I keep thinking back to this remark from October:
“We cannot leave the security of Europe in the hands of voters in Wisconsin every four years,” French Europe Minister Benjamin Haddad said on LCI television last week. “Let’s get out of collective denial. Europeans must take their destiny into their own hands, regardless of who is elected U.S. president.”
No one in the world is safe- we are not the good guys anymore and none of you should trust us. It’s depressing, but were I South Korea or Taiwan I would be beefing up my defense budgets. Were I any of our NATO allies, I would just assume that any intelligence you share with us is in Russian hands within the hour. Right now, we simply can not be trusted.
I wonder how this is going to manifest itself economically and in other ways. Will a world want to continue to pin global finances to the dollar after the Republicans and Trump default on our financial obligations? Will our cultural domination of film continue and as such lose the soft power of Hollywood? What all will be impacted by this fascistic regime’s ugly behavior?
It’s a lot to process.
Climate Solutions: There Is Much Progress
Steve in the ATL
My brother in law was beaten up for being American in Spain during the W reign of error. I wonder if there will be more of that to come
We’ve been to a few Muslim countries and survived, but maybe that’s because my wife is scarier than her 6’4” brother.
dmsilev
@Steve in the ATL: I was talking yesterday with one of the grad students in our department about the current state of affairs and at one point said ‘you’re probably too young to really remember the Bush administration’, to which she nodded.
Whimper, sigh, moan,
Then I told her about the phrase ‘reality-based community’ and how the Bushies used that as an insult. The point being that Trump and his team of maniacs are the continuation of a long trend.
Harrison Wesley
Aren’t the tariffs on Canada and Mexico supposed to go in today?
Lapassionara
How we got to the place where a change in administration meant a complete 180 degree turn on foreign policy I do not know. All I do know that we in the US will be poorer because of this betrayal.
The US cannot be trusted to live up to its promises.
Glory b
@Harrison Wesley: Thats my understanding, with China tomorrow.
Steve in the ATL
@Harrison Wesley: my wife was planning to make eggs Benedict this morning but now we can’t afford the Canadian bacon
suzanne
Mr. Suzanne and I were discussing this yesterday. He said, “I think we’re more likely to be killed by bad lettuce than by brownshirts.”
And I want to note that’s because we’re now going to have zero health and safety regulation in this country, not because he doesn’t think there won’t be brownshirts.
motoran
This will have long-term consequences for sure, as the world is realizing that the US cannot be trusted.
cain
One could argue we were definitely the devil and the angel in different proportions depending on which administration was in charge.
But I think Central America will always think the U.S. was the devil. We were never the good guys to our neighbors in the south at any time. Democracy at home, imperialists abroad if a Republican was in charge. Basically, these fucks were always inclined to be fascists shaping foreign policy to enrich American companies.
The only country worse was the UK whose damage to the planet is incalculable.
Now for both countries the gun is now pointed at themselves as their own hubris have over taken us.
In some way, it’s good that we have lost power and prestige since we have less ability to shape the politics of the global south and Europe. We are no longer the leaders and the American voting public is to blame. We’re going to be busy for the next generation trying to hold ourselves accountable if we ever get a chance to have free elections.
My worry right now is that these fuckers are going to go back to CIA sanctioned assassinations against European leaders and encourage right wing politicians to take the helm.
*pause*
Regardless, we’re going to be ok. The world has looked like this before and when darkness falls across the land, light will always emerge.
I’m going to say that Zelenskyy is the leader we want and need.
Glory b
@Lapassionara: The groundwork was laid during the Obama administration, when the Republicans invited Bibi to speak to them. He gave Obama the back of his hand, making it clear thar “the water’s edge” philosophy was one Republicans would no longer abide by.
That’s my opinion.
pajaro
John, I completely agree with you. Yesterday was a horrible and clarifying day. The US acting abroad since WWII has always been a combination of decent and indecent. But before yesterday, we never publicly and explicitly rejected the principles that we helped draft after World War II in the UN Charter; we never publicly abused an ally that was fighting for its existence, and we never threw in with NATO’s enemies. In my opinion, we actually announced that we were one of the bad guys, and it’s really hard to wrap my elderly mind around that. I hope that, in addition to hearing our apology, our former allies understand that we tried to prevent this, and that we are working to try and limit the damage in the short term and reverse it in the longer term.
