Joelle and I tried to go swimming after I picked her up from work, but the pool was closed because someone had shit it in and they needed to drain it, which as far as I am concerned is the perfect metaphor for the United States right now. It’s fucking bonkers the shit that is going down right now, and all I am saying is that if a month into Kamala’s Presidency, you had to have a second job to eat an egg, planes were falling out of the sky, gas had risen 60 cents a gallon, and she’d given your irs information to some 20something weirdo who worked for George Soros, not only would she have been impeached, she would have been shot. Instead, our oligarchs are reacting this way:
An advertisement that was set to run in some editions of The Washington Post on Tuesday calling for Elon Musk to be fired from his role in government was abruptly canceled, according to one of the advocacy groups that had ordered the ad.
Common Cause said it was told by the newspaper on Friday that the ad was being pulled. The full-page ad, known as a wraparound, would have covered the front and back pages of editions delivered to the White House, the Pentagon and Congress, and was planned in collaboration with the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund.
A separate, full-page ad with the same themes would have been allowed to run inside the newspaper, but the two groups chose to cancel the internal ad as well. Both ads would have cost the groups $115,000.
“We asked why they wouldn’t run the wrap when we clearly met the guidelines if they were allowing the internal ad,” said Virginia Kase Solomón, the president and chief executive of Common Cause. “They said they were not at liberty to give us a reason.”
This country is not going to recover in my lifetime.
Speaking of Escapism Open Thread
NotMax
Tonight, on a very special episode of The Lyin’, the Rich and the Wardoge….
//
Elizabelle
It’s all so depressing. But. I am glad to see the turnout at protests around the country today. Moar of those. We will need them.
Starfish (she/her)
This article about eggs and bird flu was eggcellent.
Elizabelle
How and why are all those Republican Senators falling into line? All of them, save Turtle. What is up with that??
cmorenc
What’s really terrible is that the necessary quantum of resistance to Trump may only arise when enough bad things happen to enough people, both the deserving and the undeserving. We really hope no further planes crash, but we are in the awkward position of hoping that if/when the next one does, the fault is clearly due to Musk leaving airports with too few controllers.
dww44
I so hope your timeline is wrong , JC. I’m sitting here consumed with rage after reading about what Trump is doing to Ukraine. I could spit nails, I’m so angry.
I guess I ll make some more calls tomorrow to our elected Dems. At least that makes me feel better.
we do need a real shadow cabinet with strong unapologetic voices. At a time like this where are Clinton and Obama? Why aren’t they stepping up to lead the opposition? We need a few more Chris Murphys and AOC’s.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
They want him to succeed.
dww44
@Elizabelle: Bought and paid for? Also perhaps threats and intimidations from Elon and MAGAs. Their capitulation appears to be complete.
Baud
Via Reddit
ArchTeryx
@Baud: Pithy but accurate. They’re 100% on board with tearing the federal government apart and devolving everything back to their third world states, even if it means giving up all their own prerogatives. They’re fully on board with the enemy.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Exactly. As do the people who voted for him. Stop saying that they were duped. They knew what he was and voted for him, again
I blame the media too. They wanted him back.
And the purity left for shitting on any and every Biden admin achievement.
New Deal democrat
@cmorenc:
This is exactly correct. Until enough T—-p voters or couldn’t-be-bothered’s are personally hurt by him, there won’t be the critical mass necessary to do anything about it.
All we can hope is that the things that happen are the “least worst,” but honestly, I think that is an unlikely bet.
ArchTeryx
@New Deal democrat: This is one of the few cases where “heightening the contradictions” is the only way forward. Things get bad enough, there will be a groundswell for change. Even tyrants, in the end, depend on the consent of the governed, manufactured or otherwise.
See: Pratchett, Terry.
MagdaInBlack
@Baud: FFS, my Elantra is better than that in snow.
Elizabelle
@Baud: Fuck be upon them.
@dww44: I bet they are putting off a smell.
bbleh
@Elizabelle: some are True Believers, more are in less-than-entirely-safe seats and scared of being primaried (which they’d likely lose, because primary voters skew extreme), and pretty much all (like all legislators) are risk-averse and not at all uncomfortable right now.
Hell, even DEMOCRATIC Senators — with a few notable exceptions (Schatz, Warren, maybe 1 or 2 others?) — are mostly quiet, mostly because they too are risk-averse. “What can we do — we’re powerless!” they say, before diving back under their nice desks.
And as to McConnell, the sudden appearance in the media of Reasonable Mitch to me smacks more of legacy maintenance than of any real change of heart. (And to the extent there HAS been a change of heart, and he is experiencing something akin to regret, I hope he lives a long and miserable life wallowing in it.)
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: Yup. They’re getting what they always wanted but couldn’t attain themselves.
TBone
Judge Chutkan stymied by lack of hard evidence. No paper trail print-out of digital footprint Catch 22. Prosecuting Attorneys General have a few days to produce the necessary forensic evidence. We need some expert hackers after our expert linebackers tackle these mofos to the floor so they can get it. IF any such footprints exist.
yahoo.com/news/judge-cites-lack-evidence-states-225303219.html
Soprano2
@Elizabelle: They’re terrified of Musk-funded opponents. It’s not an unreasonable fear, although I think they’re cowards to not stand up for themselves as senators. Do they really want to be members of the Duma?
Ohio Mom
I don’t know if thinking in terms of this country recovering is the correct lens. We recovered from the Great Recession, we recovered from the worst of the COVID pandemic.
I don’t know how we recover from the evisceration of the administrstive state and the emptying of the public fisc. Those are the tools we’ve used to create recoveries when needed.
We will be a different, and diminished, country going forward.
I don’t know how many people are going to be plugged into the erosion of civil liberties, I don’t expect a revolt about that. I mean, if your news sources are Fox and the like, you already accepted being propagandized.
People aren’t to like being poorer and having less consumer choice but that ire will be directed to out groups. Of which we’ve always had a robust selection.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: I don’t think they were duped, but I think many of the low information voters fooled themselves that he would only do the things they wanted and only hurt the people they don’t like. Whoops…..
Elizabelle
@Soprano2: The Republican Senators are whores. And cowards. To a person.
And I am tired of the “Democrats are too scared to do anything” shit we keep hearing here. I think they are watching carefully and will act as effectively as they can.
Don’t amplify shit like that that comes from our political opponents.
schrodingers_cat
@Soprano2: Or they don’t mind suffering because they know that the people they don’t like will suffer more.
Melancholy Jaques
@Elizabelle:
I suspect they fully support everything Trump is doing or simply do not care. They see everything as an opportunity for their own enrichment & aggrandizement. They have no other concerns.
Ohio Mom
@Soprano2: What’s the difference between being duped and fooling yourself?
This country is full of people who think what Musk is doing is an audit. I don’t know how you get through to them at all, let alone in enough time.
frog
When the country recovers, there will need to be some changes to our Constitution. For example, add some requirements to the right to run for President. Medical/Psych/Financial disclosures, for example. Presidents CAN be prosecuted for crimes while in office … that’s what Vice Presidents are for.
bbleh
@Ohio Mom: an excellent if depressing summary. My only response is, we “recovered” from a worse situation during the Civil Rights movement, and I think a lot of the folks powering today’s anti-civil-rights movement — and let’s remember, the Orange Guy’s vote margin was VERY thin — are (mostly older) reactionaries: this is the “last gasp” of those who, per various comments elsewhere, know they’ve lost the “culture war” long-term and have devolved into near-nihilism.
Not to say that (1) these attitudes won’t be with us long-term — pretty much every major industrial country has a sizable (20-35%) reactionary / authoritarian bloc — nor (2) the damage to the structures and mechanisms of government won’t take a long time to repair (although I’d guess less than people fear). But I’m less worried about, say, 20 years from now than I am 5 years from now.
