Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

We will not go back.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Keep the Immigrants and deport the fascists!

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

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

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

In after Baud. Damn.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Dank Grey Dawn Open Thread: TikTok, Trump Just Wants to Wet His Beak

Dank Grey Dawn Open Thread: TikTok, Trump Just Wants to Wet His Beak

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Look, it suddenly seems to the media like there’s money to be made with TikTok. (Some of the claims on social media were absolutely ridiculous.) And if there’s money just lying around for the taking, why shouldn’t Donald Trump get his cut?

I think this is called National Socialism.

[image or embed]

— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) January 20, 2025 at 8:31 PM

If you want to ban TikTok on national security grounds, do it. If you want to set objective standards for TikTok or anyone else doing business in the US, do it. These are policy choices. But having the government shake them down like a mafia boss? No way.

— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) January 20, 2025 at 8:37 PM

Per CNN, “Trump has tossed TikTok a lifeline. But China’s not happy”:

Hong Kong CNN — For many of America’s 170 million TikTok users, US President Donald Trump’s move to delay a legal ban of the popular social media platform was cause for celebration.

But in China, where TikTok’s parent company is based, the reception has been less positive, largely because Trump has suggested he could require the company to give up a 50% stake to avert a shutdown and suggested tariffs on Chinese goods could hinge on whether Beijing approves a potential future deal.

When asked about Trump’s vision for the future of TikTok, China’s Foreign Ministry said the “operation and acquisition of companies” should be “decided by companies” and in line with Chinese law.

The US should “earnestly listen to the voice of reason” and “provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment” for companies from all countries, spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Tuesday.

Hours after his inauguration Monday, Trump issued an executive order delaying for 75 days the enforcement of a controversial law, which requires that TikTok be banned in the US unless it sells to a buyer from America or one of its allies.

The executive action followed a pledge from Trump on Sunday that he would delay enforcement. TikTok said that assurance allowed it to come back online after going dark for more than 12 hours over the weekend…

On Chinese social media, where TikTok’s fate has appeared as one among many efforts from the US to stymie Beijing’s technical prowess, Trump’s suggestions were met with disdain.

Tens of millions of users on the social media platform Weibo flocked to hashtags related to the potential 50-50 ownership, with many decrying the US government’s “robbery.”

“Apple and Tesla should also give up 50% of their shares to Chinese companies then,” one comment with thousands of likes said…

Meanwhile, an editorial in the state-run nationalist tabloid Global Times on Tuesday looked at the handling of the US ban and concluded that “the trap some Americans set for TikTok has ensnared them instead.”

“The political manipulation of an overstretched concept of security against TikTok has not only caused fluctuations in the emotions of the American public, but has also led to ‘deep personal pain’ for some who rely on it for their livelihood,” the editorial read…

[Money quote!…]
Trump ally and Tesla CEO Elon Musk also joined the fray discussing the future of TikTok by alluding to the “need for change” in comments Sunday on X, the social media platform he owns. According to Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, Chinese officials are discussing a possible option that involves selling at least a portion of the US version of the app to Musk’s X.

Musk pointed out how X is not available in China. Most major American-owned tech platforms are blocked in the country due to Beijing’s stringent controls on speech and information under the so-called Great Firewall.

“I have been against a TikTok ban for a long time, because it goes against freedom of speech,” Musk wrote. “That said, the current situation where TikTok is allowed to operate in America, but X is not allowed to operate in China is unbalanced. Something needs to change.”

So… Trump gets a showy media ‘win’ (plus whatever loose change he can grab); Musk gets the Chinese platform he’s been craving for years. Sounds great, and also extremely implausible, which is pretty much the Musk/Trump ‘bidniz’ signature!
 

Not kidding about the wild claims. (Trying not to nut-pick):

Sadly, billions of Americans are innumerate

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— Chatham Harrison is tending his garden (@chathamharrison.bsky.social) January 19, 2025 at 5:01 PM

TikTok is where 10% of Americans made the money to pay for their medically necessary chauffeured burritos and you refusing to believe this is exactly why the democrats lost

— Brendan O’Kane (@bokane.org) January 19, 2025 at 1:30 PM

Reader Interactions

198Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    fluctuations in the emotions of the American public,

    Biden shutting down TikTok bad, but Trump shutting down TikTok good!

  4. 4.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Danielx: Speak for yourself. My current goal is to live long enough to personally salt the earth under which the First Felon was buried, seeing as how my dream of visiting the prison cell where he died has been shattered.

