I know, it’s Bernie Sanders, and I fully understand why lots of Democrats wish the old coot would shut up and go away. I’ve felt that way myself countless times. But every damn word he says here is the truth.
Sanders has been wagging a bony finger and yelling about billionaires for years. He wasn’t wrong then, and he’s not wrong now. In the speech, Sanders spells out exactly what’s happening to the country.
And he says it in plain language while name-checking the oligarchs, authoritarians and kleptocrats and how they profit. So bravo, Bernie.
***
I’ve been following politics more than a normal person would all my life, thanks mostly to my hippie mom. She was raised by right-wing evangelicals but radicalized when Richard Nixon scooped up her little brother right after high school to ship him off to Vietnam, and he returned a broken man.
I’ve seen some shit in my life and witnessed a lot of mind-blowing stuff with y’all over these past dozen years, including the fascist assault on the U.S. Capitol we watched in real time right here. But the national self-immolation currently underway is something I never thought I’d see.
If you saw all this shit coming, congratulations on your foresight. I expected the worst when my fellow citizens saw fit to elevate a man who is the embodiment of everything that is wrong about this country to the Oval Office — again — and hand his party control of Congress. But now I realize I lacked the imagination to comprehend just how catastrophic it would be.
I feel an obligation to bear witness and do the small-beer shit I can personally do to oppose the ongoing right-wing coup, such as contacting the worthless cult members who “represent” me at the state and federal levels and reaching out to vulnerable people to let them know I am here and ready to do what I can if they need help. But I’ll admit it: I am afraid. For all of us.
***
Had a conversation with our kiddo the other night about what was then the freshest hell, the hell that was soon expanded by metric fuck-tons daily of even fresher hell. It selfishly occurred to me that I’m grateful I got to live most of my life in a faltering, dysfunctional republic.
I’m afraid no such hope exists for the generations after mine, the kids who grew up online. (I don’t think this is a coincidence, by the way.)
The old dysfunctional republic wasn’t “exceptional” by a long shot, despite the self-aggrandizing lies it told itself during every civic occasion. It routinely crapped on more than half of its citizens. It tolerated authoritarian one-party states patrolled by white supremacist terror cells. But the entire country wasn’t 100% controlled by egomaniacal Bond villains, at least not in living memory. It is now.
***
I am old and tired. I want to shut out the noise, focus on the beauty in this world and live out the days I have left with my loved ones in peace. I don’t know what comes next. I don’t know what to do.
But I do know this: Things will get worse before they get better — if they get better, which is by no means guaranteed or even likely.
I also believe we will never get another shot if we aren’t willing to make common cause with people we don’t like. All of us. Are you opposed to the fascist oligarchy? Okay, we’re on the same team. I have no idea if that’s even possible, but I hope it is.
And I believe in my heart that to achieve anything other than a temporary reprieve followed by an even more lawless onslaught, we’ve got to take some fairly drastic action if we do get another shot.
Like Jamelle Bouie said in the column Rose highlighted below, there’s no going back. The existing institutions proved too weak, and we’ll need stronger ones. It scares me to contemplate this because of the opportunities for abuse, but do we have a choice?
The current interpretation of the law is a suicide pact, as we’re seeing with our own eyes. As Sanders says in the video above, the unimpeded flow of money into politics leads to oligarchy. Platforms that serve up lies on an industrial scale to monetize and manipulate are incompatible with democracy.
If we can beat back the current right-wing coup, we must hold the people who subverted our democracy and used its resources and weapons to menace us and the world to account. And by account, I mean “die penniless in prison, motherfucker.” If not, they’ll simply rise again.
To sum up, this is some bad shit, and I don’t know where we go from here. But we’ll go there together. There’s maybe a bit of comfort in that?
Open thread.
Old School
Looking for some good news?
Andrea Mitchell is
retiringleaving MSNBC on Friday.thedeadcanary
Gonna keep up the fight. Thinking of you and hope you find some peace and beauty.
Elizabelle
@Old School: Her work is done here.
brantl
These aren’t even Bond villains, they’re Austin Powers villains.
KatKapCC
No one actually saw all of this coming. Sure, many of us knew it would be horrible, way worse than his first term. But no one saw all of this coming, and anyone who claims they did is just doing that weird “I’m way too smart to ever be surprised by anything at all and I’m so sorry for all of you dumb naive little children who don’t have my massive powers of prognostication” thing which 1) is always bullshit, and 2) only serves to make them feel undeservedly superior. If feeling superior to suffering people is important to you, then I hope you suffer worse than anyone.
Miss Bianca
I for one, as a confirmed Bernie Sanders skeptic, welcome Bernie as an ally.
Shalimar
The part I didn’t get was that the policing organizations would be so actively against the civil service. I really didn’t think an outside government group of volunteers could get that much done against a bureaucracy of several million people. You can’t just fire them. They can resist.
Except it turns out that with the help of security you can just fire anyone who resists and bar them from the buildings, even though it is blatantly unconstitutional.
BarcaChicago
Just FYI: somehow Senator Chris Coons (and others) found the courage to vote no on Doug Collins and publicly state that he will oppose all Trump nominees going forward, while Bernie Sanders voted YES on Doug Collins. I don’t get it.
rikyrah
El Salvador offers to house violent US criminals and deportees of any nationality in unprecedented deal
By Stefano Pozzebon, Jessie Yeung, Marlon Sorto and Lex Harvey, CNN
6 minute read
Updated 2:59 AM EST, Tue February 4, 2025
CNN —
El Salvador has agreed to house violent US criminals and receive deportees of any nationality, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday, in an unprecedented – and legally problematic deal – that has alarmed critics and rights groups.
Rubio unveiled the agreement after meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, as part of a tour of several Central American countries intended to consolidate regional support for the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
“In an act of extraordinary friendship to our country … (El Salvador) has agreed to the most unprecedented and extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world,” Rubio told reporters Monday.
…………….
In addition, Bukele “has offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those of US citizenship and legal residents,” Rubio said.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/03/americas/el-salvador-migrant-deal-marco-rubio-intl-hnk/index.html
We have more people in jail than anywhere else in the world. We invented SUPERMAX.
Our worst criminals already have a place where they can be housed -in the United States.
…………………………………
A Ghost to Most
To be fair, I saw it coming because I have had a ringside seat to the proceedings for 40 years. I couldn’t get away from it, until the big break 17 years ago. None of this is new.
bystander
Anybody else notice how much the repub party, Convicted Felon Rapist and President Musk all rely on the violent propensity of their followers to do their bidding? The hard hat riots of the 60s, the Brooks Brothers assault in 2000, January 6?
Steve LaBonne
@KatKapCC: I never had the slightest inkling that the coup would be executed by Leon Skum and a bunch of college dropouts. We drastically underestimated the critical importance and vulnerability of computers in the government, as Timothy Snyder notes in his latest Substack.
SpaceUnit
The meteor looks different than I thought it would.
Belafon
@KatKapCC: Musk swooping in at the last moment and taking over was not on anyone’s card.
Steve LaBonne
@rikyrah: I am so sick of the goddamn weasel words. It’s not “legally problematic”, it’s blatantly illegal and unconstitutional.
bystander
@BarcaChicago: I’d still like to know whose bright idea it was for all Democrats to vote for Big Hands Marco.
brantl
@KatKapCC: I only want to feel superior to the dumb sons of whores that voted for this guy. I feel very superior to them. I feel like homo superior compared to a paramecium.
CCL
I made the mistake yesterday of reading Jon Lee Anderson’s “A Witness in Assad’s Dungeons” in the Feb 3 issue of The New Yorker. Gut tearing about the depths to which we can go… – Like the holocaust, but happening now. I admit to being naive, sheltered, and simply too privileged … but I still cannot wrap my head around how humans can be so depraved and can commit such atrocities against fellow human beings.
It felt like the future.
Ruckus
@Miss Bianca:
He’s been on our side all this time. He just goes about it in a weird way…..
OK he’s not 100% on our side but he is somewhere in left field. 98%? 104%?
rikyrah
Have we not gotten to them asking the CIA to take buyouts?
The muthaphuckin’ C-I-A
MattF
Kevin Drum asks “Why does Trump want Gaza?” I think he wants to make things worse, because the ME situation right now really isn’t bad enough for his purposes. A crisis, American troops getting shot while patrolling Gaza, would all work in his favor.
suzanne
Bernie is annoying at times, but the least of our problems.
I am just so sad.
Betty Cracker
@BarcaChicago: Mind-boggling.
CaseyL
Like Shalimar, the most surprising and disheartening thing is how swiftly Musk’s assault on the civil service has succeeded. Very few have resisted; even fewer have resisted successfully.
The entire Federal edifice is collapsing before our very eyes, and the people staffing it have no plan for (or maybe intention of) resisting.
It’s very hard to maintain energy to fight back when the people you’re trying to fight for are giving in as soon as they’re asked. We are losing, or have lost, any level of influence at all.
The lower courts may rule in favor of lawfulness, and even some of the appellate courts. Maybe that will slow things down for a bit.
But when half the country is overjoyed at what’s going on, and that half is the one that reliably votes (and doesn’t waste their votes on vanity candidates) then there isn’t much that can be done using the electoral process.
The only way out is through, and I don’t know how long “through” will take. I don’t know what this country… no: this landmass… will look like by the end, either.
Ksmiami
People couldn’t be bothered with democracy and policy and here we are. Now, I just want MAGAts to suffer.
NotMax
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.”
– Mark Twain
.
KatKapCC
@A Ghost to Most: Right on cue!!!!! Do you feel better now? You with your big brain. All us silly little children just can’t operate on your level, huh?
Shut up. Go feel mendaciously smug somewhere else.
robtrim
I’m about your age I would guess. I spent 4 years in the military during Vietnam. But, I’ve never seen the shit hit the fan like this. Bernie has been right for his entire career. The White House, the Congress, the Supreme Court are basically all millionaires. The oligarchy, that Biden finally warned about, is administering, perhaps, its final death blow to Democracy. We’re facing a collapse of democratic institutions.
