I had to do a little shopping around today because the workers at King Soopers, the Colorado Kroger brand, are on strike, and I’m not crossing any picket lines. The union wants a pay raise, and as usual management’s been fucking with them. Service jobs can be miserable, and they’re certainly low paying, so I hope the strike is successful.
Amazon is already claiming that Trump’s takeover of the NRLB means that a union vote at their Whole Foods store in Philly should be overturned. Loomis at LGM has good pieces on unions in Colorado and the Whole Foods union busting if you want a deeper dive.
I wonder how many King Soopers and Whole Foods employees are on Medicaid — I’m guessing a lot of them. Let’s be sure to cut the shit out of our main safety net for workers who can’t get benefits at work, so they can die early, miserable deaths once they’re of no use to the billionaires who run these corporations. The Republicans who “represent” a lot of them don’t even have enough grit to push back when King Elon steals already apporpriated money from their constituents.
As I’ve mentioned before, Claudia Sheinbaum is making car tours around Mexico in part to distribute pension cards for the new Women’s Wellbeing Pension that her government instituted. Here, in less civilized America, we’re trying to cut Medicaid so that old people will be thrown out into snowbanks outside nursing homes.
In related news, Elon’s coding bootcamp incels don’t have an awesome record:
🚨BIG SCOOP: Musk’s DOGE Teen Was Fired By Cybersecurity Firm for Leaking Company Secrets
Edward Coristine posted online that he had retained access to the firm’s servers. Now he has access to sensitive government information.
🎁 www.bloomberg.com/news/article…
— Jason Leopold (@jasonleopold.bsky.social) February 7, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Finally, where are my fucking eggs, Trump? $7.19 a dozen at Target, if you can get them.
trollhattan
Whole Foods was just as bad under the original dude, who wrote a heartfelt piece in the WSJ hammer and tongs against that commie Obama and his so-called healthcare, which was a scam and besides “if you want to be healthy just buy my food.”
Sorry nothing has changed. Amazon happens to have finally opened one of their supermarkets in our metroplex, no idea how it’s doing.
Steve LaBonne
For the techbros, early, miserable deaths for all us useless eaters are a feature.
WTFGhost
The dying in misery seems more likely, and not entirely without comfort.
bbleh
I’ve been very supportive of the Philly WF staff’s unionizing when I shop there, and the ones I talked with today seemed both pleased with the outcome and dubious that anything’s going to stop it.
The store’s offerings, though, have been going steadily downhill as it’s become more and more Amazonified. An entire side of an aisle that’s nothing but small packages of nuts — seriously, how many ways can you package the same kind of nut? — but just TRY to find, believe it or not, wheat bran in ANY kind of package. And I finally found a few packages of lentils, after a lot of hunting. “Whole foods” my ass.
Markets down 1%. Thanks Trump!
John S.
Where are all those rabid reporters that used to hound Biden and his press secretaries? I mean, you’d think they would be slavering over the chance to hoist Trump on his own petard with all his grandiose claims of fixing shit on “day one”.
Nah, they’ll just keep sanewashing and bothsiding everything until we’re all dead.
Trivia Man
I was able to plant a seed of fear at work with the MAGA crowd. We sell consumer goods in canada so i just asked, “is there any discussion around potentially lower sales due to consumer boycotts of US goods?”
“Oh, that shouldn’t affect us.”
mmmkay. At least i put it on the table.
robtrim
Breaking: J D Vance agrees with Musk: reinstate the racist staffer who resigned!
Glory b
Today, in the Pittsburgh East Liberty Target branch, all the 12 dozen packages of eggs were sold out, pasture raised dozens were $8.19, regular 18 count were $6.89.
Old School
Coming soon: High egg prices are due to workers’ pay increases!
John S.
@Old School:
I think you meant high egg prices are the result of DEI.
Glory b
@bbleh: Trader Joe’s, for the win!
trollhattan
Looks like Donny fixed our made-up water problems.
Steve LaBonne
@robtrim: A guy who hates Indians. Like, for example, Usha Vance. Fake Hillbilly is pathetically lacking in self respect (and I guess that must also be true of Usha).
trollhattan
@John S.:
Brown eggs always cost more. Local mom confused.
robtrim
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President JD Vance said Friday that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency should rehire a staff member who resigned after he was linked to social media posts that espoused racism, with President Donald Trump later endorsing his vice president’s view.
dm
I think Musk’s minions are called “DOGE-turds” (or something less genteel if you choose).
Ohio Mom
@Trivia Man: Educators have researched how much repetition is needed for a learner to grasp a new concept. The number of repetitions corresponds roughly to IQ.
Only very smart people who have a lot of previous knowledge of the subject area can grasp a new concept easily. Everyone else needs to hear it more than once.
The upshot is, your co-workers will need additional exposure to the risks to their livelihoods by Trump antagonizing Canada.
Sister Golden Bear
After Musk’s Twitter “poll” overwhelming votes to reinstate the Muskrat who resigned yesterday over racial posts, Musk (with the endorsement of Trump and Vance) just reinstated him at the Doge Treasury team.
Meanwhile another Muskrat at the OPM (the government’s HR office) was just uncovered as boosting white supremacists and misogynists online.
dm
@Glory b: Sadly, Trader Joe’s is also union busting.