    I’m not entirely certain I’ll manage it, despite being thirty years younger than the First Felon.

  5. 5.

    Quinerly

    Any reporting about why Bill Gates didn’t attend? I’m not on BlueSky, etc. Google gives me nothing on where he was. Curious.

  9. 9.

    Quinerly

    @Baud:

    Not surprised.

    I can’t be outraged over everything. But, I do want to know exactly what he is doing for at least the first 100 days.

  11. 11.

    TBone

    Christopher Webb:

    I love this so much! At the inauguration, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wore a distinctive collar adorned with cowrie shells, which are believed to offer protection from evil in African traditions. This choice mirrors the late Justice Ginsburg’s practice of using collars to convey a message.

    Photo:

    bsky.app/profile/cwebbonline.com/post/3lg7oq5mq2k2n

  13. 13.

    TBone

    Choose your fighters, DOGE (from Mueller She Wrote):

    One of the benefits of knowing the exact date autocracy arrives is that you can spend that time preparing lawsuits to file – like this one from CREW, Vote Vets and others. citizensforethics.org/legal-action...

    bsky.app/profile/muellershewrote.bsky.social/post/3lg6x4hygvc22

    C.R.E.W.:

    DOGE is operating in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act and must comply with transparency, ethics and other requirements or cease operations, according to a lawsuit brought by CREW and partners.

  14. 14.

    Quinerly

    @Baud:

    That’s where I am on it. Honestly, the Gulf of America is the only shocker so far for me. So ridiculous and insane.

    Panama protestors are burning American flags.

    I guess when he invades Panama and when he strongarms Denmark over Greenland, I’ll be numb at that point.

  15. 15.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Baud: This.

    I have no patience for the fools who are surprised by Trump’s abhorrent behavior.

    You voted for this, you own it.

  17. 17.

    Quinerly

    Trump rescinded Biden’s EO on lowering prescription prices for people on Medicare and Medicaid.

    I spent most of the night going thru them. Somehow missed that one until now.

  21. 21.

    p.a.

    On top of the legit concern over this bastard administration, I now have a new worry: tiktok is a real means of support for millions?  Not just an adjunct, supplementary source of extra cash?  I know I’m old, but to me “there’s no there there.”  Tiktok is important for the present and future of the US economy?  What?  I always thought about it (if I thought about it at all) as video cryptocurrency.

    Oh well…

  22. 22.

    TBone

    @MagdaInBlack: all opposition is important, I think.  Especially from those who prepared in advance to light the way of courage for others.

    I’m holding my tiny little candle high.

  23. 23.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Quinerly: I think we pretty much are keeping a tally. He’s working thru his list, just as he said he would.

    Ain’t this gonna be a trip.

  24. 24.

    Baud

    @TBone:

    Opposition doesn’t mean surprise or even outrage.

    What about things that are wrong but not outrageous? They deserve opposition too.

  25. 25.

    MagdaInBlack

    @TBone: Agreed. I recall, again, a conversation with my husband during the Reagan debacle.

    Me: But that’s illegal!

    Him: And if no one enforces the law?

  28. 28.

    TBone

    @MagdaInBlack: still hafta fight back using all possible means.  Not taking action, speaking out, doing what little we can, is obeying.  Just like silence is complicity.

  31. 31.

    Chris Johnson

    @Quinerly: I fuckin’ don’t. But I could make a case for wanting to know exactly what Musk is doing.

    Two reasons: one, he’s the real maniac right-wing loon Nazi president, Trump is just a puppet, and two, that man is a direct threat to Vladimir Putin. Think about it. He controls Starlink and works directly with Putin but can’t be pressured in quite the same way Republican politicians can be. Musk seemingly is too far gone on ketamine to be shamed, the dude is wildly irrational. And all he has to do is backstab Putin to attempt to pull off a global imperialism the likes of which the world has never seen. ALL Musk has to do is backstab Putin, and then he’s the puppetmaster instead, having full control of all the mechanisms. He is already planning the global depression and killing most people so only the elites survive. That’s what’s behind the ‘period of adjustment’ talk he gets up to.

    So that’s the one I would like to keep an eye on, seeing as I know what he’s up against. It’s definitely gonna be a power play between him and Putin, with guys like Bannon able to reveal what the Russia contingent think about things. Root for injuries…

  33. 33.