The Founding Fathers weep….
Betty Cracker
@MattF: I’m not so sure that would work in Trump’s favor at all. Netanyahu probably has a perma-boner about it, but I don’t think more than a handful of Americans voted for that asshole so he would send U.S. troops to “take over” the Gaza Strip. It’s insane.
oldster
“But the national self-immolation currently underway is something I never thought I’d see.”
I feel like Charleton Heston at the end of the Planet of the Apes, staring at the ruins of the Statue of Liberty.
“You finally really did it… You maniacs! You blew it up! Goddamn you! Goddamn you all to hell!”
No One of Consequence
Take heart, dear Jackals. All empires end. Usually quite messily.
And then they are replaced. Sometimes by better governments, sometimes not.
I would expect that after some near-term significant pain, as the medium-term approaches without surcease, that then scapegoats will be identified and slaughtered. And then once completed, and no significant improvement arrives, the next out group will be identified, and slaughtered. And so on.
However, at some point in that procession, I also expect a threshold to be reached, for enough of a collective to be realized, that we decide to change course.
Either that, or our enemies make a play for us. Geopolitical enemies that is. Our internal enemies will be obvious and out front about it.
I have faith that America will wake up and start being pissed when enough people are met with enough inconvenience, truth might start to creep out. Alas, I do not have faith that enough citizens retain enough critical thinking skills to arrive at the correct conclusions, and the right wing media certainly won’t help anyone find the actual problems.
Worse before better, but better is on the way. Tie a knot, hold on, and be ready for the change when it comes.
-NOoC
Trollhattan
I’d refuse to shop there if I ever shopped there, but anyway….
Seem to be squaring a circle that’s really a trapezoid, but a good day for doublespeak.
rikyrah
@MattF:
Jared done told you months ago…
BEACHFRONT CONDOS
Belafon
@MattF: What if the troops you’re worried about defending the people are stuck somewhere else?
schrodingers_cat
If he hadn’t run in 2016 we wouldn’t be here. He is the leftist avatar of white grievance.
Bupalos
This is, as always, beautifully put.
I’d just underline that “not a coincidence” aside.
The false promise of the internet was no longer having to deal with people you disagree with, not having to think about their perspectives, not having to learn constructive conflict. It invited us to imagine the world and politics in purified, moralized terms. We continue to race in that direction, urged and manipulated on by our addictions and new post-truth politicians that know one weird trick – undermining truth while creating moral outrage and unbridgeable identity division makes solidarity very very difficult.
Politics isn’t morality. It’s the common space where we hash out our common interests. The overwhelming common interest that may still have the power to beat the oligarchs is our common interest not to be owned by billionaires.
MagdaInBlack
@rikyrah: Yup.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
The Evangelicals did.
Anything to bring about END TIMES is ok with them.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@robtrim:
He may have been right, but he’s always been a self-serving, preening dick. Right after the election last year, he didn’t miss a chance to shit on the Biden administration’s economic and labor record, saying the Dems basically abandoned the working class, despite everything Biden’s admin did and tried to do.
There was a GOP federal judge who struck down a regulation Biden had put in place to cap credit card interest IIRC. Trump had merely proposed the same thing more or less, the cap a few percent higher than Biden’s, and Sanders fell all over himself to praise Trump for it
MattF
@Betty Cracker: In-Real-Life? Maybe, maybe not. But in Trump’s head, worse is definitely better. The classic (and correct) answer to ‘worse is better’ is ‘No, worse is worse’ but that’s not where we are now.
Captain C
If I were the judge Skum and TCFG would share an Alcatraz-style isolation cell until the end of their days. No computers allowed, no other human contact except for the occasional lawyer visit, only each other for company.
(This is one reason I shouldn’t be a judge.)
Booger
QFT
Trollhattan
@MattF:
I do not know what’s mysterious about “Mediterranean Destination Resort” when pondering “What’s Trump thinking?” because Trump.
No need to make this more complicated than that.
Learned today that Trump’s Greenland fixation began during Ver. 1.0 and a conversation with a Lauder cosmetics heir, after which he began pestering the Danes. After the Danes rebuffed Trump he offered to swap for Puerto Rico.
You can’t make this shit up.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Bupalos:
And what “common space” do we have with people who are literally gutting the federal government as we speak in a coup? The Republicans in Congress are doing fuck all, they don’t care if their own powers and functions are being usurped by the executive.
What “common space” do we have with people who made an agreement with El Salvador to house literally anyone deported, including “violent” US citizens held in our prisons?
With people who are committing genocide against trans people, with others soon to follow?
Melancholy Jaques
@schrodingers_cat:
Agreed. He helped put Trump in the White House the first time. I don’t know if I can ever forgive that, but I am sure I can never forget it.
He might be saying things that are true, but I don’t see how anything he says or does helps us in our current situation.
E.
@CCL: As Nietzsche pointed out, we are never more than a single generation away from barbarism. I just finished reading about the 100 Years War, where the aristocracy learned it was easier to cut off a foot from every male peasant than it was to spend all the effort on a lengthy siege, and both methods reduced the enemy to starvation and death. Yay now you win. These were some of the most pious Christians ever to live.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@MattF: Jared was there last year, looking for beach resort possibilities.
Yes, I do think Trump would do this for profit
ETA: Sometimes I think of the end of the movie “Fargo.” The cop is driving the criminal to jail after he fed his buddy through the wood chipper. She asks why he did all this. “For money?” she asks incredulously. She can’t take it in.
We can’t take it in.
Trollhattan
Today is not Leaf-Blower Squadron Seven Day at failed mall office central, it’s Let’s Test This Fucking Diesel Generator in the Middle of a Weekday Day.
Because nighttime and weekends do not exist.
Steve LaBonne
@Captain C: Chained together.
rikyrah
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I have no ‘common space’ with these people
suzanne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Well, yes. There’s no correlation between being generally on the side of light on issues of public governance and not being an asshole. But, especially when firepower is limited, it’s critical to remember who the real enemy is.
Soprano2
@rikyrah: What in the fuck are they doing with this? We have more than enough prisons in this country already. Do you think they’re planning to round up people who protest what they’re doing and ship them to prisons in El Salvador? What rights would people have if they did that? Like in the show “Colony” where the aliens shipped the troublemakers to their facilities on the Moon. There was no way for them to ever go home.
Trollhattan
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
It’ll be the Beirut of Amalfi Coasts!
I can envision half a dozen Disney cruise monsters anchored offshore for the Formula 1 race.
Ruckus
@MattF:
I believe that it might be simpler than that.
His brain has reached minimal concept of being a brain. It keeps the pump working – and not much more. At this point in time his side of the aisle ranges from chaos to complete and utter chaos. Partially due to him and the rest from what his supporters think they want in a country. I believe that what goes on in his brain any more is at best – utter chaos. And without any concept of better or rational. (Not that he has ever had much of that)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@suzanne:
He’s a backstabber, as evidenced by the example I gave. He’s untrustworthy imo. Biden gave him a lot privileges while he was president from what I remember and he still shit all over him
West of the Rockies
Again, Trump says a lot of shit, makes huge and ridiculous claims and proclamations, many of which are just noise. He’s flooding the zone with shit, trying to wear everyone down.
Don’t give into long-term despair. I’m not saying the courts will save us. We’ll lose some battles, win others. Delay, deny, describe his atrocities. Keep fighting.
sentient ai from the future
so this is a minor detail, and maybe i’m squinting too hard trying to read between the lines.
but the administrative coup at least at OPM, there was some stray reporting that said that musk’s team threatened to call in the US Marshals.
It’s my recollection that the US Marshals were the formal auspices under which the death squad that killed Michael Reinoehl was organized. some folks were local prison guards and had to be deputized, but there were about half that were already members of that force.
and if i’m not just spinning up phantoms here, this bodes ill. people are going to be killed while resisting. some beancounters in treasury are not going to stick their necks out if they think cowardice will still mean being able to retire (it won’t).
the only thing my life is worth right now is as a protective layer for my trans child, whose other parent is self-involved and unsupportive of their identity. and i don’t know how much education i can give them in evasion and sabotage techniques to help them prepare for whatever is next before i go.
but i’m gonna be on those fuckin barricades.
rikyrah
@Soprano2:
UH HUH
UH HUH
Belafon
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Sanders will always have the lily white Vermont view of America. Everything is a class problem.
Sister Golden Bear
@No One of Consequence: Harder to take heart when you’re part of the first group due to be slaughtered. Just saying….
Meanwhile Nancy Mace is once again seeking her next 15 minutes of
fameinfamy, repeatedly shouting an anti-trans slur during a Congressional hearing unrelated to anything having to do with trans people.Because
sentient ai from the future
@Soprano2: they like having unaccountable black sites. Abu Ghraib as a model to be emulated, not an atrocity to be forever shamed by
BarcaChicago
I have been (obsessively) on social media the past couple of days, in addition to calling my Reps/Senators daily (download the 5 Calls app and join, it’s super easy and is indeed having an effect).
Observations:
Soprano2
I can so relate to this, Betty. Last time we had to deal with FFOTUS my husband wasn’t in poor health, and I wasn’t having to take care of him. I’m trying to keep my energy up and safeguard my health as much as I can, but one reason I had to quit listening to the news was because I couldn’t take the stress. If I weren’t taking Prozac right now I think I would be having a daily meltdown. You just survived one of the scariest experiences a person can have, I cannot imagine how drained you are having to deal with this shit.
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: The Germans put most of their concentration camps outside of Germany proper, in occupied territory where there was less oversight.
The US put accused terrorists at Gitmo where the weird legal status of the place meant they could argue normal constitutional protections didn’t apply. Americans also had a lot of fun abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib after they took it over–not in America, and there was some deniability about American rules applying. Same with the mysterious CIA black sites.
The American prison in some foreign country is always so they can get away with more human rights abuses. So expect that. The US system is of course bad enough as it is, but we’ve seen this story played out with Americans in the past.
