If you watch only one short video today, make it this one. Remarkable bravery, and the looks on the various faces could be material for a dissertation on gender, the family, and authoritarianism. youtu.be/gVInX42IQD8?…
— Seth Cotlar (@sethcotlar.bsky.social) January 21, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Congratulations to Bishop Budde, for a most essential plea at the key moment. And for demonstrating, possibly at personal risk, that even a nice upper-class sixty-something cis white religious lady can inspire Trump and his minions to semi-literate rage.
"The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues and temples. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on all those in our communities whose children fear their parents will be taken away."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1.bsky.social) January 21, 2025 at 3:40 PM
welp it’s early days but i guess we already got our bonhoeffer
— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) January 21, 2025 at 6:31 PM
One of the signs of an authoritarian is the inability to comprehend that people might speak truth unto power. Given we know what happens to people who offend Trump (like Fauci with his 24-7 close protection) what she did was a display of real courage https://t.co/tuVEw0qSaB
— ALASTAIR CAMPBELL (@campbellclaret) January 22, 2025
The "he's not gonna listen to her" reactions are missing many points. Lots of other people are also hearing it. Lots of people can see him hearing it, then weigh what she's said with what he'll do. Lots of people can see her refusal to surrender these ancient teachings to the latest face of empire
— Jason Kirk (@jasonkirk.fyi) January 21, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde: "I am not going to apologize for asking for mercy for others" https://t.co/USlt8J85WB
— TIME (@TIME) January 22, 2025
… Budde’s sermon may have been the only critical words Donald Trump heard during his first full day in office.
As Trump sat in the first pew of the National Cathedral on Tuesday during a traditional prayer service, Bishop Budde asked Trump “to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.” Trump glared and shifted uncomfortably as she spoke.
“There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives.” In his first hours as President, Trump signed an order recognizing “two sexes, male and female,” and saying those are set at birth and cannot be changed. He also ordered immigration officers to ramp up deportations of people in the country without authorization.
Budde said in her sermon that those being targeted for deportation “may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurudwaras and temples.” She added, “I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away.”
Since her sermon drew national attention on Tuesday, Budde tells TIME she has “heard from many people who are grateful that someone was willing to speak on their behalf” as well as those who “have said they do wish me dead, and that’s a little heartbreaking.”…
Read the whole thing — it’s not that long!
If nothing else, Bishop story and Trump now demanding an apology has provided a salutary reminder of Trump's militant snowflakery www.pbs.org/newshour/pol…
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm.bsky.social) January 22, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Trump exploded in fury at Bishop Marian Budde on Truth Social a little after midnight, calling her a "hater."
As we argue on today's pod, there is nothing MAGA despises more than appeals to common decency and humanity.
newrepublic.com/article/1905…— Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) January 22, 2025 at 8:33 AM
He just deleted it, but know that this is a sitting Congressman from GA asking for the deportation of an Episcopal bishop for daring to ask Trump to treat people who are LGBTQ and any migrant workers being deported with fairness and Christian mercy. pic.twitter.com/Kw6iahapyp
— Schrödinger's Sneetch Belly (@RTodKelly) January 21, 2025
Trump doesn't go to church much so maybe he expected Tuesday's inaugural prayer service at the National Cathedral to be, if not celebratory of him, like Franklin Graham's comments at inauguration, at least anodyne. 1/6
— Philip Bump (@pbump.com) January 22, 2025 at 1:20 PM
But instead Bishop Budde gently suggested that he treat immigrants and the LGBTQ population with grace. Prompting Trump to later fume about how she’s a “hard line Trump hater” who (among other things) ignored the alleged crimes of immigrants. 2/6
This was the guy who campaigned in 2016 on letting (conservative) churches be explicitly political. When he signed an EO making it less likely churches would lose tax-exempt status, he said pastors were “now in a position where you can say what you want to say.” So much for that. 3/6
Hours after Tuesday’s service, a reporter asked Trump why he pardoned DJ Rodriguez, who admitted assaulting police on Jan. 6. Trump first said that he would “take a look” at the pardon (which is already done) and then that prisoners had been in “vicious” prisons for “years.” 4/6
The difference between Trump’s grant of mercy to Rodriguez, a criminal, and his offense at being asked to offer mercy to immigrants, who he depicts as criminals, is obvious. The former comports with his politics and the latter doesn’t. 5/6
There’s no easier lens for understanding Trump and his presidency. What seems inconsistent isn’t: The moral lens isn’t a religious one or a cultural one but one that is aligned to Trump’s interests. 6/6
www.esquire.com/news-politic…
— @CharlesPPierce (@theshebeen.bsky.social) January 22, 2025 at 8:05 PM
A Bishop Called For Mercy And A Congressman Called For Her To Be Deported. Here’s Why Criticism Of The Congressman Is Bad For Free Speech And Civil Society. Today in WaPo by Megan McArdle
— Domestic Enemy Hat (@kenwhite.bsky.social) January 22, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Honestly if your response to listening to a bishop beg for mercy for frightened marginalized people is getting angry, you are an evil person https://t.co/02bVEP30uN
— evan loves worf (@esjesjesj) January 22, 2025
i also think that denigrating a bishop for having the temerity to mildly rebuke you *by implication only* when asking you to have compassion for the less fortunate is the kind of thing that will provoke backlash
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) January 22, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Matt McIrvin
[Deleted, not very accurate]
Jertian
How DARE a person of God use the words of some foreign heathen like Jesus!
Denali5
I have no doubt that she will lose her job. I fear for her personal safety. The world is upside down.
Jerry
When called by God and her fellow human beings, Bishop Marian Budde responded with all her heart and soul. May we all have the same strength and character when it is our turn to stand up for compassion and mercy.
Ben Cisco
I applaud her courage and pray for her safety.
Jackie
FFOTUS is proof that already thinned skinned whiners’ skin gets even thinner with age.
Baud
If Trump had read the Bible he’s hawking, he’d know who else was persecuted for defying an authoritan regime.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
rikyrah
Not lost on me…it was a woman calling him out.
Deport her?
To Jersey?
FOH😠
NotMax
Morning get the motor purring music.
When a composer purchases notes by the truckload. Bonus: staves with 6 – count ’em, 6 – flats.
;)
Math Guy
It is going to take a lot of people with the moral courage of Bishop Budde if we are to survive the next few years.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all.
Dorothy A. Winsor
These people are so whiny and thin-skinned. They’re disgusting and embarrassing.
Suzanne
The suggestion that she should be deported is incredibly revealing of their true desires.
O. Felix Culpa
@rikyrah: Good point. She spoke softly and with courage.
Phylllis
In other news, there is hope that the cult members can see the light: Boise woman refuses Jan 6 pardon.
Interesting in the video how Usha appeared transfixed by the Bishop & didn’t indulge Mr. Hillbilly’s nonsense. Either that or her Ativan had kicked in.
Scott
She flicked Holy Water on them and they all screamed. She should’ve made them stand up and recite the Beatitudes.
Kay
@Denali5:
She’s already getting death threats. Trump released hundreds of violent offender cult members. People who beat a police officer into a concussion. They’ll do anything for him.
