One of our problems is that a clear-eyed description of who’s in charge of our government, what & who influences them, their ideas & plans, & what they’re doing, all sounds so crazy that it’s hard to convince people it’s as bad as it really is.
— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) February 15, 2025 at 1:30 PM
the GOP owns the whole thing, and they can't agree on who is first, they can't agree on what the bill will include, they can't agree on one bill or two, they can't agree on what they're going to cut and boost, and trump hasn't given them the revenue they will need to even *pretend* it's legitimate
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) February 11, 2025 at 7:16 PM
So I mostly think this is happening because MAGA is run by people too stupid to understand where this country's wealth and power comes from, but I also think they'd rather be kings of a shitty country than citizens of a good one.
— Don Zeko (@donzeko.bsky.social) February 15, 2025 at 5:59 PM
i think the issue is that the republican party considers itself terminally ill
— rev. howard arson (@theophite.bsky.social) February 15, 2025 at 2:07 AM
their signature policies are exhausted, their aspirational goals are less popular than communism, they can't govern when elected, they have destroyed their bureaucratic corps, their state parties are moribund, they're rotten through with corruption and foreign influence, and they know it.
— rev. howard arson (@theophite.bsky.social) February 15, 2025 at 2:13 AM
In our modern mythology, someone thinking they’re Napoleon is a highly risible indicator of mental illness…
(I wonder which idiot minion — or was it Elon? — fed him that line.)
Engraving on the exterior of the United States Department of Justice headquarters.
— Adam Bonin (@adambonin.bsky.social) February 15, 2025 at 3:43 PM
I fucking refuse to recognize this guy as my tyrant. I am not a hero, but I am vain and my pride will not allow me to acknowledge that this man is above me or anyone else under the law. I could probably be cowed by a Napoleon or Caesar. But not this guy.
— Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty (@irhottakes.bsky.social) February 15, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Baud
Agree with Zeko, although I wouldn’t limit that mentality to MAGA.
Lots of groups of people associate strength with taking people and institutions for granted.
lowtechcyclist
Mornin’, y’all.
NotMax
Weekend watch.
(Mr. Spock voice) Fascinating.
1807 -1811: Never say never, the Bell Rock lighthouse.
Michael Bersin
Mark Alford (r) [Missouri – 4th Congressional District], former newsreader, steps on a rake on social media:
“We’re glad to have someone like Elon Musk to go into these agencies to find the sickness infecting these programs.
With the intelligence and the ability to lead his team under the authority of the executive, the Chief Executive, Donald J. Trump, we will drain the swamp”
The responses are scathing:
“D’oh!”
Jeffg166
Paul Krugman did a video with Kim Lane Scheppele about the hollowing out of democracy in the USA the way Orban did in Hungary. Kim Lane Scheppele was sounding the alarm in 2010 about Hungary. Orban’s people helped Project 2025 draft the plan to do the same thing here. Unfortunately, the video is behind the paywall.
Dorothy A. Winsor
One problem (among many) with this administration is that it’s hard to see exactly what they’re doing. So then I think well let’s look at what happens. But you can’t tell that either. Are people fired? Which people? Is money blocked? Are court orders being ignored? I can’t tell
Suzanne
This is an important observation. Will-to-power is the sole psychological motivation.
Jeffg166
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Read Project 2025 if you want to know what is going on. They have a plan and they are using it.
lowtechcyclist
I read somewhere recently that if the entire civilian Federal workforce were disbanded, the savings from not paying them would be around $100B.
So you can’t save significant money with these firings, all you can do is wreck the government.
Not that they’re against that, but forget about justifying any tax cuts that way.
ETA: And of course the imaginary money from the tariffs isn’t happening either.
Spanky
This state is already in financial straits, but I’m glad the guv is starting to take action. If all these layoffs go through it’s going to tank our economy.
Gin & Tonic
I’m no expert, but in last night’s thread Adam said that’s not a real thing Napoleon said – it’s from Rod Steiger as Napoleon in the movie Waterloo. Also quoted in Anders Breivik’s manifesto.
I’ll bet more people in Trump’s orbit have read the manifesto than have watched the movie.
Kay
A local Republican acquaintance called me to tell me Vivek Ramaswamy and his whole family – mother is a pharmaceutical exec and father is a patent attorney – are under investigation for a pump and dump pharma stock scheme. I think there’s probably some truth to it – this person is not crazy, but I also think it means some Republicans want Vivek out of Ohio politics.
Another Scott
nycsouthpaw and kenwhite are keeping track of the courts stepping up.
Meanwhile, …
I haven’t read the piece – it’s not worth my time.
My thinking is – remember the history. The birthright citizenship amendment was put in place after the Civil War. The Civil War ended chattel slavery in the USA. If we no longer have slavery, then the people under that system need to be brought into civil life just like everyone else. That means citizenship. Practically, how does one decide who gets citizenship in such a timeline? Proper papers? What about people who never had papers or whose papers were destroyed during the war? Who decides what papers are proper, and what are the systems for appeal? What about people who live in areas with unreconstructed monsters who do not accept the ending of slavery? What about people who have papers but whose parents did not? How far back do we go?
And on and on.
The only thing that makes sense is birthright. Everything else is unworkable in a system that claims equality under the law.
And the language in the amendment is incredibly clear. There’s no genuine controversy and no genuine legal argument against it.
The monsters, of course, don’t care. They want to keep and grow their power at everyone else’s expense and expect us all to happily – joyfully, even – go along. Because they think their tribe is more powerful.
I’m convinced they’re wrong. I’m convinced they’re way, way out over their skis.
Grr…
tl;dr – This is yet another example where the monsters want us to ignore history and any sensible thought process.
