Everything is awful, I have no solutions, so here are some pictures of Steve being groomed today:
The annual lion cut/breaking of the circle of trust is done for the year, although I will probably do it again in May when I am in WV.
Also, it appears that Trump now wants to occupy Gaza, with American troops taking control, so a special shout out to the Genocide Joe crowd who said things couldn’t get worse with Trump- that’s paying real dividends for the people of Gaza.
My current mood could be described as near homicidal.
Raoul Paste
It’s two weeks in. Pretty hard to pace oneself at this rate.
Quinerly
I came in from working in my yards. 65 degrees here at 7000 ft outside of Santa Fe. Turned on the TV and saw that presser in real time. I guess you heard the “Riviera of the Middle East” part.
different-church-lady
Use your power for good…
Quinerly
@Raoul Paste: “America is acting as a rogue state at this point.”
Rula Jebreal is lit
Freemark
@Raoul Paste: I think I know how Sham felt trying to keep pace in the Belmont Stakes. Good news is that neither Elon or Trump have the heart of Secretariat.
different-church-lady
“You know: morons.”
OCD
Dude.
The helmet.
I’m dead.
different-church-lady
@Freemark: They got plenty of what was under Secretariat…
Michael Bersin
What else could possibly go wrong?
Cue: giant asteroid
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@different-church-lady:
Never gets old:
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/get-a-brain-morans
different-church-lady
@Michael Bersin: Dunno, giant asteroid lookin’ kinda good right now…
Steve LaBonne
@Michael Bersin: That would be the thing that goes right. We should be so lucky.
Luther Siler
I cannot deal with that helmet. That takes the Cone of Shame to an entirely new level.
sentient ai from the future
Just saw a headline on Yahoo finance, “Andreesen Horowitz hires Daniel Penny” and I just cant
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I’m sure it’s been posted elsewhere but I had to do a little digging to find the full AOC Instagram stream. I’m not on Instagram but I didn’t have any problem being allowed to view it.
It’s helpful, it really is. I’m going to re-watch to get her main points but off the top of my head:
That’s about all I remember. As I said, I’m going to re-watch and jot down the specifics.
UncleEbeneezer
Yup. Trump is now:
1.) Rescinding the green cards foreign students involved in Gaza protests and threatening to sick DOJ/ICE on them,
2.) Actively talking about purposeful removal of all Palestinians from Gaza,
3.) Already has ended sanctions against Israeli settlers (that Biden put in place!)
All of these are things that neither Harris nor Biden, would’ve ever, in a million years, done. Anyone who truly cared about Palestinians should have been doing everything in their power to elect Harris (or re-elect Biden) and calling out every asshole trying to use Gaza to kneecap their chances.
You didn’t need to be a foreign policy or I/P expert to see quite clearly that Harris (or Biden) would be infinitely better for Palestinians than Trump. It was obvious, plain as day, for anyone to see…anyone not drinking the “Anti-Zionist” Kool Aid and hopped up on the high of yelling “Genocide Joe.”
I hope I’m wrong, but there’s a good chance we are about to see what Ethnic Cleansing/Genocide REALLY looks like. The harsh truth is that there was always a world of difference between the policies of Harris/Biden and Trump. BothSides were never even remotely the same. We tried to warn you…
HinTN
Steve’s looking good.
PsiFighter37
Hope all those idiots, particularly the Muslim-Americans in Michigan, enjoy reaping the fruits of what they sowed.
Also, if American boots actually set foot in Gaza, it is going to make the guerilla war in Iraq look like child’s play.
Quinerly
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Didn’t even click. (St. Louis) Cardinals shirt guy?
Mai Naem mobil
@sentient ai from the future: is there something in the water in SV? Is there a lower level of oxygen? Do they all do shrooms and ketamine?.Andreesen sounds like a delusional nutjob.
Leto
Politico: Foreign aid freeze results in mass layoffs that could ‘crash’ the industry
bbleh
YOUR mood. Imagine how STEVE feels.
khead
So, pretty much the same as Steve then.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
Good, good.
Best wishes,
Scott.
KatKapCC
None of whom gave a single shit about Gaza.
Eolirin
@Leto: I’m willing to bet the Chinese will jump on the opportunity to fill the void, but with more strings attached.
Jackie
@OCD:
Me, too. But, Steve does look like a Boss ready to hop on his Hog… if the helmet wasn’t purple…
Timurid
Netanyahu is the dog that caught the train…
A Ghost to Most
Darth Steve.
KatKapCC
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I like her and I appreciate this, but:
is easy for her to say. For people who are terrified that their social security and/or disability checks are going to stop coming in and they won’t be able to pay their rent and bills, it’s not so simple.
Leto
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Just a mild correction: they’re coming for all of my/our benefits. The VA, retirement pay, disability pay, all of it. Project 2025 projects it just north of 160 Billion. When we talk about “defense,” let’s remember the part that they’ll cut the most out of the three main buckets. The part that’s always sacrificed.
Quinerly
@sentient ai from the future:
Disgusting.
That hit about the time I came in from outside. Read that before that presser. Made a nice Manhattan with a nice craft rye and some new fancy French vermouth. Looks like I’m having a second one.
kindness
Never saw a cat helmet like that. I’d be wary of the razor claws of death more myself.
Quinerly
@Another Scott:
Love me some Cheryl Rofer. Wish we had her back here.
scav
It’s getting to be a Cirque de Sole-lie level of performance rings populated by clowns juggling flaming cow pies, ammonium nitrate, fireworks and bubblegum. An unknown number of clowns are blind but a solid third are suicidal. Three only have one arm.
Anne Laurie
Well, the Santorini volcanic chain has been rumbling in a way that makes seismologists nervous, and there’s always the Yellowstone caldera…
Eolirin
@PsiFighter37: It’s not that hard to beat guerrilla warfare if you have no compunctions about killing literally everyone and flattening the entire theater of operation.
If Trump orders our troops to completely clear Gaza of people, and they don’t just all refuse, he can accomplish it. It’s a massive war crime, but it’s what the Nazis did to the Warsaw Ghetto. The Israelis have come pretty close to doing the same but haven’t quite been willing to go there.
Ha Nguyen
All of the money supposedly saved for the tax cut is going straight to our attempts to pacify Gaza Strip – so, you know mercenaries and contractors.
LeftCoastYankee
I sort have to do my human version of the “end of winter de-fuzzification” even though it’s still winter. There should be a human version where it’s reversed and bigger so it catches all the head clippings.
Where are those late night nonsense inventions when you need them!
Steve is still a king.
Dangerman
I hope the dumb fucks that voted for him have their Kiddies at the front of the line at the recruiting office. Hell, Barron, come on down, you are the next contestant on the POS is wrong.
cain
@PsiFighter37:
It will be a shit show because the Palestinians in Jordan and other areas will be targeting Americans. They will want blood.
scav
So, does that rule out their cooperation with the US by now?
Quinerly
@Ha Nguyen:
Well, there was that EO to set up that Sovereign Wealth Fund.
That got lost in the avalanche coming at us.
mrmoshpotato
@Raoul Paste:
Ain’t that the fuckin’ truth!
cain
@KatKapCC:
Indeed, but a lot of MAGA are also taking those checks. MAGA outrage is going to be pretty intense. But not sure what they will do.
cain
@scav: Google and Meta are going hard right.
mrmoshpotato
@Michael Bersin:
I’ll welcome it.
