Last-minute reminder, in case anyone has a free lunch hour:
SO MANY STAND UP FOR SCIENCE EVENTS TO CHOOSE FROM—153 and COUNTING!
To get more information on our local events and to register your own, head to www.standupforscience2025.org/local-event-information/ ??????— Stand Up for Science 2025 – DC and Nationwide! (@standupforscience.bsky.social) March 6, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Donald Trump is lying to you.
— JB Pritzker (@jbpritzker.bsky.social) March 4, 2025 at 11:37 PM
.@JasmineForUS @RepJasmine: "It's not the trans people who made you lose your job… who started a tariff war with Mexico or Canada or China… who are taking away the Department of Education… it's also not the immigrants. And it's definitely not the Black folk." pic.twitter.com/IN396LhfuB
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) March 6, 2025
Trump take job
— Nick (derogatory) ? (@slothropsmap.bsky.social) March 6, 2025 at 1:34 PM
This is not a winning message lmao
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) March 6, 2025 at 11:47 AM
BOLD STRATEGY COTTON
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) March 6, 2025 at 12:25 PM
lmao I just fucking can't.
Lets do the "prices are too damn high" election and win by promising to lower prices, and then.. *waves hand at everything*— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) March 6, 2025 at 12:25 PM
First Trump take egg, now Trump take stock
— Vituperative Erb (@vituperativeerb.bsky.social) March 4, 2025 at 4:25 PM
I can't believe when I started the TRUMP TAKE EGG push people were like "uh what are you gonna do when egg prices go back to normal and everything's fine" instead of realizing that shit like this was gonna happen instead:
'trump crash plane' and 'trump take egg' aren't the messages themselves, they're the strategy. the messages are the repetition of the images
— BeijingPalmer (@beijingpalmer.bsky.social) March 4, 2025 at 2:49 PM
On The Road – Auntie Anne – Southeast Asia – Angkor Thom and Bayon Temple, Cambodia 3 of 3
Baud
The first rule of messaging strategy. Don’t talk about messaging strategy.
lowtechcyclist
I’ll just drop this in here:
DOD Will No Longer Prohibit Contractors from Running Segregated Facilities – TPM – Talking Points Memo
I was busy celebrating a birthday yesterday, and apparently that was just one of several insane things that came to light while I was away from the news.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
If your birthday, happy birthday!
J.
Secy of Commerce Howard Lutnick was on CNBC yesterday, talking up Dear Leader, saying how the Orange One was going to bring back manufacturing and steel production to the U.S. and create millions of jobs. But as my husband pointed out, the reason manufacturing and steel production went overseas is because American consumers don’t want to pay a lot for that muffler or whatever. So you can talk all you like about tariffs and returning manufacturing to the U.S., but the same MAGAts who supposedly support that are going to scream their heads off about high prices. Oh, and those millions of jobs Lutnick promised? They’re going to go to robots.
satby
Pritzker is a great governor.
There’s a Stand Up for Science demonstration scheduled near me that I’m going to today. Other than that, I got nothin.
satby
@J.: All true. Some of the silly shit people say about what will happen, or on our side what people should do, always makes me wonder if they’ve ever met “Americans”.
Professor Bigfoot
@lowtechcyclist: One more example of how conservatives are bringing back Jim Crow.
schrodingers_cat
The elite media and the left demands perfection from the Democrats and not even the barest minimum from the Republicans, that’s why we are where we are. Just like the society at large gives white people a pass but expects non-white people to be perfect every time. This is the political version of it. A black person or a woman with Trump’s history could never ever have become the President.
I don’t know how to change this. Even talking about this makes people uncomfortable.
Suzanne
Access to cheap goods isn’t the essence of the American Dream.
The essence of the American Dream is being able to work hard on a fair playing field, achieve on your merits of diligence and intelligence without limitation of class or race or upbringing, earn and invest for the future, so your children do better than you did. None of which the GOP provides, either.
#fuckthatguy
schrodingers_cat
MSM was more upset with Hillary’s emails and Biden’s shoes than it is over all the horrible things done by their favorite in just over a month.
Suzanne
@lowtechcyclist: Happy birthday!
I wasn’t around much yesterday, either….. looks like it was a good day to be elsewhere.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Thanks! It was indeed my birthday. I’m now 71, just one more number to ridicule as meaningless.
MagdaInBlack
@lowtechcyclist: Happy Birthday! Hope you had an excellent day.
lowtechcyclist
@Suzanne:
Thanks!
Yeah, I was catching up this morning by reading the front page of TPM, and it was really kind of overwhelming.
I ate a bit too well last night, so I’m hoping my stomach settles down in time for me to go into DC for the Stand Up for Science rally.
Betty Cracker
@lowtechcyclist: Fellow Piscean!
Suzanne
Spawn the Youngest woke up earlier than normal and it’s amazing how she can just start having entire conversations, singing entire musicals…. without coffee. Damn.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
I think they like the excitement. So much news.
WereBear
@lowtechcyclist: That’s the risk you take when there’s a rest period, yet must come back.
Oh, the things they’ve gone and done!
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
All numbers matter.
ETA: You should know that if you’re standing up for science.
