We asked Senate Republicans: is there any millionaire or billionaire rich enough who doesn't need another tax giveaway?
$10M a year? No.
$100M a year? No.
$500M a year? No.
$1 BILLION a year? No.With Republicans in control: Billionaires win, families lose. pic.twitter.com/5zgql98poM
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) February 21, 2025
And I love that, in my senior Senator!
Donald Trump and Elon Musk are waging an attack on American consumers — we won't stand quietly by. pic.twitter.com/y9tXBsrZNN
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) February 21, 2025
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau makes sure you don't get scammed by digital payment companies and car lenders.
Elon Musk’s role as CEO of @XMoney and @Tesla makes DOGE’s takeover of the CFPB a clear conflict of interest.
@SenAdamSchiff and I are pressing for answers. https://t.co/4RyvxJSwSp— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) February 19, 2025
On Tuesday, Senate Democrats will investigate the Trump-Musk attack on American consumers.
I'm inviting Elon Musk. He owes the American people answers on why he’s trying to shut down the financial cop on the beat that prevents big corporations from cheating Americans. pic.twitter.com/2Pn93X4Wra
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) February 20, 2025
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) invited tech billionaire Elon Musk to testify at an informal hearing focusing on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau next week, as the Trump adviser pledges to destroy the agency she helped create.
Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, is organizing the hearing for the afternoon of Feb. 25, giving Senate Democrats an opportunity to question witnesses and highlight the work the agency has done to protect consumers from scams.
“Musk has said that he is trying to kill the agency — he should have the courage to show up in public and answer questions about why he’s doing that and how it would help working people,” Warren said in an interview…
Musk posted “CFPB RIP” on his X social media platform as the Trump administration ordered CFPB employees to stop nearly all of their work earlier this month. A district judge ordered the Trump administration not to fire the agency’s employees or delete its data for now, pending a March 3 hearing on a lawsuit filed by the National Treasury Employees Union, whose members include CFPB workers.
Republicans have long targeted the regulatory agency, arguing that it has too much power. Democrats are hoping to highlight what they see as the folly behind Republicans dismantling an agency designed to prevent consumers from being taken advantage of by lenders or other financial institutions. The group has returned $21 billion to consumers since it was created in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law in 2010, which was aimed at preventing another financial crisis.
Warren has invited Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell and Lorelei Salas, the former head of supervision at the CFPB who recently resigned after refusing an order to stop work at the agency, to testify. Campbell will speak about a recent $51 million settlement she reached with the help of the CFPB against a credit repair company that was claiming to boost credit scores for a fee. The forum will also feature people who have relied on the CFPB to get their money back. Democrats are in the minority in the Senate, meaning Warren does not have the power to convene a formal hearing under the auspices of the banking committee and compel testimony…
Musk’s social media company X is launching its own payment product called “X Money” — an area regulated by the consumer agency.
Warren said she believes Musk is targeting the agency to launch that service with less oversight.
“By sidelining the CFPB, he gets that only obstacle out of the way,” Warren said. “Like a bank robber who sidelines the cops just before he waltzes into the lobby of the bank.”…
The CFPB has survived multiple lawsuits challenging its funding structure and the first Trump administration, when its acting head, who opposed the agency’s existence, dramatically slowed the pace of enforcement actions.
“The giant banks resisted this agency from before it was born,” Warren said. “Republicans have preached the gospel for decades that government is always bad, always stupid and always inept. The CFPB proves every single day that we can make government work for people.”
Republicans want you to tune out of the tax fight in Congress.
Why? So they can scam you into footing the bill for more tax breaks for their billionaire friends. pic.twitter.com/XSbWfctQVQ
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) February 18, 2025
Watch my full conversation with @briantylercohen: https://t.co/OQ4BCxj4MQ
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) February 18, 2025
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau uncovered $21 billion of cheating and returned it directly to Americans.
That little agency is proof that we can make the government work for people.
Trump and Musk want to take that away, but we won't stop fighting to protect it. pic.twitter.com/OtdKbaYhls
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) February 17, 2025
More than a decade and a half ago, I watched Elizabeth Warren bring a crowd in Washington to its feet with a ringing indictment of Wall Street and the toxic mortgage securities that had pushed the American banking system to the brink of collapse in the great financial crisis of 2008. Warren was then a fiftysomething professor at Harvard Law School, and not very well known. Harry Reid, the Democratic Majority Leader in the Senate, had recently appointed her to a congressional panel tasked with examining the seven-hundred-billion-dollar bank bailout that George W. Bush had signed into law in October, 2008. As well as lambasting the bankers for their recklessness and greed, Warren was demanding the creation of a new agency to defend the interests of mortgage holders, savings depositors, credit-card holders, and anybody else who was obliged to deal with banks and other financial companies. In 2010, a Democratic-controlled Congress passed the Dodd-Frank reform act, which created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (C.F.P.B). Warren served as an adviser to Barack Obama and helped to get the new agency up and running.
A week ago, Elon Musk tweeted, “CFPB RIP.” In short order, the Trump Administration has shuttered the headquarters of the agency, halted most of its operations, and laid off some of its staff. Since Musk’s démarche, Warren—who was elected to the Senate as a Democrat from Massachusetts in 2013, and is now in her third term—has led the effort to save the C.F.P.B., speaking at a rally outside its offices, tearing into the Tesla C.E.O. in television interviews, and, in a Senate hearing, pressing Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, to confirm that without the C.F.P.B. there is no government agency to insure that financial companies obey consumer-protection laws.
When I caught up with Warren on the phone, late last week, she recalled that prior to the creation of the C.F.P.B., responsibility for enforcing these laws was split between six regulatory agencies. “It was nobody’s first job, and nothing got done,” she remarked. The founding of the C.F.P.B. brought consumer protection—regulation, supervision, and enforcement—under one roof. “For a dozen years, the C.F.P.B. has been the financial cop on the beat,” Warren went on. “It has found more than twenty-one billion dollars in fraud and scams, and scooped up that money and returned it directly to the people who were cheated. Now Elon Musk comes in and says, ‘Let’s fire the cops.’ What could possibly go wrong?”…
Appearing alongside Donald Trump in the Oval Office last week, Musk claimed that slashing spending and downsizing the federal government is necessary to prevent the United States from going bankrupt. But even if financial retrenchment were the ultimate goal of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), it wouldn’t explain why Musk has singled out the C.F.P.B. In 2024, the agency’s budget was capped at $785.4 million, while total federal spending came to $6.75 trillion. A bit of long division shows that the proportion of spending devoted to the C.F.P.B. was roughly 0.01 per cent. If the agency’s entire budget were eliminated for an entire century, it would save about one per cent of the budget for a single year.
Warren and others have pointed out that Musk may well have a personal interest in defanging the C.F.P.B. Since taking over Twitter and changing its name to X, Musk has talked about transforming the platform into an “everything app” offering services like online banking and e-commerce. Last month, X announced a partnership with Visa to create X Money Account, which would enable its users to buy stuff online and make peer-to-peer payments. In theory, such a business could well attract the attention of the C.F.P.B., which has been expanding its authority over big online-payment systems. In December, the bureau sued three of the biggest banks in the country—JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo—for “allowing fraud to fester at Zelle,” a payments system that they co-own along with four other banks. (Zelle disputed the suit as “legally and factually flawed.”) Last month, the C.F.P.B. ordered Block, another payments company, to pay up to a hundred and seventy-five million dollars in restitution and fines, for not providing effective customer service and for failing to take effective measures to detect and prevent fraud…
I wondered aloud whether attacking an agency that defends the interests of ordinary Americans could ultimately backfire on Trump and the Republicans. Warren said that it could, and, for the first time in our conversation, she voiced some hope for the future: “This little agency has helped millions of people. Letting an unelected billionaire, who’s figured out one more way to grift off the public, knock it out is not a popular move.” The immediate task is to insure the survival of the C.F.P.B., even if in a diminished form, to await a less destructive Presidency. That’s roughly what happened during the first Trump Administration. With Musk and his cohort in wrecking mode, a repeat is far from guaranteed, but one thing is sure: Warren won’t relent in her efforts to save the agency she helped to create. ♦
Baud
In fairness, anyone who uses X Money deserves to be scammed.
Baud
AL, I appreciate your ability to highlight good things Warren is doing while not using Warren as a club to bludgeon other Dems with. It’s a skill not many people have.
Jeffro
She is soooooooo right: none of what the unelected billionaire is doing is a ‘popular move’. Not even in the FoxBubble.
NotMax
And now for something completely different.
;)
satby
@Baud: AL is the GOAT of blogging.
Jeffg166
This is an interesting video on the stock market with Paul Krugman and Jim Chanos.
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/a-conversation-with-jim-chanos
Suzanne
Elizabeth Warren is a goddamn national treasure.
TBone
The Purge and Razin Caine has me shook, so I needed some rock and roll flute in a can.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nBhpiUFSYWI
A Can O’ Whoopass
Baud
Just saw an ad for KY with a mixed race couple.
That’ll ruffle some feathers that need to be ruffled.
TBone
@NotMax: what does a scotch keep under her kilt
Suzanne
@Baud: Kentucky, or lube? I think the lube commercial has had a biracial couple for a while.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Lube. First time I’ve seen it. Glad they haven’t taken it down yet.
TBone
Some cajun flute inspired by Baud
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge3s3QvRqco
LAC
@Baud: I seconded that ! AL is my consistent go to here. Needed this after a night of talking with my fed friends about the latest bullshit from pasty Pol Pot.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
TBone
A deguello for Liz
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=COm8vFu1VIs
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Liminal Owl
Visa is colluding with X/Musk. Possibly ignorant question: is Mastercard equally evil? I ask because our (only) Visa card is the official one from Costco—and yes, we shop there enough that the rebate makes a difference, although not a huge one.
I’ve been wondering what to do about that, and this thread made me wonder about starting a letter-writing campaign asking Costco to divest from Visa, specifically citing their association with Musk. Would be grateful to any jackals more knowledgeable than I about the issues who can offer advice.
