Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Usually wrong but never in doubt

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

He really is that stupid.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Morning Open Thread: Working for the Weekend

Friday Morning Open Thread: Working for the Weekend

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I believe there are some jackals have been looking forward to this?

The beautiful game is here again

[image or embed]

— ?????? – Suffering: Average ???????? (@danmynrd.bsky.social) February 13, 2025 at 9:13 PM

More good news!

Still proud of my (fierce!) senior Senator…

this is the suspect firing the cops (an increasingly common theme)

[image or embed]

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm.bsky.social) February 13, 2025 at 8:12 PM

I have a better idea: Email [email protected] or DM @cfpb_tipline on X and tell President Trump and co-president Elon Musk to stop letting Wall Street scam you.

[image or embed]

— Elizabeth Warren (@warren.senate.gov) February 13, 2025 at 5:53 PM

Okay, the Oval Office Occupant’s whole concept is awful, but some of the responses have been pretty funny…

Hi Americans.

[image or embed]

— Sophia ???? (@aegeanlyfe.bsky.social) February 12, 2025 at 11:07 PM

Reader Interactions

188Comments

  5. 5.

    TBone

    1. I fucking love this entire post, thank you A.L.!

    2. My nephew was born during the World Series when the Phillies won (I bought him his first teddy bear wearing a Phils uniform that says “coach” on my way to the hospital for our first meet & greet that day), and his parents and I sat near Cole Hamels in a West Chester, PA restaurant celebrating a few weeks later.

    3.  The Join Canada guy is one of my very favorite mockery disher-outers.

    4.  To be continued re: the CFPB…

    5. Tonic masculinity!

  10. 10.

    MagdaInBlack

    @NotMax: Ok, had to look it up. I did not know the name of Caligula’s horse, even tho I do admit to having seen the movie.

    p.s: was Peter O’Toole in need of money at that time or something?

  12. 12.

    Suzanne

    On the topic of Elizabeth Warren having some money….

    I always think it’s telling when right-wing goons make some implication that a progressive or liberal is being a hypocrite for doing well under capitalism. They genuinely think that we have a problem with crony capitalism because we aren’t good at it. The truth is that many of us are simultaneously okay-to-great at it, but we’re also not ladder-puller-uppers. That is literally not conceivable to them.

  16. 16.

    TBone

    @Suzanne: my parents made millions while collecting taxpayer dollars as a teacher and a cop who became a college professor.  It’s called being frugal, financially literate, and investment diversification.

  18. 18.

    TBone

    @NotMax: ha!  Wish I could post the photo.

    A few years back on V.D., I opened a big bag of chips and got one in the perfect shape of a heart. I gave it to hubby.

    Lips, hips, and potato chips!

  19. 19.

    EarthWindFire

    Re: King Elon’s comment

    Has anyone tracked how a citizen of three countries gets $8 million a day in government spending?

  20. 20.

    MomSense

    @prostratedragon:

    of course they are insecure. If melon husk ever had to compete without the benefit of his inherited wealth he would have been a __________________.

    Morning Mad lib.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    @Suzanne:

    The whole “Dems are rich people” attack is an appropriation by super rich Republican of the “Dems are rich people” attack that comes from the left.

    I remember a while back there was a lot of consternation about Obama making money off of writing books.

  27. 27.

    p.a.

    If New England decides to join the Canadian Maritimes, I’m on board.

     

    A mind is a terrible thing to waste: lacrosse season is here, usually brutal spring weather watching games.  A few weeks ago I ordered rechargeable hand warmers.  Got them.  Can’t find them.  I still have some chem warmers left.🙄

  28. 28.

    Betty Cracker

    I would support Canada taking over Florida. Yeah, I suppose the TikTok dude meant us (along with AL, MS, AR, etc.) when he said “offer not applicable to some of the weirder states.” But lots of Canadians are part-time residents of Florida anyway, and millions more visit yearly to escape the snow. They could have this non-contiguous province with theme parks, palm trees, beaches, etc. We could have universal healthcare and bodily autonomy. Works for me!

  32. 32.

    TBone

    Great news progress report:

    Noah Three Miracles just had his first voluntary nibbles of Fancy Feast pate!

    Our long nightmare at Casa TBone is over, slowly but surely!  Baby steps …

    He CAN be weaned off of the tube feeding AND I’ll be able to sleep regular hours again, praise the lort.  I can’t wait to brag at the vet hospital today at 11:30!

  34. 34.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Suzanne: I’m honestly having some conflicted feelings about this right now for personal reasons I can’t go into. How complicit are you in the system for actually being pretty good at surviving in it, when so many suffer? How much of a martyr do you have to be?

    But, of course, for the right it’s damned if you do and damned if you don’t–they’ll crap on you for being poor if you’re poor, and for being comfortable if you’re comfortable.

    And I fear there are going to be more widespread efforts to just directly impoverish people who oppose Trump in any way, by seizing their money and other assets (perhaps with bogus accusations of criminality or cherry-picked irregularity). We’re already seeing that with the arbitrary clawbacks of legal federal payments. If they can do that they can just empty your bank account. Of course, the irony is that this is exactly what libertarian bros have always been afraid of.

  35. 35.