Security is expensive. We should crowd fund it for her.
TONYG
What Budde said was so gentle, so anodyne, that it’s hard to imagine anyone being insulted by it. Anyone except Trump and Vance, that is. Thin-skinned assholes commanding a cult of thugs. I’m sure that Budde is already getting death threats. I hope that they all turn out to be empty threats.
NotMax
She was on Maddow’s show yesterday.
Kay
Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates said he met with Donald Trump for more than three hours and came away impressed with the president-elect’s interest in key global health issues.
I mean, seriously. Why are these people so stupid? What does Bill Gates possibly gain by kissing his ass? Are the tax cuts THAT important that the entire tech industry are now out there lying to Americans about how great this is going to be?
Ben Cisco
@Jackie: He’s rapidly approaching Cassandra O’Brien.Δ17 territory.
mapanghimagsik
I have to admit that the bravery aside, the fact the phase “you miserable piece of shit” wasn’t used is a level of self-control I can only aspire to.
Nukular Biskits
I think I may break my commitment to no longer post on Twitter and directly ask certain Bible-thumping MS politicians about this.
One, US Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, has been AWOL for several days. Calls to her office go immediately to voice mail.
Baud
@Kay:
In fairness, a lot of people here and abroad are going to take the chance that flattery will work with Trump to prevent the worst. Even if it’s a low chance, some folks will think it’s a chance worth taking.
Jackie
@Ben Cisco: Your link leads to:
Kay
In addition to calling your congressperson on research funding, call the Gates Foundation For Global Health (ha!) and ask them why they’re now opposed to health research funding. What did the rapist bribe them/threaten them with.
JML
@Dorothy A. Winsor: it really is pretty amazing how they absolutely cannot take anything that remotely resembles criticism. It’s as if they all know just how awful all of their policies are if you take anything more than a cursory look at them, how terrible of people they truly are if anyone thinks about it for more than a minute, etc.
I hope more Christian leaders speak up; the GOP has owned religious voters for decades, entirely over abortion and attacks on LGBTQ people. be nice for these leaders to remind Christians that their faith is about more than these things, regardless of what church they’re part of.
Leto
Bringing this up from the thread below: Schools in Massachusetts’ second largest city won’t coordinate with ICE, warn about agents at bus stops
Also Julia Louis-Dreyfus has the best remedy for dealing with the authoritarians, asswipes, and trolls. Sound icon bottom right.
WTFGhost
@Kay: Is the possibility that Bill Gates might hope to continue humanitarian work is simply too much for you to accept? It has to be ass kissing for tax breaks? Even as you quote what Gates asserts the conversation was about?
Look: I won’t say Gates is a saint, but he’s done good work, and the asks were for straight up Gates Foundation style stuff… not for policy that affect big tech, which he no longer benefits directly from, in any event.
lowtechcyclist
@Jerry:
This.
hells littlest angel
That ain’t funny.
Baud
Anyway, the Bishop did a nice job articulating liberal values. I hope we lean into it.
Shalimar
He did listen to her. He didn’t react the way a sane person would, but he did react.
Spanky
@hells littlest angel: Yeah, I fear that’s not going to age will.
Suzanne
@Baud:
So you’re touching on something I’ve been thinking about. I have seen some supposition — might have been Ron Filipowski but I can’t be sure — that FFOTUS is not as susceptible to flattery as he has led us to believe. But…. by having cultivated that idea, he gets the sycophancy and then just does what he wants anyway.
I’m not sure about this. Honestly, now that he’s absolutely not going to prison, I don’t really know what he genuinely wants to do. Maybe this is attributing more shrewdness to him than he deserves.
oldgold
Yesterday, more idiocy from this bad idea factory.
Trump: “FEMA is gonna be a whole big discussion very shortly, because I’d rather see the states takes care of their own problems.”
NotMax
W-T-Actual-F?
Someone really, really, really needs to check one’s meds. And it ain’t the reporter.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Maybe. I don’t know if it’ll work. But I can see it being someone’s motivation for saying positive things about him.
Kay
@Baud:
Tell the truth. That’s all they have to do. This double back flip scheming is bullshit. All Gates has to do to retain credibility is tell the truth.
I hope they understand they are endorsing the entire Trump agenda. The tech industry is REALLY long on Trump. They’re crazily over exposed. No other industry has pledged fealty to MAGA to this extent. If it’s necessary why are leaders in no other industry doing these fawning, public endorsements? They’ll all benefit from rich people tax cuts and no worker safety or environmental regs. But just tech has marched behind him publicly.
WTFGhost
@Kay: Could you please provide evidence that the Gates Foundation has come out against that, or are you inferring from Gates meeting with Trump about Gates Foundation priorities, likely in hopes that they can be continued under Trump?
If you are so inferring it, what human motivation makes you think a man who’s been doing humanitarian work, wouldn’t ask to continue doing that humanitarian work, under a new President who is likely to interfere with that humanitarian work?
Baud
@Kay:
What truth? I wasn’t at the meeting. Trump could easily have lied his ass off to Gates. It’s not even as of Gates runs Microsoft anymore.
JMG
If anyone from Bill Gates down to yours truly has a three hour meeting with Trump, the time goes like this: Trump talks for 2 hours and 45 minutes. During your 15 minutes, which consists of like interrupted sentence fragments, Trump nods or says “uh-huh” while his mind is elsewhere, thiinking of golf or money.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: That’s why she is NASTY.
Jebus, Trump is an imbecile.
Women should take the lead in bringing him down.
Leto
@WTFGhost: Considering what Trumpov just did to the NIH, it makes Gates look like an utter fucking fool. I guess Gates didn’t bring the correct knee pads to that meeting. Gates can continue to do the work with his foundation without ever seeing that melted stick of butter. The visuals matter here, and it’s another tech bro bending the knee.
Anne Laurie
Usha & Melania were both stone-faced, but Usha (poor woman) has perfected the ‘I’m just a little brown girl who barely comprehends’, as opposed to Melania’s ‘resting
bitchmodel face’. Especially since JD caught on to the rhetorical trap first & was prepared to throw a public hissy, if only he could get some backup…Poor Tiffany was just happy to be seated with the family, and her new husband was waiting for it all to be over. Ivanka, behind Tiffany, also spotted the ‘threat’ fairly quickly — unlike Jared, although it may be that Jared can’t actually move his facial muscles any more. And if you wanna see ‘Dumber’, just look at Eric, sitting behind his old man & waiting for further instructions.
WTFGhost
If he told the truth, you’re steadfastly refusing to believe him. Why is evil the only possible motivation? Don’t you know *any* good, decent, people?
sab
@Denali5: She won’t lose her job. It was a brave but faily typical Episcopalian sermon.
I am wondering how long the denominarion keeps ots tax exempt status.
Elizabelle
This underscores what charlatans the “evangelicals” are, too.
Kay
@Suzanne:
All the CEOs in all the other industries somehow managed not to become (public) MAGAs and do these bizarre performative endorsements. I guess they’re all stupid and the badly aging, bitter tech bros are much, much smarter.