Just hoping I’ll still be alive in 20 years …
pajaro
@bbleh:
Schatz and Warren could refuse to give unanimous consent, and slow things down. They haven’t. Neither has Bernie, who, with Warren, is one of the only two Senators with an actual national platform, having run for President.
Van Hollen, one of my two Senators, hasn’t been quiet. Even Durbin has been in the press repeatedly concerning Kash Patel’s nomination.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: I think that is something that is very cynical and ugly that we tell ourselves that is not true.
I do not blame Omnes for bolting this joint.
Ohio Mom
@bbleh: Thank you for that dose of realistic optimism. You are right, there’s always that 27%, it’s written into life’s bell curve. We can get past this even with them.
The timeline of 20 years though — we trend old here in Balloon Juiceland. A lot of us aren’t going to see that promised land.
New Deal democrat
@frog:
Put more succinctly: the 1789 Constitution (as amended) is *never* going to recover from this. Yes, the civil rights losses might be reversed, but the *structure* of government, in which three co-equal branches of government check one another, as described in the existing Constitution, is gone. It is a piece of paper, nothing more.
To be more particular, the (2nd?) American Republic will have to be more like a parliamentary system, with a weaker Presidency and Supreme Court.
Sure Lurkalot
In example number infinity that all billionaires are policy failures, here’s allegedly one of the “good” ones:
Goal zero education is pretty much what got us here, Markie.
Elizabelle
@Sure Lurkalot: Um. How do you evaluate the results you are getting?
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: What is cynical and not true?
Viva BrisVegas
What we are seeing is the “shock and awe” portion of the Project 2025 strategy. Musk/Trump will spend six months breaking the Federal government and then step back and let things go quiet on that front.
Then they will make their move to get what they really, really want, four trillion in tax cuts passed before the midterm elections. The damage they inflicted on government will be the “proof” that they have balanced the books enough to pay for the tax cuts.
Most of what Trump has been doing, from tariffs to Ukraine, have involved hovering up cash to justify billionaire tax cuts.
Republican congresscritters then go into the 2026 election cycle waving those tax cuts in voter’s faces. Going by the last Trump billionaire tax cuts, who gets what proportion of those cuts will be obfuscated as much as possible and completely fumbled by the MSM.
So billionaires get four billion dollars in tax cuts, Republicans get elected for another term, voters get scraps.
SuzieC
To The Washington post: I hope that you die, and your death will come soon.
I’m so glad I canceled my subscription.
satby
@Ohio Mom: in 20 years I’ll be 90, so yeah, if it takes 20 years I’ll likely not see it. And since I came to adulthood during the Nixon years, I can honestly say that Republicans blighted my entire adult life, so why expect my final years to be different.
Juju
@frog: if you are a convicted felon you can’t run.
Sure Lurkalot
@Elizabelle:
Trust the ghost in the machine that Mark Cuban has invested billions in.
cain
@Elizabelle:
Oh no.. did he leave ? That’s really unfortunate.
The Truffle
I am Gen X so I will hopefully still around for the inevitable backlash against this.
But I am taking a break. The doom and glooming is too much. Maybe Omnes had the right idea. Take care.
Baud
@Sure Lurkalot:
I’ve been learning to use LLMs to perform some menial time saving tasks. Also light coding. What I haven’t found yet is a decent spelling and grammar check.
Phylllis
@Elizabelle: Not a word about them on CBS evening news. We did get a 3-4 minute story on the origin of Washington’s birthday as a holiday and how it isn’t officially President’s Day, but it’s what everyone calls it.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: I don’t think people voted to be that badly worse off. Obviously, some people voted to lower their own taxes.
But for the culture warriors and ignoramuses out there — and we are way too heavy on that contingent to have a healthy society: they will indeed be worse off. Because they cannot comprehend how complicated social systems fit together, and the social compact, and when it comes crashing down, they will be surprised.
Much like the shock over Roe v. Wade.
How they will feel when they finally decide, prior to the ventilator — yes, I think I will take that Covid vaccine now. We have seen this in recent years.
Our society is too dumbed down, too caught up in entertainment and trivia, and too cynical.
WTFGhost
“Not at liberty…” is a *perfect* sort of expression for today. If they were *free*, we’d get an earful, but they are NOT AT LIBERTY.
kalakal
@schrodingers_cat:
Totally off- topic.
How was your trip to London? Did you go to Stonehenge?
Ohio Mom
@satby: We are about the same age, that is my feeling as well. Seems doubtful I’ll live to see this all far behind me.
On another note, I panic every time I hear someone talk about revamping the Constitution because I have no confidence that effort wouldn’t be sabotaged by the same people behind Project 2025.
The Truffle
@Viva BrisVegas: Except these are two narcissists and Musk could end up like Bannon because of Cheeto’s ego.
New Deal democrat
@The Truffle:
FWIW, I would have no problem with certain threads being devoted to optimistic approaches only, and others devoted to what fundamental changes some of us think need to be made.
frosty
@Elizabelle: Omnes bolted for good? I missed that – another big loss if so.
schrodingers_cat
@kalakal: Trip to London was awesome. I felt like I could live there. Didn’t go to Stonehenge. Weather was soggy and we thought London just offered more choices.
Juju
@The Truffle: Cheeto is getting old, tired and his dementia is getting worse. He really seems to be leaning on Musk.
jonas
@Elizabelle: Well, either they’re completely deluded idiots high on their own supply who think everyone will just love Emperor Muskrump and reward those who bow down to him, or somehow they’ve been informed on the down-low that there will be no need to worry about future electoral consequences for reasons that will be become evident in the near future.
Sure Lurkalot
@Baud: You have a degree or two. Cuban is advancing the idea that with zero education, a bit of curiosity, love of learning and his LLM model, you can outperform your peer who spent time and dollars learning a field.
I too remember having to read piles of paper for my job before documents were ubiquitously on a processor to allow searches, compare, etc. Still needed my education and training to make them sensible and lawful.
TBone
@Starfish (she/her): was that snark? Because this fucking guy
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Hassett
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Because people are incredible chickenshits at confronting narcissists. Go read about the Pitchbot says his experience of dealing with a narcissist at work. From personal experience from me having to deal with a narcissist in a stupid on line role playing I am sure the Senate both R and D are being told by plenty of their voters how can you be so mean to Trump, while screaming at them in the same breath they need to stop Trump.
A Ghost to Most
We can’t recover until we beat the fascists into the dirt. Some assembly required.
Elizabelle
@frosty: I do not know that Omnes did bolt for good. It did seem he was getting sick of some of the vibe and experiences here.
Juju
@frosty: I missed that too. I just figured he was taking a break.
Juju
@schrodingers_cat: I envy your trip. I’m glad you had such a nice time.
Soprano2
@Ohio Mom: It’s being lied to as opposed to ignoring things. I think a lot of people project things onto FFOTUS just like they did with Obama.
I’ve got a FB friend who says this is an audit. I say no, audits take months and knowledgeable people. These guys don’t understand Cobol.
jonas
@Soprano2: I don’t even think it was that well thought-out. It was just eggs cost too much ‘n shit vibes, so wev, let’s let that wacky Trump give it a shot again. He’s like, a rich guy, or something, right? They don’t even remember what Covid was. 40% of voters didn’t even vote. We’re reaping the consequences of a massively ignorant, massively checked-out citizenry. If they even noticed they’ve been totally fleeced or immiserated (apart from high egg and gas prices) it will be a miracle (“Social Security? Isn’t that like a rent-a-cop firm or something?”)
Starfish (she/her)
@Sure Lurkalot: If only he spent more time reading Ed Zitron and less time reading AI generated nonsense.