Baud
Paging Geminid
MagdaInBlack
Apropos of nuthin, there is a cardinal outside my window singing his big old cardinal heart out. Must be the season of LUV in the cardinal world.
WereBear
@Professor Bigfoot: Yes, which is also what they were promised. Why aren’t they loud and proud about all the 2025 things they are doing? “See, we keep our promises.”
Now between the devil and the deep blue sea. It’s beyond repair, they must pick one.
What will they pick? That is the question before me.
WereBear
@schrodingers_cat: It’s all assumptions of superiority to make up for a lack of the real thing.
If they tick me off, I tell them. But then, I’m sick and permanently unemployable. I got something out of the deal :)
SFAW
@schrodingers_cat:
I agree those two groups do it, but I think for two different reasons. For the nominal left/liberals, I think it’s a variant of Murc’s Law: they know Rethugs will ignore them, so they focus on their own group, thinking/hoping change will happen that way. For the elite media, I think it’s a combination of getting clicks and owners wanting Rethugs to be in power, plus maybe some other TBD (meaning I’m not sure) stuff.
sab
@MagdaInBlack: The robins have arrived back after winter down south somewhere. Surprised the geese aren’t here yet. I hope avian flu didn’t get our whole flock of visitors.
satby
Good dialogue between Paul Krugman and autocracy expert Kim Schepple about the parallels between Orban in Hungary and the felon’s attempts to emulate him here:
Betty Cracker
@MagdaInBlack: Aww, the big red lug! The birds around here are all going nuts too.
That reminds me — I need to make some nectar and get the hummingbird feeders up this weekend. They usually show up again around this time of year. The flowering plants in the yard are making a comeback after the flood, but there aren’t any blossoms yet, and the hummies have to eat!
WereBear
Idea for new MAGA hat:
MAKE THE DEPRESSION GREAT AGAIN
Betty Cracker
Cool AP story about a dolphin that landed in a 16-foot fishing boat in New Zealand and how the fishermen returned it to the sea. Happy ending for fishermen and dolphin!
Our crappy little Jon boat is a 16-footer, a 1980s-vintage relic of the rental fleet at the business my dad sold when he retired in 2020. I’m trying to imagine a dolphin and three people in a boat of that size. Dolphins are BIG!
JCJ
@lowtechcyclist: Someone here a bit ago wrote that when their age was a prime number they would declare that they were “in their prime.” So hardly a meaningless number – you are in your prime!
WereBear
@Betty Cracker: But what a remake of Lifeboat that would be!
Jackie
Censoring Green isn’t enough for MAGA:
Van Buren
@J.: Not to mention there are not millions of Americans begging for a low wage factory job.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
All numbers matter, but when a number claims to be my age, it becomes the object of my ridicule. I’m not gonna let some cheap-ass number define me!
YY_Sima Qian
The MAGA to Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution parallel has gone mainstream (gift link to NYT opinion piece below):
The view represented here are those of Chinese liberals, which is a marginalized breed, unfortunately now further discredited w/in the PRC for advocating following the West’s example (& the U.S.’ specifically) through the decades. The trade war, the tech war, & the Cold War 2.0 cratered their support.
schrodingers_cat
@SFAW: These two groups I mentioned are not overtly racist but there are these unspoken assumptions that are like the air we breathe.
white == good and default
non-white=weird and not as good
Democratic party is the part of the weird and not so good people.
Professor Bigfoot
@JCJ: Ooohhh, so I too, at 67, am in my prime!
(now if I could just quit Prime…)
Geminid .
@lowtechcyclist: Since 71 is a Prime Number, if anyone asks you your age you can tell them you are in your Prime.
Happy Birthday, mathematician!
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: They also like Republicans no matter how horrible.
sentient ai from the future
@Jackie: well to be scrupulously fair, I remember Obama doing the same thing when joe Wilson yelled “you lie”…hold on
*finger to ear*
so anyway
sentient ai from the future
@schrodingers_cat: alienation and fear are good for driving consumption, which is key to the business model
lowtechcyclist
@MagdaInBlack:
Haven’t seen the cardinals yet, and there’s a bush outside my window where they love to hang out. But lots of robins already.
And thanks for the birthday wishes! I had a very good day – dinner was at a place called Jesse Jay’s which does Cuban Mex, for lack of a better term. And along the way, I won an auction for a used but still functional Craftsman table saw to replace the one I had that died. And my wife gave me the Chappell Roan CD. :-)
Josie
@MagdaInBlack:
I drive to my son’s house very early to sit with my granddaughter until time to take her to school. The cardinal in one of his trees always sings while it’s still a bit dark, but this morning he was super loud and persistant. Must be something in the air.
Josie
@lowtechcyclist:
Happy Birthday, youngster.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid .
Thanks!
Some are mathematicians, some are carpenters’ wives
Don’t know how it all got started, don’t know what they do with their lives
-Dylan, of course
schrodingers_cat
@sentient ai from the future: High unemployment is not good for consumption. That’s where Trump’s policies are going to lead us.
Biden did not get the credit due for achieving what economists considered impossible, low inflation and full employment. It took a while to get there but he got zero credit for it by both the left flank and the media.
With the exception of a few economists like Wolfers and Krugman.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Baud:
Heh, we break that rule before even thinking about breaking that rule and then go on to break that rule.