LAC
@rikyrah: morning!
TBone
Deguello for Liz, Andrea, and Lorelei
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=faxBtVkyIuY
AM in NC
@Jeffro: I have been using Musk’s billionaire predations and the Anti-Ukraine/Pro-American-Enemies stance of the Musk/Trump Admin in my daily “driving of wedges” over at FOX website.
I think those are the two most fruitful avenues to make some of them re-think their service to evil overlords.
Every. Day. Wedges.
They hear the garbage every day. They need to hear the truth. And always asked as a question with at least some of THEIR framing included.
Even at FOX a lot of people hate Musk, and there are a lot of Veterans, so hammering on what Musk/Trump are doing to vets AND how they are aligning us with the Axis powers against our Allies is also a good vein to mine.
Baud
@AM in NC:
Good for you.
Baud
Won’t work, but good on them for making the effort.
TBone
I can’t get serious without coffee and Wu Tang is For The Laughs right now
https://bsky.app/profile/wutangforchildren.bsky.social/post/3liry37yfls24
“The Flinch”
MomSense
It’s clear that the Trump Administration plans to make an example of Maine. DOE announced an investigation on Friday and now USDA has announced an investigation.
We are going to need people willing to come here to organize and protest. We have great lawyers in this state but it wouldn’t hurt to have more.
It’s no coincidence that the reason they are going after us is because we are defending the rights of trans women.
This is the time and the exact issue we need to defend and break this fascist power grab.
TBone
@NotMax: I just saw your “Spork in tbe road” comment and LOL thank you
TBone
@TBone: for rabble rousing
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sZDAGGuZKJE
I feel the rabble roday. Ruh roh!
Suzanne
I will be watching the results of Germany’s election today. I’m sure I’m not alone here.
TBone
@TBone: flipping the bird
https://bsky.app/profile/profgalloway.com/post/3lirlxs4ctk2i
Baud
@Suzanne:
Hopefully we woke some complacent Germans up.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: And I wish more did.
Hell, we’re still bludgeoning Biden in the Ukraine threads. The man who TRIED to stand between us and this. The only person who ever defeated Trump. And we’re dumping on him STILL.
schrodingers_cat
@satby: Plus I don’t see her in the comments berating commenters who disagree with her
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: I saw that thread. Many on our side crave an authoritarian as well and quick fixes.
TBone
Are ya ready, boots? We’re not licking soles.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SbyAZQ45uww
This is the first dance move mama taught me. In go go boots, of course.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I wish MAGA weren’t MAGA. People don’t change unless they’re made to change by external forces.
NotMax
@TBone
Flute, you say?
:)
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I posted this in the late night thread.
TBone
@NotMax: I love a man who knows the classics. Thank you!
Points for name
TBone
@Baud: I wish she could have delivered an uppercut followed by a left hook.
NotMax
@TBone
Obligatory linkage of Leningrad Cowboys.
:)
Baud
@TBone:
I doubt the people you’d like to see punched were in attendance.
Darkrose
@Baud: I will refrain from bludgeoning my junior senator with Warren on this one, since he’s working with her, but wow, am I still furious with him. In addition to Rubio, he voted for Duffy and Trump’s nominee for Ag Secretary, even after Hegseth showed that the “We’ll give Republicans space to vote against the worst nominees” approach was a failure. He’s been completely silent on the attacks on queer and trans people, the racism, and the defuding of American science and research—at least as far as I can tell, since his DC mailbox is constantly full, he has no local office contact info on his website, and the only social media feed on said website is X. This is the first sign of life I’ve seen from him so far, and I’m pretty pissed off.
TBone
@NotMax: you have rendered me speechless. I have seen a lot of covers except not that one. I knew of this band but was caught unawares!
WereBear
@Baud: Mr WereBear is watching some 70’s nostalgia on free services and the contrast between the commercials and the show can be STARK.
TBone
@Baud: you are correct, my statement was a General one.
Baud
Via reddit, Mexican mural.
Elizabelle
@Baud:
Amen. Sick of that; see too much of that here.
TBone
@WereBear: hubby stopped watching morning news, even local, altogether and now it’s Highway to Heaven every morning. Is he trying to tell me something? He’s uncharacteristically hooked on Michael Landon in all of his rerun iterations, even Little House.
Another good reason to spend my mornings with the jackals.
TBone
@Baud: excellent
BlueGuitarist
Special election PA State Senate 3/25
Democrat James Malone, Mayor of East Petersburg, is running for PA-S-36, northern Lancaster County.
A tough district: Harris -15, but narrowly carried by Josh Shapiro in 2022.
More favorable than the Harris -21 district that Democrat Mike Zimmer flipped in a few weeks ago in an Iowa State Senate special.
Unlike that IA district, which shifted sharply right since Obama carried it in 2012,
in PAS-36, Democrats have improved from Obama losing the district by 25 points in 2012.
Democratic improvement further downballot as well: Shapiro for AG
2016 -27; for AG 2020 -19; for governor 2022: +0.2.
A Libertarian Party candidate on the ballot will help.
Crucial: greater turnout in the more densely populated bluer part of the district – Mannheim, East Hempfield, Columbia Borough, East Petersburg.
Website: https://www.friendsofjamesmalone.org/
has a variety of links instagram, bluesky Maloneforsenate.bsky.social
linktree includes ActBlue donation link
(speaking of donation links: there’s a WI State Supreme Court ActBlue thermometer right here –>
Malone website has form for volunteering, including writing letters and postcards.
canvassing info at Mobilize.us
PA State Senate currently D 23; R 27. 24 -26 would be better/less bad.
Shalimar
@TBone: Feel free to call him “Raisin” Caine. His balls are shriveled up like empty grapes.
sab
@TBone: My spouse is watching Scooby Doo since the election. No news whatever.
TBone
@BlueGuitarist: thank you for your service. If I were in that District I’d throw my weight but I have big fish to fry in my own.
Elizabelle
@Darkrose: Good morning. Which Senator? Which state?
TBone
@sab: HA! A man after my own heart! That’s something I could get on board with.
(Except for Scrappy Do, that jumped the shark. I usually admire scrappiness too.)
NotMax
@sab
Spoiler alert.
It’s the carnival owner.
:)
Chief Oshkosh
It seems to me that every Democratic Senator could be doing what Warren is doing, but we may not know about it. Does anyone have stories of their Senators similarly showing spine? Would be nice if each Senator chose something to hammer on, in addition to other work. I’m especially worried about the military (the Friday night massacre/purge). Is there a Democrat pushing back on that? I don’t know of any.
I also see the value of every single one of them also hammering Trump on semi-universally unpopular things like Musk, the J6 pardons, and…wait for it…the price of eggs.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: yes
TBone
@NotMax: in the Mystery Machine. We used to have such a 70s van, an old BF bought it in the 90s for mountains travel trips. Shag carpet interior and all! Captains swivel seats and bed in the back.
🎶
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JcVXXMJLOo4
Darkrose
@Elizabelle: Adam Schiff, California.
I wrote to him twice, asking why he voted for Trump’s nominees, and got a completely contentless form letter in response that didn’t address any of the concerns I raised.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: thanks I’ll watch that later after church
NotMax
@TBone
Haven’t checked the most recent stats but think Scooby Doo still might hold the record for the most movie adaptations. Something like 65 of ’em, and that was some years back.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
oh, bullshit. There’s literally ONE person critical of Dems in leadership, mistermix, and that ONE person was too much for you. You want an echo chamber. No one was forcing you to read his posts but now none of the rest of us can either.
Elizabelle
@Darkrose: Thank you. Lucky bug for living in California; love that state.
Have no clue what my Virginia Senators Kaine and Warner have been up to, except in a very general way. Sometimes it is better that way. ;-)
LAC
@NotMax: “it’s old man Jenkins?!?”
🤣
Elizabelle
@Kay: Bullshit back at you. Good morning, Kay.
mrmoshpotato
@sab: Scooby scoobadeedo!
sentient ai from the future
i realize it’s not an open thread, but this is a financial question, so maybe adjacent enough that it’s acceptable.
i have a little bit of retirement money that i’m trying to be judicious with saving in the face of obvious impending catastrophe. i’ve recently shifted from being overweight on US equities to non-US equities and bonds.
i want to make some of my bets, knowing i can lose, on issues of importance to me. i had to reevaluate my bets on renewable energy infrastructure and EV transition immediately in light of the election, and was able to save some of my gains that way.
with all that said, i look at the central bank’s interest rate and wonder, how do i go about buying ukranian war bonds? or, even better, serve as a conduit for others to buy them?
Baud
@sentient ai from the future:
It’s an open thread.
WereBear
@TBone: We keep up news-wise but try not to get too involved, because then we yell, but not at each other.
TV is a necessity for two people needing to conserve their energies. It can be nostalgia, a respite, or in our case, a reminder of how far society has come since we were children. We both remember when Bruce Lee couldn’t star in Kung Fu and Mannix hired Gail Fisher.
I will watch Kojak, with excellent writing and an eye for future stars. And no commercials.
TBone
@NotMax: I only really like the OG Saturday morning fare. I am an old woman!
LAC
Oh, here we go…the first of the gatekeepers are here to remind us to stay in our lane. Those that she deems worthy to speak to. Time for coffee.
Baud
@WereBear:
And now you have mixed race couples in KY ads!
TBone
@Kay: whut!? Is he gone?
p.a.
What’s that? mm dropped out?
eclare
@WereBear:
Who loves ya, baby?
Starfish (she/her)
@Baud: Warren is Anne Laurie’s Senator, and she is proud of her Senator for doing good things.
Despite, MA being a deep blue state, it really is hard for them to find and keep good women in politics in MA, so Warren is unusual in that way.
Katie Porter was a student of Warren’s and represented a significantly more conservative area.
The way that commenters want to keep the division between liberal Democrats and less liberal Democrats going is annoying because they are doing it in an attempt to blame and ostracize.
