Everything that is wrong and dysfunctional with our government is on full display right now, and there are so many fucked up things I have to break it down in parts. Because I am a Democrat, I will start with trashing the fucking idiots in my own party. The interview with AOC that MisterMix posted earlier is a good start:
This bill, which was very large and substantive in terms of its impact, came to the Energy and Commerce Committee, it was marked up, it was brought to the floor in a matter of a few weeks, which is very, very fast. The degree to which corporations surveil the American people without genuine consent and genuine opt out should be illegal, point blank, period. So many of us naturally said the answer isn’t playing endless whack-a-mole with apps, the answer is that we should have real privacy legislation in the United States, and we should help people own their information and have greater agency over their information so they’re not being spied on all the time whether it’s a domestic company or a foreign company. We need privacy laws in the US, which of course big tech is going to fight against, and their lobbyists are going to fight against. So they just targeted an app rather than targeting the problem.
This is it in a nutshell. TikTok may very well be a national security threat, and I am willing to believe they are doing bad things with user data. Why am I willing to believe that? Because every fucking tech company in the United States is doing documented awful things with our data. Every fucking single one.
But, if you are going to make claims like this, you need to do two things. You need to fucking show evidence of them, and you need to legislate that no company is allowed to do those things, not just ones you fucking hand pick.
The second thing the Democrats are doing is now proclaiming they will do everything in their power to fix the problem? What problem? Everything is working as intended. You halfwits rushed through a bill banning tiktok, the date came for the ban to take place, and it was banned. What the fuck did you think you were doing?
Personally, I think some of these halfwits thought this was just solid security theater like we have been playing since 9/11. They could ban the app on national security grounds, look serious and stolid. and then the Supreme Court would overturn the bill, and they could move on and say “well we tried but…”
Fucking idiots, all of them.
So now we are in a place where the law has been passed, the app has been banned, it went dark, but now it is back because Donald Trump has assured tiktok and oracle and everyone else that they will not be prosecuted and he will issue an executive order.
That is not how this works. That is not how law works at all. That’s how dictatorships work.
So now we move to the fucking Republicans, who were even more deadset on banning tiktok than the Dems. What are they going to do?
The answer is absolutely fucking nothing. They are going to do whatever Trump wants them to do. Maybe someone like Tom Cotton will file a lawsuit, but I highly doubt it. Not to mention, they are happy with ignoring laws they don’t like. They will appreciate this precedent.
Personally, I am as disgusted by the whole thing as I could possibly get.
And these motherfuckers still make me take my shoes off at the airport.
Where Do We Go from Here?
Baud
You don’t have to take your shoes off with TSA precheck.
Scout211
Beat me to it. Also too, if you’re age 75 or older. But that won’t help Cole right now.
Baud
As I keep saying, regardless of how we get here, Trump owns this issue now. If we’re serious about pushing back against Trump, we should focus on that.
Steve LaBonne
As I said in an earlier thread, why TF am I supposed to worry that Xi Jinping is all up in my business but be perfectly fine with Zuckerberg being all up in my business?
Ohio Mom
@Baud: Or after you turn 75 according to my recently-turned 75 y.o. sister.
Another Scott
Sounds like you are here with me on Team Gerry.
Something something saving the rocks in my pocket for the other guys.
YMMV.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Baud
@Scout211:
@Ohio Mom:
Where have all the old terrorists gone?
hells littlest angel
@Baud: Because what terrorist would be willing to shell out the $70 enrollment charge for precheck?
sab
@Steve LaBonne: Agreed. Xi Jin Ping is worried about controlling China. Mark Zuckerberg is worried about controllimg me in Ohio.
Baud
@hells littlest angel:
When you add in the cost of the shoes, it gets pretty pricey.
Ohio Mom
Yes, what AOC said. It should be obvious but apparently it isn’t, at least to too many other elected officials, big media, etc.
hells littlest angel
@Ohio Mom: So if I were looking for a martyr to blow up a plane with a shoe bomb, an impoverished, very elderly person in poor health might be worth recruiting, especially if I promised a big payout to their grandchildren.