VFX Lurker
Will other countries keep subsiding American TV/films? The next time you watch a film, stay through the end of the credits to which countries paid for up to 60% of the costs. Canada alone probably subsidized most of the MCU.
“Avengers, assemble!”
FlyingToaster (Tablet)
I’ve been working out what falls apart first, from my counter up heah in the
CommonwealthPeople’s Republic of Massachusetts.~30 days for the first round of tariffs (Canada, Mexico, China) to deep six our economy.
Sometime in March Trump will impose tariffs on the EU.
The “Five Eyes” will become “Four Eyes”, excluding us.
The US forces stationed in the EU will start RIFing troops home, starting with married soldiers, then women. Not by any rational selection, either.
The same is likely in the Pacific as well.
Trump will sabre-rattle about the Middle East but send dick-all there, and Hegseth will likely start withdrawing troops from any shithole countries (Africa, South America) where they’re still stationed.
By the end of April we should have indications of whether we’re headed toward Snow Crash or Neuromancer.
***
Yeah, dark skies.
Glory b
@cain: Any idea when/if the global south will get on the same page?
I’ve always thought it was too large and varied a group ( almost the entirety of the rest of the world!) to pull in the same direction any time soon.
Baud
I didn’t want this. But I’m not going to pretend that there hasn’t been a debate in liberal spaces about whether a powerful America is a net positive in the world. Now we’ll find out.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@cain: I think the upper bound for a regime this badly off the rails is maybe fifteen, twenty years. So a lot of us won’t live to see the end of it all, but the Millennials and Generation Z will see what comes after.
And I always take solace from one bit of trivia in Orwell’s afterword to Nineteen Eighty-Four: all the references to IngSoc in the Newspeak explainer were in the past tense, as though referring to something that had ceased to exist.
Spanky
@cain:
For certain random values of “we”. See Suzanne at #7 above.
cain
@Lapassionara:
It’s not just the U.S. – you can’t trust American companies. The Feds are transactional – oligarchs in our country will be asking all kinds of things. Why are we so interested in minerals in Ukraine?
Google changing the names of bodies of water without international agreement. Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft’s combination of power over our computing devices…
You might want to think about what those
alexa’s and google assistantsspy devices are listening in on.They now operate at the behest and pleasure of the U.S. government.
schrodingers_cat
White people have consistently voted R since the Civil Rights legislation passed, no matter how much the Rs fucked up. Rs haven’t been punished consistently by the voters in aggregate since the late 1960s for their extremism. They have just gotten worse every cycle. They have not paid a big enough political price. They need to be out of power for several cycles, at least 3 presidential cycles, we are not going to see things change unless that happens. Trump is the culmination of what started with Nixon.
trollhattan
@dmsilev: Our HS German exchange student was unfamiliar with Ossies and Wessies, and the hurdles of post-unification Deutschland in general.
I’m imagining her struggling with the rise of AfD today, and the threat they pose both to the country and Europe as a whole, especially in the context of RW party ascension across the continent.
Steve in the ATL
@VFX Lurker:
And all the Hallmark Christmas movies!!!
suzanne
@Spanky: The thing about bad lettuce is that most of us eat lettuce. I do not have faith that any of us will be OK.
Glory b
@schrodingers_cat: Louder, for the people in the back.
schrodingers_cat
@Glory b: Well I have had people (I don’t think the person making that accusation was black) accusing me of appropriating the black experience because I have made these observations.
trollhattan
@VFX Lurker: If Trump somehow rids us of superhero spectacles then it’s an unintended triumph.
cain
@Glory b: Not likely. So why countries like India, and countries within Africa and the middle east are where they are is because the British spent most of their time playing wormtongue. These countries weren’t nominally countries. They were organized as regions with princes/kings/rulers. The british came in and created an artificial countries and then also made sure they leveraged every animosity against groups. That’s how they kept in control.
These societies hard a hard time evolving because that animosity still exists and it shows up. Palestine / Israel would never have happened without the British. Fucking clowns.
cain
@Spanky:
I didn’t want to just be all doom and gloom. I know that triggers people. History is our friend, we are always going to have ups and downs in our history. But it’s funny how we have not evolved as a race. The animal nature in us, is our shield and sword.
Spanky
@suzanne: Chicken, also too. Just for starters.
schrodingers_cat
@cain: FWIW I think that the British made the existing problems worse.
cain
@Baud: Notice that since W. central america has by degrees improved. I remember the 80s and early 90s where it was nothing but violence with thugs and militia. But we’ve been seeing improvement because the U.S. was distracted by Afghanistan and Iraq.
