— thethinblackduke.bsky.social (@thethinblackduke.bsky.social) February 4, 2025 at 3:23 PM
If this is not the dumbest timeline, it’s certainly not for lack of GOP effort…
Imagine the outrage if Pete Buttigieg had presided over a 5-day period with 2 deadly airplane crashes, several serious incidents on runways including a plane fire & crash, and a critical NOTAM flight safety computer system crash resulting in 1400 flight delays & cancellations
— Larry Tenney ???? (@larrytenney.bsky.social) February 4, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Still… (counts on a napkin)… about 4 years of this utter goddamn madness. https://t.co/t8r2yS5A7v
— Slava Malamud ???????? (@SlavaMalamud) February 3, 2025
I went to post about the National Japanese American Memorial in D.C., which is beautiful but usually missed by tourists. It is a deeply staggering admission of guilt and a warning to future Americans. I went to link to the inscriptions and-
Well, they took the site down. www.nps.gov/places/japan…— Colin J. Carlson (@colincarlson.bsky.social) January 31, 2025 at 3:12 PM
“‘Unelected weirdo billionaire’ is stealing from you.”
Works well enough.
Jared Golden, didn’t think you’d be the messaging hero we need.— Clean Observer (@hammbear2024.bsky.social) February 4, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Soprano2
I saw a cartoon in one of the threads the past week about how FFOTUS supporters talked about the price of eggs when Biden was president compared to how they talk about it now, but I couldn’t find it. Does anyone know what thread it was in?
catclub
Well, USAID is broken and will take years to rebuild, after he is gone.
China and Russia, you are welcome.
TBone
I need to see George Takei about the missing Memorial page, stat!
Trivia Man
Earlier thread was warning of possible social security check delays so i checked with someone i know gets them. Normally gets in the 3rd, arrived as scheduled.
catclub
another mass shooting (in Sweden!) goes under the fold.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/05/europe/sweden-mass-shooting-orebro-explainer-intl/index.html
Jackie
Moving from last post so it gets seen by our VA Jackals:
VA vets are next in Musk’s crosshairs:
Steve LaBonne
@catclub: Might be the single biggest thing China wanted out of Trump and he handed it to them in 2 weeks.
Steve LaBonne
“You didn’t vote for an immigrant billionaire and now he has all of your personal information” seems like a good message.”
Starfish
They are disbanding clubs like the National Society of Black Engineers and the Society of Women Engineers and any club that is aware that Asia exists, which turns out to be quite a few at West Point.
Check out the army reddit
lowtechcyclist
@TBone:
I just clicked on it and it was back up.
Stay sane inside insanity.
Ohio Mom
I joined Twitter a while back, reluctantly, because it was before BlueSky took off and I couldn’t lurk anymore at Josh Marshall or Aron Ruoar’s pages or a bunch of other people. I used to be able to, then Twitter changed some code and when I’d go to lurk at those sites, the posts were wildly out of order — years old posts were on top and no sign of the latest tweets. So I couldn’t lurk anymore, had to sign up.
They must have changed the code again because now I am locked out and I’m not joining again. Goodbye to the last few holdouts who haven’t decamped to BlueSky, looking especially at you, Harold Polksck (formerly of the dead blog, Reality-Based Community).
What all this is about, Slava Malamud’s BlueSky is all about Israel. Looks like he posts about other things on Twitter. Which is disappointing to me, I would think he might have something to say about his adopted country turning into something akin to the country he left (a SSR).
Soprano2
So much insanity, which is the point – there’s no way to keep up with it all. I agree that saying an unelected billionaire and his young, inexperienced employees now have access to all of the data the government has on you is a good message to put out there. I can’t imagine many people are happy about that.
In OT news, I was awakened by a huge *crash* at about 2 a.m. I came downstairs to find that one of the cats (probably Lewis!) had knocked my Big Ben clock off the stand where it sat onto the floor, breaking the front glass and doing who knows how much other damage. I already needed to have it serviced, now I have to do it for sure! I love my cats, but sometimes they make me crazy.
catclub
They just changed it at CNN: ” Trump’s Gaza ‘Riviera’ plan is the most outlandish idea in the history of US Middle East peacemaking”
earlier was sanewashing with ‘Trumps new idea is a landmark in middle east”
‘landmark’
Steve LaBonne
The University of Akron for years has held a weeklong series of talks and events called Rethinking Race, which has invited many distinguished speakers and contributed greatly to conversations about racism in Northeast Ohio. The university just canceled this year’s, citing fear about its Federal funding.