I like that Anne Laurie and Mistermix represent these different view points on the front page because we need ALL the Democrats to be engaged.
eclare
@p.a.:
Yeah, what?
TBone
@WereBear: agreed – you’d have to pry my TCM TV remote from my cold, dead fingers. I wasn’t such an addict before The Plague but now … long Covid made TV a necessity.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
The intolerance of ONE dissenting front pager is way over the top. You can’t even limit it to his threads – you have to drag this blue maga shit into EVERY thread with these chicken shit, passive aggressive attacks on people “SOME people who we will not name are critical..”
You don’t want him (or any critic) posting here. Just say it. Well, you got your wish.
NotMax
@TBone
The ascot never did catch on among the hipsters.
;)
TBone
@Baud: thank ALL teh gawds!
TBone
@NotMax: Spitting LOL!
prostratedragon
Data Dunkirk:
LAC
@WereBear: my friend has such a crush on telly savales. I tried to trip her up with a YouTube clip of his variety show “who loves ya, baby” back in the 70s, She is still crushing on him. 🤣
Kay
@LAC:
Balloon Juice was not intended to be a closed clique where 9 people murmur comforting affirmations to one another.
WereBear
@eclare: “We gotta get these jellybeans off the streets!”
I have to say I’m deeply impressed with the cutting edge fashion, too. They took risks — especially with plaid — and got away with it.
Starfish (she/her)
@Chief Oshkosh: Other Senators maybe standing up for stuff, but they are boring speakers. Saying “that is illegal” to everything Trump does may be true, but it is just less interesting.
Kay
@LAC:
more chicken shit passive aggressive.
That comment was directed at me. So direct it at me. You want to call me a name then have the courage to actually do it.
eclare
@WereBear:
Lots of plaid everywhere in those old shows, not just clothing. Lots of plaid furniture…
eclare
@Kay:
And back to the pie cabinet you go.
NotMax
@eclare
Herculon sofas!
Starfish (she/her)
@TBone: Every day, certain people go to Mistermix’s posts to whine about them. They could ignore his posts and not comment on them; but instead of doing that, they go over and attempt to mark their territory in the comments of those posts.
It is a small handful of folks who do this, but they do this every day instead of writing their Senators or walking their dogs or whatever.
WereBear
@LAC: He’s a sharp dresser, has a voice like chocolate caramel crumb cake, and is a certified genius.
I would only enable your friend.
LAC
@Kay: Nor is it a place where people coming from different life experiences have their perspectives devalued, their concerns waived off by FPs just wanting mindless “thanks you’s” for posting. No one called MM a troll or a fool, but he felt that he could do it.
beckya57
@Jeffro: “Nevertheless, she persisted”
LAC
@WereBear: LOL! Yes, you two would be driving me crazy!
The Thin Black Duke
@Starfish (she/her): I chose not to comment on MM’s post when he was implying the black community was “fools” for not trashing Jeffreys’ “children’s book” tour because there was no point.
MomSense
@Kay:
I don’t agree with MisterMix on everything but his threads are thought provoking and challenging. I also think they are more in line with where the active base of the party is right now.
We used to be able to handle differences of opinion on this blog. Dog knows I have found myself on the receiving end over the years because of holding contrary opinions. I don’t ever remember this desire for a total echo chamber.
We are literally battling fascism and folks here can’t tolerate anyone who holds a different view.
Kay
@eclare:
Good. Pie me. Keep the echo chamber pure and unsullied.
mistermix is right. Democrats are demoralized. Sticking your fingers in your ears and yelling la la la isn’t going to change that reality.
stinger
@Baud:
Thank you for that link. Please god let her run again.
Kay
@MomSense:
It’s ridiculous and it’s EVERY thread. Every thread is policed for negative comments, with implied warnings.
One post a day by the dissenter was too much apparently – they must own every inch of real estate on the blog or they can’t rest.
sentient ai from the future
@prostratedragon: i also saw this project, for the technically inclined, on mastodon:
https://neuromatch.social/@jonny/114052090752371282
as a longtime digital archivist/hoarder/pirate, i am feeling the need to shake off the dust.
Starfish (she/her)
@The Thin Black Duke: That discussion was interesting. I didn’t know about Jeffries’ book so I went to look it up.
Some people were comparing it to March, and I don’t think it is comparable to March.
I think some people judge Jeffries too harshly. They are using Jeffries as a stand in for “establishment Democrats,” and I think his tone is different than Pelosi’s. And even though Pelosi tried to be diplomatic, there was that time that she tore up the Trump speech too.
I think that the way some people are choosing to see things through very simplistic frameworks may not be serving us well at times.
But it is hard to be nuanced in a country run by a man whose nominees could get Senate confirmation if they showed up to their confirmation hearings and shoved crayons up their noses.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Thank you. INSPIRING. I hope that gets front-paged.
Kay
@MomSense:
He can’t even discuss NY politics as a New Yorker! That’s a new level of intolerance for dissent.
WereBear
@sentient ai from the future: We have the need, you have the skills. 🖖.
Kay
@zhena gogolia:
It should all just be inspiring! Because that’s what political blogs are! They’re like a religious service!
satby
@Kay: you mean unlike the master class in tolerance you display all the time with people who disagree with you?
Elizabelle
@Kay: Back from getting coffee downstairs.
What are you talking about “I got my wish?”
Secondly, Democrats suffered a fairly narrow loss. I don’t think that says tear the whole party to bits. MM is right that the times we are in require additional forms and types of messaging.
The sneer at Jeffries’ ABCs book turns out to have been ill informed as well as cynical. Quel surprise.
MomSense
@Kay:
It’s gotten ridiculous.
JMG
@Kay: I don’t think Democrats are demoralized. I think they’re pissed off. And the ones with Democratic representatives and Senators are venting at them because they’re the closest targets. I think they’re aware the Dems are in the minority in Congress, they just want to see a little fight, a little spirit, from said minority. Look at how the abysmal Gov. Hochul of New York got her many many critics off her back for a day or two just by telling Trump to shove it over congestion pricing.
sentient ai from the future
@Kay: i looked at all the comments on mm’s last post and i didn’t see anything that indicates he is leaving, or that the comments are particularly hurtful lately, so if you have a reference i would appreciate it so that i can have a starting point dig down into what’s actually going on.
i pie a few semi-regular commenters myself, but i also know that the hands-off approach of cole can have certain blind spots even as i appreciate the consistency there.
The Thin Black Duke
@Starfish (she/her): In this instance I think Jeffries’ is directly communicating with the black community. Specifically, he’s emphasizing the importance of being aware of black people’s history in the country, which takes on greater significance considering King Trump’s and President Musk’s efforts in resurrecting Jim Crow 2.0. I think what got some observers upset was that Jeffries’ wasn’t talking to white people this time. Like it or not, the white people the Democrats need to reach will only listen to other white people.
Gin & Tonic
@Kay:
An average day last week had 4-5 mistermix posts. There were days when he was the only one posting between AL’s morning thread and dinnertime.
John S.
@Kay:
BJ used to be like that 20 years ago. Back when John was still a conservative and the 9 people here were all telling each other how awesome Bush was.
Elizabelle
@Kay: Religious services with a lot of stuff we just have to take on faith, because men said it? (Sometimes, a long long time ago.)
Gin & Tonic
@The Thin Black Duke: Thank you for bringing that perspective here.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: And I still fully expect some Americans* on this thread to start trashing her and demanding that she “go away, loser!”
RevRick
@Baud:
@Suzanne: The key word in Sen. Warren’s question to her GOP colleagues is need. That word is freighted with a moral imperative. What do you need is more important than what do you want? Needs refer to the basics of life. I need food. I need clothes. I need shelter. I need to be able to get from one place to another. I need clean air and water.
Wants are individual desires. I want to remodel my kitchen. I want Cheerios with blueberries for breakfast. I want more books to read.
All those wants may be good for the soul, but they don’t carry the same moral values as the things you need.
But here GOP Senators are asserting that high-earning people need tax cuts. And the question we need to ask is why do they believe such a morally warped view?
Peel away all the fancy rhetoric, and it comes down to reifying white male supremacy. They believe that Mr. Richie Rich needs tax cuts to cement the racial, class, and gender hierarchies which form the true center of their worldview.
Baud
@Starfish (she/her):
We’re a big tent. We have no choice in the matter since we’re a minority and need every body we can get.
prostratedragon
@sentient ai from the future: Yeah, I may soon be looking for an opportunity go do the same. Data was one of the first things I thought about on election night.
zhena gogolia
@Kay: Oh, man, you are really jumping the shark.
I was not addressing you. On purpose. Not interested in this any more.
Baud
@RevRick:
Conservatives are very devoted to the principle that their wants are needs. Indeed, they think the fabric of society depends on their “needs” getting fulfilled.
eclare
@RevRick:
Great points, thanks.
MomSense
@Elizabelle:
We were only able to suffer a narrow loss after taking extraordinary actions in the last four months of the campaign. The party absolutely failed and the evidence is how bad it got before we took extraordinary action.
And you can’t run on Trump being an existential threat to democracy and then turn around after the election and use the same old out of touch Congress speak. Too many democrats are sounding like business as usual which makes the threat we ran on sound like it was just manipulation.
There is a reason Maine’s governor talking back to Trump to his face has gotten so much positive attention from Democrats. There is a hunger for showing some fight. And yes I know we are limited in what we can do, but a huge part of politics is the theater of it, the persuasion, the rallying of support and energy that a successful opposition has to do. It is essential.
Starfish (she/her)
@satby: Folks are not just disagreeing with Kay. They are constantly attempting to police the lefty thoughts allowed on this blog.
Yesterday, I went to an event as a guest of a friend who is very heavily into food co-ops. The event was to create material to feed into our county’s 20 year plan.
It was more diverse than a lot of things in my town are, and it was weird and aspirational.
One table wanted to end billionaires by 2026.
There was a table of old white hippies. There was a table where a local Black pastor was leading a group discussing free time as prosperity. One of the black speakers was discussing Earthship (in Taos, NM), as I was thinking about our commenter who fled there from Altadena talking about the lack of diversity in Taos.