Sure, some places like San Salvador is still a shit show, but we’ve seen democracy coming in and there is _some_ healing.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: I’ve worked a lot with Europeans for over 30 years in various capacities. Even during the “rain” of Shrub, most or maybe even all of them said that, if there was going to be a “leader of the free world,” the US with all of its faults was probably the best choice. I am certainly not hearing that now. Of course, this is all anecdotal, but we certainly have shit the bed in terms of leading in science and leading in international relations.
Ah well, back to work…
cain
@schrodingers_cat: at that time or during the past 20-30 years?
cain
Neither can they.
schrodingers_cat
@cain: At that time. But the Hindu right in many ways is a British creation.
The Audacity of Krope
Robert E. Lee.
Professor Bigfoot
@suzanne: I’ve taken up shooting again with that very thing in mind.
I hope to NEVER, EVER, use a firearm “in anger,” but going to the range, working on stance, grip, and consistency as sport is relaxing and invigorating.
I mean, I plan to be ready of they decide to get froggy (see also Tulsa 1921) but that’s not why I do what I do; I do it because as sport qua sport it’s fun.
(also, liberal gun owners tend to be smarter, wiser, more thoughtful and much safer than Bubba and Cletus)
Baud
@Chief Oshkosh:
They’re right. We can’t be a leader with the voting population that we have. Our future is going to have to be focused on fixing our own problems.
Hoodie
If you look at the stuff on the streaming services, that’s already happening. I believe Ed Zitron has talked about how Netflix and others are killing Hollywood. While there’s still some good content out there, I’ve also noticed an increasing amount of real crap (basically video Muzak) with big name artists. A country really declines due to the corruption of its elites. The mouth breathers out there were previously cultivated by Murdoch, but now the tech bros are getting in on the action.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: This entirely.
Unfortunately, our biggest problem is the conservative movement, the marks that support it and the grifters who profit from it.
Matt McIrvin
Hollywood is at a moment where the superhero movie phenomenon, which seemed to play really well globally, was winding down anyway–it’s not what it was before the COVID pandemic, which by sheer chance happened to coincide with Marvel’s first big shared-universe saga reaching its endpoint (a climax that, accidentally, kind of played as a metaphor for COVID) but with nothing that interesting to replace it.
So for the United States to become a toxic brand at that same moment… that’s a big hit. Not to mention, during Trump’s first term a lot of the hit Hollywood movies kind of played as quasi-subversive moves against Trumpism, but the media companies are so servile this time around that that’s probably not going to happen. I don’t think they entirely get the degree to which this taints their brand especially in international markets.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
And that’s a lot of people.
cain
@schrodingers_cat:
I agree. I can tell by how they approach Hinduism, almost evangelical. For those who don’t know Hinduism doesn’t believe in a one size fits all but right wingers always want one size so they control.
A lot India”s conservativism comes I allege from the British.
The Audacity of Krope
I love superhero movies. Many would improve if Hollywood realized spectacle is not a requirement of a good superhero story.
Matt McIrvin
@The Audacity of Krope: I often like superhero movies, but I don’t like a world in which everything big is a superhero movie. But we’re past that now.
Baud
I wouldn’t mind a return of superhero movies where they fight Nazis.
CaseyL
@cain: I’ve been thinking about the Global South for a while now. It occurred to me some time ago that no country in the Global South has ever been a hegemonic power. Mostly because they were colonized by Europe before there even was such a thing, and then became the Proxy War Playground when the colonial era ended only for the Cold War to take its place.
I’m not sure what the prereqs are for becoming a hegemonic power – a large and competent military sector, for sure, but also it seems an expansionist economic model? Some South American countries love the military sector, but that’s mostly been juntas: effective against their own citizens, not so much for conquest (cf the Falklands War). And their economies have mostly sucked, for various reasons.
In any case, this is definitely the end of the post WWII paradigm. Besides the horror and shame of what the GOP is doing (and make no mistake: it IS the GOP, not just the Trumpies) I’m also genuinely curious to see what comes next.
My one hope is that the incoming US-Russia Axis doesn’t last very long.
The Audacity of Krope
@Matt McIrvin: Also this. And skimping on smaller movies for the big screen. Though that seems to be improving.
