Toady Trump is not going to like this cover of President Musk.
h/t Jackie for the cover!
It would be a terrible shame if Trump were to stroke out.
I still have no words for all the destruction going on around us, so it’s a good thing that mistermix and Rose and others do.
For some people, anger is their go-to emotion, but not for me. In a crisis, I tend to go quiet, and words escape me. Until they don’t.
If the past is any predictor, my rare “I have no words” phase will eventually followed by a white-hot anger and lots of words, with a strong correlation between the length of the “no words” phase and the amount of anger that follows.
Open thread.
Kristine
I’m seeing folks post about their SS checks—have they been deposited, when they’re due to be deposited, etc.
I’m to receive my first check in April. If there are delays, I have resources to fall back on, but for so many people it’s Social Security or nothing.
But I’m sure the banks, the utility companies, the landlords, will all be willing to wait until any issues are resolved. /s
WaterGirl
PSA:
Remember the signup link we had so that we could communicate with everyone while the site was down and/or at the Home Away from Home site?
If you’re not already on the list, this is your chance to sign up, so that if we ever need to communicate outside of Balloon Juice – insert your worst case scenario here – you will receive the communication.
Signup link
Big thanks to HeleninEire who funded the MailChimp fee to keep the list active for the next year.
BretH
I keep coming back to the Orwellian nature of “Government Efficiency” using a sledgehammer to break things. It is efficient destruction but in terms of overall Government Efficiency you couldn’t find a more wasteful thing to do.
Professor Bigfoot
<snickers>
<rubs hands together gleefully>
<pops popcorn>
<snickers more>
Spanky
@Kristine: The SSA website is up and accessible and I can log in. It shows I last received benefits in January. Today is the usual day it hits my FCU account, and it ain’t there yet.
WaterGirl
Question for you guys. mistermix suggested that we might want to have rotating protest signs in the sidebar, kind of like daily images up top, only different. And not a new one every day. Not sure how we top this one, though. :-) If you have thoughts, share them in the comments.
WaterGirl
@Spanky:
I am wondering what happens with the Social Security bill that was signed by President Biden in January – to makes it so people like me who worked for the University can get their full social security amount instead of the ~ 25% or so that you get because of the stupid “no double-dipping” bill that had been in place until this law was passed.
artem1s
More important for the resistance, it would be a terrible shame if TCF decided it was JV’s and Don Jr’s. fault everyone is bowing down to the @REAL_Soutpiel_POTUS and know that the FFOTUS is an Orange Lame Duck that can be quietly sent to down to the farm at MAL and ignored. Pity if the IC or new AG and/or FBI director or Putin’s stooges at MAL should get word that the new boss would be grateful if the current WH administration experienced an unexpected rapid dissasembly.
CCL
Me too, WaterGirl.
cmorenc
IIRC, yesterday the question was asked: “where are our best points of leverage?”
IMO one of the best is Musk/Trump’s attmept to lay off the FAA traffic controllers amid all the publicity about how inadequate flight control staff at Washington National contributed to the recent Blackhawk-American Airliner fatal crash. A huge portion of the public flies commercial each yar, some fairly frequently, and anxiety over safe management of busy airport traffic is high right now, undermining the long-term image of flying as a relatively safe, convenient way to travel.
The second is the irresponsible, reckless access to citizens private info by Musk’s young band of hackers. Public fear of being exposed to hacking and exploitation by fraudsters stealing identity and access to finacnial accounts is widespread.
We need to take a page from the MAGA fear-mongering MO: exploiting existing tangible fault lines of public fear are far more effective than citing constitutional principles or the damage to American “soft power” (via shutting down USAID) to actually rouse folks (beyond just activitsts) to well, um…action and resistance. The two areas I cited above are expecially primed to hit regular citizens’ sensitive personal nerves in a manner constructive to mounting opposition to Trump’s moves.
Tazj
The Trump administration wanted to get rid of government waste? There is now $340 million dollars of American food aid sitting in the port of Houston since they essentially shut down USAID. That’s a waste besides being cruel and evil.
Supposedly people don’t care about foreign aid (which I don’t believe) but what about the US farmers that supply the aid? That is a source of income for them that’s down the drain. I’m sure many other Americans benefit from this aid also. People are already being let go in my area because of this administration, 15 from Jewish family services and 20 from Journey’s End immigration services. But I suppose it doesn’t matter even though Buffalo doesn’t have a great economy and we need immigrants.
Rubio says there is a waiver program for the aid but Chris Murphy says there isn’t at all. I know who I believe.
Matt McIrvin
@BretH: I think about Barry Goldwater actually making the distinction between “efficiency” and destruction… and declaring he was on the side of destruction: “I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size” (and he goes on, basically declaring that government services are anti-Freedom and unconstitutional).
At least he was honest about what he was doing. These guys aren’t–they’re convinced there’s all this “waste, fraud and abuse” they can eliminate, but of course what they call “waste, fraud and abuse” is the system doing what it’s supposed to do. It’s kind of like the argument used to try to ban mifepristone, that it’s an unsafe drug because what it is intended to do is redefined as “harm”.
Parfigliano
Now that having unauthorized private citizens rooting through govt databases full of sensitive private info is a thing I look forward to the next DEM Admin using this tactic at BATF.
FDRLincoln
Debt default will trigger a global economic meltdown.
I don’t think they care. After all, Trump and Musk are willing to, literally, kill hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions, by ending USAID and stopping the HIV programs in Africa. If they are willing to do that, they would be willing to cause a financial calamity if they think it will lock their power in.
Lots of the Yavin-type techbros want a meltdown, fiscal and societal, so they can build their fantasy
dystopia. People like Vought want a meltdown, so they can wipe away the secular republic and replace it with Gilead.
A meltdown will cause massive protests, and that’s another plus for Trump. That way he can invoke the Insurrection Act, send troops into the streets to shoot protestors. Some troops will disobey the orders, but that’s OK, that just lets you know who to purge.
They are going for all the marbles. Human life means nothing to these people.
The only remaining checks are the courts, which Trump will just ignore, and the big business community, which so far seems willing to go along with it
This will come down to submission to evil, or civil war/dissolution of the Union. There isn’t much time left to stop it.
Suzanne
I still think we’re underestimating the terror that would be unleashed under a POTUS Vance.
Ju
@WaterGirl: I forgot that I signed up already and tried again. Did I screw up my membership or did leaving and not updating prevent damage?
Steve LaBonne
@WaterGirl: I am not counting on ever seeing that money.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
speaking of that, the press is starting to notice what I noticed last September that the right side of Trump’s face is sagging.
RaflW
Good morning, WG & all.
As our most esteemed money-wrangler, I do wonder if it is already time to be thinking about where those of us who can, should be placing some funds.
I’ll be making a substantial gift to the Center for Victims of Torture, an organization founded 40 years ago (yes, the Reagan years) that for basically all that time received quiet bipartisan support for the treatment of torture survivors. Virtually all of their US gov’t funding was immediately cut by Musk-Trump hideousness. Existing contracts have been abrogated and the org is in crisis. I have deep confidence in their CEO, board and staff, who are working at lightning speed to move into new modes, but it’s a cluster.
Anyway, point is: My freakin’ retirement portfolio is okay today. So I’m gifting out of it while it’s strong, and because money moved right now can have the most impact to try to save things these horrible people are intent on wrecking.
