Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

I really should read my own blog.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it’s a trap.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Let there be snark.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

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

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

When they say they’re pro-life, they don’t mean yours.

Giving up is unforgivable.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / An Addendum

An Addendum

by | 126 Comments

This post is in: ,

Re: My previous post.

Under no circumstances should you be under the impression that this blog is going all doomer and everything is unstoppable. On the other hand, I think it would be supremely irresponsible to pretend we are not in the middle of a gigantic, dangerous mess right now, because we are. This may come as a surprise and be unsettling to you, but I will remind you that this has been the America minorities and marginalized people have endured their entire lives. It’s just coming to the rest of us now.

As time goes by, leaders will emerge and strategies to fight back and keep ouyrselves safe will become clear. Mistermix has done yeoman’s work calling out actual leaders- Maxwell Frost, AOC, Gov. Pritzker, etc.

So do not despair, but do prepare. And this place will always be open and as safe as can be.

Reader Interactions

126Comments

  1. 1.

    WTFGhost

    Right, and, don’t let your resident “I have every reason to be a doomer” be more cheerful and hopeful than *you* because… face it folks, I’ve been fighting real Major Depression for 30 years. You johnny-and-janey-come-latelies, I have advice and a shoulder to cry on (briefly, I can’t listen to sorrows for long, because I can’t listen to human speech for long), but you can’t hope for people like *me* to push you from behind, unless you give us a few big-ass spears to prod you with.

  2. 2.

    Ohio Mom

    Thank you for this. I was spiraling into a very bad space.

    Over the years this blog has been for me a source of camraderie, good cheer, solace, encouragement and education on any number of topics. I hope it remains so for me.

  4. 4.

    Spanky

    this place will always be open and as safe as can be

    And we can help ensure that by not posting plans or violent wishes here in the comments, m’kay?

  5. 5.

    frosty

    Thanks for the Addendum, it helps. Previous post too. I called both my Senators and told them to vote NO. Fetterman came through, I had no hope for McCormick.

  6. 6.

    Elizabelle

    Agreed.  And especially about posting about plans in the comments.

    I have been astonished by all the lines in the sand the Republican Senators are stampeding over.  Expected more intelligence and courage, or at minimum a passing knowledge of history, from them.

    Someone should clue them in:  there are scarier things than their voters, in the next election.

  8. 8.

    A Ghost to Most

    I’ve been up against these people for 40 years. None of this is new, but nobody paid any attention. Enablers, apologists, and appeasers paved the way.

    I’m 20 years into my plan. Where does your stand?

  9. 9.

    MazeDancer

    We will fight. Women fought for 72 years to get the vote. The Civil Rights movement is still fighting.

    We will fight And we will win.

    Part of me has often thought that the hater-filled right will not die unless we, as a nation, hit rock bottom, All change requires that.

    So rock bottom it is.

    OTOH, I have been stocking up with crashed supply chains or WW3, whichever comes first, in mind.

    Considering another round of cat food.

  10. 10.

    lamh47

    I will use this post to shout out my blessing today. I got great news, even if Musky and FOTUS tries to fuq me over on my final paycheck, thx to some advance planning, I had a deposit that dropped today that will allow me some breathing room to find work for at least the next month or two before I have to make hard decisions about staying in Cali or not. I am happy for a slight grace period because I know others are not so lucky.

    If you wonder how they can still fuq me over, they can fuq me over and just give me one week’s pay instead of two weeks like they said I was going to get per the termination notice.  I mean I couldn’t even verify my timecard for the pay period, so I don’t even know if it was a full 80 or just 40.  I asked my manager to please make sure my timecard is verified because they revoked my access the day they returned from the holiday.

    Now if I can get my doctor to renew prescriptions for a month before Monday, then I can use my FSA and get reimbursed

  11. 11.

    Ohio Mom

    This morning Ohio Son had his bi weekly session with his psychologist and he was done (emotional) and left for the car and the psychologist and I were chatting and she was saying she was expecting things to be screwed up but not this badly and I said, throughout the world and throughout history people have lived under oppression and in poverty and we will survive too. She seemed to appreciate my bluntness. But I thought we were supposed to leave therapy encouraged and hopeful.

  13. 13.

    sixthdoctor

    @Ohio Mom: I had a meeting today with my therapist, who’s retiring next month. I told her that although I’m angry, anxious, and depressed, the good news is that all of these feelings prove that I’m sane, therefore she’s cured me and her work is now done.

