aggressive Russian military and geopolitical expansionism of Stalin and the terrifying totalitarian form of Russian communism.  And to the fall of Nationalist China to an Asian form of expansionist Maoist totalitarianism under Mao.

    It wasn’t just weapons system industrialism as capitalist corporate welfare in partnership with patronage to politicians.  It is hard now to remember the enormity to which Stalin and Mao looming so soon after just defeating imperial Japan and Hitler warped the US outlook, and for seemingly irrefutable reasons at the time.

  79. 79.

    Geminid

     

    @Nukular Biskits: I posted the comment late on a weekend morning and I guess you had gone on to better things. So I take  your missing the comment as “proof of having a life.”

    I basically summarized an article by Ragip Soylu in Middle East Eye, if you are curious. I guess the most salient point is that Turkiye is replacing a foreign-built fleet that includes 1980s Oliver Perry-class frigates with brand new ships produced at their own shipyards. They’ve also started on a 60,000 ton aircraft carrier.

  80. 80.

    p.a.

    Good domestic President for a bad (in totality) voting public.  Foreign policy well in line with the US’s traditional mess of conflicting interests both foreign and among the US interests that actually care what happens “over there.”

    This comment in no way related to ^.  Interesting TPM with Ruben Gallego’s campaign chief on how they won in a bad year.

  82. 82.

    mapanghimagsik

    @Hildebrand:
    Probably not. Sometimes the threads are like a gathering of pigeons.

    Considering the hand he was dealt, he did a fantastic job. He couldn’t wave the magic wand that some folks thought he had, and there were stumbles, but I think we got the leader we needed in the moment.

  83. 83.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Llelldorin:

    We’ve moved on from “Color of the Sky: Opinions Differ.”  These days it’s more often “Biden, in an attempt to shore up the hard-science wing of his fractious coalition, declared today that the sky is blue. Polls show weakening support…”

    All too true.

  84. 84.

    Anyway

    @gene108:

    @lowtechcyclist:Second, I have no idea why people in this thread are interpreting this post as dumping on Biden. Seems clear as day to me that it’s dumping on the media environment, not Biden.

    Same.  I didn’t see any dumping on Biden.

  85. 85.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @gene108: FWIW, I took your comment as an observation about the poor quality of our national media, not as denigrating President Biden.

  86. 86.

    Llelldorin

    @TBone: That was always one of Biden’s best political abilities — even apart from his presidency I’ll always be grateful to him that Giuliani will be remembered as a bankrupt joke and not as a former President.

    Unfortunately it works best against the pompous, not smug rich jerks like Trump and Musk.

  87. 87.

    Jeffro

    Biden fucking CRUSHED it last night…most radical speech by an American president in my lifetime, and sorely overdue.

    eat it, ultra-wealthy slime!!

  89. 89.

    Jeffro

    also, you could tell he hit it RIGHT on the mark by the way the Faux News hosts were panicking (me and Mrs. Fro flipped over to watch once President Biden finished talking)

    it was hysterical in all senses of the word  =)

    There’s the baton, lying RIGHT THERE, Democrats.  All you have to do is pick. it. up.

  90. 90.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Baud: I understand SpaceX literally have a staff of people whose job is to keep Elon’s nose out of the real work.

    Which does help to explain their successes, n’cest pas?

    I despise Felon Skum, but I LOVE the work that SpaceX is doing; and I remind myself that the weird dipshit’s only talent is using his emerald mine fortune to find good organziations, buy his way in, then displace the original founders and proclaim himself a genius.

  95. 95.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jeffro:

    There’s the baton, lying RIGHT THERE, Democrats.  All you have to do is pick. it. up.

    This.

    We’ve let them get away with portraying bureaucrats and college professors as ‘elites’ for far too long.  People whose wealth is in the tens and hundreds of billions are the genuine elites. And now that they are flexing their political muscle, ‘oligarchs’ is the correct term, and we should use it at every opportunity.

