Greetings and salutations, jackasses.
I wanna say that MisterMix and AnneLaurie have been doing just superb work putting a spotlight on the actual leadership within the Democratic party, and that is so important. The other day I was babbling on bluesky and noted that courage is contagious- and it is. It’s every bit as contagious as cowardice, which is why it is so important that we highlight it when leaders like AOC and Raskin and Pritzker and the many others do the right thing and stand up. Not everyone will. But people see leadership and they follow.
One of the more frustrating things of the Trump years has been elevating the voices of people like Liz fucking Cheney or Jen Rubin or the Lincoln Project assholes. And the reason it happened is not because we’re all just suckers for right wingers or have abandoned all our principles or any of that bullshit. We were elevating their voices because they were actually standing up and fighting while so many in our own party appeared to be silent. It doesn’t hurt that the Lincoln Project fuckers are too a person vicious scumbags who will stab you in the back the moment they get, but if you’re in a knife fight you want to be around the mother fuckers who know how to use them.
Republicans understand this. That’s why they savagely attack anyone who stands up to them. Look at how they treated and reacted to that Bishop or whatever who had the temerity to, in a sermon, in an actual fucking church, beg the congregation to treat each other with kindness and decency.
At any rate, AOC is on fire right now, and she has said the most important thing repeatedly- You don’t have to fucking help them. Just fucking say no and don’t comply. It’s that easy.
I called my Senator, Shelly Moore Capito, and her nephew, Rep. Riley Moore. as they are my representatives. I didn’t even bother calling Senator Justice because I doubt he has staff and if he does they didn’t show up to work and if they did they probably have not figured out the phones yet. At any rate, I discussed my disapproval of the NIH fuckery, and expressed repeatedly how many jobs and how much money this brings to their districts and how none of the studies are in any way partisan.
I also expressed my disgust with the attempt to change the 14th Amendment via executive order. I noted that while Republicans think they will be in charge forever, one ay there will be a new administration. Do they want them to change the second amendment via executive order? What about the freedom of religion?
Prolly won’t do any good. But you gotta do it.
Nothing else to report, I suppose. Eggs were 8 dollars a dozen at the grocery. They were 3 dollars the day Trump was elected.
Tell that to your neighborhood Trumper.
Suzanne
I have an absolutely hilarious lefty neighbor who has been blowing up the neighborhood Facebook page with egg-price updates and taunting MAGA. That’s the shit I’m here for.
Lord Fartdaddy (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
My guess is that Trumpers will pay eight dollars for eggs and then turn right around and tell you they were twelve dollars under Biden. They cannot acknowledge the truth because it conflicts with their faith in the rapist. And that’s what it is: faith. We need to get that through our heads and find a way to deal with that fact, because you can’t out-logic somebody’s faith. It’s absolute.
A Ghost to Most
Fortune favors the prepared. The prepared are braver than the unprepared.
Gretchen
I saw a video of Sen Justice driving around the airport in his Hoverround, with a staffer pulling his dog in a wagon. He’s fit to be a Senator, but Biden is too feeble and old.
Ohio Mom
The Lincoln Project also makes witty and compelling videos, and people get fooled by that.
Sometimes as an academic exercise I consider if I would vote for Adam Kinzinger if I lived in his district (I know he left Congress, this is an academic exercise) — say he was being primaried by a MAGA or his Democratic opponent was a flake. My answer is always Nope.
Calling my Congressmen always wore me out, my anger level goes from zero to a thousand, immediately, but what has to be done, has to be done. The two Senators I have now will probably follow in Portman’s footsteps and never empty their voicemail boxes. My Representative is a Democrat who voted for that arrest-immigrants bill named after that woman. He needs to be told to act like an opposition party member.
satby
The other thing Republicans don’t do is turn on their own. We mock them for that, but it’s been a huge benefit to their side. It enabled them to drag a diaper wearing felon into the White House in spite of all the negatives.
In a fight, they unite. We shoot ourselves in the foot, over and over.
Ohio Mom
@Lord Fartdaddy (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Before Ohio Dad retired and was still working in that den of future MAGAs, one of his coworkers was upset that the local paper endorsed Hillary, he claimed they always endorsed Democrats, even if the editorial said they were doing the rare endorsement of a Democrat.
Ohio Dad googled and pulled up the paper’s earlier endorsements for McCain and Romney and his coworker refused to accept what was in front of his face.
A Freudian would say he is very well defended.
NotMax
“The earth cannot provide for everyone’s greed but it can provide for everyone’s need.”
– Adlai Stevenson
.
Ohio Mom
@satby: Hell, they started wearing diapers over their clothes in solidarity. They are incapable of feeling embarrassed.
Old Dan and Little Ann
My wife wrote a book of faces post regarding the Bishop. The maga family in her world sure were triggered by it. It is a sight to be behold how offended they all are. Inappropriate! At least her cousins is going to pray for her extra now. So she may be saved when the apocalypse happens.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, via (Popehat) Ken White on BlueSky:
Good, good.
Motivated, and committed, young people are part of the solution.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Princess
I think calling reps and senators is so important. And finding the Republican angle if your electeds are republicans is so smart. You can phone or, if you hate that, you can send free FAXes on Fax Zero.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Ohio Mom:
And yet, they never do “ad buys”, that’s part of the grift. Nobody who needs to see those videos sees those videos cuz that would cut into their
overheadgrift.Another Scott
ICYMI, Krugman on Substack:
(Emphasis added.)
That’s the best distillation I’ve found. Well said.
Quick, someone clone a younger Arnold and get him out there doing PSAs!! We can’t have a Strong and Tough Guy Gap!!1
Best wishes,
Scott.
ArchTeryx
@Another Scott: Now that is a samizdat technique for the modern day. That’s the sort of creativity we’re going to need to survive this.