IANAL.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Betty Cracker
@Dorothy A. Winsor: And you are by far better informed than the average citizen, so yeah, the deliberate lack of transparency is a huge problem. My sense is most people won’t know the wheels are coming off until it happens, and then it’s going to get ugly in a way that’s impossible to miss.
I don’t know if U.S. democracy will survive this catastrophe, but if it does, we’re going to have to make some enormous changes to ensure its long-term health.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Yes, they want a dictator but from their side, who executes.their wishlist.
Betty Cracker
@Gin & Tonic: I bet you’re correct. Also, Musk amplified the tweet, of course, tagging it with 14 U. S. flags, according to Bsky posts. Interesting that he used 14. I read it not only as a declaration that Trump (and Musk) are above the law but as an invitation for random home-grown Breiviks to act on their violent, self-aggrandizing impulses.
schrodingers_cat
Racism is the one word explanation for what is happening in the US. That’s all he has to offer. But it was enough.
Steve LaBonne
@Suzanne: “It is better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.”
Steve LaBonne
@schrodingers_cat: I think two words, the other being misogyny.
schrodingers_cat
@Steve LaBonne: A majority of white women voted for Trump again. And for many white feminists their feminism is not intersectional. If you are not white they just want you to shut up and listen and follow them unquestioningly.
BritinChicago
@Another Scott: I agree that the language of the 14th amendment is unambiguous, and the administration is vastly overreaching, and I hope they are slapped down hard by every court that looks at it. (And that having done it once, the courts gain courage and slap them down on other things.)
BUT I do not agree that “The only thing that makes sense is birthright. Everything else is unworkable in a system that claims equality under the law.” Most countries don’t have birthright citizenship (no European country does). Those that do include some that do well at equality under the law (Canada) and some that do not (Venezuela).
In most countries, your right at birth to citizenship depends on the citizenship of your parents. That’s perfectly workable, and compatible with equality under the law, under almost all circumstances. But in the aftermath of the Civil War it left the status of ex-slaves and their descendants unclear or worse. Hence the 14th amendment.
Suzanne
@Steve LaBonne: There’s more than two. Misogyny and racism, yes. Also anti-intellectualism, classism, xenophobia, bias toward dramatics and performance, genuine frustration, and many more.
There can be many flavor notes in this shit sandwich.
Kosh III
Open so:
My thanks to everyone who advised me to go with Medicare Plan G which I am doing. Also someone suggested Mutual of Omaha and that’s what I am doing.
I found a Plan D with Wellcare/Centene which looks good; zero premium and all my meds are covered.
Plus Frak the Felon!
Princess
“i think the issue is that the republican party considers itself terminally ill”
I think this is important. As we (or at least I) age, I think we feel a strong sense of nostalgia, a sense that everything was better back then and young people suck. I’m feeling this but I mistrust it. Trump and his people are consumed by it. They’ll wreck everything to go back and if they can’t go back, at least they’ll have wrecked everything. Trump knows he’s dying and wants everything else to die with him. It’s very dangerous.
different-church-lady
They want to be kings. They don’t care if it’s king of a good country or a shitty one.
different-church-lady
@Suzanne: But mostly they just want to hurt people. And it’s easier to hurt those who already don’t have any power.
schrodingers_cat
@different-church-lady: Bingo.
Princess
Anne Laurie asks who fed Trump the line about he who saves his country breaks no laws. I haven’t verified this myself but a source I trust says it comes from the white Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik, who killed 89 children at a sports camp. (I see someone else noted that)
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: Yep. Solutions will be complex too, if they can be found at all. Jury’s still out on that.
brendancalling
“their signature policies are exhausted, their aspirational goals are less popular than communism, they can’t govern when elected, they have destroyed their bureaucratic corps, their state parties are moribund, they’re rotten through with corruption and foreign influence, and they know it.”
If this true, why do they have a trifecta? I mean, I like a pep talk as much as the next person, but the way it looks is that they won, and what’s more, destroying OUR ability to win future elections (or make such wins functionally meaningless).
Maybe they know all of these things, but it sure doesn’t seem to matter.
Spanky
@Steve LaBonne: They all think they’re Khan.
Suzanne
@different-church-lady: I’m not convinced they actively desire to hurt people — at least not all of them. One thing I have observed about some dangerous people is that they genuinely convince themselves that what they want will be good for others. It’s delusion, and it indicates a complete lack of cognitive empathy to the point of (possibly) sociopathy. Literally cannot conceive of other people as independent agents with interests and desires of their own. Just pawns on one’s chessboard.
Now, functionally, this is a distinction without a difference. The end result is the same: harm and cruelty to others. But I think it’s important to be precise. There’s a lot of squishes the the middle — where elections are won — and the better we observe motivations, the better we might persuade them in future elections. If we have future elections.
sab
@Kay: Under investigation by whose agency?
If it’s stock manipulation that ought to be DOJ. Would Bondi allow that? Maybe, since working under a narcissist is the ultimate in crab bucket office politics.
But Ohio AG Yost does seem to be more than willing to use his AG position to go after his own Republican rivals. I suspect that is why Husted got hustled off to the the Senate in DC.
CliosFanBoy
@Kay:
That whole scheme came out when he was running in the primaries in early 2024. The entire family are crooks.
David_C
@Betty Cracker: I’ve heard that HHS (ASPR, FDA, NIH) notices went out yesterday by email. Workers had to learn of their status by email on a holiday weekend and find out that they were locked out of their computer systems.
It took an extra day to figure out whose departure would muck up things like clinical trials. Maybe there was some pushback after the DOE debacle? Or vocal support for HHS functions?
schrodingers_cat
Racism is the key to their xenophobia. They are perfectly fine with foreign born Musk destroying the Federal government. Or Dear leader’s European born wives.
Gloria DryGarden
They’re not stupid. They’ve been playing a long, long game.