Leto
@bbleh: so down the road from you, over in Reading, we have Kimberton Whole Foods. Totally different from Amazon Whole Foods. I know they’re over in your area is as well. They’re a local hippy/crunchy super market that sources as much as they can from the local area. Tons of PA products are on the shelves from all the local farmers around us. They’re also one of the few places I can find proper English bangers (sausage) because a local place here makes them. Depending on how far away one is from ya, might be worth it to check them out.
SpaceUnit
I went to Safeway on Wednesday to get ahead of the madness. Hope the strike doesn’t last too long.
Here’s the thing – Safeway and King Soopers shoppers are different breeds. Safeway shoppers are laid back and chill. Most of us pop in every few days to pick up just a handful of items. It’s very relaxed. The checkout line is a breeze.
King Soopers shoppers are rabid consumers hellbent on plunder and filling their carts until they’re overflowing. They’ll run over anyone who gets in their way. It’s a fucking zoo. Checkout lines are long and the parking lot is a combat zone. Every day is like Black Friday at Walmart.
I appreciate King Soopers shoppers that are showing solidarity with the workers at their “store”, but it would be nice if they’d remember that when they’re at Safeway they’re basically guests in another country with different customs and a different culture. Dial it down. Say please and thank you and excuse me. Don’t ransack the shelves and leave products all over the floor. Don’t hoard toilet paper. Don’t leave your emptied cart in the middle of the parking lot where it’s blocking traffic. Christ.
Just wanted to get that off my chest. Please carry on.
Sister Golden Bear
@Steve LaBonne: But don’t worry, they’ll save the prettiest virgins for their “joy divisions.”
Leto
@Sister Golden Bear: just the mainstream view from the Republican party. Gloves, masks, everything off. Read this morning about Victor Orban wanting full investigations into anything having to do USAID and the Hungarian press. Dictators across the world celebrating what’s happening here.
lowtechcyclist
@dm:
DOGEbags, perhaps?
Also, Muskovites.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
This is an example of (g)Loomis, sticking to his wheelhouse, actually contributing something really helpful (I need to take a shower after typing that). He very accurately points out:
Okay, (g)Loomis can’t resist his always-there asshole self from doing a little gratuitous hippie punching, he just can’t help himself. But everything else these is spot on.
When I say that CO is “pale blue”, that’s exactly what I mean: the virulent stream of libertarianism infects so much of what plays out here. As I’ve stated repeatedly, while the state is “blue” (and ignore all the red, rurl people because in that regard, CO’s no different than any other state with the red/blue rurl/urban divide), that blue consists of a mass of entitled white professional transplants that have generally come from either lily-white rurl areas they’re fleeing from or lily white ‘burbs. They define their progressiveness purely around that they voted for Obama and support abortion rights. Go much further and they exist on the neoliberal-to-libertarian spectrum in policies and particularly their racial tone deafness.
It’s why they absolutely love “Dem” pols like Polis, our glibertarian, techbro governor who only has a (D) after his name because maybe he has some sense of experience as a gay man not wanting to be in a club that hates him and the fact that if he put an (R) after his name, he would have had no political future here.
He’s a classic “socially liberal/fiscally conservative” type that resonates with this demographic that was raised on, if not hating unions, being taught to varying degrees that the time for unions is past.
I went down to the nearest King Soopers (fondly called “Queen Soopers” because for years, that neighborhood was seen as “the gay” neighborhood in Denver) yesterday just to watch. As expected, the white gentrification crowd was there in their usual numbers, crossing the picket line as if it were just another day in their Exclusively White, Urban-Living Theme Park experience.
And I’ll conclude with another (g)Loomis quote from that piece that pretty much sums up not just Polis but the people I’ve broadly described above:
And yet, every time we raise these kinds of issues and push back in regards to what we see as Democratic Party values or goals, we’re told to stfu and realize who the “real” enemy is.
Sister Golden Bear
@trollhattan: Because we definitely won’t need that water during the summer and fall.
Note: Some dam releases are normal during/after heavy storms in CA when reservoirs reach dangerously high levels. That wasn’t the case with stunt Trump pulled recently. It’s possible this is a legit release, but given past history I’d verify before trusting a word they say.
Citizen Alan
@trollhattan: I doubt will be that lucky, but wouldn’t it be hilarious if climate change has the long term effect of giving California more rain so the state becomes water-independent while turning the South into an arid grassland unfit for cultivation of anything.
Melancholy Jaques
It’s a struggle for me to take in & understand all that is happening, not to mention to find a way to deal with it mentally & emotionally. I am sure that I am not alone in this.
So my hot take for the day is that we have to find a way to confront the people who voted for that asshole & his party. The usual thing is that we never criticize voters, can’t call racists deplorable, etc. We are in the habit of treating them like victims instead of the perpetrators that they are. Like Trump & (apparently) every Republican, they are not accountable for anything they do or say.
We need to push every outrage in front of them & remind them: You voted for this. We need to do this over & over until the message sinks in. To the extent, that is, that is can sink in.
If you voted for Trump, you voted for . . .
JDM
Not that it helps anyone, but FYI eggs in Victoria BC, Canada right now range mostly from $4.35/doz-7.29/doz. Canadian dollars, so in USD that’s about $2.98-4.99. The most expensive eggs at the nearest supermarket are $9.99/doz (US$6.84) “Organic Free Range Extra Large Brown Eggs”.