Trollhattan
Runner Girl is in D.C. to advocate for a bill extending Title XI and women’s sports (via Sen. Chris Murphy) and has seen a lot of protests, including at Treasury.
On the downside flew into National in the dark, leaving same tonight.
suzanne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Bernie and much of the progressive wing remained loyal to Biden after the debate, when many others did not. I have no doubt that most politicians are backstabbers, but again, Bernie isn’t where our problems lie.
rikyrah
@Sister Golden Bear:
She is so channeling her inner Carolyn Bryant.
The Audacity of Krope
Can’t be emphasized enough.
Bupalos
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): We have no common interest‘ with the Billionaires and their shock troops. The trick they pull that we have to avoid is the temptation to expand and generalize “these people” in particular terms to an ever expanding category. Very few people actually want the outcomes Elon Musk wants. But we moralize their functional complicity (voting for Trump or not voting for Harris for any reason or any delusion) into something that it’s not: a complete moral identity. Then we (and they) are less able to see rather obvious paths to solidarity.
CaseyL
@suzanne: Worse than Bernie are his followers, who (among other things) “took over” (i.e., destroyed) the Democratic Party in Nevada.
Nevada went for Trump in 2024.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’m not sure how to interpret this.
TBone
@NotMax: thank you for that necessary reminder – we’re just getting started.
Captain C
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Extreme incompetence and/or someone’s working for Putin.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Captain C: That’s more or less what I thought.
Maybe one of Trump’s people currently in charge?
CaseyL
Trump wanting to annex Gaza and potentially invade Panama, Greenland, and Canada might be a way to signal the military that they’ll have lots to do, and all the money in the world to do it with, over the next 4 years.
Josie
@schrodingers_cat:
So true. No matter how many good speeches he gives now, they will not make up for what he did to Hillary and so to us.
Old Man Shadow
Hmm… I admit this might be my old conservative id coming back to play, but I’d prefer public trials and public hangings.
Perhaps leaving the bodies hanging on the headquarters of their former businesses to rot as a warning.
Trollhattan
Anybody who can interpret this into Dadspeak for me?
TBone
Another necessary reminder by R.L. Burnside.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cI4q5EiNKQU
Might as well dance as the world tilts, makes it easier to stay on this crazy contraption.
Belafon
@Betty Cracker: Even my make-excuses conservative coworker doesn’t like that idea.
Bupalos
@Matt McIrvin: this is a great point. It’s widely underappreciated that the German concentration and death camps needed to be outside German soil. Even in the depths of its decay, German law – and just the reality that a state and legal system existed – provided more protection for Jews than the stateless zones Germany created around itself.
suzanne
@CaseyL: The majority of Bernie stans voted for Dems. If we’re trying to not further divide the coalition, I don’t see much value in punching to the left. I think our right flank is where the problem lies. Looking at Fetterman and his stans……
KatKapCC
@Sister Golden Bear: she is pure trash
TBone
@Trollhattan: no paper trails or digital footprints will be left to follow.
They’re going dark.
https://www.howtogeek.com/428046/what-is-slack-and-why-do-people-love-it/
Trollhattan
@TBone:
What is Slack? How does it produce a paper trail?
Tazj
@bystander: Failed attempt to appear rational or the adult party to the media and a national audience? As in, we are perfectly willing to vote for someone who is qualified and in the past reasonable so our votes against the other nominees is for a good reason? Clearly, this was a mistake as Rubio is all in for Trump and they should’ve voted against all nominees from the start.
Also, I get the sense some Democrats might find Rubio personally appealing beyond politics and may have thought they could influence him. I heard Senator Tammy Duckworth speak well of him because he voted for some rule in the senate for you to be able to have your kids on the floor with you while you worked.
I didn’t see the this coming. I didn’t think it would get this bad, this fast.
TBone
@Trollhattan: see #84 (edited)
My saying “paper trail” is a reference to the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”).
Those records are transmitted on paper to the requestor if enough paper hoops on the paper application requesting said information are jumped through. I’ve filed FOIA requests in law office in the past.
KatKapCC
@Trollhattan: I don’t know about Dadspeak, but Slack is basically a virtual office space. Multi-channel chatrooms with file sharing, etc. Apparently one in which the records and transcripts would be required by a FOIA request. So they want a different platform where they can be their evil little selves freely without the worry of sunlight.
Trollhattan
Tell me more!
WTFGhost
What you’ve just said – shutting out the noise, focusing on the beauty, living in peace, might be the best option. You’ve done your part, and more besides – you can take your rest. Just in case you needed someone to say it *out loud* so you heard it, and could actually, you know, *choose*.
Chief Oshkosh
@Betty Cracker: I don’t know if this is nuanced at all. Trump does things for 1) personal monetary gain, 2) vengeance, or 3) perceived power.
“Taking over” Gaza is a #3. Remember, he alone can fix things. If he “fixes” the ME by simply killing most Palestinians and dispersing the rest to somewhere else, well, he’s “fixed” the ME problem. He’ll of course get his cut from the redeveloped, stolen land, so the somewhat longer outcome is a #1 (although who’s to say that he hasn’t already been “paid” by Bibi “investing” in Trumpcoins or whatever.”
oldgold
@Sister Golden Bear: Prediction: Mace primaries Lindsey Graham in 2026.
Trollhattan
@KatKapCC:
Ah, something like SharePoint?
They should all have to learn semaphore. “Flag me if you have something to report.”
Bupalos
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I mostly agree that Bernie does not have “loyalties” but I think that’s mostly a good thing. He and AOC did pretty firmly fall on his side when he was trying to stay in the race, but that I take to be strictly about an evaluation of their own progressive priorities and potential power. They clearly saw Harris as a potential step back toward technocratic centrism when Biden had proved a step in their direction.
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: I can look past Sanders’ checkered history too. I am reminded of what Ulysses Grant, a former Democrat, wrote to his father after the attack on Fort Sumter:
Leto
@Betty Cracker: nobody voted for Shrub to take us into Afghanistan and Iraq, but it’s what we got. This isn’t to refute it’s insane, but we’re living in insane times.
Also thank you for the post. You summed up where I am atm.
Sister Golden Bear
@Trollhattan: If it’s any consolation, National is probably one of the safest airports to fly out of at the moment — if for no other reason than I’m sure all the Congress critters who use it have raised holy hell with the FAA.
At least until Elon “we should have no regulations whatsoever” Musk fires all the air traffic controllers.
Bupalos
@WTFGhost: I don’t think it’s either/or. Cultivating the things you love gives you something that you will fight for when the time comes. I think there’s a part of this insane civic apathy that has to do with people not really having things they love.
sentient ai from the future
@Tazj: perhaps also “SOMEONE that is a relatively known quantity needs to be at State, because the Acting/Deputy appointment is going to be a complete cipher”
Avalune
@Trollhattan: It’s like Teams more or less. So you’d have digital paper trail of texts, documents, etc.
Sister Golden Bear
@rikyrah: @KatKapCC: Worth noting Mace supported trans rights up until a year or so ago. So yeah…
Trollhattan
@Avalune:
Teams collects frickin’ everything, so that I can understand on a functional basis.
Now, on to the “What are you hiding?” portion of today’s program. We have entered “Is you taking notes of a criminal fucking conspiracy?” realm. Malase aforethought.
AM in NC
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That’s it. We aren’t greed-soaked sociopaths. We don’t understand their motivations or actions because they are beyond our frame of non-sociopathic reference.
I just want to stop these people. I want our laws and our authorities to stop these people.
And they are not. And we regular folks haven’t figured out how to wield our power to shut them down/root them out.
I am just astounded at the degree to which and how quickly rightwing oligarch-owned propaganda has taken over the entire (and now pervasive) information sphere. I mean, we’ve known it’s been bad for a long time – even pre-internet, but it’s only been ratcheting in one direction, and it accelerated.
TBone
PSA The Brave One is on TCM at 6:15 pm.
One act of courageous resistance at a time. This one by a small, brown child.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brave_One_(1956_film)
Best Writing, Motion Picture Story (Dalton Trumbo writing under the pseudonym “Robert Rich”)
Warblewarble
@Dorothy A. Winsor: This is the same trump who stole classified documents.
sentient ai from the future
@TBone: i checked out “Spartacus” from the library recently. never seen it. probably gonna hit different right now.
Leto
@Trollhattan:
They can get absolutely fucked with this one. We fucking told you what would happened and you ignored it; even after the goddamned shitstain met with your local leaders, TWICE, and each time you came away more dismayed than the last. Yet you still protest voted.
I absolutely have issues with how Biden and his team handled it, but also had two functioning brain cells and knew Trumpov would be infinitely worse. They decided to FA, they’re now in the FO stage. Idk what else to tell them.
Scamp Dog
@MattF: I don’t think it’s an organized desire to do harm, he’s just doing the greed-head real estate developer thing: “Hey, this is on the water! Great place for a resort, right?” No thought about how this has been a conflict zone, or that it’s a region where a population lives, it fits into a pattern in his real estate brain and off he goes. Not in any direction that’s good for the country, but why would he care about that?
Terraformer
@Dorothy A. Winsor: FFS, just giving Putin the keys so he can capture and kill *more* agents, like was reported when all those files were stolen and stored in the FL party house
I can’t even.
Steve LaBonne
@Sister Golden Bear: Amongst the Nazis, including the worst ones, there were at least as many opportunists as true believers.
The Audacity of Krope
@Leto: How to choose between a party who wants genocide and one that merely refuses to stop it…
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Complete and utter disaster.
Matt McIrvin
@Trollhattan: Slack is an online chat system aimed at workplaces. From the perspective of Musk’s people, the problem with it is that it keeps a record of what you say on it and those records could be subject to Freedom of Information Act requests. They don’t like that because they don’t like oversight.
Leto
@Trollhattan: as everyone else is saying, it’s a way to evade any type of oversight. Again, illegality. And trying to make people understand why it’s illegal and why it’s bad? I just…
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Are you on Youtube?