NotMax
@hells littlest angel
Seems to me a greater quantity of splodey stuff could be packed into orthopedic shoes, also too.
sab
@hells littlest angel: Shut your mouth. Most of us grandparents want the kids to live in a functioning democracy, not a country destabalized by a random nutjob.
Starfish (she/her)
A lot of politicians seem happy to live with regulatory capture so long as they can get those corporate donations.
hells littlest angel
@sab: I said if!
Starfish (she/her)
@hells littlest angel: Why are you taking us down a dark hypothetical when we live in a dark reality though?
Here is some made up nonsense. Art leads to internet bullshit that becomes weird conspiracy theories.
tobie
Didn’t AOC vote for the bill when it went through the Energy and Commerce Committee? I will try to find the committee’s vote but my understanding is that the vote was unanimous (50-0,) after the intelligence briefing. Some of the info should have been made public; we are citizens and have a right to know.I didn’t follow the debate closely enough to have a strong opinion. But Trump has shown he will do whatever he’s paid to do in cryptocurrency because he is above the law. Thanks, Supremes, for sanctioning lawlessness.
ColoradoGuy
Security Theater combined with CCP/CPC paranoia. Not that they don’t collect data … they do … but it’s the GOP working its way to a Social Credit tracking system for women.
And God Forbid that guns are ever tracked in this country. They have more rights than people.
sab
@hells littlest angel: Okay. Temp pass for you.
Quaker in a Basement
@tobie: She did. She admitted it as part of her statement.
Baud
@tobie:
I don’t know if she was on that committee but
ETA: Question answered above.
hells littlest angel
@Starfish (she/her): Really, I was just mocking the notion that you can charge people a fee to keep their shoes on while claiming that you’re maintaining security.
Jay
@tobie:
“sanctioning lawlessness”,………..try being lawless and corrupt for a long time. When the Judge is on the take,……..
The only reason The Supremes are not running their own crypto scams and meme coin scams is that they are so old that they can’t even understand PornHub.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Another Scott: Connolly voted for the TikTok ban. He was for it before he was against it, apparently.
AOC, who in a functioning party would have his job, voted against it.
Ed Markey tried to do the same thing on BlueSky today (basically saying that he wants to save TikTok) but he also voted for the ban.
Markey and Connolly got on the bandwagon and now they’re running away from their bad votes.
hells littlest angel
@Jay: I’m sure that if any of the justices need PornHub explained to them, Clarence Thomas can do so thoroughly.
sab
@Jay: Google wants my age. It’s none of their beeswax. Also too, if I don’t tell them I am an adult then they can’t send me porn I don’t want.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@tobie: AOC wasn’t on Energy & Commerce during the last session. She joined the committee a few days ago for the current session of Congress.
It took me literally one google search to find that fact on my phone but apparently the Google key is removed from a couple of your keyboards. Probably need to fix that.
different-church-lady
Yeah. Well fuck Tik Tok.
And fuck everything else too.
different-church-lady
In fact, fuck every goddamned app ever.
Hilbertsubspace
This thread needs humor. So I will transcribe a conversation from work many decades ago.
Me: I know you like nature documentaries. There was an interesting one on last night, did you happen to watch it?
Co-Worker: Wait, was it on channel 3?
Me: Yes, I think it was.
C-W: Oh. I don’t get channel 3.
Me(deadpan): Do you mean you don’t receive it, or you don’t understand it?
C-W(valley girl voice): Channel 3! I Just! Don’t! Get it!
P.S. There was a CIA guy on the Late Show with Colbert talking about why the ban was good/necessary. I didn’t trust him.
different-church-lady
Hey, you know what? Fuck every last goddamned fucking thing in the entire 21st fucking century is what I think.
Jay
@sab:
Google wants to know where I am at all times, I just tell them to ask my wife.
Starfish (she/her)
@Quaker in a Basement: Did she?