    JML

    Normally, when the Blue Jays come to town for a series they have a lot of fans that travel for the game. Because they’re Canadian, it’s always been friendly. Wonder if this year it will be a) more hostile, b) more “oh you poor bastards”, or c) they stay home?

  40. 40.

    Betty Cracker

    Bill and I don’t usually do much for Valentine’s Day. But he’s been hankering after a set of chairs to outfit the rebuilt game room and hemming and hawing about spending the money on them. (It’s not that much — he’s, uh, frugal!) So, I went ahead and secretly ordered the damn chairs from my secret stash of cash as a Valentine’s gift. But they won’t be here on time, so I made a card with the world’s worst poem!

    Homemade card with a drawing of a wicker chair and poem that say, “Roses are red, violets are blue. I ordered those cool wicker chairs just for you!”

    It would be my kinda luck if he comes home today with a set he found at a yard sale or something…

  42. 42.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @TBone: Holidays always sneak up on me… I’ll be thinking “I’ve got a couple of weeks” then “I have a few more days” then “holy shit it’s tomorrow!!!”

    Mrs. B got a new Tree of Life pendant that she hasn’t seen yet ‘cause she’s busily sleeping in— I know we ain’t s’poseta be using Amazon no more, but they delivered it yesterday like they said they would! 😂

  44. 44.

    Ohio Mom

    Good news!
    Kevin Drun is a little better — he blogged several paragraphs, says they are putting him on a treatment to shore up his immune system. I don’t know if he is out the woods but closer than yesterday
    Whew!

  46. 46.

    oldgold

    I have a sandy shack in Ponce de Leon’s peculiar peninsula along the Gulf of Mexico. For the past decade my snowbird neighbors have been a nice Canadian couple. Last week they put their place on the market. Why? “We’re not comfortable here anymore.”

  48. 48.

    p.a.

    @Matt McIrvin: Had to look up Forty-Fives.

    I’m from RI, we didn’t have candlepin, we had duckpin bowling.  Same shape pin but smaller than TenPin, balls somewhat bigger than Candlepin, and you clear the deadwood.  3 rolls per frame.  RIP my neighborhood duckpin, the Bowl-a-Drome.  Sat morning kids’ league for something to do in the winter.  Think the age range was about 8 until whatever teen age the individual kid would lose interest.  The noise must have been deafening for the adult workers.  No parents ever came, thank FSM.  There were still spaces for kids then without constant hovering.  (1960s-’70s)

  49. 49.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @TBone: Sunny here, too… and 16.9 degrees Fahrenheit on my deck. <shiver>

    Also got an inch or so of snow overnight, so there’s that too… COME ON, SPRING!!

  50. 50.

    Suzanne

    @Matt McIrvin:

    How complicit are you in the system for actually being pretty good at surviving in it, when so many suffer? How much of a martyr do you have to be?

    Yeah, these are questions to grapple with. I mean, Scott Alexander (the SlateStarCodex guy) got embroiled in a back-and-forth about this just recently….. someone called him a hypocrite and asked how much he donated to charity. The answer turned out to be millions of dollars and a kidney.

    I think, personally, that it’s less about the amount that one specifically amasses than it is about not closing a door or creating impediments to others trying to do the same thing. The nature of society is that some labor and skills and products carry more value in the marketplace than others, and there’s also just…. luck and randomness. So it doesn’t bother me in the slightest when someone is successful. It bothers me a great deal if they’re dishonest or ladder-pull-y or antisocial.

  51. 51.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Ohio Mom: MORE good news!

    (we take our wins where we find ‘em, n’cest pas?)

    Yay for Kevin, may his recovery continue, may he continue to elucidate us all.

  52. 52.

    Jeffg166

    @raven:

    That list of things to do on Saturday never gets any shorter. More than once, I’ve heard people say how did I get everything done while I was working. I tell them they were younger.

  53. 53.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Betty Cracker:

    It would be my kinda luck if he comes home today with a set he found at a yard sale or something…

    This has “Previously undiscovered O. Henry short story” written all over it!

  54. 54.

    stinger

    @Suzanne: ​
     

    it’s less about the amount that one specifically amasses than it is about not closing a door or creating impediments to others trying to do the same thing. The nature of society is that some labor and skills and products carry more value in the marketplace than others, and there’s also just…. luck and randomness. So it doesn’t bother me in the slightest when someone is successful. It bothers me a great deal if they’re dishonest or ladder-pull-y or antisocial.

    Yes, this.

  55. 55.

    Starfish (she/her)

    @Suzanne: Oh, that is interesting. I haven’t read him in a while, but I expected him to be well-aligned with a lot of the worst tech fascists

    I think I would still want to review his donations to make sure he is not donating to tech-fascist fake charities.

  56. 56.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Jeffg166: The only reason I know what day it is is because Monday is trash day, so Sunday is when the litterboxes get serviced and everything taken to the big can.

    But the other thing is I get the greatest satisfaction from the littlest things. “I fell like I’ve accomplished something!” “YOU GOT OUT OF BED!”

  58. 58.

    Another Scott

    Big beautiful tariffs. So bigly, so beautifully. Everything is going great.

    What’s that???

    Reuters.com:

    Feb 14 (Reuters) – Days after U.S. President Donald Trump ended duty-free entry for cheap Chinese goods entering the U.S., his administration put the order on hold after more than a million packages piled up at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

    It was the result of a rushed, confusing policy change that proved unworkable on short notice. Government officials are now scrambling to implement the order in a way that won’t cripple America’s hyper-efficient import system.