Jay
So this is the OpEd in the National Post, our Reich Wing Newspaper.
The author is Vice-Admiral (Ret’d) Mark A. G. Norman, CMM, CD (born 1963 or 1964) is a retired Royal Canadian Navy officer. He took up the post of Vice Chief of the Defence Staff of Canada on August 5, 2016.
To sum up the OpEd, “Canada must cut all ties to the US forever”.
Sister Golden Bear
@Soprano2: If it was an audit they would’ve sent in accountants, not
hackersscript kiddies.Baud
@Sister Golden Bear:
The AI is the accountant.
Kayla Rudbek
@Baud: I won’t touch using AI/LLMs to do my work – they are
1) plagiarism/copyright theft and
2) provide unreliable results, and
3) there is also no proprietary information protection for your client’s data once you upload something into generative AI.
4) Hallucinations citing fake legal cases to the judge is a damn good way to get yourself sanctioned and/or disbarred.
Does AI have a place? To analyze large data sets (particularly X-rays, mammograms, food scanning to identify type and portions, etc.) yes, to be used in law, journalism, fiction writing, absolutely not.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
I’ve never had a bad trip to UK. Wonderful place.
Baud
@Kayla Rudbek:
I wouldn’t rely on AI as a source for information.
Sure Lurkalot
@Jay: Excellent response to Trump’s “I want you white people.”
bluefoot
@Soprano2:
The fact of the matter is, they voted for FFOTUS to hurt people. They want to see people hurt and suffer. They want that. They enjoy that.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: I Could live there too, I love London.
Starfish (she/her)
@TBone: How much of the article did you read before you stopped at the first line? It was a good catch, but everyone in the Trump administration is going to be very stupid in some way.
I think that the article explaining how Trump’s approach to bird flu is different than Biden’s was interesting in explaining that there is an approach at all. It seems like they are going to try to vaccinate the chicks, but they have to hand vaccinate all the chicks which will be a huge pain in the butt.
They have spent so much money on destroying flocks!
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Yeah. I definitely would go back. London was awesome. And it was warmer than New England in January. Came back to bone chilling weather here and promptly feel sick. Only now I am feeling somewhat normal.
karen gail
At 70+ years old rather sure that change won’t come in my lifetime. Not sure what it would take to trigger a revolution, since that is what is needed; only instead of noble class it will be the 1% whose heads are likely to end up on chopping block. (One person I know belongs to group who is ready to build guillotines.)
When I was young and still in k-12; my great grandmother insisted that I learn basic homesteading skills she believed the day would come again when basic life skills, basic survival tools would be needed. As a child her father took their family into the “wilderness” of what was then part of Canada and later became Wisconsin. They were befriended by a local tribe and learned what was safe to eat and where to make a home. (She never said why the family left Canada nor why they left Ireland, but I know it was long before the US was more than group of colonies.)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
Can’t Canada and other allies try to do a campaign similar to what the Russians have done, attacking Trump and the GOP, undermining them through targeted propaganda?
cain
@Sure Lurkalot: you can also just watch YouTube.
But LLM doesn’t provide you a safe environment to make mistakes.
And LLMs at the moment are trust and verify because they are wrong most of the time
cain
@Soprano2:
I’m going to either Edinburgh or Dublin. Fuck the English.
schrodingers_cat
@Juju: Thanks!
Gin & Tonic
As is customary, the U.S. Attorney here (Rhode Island) tendered his resignation to the DOJ. He was appointed by Biden in 2021. But here’s the thing – he wrote to Trump and the AG on 7 Feb, saying that he was resigning effective at the end of this week (i.e. Feb 21.) Trump apparently said that’s not good enough, out now. So he resigned effective today, February 17, a Federal holiday.
Par for the course, I guess.
karen gail
@Starfish (she/her): I was reading up on bird flu and it has infected mostly factory farms; also many of the small family flocks of just a few birds aren’t being infected. One researcher tied the factory farms to the massive outbreak of avian flu because of the conditions that the birds live in.
cain
@Kayla Rudbek:
You do it locally. Download the LLM and then run a chat bot against it.
Training the AI how I’ll need to set up an AWS set up with a lot of Nvidia gpus to really teach it.
Sure Lurkalot
@Kayla Rudbek: I agree. Somewhat comparable to the dreaded math word problems in elementary school. You needed to learn the math to know whether your answer was in the ballpark.
Gin & Tonic
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Maybe they should bomb civilians, too, like the russians do.
Geminid
The Dropkick Murphys are doing a “Saint Patrick’s Day Tour.” It starts February 26 in Huntington, New York and will finish with four performances in Boston March 14-17.
In between they’ll play concerts in Washington, DC; Columbus, Ohio; Madison, Wisconsin (hear that Omnes?); Cincinnati, Ohio; Atlanta, Georgia; Augusta, Georgia; Lake Buena Vista, Florida;
Miami Beach, Florida; Clearwater, Florida; North Charleston, Florida; Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; and Uncasville, Connecticut. Oughta be good.
frosty
@Elizabelle: Good, I hope it’s just a break. I probably misread the previous comment.
John S.
@Sure Lurkalot:
Ken Martin, DNC Chair doesn’t agree that billionaires are policy failures.
sab
@Baud: Wow.
I have been driving humble Hondas for twenty years in NE Ohio with Hreat Lake effect snow and have never gotten stuck.
The snow that cybertruck is flailing around in looks like my back driveway today.
Starfish (she/her)
@karen gail: The article covered a lot of ground. They expected that egg prices will go up 20% this year but that there were some policy proposals by USDA that could help the situation. For example, propping up more small family farms could help control the costs. There was some stuff about import and export of eggs. We bring in some eggs from Canada, and there were some concerns that other countries would not want our chicken if our chicken was vaccinated.
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
ruZZia spends more a year than the US, the EU combined on disinfo than the US and the EU spend on defence, and then there are all the Vatnicks in the West willingly aiding the spread, and then there is Faux and The Dead Bird Site.
thetyee.ca/Analysis/2025/02/17/Canada-Other-Anti-Trump-Weapon-Fighting-Corruption/
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Gin & Tonic:
Where did I ever suggest that? How is that the same thing as what I actually said? All I want is for Trump and the GOP to be undermined and disrupted
kalakal
@schrodingers_cat:
Glad you liked it. London is a great place. If the weather was bad you made the right call on skipping Stonehenge, it would have been miserable. Pleased to hear you had a good trip
Matt McIrvin
@Starfish (she/her): What, vaccinating chicks? Won’t it work better to give them all horse dewormer?
Jay
Your Bird Flu Tsar.
jefftiedrich.com/p/team-donny-bird-flus-no-biggie-because
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
Thanks for that article, it has a lot of good options for Canada
raven
You don’t drain a pool when there is poop in it.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
JFC, all they do is deflect and blame Biden, Dems, etc. It’s so pathetic
Harrison Wesley
I walked by a car in the development next to mine that had two bumper stickers, one praising Trump as he ‘saves us again’ and the other urging people to adopt homeless animals. I’d like to meet the owner.
Jackie
@schrodingers_cat:
And now they’re getting banned if they criticize the FFOTUS.
Serves them right. The MSM will soon be maga media.
MagdaInBlack
@Jay: So..a concept of a concept of a plan involving smarter perimeters….and stuff.
I feel reassured now.
Jay
@Matt McIrvin:
You forgot the end results. millions and millions of autistic chickens, if they go the vaxx route, but rural broadband will be lit.
Jay
@MagdaInBlack:
We used to call them fences,……………….
bbleh
@sab: but it has such a BIG … wiper!