Phylllis
A glimmer of good news. The payment request for the rural fire department I work with to pay for the new tanker they were awarded from FEMA’s Firefighters grant program was approved an hour ago. It’s been held in limbo for over a week due to the funding freeze. There is a lot of shit going on, but here’s hoping the existing obligations are being paid.
Flanders Other Neighbor
I’m fairly frugal, but I willingly spend extra for quality food and education, and I’ve had good luck getting eggs in my preferred brand on Monday mornings at my local Sprouts. They are definitely the more spendy version, but eggs and bacon to me is like coffee to a lot of people. Won’t much matter what they cost because I’ll buy them.
I almost never shop Whole Foods (because Amazon) but happened in a few weeks ago and there were no eggs. The sign said something about inability to get the level of quality for WF customers that they expect or require or something. I’m sure.
Ksmiami
@Melancholy Jaques: I agree, confront the vandals. Fuck em. They should feel our anger and rage.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@SpaceUnit:
You gotta say which King Stupids your frequent.
My Safeway is “UnSafeway”, the one Albertson’s grudgingly put into the “black part of town” back when, well, it was the black part of town. The term “UnSafeway” was put on it by the surrounding lily-white burbs, not necessarily because it was dangerous, but because it was black.
It’s changed somewhat nowadays and is probably the most diverse grocery store in the City because while the gentrification assault shows now signs of abating, the remaining black/brown population shows no signs of leaving.
It’s always an adventure going there, which for many of us who view urban living as something more than being a Community Tourist, is a positive. Whereas, if you live in a burb and come down here and go in there, well, it’s why those people don’t come down here and go in there.
We continue to call it “UnSafeway” as a badge of honor. Sure, we can’t keep grocery carts for more than a day, the baskets have all disappeared, I might have a “Colfax Moment” out in the parking lot, or a guy freak out in self-checkout for who-knows-what reasons. But it’s our UnSafeway and without it, we’d be screwed.
AM in NC
Regarding Betty’s thread yesterday (day before?) about how do we drive wedges in MAGA?
Well over at FOX there is a division brewing between the Christianists and the libertarian wing. There’s an article about the Department of Faith Based Bullshittery that Trump is working on creating, and there are Traditional Conservatives over there not liking this mixing of church and state, and government funds going to church programs.
THIS is a great place to hammer – I have been commenting that the non-god-Botherer MAGA folks tried to warn everyone about the Christianists and how they were going to try to make us all bend the knee – well, now they are here and trying it. What are we going to do about it? Because I’m not bowing down before anyone else’s version of God. That’s anti-liberty.
Poke. Poke. Prod. Prod.
trollhattan
@Citizen Alan:
We’re certainly on a hydraulic seesaw not seen historically–the wets wetter the, uh, drys drier.
Most concerning is the shift from snow to rain. Our biggest reservoir is the snowpack and if that loses its impact there is no way to build dams and collect the same amount of water to get us past summer-to-January, the low water period.
Of course we can serve all our cities by yanking out the almonds, but Big Ag not going for that.
SpaceUnit
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
I love my Safeway. And I haven’t set foot in a Kings Soopers in forever. It’s a solid nope. I’d rather go hungry.
ETA: I’ll admit That King Soopers has more choice, but I’ve found that I can make do with just four or five types of artisanal bread at the bakery instead of twenty eight.
trollhattan
@Sister Golden Bear:
Reservoirs today look really good.
https://cdec.water.ca.gov/resapp/RescondMain
Shasta is CVP and Oroville is SWP, San Luis is shared by the two projects.
To your point, they’re also above their licensed flood-control limits ATM and have to release water for safety purposes.
Four years ago this map looked grim, indeed.
trollhattan
@SpaceUnit:
I learned just recently Safeway is now part of Albertsons. Completely missed that happening. They’re the Big Dogs in the US west.
Quicksand
@trollhattan: Those brown eggs are squeezing out the market for good ol’ fashioned American white eggs. It has to stop.
VFX Lurker
I hear this. I’m coping by taking everything one day at a time. One day at a time. Trying to do one thing one day at a time.
Sounds good to me. Commenters on Fark, r/LeopardsAteMyFace and Bluesky are regularly posting memes with YOU VOTED FOR THIS captions. They may feel the same way about non-voters, third-party voters and Idiot voters.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
I think I originally saw this linked here, but it fits the post so here’s another link to it:
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/how-we-restored-our-new-york-city-loft-to-an-authentic-nineteenth-century-sweatshop
Ohio Mom
@Phylllis: Good!
VFX Lurker
California produces ~80% of the world’s almonds. Maybe the Canadian boycotts will help.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@SpaceUnit:
Heh heh, we should thank MM for a topic that lets us discuss the very-inside-baseball subject of grocery store chains in CO. It’s not unlike the Sheetz/WaWa “Tastes Great! Less Filling!” debates.
I go to one of the two King Stoopids nearest me for 1-2 specific items that Safeway simply doesn’t carry. Otherwise, yeah, we stick with UnSafeway.