UncleEbeneezer
@Baud: No, first rule is whatever Dems do, they’re doing it wrong.
different-church-lady
@schrodingers_cat:
And if they have to manufacture it to get it, they will.
different-church-lady
@schrodingers_cat:
They’d be in jail if they tried a fraction of it.
TBone
@Suzanne: I used to awake like that too, never needed coffee. Then Lyme hit like a dead weight. And I got old. Can’t shake the exhausting fatigue today, used up way more than my 12 spoons over the last few months of stress and intensive cat nursing. Coffee is utterly useless today. Noah and Katrina and I are all snuggling in for a couch potato day, much needed continued Spring cleaning will wait. So it goes. I’m hoping to go to a protest tomorrow on the Court House steps of a nearby college town.
different-church-lady
@Suzanne: You’re working with the old definition. The new definition is “Dominance”.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Betty Cracker:
Back in Central Misery, one could literally set their calendar as to when the hummers would show up, obviously much later than where you are.
The scouts would show up on 14-15 April, yes, one of those two days. Then a week later, the horde shows up. Right along with the chimney swifts and Baltimore Orioles. I swear they all fly up together.
sentient ai from the future
@schrodingers_cat: yeah, there’s definitely a caveat to the consumption thing about “when things aren’t fundamentally terrible or expected to become so”
and re:Biden, you are absolutely preaching to the choir. My life and that of my child were meaningfully and directly helped in concrete terms by his policies and I will never fucking forgive those whose free floating pessimism borne of privilege allowed people to ignore or disregard what was basically a fucking economic miracle
different-church-lady
@Suzanne: Morning people are the worst…
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
sentient ai from the future
@different-church-lady: “democracy dies in darkness” is not a clarion call, but an instruction.
TBone
@lowtechcyclist: happy anniversary 🎉 of your first trip around the sun!
Westyny
Trump take egg, leopards take face.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Jeffg166
@sab:
I saw some geese flying north yesterday.
TBone
@MagdaInBlack: love them. Mom & Dad had a pair back in the day they’d feed at the kitchen window sill. Wendy & Charlie were their names.
TBone
I don’t even have energy to complain much today hahaha.
Complaint form 🔳
Spanky
@lowtechcyclist: Haven’t seen the cardinals yet? We’re crawling with them over here, and they’ve been here all winter.
Happy birthday, belatedly. And if you won’t consider it prime, consider it indivisible.
The Craftsman or the Delta?Reading fail.
different-church-lady
I’m almost certain Sid Vicious wasn’t thinking about his actions from a career perspective…
TBone
@rikyrah: good morning!
TBone
@different-church-lady: lol
different-church-lady
@sentient ai from the future: It’s just a headline for today’s news.
Betty
@J.: Funny how Biden creating jobs wasn’t newsworthy.
TBone
It is 35 actual degrees here, 28 with wind chill. The fireplace and the hot cocoa are of great comfort. The sun is out but the birds are subdued.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Yeah, I think they’re culturally and socially aligned, even apart from their common economic interests.
YY_Sima Qian
This is just the beginning of the censorship to come:
Baud
Via reddit
Jeffro
the Times, more than a little late to the party today: trump’s policies have shaken a once-solid economy
what was it Jay Rosen was saying all through 2023 and 2024: tell people the stakes, not the odds?
yeah, well…
(I gave them a little help with that last part)
FO: it’s not just for Dems anymore!
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: Actually, it’s white Christian straight (or Christian-professing) men who get a pass. White women or gays or non-white people or religion other than Christian are subject to the “must be perfect” rule too. It’s because white male is seen as the “default” person in this country, so they can be any way they want. Everyone else is supposed to conform to a rigid idea of how they should be in order to be acceptable. I’ve pointed out to more than one person that the people who paint their bodies to go to football games aren’t less crazy than people who dress up for sci-fi conventions. People don’t like that comparison, but it’s true.
Matt McIrvin
@satby: Will they become anti-Trump Republicans? Or will they just find scapegoats (trans people and foreigners took everything) and attack them even harder?
During the Great Recession it seemed like there was a concerted effort to find the level of government that had a Democrat in it and blame them for everything. And that Republicans were working to immiserate their own constituents so they could then do that.
Soprano2
@lowtechcyclist: Happy birthday, I just turned 64 at the end of February. I think of it as being one day older than I was the day before.
NotMax
@lowtechcyclist
Belated happy!
Suzanne
@Soprano2:
People also didn’t like when Vivek told them that they should spend their weekends at the Science Olympiad rather than the football game.
Man, I need some more of that comedy. That was funniest thing that’s happened in politics in months.
TBone
In other shocking news from The Inky
And
artem1s
Unfortunately the federal government will stop reporting unemployment or fudge the numbers. But the state governors who have to deal with reduced revenue from payroll taxes, sales taxes, fees, tourism, gas taxes, etc… they are going to freak – except Mike DeWhinge who will no doubt find a way to weaponize the state government against ‘woke’ even more. He’s already made it even harder for the health care industry to keep clinics and hospitals open in rural Ohio.
different-church-lady
@Suzanne: Say, what ever happened to that Vivek guy?
different-church-lady
@artem1s: Health is a hoax.
MCat
@lowtechcyclist: Happy birthday to you!!!