There is one lady that lost her seat in Denver politics to someone more conservative that the Denver Scott liked, and she was there too running our discussion on food access at the table that I was at.
And all those ideas, all those different viewpoints, they were allowed to co-exist even if I was a little uncomfortable with the way some people were a little magical in their discussion of potential futures.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
I don’t know that I’ve seen that attitude toward Harris at BJ. Elsewhere, maybe.
The Thin Black Duke
I’m off to be an adult today and do grown-up things. Play nice.
zhena gogolia
@Starfish (she/her): None of us has the power to ban anyone. We have the right to express our opinions, just as everyone else here does. It’s the front-pagers who are policing people and not allowing dissenting thoughts in their threads. (Not just mm.)
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Check out Kay’s last comment to me.
zhena gogolia
And I’m off to church, if that’s okay with everyone here.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Depends on the denomination. /EmoPhilips
Starfish (she/her)
@JMG: There is definitely a bit of demoralized going on. I asked a friend at dinner if she had been to any protests. She has the free time to go, and she said “What’s the point? It’s not like we can stop any of this.” She is normally very involved in specific issues.
She raised thousands to file the paperwork to get refugees out of Afghanistan, and none of that went anywhere. It felt like a waste of time and money. None of those folks were considered. They are still stuck in Afghanistan, and Trump is trying to attack the citizenship of people who are citizens now.
It is demoralizing.
John S.
@Starfish (she/her):
Well said.
p.a.
@MomSense: +10
sentient ai from the future
@RevRick: when your pile of money and investments produces enough for an adult human to live an average, middle-class life without having to work to maintain those investments, the comfort and lack of sacrifice and priority-setting gets deep down into your character.
so of course, you don’t need to figure out how to set limits for yourself, you need to figure out how to break externally imposed limits. like tax policy. and you are also competing with a bunch of other privileged nitwits to break those limits and fame is really what you want since your actual needs are long since taken care of.
it only takes about $1.5m to have enough yearly gains even with conservative investments to have a lower-middle-class lifestyle as an individual, but all that extra free time you have is also an opportunity to spend profligately.
Starfish (she/her)
@The Thin Black Duke:
This is so very true. The people who need to be reached have the delicate feelings of baby birds who will hear not even the most minor critique of King Trump. He is going to snatch their Social Security and Medicare away; and rather than pondering that, these folks are going to try to find a way to blame Joe Biden.
eclare
@Starfish (she/her):
Oh that’s heartbreaking.
stinger
@The Thin Black Duke: I missed most of the Jeffries’ kerfuffle, so thanks for this explainer. I saw him called a fool for promoting his new book, and didn’t have the time or interest to read further. So now I’ve googled, and see that the book illustrates his inspiring maiden speech as Dem Leader, using the ABCs to teach American values: “Benevolence over bigotry; the Constitution over the cult, Democracy over demagogues,” etc.
I think the book, along with Kamala’s speech that Baud linked to above, should be front paged.
eclare
Great photo today, WaterGirl.
Kay
@satby:
Adam Silverman too. You all whined so much he only posts on Ukraine now.
He called this whole fucking coup two years before it happened but the choir here didn’t want to hear it – he was right. About everything. But too “negative” and “doomy” for the snowflakes here so now no one gets to read him. Good job.
satby
@Starfish (she/her): expressing disagreement and dissatisfaction with the repetitive harping against Dems, and the dismissal of other viewpoints, especially those of POC and other marginalized commenters is not “policing comments” except in Kay’s view. It’s standing firm on the concept that this other viewpoints are valid too. This happens all the time here, and threads get contentious mostly when Kay and allies come in guns blazing to complain about an echo chamber that doesn’t really exist.
Elizabelle
@MomSense: Agree with you about showing some fight.
It is tragic that the skills required for running for office are not necessarily those required for being a very good POTUS for all Americans.(**) Which Biden was. I think we should have had his back, although was also delighted to vote for Harris Walz.
This media and social environment is toxic and often false.
And I still wonder why our side did not turn out. “Misogyny” does not cut it. I wonder if there was some under the radar major disinformation that went on; just enough to dissuade.
Anyway, we are living with the results, and it is a tragedy.
ETA: ** I realize we all have concerns on Israel/Gaza and Ukraine. Both present various types of problems from hell. We do not know what kinds of constraints were in place, and yes, it’s possible Biden’s team made the wrong calls.
Last, I despise the Peter Baker – Susan Glasser axis of Villagers that tore Biden to shreds over the Afghanistan exit. They own this, too.
Kay
John criticizes Dems all the time. Not a peep out of any of you about that. Because you’re chicken shit.
sentient ai from the future
@satby: well if as a community we’re conflicted and expending energy on the issue of if an echo chamber exists or not, at least that limits the time and energy we can put into any work to make things in the outside world better, i guess is the theory
satby
@Kay: he also amplifies black and marginalized people’s perspective, which isn’t a skill other people have displayed.
You honestly don’t even understand the difference, do you?
John S.
@MomSense:
Yup. That’s why I call my representatives constantly now. I tell them when I support what they are doing, but I also tell them when I don’t support what they are doing.
Early on in this shit show, they were voting for Trump nominees. But after weeks of people jamming their phones and yelling at them to fight, they finally stopped and decided to show some spine.
Constructive criticism works.
Elizabelle
@Kay: No one gets to read Adam any more? Excuse me?
He has been doing an incredible amount of work on the nightly Ukraine posts. Are we requiring him to post more?
And yes, I thought his view was too dark. Turns out he was right.
Again, we are living through tragedy.
All eyes on Germany’s elections today.
Starfish (she/her)
@stinger: I saw the few pages in the press releases, and there was one that said “Maturity over Mar-a-Lago,” and I hope that we reach a future soon (in five years, in ten years) where folks don’t even know what Mar-a-Lago is, and that entire page is incomprehensible.
satby
@sentient ai from the future: well, that’s a stupid theory. Comments on a blog don’t preclude OR signify lack of action elsewhere.
Layer8Problem
@sentient ai from the future: Darn you for fixing that figure! I was all set to reply that $15 million in the Three per Cents would actually set one up in quite a serviceable situation and possibly even be able to afford a house in the country AND one in town for the season.
rikyrah
The strength..
The balance…
The control… 👀👀👀👀 https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8YtVCsg/
John S.
@satby:
The total lack of self awareness is amazing.
Kay
@satby:
More bullshit. You’re the biggest speech enforcer on the blog. Always ready to pull someone over and issue a citation.
Hey, you can celebrate! You got your echo chamber. It will all be uplifting daily affirmations now about how great we are and how much they suck.
Boy I sure wish we had Adam to talk about the fascist coup! But he was too upsetting, right? Because he correctly called what happened to us but you big babies didn’t want to hear it?
satby
@Kay: “you all”???
Clearly everyone not meeting your exacting yet shifting requirements have failed at correct commenting. But other people “tone police”. Claro.
sentient ai from the future
@satby:
oh, you have solved the problem of zero-time zero-effort blog commenting? please, elaborate.
TBone
@Starfish (she/her): agree!
Starfish (she/her)
@satby: You are discussing “repetitive harping against Dems” while attacking other Dems. Am I getting that right?
Repeatedly attacking other Dems or snidely taking issue with other Dems is not furthering the Democratic party.
The original comment that started all of this was congratulating Anne Laurie for supporting her Senator WITHOUT aligning herself with those icky college-educated white leftists IN the party.
I do think that Warren is not the right person to run for President, but I think that if we run a white bro to get right wingers, and right wingers run some more diverse conservatives, they will absolutely eat our lunch.
Matt McIrvin
@Starfish (she/her):
And, if I recall correctly, Warren consistently underperforms in elections relative to the blue lean of the state, which probably is some combination of her being a woman and her national progressive-gadfly status. It’s just not enough for her to lose.
sentient ai from the future
@Layer8Problem: measure twice, cut once…and a half times, if you catch it before the edit window closes
debit
@Kay: Only posts on Ukraine and calls the other front pagers malignant narcissists you mean.
Because, actually, we can read his posts.
ETA:
38.
Adam L Silverman
February 22, 2025 at 9:46 pm
@YY_Sima Qian: No, we are not. Some are malignant narcissists that seek only attention and will do anything and everything to get it. And they will gaslight anyone who dares call them out.
Kay
@satby:
Again, it’s ONE front pager mildly criticizing Democrats once a day. Too much for the snowflakes to bear. You can’t scroll past? You have to issue warnings to dissenters in every fucking thread?
Elizabelle
@Starfish (she/her): That we as a nation did not do well by our Iraqi translators (remember them) and the very democratically-oriented people who want to flee Afghanistan is a shame upon us, and another tragedy.
I met an incredibly kind Iraqi refugee who was living in southern Bavaria, Germany a few years back. (Near Berchtesgaden, gorgeous area that should be famous for more than its being Hitler’s favorite retreat.)
He was grateful to be there, but really had hoped to be in the US, like his brother who made it to Texas.
I told him I thought he had gotten the better deal, but he was dubious.
Also, The Felon ending TPS (temporary protected status) for Haitians? When their country is beset by gangs and some airlines may not even be landing there?
That is murder.
MazeDancer
“The Reid Out” on MSNBC has been cancelled. Will be replaced by The.Weekend cast.
And .Alex Wagner will not be returning when/if Rachel leaves.
Baud
@Starfish (she/her):
The reader can look at Comment #2 and decide for themselves if this is an accurate representation of what was said.
Layer8Problem
@John S.: Tell us, o smasher of cliques – pardon me, clique.
Kay
@debit:
He was a “doomer” too “negative” also, RIGHT. He was right. That used to matter here. I don’t care at all that he’s impolite or eccentric. Matters NOT AT ALL to me. His substance was correct .
stinger
@Starfish (she/her):
Amen. I do intend to buy the book!