    Gloria DryGarden

    While outrage is being manufactured, and distracts us, so many wrong things might be slipping under the radar, because we’re meant to not notice them.

    meanwhile, in 75 days, April 6, who will still be our allies, and might purchase a stake in TikTok? What sort of alliances will be left after we’re out of WHO, and the Paris climate accord, and we’ve pressed hard on Panama and Denmark?

    This all feels difficult. I’m sure they want to manufacture despair, so I’ll look for ways to counter that internally.

    TBone, I was touched to see Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wearing those cowrie shells. The look on her face…. I wonder if it was rage, or the verge of tears, or grief, or fierceness.

    Quinerly, I did see that video you left me. I liked Jill’s royal purple outfit. I’m glad we couldn’t actually hear what President Biden said.  I thought of how when Biden came to be inaugurated, the Trumps did not attend nor welcome them.
    There are layers of feelings.

    I don’t think anyone else is going to change their maps, around the globe, just because one guy wants to rename a body of water.

  34. 34.

    lowtechcyclist

    But having the government shake them down like a mafia boss? No way.

    Way. Welcome to Bizarrica.

  35. 35.

    TBone

    “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.” – Mark Twain

    “Courage is being scared to death, and saddling up anyway.” – John Wayne

  36. 36.

    TBone

    @Gloria DryGarden: I was gonna mention that look but decided people should see it for themselves.  I’m glad you spoke up.  It is resignation born of determination, I reckon.

    Accepting an unpleasant but inevitable situation mixed with determination to oppose it.

    ETA You nailed it: fierceness!

  37. 37.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @TBone: you speak of resisting, and fighting. I’m not at all sure how. Is it even safe to discuss ideas here?

    my possibly lame list: work towards supporting accessible accurate trustable media, better branding and clear messaging.

    work towards shifting societal attitudes about status and oppressed groups, ie women, blacks, iPoc, lgbtq+

    call my senators and congressperson

    local actions

    We have a trans person in our family. Several of my friends do, too. A third of my friends are gay. I know and work with immigrants and their children. Many coworkers and numerous friends, and extended family are black, and I care about them. It’s a lot.

  39. 39.

    TBone

    @Gloria DryGarden: good job, we can’t crumple.  It’s awfully tempting, believe me ’cause I really do know just how tempting it is right now.  Each opposer focuses on what’s most important to them, and our job is to support them no matter what thing they choose as important, while we choose our own what’s most important depending on our abilities.

  40. 40.

    MagdaInBlack

    Well, interesting. I saw several people on reddit say they had found that their FB had auto followed trump. So I checked my barely used account and lo and behold, I was now following him too.

    Fine. I’ll dump FB. 

  44. 44.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @MagdaInBlack: my fb didn’t have me following. I’m baffled.

    people have said they had to unfollow a few times, because it reset. And that they finally blocked them.
    Even though I wasn’t following them, I blocked them.

  47. 47.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @TBone: lighting an extra candle for her. Maybe my most exotic and fancy prayers. May she be blessed and supported.

  48. 48.

    TBone

    I have to mentally prepare to hear that I will maybe lose one of the great loves of my life today.  It might be a situation where I have to try to be a nurse while coping with the fact that I’m actually mostly helpless.  But I’m gonna stand and deliver.

  49. 49.

    Soprano2

    @Quinerly: That one I don’t get. That’s popular with voters, including his. Is that a knee bend to Big Pharma? I thought conservatives were against them now. I can’t keep up.

    I wonder, does that mean hubby will need to switch back to insulin vials again?

  51. 51.

    Baud

    Tiktok did the same thing when it came back online except now if you look up election interference Trump there will be no results but if you look it up in other countries that still there. The algorithm has also changed for The Americans.

    From here.

    Meta under fire for auto-following Trump & Vance, Blocking Democrat hashtags

  52. 52.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Baud: Oh wow! I wish I’d thought of that before I so ceremoniously unfollowed .

    (ceremoniously meaning: fu you fkin….. )

  53. 53.

    Baud

    Even if the TikTok ban had never happened, they would have still accommodated Trump like the other big social media sites.

  54. 54.

    Princess

    The “auto follows” of Trump and Vance are just because they’re the new holders of the presidential and VP facebook accounts. Mets didn’t sign you up for something new. If you followed Harris, you now follow Vance.

  56. 56.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Baud: it’s working in the fb search. In fact searching #republicans comes up with a message like yours, warning that there’s a blocked search on insta, if you try for #democrats.

    strange.