    Roosevelt’s “malefactors of great wealth” might be worth resurrecting as well.  But ‘oligarchs’ is short and to the point.

  96. 96.

    Jeffro

    @TBone: Lavrov described those efforts as an attempt by the Biden administration to “slam the door” and leave a difficult legacy for Trump. “The Democrats have a way of screwing things up for the incoming administration,” he said.

    …before breaking down in hysterical laughter and falling to his knees.  “Did you see what I did there?” Lavrov said while trying to catch his breath.  “I mean…hee hee…it’s, how do you say, ‘gaslighting to the max, dude’! ”  He then collapsed in another fit of giggles.

    These Russian fuckers, seriously.

  97. 97.

    Captain C

    @Starfish (she/her):

    The ones left are the ones who don’t report news because they are saving it for their books.

    I still don’t understand why this isn’t a firing offense at their outlets.

  99. 99.

    Sure Lurkalot

    All those articles about how we’re doing boys wrong, maybe let’s not coddle them as forever children. Somehow having to be lied to and let down easy when someone (even a better qualified woman!) bests you for a job doesn’t smack tough and resilient, From the WSJ, FFS:

    Harvard sociologist Frank Dobbin, who has devoted much of his career to studying corporate diversity, says hiring managers sometimes let people down easy by suggesting they’re victims of demographics—instead of telling them they weren’t up to the job.

    “When a woman is promoted and a man was in the running, HR will often wink and say, ‘Maybe next time, guy,’ ” Dobbin says. “Even when the woman is promoted because she’s better-qualified, it’s a way for the manager to get out of having a difficult conversation.”

    One executive recruiter told me providing honest feedback to unsuccessful job candidates is awkward and sometimes adversarial, so it is tempting to fudge the reason for rejection.

  100. 100.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Denali5:

    I don’t think we deserved Biden. I will miss his decency and his willingness to work behind the scenes.

    Precisely.  The ultimate “knows his shit” President.  Best President of my lifetime.

  102. 102.

    Jeffro

    I agree with points one and two, and especially point three:

    @lowtechcyclist:  Just stating something isn’t enough to get it through the media filter, even if it’s the POTUS saying it, at least if he’s a Democrat. Dems either have to shout it from the rooftops in ways and in fora that force the media to report it, or publicize it in ways that get around the media chokehold.

    As I was mentioning in the late night-which-turned-into-early-morning thread, Dems really do need to get better at repeating simple messages, over and over and over.  It’s boring, and it means we won’t often get to show off how much smarter we are than the GOP, but it works.

    “Connect the dots for them…and then go and retrace the whole diagram a few times”, is what I believe I said (I hadn’t had my coffee yet)

    This is the value of a 24/7 messaging machine like Fox News.  Always on, always repeating the same themes, all day every day, able to be spun off to internet commentators and blogs and podcasts.  It would bore the shit out of us to work there (well, most of us) but it’s necessary.

  104. 104.

    Soprano2

    @gene108: The modern media environment doesn’t lend itself well to people understanding who did what unless the person states what they did.

    Edit: Don’t expect a third party, like the media, to report who did what and when accurately if there are competing claims on what happened.

    QFT I think this is something the Biden communications people have never understood, especially in the face of someone like TCFG who will boldly take credit for anything good and the press will run with that if no one contests it.

  105. 105.

    Soprano2

    @TBone: He’s not shitting on Biden, he’s stating the truth of how things are unfortunately. He’s shitting on the press, we do that all the time.

  108. 108.

    Jeffro

    @satby:  I’m honestly afraid for [Biden] that watching the impending destruction the felon and his minions plan will break that good man’s heart and shorten his life.

    me too, but I am hoping for some serious NFLTG Biden post-presidency interviews

    “Biden…REALLY unfiltered…we mean, like, REALLY, people”

    He’s already awesome.  Imagine what fun he could have (and points he could make) carping from the sidelines like trumpov did all through Obama’s and Biden’s presidencies

  110. 110.