And if anybody wants to see one specific grocery store parking lot that puts Trader Joe’s to shame in terms of the very definition of an “enshittified parking lot experience”, go to Queens Supers at 8th and Corona. Come visit me and I’ll take you on a tour. ;)
SpaceUnit
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
I am so very glad that the Kings Soopers / Krogers merger with Safeway / Albertsons was blocked. I am hoping like hell that the new regime doesn’t somehow unblock it.
NotMax
Leave us not forget the Walmart “associates” who rely on SNAP.
Ohio Mom
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: Very McSweenys. One of my grandmothers worked in a sweatshop for a while.
trollhattan
@Quicksand:
Right? What’s the next outrage, green omelettes?
Ruckus
We seem to think that the world does not revolve around monetary issues but it does. Money makes the world go round, at least on the humanity side, the planet does that all going around on it’s lonesome.
There will always be people of wealth and many, many more people of not even anywhere near close to that level. And many of the wealthy people think that they and they alone deserve all that wealth. And I’d bet that 99.98% of the time – they don’t come close to deserving a damn dime. This seems to be the case here.
realbtl
We have an Albertsons and Safeway up her but I use my local privately owned grocery for 95 %of my shopping (gotta support my butcher grandson and checker daughter in law). If I need something else I’ll go to Raley’s which I think is regional. Nice to order in town so I can talk to D in law.
NotMax
Can remember watching one grandfather sitting on a stool on the dirt floor of the basement below his little grocery store candling eggs.
Two reasons:
1) those with visible blood spots were illegal to sell
2) those with double yolks could be sold for a couple of cents more.
.
Phylllis
@Ohio Mom: My chief got on the phone to Tim Scott, Lindsey Graham, and Jim Clyburn’s offices Wednesday. He couldn’t get through to anyone in Graham’s office*, but did speak to staffers in Scott and Clyburn’s offices.
* Say what you will about Strom Thurmond, and I’ve said plenty, but that man raised constituent services to an art form. Having a South Carolina citizen call his office & not get an answer would have been unheard of.
trollhattan
Nope. Nope, nope, nope.
Nope.
Who’s thinking new additions to Trump’s cabinet?
Ruckus
@VFX Lurker:
Many of our fellow citizens vote for who ever they seem to think will give them the most – of whatever it is that they want.
Many of us do not have or make the kind (or anywhere within a million miles of) people like musky. However a lot of his money was inherited. Now he’s done stuff that has “enhanced” his bank accounts and seemingly makes him think he’s in charge. But he has ZERO standing above any of us. ZERO. His money buys him things none of us – or at least the vast majority of us can even think of buying. But this country is NOT one of them. He comes from a country where that is possible. But his money does not buy him this country. That premise was and is not part of the concept of this country. But as of this date I’m not sure that still holds.
NeenerNeener
Hmmm…there are cracks in Republican solidarity, it seems:
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-republicans-infighting/
I wonder how Emperor Musk feels about this.
Miki
$5.03/dozen at East Side St. Paul Aldi. Looked fully stocked as of Wednesday this week.
A Ghost to Most
Missing Wegmans yet? King Soopers sucks, but it’s better than the alternatives. Safeway will have to suffice for now.
p.a
It can be targeted, too, for each religious bigot profile. Got “sour beer face” looks from family Catho-fascists and their “separation of church and state is bullshit” meme when I pointed out it will be ok for Catlicks in Utah being taxed to support LDS, right?
Old School
(He’s trolling Trump.)
narya
@Old School: That’s really funny. I can’t wait to see how Evers and Whitmer respond!
Trivia Man
@Melancholy Jaques: Im trying to internally workshop something like that. Im leaning to vagueness…”anybody who voted trump voted for this.”
If the shoe fits…
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@A Ghost to Most:
I’d kill for a Wegmans.
Hy-Vee, an employee-owned, midwestern chain, starting doing what I call “Wegmans Lite for Midwesterners” about a decade ago. It’s a popular, broad concept.
But nothing like an actual Wegmans. A nice overview:
https://www.mashed.com/90102/untold-truth-wegmans/
NotMax
@trollhattan
Joke that went around the grade school playground back when.
“Did you hear? A&P and Stop and Shop are merging. They’ll now be called Stop and P.”
trollhattan
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
When grandma was still among the living I shopped the HyVee in Storm Lake, Iowa.
For the middle of nowhere it filled the bill. For the middle of the farm belt the produce was pretty regrettable.
trollhattan
@NotMax:
The author of the famous tome Under the Bleachers, Seymour Butz, approves!
Must add granny’s town also had their own Kum & Go. That never got old.
Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog
It’s my understanding that Loomis — whose primary thing over at his blog seems to be shitting on Dems and banning commenters — has a gig as a labor professor.
He’s careless of fact in his blog posts and I have deep sympathy for anyone editing his books (here’s a fragment I saved once from a typical Loomis post : “Greene happily became a slaver but then died of sunstroke. So his widow needed a tutor for their kids. That was Greene.”), but there’s a decent chance that when he writes about labor, he may be better-informed, if not more coherent.
Not reading him myself these days — he’s been so vicious (and jumbled) that I don’t want to make the effort — but again, maybe on labor he’s less worse.
A Ghost to Most
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
We shopped at Piggly Wiggly in Omaha. I don’t know if that even exists now.
Dangerman
@John S.: High egg prices? Obama. Sure, makes no sense but sense took the early flight outta town for the weekend.