Political fortunes change. Smart businesspeople don’t tie their credibility and reputation to a 78 year old sleazy real estate heir who is mentally unstable. He killed a million people last time! Mr Public Health, Bill Gates, didn’t notice?
lowtechcyclist
@Denali5:
I very much doubt that, actually. But we’ll see.
Me too, and I second Kay’s suggestion of crowdfunding for security for her.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Kay: Other CEOs can’t be happy that Trump says the way to divest tiktok of half of itself is to “take it.”
Leto
@Elizabelle: Good Omen’s reference here.
ewrunning
You don’t have to reach back to Becket to find a precedent. How about Archbishop Oscar Romero? I truly fear that his someone among his newly emboldened goons will kill her.
WTFGhost
@Leto: Did Bill Gates say “I went to keep Trump from shitting on the NIH”?
If not, please stop pretending you’re having an adult discussion with me – just keep my nym out of it, okay? I won’t listen to people trying to provoke me with BS.
Soprano2
@Suzanne: I agree, their response to anything they don’t like is to eliminate it, or at least get it out of their sight. How dare she voice the tenants of Christianity to FFOTUS like that? s/s/s/s/
Anne Laurie
I’m guessing the DC Episcopal diocese has some quite fierce ‘white shoe firm’ lawyers who could explain even to Heritage / Project 2025 pinheads that messing with them would be… unwise.
Kay
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Oh, they all love him, I’m sure. No taxes, no regulation, no civil.rights. Its their dream.
But they aren’t stupid enough to publicly declare fealty to MAGA. They know half the country doesn’t support this and they don’t want to be publicly tied to him because he’s chaotic and unstable. Only ONE industry has done that. Tech.
Soprano2
@Kay: I think it’s as much damage control as anything. None of these people want to be targets of his wrath, so they’re praising him in hopes of being protected. It’s horrible that people feel they need to do this. It’s scary that even people with Gates’ kind of money feel the need to do this. I just don’t believe he really believes this.
Leto
@WTFGhost: you’re right, none of us here are having a conversation with you as an adult. Nice Will Smith reference; classy. Keep doing you!
Starfish (she/her)
@Denali5: I have no doubt that the donations to the diocese are going to be way up this week.
TBone
Bringing up from downstairs because someone was fearful of retribution against her. That’s not a concern of hers.
Suzanne
@Kay:
What I think is more likely is that Gates, et al, believe that FFOTUS can be manipulated toward their desired ends. Remember Kim Kardashian, during the previous admin, buttering him up to give clemency to Alice Marie Johnson?
But that’s a great big IF.
The fact that it is also no way to run a government should go without saying, but it is what it is.
Spanky
@Anne Laurie: Jerbus yes. It was the Episcopalians that put the “P” in “WASP”.
The Thin Black Duke
Yes.
Their ideology can be summed up in five words: There Will Never Be Enough.
Never.
Society calls the woman living in squalid poverty with 32 cats “crazy”. Society calls billionaires “role models”.
TBone
Had to see this again, heh
Kay
@Soprano2:
If Bill Gates, who has more money than God and a private police force who follow him around wants me to believe he is somehow “afraid” of Trump, I’m insulted.
Its not my job to figure out what Bill Gates “means”, the smarter and better explanation that is different and more noble than the words that come out of his mouth. He said Donald Trump was committed to eradicating polio and curing HIV. If that’s not true then his super secret plan to kiss Trump’s ass to prevent something or other won’t matter. Because polio and HIV are real. They don’t care at all about Gates clever political positioning.
Leto
@Suzanne: that was part of why Snoop Dogg has been so effusive of the fat turd; Trumpov pardoned the Death Row label founder, got him out of prison.
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: I think being rich on this level gives you LESS freedom. At least if you’re attached to the money and the power.
Krugman was talking about that. What’s the point of being rich if it leads to this?
Suzanne
@The Thin Black Duke: @Kay: I don’t think tax cuts is all (or even most) of what the tech bros want. They want a lot more than that. Going to Mars, to personally control us all. Peter Thiel wants to live forever. A tax cut is a drop in the bucket.
Kay
@Suzanne:
You assume Kim Kardashian isn’t a Trump supporter. I’d put money on the opposite.
Phylllis
@NotMax: I aspire to her resting fuck you face.
Suzanne
@Kay: No, I think she probably is a Trump supporter. I think terrible people are generally drawn to one another. She’s probably susceptible to flattery and thus believes that everyone is.
Kay
The MAGAs hate Gates, btw. They can go into a spittle flecked rage telling you how he seeded the world with covid.
Maybe that’s why he wasn’t standing behind Dear Leader at the inauguration like the rest of them.
TBone
@NotMax: my inner Wednesday Addams is twitching.
She likes to feast on them. I need to take Communion again, as hubby always reminds me in jest…
zhena gogolia
Sorry I’m late to this thread. Everyone should watch this, especially the version that keeps the camera focused on those evil fucks while they squirm and sneer at the words of Jesus of Nazareth.
It reminds me of nothing so much as Christopher Lee’s reaction when Peter Cushing holds the cross to his forehead in Horror of Dracula.
Phylllis
He’s perfected closed-mouth mouth breathing, hasn’t he?
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Heh. Come to think of it, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Trump’s reflection in a mirror.
Professor Bigfoot
@WTFGhost: Impossible. He’s a billionaire, not a human being. /s
I do understand the tendency to simply assign Bond villainy to any billionaire; but there are a FEW— and if George Soros and Warren Buffett and Mark Cuban can be, well, maybe Bill is trying.
TBone
@zhena gogolia: hard agree
Barbara
Trump likes saviors who are alive not ones who let themselves caught like a chump and crucified like a common criminal. Those kind of saviors are for losers. And there, too often, you have your modern “Christian” church – one that pays lip service to Jesus but actually worships Rambo. It makes me sad for people who have to unwillingly wear the negative halo.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
She does prove you don’t have to be loud or outrageous to be powerful.
zhena gogolia
@Denali5: I very much doubt she will lose her job.
Betty
@Kay: When I hear Gates was impressed by Trump’s interest in global health matters after Trump withdrew the US from the WHO, I can’t say Gates didn’t suck up to Trump.
TBone
@Professor Bigfoot: Howard Buffet also too.
WTFGhost
@Leto: Okay.
I said Gates asked for Gates Foundation stuff. The facts we have are they talked:
three hours about and talked about global health issues, including efforts to develop an HIV cure and to fight polio during the next administration.
So: your ADULT summation is, “they must have talked about the NIH, because HIV, and polio eradication, and global health issues, are *such small topics* that in 3 hours the NIH *must* have come up. Anything Trump did to the NIH *must* have been discussed with Gates.” Is that what you want to go out on?
Did you know the Gates Foundation has been working on HIV cures and polio eradication? Did you bother to find that out? Did you know they are “global health issues,” the very thing a journalist would use to summarize many *NON*-NIH issues?
Soprano2
@Kay: Not physically afraid, no. More afraid of the government messing with his foundation, I think. I might be wrong, it’s hard to tell, but I don’t think Bill Gates truly believes that FFOTUS is dedicated to working on worldwide health issues.
zhena gogolia
@JML: As soon as she mentioned Jesus of Nazareth, Vance started scowling.