Suzanne
@different-church-lady: LMAO, RIGHT?!?!
Vivek forgot what party he’s in. The nerds that spend their weekends at the Science Olympiad are a lot more likely to be Democrats. He’s in with the Hold-My-Beer-Americans now!
different-church-lady
@Matt McIrvin:
They will pause, then move on to the next demagogue.
tobie
@Suzanne: Amen. And that is why we need quality public schools in every zip code.
Jeffro
conversely, here’s Michelle Goldberg on the right’s trumpov derangement syndrome (ie, pretending they don’t see his obvious insanity and corruption):
Soprano2
@Baud: I kind of wonder if a lot of people in the press are secretly revelling in the dismantling of the federal government, since that’s the kind of thing that has happened to their industry. Lots of people really do believe all of the government is bloated an inefficient. I told our department director that when he talks to groups about why their sewer bills are going up, one fact he should cite is that until the mid-2010’s we were maintaining the sewer with the same number of crews we had in the 1980’s, while the system grew by “x” amount of miles. We previously had a director who thought it was good to keep rates the same because it was politically popular, and now we’re paying the price for that because we have to have 5%/yr increases to try to get the rates where they need to be to pay for the things we have to do.
UncleEbeneezer
@YY_Sima Qian: Shout out to the fucking Uncommitted assholes (and everyone who defended their bullshit) for helping make this happen. No fucking way this would be happening if Harris or Biden was President. Maybe THIS should’ve been the focus of the Gaza messaging for the election: Trump will actually punish/persecute protestors, Harris (or Biden or any other Dem) won’t.
Some of us saw this coming a mile away and tried to stop it, but all the “GenocideJoe” shitheads simply didn’t care. And now here we are…
different-church-lady
@Jeffro: Like I’ve said: the first time was for kicks. This time is for revenge. He’s not going to have even a single person around him who won’t do revenge for him.
p.a
I wonder how minority military recruitment might be affected by the obvious path of the current
confedfederal gvt, especially given drumpf’s firings. But given the anti-economy being built, any job is a good job.Soprano2
@Suzanne: It’s like this idea that having RFK Jr. is going to automatically get Americans to eat a healthier diet. I want to ask them, have you met the average American?
different-church-lady
@Soprano2: For that matter, have you met RFKjr?
TBone
@Jeffro: I was hopped up on Trump Denouement Syndrome for far too long, and am suffering serious withdrawal symptoms as a result.
Now I take Fuckitol.
different-church-lady
@Jeffro: I mean goddamn, anyone who thought something other than this was going to happen was a fuckin’ exponential dumbshit.
WereBear
@different-church-lady: They would love to, but they can’t. Reality is, Trump can’t pretend to be sentient much longer, they are likely giving him pills to mask the issue but is also making it worse.
Musk? Vance? MTG? All these wannabes don’t mesmerize the MAGAs. He’ll die and there is no successor. Just a lot of Prince John’s laying waste to the kingdom.
I’ve long hoped it would fracture like every other cult who suffers unexpected loss of the leader, with no sub-leaders. These spineless R politicians don’t have any pizzazz of their own.
And the menace spent decades that in the press and on TV. The faith parasites in their mega churches are scandal ridden too. They are in a corner with no one to lead them out.
Suzanne
@Soprano2:
Right?! Like, do you think that there’s a large cohort of Americans who really want to be eating more organic Brussels sprouts?!
WereBear
@Soprano2: Looking at RFK Jr turns my stomach. Maybe that’s the plan.
Matt McIrvin
@p.a: What minority military recruitment? Surely they won’t be doing any. They’re purging the brass of minorities. What they want is people who are eager to shoot minorities.
different-church-lady
@WereBear: I agree it won’t be easy to find another fix like they have now, but I can guarantee they’ll look for it.
SFAW
@schrodingers_cat:
Qualified agreement: I don’t think libs are necessarily racist (in the white == good sense), but it was kind of appalling to see Bernie’s unacknowledged (or is it unrealized?) racism when he bad-mouthed the SC primaries (and by extension, Jim Clyburn).
TBone
@WereBear: I don’t misunderestimate the power of the cult to hypnotize the rubes into falling under the spell of a Dear Leader imposter replacement. BoJo is still alive.
Some of ’em think that English accent means he’s smart.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/politics/government/boris-johnson-comeback-plot-leaves-nigel-farage-facing-huge-threat-as-tories-hold-trump-card-to-sink-reform-uk/ar-AA1zxY0W
WereBear
@different-church-lady: Actually, it’s QAnon. They don’t care if anyone’s dead. One “prophet” of their’s has already predicted this is the THIRD Trump robot/Reptilian/crisis actor recruited for the job.
I’m not saying it makes sense. I’m saying the ones sticking with it will have to become psychotic. And they are up for it!
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: Any diet initiatives he introduces are going to be crazy-fueled. Keto for everyone! Next week, the diet where you consume nothing but raw milk and Soylent.
A Ghost to Most
Science kicks religion’s ass.
different-church-lady
@SFAW: There’s overt racism, and then there’s lazy subconscious racism.
different-church-lady
@A Ghost to Most: It works, bitches!
WereBear
@A Ghost to Most: Science kicks religion’s ass.