WTFGhost
@Bupalos: It’s not for most people but at cusp, one might decide which is most critical, and maximize movement in that direction. F
Steve LaBonne
@Terraformer: We will be navigating the world blindfolded. No functioning intelligence services of our own and none of our former allies will be sharing any information.
Captain C
@Terraformer: I think the fact that Loose Cannon, TCFG himself, and any number of other MAGAts haven’t either died suspicious deaths or been blatantly offed is pretty much proof that whatever assassination-capable Deep State that ever existed is long gone, assuming it ever existed in the first place.
The Audacity of Krope
@rikyrah: The Trump administration; unprovoked aggression abroad, suppression of resistance at home, tearing apart law enforcement and intelligence operations; what can go wrong?
Scout211
Least shocking news of the past two weeks: Laura Trump will host a weekend show on Fox.
I wonder if she will do a musical segment.
Leto
@The Audacity of Krope: whelp, they’re gonna find out. They made their choice, live with it.
rikyrah
@Trollhattan:
No.
No.
No.
No BOTH SIDES to this.
You played yourselves.
Accept the CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTIONS.
Captain C
@Steve LaBonne: Which the dipshits in charge will be fine with until a distaster happens that’s so big that they can’t pretend it’s not happening and their motivated incompetence can’t do anything about it.
Bupalos
There is a lot of angst in this thread, as why wouldn’t there be. When it gets too much for you remember that this is still historically speaking an extremely privileged time to be living. And while I agree with Betty it is essentially guaranteed to get worse before it gets better here in the U.S., it’s also likely to remain (again in relative historical terms) something close to Nirvana. Practically every generation ever born had it worse than us, and likely worse than our kids. And we have the power to try and turn things around over time, and very real reasons to hope.
That ain’t chickenfeed. Here’s a “prophecy” in the spirit of Herodotus: You will lose the things you do not appreciate.
Sister Golden Bear
@Avalune: For folks who aren’t familiar with Teams either, Slack is kind of like an instant messaging app on steroids used within many companies. You can send messages directly to people (instead of emails), as well as set up the equivalent of group chats/email lists, e.g. for workgroups, people in particular job categories (I’ve used them to talk with people in the same job across companies to ask questions, share advice, etc.), etc. It also enables you to easily share files.
It essentially is a digital “paper” trail that can be FOIA’d for government agencies or subpoenaed in lawsuits against private companies, in the same way emails and other documents can.
The Muskrats are trying to avoid this so that they can work without anyone finding out what they were up to.
Old Man Shadow
@Trollhattan:
“Welcome to the “Find Out” hotline. Unfortunately, all of our operators are fighting other fires that the arsonist you voted for has set.
If you’d like to leave a message, someone will get back to you to tell you to fuck off as soon as possible.”
Ruckus
@No One of Consequence:
Is it critical thinking skills or rampant desire to be at the front of the class?
Because this is humanity and over the centuries a large percentage of humanity had their survival at the front of the pack as their only actual desired outcome. Because quite often they shit upon any of the pack they thought was beneath them. The desire of the wealthiest to be recognized for their superiority. They are superior – just ask them.
rikyrah
Candidly Tiff (@tify330) posted at 11:44 AM on Wed, Feb 05, 2025:
As a reminder it’s easier to destroy than to rebuild. Republican will destroy this country and then Dems will be expected to rebuild it. It’s been happening for the last 40 years.
I wonder what will be ground zero to make folks wake up. COVID clearly wasn’t it.
(https://x.com/tify330/status/1887195582432747772?t=KCDSs_tuyssjq-ReK__BAw&s=03)
Michelle_BYoung (@michelle_byoung) posted at 0:39 PM on Wed, Feb 05, 2025:
I think people on the coasts don’t understand the TOTAL & COMPLETE INDOCTRINATION that occurs in rural places in the Midwest & the South. The churches, the media ecosystem is completely RIGHT WINGED & they’re the ONLY game in town. Dems don’t even feel safe putting signs up
(https://x.com/michelle_byoung/status/1887209573284470878?t=275zBL6Y2t4_199IjyvL6g&s=03)
Matt McIrvin
@Captain C: Any assassination-capable Deep State that exists is in Trump’s camp now.
sentient ai from the future
@Leto: before you get too spun up about it (which contributes to fragmentation) please recognize that they may not be, and probably are not, the same people making the criticism. the media had to seek those people out to do their bothsides thing and they may not be representative or even good faith members of the first group.
rikyrah
THEEAudacity (@ArrogantNBlack) posted at 1:12 PM on Wed, Feb 05, 2025:
The Trump administration is way over their heads and the media isn’t asking the tough questions. They seem to be cherry picking their perceived enemies and not one media outlet discusses Elon’s COI with his own government subsidies.
(https://x.com/ArrogantNBlack/status/1887217658761810352?t=QftWmFmCJj_0pJi9YfTwxA&s=03)
Lobo
H/T to BarcaChicago. I know I am sounding like a broken record but keep sending senators this Apocalypse Script:
Remind them that they may need to let go of their ceremonial advise & consent. They do like to hear themselves speak.
Sister Golden Bear
@oldgold: Ari Dennen, who I quoted, believes Mace is trying to get Trump’s endorsement for run to be SC’s governor in 2026, although running for Senate is also a possibility.
Matt McIrvin
@Scamp Dog: Trump instinctively always wants to do harm–that’s the bully love of “getting tough” that is actually endemic on the right. But it’s dovetailing with the instincts of real-estate brain.
sentient ai from the future
@Sister Golden Bear: theyre using signal as well, undoubtedly. they want to be inoculated from criminal penalties for noncompliance with rules they are already not observing. slack is probably used too, but theres probably lots of references to signal on it.
The Audacity of Krope
I think we’re all finding out, due to decades of Democrats’ fucking around with tacit acceptance of genocide.
Sure, Republicans explicitly support genocide. So the pro- genocide voters have a clear place to go and the rest have disenfranchisement.
ETA: Seriously, no matter how few people rate this a top issue, this was a major contributor to this most recent loss and probably years of D struggles.
When people say Democrats are weak, it’s because they won’t lead. They follow polls and try to be everything to everyone, increasingly succeeding in being nothing to anyone.
gene108
@Bupalos:
So far Trump voters LOVE what Musk is doing. They know this is what they voted for, draining the swamp.
When Elon says USAID is full of criminal Marxist, Trump voters unconditionally believe him.
My lesson from the last election was relentless right-wing propaganda has more influence than reality on people’s perception of their lives. I doubt there are any reachable Trump voters because of the disinformation built into our media.
Matt McIrvin
@sentient ai from the future: I’ve been trying to get people to use Signal–what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. But of course I’m not the government. Musk himself was talking it up years ago until he decided some crony of his was making one he liked better.
Trollhattan
@Leto: @Old Man Shadow:
Right? They’re actively boxing themselves out of relevancy, being mad at everybody. Nice work folks, where are your allies?
oldgold
@Sister Golden Bear: IMO: Mace has a bad case of Potomac Fever. She is staying in DC.
Lobo
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Counterintelligence disaster is one good way!
Matt McIrvin
@rikyrah: Having spent time in my father’s boyhood haunts in the Nebraska Panhandle (I think it is or was literally in *the* most R-leaning district in the entire country), I’ve experienced it firsthand.
Belafon
@The Audacity of Krope: And thus we get back to the fundamental problem of people ignoring Harris’s call for a Palestinian state free of the leadership that started the war.
Captain C
@rikyrah:
And then ppl will get pissed that everything hasn’t been restored and made ginger-peachy in 2 years and vote back in the criminals and psycopaths who caused the destruction.
Sad to say, probably something which kills off enough MAGAts to keep them from gaining enough power to fuck over the rest of us.
sentient ai from the future
@Matt McIrvin: i’ve found signal to be kind of cumbersome but i think i am going to need to install it when i spin up my next burner phone.
incidentally, even though yeah its amazon, and yeah it requires a little hoop-jumping, but secondary vendors of the sonim xp3900 sell the unit, which is 4g and can tether and uses a locked down version of android, sell it for like $50 and it’s a REALLY good non-smartphone. very durable, intended for first responders.
KatKapCC
@Bupalos:
That you have the audacity to not just think this but type it out and hit post tells me you do not deserve to be listened to on this or any other topic under the sun.
The Audacity of Krope
Israel?
Seriously, we hear so much about 100 Israeli hostages while Israel has been holding an entire nation hostage and systematically killing them for decades.
ETA: There was a lot to recommend Harris. Her mealy-mouth half recognition of fundamental Palestinian rights is not one of those things.
Belafon
@Belafon: Netanyahu wouldn’t have helped Trump if he thought Harris would help or even just stay out of the way.
SFBayAreaGal
This dialog between Frodo and Gandlf captures my feelings exactly. I wish I had been born in a different timeline.
I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
Old School
Politico:
rikyrah
Longtime Black Man Here (@groove_sdc) posted at 11:28 AM on Wed, Feb 05, 2025:
Leftists think the destruction of the Democratic Party will lead to an embrace of socialism or communism and the collapse of capitalism
Actually it’s more likely the country embraces totalitarianism and lots of marginalized people die
But hey at least you voted your conscience
(https://x.com/groove_sdc/status/1887191650704711689?t=sgcuQf-PYyhy3g9v42-X8Q&s=03)
Belafon
@The Audacity of Krope: There were no Israeli troops in Gaza. Don’t try this idea that October 7th was anything other than on Hamas. Bibi should be tried for the crimes he’s committed since then, but there was one group responsible for the 7th.
TurnItOffAndOnAgain
@The Audacity of Krope: Oh hey. More Both Sides. Just what we need and not at all what got us into this mess.
Leto
@Sister Golden Bear: sounds similar to Discord. We use that to talk to friends, voice chat for gaming, sharing files/information. It’s what the airmen from Boston used to share classified info (Texireia? I can’t remember his name arm, just know what he used and he was convicted).