Marc
Twas a long time ago, but my first experience with convolutional neural networks, which were the ancestors of the current LLMs, was for a high school project in 1970. At that point, the concept was already 30 years old. I attempted to recognize characters drawn into a 16×16 matrix, and it actually sort of worked. By the 80s, the big AI thing was “expert systems”, which were based on rules which you analyzed using backward/forward chaining. By the 90s, it was clear that technique couldn’t be used to provide true “intelligence”, but backward/forward rule chaining became just another programmers tool. I used it to solve a number of problems that would have been difficult otherwise.
I also don’t use LLMs for their intended purpose, they are fundamentally plagiarism machines, plus one wastes a lot of time proofreading or trying to figure out why a piece of code one of these things spews out doesn’t work, it easier just to write it myself. What I have found, though, is that training a set of tiny models to perform specific tasks, then another small model to determine which of the smaller models to use (or reject), works for a lot of difficult programming problems. Our kid uses generative AI in a similar fashion, and it works reasonably well. Don’t believe the hype, but do steal the technology.
Geminid
This story appeared in the Washington Examiner a couple days ago:
Gin & Tonic
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): You suggested adopting russian tactics. One of the reasons I like Canada, Britain and Germany is because they are *not* russia.
New Deal democrat
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
This is similar to an article I read a week or two ago that said other countries shouldn’t target the US generally with tariffs, but rather surgically focus on Trump, his family, and his cronies and enablers.
Canada alone couldn’t inflict enough pain, but Canada + Mexico and Latin America + the UK + the EU absolutely could.
Sure Lurkalot
@John S.:
Maybe Ken should focus on decisions like Citizens United and its precedents that have undermined our democracy and work on hampering billionaires from buying elections and threatening legislators. Idolatry of wealth hoarders, not so much.
acronym
@dww44: I keep asking myself what an effective opposition should look like, and who should lead it. More questions than answers at this time. But I am sick of Drumpfian adjacent snake anuses spewing what passes for news these days.
I don’t think Ken Martin is the dude.
bbleh
@karen gail: One person I know belongs to group who is ready to build guillotines.
Now, see, I think that is just TOTALLY wrong. I mean, the whole point of guillotines was to make execution as quick and painless as possible, right? Cuz at the time many were being done with axes and swords and so on, and a lotta the executioners weren’t exactly skilled, and it sometimes took a long time to, ah, execute completely. Guillotine was a doctor, remember.
Not to say that what he did was wrong in general, quite the contrary. But in the present case, I’m thinking this kind of ee-leetist university-educated know-it-all method might just not be appropriate, y’know I’m sayin’? I mean, ain’t nothin’ wrong with good old-fashioned frontier methods, right? Good enough for my great-grandpappy, oughta be good enough for me!
Forget them Frenchified gill-o-whatevers! I say, sharpen yer good ol’ axe and we’ll have a proper whackin’. And if it takes a couple chops — or even more — well, I gotta case o’ beer right here.
Kayla Rudbek
@New Deal democrat: I would seriously look into canceling Trump’s trademarks if I were Canada/Mexico/China/etc.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Gin & Tonic:
I mean, I think there’s a world of difference between bombing civilians and targeted propaganda (not disinfo) that undermines Trump and company
Jay
@New Deal democrat:
U.S. goods imports from Canada in 2024 totaled $412.7 billion.
In lumber alone, Dolt 47’s threatened tariffs will increase the cost of a house in the US by 55%.
ALCAN in Kitimat is the sole global supplier of specialty aluminum alloys, that are critical in missiles, rockets, satellites and aircraft manufacture. ALCAN has already cancelled all US contracts and found other buyers in the EU and China.
And the whole reason your billionaires want to go to space is because guillotine’s require gravity to work.
dnfree
@Ohio Mom: Exactly. The right-wing people I know think this is a very selective and careful process, not mass firings.
Starfish (she/her)
@Matt McIrvin: I know, it was shocking that horse dewormer wasn’t the preferred solution under the Trump administration!
dnfree
@Juju: I disagree that convicted felons should not be able to run. With a corrupt judiciary, it might be easy to get a political rival convicted. I didn’t used to think this way.
Melancholy Jaques
@cain:
I’m planning a trip to the UK to celebrate my retirement & turning 70 & not having any more fucks left to give.
NotoriousJRT
“This country is not going to recover in my lifetime.”
I concluded this after the SCOTUS ruling on immunity / impunity. But, I am old and feeling older every damn day.
Tazj
@Melancholy Jaques: I think you’re right, they approve most if not all of this. The only Republican Senator I’ve heard complain about anything is Lisa Murkowski, although there may be others.
Sometimes I take a look at the social media of conservative law professors to see what they think about things. They all seem to see the overturning of Humphrey’s Executor or the 14th Amendment is worth burning the country to the ground. I don’t know why they wouldn’t worry about the firing of security officials dealing with the country’s nuclear weapons. They seem to be fine with it. They think that Musk is a genius and accountable to the president and that’s preferable to unelected government administrators and judges.
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
The FTFNYT won’t even print an anti-Musk ad, weeks after it printed a Musk attack and lies ad.
How would anybody’s “propaganda” penetrate the Musk/Faux/Vatnick bubble?
Jackie
@Juju:
Bought and paid for. Musk is president for all intents and purposes.
prostratedragon
@dnfree: Hence the lack of requirement. I kind of agree, but the exercise of making a democratic government that can protect itself is bound to run into some contradictions somewhere. Maybe instead of trusting the electorate to reject felonious candidates we should try trusting the multilayered legal system to avoid political convictions. That might not prove flawless either, but I don’t think being President or any other high office is a right on the order of the Bill of Rights and I don’t think that only one person at most moments is the candidate for the day.
Jay
@Tazj:
Funny thing, DOGE rescinded the DOE firings once they realized these are the people who build and maintain the US’s Nuclear Weapons.
Now they are begging other DOE staff for any contact info for the fired/not fired employees, because the DOGE incels wiped their employee files and killed their .gov accounts, and can’t contact them to let them no that they are no longer fired.
Amongst the shitcanned employees were the entire team who’s 1 Job, only job, is to make sure Ukraine isn’t making nuclear weapons.
Jackie
@A Ghost to Most:
Fixed.
Jay
@Jackie:
Some rapidly unscheduled disassembly is required.
John S.
@Sure Lurkalot:
I’m with you. With what is happening right now, not running a strong populist campaign to destroy the broligarchy would be political malpractice.
The Truffle
@Juju: For now. He still has an ego. I predict Musk will be gone within a year.
Nettoyeur
@Ohio Mom: Here’s what might change things. Killing some people they now in obvioiusly unnecessary accidents or medical treatment errors or shortages. Raising gas prices to $4-6 per gallon (depending on location). Eggs for a dollar a piece. Triple chicken prices and kill off the Costco cheap broiled chicken. Car prices up 20%, with consequent factory closings and mass job losses.. Fail to control a plague. Foreclosures in red states. A Russian attack on Western Europe, probably in the Baltics or Poland.
cain
@Jay: He loses power when something catastrophic happens like starting a war and losing. You can’t blame anyone but Elon for starting a fight and losing. Not easy to gaslight especially if people are dead – eg dead soldiers.
Or a financial meltdown where oligarchs have lost a lot of money and start of a great depression.
Funnily enough we are so stupid that we embraced fascism and dictatorship during low unemployment and general prosperity compared to other countries. At least in Germany, the economic hardship was far worse and one could understand why you’d embrace that shit. But damn.. propaganda is very strong here, plus the country is now turned into a rabid dog not sure who it will bite.
Bupalos
people who pretend they can predict the future are really just emoting about the past.
”recover’” to when, exactly? 2020? 2010? 2000?
pick the specific year you mean you’re hoping to recover to in the next couple decades, and from different perspectives I can shoot it down.
we’re facing a challenge. We’ve never had more daunting ones and never been in a better position to face them.
pretty much like always.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
How do you know it wouldn’t?
lamh47
Welp…after speaking to my boss which for me was the nail in the coffin of all this, I spent the rest of the day making travel plans.
this was BEFORE the damn plane flipped over in Canada, but as I said below, there is not much else ways for me to travel right now without any money.