    Trump’s executive order took aim at a little-known trade rule called “de minimis.” Merchandise with a value totaling less than $800 is allowed to enter the country duty-free and with minimal inspections. The number of shipments entering the U.S. through this tax-free channel has exploded in recent years, reaching nearly 1.4 billion packages last year, due largely to online shopping. More than 90% of all packages coming into the U.S. now enter via de minimis. Of those, about 60% come from China, led by direct-to-consumer retailers such as Temu and Shein.

    Trump campaigned on a promise to punish China for the role it has played in the synthetic opioid crisis that has killed more than 450,000 Americans in the last decade. Chinese chemical makers are the top suppliers of raw materials purchased by Mexico’s cartels to produce the deadly drug, U.S. anti-narcotics officials say. A Reuters investigation last year detailed how traffickers often route these chemicals through the United States by exploiting the de minimis rule. China has repeatedly denied culpability.

    In a February 1 executive order, Trump announced an additional 10% across-the-board tariff on all Chinese imports and ended the de minimis exemption for Chinese low-value packages that had previously entered duty free. The White House gave just three days for the policy to take effect. On February 7, the portion of Trump’s order affecting de minimis parcels was paused because those responsible for carrying out the order had not been given sufficient time to prepare. Packages were stacking up at ports of entry, including at JFK Airport.

    Logistics experts say it was impossible for major parcel carriers, e-commerce platforms, the U.S. Postal Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to overhaul their operations in a matter of days to begin collecting tariffs on previously exempt goods, especially with millions of de minimis packages already en route from China.

    “You just can’t snap your fingers….it doesn’t work that way,” said former senior CBP official John Leonard, who retired from the agency in 2024.

    […]

    🤡 🤡 🤡 🤡 🤡

    Grr…

    Reality always, always, gets a vote.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  59. 59.

    Shakti

     

     

    @Matt McIrvin: Libertarians in the US are just Republicans who liked weed.

    My state didn’t pass a legal recreational weed amendment, which is most unfortunate. It’s not like this is a dry state by any means in law or practice, so I don’t get it.

  60. 60.

    Suzanne

    @Starfish (she/her): Go read the whole saga he wrote on X. I don’t think the guy neatly fits into a left-right spectrum. Which is to say…. he has some interesting things to say. Sometimes I agree and sometimes I don’t.

  62. 62.

    Another Scott

    @Jeffg166: My dad joked after he retired that he needed to get a part-time job so that he would have some free time.

    It’s a problem!  (A problem I’m looking forward to.)

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  63. 63.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Another Scott:

    “Stupid motherfuckers

    Stupid fucking fucks

    Wearing stupid red hats and

    Driving stupid trucks

    Stupid motherfuckers,

    Stupid fucking fucks!

    They’re the only reason

    Why our Country sucks!”

    (it’s been going around in my head the last couple of days)

  69. 69.

    Librettist

    I suspect the oh noes not Democrats with… money, is a futile effort to staunch the flow of bougies fleeing the Grope Old Party.

  71. 71.

    Starfish (she/her)

    @Suzanne: Oh, I can’t do that because I dropped Twitter when they fired most of their engineers. I knew some of their engineers.

    Looking back at his abandoned blog, I remember how he abandoned it because The New York Times was going to do an article on him and expose his identity.

  72. 72.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Shakti:

    My state didn’t pass a legal recreational weed amendment, which is most unfortunate. It’s not like this is a dry state by any means in law or practice, so I don’t get it.

    Mine sure did!

    The MA-NH state border is on the edge of town and last summer I recall driving past it and noting the big cannabis dispensary on one side and a big sign for a fireworks store on the other, which just encapsulates everything you need to know about that particular state border.

  75. 75.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: +1

    In one of the Bircher books, None Dare Call It Conspiracy, the writer spends a lot of time trying to convince readers that the Democratic banksters and the XXXs and the other rich monsters on the Left are trying to force Communism on all the rest of us because of Y, Z, and W, which are conspiracies going back to the Middle Ages.  Even as a young, scatterbrained, impressionable, teenager I couldn’t make any sense of the “argument”.  It was double-speak and double-think.

    Yes, a couple working as professionals and earning an upper-middle-class salary for decades in 1970s-2020s America is likely to have a few million in net worth.  They’re doing Ok.  They’re not in the same category as folks whose net monthly income is a few million or more – they just aren’t.

    Thanks.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  77. 77.

    dc

    @Professor Bigfoot:

    “Stupid motherfuckers

    Stupid fucking fucks

    Wearing stupid red hats and

    Driving stupid trucks

    Stupid motherfuckers,

    Stupid fucking fucks!

    They’re the only reason

    Why our Country sucks!”

     

    Love it! Publish!

  79. 79.

    danielx

    Memo to me: stop reading the news first thing in the morning. Not good to start the day nauseated.

  81. 81.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Suzanne: I too am kind of surprised if Scott Alexander isn’t all in on techbro eugenicist singularity MAGA at this point–but I also stopped reading him a while ago.

  83. 83.

    p.a.