    Kay

    I was surprised and pleased at the bluntness and truth-telling.
    This is the way, I’m convinced. People may not listen but it is absolutely essential that we simply tell the truth. The United States is in serious trouble as a country and it is past time to face up to it. Media and Republicans are afraid and they are denying it, but any American can verify it easily.

    If you want to see how far standards have slipped go read coverage of Obama’s cabinet confirmations. Compare contrast with the collection of Nazis and rapists and unqualified incompetents now up for the top jobs. It is going to be hard as nails to bring standards back up, if we even can. The oligarchs might not allow it.

  112. 112.

    Kay

    American voters and media validated sexual assault. They don’t think it’s disqualifying for a top job. That is very, very dangerous for women, in a country that is behind on just about every metric of women’s rights.
    Raping is no biggie now – it’s approved at the highest levels of US government and the private sector.
    The New York Times did a glowing piece on Hegseth’s fashion choices. He’s a rapist. It’s like some parody of a completely degenerate moneyed class.

  113. 113.

    TBone

    @Kay: he’s a D.U.I. hire

    ETA sitting at the same Cabinet table makes them ALL Nazis

    Compare contrast with the collection of Nazis and rapists and unqualified incompetents

  114. 114.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Jeffro: It’s the American* shitweasels who lap that shit up.

    The smug, entitled assholes who’d run up a shirt saying they would rather be Russian than Democrat.

    They LOVE it.

  117. 117.

    p.a.

    @Jeffro: As I was mentioning in the late night-which-turned-into-early-morning thread, Dems really do need to get better at repeating simple messages, over and over and over.  It’s boring, and it means we won’t often get to show off how much smarter we are than the GOP, but it works.

     

     

    One problem is: creating enemies and using fear and hatred as motivation is usually culturally-specific.  Repubs and Southern Strategy/tRumpMAGAism taps into traditional US racism, xenophobia, and religious bigotry, pipelined by Fox & hate radio.

    Dems can target… oligarchs, who haven’t been perceived as a major danger since the Guilded Age, corporations, which provide millions of Americans with decent livings, despite their coopting of gvt, and MAGAts, a combination of bigots and dummies.  Apparently we need the dummies to win.  (IDK if Biden’s loss could have been a win without the dummies but with the “nah, not gonna vote” crowd, a whole separate set of dummies.)  So can you call the bigots bigots without alienating the dummies you need?  It’s a project.

  118. 118.

    Soprano2

    @Sure Lurkalot: That’s funny, I thought conservatives believed we shouldn’t coddle people. Of course, with most of these white men you don’t even have to tell them that, if a woman or non-white person is hired instead of them they automatically assume it was DEI rather than that they might not be as qualified.

  119. 119.

    Belafon

    @Jeffro: The hard part is where do you shout it if half of the country gets their news from sources that won’t repeat what he said?

  124. 124.

    tobie

    @Soprano2: Unfortunately when he tried to take credit for a bullish economy, while acknowledging the hardships middle-class Americans were facing, he got slammed from the left and the right and the media in general. The cards were stacked against the admin after the exit from Afghanistan and the inflation spike. The only thing Biden could have done was hammered home sooner the disinfo campaign waged by social media owners and foreign adversaries.

  125. 125.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Steve LaBonne: I’m right there with you.

    I’m in a mental state that my dear sainted dad would call “just mad at the world.”

    I am, too; I’m just generally pissed off at that amorphous “them,” their lies, their treachery, their misogyny and bigotry and just general inhumanity.

    Just mad.

    I’ll get over it eventually; I’m not really the grudge carrying type, but *damn,* talk about chewing steel and spitting nails.

  126. 126.

    Kay

    All the denial is fear-based. Until Americans get braver about looking at the mess we’re in we’ll never recover.

    Every MAGA account on TikTok is furiously denying the role of climate change in the California fires. They did the same thing with the NC floods. Media validates it and joins in. Its as if they believe if they make enough noise and point fingers the Big Bad Scary Thing will go away.