TBone
@Baud: amen
zhena gogolia
@Jerry: Beautifully said.
JML
@Suzanne: Yeah, I think you’re right: the tax cuts are just a side benefit. What the tech bastards really want is to do whatever they want, whenever they want. They want to say anything to anyone without consequence, do anything without consequence, and be able to tell everyone who they deem less intelligent than them (aka, everyone) what to do.
Narcissistic egomaniacs, the lot of them. Worst thing that could have happened was for them to get huge piles of money.
Starfish (she/her)
@Nukular Biskits: You are doing the right thing by calling her. Our Senator left his voice mail in DC full because he didn’t want to hear from his constituents so we called the local offices and yelled at his staff there. He moved them into a higher security building that the public had no access to because he really didn’t want to hear from us anymore.
It looks like “They cured sickle cell, and your President killed a program that was going to help people in your state afford the cure!”
Kay
@zhena gogolia:
Melania has her usual threatening stare.
Lady, we’ve seen your act before. No one cares how angry you are.
“I will STARE this upstart into submission!”
Baud
@Betty:
I don’t think that’s in dispute. Folks are debating motive, and perhaps efficacy.
Harrison Wesley
@oldgold: That must thrill Red Staters in Hurricane Alley.
prostratedragon
The hit dog was still sore from 2017:
As this letter was published at the time, I wonder whether Rt.Rev. Budde knew of it.
different-church-lady
@Phylllis: That’s two. Now we just need… [does quick guess] …80 million more.
Kay
@rikyrah:
It always is.
Professor Bigfoot
@Elizabelle: I remember begging white ladies to please vote against him; and here we are.
(and before anyone shows up to pillory me for attacking white women, let me point out that no other female demographic gave over half their votes to Trump, and here we are.)
Betty
@Anne Laurie: I always describe Melania as stone-faced so I was startled when someone described her reaction as giggling. I can’t for the life of me imagine Melania giggling.
zhena gogolia
@Anne Laurie: I disagree about Tiffany. She had a look of utter contempt and sneering on her face the whole time, with her fucking blonde blowout.
artem1s
This is interesting
Stand with Bishop Budde
In any case, if TCF can’t take a mild reminder from Budde, I’m sure Reverend Barber will be bringing the real heat. Maybe Moral Mondays need to become a thing again.
Soprano2
@zhena gogolia: These people don’t practice the religion Jesus laid out for them, they practice something else that they’ve made up.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
See this?
https://balloon-juice.com/2025/01/22/wednesday-night-open-thread-55/#comment-9502504
TBone
@NotMax: thank you
different-church-lady
@Baud: Jesus was a hippy peacenik who got usurped by hateful straights.
Starfish (she/her)
@WTFGhost: I can’t hear you over Gates singing kumbaya with an anti-vaccine administration that has shut down communication from the CDC.
JML
@zhena gogolia: of course he did. Vance is another one of those who thinks that only he gets to use religion as a political weapon, no one gets to poke at him. don’t they know who he is?
argh.
Soprano2
@oldgold: I suppose it hasn’t occurred to any of them that the conservative states that experience natural disasters don’t have the money to recover from them if they don’t have help from the federal government.
The Thin Black Duke
@Suzanne: And all of these grandiose dreams take money. Unfortunately, this is accomplished by using other people’s money, and the rest of us are a resource to be stripmined.
different-church-lady
@oldgold: Pff… like he’s going to discuss a damn thing before he destroys it.
Kay
@Betty:
Publicly. They’re doing this publicly. I think they’ll regret it. I think if it was ultra clever scheming you would see other industry heads and founders doing it.
different-church-lady
@Suzanne: At this point a lot of them think they’ll be president next.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Yes.
It reminded me of Stephen Colbert’s White House correspondents’ dinner routine in front of GWB — absolute poise and control. But of course the stakes are much higher now.
different-church-lady
@zhena gogolia: Well, Jesus is his arch enemy.
Professor Bigfoot
@Kay: Gates had a private meeting with him.
Didn’t show up to kiss his ass in front of the cameras.
As WTFGhost points out, the Gates Foundation has been doing good humanitarian work; it is a reasonable assumption that’s why he met with the shitstain.
Fuckers like Musk, Zuck and Bezos? Oh yeah, evil motherfuckers, on this we can completely agree.
But there are some, and I for one am prepared to give Bill the benefit of the doubt; just as I would George Soros or Warren Buffett or Mark Cuban.
zhena gogolia
@Kay: She also smirks with her dear hubby a couple of times.
Starfish (she/her)
@NotMax: He was mocking the journalist’s accent?!
zhena gogolia
@Professor Bigfoot: I’m pretty sure Bishop Budde didn’t vote for Trump.
different-church-lady
@NotMax: YouTube has turned out to be a very bad thing.
NotMax
@Betty
It’s no secret that one-on-one DJT can project a veneer of interest and companionability.
But that’s all it is, projection. There’s no there there.
jowriter
@The Thin Black Duke: I don’t care what society calls billionaires. I call them money junkies. It’s the best analogy I can come up with. For them, too much is never enough.
suzanne
@The Thin Black Duke: It takes money, and repeal of laws or at least favors, and probably classified information, and likely all manner of corruption and moral grotesquerie that I can’t even dream up.
I think Elmo dreams of driving all women back into the home to make babies and iron the shirts of the world’s men, probably on his way to a Matrix-style future of artificial wombs. Their desires include but dramatically exceed tax cuts.
Starfish (she/her)
@Anne Laurie: Melania’s resting bitch face may just be that she has so much botox in her face that she can’t make human expressions anymore. Apparently, some people think that the frozen look is aesthetically pleasing.
Starfish (she/her)
@WTFGhost: Why are you hear shilling for billionaires? Does Gates have you on the staff?
jimmiraybob
@hells littlest angel: “That’s not funny.”
No. It’s a warning. It is a reference to the contest between King Henri II and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket (ca. 100-1200 AD). The story goes that the King uttered those words and some of the followers of the King took it as a mandate and murdered Becket.
different-church-lady
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The plunder phase has begun. But the tech boys are so dumb they think they’ll be in on the plunder.
TBone
@NotMax: I needed that, thank you.
MomSense
@Kay:
Bill Gates may have an Epstein problem, allegedly.
Kay
@Professor Bigfoot:
Then he sat for an interview with the WSJ and sung his praises!
He didn’t have to do that. He did it because he wanted to. I assume, unless Donald Trump coerced him to go out and assure the public that Donald Trump cares deeply about eradicating polio. The RFK Jr Donald Trump. Who is anti vax.
Trump can’t BUY that kind of borrowed credibility. It’s a huge gift. He should have to report it as campaign finance – a Gates donation.
Elizabelle
@Professor Bigfoot: wise comment.
different-church-lady
It’s possible that Bill Gates is just dumb.
Another Scott
Good for her. Speaking up for values is sensible and important.
Bad people are bad. Film at 11.
Hang in there, everyone. It’s going to be a slog.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Belafon
@hells littlest angel: Was it meant to be?
Kay
@MomSense:
That’s what my son said. The timing of the divorce was interesting too. Melinda has some integrity, thank God. You won’t find her giving Donald Trump free advertising.