First engender distrust in the media, then distrust in government. And here we are at their pinnacle.
Don’t understand how such intelligent and or cunning people can have such warped selfish values. It baffles me. What the hell are they doing? And then all the incompetent loyalists.
It seems to me, if Elon and his team of boludos can go into the national treasury computers and etc, that there’s got to be someone in authority left somewhere who can freeze his assets, play some hardball with him. I truly don’t know how it’s done. If this were a hockey game, he’d be in the penalty box, not allowed to play.
perhaps I’m being silly. But if they can be such utter uncaring pelotudos , we can throw silly outrageous idea around. IANAL, just ranting.
i promised someone a poem about incandescent fury, and burning down to ash from all the inner rage.
Steve LaBonne
@Spanky: While actually being Satan.
MagdaInBlack
@Suzanne: One does wonder why they favor the parts of their bible that hurts others, and pay so little mind to the Jesus, kindness, love and acceptance parts
Steve LaBonne
@Gloria DryGarden: What we are discovering is that the rot in our society runs deeper than even pessimists had feared. Getting rid of this lot, however long it takes, will be only the first step on a very long climb. (Sorry for the mixed metaphors.)
TBone
Repost PSA: protest day tomorrow!
#50501 is going nationwide again for “Not My President Day!”
https://www.mobilize.us/50501protests/event/755552/
https://crooksandliars.com/2025/02/let-s-all-make-monday-not-my-president-day
sab
@schrodingers_cat: A lot of white women are misogynists.
In my lawyer days more secretaries than not refused to work under a woman lawyer.
They vote to protect their husband’s and therefore their family’s position, which apparently makes sense until the divorce makes them a single mom.
Betty Cracker
@David_C: What a nightmare. So many horrors are happening at once. I have to strategize for each week’s calls to my shitty Republican (pardon the redundancy) reps.
Suzanne
@MagdaInBlack:
This is a thing I’ve also observed since I was young, but it’s still mindblowing to me.
But people with conservative personalities (if not politics) are deeply oriented to hierarchy. Someone has to be higher and someone has to be lower. They want to judge one another and get in one another’s business. Just miserable fuckers.
K-Mo
@Suzanne: Interesting take. What I see in the squishy middle is people who don’t give the general welfare or that of anyone but themselves and maybe their closest relatives even a passing thought. Nonetheless even these people are going to be disappointed or worse in the outcomes over the next 5-20 years.
AM in NC
@Suzanne: I agree. While there is DEFINITELY a slice of MAGA that delights in cruelty, I think the larger group has, as you note, convinced themselves that, whatever I do is by nature “good” because “I am a good person”. My media all tell me what I am doing is good and right and helpful, and whatever the Dems do is harmful, evil, and wrong.
We must constantly point out the real-world harms and then ask (with compassion) “is this what you voted for? Is this what you thought they were going to do?” It won’t reach everyone, but it will peel away some, and it also plays well to the “too busy to pay attention but still vote” group.
If we just get them to stay home, that’s a win.
caphilldcne
@BritinChicago: the lack of birthright citizenship leads to statelessness which creates serious issues. My understanding is that there are places with 3 generations of guest workers that have grown up and only know that place, are subject to being sent elsewhere and have no vote to impact their own future. So this is a problem with that system.
Also this is moving the goalposts in the US. We’ve had this system for over 150 years, no law has changed. There is precedent. They are just asserting legal falsehoods. It’s a trick they pulled off with 2nd amendment jurisprudence and it needs to shut down now.
Suzanne
@K-Mo:
What is see of the squishes is that they are easily emotionally manipulated. That’s why I keep harping on the public image and brand and “reflecting their feelings back” stuff.
We all know people who go through every aspect of life making emotional choices. They’re usually not bad people, but they often make really unwise decisions.
Steve LaBonne
@AM in NC: This is why “am I a good person?” is always the wrong question. We are all capable of doing both good and bad things and should ask ourselves instead whether what we’re doing is good, and why.
bbleh
@K-Mo: to borrow an excellent metaphor, a lot of them will console themselves that they’re STILL better off than the non-White/non-straight family in the cardboard box next door.
I’m just hoping there are enough of them — it won’t take many, cuz it’s still a VERY closely-divided polity — who can manage to think about more than their own status.
@Suzanne: you see it also in their attitudes toward the beneficiaries of government programs. They’re perfectly ok with people getting benefits who DESERVE them (and of course they and people like them are definitely deserving). All that “waste” and “fraud” comes from people getting benefits who DON’T “deserve” them. That is, not only do they want to get in other people’s business, but they want to JUDGE other people’s moral fitness.
Matt. 7, MFers.
kalakal
The whole thing reminds me of Brexit ( except this is far worse). I’d never realized just how many nasty, stupid, xenophobic people there were in the UK*. And the same applies to the US, I’ve been here 12 years and I’m genuinely shocked
Brexit was an act of self harm, this is self immolation. I think we will get through this because of Tmurp & co’s stupidity and overeach.
* I knew there were a lot but so many?
Tim C
@Betty Cracker: That’s where I am at as well. The huge challenge will be in avoiding violence when the system collapses happen. Being ready to take care of each other, sacrifice and most difficult of all, deal with the hardcore Trumpers when their cult leader falls.
Yes, he’s going to fall.
m.j.
They’re still making a pretense of governance?
I thought it was a mad cash-grab at this point.
Baud
Via reddit
MagdaInBlack
@TBone: I have found a new/ old battle song for you, from Bread. They weren’t all “parking songs.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWLtrq92nxk
Suzanne
@AM in NC:
Agree. This is a field of play. We have won in the past by eroding margins.