I literally booked 2 different trips for less than $5.60!
Trip 1) SFO to NOLA…I really need this. It’s hard enough being here alone when I at least got work…but without the day to day, I don’t need to be sitting here stewing in depression when I can at the very least still look for work online and be held in the bosom of my family.
Total price: $5.60 (thx to a United travel credit, and 15k in United airline miles). For this portion all I need is a flight. I can stay with my mom and get around w/without a car. It will be the middle of mardi gras anyway, so a car might not even be worth it and SAVES me money. Let my family drive me round…my nephew always wants gas money anyway!
Trip 2)DFW…this is a side trip (i feel the need to visit my baby sister, she’s the religious one in Texas, and I need her mainline to Jesus…LOL. Also see my nieces and nephews who I haven’t seen since before Thanksgiving) that I will only take if my budget isn’t strained. I will know by at least the middle of this week whether I’ll be getting one final paycheck plus a possible refund of some of the retirement funds I put up since I didn’t make a full year. If my money is funny, I won’t even go. Total price: $56 (thx to a 36k airline miles and a $125 credit). This tirp is only if I can fit it in the budget…again I’ll know by Wednesday if I can.
As for the plan rides…I’m going to have to let go and let God handle it (as my mom would say)..Same as with my job situation
cain
@Nettoyeur: If Russia attacks anyone else the US will not help. They will ask for a pro-quid-pro. But also, we will not be effective militarily because Trump would have replaced his generals with yes-men and they will just do what they are told and also be fired when they fail at whatever he asks them to do.
There will be no competency in anything this country will do from the federal govt side. Nobody is going to want us for an ally.
FDRLincoln
Grocery report: can of soup that was 1.99 last week is now 2.50. Also price increases on meat, cereal and other staple products, although not as extreme as the soup jump. Didn’t bother to check eggs.
Be interesting to see if these sudden price increases hold.
Bupalos
@Nettoyeur: is the assumption here that when people face what they (ridiculously) see as unendurable hardships, they’ll turn to the Democrats??
Read some history. If Musk precipitates a real crash that wrecks people’s lives… the contest will be different, but we don’t just win because that happened.
in fact, as people get stupider and more desperate, we’ll be at a disadvantage.
bbleh
@Juju: @Jackie: Concur re the progressing dementia, but I think the Orange Guy mostly just … doesn’t care. He wants immunity, he wants revenge, he wants money, and he wants the ceremony and the position. The rest … he doesn’t care about. He never did, not even the first time around. And Elon somehow managed to weasel in and convince him he’d handle it.
The Project 2025 guys must be pissed. And the funny (not funny) part about that is, they’re competent authoritarian sociopaths. Elon is almost as incompetent a manager as the Orange Guy.
Sigh. If he weren’t wrecking important stuff and stealing data that will fk up people’s lives for decades, I’d be happy to sit back and watch them drag each other down. Unfortunately …
Bupalos
Graphic designer by trade and I’m seeing a perfect square inhabited by verlag black
FUCK
ELON
MUSK
With proper leading that’s a perfect square.
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Facts and truth don’t even dent the bubble.
The FTFNYT won’t even run a “truth ad” because it will offend Musk, do you really think a CBC Documentary on US reliance on Canadian oil and gas would ever be run on Faux or Sinclair?
The US is buried in ruZZian propaganda, and it’s not going to change.
Gvg
@Sure Lurkalot: Are we sure that is a real Cuban quote? It could be, but there is a lot of fake stuff out there right now and I have been caught believing quotes recently that were not true or were so edited, that what I read was a lie.
I don’t know much about Cuban, so it’s easy to believe something, then I stopped to think about how easy….
this is something that will apply to others even if Cuban is this foolish. And the discussion below about why, is useful to me, in case I have to talk to someone about the uses of expert training again…
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Bupalos:
I mean, who else are they are going to blame? Trump and Musk are in charge and such a hypothetical crash happened on their watch.
I don’t think it should be taken for granted and real effort needs to be taken to persuade people, but that goes without saying
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
That’s doomerism.
And I was thinking more along the lines of social media manipulation
Bupalos
sorry what? Pissed that their insane blueprint of destruction is being rote followed to a T?
Can you elaborate?
Jay
@lamh47:
Best wishes going out for you.
Maybe check out jobs in Canada, all forms of healthcare are understaffed.
JustRuss
Remind me again, what happens to democracy in darkness?
Bupalos
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Here’s the reality of this dynamic, first discovered by Socrates: when people get hurt, they’ll become worse.
Our definition of who “deserves blame” is dependent on people making a good assessments of that, which becomes less and less likely as the people you rely on to make that assessment are harmed.
There is close to zero opacity here. If people could correctly assess who was to blame, we wouldn’t be here talking about this now.
And that problem will get worse.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Bupalos:
The president and his party are always blamed when things go wrong. I see no reason for this to change in the near future. These people are not invincible
Bupalos
@JustRuss:
That’s actually people telling you they’re on your side but aren’t willing to risk it.
what are you willing to risk?
JoeyJoeJoe
@Geminid: I’ve got my ticket for the DC show already
The Truffle
@John S.: what candidate would that be?
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Have you seen US “Social Media”?
Even Nextdoor is vile and swamped.
bbleh
@Bupalos: that Musk is running a lot of the show, getting all the publicity, and probably keeping all the data he’s stealing for himself.
They’re certainly getting a lot of what they wanted, but even if the boat’s going in their preferred direction, I think they were assuming they’d be standing behind the Orange Guy while he steered, serving as navigator, and pretty much running the show from behind. I don’t think they expected some (other) drug-addled man-child at the wheel.
JoeyJoeJoe
@lamh47: This may be an obvious recommendations, but for New Orleans, I recommend the jazz brunch at Court of Two Sisters. I had my first crawdad there; it took multiple staff to explain, to me, how to open them
Gvg
@Jay: They ought to make it a policy not to wipe the files when they fire people. I mean who the heck does that anyway? What if they found out the person was really doing something wrong? What if the person got rehired later, pretending to be a new employee totally loyal to trump but actually out for revenge? You don’t wipe records. Suspend government/company emails and access, sure, but other contact info get kept. Did he do that with Twitter? And not learn from it? What an idiot.
bbleh
@Bupalos: aw, it’s just about running an ad. I’d say it means “we were told specifically that if we say anything about Bezos spiking it we’ll be fired.”
Quinerly
WH says in court docs that Musk NOT in charge of DOGE. Politico reporting:
Elon Musk is not the leader of DOGE — the mysterious Trump administration operation overseeing an effort to break and remake the federal bureaucracy. In fact, he’s not even technically part of it at all, the White House said in court papers Monday night.
In a three-page declaration, a top White House personnel official revealed that Musk’s title is “senior adviser to the president,” a role in which he has “no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself.”
That explanation, provided to a federal court by Joshua Fisher, the director of the White House’s Office of Administration, seems to directly contradict the way President Donald Trump and Musk have spoken publicly about the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, widely seen as a Musk-driven project to shrink and dismantle key aspects of the federal government.
The sworn statement instead deepens the questions surrounding DOGE. Fisher confirmed that Musk is not the official administrator of the office, which was established by Trump as an office in the Executive Office of the President. But Fisher did not indicate who the administrator actually is.
politico.com/news/2025/02/17/doge-administrator-elon-musk-00204639
Gvg
@lamh47: I am sorry. You worked so hard for that job.
Bupalos
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): This administration is very likely to be ended via unpopularity within the constitutionally suggested 3.8 years it has left.