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: I could only bear a minute or so of the version with the camera on those evil fucks, but you’re right, it was revealing.
Like one of the tweets above says, “Honestly if your response to listening to a bishop beg for mercy for frightened marginalized people is getting angry, you are an evil person.”
These are evil motherfuckers.
tailfedders
@Starfish (she/her): your link to her bio shows the books she has written. The link to one, How to Be Brave, shows that it’s out of stock on Amazon. I hope that’s a good sign.
Soprano2
@zhena gogolia: I watched the video. It looked to me like the bishop took a deep breath before beginning the last part. I’m sure her heart was beating fast. I give her a lot of props for doing what she did, most of us aren’t that brave.
Belafon
@Kay: Gates hasn’t been in the tech industry for a while now.
Soprano2
@NotMax: Con artists are good at making you think they’re interested in what you’re saying.
tobie
@WTFGhost: You’re fighting the good fight but it’s hopeless. For some, if Gates doesn’t come out guns blazing saying what an immoral, stupid piece of shit Trump is, then he’s kissing the ring. Granted his foundation’s work funding vaccine research for global health threats like malaria would be destroyed, but who cares.
In the meantime, I’m waiting to see how many research universities survive the NIH cuts. Many of us are on tenterhooks right now.
Kay
I don’t care what the richest people on the planet do. I think it’s good the Tech Titans tied their own credibility to Donald Trump. Risky bet. When Trump fails maybe they’ll come down a peg or ten in the public’s estimation. The country will be vastly improved when we all stop worshiping rich people and thinking they’re on our side.
WTFGhost
@Starfish (she/her):
Twenty seconds on any search engine, by the way:
https://www.gatesfoundation.org/our-work/programs/global-development/polio
https://www.gatesfoundation.org/our-work/programs/global-health/hiv
But don’t worry: I’m sure they put those pages up *after* the Gates-Trump talk, to make it *look* like Gates was concerned with polio eradication, HIV, and global health issues. AFTER his retirement from Microsoft A VERY LONG TIME AGO.
So, no, I’m shilling for the truth. YOU are the one rejecting it because it doesn’t look like you expected it. You don’t get to blame that on my intentions.
Suzanne
@different-church-lady:
Read up on Curtis Yarvin. There was a profile of him in FTFNYT in recent days, but there’s a lot more out there on him. He’s very popular with the tech set, as well as with JD Vance.
In short: they think they’ll be king next.
Belafon
@Professor Bigfoot: I went to go look up how much Gates is worth, and it’s a little over $100B, which makes him the 8th richest person. The other little note in the description is that he plays bridge with Buffett.
https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/william-h-gates/
Nukular Biskits
@Baud: lol
Awesome
WTFGhost
@Starfish (she/her): You raise a point, one that I absolutely must say the following to.
mapanghimagsik
@Kay:
I’d like to see other tech CEOs step up more, but not all tech supports these assholes, and has a pretty out and proud LBGTQ+ contingent.
Right now, all I can do is share with people the alternatives to Meta, and hope they come along.
I remember an older post — much older — talking about how much, for some reason, car dealers love them some Trump.
Honestly, if Gates *didn’t* just play Billionaire Footsie with Trump. He can come out and say what the meeting went over, and what his benign, generous proposals were so that when Trump doesn’t follow them, we at least know.
But playing coy with the nazis? Fuck that.
Kay
@WTFGhost:
I didn’t deny Gates works on global health. I said I don’t believe he has to shill for Donald Trump to do that.
AM in NC
@Nukular Biskits: I heartily approve your re-posting again. These fake God-bothering elected officials need to be hounded day and night with this.
“Do you support the Bishop and Christ’s words, Senator, or do you stand with Trump against the words of Christ?”
“Which side are you on, Senator? Which side is every one of us on, X followers? Christ’s words or Trump’s words – which will you follow?”
Belafon
@TBone:
The question is what will WE do if something happens to her?
Starfish (she/her)
@different-church-lady: Bill Gates was talking to Trump about how to implant the people who did not get the COVID vaccine with those Gates microchips. Please let all your MAGA friends know this.
Another Scott
@Professor Bigfoot: Not to pick on you, but Gates was the poster boy for evil tech bros for decades. The world would be very different, and likely much better place, if he hadn’t been so successful in crushing competition with his monopolistic practices.
And the Gates Foundation, unless things have changed, spends the absolute minimum every year (5%) to keep its tax exempt status. They’re determined to keep their power and influence as long as possible. They are completely unaccountable and they mess around in things like education in too often malevolent ways (see Diane Ravitch, etc.), among other things. It’s not as benevolent as many would believe, and it’s an argument for busting up these giant foundations after 20 years or so, IMHO.
[/soapbox]
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Kay
@WTFGhost:
I’m just sick to death of the most vulnerable people standing up to him and the most powerful institutions and people bowing down to him. This priest, minister (I don’t know which she is) can stand up to him but the richest and most powerful people and institutions can’t? Why not? She’s walking around exposed like a normal person. We’re all speculating on whether she will be shot by a Trump cultist or fired. But somehow she managed to muster the courage. One would think people who have a HUGE pile of money as a cushion to keep them safe and warm could do the same. But they don’t. They fail every fucking time.
Nukular Biskits
@AM in NC:
This
Jeffro
Has anyone printed “BUDDE” t-shirts yet?
(preferably in blue with dark blue lettering?)
HinTN
@Jackie: Here’s Lucinda Williams’ take on the first go ’round:
https://youtu.be/272voTjeHy4?feature=shared
hells littlest angel
I think this means Trump nodded his head a lot and twisted his little buttholish mouth into the pout he believes shows thoughtfulness.
Alce _e_ardillo
@Denali5: If it were other denominations I might be concerned, but the EPUSA probably won’t bend to Dump.
Professor Bigfoot
@zhena gogolia: Me either, but, the good Bishop is a distinct minority among her demographic, is she not?
All the blessings to her and the rest of the 47%; but nothing I’ve said is untrue.
hells littlest angel
@jimmiraybob: Oh, I know what it refers to.
NotMax
Far from someone I cite often, but seems a good place to do so now.
“Our problem is with these neoconservatives, the radical right, the religious extremists whose interpretation is very narrow, and who want to destroy everyone who doesn’t agree with them. I see them as betrayers of the fundamental principles of conservatism. A lot of so-called conservatives don’t know what the word means.”
– Barry Goldwater
.
hells littlest angel
@Belafon: I thought it was meant to be flippant. Maybe I’m wrong.
Kay
@Another Scott:
I had a law school professor who used Gates lying under oath 5000 times in depositions on monopolistic practices litigation as an example of accountability-free perjury. You know, so we’d know the rules don’t apply to the wealthiest.
Rusty
@Denali5: The majority of Episcopal Church members are Democrats and the most devoted tend to be even more liberal. The Bishop will be fine at least for her job.
Starfish (she/her)
@WTFGhost: The US government set the cure for polio back with how they went after the bin Laden family through doctors. After that, polio was up in Syria.
I am deeply skeptical that anything is going to be done for HIV during a Trump administration because they are especially pulling support for things that help gay people and/or people of color. If Gates is saying flattering things, he needs to back it up with some real evidence, and journalists need to not just be stenographers for rich people.