Where I have thought we have gone wrong with FFOTUS for a long time is that we underestimate how good he is at emotional manipulation, including imagecraft, “channeling feelings”, and all that stuff. We underestimate it here on BJ because we don’t give a shit about it. But it clearly works on a swath of people. That is not to say that these people are not influenced by issues around race, gender, class, etc etc etc. Of course they are.
Gloria DryGarden
@Steve LaBonne: it’s gonna take a lot of mixed metaphors, and a thesaurus full of descriptors, and all the swear words in 20 languages…
depends on which rot you hope to excise.
indeed, one does wonder
NeenerNeener
If Elon succeeds in forcing the Federal Govt to run through Xhitter, which is what it appears he’s setting it up to do, this person has recommendations on some protections:
https://landfamilyhome.substack.com/p/a-household-guide-for-cyber-defense?r=9qxou&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true
BritinChicago
@caphilldcne: Yes, the point about guest workers is a good one. Birthright citizenship does indeed prevent one kind of abuse, and is perhaps a good idea for that reason. (There are plenty of countries without it that do not abuse residents in that fashion, but guarantees against future abuse are good.)
Kay
@sab:
By a state agency. I don’t know if anything will come of it – you know how corrupt this state is. I just thought it was interesting they’re busy stabbing him in the back and telling me so I’ll tell local Democrats, which I will.
sab
@kalakal: YY Sima Qian linked to some memes comparing what is going on to the Cultural Revolution. It almost feels like half of us voted for our own cultural revolution with no idea how bad this can become. It has been since the Civil War that the US has faced internal violent disruption. That is a very long time compared to almost every other country in the world. That makes us naive.
Gloria DryGarden
@Baud: nominated.
i so agree. In shouting bold neon flashing lights! Esp a great comment on a Sunday!
Jeffro
“rule or ruin” works both ways, GOP. We’ll never let you have this country.
sab
@Kay: I cannot imagine an Indian-American winning a statewide office in Ohio, which is kind of sad since they are actually our largest immigrant group. I only just learned that, quietly blending in and keeping their heads down.
sab
@sab: I make an exception for Jim Crow. Thinking about makes this even scarier.
TBone
Related to post title, at 10am on TCM. If I can’t get to church, at least I have Bette Davis and Paul Lukas versus the Nazis.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch_on_the_Rhine
These characters did not fail to plan! They learn their Antifa young.
Kay
@sab:
Ramaswamy attended a fancy private school – Jesuits – and some of the wealthy alums want to create some distance between him and the school, partly for his far Right racist views but partly because he’s a crook.
Fancy private school- land is another country with its own customs and norms :)
danielx
One of the many things that perturb me: we haven’t seen the real revenge campaign start yet. A lot of the current activities are staging for that particular goal. Replacing anyone who even hints they won’t follow the program, particularly at the FBI, clears the way for filling those positions with those who will follow any order they receive be it ever so illegal.
TBone
@Kay: that’s how I went to college too. Jesuits.
Kay
@sab:
We’ll see. Jindal won in Louisiana and Nikki Haley won in SC – two terms each. I don’t know why far Right Ohio would be different.
MomSense
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Yes people are being fired. People are also just being put to the side so that other not qualified people can take over.Yes, money is being blocked or stalled. And yup court orders are being ignored.
TBone
@sab: I hope you saw my reply about LiveLawyersApp in the earlier thread!
https://blackgirlsbond.com/how-paulina-bryan-built-livelawyerapp-to-connect-you-instantly-with-a-lawyer-when-stopped-by-police/
AM in NC
@Kay: No surprise there. Good “academic” education, the Brothers provide. Also an education in thorough-going male supremacy (in an all-boys setting) and conservative Catholic hierarchical thought.
Suzanne
@Kay: Ramaswamy absolutely lit his political career on fire with his tweet about shaming Americans for wanting to be dumb jocks and not spending their weekends at the physics olympiad.
I cackle at the memory. God. Just an utter failure to read the room.
Betty Cracker
@Tim C: I have to keep believing that’s possible too.
Gin & Tonic
@Suzanne: Funny thing is, his assessment was correct.
The Thin Black Duke
@Suzanne: Vivek Ramaswany thought he was white.
Suzanne
@The Thin Black Duke: No white conservative who actually wants to win an election would shame the dumb jock contingent! That’s their base!
Suzanne
@Gin & Tonic:
“Being correct” and “fourteen dollars” will get you a dozen eggs and nothing else.
MomSense
@Suzanne:
There are also a lot of people who barely think at all about issues. We spend more time thinking about why they voted the way they did than they do.
Things were shit in Nov. 2020 so they voted for someone else. Things were shit in Nov 2024 so they voted for someone else.
frosty
AL, I saw your news in the earlier post. Please take whatever time you need to rest and recover. I love your posts but we’ll be OK while you take a break.
schrodingers_cat
@The Thin Black Duke: Other Sanghi MAGA idiots are going to discover that they will never be considered white, no matter what they tell themselves.
Geminid
@sab:
@sab: It does seem unlikely that an Indian Smerican could win the Ohio Governor race. In Ramaswamy’s case I think it’s downright impossible. That guy’s just a bullshit artist, and not a very good one.
Ramaswamy made a name in last year’s Republican Presidential primary, but he was effectively a Trump ally whose function was to draw media attention and split the the non-Trump vote; a “catspaw” candidate.
Ramaswamy could serve an enforcer-type role next year, calling out rivals who deviate from Trumpism, but he’ll have no general appeal. I think he’ll finish fourth or fifth, depending how many viable candidates there are.
Kay
You guys are going to be shocked but there is no provision to lift taxes on OT, Social Security or tips in the GOP budget.
In fact, they’re still 3 trillion short even without those cuts in revenue.
Suzanne
@MomSense:
Yes, they feel their way through life.