Matt McIrvin
@Another Scott: Just saw a new account pop up on Mastodon, liking some stuff I posted, talking on her feed about how to report ICE raids… and then she goes on to say she’s learning from RedNote about “how freaking awesome life is in China”… and then I see the first posts are endorsements of Jill Stein and the Green Party.
Spidey sense: triggered. I guess it could be bona fide, but. Be careful out there.
NotMax
Government by whim is a horrid concept.
Another Scott
@Matt McIrvin: Yup. The “nobody knows you’re a dog” problem is exponentially worse now.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Suzanne
Does anyone know if there’s a way to have, like, a reverse pie filter? So that I could block a commenter from seeing my comments?
glory b
@satby: Dems are the only ones telling each other not to vote or supporting anyone deciding not to vote or justifying a group encouraging us to abandon our candidates.
Has anyone noticed that?
How has that worked out for us?
Too many oh so smart people scoffed and made fun of “Vote Harder!” But if you don’t vote harder than the other guys YOU LOSE.
Ohio Mom
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I didn’t know that and it just makes me dislike them more.
glory b
@Matt McIrvin: Someone said to tell the new Red Noters to ask their new cool Chinese friends what happened in Tiananmen Square and see report back what they say.
ArchTeryx
@glory b: Simply put: Vote harder, or cry harder.
Old School
@Suzanne:
It’s cookie based, so you’d have to gain access to that commenter’s devices and block yourself without them knowing.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Another Scott:
It’s disturbing that social media networks are censoring free speech (hate speech and bigotry doesn’t count, Leon) and all it took was one narrow election
Ohio Mom
@Suzanne: If someone is creeping you out, I’d write Cole and have him give that commentator a talking to. You deserve to feel safe.
Quinerly
Local community NA forums are lighting up with posts about ICE sweeps in Albuquerque.
Native Americans are being advised to have their tribal IDs with them at all times.
Jay
Xiaohongshu
@glory b:
Xiaohongshu is behind the Great Chinese Firewall.
So rather than The Dead Bird Site shoving Nazi’s in your face, the firewall and the algorithm keeps politics out of any conversations, so people talk about life, food, fashion, etc.
;
Old School
@Suzanne: Incidentally, if you’re looking for a new twist for your next marathon….
JCJ
@satby: a great description of this was the response to debates – after Obama did not do well against Rmoney in that one debate Dems freaked out. When Biden did poorly there was widespread panic. After Trump showed he was no match for Kamala Harris the Repub response was “LOL what debate”
Jay
@Suzanne:
seconding the “contact a front pager”. Include screenshots.
Quinerly
@Suzanne:
Now, that’s a great idea! Reverse pie filter. I have never used the pie filter but I would use a reverse one.
KatKapCC
@Another Scott: They view kindness as weakness, which might be the scariest thing about them.
Suzanne
@Old School: Haven’t decided if there’s going to be a next one! It’s been, like, 4 degrees here for the last three days. I feel like i need that bear suit!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Suzanne:
Is somebody bothering you? I’d definitely contact a front pager if so
Steve LaBonne
@glory b: There is a bit too much KPD “SPD are social fascists and worse than Hitler” energy on our side. We can and should push our politicians to do better but the take our ball and go home shit is objectively pro-fascist.
Jay
@KatKapCC:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/maga-is-trying-to-reframe-cruelty
KatKapCC
@Suzanne: I reflexively shivered reading that. Hope you’re able to mostly stay indoors as close as safely possible to a heat source!
KatKapCC
@Jay: Well, well, well.
We just wanted a lady president :(
Jay
@Suzanne:
At 4 degrees F, I would not recommend running in a bare suit.
mayim
@Quinerly:
Living in Maine, I’m guessing we aren’t high on ICE’s list, given that those from Canada and Ireland who have overstayed their visas aren’t their target demographic ~ although my parents and I got stopped in central VT back in the W Bush years by a customs roadblock.
I’m as white as can be [sunburn in Dublin in January white!] but I made sure the new wallet I bought is big enough to hold my passport ~ just to be safe.
Leto
Apparently today in Newark, NJ, ICE conducted raids detaining/arresting both undocumented people and citizens. Included in that was a military veteran, who had the legitimacy of their service documents questioned. It’s day three and they’re already saying people’s papers are “fake.” Newark mayor released a statement on it.
Edit: @Quinerly: brownshirts wasting no time.
Jay
@mayim:
I don’t think that ICE is using the Paper Bag test, so far, it appears to be “round them all up and sort them out later”.
YY_Sima Qian
@Another Scott: Geez, having the the current TikTok around is worse than having it shut down. However, either way, the anti-Fascist coalition has lost the one social media platform friendly to its message.
Bupalos
The admiration and envy of Republicans because they know how to be stupid antisocial assholes and make the civic solidarity that governance is based on impossible is a complete and total misunderstanding.
You’re drooling at bullies. You want to make sharing and happiness happen by copying them. It’s pitiful.
Jay
@Leto:
They are also using fake warrants to enter into places that they can only enter with a proper court warrant, with names.
Seems like the chant for the next 4 years is not going to be “Murica, “Murica, “Murica,
But instead, “Lawyer, Lawyer, Lawyer”.
Quinerly
@mayim:
I am hoping dexwood weighs in. He lives in Albuquerque. His wife is NA (Laguna Pueblo, I think)
I follow some NA musicians and artisans (silversmiths/jewelry folks) and several LGBT Native Americans on Facebook. Don’t know some of them personally. This has been percolating for 2 days….NAs fearful of being picked up by ICE since they are Brown.
scav
@Jay: Well, anyone voluntarily associating with those of inappropriate shades is probably contaminated with wokeness and thus potentially inappropriately voting and considering themselves a citizen. That one drop of toleration ruins whatever birthright bloodline that might exist.
Melancholy Jaques
One of the puzzling things about them is that they appear to have had zero influence on normies or Republicans. I would like them to have a discussion in which they explain why they believe they had no impact. I want to hear their views.