    @Another Scott: When I was maybe 13 my dentist gave me Protocols of the Elders…  I don’t remember how far into it I got before I was WTF?!?  Besides being obvious bigoted bullshit, these types of things are usually poorly written.  Especially in translation…

  84. 84.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Another Scott: The far right’s beef with fractional-reserve banking, fiat currency and financialization, which has its roots in antisemitic conspiracy theories, has always been an interesting source of horseshoe-left affiliation and a potential cause of intra-right fractures. But it never seems to be a problem for them when the oligarchy really gets to looting stuff. It’s been adapted to pick the pockets of crypto bros though.

  85. 85.

    Another Scott

    @Kay: I ordered 6 pounds of popcorn from Yoder Popcorn in Indiana on 2/4.  (Highly Recommended!)  Shipped by USPS at my request, as usual.  It’s usually 3-4 days or so in the DeJoy times.

    It’s been “in transit to next facility, arriving late” ever since.

    :-/

    This has never happened before with USPS shipments from them.

    Grr…

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  86. 86.

    Shakti

    I saw a Tesla cybertruck in the wild a couple of days ago — outside a Starbucks. It looks like a fancy garbage compactor.

     

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m either surrounded by normies or people who are Trump supporters.

     

    A) My medical provider handwaved my concerns about RFK and babbled something about checks and balances acting like he wouldn’t get confirmed. This was a response to stating I was concerned about access to medications b/c of his views and read an alarming quote from an MSN article in a level voice.

     

    B) I went to my credit union and posed some questions to them about VISA being the credit card processor and the possible deal they’d have about X wallet.  I showed them Bloomberg articles. I asked about which cash transfer services they have integrated with the user accounts currently (i.e. Zelle is integrated with several banks). They didn’t seem phased? Or informed? NCUA (which backs up credit union deposits) isn’t like the FDIC because it’s privately funded.

     

    C)  Over the weekend I went to a music and dance festival to get air and to stop doom scrolling. The festival was funded by a grant from the city council, and I wasn’t sure if that would be threatened by DOGE getting their hands into every fucking grant. I didn’t want to say anything but there was a Medicare for All amendment table gathering petitions..

    — so I asked the older adults what they knew about the DOGE getting into the payment systems. At least they were aware, and calling their reps. They also invited me to a Zoom call with another local rep.

  91. 91.

    Matt McIrvin

    @PBK: A phenomenon I noticed a few weeks ago: many Americans still seem to have a vague idea that it’s illegal to buy and own gold bullion. It used to be, but it hasn’t been since the early 1970s, probably long before most of these people were born. But the idea persists.

    Apparently there are recent laws that ban some kinds of gold transactions on the grounds that they are very frequently fraudulent, but they don’t ban any sale where you physically get the gold.

  92. 92.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Shakti: I saw my first one last month. Its ugly. Regular Teslas especially the older ones are actually decent looking cars. Saw some on the dealer’s lot when I was looking for used EVs. Didn’t even consider them because of you know who.

  93. 93.

    TBone

    I have major FOMO on all these excellent comments by all youse Jackals today, gah!

    Life beckons, I take care of it, so then it takes care that I have participatory time later.  Full circle.

  94. 94.

    HinTN

    @Suzanne:

    I think, personally, that it’s less about the amount that one specifically amasses than it is about not closing a door or creating impediments to others trying to do the same thing.

    This, exactly. “The land of opportunity,” as was once said.

  96. 96.

    Bupalos

    Whoops! That “beautiful game” montage you posted is actually the Washington Nationals.

    Looks like someone hasn’t had her coffee yet!

  98. 98.

    Soprano2

    @Suzanne: I think, personally, that it’s less about the amount that one specifically amasses than it is about not closing a door or creating impediments to others trying to do the same thing.

    I agree with this. I inherited money from my sister who died, then my mother. Am I terrible because I didn’t give it all away? I give a good amount to charities every year, and I’ve helped several family members buy houses. I helped my niece get Invisalign (that poor kid should have had braces, but somehow her parents could never afford it even though they live in a house rent free), and I helped my SIL pay a big medical bill when she was being treated for cancer. I try to help whenever I can, because I know I didn’t earn this money so I feel more like its caretaker. Which reminds me, I really need to get with the local university about endowing a scholarship in my sister’s name. I started the process before hubby got sick, then I kind of dropped it because of how my life got to be.

  99. 99.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Matt McIrvin: Scott Alexander isn’t all in on techbro eugenicist singularity MAGA at this point

    Oh let me guess what that means – that government should collect the sperm of the Techbros, because making websites is a sign of superior genes, and use the resulting material to impregnate every women in her twenties in the country!  Is that deranged enough?

  100. 100.

    Ohio Mom

    @Another Scott: As Ohio Dad the stamp collector (yes, he has nerd tendencies) will tell you, there are international agreements concerning accepting other countries’ mail.

    You want to send a birthday present to someone in Timbuktu, you stick a U.S. stamp on it and never think about how Timbuktu gets paid for the proverbial last mile. That’s all in the agreement, I don’t know the details but obviously up until now, it’s worked.

    If once again, Trump screws up the most anodyne systems.

  101. 101.

    Soprano2

    @Another Scott: The biggest enemy in retirement is “tomorrow”. There’s no sense of urgency anymore. My husband was going to do a lot after he retired. He did a few projects, then just stopped, and of course now he won’t be doing any more of them. It’s too bad, I have a bunch of oak woodwork that I hope I can pay someone to put up someday.