Grace
They were telegraphing this at least 4 years ago, when Jared was rhapsodizing openly about the potential of luxury resorts on Gaza beaches. Here’s the sweet deal: we get to pay for a permanent military occupation to protect billionaire assholes frolicking at the exclusive beachfront resorts and condos developed by the Trump Corp.
Eolirin
@cain: If we survive this moment, we really need to make sure they aren’t able to memory hole that behavior and that they pay a price for it.
If we don’t, we don’t and it won’t really matter that much. We’ll have bigger issues.
PsiFighter37
@Eolirin: I don’t think the US can simply drop a truckload of bunker busters on the entirety of Gaza without there being material international pushback. There is very little broad support for Israel to begin with internationally. Doing something like that will likely result in immediate deterioration of relations with virtually every country in the world.
Spanky
These guys are absolutely stupid enough to cut benefits on veterans, people with intimate knowledge of weapons and high explosives. And many combat vets not being totally stable to begin with.
Things could get stochastic real fast.
KatKapCC
@cain: They’ll find some way to make it Biden’s fault. Or Pelosi, or Newsom, or Soros, or Jane Fonda, or anyone but Daddy Trump and Papa Musk.
p.a.
Might go to the library tomorrow, check on the histories of George III and his ministers, to see how relatively competent gvt officials deal with a lunatic leader.
CaseyL
Emerson College released a poll that purports to show 49% of voters approve of Trump’s actions over the past two weeks – in other words, everyone who voted for him loves it.
Which means there are no “persuadables,” no buyer’s remorse – not in the electorate, and certainly not among GOP office holders.
zhena gogolia
@CaseyL: They haven’t felt the effects yet.
Elizabelle
Poor Steve. He looks like he got his head stuck in a salad spinner.
Steve LaBonne
@CaseyL: We’ll see what happens after the large number who receive some kind of Federal benefits get cut off.
Parfigliano
@Another Scott: Pity Trump doesn’t give a shit what a Fed Judge orders.
KatKapCC
@CaseyL: I hope every one of them either loses their benefits or has an older or sick relative who does, and they ended up living in a fucking car. I hope they get their lights shut off, or their kid has to drop out of college. I hope they go broke trying to buy food. I hope they suffer. They deserve it.
Unfortunately, the rest of us have to suffer too, and we don’t deserve it.
Albatrossity
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Morans, like my senator from Kansastan…
Kay
@UncleEbeneezer:
Absolutely. Everyone should have ignored the 55k dead in Gaza and never mentioned it. Every other minority group in the United States can make demands of politicians EXCEPT for Muslims and/or Arab Americans. They should shut up and be grateful we only did some light war crimes and ethnic cleansing, rather than the heavy duty stuff.
Then we’d win! Win what, I don’t know, maybe win the denial of reality game, or win the “let’s all carefully ignore what’s going on right in front us game!”
If we had all just clapped louder we could have made Gaza disappear. Oh, right. We did make it disappear. Literally.
PsiFighter37
@CaseyL: They won’t stop disapproving of him until the stock market tanks or egg prices go too high. Or something like that.
Elizabelle
@Quinerly: I love Manhattans. Mine are not as fancy as yours. Enjoy!
Bill Arnold
@Michael Bersin:
The large asteroids that could hit the Earth are mostly identified, the really large ones are (nearly?) all identified.
Been watching the sun with great interest during this solar maximum.
A pandemic plague (or two) is another solid possibility.
There are several other possibilities.
mrmoshpotato
@Dangerman:
Be the first Trump trash on your block to have your kid come home in a box!
(Apologies to Country Joe)
Elizabelle
@PsiFighter37: Heard (on NPR in car!) that Waffle House is imposing a 50 cent per egg surcharge.
Don’t recall that situation with The Biden Inflation.
KatKapCC
@Kay: The fact that you are still doing this exaggerated defensive garbage is really telling. We told the “Gaza is the only thing that matters to me” crowd what they were doing, and they didn’t care. Millions and millions of people in this country are suffering and it’s only going to get worse and worse, but they didn’t give a shit before the election, and they don’t now, even though the one issue they claimed to care about is now ALSO going to get worse and worse. Anyone who refused to support Harris because of Gaza bears some of the blame for everything that is happening now.
MagdaInBlack
@Kay: We?
geg6
Both you and me, pal.
PsiFighter37
@Elizabelle: Don’t worry, the low-IQ crowd will undoubtedly now say “This was definitely the fault of Joe Biden, because these effects take a long to trickle down into the economy”, or something equally moronic.
Quinerly
Pam Bondi confirmed. 54/46
Fetterman was the only Dem voting for her.
Ohio Mom
@CaseyL: I think the bubble will burst, eventually. It will be ugly — most likely, another big recession, but maybe another pandemic, or something else catastrophic. They won’t all wake up but maybe enough will.
Elizabelle
@PsiFighter37: Fuck ’em. They would be both stupid and lying.
PsiFighter37
Also, a hearty ‘fuck you’ to John Fetterman, who expressed that there was some rationale to sending American soldiers to Gaza. I could justify some of his bullshittery on this topic previously, but no more. Fuck that guy.
Quinerly
@mrmoshpotato:
I chuckled.
TurnItOffAndOnAgain
Sorry, you can delete this.
Bupalos
ok. And how are you using that?
RevRick
@Raoul Paste:
@different-church-lady:
@JohnCole
You might try reading the Psalms, because in them people bear their souls. In Psalm 58, for instance, the Psalmist laments, “The wicked go astray from the womb; they err from their birth speaking lies. They have venom like the venom of a serpent…”
And so the Psalmist prays, “O God, break the teeth in their mouths…”
And there’s Psalm 137, which famously concludes, addressing oppressors through all time: “Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!”
Just a little palette cleanser.
PsiFighter37
@Quinerly: So that means that Hesgeth is the only nominee that Fetterman has found it appropriate to vote against. What a fucking asshole. He is riding the Sinema train extra-quick to getting primaried in 2028. Josh Shapiro, if he passes on running for the presidency in 2028, would absolutely destroy him in a primary. Hell, even Bob fucking Casey would probably annihilate him as well. What a goddamn embarrassment. I hope town hall attendees in Pittsburgh and Philly give him hell if he bothers to show his face.
Kay
@UncleEbeneezer:
Literally every international law entity in the world determined there was enough evidence of war crimes to issue warrants, but I’m sure they should defer to your expert analysis.
Not that you knew about the basis for the warrants. You’d have to NOT be actively engaged in pretending it wasn’t happening to follow it.
p.a.
What’s the status of the Yellowstone super volcano?
Asking for a friend…
pietro747
@different-church-lady: used to be a longtime lurker here for years and wanted to check in, and at the risk of pissing everyone off- yeah people who thought it’d be better under trump are dumb and trump is far worse… but also biden did the genocide! kind of unforgivable for a lot of people. I feel you should be enraged about what trumps doing and you should be enraged about what biden did to pave the way for him? sorry i know everyones gonna hate that just feel there’s really no moral high ground on the dem side. it is terrifying times for everyone.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@PsiFighter37:
Uh, yeah, actually, I imagine those are two examples of what it would take for at least some of his voters that voted for him in 2024 to stop approving of him
frog
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Remind whoever takes your call that Musk’s script kiddies have compromised massive databases. For these files
Avalune
@CaseyL: I had to listen to a coworker tell me how she basically chastised a student for being concerned that Trump was going to take their aid away. She also referred to the meeting about how funding could be impacted, DEI grant revenue will be killed and concerns with ICE as “a meeting to scare everyone about the cats living with the dogs and the dogs living with the cats” and I probably didn’t do my best to keep the what the fuck are you even talking about off my face. Plenty of Trumpers out there thinking everything is hunky dory.