I’m also keeping up support for WisDems, MN Senate DFL caucus, Run for Something and a few others. But I looked at the ActBlue tracker someone set up last year, and overall money to Dems is tracking well below what was being donated 4 years ago, week-to-week comparisons.
Some Dems do not deserve our support right now. But others do. How can we be strategic about that? And I’m guessing that the awesome groups (Four Directions, Asian students in NC, etc) we supported are looking at retrenchments right now, when I think there’s huge opportunities for organizing.
Imagine if the already trained door knockers could be reactivated to go out and canvas and explain to harried people that Trump-Muck are coming for your Social Security, health insurance, they’ll reactivate your student debt, all of it. And: Here’s who to call, what to do next to fight back.
The allies we had in Sept-Oct-Nov are still there. Let’s see what they need in this maelstrom. Let me know if I can help with that (you’ve got my contact deets, WG). The antidote to all this fuckery is organizing. I’m eager to get on it.
Steve LaBonne
Speaking of Skum, Heather Cox Richardson’s latest includes the wonderful news that Dump is babbling about a new air traffic control system that supposedly will be developed by Skum and Starlink. Hoo boy.
Lobo
As a reminder:
Your Apocalypse Talking points to your House Rep. from TPM:
For the Senate:
-Deny Quorum
-Block Unanimous Consent
-Max Out Debate Time
-Blanket Opposition to all nominees.
For you: Imagine a better world. Peace.
Steve LaBonne
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: That’s why I don’t worry about a third term. He isn’t going to make it through this one.
Professor Bigfoot
@Matt McIrvin: Remember “shrink it ’til it’s small enough to drown in a bathtub?”
I am convinced that’s because the Feds, (granted, in fits and starts) have been the ONLY guarantor of the rights of Black people since the end of the Civil War.
From Grant fighting the Klan during Reconstruction to Ike sending the National Guard to defend the Little Rock Nine to Obama’s and Biden’s consent decrees with local police departments, it’s been the Feds who have interfered in their “way of life.”
Sure Lurkalot
I have my doubts Trump’s fee fees are hurt by the picture. He still mouths words about running again in 2028 and toadies in the Republican nutterverse say, fuck yeah:
Elon’s money may not have been the biggest factor in Trump’s win (underestimating the ignorance and spite of the American electorate is never wise) but it certainly helped a great deal.
gene108
What depresses me is a large percentage of the population is cheering Musk and Rrump on.
They take everything those two say as absolutely true, and think this is how “drain the swamp” needs to work.
Im not sure how a democracy survives when there’s no common set of values, no shared sense of outrage, and a willingness by Republicans, politicians and voters, to put partisan advantage over all other considerations.
What worries me more is if things collapse, Republicans won’t self-reflect on what went wrong. They’ll look for scapegoats and encourage violence against these groups.
Shalimar
President Musk is taking a poll on X-Twitter about whether he should hire Elez back despite all the racism. Hire him back is winning handily among the mostly internet trolls who pay Musk every month to be a member. No word on whether play-president Trump has voted.
Kristine
Interesting thread over on Bluesky from someone who’s been studying the goals of the “broligarchy” for a while.
Only visible if you’re logged in to Bluesky—that was the choice of the poster.
tl;dr/not logged in: the major points (this was posted back in November so Vivek was still in the picture):
Steve LaBonne
@gene108: The word that explains it starts with “r”.
sentient ai from the future
@FDRLincoln: they’ve also taken aim at the census already, which i take as signaling intent to formally disenfranchise opposition states via both fearmongering and hoping people will not report, and probably straightforward alteration of data to maximize formal republican advantage past 2030
Matt McIrvin
@Professor Bigfoot: Yes, and that was why, even though Goldwater got hammered in 1964, his “libertarianism” became core to the subsequent conservative movement: he opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the one region he consistently carried was the Deep South.
Opposition to civil-rights measures for Black people was always the thing uniting the libertarian and religious/cultural wings of the conservative movement. Though I now think misogyny was a big one too. Libertarians would talk up being for gender equality but somehow always opposed feminism with a burning hate and a kind of divorced-dad energy.
sentient ai from the future
@Shalimar: the flimsiest of permission structures, the internet poll of your own website.
cmorenc
@Suzanne:
Vance is evil, but he’s not insane. Trump is both. Trump has destructive pathologies, and his thinking comes not from careful thoght, but what he pulls out of his butt off the top of his mind. Vance has greedy, arrogant pathologies, but they do rely on the US remaining a functioning economy and country, albeit not in a good direction for social policy.
Leto
@Professor Bigfoot:
<pulls up lawn chair>
<pulls out bag of pop corn>
<furious munching and snickering>
Steve LaBonne
@sentient ai from the future: Oh thanks, I hadn’t gotten around to thinking about the census yet. 🤮
Ksmiami
Burn them all. The GOP needs to be destroyed. All of them, Katie.
Steve LaBonne
@cmorenc: He is a devotee of Yarvin, so I wouldn’t be so sure about that.
H.E.Wolf
Electoral-Vote.com, as usual, weighs in on M*sk’s current activities with useful details and analysis.
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2025/Items/Feb07-1.html
For a palate cleanser, see their Freudenfreude (opposite of schadenfreude) item for today. Well worth a look!
https://electoral-vote.com/#item-6
Matt McIrvin
@gene108: It is not, however, a majority. I think there’s this attempt to portray all this as a Reaganite groundswell and, interestingly, polls don’t actually bear that out. Trump’s support is only slightly greater than it was in 2017, consistent with the small change in his vote share, and significantly lower than Biden’s in 2021. He’s only barely in positive approval-minus-disapproval territory because of the “not sures”, which is what usually happens in the early days of a presidential administration.
I know there’s a lot of “this doesn’t matter anyway” gloom going around but it actually does matter. Trump seems to back down from the craziest shit when he gets vocal pushback. He’s relying on people being scared or bullied into no pushback.
sentient ai from the future
@Steve LaBonne: he was in fact previously hired by the shitbird, but resigned already
Josie
@WaterGirl: I’m wondering the same thing, since it would enable me to receive at least some of my late husband’s social security benefits in addition to my teacher retirement. I can continue to survive on my teacher retirement, unlike many others, but it would be nice to have a little extra.
NotMax
@Steve LaBonne
Rutabaga?
:) //
H.E.Wolf
Me too!
In my case, it’s postcards for a WI Supreme Court candidate who’s backed by the WisDems. Early voting will begin in mid-March, so there’s plenty of time to write, if anyone would like to join me.
It’s PostcardsToVoters.org. To write a few cards for strengthening the rule of law, sign up here:
[email protected]
sentient ai from the future
@Matt McIrvin: the shitbird is not running things though. i mean, i dont know how putin siezed power, but going after, simultaneously, the personnel (OPM), the facilities (GSA, to revoke access even if firing them is formally illegal), and the money spigot (treasury) seems really straihtforwardly coup-like, and i don’t think shitbird or jovan would know to do things that way on their own because they are both irretrievably dim.
this is being coordinated by someone or someones with experience.
WTFGhost
On my honeymoon, some dear friends mistreated me terribly, because they didn’t know better. I was angry – not the way most people think of “anger” but the protective sort of anger, that there was a Ghost near and dear to me, for whom I had to stand up to my friends, even if it hurt some feelings, until I got them to understand that my anger wasn’t that they’d been bad or evil (and “wrong” only in the sense of having acted on incomplete information) – it was that I needed to protect something valuable from accidental injury.