  102. 102.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Suzanne:

    I always think it’s telling when right-wing goons make some implication that a progressive or liberal is being a hypocrite for doing well under capitalism.

    Especially since hypocrisy is a way of life with right-wingers.

  106. 106.

    Spanky

    @p.a.:

    BTW, my SS payment posted into my account without delay.  This month.

    The last thing I expected was to be having a month-to-month mindset while on Social Frickin’ Security, but here we are. Sure, the threat of it running out of money in the 2030s has been there, but this is a very immediate threat. And I hate uncertainty.

  107. 107.

    RevRick

    The Democratic primary to fill the Senate seat from Minnesota May get awkward, because the alt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan has already announced her candidacy.

    This seat, along with Jon Ossoff’s in Georgia, and the one held by retiring Sen. Gary Peters in Michigan, are must wins for Democrats.

  109. 109.

    Matt McIrvin

    @p.a.: Interesting that duckpin got as far up the coast as Rhode Island. We had that in northern Virginia; these small-ball bowling variants are very regional and that used to be the Mid-Atlantic States one–DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia. Nearly extinct now, whereas candlepin is more alive in its limited domain.

  110. 110.

    Kay

    @Another Scott:

    I worked for the postal.service and some of the DeJoy criticisms were invented. The whole thing with him disposing of equipment was false. The postal service is huge. They periodically update equipment. The photographs I saw were of outdated equipment that would have been stored, not currently used. I think someone in the postal service took a photo and it went viral.

    But it is true that mail was delayed by covid and supply chain issues.

    The de minimis change, however, really WOULD hold up parcels. People just have no idea how complex delivery logistics are – its one public carrier (USPS) and two domestic private carriers and three (or more) international carriers.

    I have heard so many complaints since January I figured there was truth to it.

  112. 112.

    Jackie

    Who reports to Susie?

    Trump White House chief of staff Susie Wiles is reportedly not happy with the way X owner Elon Musk has run roughshod over federal agencies without keeping her informed of what he’s really been doing.

    Sources tell Reuters that “Wiles, and her team have at times felt out of the loop as Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency seeks to fire thousands of federal workers while accessing sensitive data and disrupting operations.”

    At issue is the fact that Musk’s efforts to shut down agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have led to negative headlines for the administration and have left other White House officials scrambling to craft talking points to support his actions.

    In fact, Reuters reports that Wiles and her staff recently confronted Musk and told him, “We need to message all this. We need to be looped in.”

    Soooo, Susie. Whatcha gonna do?

  113. 113.

    JML

    @Ohio Mom: I was quite delighted to see Kevin still fighting and showing some improvement. He’s a stubborn cuss, and I’m here for it. Hope they’re able to improve his immune system, fight off the pneumonia, and send him home to his cats.

  114. 114.

    Matt McIrvin

    @HinTN:

    This, exactly. “The land of opportunity,” as was once said.

    I think that if we ever come back to any degree from All This, it’ll be with an ideological program draped in red, white and blue and framed in terms of patriotic American values, invocation of historic figures, etc. Call out the hypocrisy in invoking the Founding Fathers, even of the Founding Fathers, because they were supreme hypocrites. But commit to the ideals of liberty and equality, rather than rejecting them as a bad joke on grounds of hypocrisy.

    And right now, that feels kind of cringe and actively repellent to a chunk of the left. But it’s the only thing that has ever worked. It’s the formula Frederick Douglass settled on after a lot of agonizing over it in a practically apocalyptic crisis. It’s the formula Lincoln used, that MLK and the other civil-rights advocates used, etc. “What to the slave is the Fourth of July?” “We are here to cash a check.” Etc. Call people out on the promises but work to make the promises real.

  115. 115.

    p.a.

    @Matt McIrvin: It’s still alive here, but the numbers are down.  I used to play in a hi-lo-jack league in a Knights of Columbus hall that had a 4-lane duckpin bowl.  The took it out because parts & repair knowledge were getting too expensive/hard to find.

  117. 117.

    TBone

    @Soprano2: thank you, I have a few free moments before Noah’s weekly vet visit tube check and weigh in to say:

    This cat has saved my life many times in the past 14 years.  Every moment he’s spent PURRING over the last six plus weeks of nightmare has reassured me in the existence of hope being a necessity in order to CONQUER.  Demons are screwed at Casa TBone!  Today he purred for a solid 90 minutes, a deep, satisfied rumble!

    Every kind word received here is a notch on that belt!

  118. 118.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Matt McIrvin: This is what I mean when I talk about protecting the Constitution, not some amorphous entity like “our democracy.”

    “Conservatives are ready to destroy the Constitution they claim to revere,” so call the bastards on it.

    ”Why have the GOP turned against the Founders? Why are Republicans rejecting the Constitution they gave their oaths to?”

    NOTHING “DOGE” does has been in accordance with the Constitution, so— “are you Americans, or are you South Africans?”

  119. 119.

    Kay

    @Jackie:

    I think Wiles planted that. They’re starting to recognize Musk is a political liability and she’s smart enough to start distancing the GOP and Trump from him.

    They’re already backing off the Medicaid cuts in the House recognizing that MAGA counties like mine are the biggest Medicaid beneficiaries.

