I am sorry for my intemperate post earlier, I am just so fucking mad and frustrated right now.
Open Thread
This post is in: John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House"
Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.
Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.
America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.
Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.
“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”
Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.
The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.
Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.
She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.
The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.
It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.
Let there be snark.
Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.
DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.
They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.
I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.
Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.
We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.
I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.
This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.
You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.
Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!
The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.
White supremacy is terrorism.
Anne Laurie
You just don’t want to embarrass the Millers and their boytoy, do ya?!?
Juju
@Anne Laurie: I really don’t think one could embarrass the Millers.
Lily
For no reason except reviving myself tonight after a bad month: Live Aid for Ethiopia famine 1985 Queen live concert
thruppence
Intemperate? Screaming rage is appropriate now.
chrisanthemama
Only thing wrong with your previous post was not enough F-bombs. Do better, Cole!
Ohio Mom
Just took a quick look at that thread. Another circular firing squad. Glad I had other things to do today besides hang out here.
Bulgakov
I saw nothing intemperate. Apology not needed.
After 50+ years as a registered Democrat, raised by a mother who held an office in the MO Young Democrats during Truman’s years, and generally supporting the most progressive Dem candidate in the Presidential primaries and then voting for whomever the party nominated, I disaffiliated with the party in February.
Enough with these corporate tools leading the party and allowing our country to be destroyed from within by Republicans without putting up a fight.
flagpole
Soul of temperance, I should say. If the Dems have a plan, it isn’t apparent, and, if they don’t, then fuck’em sideways with a pulaski. At this point, I’m putting them in the same basket as Dandy Dan Newhouse, my shitbird Rep who introduce the censure motion and, generally speaking, has never seen a MAGA ass he didn’t want to kiss (having committed a paroxysm of morality by voting for impeachment).
LeonS
That seemed pretty tame by Cole post standards, and certainly not far off what most of us are feeling.
PaulWartenberg
Everybody’s angry… except for the Dem leadership, which is shockingly unfocused and barely doing anything in opposition to the trump/Musk disaster run.
am
You used to eat coal and shit diamonds on this blog. You are needed in this moment, and you are up to the challenge. Go read Timequake or a summary of it.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
As I said below, it was Gilliard-esque and that’s not been a feature on this blog, unfortunately, for a long time.
Viva BrisVegas
Sitting here in Noumea a thousand miles from home because a tropical cyclone is bearing down on Brisbane.
At least the cyclone is supposed to be bearing down, it seems to have stalled just offshore for the last two days.
The problem with that is that local waters are unusually warm and the cyclone may pick up strength and moisture.
The slower it goes, the longer it sits over one spot, and the more rain and flooding in that spot.
At the moment I’m on a cruise ship that can’t go home until the cyclone goes away.
Still there are lots of people worse off. Like Democrats. At least the cyclone will go away. Trump won’t.
Bill Arnold
@Viva BrisVegas:
Your cruise ship (and others) made the international news, BTW.
How big are the swells?
TBone
Ya gotta raise a little hell music for J.C.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uiZtXvECE_Y
Jay
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-trump-trade-war-deal-1.7476311
bbleh
@thruppence: yeah this
Betty
Not sure if it matters to you, but Chris Hayes is making a strong case in favor of more loud resistance to the Trump-Musk fiasco.
Viva BrisVegas
@Bill Arnold: Out here at Noumea the swells are probably less than a meter. Off of Brisbane the wave recorders are showing more than ten meters.
different-church-lady
Hey, when you’re right, you’re right.
Bill Arnold
My mood: a cloud of angry murder hornets.
And that is self-censored more than a bit.
Yet another Wired story. It’s somewhat complicated; agencies are being asked to assess the impact of cuts of various sizes. But still very very bad. The Orange Antichrist’s demonic minions:
Pentagon Cuts Threaten Programs That Secure Loose Nukes and Weapons of Mass Destruction – Documents obtained by WIRED show the US Department of Defense is considering cutting up to 75 percent of workers who stop the spread of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. (MAR 6, 2025, Wired)
Baud
@different-church-lady:
When has he ever been right?
different-church-lady
I mean, the leadership spent an entire summer telling us (quite rightly) that a Trump re-election was an apocalypse, but then wet their pants so badly they couldn’t say one good word about their own candidate. So I’m not really expecting much better now.
different-church-lady
@Baud: Seriously, he knew “EMAILS” was going to be a big deal before any of the rest of us believed it.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
Isn’t that because he fell for it like many other people?