Marc
Here’s an opposing opinion that will piss you all of, my bad: I’m sorry, but if a Democratic administration was supplying F-35s and 2000 lbs bombs to, say, Brazil, while they were engaged in bombing the hell out of Barbados and killing my relatives there, I wouldn’t hold my nose and vote for them either. The whole point was to try to get the Democrats to take this seriously enough to bring this shit to a halt (doing so just before Trump got into office wasn’t good enough). If the Democrats couldn’t do it, that’s as much on us as it is on people who were telling you how much this mattered to them (and the number are pretty clear that it wasn’t just Arabs in Michigan that caused Biden to lose). It does seem as if a lot of people just don’t care unless the people dying are white. Same as it ever was, I’m afraid.
Quinerly
@PsiFighter37:
I’m wondering if he got pressure from Dems to keep him in line on Hegseth. There was so much stuff swirling around that Tillis might defect and tank Hegseth. Obviously, Fetterman had to be a No under that scenario.
Honestly, I didn’t realize Fetterman had voted Yes on ALL of Trump’s nominees…..(but for Hegseth). Saying it a lot lately…..WTF?
Kay
@KatKapCC:
The protesters were right. Each and every allegation they made has now been validated in a series of investigations by just about every human rights org in the world. The same orgs we all relied on when we were protesting Iraq
Americans got to this place by lying to themselves and telling themselves everything was just fine as we overlooked or buried crime after crime after crime. It wasn’t fine.
Kay
@Marc:
Doesn’t piss me off. I agree 100%.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@PsiFighter37:
He’s not the person I thought he was. Fuck him
@Quinerly:
Hmm. It seems now the Dems are doing blanket opposition, aside from Fetterman, the asswipe. Good for them
West of the Rockies
Pace yourself, JC. Trump says a lot of shit. Most of it does not come to pass.
debit
@Marc: Biden didn’t lose.
Quinerly
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Sen Chris Murphy has been lit. Might be my favorite Dem of the moment.
You doing pretty good today? Hope so.
Jackie
@KatKapCC:
Exactly. I’m terrified of the potential suicides to come… FFOTUS WILL be 100% responsible for these deaths.
prostratedragon
“My current mood could be described as near homicidal.”
I hear it’s going around.
Ohio Mom
I’ve long described my feelings about Israel as very similar to Al-Anoners about the users in their lives, I’ve detached with love. Wish ‘em well, don’t want anything to do with them. Won’t have anything to do with them. Now I’ve added the pro-Palestinian/anti-Biden voters to that category.
I’m still very sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, of course they deserve self-determination and their own state. But their supporters in the U.S., a pox on them.
I’ve been disappointed with Democratic elected officials my whole life but I recognize that voting for them will is the only real choice. It’s not too hard to hold your nose, and they couldn’t bother to do so. Feh!
sab
We did laugn out loud when we saw Steve in his helmut. Out fifteen year old cat got his first lion cut last uear. He was a sweetie unltil they tried to put him in hs carrier, then ne chomped li,e leopard. Tney called toa sk if he was current on his rabies shots.
So does Steve like the helmut better than being stretched by histoenails on a washboard like they do in Ohio and West Virginia?
zhena gogolia
@debit: This is a fact that really has not sunk in around here.
Matt
The only time you bring up the genocide the rest of us have been watching the US literally PAY FOR for the last year is to punch left. Bravo!
Cole, you’re living proof that you can take the cowardly motherfucker out of the GOP but you can’t ever stop him being a cowardly motherfucker.
sab
@Avalune: My office has a birthday party every month that an employee has a birthday. I think I will call in sick this year. I can’t even socialize with some of these folks. I just feel ill.
debit
@zhena gogolia: I stepped away just before he stepped aside when things were very ugly here. Funny to see the same shit being spewed by the same people, even now months later.
UncleEbeneezer
@KatKapCC: Well at least they were strong in denouncing the rising wave of antisemitism and introspective about the way their Anti-Zionism might be helping to fuel it…wait, let me come in again…
m.j.
Well, you’re certainly not above torture.
CaseyL
Is the new pastry a return of a previous pastry? Don’t recognize the nym, but you never know…
Anyway, I just finished reading “A Walk in the Park,” by Kevin Fedarko, about his year-long project to walk the length of the Grand Canyon. It’s a humdinger, highly recommend.
The Grand Canyon has been on my bucket list for years and though I have absolutely no intention of doing anything remotely like Fedarko did (the list of people who have “through-walked” is quite short, and many who tried died in the attempt), my heart yearns after it because the things he saw traveling the backcountry are nothing short of stunning.
geg6
@zhena gogolia:
Well, now that Jimmy Carter has shuffled off this hellhole of a planet, somebody has to be history’s greatest monster.
KatKapCC
@UncleEbeneezer: Yeah, my queendom for the day they even deign to admit antisemitism exists.
sab
Lion cut. Isn’t the little guy supposed to keep his mane?
Avalune
@sab: ugh – yeah I can understand that even without the horrid politics. Most of those I work closely with are not MAGA but there are some and most of the union of which I am co-president is MAGA which is almost hilarious. I can’t save you guys from yourself – what do you want me to do?
Eolirin
@PsiFighter37: Yes, it would.
Is that enough to stop Trump? To be seen.
Lyrebird
@Avalune: Yikes. More power to you. I am thankful that where I’m currently teaching, the leadership is loudly showing readiness to fight. I don’t think we’re officially listed as a minority-serving institution, but we could be, and although we’re not over 50% Pell Grant, we could be.
@Ohio Mom: I admire your take. I wonder about the Venezuelan-Americans in FL and the orange menace taking away TPS for Ven. refugees. I don’t want their tears, I want our actually pluralistic and human-rights-respecting* country back. *imperfectly, but better than this new Trump-Musk admin!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
I’m sympathetic to the Palestinians here and in Gaza and I’m not happy at all with how Biden’s admin handled the war.
I think Arab-Americans were trending away from us anyway, sadly, and I’m not sure how much Gaza really mattered to them as a demographic, similarly to how many Latinos don’t care about the plight of the undocumented.
I recall reading a Guardian article from 2023, long before the I-P War started, about how the majority Muslim/Arab-American (and all male) city government of Hamtramck, MI were discriminating against LGBTQ+ people
A sense of betrayal’: liberal dismay as Muslim-led US city bans Pride flags
Hamtramck’s mayor, Amer Ghalib, heartily endorsed Trump last year, saying he was an “honorable man of principles”, paraphrasing. I recall reading there was already some shift in 2022, with some Arab-Americans responding to the Right’s “anti-CRT, anti-woke” campaign.
I don’t think Gaza actually motivated a chunk of these folks to vote for Trump, not really, I think they liked his far-right, anti-LGBTQ+ authoritarianism.
I doubt the leaders of Hamtramck and their voters give a shit about the genocide trans people are currently facing in this country.
And in that sense, I feel betrayed. Obviously not all Muslims/Arab-Americans, I want to make that abundantly clear, just as not all white people are all bad
Sally
People should, and should have, protested against the war in Gaza, and the US role in it. People could and can scream, march, phone and sit in. I can threaten to vote against Dems, but in the privacy of the voting booth, to not vote for Harris and the Dems, the only people who were going to put any, any, breaks on Bibi, let alone aid and abet, was an own goal. IMHO.