Bupalos
The reason AOC can fight and isn’t reduced to silence is because she has a narrative framework and can tell a story from that perspective. That’s how Trump succeeds as well. Mainstream dems do not really have a coherent story to tell.
Btw AOC’s narrative framework is Bernie’s, who I think?? folks here have finally given up calling “wilmur?”
Corporate corruption and inequality.
Starfish
@Matt McIrvin: Mastodon has a lot of those folks. I muted the #Vote3rdParty before the election because someone claiming to be an indigenous commie liked it a lot.
Steve LaBonne
@Bupalos: AOC can do what she does because she represents a district that is safe for someone like her. That’s Politics 101.
Quinerly
As of 5PM on January 23, 2025
KNOW THE FACTS… STAY INFORMED ON THE NAVAJO-ICE MATTER
“No confirmed cases of detentions of Diné citizens”
Recent reports have raised concerns about potential U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity, prompting anxiety and hysteria among community members.
As of 5PM on January 23, 2025, there have been zero confirmed cases regarding ICE detentions of Navajo citizens
Our office has diligently followed up on the leads we received but has yet to verify any incidents of individuals being detained.
Tribal leaders whose reservation lies along the U.S.-Mexico border report that there is no unusual activity.
We encourage individuals to remain calm and assured that our collaborative efforts with local, state, and federal law enforcement are ongoing to ensure community safety.
To mitigate concerns, it’s important for community members to carry state-issued identification, such as a driver’s license or other picture identification if available. While we understand that heightened awareness can trigger panic, we wish to emphasize that the best approach is to be prepared. Having your state ID is crucial, and if you possess a CIB, it can provide an additional layer of reassurance.
Our office remains dedicated to providing accurate information and doing our due diligence. For tips, please email Yolanda Azua at [email protected] and provide a name and phone number, and description of the incident.
We will continue to monitor the situation and keep you informed of any developments.
-Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren
*****
Pres Nygren’s FB page. Also, he has a lot of tips and info from the ACLU for Urban Dine
Bupalos
@Steve LaBonne: plenty of safe seats and 99% do not become leaders.
She and Bernie are getting attention because they have a counter narrative comprehensible to everyday people. Formal dem leadership does not. Jeffries can’t actually explain or talk about what we’re seeing.
Steve LaBonne
@Bupalos: Bullshit. I don’t think you have a single clue what Jeffries has been saying.
mark
@Steve LaBonne: I remember reading about AOC a few years ago on a blog. The poster was talking about some unknown startup that had upset the incumbent in the primary with low voter turnout. The seat was safe for Dems but not so much for the incumbent Dem.
The rest they say is history.
Matt McIrvin
@Starfish: I tended to follow more of the “don’t really like mainstream Dems but it’s ridiculous not to vote for them in the general election” type of leftists. Who I can appreciate.
YY_Sima Qian
@glory b:
@Jay:
The Chinese RedNoters who want to discuss topics censored by the CPC regime would use VPN to access X. Politics (even of the kind tolerated by the CPC regime) has never been the purpose of RedNote. Suggesting American users to constantly bring up censored topics on RedNote will simply undermine a forum for people across the world to discuss non-political issues (after all, there is more to life than politics), & prompt the CPC regime to bifurcate the platform into domestic & international sections, pissing off all of the Chinese & international users currently enjoying the direct engagement & learning to appreciate each other as actual human beings. That is moral posturing for no purpose or effect.
OTOH, I think there are a lot of lessons (positive & negative) the US can draw from the CPC regime’s economic management:
Limiting the influence of capital on politics
Economic philosophy rooted in achieving abundance (in food, housing, public infrastructure, etc.), as opposed to creating scarcity to maximize profits
Every sector producing inputs into industry or provide public utilities are high regulated or state owned (energy, utilities, financial services, etc.) to minimize input cost, rather than privatized to oligopolistic “markets”
Creating conditions for cutthroat competition w/in tightly regulated arenas in consumer facing areas (which result in poor valuations for capital owners), as opposed to enabling & sustaining monopolies & oligopolies (which result in stratospheric market capitalizations)
2 – 4 maximized consumer surplus in the form of lower prices, at the expense of producer surplus (& thus capital owners)
Prioritizing production of tangible goods & services rather than encouraging financialization
Persistent focus on building public goods
That requires a fundamental rethinking of economics. The social welfare in the form of income transfers long preferred by liberals/progressives, w/o increasing the production factors to meet new demand, will only serve to drive up price inflation or imports, or both, which would greatly limit the actual material impact of such transfers on their recipients. The experiences of the last two huge US economic stimuli (in response to the GFC & the COVID-19 pandemic) have made this blindingly clear. The greatest beneficiaries of the stimuli where Chinese exporters, & by extension the Chinese economy.
Ohio Mom
@Steve LaBonne: Yes, if AOC was from somewhere else, where there wasn’t a Congressional seat filled by a lazy old man, and a population of voters who would support her (just googled, her district is 52% Hispanic), we would have never heard of her.
When people say they wish she would run for a higher office, all I can think is, Why? She can do great things right where she is. Nancy Pelosi did just fine for us as a mere Representative.
Bupalos
@Steve LaBonne: well right. No one has any idea what he’s saying. How would you paraphrase his description of this moment? Do you think it’s politically effective?
My thesis is that ordinary people simply do not understand what the orthodox Democratic line even is. That we don’t speak a language that resonates. AOC speaks regular human.
anitamargarita
All I can say about the price of eggs is that anyone who is able to should keep at least 2 hens. They eat your kitchen scraps, and give you delicious eggs to eat and manure for your garden.
Steve LaBonne
@mark: And to be clear, she is one of the Democrats I most admire and others in similarly safe seats should be following her example. But anyone who thinks EVERY Democrat is able to follow her example is… someone whose understanding is defective.