Betty
It’s official. My Social Security was not deposited on the 3rd when it was due. I live in Dominica. I have emailed both my PA Senators. Not sure it’s worth the time to contact Scott Perry. My call to Social Security’s international number was eventually cut off. I believe we submitted the annual proof of life form, but because our mail here was messed up, I had to Fed Ex the forms to a family member to mail the forms for us. The office doesn’t give provide a street address which Fed Ex requires. Very distressed.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
My wife is part group doing cat rescue/TNR at the Cedar Run apartment complex (google it).
She’s due for a socializing shift later today…except now there’s a massive ICE raid going on in the complex that’s all over live local news.
What a country. :(
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
schrodingers_cat
Its a hostile takeover and the new owners are selling the assets of their new acquisition. They are indeed running the country like a business
Joe Biden did not solve the housing crisis and he was old and boring. So he had to go.
sixthdoctor
Steve LaBonne
@Betty: I’m sorry. Fingers crossed that this gets straightened out quickly.
oldgold
Last night I saw Hakeem Jeffries on The Rachel Maddow Show. Unfortunately, he was underwhelming.
That was also my impression of the newly elected Democratic leader Ken Martin.
And, Schumer, if anything, is worse in terms of being a leader capable of galvanizing the resistance into action.
Now, each may be good at their particular job, but none of them is the charismatic leader we so sorely need.
stinger
Musk’s 20-something incels ANNOUNCED themselves as “data miners”. Their purpose is not to improve user experience or make the code more efficient or anything even semi-plausibly positive. They are there to mine your and my personal data — and that of our senators and representatives, which might be worth mentioning when we contact them. Musk already has most of the money in the world, but he wants it ALL.
satby
Just FYI, National Japanese American Memorial site is back up. At least for the time being.
satby
And I emphasize that in any (very limited) conversation I have with normies. Because no one wants that. Though I don’t think data mining is all of it.
Jackie
@Betty:
That’s scary, stressful and very worrisome! Hopefully just a delay <fingers crossed> Please keep us updated!
Kay
@
This is really the end of engineers in government.
The Musk/Theil/ Zuckerberg/ Cook authoritarian, anti democratic tech bros have ruined it for all of them.
That sector was probably overdue for a reputation correction downward anyway – they’re awful people and we’ve been kissing their asses way too long. Arrogant assholes who know nothing.
TBone
@lowtechcyclist: thank you! I just tried to find info on local protests and our Dem Committee posted the info on…
Fascistbook!
And it’s a Closed Group which I joined in hubby name because I don’t exist there anymore and now I feel dirty!!!
GAH! Approval “pending” ?!?
Just wanted to get out for an hour or two today with a protest sign and now I need a hot shower first hahahaha!
Scamp Dog
@Ohio Mom: Um, one of Slava Malamud’s posts is shown in this very blog post.
Soprano2
@Steve LaBonne: This is their goal, to make all of our institutions pretend that racism and sexism and all the other types of prejudice don’t exist anymore, so there’s no need to talk about them.
Betty
@Steve LaBonne: I should note that our payments go to US financial institutions. So they are using other bases for this.
Kay
@oldgold:
Ken Martin was actually the “DNC members” choice, which surprised me. Elected Democrats (DNC members too, obviously, but a minority) wanted Winkler. I hope the DNc members weren’t circling the wagons and hiring someone who won’t change anything.
Scout211
More and more. The Guardian.
Everything all at once.
WTF? Just walked past security? Ugh.
sixthdoctor
I didn’t want to listen to the audio because I would throw my computer across the room but at least someone’s asking the little worm the question.
Soprano2
@Kay: They’re mostly arrogant assholes who know a lot about one thing so they think they know a lot about everything.
Kay
@L
@sixthdoctor:
Oh, good. He’s defensive. It’s sticking.
TBone
@Steve LaBonne: can I put that on my protest sign today? There’s a big old bank building here on the main drag converted into a “Center for Open Discourse” with a Rump hair crest logo over the “O” in Open. Jordan Peterson was their first Guest Speaker a few years back, and someone hung a banner reading “Center for White Grievance” and the po po spent some time looking for the “vandals.”
That’s where I’m going today BUT AT WHAT TIME I need to know and can’t find it on Fascistbook where our local Dems gave the protest time info. Because I am banhammered in perpetuity!
Kay
@Soprano2:
But no other profession does this. Physicians and scientists don’t tell them how to make useless, malicious social media sites, do they?