The Committee on Energy and Commerce in the 118th Congress passed that 50-0 on 3/7/2024.
AOC was not in the Committee in the 118th Congress from what I can tell, but she is on the Committee in the 119th Congress.
different-church-lady
@hells littlest angel: You are Moriarty in the Sherlock Holmes reboot thingy and I claim my five pounds.
opiejeanne
@Baud: Got new iPhones today, and had the nice black manager tell us that Kamala was worse than Trump, and that Biden had opened the border.
Don’t know where he gets his news, says he hates Trump but hates Kamala more because of what she did to San Francisco. Says he’s a Democrat, hates Biden but not as much as Kamala; holds a grudge about the crime bill from 40 years ago.
It was an interesting conversation.
He doesn’t think that phones will be subject to the tariff.
Bupalos
I think the idea that entities controlled by the PRC or Russia are equivalent to any other corporation and must be given the same treatment is pretty wrong.
This whole thing is a mess. The biggest and messiest part though is just the reality that a dumb fucking video platform has more political strength by far than any legitimate political policy preference in this paralyzed, polarized devolution of a democracy.
different-church-lady
@Steve LaBonne: Well, Zuck doesn’t have nukes.
Yet.
sab
@different-church-lady: NO CAPS? OBVIOUSLY YOU DON’T REALLY CARE!
I am just yanking your chain. I don’t know what got into me, except the next four years look to be so vile.
Baud
@opiejeanne:
Next time buy an android.
sab
@Jay: Laughing here.
Starfish (she/her)
@opiejeanne: What state was this?
different-church-lady
@opiejeanne:
You actually continued it?
dm
It seems weird to me that the only thing people talk about is Tik Tok’s access to personal data, when it’s always seemed to me that — like Facebook and Twitter — it’s real threat is its use as a medium for propaganda. The difference between the foreign-owned media and US citizen-based media is simple: Americans can be subpoenaed (this is why Rupert Murdoch is now an American citizen — so he can own major propaganda outlets like Fox News and the Wall Street Journal).
Of course, as an old, my first exposure to Tik Tok was hearing about a makeup influencer who suddenly found her posts disappeared because she interrupted one of her makeup tutorials to talk about the plight of the Uyghurs, so they got off on the wrong foot with me.
different-church-lady
@sab: Hmm… let’s try this feature I’ve seen in LibreOffice…
Yup, works.
different-church-lady
@dm:
Pff, like propaganda is still considered a bad thing.
Baud
@dm:
Whether you agree with it or not, the argument against TikTok wasn’t simply foreign ownership but it’s connection specifically to the Chinese government.
Another Scott
@@mistermix.bsky.social:
Connolly statement against the TikTok ban in March 2024 (he missed the vote).
AFAIK HR 7521 was rolled into HR 815 which was the Ukraine, etc., Supplemental.
IOW, I see no evidence that he “voted for the TikTok ban”.
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Matt McIrvin
@Starfish (she/her): Oh, geez. I think I encountered that thing in Québec City and it was obvious at a glance that it was an art piece and not real. It’s deliberately implausible.
Karen S.
@@mistermix.bsky.social: So did Cory Booker. He voted for the ban and was fighting for his life on TikTok for several days before it went dark yesterday.
Starfish (she/her)
@dm: There are numerous threats from the phones that you keep in your pocket. Propaganda is just one. The US has had better filtering and review processes in place so you can’t just start conspiracy theories to get your neighbor killed as much as you can in other countries.
Your phone is location tracking all the time, and we caught so many of the January 6 dumbdumbs because they were carrying their phones around, and law enforcement could get their location data.
This has been going on for a long time, and we know where one French submarine crew is because they were sharing their exercise data on an app.
Basically, Strava helped us know the perimeters of all the military bases cause everyone is ambitiously out for a morning run trying to be faster than the next guy.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
How long does it take to get TSA precheck?