Note the lack of yelling, or the desire to throttle, or any other of the more physical reactions that are the signs of immediate, uncontrolled, anger. Of course, others will insist that means I wasn’t *really* angry. Many of those people will also say masculinity isn’t toxic, which shows they don’t understand *any* sorts of fine distinction.
That said: if you didn’t want to say you were angry, I’d never say “yes you are, yes you are, ha ha ha ha ha ha!” (it’s hard to get the right number of “ha”s to keep the rhythm – I hope the effort is appreciated!) *I* label my protective, put everything on the line, emotion as “anger” (except when “fear” is more appropriate, of course – no shame in fear, the shame is in being a Republican because you’re afraid), because it is the thread that runs through “yell-y, shout-y, foot-stomp-y me” and “no, I won’t stand aside.” I want the label, so I claim it – I wouldn’t push it on anyone else.
But if you *did* want to say you were angry, I’d say “yeah, I think I get angry kinda the same way.”
zhena gogolia
@Matt McIrvin: Right.
narya
This. EXACTLY this. I know this is stupidly naive of me, but, at some fundamental level, I do not understand this. I have absolutely no doubt that it’s true, I have absolutely no doubt that there have been and continue to be systems of power to oppose the full humanity of black people (and women, and so on), but on some basic level it makes no sense to me. Yes, I know they think that we’re all inferior to them or something, but there is so much evidence that that’s simply not true. And, on a different spoke, the world is so much more interesting BECAUSE OF the massive variety! Yes, we have to negotiate things like whether that animal is holy or food, it’s not simple, but still.
Kristine
@H.E.Wolf: I’ll be working on my list this weekend. I ordered them on Thursday as you recommended.
Ohio Mom
I am one of those Screaming at the Top of My Lungs in under 60 Seconds type.
Ohio Dad tells me Trump’s favorability polling is gong up. I asked him who was doing the counting.
BlueGuitarist
@Lobo:
re “Deny Quorum”
Quorum is a majority, so Ds can’t deny a quorum unless 3 Rs don’t show up.
maybe the point is,
Ds should as often as possible “suggest the absence a quorum” or make a point of order to that effect, to delay the Senate with a roll call.
rk
@Kristine:
This all sounds like BS. The fevered dream of useless men with too much time on their hands and no basis in reality. Have these men really gamed out all the consequences? They’re not even smart enough to do this gradually. Break everything all at once and gain power. Use the army to supress the population. May work in the US for a bit (not sure about that). But mass protests and misery worldwide will result in being dragged out into the streets and hung. MAGA support is all well and good. How many foot soldiers do they have? What rewards have they given to the people who will do their dirty work? If MAGA are starving with everyone else, will they fight to the death for Elon and Trump? The plan to steal data, fire everyone is working so far. What they (nor anyone) has really gamed out are the consequences. Oppressing a country of 300 million plus people requires more than one tech bro and 5 incels in the real world.
A Ghost to Most
It helps to have a plan. What could possibly go wrong? That hadn’t already? Fortune favors the prepared. Shit is already going sideways.
Matt McIrvin
@Ohio Mom: I’ve been watching the polls on 538 carefully, and it isn’t going up if you look at the post-inauguration trends. You can cherry-pick individual polls where it’s going up. A bunch of right-wing polls are flooding the zone too.
His favorability went up after he won the election, because this is what always happens. The winner gains in favorability up to the moment he enters office, and if you compare the first post-inauguration polls to the last pre-inauguration ones, you’ll see that rise. But I haven’t seen signs that he’s defying political gravity yet, and his ceiling has not been high.
There’s also the distinction between personal favorability and job approval.
sentient ai from the future
@rk: they might not be smart enough, but their minders definitely are.
if you think nation-states havent been targeting the broligarchy for a long long time now i have a bridge to sell you.
IIRC it was a text message to bezos from Sheik Bonesaw that initially pwned his personal device, which led to subsequent outing of his affair with his current trophy wife and prompted his divorce. (where is mackenzie scott when we need her?)
these dipshits are all pwned sixteen ways from sunday and have no idea they are, likely by, at minimum, 4 or 5 different state security agencies.
so the consequences of targeted psyops that play on the personal deficiencies, which are many, of these nitwits, are absolutely understood by those pulling the strings. does a puppet know or care why it moves?
ETA: added link to wikipedia about the incident, which in turn links to the UN analysis that came to this conclusion.
WTFGhost
@FDRLincoln: Yeah, that’s why I’ve given up, myself. A few random feel-good twits here and there to pretend like everything is fine and dandy. Remind people of some important stuff. Think rainbows and sunshine, really, you have to, or you despair. That kind of crap.
Fighting is over for this gimp, not that I was adding much firepower.
Ohio Mom
@cmorenc: I also don’t think Vance inspires a cult following. But in the end, six of one, half dozen of another. Both beyond awful.
rk
@sentient ai from the future:
Who are the minders?
Suzanne
@cmorenc: Vance is the frontman for the world’s worst people, who would usher in “postliberal Catholicism” and Curtis Yarvin’s “neomonarchy“.
Vance, specifically, is not insane. But…. there’s a good episode of Know Your Enemy that does a deep dive into Hillbilly Elegy. (I’d link, but I’m out of links…. it’s easy to find.) In it, Adler-Bell and Sitman point out a recurring theme, which is that Vance is so hungry for the approval of a male figure — whichever guy Mom is dating at the time — that he remakes himself over and over to be appealing to him. He’s so thirsty for a daddy that he changes his interests and personality to match. OH LOOK, A METAPHOR.
So Vance has no core. And the people behind him are aware and using that to their advantage.
BlueGuitarist
@sentient ai from the future:
The right wing nut that defeated our candidate for Maricopa Ccounty AZ Recorder had proposed that AZ do its own census, as the basis for reapportionment, counting only citizens.
In the US house debate on the 1940 census, a Brooklyn Democrat objected to a proposal to count only citizens, pointing out that the only country that did that was Nazi Germany. Alas that’s probably an endorsement for Republicans today.
sentient ai from the future
@rk: who benefits from the end of american hegemony? always ask cui bono
gene108
@Matt McIrvin:
I never said a majority support Trump. A large enough portion of the population supports him that has me worried, because they are getting more radical as Trump becomes more anti-democratic and there doesn’t seem to be anyway to get these people to reconsider how far off the deep end they’ve gone.
Billionaires, right-wing media, Christian religious fanatics, etc. want to turn this country into an illiberal democracy with them in charge and Republican voters provide unquestioning support to make this happen.
All we can do is plug another hole these goons punch into our democracy. The anti-democratic right can keep going because of so many people supporting the anti-democratic actions of Trump and Musk. Without more than just a simple majority there’s no way to make a lasting change.
The big progressive changes that have happened in this country are the results of large popular support, such as the 17th Amendment and 26th Amendment. We aren’t going to get that level of support for any meaningful changes.
WTFGhost
@narya: When I was learning American history, and especially Black history, I kept hearing about pushing for a Federal anti-lynching law. Now, there were a few lynchings a year recorded, and I couldn’t piece together the missing pieces.
Well: a local Grand Jury would never indict white people for killing Black people, because the white jury would never convict. Long standing rule, don’t indict if you can’t convict.
So the “a few episodes of lynching recorded per year,” suddenly because “a few burning points of injustice per year.”
Then I learned that there were a lot of Black people murdered, and the exact same thing would happen – no indictment, since white people won’t convict for the murder of a Black person.