I am white hot with rage at Dems voting for these atrocious nominees. At best, they are unqualified, many are anti US, drunks, drug addicts, racists and misogynists. Will I not vote for a Dem who has voted to confirm one of these nominees? I can protest their votes, criticise loud and long, but I will not help a Rep gain a seat. I will not cut off my nose to spite my face. At least my Dem reps might listen to me when I protest their votes. R’s don’t give a damn.
I am white hot with rage at what Bibi and IDF is doing in Gaza, and now more than ever, the West Bank. All bets are off, we have lost any control and influence on what our government does wrt Israel and Gaza, so what good has it done to not vote Dems? Threaten, yes, not vote, no.
See Prof Snyder: You vote for a dictator, you lose control.
Dangerman
@mrmoshpotato: Convince me the MF isn’t hearing the Ghost of Ronnie in the halls. “Dude, Beirut was a party”.
Melancholy Jaques
@Eolirin:
Do the Israelis have the personnel & materiel to go there?
Quinerly
@CaseyL:
Great book.
I get over to the GC about once a year now. Prefer the North Rim over the more touristy South Rim.
Bill Arnold
@p.a.:
The progression of basaltic–rhyolitic melt storage at Yellowstone Caldera (01 January 2025, Nature)
(via)
Starfish (she/her)
@Marc: Don’t worry. It’s Islamophobia. It is just okay to attack Muslims because if we attack Muslims all the time, then we don’t have to look at what anti-Semitism is real or not.
And today, the anti-Semitism of a lady sharing some meme of this line from the Quran
followed by pictures of the top Hamas leaders responsible for October 7 that had been killed by Israel was really really bad, but we are going to keep going on about some people in Dearborn who didn’t vote for Harris because she didn’t bother to visit them instead of looking at when people are really really wrong.
Melancholy Jaques
@Quinerly:
Has Fetterman decided to be the new Manchin? Without the judge votes to mitigate?
PsiFighter37
@Eolirin: I think you would see a lot of senior resignations at the Pentagon. I cannot imagine a scenario where senior military officers simply sign off on a plan to effectively obliterate, in a non-nuclear portion, an entire region where incidents a fraction of the might of that would set off regional warfare.
That said, it’s clear we are through the looking class now. It’s the felon with imperial designs on nearly everywhere, while Musk wants to cut government spending so he can loot everything for SpaceX to go to Mars. Or something. I don’t even understand the rationale at this point aside from the cruelty.
Sally
@Kay: I agree with you, the protesters were and are correct. It is just one war crime after another. I am afraid it is now up to the ROW. Heaven help us!
Fair Economist
Donny Dementia is way too chickenshit to actually send troops to Gaza. Giving clear permission to Israel to final solution them may very well result in catastrophe.
Bill Arnold
@Jackie:
Halting USAID is another act of mass murder by the Trump administration, that has already started. He/they are murdering babies.
Quinerly
@Melancholy Jaques:
Actually, I think he has the potential to be worse than Manchin. Not a Joe Manchin fan but he was elected as a Dem for a LONG time in what might be the reddest state. Manchin constantly disappointed me but he came through for us many times. Judges.
Fetterman is bringing very little to the table. He seems to me to be a flake in a hoodie looking for attention and very unreliable. It would not surprise me if he switched parties.
different-church-lady
It’s merely the world’s most deadly real-estate buyout.
Eolirin
@Melancholy Jaques: Yes. They can completely blockade water and food and the entire population will be dead in a few months, and they have more than enough to do mop up afterwards.
That’s what they outright said they wanted to do at the start of the war and the Biden admin dissuaded them.
That the entire world would have turned against them at the slaughter of a million children might not have been enough to stop Likud otherwise. I’m not sure it’ll be enough to stop them or Trump now that they have a willing ally for their genocidal impulses.
@PsiFighter37: Getting a lot of the senior staff to resign or create a new reason to fire them might benefit the fascist takeover of the military. If Trump wasn’t impulse driven I’d even say it would make sense as a tactic to weed out the parts of the chain of command that wasn’t going to express adequate loyalty to Trump. Instead it’s just him saying whatever dumb thing happens to be in his head at the moment. But if he actually goes through with it, it will serve a purpose like that.
Quinerly
John Brennan will be lit tomorrow. (Lit seems to be my word of the day today)
CIA offers corporate style buyouts to ENTIRE workforce to align with Trump priorities
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/cia-offers-buyouts-entire-workforce-align-with-trump-priorities-wsj-reports-2025-02-05/
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Quinerly:
Yeah, I’ve been doing ok, thanks for asking
Geminid
@Grace: One thing that stood out about Jzred Kushner’s proposal to redevelop Gaza: he never repeated it. I expect Kushner’s Saudi benefactors told him they have their own plans, and they don’t want some dilletante muddying the waters.
Love them or hate them, the Gulf Arabs know the Israeli/Palestinian problem much better than the Americans or Europeans do. They’ve lived with it and the instability it creates for 77 years, and they are determined to see it settled.
Eolirin
@Quinerly: Fetterman is not going to be able to get in the way of anything until we have a trifecta, and the senate will likely be the hardest piece to get back, assuming we still get to have elections. If he’s unreliable not on the basis of donors but on the basis of which way the political winds are blowing, he’ll fall back to being a solid Democrat when we hold all the power again. We’re not super likely to get back to even 50/50 by the midterms, let alone the 51/49 where his vote straying to the Republicans would enable much.
Sinema was doing it for personal enrichment and so was Manchin. Fetterman feels like he’s doing it to shore up his voters in the aftermath of Casey and Harris losing the state. We do need his seat to stay blue. If we have a 50/50 senate and a Democratic president in 2028 and he’s tanking our bills, getting furious will be warranted. Otherwise… it’s kind of shrug.
Quinerly
@different-church-lady:
Well….we are getting that Sovereign Wealth Fund to use for investments. Silly me. I thought America was just going to buy TikTok.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/sovereign-wealth-fund-explaining-trump-124340845.html
Jackie
@Bill Arnold:
You’re absolutely right. FFOTUS is going to go down in history as a mass murderer – just like his adored Hitler.
Ksmiami
@different-church-lady: thinking about it…
Quinerly
@Eolirin:
He’s unreliable. Absolutely no reason for him to vote for Bondi today.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Eolirin:
Who’s going to care or remember (as in anyone who voted for Trump he’s presumably pandering to) what nominees he voted for in 2025 by the time of 2028? I think it’s unconscionable how he’s been acting, I mean christ, making mouth noises supporting sending US troops to Gaza?
Trivia Man
@Luther Siler: I hope he shares the old picture of Tunch trussed up like a kidnap victim, blindfold and all.
Dan B
@Marc: I was horrified that Biden and who knows who else in the administration kept sending weapons to Israel. How could they miss the killing of so many civilians?
TBone
In other news, Noah The Love Cat ripped an epic loud fart today, startling us both since we’ve never a heard a catfart before. Smelled them, yes – they will melt your nostrils! But today we heard a nice tear!
Maybe I should cut back on the probiotics!
TBone
@sentient ai from the future:
TBone
@Mai Naem mobil: Andreeson is a venture capital firm.