  14. 14.

    chrisanthemama

    I have the luxury of staying in my pajamas for whole days at a time (retirement rocks), which makes sense during the PNW winter.  But today I got dressed, made my protest sign, and went to picket a local Tesla dealership with a couple dozen other oldies in the February drizzle (many horns honked and thumbs up, only one flip-off).  Then I returned a library book early, donated my last 2 copies of “On Tyranny” to the library, and left small stacks of Red Cards (Red Cards / Tarjetas Rojas | Immigrant Legal Resource Center | ILRC) at the library and at a taqueria.  None of these individual actions mean much (except to me), and I am blessed to be able to do them.  Marathon, not a sprint.

  15. 15.

    Ohio Mom

    @lamh47: You make me chuckle, if there was a gold medal for taking care of oneself, you would win it. I’m chuckling in admiration at your resourcefulness and strategic planning, it’s a tour de force.

  16. 16.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Elizabelle: They twice refused to sideline Trump when they had the opportunity. What they’re doing, or rather not doing, now is exactly what I expected. A finer collection of gutless cowards is not to be found anywhere. By the way as annoying as Loomis is I am looking forward to his Mitch McConnell obituary.

  18. 18.

    Ohio Mom

    @Jay: I asked Adam if he would write us a post about what to expect for our private lives, something like, My country been taken over by a coup, now what do I do?

    He says he’s working on it. I guess it is too much of a moving target at the moment.

  19. 19.

    Elizabelle

    @lamh47:  Have been thinking about you, and hoping that somehow you don’t lose the job which you have been performing so brilliantly.

    Breathing room is good.  And you have so much company, sadly.  Hoping that the disastrous economic and social impact will become clear in time to get you and your federal colleagues back to work.

    I love that Cole has a blogpost category:  DOGEshit.  (Tagged previous post with that.)

  21. 21.

    Ohio Mom

    @Steve LaBonne: I always imagine Loomis with a metaphorical garden of obituaries under grow lights, he’s pinching some back, fertilizing others, planting new ones. Today he took some extra time updating the McConnell piece.

  22. 22.

    bluefoot

    @chrisanthemama: Right on!  Everything we can do will help in some way.  And we don’t know what pebble will start the avalanche so we should keep on in the ways we are able.

  23. 23.

    Jay

    Donald Trump’s dream of eliminating the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship to all persons born in the United States has hit another roadblock, meaning he can’t just change the Constitution with an executive order, at least not yet. A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday against the Trump administration’s request to let Trump’s Dictatorship on Day One order take effect, probably because the Ninth Circuit is based in San Francisco and every judge on the court is named Pelosi, even the Trump appointees. The city just does that to people.

    Trump’s Justice Department had appealed a lower court’s January 23 ruling that punted Trump’s birthright citizenship EO into the sun. Trump argued it would be an “emergency” if he can’t immediately start fucking over babies born to people who are in the country without permission, as well as babies born to anyone here legally, but with any immigration status short of permanent residency.

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/mean-appeals-court-wont-let-donald

  24. 24.

    Trollhattan

    Think it’s hard to get a sound grasp of current events in real time, from inside the boat.

    Other nations, including many nominally sane ones, are having hair-on-fire events watching Trump 2.0 unfold and set the joint on fire, along with most of our overseas relationships. So I read and listen to them a lot.

  25. 25.

    Trollhattan

    @Jay:

    How did Trump manage to not take this to the 5th Circuit? Those darn San Francisco liberals and their liberal legal ideas.

  27. 27.

    Nukular Biskits

    Okay. Here’s what I did yesterday Tuesday:

    https://balloon-juice.com/2025/02/18/thoughts-on-guerrilla-messaging-open-thread/#comment-9532025

    And here’s what I did today:

    Stopped by Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith’s Gulfport office.  Turns out her Gulfport office is at the Dan M. Russell Jr. Federal Courthouse, which her Senate website does not mention (see here.)  Which means I had to provide identification, state my purpose and leave my cell phone (not allowed in courthouse building) just to get through security.  When the security agents asked if they were expecting me, I answered, “Well, there’s nothing on her website that said I had to make an appointment.”  That didn’t seem to go over very well.

    They called her office and, oddly even though it was only 3:30 pm, no one was in the senator’s office to answer the phone. So I bid the Men in Black a good day, collected my belongings and walked back out to the car.  Once there, I called both the Senator’s Gulfport and DC offices … no answer.  This has been a pattern with Hyde-Smith.  Whenever there are controversial events (such as the confirmation of Patel today, for example), Cindy and her staff are strangely too occupied to answer the phone.