Ruckus
@dmsilev:
To me, generally, conservatives have always been about the dollar and about controlling everything. So money is #1 and control is #2. (They used to/maybe still do, think that if they controlled all the money spent they controlled everything) The point being that also thought that they should get all the money.
And your point is to rather accurate. Some of us on this blog are old enough to remember back when conservatives won more and didn’t have the desire to screw over as many, as badly, within the concept that because the country (and humanity) has grown in many ways that while their political concepts haven’t changed all that much, our side has. As stated here before, I’m an old and have seen and watched the world/US politics change rather significantly in my lifetime. As the population has grown, and business has grown with it, and communications has changed significantly (what we are doing here for example) life has changed – A LOT. Sure we are still humans, with all the good and the not so good, and how we live, what we see, how we see it has changed significantly. How long has what we are doing here today been going on? Not all that long in historical terms. And it makes a lot of things that used to go on unnoticed or at least not widely seen, now can be front and center. And that changes a lot of life and living.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Regardless of where you come down on the question of whether a powerful U.S. was a net positive for the world, it was definitely positive for Americans in lots of unappreciated ways. As that unravels, some folks are gonna be shocked.
Marc
The selection is rational and targeted. Once in a while the media notes it without comment if the person is high enough ranking. It’s not like the Musk/Trump administration is making any big secret of what they are doing. Most people still aren’t quite ready to acknowledge it for what it is (and will be).
Baud
@Ruckus:
Aside from confederates, old school conservatives typically weren’t traitors.
different-church-lady
I keep joking that South Korea is going to be the one that liberates our camps at the end of World War III.
trollhattan
@The Audacity of Krope:
Loathe most personally (yay, the half-hour penultimate fight scene is here!) and more importantly, because filmmaking is zero sum, every one represents an actual adult or adult-adjacent film not being shot.
Topic of massaging scripts so as to not offend Gyna, the biggest audience, can be considered separately.
different-church-lady
@dmsilev: Bush only tried to destroy reality. Dumbfuck Hitler has succeeded.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: I’d love to see the return of WWII movies where they fought Nazis.
Renie
OT: If you follow Paul Krugman on Substack, you must watch his interview with Nathan Tankus. Krugman describes Nathan as someone who “has ended up playing a really remarkable role in helping to at least make us aware of and possibly take some precautions against what looks like a kind of digital takeover by Elon Musk’s people. ”
It is a fascinating look at what Musk is doing that has been under the radar lately.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Yep.
This thread has ignored how much US agriculture, which is pretty right wing, relies on exports.
different-church-lady
@FlyingToaster (Tablet):
I’m amazed how Dumbfuck Hitler keeps putting terrorist targets on his own back without realizing it.
different-church-lady
@schrodingers_cat:
If we’re lucky.
different-church-lady
@Glory b: It’s the people in front who aren’t hearing it.
Scamp Dog
@cain: Yeah, we’re East African plains apes, neither souls on a pilgrimage to an eternal reward nor rational economic agents.
While this is true and profound (in a way), it doesn’t necessarily lead to any useful conclusions, without a lot of additional thought. Sorry.
Steve in the ATL
@Professor Bigfoot:
You can safely remove the words “gun owners” from your statement and be just as accurate and a whole lot broader.
different-church-lady
@cain: I mean, yeah, sure, Germany recovered…
Lyrebird
@Baud: @Professor Bigfoot:
Do y’all know, is Chicken Run based off of one particular WWII movie, or a mash-up?
On the organizing side, I hope lots of people watch or re-watch Eyes on the Prize or that movie that’s just about Bayard Rustin.
-also kind of depressed here, but taking self care actions.
Kayla Rudbek
@Professor Bigfoot: there’s a Black woman veteran owned gun store/range that I’m looking at going to. The only problem is that getting there will involve driving on the DC Beltway…
Professor Bigfoot
@Steve in the ATL: POINT TAKEN.
Mai Naem mobil
All these idiot Magats are going to be crying about 13 percent regular car loans and 11.7 percent mortgage interest rates. Cry some more bitches. They and their Orange God are the stupidest people on earth. It’s like a 16 year old adolescent boy being given a brand new Porsche by his parents and driving it recklessly for 6 months to the point where it’s got deep scratches and dings all.over with the bumpers hanging off and the car barely starting due to lack of maintenance.
Ruckus
@schrodingers_cat:
This.