Ksmiami
@Matt: the Far left committed a huge own goal and frankly they’re not really reliable allies. They got bamboozled by tik tok videos
Marc
Sorry, I know perfectly well that Biden didn’t lose, as I voted for Harris. Being in my seventies, memory is a fungible thing. UncleEbenezer if I’m not already in your pie filter (you were in mine for a while), I know perfectly well anti-semitism exists, I have Jewish relatives and grew up in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. I just have a big problem with families dying over stupid shit that should have been resolved decades ago, whether they be Israeli, Palestinian, Yemeni, Afghan, Iraqi, Sudanese, or anyone else. I’ll bow out now.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Quinerly:
Interestingly according to the article, the Biden admin was also looking into establishing a sovereign wealth fund and it supposedly has bipartisan support. Countries like Norway have had successful sovereign wealth funds, but I doubt the US’ under Musk-Trump will fare as well, more likely to be like Malaysia’s 1MDB
Ksmiami
@TBone: Andreessen… I believe Marc Andreessen was the founder of Netscape
Geminid
People are talking like Trump actually intends to obliterate Gaza, but the reporting I see is that Trump has been leaning hard on Netanyahu to complete the first two phases of the the ceasefire deal so as to get to Phase Three.
The third phase is a “sustainable calm” and commencement of rebuilding, not an American bombing campaign accompanied a removal of the Gaza Strip’s population. So I would pay attention more to what Trump does and less to what he says.
Gloria DryGarden
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: made me think of moraines,
where a glacier has scooped everything out, leaving broken rock and an empty hollow to later fill with water.
i never though I’d be writing about glaciers moving through, in such a bleak tone.
mrmoshpotato
@TBone: Worse than dog farts?
scav
@RevRick: I know you mean well and I have kept this bottled for days. The single thing I do not need in my life at this point in time is yet another man waving psalms in my face telling me what to think, feel, do or be.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … MarylandMatters.org:
Good, good.
It looks like Kiewit is huge and that they’ve done roughly similar cable stay bridges in the past, like this 10-lane one in BC.
A reminder that Biden’s demand for full federal funding for the bridge replacement was included in the December Continuing Resolution.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Eolirin
@Quinerly: Except that he’s improving his numbers with Republican voters in the state, which he may need to win reelection, and she was getting in anyway.
Casey was really popular in PA and lost. Fetterman’s numbers are better now than they were a couple of years ago.
I don’t really care how anyone votes unless it actually matters. And it’s not going to for a very long time.
The whole it sends a message and Dems need to be doing X so people know what they stand for, and all the moral arguments really fall flat for me because it’s really clear the electorate doesn’t particularly give a shit about any of it, the people who are going to get the most incensed by it aren’t going to vote for Republicans, and we only do damage to our cause by not supporting Democratic candidates when they’re running against Republicans.
If his behavior is enough to get PA Democrats to primary him successfully with a candidate who can win, cool. More power to them.Otherwise we cannot afford to lose his seat and literally nothing else he does matters as long as he’s still going to vote on Democratic bills and for judges in some hypothetical situation in which we have the senate back and there’s a Democratic president.
The purity or lack thereof of Democratic messaging isn’t going to stop any of the awfulness. A full Democratic blockade of the nominees isn’t going to stop a single one of them from being approved. It isn’t going to influence the public in any meaningful way, and the midterms are a long way off still. Nothing right now is going to be remembered.
Steve in the ATL
@Avalune: seriously—I don’t know what to tell these idiots. USW, teamsters, IBEW, CWA, et al—they love Trump!
TBone
@scav: that blows an ill wind.
Marc
@Ksmiami: Andreessen was one of the founders, James Clark (ex-SGI) was the primary founder and recruited him.` II had lunch with Andreessen a few times in his pre-Netscape days (I was good friends with one of his co-workers). He was as much of a jerk back then as he is now.
TBone
@mrmoshpotato: WAY worse! Trust me on that.
Ohio Mom
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): That’s interesting about Hamtramck. My sister lives in Detroit so I know where it is.
As I recall, before it was a Muslim-majority city, it was heavily Polish and Catholic. They became Americanized to accept diversity, we can hope that the Muslim Hamtramck community will do same in a couple of generations. Or maybe not, if they are too fundamentalist.
Gloria DryGarden
@RevRick: i assume you are saying, these terrible things have happened before, and been written about, to convey these sorts of feelings and human experience
is that right?
I appreciate your posts. I Don’t read Bible, but there is wisdom in there, and you bring it to us, with your balanced kind perspective. Thank you.
me
@Ksmiami: Yup, he coauthored NCSA Mosaic and cofounded Netscape. After that he started the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. They’re deep in the cryptocurrency and AI bullshit swamp.
TBone
@Ksmiami: Andreeson Horowitz was the honorable mention in the original comment (#14) about hiring Daniel Penny. That’s a venture capital firm.
Gloria DryGarden
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: thank you. Is this list up on blue sky also?
Ksmiami
@KatKapCC: I heartily agree. And Kamala would have been much better on Palestine.
Starfish
@Geminid: What Kushner said was so stupid. Does he want to build beach resorts in Greenland also?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Eolirin:
All of that assumes that 2024 wasn’t a result of inflation-influenced “throw out the bums” or the impact of Trump’s cult. Dems did very well in 2022, which wasn’t that long ago.
I think Dems should do everything in their power to ensure they are not complicit with this evil administration’s actions, and to raise awareness of the five-alarm fire we are facing, to show they are fighting, to slow things down as much as possible. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t stop a single one. That’s not the point. I don’t think that’s “purity politics”.
And by the same token, one could argue Fetterman’s shitty actions won’t be remembered either
BellyCat
Depends on the trajectory of global warming …
TBone
Song of Songs
PsiFighter37
@Eolirin: The issue is not about messaging. The issue is that Fetterman, who was viewed for years as being left, much less moderate, has come across as the biggest federal-level appeaser of Donald Trump. I didn’t care about him much when he came across as Bernie Sanders in a hoodie, and I don’t care about him now as MAGA-lite in a hoodie.
What I want is someone who is willing to stand up in the circumstances where it is demanded. He is not willing to do that. Conor Lamb, for all the denigration he got for being a moderate Democrat, had real-life experience and would never have rolled over for MAGA belly pats like Fetterman is doing now. What we are seeing with Fetterman is the real-life consequences of putting someone who was previously a performative leftist lightweight, with very little meaningful professional / real-life experience to lean back on, into a seat of power. Now he is a MAGA-curious performative political lightweight.
I used to dismiss the insults that came Fetterman’s way because he did not have a lot behind his resume before he became mayor of Braddock. Now I am seeing he is nearly like Bernie Sanders, who also had virtually zero relevant experience for any meaningful job before becoming mayor of Burlington, VT. Professional politicians are generally a pretty bad breed, with few exceptions (like pre-2022 midterm Joe Biden, or nearly all of the French elite political class).
PsiFighter37
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Pepperidge Farm remembers, and as someone who went to college in Philly and was active in local politics at the time, I hope that Philly Democrats unite behind someone who can win the suburbs and boot that Pittsburgh jerkoff out.
me
@Marc: I think this article about Andreessen, https://prospect.org/power/2024-04-24-my-dinner-with-andreessen/ , has a money quote about him.
Geminid
@Geminid: Some typical reporting, from Israeli KANN News correspondent Sulemein Maseweidah:
Reporting by Axios’s Barak Ravid and others tracks with Masewaidah’s.
Now, these reports were made before Trump’s meeting with Netanyahu today, and it’s possible the PM changed Trump’s mind. I doubt that though. Trump doesn’t like Netanyahu much, and he trusts him even less. No one who’s dealt with Benjamin Netanyahu trusts him.
jimmiraybob
@Quinerly: “Riviera of the Middle East”
I was saying for the last week or so that his goal in Gaza (East Bank) was acquiring land to build luxury resorts. I get Bingo.