Which is why we are seeing the collapse of fundamentalist religions, who hate science the most. But I doubt their sincerity, when the Amish are having escapees, and having to soften their rule to keep them.
The barn can have all the electrical stuff. I’m sure that is written in a holy book somewhere.
schrodingers_cat
@SFAW: Its subconscious. They get defensive when confronted with it.
I have been there myself. When I took to Twitter after Modi’s second that was my reaction initially when confronted with many instances of casteism in India. It made me ponder and question everything. I learned a lot about myself and India’s history.
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro: The right loves power–their instinct is to suck up to the biggest bully. Trump’s kind of insanity is all in the service of bullying so they instinctively love it. They’ll parrot lies because the point of the lies is to prove that they can make you pretend to believe them–it’s bully control over reality, like O’Brien telling Winston Smith the Party can make the Earth flat.
Soprano2
Honestly I’m dubious about this, it’s more likely “Hollywooding” if he does have dementia. You’d be surprised how normal a person with dementia can seem if they’re performing for someone else. He also could be in the early stages of Alzheimer’s and getting the drugs that prolong the early stages (but they don’t stop it). Drugs can have unpredictable effects on older people. It’s possible that they’ve discovered a cocktail of stuff that helps him seem more normal for short periods of time, but like you say that can’t last.
Matt McIrvin
@WereBear: Non-fundamentalist religions are hurting more than fundamentalist ones. For a while there, fundamentalist religion was exploding while all other kinds were in decline. Now, the rot has gotten to the fundies but their bad reputation mostly repels people who don’t have the fundie instinct from religion entirely, with the damage hurting the less obnoxious religions more than the most obnoxious ones.
different-church-lady
@Soprano2: I would love to see him stroke out on live TV.
(I can’t believe I’m saying this…)
Soprano2
@Matt McIrvin: They think the only reason young white men haven’t been flocking to sign up is because the military is too “woke” (which to them means has way too many women and minorities). They’re going to be surprised…….
different-church-lady
@Soprano2: Well, that and they’re probably more afraid to actually fight and die than others.
TBone
@different-church-lady: when he was airlifted out of the White House with Covid, I was on my feet cheering loudly.
I thought gawd loved us that much.
Matt McIrvin
@WereBear: Trump’s parents were fairly long-lived. I’ve been assuming he will live to 100 just to avoid getting my hopes up. Robert Mugabe ruled Zimbabwe until he was 95.
zhena gogolia
@TBone: He’s the Antichrist. Nothing kills him.
Soprano2
@different-church-lady: I know, he brings out the worst in everyone doesn’t he?
TBone
@zhena gogolia:
different-church-lady
@Soprano2: Oh hell, that ain’t even close to the worst in me…
NotMax
@Matt McIrvin
Roadkill in every pot.
//
TBone
My inner Wednesday Addams twitches
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: I think they can probably recruit some white supremacist kids by telling them they’re going to get to mow down protesters. The armed forces are going to be useless for any traditional military roles (like invading Canada or Greenland) but they’ll still be pretty good for killing unarmed civilians in the United States.
schrodingers_cat
@Soprano2: May be when compared to white men, white women are not the default but they are still preferable to ooga booga non white people.
See for example how Nazi Barbie Doll Leavitt is treated compared to Jean-Pierre.
Jackie
@different-church-lady:
He thinks Ohioans will make him governor… He obviously doesn’t own a mirror.
TBone
@schrodingers_cat: she’s such an insufferable
twittwat.I said I don’t have energy to complain much today but my cuss mouth gas tank is pegged on full.
different-church-lady
@Matt McIrvin:
LOL. Did you do that on purpose?
SiubhanDuinne
@lowtechcyclist:
Happy birthday! Wishing you many more.
I hope very much to make it to 2031, when my birthday that year will make my age both a Prime and a Fibonacci. And I hope I still have enough mental acuity to recognise the significance of the number in the moment.
Phylllis
@Soprano2: This reminds me of my superintendent many years ago dressing down the city council member who proudly stated ‘we haven’t raised city taxes in years’ at a public meeting about the school budget. She quickly shot back ‘that’s fiscally irresponsible’. He turned a shade of red I didn’t think possible in a human. He also shut the hell up.
Kristine
@MagdaInBlack: They’ve been loud up here in the NE corner too.
It’s a lovely sound.
WTFGhost
@Suzanne: “And on the 9th day, God bred his chosen warrior with Vivek Ramaswamaunctuousness, and found someone in shrimping boots that was even *less* attractive, so….”
different-church-lady
Fibonacci… Denouement… Demagogue… We are clearly not dumb enough for this country.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Matt McIrvin: I’ve been assuming Trump will outlive me, which is a depressing thought
TBone
@WTFGhost: oh dear lort hahahaha!
TBone
@different-church-lady: that’s why we’re the hated intelligentsia. History rhymes.
WereBear
@Matt McIrvin: The less obnoxious religions are easier to let go if someone prefers secular activities. But I agree that “Christian” has become generally obnoxious, thanks to the fundamentalists’ own efforts.
Part of the complaints about “being persecuted” is that they are more and more obviously not right.
jonas
Can you imagine the five-alarm media and political shitstorm that would have ensued if this had been Janet Yellin’s response to someone asking about inflation a couple of years ago? JFC, the mind reels.