I’ve been paying at least some attention to US politics for over 60 years and we have been here before. But the world was different, less developed, communications were less, slower and not as complete, the concept of power was not as far reaching, even with WWII having changed a lot of it. Technology has changed a lot in the world, like what we are doing, what we can see thousands of miles away. The world is far more open and the greed of some is more obvious. This changes a lot of living. The world population has grown not an insignificant amount, which changes a lot of what is and what can be. But it’s vision that has changed the most, what we can see is very often what we never knew, half a century or more ago.
trollhattan
@different-church-lady:
Yep.
The puppetmaster goal is to elect another Trump but this time, one that is smart and can focus for more than forty seconds. Scared now? Just wait.
Professor Bigfoot
@Kayla Rudbek: If you can arrange it, GO.
Black women have a particular perspective on gun ownership and the need for self defense; but also tend to be very welcoming to new shooters (especially women and from other marginalized communities).
My “home” indoor range tends to a more diverse clientele than most of those I’ve used before; but of course it’s still mostly white dudes. <sigh>
This, though, is one reason I made it a point to shoot regularly: “Looka here, Bubba and Cletus— y’all ain’t the only ones who got guns and know how to use them.”
different-church-lady
@Mai Naem mobil: The only MAGA I’m even distantly adjacent to has gone all “I’m getting my social security now while I can!”
This is a woman who got a Trump tattoo after the election.
(These are things I’m told, because I’ve avoided her for a while now.)
Chip Daniels
The most rational thing any country can do right now is acquire a nuke.
different-church-lady
@trollhattan: The one thing we actually are lucky about is that competence and fascism seem to be incompatible — they’re just not housed in the same personality drive.
Chetan Murthy
I have to ask, only b/c I’ve read about it: do you shoot at a range where the ammo is steel and not lead? I’ve read that the amount of lead in the air at ranges is sumthin’, and one might want to avoid that. Obviously not something one can do for oneself: it requires that everybody using the air at the range do it together. A collective-action problem, as it were.
The Audacity of Krope
My point was superhero media can be poignant and mature, just like any other sci-fi or fantasy. Much has been. I just wish more in Hollywood would see it.
The Hollywood executives making superhero schlock are the ones who agree that superheroes are childish per se as a genre.
different-church-lady
@Chip Daniels: I was just thinking that anyone who doesn’t believe Trump and Putin would just bomb the shit out of Europe is naive.
different-church-lady
@The Audacity of Krope:
Heath Ledger’s Joker is never far from my mind nowadays.
Betty Cracker
I won’t have a fucking gun in my house. If I need to neutralize a threat, I’ll enlist the aid of the gators.
different-church-lady
@Betty Cracker: Betty, Betty, Betty… armed gators!
Betty Cracker
@different-church-lady: Laser beams on their fricken’ heads.
Professor Bigfoot
@Chip Daniels: The Iranians would be insane to not go full speed ahead on their nuke program now; and them people ain’t stupid.
And ain’t that good for the world.
(I hang onto the fact that no one has ever used one except the Americans— even the Indians and the Pakistanis, arch enemies, with nukes to point at each other, have managed to avoid using them on each other. It’s a damned thin thread, but it’s what I got)
Jeffg166
@Renie:
I watched that today. We dodged a bullet temporarily there.
The felon, Elmo and his thugs have no idea what they are doing. They could pull the plug and not be able to figure out how to plug it back in.
Professor Bigfoot
@Chetan Murthy: For myself, my ammo is all copper-jacketed which cuts that down.
Then, at least these days, I rarely have a session that lasts more than 40 minutes.
Finally, this range does have an excellent ventilation system.
But it IS a concern.
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: If Russia would have been the right-wing reactionary country that it is now, they would have been traitors just as the current lot are.
Professor Bigfoot
@Betty Cracker: That definitely simplifies the task of keeping them secured under lock and key, believe me. Cheaper, too. 😉
Ohio Mom
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: The variable not included is climate change. That will be a wrench in all the works.
But yes, I don’t expect to live to see what comes next.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
Have the Japanese infantry rifle dad brought home from his time in the occupation forces, but it is just a club since there’s no ammo and I have not clue one what ammo it would require, and then how do you actually use the damn thing?
Yup, we’re totally prepared for the Nazi zombie…thing. I have a softball bat.