Reason I ask is that about the only time I think about it is when we’re about to travel. And that means I not only have to do whatever I need to do for me, but I need to get my wife on board as well. If this is something that takes three or four weeks for the government to handle the paperwork, I can pretty much forget it now.
different-church-lady
@Starfish (she/her): I saw that on a Boston-based website (Universal Hub, it’s called). It was obvious to the poster that it was artwork, but as a little touch the artist added an envelope for a genuine Boston parking ticket to the windshield. And everyone on that site (including me) believed a meter enforcer had actually ticketed the thing. Because that really would be peak Boston.
noncarborundum
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah, the supposed crashed satellite has sustained absolutely no damage at all. Which would only make sense if it were made of some material unknown to human technology. Or are the Canadians mining unobtainium these days?
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
I have Global Entry, which takes longer to go through the process but includes precheck. So don’t know.
Doug R
@Another Scott: He’s a rep FFS-you’d think he’d know the proper form of TOO.
different-church-lady
So we go from “CAN’T VOTE FOR BIDEN BECAUSE GAZA” to “Hostage release? Ceasefire? Shrug, not worth our attention.”
MagdaInBlack
@different-church-lady: Would you like to borrow my ” Fucketty Fuck Fuck Fuck” towel a friend (who knows me well) sent me for Xmas?
Professor Bigfoot
@opiejeanne: Straight block-headed misogyny.
I’ve heard these dudes at the barbershop- been in more than one argument; because the same dues are also major homophobes.
And so it goes.
Suzanne
@dm:
This is a big problem, for sure…. but I’m also not sure that it’s any worse than any of the others in this regard.
Attention is a commodity and all of these networks want to control what you’re looking at.
different-church-lady
@Professor Bigfoot: OK, I understand the barber shop, but how the hell does this shit even come up in a cell phone store?
Jay
@noncarborundum:
Shush about that or we will dispatch geese to your location,…..
Suzanne
@Starfish (she/her):
Did you see how a Ukrainian soldier tracked some Russian general on Strava and then shot him during his workout? Shouldn’t have worried so much about being the Local Legend, LMAO!
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Another Scott: Oh sorry I mistook his other vote on a TikTok ban for this one.
https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2024145
On my phone.
different-church-lady
@Jay: LIKE YOU DON’T DO THAT ALREADY.
Doug R
@Steve LaBonne:
@sab:
RCMP investigating Chinese ‘police’ stations in Canada Human rights group says more than 50 exist worldwide, including 3 in Greater Toronto Area
But hey if it doesn’t directly affect you, why would YOU care?
Betty
Janet Napolitano said she was considering removing the shoe rule and other parts of this security theater and then she chickened put.
different-church-lady
@sab:
Oh he’s not worried about it…
Quaker in a Basement
@Starfish (she/her): You’re right. I read a transcription of her statement and completely reversed it in my memory from “voted against” to “voted for”. In her statement she says very plainly, “which I voted against…”
Professor Bigfoot
@different-church-lady: Funny that, hunh?
Jay
@Suzanne:
The only difference between ByteDance and US Social Media Platforms is that US Social Media/Commercial platforms will sell your Data to anyone willing to pay for it.
So if Tic Tok is shut down, China will just go back to buying it from Zuck.*
*Zuck is more valuable than the Dead Bird Site, because of all your Amazon data.
Baud
@@mistermix.bsky.social:
Interesting. Everyone was assuming that the law only applied to TikTok, but from your link.
I haven’t looked at the text but that seems to prevent domestic corporations from sending info to China.
Professor Bigfoot
@different-church-lady: well, the brothers who ascribe to such nonsense are usually not the sharpest tools in the shed, if you know what I mean…
zhena gogolia
@different-church-lady: I love Andrew Scott.
WaterGirl
@opiejeanne: Well, he appears to not know what he’s talking about, so his opinion on phone tariffs is totally worthless.
I’ll ask Miss Willow what she thinks and will report back.
Baud
Via blue sky, funny.
Another Scott
NotMax has some competition from Krugthulhu
Hehe.
Best wishes,
Scott.
noncarborundum
@Jay: Oh, are you on the goose dispatching committee? I’d like to file a complaint.