Steve LaBonne
@Bupalos: I wouldn’t do children’s homework for them in the old USENET days and I won’t do yours.
mark
@Steve LaBonne: I have been following her since that time and very much liked what I have seen.
The latest one that has spurred my imagination is Jasmine Crockette. Still fairly new, but I do like her skills with the English language.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
I wasn’t suggesting that Tic Tok refugees on Xiaohongshu bring up politics, I was just pointing out that it’s not possible, and counterproductive to the ethos of the site.
Tic Tok refugees are loving Xiaohongshu because it’s not toxic and is responsive.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I think this is such a good point I am posting this again.
The other thing about things like the Lincoln project is they get there are only two choices in any American election – someone who wants to try their best, what ever their short comings, or a total useless asshole and don’t waste time with some third party bs.
Belafon
@Lord Fartdaddy (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): We all know $8 is less than $3. That’s what the dollar sign means.
Bupalos
@Steve LaBonne: what if I say “please?”
No beef. Everyone is cranky. Was just interested in the perspective of how someone would paraphrase the dem response in simple language that resonates.
MinuteMan
Put all your rotten eggs in one basket and then watch the basket. However, the capitol is a terrible place to put the basket but that’s the wisdom of the masses.
Belafon
@Steve LaBonne: And our biggest ability to fight in WW2 was being far away from the front line.
Trivia Man
@Lord Fartdaddy (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): if they didn’t get there with reason – reason wont get them out of it
Quinerly
We are a laughingstock. The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) started using the term “Gulf of America” to refer to the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, one day after President Trump signed an executive order setting in motion the process to change its official name.
“The Hill” reporting
Bupalos
@YY_Sima Qian: You really need to give it a rest. Your posts are infuriatingly well thought out and informative and the breadth of knowledge is just frankly disgusting. This is NOT a what the internet is for.
Jay
https://homesteadingfamily.com/preserved-eggs-water-glassing-eggs-for-long-term-storage/
Jay
@Quinerly:
Ya know, the Gulf of Mexico never froze Floridah! but the Gulf of ‘Merica did on it’s first day on the job.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
And there was a notable group on the left that did nothing but fight Pelosi the entire time because she used the wrong words doing it.
Quinerly
@Jay:
Laughing emoji
mark
@Quinerly: Just name everything America. The Dallas Cowboys will henceforth be known as the America Americans. The New York Yankees will be known as the America Americans. Just name everything America.
Jay
@mark:
What about the “World Series”?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@mark: I personally wondering if the proper way to troll Trumpers is calling the country Baja Canada or North Mexico. But the “United America of America” is amusing.
Jay
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
But you aren’t united.
mark
I have a coworker that is a major maga fan. He came from New Mexico back in 2012. He lost his home in the financial crisis. Lied to the court to fight eviction, etc. Got a job in the Seattle area in 2012. First day he showed up on the job he was telling everyone that the financial crisis was only in the second inning. Everyone that had a mortgage was going to lose their house. His prediction was a major miss.
Anyway, Ralph has a couple of ZZ’s in his last name. His wife’s last name was Appodaca. Lot’s of guy’s in the office think he is a Mexican. Besides the last name, he has olive skin, black hair, and brown eyes. Could very easily be confused for a Mexican.
Didn’t show up for work on Wednesday. Wonder if he got picked up in the sweeps.
Glidwrith
@satby: Did you ever see the old Star Trek episode that split Kirk into two people/personalities?
One was savage and brutal, the other compassionate but unable to make decisions. Both sides were needed to survive and lead.
I feel we are split in two: we elevate reason and compassion, but so many appear to lack the fire, the other side values loyalty to a fault and never admits they are wrong.
Do we need both sides traits to survive?
Please note this is NOT let’s join the Nazis, but an observation of general values: conformity, loyalty, achievement, compassion, etc, (h/t to Schwartz for articulating 10 human values, 1992).
Jay
@mark:
A lot of “Mexicans” became “Americans” when the US annexed large parts of Mexico.
Patricia Kayden
@JCJ: I also heard MAGAts claiming that VP Harris had the questions in advance. They refused to acknowledge that she cleaned Trump’s clock.
Jay
@Glidwrith:
Most of us, ( the nice ones), have the duality inside us. Because we are kind, considerate, care about others, etc, we do not walk around all day nursing imagined grievances and irrational anger. Each of us has a different level where our inner Hulk is unleashed.
Quinerly
@mark:
Interesting.
Apodaca is a somewhat prominent name in NM….Jerry Apodaca was a Dem governor from Las Cruces, NM. Lots of streets, parks, and buildings named after various Apodacas around the state. The only Apodaca I know personally identifies as a descendant of the original Spanish here.
Very interesting mixture of cultures here…especially Santa Fe. NA, Spanish, and Mexican.
RevRick
@Matt McIrvin: Purity is a deadly spiritual disease. On the right, they obsess about purity of blood, which of course leads down dark, racist paths. On the left, too many obsess about purity of ideology, which leads to self-righteousness and policing of political stances.
When Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,” he wasn’t interested in policing peoples’ adherence to certain dogmatic claims. As Soren Kierkegaard described it, purity of heart is to will one thing: the kingdom of love and peace that Jesus heralded. In other words, the main thing is the main thing.
A politician’s first job is to get elected and re-elected so that they can do the main thing of carrying out the broad agenda.
It annoys me to hear Democrats bitch about Sinema and Manchin, and now, Fedderman, for shitty votes or public noises. None of Biden’s agenda would have passed and none of his court nominees would have been seated without their support. Manchin did so knowing he had no future and Sinema was a flake, but when it came to the main thing, they came through.
And as Democrats, our main thing is to train our fire on Republicans.
YY_Sima Qian
@Bupalos: Ha, thanks! However, I don’t have much original insight myself, I just aggregate & synthesize from people I follow who do offer such insight, & often they are outside of the longstanding orthodoxy prevalent in the US (& the West in general).