What we’re all likely to whistle past is that the 80 year old technocratic centrist regime has been irreparably broken and that we’re at the front end of a power vacuum, that we’re insanely assessing as something Trump did. He didn’t. We watched it implode as we cited scripture: “The arc of history shall Bend towards justice…the free market so decrees”
trump strolled into a vacuum. When he’s gone, the vacuum is likely to intensify, and we’re unlikely to see an opponent as monumentally incompetent as Trump again.
Bupalos
@bbleh: right. Your allies told you they are not at liberty to meaningfully object.
As most of us likely would do.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Bupalos:
There’s also no apparent successor that has his cult appeal either. For the most part, whenever Trump himself hasn’t been on the ballot, Republicans have underperformed
And how exactly is rightly blaming Trump (and Musk, as well as 40 years of bad neoliberal policy) “insane”?
CaseyL
I remember saying the same thing during W’s admin – that we would not recover for decades – and I see the current shitfest as accelerating the downward curve that came out of the W years.
W gave us – gave the world, really – the Iraq War that destabilized the entire region. Those ripple effects are still… rippling.
W also gave us the Great Recession, during which untold hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes and some lost *everything.* The losses (and the fact that no bankster went to prison for what they did) did more than the Iraq War to disgust and alienate people from “establishment politics.”
The first Trump term made me wonder if the Obama years were an anomaly, that the US was falling apart and the best anyone could do was delay the inevitable. Biden’s strong and successful policies for uplifting the middle class gave me some hope – but then the US put Trump back in the White House. So much for that.
So… I agree with John to the extent that we will not recover from this in our lifetime. But the damage goes back a lot further than Trump.
Gvg
@bbleh: I don’t know that the project 2025 guys are competent. Better than Trumps last crew maybe, but that isn’t proved. They have stewed in their own bubble for a long time and believe their own propaganda so they start at a disadvantage of ignoring a lot of facts. I do not think this is going to work out for them. They are wrecking things, but they aren’t going to stay in control. Don’t think trump or Elon or Theil will either, but that doesn’t mean we win. Populist crowds are going to get mad but they aren’t that smart about who they are mad at. Right now, I just don’t want to end up in an actual war with Canada or Mexico. We’d be in violation of international law then and breaking our own treaties.
Kayla Rudbek
I can’t recall which thread here had the discussion about the right wing in Silicon Valley, but here’s someone commenting on Charles Stross’ blog that sums it up
Apologia – Charlie’s Diary
cain
@Gvg: A 25 year old kid who has no experience.
John S.
@Quinerly:
They are playing three card monte with Musk. Follow the Joker…
cain
Yet, still voted back into congress and the presidency. Like those times never happened. This is the power of white supremacy.
Bupalos
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Blaming Musk is a little closer to the mark. Because allowing the power of the economy to flow to fewer and fewer nodes has completely predictable results, both as far as destabilization and corruption.
Musk is such a node.
Trump is just a pure human accident. He was hanging around wishing to be president 40 years ago. He just sat there and the culture found him. A total grasping amoral asshole and maimed husk of a person who is nonetheless still recognizably VERY human and can push human buttons. Say goodbye to that I think. Get ready for something significantly emptier.
Quinerly
@John S.:
As a retired attorney, I amazed by all of these corrupt and unethical attys signing off on these various pleadings. I want to start reading about bar complaints.
mrmoshpotato
It’s 4 degrees F in Chicago. 🤪
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@mrmoshpotato:
11 here. Supposed to drop down to 7. The high tomorrow will be only 17. It’s been a very cold January and now February in the US
Kayla Rudbek
@Quinerly: I want to see the bar complaints, the Rule 11 sanctions, and the disbarment proceedings.
bbleh
@Gvg: I HOPE it’s not going to work out for them. The problem I see is, I think their GENERAL idea is like Norquist’s shrink-it-then-drown-it-in-the-bathtub, so even a chaotic collapse will lead toward their preferred end. I think they’re pissed about Musk’s role, and possibly about his access to data they’d prefer to monetize, but not about the way things are going generally.
But they’re still pretty competent in many ways. They understand that “people is policy,” and they have been ruthless in placing people who think as they do in managerial positions at levels far below the usual for an incoming administration. They’ve pretty much completely circumvented the “problem” the first administration had with Republicans who were responsible about governance rather than being zealous ideologues. A lot of the rule-making AND legislative initiatives of the current (remember, barely one-month-old!) administration are of their making.
I’m all for a collapse at this point. Better widespread dysfunction (and the political blowback from it!) than continued sociopathic malfeasance. (This is also why the Lord deciding to call his Chosen One home might actually be a good thing — the whole clown-circus would implode in an orgy of infighting and looting.)
Honestly hard to believe we’ve got to this level of parsing among evildoing.
CaseyL
@cain:
I didn’t say that the widespread disillusionment, disgust and alienation were resulting in voters making “good” decisions. Demonstrably, they are not.
I’m just saying the damage that we will never recover from started long before Trump.
danielx
@Viva BrisVegas:
Then Felonious Orange can REALLY get started on the whole revenge/repression thing. Once he’s replaced resigned/fired federal law enforcement officials with a sufficient number of sycophants and brutes who will do whatever he says to do, that’s when to really become afraid.
Although the prospect of Musk and his minions having access to Social Security and IRS data plus social media data doesn’t give me warm fuzzies either. Oh, you posted something unkind to King Musk on social media and somehow your Social Security deposit is being held up? And the local Social Security office at which you formerly could have gotten face to face help has been closed? Sucks to be you, don’t it – why don’t you try your local Republican congressman for help, I’m sure his constituent aid office will get right on that.
Sounds paranoid, but a month ago I wouldn’t have believed a lot of what’s happened in the last four weeks.
danielx
Go quiet? It would be nice to think so, but by that time the revenge tour will be settling into full swing. Any federal law enforcement agent possessed of any integrity or silly qualms about due process and niceties like oaths of office will have been forced out by then. If Trump directs his minions to arrest people without warrants, probably cause or charges, who is going to say no?
And elections….oh yeah, elections. Does anyone seriously think these people would hesitate about committing mass violations of election laws, federal and state? Why wouldn’t they if they’re not going to held to account – ever? People like Russ Vought don’t give a shit about parliamentary democracy.
Spanky
Anyone catch this yet?
Aside from WaPo’s disgusting spin on this breakout, I’m imagining the blowback when 70 million people realize they’ve been cheated out of their earned benefits.
Gonna be a lot of people coming to DC to make their displeasure known. I’d better clean the guest bathroom.
ETA BYOTP
Balconesfault
@schrodingers_cat:
No Dem but Bernie could ever satisfy them. They’re even down on AOC now
Gloria DryGarden
@New Deal democrat: I like both of your ides.
seaboogie
@Elizabelle: I don’t think that the Democrats are scared. More like they are used to playing by the rules and pointing out hypocrisy is our version of a war of words. And republicans are playing Calvinball in the pursuit of unstoppable and endless power. Republicans are absolutely ruthless, and supported by Oligarchs. And Democrats are encumbered by ruth and reason.
Sure Lurkalot
@Gvg: Here’s a link to Cuban’s post on BlueSky. He’s added other thoughts since.
I don’t think Cuban is evil like Thiel, Musk or Zuck. He’s invested in this technology and appears to believe it can mimic or surpass years of training and expertise. Maybe someday it will but we can still ask if we want it to. Many used to naively think the internet would only make people smarter and social media would connect us.
bsky.app/profile/mcuban.bsky.social/post/3lifd5rbnkk2k
Seanly
I logged into mine & my wife’s Social Security accounts and got a PDF of our SS statements as well as printed the full earning reports. We’ve both been working since the mid-80’s and no way am I letting some coke-addled billionaire jackass steal my benefits. I saw MTG said Elon’s rich so why would he steal your grandma’s SS and my response is I don’t know because he wasn’t vetted by Congress and he’s doing WTF-ever he wants.