VFX Lurker
Have either of you seen Overlord (2018)? Good, gory fantasy fun as an integrated American paratrooper unit takes on Nazi zombies before D-Day.
(In our world, the American military did not integrate before Truman’s order in 1948, but integrated American Marine battalions did exist in WW2).
Ohio Mom
@Betty Cracker: That is my selfish take. I liked living in an empire. I knew it wasn’t necessarily great for other parts of the world, I tried to be honest about that.
TheOtherHank
@Lyrebird:
I happen to have recently rewatched Chicken Run. It is mostly a send-up of The Great Escape. Ginger has quite a bit of Steve McQueen’s character. I can’t point to anything definitive, but it feels a bit Stalag 17 to me as well.
Wait, I believe the coop where a lot of the plotting to escape takes place is #17.
jefft452
“We cannot leave the security of Europe in the hands of voters in Wisconsin every four years,”
And this is why the damage is permanent, we wont be snapping back after Trump is gone
American dominance is over
Scamp Dog
@Steve LaBonne: I think that’s exactly the difference. Communist Russia would have upended power relationships in the US had they defeated us. Putin’s Russia has helped our authoritarians take over, and our wealthy don’t realize that Putin-style dictators can force them to hand over wealth or be thrown off balconies, so he’s an ally, they think.
Steve LaBonne
@jefft452: I’m not really sorry to see it go, but I sure as hell didn’t want it to end THIS way.
VFX Lurker
Do smart, focused Trumps exist?
Starting to think that the real fantasy in fiction was smart, competent villains like Sauron and Lex Luthor. Trump and Musk just blunder about and break things they don’t understand.
@different-church-lady said it so much better upthread:
Ruckus
@Baud:
No they weren’t.
But. And it is a huge, round, firm but.
As the world changed, as we changed, as information became a lot more (what we are doing here….) conservatives have lost power. They really haven’t changed their concepts much at all, while the world and humanity has grown and communications has massively changed – what we are doing here, now, people have gotten/been able to see the behind the scenes bullshit that has always gone on to control the money and therefore the power. And not just in this country, in most of them. And that has changed a lot, in all aspects of life. My computer screen is about twice the size of an early TV screen. My tv takes up almost half of one wall of my apartment. Now those two things are not important to the concept at hand but they do show us that the world has changed more than just one or two things. Cars are significantly better, in every way, communications is better in every way (what we are doing here/now) healthcare is far better, believe me. Life is significantly different on a human basis from when I was born in the first half of the last century. SIGNIFICANTLY. And the political party of No Change at All is freaking out, because their mantra is “The past is best because we can understand and control that.” And our unspoken mantra is to improve what we’ve got and make it better for all. I saw politics when I was in elementary school and it was mostly about remaining in charge in the world. Well most of the world has grown up a bit in the last 6+ decades and conservatives still want to go backasswards, mostly to a time that actually didn’t exist. They do not want to grow, to change, to get better for all, they want to go back to a time that they think was easier, to when we had slavery so they made a higher profit and they controlled humans/humanity. It’s all bullshit, it always was, they just don’t know it.
Shalimar
I’m not sure which is sadder: That we’re part of the new Axis of Evil with China and Russia, or that we’re clearly the junior partner because they both own our leader even though we theoretically are still the most powerful country in the world.
robtrim
So far, I’ve survived the Cold War (duck and cover – McCarthyism), a hot war (Vietnam), a race war (saved by the wisdom of MLK), 911 and the neocolonial war of GWB, god knows how many wars in the Middle East, the war on DEI (still going). Now, we have a war on the poor and a war on our own government (Musk, Trump).
At this point it’s unclear what the casualty count for the Trump/Musk war will be. The economy, the climate, the consumer, the safety of our homes and communities will all suffer. The nation’s wealthiest will probably continue to thrive – inoculated by tax cuts and the notion that capitalism is more important than Democracy. Oligarch Jeff Bezos spelled it out a couple of days ago: personal freedom and the “free market” are the preeminent issues of our times. And his newspaper, The Washington Post, will be on the front lines making sure that the cry-babies on the left get no column-inches decrying the lack of affordable health car, the cost of an education, the lack of livable wages and a paucity of government services.
So, roll up your sleeves, or crawl under covers – the choice is yours.
Steve LaBonne
@VFX Lurker: The puppetmasters are also morons like Musk and Thiel, with juvenile “ideas” derived from Rand and bad science fiction. They wouldn’t know what competence is if it bit them in the ass.