Citizen Alan
@Bupalos: i won’t dignify that son of a bitch by calling him wilmer.
mark
@Jay: The border changed and people became Mexicans or Americans. My wife is a Vietnamese national but an American citizen. I get all of that.
Jay
@Citizen Alan:
wilmer is not an honorific.
wilmer became a way to refer to him during the run up to 2016, when every mention here of his first or last name, caused a flood of BernieBro’s flooding the site with spam and vitriol after google searches.
mark
@Jay: Wilmer? Wasn’t he a character in Casablanca played by Elijah Cook?
sab
@Jay: Good point. I will tell my BIL in Batton Rouge.
Citizen Alan
@Jay: i am aware of the origin of the wilmer nickname. And I still say that it is more dignified than the words I would use to describe him.
Jay
So, evil thought.
Would it be wrong to flood social media of upcoming ICE Raids, on short notice,
pointing out that ICE is using fake warrants, claiming that passports, visa’s, birth certificates and military cards are fakes, and can hold people for 2 days without representation, sweeping up even US Citizens,
That everybody at the targeted site should have an Immigration Lawyer on retainer, they will need it, and to avoid work on the day of the raid, and the days straddling the raid, (3 days total)
Claim the info is from ICE leaks and Immigration Courts in the bag for ICE.
Give an address and date and time for the raid, embellish it with the numbers of ICE “agents” and detainee busses,
Don’t give Company names, just a detailed address,
like Amazon warehouses and HQ,
SpaceX,
X,
Tesla,
Mar a Lego,
Bedminster,
etc.
Too evil?
Craig
Thanks John Cole. This place is great and I’m glad you’re back to writing regularly here.
Dahlia
@mark: He was a character in “The Maltese Falcon” played by Elisha Cook Jr.
MobiusKlein
Not as high stakes as the rest of the shitler crap, but the national park system has halted hiring, rescinded offers for temp work. Unsanitary and unsafe National Parks is something normies can understand.
https://www.sfgate.com/national-parks/article/hiring-freeze-national-parks-job-offers-rescinded-20052544.php
dc
@Jay: This disinformation will hurt immigrants the most, it will cause panic.
Jay
@MobiusKlein:
They aren’t even hiring people to rake the forests?
That won’t go well.
Jay
@dc:
I think you missed the point.
The disinfo is to be targeted against major Corporate Dolt 47 supporters, causing them to have work disruptions,
Hurt their bottom line and cause “Mercans to question how they can “prove” to ICE that they are legally “Mercans, ( 2 days in jail, and a Immigration Lawyer with copies of their doc’s on file).
As we know with Felon Musk, lot’s of tech companies are skirting the rules, but they are rich TechBro’s and have never had to account, so,……….. hit them where it hurts.
Dolt 47 boasted that he brought in a bunch of immigrants on visa’s for his properties, because ‘Merican’s can’t cook, wait tables or serve wine. Yeah right. Dolt 47 never got nobody a visa.
Quinerly
@MobiusKlein:
Thanks for posting this.
I recommend Alt National Park Service on FB and BlueSky.
BeautifulPlumage
Thank you J.C.!!! All of this post!
I also appreciate AL, MM, & WG posting such thoughtful pieces recently. RJ has been a welcome addition & Adam’s continued spotlight on Ukraine is essential reading. Thank you, everyone for your time & effort to keep this community informed and active.
dc
@Jay: I understand your point, mine is that the ones who will suffer will be panicking immigrants. No one should make up rumors about the presence of I.C.E. anywhere.
Jay
@dc:
There are reliable sources in Immigrant communities for monitoring, advising and documenting ICE raids from the last time.
I am talking about panicking the MOU with specifically targeted misinformation attacks, like they do the rest of us.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@mark: He was the gunsel in The Maltese Falcon.
Baud
I appreciate what they did, but I never elevated them above any Democrat. I see plenty of strong Dem voices. Not all of them all the time, but enough. YMMV.
Baud
@satby:
No lie told.
MattF
Calling the Gulf of Mexico the ‘Gulf of America’ always reminds me of calling 6th Avenue ‘Avenue of the Americas’. Different politics, but the same stupid error.
Baud
I like what AOC has been doing. But if her fans keep using her as a basis for scolding other Democrats, that negativity is going to reflect on her and stunt her success. IMHO.
WTFGhost
@Glidwrith: In a democracy, somehow, in some way, the compassionate and decent have to join together and recognize each other as on the same side, even if they have lots of squabbles.
Because there will always be ruthless assholes who simply *don’t care* who will band together instead.
There’s nothing about being good/kind/compassionate/empathic that means you can’t be ambitious or decisive or, when necessarily, efficiently brutal.
The hard part is convincing the good guys that the ruthless assholes *are* ruthless assholes. It’s especially hard in today’s wishy-washy media environment, where people don’t want to take a stand, and lose reader/viewership.
If I had an answer to *that*, communicating what needs to be fire through pablum, I’d have used it already. Alas, as Charlie Brown learned, wishy-washy is *not* the key to happiness.
Ramalama
@Ohio Mom: do your congress people have faxes? Some lefty blogger who used to work on the Hill wrote that faxing was in many cases more effective than phoning in.
Nit sure that’s true any longer, but maybe?
schrodingers_cat
@satby: Many white people in our coalition don’t see non white people as equals, whereas the Rs are a more homogeneous group.
Betty Cracker
Repubs have pitched internecine battles all the fucking time. Right now, the wingnut supermajority in Tallahassee is pantsing “flailing guy losing relevance” Ron DeSantis. Another example ripped from the headlines: Trump sycophants Steve Bannon and Elon Musk squaring off like a pair of mangy trash pandas fighting over a rotten cantaloupe rind in a dumpster.