    Reality is intruding.

  120. 120.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Here is Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) explained that the issue is demogarphics

    His argument is (and mind you, this is a Republican talking) the real issue is the population needs to grow to continue to service the national debt, and because of demographic trends we need immigration to get that population growth.

    And suddenly everything the Republicans are doing makes sense, from a stupid point view: The Right No Want immigration ’cause those people are different,  so they are going to try to save their way out of it by cuts (Schweikert shows the cuts they are proposing won’t even begin to deal with it)

    I suspect Trump saw this presentation as some point, and usual came up with a bunch of stupid shit to solved the problem like Tariffs, then Musk took a big hit of ketamine and said he will solve easy with AI.

    Incidentally, Schweikert, again a Republican,  comments he is constantly being lobbied to allow in more H1 workers because of the labor shortage, that we really need immigrants to keep the economy going as it is.

  121. 121.

    Matt McIrvin

    @p.a.: according to Wikipedia, while duckpin’s origin is popularly traced to Baltimore, it actually has roots in Massachusetts! I never would have guessed.

  122. 122.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    But commit to the ideals of liberty and equality, rather than rejecting them as a bad joke on grounds of hypocrisy.

     

    I agree. I think we’re in this mess partly because too many libs have been indulging in nihilism and cynicism rather than providing people something to believe in.

    Republican optimism is very cringe, but many people will choose something fake over nothing at all.

  123. 123.

    indycat32

    @Another Scott: Was its last stop Indianapolis?  There’s a big backlog here .  We had two hubs. They closed the one  at the airport and moved everything to one huge building.  It’s a mess.  Not enough workers, workers who don’t know what they’re doing because no training.  For example, putting containers on the truck to Cincinnati when it just came from Cincinnati.

  124. 124.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Kay: But they’re doing NOTHING to stop— or even slow him down.

    As I said above— Ms. Wiles is explicitly acknowledging that Musk is the real power in that administration, not Trump.

  125. 125.

    Chris Johnson

    @Jackie: Amazing that ANY of them are not in the loop: Musk’s actions are, uniformly, happening to hurt and wreck America as quickly and aggressively as possible for the benefit of his boss Putin.

    How the fuck do they not know this when Elon’s child has figured it out.

    How the fuck can they be going ‘guys, guys! You have to tell us what’s happening so we can tell Americans not to WORRY! We have to know so we can TRUST you!’

    Musk must be looking at this with such contempt. Were those people picked because of their stupidity and trustingness?

  127. 127.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: And to do cultural pro-natalist stuff to try to force nice white English-speaking ladies to pump out more babies, to generate the future workforce without immigration.

    I’m not confident that the march of fascism will fail but I am confident that this is not going to work.

  129. 129.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Professor Bigfoot: As I said above— Ms. Wiles is explicitly acknowledging that Musk is the real power in that administration, not Trump.

    All the more reason for them to set Musk up. As you personally experienced, back stabbing is the White Man way.

  130. 130.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Matt McIrvin:

    But commit to the ideals of liberty and equality, rather than rejecting them as a bad joke on grounds of hypocrisy.

    And right now, that feels kind of cringe and actively repellent to a chunk of the left. But it’s the only thing that has ever worked. It’s the formula Frederick Douglass settled on after a lot of agonizing over it in a practically apocalyptic crisis. It’s the formula Lincoln used, that MLK and the other civil-rights advocates used, etc. “What to the slave is the Fourth of July?” “We are here to cash a check.” Etc. Call people out on the promises but work to make the promises real.

    “Nobody is free until everybody is free.”

    But the challenge is and will be that some Americans* never want to see other Americans do or achieve or succeed or excel “over” them. Some Americans*, given someone to look down upon, will empty their pockets for you.

    I wish I knew how to address that; because it’s the core source of the Confederates’ political power.

  132. 132.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Matt McIrvin: And to do cultural pro-natalist stuff to try to force nice white English-speaking ladies to pump out more babies, to generate the future workforce without immigration.

    Schweikert, points out every time what you described has been tried, that hasn’t worked. Again, shocking he is a Republican.  One can be sure the people listening to this presentation aren’t hearing that part.

    And taking over Canada sure fits “Were can we find a lot of white people quickly” thinking.

  133. 133.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I wonder if that’s one reason he carries that kid around with him everywhere— people have been known to fall down flights of stairs and out of 10th story windows, if you know what I mean and I’m sure that you do…

    (they’re pretending he’s afraid of another Luigi when really it’s Vladimir Vladimirovich who’s got him nervous in the service)

  135. 135.

    Infamous Heel-Filcher

    (A) The Beautiful Game is the one you play with your feet. Not to take anything away from baseball.

    (B) I can now make my favorite joke of the year:

    One-third of my friends: Happy Valentine’s Day!

    One-third of my friends: Hooray, pitchers and catchers report!

    The third of my friends who are gay: … but you repeat yourself.

  136. 136.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Chris Johnson:How the fuck do they not know this when Elon’s child has figured it out.

    “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it.”  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  137. 137.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Professor Bigfoot: Since it would be irresponsible not to speculate; would I image a dickhead like Musk would make sure all of his twenty body guards are former US special forces, and it’s Trump, not Musk, that is the President.

    But more realistically, they are going to let Musk become the scapegoat for the mess and then urge him to resign and turn DOGE over to them.