TBone
@Shalimar: I love that about you – unafraid, undaunted, just like my own dear, departed mum. I will picture him like this, only because I prefer not to think of testicles in his vicinity
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JL3eTqsB73I
eclare
@rikyrah:
Whoa!
Geminid
@stinger: Hakeem Jeffries’ ABCs of Democracy has been front paged, yesterday afternoon. It just wasn’t how the front pager intended.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Starfish (she/her):
You are referring to Candi CdeBaca. She’s an outspoken Latina who’s a massive policy wonk. She’s a combination of Crockett and AOC. She is fantastic.
One of our sleaziest, biggest and most powerful local developers spent about $800K in dark money to help fund her rival, a gay black man btw (and a neighbor in that he lives about 4 blocks away, I’ve worked with him before he finally got elected on several neighborhood ‘pocket parks’) and turned it into the most expensive city council race in Denver’s history.
They found a loophole in Denver’s campaign finance laws that basically let them funnel massive amounts of money via several out-of-state conduits–a group of 10 of us filed a complaint during the campaign but ran into a dead end in being able to investigate stuff out-of-state.
She was great and would represent much of the base (and therefore not the ‘New Democrat, Blue Dog v2.0’ component of the Dem party). As I’ve said before, the mass of entitled white professionals that have moved here over the last decade from their lily-white backgrounds definitely didn’t want an outspoken Latina Denver native telling them directly how their policies were fucking over POC, displacing them, etc.
City Council had also, deliberately, redrawn her district so as to make it a more pale-Blue Dem, entitled white populated district, because she didn’t ingratiate herself with the power structure within CC.
Candi was growing into the job from a *politicians* standpoint (as opposed to being a whip smart, energetic firebrand who was doing a slow but steady job in solidifying support among old white liberals like me) but that wasn’t enough.
debit
I gotta say, every time I check back in here it feels like July of 2024 all over again. Later, dudes.
Cheryl from Maryland
@Elizabelle: The decline of the media, the diffusion of the media, the decline of local news; it makes it hard work to be accurately informed. I get most of my DC area news now from Blue Virginia.
Another Scott
@BlueGuitarist: +1
Donated.
Forward!!
Best wishes,
Scott.
satby
@Kay: You. I argue with you, Kay, because you’re a bully. You rant, you call names, you move the goalposts, and in the case of planet eddie, you were cruel. It’s you. No one dare disagree with you without risking a diatribe.
I’m barely on this blog anymore. So it’s not me policing anyone.
Elizabelle
@debit: Whoa! Adam’s post last night with 100 comments. Will have to check that out.
Adam was responding to this comment from YY_Sima Qian, but there was more back and forth earlier and later.
at number 36.
TBone
@mrmoshpotato:
SCOOBY SNAX after wake & bake – thanks for reminding me I was missing something! Noah was suddenly awake a little while ago and required extra scritches. Last night, he was grumpy and growling a bit so I put him in my bed immediately and began crooning. That little bugger stole my heart AGAIN by rolling over and extending his big boy Paw of Ownership on my hand when he heard my croon!
Elizabelle
@debit: It was good to see you! Don’t be gone so long!
How is the pet supply? I still smile every time I think of Walter.
Another Scott
@Chief Oshkosh: As you say, things are happening.
Keep an eye on Gerry Connolly.
Best wishes,
Scott.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
deleted
Layer8Problem
@debit: It’s not as bad as then, but boy the reaction from some parties on being contradicted or disagreed with is amazing.
Ohio Mom
It’s been painful for me to look back and evaluate what Biden (who I like very much) could have done differently — looking at you, Merrick Garland, for starters, and Biden not stepping aside and allowing a primary.
I could make a longer list, but what is the point? There is only the future. What is the best way forward, how would I know. Obviously, no one else is all that sure either.
In the early days of Trump’s first term, Atrios used to harp on GW being the worst of the two, because he was counting all the war dead and to be fair, Trump hadn’t accomplished much at that point (“accomplished” can’t be the best word, sounds too positve).
Anyway, that debate is over. This debate will run its course too, though I’m not sanguine about the possibility of me liking the final result.
LAC
@TBone: i am glad. I watch so much cat video content and had my fur baby for 20 years, so I know that grumpy/mommy give me attention move.
TBone
@prostratedragon: my cousin teaching the teachers in Ann Arbor will know about this but I didn’t. Thank you!
Another Scott
@sentient ai from the future: Someone at Ukraine House may be able to help (they’re the US branch of United24 and must know of people who know the rules and methods of financing Ukraine, I would think).
Just a guess – hope it is helpful.
Slava Ukraini!!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Lyrebird
@schrodingers_cat: very much agreed.
Love Sen. Warren, Love AL, and appreciate that I don’t recall either of them punching down.
I am usually not the fashion commenter here, but I really like the strange green color of the New Yorker cover, bc it makes Sen. Warren look like the Statue of Liberty.
Fitting!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Less meta, more to the point of what the good Senator Warren is saying, always remind people:
How much does Edolph make from the gubmint each day: $8m
How much does your average senior get from Social Security a day: $65
Guess which budget Edolf and Hair Furor want to cut?
Thank you Congressman Greg Cesar for such a great, succinct talking point.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all.
Well, I see a lot of you have been busy this mornin’!
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: *cough*Erik Loomis
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
Good morning.
Professor Bigfoot
@The Thin Black Duke:
Some would like to pretend that their criticism of Democrats has nothing to do with the race and gender of Democrats and their base.
But it comes through in their every comment and post.
Oh well, “it is what it is.”
TBone
@Kay: I remember when someone was sea lioning Suzanne and I intervened with “I didn’t sign up to play defense on a team of cowards!” Sticks and stones…carrots or whips. Whatever works!
satby
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: that IS a good talking point! Thanks.
Lyrebird
@zhena gogolia:
Have you given Bluesky a try at all? Just wondering.
I prefer a blog format to lots of little feeds, but the thread you mentioned got me a few steps closer to switching.
@Baud:
I appreciate your comment very much as well!
Now I am off to play mom taxi
sentient ai from the future
@Ohio Mom: i have rendered a verdict.
they are both The Worst.
but This Guy is the Worstest
Layer8Problem
@Matt McIrvin: Now there’s a front-pager who knows how to slap people down!
Professor Bigfoot
@MomSense:
It certainly feels at times like those disagreements are indeed, so rooted.
TBone
@LAC: he does it in such a devastating way! You can’t NOT love him, it’s impossible!
lowtechcyclist
@TBone:
Rimsky was one of our cats! An absolutely adorable feline. He passed away several years ago at the age of 15.
He had a brother named Korsakov, of course. But poor Korsy had FIP and lived all too short a life on account of that.
Starfish (she/her)
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Candi came up to Boulder to help us with this, even though she is no longer in office! We also had someone who works for CASA in Denver come and help with this event. Every time anyone at our table had an idea, Candi would ask “How do we turn this into policy” because the ultimate point was to get some policy ideas.
TBone
@Professor Bigfoot: good morning starshine
TBone
@lowtechcyclist: may the memories bless you furrever. It’s a small world, after all
Professor Bigfoot
@Starfish (she/her):
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
HinTN
@Baud: The number of working class mixed race couples (with children) I see in Kroger here in dead red Tennessee is statistically significant. Life ain’t the lily white thang these talibangicals think it is.
Jackie
@MazeDancer: NBC brass had warned MSNBC viewers things would be changing…
I like The Weekend. What/who will be replacing their two hours Sat/Sun? I am looking forward to seeing more Symone, Michael and Alicia though!
Another Scott
@Baud: +1
Mutual admiration societies are boring. We need to be able to disagree. We need to take the time to think about different viewpoints.
We’ve all got our buttons and hobbyhorses. Me too!!1 Let’s remember that we all want things to be better and we all need to muddle through this disaster together.
Purity kills.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
BlueGuitarist
@Another Scott:
Thanks! You are awesome!
Professor Bigfoot
@The Thin Black Duke:
Even the power to speak to other Black people. Whiteness must be centered, even among ostensible Democrats.
Elizabelle
Kay: did you read MM’s “Sampling the Local Media” thread yesterday? All the comments? MM actually derailed it himself by throwing in a gratuitous sneer at Hakeem Jeffries.
It’s disingenuous to scoff at a “children’s book” that actually is not. We had a pretty full discussion of what actually is in Hakeem Jeffries’ ABCs of Democracy. Here’s link to the Amazon sample of the book. Has the intro and several pages.
I am happy to see AOC out there standing up for Democrats. I am going to say something when someone is demeaning another Democrat with false information. All it took was looking at the book, its forward, and realizing it came out of a House floor speech. I put the transcript from 2023 up in one of my comments.
Your pal,
Elizabelle the Echo Chamber Maven
eclare
@LAC:
The only time my non-affectionate cat comes up to me to demand attention and pets is when I’m talking on the phone. As I imagine most toddlers do.
Jackie
@debit: It’s good to see you! I rarely post anymore, either, and skip/skim through a lot of posts since July, and again since Nov.
TBone
@Starfish (she/her): I’ve had a bad experience.where an ex girlfriend swatted me & I spent the night in a cold, basement jail in a negligee, but I’m gonna say it again for those who need to hear it (I wasn’t even on the phone, she overheard me from 10 feet away on the sofa):
She told the cops I’d threatened her life. Luckily, my attorney boss worked for the FOPs and was best friends with the top criminal defense attorney in the County, because that ex nemesis worked for a Common Pleas Judge!
Cuffed & stuffed!
Professor Bigfoot
@Kay: Because I pied his fuckin’ ass weeks ago.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
You pied Cole?
Professor Bigfoot
@Elizabelle: Man, I HATED Adam’s view… but goddamn if I could find any holes in his analysis or his reasoning.
”I really, really hate that you’re right.”
LAC
@eclare: awwww. That is their version of “mom…mom…mom…mom”.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: No, never the Blogfather.
But he’s not the only commenter here who shares my own meatspace first name. THAT one’s been pied and remains pied and I make sure never to touch that toggle button.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
Gotcha. I think the comment above was referring to Cole. But can’t be sure.