Oh, but Repubs all agree Trump is the avatar of God made flesh, and their willingness to circle the wagons around his flaccid old orange ass is something Democrats should aspire to? No thanks. Also, remember when a substantial portion of Repub primary voters pulled the lever for Haley or DeSantis AFTER Trump had locked up the nomination? Yeah, that happened.
I think the bases of the Dem and Repub parties — and by that I mean the people who register as party members, reliably vote in primary and general elections, donate, volunteer, etc. — have a roughly equivalent level of party loyalty. Elections are won or lost according to the whims of low-info/propensity voters who aren’t strongly affiliated with either party.
They shifted left in 2020, and they shifted right in 2024. We need to understand what drove their decision making (some factors are obvious, others not so much, IMO), but it doesn’t indicate a character deficit in Democrats.
TBone
@WTFGhost: how about stuff like
Too much?
lowtechcyclist
@Steve LaBonne:
True, but most Congresscritters of either party are in safe districts. I counted it up awhile back, and easily over 100 Dem Representatives are in districts of D+10 or better.
So while far from all Dems in the House are in a position to do what AOC is doing, half or more of them are. Being in a safe district is not exactly some unique thing that only AOC and a few others have.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Agree. But people keep wanting to talk about character deficits in Dems. Too left, too right, too feckless, too radical, too focused on social issues, too corporate, etc.
zhena gogolia
@JCJ: Exactly.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Right, but it’s nothing new, and it’s not exclusive to Dems. Repubs have the exact same type of fights.
After Repub losses, I’ve seen Repubs bemoan their party’s inability to stick together like Dems. I always think to myself, if only you knew…
WTFGhost
@Betty Cracker: One thing that Republicans do that Democrats do, is, they fight to define a candidate, using whatever “anti-family, gun-grabbing, etc.”
They coordinate on whatever seems to work best with their target market, and they work all levers.
“Joe Biden failed Afghanistan!”
“This is Joe Biden’s economy, every bit of pain you feel, start 1/20/21”
“Sleepy Joe Biden isn’t up to the job”
“Joe Biden should have done truckloads more for the Palestinians, even in today’s political climate!”
“Joe Biden is comical – see us make fun of his stutter!”
“Joe Biden walks a bit funny – OLD OLD OLD!”
Now, why does that work, and anti-Trump doesn’t work as well? Well – a lot of it is anger at Trump, which gets turned into proof that he’s “getting the right people angry”.
Another thing is, jeezum criminey, weren’t ANY of you six-year-olds? Don’t you remember *anything* about how you pick on people from back then? You ignore the truth and go for the laugh – you have to find something to laugh *at* and then mug it for all its worth, trying to make the target feel like shit.
And if it gets “the target” on ToughShit, I mean, TruthSocial, so much the better. Because “the target” is so thin-skinned any good mockery will draw his ire.
Now, some of you are saying “we learned not to be mean like that when we were six years old!” Yes, but when you were six years old, you weren’t trying to save the nation. Politics ain’t beanbag, except when RightWing cops shoot beanbag shotgun loads at “mouthy” protestors, and then, it includes firearms, which kinda proves the point.
Hang up the nice, kind, work-together-children that you learned to be and remember the little nasty streak inside you and let it loose on defining Trump as anything *other* than angering liberals, or committing injustice.
You don’t want them drinking liberal tears – you want them feeling like it’s not fair you just pointed out Don Diaper Don is his proper name “in the family” because he’s the Don, see, and his name is Don, see, and, well, you can figure out the rest, right?
“Oh, he’s Mr. President in public, but, in the organized crime unit known as the Republican Party USA, ‘the family,’ he’s Don Diaper Don. To join the family, you have to let him use your (I better leave this out, just to be on the safe side) for a (ibid), or publicly humiliate you.”
Matt McIrvin
@YY_Sima Qian: The discussion I mentioned above was part of a long conversation about the future of social media and whether federated systems without a corporate-controlled “algorithm”, along the lines of Mastodon, survive. Will there be a viable replacement for Facebook Groups and Pages for organizations? Is Pixelfed a viable replacement for Instagram? etc.
And I’ve noticed a bunch of tributaries of the discussion where someone who is apparently a legit user, less sus than the one I mentioned above, starts going off on how the answer is just to switch to RedNote, because that’s great and a lot of fun.
Which indicates to me that they actually don’t care at all about the above freedom-and-control concerns, but they *have* noticed that RedNote is a great experience that the US services are currently not giving them. And I wonder if the pull of a good experience is strong enough that trying to create a system that’s robust against authoritarian control in the long term is pointless.
raven
@WTFGhost: You want to know what they think?
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
FWIW, I think their base is bigger than our base so we rely more on less dedicated voters. But I can’t say I’ve looked up data.
I personally don’t care that much about the internecine fights Dems have online, unless people are spreading misinformation. If people want to walk away because they’re not getting what they want, they’re free to do so.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Entertainment is king.
WTFGhost
@TBone: Well, not too much for me, but a good example of why, um, squabbles might arise. I know some would be shocked by that, or think it’s misogynist and somehow, we want to both be empathic to the shocked folks (while encouraging expansion of humor), and encouraging to the shock-jock (so to speak).
Because Republicans *will* use any lever they can. Stephen Colbert said he thought Trump’s mouth was like a cock holster for Putin, and apologized, but I understood it wasn’t anti-GAY. The point was not that it was a welcoming place for a rooster, but a welcoming place for *PUTIN* to plant his rooster. Strange thing to name a stag chicken coop, but always remember, even a stag chicken coop can only have two doors.
Four doors aren’t coupes; they’re sedans.
Steve in the ATl
@raven: what’s even more amazing is that that unhinged rant came from a college football site!
TBone
I saw a new word today (re: Franklin Graham insulting the Right Reverend Mariann Budde):
hypochristian
(like hypocrite)
Mood music
https://youtu.be/JrNisplN3aU
MomSense
@mayim:
Nope. They’ve already been in Lewiston Auburn.