Then it hit me: the only source – the *ONLY* source – of justice was the feds. And the southern states refused to allow anti-lynching laws.
I wanted to fill a carpetbag full of lead and drop it on the author of my American History textbook for not connecting the dots. WITHOUT that, discussion of “a Federal anti-lynching law” was meaningless. Especially when white assholes would say “murder was illegal in every state of the Union!” to defend the lack of a Federal law.
HeleninEire
@WaterGirl: Happy to do it.
ETA: please remind me next year; I’ll fund it again.
BlueGuitarist
@H.E.Wolf:
thanks for the reminder, postcards to Wisconsin for the win!
Getting right to it because postcards etc. help, and matter more in elections not in November of a presidential year, when lots of people don’t know or don’t remember there’s an election.
Steve in the ATL
A guy I’ve been friends with forever but who turned MAGA before MAGA was even a thing has a kid who’s graduating in May with a PhD in chemistry. He reported a few days ago that every single job she has applied for was cancelled when musk or Trump or whoever shut down government funding.
So…how bluntly do I point out his part in ruining his kid’s career?
zhena gogolia
@Steve in the ATL: Very bluntly.
Steve LaBonne
@sentient ai from the future: The way I like to put it is to ask, if Trump were literally getting marching orders from Putin and Xi, would things look any different?
jimmiraybob
@Tazj: Yes. Farmers, ranchers and the businesses that depend on them. Add to that the decimation of the migrant day laborer pool.
At least the dirty, rotten, woke, commie, DEI-lovin’ hippies are still doing Farm Aid (since 1985). At least until he signs an EO banning them
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
did you see the question I asked about us becoming involved in the special elections for Congress?
Steve LaBonne
@zhena gogolia: Accompanied by a blow from a blunt instrument.
FDRLincoln
@WTFGhost: I can’t give up. I have a disabled child I’m responsible for.
Fascists always come for the disabled.
I may go down, but I will not let my country go without a fight. Figurative and verbal, now. But if it becomes necessary for the fight to become physical, I’m willing to be gunned down in the streets for it.
Fuck these bastards.
Anonymous At Work
It’s INFRASTUCTURE WEEK, only for tariffs: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-trump-told-gop-lawmakers-160217180.html
Also in news, Lucy announces that she’ll let Charlie Brown kick the football.
gene108
@rk:
They’ll fight to the death. May or may not be specifically for Trump or Musk, but they’ll look for scapegoats to beat, maim, and kill.
sentient ai from the future
@Steve LaBonne: also, keep in mind that having a bunch of wet behind the ears 20somethings doing all this means they are MORE likely to be compromised, not less.
NotMax
Not necessarily.
;)
Leto
@WTFGhost:
Hard to have that included when your editors… edit it out because TX won’t accept it, hence it won’t sell. Not to mention that most of the southern states had a straight up “slavery wasn’t that bad” narrative they were pushing in their text books.
My dad was a high school history teacher and he would always straight up talk about the limitations of the k-12 education. He’d contrast that with a college/university history education where you’d start to find out the real shit that went on. (Another reason to dismantle/diminish post secondary education.) We ostensibly live in a better time when we have better access to historical education via a multitude of diverse authors; we also live in a time when people don’t read for pleasure/enjoyment, as well as the decline of the history profession which has lead to dumbshit Fox News authors, and so many other conservative authors, churning out worthless dreck.
Not telling the American public the real history of what our country has done is just part and parcel of being American. If we have a future, that needs to change.
sentient ai from the future
@FDRLincoln: i feel really bad about feeling relieved about having been so paranoid managing my data shadow these last few decades.
cain
So, these rural people are really going to get it in the shorts. No medicaid, hospitals, high transportation costs, and now price of goods are going to go sky high. And now any kind of assistance will be killed because they are getting rid of “entitlements”.
On top of that, they see Trump trying to buy Greenland and Panama.
Their rage is going to be white hot. If I was a GOP lawmaker I will be scared shitess since those folks have guns.
Professor Bigfoot
@WTFGhost: Once you see it, you can’t STOP seeing it.
It can be downright distressing, when you “put the dots together.”
I post this old blogpost periodically because it’s the most direct and pithy explanation for a lot of the American history we tend to gloss over:
https://weeklysift.com/2014/08/11/not-a-tea-party-a-confederate-party/
Professor Bigfoot
@Steve in the ATL: Cricket bat blunt comes to mind.
Steve LaBonne
@Professor Bigfoot: That essay will still be relevant long after I’m dead.
Dave
@narya: Hell white dude and I agree with you I really don’t get it except the narrative so deeply ingrained that it’s everywhere and it becomes both background and must be true. And it’s really ugly and I’m confident I miss a lot of the subtler things as well.
Noticed it is particularly true of but not by any means limited to white dudes about 5-20 years older than I am those that came of age in the 70’s and 80’s.
A lot of immigrant populations embrace it as well for a variety reasons from pure self interest to not understanding why black americans are in the particular place they are.
Miss Bianca
@Steve in the ATL: Very bluntly, like z-g said. Or something like this: “Gosh, isn’t it too bad that between Trump’s freezing of funds *and* cutting DEI initiatives, that your daughter may never get a job? Oh, well, according to the guy you voted for, and his radical cronies you *didn’t* vote for, all she has to do is find some MAGAt like dear old Dad to marry. That will solve everything for her, right? Right??”
Old School
@Steve in the ATL:
“Congratulations! You did it!”
TBone
Ksmiami
We should all stop paying federal taxes immediately. Starve the GOP of funds that are turned around on us.
RaflW
@Steve in the ATL: It’s difficult, but we have to invite the people being screwed by Trump to join us. If the pointing out is part of a larger discussion about how things can be different for that bright young adult if we, together, roll back Trump-Musk, then go for it.
I think we are all going to have to practice a bit of tongue-biting and humility so that we can grow the cadre of people ready to through the bums out, the ones who are really doing the damage.
Steve LaBonne
@cain: Goods they’ll have to drive 50 miles to get because the local Walmart will close soon after the hospital closes. Oh wait, without their disability payments and food stamps they won’t be able to buy anything anyway.
WaterGirl
@CCL: At least we’re not alone in that.
sentient ai from the future
the other day my trans youngling told me that they have chosen john lewis as their subject for a required black history month report. the other kids are doing much more obvious selections from the canon.
i was and am proud, but was also salty and suggested they might want to ask if nat turner is an option.
TBone
@Professor Bigfoot: thanks for the blunt reminder, that’ll get me a good nap this afternoon haha!
Miss Bianca
@cain: Oh, don’t worry, they’ll find some Democratic lawmaker to blame and go after *them* instead.
There’s a reason a lot of liberals I know have started packing heat…or at least talking about it.
sentient ai from the future
@Ksmiami: it’s been several years since they removed the option to claim “Exempt” on your w-4. there’s no obvious way to decline withholding now.
are you sure you know what you’re talking about?
Professor Bigfoot
@gene108: I had a concealed carry license that I let lapse primarily because I came to realize I’m not up for doing the practice and training that I feel appropriate for anyone carrying deadly hardware on their person.
You gots to be serious ‘bout that shit, yo.
But as the Lotus said, “somebody breaking into my house is gonna get shot.”
Steve LaBonne
@RaflW: No. Magas are unreachable cult members, and by themselves there are not enough of them to win elections. Fuck them sideways. It’s the soft Republican voters and low-info weathervanes we have to cultivate.
sentient ai from the future
@Steve LaBonne: we’re gonna need a bigger civic education apparatus
jimmiraybob
@cain: And, if Walmart is still stocked full of Chinese-made goods, prices will go up and jobs will be lost.