Renie
@sab:
Some of us may not be grandparents, since our kids don’t want to have children to grow up in this fukked up world we have.
Sure Lurkalot
@@mistermix.bsky.social:
It’s a flip flop party, who could ask for more? Everybody’s comin’, leave your body at the door. Leave your body and soul at the door.
The ludicrous Charlie Kirk:
https://bsky.app/profile/briantylercohen.bsky.social/post/3lg4augymnk2c
Miki
@WaterGirl: Might as well – I’m about to decide everyone is a fucking idiot, no exceptions. Including here (except you and AL, of course).
Here’s a thought – despair if you need to, but don’t let it make you stupid.
Baud
Scout211
We got our years ago, but I think the process is the same. Here is the website: TSA Pre-check. You apply online and then in person. Unless you have an elaborate background check, it doesn’t take that long. Mine was approved 24 hours after my in-person interview.
different-church-lady
@Sure Lurkalot:
There’s another kind?
Jay
@noncarborundum:
Complaints are a different department, you have to go to Helen Hunt for Complaints.
Other MJS
I found this essay relevant: The Difference Between TikTok and Free Expression
“The algorithmic manipulation of users’ attention is not the same thing as actual human speech.”
Miki
Deleted
Chris Johnson
@Baud: or Trump!
Baud
@Chris Johnson:
Haha. No lie.
sab
Talking today with my sister about stuff she inherited from my mom. She knew nothing about tax basis. I was thinking ” How could you not know this basic stuff? Oh yes. Because you are not a tax accountant.”
I am very weak on Asian Art History. Like it, just don’t know much.
Poe Larity.
Vivek butthurt he didn’t didn’t get JD’s senate office and looking for an exit before being dumped!
<blockquote> Vivek Ramaswamy could withdraw from working with the Department of Government Efficiency ahead of his bid for Ohio governor, which he intends to formally announce by the last week in January, according to a person close to the matter.</blockquote>
Pelosi’s bothered Joe hasn’t sent any best wishes:
<blockquote> “If I was Lady McBiden, I’d put on my big girl pants, play the long game and think about my husband’s legacy,” Alexandra Pelosi, the former speaker’s daughter, told me Saturday. “There aren’t that many people left in America who have something nice to say about Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi is one of them.” The younger Pelosi made clear she was speaking only for herself.</blockquote>
JaySinWA
@Jay: Obviously Pornhub needs to get into video podcasting. Seriously pretentious podcasting, Maybe inviting Samuel Alito to kick it off.
Starfish (she/her)
@Other MJS: Thank you for giving us a gift article.
YY_Sima Qian
@Other MJS: That’s like saying MSM editorial decision is not the same thing as human speech, & this is not protected. So USG should be able to regulate the editorial decisions of mass media on justification of “national security”? That will come in very handy for Trump & the reactionary counter-revolutionaries.
sab
@JaySinWA: Google wants to know my birth date. I figure holding out helps me avoid a lot of age appropriate porn. Am I right?
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: [tardigrade playing very very tiny violin]
Baud
Via Blue sky, WaPo has hired Rahm Emmanuel.
https://bsky.app/profile/willbunch.bsky.social/post/3lfzg7rgmes2o
Another Scott
@@mistermix.bsky.social: As I read it, HR 8038 was another grab-bag bill of lots and lots of things. Title II Division D was “PROTECTING AMERICANS FROM FOREIGN ADVERSARY CONTROLLED APPLICATIONS ACT” – the TikTok ban.
The final of 3 votes was 360:58.
Boebert voted NAY, also too.
Crockett voted YAY, also too.
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Steve LaBonne
@Doug R: Still a minor problem compared to harvesting and selling the data of every fucking person in the country. Maybe try getting your priorities straight.
Sure Lurkalot
@Other MJS:
Also this:
Childlike naivety, not facts in evidence. “Our” platforms’ owners are hardly benign or interested in democracy.