WTFGhost
@raven: Right. Wouldn’t you rather have them screeching at you to respect the OFFICE due to mockery of the bald fat felon they call a party leader? Maybe wear ’em down to the point that they’re a bit too tired to make up conspiracy theories?
I mean, what you showed me was proof positive that anger won’t work, because they’ll turn it around and not care. “YAH! You’re so angry at Trump which PROVES YOUR [sic] EVIL!”
I know some people think I lecture too much, but, stop, and think, and see if you don’t agree. If they’re *that* grievance fueled, us being angry just makes ’em happy.
How about us being happy, at their misery? First step in being happy in their misery: make them miserable.
(Yes, I stole the first step from the rabbit stew recipe.)
MagdaInBlack
@raven: Well! I knew they think the same of us as we think of them. How does one “message” for that?
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Gallup party affiliation stats for 2024:
Repubs: 28
Dems: 28
Indep: 43
The link gives those stats over time. They fluctuate but are generally even in the absence of a sea change like the financial crisis and Obama ascendency. Independent affiliation is almost always larger than either party.
This doesn’t tell us which bases are more engaged, but the Dem and Repub track record on winning presidential elections is pretty even too, at least in this century.
Baud
@WTFGhost:
Agree.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Thanks for looking that up.
TBone
@Baud: that’s what pwning the libs means, foundationally.
Baud
@TBone:
Maybe some libs like being owned.
Maybe it’s their kink.
TBone
@Baud: ugh, that’s a kink that might should be shamed.
https://bsky.app/profile/acyn.bsky.social/post/3lghbfwvi3o2i
Baud
@TBone:
Hard to do. It’s not like anger isn’t justified, and you can’t just tell everyone never be angry.
TBone
@Baud: oh I don’t mean no anger, I mean letting them see you cry!
Without righteous anger, I would be nothing.
Princess
@anitamargarita: this is terrible advice right now (it’s great advice at other times!). Backyard hens are extremely vulnerable to bird flu and slightly clueless hen owners handling their birds are a great vector for getting it into the human population.
MomSense
@anitamargarita:
With H5N1 spreading so rapidly, this is probably not a good time. I was planning to start raising hens for eggs this spring but I’ve been told that it’s too risky.
Geminid
In the “Big if True” department. From Gönül Töl, director of the Middle East Institute’s Turkish Program and author of Erdogan’s War (2022):
The Qandil Mountains near the Turkish/Iraq border are the PKK’s base now. Mr. Demirtas is one of the jailed leaders of Turkiye’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party. National Assembly Members from DEM have met recently with Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on Imrali Island in the the Sea of Marmara* since 1999.
Ms.Töl added:
Ocalan founded the PKK i 1978 and commenced hostilities against the Turkish state in 1984. The conflict has claimed the lives of 40,000 people since then. Turkiye Kurds number around 20 million out of Turkiye’s population of 85 million.
Geminid
Has anyone watched Hakeem Jeffries’ press conference from yesterday? My Atlanta friend said it was pretty good. He’s a big Jeffries fan.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: The situation with Trump in play seems to have reversed the differential turnout demographics. Republicans used to have a huge advantage in lower-turnout midterm, off-year and special elections because their voters were more motivated to turn out in these elections (which had to do with it being a higher-income, more-educated base), whereas a lot of the Democratic base only voted for the President every four years.
Now it’s the other way around. We seem to do better at mobilizing people for parties and issues in the low-turnout elections, but the Republicans have a lot of voters who just love them some Trump.
Whenever Trump is out of the picture (which will happen, though it might be 20 years from now–he’s not immortal), who knows what happens next.
WTFGhost
(deleted)
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: It’s true that many other Democrats are in safe districts. They lack Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s celebrity though. Rep. Jennifer McClellan’s Richmond-based district ids safe, but if she says something no one in national media pays attention. Ocasio-Cortez is a “star,” and McClellan is not.
Raven
@Steve in the ATl: indeed! Derek triggers them!
Chris Johnson
@YY_Sima Qian: Absolutely. Notes to take for any hypothetical future left-wing leaders.
Not the purpose of the current right-wing leaders, as they’re actively trying to wreck the country as fast as possible before it becomes obvious what they’re doing.
AM in NC
@Old Dan and Little Ann: Good for her. These false Christians need Christ’s actual words quoted to them. If they have a problem with the words, that’s on THEM, not on the person quoting.
We need them to know that WE SEE THEM and we won’t be silent about what we see.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Geminid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0YUfAQ7TOk
It’s good, he’s good.
But “If a Democrat gives a press conference and nobody hears/sees it, did it really happen?”
That particular source, AP’s YouTube channel, garnered him just about 9K views, that’s not exactly viral. Maybe better than an almost Top-10000 Blog but still.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bitching about Dem messaging, there’s nothing wrong with him, it’s simply trying to push out the messaging in some systematic way that reaches and engages people and we play on a decidedly tilted playing field.
Bupalos
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: He’s making a lot of noise there about the mortgage interest deduction. Pretty much putting it on equal terms with Medicaid. I hope that’s not a Dem priority, you have to pay a lot of mortgage interest (ie own a pretty expensive house) before that’s a benefit.
”Contract against America” is both recycled and clunky. “Of the billionaires, by the billionaires, and for the billionaires” is good.
In general Jeffries delivery is basically the opposite of populist, he always sounds like he’s stating talking points and never like he’s talking to you.
BellyCat
@raven: Yup. And they ALL think the same thing, coincidentally.
YY_Sima Qian
@Matt McIrvin: There is nothing inherent to social media that it must be toxic in the way Facebook/Instagram/Reddit/X are, & TikTok has just transformed to. They become that way because the capital owners behind the platforms incentivize & magnify such behavior to drive traffic/”engagement”/clicks so they can maximize ad revenue. Anonymity also incentivizes bad behavior on the part of individual users, because there is very little real life repercussions to such behavior, even w/ content moderation.