WaterGirl
@Suzanne:
I am definitely not underestimating that. But at least the Trump cult or a lot of those under his spell would wake the fuck up if it’s not being done by/for their beloved trump.
Steve LaBonne
@sentient ai from the future: I’m hoping the new DNC chair has some ideas about communication.
NotMax
@Professor Bigfoot
Cricket bats were invented to punish English schoolboys.
//
Ohio Mom
@BlueGuitarist: The census is used for all sorts of planning by government agencies and businesses. Where should you build your new restaurant — look at population trends built on data from the census. What public services will we need, again, look at census data.
If you are only counting citizens, you will not have a good data set. I mean, besides the fact that following Nazi Germany’s lead is wrong.
The census bureau does different kinds of surveys all the time, it’s not just the every ten years head count.
This is why be of the reasons I can’t understand why big business isn’t making a fuss. The federal government does a lot of useful things for them.
WaterGirl
@Ju: Is this Juju? If so, I think you goofed up your nym in this comment.
No, you didn’t hurt a thing.
AM in NC
@HeleninEire: so glad you commented because I wanted to THANK YOU!!!!!!
WaterGirl
@Steve LaBonne: We would have if the election had gone the other way.
WaterGirl
@RaflW: Perfect timing! I reached out to three of our groups earlier this week.
Stay tuned!
WaterGirl
@Steve LaBonne: They had better start funding trains, then!
jimmiraybob
@Miss Bianca: “There’s a reason a lot of liberals I know have started packing heat…or at least talking about it.”
Sad but true. I travel a lot of dirt and gravel roads when I head west into the mountains. Two summers ago there were about 8-10 4x4s with Trump banners. My concern now is being stopped and questioned about my loyalty.
My old plan was to steal a MAGA hat and keep it under the driver’s seat (concealed carry). That no longer seems a viable defense. Especially if I have to use my words.
AM in NC
@Steve in the ATL: well, I know there are things Trump/Musk are doing that you wanted and like, but whether you realized it or not THIS is also what you voted for. The question now is what are your priorities? Are you willing to cut off opportunities for your child and cripple US scientific efforts to get the things you like?
all politics is making choices. Whose interests are you more concerned about? I love my kids, personally.
Ksmiami
@sentient ai from the future: I pay quarterly taxes. I know it’s a small minority of people, but resistance starts now.
Ksmiami
@Steve LaBonne: no, he’s terrible- it’s pretty obvious
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Um, about that.
artem1s
@Steve LaBonne:
leading, no doubt, to self flying airplanes.
and more unexpected rapid disassembly events.
great news for the tourism industry.
Ohio Mom
@Steve in the ATL: You could play dumbish, saying something like, “ I heard the Trump administration was holding up science finding. Do you think there is some connection with your kid not getting any offers?” And go from there. In my better moments, I find leading questions a useful tool.
Now at the moment, I’d just say, “Connect the dots you idiot!” Then then I’d connect them for him.
If I really liked this family, I’d say this might be a good time to find a job abroad, as a first step in emigrating from this disintegrating republic of ours.
Matt McIrvin
@Professor Bigfoot: If we have to fight a civil war, I can’t be the trigger man. I *know* my mental state and general conscientiousness are such that even carrying would make me more a danger to myself and those I love than to anyone bad.
The thing is, this is true of the median armed Republican too, but they don’t acknowledge it.
Professor Bigfoot
@NotMax: Well, they did give the world the first professional navy- complete with “rum, sodomy and the lash” so… ;)
(almost every navy of the last 300 years has at least in some ways patterned itself after the Royal Navy to one extent or another… not necessarily including Churchill’s infamous statement)
NotMax
@artem1s
“Airports have not been the same since the good old days when insurance dispensing machines were rampant.”
//
Professor Bigfoot
@Matt McIrvin: I’m old, I’m fat, and I’m slow.
What I have is simply a grim determination to take as many of the bastards to Hell with me as I can.
Of course, I’d rather we all lived to be grizzled elders who die peacefully in their sleep; but… I’m getting myself mentally prepared.
Steve LaBonne
@WaterGirl: Self-driving trains and AI-powered switches, signals, and crossing gates. What could go wrong?
Steve LaBonne
@NotMax: I’m old enough to remember that. My dad always bought a life insurance policy from those when he went on a business trip.
Fair Economist
@FDRLincoln:
They may not *think* they care, but if it happens, they *will* care. When the payments system stops working, it will go to hell for everybody in a very big hurry.
Matt McIrvin
@artem1s: Modern commercial airplanes are in a sense self-flying! They have autopilots that can do most of the second-to-second work of piloting the plane over all phases of flight. This is way more developed than self-driving car tech.
However, those autopilots do require human oversight–setting them up to do the right thing in a given situation isn’t trivial, and really can’t be. Also, pilots usually fly takeoffs and landings manually when it’s not safety-critical, both because pilots usually want to, and as an essential exercise to keep their skills up in case they can’t rely on the autopilot.
YouTubers Tom Scott and Petter “Mentour Pilot” Hörnfelt once did an exercise together in which, using an airline-grade professional flight simulator, they simulated the disaster-movie scenario of an untrained passenger having to land an airliner–something that would never happen today because a passenger couldn’t get into the cockpit, but what if? Hörnfelt successfully talked Scott down and proved that, as long as the passenger figured out how to get in contact with someone telling them how to operate the autopilot, they’d probably manage.
They also tried it without the autopilot, and, well… probably not everyone would have died.
trollhattan
@sentient ai from the future:
Marshawn Lynch. :-)
“I’m all about the action, boss.”
He does a podcast with Gavin Newsom.
trollhattan
@NotMax:
Oh god, yeah, nothing like a little last-second insurance policy to sooth the traveler’s nerves.
Ashtrays and free coffee at the departure gates.
Ohio Mom
@FDRLincoln: As a fellow parent, probably the most useful thing you can do is get your affairs in order — a will, a special needs trust, Able account — try to get some sort of housing set up (this is a great book: Moving Out:A Family guide to Residential Planning for Adults with Disabitilites) — and try to get some younger family and friends to commit themselves to stepping up for your kid (that last bit was a joke, it’s next to impossible to accomplish).
What I’m saying is, going out in a gunfight is probably the least helpful thing you could do, though I definitely share the anger under that.
rikyrah
Suzanne has been pointing this out for awhile.
m.j.
As far as Musk’s vendetta against USAID, I thought the whole racism thing that got you elected was about stemming the flow of migrants northward.
rk
@sentient ai from the future:
Actually in theory I know. But as I said all this is theory. At the end of the day you need boots on the ground thugs fighting for you to suppress your miserable population. Dictatorships retain power by keeping their people happy. Unless Musk’s plan allows for money to be siphoned of to poor, uneducated white men, I’m not seeing how all this works in the world. The US army is the unknown here. Will they go along and suppress their own people? Maybe? The army and cops have to get in line. We’ll see.
rikyrah
@RaflW:
I’m not saying that we can win. But, it’s an off election year, where activism counts a bit more
Talking about the two Congressional Seats in Florida and the the one in NY.
We need to find out how we can help with these.
They have been insane enough this fast where we can get people’s attention.
Ohio Mom
@Ksmiami: um, most federal taxes are withheld by employers; that money goes right past you, there’s is no way you can’t pay that.