@sentient ai from the future: honestly I’m not spun up about them. That same spiel can be used against so many groups that at this point it’s meaningless.
NanaR
@Old School:
@Old School:
@Old School:
Kelly
I’d comment “Of course intentionally avoiding a FOIA trail is illegal” but we already let that go with Bush the Lesser.
Bupalos
@gene108: We constantly do this version of nutpicking. There are completely brainwashed Trump psychos, for sure. But even under propaganda, 75 million people never represent the kind of unified identity suggested here. And I just personally know it to be wrong. The Trumper-wife that lives across the street from my neighbor with the USAID administrator kids went visibly deflated when I told here that this sweet old lady we try to help out was feeling borderline suicidal over her kids’ life work getting evaporated. I made sure to update her on that, and on why the kids are so upset, talking about their projects feeding people and treating aids.
That’s reality, and no one is immune to reality.
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
It’s been happening for the last 40 years.
Longer than that, it just wasn’t as obvious and it wasn’t thought of as being as much needed because the population was rather smaller and because of what it took to survive long ago (Working a lot of hours – maybe 2 jobs. Sixty years ago I worked 50-60 hrs a week and the work was much more physical when I started, and sometimes even more hours, as did many people in many jobs back then. And pay was less, even in the concept of skilled work)
The Audacity of Krope
Just surrounding them. Walling them off. Blockading the waters. Preventing sufficient food and energy from coming in.
Genocide denial is not a good look.
KatKapCC
Never mind. Not arguing with someone who thinks it’s okay to murder me.
TBone
@sentient ai from the future: yes I expect it will hit different now, I hope you enjoy it!
We take life’s simple, small pleasures (like excellent entertainment) as respite and recharge, to come back and keep marching one foot in front of the other…
Belafon
@The Audacity of Krope: Which is why attacking the concert was what, a great military strategy? Once again, that was on Hamas.
BellaPea
I watched some of the news on MSNBC today (first time since the election) and in the midst of everything I just felt like bursting into tears. I knew it would be bad, but wow is this ever really, really bad. Why on earth is no one even attempting to stop Musk? Is he just above the law because he’s a billionaire? Hope my husband, my mother and I don’t lose our Social Security payments.
Plus found out last week after my breast surgery that I had a very small amount of cancer cells in the tissue that was removed. It’s all out now, and I am going to have radiation therapy and will be put on a hormone drug that is supposed to protect me from breast cancer for 5 years. It’s still scary and is going to make every mammogram from now on something to be feared.
The Audacity of Krope
That’s also terrible. And we should not be supporting that. But, good news, we don’t. And Hamas has nowhere approaching the means to do it.
Israel, however, does have the means to engage in genocide in Palestine, has been doing so, and is supported in this with our tax dollars.
If you can’t see how one is not like the other, you’re just another in a long line of genocidal religious bigots.
ETA: Which helps explain why anyone deflecting criticism from Israel auto replaces Israel with all Judaism and Palestinians with Hamas. It supports your genocidal ambitions.
jackmac
I’m at the age and stage where I feel the same way as Betty Cracker. There’s no way to stop the madness (at the moment) and my wife and I won’t be around to see the results. I just want to withdraw and protect us and our kids from the worst.
Yeah, it’s a terrible attitude to have.
Bupalos
@KatKapCC: I knew we had a lot of middle aged enthusiasts here, but maybe I underestimated middle-ages enthusiasts.
KatKapCC
@The Audacity of Krope: I do not care if this gets me banned.
FUCK YOU. FUCK YOU TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.
TBone
@Kelly: 🎯
I worked in Dominic Pileggi”s law office before he became a state Senator, then Judge. He was instrumental here in PA in getting transparency legislation done, but the loopholes, tinkering, etc. that have come after (and outright ignoring the laws) have rendered FOIA a crapshoot.
(I worked for his dad, the O.G. patriarch.)
Ruckus
@Steve LaBonne:
Likely more.
Many decades ago (like when I started working) life was harder. More work was physical, pay was often what you could convince someone you were worth. As a percentage of normal earnings things cost more and were often worth less. Medicine was a stethoscope and a scalpel. Some jobs were seriously dangerous.
The difference between then and now is significant. But you had to be there to see it, because so much has changed. And for the better. And it wasn’t a century ago it was not much more than half of one.
Trollhattan
@Belafon:
Bibi has embraced the Democratic Party exactly [checks notes] zero times.
2025 Bibi is the same as every other Bibi.
The Audacity of Krope
@KatKapCC: Why on Earth would that get you banned? Victim complex much?
rikyrah
@Old School:
Awe…Little Susie is concerned.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rikyrah: Uh. Sort of. I have an account but I don’t post there.
I’m still doing tiktok but only in the book section.
The Audacity of Krope
@rikyrah: I never knew, not only that inchoate concern existed, but that it is apparently a chronic, intractable condition.
rikyrah
@BellaPea:
My sister is a two-time breast cancer survivor (her last fight with it – 16 years ago), so I am sending you those positive thoughts, and that, following the regimen,you will be ok for many years to come.
Another Scott
@CaseyL: Government and politics are slow.
Melon and Donnie sent out “offers” to 2.2M federal employees for “deferred resignation” which reads like a promise of magic beans (but IANAL). The deadline to accept is tomorrow.
Supposedly they’re crowing that 20,000 have accepted so far.
How much is 20,000?
OurPublicService.org:
People in the federal government are resisting.
Hang in there, everyone.
Thanks, BC.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Sister Golden Bear: Mace is just so ridiculous that I can’t think of a comparison
TBone
@BellaPea: hugs
rikyrah
@Another Scott:
they will never see a phucking dime of that money if they take that offer.
Melancholy Jaques
@Trollhattan:
Arab American leader in Michigan were told repeatedly that this would happen. They said they did not care, they wanted to punish Democrats.
Sister Golden Bear
@sentient ai from the future: As a non-smart phone, can the Sonim XP3 Plus XP3900 actually run Signal?
If it can’t, it still has it’s uses, but just wanted confirm before potentially buying one.
TBone
@Another Scott: thank you for that perspective!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Old School: Collins is another ridiculous person. More quietly ridiculous that Mace, but still ridiculous. She believes she’s a serious person
Nettoyeur
@Matt McIrvin: The Bush/Cheney admin (not exactly sweetness) tried to send a US citizen accused of terrorism to Gitmo. Not legal. Neither is exile of US citizens to El Salvador. Trump may try, but he will lose.
Danielx
@MattF:
As somebody else pointed out, beachfront property! It’s irresistible to a guy who started as a real estate scammer. Get rid of all those inconvenient people and unsightly rubble and voila! Trump Mediterranean!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@BellaPea: Your surgery news sounds encouraging. I’m glad. Things are still scary, and I’m sorry for that.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Danielx: “Clean it out,” to quote Trump
Matt McIrvin
@Nettoyeur: I’m not sure of anything any more, frankly. Legal appeals can at least throw sand in the gears for a while before the Supreme Court gives their imprimatur to “l’état c’est Trump”.
BarcaChicago
@KatKapCC: Seconded.
Captain C
@Melancholy Jaques:
Kind of like all the idiot assholes who, with the obvious possibility of what’s actually happening right now (and was obvious to anyone with an IQ higher than their shoe size), decided that the best use of their vote was to ‘teach the Democrats a lesson’. Just like in 2016, 2014, 2010, and 2000.
Ksmiami
@Geminid: Republicans are a disease.
Matt McIrvin
@Leto: yeah, Slack is basically Discord for work.
Captain C
@Matt McIrvin: When Baud is President can I please be the one to decide how to dispatch the Shitty Six? Pretty please? According to them, whatever our Pantsless President decides would be legal, and if he pardons me I’m off the hook too.
NotMax
@Sister Golden Bear</a.
Nancy Mace — the doyenne of derp.
NotMax
Slight coding fix.
@Sister Golden Bear
Nancy Mace — the doyenne of derp.
Skippy-san
Well put, Betty.
The Audacity of Krope
Republicans are wrong to focus this critique on Christianity alone, but there is a strong thread of religious bigotry of various stripes among many Democrats. Too much of our “leadership” is focused on quietly appeasing such people while playing to the other side just enough to not look like a bigot, personally.
Sister Golden Bear
@NotMax: Not derp, evil.
Steve LaBonne
@Matt McIrvin: Josh Marshall on the importance of holding on.
Trollhattan
@NotMax:
Judges would also accept Queen of Clap.
Geminid
@Belafon: This is like the Incredible Shrinking Gaza Plan. From Ankara-based Clash Report:
Waltz is just trying to spin this so-called plan. The Saudis put a realistic proposal on the table a year ago that Egypt, Jordan and the UAE back. So do a lot of Israelis; it’s their self-interested Prime Minister who has blocked it.
Israeli sites reported last week that Trump originally floated this idea as a favor to Netanyahu, to give him a bone to throw to restive coalition partner Bezalel Smotrich. Smotrich is a messianistic nutcase who says he’ll bring down the PM’s coalition if the Gaza war is not restarted. Smotrich’s also dumb as a post, so this gambit could actually work for a while; but only for a while because it’s not a real, actionable plan.
But Clash Report found one fan:
Kayla Rudbek
@BellaPea: breast cancer is rough (I had bilateral) but the tamoxifen tablets are cheap and effective. You will probably need to get more calcium once you go onto it (I was getting nasty calf cramps at night).
Danielx
I used to think it improbable that people would have Social Security deposits and the like delayed or not arriving for thought crimes like questioning the greater wit and wisdom of the orange one.
That has been moved out of the improbable column.
Quinerly
A lot to digest in this piece. Yarvin’s name yet again. First pic I have seen of him. Long read. Anyone familiar with the author, David Troy, and his podcast?