HopefullyNotcassandra
@thruppence: I do not disagree
So long as the rage is directed at the people trying to shred everything good and beautiful about our Union.
different-church-lady
@Baud: Wasn’t my read at the time. Cole knows what the rubes are going to fall for, even if he no longer falls for it himself.
different-church-lady
People appear to be in the mood for a circus. We’re dead if Trump gives it to them and we just sit there. Dignity is dead — Trump has killed it.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
I just remember a bunch of people here treated it as a serious issue on the merits.
Bill Arnold
@Viva BrisVegas:
Ah, not bad where you are.
In WWII the Queen Mary (ocean liner) was used as a troop transport, without escorts because it was faster.
My father was on it, eastbound to England. They packed like 10 men per cabin, and his ship hit a storm; every cabin had vomiting GIs.
different-church-lady
@Baud: What I remember is that Cole said it was a stupid blunder, and even though it was a totally minor transgression it would get blow up into a major thing that wouldn’t go away. He really nailed it right off the bat.
I remember it pretty vividly because… I didn’t think he was right.
frosty
@Bulgakov: Circle, forming up now!
Jay
Rumours of massive layoffs in the Wisconsin and Dakota coalfields coming.
The backstory is that it’s thermal coal, sold to China for power plants. It’s shipped through Vancouver, tax free, as no US Ports will handle it. Point Roberts Coal Port was created in the 1970’s to only handle BC and Alberta coal exports. BC is looking at shutting the shipments down entirely. BC and Alberta coal these days is only metallurgical.
Ontario’s 25% power tax goes in place Monday.
Sask has climbed on board with a potash, (fertilizer) tariff.
Martin
@Jay: This is the stuff that is going to start really mattering.
New Deal democrat
Well, it looks like I picked a good day to make a road trip to a couple of specialty nurseries to pick up some unusual plants for spring.
There is no good rule book for how a minority can resist a fall into tyranny, if the would-be tyrant retains popular approval (I know, he’s under 50% now, but not nearly by enough). So from time to time there are going to be outbursts of frustration. The time will come, and very soon, for an organized ideological counter-offensive. But we are still finding our footing.
As an aside, has anyone seen any actual polling on how T—-p’s threats against, e.g., Canada are being received within the US?
different-church-lady
@Martin: As always, my suggested statement of sympathy is, “ARE YOU ENJOYING YOUR CHEAP EGGS, DUMBFUCKS?”
MagdaInBlack
@Jay: Saw something about B.C. working on legislation to toll U.S. commercial trucks traveling to Alaska?
eta: nm, got my answer, ty.
Jay
@Martin:
Oh, and road taxes for trucks crossing BC to Alaska. The Yukon’s adding their own, all based on GVW
Magda,
both ways, 4 taxes. 2 in BC coming and going, 2 in the Yukon, coming and going.
Also a transit fee for fishing boats heading up to Alaska or coming back.
Bill Arnold
@New Deal democrat:
Digby linked this, which doesn’t cover tariffs or threats, but is interesting.
Americans Don’t Support Autocrats – Trump’s Illiberal Actions are Unpopular and Politicians Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Say So (RYAN ENOS AND SAM FULLER, MAR 06, 2025)
Charts detailing the following:
Eric S.
@Ohio Mom: I was also busy. I read Cole’s OP. I’m not going to venture into comments.
It was Avery tame post when compared to Cole’s historical standards.
Eric S.
@Baud: Prior to Schiavo?
New Deal democrat
@Bill Arnold: Thanks. It’s a start, anyway.
Jay
@New Deal democrat:
Doesn’t really matter.
Canada is full on pissed off.
King Charles III hosted President Zelenskyy on a Brit aircraft carriers to watch F-35 launches. The King wore his honorary Canadian Admiral uniform with his Canadian medals.
On the bright side for the US, Pete Hegseth has promised to buy all the US booze that Canada isn’t buying. On the bad side, it took 3 months for the CEO of Jack Daniels to figure out that pulling all US booze off Canadian shelves, was much, much worse than a 25% counter tariff.
zhena gogolia
@HopefullyNotcassandra: RIGHT. WHY IS THAT SO HARD?