He is now openly talking international war crimes.
I’m gonna be at the MO capital tomorrow. I have talking points.
Eolirin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I can be clearer; I don’t care, and I don’t think it matters, if Fetterman is a corrupt morally bankrupt human being doing the wrong thing with votes right now. It genuinely doesn’t matter to me. I’m not in PA. That’s between him and his constituents.
I care what political outcomes we can get. I can read the senate maps. His seat is not replaceable unless there’s a hard swing to the left in the general electorate in places like Kansas and Iowa. This is the case even with 2024 being an outlier year that’s never repeated.
Right now Fetterman can’t actually make anything worse in terms of outcomes. Nothing he does or doesn’t do is going to affect what the Republicans do or don’t do, and they hold all the power in the Senate.
Sphex
@scav: preach!! ;)
Starfish
@Ksmiami: Yeah. He has been horrible for decades. Venture Capitalists think they’re gods
TBone
@Eolirin: thank you
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@PsiFighter37:
This is an interesting comment. What was different between pre-2022 midterm Joe Biden and afterwards in your opinion in the context of being a professional politician?
Sister Golden Bear
@Another Scott: I’ll take the win. Unfortunately, Trump issued another EO today banning all trans women — literally 10 out of more than half-million per the NCAA — for college sports. Not clear if this applies to high schools as well.
Glory b
@Kay: Other groups didn’t purposely turn everyone else against them. Blocking traffic, disrupting people’s lives, costing them jobs and money? Honestly, why did they think this was the way to win hearts and minds?
MLK got parade permits when he could, they marched in their Sunday best, they carefully didn’t impede anyone from going about their business.
All they did were the things that they should have been allowed to do as citizens.
The disrupting were the white people interfering with their right to peacefully go about exercising their civil rights. They weren’t fighting with police, destroying property, etc.
The Gaza protest was the stupidest one in modern US history. They wound up with LESS support not more. 80% of Americans support Israel over Palestine right now, turning that around in the near future is impossible.
And if you’re not gaining support, why continue?
If you’re in a hole, stop digging.
Kay
@Geminid:
He’ll take over Gaza like he imposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada.
He’s lying. As usual.
Quinerly
@PsiFighter37:
I stepped away for my dinner. Back.
Couldn’t have said it better.
Fetterman totally lost me withhis photo op 1/20 with his thumbs up with podium guy. He showed his true colors then. He’s an ass and he’s Trump curious. And, I’m sick of the dirty hoodie and slob look. Bannon actually wears it better.
Sister Golden Bear
But a bit of a good news, did you know it only costs $2 to fly between LA and SF, according to Trump.
‘Course he said that in the context of vowing a “big investigation” into CA high speed rail project….
TBone
@scav: respectfully, I think you missed the spirit that those quotes were posted in.
As in my “little foxes” Song of Songs Bible quote, Rev was sympathizing with J.C. et al. and suggesting catharsis through the ‘may harm come to our enemies’ nature of the psalms he chose.
Please correct me if I am wrong about that Rev.
Geminid
@Starfish: Gaza would be a good place to develop if they ever had a permanent peace. And not just because it has 25 miles of Mediterranean beach front. It has an educated populace, in a region that is finally showing some economic dynamism.
Contrary to popular belief, the Gaza strip was not that bad a place before this war, even after Hamas stole several billion dollars in aid money. Anyone who doubts that can look at the hundreds of videos taken of Gaza before the war and judge for themselves.
Gaza is often thought of as terribly overcrowded. But Gaza is much less crowded than Brooklyn. It has a population of 2.2 million living on 150 square miles of land. By contrast, the Borough of Brooklyn’s population is 2.7 million, and its land area is 76 square miles..
Old School
George Takei:
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Sister Golden Bear:
I don’t even know where to begin with this. $2 plane tickets, seriously? His brain is swiss cheese
Most of which were his lmao
Quinerly
Next up NOAA
“They apparently just sort of walked past security and said: ‘Get out of my way,’ and they’re looking for access for the IT systems, as they have in other agencies,” said Andrew Rosenberg, a former Noaa official who is now a fellow at the University of New Hampshire.
“They will have access to the entire computer system, a lot of which is confidential information.”
Project 2025, written by several former Trump staffers, has called for the agency to be “broken up and downsized”, claiming the agency is “harmful to US prosperity” for its role in climate science.
Rosenberg noted it’s been a longtime goal of corporations that rely on Noaa data to prevent the agency from making the data public, instead of giving it directly to private corporations that create products based on it, such as weather forecasting services.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/04/doge-noaa-headquarters
Eolirin
@PsiFighter37: Cool, tell me how it matters at all.
Getting hung up on the morality and character flaws of our elected officials instead of being hyper focused on getting our policy preferences enacted is part of why we lose more.
Let him do whatever he wants when it doesn’t matter to outcomes.
PA voters can primary him if they think they have a better candidate.
Otherwise it’s him or a Republican. So far he hasn’t sabotaged any Democratic bills. That’s better than Manchin or Sinema.
He can be bad at literally everything and as long as we can pass the bills we need to pass when we have power and he doesn’t cast the decisive vote for something terrible when we don’t I will never care.
Kay
@Glory b:
33% of Americans supported MLK Jr in 1965. Since about 15% of Americans are Black, thats 18% of white people.
Protesters are never, ever popular. But 90% of the time in the US they’re RIGHT, which is not the same as popular.
I don’t know if they had any effect on the election – and either does anyone else. I think its just as likely we lost Right wing Democrats to Trump. In fact, I would say that’s more likely. I do know they were the only people who were even acknowledging it was happening.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/10/how-public-attitudes-toward-martin-luther-king-jr-have-changed-since-the-1960s/
Quinerly
@Geminid:
TY for all of your thoughtful and researched comments. Much appreciated.
PsiFighter37
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Pre-2022 midterm Joe Biden, IMO, was at peace with being viewed as a transitional president. Post-2022 midterm, he (or Richetti and Donilon, who are shit for brains political strategists), all of a sudden became convinced that he would definitely win again in 2024.
My baseline assumption is that if Biden had stated in the days (or weeks) after 2022 that he was not running again, Democrats would have held the White House – whether it was Kamala Harris or someone else. They may not have, because (and this, I believe to be true), the current Democratic coalition is an absolute mess. But they would have definitely won the popular vote, at the very least, and they would have likely held the PA Senate seat too.
PsiFighter37
@Eolirin: LOL “So far he hasn’t sabotaged any Democratic bills”
Who is in charge of Congress right now, Mr. Brightside? And in the last Congress, the GOP held the House, so he never had to vote on anything that was actually controversial.
Putting your faith in someone because you think they are just floating with the prevailing winds is a bad, bad sign. Sinema just got signed on to a Coinbase advisory council. Fetterman, like Sinema, who lived in underwhelming circumstances for a large portion of his life, knows what dollar signs are when he sees them.
Kay
@Quinerly:
This is all illegal, but since no one enforces laws anymore I guess it doesn’t matter so I’m hoping someone can at least get some money damages.
Quinerly
@PsiFighter37:
This! TY!!!
Old School
Tim C.
I think the world would have better with a Harris or Biden victory, but I can’t blame anyone with a connection with Gaza being unable to vote for an admin that supplies weapons to Netanyahu. He’s as big a piece of shit as Trump. Also, a pull back in support might have cost even more votes. The world is shit sometimes.