    So … I will call again tomorrow to set up an appointment. As well as one with my other senator, Roger Wicker.

    Folks with GOP lawmakers, I’m serious:  Email them. Light up their phones. If convenient, visit their offices in person.  Repeatedly.

    They want you to give up. Don’t.

    My next step?  I’m considering protesting in front of their respective offices.  Will it get traction?  Down here in BFE, MS? Probably not.  But I’m sick and damned tired of being ignored.

  29. 29.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Thank you. I’m strong, but I’m tired, so fucking tired. Today hasn’t been one of the better days. Nothing like government once again telling me that I don’t exist.

    I will remind you that this has been the America minorities and marginalized people have endured their entire lives. It’s just coming to the rest of us now.

    To quote from Bladerunner, “Quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it.”

    But as you said, a number of us have been enduring, resisting and finding ways to thrive in spite of everything for our entires lives. We will continue fighting, we don’t really have a choice. Now I’m off for another ugly cry.

  30. 30.

    mark

    I always try to remember that we overcame slavery, genocide, jim crowe, KKK, lynchings, internment camps, segregation, George Wallace, Chinese Exclusion Act, ad infinitum. We’ll get through this too.

  32. 32.

    Spanky

    @Nukular Biskits: Know any newspaper folks who might be interested in this little “oddity”? It’d be great if you could find some enterprising young journalist who might be up for doing some legwork to get this into print.

  33. 33.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Sister Golden Bear: And to clarify, it’s HHS declaring that I don’t exist that hurts — I’ll be trans no matter how many EO and statements they make — it’s know where being un-personed is going to lead. I want more life fucker, but I’ve mostly lived a decent life, even if it gets cut short. But I weep for our tran/non-binary kids.

  34. 34.

    Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)

    This place is a haven. I hope it never gets targeted by DOGEbags or any other scumbags from this administration. This place, T.P.M. and Lawyers, Guns and Money are my big three that I look at many times a day to keep up with things. But L.G.M. has taken a kind of dark turn lately. Aside from Rofer and Farley, there’s a whole lot of bitching and moaning about how badly the Democrats suck, and everything’s going to shit.

    I don’t find that helpful. Yes, a lot of Democrats still haven’t gotten their shit together, and they’re kind of standing by, watching all this happen instead of screaming about it. Schumer and Jeffries seem like they just don’t know how to react to all this. That’s a problem.

    But there are many who know what’s at risk here, and they’re making themselves heard. A.O.C. Crockett. Frost. Schatz, Murphy, Pritzker, a few others. We need more, to be sure. Seems to me, we should be moaning less about Schumer, and broadcasting what the ones who understand the threat are saying.

    I don’t want to give up on L.G. & M., and I won’t, but it’s disheartening. So thank God for this place.

  35. 35.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Nukular Biskits: Thank you. My idiot Senators (Ohio) also have nobody answering their phones and Husted’s voice mail box is always full. Still worthwhile to keep at it. Indivisible has been sending people to Moreno’s Cleveland office every Wednesday- I’m signed up for March 5 along with others from my church. I guess I may as well send some emails too even though some say not to bother.

  36. 36.

    Miss Bianca

    @Ohio Mom: ok, have been feeling borderline grim most of the day, but that little image cheered me right up. Even wrung a lol out of me. I’ll take it. :)

  38. 38.

    Geminid

    @Trollhattan: I’ve been following Ankara-based Clash Report for their Middle East news, but these days they have numerous reports on statements by Trump and his officials. I can tell the site is critical of them by the way they’re presented. So is Ragip Soyle, Istanbul bureau chief for Middle East Eye. He’s more explicitly critical. Turkiye is a Nato country, and it has a lot riding on the outcome of the war in Ukraine.

  39. 39.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Spanky:

    I know a couple at the Sun Herald … but that mullet wrapper doesn’t seem to be interested in doing anything lately except promoting the casinos and Mardi Gras parades.

    I’ll probably reach out to the MS Free Press & MS Today, whose coverage of local issues is on par and state coverage is superior.

  40. 40.

    VeniceRiley

    Meanwhile, in the UK that Tony Jay mocks sometimes: My wife is getting an apology and a ceremony with other gays plus her Air force cap n badge back. Compensation decisions to follow!

    Refreshing to be in a place where the government apologises for mistreating citizens.