Miss Bianca
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I’m done identifying as a Colorado Democrat, personally. I’ll still vote for Ds, but I’m done with giving them my money or my time. Largely because of people like Polis.
Funny, I used to think lefty-libertarianism wasn’t that bad a thing – as in, “you mind your business over there and I’ll mind mine over here and it’ll all be good”.
I kinda miss the days when I could afford to feel like that.
Miss Bianca
@SpaceUnit: Safeway shopper here. Switched from City Market/King Soopers because of similar experiences to the one you describe. This is in Canon City, btw, don’t know where you’re at.
Professor Bigfoot
The local chain here, Fisher’s, has essentially died thanks to Walmart and now Meijer.
I go to the Giant Eagle most of the time- good produce, excellent bakery, no hand baskets, no self-checkout and long lines.
Acme is still around but it seems to be falling on evil times, also.
Peale
Yeah. The decline in Whole Foods is something. It was always expensive, but now when I go into the stores out here, its empty, unclean, and shabby. This has nothing to do with the workers who are unionizing. I used to go there for a few items that were hard to find elsewhere, but those seem to have disappeared. It’s an overpriced, depressing Aldi’s – you know, the stores that are grocery store-looking but not really full grocery stores.
Baud
@Miss Bianca:
Maybe it’s just my bubble, but libertarians have gone awfully quiet.
NeenerNeener
Me too. I moved from Rochester, the Wegmans corporate headquarters, to Jesusland, Lynchburg VA where the nearest Wegmans is several hours away. Krogers and Food Lion just don’t cut it, but I can’t afford to buy a house in any of the towns that can support a Wegmans in Virginia.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Miss Bianca:
Your Congressional rep, that nice entitled white lady, Petterson, is just as bad.
Two pols like them make our Senators look like AOC by comparison. And before anybody tries to excuse away Petterson (she was a Tonya Harding Dem and is the poster child for what I outlined above vis a vis, entitled white professional “pale blue” Dems), she’s in a +14 D district.
SpaceUnit
@Miss Bianca:
I’m Lakewood / Green Mountain so I usually hit either the Safeway at Kipling and Jewell or the one on Alameda across from GMHS (that one is now a full blown liquor store as well).
The closest King Soopers is at Alameda and Union, but I haven’t been there in twenty years.
Another thing about Safeway is that a lot of the employees have been working there for a very long time. I’m on a first name basis with quite a lot of them. It just feels comfortable.
narya
Shoutout to Woodman’s! And there are now two, I think, in Illinois. (They’re worker-owned.)
rikyrah
Been paying $5 for a dozen eggs
Eolirin
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Get some people who can win elections through the primary process and get them into office then.
If you can’t do that, getting not-fascists in is literally a requirement at this point. We can incrementally improve from socially liberal fiscally libertarian pro democracy candidates. We can’t incrementally improve from anti-democracy fascists.
So yeah, if CO’s electorate won’t vote for candidates that support your preferred policy mix, you have to put up with the candidates they will support that aren’t stark raving mad, because we cannot afford to lose the state.
That’s how politics in a democracy work. If you don’t have a majority you don’t have a majority. If CO voters aren’t pro union enough for a pro union person to win, then you’re not going to get pro union candidates, and enabling fascists by savaging people who are closer in alignment to your positions than the alternative isn’t going to get you better candidates.
Work to change the culture, try to get people to recognize how labor rights benefit them, rather than slagging the Democrats who are getting through the process, and prepare for it to take longer than your lifetime.
It’s what the rest of us have to do. We don’t get the luxury of demanding perfect candidates; we have to vote for the candidates that won’t get us dead, and everything else is secondary.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@SpaceUnit:
My former office (before I retired) was the building on the hill behind the King Soopers there at Alameda & Union so I know that one Safeway pretty well.
Really good point about the Safeway employees. I’ve made it a point of saying hi to them by name. Turns out one is another historical miniature wargamer. I occasionally take some of my painting projects to show him when I’m checking out.
Eolirin
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Sounds like someone should attempt to primary her then. Unless her constituents want what they’re getting.
PersistentIllusion
@A Ghost to Most:
I grew up in Omaha. Hinky-Dinky was the good grocery back in the 60s.
Jackie
@NeenerNeener: From your link:
Seriously? They allowed themselves to be locked in a room for hours?
I can’t even.
Miss Bianca
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Again with the Pettersen hate. Again, just going to say: Did you have ever Lauren Boebert as your Congress critter? I did. Am I glad to have Pettersen instead, who actually gets back in touch with her constituents when they contact her and actually *does shit* for my region? Yeppers.
Is she more conservative than I’d like? Sure, but so is *every* Colorado Dem. Did she chime in on the “Joe’s Gotta GO” BS? Sure, but again…so did practically every Colorado Dem. She’s still far and away the best rep I’ve ever had in 25 years of living here.
ETA: And she won her primary. She’s won her primary twice. So, I guess her constituents like her well enough to keep electing her. Guess we’re all a buncha dummies in CD-7, huh?