Bill Arnold
A few of Trump’s pre-election promises (September, 2024):
“Vote Trump, and your incomes will soar. Your net worth will skyrocket. Your energy costs and grocery prices will come tumbling down.”
glc
@LeonS:
I could endorse some of the harsher formulations in this thread but this is the one that appeals to me.
Also – Hakeem Jeffries is sick of hearing from liberals…
.
New Deal democrat
@Jay:
I suspect it *would* matter to a lot of Canadians, regardless at how angry they are at T—-p’s threats, if 90% of Americans opposed him vs. only 50%.
And it would matter even more to internal US politics orchestrating domestic opposition to his threats, which would help ensure he doesn’t try to make them a reality.
Eric S.
@Jay: Any news link to share on the coal story?
Kayla Rudbek
@Jay: so King Charles III learned from his mother after all…
Betty
Chris Hayes just announced that his podcast this week is with Elle Reeve about her book. That’s cool!
Jay
@New Deal democrat:
Nope, doesn’t matter to us. The Canada/US relationship is done and over. USMCA is dead.
NATO and NORAD are on life support.
Article 5 in regards to the US will be a big Canadian Nope.
5Eyes is dead.
The F-35 contract may be cancelled.
There was a Washington State licensed Tesla in the parking lot the other day. All 4 tires were slashed, Nazi symbols and other stuff was spray painted all over the body and glass, with epoxy paint.
All the glass will have to be replaced, the body sandblasted and repainted, about $10k damage to a $15k car at best.
The car was sitting there for a couple of days, because BC tow trucks won’t tow it and BC Bodyshops won’t take it, so the vandalism got worse.
satby
@zhena gogolia: because they don’t care. We can only wound people on our side because they do. And hurting people seems to be a passtime that has become popular since it distracts from our own hurt. It isn’t being harnessed productively though.
SW
Look I don’t mind some confusion. I’m confused. But censoring Al Green was a bridge too far. Leadership should have had his back even if they disagreed with the tactic.
Jay
@Eric S.:
Search the Tyee site.
https://thetyee.ca/
TurnItOffAndOnAgain
We talk all the time about how the Liberal Media never existed. So why do we let so much unsubstantiated BS get to us?
Going forward we can develop more stringent standards for stories or sources we trust. Any story’s that’s just “he said she said” or comes from a source that’s previously and repeatedly demonstrated they like pitting the left against itself should probably be treated with caution at best.
@glc:
I’m slow. That story about Jeffries is from 2021. Was that the point?
Baud
@SW:
Leadership voted against censure.
Jay
@Baud:
10 alleged Democrat’s voted for censure.
No even enough spine to vote “present”.
New Deal democrat
@Jay: Ok, at this point I really don’t care what you think about Canada’s internal reaction.
As an American, I want to know what Americans’ internal reaction is. And whether you like it or not, Americans’ internal reaction will make a lot of difference in terms of how real the threat is.
Have a nice night.
Baud
@Jay:
None of the 10 were in leadership.
glc
@TurnItOffAndOnAgain:
(It’s been a theme lately – but it was obscure to toss that in like that. apologies.)
Gin & Tonic
The 2013-14 “Revolution of Dignity” in Ukraine that forced out the corrupt and brutal Yanukovych government was not initiated or led by members of the legislature. It came from the streets. Just saying. Members of Parliament or Members of Congress are never the vanguard of anything.
Elizabelle
And: another Space X Starship has blown up. Good thing he’s got a day “job” with “DOGE.”
The Guardian:
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
Except the Continental Congress.
But generally you’re correct.
TONYG
That’s OK. As the old joke goes, if you aren’t pissed off you aren’t paying attention.
Gin & Tonic
@Elizabelle: I think Elon should test drive the next one. Show some confidence in your work, man.
Martin
@Jay: At the end of the day, pretty much the only thing Americans care about is their wallets. A million dead to covid – we don’t bat an eye. Raise the cost of your egg salad sandwich ingredients to $1, and we’ll throw the constitution out.
New Deal democrat
@Gin & Tonic:
And in the long run, that has been one of the fatal flaws in the Madisonian presidential system, and why almost every single one has fallen into periods of presidential tyranny.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jay: I am pretty sure the Wisconsin coal fields will be fine. There are none.