Also #fuckthatguy and a super #fuckthemsm
Ohio Mom
@sab: I have not yet seen a robin but I am certain they are about. My other reliable harbinger of spring, the croci, are nowhere to be seen, some varmint must have dug up and eaten all the bulbs.
Spanky
Boo hoo.
Ohio Mom
@different-church-lady: He’s running for governor of Ohio. How it pains me to type that.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: That’s awesome — thanks for flagging it!
jonas
Mostly because what they mean by “persecuted” is “my opinions are no longer automatically deferred to because I wave a Bible around.”
Sure Lurkalot
My good friend Frank from college sadly departed at the beginning of Trump I, but for the election, had red caps made with the logo “Make America Grateful Dead Again” which he gave out (literally liberally).
Trump’s “policies” are going to deaden a lot of people, I’m not so sure that’s not part of the plan. Some may be gratefully dead to avoid the pain inflicted upon them, but that’s not what my dear friend meant by his hats.
TBone
Professor Leonore says
And then there’s this clusterfuck:
https://bsky.app/profile/leecarpenter.bsky.social/post/3ljqp6hd5z22y
Can we still say Enola?
https://www.newsweek.com/military-remove-enola-gay-photos-dei-rules-2041029
Suzanne
@jonas: Maybe it’s because I was brought up by my extremely Protestant grandparents on my mother’s side….. and my grandfather’s mother died young and his father was a drunk, and he had to drive a truck at age 12 to earn money to feed himself….. but I remember the value of thrift being a core part of that American ideal. Entitlement to cheap shit was, at no time, part of the core expectation.
TBone
@Sure Lurkalot: I already miss your friend but I bet not nearly as much as you do. I’m sorry 😔
jonas
@Spanky: Hedgers who were betting on “Trump will make everything awesome” (or even “won’t rock the boat too badly given that we’re doing really well here”) have lost badly. On the other hand, it would be interesting to know who the characters are who started shorting the shit out of everything in January and are now incredibly wealthy.
Matt McIrvin
@WereBear: But you also see the claims of antirationalist ideologies getting more and more assertively absurd. It’s not enough to say that humans were intelligently designed, or that the universe was created 6000 years ago–now, the universe is only the size of the Earth and it’s a flat-floored dome like a cake cover. The cosmology of Ptolemy is a newfangled liberal innovation that has to be rejected.
schrodingers_cat
@different-church-lady: Not white enough for MAGA no matter how much he debases himself.
Spanky
Let’s see how the True Americans (aka farmers) are doing. From this weeks Lancaster Farming:
Hmmm! Well! Anything else?
Yeah, good luck with that. Anything else?
Is are farmers learning?
Citizen Dave
@lowtechcyclist:
Came across this TUIB video last night. Early version from the first official bootleg album, but lots of AI images and whatnot. Not sure what to make of it. https://youtu.be/o9nup6F3A_A?si=IeXxIjXQrXQuwvwQ
Suzanne
Speaking of thrift…. I want to note that Half Price Books posted on their social media that they have supported DEI since their founding in the 70s and will continue to do so!
So, go trade in some books, y’all.
Geminid .
@Baud: It’s striking to see the difference in the attitude of Europeans towards Turkiye five years ago and now. Some of their former distrust was due to longstanding prejudice, but some also was due to Turkiye’s stubborn and undiplomatic President R.T. Erdogan.
Now however, Erdogan has a very capable and trusted Foriegn Minister in Hakan Fidan. Fidan started making a difference as soon as he took the post in June of 2023. In recent years,Turkish warplanes had been rattling and breaking Greek windows all over the Aegean Sea because of a feud between Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Mitzotakis.
That Fall, Erdogan visited Athens and he and Mitzotakis signed a number of confidence-building agreements. Erdogan proclaimed that the Aegean was now a “Sea of Cooperation and Peace,” as the Greek window industry took the hit.
Turkish-French relations were at low because they backed opposite sides in the Libyan civil war that reached a critical period 2020-2021. At one point when a French frigate intercepted a Turkish freighter carrying arms to the UN-recognized government, two Turkish frigates intercepted the French frigate and bluntly warned it off. The French did not take this well:
The French got over it, and events over the next few years justified Turkiye’s Libya policy. The intervention engineered by Hakan Fidan– then Erdogan’s intelligencd chief– prevented the Russian Wagner Group from taking Tripoli on behalf of Benghazi-based warlord General Hiftar, and thereby locking up billions in oil revenue.
Five years ago Erdogan had just every Arab leader mad at at him also. Now, Turkish-Arab relations may be the best they’ve been since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the formation of the Turkish Republic in 1923. Turkiye is also ten years into an extensive build-out of its defense industry, an initiative the Europeans have only now taken.
And the prospective settlement of the 40-year conflict between the PKK and the Turkish state promises to remove a longstanding irritant in Turkish-European relations. It could a very big step forward for Turkiye itself.
So now Le Monde and others see Turkiye in a different light. Also, as a Black Sea regional power, Turkiye is very much involved in the diplomatic manouvering around the prospect ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia.