Miss Bianca
@MomSense: I find myself very tempted. Two problems: work schedule *and* would have to fly out to Maine, and I am boycotting all air travel for the foreseeable future.
Baud
Via reddit, for Betty C if she’s around.
Elizabelle
@Professor Bigfoot: I know.
In all honesty, I should go back and read the initial posts.
Come on Germany. Do better than we did!
Layer8Problem
@Another Scott: I think we could get a lot of mileage out of a simple “I’ve said my piece in the past and I’ve been holding down my enumeration of Why I’m Right to once a week, tops, done in a pleasant, even, non-judgemental tone too. We’ll have to agree to disagree.” Instead of, just as a hypothetical example, “You’re STILL wrong, and you’ve ALWAYS been wrong! And that you can’t even admit you’re wrong makes you EVEN MORE wrong!!”
TBone
PS I told a dick joke in last night’s Ukraine thread.
A de-escalation attempt.
What did the elephant say to the naked man?
“How do you breathe through that thing?”
Nukular Biskits
Looks like I woke up and walked to a pie fight this morning. FFS.
Gin & Tonic
@Kay: “No one gets to read him?” He has posted here *every single day* for the last three years. Every day! I once suggested it’d be ok for him to cut back and he wouldn’t hear of it.
TBone
@Nukular Biskits: didja bring whipped cream?
Geminid
@HinTN: There are plenty of mixed race couples around here in Central Virginia. It was the same in Augusta County when I lived over in the Valley.
That’s why, when Sab was worrying about her granddaughter and her Black partner moving to Richmond, I reassured her that they would find a congenial home in Virginia or at least that part.
My joke is that the when the Kochs hold a family reunion 50 years from now, the “Whites” will be in the minority because of intermarriage. I can see the rest pranking them by including sunscreen in their welcome bags, but in a good natured way.
Nukular Biskits
@TBone:
I used it all up last night … <wink, wink>
TBone
@Nukular Biskits: points for, well, everything hahaha!
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Starfish (she/her): It’s true when they say “that’s illegal” but not sufficient because some right wing crank legal expert can always be found to say it is legal. What Warren is doing goes beyond that: she’s explaining how what they’re doing is hurting everyday Americans by allowing them to scam you out of money.
Other Democrats need to connect those dots for people rather than just say it’s illegal. Like, the next plane you get on might crash thanks to what these guys are doing. Your grandma might get kicked out of her nursing home if they slash Medicaid. Whose going to be tracking down America’s Most Wanted when they fire a bunch of FBI Agents?
We’re talking concrete everyday consequences like safety, grandma’s medical care, and crime here. The messages are just lying there waiting for someone to push them.
MomSense
@Elizabelle:
To be fair, when he was invited on some of the morning shows to discuss the book, they called it a children’s book. I have nothing against children’s books. They often present important truths and values. I don’t think that is the crux of the problem. When books are published the authors are usually contractually obligated to do book tours, tv, social media, etc. In my opinion these events are not meeting the energy of the moment for our congressional leadership. And I think it is hitting a lot of people that way. I see a generational disconnect in my IRL social circles. The youngs, including young POC, are absolutely frustrated and feel that most elected Democrats are irrelevant. These are young people who are worried they and their families and friends will be deported to the places they fled. They have created networks to warn about ICE. I think we assume too much on this blog that demographics are monolithic and that we know where they stand. We are speaking too much for people.
In my life, the majority opinions on this blog are outliers. I feel very fortunate to have wide and diverse social circles. They don’t sound anything like this blog.
There is a futsol community in Portland Maine that is one of the most diverse communities in the country. The number of languages spoken by the players is incredible. There is a short documentary film about it. Anyway, we have rallied around this community. I am one of many who volunteer at their tournaments. Our governor shows up for them all the time and has for years. She meets with them, watches games with them, and knows them well. I can’t help but feel she channeled some of that energy when she stood up to Trump.
I’ve always liked and supported Jeffries. I just don’t think this is the energy we need from him now. Thankfully other Dems are stepping up.
Wr are in a hair on fire constitutional crisis. That is the context by which we should assess the words and deeds of our elected leaders.
UncleEbeneezer
@Starfish (she/her): Sorry, but if you, MM or anyone else is gonna relentlessly bash Dems, then you’re all gonna catch some smoke from people who are sick and tired of that bullshit. It is what it is. If y’all can’t handle that reality then maybe you should learn to keep some shit to yourself.
You all seem to want the same double-standard as MAGA: They want to be free to hurl racist epithets and nobody is allowed to call them out. You want to be free to lob the most toxic insults imaginable hurled at Dems, and nobody is supposed to be allowed to pushback, call out your bullshit or tell you you’re being an asshole for doing it. Fuck no.
We all just had to sit through four fucking years of constant, relentless demonizing of the most effective/Progressive President of my lifetime which ultimately destroyed his Presidency and made the election almost un-winnable for Kamala. We literally begged you to stop but you refused. Or if you weren’t the one doing the actual demonizing, maybe you were constantly defending, justifying and enabling the shitty behavior.
Well now here we are as we all watch everything good and dear to us burn to the ground, just as WE warned it would.
I’m sorry, but we get to have our time at the podium too and yeah, you’re gonna hear some shit for what you did/continue to do.
You don’t get to use a call for “unity” as your shield when you had zero interest in unity when we really needed it to stop Trump. And no, you don’t get to demand that we all just forgive, forget, move on and sing Kumbaya together. That’s not how forgiveness or accountability works. People are gonna stay mad for as long as they need to. Some people are gonna be mad forever and that is their right. You should’ve thought about that earlier. Hell, they literally warned you but y’all just wouldn’t listen.
if you can’t handle pushback, you are also free to skip posts/comments etc. I do it all the time. It’s not that hard. And it’s actually good for mental health. You are free to keep bashing Dems all you want, but other people are also free to tell you to STFU. It’s not complicated.
And honestly, you really should understand that the smoke you all are catching is really fucking mild! Like, most people are holding back, big time and being far kinder than they could be.
YY_Sima Qian
Love what Sen. Warren is doing (& has always done), explaining to voters why certain issues matter to their pocket books, in simple & concise language, w/o condescension, establishing clear contrast w/ the reactionaries, & leaving no doubt who she is fighting for & against.
But, should have known that so many comments so quickly is not a good sign.
The last feel good post on US politics we had went sour because Trump just fired the senior military leadership & replaced them w/ hacks. Do we have to drive this feel good post into the gutter w/ the intramural recriminations?
As I posed to Adam in the Ukraine post, we are all allies against the nativist, revanchist, fundamentalist reactionaries. I am sure all of us voted for Harris & likely straight D. Despite the inevitably heated differences of opinions, in these deeply stressful & uncertain times, shall we treat each other as allies acting in good faith, & not vent our anger & frustrations through name calling?
If we don’t think of each other (fellow Jackals) as allies in the war against the reactionaries, then we will either hang separately or live in exile. No single part of the anti-Fascist coalition can defeat the Fascists alone.
Kay
@satby:
Mistermix was the only nonwhite front pager on here. Most of the people on here calling him a bigot are whiter than he is.
Good job, BJ police force!
Another Scott
@Layer8Problem: Trauma is a real thing. My J still feels the wounds from bad stuff from about 50 years ago. :-( It’s not surprising that stuff less than a year ago is still an unresolved horror for many of us.
There’s a good “Are you venting, or do you want advice?” meme out there. I think a lot of what we’re seeing here is venting. That’s fine, we all need to be able to do it sometimes. It’s good we have space here to do that.
It’s also good that we have the Pie Filters if we decide it’s too much. Nobody has time to read and respond to everything; the pie filter is a great tool for keeping our blood pressure down if things get to be too much for us.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
I love it when commenters on this blog condescendingly educate us on what non-white people think while at the same time dissing actual non-white people on the blog. This is like white man/woman’s burden but for the 21st century.
schrodingers_cat
WP decided to duplicate my comment. So I deleted it.
eclare
@MomSense:
Well put. The House is back in session next week, we’ll see what happens then.
My strong D rep, Cohen, is having a telephone town hall on Monday night that I have signed up for. I wish he would have had it here in person, but he has post polio syndrome so events like that are harder for him.
Elizabelle
@YY_Sima Qian: you have had some great comments, and I always appreciate your take.
eclare
@MomSense:
Comment about your governor
https://bsky.app/profile/catbutlersr.bsky.social/post/3lisfvdzmg22n
Elizabelle
@MomSense: I really have to wonder what the youngs are seeing and sharing. If they have bought the “both sides” framing, we really are done for.
And why did they not turn out, with climate change on the ballot?
Maybe we all live in a nation of silos and echo chambers. Theirs are just edgier.
Nukular Biskits
@Anne Laurie: Appreciate the post. Good news is always welcome.
As for all the pie flying around, all I have to say is that we live in a reality where Democrats aren’t perfect, they make mistakes and we shouldn’t be reserved in criticizing them when they do. If you want an environment where Democrats can’t be criticized, well, this ain’t that place.
I voted for and supported Biden but his foreign policy WRT Ukraine, particularly not allowing them to use US weapon systems to strike targets on Russian soil, was short-sighted and has ill-served both the US and Ukraine, not to mention Europe. Pointing that out and criticizing Biden for it isn’t “bashing” nor is most of what is posted here by the front-pagers.
I have no real dog in this pie-fight but, as others have said more (and less) eloquently, no one forces any of us to read an opinion/analysis/etc here so if your panties get wadded up because someone offers considered (and evidence-based) criticism of your favorite Democrat, you might want to take a second to consider if they have a valid point.
Miss Bianca
@Elizabelle: I still contend that a lot of folks who may or may not have been “on our side” but who voted for Biden in 2020 decided to sit this one out after watching the Democrats sand-bag their own candidate, the sitting POTUS at that. They may not have voted for Trump, but they weren’t going to vote for the Democrats at that point.