Martin
@Elizabelle: I wonder if he’ll regret building extremely explosive and not remotely hardened rockets a mile from the Mexico border where anyone with a high powered rifle can likely shoot and destroy them.
SW
@Baud: I should hope so! But what were the consequences for the ten who voted for it? That is a leadership or rather lack of leadership issue.
Jay
@New Deal democrat:
Sadly, no it won’t
I am Canadian, we hold grudges.
DJTdiot may have paused tariffs for now,
You probably haven’t noticed, but Canada hasn’t.
different-church-lady
@Jay: Look, we’ll be fine. Eventually things will be repaired when we get rid of Trump and… okay, never mind, I can’t do this…
geg6
Why? Why would you be sorry? You said what I’m screaming in my head about a hundred times a day. All the so-called elites of this country have failed us. This is one instance where you can actually say both sides are the same. Cowards on both sides of the aisle.
different-church-lady
@Martin: Unless, of course, it’s a Republican in charge when the egg salad sandwich goes up, in which case we’ll [checks notes] forgive the Republican and then throw out the constitution anyway.
Elizabelle
@Martin: Now that is an interesting concept.
Usually like to see science succeed. But not Elon’s.
Jay
@Omnes Omnibus:
https://thetyee.ca/News/2025/02/27/Eby-Looks-Tariffs-US-Coal-Shipped-BC/
Noskilz
These are terribly frustrating times.
Every day seems to bring a new catalog of viscious stupidity, and we are in that awkward period where we can see everything accelerating toward a brick wall, but things haven’t totally hit the fan yet.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jay: Wisconsin and Wyoming are actually different places. I hope that helps.
Jay
@New Deal democrat:
There is no “American” internal reaction.
Y’all can’t even find Canada on a map.
different-church-lady
@Noskilz: I share your frustration, but… “Block that metaphor!”
different-church-lady
@Jay: That’s because it’s been renamed “Upper America” by Dumbfuck Hitler.
different-church-lady
@Omnes Omnibus:
But not much.
Jay
@Omnes Omnibus:
I know and remember a lot of stuff, so when I off the cuff things, it’s not always bang on, too bad.
Look at me, being polite and civil to an enemy of my country.
Glory b
@SW: What consequences would make you happy?
RaflW
@TurnItOffAndOnAgain: Yes. Axios is shit-stirring. It’s fun for them, and takes some of the heat off Trump just floundering around on tariffs and the economy.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jay: And yet you doubled down. And if you want call me an enemy of your country, you can kindly go fuck yourself.
New Deal democrat
@Jay: I grew up 4 miles from Canada and visited frequently.
Have a nice night.
Jay
@Glory b:
A Susan Collins worried frown,
a letter of disappointment.
No dessert?
Jay
@Omnes Omnibus:
You are an American, you are now an enemy.
Helps to keep things simple.
RaflW
@different-church-lady: “Wyoming, the Other Dairy State”
Maybe that’s not it.
different-church-lady
@RaflW: Wisconsin: Wyoming, but with crooked edges.
different-church-lady
Y’all are having a fight with a Canadian, and it’s not even a hockey game.
RaflW
delete
Matt McIrvin
@Elizabelle: Elon Musk isn’t doing science. SpaceX is doing engineering, and for a while they were mostly doing *good* engineering from a purely technical point of view, but Starship has always seemed to me like a “keep Elon occupied” project that went out of control. It’s a boondoggle. Nothing scientific is going to be learned from it.
different-church-lady
@Matt McIrvin: We learned more about how rockets blow up.
schrodingers_cat
@Matt McIrvin: How much taxpayer money has been wasted?
different-church-lady
@schrodingers_cat: All of it, Katie.
Jay
https://www.cbc.ca/news
different-church-lady
@Jay: Other than bourbon what the hell do you even buy from us?
Glory b
@Matt McIrvin: Funny, long before “all this” I remember a story that said a lot of tome & energy at SpaceX was spent running interference so that Elon could think that he was being consulted & his great ideas implemented so that the actual employees could work in peace.
different-church-lady
@different-church-lady: Now that I think about it… other than bourbon what the hell do I ever buy?
different-church-lady
In case anyone’s interested, it looks like egg #3 has hatched.