Starfish (she/her)
@YY_Sima Qian: Journalism is protected under a different part of the first amendment. Editorial choices fall under freedom of the press.
Queen of Lurkers
Trump is going to use his cryptobillions to buy 50% stake in TikTok.
Starfish (she/her)
@sab: Well, if Google assumes that you are under thirteen, they can’t sell your information to everyone. Once you hit thirteen, you are no longer safe, and they don’t have to protect you as much.
sab
I cannot believe but I do believe that Watergirl forgot that she had taken that lovely snow covered tree image. Must be fun to be so talented that you forget stuff like that.
JaySinWA
@sab: I don’t know, but the only porn Google sends me is via Gmail and I don’t think it is “age appropriate”. I have started using Duck Duck Go for search lately to avoid the ad targeted search results how ever.
sab
@sab: Oh. Stumps them even more.
YY_Sima Qian
@Doug R: The CPC regime does plenty of transnational repression of its critics among the Chinese diaspora, but the so called “overseas police station” has not been the means through which it did so. They are not overseas police station at all. They were remote terminals set up so that Chinese nationals can do things like renewing their Chinese drive’s licenses or citizen IDs while overseas, w/o having to return to the PRC. The need was particularly acute during the pandemic when international travel was severely curtailed. There is a reason US, Canadian, European & Australian authorities all look at these virtual terminals & ultimately decided that they did not represent national security risks, & no one has been prosecuted for treason or espionage for hosting these terminals. They did ask the PRC government to shut them down & my understanding is they have been shut down. The one guy in Flushing that the FBI went after was for lying to the FBI, not for being an unregistered foreign agent.
Like I said, the CPC regime does plenty of transnational repression, but this has not been among the means. Jeffrey Daum at Yale (@ChinaLawTranslate) has looked at this in detail. It does nothing to counter the CPC regime by chasing after shadows, as opposed to gaining a deep of understanding of how it actually operates and counter those operations.
CPC-regime aligned Chinese Student Associations organizing protests to try to drown out critics of the regime in campuses, not much is being done by USG or university admins about that. Then again, maybe it is protected speech. Intimidation would violate laws, but hard to prove.
YY_Sima Qian
@Starfish (she/her): That’s just further evidence that the U.S. Constitution is no longer fit for the times. The distinction matters less & less.
Kay
John, I think the best thing for Democrats would be to just quietly walk away from this debacle, casually whistling, don’t look back, then when they’re asked just do what Republicans do when they fuck up – if asked answer a different question, like why Trump hasn’t brought home mortgage interest rates to 2 yet, or any one of the Republicans other outlandish promises. We don’t have time for this.
YY_Sima Qian
@Kay: Probably is the best course of action, but won’t do a thing to help w/ the Dems’ standing w/ pissed off TikTok users & alienated youths.
Kay
John yelling at Democrats for security theater and having to take his shoes off – crocs, probably – means nature is healing after our loss and we’re all recovered.
Aussie Sheila
@Baud:
Of course they have. What better way to start the circular firing squad?
Aussie Sheila
@Kay:
Yes, but that would require a collective decision, and if you got that could the gulags be far away?
Suzanne
@Kay: I’m just so annoyed that we stepped on our own dicks with this.
I love you, Dems, and I want you to do better!
John S.
@YY_Sima Qian:
And now we’ll have a bunch of kids voting for the first time in the next election who think Trump saved their beloved TikTok.
But we can only speak of these missteps in hushed tones around here, because officially Democrats can do wrong.
opiejeanne
@Starfish (she/her): Washington state, near Seattle, very blue area.
opiejeanne
@Baud: I really like iPhones.
MagdaInBlack
@opiejeanne: I went from iPhone to Android. Stick with iPhone.
John S.
@Suzanne:
HOW DARE YOU!
Criticizing Democrats… have you no decency?
Professor Bigfoot
@opiejeanne: I don’t really like iPhones— but the entire Apple ecosystem has me captured.
I love that everything is seamlessly connected between my MacBook, my iPad, and my iPhone.