If you have reason to pay quarterly taxes on your own, I guess you could risk whatever by not sending those checks in.
NotMax
@rk
One quibble.
FDRLincoln
@Ohio Mom: Already have the trust, working on the Able account. Our family abandoned us a long time ago, except for my older son, who works for a disability agency in another state and is committed to making sure his disabled brother will be OK.
I am too old and fat and tender-hearted to shoot someone except under the most dire circumstances. I am far more likely to just be a civilian shot in a protest. But I’m preparing myself for that possibility.
I hope I’m just catastrophizing. But the events of the last week are already far worse than anyone expected, and I just can’t see how this ends in any way but dictatorship or civil war if Trump defies the courts.
H.E.Wolf
@Kristine: I’ll be working on my list this weekend. I ordered them on Thursday as you recommended.
That’s fantastic! I ordered mine on Thursday this week, too.
Knowing I have an extra day to write makes it easier for me to get started… because I know there’s time for rest breaks. Which in my case means snack breaks. My postcard writing is carbohydrate-fueled!
Professor Bigfoot
@Ohio Mom: “The best way to win a gunfight is don’t get into one.”
That can be difficult, of course, but still wise advice.
Matt McIrvin
@Ohio Mom: It strikes me how much of this talk is a mirror image of right-wing gun-enthusiast speak about the right to revolution. I don’t think we’re any more capable of fighting the US armed forces with amateur small arms than the other side is, and we ridicule it when they talk that way. If it comes to that, and the army itself doesn’t split, guess we’ll die. But the impulse seems to be in the air in America.
WaterGirl
@HeleninEire: Wow, that’s amazing! thank you again!
JeanneT
I just saw a comment on Wonkette that one of their commenters, Villago Delenda Est, has died. Is this OUR Villago Delenda Est?
https://www.wonkette.com/p/but-dogs-cant-play-basketball-tabs/comment/91265739
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Water Girl:
Yes on rotating protest photos. We took a bunch on Wed. I might still have some good ones from the 2017 March.
H.E.Wolf
It boosts my spirits to know that I’m writing along with you!
Thanks for the very timely reminder that these off-year elections are a great opportunity for us to get Blue voters out to the polls.
rikyrah
@cain:
saw a TikTok from a Rural Democrat, talking about farmers who have gotten letters that the Federal Government isn’t going to honor the previous deals set up with them by the Biden Administration. Thus leaving these farmers SOL for their loans.
It’s going to RUIN many of them.
But, of course, this was all in Project 2025
WaterGirl
@Steve in the ATL:
If you want to keep the friendship, I would go with very bluntly but not hatefully.
NotMax
@H.E.Wolf
Imagine how much more productive medieval scribes might have been if only they’d had Fritos!
//
rikyrah
@Miss Bianca:
I really like this. This is on point.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: I did not! What was your question and where did you ask it?
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@JeanneT:
Ut oh. How many people with that handle can there be?
Here’s hoping Water Girl can track down the info.
Very sad to loose a cogent voice in here.
Professor Bigfoot
@Matt McIrvin: 100%. If the Army is hunting us, we’re fucked anyway. But I don’t expect that to happen.
My concerns comes from the knowledge of the Red Summer, of the sack of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, the sack of Elaine Arkansas
Edited to add that those RWNJS know good and damned well they couldn’t begin to stand up to a single Marine fire team. But what they CAN do is use their stockpile of weapons against their neighbors.
Remember the Yugoslavian Civil War, and their ethnic cleansing? Or even the Rwandan genocide?
H.E.Wolf
I agree with you. This is an Opportunity!
I’ll keep my nose in the wind to scent out any postcard GOTV plans for the 3 congressional seats you mention. I am a total tracking hound for GOTV :)
… and back to the desk, where my actual postcards are NOT getting written because I’m here with all y’all!
rikyrah
With the impending attack on Medicaid..
DO people really understand that the TRUE Poster Children for Medicaid should be Bob and Sally’s Grandma and Grandpa..
Because the largest PERCENTAGE of Medicaid Dollars GOES TO NURSING HOMES.
Folks ready to move Grandma and Grandpa into THEIR houses and take care of them?
H.E.Wolf
Hee hee. Crunchy carb snacks were probably a thing, long before we attained bipedalism!
WaterGirl
@Steve LaBonne: shudder.
Steve LaBonne
@rikyrah: I am hoping the NYS legislature and Hochul are working with Jeffries to change the law and delay the special election for Stefanik’s seat as long as possible, ideally all the way to 2026. Play hardball.
Miss Bianca
@JeanneT: Oh, no – quite likely, I guess, as I find it hard to believe there would be two commenters with that nym. Oh, that is sad.
trollhattan
@Steve in the ATL:
Frame it as a question.
“Can you believe how Trump and his folks have turned on their very supporters? Wow, I’m amazed at their moves, aren’t you?”
FDRLincoln
@Professor Bigfoot: Bleeding Kansas is another parallel. Armed militias squaring off against each other.
trollhattan
@H.E.Wolf: Read that as “crunchy crab snacks” and my mind instantly went to Sponge Bob.
Kristine
@rikyrah: That’s been mentioned here over the last few days, and it really should be shouted about because these folks have no idea what’s headed their way.
TEL
@JeanneT: Oh no! It sounds like them – one of the commenters said they never felt they were being too hyperbolic so long as VDE was there. WaterGirl, did you see this?
Suzanne
@rikyrah: It’s because I lurk semi-regularly at some terrible comment sections.
The loathing for women with degrees/careers is deep and wide…. because the betrayal is three-fold.
1) Women who go to college and then enter the professional workforce often have similar expectations of their partners in terms of educational attainment and earning potential. They typically want to continue their careers after marriage and thus expect more egalitarian relationships.
2) Women who go to college and then professional work often delay or forego childbearing, and often want to continue or return to their careers after having children.
3) Said women are often kicking ass at work, often outcompeting men, certainly have changed the workplace from the days of ass-grabbing in the office.
Professor Bigfoot
@FDRLincoln: Yeah, Bleeding Kansas was *nasty.*
I’ll just note that it was entirely over the Enslavement.
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
Dear Water Girl:
Do you know about these special elections in Florida.
The Congressional Special Elections?
I know these are Republican Districts, but we need to put in a fight
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8YkdvLX/
Jeffro
@Lobo:
Could not agree more! This is what I have been telling my Senators (Ds) and even my Rep (loony-tunes R): no nominees, no legislation, nothing until the criminal activity from Musk and DOGE stops cold.
Here’s what I’ve been putting out on social media, too:
3 every day to-dos:
1) use any & all platforms that you have to remind as many American voters as possible: the GOP could end the trump/Musk/DOGE insanity in an hour
2) thank at least 1 Dem per day for fighting for us!
3) remember that any day this stuff isn’t on your mind ALL day is a win 💙🇺🇸
prostratedragon
Karen Attiah:
Archive link to article
TooManyJens
I just tried calling the White House comments line to do my bit toward driving a wedge between Trump and Musk, and it turns out the line is only open from 11am-3pm EST Tuesday through Thursday. I know they don’t give a shit anyway but I find that hilarious.
trollhattan
@Professor Bigfoot: Rwanda is flaring up right now in the form of Rwandan soldiers participating with M23 in the DOC invasion, which has quickly become as nasty as Sudan, including sexual violence being part of the tactics. Am afraid their civil war was never truly settled and the embers are active today.
trollhattan
@TooManyJens: New WH phone bank is housed in Greenland and staffed by repurposed Tesla employees. Welcome to 2026.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
I’m wondering what those of us who paid into SS for literally decades and have retired and are ENTITLED to receive the benefit check we paid money into (for in my case 60 yrs) to allow us to retire reasonably will do if they stop coming. And if they stop coming, what do we do about it?