  60. 60.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Baud: Totally where I am at this point– America* voted for this, and who am I to complain when Americans* get exactly what they voted for, good and hard?

  62. 62.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @TBone: just pour your love with him, take some time to just be together, commune, before you take the next action. You deserve a little love fest.
    and also, ask him what he wants you to do.
    a friend taught me this, to ask my cat if he wanted to go, that I would sense an answer, the wind would change, something. It’s very odd, but I did get a clear answer, and that really helped.

    i’m continuing my exotic fancy prayer for you both.

  63. 63.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Quinerly: Google actually has an employee who is responsible for their decisions on disputed place names and land claims. I used to know their name, but have forgotten.

  67. 67.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @TBone: I’m not crumpling, but I admit that somewhere at bottom, deep in my heart, there’s a cold, grim determination to take as many of the bastards to Hell with me as I can.

    They’re obviously ready to kill for straight white Christian male supremacy, but are they prepared to die for it also?

    Because some of them, in the word of Fannie Lou Hamer, “will not write their mamas again.”

    (obviously I HOPE it doesn’t come to that… but I am not the least bit sanguine about it.)

  68. 68.

    different-church-lady

    (Some of the claims on social media were absolutely ridiculous.

    Oh Honey, all claims on social media are absolutely ridiculous.

  69. 69.

    Baud

    @Gin & Tonic:

    They may change it for US users but not foreign users.

    When I’m president, I’m going to sign an executive order changing the name of Mar-a-Lago to Shit-a-Lago.

  70. 70.

    TS

    @TBone:

    Only thing my Dad much discussed about WWII was fear. Said he lived with it – every waking moment. He was still there fighting when the Pacific War ended.

  75. 75.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Baud: when I follow someone on Facebook, because they don’t have a friends request button, it’s often because they are semi famous. Some of them let you comment on their page, some have comments shut off. For example, last year, I went to Bryan Tyler cohen’s page because I had something important to say. I was able to comment, and got back 50% intelligent reasonable replies, 50% flaming attackers. But I think Brian or someone on his team read it, because he stopped doing what I objected to.

    i don’t think I even had to follow him.

    others that I follow, there’s no commenting.

  76. 76.

    different-church-lady

    @Baud: I realized something: Bezos and Zuck aren’t sucking up to Trump because they love him. It’s because they’re thinking, “I’m next!”

  77. 77.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Gin & Tonic: I know they do this kind of thing all the time– show different place names or even national borders in a geo-fenced way per local politics, and they don’t particularly stand on principle. I half expected Google Maps to make the change immediately but I see they haven’t done it yet.

    Might be waiting on public reaction to tech companies kissing Trump’s butt and whether any grief is worse than what they get for not doing it. The thing is, Trump has a short enough attention span that if you wait him out for a few days he forgets he even said something.

  78. 78.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @MagdaInBlack: I have my FB set so that only friends can follow me; but I can’t find how to find out who I am following (yet).

    I only have FB ’cause that’s where I can keep in touch with far-flung fam; but… that shit would be disqualifying.

  79. 79.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Baud: mal a mer, mal a lago, merde a lago.

    how’s your French ? the last one is direct translation, French combo w spanish.

  81. 81.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Princess: ​
     

    The “auto follows” of Trump and Vance are just because they’re the new holders of the presidential and VP facebook accounts. Mets didn’t sign you up for something new. If you followed Harris, you now follow Vance.

    My wife had followed Jill Biden, and yeah, that got switched over to Melanoma. So that’s a bit of corroboration.

  82. 82.

    Geminid

    @NotMax: This may be a reversion to the norm of first Trump term. I remember how the overnight and early morning threads back then would regularly fly past 100 comments and often hit 200. Then, after BIden took over, they settled back down.

    I only began following this place in 2020 so I could not make a comparison to the pre-Trump years, but I could tell that people were sleeping better.

  83. 83.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Professor Bigfoot: I have a grand total of 15 FB friends, and it is set on private. I just did a FB search for president donald j. trump (spit), went to the page and it showed I was following.

  88. 88.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Matt McIrvin: That’s exactly what I think. Not so much fear as it is fellow travelers in it for the contracts.

    And I’m not entirely sure who is controlling who in this collaboration.

  89. 89.

    Matt McIrvin

    I was just wondering if, when the dictator of Turkmenistan renamed bread after his mother, everyone immediately just changed the word they used for “bread” to his mother.