Professor Bigfoot
@Kay: Certainly not (gods love me, i cannot remember her name!) the former Mrs. Bezos, either!
”If the Republic is to be saved, it will be the women who save it.” I believe this.
NotMax
And another quote germane to the topic at hand.
“People who are interested in power are not interested in people.”
– John Ward
.
Ben Cisco
@Jackie: Oops…
https://www.doctorwho.tv/characters/lady-cassandra
Jeffro
True, but I guess these super geniuses think they can ‘manage’ him. And to some extent, they can…until they can’t, and the consequences will be catastrophic.
We’re all part of the same economy, we’re all on the same warming planet, we all deal with the same viruses, and we’ll all – Gates included – pay the price if and when this all goes south. Someone should remind our broligarch overlords about that.
Alce _e_ardillo
@NotMax: There was a BOGO sale at Target. Homer sounds like a Dollar Store Chopin.
MomSense
The broligarchs are angling for their position in our post democratic government. Look at how Putin consolidated power. That is what is happening now. Changes will be made to our constitution that SCOTUS will uphold. If the Gates Foundation manages to also do some good things, fine. It will likely be at the margins.
Belafon
@hells littlest angel: I’ve been known to make comments similar to that to people around me. It’s a way of criticizing what they’re saying by hopefully getting them to think “Where have I heard that before?” To me, at least, it’s the most passive-aggressive form of sarcasm you can make.
But I could also be wrong.
WTFGhost
@Soprano2: To be brutal, they’ve taken the concept of evangelism (which RevRick says came from Luther himself) and the ultimate reduction of Paul’s writing about salvation.
The idea is, when you accept Jesus sacrifice (and/or are baptized), that’s *IT*. You’re saved! No matter what other sins you commit, you *can’t* lose that salvation because it was bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Well, that’s a great deal if you want to make a feel-good religion. Only pick on rare groups of people who you can deem sinners, forgetting that we are *all* sinners, *all* in equal need of salvation. So, what do churches preach against? Homosexuality, transgender rights, and porn – you got to have *some* real sins for people to lie about to keep them feeling tied to the church.
Now, some Christian churches do real work, and provide real ministry, but, they aren’t as popular, as well connected politically, nor as visible to wealthy donors who want to make a *tax deductible* political donation.
Here’s the effed up thing for me: doctrinally, you can’t exactly prove a megachurch geared toward grooming wealthy donors isn’t as “Christian” as the small church that runs a soup kitchen and a hospital and prison ministry. Jesus did say you’d know the false prophets by their fruits. Are the hungry better fed? Are the homeless/naked and strangers sheltered safely? Do people care for the sick and imprisoned?
Those are good individual signposts, and good for any seeker who truly wants to find the way, but there are times when it’s like “don’t gimme no signpost, gimme an ad campaign that will wake up those lazy god… uh… god blessed Christians!”
(If there were justice in this universe, there’d be a million or more sneezes, all simultaneously, of unknown origin.)
We know Trump isn’t a *good* Christian, if we are the Christians who care for the needy, because we see exactly what Jesus would warn against. But that just reminds us that Republicans have been lying about what stuff means a really long time now.
Ramalama
@Leto: Sweet. I love JLD.
Professor Bigfoot
@Belafon: Boy, is that ever the question.
I’m honestly afraid of the answer.
Leto
@Jeffro: everyone feels they can manage him. That’s part of Project 2025; he’s a malleable character who’ll just rubber stamp most of their agenda. And like you said he is, until he isn’t. Once he gets bored of you, once he thinks you’re not loyal, once he thinks you’re getting more of the spotlight/accolades… but that’s the devil’s bargain they’ve made. And yes, we’re all interconnected here.
Kay
@Jeffro:
It’s easy for me to say because I hate how Facebook looks so I could never use it- that clutter makes me crazy- but we really could rattle Zuckerberg with a boycott. Include Instagram too. The MAGAs of tech are too big for their britches.
I got off TikTok because it’s fascist adjacent, although I loved fragranceTok and trolling Trump supporters with pithy comments. We’ll have to sacrifice.
Leto
@Ramalama: she’s in the Mel Brooks school of “how to deal with fascists/tools” thought. Love it.
NotMax
@MomSense
“Living in the lap of luxury isn’t bad except that you never know when luxury is going to stand up.”
– Orson Welles
//
eclare
Just called my rep’s office to thank him for voting against the Riley bill.
SFAW
I realize that if Emperor Elon’s Minion were to have a fatal stroke or heart attack, we’d be stuck JV Dance, who ain’t any better, or Jeebus-Pretender Johnson, who also ain’t any better, but I wish to FSM that he would SHUT THE FUCK UP once in a while.
ETA: For values of “once in a while” == “forever”
Gloria DryGarden
@Denali5: i think the church will stand by her.
****
I’ve watched this over and over; their faces¡ The anger, perturbation, the incredulity, annoyance, possibly hatred.
i was looking for a body language video on it, found one on the bigwigs at the carter funeral. I’ll keep looking, YouTube often has something.
Professor Bigfoot
@Belafon: Bridge, a cerebral card game that one generally plays with friends (or whatever junior officer can be dragooned into being a fourth)… and I cannot imagine them sitting at the same card table and not also discussing life, liberty, and the world we all live in.
I don’t see Zuck, Bezos or Musk having any friends at all.
Kay
@Leto:
It’s not just that. It already carries risk. Zuckerberg and Bezos and Cook want their name on the immigrant roundups with the brownshirts kicking down doors and the wailing children? The dehumanization of trans people by decree? The attempt to erase the citizenship of the children of immigrants who are born here? The incredible corruption and self dealing of the Trump Family?
I don’t know, man. I’d keep my face and name and the names of my company off that, even if I supported the agenda (which they do). But hey, move fast and break things, right? Let’s hope it breaks them instead of the rest of us.
WTFGhost
@Starfish (she/her): Please note that going after bin Ladin has bupkis to do with a Gates discussion with Trump – it’s a sad story but not relevant right here.
Ah, so, you didn’t actually have any trouble with *me*. You just poked at me because you were unhappy about something else.
Emily B.
As an Episcopalian, I am heartened but not surprised by Bishop Budde’s sermon.
Leto
@Kay: for my Transnation Feminist course last semester, we all had to make a social media account and post on a topic of our choosing. Tying together what we learned with what’s happening in the real world. I chose the women of Afghanistan, and what they’re going through since the Taliban re-took control. I made an Instagram account for it, with 3 topics, 5-7 slides for each one. It lasted 3 days. Luckily long enough for me to present it in class so the professor could see it. She thought it was great, but “the algorithm”? “Trolls”? “RIght wing shit heads”? I tried to log in to the account and it told me it was banned. Didn’t give a reason, just banned. I needed to provide a ton of information, including a facial scan, to get access to the account to try to appeal the decision. I said no fucking way. Professor agreed.
For me there’s just no value in these platforms. And I get that BJ is a social media platform, but the rest of these hell sites just aren’t worth the time.
Professor Bigfoot
@Kay: I think we are all united in this.