They can get back in their fucking lane. We’ll call Zuckerberg when we need an upgrade to his digital classified ads company. When I want to sell a piece of furniture. No one asked them to take over the country. They’re ethically impaired – bad people.
john b
@TBone: That website is back now, for what it’s worth (edit: I see @satby already noted that above)
Kay
@Soprano2:
Amusing how they are EXACTLY like the finance bros of the 1980s and 1990s. West coast Wall Street. Equally greedy and equally destructive to actual value.
Betty Cracker
@Betty: Well that sucks. I did read something on Bluesky about ex-pats’ checks getting scrutinized first. Sorry I can’t be more specific; I don’t know what’s true or not, so it wasn’t something I pinned or retweeted. But that was allegedly the first tranche under “review” by Musk’s kinderchuds. I hope your delay is a fluke and it’s corrected quickly.
Leto
@Jackie: Project 2025 wants to eliminate at least $160B in VA aid/care/benefits. They want to go back through our disability rating and “re-evaluate” them. They want to privatize more of it. Everything about this will lead to worse care/help for veterans. On top of the fact that an illegal fucking South African alien will have all of our personal data, with zero knowledge of what he’ll do with it.
I want to be more mad about this, but I’ve been mad about this since I read P2025 months and months ago. The part they have for the military is akin to that dumbass tweet above about cockpit/flightdeck. Just absolute fucking garbage and does nothing to address national security, our national strategy, military personnel readiness, or overall readiness. On the one hand, I don’t want my community hurt anymore; on the other, they keep consistently voting for these pieces of shit, so I guess bring on the carnage. Will that finally penetrate their neutronium dense skulls? Who knows.
Soprano2
@Kay: I don’t know because I don’t have personal experience with those professions. LOL
jowriter
@Steve LaBonne: Just relayed to my idiot congressperson Lawler (or is it Law-less?) asking why he and his fellow GOP congresscritters haven’t made a peep about this takeover. Phone answerer took the message. I give myself half an hour every day, steel myself for the job and call him and my two Dem senators, Gillebrand and Schumer. Then I need a couple of hours to calm down. It’s getting to me, but I’m trying to be a daily caller.
kindness
Trump & Elon are trying to incite a shooting civil war and when it happens, it’s going to get even uglier than it already is. That’s all it would take for Trump to announce
FuhrerEmperor powers. I fear for our country.Our esteemed MSM will of course sane wash Trump’s position.
Old School
@Scout211:
I guess I should head to Fort Knox, tell everyone I’m there from DOGE and they’ll just let me go where I want. I’ll be rich!
TBone
@TBone: they were out yesterday, I’ma find them out again today! My cat feeding schedule is limiting the time I have to be out BUT I’m GOING IN!
https://www.wnep.com/article/news/local/union-county/bucknell-students-rally-in-trump-country/523-a92d8f92-d6bc-487b-bfb2-b3354742f819
suzanne
“Unelected weirdo billionaire”. I deeply appreciate the Real Talk. Wish we could get every Dem to engage in Real Talk.
Kay
So when Musks arrogant spoiled man- babies screw it all up can we sue their parents too, for raising evil shitheads?
I don’t want to pay for poor parenting on the Right anymore. It’s not my fault they impart no values to their children.
Get a fucking how-to parenting book. There’s thousands of them. Break the cycle.
john b
Engineers? Most working engineers (not salespeople / con men which is what Musk is) are usually just trying to get things to work and generally understand quite well that they’re not experts in much.
danielx
Honeymoon period for new presidents: this is the version wherein the groom throws the bride off the fantail of the cruise ship in dead of night.
TBone
@danielx: hahahaha!
Kay
My SIL is a pediatrician who works for the federal government on allergies in children.
She got the techbro letter telling her to resign and that she isn’t “productive” in the public sector. She is DEEPLY offended that tech bros with maybe an undergraduate degree are sneeringly questioning her education and expertise in a profession they know nothing about.
Just making friends wherever they go, these cool dudes.
Leto
@Scout211: I read about that last night, and wonder why you have security there if they’re just going to let every skipping dipshit just waltz past you.
TBone
Noon is the hour, if I’m not back by 3pm contact hubby for bail money info hahahaha!
Glory b
@oldgold: Why do we need a charismatic leader? Isn’t what’s happening, along with competent, coherent Democratic responses enough? Must people STILL be entertained?
Kay
@Leto:
I don’t expect them to bar the door.
I DO want them to sabotage from inside though.
throw a wrench in. Let’s get this party started.