    (I know, it’s just like the tyranny of the woke blah blah. No, none of that was an edict coming down from the President because he had a random brain fart.)

  91. 91.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    To the right wing mind, the highest levels of power get to act like the most obnoxious lefty shitposter. It’s an essential element of their higher status.

  93. 93.

    Matt McIrvin

    @MagdaInBlack: I brain farted too, read Bezos for Zuckerman–Bezos is the one who has a rocket company.

    But I also think Krugman is right, Zuck and Musk have something deeply broken in their heads than makes them crave and positively worship that asshole swagger Trump has. Zuckerman thinking being a lapdog to this guy is “masculine energy” is this real reflexive dominance-hierarchy thinking.

  95. 95.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @TBone: Only love can drive one to sacrifice like that.

    “What is grief, but love persevering?”

    Sending hope and love.

  98. 98.

    catclub

    @Baud: To the right wing mind, the highest levels of power get to act like the most obnoxious lefty shitposter.

    Only applies when they are rightwingers.  Ask the Supreme Court.

  99. 99.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @MagdaInBlack: Thank you. Did the same thing, found the same thing.

    I’m just “unfollowing” it right now to see what happens; but I am in no way above blocking that marigold MF.

  100. 100.

    TBone

    @Professor Bigfoot: thank you!  At the same time, my cousin in Michigan has “disappeared” from our chat, and her mother, my only living Auntie now, may be suffering dementia.  My cousin teaches teachers at the Uni and her mother lives far away in New Hampshire.  Although they tend to be very private about health issues, not hearing back from my younger cousin for so long in response to a simple “Hey, are you okay, just checking in” is also concerning.  GAH.

    I really appreciate your kindness today.

  101. 101.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: Yep that’s why Biden had to go. That’s why there is more garment rending about TikTok than the executive order stripping immigrant children of birthright citizenship. Its not just the MAGA  that’s the problem. It would be foolish to pretend otherwise.

  102. 102.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @TBone: As you so wisely reminded us all the other day (via Peter Gabriel)— don’t give up, you still have friends.

  104. 104.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @schrodingers_cat: This is an American* problem; and until Americans* decide to change, this is where we will be.

    *”In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.”

    (obligatory “not all”)

  107. 107.

    TBone

    @Professor Bigfoot: I just finally heard back from my cousin!  YAY.  She is as crushed as we are, but still standing UP.  Doing her job, teaching the teachers.  It’s not like her to go quiet on me but now I understand more…she was promoted recently and is very busy at work (a GOOD thing).

  113. 113.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Bupalos: As I have been informed and reminded,* those who voted for and supported that marigold motherf*cker are not to be found here.

    The DEMOGRAPHIC is here, to be sure, but this is that portion of that demographic that went against their fellows’ grains, if you will.

    *and I needed that reminder; because right now as my sainted Pops would say “I am just mad at the whole fuckin’ WORLD,” I just need to remember why I’ve been a Jackal for as long as I have (since before we became the Jackaltariat! LOL)

  114. 114.

    dc

    @The Thin Black Duke: I and most if not all who post on this blog did not vote for this and in fact worked really hard to prevent this. Who are you talking to? Where do you think you are? Will this finger pointing (in the wrong direction) help in any way to resist this disaster?

  118. 118.

    Baud

    @dc:

    Pretty sure he’s not talking to anyone here. He’s talking about people.

    For instance, he said “you” in reply to me. But I’m confident he didn’t mean me.

  119. 119.

    TBone

    @Baud: she’s so smart and beautiful and loving … If I could choose family, I would choose her.  But the stork brought her right to my doorstep.

  124. 124.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Matt McIrvin:

    One can always tell a native (raises hand) there, we always call it National Airport and correct those who use the other name.

    Looking back, the rename and the RWNJs who always insisted on using it was simply a precursor to the MAGAt mindset of today.

  125. 125.

    Bupalos

    Without comment on the status of each of Trump’s splashy decrees, I think a good principle of opposition here is to only react to things that are real. There’s clearly a lot of flash and smoke meant to get the crowd stumbling around. Spending time with stuff like “Gulf of America” is not a good idea.

  126. 126.

    NotMax

    @Baud

    What about things that are wrong but not outrageous?

    There must be at least a partial handful of people who like Liver Ripple ice cream.
    :) //

  127. 127.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Spanky: did you catch Colbert last night? He joked that djt didn’t put his hand on the Bible because when they moved it indoors, the fire marshal wouldn’t allow it.