I would love to see some actual evidence to back that assertion, because “assertion” in my case means, “I’m pulling this theory out of my ass”, but that would take polling work and would also undercut the “oh, Joe had to go because he was so old” narrative that elected Democrats were pushing so assiduously, so…”neither side”, really, has any interest in investigating that theory.
Big Fly
@Liminal Owl:
We’ve been Costco™ Executive members since 1990, and we’d hate to give up that relationship: it’s a great company for many reasons, and we don’t understand how it could tolerate VISA’s™ move to X Money. My hope is Costco™ will learn from KMart’s™ recent lesson — don’t piss off the good guys.
We fear, though, that other Big Banks will be ‘forced’ to make the same move as VISA™, and we’ll be forced by the new DC mob into making yet another difficult decision. I hate those people.
Elizabelle
Could be. I think we need a lot more information. Quick takes are … quick.
Geminid
An interesting report from Reuters:
The source was Turkiye’s foreign ministry.
The article says Lavrov will visit Turkiye on Monday. The optics will be interesting. Will Hakan Fidan, Erdogan’s formidable Foreign Minister be smiling or stern? Will Lavrov look peased or glum.
And will Lavrov be received with a military honor guard? Probably not. Turkiye brought out honor guards recently for Syrian President al-Sharaa and Ukrainian President Zelensky, but Lavrov’s just the foreign minister for Turkiye’s frenemy accross the Black Sea. But I love those uniforms!
Starfish (she/her)
@TBone: Was this intended for me?
I am not sure how anything I said may be connected to this, but I am strongly opposed to swatting and also doxxing.
What you described is escalation of a domestic dispute with peak Karen behavior and not swatting.
Starfish (she/her)
@UncleEbeneezer: We are going to relentlessly bash John Fetterman because he deserves it.
I mean, he may think that leaning right may save his seat, but I think Republicans are going to choose a real Republican, and he is harming his positioning with Democrats.
Nukular Biskits
@TBone:
I’m still waiting for that book.
Oh, hell. Forget the book – I want to see the MOVIE based on your life!
Chief Oshkosh
@Another Scott: Yep, Rep. Connolly is making all the right sounds. I hope it goes somewhere.
Madeleine
Perhaps this is not yet a dead thread, so finally I can thank Anne Laurie. You are here day after day with both regularly scheduled and in-the-moment posts for which you find us great sources. And your titles are great, too, as is your writing. When I see your name I know I’m going to be getting information I need! Thanks so much!
YY_Sima Qian
@Elizabelle: Thank you. But it really does pain me to see you (& others) & Kay (& others) go at it.
BTW, to your question to MomSense, I am not on TikTok, but the TikTok refugees (which cut across many demographic lines) on RedNote definitely have embraced the “both sides” framing, which is probably not surprising (given the strongly bipartisan effort to ban it). OTOH, even though the algorithm & the platform moderators suppress any hint of political activism on any topic (whether it has anything to do w/ the PRC or not), one can still sense the seething anger among the TikTok refugees toward Trump, MAGA, DOGE, etc. I take that as a hopeful sign that even the most jaded & cynical Americans are still susceptible to the right anti-Fascist message, but it can’t be one that says everything would have been OK if we had just elected Biden or Harris.
Seeing US Park Rangers posting about having colleagues fired on RedNote was disconcerting to me, & utterly unfathomable to the Chinese people on the platform.
Big Fly
@The Thin Black Duke:
Well said by you and fully supported by me. Thank you.
YY_Sima Qian
I will also thank A.L. for all that she has done for BJ. I may disagree w/ her at times because I am much more cynical & pessimistic, we all could also use counterbalance to our instinctual views.
MagdaInBlack
Wow.
TBone
Now I have to tell the story about how I came up with my pen name for my non-existent biography that will be ghostwritten someday.
First pet’s name: I was a 4 y.o. in kindergarten and found a tiny, baby bunny on my way home from school (Aronimink, it means beaver in indigenous) and I brought it home, intending to save it. Gramps, an avid yard vegetable gardener as well as biology teacher and coach, put my bunny in a cardboard shoebox on a blanket and told little me Bunny could live in the garage. When I went back to check on Bunny, he had been put to sleep by carbon monoxide in my absence. I just knew he was dead, and we had a little burial ceremony.
Street name: Bond Avenue
A 4 y.o. has no idea about exhaust fumes and I only remembered this episode years later at an auto repair shop.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Madeleine: Hear, hear! Thank you Anne Laurie.
Baud
Matt McIrvin
@Miss Bianca: The liberals I know IRL all thought Biden was dangerously senile and were dismayed and terrified that he was still running (until he dropped out). This blog was like looking at a different universe. I saw no quiet cohort of Biden loyalists.
TBone
@Madeleine: thirded
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
A true Biden loyalist wouldn’t have sat out the election anyway.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
I had to go read that … the headline is somewhat misleading.
Professor Bigfoot
@TBone: Good mornin’, you bad-ass, fine-ass b-word you!
Jackie
@Baud: He also said
What he should offer is half of Ukraine’s minerals in exchange for a guaranteed NATO membership. How would FFOTUS respond, I wonder.
Anyway
@Baud: A true Biden loyalist wouldn’t have sat out the election anyway.
yep I never understood that. A Biden primary voter would sit out the 2024 general?! No fuckin’ way.
Professor Bigfoot
@Another Scott: Depends entirely on what we disagree about.
Anyone who advocates that we shouldn’t prioritize trans rights because reasons can absolutely kiss my fat, hairy, Black ass.
How do the Democrats get more white voters? Toss the human and civil rights of everyone who’s not a straight white Christian male into the disposal, and as loudly as possible, fuck that shit.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: But a marginal independent normie voter who voted for Biden in 2020 might.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
I don’t know. According to Trump, trans people are taking all our money.
p.a.
When multiple comments by assorted folks become “was that aimed at me?” think it’s time for an animal rescue/adoption thread.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Sure. I’m not saying there aren’t any Biden, not Harris voters out there. I just wouldn’t call them Biden loyalists.
Baud
@p.a.:
Was that aimed at me?
chemiclord
@Ohio Mom: I think there was a lot that he could have done, in a “the law doesn’t prohibit him from doing this” sort of way, sure.
But I really think we’re making a mistake casting his actions in retrospect based on what the expectations for Biden were when he was elected.
The electorate simply did not have the appetite for the actions we wanted him to take. He got himself elected on the grounds of being the guy who could restore the country to what it was four years ago. They didn’t want a prolonged, vicious fight with the MAGA cult. They wanted to “look forward, not backward.”
In that light… Biden did the job he was elected to do, and was probably more progressive in a lot of ways than what the average person who voted for him wanted.
Professor Bigfoot
@YY_Sima Qian: Agreed, but we really have to connect the dots from the Confederacy to this autocratic conservative movement: white supremacy. Specifically, white Christian male supremacy.
What a lot of folks here don’t realize is that white supremacy is appealing to white people, and even if you consider yourself four-square against white supremacy, it’s siren song is still there.
Just like the siren song of the patriarchy is there for all men, and every goddamn day there’s still another job of work to unlearn what my patriarchal society wired into me.
But you have to be willing to do that internal work, and I don’t think our local Dem haters are ready to do that.
So they find it very easy to hurl harsh criticisms at the Black man, the Jew, and the party that’s been home to the Black/Jewish alliance for the last 80 year or more; without ever thinking that it’s whiteness that they’re defending.
Nukular Biskits
@Professor Bigfoot:
In case you hadn’t seen this … pushing fair use here … H/T DailyKos in their daily APR (emphasis mine in bold):
Adam Serwer at The Atlantic: The Great Resegration
Serwer nails it.
Professor Bigfoot
@schrodingers_cat: They don’t even realize they’re doing it.
Whiteness as a concept is powerful.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
Agree. Thanks.
dnfr
@Elizabelle: I didn’t interpret the reference to Jeffries being on a book tour as a “sneer at the book”. I interpreted it as meaning that maybe being on a book tour=2
p.a.
@Baud: My shit list has it’s own shit list & you’re on that too.
dnfr
@Elizabelle: I didn’t interpret the reference to Jeffries being on a book tour as a “sneer at the book”. I interpreted it as meaning that maybe being on a book tour was not the best use of Jeffries’ time during the present crisis—personal interest (promoting sales of his book) vs. responsibility as top Democrat n the House.
dnfree
@Elizabelle: I didn’t interpret the reference to Jeffries being on a book tour as a “sneer at the book”. I interpreted it as meaning that maybe being on a book tour was not the best use of Jeffries’ time during the present crisis—personal interest (promoting sales of his book) vs. responsibility as top Democrat in the House.
WTFGhost
“…without the consent of Senate Republicans, who are bound to withhold it.”
I’m sorry, but that’s total shit reporting. Warren has all the powers of any Senator on that committee, but, Repubs have long simply refused to let Dems subpoena witnesses. She is being *forbidden* to use that power.
If you use the passive voice, or completely ignore the relevant verbs entirely, you hide the real blame.
“Biden couldn’t overcome Republicans…” is factual; “…who were going to relentlessly blame him for everything, and anything,” makes the statement true.
I see far too many people blame Dems and liberals, while ignoring that Republicans have been trying to maintain permanent power, using political power to expand their electoral power, since the 90s, and have started to win the biggest victories necessary for the US to become the kind of nutso nation that we thought Russia was.
Melancholy Jaques
@MomSense:
Definitely more in line with where I’m at right now.
Ksmiami
@schrodingers_cat: I hate everything and everybody if that makes you feel better.
Professor Bigfoot
@Matt McIrvin: With respect, how many of those liberals were Black people?
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: Great Maker, is that about the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard?
No, belay that; that malevolent mango MF has plenty more, I’m sure.
TBone
@Professor Bigfoot:
MUAH! Wrap yer lovin’ arms around it!