Melancholy Jaques
@Quinerly:
I think he’d be more likely to go independent. Gets him more attention from the media no matter who is in the majority or what the
issue of the day isRepublicans are yelling about.Eolirin
@PsiFighter37: Yep. But that’s my point though. Until he actively fucks something up that has a tangible effect on literally anything, it’s a complete waste of energy to even think about him. He can’t do that and won’t be able to for a very long time.
And what’s your solution? If he wins his primary the choices are him or a Republican. That’s not actually a hard choice.
Doug R
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I think I found the AOC video on Forbes Breaking News stream on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_PwiuSJxcw
Quinerly
@Kay:
It’s all illegal. Repugs don’t care. See Senator Kennedy’s answers when questioned today/yesterday. See Sen Ernst who is all in on “deleting” all federal regulations.
(My dad called them all Repugs. It stuck for me…….Repugnant.)
Quinerly
@Melancholy Jaques:
Excellent point. TY.
Melancholy Jaques
@Ksmiami:
When has the far left done anything but help elect Republicans?
PsiFighter37
@Eolirin: That is a really poor presumption on your part that only Fetterman can win in PA. That is not remotely true, unless you view 2024 results to be the be-all, end-all.
The reality is that the felon has very little ability to bring his knuckle-dragging trailer trash voters to the polls to vote, except when he is on the ballot. The only way the GOP wins in 2026 is if there is active rigging of the election. Maybe Elon Musk can achieve that, but given his devotion to ketamine, I don’t think he is going to make it that long before he and the felon break up
ETA: I realize JD Vance may be the GOP presidential standard-bearer in 2028 if democracy still exists in this country, but that fucker is not winning PA in 2028 by a long shot.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … Senator Kaine’s letter to Rubio (signed by 37 Senators).
It’s a good letter. They’re laying down a marker, pointing out specific violations of US law.
Politics is slow, but is gaining momentum.
(Someone on BlueSky reminded us a few days ago that the Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted a little over a year.)
(via BlueVirginia.US)
Best wishes,
Scott.
Eolirin
@PsiFighter37: I think that’s wishful thinking.
I don’t think it would have materially affected the outcome or might have made things worse depending on how the primary went.
Eolirin
@PsiFighter37: Um. If he loses a primary or resigns then someone else can run.
Otherwise it’s Fetterman or a Republican, and those are your only options.
The only people who should care about anything he does right now are PA Democratic primary voters, and only in the context of the primary for his seat. And his Senate colleagues.
Quinerly
@jimmiraybob:
Good luck tomorrow in Jefferson City. Be safe.
PsiFighter37
@Eolirin: That is my allusion about the Democratic coalition being a mess. But there would have been no Bernie running; who is the ‘far-left’ candidate that would have been running? A member of the Squad?
It was supreme hubris that people thought that someone in their 80s could have run for reelection. Especially someone as politically flawed as Joe Biden, who maybe could have been king of Delaware if it was a monarchy dedicated to corporate law, but who had a demonstrable record of terrible political instincts prior to Barack Obama deciding that he needed a mid-60s white dude from the Rust Belt to give him authenticity.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@PsiFighter37:
Thanks for pushing back on that narrative.
Eolirin
@PsiFighter37: I haven’t made a single statement about where anyone falls on the politicial spectrum this thread, so I’m not sure what that far left candidate reference is supposed to be about.
A contentious primary that further fractured the coalition, likely over racial and not policy lines, could have lead to an even greater collapse in numbers for the final nominee, and also would have given the Trump campaign more time to smear the nominee.
There’s no telling what would have come out of that process.
Geminid
@Eolirin: I don’t assume John Fetterman will run again. Fetterman does not look like he’s in good health. I think he’s got something like Marfan’s Syndrome. His father is a wealthy man who subsidized the son when he was Mayor of Braddock, so I don’t think Fetterman will actually need the job.
Someone else who definitely has health problems: Israel’s 75 year old Prime Minister. Reports are that Netanyahu was accompanied on this trip by three medical doctors: his personal physician, a heart specialist and a urological oncologist. He had a pacemaker installed almost two years ago and his prostate removed some months ago.
jimmiraybob
@Quinerly:
Thanks. Flashback to the 60s-70s.
Eolirin
@Geminid: If he doesn’t run again, then it’s extra irrelevant what he’s doing right now.
Glory b
@Kay: No, he wasn’t popular, but he knew how to translate his movement into a win.
There were southern Dems who knew their political careers were over with the passage of the Civil Rights Act too.
There was no way for Democrats to win after Gaza. The protests served only to embolden Hamas, the protests never gained any level of popularity such that any elected officials (except for Omar and AOC) could have supported them and won.
Irony, Bibi and Hamas accepted virtually the same deal Biden offered them months before.
So much violence, killings and destruction could have been avoided, and for what?
Ensuring Democrats lost and the rights black people fought and died for, and gave to EVERYBODY are about to be reversed.
scav
@TBone: I said I knew he meant well. I thought it might be of interest to him to recognize how his exact phrasing might be coming across. I frankly have sometimes entirely had to stop reading BJ because his (yes, well intentioned) words were telling us we we’re the wrong kind of sad, had to instead lament properly before we could be the right kind of angry. Because of psalms. I’m tiptop to the brim, so yes, I get your point, I’m feeling it wrong.
Jeffro
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: (per AOC)
This right here.
I’m starting to find my balance, my will to fight back hard, all of it.
It’s great that they make themselves this obvious, honestly.
Jeffro
@Geminid: both Netanyahu and trumpov can hear the clock ticking, even if they don’t recognize it yet
(I hear it and it’s heartening, pun somewhat intended)
Quinerly
@jimmiraybob:
I loved my almost 40 years in St. Louis. Great city. I freely admit I miss the city….music scene and South City. Very connected to St. Louis. Integral part of who I am. Never thought of myself as a Missouri resident, though. Yes, some camping and hiking, great state parks, visits to Lake of the Ozarks.
In 40 years……2 times in Jeff City…..to sit for the bar exam and to get sworn in.
Let us know how everything goes tomorrow.
Jeffro
@Old School: James Ellroy (is he still alive? and if so, is he still writing?*) must be beside himself, thinking of the plots that he’s about to be handed for his next book
*Mighty Google says ‘yes’ and ‘yes’
The Thin Black Duke
Jesus, are we back to arguing about whether Biden should have dropped out again?
Glory b
@Tim C.: I can.
Has anyone ever noticed that it’s only Democrats who tell each other its okay not to vote?
How’s that working out for us?
Example, Republicans have been yelling about dead babies (abortion) since 1978, they NEVER told each other to sit out elections. They know that ANY Republican is better for advancing their causes than ANY Democrat.
Give them this, they vote RELENTLESSLY, they know it’s a long game and they play it better than we do.
Another Scott
@PsiFighter37: Counterpoint: WHYY.org:
“Just win, baby.” – N. Pelosi
It sounds like if Pennsylvanians want a more liberal senator than Fetterman, then they’ve got to show that they can turn out enough votes.
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Glory b
@The Thin Black Duke: They’ve run out of things to blame Democrats for.
Geminid
@Jeffro: Netanyahu doesn’t want to go home. He lined up enough meetings to last until Friday evening so he won’t be flying back to Israel until Saturday night, after the Sabbath.
“Bibi” can find people here who actually like him. I guess some Israelis still like Netanyahu, but they’re becoming scarcer and scarcer.
Gloria DryGarden
@Eolirin: that helps me put my focus in the right zone. Thanks.