Jeffro
From Marc Elias’ Democracy Docket this morning: good stuff (although I wish #4 was #1!)
Here are ten things all of us can do.
1. Stay engaged
When all the news is about Trump and pardons and lies, it is easy to want to retreat and stop paying attention. Don’t. It is precisely when things are hard that we must all lean into remaining vigilant and informed.
2. Help Democrats
The success of any opposition movement rests on the opposing party taking power. This is not a minor detail; in our system of government, it is the essential goal. Next time you want to attack a Democrat for being too much of this or too little of that, realize that you are only helping the GOP. Instead, find a Democrat you support and volunteer or contribute to their campaign.
3. Don’t do Trump’s work
This is more than simply resisting Trump’s actions; it is refusing to accept his false assumptions. When he says he wants to abolish birthright citizenship, do not accept the premise that he has the power to do so. Stay grounded in the truth: The U.S. Constitution is clear, Trump is powerless and the courts will reject his efforts.
4. Don’t grade on a curve
This goes both ways. Do not hold Republicans to a lower standard and do not hold Democrats to a higher one. When a Republican does something normal, recognize it is normal not exceptional. When a Democrat does something normal, recognize it is normal and not terrible.
5. Believe in the courts
Republicans control all three elected branches of the federal government. They do not control the courts. Yes, the U.S. Supreme Court has a solidly conservative majority, but the high court only hears a few dozen cases a year. And in some of those, the Court has sided with democracy. Most importantly, remember that Joe Biden confirmed a record number of new federal judges. And, of course, there are state courts. For better or worse, we are dependent on the courts to help protect democracy. Rather than assume they will not, insist they do.
6. Beware of false attacks
Pam Bondi is an election denier. Kash Patel has an enemies list of political opponents. Donald Trump has promised retribution. When you hear that a Trump foe is under investigation, be skeptical. When you read about anonymous leaks against pro-democracy leaders, consider that it may be part of an effort to discredit their work.
7. Support independent media
The legacy media is failing our democracy. Every day brings more news of another billionaire owner or corporate overlord bowing down to Trump. The solution is found in independent news outlets that have no incentive to make nice with the Republican Party. Some of these are broad-based news operations, some are issue specific. Pick a few and subscribe for free. Find one or two that you pay to support. It will go a long way to ensure a vibrant media ecosystem willing to stand up for democracy.
8. Use your town square
Every one of us has a town square. It may include our social media accounts, our local book club or dinner table. Use your town square to speak out in favor of democracy and against what Republicans are doing. Do not shy away from difficult conversations; seek them out. Engage the curious. Educate those who seek information. We all have a role to play, so don’t assume your voice is too faint or your platform too small.
9. Prepare for a long fight
In 2017, we hoped that Trumpism was a fluke and would pass. We now know it will not. We are in for a long fight and must build and commit to an opposition movement that will stand the test of time. We will have victories and setbacks, good days and bad. We must understand that this will not be over in one election or with the defeat of any one candidate. This is the fight of our generation, and it will take time.
10. Don’t give up hope
Our best political movements were hopeful. John Kennedy insisted that “we should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes.” Bill Clinton was the man from Hope. Barack Obama ran a campaign based on hope and change. Donald Trump and the Republicans want you to give up hope. Despair and cynicism fuel their movement. We must always, in the words of Jesse Jackson, “keep hope alive.”
Alce _e_ardillo
@Kay: Tech as an industry is overpopulated with overtrained, undereducated nincompoops.
Leto
@Kay: agreed.
Gloria DryGarden
@Professor Bigfoot: in what way is she a minority?
Jeffro
We were talking about this in the office yesterday…I think the exact quote was, “the truly evil people around him are going to go for broke, since they’ll never have a more corrupt and pliable puppet in the WH”.
(this is trump, after all…it’s not even possible to be more corrupt, or pliable)
Professor Bigfoot
Precisely the same mistake the German industrialists made a hundred years ago— that they could somehow control the NSDAP.
So we’re headed for the same catastrophic consequences.
Gloria DryGarden
@Leto: Instagram banned you, for being informative about afghani women, and their plight?
my word!
Raoul Paste
Wonderful post title.
Gloria DryGarden
It all reminds me of McCarthyism+ the Inquisition+ Hitlers strategies
inhope I’m wrong.
Mick McDick
I love the look of frozen, malevolent fury on Melania’s face. She is as horrible as Trump, perhaps worse, and I confess to hating them both.
Thank you, Bishop Budde. You may have started the cycle of Schadenfreude I hope for.
Suzanne
@Jeffro: I’m not sure he’s as pliable as they think he is. It’s difficult to tell. FFOTUS is stupid, but he is also cunning. I think we underestimate that too often.
Geminid
@MomSense: From Ankara-based Clash Report a couple days ago:
The Thin Black Duke
@Kay: Amen.
Leto
@Jeffro: pretty much. As we’ve discussed on the blog, this is what conservatives have been maneuvering towards since Goldwater and Nixon, and now that it’s here they’re going to do as much damage as they can while they can. Going for broke. .
Starfish (she/her)
So who is out there finding public domain photos of Mariann Budde and creating the “This Budde’s for you” t-shirt to sell in our capitalist hellscape?
Belafon
@Jeffro: I like this, but I have one question:
Do we hold Republicans to the same standard as Democrats or should we hold Democrats to the same standard as Republicans?
To be more serious, we need to define and agree on what the standard is for a politician.
Kay
@The Thin Black Duke:
I bet the family members of US service people the Trump Administration just abandoned on the tarmac are convinced of Donald Trumps commitment to global health. They would give interviews too debating this Important Issue, except they’ll be dead.
Must be nice to be utterly insulated from the real world. Wrapped in big wads of money.
The Thin Black Duke
@Kay: Until Reality intervenes. Ask Stockman Rush.
Theflippsyd
Probably a dead thread, but
@Professor Bigfoot: As I’ve said multiple times this week in real life, “white people” suck. Based on the numbers as well as the long history of white men in power, white men suck more (this is not directed to all white men and not those here) than white women. 60% of white men voted for Trump. I totally agree that Trump being re-elected is a shame that white people have to hold.
I generally appreciate your comments and your viewpoint. I particularly appreciated what you said about your anger and recognizing that the women at balloon juice are not the women who voted for Trump.
These are difficult times. I don’t have any real political power. It is a daily struggle not to succumb to hopelessness and fear. And, so I just really wish (and ask) that you would wield your ax with white women as much against white men.
The only way I know how to handle that hopelessness is to try my best to make sure that my kids understand what is going on and prepare them for the future. I’m the mother of two “white boys” and a “white girl.” I’ve done everything that I can to educate them about the history of this country, to recognize their white privilege, to show empathy towards others, to be aware what is going on in this world, to stand up for others and to fight for what they believe in. With my daughter I have specifically tried to help her see female peers as potential allies, rather than as adversaries — and trust me that is really hard to do in middle school.
Jeffro
@Belafon: while I’d prefer that Republicans raise their standards, they’ll never do that. And I don’t want Democrats to lower their standards, either.