YY_Sima Qian
@Professor Bigfoot: Slavery was the US’ original sin, & just about every advantage & privilege Americans (even if you are a 1st generation immigrant, such as myself) enjoy today benefitted from slavery & stealing Native land, & exploiting immigrant labor, too. Similarly, every advantage & privilege residents of former colonial powers enjoy today benefitted from centuries of exploitation of colonies, & decades of exploitation of former colonies post-“liberation”. That often applies even to the oppressed minorities in these former colonial powers, since they nevertheless [typically] enjoy higher standards of living than most people in the developing world (at least until this past decade).
I used to think reparations for slavery as an utterly outlandish idea. It took me a while to see the justice of it, even if it would be incredibly difficult & hugely divisive to try to execute.
Nevertheless, I just don’t think it is constructive to assume bad faith among the community here, when there is disagreement on politics, policy or prioritization.
Educate & persuade. & there is always the option of agreeing to disagree, or the pie filter if it really comes to that.
WTFGhost
@Another Scott: That said, some folks won’t pie a poster who is venting too much, temporarily – which, if we were gathering in a bar or coffee house, would be the equivalent of going to another section where the conversation is more to your liking. And stop, and think about community, and consider that for a moment.
Then, if I may say, a person who *is* venting will find it kinder to have people wander away quietly, rather than than screaming “PIE” and storming off. Also: Trolls won’t care; assholes need to learn more about caring before they’ll care, so announcing your choice usually only hurts those that you wouldn’t want to… if you weren’t momentarily pissed off.
Melancholy Jaques
@Starfish (she/her):
Whether we like it or not, simplistic frameworks are exactly how the identity of our party can be pounded into the heads of indifferent voters. We have lost critical elections by responding to simplistic frameworks with subtlety & reasoned speech.
Who are the Democrats? What do they stand for?
Those questions need quick & simple answers in bold primary colors. And being in the minority gives us the freedom to do that.
Another Scott
A thread on Mastodon:
We’re all in this together…
Best wishes,
Scott.
dnfree
@Miss Bianca: I think it’s clear from the numbers that a lot of people sat this one out. You have one theory as to why they sat it out, having to do with the Democrats sandbagging their own candidate. I have a theory that after the debate revealed the state that Biden was in, there was too little time left for Harris to recover and make herself known. (Also, obviously, her race and sex played a part.)
My theory is that things might have gone differently if Biden and those around him had recognized that he wasn’t going to be up to another four years and had announced he wasn’t running again and the Democrats had had a real primary. But we are both entitled to our theories; there’s no way to know to what extent either of them, applied, and what would have been the result if Biden had stepped aside OR if Biden had still been on the ticket on Election Day.
Starfish
@Melancholy Jaques: Using simplistic frameworks in messaging is different from using simplistic frameworks in discussions with each other.
Melancholy Jaques
@The Thin Black Duke:
There is no way around this brutal reality. I want there to be a way, but after Obama’s re-election, about one half of this nation decided the 20th century was a mistake.
Miss Bianca
@dnfree: Your theory has merit, as well. But as Aslan was fond of telling Lucy, “we can never know ‘what would have happened.'”
Professor Bigfoot
@Nukular Biskits: Thank you, that’s now on my reading list… but yeah, that’s exactly what’s happening.
And, in my opinion, at the least it is not repellent to the vast majority of American white people.
Professor Bigfoot
@dnfree: When the book is literally about saving democracy… to toss it off as a “children’s book” and a “book tour” is BULLSHIT.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: never said a thing about Biden loyalists. I was thinking more of the drifter vote. I am sure there are a few million voters out there who drift from voting for one party and then another- or who don’t bother to vote at all, in some elections.
Professor Bigfoot
@YY_Sima Qian: Not so much “bad faith” (though there IS a bit of that) as *white blinders.*
This is a terriffically white space; and the voices of we who are not straight white Christians are often denigrated by SOME of the commenters here; and IMHO that’s simply driven by the “fish don’t realize they’re in water” principle.
Baud
@Miss Bianca:
Matt at # 261 mentioned loyalists.
TBone
@WTFGhost: 🎯
WTFGhost
@Elizabelle: Thanks for calling that out – I’d made a post in that thread, and wanted to check to make sure I hadn’t derailed. (Yes, it can happen accidentally, too.) Of course, “liars” – hm.
A front-pager shouldn’t be called a liar, without proof, and, people should be reminded that an off-color joke made a year ago is *not* someone’s “gotcha” moment on a blog comment section, “see, YOU LIED when you called her a C-word, and then said you’d never call a woman a C-word!” (Especially if the joke used the actual “c-word” phrasing.)
If someone said “Gaza was driving the Israel invasion,” said person gets to be called a liar, sure. If you said you thought Muslims might want the Palestinian question “concluded,” you don’t get to call anyone a liar – your conspiracy theory, you get to use the phrase, “I think you’re mistaken”
If someone says “Putin wants peace, on his own terms,” you don’t get to call them a liar because another news story says he doesn’t want peace – you get to share the effing link.
Front-pagers are not holy beings unable to be shits from time to time (though I’ll note my morbid responses seem kinder, which means they learn, and care). But they do deserve extra respect, extra patience, and a slower “I HATE YOU MFer!!!” while still not making you feel you’re blaspheming if you say “I think this is one of those times you’re being a bit of a shit.”
If there’s any blowback on mistermix, you know, mm annoys me sometimes, sometimes too many posts, too many on subjects that won’t let me rant, sometimes I don’t like opinions snuck in, but… I also saw a lot of caring and passion for Balloon-Juice as a whole, and… well, I joke that I’m a misanthrope, because I get so much pain going, nothing feels good, and everything but rest is annoying. If the worst mm did was sometimes make me wish for fewer, more relevant-to-me posts, he’d be a hell of a regular columnist in a daily newspaper, so… you know. I’m a supporter. Full throated, though my full throated cheer is “yep, I agree,” most of the time.
zhena gogolia
@WTFGhost: GBCW post from mistermix up above. And his commenters are enthusiastically doubling down on attacking Jeffries.
TBone
@Baud: Painbow Hi and Bi reply comment just made my day
TBone
@WTFGhost: 💋
Professor Bigfoot
@zhena gogolia: Oh well, just because it LOOKS like racism, no, it can’t possibly have anything to do with THAT. Not HERE.
Nukular Biskits
@Professor Bigfoot:
Well, I don’t know about “the vast majority” but there are a lot of white folks who don’t see a problem with it because “they have a black friend” …
dnfree
@Professor Bigfoot: I did not toss it off as being merely a children’s book; I was just trying say that I didn’t interpret the original comment as dissing the book per se, just the idea that Jeffries was on a book tour rather than doing what the original commenter thought he should be doing.
I am one of the people who thinks it’s time for more Democrats in office to stand up more forcefully. I have seen Jeffries be more forceful in the past than I have seen him be since the election. I hope he will be more visible going forward.
That ABC speech was forceful and well done, and I’m glad to see it’s a book.
TurnItOffAndOnAgain
@Starfish (she/her):
Hey, the whole point of me doing that (as I said in the thread itself) was to highlight, even if the content of Lewis’ and Jeffiries works aren’t that comparable (and I don’t think they are), how ridiculous it is to dismiss a piece of literature just because it’s illustrated. Which some people in that thread were doing. To say nothing of Lewis’ possible influence on what Jeffries is doing with his book.
And MM can make whatever argument he likes, but refusing to back down on calling Jeffries’ book a “children’s book” even after multiple posters corrected him, provided more context and pointed out how easy it was for MM to double check himself is a whole other thing than just posting a contentious opinion.
There’s nothing wrong with disapproving of Jeffries’ methods or the job he’s doing as long as it’s in good faith, but the more MM falsely derides the Speaker’s book as a children’s book even after being corrected multiple times, the more that derision starts to sound like a dog whistle.
And fuck that shit, intentional or not.
TBone
@TBone: I forgot to include the part where Gramps explained that Bunny’s mother couldn’t save him after I’d touched him because of human scent. That’s the day I learned about smells being so very important and what “scent” means.
Professor Bigfoot
@dnfree: ‘Preshateya. 🙏🏾
Professor Bigfoot
@Nukular Biskits: 2/3 of white dudes support the blatantly white supremacist Trump and his enablers and fellow-travelers in the GOP.
It’s not unreasonable to think that some of that 1/3 might be attracted to white supremacy also; especially since it will never negatively affect them.
So does 60% of white people constitute a “vast majority?”
“If it ain’t expressed in numbers, its somebody’s opinion, not fact.” 😉
Layer8Problem
A post has vanished. Weird times.
Professor Bigfoot
@Layer8Problem: And a new one has appeared– the Blogfather is the righteous cat we knew he was before we started hanging out here.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
Good, good.
Here’s hoping that Germany’s new leadership helps beat back the monsters and serves as an example for the rest of us.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Baud
@Another Scott:
Good.
catfishncod
@Melancholy Jaques: The hubris of the regime also makes this incredibly easy; the most reductionist can be as few as two words:
NO. KINGS.
Glory b
@schrodingers_cat: I know, right?
Glory b
@MomSense: MM was disingenuous to the point of falsehood about Jeffries book and his tour.
I’m not sure what the “activist base” means.
The base of your party are those who will vote for the party no matter if they think the messaging could be better, etc.
The idea of a base is that they are solidly bought in & the party doesn’t have to start from square one with them during every election. They aren’t doing “Abandon” movements, they are the jumping off point, not those who take their ball and go home.
Someone had a meme picture of a group of black seniors seated in a formation in their Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes and termed them “The Evil Establishment.”
But they are the base. I feel like we insult them to say otherwise.
Pappenheimer
@RevRick: Regarding books, I’m not entirely sure you’ve classified books correctly on the Want/Need Axis. With me, it’s about an 0.5
Nancy Brown Supler
Dear John Cole,
I have been with you since almost the beginning and I will be with you to the end…mine probably since I will be 88 y.o. in July.
WVA Uni grad. Nancy
Gloria DryGarden
@MomSense: agree w your comment. This is worth paying attn to:
last night someone suggested the book “ how to win friends and influence people”
we need the sequel,
”how to join forces for a common purpose, and hear each others differences in constructive ways”
A useful skill set, I should think. Some have it, some have not developed it yet.