Citizen Alan
Honestly, I just hate the term superhero movie. Which to me is like saying “I hate movies based on short stories.” Comics are just a storytelling medium that’s different from novels. I refuse to identify an entire genre that can encompass everything from “Winter Soldier” to Wandavision and Agatha All Alomg with a term as simplistic as “superhero movies.”
hitchhiker
@Professor Bigfoot: I get the willies when I think of shooting ranges. One of my brothers was in a desperate place (about to go to prison) when he decided to go down to the local range and do some recreational shooting.
He was there for hours, according to my sister, before he turned the thing so that it was aimed at his own heart and pulled the trigger.
I’m grateful that he didn’t decide to take anybody with him, I guess.
Betty Cracker
@trollhattan: Softball bat is good! 9 iron or pitching wedge works too. Also, I’ve never heard of someone accidentally killing or maiming themself with a bludgeon-type weapon. I mean, if you were trying to see how long you could balance a vertical ball bat on your finger, it could definitely come down on your head (please don’t ask me how I know this). But no one loses an eye!
Lavocat
Two words: nuclear proliferation.
Because no one is safe, EVERYONE has to assume the worst.
Trump has made the world exponentially more dangerous in a single month.
I expect all hell to break loose by spring, one way or another, domestically or internationally.
As Yeats warned us: “things fall apart; the center cannot hold”.
Betty Cracker
@hitchhiker: How awful. I’m sorry.
WTFGhost
I can reshare some good news from this morning, here or at the next open thread. Warning: it’s written with the writing tone I perfected when I was teenaged, angsty, and in *extreme pain*, and thought a bully lurked around every corner. I’m all grown up, and… uh, it gets better? Well… it did.
New thread seems “Mock JD” which feels a bit icky to share good news of re-traumatization whereas this seemed perfect.
Ohio Mom
@hitchhiker: My deepest sympathies, belated as they are.
FlyingToaster (Tablet)
@Marc: I just listen to what Hegseth says. It’s no damn different than the local TV preachers back in the 70’s Midwest, who were certainly why I got beat up in JrHi for “passing” as white*. I know exactly where this leads, and I know that there will be a huge number of service members involuntarily separated in the coming months.
This is a recipe for disaster.
*My complexion is certainly pale, but according to the people I grew up among, Jews are mud people and better not forget it.
Sister Golden Bear
@different-church-lady:
Gators with frikin’ laser beams attached to their heads!
FlyingToaster (Tablet)
@Betty Cracker: My kid keeps one of their Bokken behind their bedroom door; I have a ball bat in the umbrella thang next to the front door.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Professor Bigfoot:
Is there any particular safes you would recommend for storing a handgun and a few boxes of ammo? Would those AmazonBasics safes do?
WTFGhost
@Lavocat: Also, folks will understand that they need to *plan* for that eventuality, to ensure they have the capability to produce plutonium if needed, or, have a reliable partner who will supply it.
That should have happened during T I.
But Trump has not made proliferation *necessary*, just prudent, “okay, and our *backup* supplier is?” or “Ah, *or*, our nuclear umbrella will be…”.
It’s not impossible in a detrumpification, the world couldn’t end up a better place.
Tom Levenson
@FlyingToaster (Tablet): Por qué no los dos?
WTFGhost
(sorry – this was probably oversharing. When I’m in pain, I try to help others, sometimes in wildly ND ways.)
WaterGirl
@hitchhiker: I am so sorry.
Professor Bigfoot
@hitchhiker: My range has a rule— a first-timer cannot rent a gun to shoot there for that very reason. I’ve seen video of it happening in other places, and it’s distressing.
That’s actually one reason I like this place- they have a live range safety officer onsite at all times. I’ve also seen video where the live range safety officer kept idiots from being idiots. They might not catch someone determined to self harm, but at least there’s a chance, unlike some places I’ve gone that rely on video cameras— or no safety system at all. <sigh>
Anyway, I’m sorry for your loss.
FlyingToaster (Tablet)
@Tom Levenson: You really know how to make this sound worse 😭
A Ghost to Most
I’m glad we saw this coming long ago, and took the most necessary steps. Too bad everyone else thought we were crazy. Now, they’re all looking around wide eyed. Even the MAGAts.
Ruckus
@Steve LaBonne:
Bitting them in the ass would be a pure shit sandwich.