  128. 128.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Professor Bigfoot: sometimes they pop up and stir shit, but they don’t last long these days. We used to have Republican trolls who would stick around and harass people through every election season (and it was harassment, not thoughtful Discourse) but we’re better about kicking them out now.

  129. 129.

    Betty Cracker

    There’s a blizzard warning for the Gulf Coast, along the I-10 corridor. Houston may get 4 inches of snow, and as the storm moves east, parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle will get snow too, according to the forecasts I’m seeing.

    I haven’t seen snow for decades and I’m not all that far south of I-10, so I briefly considered driving up to gawk at the white stuff. Then I remembered that no one down here knows how to drive in snow (including me) and the towns lack snow removal equipment. So I’m staying home.

    Oh, and I checked: Google Maps still calling that large body of water the Gulf of Mexico. For now.

  130. 130.

    schrodingers_cat

    A lot of the action of this administration are going to hurt people who could not vote. Like people dealing with our horrendous immigration system, this includes everyone from DACA recipients, to people waiting for a GC quota to become available and long term visa holders like those who hold student and work visas and their dependents.

    My sympathy is for them and not the people who sit on the sidelines and bash elected Democrats and threaten not to vote.

    Or those who cavalierly discounted the uphill battle KH would face when they were successful at pushing out a successful but an OLD and BORING incumbent president.

  131. 131.

    Baud

    @Bupalos:

    I almost agree with you. I don’t think we should ignore things like Gulf of America because things that are not substantive can still have resonance for the public.

    But I agree with you about focusing our energy on the things that have more substance.

  134. 134.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Bupalos: Yes. Well put.

    ETA: Baud and Matt McIrvin make some good amendments to your comment, but the general principle stands.

  135. 135.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @dc: Re-reading my comment, I can’t find evidence of me accusing any of the BJers here of voting for Trump but maybe I’m mistaken.

    (This knee-jerk response reminds me of the dudes who post the hastag #NotAllMen whenever women are analyzing men’s shitty behavior)

  136. 136.

    TBone

    Hubby is taking this thing (*waves hand at entire shitstorm) really hard.  He’s been trying to not pay too much attention to “news” but it creeps in and he also misses his furry snuggle buddy extra hard.  I’ve got a lot to hold up for both of us, but he is running the vacuum cleaner in anger right now (I can tell by the speed and ferocity with which he is attacking that chore, unbidden). So he’s got some FIGHT left in him too!  Love that guy.

  137. 137.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Bupalos: I think that’s realer than you think– it’s an attempt to force individuals and organizations to show loyalty to Trump’s stupidest ideas. If he can do that he can do the rest, e.g. make you build infrastructure to support his substantive bigoted orders.

  140. 140.

    catclub

    @schrodingers_cat: That’s why there is more garment rending about TikTok than the executive order stripping immigrant children of birthright citizenship.

     

    Umm, children born in the US, of immigrant parents.

  143. 143.

    catclub

    @Quinerly: ​
     

    Any word on where Bill Gates is hiding out?

    Gates is more liberal than the other billionaires. The good influence of Melinda. He also played bridge with Warren B.

  148. 148.

    Geminid

    This morning’s Al Arabiya stories include one about a terrible fire at a ski resort in northwest Turkiye. It started in the kitchen area of an 11-story hotel; 66 people died and 51 more were injured.

    Al Arabiya also carried a Reuters story about a prison in Northeast Syria where the U.S. supported Syrian Democratic forces are guarding 10,000 captured ISIS fighters. A nearby camp holds 40,000 women and  children who are their family members.

    This prison is a part of one of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s most pressing problems, which is the larger question of the role the U.S. will play in security and governance in northeast Syria. It’s a challenging and complicated problem that cannot be dragged out indefinitely

    It so happens Syria’s Foreign Minister Assad al-Shabani is from that area, a member of one of Hazaka(sp?) Governate’s Arab tribes. Right now, the 37-year old al-Shabani is in very different environs: Davos, Switzerland where he is attending the World Economic Forum.

  150. 150.

    catclub

    @O. Felix Culpa: I commented yesterday on that EO.

    I have no idea what the exact language of it is, but I think either WAPO or CNN said it ‘vows’  to stop birthright citizenship.  Vows?? In an EO?

    Now I really wonder what the exact language is if CNN will not print it out.

  151. 151.