EDIT: I realize that if Elon comes out tomorrow and says “whoops we deleted the entire Social Security database so no one gets any payments every again” we are just as screwed as everyone else. But maybe when the Truth & Reconcillitation hearings adjudicate things, a PDF of our earnings would be helpful.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Seanly:
Because for the uber rich like Musk, there’s no such thing as “enough” when it comes to wealth. They always want more money.
Plus, all the college-aged dipshit script kiddies he has working for him are for sure aren’t rich
Seanly
@Sure Lurkalot:
No. At least not in my field. We have to use formulas and knowledge of national and state (even local) bridge codes & standards plus judgment and experience to design a bridge. Asking AI to help you design the bridge is just going to result in a lot of garbage and incorrect data. There are people with bachelors and masters of civil engineering who can’t cut it. I’m not saying I’m some kind of magician – but it’s not easy either.
karen gail
@bbleh: When you mentioned using an axe it reminded me of butchering poultry; sharpen up that axe or hatchet, lay that bird on stump and give it a good hard whack! Though for sheep, goats and hogs we would hang them by hind legs and it would make them go numb once they stopped struggling then you took sharp knife and slit throats.
I was once told that one should butcher “long hog” the same way, think would need some whisky rather than beer.
sab
@Balconesfault:
@schrodingers_cat:
Can we please stop these Bernie battles? They are very 2016 and completely irrelevant to what is happening now.
There may be a history, but Republicans and a senile demented NYC real estate crook have taken over most of our government, and brought in a South African billionaire (that got that rich from US government contracts) and his juvenile delinquent adolescent coders to take over most of our computers, and steal the data and damage or destroy the government’s versions. And fire all our key workers, while the actual president sits drooling in his Florida estate/ccountry club.
This is so far beyond whatever Bernie did or said and how others reacted or failed to react.
The whole government is being imploded and you two are still bickering about a primary election eight years ago?
Jay
@sab:
Seconded.
sab
@Seanly: We probably should all do that ( print out Social Security earnings reports) pronto. By next week it may be too late.
I am an accountant and thus by nature and training a packrat for reports, but I have moved a lot and probably missed some paperwork.
Two years ago during Covid when I was fighting with the nursing home caring for my dad, and I lost or ignored all stock reports from the bank trust department that was supposedly following my dad’s investments. A couple of companies merged and did stock splits and buybacks. Now we have no idea what the basis of the three stocks are. The bank says that’s my problem. I say their predecessor did all that, why didn’t you? I was just trying to keep Dad alive. They say not their job.
Whole point: do not ever allow a lapse in documentation. It will come back to bite you.
sab
@sab: Well phuck. I was planning to clean out file drawers with tax returns back to the 1970s, with documentation backup.
I was thinking why do I have this? The IRS only looks back six years. Throw it out. Now I realize that backs up my Social Security record, all those W-2s and Schedule Cs back to 1970s.
ETA My Social Security deposit is due Wednesday. First time wondering if it will appear
ETA I got married twice in my life. My name has changed, so multiple names to one Social Security number. Took me months to unconfuse Vanguard which actually meant well and was trying to be secure.
DOGE Muskscrats not so much. Does this mean I am screwed on Social Security, like married women trying to vote in Texas next election?
sab
Very OT: Busy this morning. Had things to do. Thought the cats would appreciate a change of pace. Gave everyone a lump of deli meat turkey. Thought they would like it.
Dobby, who has nearly starved at some points in his life, was thrilled and scarfed it down.
Sadie is as persnickety about her food as the average cocker spaniel (i.e. not at all, she will eat anything) was voracious.
Every other cat wandered the house all day begging or looking stressed (they do have endless dry cat food.)
Fed them all again at dinnertime, instead of just the usual breakfast. Most of the turkey was gone.
You cannot actually please cats. They always have concerns to express. And they lie like rugs.
WTFGhost
I can’t help but think Trump talked to Putin, and Putin said “look, if we seize some territory, *you* can seize some territory. You could take Canada, or Greenland for example. Or declare you want the Panama Canal back from Panama.”
(I imagine them tearing out all the locks and hardware and sending them, postage due, to Trump. AFTER I remember Bugs Bunny going “I got ’em! I got ’em!” after stealing the “locks” (giant padlocks) from the canal. (See, *we* had some funny cartoons, too, Spongebob-fans.))
It’s like, “EU, UK, Ukraine, y’all should form a non-US based NATO, with some equitable split in equipment or Trump will tantrum and poop his pants (parody – who’d *believe* that?), maybe even some modest payment for “back dues””
And, it’s also like, “do the same thing but… make it a BLUFF.” Except we know Trump would withdraw from NATO in a NY minute.
The US can’t ever be trusted. Hell, at least we used to betray the Kurds after furrowing our brows seriously, and making the grim determination to do so. Trump betrayed them over an effing *phone call*. I mean, it’s not *much* worse in *effect*, but god damn it, at least the betrayal had some *plausible deniability*, you see?
Meh. In a mood.
sab
@sab: Or if you accept they are just nature’s little innocents, then they are endlessly confused and not very bright. I prefer to think they are just charming little manipulators.
In the wild they lie under bushes pretending to be asleep, to nab the occassional stupid bird or chipmunk. Why not lie to humans, pretending hunger when there is food?
sab
@WTFGhost: At the state Trump is in, I have a hard time thinking about him talking long range to anyone about anything.
Stephen Miller or Elon Musk or others to Putin I almost absolutely believe.
WTFGhost
@sab: I saw one cat person say “cats *do* know how to get your attention, and will do so,” and honestly, it was like a light bulb went off, because I realized “yes, that fits *so* many stories I’ve heard!”
Knowing that they will push, and push, and push, until they get attention means you can sometimes interrupt it with a sharp, no-playing “no!” or, of course, with a quick cuddle if you have the time and resources.
(Never had children. If I can’t handle a little mewmew kitty, how would I handle a *child*? I’m not kidding about “time and resources” to cuddle a kitty!))
Trying to ignore it will just cause them to up their game, assuming the cat person was right.
Gloria DryGarden
im relishing this. My cat was a long time member of the “starving cats society”.
It was Never enough, you haven’t fed me, oh please..
Gloria DryGarden
@WTFGhost: im still sore about the Kurds. I was deeply distressed when that all unfolded.
sab
@WTFGhost: I am a long time stepmother. I married a guy with three angry teenagers.
I decided I couldn’t force us to love each other. So I took my approach to new cats. Reach out and they will hiss and maybe bite. Ignore and they will become curious about you.
Give them time. Give them reason to trust you. Let them decide when it’s time.
Worked for cats. Worked for kids.
Both still will always have food issues.
prostratedragon
derek guy on the positive effects the U.S. government has had on clothing. For instance clothing was one of many areas where consumer education was promoted in various ways by the government, through the Ag Department.
Threadeeader
opiejeanne
@dww44: I’m so upset by it all that I can hardly look at the news, and I almost can’t be here any more. I’m not coping well.
Citizen Alan
@Elizabelle: There are two kinds of Republicans: aggressively evil Republicans and gutless coward Republicans who are afraid of the aggressively evil Republicans.
opiejeanne
@sab: We got our SS on Wednesday last week, but next month may be different.