    It won’t.

  130. 130.

    tam1MI

    @Jeffro: Biden fucking CRUSHED it last night

    Unpossible. I have been assured my Our Media Betters that Biden is a doddering nincompoop who can’t string two words together coherently. [/sarcasm]

  131. 131.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: The New York Times did a glowing piece on Hegseth’s fashion choices. He’s a rapist. It’s like some parody of a completely degenerate moneyed class.

    OMG that’s gross, plus I thought they only did that to women.

  134. 134.

    rikyrah

    Best President of my lifetime.

    Will not possibly see someone this progressive again.

    Too bad too many stupid muthaphuckas never understood this.

  135. 135.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Kay: American* voters and media

    *”In this country, American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.” -Toni Morrison

  137. 137.

    Captain C

    @Professor Bigfoot:

    I despise Felon Skum, but I LOVE the work that SpaceX is doing; and I remind myself that the weird dipshit’s only talent is using his emerald mine fortune to find good organziations, buy his way in, then displace the original founders and proclaim himself a genius.

    With any luck, he’ll die a really embarrassing death in the near future, something along the lines of two wetsuits and a dildo, and also involving a neuralink or suchlike (perhaps connected to the dildo).

  142. 142.

    glory b

    @p.a.: I don’t think it can be discounted that he ran against an unusually unpopular Republican who made several lunkheaded missteps.

    Not denying the benefit of his victory, but many Dems who lost faced much harder to beat opponents.

    Let’s not treat this as holy writ.

  143. 143.

    Captain C

    @Soprano2:

    the press will run with that if no one contests it.

    They’ll run with it even if someone does, under the principle of “The Democrat says it’s sunny, the Republican says it’s raining.  Who can possibly know or figure out the truth?  It’s certainly not our job.”

  144. 144.

    p.a.

    @Professor Bigfoot: @Sure Lurkalot: “Lord grant me the confidence of a mediocre white man.”

     

     

    A bit OT but… I went to an Ivy League school, my parents were HS dropout factory workers.  White.  I fit in academically, mid bell curve re:grades.  One early impression about schoolmates: the world was these people’s oysters.  Grade worries yes, but soooo fucking sanguine about their futures.  It’s all gonna work out.  There’s a spot for me.   Where I came from the thought was: every person, every institution, could be a tripwire to bad outcomes.  Not paralyzing, but just really different outlook.

  145. 145.

    Captain C

    @tam1MI: I think at this point Our Media Betters know that if they actually acknowledged their deliberate mistakes and distortions they’d have no choice to (as they said in the IJN) Do the Honorable Thing*, and they’re all too cowardly to do so.

    *I mean, they could spend the rest of their lives atoning and fixing their errors, but they’re also way too lazy to do that, judging by their body of ‘professional’ work.

  150. 150.

    BarcaChicago

    I agree about the influx of crap posters on BlueSky. I just spent some time on there blocking a whole bunch of nonsense people. I have no time for that crap. I am bringing down my social media intake in order to survive the next four years. I want to leave Threads and Facebook, and have only BlueSky. Subscriptions are TPM, Joyce Vance, Aaron Rupar, Judd Legum, Krugman, Contrarian, ProPublica, Cleveland PD. This blog is an absolute lifesaver. Thank you, everyone!

  153. 153.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Greetings from 37,000 feet, almost halfway through our flight to Taos.  One cat is very much not a fan of this whole process.  Thankfully it’s a short flight.

  154. 154.

    Kay

    @sab:

    He strode into the room to conquer, in his flag-themed, patriotic attire. It’s like some fucked up early 1960s romance novel.

    They LOVE an authoritarian strong man. They swooned for Hegseth. The rapist.

  156. 156.

    Anyway

    @TBone:Lavrov described those efforts as an attempt by the Biden administration to “slam the door” and leave a difficult legacy for Trump. “The Democrats have a way of screwing things up for the incoming administration,” he said.