This level of complete chaos, caused by a complete fucking idiot and the world’s richest asshole is the absolute worst crap the American people have had to live with in our entire history. It’s not the civil war, with thousands of people mistakenly believing that they were superior, when they obviously were not. This is a man who thinks his shit doesn’t stink because he is so rich that he can do anything he wants, such as OWN a democracy. That picture on the right side of the blog says it all, even if I don’t have that anatomy.
rikyrah
USAID purchases about $2 BILLION a year of rice, wheat, lentils and peas from American farmers.
Matt McIrvin
@JeanneT: If true, I’m very sorry to hear that.
Booger
@sentient ai from the future: Right, that would be Heritage, via 2025 Project.
WTFGhost
@Matt McIrvin: You could, if *you* should, and if you *needed* to. Not everyone should fight – not everyone can. But people are surprised that love is such a powerful motivator, it can make you willing to fight those who’d kill others.
Me, I’d be better in medics, though I’d be damn sure I could shoot a rifle, pistol, and use a knife, crowbar, a stapler, a citrus reamer, or 7 packets of ketchup, plus a plug of fresh ginger.
(Nobody expects the last one.)
@Professor Bigfoot: I always am sure I’ve heard a three way rhyme for that, something like “rum, bum, and the whipmaster’s drum” but, alas, not even AI changes the course of history.
Yet.
AM in NC
@JeanneT: Oh no. Oh I hope not. I don’t want to lose more jackals. And at such a young age (Wonkette commenter says not yet 60).
rikyrah
Why can’t we use this insanity in ads for those Congressional Special Elections in FLORIDA?
David Pepper (@DavidPepper) posted at 11:00 AM on Fri, Feb 07, 2025:
![]()
Unfortunately, the next DOGE target looks to be the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center.
DOGE apparently informed senior staff to plan to reduce its staff by 50% and funding by 30%.
1/
David Pepper (@DavidPepper) posted at 11:00 AM on Fri, Feb 07, 2025:
Long-time subscribers of mine know this comes right out of Project 2025—and is motivated by anger that NOAA responsibly tracks and studies climate change and its impact on severe weather.
According to Project 2025, the NOAA “has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity.” Its focus, Project 2025 alleges, “seems designed around the fatal conceit of planning for the unplannable.”
2/
David Pepper (@DavidPepper) posted at 11:00 AM on Fri, Feb 07, 2025:
That’s right, Project 2025 declared its opposition to trying to plan for future weather events, and now DOGE is acting on that..
As a result, NOAA “should be broken up and downsized.”
Project 2025 proposed:
3/
(https://x.com/DavidPepper/status/1887909376561734129?t=kopeiLFdiv58Ay9IVK-73g&s=03)
Ruckus
@Ruckus:
I also served in the military of this country during a war, one which most of us did not want to be in, but we still did our duty to the country. And now we have someone with greed beyond all other examples of greed, the world’s wealthiest man behaving and being a complete and utter ASSHOLE.
I a navy veteran and so I have many adjectives for this utter asshole, but I won’t list all of them here, unless asked. They are mostly 4 letter words…..
gene108
@rikyrah:
NJ and VA have Governor elections this year, as well as state legislature elections.
Booger
@sentient ai from the future: Or Gabriel Prosser.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kristine: This reads like the kind of fan fiction the teenage bois in my on-line role playing game were coming up with. I would ask them
Me “So, what is going to keep the women and their dreaded cooties out of the all male, totally NOT gay, work force, once you get rid of all the regulatory agencies and any kind law enforcement? (I had cooties once, ended up with all these bite marks on my neck)”
Teenage Boi “Because the leader issued an order”
Me “Oh? People disobey the law all the time. What do expect a woman whose husband died to just starve to death. No! She will go underground as a illegal guerrilla housekeeper for money, . What will stop that terror from happing in your paradise?”
Teenage Boi “They (the population on this fictional planet in the game) knows the order is right, in their hearts. It won’t happen”
And now they are trying that in real life. Just lovely.
Ruckus
@Matt McIrvin:
This is true of anyone who carries.
I had to carry a loaded weapon in port watch while in the USN and asked the officer who set me up my first day what my orders were. “Shoot to kill anyone who doesn’t belong.” I was told. ” That’s A direct order.” (That took any decision making out of my control) I never took the weapon out of the holster, never had any reason to. Thankfully.
Cheryl from Maryland
@gene108: THIS. VA in particular as the Gov., Lt. Gov., and Atty General are trumpites working to implement Trump’s agenda in the state.
RaflW
@Steve LaBonne: I guess I was confused by you calling him a friend.
People who are deep in the MAGA are probably unreachable. But I see things like @rikyrah’s item about farmers having their programs cancelled, and my reaction is that this is a moment when outreach and organizing can move those people. Trump is fucking with their lives, it doesn’t have to be like that, and it is up to them + us to fight back.
Spanky
Since I posted this AM about my Social Security deposit not arriving today, I can now say that The Eagle Has Landed. Repeat: The Eagle Has Landed.
Now I have a full month to worry about the next one.
sentient ai from the future
@Booger: when they were much younger I bought them the only children’s book I could find about toussaint l’overture
Old School
@JeanneT:
Oh no! RIP.
Matt McIrvin
@Ruckus: I figure there are people for whom the probability that someone is actively trying to kill them is high enough that the risk comparison inverts.
something fabulous
@WaterGirl: I vote nah. (Though I must admit I love this one!) Feels like more and added stress without actually being news. As Another Scott would say, “My two cents” :)
Ruckus
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I can’t say most people, but will use many people, think that there is nothing they can’t do in a free country. Almost as if the law doesn’t apply to them. (Yes that apply is doing a hell of a lot of work) People in this country have been doing this since day one. Most of them seem to not understand that 1776 is over 200 yrs ago and that life is not the same as then. But then many humans believe that in a democracy they can do ANYTHING they want, laws don’t apply to them, only to criminals. They really do not understand how those criminals got to be criminals.
Maybe stupid is as stupid does really does apply.
Juju
@WaterGirl: I made that comment on my iPad and for some reason it keeps changing my name to Ju. I’ve set it back to Juju a few times, but it keeps going back to Ju. This comment is from my iPhone.
WaterGirl
@JeanneT: Oh, no! I would be surprised if there were two people on political blogs with that name.
RaflW
@rikyrah: This is getting noticed. I slag the press regularly, but the Star Tribune is aware that MN is still a state with a very important farm economy.
Other parts of the article point out that some of the biggest agribusiness companies will be impacted, too (Cargill being our local 900lb. gorilla – they did not respond when asked for comment, though. Hopefully they’re on the phone with lil’ Marco.)
Marc
The Republicans will no doubt flood media with a bunch of disinfo proclaiming all of the wonderful things they will do, the taxes they will cut, and branding the Democrats as pedophile-lovers, race-traitors, and tax raisers. I’m not sure I believe that this spew of crap can be countered by factual information and appealing to people’s better nature. My question would be, how far are the Democrats (and liberals/progressives) willing to go to actually win these races?
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Sidebar has become crowded enough, approaching the point of slowing or interfering with site fully loading.