  41. 41.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Steve LaBonne:

    Good. More of this, please.

    And I know you can’t do it all the time or even most of the time.  Most folks can’t … we have jobs to do, kids to raise, lives to live.  And a lot of politicians count on citizens being too busy or otherwise occupied to raise a fuss.

    Prove them wrong.

  44. 44.

    Jay

    @Steve LaBonne:

    @Nukular Biskits:

    Don’t know how your Rep’s and Congress critters offices are set up, but here it is common for our MP’s and MLA’s to have a printer in the office that is also set up as a fax machine, and the fax number for each office, (if they have more than one) is public info.

    A common tactic when they are being non-responsive is to start out with a 1 page faxed letter, day one, if still non-responsive, 2 one pagers the next day, and so on and so on.

  45. 45.

    frosty

    @Steve LaBonne: AFAIK emails are useless but comments left on the website in the form will be tallied. I still call and leave voicemails. The next ones will be:

    Trump is temporary. Dishonor is forever.

  48. 48.

    Steve LaBonne

    @frosty: Hadn’t thought about website comment forms. Off to a rehearsal soon but that will give me something useful to do tomorrow.

  49. 49.

    Chris Johnson

    I am just not sure blackmailing and terrorizing all the Republican congresscritters into compliance will work as well as they think it will. And it’s kind of important.

    People talk about how they’re scared of their constituents, and there’s that, but all the creeps being appointed are baldly Putin agents with no other qualifications and no brief but to wreck everything as fast as possible.

    They’re going to fire all the good military people, all the capable ones, and all the spooks that are familiar with all their shit. I daresay it’s a mercy they’re not talking of just executing all of them, but they kind of can’t because this insanity only works if people aren’t so marked for death that they immediately fight. So, simply murdering everyone who knows this is now Putin’s fiefdom, is a nonstarter. Would cause open rebellion.

    And the congresscritters are wealthy cowards who don’t know what to do and chose all of this as their alternative to demographic irrelevance and decline. It’s easy to see why they did what they did.

    But there are a lot of people out there who knew better and weren’t listened to, and it’s become too obvious to ignore. So… what do all the fired spooks and military do? I don’t know nor do I want to, but they are going to be Trump’s biggest problem, not us.

    And bear in mind all these actions are tailored to collapse the US and leave it ruined, NOT to ‘make it great’. That matters. Hitler was able to go quite far because he meant to consolidate power. This is not consolidating power, it’s wildly impractical, it’s an obvious bust-out. I’m most worried about the prospects for pandemic and widespread food poisoning. That would be where literal Russians might be running around with vials of pathogens, trying to get us all killed while things are still in a confused state.

    I am less worried about Trump OR Musk commanding a tyranny to last a million years, because they’re too fucked up, and they’re just serving Putin. And crashing us will not actually make Russia do any better, it is just vengeance.

    Learn to speak Chinese? Be a staunch EU/NATO supporter? There’s bound to be stuff we can do. Most of all, SURVIVE. This will kill more Republicans than Democrats. They are being led into the goddamn slaughterhouse and going willingly. Far from having all the Dems shot, it’s not impossible that Trump would line up the Republicans first. Because them betraying him would do more damage…

  50. 50.

    WTFGhost

    @Ohio Mom: Not always. You should come from therapy with a sense of the truth, and, an awareness that other people have been through this, and come out the other side.

    Imagine a person waking up quadriplegic. The first steps is getting through the stages of grief, no, it’s not going to change, barring a miracle, so, some therapy sessions will be devastating, with just promises that “it will get better; eventually, you’ll appreciate being alive again.”

    This is one of the reasons I take a few potshots at people who are “despairing” that Trump was elected. “Are you ready to kill yourself? Then you’re not *despairing* yet, you’re in *shock*, you’re *angry*, you’re *frustrated*, you’re *devastated*, but eff me sideways with a crowbar, you STILL want to LIVE.”

    That’s a big difference that most people will never get, because most people will never be suicidal – and of those who become suicidal, most will only be suicidal for brief period of severe mental/emotional shock, only to realize they want to live once the immediate shock wears off.

    Sigh. Long and short of it is, therapy is supposed to help you survive, sometimes even when you really don’t want to, and, that can be painful.

    For most ordinary people, discussing ordinary stresses, and not in that adolescent muck of additional stresses, therapy sessions usually *are* going to leave you feeling better and more optimistic, but there will be a few crying jags, even for “normal” stresses… but, usually, cleaner crying than you’ve done in the past.