There is a picture I’ve seen a lot lately on Middle East news sites. It was taken when President Zelensky visited Ankara last month, and shows Presidents Erdogan and Zelensky posed at the entrance to Turkiye’s presidential palace. Erdogan had just escorted Zelensky from his limousine, past an honor guard of Turkish soldiers.
It happened to be rainy day, so Erdogan was holding a big umbrella that shielded both men. That was fortuitous symbolism; we will get to see what substance lies behind it in coming months and years.
Mel
@TBone: It’s cold here, too. We had snow pop up night before last. This weekend is moving weekend, in the bitter chill, and the cats are going to be significantly displeased about it, I am sure.
We assembled their new cat tree at the new house, and have their toys ready, but their royal felinenesses will absolutely make us pay for inconveniencing them…
TBone
@Spanky: not where I live. But the Commonwealth paid for extensive deer fencing inside the Bald Eagle State Forest boundaries about 9 or 10 years back. Where they can be conveniently hunted.
Hoodie
@JeffroIt’s not necessarily unfettered Trump that’s the problem, it’s that he’s now fettered by people who have very bad agendas and use his stupidity and primitive desire for revenge to drive those agendas. This tariff shit is probably coming from loons like Navarro, who fantasize about returning to some sort of late 18th century economy. Vance/Theil are probably driving foreign policy for white nationalist reasons. Josh Marshall has a piece out on Vance’s Nazi social media reading list, which includes a lot of stuff that aligns with things that Theil has espoused. Musk shares some of the same views and is gutting the admin state because he want to be able to do whatever he wants without constraints and, perhaps, to commandeer government funding for his space and other ventures as Tesla – his principal source of wealth and power – declines in the face of scaling issues and increasing commoditization of the EV market by firms like BYD. Trump himself is not the origin of these world views, he’s too stupid and disordered for that, which is why he vacillates so much. But he is intensely manipulable. None of these guys would have gone anywhere in their own without Trump . They need Trump’s brand and ability to shamelessly lie and tap into the deep stupidity and resentment in a large part of the electorate.
jonas
@Suzanne: Right. Because back then, there *was* no cheap shit. Shoes had to be made by a shoemaker. Your clothes cost a lot and you mended them at home for as long as you could. For the first decade or two, TVs were very much an upper middle-class luxury appliance. What free trade and (esp) cheap labor from China and elsewhere did over the past generation or two was enable working-class Americans to acquire the accoutrements of that upper middle-class lifestyle — flat screen TVs, nice clothes, cheap toys for the kiddos, tchatchkis for your living room, etc. So yeah, nowadays cheap stuff *is* more or less part of the American dream because if that goes away, the standard of living for a *lot* of Americans is going to go way down. Republicans aren’t touting austerity because they want us to return to our thrifty Protestant roots, it’s because they want to give more tax breaks and deregulation to billionaires.
We’ll see how many people think they voted for that.
Baud
Via reddit
TBone
@Mel: oh you have my best wishes for a smooth as possible transition for all concerned without the obligatory vomit!
We had a bit of unpredicted snow here too yesterday and more predicted tonight after some rain. I’m bone achingly wishing for Spring!
Suzanne
@jonas: What eats me up is that we have cheap consumer goods, but the cost of the stuff that we genuinely need to thrive — quality housing, quality education, safe and effective transportation — only gets more expensive and out of reach! The cheap TV and the fast fashion serve to placate.
You know who wrote a book about this issue? Elizabeth Warren. Smart lady.
Doug R
Brian Tyler Cohen is also on Bluesky.
Here’s the clip with Rep Jasmine Crockett:
https://bsky.app/profile/briantylercohen.bsky.social/post/3ljqir6cr2s2j
Here’s his link to the full interview:
https://bsky.app/profile/briantylercohen.bsky.social/post/3ljqir6hs722j
Josie
@Suzanne:
I really don’t like Vivek, but that particular rant came very close to the truth. I should know; I was a nerd, and two of my three sons were also.
Jeffro
@TBone: LOL
pass me some of that Fuckitol, please ;)
Mel
Ask the Amish women whose teeth are pulled out when they are teenagers so they won’t “burden” their parents or future husbands with the cost of dental care if they would prefer a little medical science over abuse in the guise of religion…
Hubby represented some former Amish, while doing public interest law. Heartbreaking.
Geminid .
@Baud: This is a good example of what you get when you team up Artificial Intelligence with Real Stupidity.
moonbat
@Geminid .: Glad to read this. If we’re not going to help protect Ukraine having a close neighbor like Turkey taking a leading role in helping them (and protecting their own interests on the Black Sea) is a definite plus.
Tangentially happy to hear that things have cooled down between Greece and Turkey as well.
A bright spot.
gvg
@satby: The red states taking from blue states is also not totally correct. The US is one country and one economy. In order to function it needs roads and telephone lines and other such things. Things/goods have to move between places and so do people. Those roads and the law and order that makes them safe are costs that get counted as red or blue, but the benefits go to all of us multiple times.
Those roads are a big cost. They connect our country. The farms could not sell to us if they did not exist, nor get loans, seed, equipment and exist with out the loans, the courts, the safe banking.
TBone
Some mood music and also what I will have for lunch. Made with the last of last summer’s pear preserves and copious cinnamon streusel.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f9rCUQjmkxU
Also I have become addicted to ginger ale. I used to drink lemon lime seltzer and must find a way to return to it because bathing suit. GAH.