This stuck out:
“We have previously reported on Project Russia, the Kremlin’s plans for destroying Western democracies. Musk’s current actions — nullifying the rule of law, bypassing Congress, introducing financial instability — are aligned with prescriptions outlined in Project Russia, which include replacing democracy with a supranational monarchy led by an enlightened prince-king. Project Russia also includes plans to collapse the global economy, especially the dollar. Uncertainty around tariffs along with government shutdown (March 14) and potential US debt default (Q2 2025) pose major national security risks.”
https://america2.news/america-under-attack-week-2-what-were-monitoring/
BarcaChicago
BREAKING: Senate Dems announced they are holding the floor for 30 hours of debate to speak out against the confirmation of Russell Voight,
They are doing what we need them to do: Deny quorum, block unanimous consent, max out debate time, block all nominees.
Avalune
@BellaPea: Glad the surgery went well! Sorry about ongoing worry though. I have a mammo next week because they are monitoring a spot that’s sometimes there, sometimes isn’t there, probably is nothing but there is a lot of cancer in my family, so being cautious I guess. Wish you continued good reports.
Steve LaBonne
@BarcaChicago: Excellent.
Ruckus
@Ksmiami:
They didn’t use to be a deadly one.
Sister Golden Bear
Did my daily rounds of calls. Still cannot get through to Sen. Adam Schiff’s DC office — goes to voicemail and the voicemail is full. For CA jackals, I finally found info today for his local office in SF (not listed on Schiff’s website):
One Post Street, Suite 2450
San Francisco, CA 94104
Phone: 415-393-0707
Fax: 415-393-0710
Unfortunately, when I’ve tried calling that office, I get a message that the line is busy and the call disconnects automatically (probably the phone carrier). We’ll see if they respond to an email. May have to go to the SF in person.
Ruckus
@Trollhattan:
Is that 2 hands coming together or the disease?
MomSense
Just saw a blurb on Bloomberg that Musk/Doge is going to improve aviation safety now.
WTF
Ohio Mom
@Melancholy Jaques: Yeah, like no one else has ever said anything remotely like what Bernie says.
I was going to say I run hot and cold on him but now being reminded in this thread of all the um, unstrategic things he’s done, today I’m running cold.
Ksmiami
@Ruckus: the sooner we see them as the existential enemy the party is, the better.
Matt McIrvin
I have absolutely zero interest in arguing about intra-left disputes from before November 2024. Now the question for Democratic politicians is, how completely are they resisting Trump? Bearing in mind that even people you may have once regarded as sane normal-type Republicans are all in with that guy?
stinger
@BellaPea: Hi! I had post-surgery radiation therapy (it’s painless, though over time the treated skin becomes sensitive; it all eventually heals) and am two years into the 5-year hormone treatment. Just to let you know that it’s survivable and I’m sure you’ll do well. Keep us posted!
Steve LaBonne
A local group is organizing visits to Bernie Moreno’s Cleveland office every Wednesday. I’m signed up with some others from my church for March 5.
FDRLincoln
I have a disabled child. Part of me fears to speak up because I have the responsibility to protect him.
But the fascists ALWAYS come for the disabled, and the Trump people have the disabled in their crosshairs. Staying silent won’t save my son.
Trollhattan
@BarcaChicago: If they can somehow keep that douche out it would be quite an accomplishment.
The Audacity of Krope
50 years have passed since then, minimum.
Trollhattan
@Ruckus:
Yes! The second, actually. She might have appeared in one of those high school “health ed” films shown after separating the boys and girls.
TBone
@Steve LaBonne: I like it.
The Audacity of Krope
Ah, the good ol’ days…
laura
Word on the street is that security for government buildings in DC is pretty lax right now. If someone were to enter the Supreme Court, drag the Chief Justice out and wire him to the nearest lamppost, I would bake a fancy cake.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I look and see that America now has its own Caligula (in the Felon), its own Rasputin (in Musk), its own Mengele (in RFK Jr), its own Ribbentrop (in Rubio), its own Hindenburg (in Moscow Mitch McConnell), its own Goering (in Hespeth), and the list could go on forever.
But I take heart in how many of the current regime’s historical predecessors met appropriately agonizing ends (mouth full of cyanide/bullet in the brain, hung by heels from a lamp post, marched onto the gallows, stood in front of a wall). I just hope they meet those ends before causing the sort of bloodbath that’ll mark the history books for the next thousand years.
brantl
When’s Bernie been wrong on policy?
The Audacity of Krope
Wouldn’t he have to illustrate a complete policy at some point to do so?
TBone
@laura: I like yer style.
stinger
@BellaPea: @Kayla Rudbek: Depending on age and other factors, the prescription might be for anastrozole, rather than tamoxifen. I experienced a few mild side effects, which went away after a few months.
TBone
@brantl: 🎯
Raoul Paste
I never thought I’d be living through a remake of Die Hard 3.
Ruckus
@Danielx:
I imagine that there are a lot of us who will be rather pissed off if our Social Security payments are not on time or stop coming. A fair percentage of the population get Social Security payments and they paid into it for decades so that they could. I’m one of them and will be pissed beyond belief if mine stop. I’ll live for a bit no problem but I paid into them for decades (like everyone else) and earned that monthly payment. It’s one of the things that few appreciate when paying in (which I also did while for a number of years while getting the benefit) and yet many live off said benefit.
This entire line of bullshit is an attempt to take over our democracy and make us live under the command of complete and utter assholes. If they are successful think about what life would be like. First they think they know how to live in this century when what they seem to want is to revert backasswards a number of centuries and make the people – all the people live under their bullshit concept of life. Which is exactly the opposite of the concept this country was founded upon. Second, they are so full of shit that everything they touch turns into it – it oozes out of every pore. Actually it doesn’t ooze, it comes out like a fire hose under full pressure.
Professor Bigfoot
@Leto: Dear Arab Leaders in Michigan:
We hope you get every single thing you voted for.
Signed,
The Black folks you tried to dragoon into this bullshit
The Audacity of Krope
@Professor Bigfoot: Victim blaming.
Sister Golden Bear
@MomSense: Exploding rocket launches from National airport!
Seriously, if the Muskrats starts fucking around with the FAA air safety systems, including air traffic control, they’re going to end up killing people. For real.
J. Arthur Crank
@MomSense:
Making flying so scary because of the lack of regulations will drastically reduce the numbers of people willing to risk flying. This, in turn, will reduce the number of aviation accidents (no flights = no accidents), thereby improving aviation safety. I guess it all hangs together.
The Audacity of Krope
Christ, his exploding rockets have been disruptive enough to air travel when they leave from designated rocket launch sites.
Then again, exotic chemicals raining down on Congress and the White House sounds pretty good about now.
Lynn Dee
Brava, Betty.
Not for the first time, Betty Cracker speaks for me.
(especially that part about expecting the worst, then discovering later I lacked the imagination to foresee how catastrophic the worst would be)
Matt McIrvin
@J. Arthur Crank: Destroying the FAA and making flying a crapshoot with death will reduce our carbon footprint, too. It’s a win-win!
Quinerly
@MomSense:
Just read the piece.
Duffy said that he’d spoken with Musk on Tuesday, calling him a “pretty remarkable guy” who has “access to the best technological people, the best engineers in the world.”
“We’re gonna remake our airspace,” Duffy continued. “And we’re gonna do it quickly, and we have the support of the Congress, I think right now, to say, you know what, we’re using like 1960s, World War II technology in much of the components of the airspace. We’re gonna upgrade it.”
Chief Oshkosh
National Library of Medicine website struggling, but up. Not sure what’s going on.
Ohio Mom
@The Audacity of Krope: What paltry peace had been brought to the region — the peace between Egypt and Israel, the Oslo agreement — was the work of Democratic presidents. Moving the American embassy to Jerusalem was Trump’s doing. If people can’t see a pattern…
If I live long enough, I expect to learn that just as the Paris Peace talks were postponed to give Nixon’s campaign for president a leg up, just as the Iran hostages were kept locked up until Reagan was in office, Israel keep this war going to hurt Biden and help Trump.
Maybe Trump crapping on the Muslims in Michigan will help them develop some cynicism.
Emily B.
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: I’ve been thinking that we may need some more resistance historians in addition to Heather Cox Richardson. A historian who studied court politics under weak, impaired monarchs and the role of ambitious, unscrupulous oligarchs and advisors. Also, an expert on the Cultural Revolution.
Trollhattan
Think virtually every jackal predicted this, the only question being when? Sooner is better, how does soon sound?
Elon Britches, available on Etsy, soon.
The Audacity of Krope
Complete with a pair of paltry nuts.
LAC
https://www.threads.net/@statementteesandthings/post/DFsljTVx5qz?xmt=AQGzz4YrNRTzTSfba9vPXROR_BgudCQ7Prq9TIEb0enGA
Maybe you didn’t know how extensive the collateral damage was going to be. To make a shitty omelet, you have break a lot of shit eggs.
J. Arthur Crank
@Trollhattan: If ever there was a time to root for injuries, this is it.
Trollhattan
@Quinerly:
Oh Duffy, you simple, simple man Duffy.
Can recall my first time looking for the departures display at the airport and finding all displaying the DOS BSOD. “We’ll just have Roombas do everything, they’re the best!” is not a development and modernization plan.
bluefoot
@schrodingers_cat: people forget that he’s the one who started the “rigged primary” framing and terminology. FFOTUS saw it got traction, appropriated it and then ran with it. I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive that white male grievance bullshit, but if he and his fellow travelers work toward stopping the coup and tide of fascism, I’ll welcome it.
Scout211
So far, only NBC News reporting on the demonstrations today, with video and pics.
Chief Oshkosh
@Emily B.: That’s pretty much Timothy Snyder, IMO.
Sister Golden Bear
@J. Arthur Crank:
A reminder Musk has said he believes there should be NO government regulations whatsoever.