    Um.

    You were speaking rhetorically, weren’t you?

  51. 51.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Starfish (she/her): In Nukular Biskits’s state and mine, they don’t care about their nominal constituents (the real ones are their donors) because they know there will always be enough MAGA fools to re-elect them. All they worry about is getting primaried if they cross Trump or Musk.

  59. 59.

    WTFGhost

    @chrisanthemama: I’d like to red card Trump. (I believe a “red card” is ejection from the game, and trouble with the league, in some sport I’m not sure of.)

    @Steve LaBonne: I don’t know if this is weird, but, they did that after swearing to see impartial justice done. And… it’s like, if you can’t take *that* oath seriously, why the heck would anyone trust you not to cheat at penny-ante, $0.25 max raise poker? They should all be branded as cowards in the middle of their foreheads, in some non-violent, non-painful way that doesn’t violate the first and eighth… eff me, none of that will work.

  60. 60.

    brendancalling

     

     

    @Nukular Biskits: here in Philly, some of us are talking about the same at Little Johnny Fetterman’s local office like the Tuesdays With Toomey people did.

    Fetty has been a huge disappointment, and he’s avoiding his constituents (while his staff continues to quit). He was elected in 2022, and has not had a single townhall or explained himself to his voters.

  61. 61.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jay:

    A common tactic when they are being non-responsive is to start out with a 1 page faxed letter, day one, if still non-responsive, 2 one pagers the next day, and so on and so on.

    So how many do you send on day 3?  After all, {1,2,…} can be the start of many different sequences!

    Most popular: the counting numbers {1,2,3,4,…}* and the powers of 2 {1,2,4,8,…}.

    Sorry, I just can’t help but be a math geek sometimes.

    *With apologies to Dr. George “zero is a counting number” McNulty.

  62. 62.

    Quaker in a Basement

    this has been the America minorities and marginalized people have endured their entire lives. It’s just coming to the rest of us now.

    Repost it everywhere.

  63. 63.

    Snowlan01

    Thank you.   . . .  There is a Dietrich Bonhoeffer quote on this point from his “Letters and Papers from Prison” – “There remains an experience of comparable value.  We have for once learnt to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed, the reviled – in short from the perspective of those who suffer.  The importance thing is that neither bitterness nor envy should have gnawed at the heart during this time, that we should have come to look with new eyes at matters great and small, sorrow and joy, strength and weakness, that our perception of generosity, humanity, justice and mercy shou have become clearer, freer, less corruptible.”   . . .   As for me, I have to take Bonhoeffer’s example to heart and try to apply it in my own life. . . .   It’s the same thing John says in this post; both John and Dietrich are right.

  65. 65.

    Warblewarble

    Russ Voughts commisars will be more diciplined and efficient than Musks minions. Think Reinhard Heydrich without the uniform.

  66. 66.

    rk

    I’m kind of surprised that a majority of men ( and white) people would destroy the country rather than share it with minorities.

  68. 68.

    oldgold

    It was disconcerting to watch Eloon prancing around the stage this afternoon at the CPAC convention menacingly waving a chainsaw.

    Does CPAC have a convention every damn month?

  71. 71.

    Ohio Mom

    @Steve LaBonne: Maybe you should go over to the Moreno car dealership on a crowded Saturday afternoon.

    Mill around, pretending to be browsing cars, and when the salesman comes by and asks if he can help you, shout loud enough for everyone in the showroom to hear: I want the Moreno family’s guarantee that my Social Security won’t be cut/that scientific progress will be funded/whatever is particularly galling you that day.

    You can only do that once but it might be fun.

  72. 72.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jay:

    With the president smashing norm after norm, even lawmakers within his party have feared for their personal safety, and at least one has told confidants that it has swayed his decision-making.

    Nobody is holding these Congresspersons at gunpoint and forcing them to remain in Congress.  If they can’t stand the heat, the door to exit the kitchen is right over there.  I’m sure they can find templates for resignation letters.

    They could do that if they wanted.  And they’d still probably land on their feet after they quit Congress, and their families would be able to continue in their present lifestyle.

    So I call bullshit on this bullshit.  They’re just using this as an excuse to vote the way they’d want to vote anyway.

  73. 73.

    Nukular Biskits

    @brendancalling:

    Lack of town hall meetings are what really pisses me off.