    Betty Cracker

    @Bupalos: I’m taking a somewhat different approach for now, which is to keep in mind that people have different opinions about what’s real and what’s smoke. In most cases, I don’t have the answers and therefore also don’t have the standing to police their choices of where to focus.

    I mean, in some places, it’s pretty clear — it’s out of bounds to stoke outrage based on outright falsehoods. But it’s not always clear.

    For example, I’ve seen folks on Bluesky admonish others for bringing up Musk’s Nazi salute. Fuck that. I saw what I saw. The Bond villain who purchased my country’s government is throwing Nazi salutes, and that matters.

    Another example: I’ve read think pieces arguing that Trump’s threats to Denmark over Greenland are no big deal because it’s just talk. Well, it’s talk with real consequences for Danes and alliances, so I don’t agree it’s pointless to discuss it.

    That sort of thing. My point is, I don’t think there are hard and fast rules here. It’s worth examining if we’re getting spun up over nothing, but it won’t always be knowable. Bad things are going to happen. Being paralyzed by that is bad but being prepared is good.

  153. 153.

    Quinerly

    @MagdaInBlack:

    I’m trying to figure out my FB acct. I am torn about deactivating it since I keep up with small groups of friends and musicians all over.

    I am now “following” a lot of RWing shit that I would never follow. Zuckerberg and wife showed up in my feed out of the blue with their party attire on going to one of inauguration balls telling me how excited they were. I commented “fuck off, Fascists” and blocked the account. Have commented rudely on these sites that FB now has me following and then I blocked.

    Also, have blocked a lot of pro Musk and Melania shit coming thru on my feed. Never have seen these sites. One was gushing and comparing her to Princess Di because of….well, you can guess. It was prominently on her fucking head.

    My FB feed has been very tight from the beginning….no Repug, no RWNJ stuff. Suddenly a lot of it. Also, I am getting a lot more ads. I had gotten rid of a lot of that too.

  155. 155.

    Soprano2

    @schrodingers_cat: Yes, too many of us want to be constantly entertained. Mobile devices make that a lot worse. Also, he can’t strip citizenship from people like that.

    I’m sitting at home waiting for a tow truck to try to jump start my car. It’s 1º here, and my car wouldn’t start. The lights and everything else come on, but the engine won’t turn over. Fun stuff, it’s a continuation of my shitty week last week.

  157. 157.

    Bupalos

    @Matt McIrvin: There’s reality to all of it in that sense. I specifically mean it deserves no time or effort. If some chord wants to call it that I’ll look at them the same way I did when they were trying to make “China Flu” a thing and move on. It’s just a troll.

  166. 166.

    Quinerly

    @Baud:

    The salute was covered heavily on MSNBC for what it was worth.

    I’m seeing a lot of articles on it other than the first bigger one in Rolling Stone.

  168. 168.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @TBone: I just finished washing last night’s dishes (bless her, Mrs. B is not real good about cleaning up the kitchen after she cooks) and hadda resist the urge to THROW SHIT into the sink, onto the counter… Believe me, I am feeling that man’s mood entirely.

    Mad at the fuckin’ world.

  171. 171.

    different-church-lady

    @Soprano2: Someone got me one of those little battery jump start power banks and I’ll be darned if the wimpy looking little thing don’t work like a champ.

  174. 174.

    Quinerly

    @catclub:

    But 4 days ago he met with Trump and gushed about how impressive Trump was. That meeting was the shocker to me since I know he tends more Liberal. I figured he had capitulated during the meeting.

  176. 176.

    Bupalos

    @Betty Cracker: Yeah I hear that. I certainly don’t mean it in a ‘policing what’s important’ way and we’re all going to be feeling our way through. Certainly Trump/Musk’s random destabilizations and trolling shave a reality of their own. I think we maybe should just keep an eye on the idea that they operate largely on distraction and furor and fighting over symbols rather than substance. It’s how he steals the oxygen and keeps us from thinking clearly about what our needs and goals actually are.

    I’m pretty sure Musk is giving a Nazi salute and that it’s intentional and designed to take oxygen and disable. The problem with the Nazis wasn’t the way they saluted.

  178. 178.

    different-church-lady

    @Soprano2: Happiness is… having enough money to replace the battery before it’s entirely dead. (Going through the same thing right now.)

  180. 180.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Soprano2: Yes, too many of us want to be constantly entertained.

    I’m not sure that’s necessarily a problem– “back in the day” always carried my current paperback with me to while away ANY time that I might be put in “wait mode.”