Felt like they needed some mojo? Bought a big truck. Felt bad about something that happened at work? Went to the bar and took someone home. Etc etc etc.
sab
@TBone: Sorry. Yes I did. Thanks.
frosty
That quote. Unbelievable. Napoleon XIV nailed it back in 1966.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1e13YjTPb_0
Kay
@AM in NC:
I think fancy private high schools are mostly for placing your kid into a peer group. You’re buying them wealthy friends and future spouse. If they went to a public school they might meet someone who drives a cheap car or something. Unsuitable.
MagdaInBlack
@frosty: GAH! No. Bad earwworm, NO!
Geminid
@Kay: Probably no SALT relief then. Mike Lawler and other NY Republicans dangled that in front of voters last year. Democrats won’t let them forget it.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Betty Cracker:
That is manifesting itself in the ICE raids and is beyond alarming. For example, the ones in Aurora and Denver on the day of the nationwide rallies, they don’t say, other than in broad generalities, how many people they round up nor do they give specifics as to how many of those people are “bad guys”.
This piece from our otherwise Totebaggery outlet here is chilling:
https://denverite.com/2025/02/06/aurora-edge-at-lowry-ice-raid/
Modern democracies work best with transparency. This piece highlights that and highlights how far we’ve fallen in 5 years:
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/transparency-democracys-sake
frosty
@frosty: Not a real Napoleon quote? Oh well, I still think the link is applicable.
UncleEbeneezer
@brendancalling: Because every election the Dem Party has to go up against Republicans, The Media, Progressives who all work together to stop Dems from being elected.
Kay
@Geminid:
Its all premised on Musk cutting 2 trillion – which is a lie – and even with that lie they’re 3 trillion short.The employees they fired are a rounding error against “3 trillion”.
I don’t know how GOP staffers go to work every day. This “budget” is all bullshit. They’re busily making up numbers and sticking them here and there. Why bother? No one on the Right gives a shit whether they “balance” and media can’t be bothered.
But the tax cuts on tips, OT and Social Security should be an easy attack for D’s. They really did promise those and people here talked about it constantly.
MagdaInBlack
@Kay: Anectdotal: My boss was out for breakfast last Sunday, saw and heard a woman at the next table hand the waitress a tip and remind her she didn’t have to pay taxes on that anymore, because of trump.
They think it’s already been enacted.
TBone
@MagdaInBlack: OH that’s way cool, thank you!!!
It goes PERFECTLY with the theme of the movie Watch on the Rhine!
ETA GIVE US BREAD, BUT GIVE US ROSES TOO!
CliosFanBoy
@sab:
Hi, where is YY Sima Qian posting these? TY
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Gloria DryGarden:
This is on display everyday on both sides of the aisle. For example, when any self professed progressive grouses about government process or regulations ranging from the DMV experience to something that affects their livelihood in a self perceived negative manner, then immediately pivots to an inherently libertarian position of “remove all regulations”. Also too, most of us here (raises hand) daily express distrust of the media is another example.
What’s happened since Reagan took office and the crap that’s become mainstreamed since is a sense of betrayal fostered by a pervasive political cynicism, a lack of faith in the democratic process (which again can manifest itself in different ways depending on which side of the aisle is the source) and this really affects many people who came of age under good ole neoliberalism.
That last part is from a book I’m reading by Genevieve Guenther, “The Language of Climate Politics”. Many of her observations extend to other policy areas.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Where is Trump physically these days? Is he living in the White House? Is he golfing? Is he doing any of his helicopter talks? Do we see him walking and talking?
p.a.
Won’t untaxed OT & tips lower a person’s SS calculation? So it’s a debatable benefit anyway. Oh, shit, that’s assuming SS isn’t being targeted. Silly, silly me…
Another Scott
@BritinChicago: You make a good point.
But I meant in the context of previously having chattel slavery and fighting a terrible war that ended it, the only thing that made sense for the USA was birthright citizenship.
Made me look….
It looks like Brazil ended slavery (on May 13, 1888) without doing anything about citizenship:
In the 1870 Census the total population was 38.9M, the Black population was 4.9M (12.6%). That’s a lot of people to marginalize after such a damaging war. (Look at the political problems we have with 10-20/330 million (3-6%) undocumented people now.)
Anyway, yes, you’re right that there are other approaches, even in places that had chattel slavery. I don’t think anything else would have worked as well for the US as birthright citizenship.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
CliosFanBoy
@Kay:
They anglicized their names.
MagdaInBlack
@TBone: Youtube tossed together a pretty good mix for me last night. Happy to share =-)
Ohio Mom
Huh?! “Orban’s people helped Project 2025 draft the plan to do the same thing here”
Why is this the first time I’m hearing this?!!!
Geminid
@Kay: I wonder how these cuts will go down in the House committees. Those committee chairman and their members are used to defending their domaines like feudal barons. This is like being invaded by the Mongol Horde.
Gin & Tonic
@CliosFanBoy: Mostly in the nightly Ukraine threads.
frosty
@Betty Cracker: I know. I have to write a script. I haven’t called my Rep much since I’ve been focusing on Senate confirmations. And losing.
The latest firings are Forest Service and National Parks? At least I got out to 53 of them before this shit tsunami.
I think this one is the news that’s sending me into despair. They’re breaking every single good thing about my country and nothing I do makes a damn bit of difference.
Sorry
AM in NC
@Kay: In my case, that wasn’t true. Went to public elementary (New Orleans) and middle schools (Atlanta suburb) but went to small private high school in Buckhead because I wanted a better education.
I was a scholarship kid who did get a good education – small school and small class sizes plus getting to do all kinds of extracurriculars I wouldn’t have been able to do in a giant school.
Went to UNC for college and was thrilled to get back to a diverse place where I could be anonymous. But the education I got in HS was top notch, and better than the public school.