The best we can do right now, imho, is to keep pointing out that the GOP has no standards other than pleasing trumpov. And they refuse to raise those standards regardless of the cost to the country.
Professor Bigfoot
@Gloria DryGarden: The minority of white women who voted against the white supremacist neo-Confederate rapist misogynist.
It’s a damned shame that those white women are a minority.
glory b
@Kay: Her elementary school aged son didn’t get that profane statement he put on Tik Tok about Kamala Harris from nowhere.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
The oligarchs love them their tax cuts, sure, but that’s only part of their equation. The rest is about the deregulatory agenda that’s a prime component of the neoliberal, Reaganomic model and if you can’t get that, then obtain regulatory capture. The latter is actually more effective because it provides a screen for self-professed progressive “thought leaders” like Yglesias, No Opinion and much of the Atlantic staff to launder such libertarian crap to the Totebagger Radio crowd.
Anybody who thinks that a billionaire tech bro like Theil is the “enemy” is right…and yet, so many of these same self-professed progressives who proclaim that also promote economic policies shilled by groups he funds, it’s basically a rebrand of the Blue Dogs which is why many of us won’t remain quiet, again, and let that nonsense get mainstreamed into the Democratic Party…any more than it already, unfortunately, is.
Gloria DryGarden
@Professor Bigfoot: I’m happy to be in that minority with such an esteemed person. I don’t know what percentage of white women voted for Harris, but it’s got to be more than white men.
dc
I guess the Asshole was hoping for the Spanish Inquisition.
Lobo
@Kay: Heroes are the average person. It is us. We don’t do it because we want to, but because we have to. Sigh! All we want is the freedom to be us and live our life.
BC in Illinois
I know that Trump’s experience with church has been to hear his court prophets sing his praises and the praises of the exceptionalism of God’s Favorite Country America . . . but wasn’t there anyone on his staff who could have told him about the politics of the Episcopal Church and the previous statements of Bishop Budde? From the Episcopal Diocese of Washington website:
52 years ago, on January 19, 1973 — the eve of Nixon’s second inauguration — the National Cathedral presented “A Concert for Peace,” with Sen Eugene McCarthy, Leonard Bernstein, and Haydn’s Mass in Time of War. It was a free concert and 15,000 of us showed up. (At the time, I was a Hospital Corpsman [HM2] at the Naval Hospital in Bethesda.) No one was surprised that the Cathedral hosted an anti-Nixon event.
Baud
Scott
@Baud: Loyalty test.
mrmoshpotato
@mapanghimagsik:
Or “whiny, orange, fascistic, manbaby shitstain.”
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: Panama: Fuck off, Little Marco.
NotMax
The only thing that can be said about you-know-who’s relation to religion is that he’s a CINO.
moonbat
@Jeffro: Thanks for this!
RevRick
@Barbara: Just a reminder of who the white Evangelicals really are. Jesus said a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. And the tree of white Evangelicals?
They are descended from the churches which vociferously defended slavery, advocated for secession and Civil War, and supported Jim Crow and its violence. If you ever see photos of the mobs gathered at lynchings, those white faces are the white Evangelicals of yore.
Bishop Budde just served a reminder that white Evangelicals have no moral authority in which to claim to speak for the Church.
Chris Johnson
@Alce _e_ardillo: Fuck no they won’t. I grew up Episcopalian. I’m real proud of her but the only surprise I’ve got is that they were fool enough to pick the Episcopal Church for this…
She knows what she’s doing. I’d have taken a deep breath too. It looks like when she devotes her life to Christ, she 100% means it. She’s ready, and not backing down. And it’s not for clout, it’s because it is more or less what Jesus literally did.
They didn’t have bullets back in the day, but she knows what she’s doing, and it was the right thing to do. I’m real proud of her. Hope it turns out differently this time around.
Chris Johnson
@BC in Illinois: Correct. Budde is not one bit out of step with the Episcopal Church as it stands in America. I’ve been taking a phrase, ‘no exceptions’, from them: Episcopalians are hardliners about this stuff. This isn’t new or any sort of departure. I hope other strayed Episcopalians take note. I already looked into this and went ‘oh neat, I left and they went about stubbornly being good?’ and this just caps it. If there is a spirit of Christ I can name one bunch who listen for what it had to say.
Professor Bigfoot
@Gloria DryGarden: For sure.
Women aren’t as stupid, grifting, greedy, hateful or as stupid as men are in general.
Thank all the gods– er, um, the goddesses, because the gods most men follow is every bit as ridiculous as… well, you know.
Darkrose
@Denali5: She will not lose her job. The Episcopal Church of the USA stood strong for LGBTQ+ folks, refusing to back down on ordaining queer clergy.
Ben Cisco
@Starfish (she/her): The guy who did my AT&T internet (ptui!) install when I bought my house ABSOLUTELY believed this. I thought I was going to have to fight my way out of my own house. Only got him to simmer down when I reminded him that among the many tracking devices that could be used against him was the CELL PHONE he was using to complete my install…
God I hate reruns…
Darkrose
@Starfish (she/her): She was a model. Models are supposed to have a neutral expression because they’re essentially ambulatory coat hangers; facial expressions distract from the clothes.
Darkrose
@jimmiraybob: Which didn’t work out great for Henry.
Darkrose
@Chris Johnson: Yeah, as an extremely lapsed Episcopalian, it’s heartening to see TEC unambiguously taking a stand on the right side.
Miss Bianca
@Denali5: Uh, the Episcopal Church is usually made of sterner stuff than that when it comes to being on the right (or should I say, “left”) side of moral issues. In other words, I doubt it, tho’ of course I could be wrong.
Miss Bianca
@Professor Bigfoot:
Did you beg white men to vote against Trump, too? Or just “white ladies”? (also, too, eww).
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@jimmiraybob: and in the end, the murder of Becket was a HUGE scandal for Henry II, who ended up having to perform a public act of penance and be hit by Bishops and the monks of Canterbury.
Ryan
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): Wish Judge Juan Merchan would have signed off on some public act of community service.
Gloria DryGarden
@dc: it’s late now, but it does feel like some of what I have read about the inquisition. because of the theocracy thing, the forces being used to make it a state religion.
it frightens me.
TBone
@Belafon: celebrate her life and courage as she will have died as she has lived: fearlessly. I stan!
TBone
@BC in Illinois: thank you for sharing that.
currawong
Judging from TFG’s comments about mental institutions, I’m pretty sure that he still believes that asylum seekers are from insane asylums.
WTFGhost
@Kay: I don’t blame you for being sick to death of that.
One of the problems is, no matter how vile Trump is, he holds a lot of power, and Republicans have already proven they won’t do anything to hold him back. Trump is *totally* the kind of guy who’d screw with polio eradication just because it would hurt Gates’ feelings, if Gates had said the wrong thing.
Now: did Gates overfluff in interviews? I don’t know, but keep in mind that the interviews are his place to try to make any promises Trump made “real”, and the easiest way to do that is to say nice things, so there’s a news story if Gates claims Trump is reneging.
My heart aches more than you might imagine – it’s the job of those who hear the cries of the innocent to make them audible to others, but god *damn*, even if my brain wasn’t broken, I’m long past believing I have any ability to have any effect.