    They have the time to hold public forums.  They just don’t want to because they don’t want to risk having members of the public ripping them a new asshole in front of the cameras.  Kinda puts their claims about having great job approval to the test.

  79. 79.

    Jay

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I usually go 1,2,4,8,16 and keep going until there is a response or they have to have an intern constantly filling the paper tray,

    Works best as a team effort.

  80. 80.

    zhena gogolia

    Someone passed on a message to me from Ukrainian soldiers her family knows: “We are standing and will stay standing, so don’t you give up or lose heart.” I am keeping that firmly in my mind.

  81. 81.

    Bill Arnold

    @oldgold:

    It was disconcerting to watch Eloon prancing around the stage this afternoon at the CPAC convention menacingly waving a chainsaw.

    He’s just expanding the limits of acceptable rhetoric.
    We can now, without (OK with less) fear, talk about feeding DOGE into a woodchipper. (The fate, according to Mr. Musk, of USAID. His act was a 7-figure mass murder (maybe more), in the next decades.)
    Or even menacingly wave a chainsaw while ranting about how MAGA scum are enemies of the USA.

  82. 82.

    TBone

    @oldgold: wait’ll you get a load of today’s Admin presser.  I’m waiting for the Tiedrich Treatment to grab it by the ankle, clamp down, and never let go.

  83. 83.

    sixthdoctor

    @lowtechcyclist: I tend to agree, I remember seeing somewhere (Bluesky or BJ) that it’s also a convenient thing for a Republican to say to pissed-off constituents. I have no doubt that Republicans are getting hate mail and death threats but I’d bet it’s about 10% of what a Dem receives on average, and 1% or less for, say, AOC or Jasmine Crockett.

  84. 84.

    Redshift

    @Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):

    I don’t find that helpful. Yes, a lot of Democrats still haven’t gotten their shit together, and they’re kind of standing by, watching all this happen instead of screaming about it. Schumer and Jeffries seem like they just don’t know how to react to all this. That’s a problem.

    I get frustrated with all sides of that. The “why aren’t they dooooing anything?” makes me grind my teeth. I think Schumer et al understand that the Dems have very little direct power in the minority and just have to work to position themselves for the midterms. But none of them seem to get that most people don’t know that, and think there must be something they could do.

    The legislators see as leaders aren’t actually doing any more to directly stop what’s going on because they don’t have the power (correct me if I’m wrong), but they are using their megaphones to call it out, help people understand their rights, and work with people who are organizing on the ground. And that’s enough that we cheer them (and we should)! But it’s not a normal legislator thing, and I don’t think most of them get why they’re being perceived as “not fighting.”

  86. 86.

    WTFGhost

    @rk: The Republican Party Line is, “you’d have a *great* job, with upward mobility, but *that* job went to a DEI hire, instead.”

    They’ve been pulling that crap for 40 years, a lot of people believe it. If people understood the truth – that Republicans have been helping employers squeeze the life out of employees – things would change, but to too many people, the brain-dead hate is all they’ve heard.

  90. 90.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    A really good idea from a diary today over at DK:

    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/20/2304948/-Red-State-Democrats-Have-an-Opportunity

    Contact your (R) representative, give them plenty of leopards/face eating outrage, basically imply you’re an (R) and are outraged at the shit going on and why ain’t your representative, etc., doing anything about it?

    Gives people in red states or with red politicians a chance to sway something.  Maybe.

  91. 91.

    Jay

    @lowtechcyclist:

    The FBI has documented threats to ReThugs by MAGgot’s, and some of the threats are coming from inside the Caucus and Musk and the Dog Boys.

    I also have no doubt that the ReThug’s are gormless cowards.

  92. 92.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @lowtechcyclist:

    So how many do you send on day 3?  After all, {1,2,…} can be the start of many different sequences!

    Most popular: the counting numbers {1,2,3,4,…}* and the powers of 2 {1,2,4,8,…}.

    Sorry, I just can’t help but be a math geek sometimes.

    Me, I’d go with Fibonacci myself. 

  94. 94.

    different-church-lady

    Fascism is officially here. We have to stop arguing about whether we’re over-reacting.

  96. 96.

    Chris Johnson

    @Jay: Exactly. I contest that all these people, from Moscow Mitch down to the congresscritters who went to Russia on Independence Day (were summoned? Think on that one for a minute) are far more frightened of being Epsteined by Russian agents than they are of their base, plus they are firmly aware that their base are RUN by Russian trolls and that they don’t themselves have control. So even if their own base does scare them, it’s because they do not have control of ’em.