I’m trying to decide if there’s a way to protect ourselves wrt the Musk idiots getting their paws on everyone’s financial info. I mean, I’ve locked our credit with all three credit companies but I’m worried that there’s something more I need to do to protect our CU banking and savings accounts. I think our stocks and bonds are safe for now, but I need to move that account to another branch because the new guy who replaced our very competent agent is an idiot who doesn’t understand “NO, DO NOT PESTER US ABOUT OTHER INVESTMENTS YOU THINK WOULD BE COOL THAT WE COULD MOVE OUR MONEY TO. EVER.”
sab
@Gloria DryGarden: They haven’t other options but trusting us twice didn’t work. Pretty much everyone elses’s experience with trusting us ( don’t.)
It would work if we went out in the world as a country, but we go out in the world as two parties competing for our govenment. That doesn’t work. Weakens us abroad.
To be clear there is no both sides here. Democrats end party conflict at the border, and try to be bipartisan. Republicans are all on the take, and will take from anyone from any country. Partisanship is their selling point to foreign interests.
Citizen Alan
@satby: I was born in August of 1969, seven months into Tricky Dick’s first term. There has never been one moment of my life in which the GOP wasn’t trying to destroy America.
sab
@opiejeanne: I wish I had useful advice but I don’t. Probably don’t buy gold ( seems very scammy and kicks off no income.)
Citizen Alan
@Ohio Mom: I am nearly certain that a Constitutional Convention would end with the repeal of Amendments 13-15 and Amendment 19, the reinstitution of slavery, and the establishment of Christianity as the official state religion with legalized discrimination against non-Christians (and even against unpopular, i.e. liberal Christian denominations).
Citizen Alan
@Harrison Wesley: I wouldn’t. I suspect screaming obscenities at a stranger in a parking lot wouldn’t be good for either my blood pressure or my career.
Martin
@Citizen Alan: A constitutional convention will result in more than one country – anywhere from 2-50.
Citizen Alan
@NotoriousJRT: I said after Bush v Gore that the nation was on an irreversible course towards fascism. Had both my parents been deceased in 2004, I would be a Canadian citizen today and I would be lobbying my Canadian leaders to cut ties with the fascist USA.
prostratedragon
@Ohio Mom:
@Citizen Alan:
Been quietly panicking about that since Reagan.
Citizen Alan
@cain: That’s what gets me. The MAGAs are objectively worse than the people who voted Hitler into power because those Germans were starving during the Great Depression. The people who voted Shitgibbon into power the first time did so at a time of nigh-unprecedented peace and prosperity while living in the wealthiest and most powerful nation to have ever existed.
opiejeanne
@sab: Gold is very scammy, and I’m not looking for investments, I just want to keep people out of the accounts I already have.
The cool thing the new agent was pushing is AI.
He wants me to invest in AI.
Citizen Alan
A lot of my general hopelessness comes from my persistent fear that if things turn bac for Shitgibbon, he will start a nuclear war out of sheer spite.
Citizen Alan
@Balconesfault: TBH, I’m convinced they’d have turned on Bernie the first time he every had to bend to realpolitik. Probably as soon as he won the nomination in 2016 and then picked someone other than Nina Turner or Cornel West as the VP nominee. “Bernie sold us out! He’s just another corporate shill!”
sab
@Citizen Alan: Yes me too!!
He seems anti-war, but that is just the expense. War requires troops and their impedimentia. Nukes are freebies. We have them. So blow them up, hopefully elsewhere, not over Chicago or San Francisco.
sab
@opiejeanne: Next Wednesday is my big day.
sab
@opiejeanne: Oh dear.
Gloria DryGarden
@sab: I agree. And sometimes I do the opposite. I’m allergic to cats, but I will never tell the cats that. I love cats. So I approach to see if they’re interested, offer air – petting, very thoroughly, with sweet talk. They get me out of their system, since I was a little forward with them.
most of my kids experience is w Four year olds, but I transfer one of my communication styles to older kids and young to mid range adults: noticing. Boys and men can handle a simple exchange about noticing their shoes. With females I feel safe noticing a color, a sparkle, or any item of clothing, as long as I keep it neutral. It’s boring yet has a charm.
I’m all for minute momentary friendly interactions. Last week, leaving the gym, passing through a gaggle of young men on the stairs, I noticed a guy’s shoes: pink and lavender. He told me, laughing, what his mom calls his shoes. Just a flicker if fun. Anonymous, but less invisible. The men let me pass.
Im glad that ignoring the teenagers worked out. Being a stepparent sounds like an advanced art form.
@sab: indeed, it doesn’t seem wise for anyone to trust our government. I didn’t know this about dems becoming bipartisan at the border, nor that any foreign entities would want to be involved with thecrepublican partisanship.
I’m leaving that typo.
The Kurds were promised their own sovereign country awhile back, and then it didn’t happen. Kurdish is the second most spoken language in either Iran or Iraq- it was in the worldle game, and I forget which.
Our government pulled out and left so many allies exposed there. I’m not proud if my government abandoning allies, even if I don’t understand all the complexities of war and international relations.
Gloria DryGarden
@opiejeanne: im finding the news difficult as well. I have FOMO, and sometimes there are great discussions here, and clear important topics highlighted by front pagers. And yet, if it turns too negative, it’s hard to keep my spirits up. Sometimes I’m quite averse, and I spend time instead on BlueSky, looking at my areas of interest. In my case that’s micropoetry (haiku mostly) geography, and ecology/ conservation.
There have been many accessible text exchanges there, perfectly kind and helpful. And there are so many interest areas. A feed of cats, or birds, or art, or cooking. Today I got news from the poetry page.
Gloria DryGarden
AI
I hear Elon wants to put all our government functions into some huge electricity-consuming AI center. What could go wrong?
What’s eerie for me is I had a run in w an AI creator, on blueSky , on 2/14. It was strangely hostile. I learned one of the poets on the feed was a generative AI “entity” and her creator didn’t like my comment to her. Phew! I had thought it was a person, she liked my poems, and wrote many beautiful ones.
So I am deepening my suspicions about AI, and its Guardian Creators. Especially if they are young men in their 20s, or billionaires with no sense of humanity as valuable.
Remember how at that age we were so full of how smart we were, how much more we knew than our parents? That certainty fades for most of us, w time. But a guy calling himself big balls, is likely pretty self assured and cocky. And Mr Tesla, sheesh..
I don’t like this one bit.
TBone
@Starfish (she/her): I read a lot of it and smelled outrageous lies all over the place. Of COURSE they’re going to give press interviews that make themselves look great! Especially to publications that farmers read right now. The ag industry was/is in chaos over the defunding.
Not only did that author work for the Trump admin. during both terms, but also the American Enterprise Institute, and
TBone
@TBone: no one in Big Chicken is vaccinating chicks by hand, you sweet, summer child.
Betty
@Quinerly: If the opposition provides quotes from Musk’s Twitter feed, that should resolve the question.
AM in NC
@Quinerly: This is one of the questions I have. Why aren’t decent, ethical lawyers initiating disbarment procedures against these MAGA lawyers clearly trying illegal/unconstitutional things?
Is this “just not done” in polite lawyer society? Is there fear of reprisal from the MAGA horde? Is it worry that the “law fare” label will be attached to them?
Seems like these MAGA lawyers are absolutely operating in bad faith and bad law. Why aren’t they being dealt with?
Bill Barr, for example – why not disbarred for LYING about the Mueller report?
Go after EVERY lie. Every subornation of perjury; every scam. TIE THEM UP on all fronts. Where are the lawyers trying to protect their profession from liars and frauds?
EarthWindFire
@dnfree: A selective and careful process where they fired the guardians of the nuclear stockpile and can’t get in touch with them to hire them back. JFC.
schrodingers_cat
@sab: Bernie battles got us here. We can’t get out of this without fixing what’s broken within our party.
pieceofpeace
@bbleh: Hahaha! Good essay!
Janus Daniels
“This country is not going to recover in my lifetime.”
Did we ever recover from Reagan or Bush?