With MY kids, they were public all the way because we lived in a really excellent school district. They got the full education – academic AND being around all kinds of people.
But you are right in that most of the people I went to HS with were of, by, and for themselves and their in-group. Very interesting to see which ones threw off their parents’ ideology and which burrowed in deeper. The ones who did graduate degrees broadened horizons. The ones with Bachelors degrees or Professional degrees were a mixed bag. It came down to VALUES. Knowledge or money?
TBone
@MagdaInBlack: you have just given me my new version of a National Anthem and I (and my neighbors!) are grateful 🤘✌️🙏
MagdaInBlack
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I had a flash image from “Pulp Fiction’ of “bring out the gimp.”
I’m sorry.
Ella in New Mexico
@Kay:
Maybe because Smarmymarmy is so very hateable? Like, absolutely NOTHING to like about him and he insulted the entire working class to boot?
One can hope…
CliosFanBoy
@MagdaInBlack:
Back in the 90s the republican here in Virginia campaigned on “studying” how to get rid of the (regressive) car tax. When he won some yahoos tried to not pay their car tax for the year because they had “voted to repeal it.” And then there was somebody her e(I think, it may have been LGM) who heard some diners paying their bill out in a red western state, who thought the local meals tax was Obama’s fault.
Many people have no CLUE how the tax system works.
Oh, and the car tax was reduced, though never eliminated.
TBone
@MagdaInBlack: I dig you chickadee!
CliosFanBoy
@Gin & Tonic:
OK, ty.
oldgold
@CliosFanBoy: “Many people have no CLUE how the tax system works.”
No, not “many,” it is damn near everyone.
tobie
@Another Scott:
@BritinChicago: I haven’t thought much about the origins of the 14th Anendment or its justification. I was simply proud that it was a part of the US Constitution because I thought it would protect the US from Renauld Camus’s great replacement theory. It enshrined in the most direct manner possible the idea of pluralism, e pluribus unum. I was wrong. Even in a country this large and with so much open space, the fear of the non-white, non-Christian, and non-straight or cis-gender persons is so strong that a large portion of the public is willing to destroy the country to elevate themselves.
Ohio Mom
@Another Scott: When skimming the Opinion section, I noticed that column did not allow for comments.
I almost always skip pieces that don’t have a comment thread. I’m finding that the readers are generally smarter than the writers.
narya
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Perhaps oddly, this is one of the things I fight back on. I’ve worked with government funding for at least 20 years, and, in my last few positions, interacted quite a bit with various regulations. So, when people bitch and moan about regulations, I talk about my experience AND talk about the process that is–or, at this point, was–used to get to those regulations. I acknowledge that sometimes it’s inconvenient, but it’s also oversight on how our tax dollars are being spent. I like to use FTCA (Federal Tort Claims Act) as a good example. Yes, I am ridiculously geeky about this stuff.
Spanky
@frosty:
Yet.
We’re back on our heels, but we are legion and gathering ourselves. Do not despair.
Geminid
@Ella in New Mexico: Aside from Ramaswamy’s personality deficits, the Republican Party has devolved since the time Haley and Jindal won their governorships. It could be they slipped through a window that closed after the Bush II era.
But I think Ramaswamy’s campaign will be successful in one respect. That guy likes to hear himself talk, and he’ll get plenty of opportunities.
different-church-lady
@MomSense:
Things were not shit in Nov. 2024 — but half the country acted like things were, and the press amplified it because it gave them jollies.
Betty Cracker
@frosty: I hear you, man. I’m trying to get out of the habit of looking at the news first thing in the morning. It’s not good to start each day angry and depressed. Nature helps, and I know you appreciate it too.
RAM
People and organizations need to start acting and not reacting to the Musk-Trump-Putin Axis.
NATO ought to openly sever intelligence ties with us, explaining exactly why, and they should put us on probation if not threaten to expel us from the alliance altogether before Trump starts threatening to leave.
The EU, acting as NATO ought to start openly & with lots of publicity massing troops on the Russian border, where, apparently there are no longer any troops because they’re all getting killed in Ukraine and Kursk. And NATO ought to very publicly remind Russia and the U.S. that they both have perfectly good nuclear strike forces whose weapons are, unlike Russia’s, guaranteed to work.
This is all unthinkable stuff, but we’re in a formerly unthinkable situation being driven by enemies of civilization. We can either act or bow to their continued outrages and accept defeat.
frosty
@Betty Cracker: Thank you BC. My morning routine is this site, Heather Cox Richardson, etc. l need a new routine.
I’m at a private RV Park near St Augustine this week. I moved my chair to look at the trees behind us instead of all the big RVs next to us. It helps.
Next stop is Tomoka State Park. I love the Florida parks; glad we managed to get a site there and Myakka River at the last minute.
RaflW
Dunno how many folks here follow Kai Ryssdal or listen to Marketplace, but he’s been one of the very clear-eyed journalists.
I didn’t hear this as broadcast, but he was saying it plain at the sign off for his show on Feb. 13th (which he shared on Bsky this morning – I cleaned up script punctuation below).
tobie
@Betty Cracker: I’m having trouble too figuring out what to focus on in my weekend letter to my Republican Rep. What a shitshow domestically and internationally.
If you want to go local, here’s a post about the hasty Friday evening layoffs at the US Geological Survey in St Pete, FL. Talented, young scientists were given the boot and an added stab in the back. You know, the folks who promote innovation.
https://climatejustice.social/@Brad_Rosenheim/114013197583670845
Ohio Mom
@Kay: Vivek went to high school at St X, which yes, is a fancy private school, but you have to take an entrance exam. Catholic boys who are smart enough to get in but whose families are of more modest means are given scholarships.
Nukular Biskits
Good late mornin’, y’all.