    I always thought it was a badge of honor for Hillary to be hated by Lavrov (while she was SOS). I think her nomination kicked Putin’s efforts at election interference into high gear.

  159. 159.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Llelldorin:

    You missed the part where any claim by a Democrat is treated as a political ploy.

    As well as the quote from a local “independent voter” who turns out to be a local Republican party official.

  160. 160.

    Chris Johnson

    @cmorenc: Huh. At the time? I look at that and go ‘oh hey, we could’ve speedrun what’s happening NOW’.

    I see no big distinction between Russian imperialism then and Russian imperialism now, other than now they’re running a Potemkin President. I don’t think they managed that the first time around.

  161. 161.

    Kay

    I was on the Chinese app Rednote last night because millions of Americans have swamped it and its fascinating. It’s a real subset of Chinese – urban, college educated, very female. What the youths call “bougie”, so that’s who we’re talking about.

    Anyway, the Americans asked what is a joke Chinese tell about Americans? Don’t spare us! Be truthful.

    One young woman replied ” you eat like you have access to a doctor, and you dont”

    Ouch! :)

  162. 162.

    ExPatExDem

    Biden will be remembered as the American Paul von Hindenburg.  An impotent old man who was washed away in the rising fascist tide.

    And Gaza will (rightly) be a stain on his legacy forever.

    History will not be kind.

  164. 164.

    sab

    @Kay: There were guys like that in my high school and I thought they were icky at the time. It just reaffirms my view that a lot of the DC press is emotionally still in middle school. Growing up to be courtiers was an obvious life and career choice for them.

  168. 168.

    Chris Johnson

    @Anyway: Oh, absolutely. My respect grew so much and I ended up fully Hillaryized on foreign policy. She was a Russia hawk for good reason and no shit they kicked it into desperation mode when she was nominated, because if she’d won, as she should have, they’d be fucked. They were planning imperialist expansionism even back then and she was fully aware of it and wasn’t gonna stand for it.

  173. 173.

    tobie

    @BarcaChicago: People like Rupar and Emptywheel have bridged their BlueSky accounts to Mastodon. Mastodon isn’t exactly exciting but it doesn’t really work well for bots and trolls so you’re spared that traffic.

  174. 174.

    tobie

    @Chris Johnson: One day we will also learn about Russia’s and Iran’s hand in prolonging the conflict in Gaza. Netanyahu no doubt waited till Trump was elected to negotiate but the same is also true of Hamas, which, as Blinken recently said, walked away from negotiations whenever the distance between the US and Israel became apparent. I can’t imagine Putin didn’t put pressure on Hamas to agree to a deal. He wants portions of Ukraine as Lebensraum for Russia and will ask for that from Trump in return.

  175. 175.

    bluefoot

    @p.a.: Not really OT. In American society, some people get second (or 3rd or 4th…) chances, and have some buffer – I.e. room to learn or not have to be perfect, and some people don’t. And some people get consequences and some people don’t.

    and its going to get worse: We are more and more becoming a nation of men, not laws, to reverse the saying.

  176. 176.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: been seeing people gushing about how it’s instantly negated all the bullshit American propaganda about how horrible China is. With observations about how they have good cheap healthy food, free health care etc.

    Which is a statement that both has some truth to it, but also triggers my Spidey sense something fierce. Yeah, this is how “soft power” works, just like Eastern Bloc people hearing about life in the West in the 1980s. People also have to realize they’re seeing what someone wants to be seen.

  177. 177.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @TBone: goddammit, woman, you just made me spitlaugh all over my tablet!

    Filed under “wouldn’t be so fucking funny if it wasn’t so fucking true.”

  178. 178.

    Matt McIrvin

    @tobie: The rise of Bluesky is creating a lot of angst on Mastodon–as far as I can tell the active population there is holding steady but it’s not getting the new Facebook expats; Bluesky is getting them.