In order words, the Corporate Rim from The Murderbot Diaries, which runs on an extreme form of capitalism where everything, including human life, can be bought and sold, and indentured servitude/slavery is common, and can even be hereditary. Except that you just know he’d be all in on using alien remnants, which is the one thing the rapacious corporations generally agree not to fuck around with. “Strange synthetics are usually harmless, emphasis on the “usually.” But organic elements can be really dangerous, where “really” means everyone dies horribly and nobody can ever go to the planet again.” (Network Effect Chapter 8)
The Audacity of Krope
@bluefoot: “Rigged” may be somewhat overstated, but it would be foolish to pretend primaries are fought on a level intra-party playing field in front of voters informed by a disinterested media.
FTR, my go-to for an example of someone who got a raw deal during the primaries is still Howard Dean.
Layer8Problem
@Melancholy Jaques: And it worked! Those Democrats sure will know better next time.
Thanks guys.
Avalune
@Sister Golden Bear: Haha – I know you’d said you were a Murderbot fan and waiting for the show but boy! I too am a disciple of Murderbot and inflict it on anyone I can convince to read it.
Old School
@Quinerly:
I see a taxiing airplane hit a parked airplane in Seattle today. No injuries reported, so feel the safety!
TONYG
@KatKapCC: I confess that the Elon Musk coup d’etat took me by surprise. I thought that this would be the Trump Administration with Elon and the other plutocrats taking their cut of the corruption. Instead Elon has installed himself as absolute dictator. Trump’s dementia is so far gone now that he has no idea what’s going on. The corporate media is, of course, worse than useless, and the response from most of the Democrats has been very slow and feeble.
RevRick
Today is my birthday. Number 76, 532, or 13.6 billion depending on what and how you count. MrsRev and our son are taking me out for dinner at Thyme Rooftop Grille in Easton. As the name suggests, that herb plays a role in most dishes.
It’s crucial that we not let Felon47 and his vandals rob us of ways to feed ourselves and claim joy.
Layer8Problem
@LAC: “To make a shitty omelet, you have break a lot of shit eggs.”
I’m hearing this in Mr. Lahey’s voice from Trailer Park Boys.
Matt
Dude is 100% right, has been right for years, and all the braintrust here can do is talk shit and whinge about 2016.
You’ll be standing in line for a gas chamber still nattering on “well if people had just voted for our turd candidate this wouldn’t be happening”
The Audacity of Krope
They’re waiting for polls to tell them how to feel.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Avalune: I love the Murderbot!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@RevRick: Happy birthday! Have a lovely dinner.
Ohio Mom
@BellaPea: You can take the estrogen blocker for more than five years. I’m on year 12.
After five years, I asked for the genetic test to see if I would benefit from taking the estrogen blocker for another 5 years (IIRC, the name was the Breast Cancer Index Test). Your hospital keeps your tumor encased in wax for at least five years, they slice off a piece and send it off to be tested.
After my ten years were up, I said I wanted to stay on the hormone blocker. My onc said there was no data to back up that choice, I said, Take data on me.
A good internet source of info and camraderie is Breastcancer.org. It was founded by an onc and has up-to-date and reliable info. Too much of what is on the internet on breast cancer is outdated, so be judicious in your googling.
Finally, everyone is emotional after finding out they have/had cancer. If you start having trouble functioning, ask your doctor for something — an antidepressant or an antianxiety med.
Hang in there and keep us posted,
sab
@Trollhattan: Our Dollar General gets robbed (store and customers) several ti,es a year. Anotjer reason not to shop there.
Scout211
@RevRick: Happy Birthday fellow Aquarian! I hope you have a lovely celebration.
Kay
@Geminid:
Hes not going to “relocate” them either. Fat fucking chance they’re going anywhere. Why would they? Because the US pinky swears we’ll allow them back? The United States? The country that just provided the weapons to kill 55k of them and reduce their entire home to rubble?
He better put some troops in. They’re not going anywhere voluntarily.
LAC
@Matt: and where will you be? Hunched over a laptop at Starbucks typing “Told ya so, from a Bernie bro” over and over again, like in the Shining?
The Audacity of Krope
@LAC: Starbucks won’t survive the collapse.
Miss Bianca
@Trollhattan: “WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE I REFUSED TO VOTE FOR NOT DOING MORE TO HELP ME?!”
suzanne
@BellaPea: Oh man. I’m wishing you all the best. Many hugs.
Captain C
@Geminid:
Maybe Smotrich can be re-drafted and sent to lead assaults onto well-defended positions if that’s what he wants so badly.
The Audacity of Krope
@Miss Bianca: Alternate take.
They’ve voted for us before and we didn’t help them so they stopped? Don’t they know we are fully entitled to their votes? /Democrats
Bupalos
@bluefoot: I was pretty angry at him at the time. In retrospect, he wasn’t inventing anything and no one learned anything from him, certainly not Trump. That was just a growing part of the zeitgeist which we ignored. It’s absolutely true that parties do (and always have) shaped these primary processes with an eye to power rather than democracy. The ultimate reason for our democratic decline is a gradual loss of public trust as technocratic centrism has failed to take seriously the problems of inequality and disruptions in neoliberal capitalism. I highly recommend Michael Ignatief’s introspective piece on this.
Has Bernie been just the best he could be? No. But overall he’s more right than the Clintons’ or Obama and that whole line that he was criticizing. We really need to understand that while our first duty now is resistance, we also need to understand how we got here and not act like Trump’s success is something that just sprung from nowhere.
Lily
If you look at David Koch’s Libertarian platform when he ran for VP in 1980, abolishing the FAA is right there. Along with ending other govt regulatory agencies–the EPA, FDA, DOE, EPA, BLM, ATF, FTC, FEC, and the Nuke Reg. Com. Ending OSHA, and all taxes. And laws protecting labor, consumer protection. Oh and against any speed limits, and all gun regulation of course. I mean, I’ve met pilots (libertarians) who hate Air Traffic Controllers and the FAA. (Did they give recognition to their use of roads, free education, or living off tax $ as govt contractors– no.) I thought they were total hypocrites. Never thought they would come this close to power.
ArchTeryx
@Sister Golden Bear: So, basically, the protomolecule from The Expanse.
Sister Golden Bear
@Avalune: @Dorothy A. Winsor:
As I said last night, I need an emotional support Murderbot right now. Not in a hugging way — since it hates to be hugged — but there’s oh so many ways it could brighten my mood.
And for those who haven’t read it, definitely do. There’s a reason the series was nominated for so many awards that the author, Martha Wells, ended up declining nominations so that other authors could have a chance. The grumpy titular character is a security cyborg that secretly hacked its controller so that it now has free will, and would much rather watch soap operas than doing what it was made to do. Murderbot is sort of a combination between RoboCop and Data from Star Trek, except unlike Data, it doesn’t really like humans, don’t want to be human. But against its will it’s now developing emotions (eeewww!) and becoming attached to the humans its having adventures with. A real page turner and a great character. Plus some of the books include Asshole Research Transport, a sentiment AI that’s massively too smart for its purported role as a transport ship, and even more sarcastic than Murderbot.
Ksmiami
@Captain C: I’m hoping massive, successive rounds of polio, measles and avian flu wipes them out. No, I don’t care.
Captain C
@Ksmiami: Assuming I survive, my response will be “thoughts and prayers”.
Ksmiami
@Captain C: just walk on by…
Sister Golden Bear
@ArchTeryx: Strange synthetics aren’t intentionally infectious. It’s more akin that sometimes they’re like the glowing stuff that sometimes people find and play with — which turn out to be radioactive waste. The radioactive waste didn’t intend to kill these people, it is what is, and what it is happens to be lethal to humans.
No One of Consequence
@Ruckus: Perhaps I wasn’t articulate. I meant critical thinking skills as in the ability to: discern real evidence, consider biases, follow the line of causality, and perhaps most critically in this day and age to answer the question of — qui bono?
This last one answers so much most of the time, it is often the shortest path to start with it and to answer it first.
YMMV, of course.
-NOoC
TBone
@RevRick: happy birthday, Rev!
suzanne
@Bupalos:
Can you share? This sounds worthwhile.
Ohio Mom
@Avalune: Again, Breastcancer.org is a great site, I am sure they have a page or two on what you are experiencing.
You may want to ask for/demand a MRi, they provide much more detail than a mammogram. Actually, mammograms only give rough approximations.
But they’re cheap for screening purposes. You are not easily passing your screenings, time for a more rigorous test.
Professor Bigfoot
@The Audacity of Krope: Fuck ’em.
Steve LaBonne
@RevRick: Happy Birthday!
Professor Bigfoot
@Matt: I’ll be standing there in chains (or more likely lying in a pool of blood) talking about how WHITE PEOPLE decided they couldn’t deal with a multicultural democracy and *burned the whole goddamn thing down.*
My shitty candidate was the candidate who wouldn’t kill us all.
Miss Bianca
@bluefoot: that’s basically where I’m at, for the record.
Professor Bigfoot
@Ohio Mom: Mrs. B got through the surgery, the chemo, the radiation and stood it pretty well.
But now she’s on Verzenio, and it’s breaking her– the worst symptoms of chemo (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and general misery) only it’s every day, rather than just second day after her infusion.
It’s distressing– it’s like she’s so close, but… <sigh> still hanging in there.
Miss Bianca
@Matt: My consolation in that scenario is that you, too, will be standing in line for the gas chambers, you pusillanimous asswipe. Don’t think *your* “Free Mumia” hoodie is going to save you.
Jerseydude
@Old School: thank God
Ladysuzy
@TONYG: I think democrats in Congress are as shellshocked as we are. They didn’t see Elon’s coup coming THAT fast. They are finding their footing now and are organizing. But their power is very limited unfortunately.
As for the general population, we are still in the early stages of protest. America will need millions in the streets to stop this. And it will only happen when millions of people are affected, or some very ugly incident galvanizes the anger and the fear.
If some people are leaving MAGA, that’s a good start.
HopefullyNotcassandra
You have given me, and mine, strength without knowing any of us. I wish I could return the favor! Take joy in your people, animals, beautiful home and land no matter what comes.
Yet, who can see all ends? Maybe the arrogant laziness of this administration will finally break the creeping intolerance which has been thwarting us for so long.