Matt McIrvin
@Miss Bianca: My Massachusetts Democrats are, I’ll say, actually holding up pretty well. I’ve already told my Congressional reps thank you, and urged them to keep standing firm. They’re not perfect, and I will probably be noting that when it happens.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Eolirin:
It’s not unusual that the people preaching “know who the enemy is” also try to equate any discussion or debate about important aspects of Democratic Party policies that are inimical to a big chunk of who Democrats, writ large, claim to be “fighting for”, is simply another (pejorative) aspect a circular firing squad.
Telling people like me, who didn’t “start out as a libertarian”, or voted for John Anderson or Ralph Nader but who’s been voting for Dems since I was eligible to vote, to “put aside our differences”, given the source, is yet another way of simply trying to stifle discussion and debate under some holier-than-thou guise in order to again frame/steer the party in a direction that sucks. It’s always about re-framing the debate on their terms, not about good faith differences of opinion like who the DNC head should be.
It’s the usual Yglesias, Noah Smith, host of Atlantic writers, new liberalism clowns (Blue Dog v2.0) that would have us stfu and not question the direction of the party all in the name of “put aside our differences”.
I don’t need to be told who the “real” enemy is or how politics work, thanksyouverymuch, I’ve been voting against them my entire life and that includes a lot of nose holding. But, many times, dealing with the “real” enemy is somewhat of a more honest effort, ie., “It’s often easier dealing with a Klansman than an NPR neoliberal”.
At least the “real enemy” are honest about their white supremacism, entitlement/privilege, goals, etc., rather than disguising it in banal “liberal sounding” talking points while laundering libertarian policies that I see on a daily level screw black folks in the City and cause a lot of other low-info/low-enthusiasm voters question exactly what they get by voting for Dems.
To quote mistermix: “I hate that more than someone who at least is honest about what they are.”
Leto
Barrons: USAID Workers Can’t Be Placed on Leave, Federal Judge Rules
SpaceUnit
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Did you work at CDOT?
A Ghost to Most
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Someone needs to learn her story. She’s been through the mill and out.
TBone
@Leto: was just coming here to say GOOD. Hope it’s not too temporary!
Jackie
@Old School: BWAHAHAHAAAA!
Lake Michigan will hereby be Lake Illinois, and to protect the homeland, Illinois will annex Green Bay…
All said with a serious straight face.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Miss Bianca:
No Boebert but I was represented by nothing but awful Misery Reps for decades so I know what it’s like.
If somebody like Petterson had won an election back in red, rurl Misery when I was there, it would have been great. It would have qualified as the “more” Democrat rather than the “better” Democrat because in that context, that’s the best we could get.
It still doesn’t mean we can’t critique and object to Dems.
Trivia Man
@A Ghost to Most: Piggly Wiggly – Inventor of the modern american grocery store
ETA: and recently purchased by C&S
Miss Bianca
@Old School:
@Jackie:
That was really beautiful. And the visual aids were the *chef’s kiss* touch.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@SpaceUnit:
No, DOT, Federal.
trollhattan
@Jackie:
“You go sit in the corner.” [paralysis ensues in the Oval]
TBone
@Jackie: I thought
was a nice touch 😆
Miss Bianca
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: the fact that I’ve even *got* a Democratic representative here in the sticks with a bunch of blood-gargling MAGAts all around me is a fucking miracle to me. One that I don’t feel like dumping on with, “oh, but she’s just not radical enough to suit my tastes.”
But what do I know. I mean, I was only a Democrat for years without ever going through an “indie-curious” or Libertarian phase, so maybe even with being angry enough at them to quit the party for the way they acted over Biden, I just don’t feel like trashing them all the time.
And as for your apparent opinion that we could do “better” than Pettersen in my district, all I gotta say is…hey, you’re welcome to move to my district and throw your hat in the ring.
rikyrah
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Someone posted on TikTok that Denver is to White Liberals as Atlanta is to Black Professionals.
I can’t unsee it..LOL
rikyrah
@Leto:
another example of why having a union matters.
trollhattan
@rikyrah: Need a snapshot of any new city? Count Subarus. :-)
rikyrah
@Jackie:
we want names.
names.
this is a ready made ad
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Miss Bianca:
Also too, CD7 voters aren’t “dummies”, please don’t read something that wasn’t there. Again, I lived in an 80% red county for decades, I get it. I can still criticize Dems in CO for their policy stances even if I might be forced to vote for them for larger, national, strategic reasons.
I’ve occasionally made the crack that we vote for the Dems we have, not the ones we wish we had, in the case of House Reps or Senators. I’d say many of the same things, in a general sense, back in Misery about McCaskill, always voted for her but as you stated above vis a vis a “Dem” like Polis: no time, no money.
TBone
Today’s The Contrarian newsletter weekly highlight of The Undaunted is: UNIONS
(Each week, The Contrarian features a standout figure for democracy.)
https://contrarian.substack.com/p/undaunted-83e
frog
@dm:
Pronounced as “doggy turds”.
A Ghost to Most
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Petterson grew up with an opioid addicted mother, and they were homeless at times.
She’s our Rep, and she’s more useful than Ed Perlmutter ever was.
John S.
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
This is a major sticking point for a lot of people. I think constructive criticism is highly valuable, and nothing should be deemed above it.
laura
NEVER CROSS A PICKET LINE.