Now if I could run iOS on one of those new Samsung phones I’d be happier than a pig in you-know-what, but… ;)
different-church-lady
@John S.: Decency is dead.
opiejeanne
@different-church-lady: it wasn’t adversarial, surprisingly, and by the time that stuff started we were nearly done with the transaction. There was talking over each other but he did listen. There was another younger woman there who agreed with me and argued with him.
I thought about it later, he wouldn’t be moved, and still I didn’t feel attacked like I did with the idiot manager at a Marriott in Bellevue a couple of months ago. I think this guy will maybe think about the disagreement and look up the actual comments that he swore Kamala had made, the ones quoted out of context and twisted by RW media.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: Oh, another reason to not subscribe to that rag.
Suzanne
@John S.: We’re generally right on issues of values. Often right on policy. Sometimes terrible at tactics. All of my criticism should be interpreted from that standpoint.
Baud
@John S.:
Trump won’t be on the ballot again. The kids have every right to vote Republican if they want to, just like every other adult.
Criticize Dems or don’t, but don’t whine about it. People don’t have to like what you have to say any more than you have to like what other people have to say.
Suzanne
@Baud: The ultimate irony is….. the 18-29 demographic voted the bluest, even with young white men shifting to the right! The 45-and-ups are the ones who voted for Trump.
Baud
@Suzanne:
I thought we slightly won the olds. 65+.
People are looking at trends compared to 2020, but, yes, younger people are still our best demo.
glory b
@Suzanne: But 65 and up did vote more Dem. Why ignore them? It’s the group that votes more consistently than any other.
Baud
@glory b:
We might lose them again as Gen X gets older.
ETA: Not saying to ignore them, just that age cohorts change.
Suzanne
@Baud: Nope, Trump narrowly won the 65+ cohort, and pretty significantly won the 45-64. And since this was the oldest-on-average electorate ever…. that proved decisive.
Suzanne
@glory b: Every bit of data I have seen is that the 65+ group narrowly went for Trump.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Thanks. I really don’t feel sorry for young people as a group if they didn’t show up and skewed more right to boot.
I’ll save my empathy for the subgroup that did the right thing. Everyone else can feel ride, as people like to do.
Geminid
@John S.: Two of the last four posts including this one featured “Front Pagers” denouncing the TikTok ban and the part Democrats played in it, so I am hard-pressed to detect an official policy that Democrats can do no wrong.
And the comments on both posts included plenty of criticism of Democrats and I didn’t hear any “hushed tones” either.
So I think you are allowed to pick on Democrats for their missteps. You’re even allowed to be passive-aggressive about it, although I don’t know why you’d want to be.
Suzanne
@Baud: The overall aging of the country has some interesting effects. Apparently youth turnout slipped somewhat from 2020, but not really that much. But they’re a smaller percentage of the pie. Median voter was 44.
Baud
@Suzanne:
I’ve been hearing for a few years now that the sub 45 voting eligible bloc was a majority of eligible voters. I guess I should confirm that info.
different-church-lady
@Geminid:
Hell, we’re allowed to pick on them for their successes.
glory b
@@mistermix.bsky.social: Maybe AOC should try to pass a bill, show her bona fides?
Maybe not try to primary her fellow Dems out of their jobs?
Not exactly the way to win the hearts and minds of the people who will vote for you…
And why do people think she would be that great in that position anyway?
I understand her DSA friends have announced the gloves are off, they will mount as many primary challenges against Dems as they can muster.
glory b
@Suzanne: Yeah, I didn’t say that we won them, but that the Republican win was surprisingly narrow.
And they are the most consistent voting block.
Baud
@glory b:
I said that, wasn’t sure. I remembered we did better with them.
Suzanne
@glory b: They are consistent voters, for sure. This was the first election in recent decades that they weren’t the reddest age cohort. They’re also the whitest age cohort.
Starfish (she/her)
@opiejeanne: That’s surprising that someone near Seattle would buy into what Republicans are saying about San Francisco because I think both Seattle and Portland are being discussed in similar ways.