Professor Bigfoot
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Yes. Just make sure it’s secured. It won’t protect them from fire like a big expensive safe will, but just to keep it safe any locking cabinet to which only you have access will do.
I don’t have any kids, but I still keep everything locked away (unless, of course, I’m on my way to the range or am field-stripping and cleaning it).
There is exactly one loaded gun in the house, in a locked biometric safe keyed to me that’s two steps from my bedside (because my very first instructor said, “never put a loaded gun where you can get to it before you are fully awake”).
But again, I approach gun ownership as sport because shooting is fun.
(and take a class. I cannot stress that enough. Safety, practice, and training are absolutely key if you want to be a responsible gun owner. That can be challenging, because many certified instructors are MAGAts; but I look at it as “they will sell us the rope with which we shall hang them.”)
WTFGhost
@hitchhiker: Um. I deleted a message I wrote to you about guns and gun ranges and choices. Cole (post author) or one of the FPers are welcome to share the before/after images of the posts, I.e.: if any FPer can show the post, before I deleted it as “too personal”, they’re welcome to do so.
I deleted it because I don’t know what’s right with “normal” so, meh, better safe for me, than sorry. But if it’s actually helpful to folks, great, share it.
JoyceH
I’m still unable to get United24 to take my credit card. Bummed – I want to give them money.
Something I’m curious about. I’ve noticed that when Russia attacks into Ukraine, they’re targeting places like hospitals and apartment buildings, but when Ukraine attacks into Russia, they’re hitting ammo and fuel sites, which ought to impact Russia’s war-making capacity. Yesterday when I listened to all the commentary, plenty of Republicans were making the point that Ukraine needs to take advantage of Trump’s unique Deal-Making prowess, otherwise the war will just go on and on for years and Ukraine can’t possible win. But – WILL the war go on and on for years? Can Russia sustain keeping the war going? We could – we stayed in Vietnam for what, several decades? But we had the population and manufacturing base to be able to do so – does Russia?
This isn’t a rhetorical question; I haven’t been paying close attention to the state of the war, so those that have, please chime in. Has Russia been sending new, as in newly manufactured, weapons and equipment to Ukraine? Have the troop replacements been young men who are neither prison sweepings nor North Koreans? Or – if the war can just be sustained and Europe take up the provisioning slack (and let’s face it, Trump was NEVER going to provide arms to Ukraine), could the war eventually, within a year or several years, be resolved by Russia LOSING?
Ohio Mom
@JoyceH: You will have to stay up late enough for Adam’s post and ask him.
He may have covered this over time. His posts are so detailed I get lost on the weeds.
VFX Lurker
Right?!?!? It’s morons all the way down.
cain
@Ruckus:
Indeed we have. But when goes one way it can easily go the other way. Witness the Arab spring when entire revolutions happened in real time in twitter.
It is a double edged sword.
WTFGhost
@Steve LaBonne: What’s worse, I think they do recognize competence, it’s just, they see the way stuff is, and want no truck with it. So they view all competence through the lens of a “move fast ands break things” startup, which works when you’re trying to be the hot new dating app, and horrible when you’re trying to run social security, medicare, medicaid, the US military, a single dollar of discretionary funded activity by the US government.
Glory b
@schrodingers_cat: Making a correct observation isn’t appropriation.
Captain C
@Steve LaBonne:
And when they do read good sci fi, they misinterpret it in the most self-serving and stupid ways. I’m pretty sure that in the Culture both of them would be put in full immersion VR so they could live their best destructive lives without hurting anyone else.
Kayla Rudbek
@Professor Bigfoot: yes, I figured that 1) they won’t put up with any nonsense from customers 2) they will be patient with a newbie
sab
@FlyingToaster (Tablet): I have a baseball bat in our umbrella stand by the front door also, and another one under the bed.
sab
@Professor Bigfoot: My parents madw me got to summer camp when I was 11 and 12. We girls had rifle practice there and all the safety stuff came from the NRA. Thia was in the mid 1960s. My things have changed.
The safety stuff really registered. I still cringe every time I see an actor causually point a gun towards a live person on tv. Not aiming at them, just swinging it around casually with no awareness of where it points.
Kayla Rudbek
@Betty Cracker: I should check and see if I have a knitting pattern for an alligator (I have one for a shark, and I made one of my brothers-in-law a shark and added a laser pointer to it)
Jesse
@Glory b: I thought the 4th?