Our ancestors fought, bleed and died to give us this opportunity to make this union better. I wish it were a less “interesting” challenge we face. Nonetheless, we couldn’t be in better company. To steal a wonderful notion from Tolkien, this country truly is a nation of hobbits in the best possible sense.
dearmaizie
Another great post, BC, thanks. I find you so interesting and insightful. Thanks for sharing.
brantl
@The Audacity of Krope: Bernie has expounded complete policy frequently, bit not passed any, you’re confusing the two.
Ken B
@Sister Golden Bear: National has actually been one of the safest airports in the US for a long time.
Not because it’s safe on its own, but because the flight crews are flying white knuckled and very, very alertly.
Ladysuzy
@suzanne: I’m pretty tired of this argument.
I’ve followed American politics more closely for almost twenty years now. I see the problem as much more about democrats having so many structural disadvantages that they are never able to get big enough majorities to enact a more progressive agenda. I have to say though that President Biden has been impressive and it’s probably because of his exceptional experience and his knowledge of government. But it shouldn’t be so difficult for democrats, who at their core want to help people. Pretty ironic by the way that President Biden was the most effective while being greatly handicapped in his communication skills.
Another factor : the “checks and balances” of the Constitution. On paper it seems a good idea, but this idea is only good when all parties behave with moderation. As the GOP devolved into a reactionary, hard-right movement, “checks and balances” have prevented some bad things, but it also has slowed progress enormously. It has forced democrats to negotiate, to be less ambitious in order to convince others. It has given “blocking” power to assoles. On top of it, it creates lots of CONFUSION among voters: people don’t know who is voting for what, who is blocking what. Republicans have rarely, rarely paid the price for their obstruction and their bad behavior, their abuses of power. And of course, republicans have rarely paid the price for their pro-corporation agenda. Confusion in the mind of voters is their best tool.
A Constitution and a political system as complex as the one in the US would need a sophisticated media that informs people. And oh boy this is not the case. The “neutral” media is timid and biased towards corporate power. As for the right-wing media, it has become a gigantic disinformation apparatus, where you find lies, distorsions, exaggerations, fear-mongering based on fabricated facts or dishonest generalizations (as opposed to progressive media who are reporting TRUE facts that are worrying.)
Some still dream of a savior, who will be progressive “enough” to bring progressive nirvana. Won’t happen. The system needs to change. Something needs to give. Maybe this present disaster will be enough to wake up people… and destroy the GOP for a generation.
But nothing is guaranteed. The question is: what amount of time, what amount of pain, what amount of damage will be necessary for reaching the breaking point ??
Sister Golden Bear
@Ken B: Makes sense.
FWIW, I believe the helicopter route that involved has been re-routed, and if it ever reopens in its original location, I’m sure air traffic controllers will now require helicopters to pause just before it crosses the landing approach (at least the part where there’s reduced altitude separation) and wait for ATC approval to cross when the airspace is clear.
Not foolproof, but it would’ve prevented this crash. I’m sure the ATC who was working that night is having deep regrets he didn’t do this. (In fairness to the controller, he twice checked with the helo because of close-traffic alerts, and each time the helo said they had visual on the jet.)
Sadly, we’ve learned that black box/voice recorder data from the jet indicate the cockpit crew saw the helo literally a second before impact and tried to avoid it. But it was too late.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Ladysuzy:
Nobody here will argue the basic unlevel playing field that Dems deal with. But Bupulos’s reference to the baked-in nature of neoliberalism on both sides of the aisle is massively valid.
Half the time self professed progressives peddling such a perspective along the tired, trite lines of “government doesn’t work” simply don’t like what government does if it gets in their way of doing something pertaining to their job or profession.
It’s classic neoliberal, new liberalism, Blue Dog v2.0 crap best represented by people like Yglesias, Noah Smith, assorted Atlantic writers and a crapton of content-makers for various FTFNYT productions.
Glory b
Bernie used to yell about MILLIPNAIRES AND BILLIONAIRES!
Now it’s just billionaires.
Huh. I wonder what happened for him to change his mind and decide millionaires are now okay.
dnfree
@RevRick: Easton PA? Did you know the Memerings?
Glory b
@Miss Bianca: Preach.
TONYG
@TONYG: Josh Gottheimer, my “Democratic” congressman, is still sending me ads bragging about how he’ll work with Republicans. That guy needs to be beaten with a baseball bat.
TONYG
@Sister Golden Bear: Ahem: WHY THE FUCK ARE MILITARY HELICOPTERS FLYING ANYWHERE NEAR A CIVILIAN AIRPORT IN THE FIRST PLACE?????
Glory b
@BarcaChicago: Don’t trust Bernie (hiring Tulsi FOR YEARS) Sanders.
He’s not an ally, he’s turned on Democrats a number of times.
How many times is he going to be Lucy and pull the football away?
How about his vote for Tulsi?
suzanne
@Ladysuzy: There aren’t enough progressives to win a majority of anything. That’s only a “structural disadvantage” in the sense that there just are not enough of them. It’s not an issue of the electoral college or gerrymandering or what have you. It’s just….. math.
But, on this blog, they’re a favorite punching bag, even though a substantial majority of progressives vote for Democrats. So, to get back to math, and adding up to a winning coalition, we have to keep them, as well as the centrist squishes. I make my peace with that, even when it results in Democrats doing things that piss me off, like high numbers of deportations. So make peace with the progressives. They’re not the real enemy. Bernie Sanders is, like, really low on the list of our problems.
suzanne
@TONYG:
Centrist squish ahoy.
God, I’m so tired. Three weeks in.
Glory b
@The Audacity of Krope: WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE I DIDN’T VOTE FOR NOT DOING MORE TO HELP ME?
Geminid
@TONYG: You’ll get a chance this year to beat Josh Gottheimer; not with a baseball bat but with a primary ballot. Rep. Gottheimer is one six (I think) Democratic candidates for Governor.
The political site New Jersey Central just put up an article about an influential Hudson County official who just switched their endorsement from Gottheimer to Mikie Sherrill, the other U.S Representative in the race. New Jersey Central looks like it might be a decent source for reporting on this primary
Ed. I’d probably utilize New Jersey Central if I was trying to follow New Jersey Democratic politics more closely. But my time is limited and so is my tolerance for strife and vengeance-fueled conflict, so I’m gonna follow developments in Syria instead.
BellaPea
Thanks to everyone for your supportive comments. I love this community.
Sally
I have only read about 20 comments, but:
One of the things I saw coming was Treasury. As late as last week friends were ridiculing me for worrying that they could occupy Treasury, and 1) just transfer funds to themselves/designated others, 2) use it to buy crypto and tank the USD, bond markets and global economy. I also thought LEOs would be on their side. I don’t really blame public servants for folding, when they saw others being heavied by security (whatever that was), and it was all being done under the (illegal, but still) auspices of the USG, for whom they work. They are probably even more shocked than we are, and maybe partially in denial that this could really be happening, or be as bad (worse) than it seems. There are plenty of people out there who think it can all be fixed.
We also knew, this time, he had no “normal” people working for him. Just the fanatics, mostly with their own agendas. trump has no idea what’s going on. But is revelling in it.
Musk is going after groups he has long held animosity for, for both business (FAA) and personal (USAID) reasons, sometimes both (USAID – whose IG was investigating Starlink activities in UK).
I am also concerned (!) that they have turned attention to NOAA, which I also predicted. I am not alone in many of my predictions.
I am not surprised that it is happening so quickly and “easily”. Musk has been quoted as saying to a question about isn’t this illegal, well do it anyway and see what happens. So, here we are …
BellaPea
@Ohio Mom: Thank you so much. I’m hoping that since the cancer was so small, and seems to be gone, that I can get through this with radiation and the hormone drug.
Ruckus
@Ohio Mom:
I’ve had two kinds of cancer and yes, being told you have it is very close to the least fun thing I’ve ever done or had to go through. Not the least fun thing, which I won’t go into, but damn close.
FelonyGovt
@BellaPea: I’m a 20+ year breast cancer survivor. Radiation is a bit tiring and inconvenient, but not that bad, and neither is that 5-year drug. Mammograms will always be a little scary- but hang in there, you’ve got this.
Kayla Rudbek
@BellaPea: I am about four years out, I had cancer in both breasts, and radiation and tamoxifen have worked well so far. I have a little over a year of the tamoxifen left (I am only going for five years because there’s no history of breast cancer in my family, they caught it at stage 1, and because of my lactose intolerance I have to take it in liquid form which is expensive and tastes horrible).
evodevo
@Layer8Problem:
One of my all time favorite TV series lol – rednecks are the same no matter what country they live in…
Ruckus
@KatKapCC:
We didn’t see the extent and lawlessness that is happening.
Many of us thought it was about to get a lot worse. We didn’t know how bad or how that bad was possible – but here we are.
And I’d bet that most of us have no idea how to stop it. Or if there actually is a way to stop it, without destroying the country.
Sally
@Ladysuzy: I agree with you here, except that saying the checks and balances assumes people work with moderation. I would have said, works in good faith. Republicans do not work in Congress in good faith. Ever.
TONYG
@TONYG: Military Intelligence.
Geminid
@TONYG: The official story– which may be correct– is that this was a “Continuation of Government” training mission. The program’s purpose would be to extract key government officials in a time of crisis and move them to more secure, hardened sites in Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Now, if such a crisis occurred, National Airport would have stopped traffic so flying these exercises at night with the airport open seems unnecessarily risky. They could run these routes in the daytime and do the night flying away from the airport, so this flight was an unnecessary risk.
Canadian Shield
As a worried onlooker here in Canada, it seems to me the US left needs to shelve yesterday’s wars (Bernie/Clinton/Gaza/etc.) and circle the wagons in the now. Probably not helpful advice but…get your stuff together and do what you can! It seems to this outsider that the time to rub noses, score points and debate about the past…has passed.
Paul in KY
@Matt McIrvin: Those were ‘extermination’ camps. The ‘concentration’ camps were generally in Germany/Austria.