    My point is that they are scared shitless, and they’re wealthy cowards faced with losing everything, not some ruling class waiting to secure their dominance. They can’t even push for better, more effective appointments: every one is a Putin-controlled complete disaster.

    And the reason they’re all losers is that Putin, running all this, is not going to set up a rival to himself or whoever succeeds him. They’re all there to wreck America but also to flame out in death spirals themselves: they’re addicts and alcoholics and madmen because those are the only people Putin allows to have power, especially over here.

    That changes matters. We cannot act as if Trump and his people are going to become effective tyrants. They’re going to be disasters, playing at being tyrants.

  97. 97.

    Ruckus

    @Ohio Mom:

    Therapy is supposed to give you the tools to be encouraged and hopeful. To see the bigger picture. To learn to look for and find the bright side. And how to deal with both the crappy and the good sides. At least that’s what I was taught as a therapist. Never was told how an entire nation can get therapy all at once. That’s the hard part. Who is going to play the part of the therapist, other than we do our own therapy and help each other.

  101. 101.

    Dan B

    Since I was 14 and figured out I was gay, and before that when Joe McCarthy was ruining lives, I’ve lived with a feeling of dread.  I lost friends and was bumped, actually shunned, out of college.  Now there are lots of gay guys who believe we’re going to be put in camps because “we’re pedophiles”.  One hope is that more Americans, 9%+ are identifying as not heterosexual.  It will take learning how to organize.

  102. 102.

    Ruckus

    @Ohio Mom:

    A big part of this is that shitforbrains got elected for a second go round. It’s not just shitforbrains and his buddies, it is a not insignificant percentage of the population that think, such as it is, that this is what a country should be like. I have some suspicions as to why that may be but currently the ideals this country was founded are seemingly not the ideals of a not insignificant part of the population. How and why is a mystery to me, other than some group wants to take it over. And it looks like the world’s richest man may be part of the plan. Apparently having billions is not enough. Silly us thinking that this democracy that a hell of a lot of people have died to create and protect over a fairly long time isn’t good enough for some.

  103. 103.

    Ruckus

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    Some/many people feel they need the world to look and operate like what they think it is supposed to look and operate like. And humanity is just a few tads too big to ever have everyone in full agreement. Especially in a country that is supposed to accept everyone as long as they live and let live. Because some have less than zero concept that the world can be any different tha what they think it should look/be like, IOW their ideal. But that isn’t the premise of this country. It was and still is in some countries. And while we haven’t had the smoothest road getting to the point that there ISN’T one path for every last damn one of us. This is supposed to be a FREE country. Now that doesn’t mean that we don’t have guide rails, but our guide rails are supposed to be damn wide so that we can be the humans we are, not the humans on strings, operated by a puppet master. I gave up a portion of my life serving this country, and many others have done the same, some even giving up their lives, in theory to protect the concept that while we are ALL FREE, we do have to live within some very wide limits. And once again we have people playing that really dangerous and seemingly illegal game of trying to make everyone exactly the same, seemingly to justify their bullshit concepts of life.

  104. 104.

    Citizen Alan

    @WTFGhost:This is one of the reasons I take a few potshots at people who are “despairing” that Trump was elected. “Are you ready to kill yourself? Then you’re not *despairing* yet, you’re in *shock*, you’re *angry*, you’re *frustrated*, you’re *devastated*, but eff me sideways with a crowbar, you STILL want to LIVE.”

    Well, I wouldn’t say I’m “ready,” but my retirement plan for the past ten years or so is “work until you can’t anymore, then liquidate everything and tour Europe until the money runs out before dying of a drug overdose in Amsterdam.” I was previously naive enough to think I’d at least make it to 60 before taking  that route, but now, if I lost my job, I would immediately take that route.

    Honestly, I can count on one hand the number of things that make me want to not die. And one of them is sheer spite because I don’t want my RWNJ sister to get all our family’s land that we currently hold jointly.

  105. 105.

    Ruckus

    @Jay:

    I’m retired, and haven’t been a mental health counselor for decades.

    So I don’t need no stinking couch whatsoever.

    That spray idea doesn’t sound bad though.

  107. 107.

    FDRLincoln

    @Ohio Mom:  Ohio Mom, I’m sorry for being so gloomy in the last thread when you asked about how to protect our families.

    I’m having a hard time getting my head around the collapse of the world we’ve known.