  138. 138.

    Geminid

    This morning’s Politico Playbook lead off with a lot of reporting on the Munich Security Conference. There was some criticism of Defensh Shecretary Hedseth by Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker. Wicker’s a defence Hawk and Ukraine supporter.

    There was an item about former Rep. Mary Peltola running for Alaska Governor next year. The Juneau Explorer has an article about this titled “Report: Former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola likely to run for governor in 2026.”

    Former Representative (and Interior Secretary) Deb Haaland announced her run for New Mexico governor this week. Haaland will appear on MSNBC’s This Week on Sunday.

    Also, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will be a guest Sunday on ABC’s This Week. That ought to be good.

  139. 139.

    Jackie

    My current favorite president!

    Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum threatened Google with a civil suit unless the company does not reverse its decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” for users in the U.S., Reuters reports.

    I love her! 😍

  140. 140.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Suzanne: Leftists too.  Remember the outrage over Nancy Pelosi’s ice cream, Obama’s book deal, Hillary’s book tour etc.  One of the most foolish mistakes the hard-Left makes is overplaying their anti-Capitalism hand.  Voters can see the difference between an Elon Musk/Trump and a Beyonce, Oprah, LeBron etc.  Lumping them all together because they are #AllBillionaires just makes us look ridiculous to the average voter and opens us up to scare-mongering caricatures that we don’t want anyone to achieve the American Dream.

  141. 141.

    Another Scott

    @indycat32: OMG – is there anything Balloon-Juice can’t do??

    Moving Through Network
    In Transit to Next Facility, Arriving Late
    February 11, 2025

    Arrived at USPS Origin Facility

    INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46219
    February 4, 2025, 8:29 am

    :-(

    Thanks.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  144. 144.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: A lot of people imagine that the demographic transition, families moving to smaller numbers of children and more individual investment in them, was created by the invention of the Pill. And conservatives think it was created by legal abortion.

    I saw a blogger once imagining out loud that the Pill was kind of like a disease organism that people eventually adapt to: it suppresses fertility in the short term, but as faster-breeding conservatives outbreed liberals we eventually end up with a population that is culturally resistant to it and the birthrate shoots up again.

    None of these things are true. It’s a decision people can make regardless. France went through the demographic transition in the 1700s. I’ve heard that even the Amish fertility rate is starting to decline as their population explodes.

  146. 146.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @UncleEbeneezer: All of this.

    Some in the community saw this as, once again, white people who are threatened by Black success and excellence— that anything achieved or accomplished or created by Black people is, by definition, illegitimate.

    I see it more like they’re so damned dumb they can see no difference between Mark Cuban and Elon Musk.

    Or, hell, between a Bill MF Gates and that Afrikaner SOB.

    It’s stupid.

  147. 147.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Matt McIrvin:  And right now, that feels kind of cringe and actively repellent to a chunk of the left.

     

    Progressives and activists are right to insist that we are open and honest about all the shitty things that this country (and its’ people) have done. I agree. The problem is that they also refuse to acknowledge any of the good stuff and view anyone who celebrates that or has hope/optimism as some sort of traitor/sell-out/dupe. They take someone like Obama, Hillary, Kamala, Biden (who to some extent believe in America’s potential and are proud of it’s better angels) etc., and act as if they are just as bad as Republicans who believe in erasing all of America’s sins and preach a complete myth of American Exceptionalism. They will always see any pro-America sentiment as cringe because in their minds America is the worst empire ever and responsible for every bad thing and if you disagree you are just a NeoLiberal/Centrist etc. It creates real and difficult friction with our actual base and all of the Ind/NPA voters we need to win elections. We should have learned a long time ago that shit like burning the American flag actually turns off a lot of voters.

  149. 149.

    Suzanne

    @Matt McIrvin:

    And to do cultural pro-natalist stuff to try to force nice white English-speaking ladies to pump out more babies, to generate the future workforce without immigration.

    One thing to note, though…. I think a lot of BJ is flattening this to mean “white people”, but JD Vance and a lot of the people in his “intellectual” circle do not mean all white people. That cohort defines the “American nation” as descendants of the long-time white people…..English, Scots-Irish, and maaaaybe some of the Germans. Not potato-famine Irish, not Italian, not Eastern European.

  150. 150.

    Matt McIrvin

    @UncleEbeneezer: There’s a oneupmanship that happens. “I think Obama was Bad Actually.” “Well, I think Kamala Harris is Bad Actually.” “I think YOU are Bad Actually! I win!”

  151. 151.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Suzanne: Yeah, but they get support from people in those groups anyway, who may not realize how exclusive the circle really is.

    (It’s another kind of one-upmanship. You may think they’re fretting about post-1965 immigrants but they’re actually fretting about post-1700 immigrants.)

  152. 152.

    Suzanne

    @UncleEbeneezer: And conversely, there’s a lot of the working class who think I and others are hopelessly arrogant and terrible for making more money as a college grad than tradesmen do.

    But…. having money doesn’t make anyone an asshole in and of itself. I will say that there is a level of wealth-hoarding that does seem to me to be immoral, and I don’t know exactly where that dollar amount lies….but it’s certainly more than a few million bucks.