Starfish (she/her)
@different-church-lady: That’s because Baud does not wear pants.
opiejeanne
@Starfish (she/her): He’s ex-military and has buddies in Texas who are … not border patrol exactly but they tell him that the border is wide open.
tobie
@Baud: deleted the post. The comment was meant for the diary author, not you.
opiejeanne
@different-church-lady: My fault. I said something about needing to buy them now, because of what will happen soon with tariffs, and we were off!
Miki
Yeah, well, I Have A Voice.
tobie
@@mistermix.bsky.social: I posed a question. Perhaps you should read a comment before responding with a condescending remark.
Ruckus
@MagdaInBlack:
I started in the mid 90s with a flip phone and switched to Blackberry and then Apple.
Have yet to be disappointed with the third move.
Kay
God, don’t turn on CNN. They’re swooning! They’re in full swoon over Donald Trump. Having multimillionaire “news” people who benefit from rich people tax cuts was probably a bad idea.
John S.
@Baud:
That really hurts coming from a dude who doesn’t wear pants.
Starfish (she/her)
@opiejeanne: Maybe John can advise on how to talk to ex-military people who are dumber than a sack of rocks.
But I like this whole conversation because black conservative Republicans are out there, even in deep blue areas, and I felt like the cletus safaris that our east coast elites loved to take to Trump country did not really capture them.
John S.
@Geminid:
You must not pay much attention to the morning threads. Or the afternoon threads. Or really, you’re just not paying attention at all if you think there isn’t a hardcore group of commenters that pollute most threads to shout down any whiff of criticism.
Ksmiami
@different-church-lady: that’s where I am. The enshittification of everything now starts and ends with overpaid tech bros. Time for us all to say enough. I’ve abandoned every social media platform, dumped Prime etc and it really makes life better.
Ksmiami
@Kay: exactly 2 years is a lifetime in politics and tbh yoots don’t generally vote in midterms so.. just move on. By then Pastor Johnson will try to ban lululemon leggings as crazy as he is
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@John S.:
Yup. It’s always “we’re all in this together because the other guys are awful so stfu about our own craptastic policy stances that we’ll never admit might be part of the problem in (D) voting drop off or why POC look at us with great skepticism, >cough<Blue Dogs 2.0>cough<
Aussie Sheila
CLN Song
comrade scotts agenda of rage
A more recent, and granular, dive into voting patterns from November:
https://navigatorresearch.org/2024-post-election-survey-gender-and-age-analysis-of-2024-election-results/
It’s not a tidy as some people would have other people believe. For example, AARP reported that 65+ voters tied 49/49 which runs counter to a narrative that’s consistently peddled in some quarters.
Now, if you want to look at the above results and then dig into the 50-64 cohort, then there’s a narrative to peddle vis a vis a shift toward the Orange Fart Cloud this time around.
Anyway
Meh. it’s by age and gender and one thing BJ discussions have taught me is you can’t leave out race. Seemed an incomplete analysis.
Soprano2
@Kay: Of course they’re swooning, they helped elect him.
sab
@John S.: A whole thread full of us yelling that Democrats stepped on their dicks, and you say “officially, Democrats can do no wrong.”
Bugboy
I love, love, love what AOC represents as the new generation of pols, bringing vibrancy to our ever-changing Dali painting we currently exist in, but she (or her advisors) makes a big mistake equating social following with constituency.
A social following lacks the geographical component that congressional districts possess, and in turn that fails to link it to the meat space. We’re lying to ourselves if we think any form of social media can’t be used against us, no matter who owns it. For the most part (as the John notes), it already IS being used against us, and we agree to it over and over with every new service we sign up for.
Think about the ole’ classic lost dog flyer printed up and POSTED at a physical location. Removing that physical location does what to the message? Posting a “WHERE THE FUCK IS MY DOG!” flyer only has a very limited geographical relevance, but we accept that the entire world has to provide the bandwidth to hear/see it, because more is always better? “It helped find my dog, what the fuck is a matter with you!”…