Lobo
I think we may need to admit we are in the same place as Poland when the Law and Justice party was in power. Not quite at the Orban level. But still bad. TPM states this in other words. Not quite sure what to say, but hang in there.
Kay
@Glory b:
Words are really tools for lawyers and politicians. The only tools. You really do want someone who knows how to use them. They don’t have to have soaring oratory – “weirdo” by Golden is effective. Reciting boilerplate Democrat is not.
Another Scott
@Betty:
The Wilkes-Barre, PA location has a street address for FedEx, etc.. I don’t know if they take the form you are talking about though.
I hope this helps a little. Good luck!
Best wishes,
Scott.
stinger
@Glory b:
I agree. The “need” for charismatic leaders is what got us to the MAGA cult.
Leto
@Kay: I do expect them to bar the doors. They’re security, and letting unauthorized people in. Make the fuckers get police or someone else there to do the dirty work. That’s their fucking job. That’s their basic fucking job. They don’t serve any other purpose. Might as well rename them to Kabuki Theater Security Services for all they’re worth.
Miss Bianca
@oldgold:
Ooh, we need *charismatic leaders*! That will solve everything! I mean, look how well that’s worked out for us with the Republicans, after all!
Glory b
@Kay: Winkler praised him as giving crucial assistance to his efforts in WI, and asked people NOT to make his loss a thing.
Betty Cracker
Leaders who can connect matter if you want to mobilize the masses for a movement, which is what it will take to get out of this catastrophuck, if that’s even possible. Yes, people should be sensible enough to respond to logic and common sense and the evidence of their own fucking eyes. But they aren’t.
Bill Arnold
@Kay:
FWIW, Musk/Theil/ Zuckerberg are not engineers. Zuckerberg did study computer science a bit, but dropped out and never finished his degree.
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: god take a minute to let you in. What’s the name of the group? I’ll see if I can get times for you. I believe Denver is noon to 8 pm. I don’t know if that has changed
Gloria DryGarden
@Gloria DryGarden: groups.
autocorrupted!
Scout211
Exactly. But rest assured, the new security officers for government buildings under President Musk will be much more “robust.”
Glory b
@Kay: Charisma is in the eye of the beholder.
It is, by definition, a gift. It can’t be manufactured on demand.
If everybody sits around waiting for this person, nothing happens.
Note that Republicans don’t seem to need charismatic leaders to accomplish their goals.
Maybe if so many people on our side were not constantly looking for reasons not to participate, (“There’s no one with my requisite amount of charisma!”) and telling each other NOT to vote (never hear Republicans do that, do you?) we’d be doing better now.
Glory b
@Scout211: The ones that tried to do that at OPM got fired.
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: google #50501
also there is a website 50501movement.card.co They are active on blue sky, Reddit, insta, signal and discord.
Captain C
@Kay:
Any consultant who tries to stop this sort of thing should be fired and blacklisted from working in Democratic politics.
rikyrah
@Betty:
🙏🏽🙏🏽😡😡
Steve LaBonne
@Lobo: Admit? I think that’s pretty optimistic. We’ll know for sure in 2026 if we’re like Poland in that they can be voted out. If we’re Hungary the answer will be no.
suzanne
@Glory b:
But they do. They had to get a TV star. They couldn’t win with any of their career strivers.
That’s not an excuse for us to sit on our hands and do nothing. It’s a call to identify and develop genuine talent. Barack Obama has enough rizz to illuminate an entire city block, and we are fooling ourselves if we think it wasn’t an aspect of his victory.
Glory b
@suzanne: “Television star” (and was the show that popular? I don’t watch much television) and “charismatic speaker/leader” aren’t the same thing
And we don’t have time to identify and develop those people right now. One of out problems is that we’ve spent too much time waiting for the next Obama. Dems have been saying that since he left office.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Glory b:
Bingo. Moreover, where has this generational talent been since the election? I know, he’s a busy guy but so was Carter and I saw a helluva lot more of him over the years, to include the last several, than I ever have of the generational talent everybody longs to recapture in some new form.
I’m now sure many of his biggest fans will inform us of what he’s been doing, great. But nothing he’s been doing has percolated into a mass-level of awareness. Of course that could also be cuz our media’s warped coverage model.
TurnItOffAndOnAgain
@Glory b: Honestly? I wonder if some Dems can make inroads going the opposite direction. “We’re boring. We don’t do photoshoots or speeches or yell at people on tv because we’re busy working for you.”
Or alternatively: “Haven’t we had enough excitement? We’re boring; as boring as a routine checkup where the doctor doesn’t find a mass, the dentist doesn’t find a cavity, and your car doesn’t need any repairs. The boring that comes with peace of mind. Wouldn’t you rather that for you and your family?”