  110. 110.

    pieceofpeace

    @lamh47:   You’re good at taking care of yourself.  I hope you’ve enjoyed and appreciated CA, whether you stay here or move on.  It’s been a pleasure to read of your journey.

  113. 113.

    RevRick

    This is the reason I keep posting about the Climate Hope Affiliates campaign sparked by the United Church of Christ Environmental Justice Ministry. The rampant feelings of powerlessness are our enemy. The need to take concrete steps to address climate change is not a luxury we can undertake when we feel like it. And there is liberating power in tackling big problems with a supportive community.
    I know this post will be ignored, but I will continue to post about it, because it seems a lot of commenters are committed to a woe-is-me/us and its partner in crime, isn’t-it-awful/aren’t-they-awful which accomplishes precisely nothing.
    Haranguing Representatives and Senators is better than nothing, I suppose, but it’s haphazard and individualistic. Public demonstrations are good, but when the crowd disperses, what next?
    What I am determined to make happen is to build a sustained organization that will keep the nexus of climate change and social injustice front and center in the public consciousness. We have a nucleus that is reaching out and asking others to join the effort, beginning with a training session on a Saturday morning in March. And as we grow, we will intentionally look at the question of who is at the table and who would we like to see at the table.

  116. 116.

    YY_Sima Qian

    I was hoping to take my wife & 2 daughters w/ me to the US for a few weeks in the summer, piggybacking on my expected business trip. Put my older daughter into a summary camp for a couple of weeks, take a couple of weeks off and see some sights, let them experience America.

    I mentioned before that my plan had always been to move back to the US when my older daughter is ready for high school, because I do not want either of my daughters to experience the immense stress & pressure of the PRC’s standardized exams to enter senior middle school, & then college, where a few days of performance on standardized exams can have a substantial impact on one’s life trajectory.

    My wife has been understandably resistant to the prospect of emigration, & even though my daughters have US passports they have been raised in the Chinese environment. My older daughter sees herself as Chinese (younger one is too young to have such thoughts). My hope was a trip to the US would show that it is not an utterly alien place full of violence, crime, drugs & Sinophobia, as Chinese state media & social media tend to focus on those aspects; that the vast majority of Americans are just normal people living normal lives, like the vast majority of people anywhere; that there are many benefits to living in the US, from the wide open spaces, to well preserved nature, to the less intense competition & more laid back life style, more rounded education philosophy (& we as upper middle class should have access to good quality education), to the less overbearing government & little censorship.

    At this rate, not only would it be ill-advised to take my wife & daughters to the Sates in the summer, I’d rather not go on the business trip, myself.

  117. 117.

    Ruckus

    @RevRick:

    Please do.

    We may all be humans but humans come in all types and what works for one may not always work for another. The vast majority of us will need help being human once in a while. Some forms of help will not always work for everyone because while we are all human, we all have our own oddities, bits and sides and a path that works for some will just not work for others. IOW we need more than one path, especially when the problem is as big as this one.

  118. 118.

    Ruckus

    @Ohio Mom:

    That’s the goal.

    As I’ve stated her before I was a mental health counselor some time ago and while there are guide posts and all there can be a lot of difference between how different humans get through and over issues. Some take more time, some take different paths from start to finish, and some think about what is happening to them different than others. We have these things called brains and we often use them different than others in the same situation.

    It takes the time and effort it takes is the best way I can describe it. As long as he’s getting help and doing his side of the process to his ability, he will very likely get better. But it can take time. That’s the best I can tell you.

  119. 119.

    Ruckus

    @rk:

    It is difficult to believe but as I’m an old white male, I can guarantee that there still are humans that view themselves as the top of the class. THEY ARE NOT. Not in any way shape or form. They are the blankety, blank, blank scum of the earth. And because of that they will do crappy things to others to show them they are the top of the pile. However that pile is not made up of what they think it is……..

  120. 120.

    Ruckus

    @TBone:

    When I was a mental health counselor we didn’t say it like that but we did try to impress upon people to keep that attitude at the ready.  It comes in handy on occasion.

    It does help to learn how to use that inner bitch in the best fashion……

  122. 122.

    Pennsylvanian

    Here. Every day. And would feel like I haven’t gotten real news if there wasn’t new content here. I’m just raising my hand, which I do not do often. 

    Things that help me:  Some days are better than others. Cats.

    But there is this:  2025 has been a shitshow the likes of which we have never seen. Outrage fatigue is passé. If something happens, I’ll be paying attention.

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