    Now my books are on my phone, so if I’m stuck in the longest grocery store line (and I always am- whatever line I get in will always be the slowest!) I can get back to my latest space opera and not stand there repeating to myself, over and over, “patience is a virtue best cultivated. Patience is a virtue best cultivated. Patience is a virtue best cultivated. DAMMIT, CULTIVATE!”

  183. 183.

    Quinerly

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    I forced myself to look at inauguration pics on line. (Rupert M looks to be not long for this world). No sign of Gates.

    And, I usually try not to criticize women’s clothing. But Bezos chick looked like she was wearing white low cut lace lingerie under her coat. Bizarre look for high noon. She also looked like she could cut my throat and not even flinch.

  184. 184.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @different-church-lady: I have two of them now– my weird neighbor knocked on my door the other day, his truck wouldn’t start and they needed to take their kid to school. I ran it, grabbed my booster, gave it to him, and a few minutes later I heard that big raggedy MF fire right up.

    They are a very worthwhile investment.

  185. 185.

    Bupalos

    @zhena gogolia: I thought it was just kind of incomprehensible, following in the line of thought here that there are a lot of Trump voters that are going to be “surprised” or who FA and now will FO. To me these are pretty much figments, but the idea that you lecture these figments here on a liberal blog is doubly weird/internety.

  188. 188.

    Layer8Problem

    And yet there’s an association in real life between Nazi salutes and Nazi behavior and practices.  It’s hard to believe that we’ll be so burned out and exhausted with outrage at signifying gestures that we’ll be napping on the couch when they do actual bad things to people instead of edgelord crap.  Most of us remain capable of walking and chewing gum simultaneously without falling asleep.

  189. 189.

    zhena gogolia

    @Bupalos: It’s a rhetorical device. It doesn’t literally mean “you,” it means “they,” but it’s a rhetorical address to those who voted for Trump. They aren’t literally present, but one uses this device to heighten the emotional effect.

  190. 190.

    TBone

    Our backup car won’t start this morning either.  Luckily, we park backed in, facing forward so we can get cables to it easily.  Soprano, do you have auto assistance through your car insurance or through AAA?  If not, you may want to look into availability.

  191. 191.

    K-Mo

    @dc: Honestly, shrug it off.   Everyone’s dealing in their own way.

    i have a sister who reliably says this crap.  It’s like,

    “oh no, Trump just let a bunch of terrorists out on the street and trout shooting people!”

    …..

    (all-knowing) “ Well what did you expect?”

    She doesn’t mean any harm-she’s just annoying.

  192. 192.

    Jinchi

    TikTok was supposedly banned for National Security reasons, but now Trump says we’ll just split it 50-50…..

    Does that just sell off the National Security worries, or were there no real worries at all and this is just a shakedown because there’s money to be plundered.

  193. 193.

    Jinchi

    @dc: Who are you talking to? Where do you think you are? Will this finger pointing (in the wrong direction) help in any way to resist this disaster?

    I think people who say things like this want to say it to Trump voters, but we’re the only ones listening and they really want to vent.

    But yeah, it’s annoying.

  194. 194.

    Bupalos

    @zhena gogolia: yeah it’s mostly the unrealistic portrait of the nature of people who voted for Trump that jumps out at me. Like they’re the ones who are surprised and soon to be regretful and going to “find out.” Oh boy just wait until they find out the price of eggs remains high! They’ll be sorry!

    I mean, maybe, a little. But in general this is just a figment created by our overactive polarized online imaginations. It’s the unreality of it that strikes me, heightened by the rhetorical lecturing of these people who don’t exist and wouldn’t be here if they did.

  195. 195.

    Bupalos

    @K-Mo:trout shooting people!

    I fully expect this to be the next post-truth move from Trump. “Gavin Newscum tore down all the dams because of his precious fish, and now the trout are shooting our beautiful people.”

  196. 196.

    Gloria DryGarden

    Looked at a map, trying to figure out territorial waters, and the Gulf of Mexico looks like it’s 50-50, us and Mexico.

    the key words in the White House site document seem to be honor, American, greatness. Not sure these 3 words go together. Besides, surely one of his advisors could point out that America is the whole hemisphere. It’s kind of insulting, this name change idea. 30 days to implement.

    can he command google? Aren’t they a private company.?

  197. 197.

    K-Mo

    @Bupalos: LOL!  Not sure what auto correct was thinking there.  Something something, fish in a barrel?

    “They’re out” —> “trout”

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