I see y’all have been busy without me.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
My favorite version of this is Max von Sydow in Hannah and Her Sisters (start about 1:00).
AM in NC
@RaflW: WOW. That is really a good, strong statement. The bidness Dempublicans who love Marketplace need to hear that from one of their own.
Good for Kai.
Betty
Now outlawing scholarships to Blacks and Latinos? This has to wake some more people up. More and more each day- if the news is adequately spread.
tobie
@RaflW: Thanks for posting Ryssdal’s note. Good to see a journalist speaking out not as a partisan but as someone who has expertise in markets and the infrastructure on which they depend. Too many journalists simply report what he said and she said. This legitimates bad faith and bogus talking points.
NaijaGal
@Suzanne: Yes. And it’s working so far.
For those who’ve observed that they are trying to copy what Orban did in Hungary, he destroyed democracy more gradually. I think part of the current shock and awe strategy for the US has to do with keeping us disoriented because of the size of our population. The US has roughly 330 million people, while Hungary has about 10 million. That’s 30 times more people to “control.” It’s trickier.
schrodingers_cat
@different-church-lady: Thank you for stating the obvious.
satby
@different-church-lady: no lie told.
Kay
@Ohio Mom:
My Republican acquaintance is an alum. I guess Vivek was on the board and they tried to get him taken off because of some intra party fight with Republicans – they don’t want him in Ohio GOP politics.
gene108
@CliosFanBoy:
Give it a rest. It’s insulting that you think people have to comply with your idea of proper naming conventions.
NaijaGal
@Kay: In 2023, the Ramaswamy scam was alluded to in 19fortyfive (a conservative leaning defense and foreign policy website). He also helped a hedge fund he worked for invest in pharmabro Martin Shkreli’s first company, Retrophin, which became infamous for drug price hikes.
Kay
@AM in NC:
Absolutely. Some go on scholarship. And that’s a part of college for everyone, right? Picking a peer group – people who go to college make college friends and meet college romantic partners. We’re basically ensuring that happens by placing them in a closed, safe environment from 18 to 22. Its part of what we’re paying for. Its just that wealthy people start that earlier, virtually guarantee their children won’t encounter any poor people, ever.
Kay
@NaijaGal:
Thanks so much. I’m also just generally interested in a “conservative leaning defense and foreign policy site”, one that would criticize a MAGA. I’ll check it out.
NaijaGal
@BritinChicago: Most countries aren’t founded on immigration though. The US is. Under their scheme, a child born in the US to parents going through the naturalization process would not be a citizen. It would get very messy for so many, with thousands or millions of stateless people (who the right would love to exploit).
Betty Cracker
@frosty: Tomoka is a beautiful salt marsh, IIRC (I know the Gulf of Mexico coast better than the Atlantic). Myakka River is great, but in case you haven’t been, know that it’s chock full of gators, so watch your step! ;-) Have y’all been to Cayo Costa? Definitely worth a day trip, assuming it has reopened after last year’s hurricanes.
Miss Bianca
@Kay: Well, Vivek’s a brown guy, isn’t he? Seems that the Ohio Republicans want to make it clear that corruption and sleaze in professional and political life is reserved for *white* Ohio Republicans.
Bill Arnold
@BritinChicago:
Can those parents prove that they are citizens, by the same standards? Recursively?
In the USA case, do they have solid evidence that a maternal line ancestor was(is) a naturalized citizen? Or, with proper genetic evidence, a paternal bloodline ancestor?
Thor Heyerdahl
@NaijaGal: and in addition to population, the counties (state-level equivalent) have far less autonomy in Hungary than states do in the US.
Kay
@Miss Bianca:
I think they already have the Order of Ascension laid out. Like North Carolina, Ohio is not really a democracy. Powerful people just completely ignore the state’s highest court and the justices do nothing. They can jail people for civil contempt – judges do in the county courts, not often but often enough to let people know there are consequences to defying a court order, but that would be impolite so the court just decided it was easier to make themselves irrelevant.
frosty
@Betty Cracker: After 12 years of Snowbirding I’m used to gators. We did a day trip to Paynes Prairie a week ago. There were 35 sunning themselves on a 3/4 mile walk. Some big ones, too. 13 ft maybe?
My only freakout was canoeing the Loxahatchee several years ago and seeing one on the creek bank 10 ft away at eye level. Then it slipped into the water and swam under the canoe. At least a 10-footer. Yikes!
ETA Haven’t been to Cayo Costa. I’ll look it up.
Peale
@Kay: ooh. Wait until they find out that the point of the tariffs isn’t to bring jobs back to the US.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Suzanne: Reminded of that apocryphal study that found people preferred to earn $50k in a community where the everyone else earned $25k than earn $100k where everyone else earned #200k.
Gvg
@schrodingers_cat: never is a long time. If this time crashes and burns bad enough, then yes they will be white some day. Just like Irish cops made it and Italians and others. I think the Jewish people are more white than the worst antisemites around Trump realize and if they try to actually do anything, they will get pushback even from their “own” side. There is a bunch of denialism there that is denial and not lies. It’s still despicable of course but lots of people don’t think much.
if the authoritarians win, then there will start to be fights about who is really best and that’s when certain groups are going to find out they were used. It’s going to be religious groups not just ethnic too.
Sister Golden Bear
People have searched for the phrase’s prior use online and the only instances found* were a few uses on various neo-Nazi forums. Draw your own conclusions….
*Aside from the 1970 movie Napoleon.
Sister Golden Bear
@Betty Cracker: Musk not only added 14 flags to the post but he posted it at 2:14 p.m. — i.e. 14:14 — Eastern time. ‘Nuff said.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Suzanne: Shorter answer: they would not go to such lengths to demonize everyone not like them if they weren’t wishing harm on everyone else.