Matt McIrvin
@schrodingers_cat: So, NASA had this program to go back to the Moon, called Artemis, and even before Trump got back in it was kind of fucked up in many ways. But one of the ways was that for the Artemis moon lander (at least as one possibility), they picked SpaceX to give them a derivative of Starship adapted as a colossal crewed lunar module.
This is kind of a dumb idea just on the face of it. I think the plan was to do a bunch of Starship launches with some kind of orbital refueling depot scheme just to get this thing into orbit with enough fuel to get it to the Moon. But my understanding is, SpaceX has been using that Artemis lander funding just to do Starship development, including capabilities that NASA doesn’t really care about.
New Deal democrat
@different-church-lady:
When I was vacationing in Arizona last month, I had occasion to get into conversations with several snowbirding Canadian couples. I was going to offer to buy them drinks as guilty reparations for T—-p’s comments, but I didn’t have to. They were chatty and friendly just like all the other times before T—-p I have ever encountered Canadians on the road.
So our interlocutor might possibly not be representative. Shocking for a blog commenter, I know.
Jay
@different-church-lady:
Over $277 billion dollars of “stuff”.
A little over half of what you used to buy from us.
It’s all going to the EU and China now.
Jay
@New Deal democrat:
Funny how a month can change things.
RaflW
I’m reading the latest from James Fallows, and the following really struck me.
I’ll preface this by saying that I loathe GW Bush. How he got in office is despicable. One of the shitty Brooks Brothers Rioters is now on the Supreme Court. But all that and so much more (Iraq, grotesque tax cuts… blah blah bah) aside, can anyone imagine the following happening with current Republicans. And I mean any of them in office. Governors, senators, so on.
Impossible now. Because a woman rising to this level of power today would be attacked in a total conservative Jihad. But then, GW Bush said what he did, wether he meant it or not, in front of probably 100,000,000 viewers. The GOP was bad then, but it’s orders of magnitude worse now.
Glory b
@RaflW: ALL of the Brooks Brothers rioters got judicial appointments.
What a coincidence!
JoyceH
I guess it’s sequel season. Another Elon rocket explodes and another measles death – this one an unvaccinated adult in New Mexico.
Jay
@JoyceH:
RFK jr has it in hand, with cod liver oil.
Gloria DryGarden
@Baud: what’s your take on those 10? Was there a strategy under it, for why they voted to censure? How does it benefit whom?
Citizen Alan
@glc: That’s from 2021
RaflW
@Glory b: Yeah I was pretty sure it was more than just Boof, but I didn’t want to look it up and feel more depressed.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: 95% of House Dems voted the right way.
Gloria DryGarden
@Jay: half of what we used to buy from Canada, that seems like a big deal. These changes may hurt, a lot.
At the same time, I’m really glad to see Canada and Mexico standing strong, stepping up to not be jerked around by a strange unskilled president.
It occurs to me, it would be an effective strategy to import products from blue owners, blue states. To help bolster what might be effective resistance, to make a statement. As a long term strategy.
It makes sense for Canada to be prepared for unthinkable things. It makes no sense to buy into rhetoric that we’re enemies now. Sure, mr Cheeto-Lago’s intentions are that of an enemy.
And 49% of USians are not in his camp. I hope people are just being silly with the snarkiness toward one another here.
M31
@Glory b: I heard there was a whole administrative layer at spacex whose sole purpose was to insulate the real work from elon’s bullshit
Tesla probably gave him cybertruck to keep him away from the actual cars
Twitter, of course, had no such barrier, it’s 100% elon and therefore a useless nazi hellhole
his goal is for the US to be a nazi hellhole too
we balloonjuicers might have to start being bigger and more abrasive assholes, reaching under the counter for the baseball bat or else it’s a nazi bar all the way down
(not to each other, of course, that would never happen)
M31
@Jay: jesus christ, cod liver oil, it’s like we’re going back to quack 19th-C patent medicine
soon it’ll be William Kellogg style health care — everyone gets a coffee enema every morning, eats only corn flakes, listens to lectures about the perils of masturbation, and dies of TB
columbusqueen
Just learned tonight that a couple I used to be close friends with have FOFO thanks to voting for Trump. She was the primary breadwinner for years, but her job at Battelle was eliminated Tuesday because of losing federal funding, & she’s not eligible for rehire. He’s on disability after a lifetime of various jobs, & needed more back surgery he now doesn’t have insurance to do.