It’s intended to be inconvenient. It is so incredibly difficult to withdraw your labor when working conditions are intolerable. It is the most stressful circumstances for a worker and their family because you are risking that you and your coworkers can stand together in solidarity and use the strongest power they can exercise for as long as it takes to achieve a mutually agreed upon goal. You must have total buy in and a very high level of trust in your union, you must have a clearly articulated achievable goal, you must use every available tool to mutually resolve the issue with the employer until all that remains is to strike, and you must be able to communicate your cause and it’s righteousness with the public so that they will support your efforts even as they are impacted in a matter not of their making or obvious stake in the outcome. A Union is how many can speak with one strong voice on the job and your contract is both a mutually agreed upon set of work rules and a snapshot in time of the balance of power between an employer and its workforce.
Apologies if this has already been covered, I jumped straight to the comment box because this a subject near and dear to me.
TBone
@John S.: keyword:
constructive
prostratedragon
@trollhattan: Taking this whole Year of the Snake thing a bit far, isn’t it?
SpaceUnit
deleted
Pauline
@SpaceUnit: This is why I like my King Soopers on Speer, it’s small and there just aren’t a lot of people there doing big carts. Yeah, it’s considered the worst King Soopers by a lot of people and it does have its moments. But I’ve been going there since 1986 and I’ve never been tempted to go elsewhere.
TBone
@laura: having been close to a Philadelphia Union Carpenter (known for decades, dated a few years), and having a brother in the Communications Workers of America for his entire career, that fact of life is in my blood forever! Thanks for posting it again!
Speaking of Year of the Snake, Union Carpenter gave me a “WILL STRIKE IF PROVOKED” T-shirt featuring a big ole rattlesnake with fangs. I wore it to my law office on Casual Fridays 😆
Scamp Dog
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Oh, by the way, I still haven’t heard back from Gabe Evans, my newly elected R congressional representative. No phone call, no email, nothing from his email list that I signed up for.
rikyrah
@laura:
TRUTH
Starfish (she/her)
One of the Colorado moms I know sent me this sweary TikTok that there is a protest on Saturday at 2pm in Denver. Does anyone know anything about it?
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Scamp Dog:
Hah! Given he’s an (R) in the current House, that means doing nothing.
And if you’re a registered (D), he probably thinks you’re not worth responding to. :)
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Starfish (she/her):
Heh heh, “sweary” doesn’t come close to the chants on Wed.
People were handing out flyers for that event. I didn’t get one but Westword has the run down:
https://www.westword.com/news/denver-anti-ice-rally-follow-50-state-protest-state-capitol-23410354
No Nym
@Jackie: I can’t tell if he’s playing Mean Daddy or leading an est seminar. The people who allowed themselves to be treated this way are clearly preset for authoritarianism.
NeenerNeener
@Jackie: The thing I found most interesting is that Mango Mussolini wanted them to find a way to keep some of his promises besides tax cuts for the rich. I don’t think he ever worried about making MAGA happy in his first term. Maybe getting shot at while he was campaigning gave him a new appreciation for constituent services.
SpaceUnit
@Pauline:
I don’t believe I’ve ever been to that store.
And I might have been laying it on a little thick about King Soopers shoppers. Just a teeny bit.
Ruckus
@realbtl:
I live in SoCal and it’s all chains as far as I can see.
Ralphs, Vons, Stater Bros. are the biggies.
A Ghost to Most
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Whatever, dude. I’m just a 50 year liberal redneck Democrat, but apparently that isn’t enough anymore.
I’ve come to prefer mountain goats to people. People are like those crazy ass bighorns.
Jackie
@rikyrah: Here’s the few names mentioned in the article. I imagine others will be leaked soon. ;D
TBone
@NeenerNeener: heh
Ruckus
@NeenerNeener:
Maybe getting shot at while he was campaigning gave him a new appreciation for constituent services.
Maybe. Getting shot at does tend to focus one. (A long time ago, walking back to USN base in civilian clothes, in Charleston SC) Don’t know if the close miss was intentional or not.
Worked in Dad’s business in summer 65 – Watt’s riots down the street a mile or so. Not exactly a good time. But never shot at.
So I’ve been at least shot at very closely possibly a warning, possibly a bad shot. Served in the USN, carried a loaded weapon on in port watch and while in the Shore Patrol for my last 2 months and never had any issues.
sab
@trollhattan: That is why I have only been in once to our citiy’s Ohio store. And that was during Covid and freaked me out. All those young kids assigned to greet me coming and going when I just wanted to buy my food and get out without interacting too much with breathing people.
Also too, mostly prepared food. I love to cook, and there wasn’t much in the way of ingredients for me. My brilliant academic older sister loves Whole Foods, but she is proud that she cannot even boil an egg. Utter focus on academics. Worked well for her but I find that a lot weird and not the way I wanted to live my life.
sab
Also too, my two big health issues are a congenital heart defect (not serious since it has been surgically corrected) and my very pale skin issues with skin cancer since my parents (not my choice) made me toast in the sun on a swim team in Florida.
No amount of correct eating would fix those issues. Both needed medical intervention, and that wasn’t available to me before the ACA.
So I go grrr when I think of Whole Paycheck.
lowtechcyclist
@Dangerman:
Fixed.
Professor Bigfoot
@Old School: Oh, that’s good!
zeecube
@A Ghost to Most: there’s a P & G in my neck of the south Louisiana woods.
sab
I know this is a serious thread, but Ponyo the pitbull was being annoying when I got home from work. We were sitting on my bed, and she was doing her usual annoying random bark when she heard any outside noise.