  154. 154.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Suzanne: I think if we want a more equitable distribution of wealth we need systems to redistribute it. I’d be fine making a fraction of what I do if we had good public services and public goods, socialized transit and housing and higher education and health care, a guaranteed comfortable retirement–because much of my income goes to securing these things in other ways.

    But that takes a collective decision that we are not making; instead we’re rushing in the opposite direction.

  156. 156.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Matt McIrvin: The thing is, I’d bet Cuban and probably Gates would agree with you.

    So they’re spending their money on doing good shit; and not just hoarding wealth like some Afrikaner sonsabitches we could name.

    You’re absolutely right, it is a systemic problem, and billionaires should not exist; but we also need to recognize that not all of said billionaires are the problem.

    (Kinda like “not all white people,” eh wot? ;) )

  160. 160.

    catclub

    @Suzanne: and I don’t know exactly where that dollar amount lies….but it’s certainly more than a few million bucks.

    There was an amusing Calvin and Hobbes back in the 1990’s:  Calvin is saying that Tiger Woods making $20M a year is absurd. Hobbes agrees: “That’s crazy, $16M is more than enough.”

  161. 161.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Matt McIrvin: We’re being bum-rushed in the opposite direction by people who believe that not only are they the only legitimate citizens of the United States, but that they also get to define who is a legitimate citizen of the United States; they get to say who gains any benefit from being a citizen. 

    The same people who still believe Dred Scott was correctly decided.

  162. 162.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Professor Bigfoot: Gates is an interesting case study, in that of course his projects are determined by his own policy preferences and some of those are fantastically good, others not so good (by my assessment).

    I think if I hit the jackpot to that degree I wouldn’t start my own foundation, I’d give most of it away to organizations that are already doing great things and let them make the decisions. But of course that’s still applying my own preferences.

    Probably our biggest obstacle to socializing more of our wealth redistribution and good works is exactly what we’re seeing right now: half the time, our government is controlled by malicious trolls who are just going to burn everything down. Their most convincing argument against a redistributionist social democracy is the mugger’s argument, argumentum ad baculum: don’t do that or I’ll do what I can to hurt you.

  163. 163.

    Matt McIrvin

    @catclub: And the observation I hear from time to time:

    “Who on Earth needs a billion dollars? If I had $10 million, that would be enough, and I’d stop.”

    “If you think that way, you’ll never see the $10 million.”

  168. 168.

    Suzanne

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I think if we want a more equitable distribution of wealth we need systems to redistribute it.

    Me too. I just don’t see a disconnect between “we should redistribute resources more equitably so everyone has enough” and “some people are going to be rich and that’s OK”.

  169. 169.

    TBone

    @Jackie: ME TOO!

    (Waiting in parking lot at vet hospital, seems like eternity for poor Noah…his head is buried under the blanket in his carrier.  “WTF, Mom!?!  This again?!?!”

    He HATES it here.)

  171. 171.

    Ohio Mom

    @Matt McIrvin: Oh yes, too many kids is definitely a problem for the Amish. There’s not enough farmland after a while. Especially affordable farmland. And you can only subdivide your acreage among the next generation so many times until everyone is only getting a postage stamp sized piece.

    That’s why some have moved to Belize. You can’t just pick up and move one family though, they need a certain critical mass for a community to function.

    Definitely on the list of things that are not my problem.

  172. 172.

    rikyrah

    @Suzanne:

    On the topic of Elizabeth Warren having some money….

    I always think it’s telling when right-wing goons make some implication that a progressive or liberal is being a hypocrite for doing well under capitalism.

     

    I know. Like they are offended that she has done well, yet doesn’t think like they do.

  174. 174.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Suzanne: I’m fine with the income tax structure having brackets that go to or near 100% somewhere at the high end. “At this point any additional income you get is likely to be from antisocial upward-redistribution efforts.”

    Of course, people evade such things by structuring their income in different ways, but if you play it right you can encourage them to do pro-social things. You get your Carnegies and Mellons making libraries and museums and concert halls and universities.

  175. 175.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ohio Mom: I’d been thinking about it in the context of “are Amish and Mennonites going to outright rule the United States in the medium-term future?” I think the answer is no, but it’s not obvious.

  185. 185.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Professor Bigfoot: pissed off scrolling and knitting here.  I swear I am going to need to lay in a stock of holy water to wash all my finished knitting projects in for the future.

  186. 186.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Matt McIrvin: yeah, the kids from huge families generally do NOT have that many children of their own, particularly the older daughters who frequently get parentified i.e. forced into taking on the role of mom as their mother has more kids. Mr. Rudbek is one of six children, who collectively have not replaced themselves. He also knew a family with 12 children when he was in high school; again, the 12 children have not collectively replaced themselves. Even without legal birth control, the French managed to go through that demographic transition, and Catholics have been swearing vows of celibacy/chastity for centuries, some even managing to keep those vows.

  187. 187.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Ohio Mom: the farms getting smaller was a problem for the Irish pre-Famine as well, as they didn’t practice primogeniture (eldest son inherits all the land) as much as the English did.

  188. 188.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Suzanne: yep, under that standard I am not white. At least I realize this unlike many other people of Irish and/or Italian descent. It’s probably part of why I absolutely hate Coathanger Barrett so much, as she’s a damned traitor sellout to the Klan and she should know better than that having attended Notre Dame law school.

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