I feel callous as hell, but I feel like telling they’ve asked for this. I was able to ignore their politics for a long time, but he turned into a complete asshole thanks to Trump. She was always a kinder person, but her Catholic pro life beliefs made her vote conservative. Now they’ve cut their own throats, & I just can’t offer a scrap of sympathy.
different-church-lady
@columbusqueen: See me at #36.
Jay
@Gloria DryGarden:
Unfortunately, there is only a few way’s in certain areas, to Blue State/Red State things. While Ontario’s shelf cleansing hit Red State distillers, it also hit Napa Valley wines.
And it’s not a Red State thing.
It’s the US government doing it.
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: Uhh, the owner of the Washington State plated Tesla is probably a Dem voter, & it isn’t like there are that many choices for EVs in the US (& Canada for that matter), outside of Tesla, for the environmentally conscious.
On the USMCA, there was a poison pill in there that gave the US veto over Canada & Mexico concluding FTA w/ non-market economies (read, the PRC). Probably just as well that the deal is now effectively defunct. The PRC has formally submitted applications to joint the CPTPP, & all the messaging internally suggest that it is serious effort. Canada, along w/ the UK, was sure to veto the application on the US’ behalf. That might change now, in light of the new reality (not sure about UK). Of course, that assumes that the PRC is really willing to sign up to the CPTPP’s tough terms.
Might want to drop that 100% tariff on Chinese EVs/PHEVs that Trudeau imposed last year to stay aligned w/ Biden, if Canadians are no longer wiling to buy Teslas.
YY_Sima Qian
@columbusqueen: A disabled person voting R… Talk about voting against your self-interest.
Aziz, light!
Fuck all y’all who are shitting on Jay. Our closest friends have been told their country isn’t real. Fucking American superiority complex.
Omnes Omnibus
@Aziz, light!: Who is shitting on Jay?
YY_Sima Qian
@Aziz, light!: Last week(?), in the last round of internecine fight, I mentioned in one of my posts about different kinds of privilege at work. The last one was privilege that comes from being a resident &/or citizen of the US, & thus benefiting from its hegemonic (military, economic, cultural, financial) position in the world & its exploitation of the ROW (including, at times, its allies & partners). That applies even to marginalized minorities (even the Native Americans) in the US, in relation to the ROW.
Jay is being cantankerous today, just like all of us have at various times, when each of us feel we are the marginalized & victimized. Best to remember that, in other contexts, we might be the privileged & the victimizer.
The sh*t that happen in the US does not stay in the US, it spills out to the world almost instantaneously, & the more vulnerable countries are often even less well equipped than the US to withstand the onslaught. Almost all of the domestic pathologies of the US find their expression in foreign lands at the same time as, some times prior to, their emergence at home. Unlike USians, though, people in other countries are not protected by US laws or checks & balances, & have had little influence over the events in the US that affect them.
Quiltingfool
I read ElectoralVote.com and found this tidbit rather interesting.
Please don’t throw tomatoes at me…
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2025/Items/Mar06-8.html
Jay
@Quiltingfool:
Broken link
columbusqueen
@YY_Sima Qian: He was brought up conservative, & refuses to rethink anything. Another mediocre white man who would rather vote for his illusionary privilege & die for it, than click the lever for a black woman. Bloody-minded jackass. Given that his grandpa was Russian, I’m tempted to tell him to move back since he wants a dictator.
Another Scott
@Jay: (Link works fine here in NoVA.)
Best wishes,
Scott.
Jay
@Another Scott:
Works now, was missing a period.
MobiusKlein
@Quiltingfool: Tomatoes? Have you looked at the prices lately? I’ll be throwing something I can afford.
sentient ai from the future
@M31: keep in mind also that the cod fishery that would have supported a nostrum like that was way earlier in its collapse from overfishing
Gloria DryGarden
@M31: the government needs to stay out of my bedroom, and out of my pants.
how about the perils of not masturbating? If it weren’t on the edge of after dark word play, I’d say that whole way of thinking and the persons behind it, need to fuck off.