Stuff like that.
frosty
@schrodingers_cat: Please don’t start this fight again. I understand your position, but it’s not worth discussing in the comment section any more.
TBone
@TBone:
CRAP, I missed George Takei last week! Dang…he came here to speak and I missed it (*hangs head)
https://www.bucknell.edu/news/actor-and-activist-george-takei-speaks-about-american-identity-and-history
Cat emergencies suck. But Noah is worth it!
oldgold
@Glory b: “Why do we need a charismatic leader? Isn’t what’s happening, along with competent, coherent Democratic responses enough? Must people STILL be entertained?”
It is not about being “entertained.” It is about focus and energy.
Were the South Africans “entertained” by Mandela? The Indians by Gandhi? The Civil Rights movement by MLK?
No, they were led in a manner that inspired many others to to fight the good fight for justice. That is what charismatic leadership can accomplish.
Probably, that inspirational leader I am think we need is not going to be a pol currently caught in the DC political cauldron.
frosty
@Kay: I’m an Old School Civil. Software people aren’t engineers. The other engineers in government haven’t covered themselves in glory. Herbert Hoover for example.
suzanne
@Glory b: The show was a top 10 show for years, and Trump had been cultivating his public image for decades before that.
We don’t need a next Obama. He has specific skills, like human connection and a great ability to read a room and say just the right thing, and more than a touch of swagger. But these are skills like any other. Which means, some people are gifted and are effortlessly good at them. But most others can work on them and improve. And, in a shifting media age, other skills are also important, and others will be good at other things and use that to their advantage. There’s not one right way to do these jobs.
But we seem to underestimate the value of those skills as tools for achieving our ends, and that makes me crazy. If the last twenty years of the Presidency has taught us something, it’s that Americans pretty clearly want to see the President a lot. They respond to that. I think we misread the situation badly when we promised a return to boring-ness and out-of-sight-out-of-mind.
TBone
@TBone: also this fabulous woman for MLK Day & Black History Month
https://bucknellian.net/130074/news/memory-itself-is-an-act-of-resistance-civil-rights-activist-and-filmmaker-judy-richardson-speaks-to-campus-for-mlk-week/
pluky
@Kay: If I were the SysAdmin at one of these agencies, I would install a kill-protocol that would revoke all user privileges, and lock down the system with a password that would take a century of supercomputer time to crack, while every bit of data was encrypted.
Scout211
Do you have a link for that? I tried to find it but only found news stories about the two USAID security guards who were placed on leave. I couldn’t find anything on the security guards at the OMB.
TBone
@Gloria DryGarden: there aren’t any “official” local protests listed and I can’t travel to Harrisburg today. Thanks though! I even searched Reddit
Glory b
@suzanne: Its also that I’m skeptical of the “Savior” model of success.
And what should we do in the meantime?
suzanne
@Glory b: I don’t think we need a Savior. I think we need an attitude that attention is a form of capital, and we need to treat earning it as an integral part of the job/strategy. Not a cherry on top of a good resume, not a bonus, but a vital component of success.
In the meantime, we have a few people who show skill at it. Push them in front of every camera, create events like going to the USAID, every Dem politician can re-tweet their statements. Engage in some political theater.
Timill
@Glory b:
We’re going to unpack our troubles from our old kit bag,
And wait until we drop down dead.
Youtube
BarcaChicago
@oldgold: Two words: Ben Wikler. JFC. Agree that these positions need to be filled by those with the media chops to do so. In the case of DNC Chair, both Martin and Wikler have extensive qualifications based on real successes, but only one has the ability to present as a strong leader in public forums and on media. It’s frustrating.
BarcaChicago
@suzanne: THIS. And the good news is we have a big bench in this regard that extends beyond the already well-known electeds. Those who have these skills should go to the FRONT.
BarcaChicago
@TBone: Use Mobilize. Many groups, both official Democratic Party and Indivisible, MoveOn, etc, use Mobilize to list all of the events in your area with easy links to join.
TBone
@BarcaChicago: I FORGOT because sleep deprived, thank you so much for the bonk on the head!
BarcaChicago
@TBone: I can’t tell you how many crazy mistakes I’ve been making over the last days. Cognitive overload, big time, for all of us who are paying attention
PS I am SO appreciative of your voice on here. You save me every damn day :-)
sab
@Kay: We do tax prep for engineers and doctors, and they are both on a par as far as people playing outside their intellectual lane.