Normally she barks and we tell her to shut up, and then she barks once again quietly.
This time I decided to tease her. She barked. Then I barked. She barked louder and higher pitched. So did I. Eventually we were both gloriously howling. I had never heard her howl. We went on for a few minutes, but stopped because husband was annoyed ( ” You and the dog..?)
Baud
@Old School:
Heh.
lowtechcyclist
@laura:
Darn tootin’!
Miss Bianca
@sab: Pal D and I howl to get Watson to howl when we are outdoors and Susi the Nordic Girl is off gallivanting on the back 4,000. That’s her signal to Come Home Now, Please!
Plus we find it hilarious. We’re easily amused.
TBone
Per Marc Elias Democracy Docket newsletter:
TBone
@sab: That’s a great tails tale! I wanna howl now too.
NotMax
@Peale
Encapsulates my experience wandering through a Lidl supermarket when last in NY.
@Trivia Man
Believe A&P predated PW by quite a bit.
TBone
@NotMax: A&P brings back so many childhood memories…one is Mom buying Breakstones honey butter in the old school cardboard tub, some type of easily spreadable cheese, Underwood deviled ham, and those tiny cocktail loaves of bread, one rye, one white, and one pumpernickel, for a mommy & me picnic outdoors. Now I’m wondering if Mom had the munchies back then or what! Late 60s…
Melancholy Jaques
@Baud:
Maybe because Republicans have control of everything?
Libertarianism – like True Left® – seems to exist solely to criticize Democrats trying to mitigate the rough edges of our consumer capitalist system.
NotMax
@TBone
Once mammoth, all that’s left is Eight O’Clock coffee, still available in the same familiar red bag.
TBone
@Melancholy Jaques:
JPie enters the chat
https://crooksandliars.com/2025/01/jonathan-pie-trumps-triumphant-return
TBone
@NotMax: hangs head, sadly…
We used to bug Mom relentlessly to get that peanut butter with the grape jelly stripes in it, and we thought marshmallow Fluff was the Food of The Gods! Which it was when dolloped into hot cocoa. Also fluffer nutter sammies, PB & Fluff.
Thanks for the memories!
Scamp Dog
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Yep. I had some small hopes, given the interview I saw where they asked him about the collision at the DC airport. He was an army helicopter pilot, so he knew what he was talking about, and didn’t spout off about DEI causing the crash.
So much for his oaths to the Constitution as an Army officer and a Congressman.
RevRick
@Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog: Loomis banned me, because I took exception to his relentless Puritan bashing. The skin is very thin in that one.
RevRick
@TBone: I remember walking a few blocks with my grandmother to go shopping at the A&P. The narrow aisles with hardwood floors that creaked as you pushed an equally narrow shopping cart down them. The buzzer at the meat department so you could request a particular cut/size of meat. The aroma of freshly ground Eight O’Clock coffee. Walking home pulling the two-wheeled wire basket loaded with four bags of groceries. Paper, only. Fond memories indeed.
RevRick
@NotMax: A&P is far older than Piggly Wiggly. But it lagged behind all others in converting to the supermarket model, because it had thousands on small neighborhood stores that were typically half the size and often had minimal parking. The one my grandparents shopped at on E. Main Street in Stamford Connecticut was fairly typical. It was just one storefront on a commercial block among several other businesses. A&P, which had been the largest grocery store chain in the 50s, was done in by the sunk costs of all those legacy stores.
Trivia Man
@NotMax: It did, but PW was first with self service + full grocery line. I refreshed myself on the comparisons between them with wikipedia, both ate fascinating stories. The monopoly of A&P was a monster and drew lots of congressional attention.
NotMax
@RevRick – @TBone
Also too, Plaid Stamps.
Long-ish watch about A&P, from the beginning to the end.
TBone
@NotMax: my grandmother and I faithfully licked & pasted our Green Stamps into the little book they gave out till we got enough done to collect fabulous prizes (housewares)! I think she wanted someone else to do the licking for her hahaha! Thanks for the video NotMax!
sab
@TBone: My first musical instrument was a ukulele from green stamps.
My parents didn’t think I was serious about music, but I was. I taught myself to play it.
TBone
@RevRick: 💜
TBone
@sab: THAT is so cool!!!
MinuteMan
Time to increase the amount of staples in the larder including toilet paper. All it will take is a couple of AI generated images/videos to set off a nation-wide run on life’s basics and nowadays it’s too plausible so you can’t dismiss such fraud for what it is.
LeonS
@Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog: The fragment reads: “Greene happily became a slaver but then died of sunstroke. So his widow needed a tutor for their kids. That was Whitney” Not seeing the issue there.
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2023/07/how-many-white-inventions-came-from-black-people
Kayla Rudbek
@trollhattan: that would be a horrible thing to do to those innocent venomous snakes
Kayla Rudbek
@p.a: damned straight, we need to split the religious right up any way we can. The two biggest mistakes of Vatican II in my opinion were the birth control issue (lost the liberal Catholics) and getting rid of the hardline no meat on Fridays rule (which made the Catholics less distinctive from the Evangelicals, so there was too much cross-contamination between the right wing Catholics and the Evangelicals)