Gloria DryGarden
@Jay: i sure hope the folks from this new government feel the consequences of what they’ve done to the nation.
Other nations are doing what y’all need to do, and I’m rooting for you.
sab
@Gloria DryGarden: I fully expect that soon these bozos will lose us our current status as the world’s reserve currency. Then we will really learn about FAFO.
sab
@YY_Sima Qian: My black middle aged hairdresser bought a Tesla years ago because EV, Now he is stuck driving it around because he cannot give it away. He is embarrassed but he needs a car and can’t afford to ditch it.
Scary as hell to live where when the richest man in the world could and did buy our government but is so rich and ketamine addled that he doesn’t even care about his customers or his potential future markets or his shareholders or anything besides his own drug addled emotional needs.
YY_Sima Qian
@sab: Also, a lack of choice, as a consequence of the decisions by the US (& Germany, Japanese, Korean) auto companies, as well as USG.
sab
@YY_Sima Qian: Yes so much. We have wanted an EV car here in USA for years, but all that was available was expensive (even with tax credits that come and go annually by the whim of Congress) and Tesla. I have always been an extreme Musk sceptic.
We bought a Honda hybrid last month, and now we wonder if we will be able to get parts. Hopefully by then we won’t be driving anymore. So far our experience with Honda is ten years before you need parts. Trustworthy little tanks.
WhatsMyNym
@Jay:
Problem Canada has is it doesn’t have oil refinery capacity. On the west coast it ships down to the refineries in Washington state before it can sell it.
Ruckus
I am just so fucking mad and frustrated right now. John Cole.
We haven’t been here before but we’ve been here before.
Humanity gives a lot of room for people to be good or to be complete and utter assholes, no matter who they are. And we are a variety of humans, a wide variety. We have people that think we are all the same and should all be alike (horse poop). We have people that think that we should all be massively different, which considering we are all human – OK many of us are, so maybe not quite so possible. And we have a monetary system, and an ability to become rather wealthy. Or be given the wealth after someone shakes off this life and we get to act as if we earned every damn dime. But mainly we have the human concept of wealth and that money is the first and only side of life that is important, humanity be damned. This makes us come up with words to describe the symptoms of greed and importance. For me it is money is nice but for most people having way too much money makes them complete and utter assholes, because they measure life not with how we fit in or how we help it get better but by how much we have. And this has been going on since the concept of neighbors. For many it isn’t how the money came to be ours, it’s about the number of numbers to be wealthy or massively wealthy so one can hold it over the heads of others.
Humanity can be great, or humanity can completely suck. And every stop in between.
Elizabelle
@columbusqueen: Just tell them we are all praying for them. That should help.
David_C
I missed out on reading comments on these two threads, but even though I’m taking today off I still have 5 accomplishments, despite spending 15-20% of my time complying with wasteful “new requirements.” Being in the crosshairs gives one focus. The RIF hammer is supposed to come down on NIH early next week.
So last week I attended a local climate summit to learn what can be done locally and today I’m Standing Up for Science in DC. Our local (freshman) Congressperson has been active and supportive of federal employees, and our church will offer two events – a talk by our denomination’s social justice leader and a service to offer support for those of us being affected by events.
pajaro
@SW:
There were only 8 of over 200 Democrats who supported the censure, for God’s sake. 96% of the caucus opposed it. Honestly, for all of you, why isn’t the 96% the story? You all are doing the media’s and Republicans work for them.
pajaro
@SW:
What on earth do you think should happen to the Reps who voted for censure? Removed from Committee assignments? Who should replace them? Support a motion to expel them? Does it not occur to you that leadership wants this story to go away, rather than turbocharge the Dems in Disarray narrative?
Ella in New Mexico
Uh, don’t apologize. What you said above is 100% correct. But I’m sure some will interpret it as racist because the leader of the Decorum Democrats is Jeffries.
Kudos to Al and Melanie and Jasmine and AOC and all the brave ones who are ignoring them.
Paul in KY
@Bill Arnold: My dad was on one of those. Said there was a 50 gallon drum (open top) in center of each room the GIs were in. Said the puke would overflow it and then would be on the floor sloshing around. Good times…
Paul in KY
@different-church-lady: Ha!
Paul in KY
@RaflW: No shit.
Paul in KY
@columbusqueen: I hope you get to tell them that.