TXSwede
@Betty Cracker:
@different-church-lady: Thank you. The question is how we fix that.
George
@Michael Bersin:
The wording that MAGAts are using is straight out of Nazism. The congressperson you cited talked about the “sickness infecting” the government. Elmo Skum had a twit about the “parasite class.”
It doesn’t matter how much criticism the MAGAts get from us. As long as they are unable to pull themselves out of their own death spiral, and as long as the legacy media refuses to call them out on their fascism, they will continue to degrade themselves and take the country down with them.
Bill Arnold
@Sister Golden Bear:
They did not search well enough.
I quickly found a reference in French from 1912 that google translated to that quote. (People do make a reasonable case that it was the Napoleon movie or maybe Anders Breivik’s manifesto.)
« Celui qui sauve sa patrie ne viole aucune loi. »
Napoléon Bonaparte, Virilités, maximes et pensées compilées par Jules Bertaut, éditions Sansot et Cie, 1912
(google translate):
George
@Suzanne:
I’d argue that the best way to look at them is to believe that they all, indeed, actively desire to hurt people. Start with that premise and then make them prove it is not accurate.
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
It’s hard to see what they are doing because they don’t actually know either. They want to stop what they think is taking power away from them but they don’t understand doodly squat so their concepts are bull and crap. They work at being what is in their minds, rational, but their minds are full of irrational crap and that lets them think, such as it is, that their world needs to be fixed. It isn’t their world that’s the problem, it’s them. It’s their “thinking” that tells them they are smart, and they likely are – if you are comparing them to inanimate objects, such as leaves and used TP. They don’t have a rational footing, their minds want to believe they are the top of the class but they aren’t top even at kindergarten class level. We all have seen humans like this our entire lives, they don’t actually understand – well anything. Their world is like playing with dolls or playing fort. Not adult rational concepts of democracy and equality. Or anything else. Reality is beyond them, way, way beyond. And they do not want to actually find reality, they want to continue to play the game of we must be smart, we are full size adults. In everything but actual thought.
Sister Golden Bear
@Bill Arnold: I was insufficiently caffeinated and should’ve clarified that they were specifically searching for online usage, not the origin of the phase, and provided screenshots of instances of its use. (Can’t remember offhand whether it was directly from the forums or via Wayback. They did seemingly miss the reported usage in Anders Breivik’s manifesto
Their point was focused on who had actually used the phrase, and the answer was almost no one. Except neo-Nazis.
Sister Golden Bear
@Ruckus:
It’s the same dynamic as programmers who think they know everything about everything because they think they’re great programmers… are invariably bad at programming. Ask me how I know.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
They think their world is reality.
It’s not.
I’ve stated here before that I was a trained mental health counselor a long time ago and this concept of life/living wasn’t reality then and it isn’t now. They have full grown bodies but not full grown minds. That last part either never got underway or stopped somewhere around the 4th grade. And because of this they can’t see reality, they see what is in their minds and mirrors, they must be fully grown, they drive, wear adult clothing and everything. And their reality stops there. They are playing a game – and they don’t know it.
Sister Golden Bear
@Ruckus: On a related note, these folks frequently assume other people are non-player characters.
Miss Bianca
@AM in NC: I’ve noted this before, but one of the advantages of going to a private school for me, from grades 7-12, was that, in addition to getting a far more rigorous education than I would have in public school, I also was part of a far more diverse student body than I would have been in my public school in lily-white, redlined Grosse Pointe.
I didn’t really appreciate it as much at the time as I should have, since my social life was made a merry hell by the rich WASP guys and gals who dominated the social cliques, but just the mere *presence* of Black, Asian, Latino, Jewish, and Arabic students from all across the Detroit metro area made a lot of racist BS that might otherwise have penetrated my brain seem like arrant horseshit to me.
Ruckus
@Sister Golden Bear:
Many people think they are great at every/any thing. They often are not. I worked in professional sports, part time for 30 yrs and full time for 10 years and many people thought that they were the top of the heap, and they weren’t doodly squat. They were waiting for their big break and didn’t understand that life/work/sports repays what you have and what you put into it, not what is handed to you. But this is humanity and a way too large portion think, such as it is, that they are the top of the heap. But the heap they think they are top of isn’t reality. And for many of them it NEVER will be. The sport I worked in I also participated in for a while and I have a couple trophies. From the amateur side, because I understood and understand that while I was competent, I was never going to be great or top of the heap. I had skills but not enough of them nor the drive to find them if they even existed. Reality can be a cruel master or it can be your friend. It’s better when it’s your friend.
Ruckus
@Miss Bianca:
I’m an old and grew up in a bi-racial town. That was effectively segregated. Most of that effectively was gone by the time I graduated HS. Because the Los Angeles population grew exponentially starting about then. Now it’s almost like one big town with a few million people living there. I’ve lived on the north east side, the north west side and the south west side and worked in the middle and north west. A lot of interesting folks from all walks of life.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
I’m convinced they’re way, way out over their skis.
So far out it takes binoculars to see them.
These dipshits didn’t earn any money – that takes doing something positive. shitforbrains has never done anything positive in his entire life. EVEERR. nothing, nada, la zero, niente, nichts
Jesse
@BritinChicago: European countries are ethnostates and their citizenship laws just perpetuate that. Birthright citizenship is a more enlightened approach, suitable for the US.
The Truffle
Just signed up to volunteer for Run for Something, a group that recruits progressives to run for office at local and state levels. It feels so much better than doomscrolling or reading about Dems in DC. I don’t see the GOP doing the same.
I have more faith in Dems in down ballot races than in DC these days.
Gloria DryGarden
@Sister Golden Bear: to add about non player characters:
to a con artist, everyone else is a “mark”