No Nym
@rikyrah: I work in a Medicaid-related field, and I keep asking questions about how changes to Medicaid are going to affect our work. The response is always, “Oh, they won’t be able to do anything to Medicaid,” which makes me picture Musk’s little incel varsity squad saying, “Hold my Red Bull and watch this.” The disconnect makes me feel like I have vertigo.
Lobo
@Jeffro:
Thanks! Keep repeating it and spread the word.
Lobo
@Steve in the ATL:
Is this what you voted for?
Matt McIrvin
@Ruckus: It’s the fundamental attribution error: that “criminal” is something you are, not a function of what you do. And that’s often just racism rephrased of course.
Matt McIrvin
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
The libertarian/conservative types who say these things generally believe that men are so obviously superior that reverse-discrimination rules are the only thing keeping them in the workforce and merit-based hiring will eliminate them. In practice, it’d be an entrenched old-boy network just refusing to hire them, like we had before laws against these things and may have again.
AM in NC
@Jeffro: I called my Rep. (Valerie Foushee) and talked with her staffer for about 1/2 an hour. Foushee was at the Dept. of Ed. trying to get in yesterday.
The staffer was thrilled with my call and 100% behind gumming up the works . Irritated at lack of leadership from the top of the Party. Also was happy to know I’ve been reaming our two MAGOP Senators by phone on the daily.
After she made a comment about me being well-informed, I volunteered to talk to any press they want to set up with a Democratic voter to get OUR perspective instead of another rural MAGA diner patron. She took my info.
Just wanted to report that my Rep. seems on board with the “throw sand in the gears” approach.
Ruckus
@Leto:
THIS.
What I learned in school was far, far less than what I learned in the public library. Mom took me to get an adult card when I was about 12 because I’d read all the books in the kids side that weren’t “Jane” or “Tom.” The very senior librarian did not want to give me an adult card but I believe she figured it out that if she didn’t mom was coming over the counter for her. She was correct.
Ruckus
@Leto:
that
needsHAS to changefixit for you.
jimmiraybob
Mine should happen next week. I am hoping for the best. With the Musk attack on critical infrastructure I think that this anxiety will happen on a monthly basis. It’s not an unreasonable concern when you consider the likely targets of the purges and then add unintended consequences on top of that.
rikyrah
@JeanneT:
I’m sad to say that I think it’s the same person.
RIP.
Marc
My Mom stayed at home for all of 5 years after my sister was born. Early elementary years, she was the school librarian (better to keep an eye on us in potentially hostile territory). Later she was a librarian at the local branch. I’d given up on kids books at 6 or 7, and would voraciously read anything with pictures of planes or trains on the covers, adult histories, biographies, etc. Mom would let me take out anything I wanted (reading Hersey’s Hiroshima at 10 changed my attitude towards a lot of things), the other librarians were a bit more skeptical and would only let me take kids books. My Mom then gave me an adult card, problem solved until the day I tried to take out Catch-22. The librarian put it aside and told me she would ask my mom. Mom brought it home at the end of her next shift. Probably the reason I’ve been a lifelong cynic.
Ruckus
@RaflW:
It’s not Trump-Musk.
It’s Musk-trump.
shitforbrains – trump – has aged out. Most of us do at some point, he’s past his. And went rapidly. As someone 3 yrs younger than shitforbrains and still in control of all of my marbles (and have a lot more of them than he ever did – and that doesn’t take a lot…), the person running this country is elonshitforbrains. He has no controls, only pure greed and holds the premise that as the world’s greatest human being, he can do whatever the hell he wants – the law be damned. (Law, what law?) It’s likely that he’s the only one that sees him as numero uno. OK, maybe those with the brain power of well used bubble gum do also.
What to do? Beats the hell out of me. I can’t recall in our countries entire history having this level of complete and utter bullshit, in and around our highest political office.
Ohio Mom
@rikyrah: What a loss for all of us. I hope his transition was gentle.
artem1s
@Ksmiami:
exactly how do you suggest keeping employers from withholding taxes?
artem1s
@Matt McIrvin:
their autopilots systems weren’t designed by Tesla.
H-Bob
@NotMax: Punish them by making them watch cricket!
The Thin Black Duke
If [when?] this country hops aboard the Dystopia Express, it’s the arms dealers who are going to make out like bandits, selling their products to both sides of the political divide.
Damned if I know what’s next, but it’s a mistake to assume that some people who think of themselves as “bleeding-heart liberals” aren’t going to shoot back.
It’s a lose-lose clusterfuck, guaranteed.
Ruckus
@Marc:
Quite possibly.
I can’t say that I’m a cynic, although it’s quite possible. I think I fall into Humans are, possibly for the most part, fucking insane. Some believe that they are the smartest, and they might be, in a room of people below an IQ level of 80. Some believe that they can do no wrong, but that’s likely because they store their head in a very large smelly exit hole in their body. Some have no connection to any kind, side, level of reality. And a lot of people are on the edges of but not in those groups. And a fair number of humans are actually human and recognize other humans and have zero need or concept of running over the rest with very large military tanks. IOW it takes all kinds to make up humanity. And we live among all of them.
Ruckus
@artem1s:
their autopilots systems weren’t designed by Tesla.
That’s cold.
Likely very true, and deserved in this case, but still – COLD.
And I like it. When pompous arrogance loses the world rejoices.
Geminid
@Steve LaBonne: You can probably find reporting on the date for special election to fill Stefanik’s seat, and the legislative action regarding it. This type of thing gets reported fairly intensively on New York state media. I think there is an Albany poiltical site but I ecpect there others.
Ruckus
WG
For some people, anger is their go-to emotion, but not for me. In a crisis, I tend to go quiet, and words escape me. Until they don’t.
This is better. I was a mental health counselor for a while and one of the things that we noticed and learned was that some have an always loaded anger trigger and some take quite a while to get to even finding the trigger. That second response is almost always the best, like 99.9% of the time. Now if you are in a relationship where one of you is always loaded and one is takes quite some time there is an inequality in the relationship. It’s better if BOTH of you learn to modify the loading of the response time. Because it is rare that a relationship never has the need of a response time. It is after all – humanity
Also in this day and age we need to recognize that BOTH SIDES have the need of a response time, as well as an emotional limit to the degree of response. It wasn’t always that way, even if it always should have been.
Matt McIrvin
@artem1s: Nor are airplane autopilots fire-and-forget: you have to have a lot of expert domain knowledge to program them in response to guidance from ATC.
Ksmiami
@artem1s: lobby them. But I’m talking about ppl who don’t pay w2 taxes…
WaterGirl
@Juju: Maybe delete the “Ju” and type “Juju” again, fresh? I am wondering if there might be some funky hidden character in there or something.
Kayla Rudbek
@Matt McIrvin: live free or die only applies to men and not to women
Kayla Rudbek
@Matt McIrvin: and 1) men aren’t willing to do “women’s work” and 2) men will be willing to pay women less to do the same job
jayne
@Suzanne:
Vance would be a terrible president for all of those reasons. The upside is that he has the charisma of a wet sock and Trump possibly has been seen in public with Melania more frequently than he has with JD. If Trump is out of the picture, it’s highly unlikely that JD can corral Trump’s base long enough to do anything useful with them. And without a clear successor, the cult splits into factions.
K-Mo
I would like to see alt versions of the Time cover with marauding incels hacking everything apart, burning buildings, etc while Musk stares at the camera with his coffee like a psycho.