However, even w/ the CPC regime’s censorship, even w/ the regulations that mandate active moderation by the Chinese media platforms, even w/ revenues coming more from e-commerce rather than advertising, even w/ ID requirement for registrations & reveal of IP addresses (at least to the province), RedNote is still unique among Chinese social media platforms for its relative lack of toxicity. The discourse on the other social media platforms, such as Weibo, Douyin, WeChat, Jinri Toutiao, Bilibili, can be as toxic as on Western platforms. Perhaps RedNote is unique in that its user base had been overwhelmingly female (+ LGBT), & the platform’s founder (also a woman) has persisted in catering to that user base & create a positive & supportive atmosphere, as well as an ethos that avoids politics & controversy in general.
In your specific example, it could be a bot/paid user operating as part of an influence operation, or it could just be someone alienated from the US establishment. In the latter case, the person could see USG (both Dems & Repubs) as the enemy (or at least aloof/negligent) that does not serve the his/her interests (trying shut down TikTok & disrupt the lives of many millions being just the latest example), thus the user would highlight the ICE raids as an example of an oppressive USG, becomes enamored w/ RedNote because it is a rebellious act in contravention of what USG might wish for & RedNote is showing a window into a slice of Chinese society that is wildly divergent from that presented by USG & US MSM, & finally supports 3rd party because the user is disillusioned w/ the major parties.
I have seen plenty of American users express exactly the above sentiments on RedNote to explain their feelings to the Chinese users, & some have been cross-posted back to TikTok/Instagram/X.
Miss Bianca
@Ohio Mom: in fact, I wish more good Representatives * and Senators* on our side would just *stay put* and not succumb to the lure of running for higher offices that they end up losing – and then we end up losing them altogether.
Miss Bianca
@Jay: Not too evil, just evil enough…
YY_Sima Qian
@Chris Johnson: Well, Project Stargate is transparently a grift by the AI Big Tech to boost their valuations.
LLM models w/ reinforced learning launched by Chinese players (DeepSeek, Kimi, ByteDance) w/in the past week have shown performance comparable to/better than the latest closed models from US AI players (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) & clearly superior to the latest open source models from the US (Meta), all trained at a small fraction of the cost & w/ a small fraction of resources (due to the US export controls of the most advanced GPUs from Nvidia). All of these models are charging a small fraction of the cost to run US models. All 3 teams have published detailed papers explaining their work, so that others can examine their work. In the cases of DeepSeek’s R1 & Kimi’s K1.5, they are completely open sourced w/ the MIT license (meaning virtually nothing kept proprietary & no restrictions to use), so that other people can try to replicate & build on their achievements, including on local devices. The smaller 1.5 – 7B parameter models (from Baidu’s Qwen & Meta’s Llama) distilled by the R1 can now fit locally on your mobile phone or laptop, & yet still as as powerful as the latest open models offered by Meta’s Llama that are an order of magnitude larger & can only be run from Meta‘s servers.
The consensus from people working in or observing the AI space seems to be that the past week has marked a sea change, & that there is no moat for the leading US AI firms developing closed models which they intend to charge an arm & a leg to use. How can the stratospheric valuations of OpenAI & Anthropic be justified if Chinese developers will be only < 3 months behind w/ comparable offerings that are an order of magnitude cheaper to use, many of them open source? How can Nvidia‘s gargantuan market capitalization be justified if the Chinese developers have show that one can create comparable products w/ 2 orders of magnitude lower GPU resources (via inspired systems/process design & engineering, i.e. brainpower as opposed to raw compute)?
So, the US$ 500B Project Stargate may follow the fate of Foxconn‘s much ballyhooed investment in Wisconsin at the start of the 1st Trump term.
Ruckus
@Lord Fartdaddy (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
They like him because he speaks their language, or at least their slant of it. shitforbrains is a wealthy (not likely anywhere near as much as he claims…) land/business owner. (And he’s not very good at either….) They like him because of who and what he is. He’s the side of humanity that thinks humanity be damned, money is the key to EVERYTHING. And more money is a bigger key. Very few exceptional human beings over the ages have been wealthy – because they are exceptional because they see humanity and individual humans and what they do as part of the story of life, not their bank accounts as the end all be all of existence. How many humans do any of us know that are damn good humans and tons of money is one of the least of their thoughts – not number one. I have known quite a few. I’ve even known some with MONEY and while they enjoyed it, money was not anywhere near their top priority.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
I don’t know, look what we are doing here, today. (This is not the first time I’ve made this comment.)
Most of us have never met the rest of us. Sure some of us have been to meetups and talked among the group for an hour or 3, but a lot of us have never met the rest of those on this site. And a number of the people we have met don’t seem to be on here any longer. I’ve been on this blog since almost the beginning and I’ve met about 30-50 people over that 20 yrs, a number of whom are no longer commenting.
This concept is what I call back fence talk (maybe, sometimes, often on a slightly higher level….) And I’ve made a very similar comment to this entire one at least once before this. This is humanity, on a level that used to be extremely rare, to communicate to this large an audience about most anything. How many here have been at the podium of a large, full auditorium, giving a speech? I have, more than once. This is a larger audience. And it’s not a speech, it’s discussions and back fence talk. These go both ways. This may seem somewhat inconsequential but it is different than most of humanity has had for 99% of it’s existence.
Ruckus
@Jay:
That inner Hulk is about survival and how each of us sees it. We all have some level of inner Hulk, but in an even somewhat civilized society don’t need that to come out all that often. In an extremely civilized society we may need that Hulk side more often because there won’t likely be a lot of room for any difference between different humans. And we are different, thankfully. It’s one of those things that makes up humanity, actually NOT being production line similar.