    I describe Mastodon/fediverse as the Linux of social networks– it’s got the profusion of “distros” (instances) that try their best to be user-friendly but don’t quite hit the mark; the nerdy grognard ambiance; the ideological justifications over alternatives that normies don’t understand; the internal fights over whether some form of outreach is contaminating its purity of essence; even the arcane disputes over what it should properly be called (“Mastodon” vs. “fediverse”…)

    But if all the alternatives are just free introductory offers on the way to the shit firehose, I’m not sure what we do.

  179. 179.

    Citizen Alan

    @Sure Lurkalot:  I still say that the moment I realized what “white privilege” was, even if that term didn’t exist yet, was in 1994, when I took a semester off from my master’s degree for personal reasons. But I wanted to stay in Oxford instead of moving home to my parents’ house, so I applied for a few jobs on campus for which I was not in the slightest be qualified. Didn’t get any of them (unsurprisingly).

    My late mother felt the need to share that information with her coterie of nosy old biddies, and when I accompanied my parents to church after getting the news, no less than 5 people (including the pastor!) came up to reassure me that “they probably had to give it to a black.”

  182. 182.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @bluefoot: What sucks is “nation of laws” was only aspirational.

    This country has ALWAYS been a nation of men- as the murderers of  Emmet Till could tell you. Or any of the innocent, unarmed Black people killed with immunity by agents of the State… it’s interesting that when those agents commit crimes, it’s only certain ones that suffer from it.

  184. 184.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Professor Bigfoot: I actually don’t love all the work they’re doing. Falcon 9 and Dragon were brilliant; Starship has Elon stink on it to me and I suspect NASA’s choice of it as the basis for the Artemis lander was a huge mistake. And they’re not good environmental neighbors or good employers, from what I’ve heard.

  185. 185.

    rikyrah

    @p.a.:

      Grade worries yes, but soooo fucking sanguine about their futures.  It’s all gonna work out.  There’s a spot for me.   Where I came from the thought was: every person, every institution, could be a tripwire to bad outcomes.  Not paralyzing, but just really different outlook.

     

    When you realize that you busted your azz all throughout High School never getting lower than a B in your competitive High School, and you’re sitting in the same classes as a B-/C Legacy student, but they went to the right Prep School.. so, their B- and C’s from that Prep School….counted as much as the A’s from my public school?

    FOH

  186. 186.

    rikyrah

    @Captain C:

    @tam1MI: I think at this point Our Media Betters know that if they actually acknowledged their deliberate mistakes and distortions they’d have no choice to (as they said in the IJN) Do the Honorable Thing*, and they’re all too cowardly to do so.

     

    Admit their professional malpractice?

    Nope.

    which is why folks will not go back to them.

  187. 187.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    The New York Times did a glowing piece on Hegseth’s fashion choices. He’s a rapist. It’s like some parody of a completely degenerate moneyed class.

     

    I know you aren’t lying..

    but, it’s disgusting.

  188. 188.

    rikyrah

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    @Baud: My New Rule for 2025: Not arguing with idiots. I’m going to be very careful with the people I allow into my space. Using that logic, anyone who’s going to argue that Biden was a bad POTUS isn’t anyone I’m going to engage with.

     

    I know that’s right. Never ever.

    Uh uh.

    There are three groups that I will be ok with..anyone out of those groups..must be validated.

  189. 189.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Matt McIrvin: I dig it, and it is definitely Elon-stink… but being a child of Classic Science Fiction, I’m almost willing to do a deal wit the devil to get earth to LEO costs greatly reduced; “it’s raining soup in space if we have the bowls to catch it in.”

  190. 190.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @TBone: Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
    A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
    Is the imprisoned lightning

  191. 191.

    Bill Arnold

    @Kay:

    Every MAGA account on TikTok is furiously denying the role of climate change in the California fires.

    They are literally spouting nonsense. I poked google scholar a bit last night and found three solid-looking (major-journals, 2 of them) papers linking (human-caused) global heating to increased wildfire risk, published in just the last 6 months.

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