There might be no need to bicker about the rest, it’s distracting. (Although, venting feels like it helps.)
referring to your comment:
Glory b
@Another Scott: AND that was Pelosi’s reply to Conor Lamb’s saying that he didn’t think he’d vote for her as speaker if he was elected.
By the way, he flipped a seat gerrymandered for a Republican, a pretty impressive feat.
Geminid
@The Thin Black Duke: It’s Groundhog Week.
columbusqueen
Well, fuck all the stupid people.
That is all.
jimmiraybob
@Quinerly: “Let us know how everything goes tomorrow.”
Will do. Glad you’re still hanging in here.
The Thin Black Duke
@Glory b: This.
They’re going to blame Biden for what Trump going to do in Gaza, just wait.
But the Non-Voters pissed off about Gaza got to send a “message”, so that’s important. Performative political strategy is what they do best.
Citizen Alan
@Jackie: i’m honestly at the point where I would want to know who a suicide victim voted for last November before I decide whether to feel any sadness over their death.
Glory b
@Kay: AND many Muslims fall into that category. They were already trending towards Republicans based on their shared animosity towards LGBTQ people.
They joined Republicans disrupting school board meetings, etc.
The mayor of Hamtramck, a (former? Who knows?) Tlaib ally, calls his black constituents “animals” and eventually endorsed Trump.
Maybe they aren’t the Democrats you think they are.
Another reason Harris was n ever going to be able to win.
The Thin Black Duke
@Glory b: More to the point, as gawdawful as Biden’s handling of Gaza was, there isn’t a scenario where not voting for Biden makes sense. Do people honestly believe that Putin’s chew toy won’t make it worse?
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Kay:
Please lend me your ear. I offer you my humble opinion to use as you see fit.
What has happened and is happening to Israel and then to Gaza and the West Bank is horrific.
Aiming all that anger and hurt at Joe Biden was misguided because it was doomed to be ineffective. From my, no doubt, blinkered vantage point, the attacks on President Biden (especially the nickname) played right into the hands of the wingnut right wing welfare crowd. Attacks on Congress would have been much harder for that group of con-takers to take viral.
Only Congress could stop sending military aid to Israel. President Biden did nearly everything he was allowed by law to do. He did not impound Congress’ allocation by refusing to send it, like this administration has done.
He did stop what he could under the law (like the biggest bombs) and did sanction Israelis, settlers and military units. Asking him to become a dictator for this good issue would shred the law to pieces even if it felt lovely. We do agree democracy is what we want to keep, I think?
This new administration will do nothing to help and will actively seek to make everything much worse all the while lying to your face telling you all is wonderful. Today, this GOP administration talked about removing Palestinians from Gaza as a good thing. Need I say more?
I cannot imagine how Palestinians or Israelis are feeling about any of this. I hope I will never be forced to learn. If we are to keep this brutal lesson from others, we need to aim our dismay where it has the most chance of succeeding.
If I could and you allowed me to do so, I would hug you through the spooky distance.
Raoul Paste
@RevRick: Wow. That doesn’t sound exactly like “turn the other cheek”
frosty
@The Thin Black Duke:
Yes, we are. We’re having that argument again. It’s the B-J corollary to Godwin’s Law. In any post with more than 200 comments, the topic of Biden dropping out will come up and be fought over. Ugh. I should know better than to still be scrolling through this.
Kayla Rudbek
@Anne Laurie: and the New Madrid fault…
Quinerly
@jimmiraybob: will always dip in and out. Been here as a lurker reading from the beginning. Started commenting in 2016 because of Ozark.
Like many of us, my time is valuable. Can’t spend hrs here saying the same thing over and over or just showing up for snarky comments. I do love making personal connections, but mostly I am here to learn what’s going on locally in various states, and I am looking for links to articles/sites.
Cool that you are going to be in Jeff City on Wednesday. I’ll look for your comments here down the road. So much emphasis is put on “pie” here. I guess I march to the beat of a different drummer….would be cool if we could follow commenters who are interesting and provide info. Take care.
Quinerly
@Kayla Rudbek:
Haven’t thought of that since exiting Missouri. Caruthersville and, of course, New Madrid, MO.
Gloria DryGarden
Politics Girl says to just say no. For all our leaders to say no.
clip is 2 minutes, says it all.
TBone
@Another Scott: thank you, I too posted that once here in the past. I’m not defending Fetterman (because I’m now on the fence about him), but I get tired of the endless bashing. He has said he will never switch parties and that he represents all Pennsyltuckians, not just those who voted for him. When the rubber meets the road for real, we’ll see. For now, my ire has much better uses.
TBone
Noah the Love Cat has rolled over onto his back in my bed so that all four paws are in the air and he is happily dreaming the night away; all is right with the world in his cushy little corner of it. Sleep well precious boy!
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: fabulous. yay Noah!
reposting that politics girls clip straight from YouTube in case it didn’t work before:
What the F__k says politics girl
No One You Know
@Quinerly: Gotta wonder if he has a problem serious to cause brain issues. I can think of several.
No One You Know
@different-church-lady: Sounds like s perfect definition for “war.”
Chris T.
@Luther Siler:
Instead of Cone of Shame, it’s the Helmet of Wrath (prevention).
Kay
@Glory b:
Sorry. Don’t buy it. Democrats lost votes across the board. This is ideological cherry picking. You don’t like the Left side of the Party, or protestors, so you attribute every loss to them.
I think its much more likely Right leaning voters went to Trump. Or Kennedy acted as a spoiler. Or media lying about the economy was the deciding factor. But neither of us know, do we?
Now its Left leaning voters AND Muslims and Arab Americans? They’re all out of the club? This Party gets smaller and smaller every day.
Kay
@HopefullyNotcassandra:
It is not true that the Biden Administration couldn’t do anything. Saying this over and over just means (to me) that the person saying it doesn’t know anything about this issue – which is fine, but then don’t lecture those of us who followed it.
There are two separate laws the President and his foreign policy team can use to police war crimes – one is The Leahy Laws (sometimes Leahy Act) that MANDATES that the President sanction individual actors, or units, or whole armies that commit war crimes.
You know which country we used that on? Ukraine. We cut off funding to a Ukrainian unit that supposedly had Nazis in it because lunatic, Putin-loving Republicans bullied Joe Biden into it.
So please don’t tell me we can’t do anything. In fact, doing NOTHING was a violation of US law.
Kay
@HopefullyNotcassandra:
At the very end of his term Secretary of State Blinken determined that actors in Sudan were guilty of war crimes.
That doesn’t mean anything anymore though, since the entire world knows Israel committed war crimes in Gaza and the US not only did NOTHING, but rewarded them for it.
The US now has zero credibility on war crimes. Why Sudan and not Israel? Why Ukraine and not Israel? No one can say. Its just bullshit – a wholly arbitrary and wholly political decision. And the whole world knows it.
We have to start following our own laws. NOT following our own laws is how we got here.
Miss Bianca
@me: Gosh, he sounds like some of the jackals around here.
Miss Bianca
@The Thin Black Duke: This is the song that never ends…it just goes on and on my friends…
Paul in KY
@Kay: That is so FOS. Any American voting Muslim should have known that TFG is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much worse than any Biden/Harris regime and should have been ready to crawl over broken glass to vote for them. Any of them that voted for TFG or sat it out, were purity-pony-losers, IMO.
Paul in KY
@Quinerly: He must be scared to death he won’t win a re-election. Didn’t think he was that chickenshit.