Bathing suits with skirts music
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J1VQpH_yCjw
Suzanne
@Josie: Vivek isn’t wrong, not at all. Vivek is hilariously misjudging the company he keeps, though! Man, did he really think the GOP was the party that wants to hear about instrument lessons and studying?! We’re talking about the party that wants to elevate dimwit white dudebros who listen to Luke Bryan.
Matt McIrvin
@Sure Lurkalot: In the backwash of Fennario, the black and bloody mire
The Dire Wolf collects his dues, while the boys sing round the fire
Don’t murder me
I beg of you, don’t murder me…
lowtechcyclist
@SiubhanDuinne:
May you realize both of those hopes!
The next Fibonacci after that one is, of course, waaaay out of reach.
Josie
@Suzanne:
So true.
catclub
@schrodingers_cat:
What if it ends up with eating the rich?
Mel
@TBone:
@Jeffro: Seconded.
i just made my daily congresscritter call. Can I get my Fuckitol with a chaser of Krispy Kremes?
jackmac
@MagdaInBlack: Cardinals are a constant near my house. I have now mature trees (planted when we moved in) and the birdies appreciate them. Cardinals are loud, but I love to hear their songs.
jonas
@Matt McIrvin: The actual problem is that a large percentage of young white men with just a high school diploma or GED who might theoretically be eligible for recruitment are simply nowhere near the standard — they’re either overweight, have substance-abuse issues, disciplinary issues, or other incompetencies/pathologies that won’t pass muster. The Marines aren’t interested in a twitchy 19yo methhead, even if he is covered in white power tattoos. So recruiters turn to much more viable recruitment pools: smart, young women looking to finance a college degree and immigrants looking for a way to serve their country. These people are hungry and will train and will fight. Pete Hegseth’s imagined military of blonde, blue-eyed SS troopers simply doesn’t exist in the modern world and if he succeeded in turning the Army or Marines into just that, they would suck ass.
Geminid .
@A Ghost to Most: I’m curious: has Colorado Rep. Brittany Pettersen held her town hall yet, and did you attend? If you’d care to make a report, I’d be interested. On-the-ground reporting can be valuable.
schrodingers_cat
Trump’s win and the Republican trifecta at the Federal level is the triumph of stupidity over reason. And it was engineered by your so called liberal media
jonas
@Matt McIrvin: That’s exactly the problem — these people are locked into an information bubble that will tell them over and over not to believe their lying eyes and they’ll buy it. They’ll be sitting atop a smoking pile of rubble that used to be their lives and somehow, it will still be the fault of them durn libruls.
catclub
I really do not want to know.
schrodingers_cat
@catclub: Too much flab, and gristle not appetizing. Do not want.
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: I’ve been seeing Trumpsters insist that the government was heading for disaster because of its unsustainable waste and bloat and that the pain from cutting it is a necessary sacrifice. They’ll insist that the shittier private services owned by Elon Musk and his friends that rush into the gap to offer less for more are far superior. The websites will probably look flashier.
Omnes Omnibus
@jonas: I’ll also point out that combat arms MOSs tend to be the whitest and most male. Eliminating women and minorities mean that the other guys don’t get fed, don’t get ammo, don’t get refueled, don’t get paid, etc.
p.a.
@TBone: On that first link abt Perkins Coie, the EO (or whatever it is🙄), uses the word “hearby”, which some internet wag notes the Orange Shitstain seems to consider a magical legalosity making every document an official honest-to-upside-down-bible totes enforceable scripture.
catclub
Wasn’t that a magical VW?
WereBear
@Mel: More people need to know such things go on there.
So much hidden by religion.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: A lot of this is Baumol’s cost disease, right? Or something similar. Industries that could benefit from technological productivity gains and globalization were competing for skilled workers with market segments that could not, and it drove up the cost of professional services while things previously regarded as luxury goods got cheap. And they’re not making more desirable land, either (not here, at least).
Now, the tech and media barons are thinking that technology has gotten to the point that they can actually do without skilled workers. Maybe that changes things.
WereBear
@TBone: Throw some candied ginger into seltzer and see if that works.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: Oh yeah no doubt, just pointing out that white women have to be pretty near perfect most of the time too. Perfect for them is just a lower bar than for all other women. For example, white women don’t get a pass for being too unattractive or too fat the way white men do. No one makes a sitcom about a fat woman being married to a hot man.
NotMax
@p.a.
Ahem. Hereby.
evodevo
@MagdaInBlack: they go by photoperiod not temperature. Several species around my house are into spring bird territorial singing right now, even though it just snowed. I guess the early bird who shows up gets the breeding territory lol
NotMax
@TBone
Almost always have ginger ale in the house. Great for settling a roiling tummy.
And none of that vile diet stuff, also too.
p.a.
@NotMax: Oh. Like nereby?//
Autocorrect provided : Hearty, Hear-by, Nearby.
lowtechcyclist
@different-church-lady:
Morning Person Shrek Jr with lyrics – YouTube
NotMax
@TBone
Obligatory?
;)
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: Yes, it’s absolutely Baumol’s cost disease! Cheap crap from Walmart covers it up while the things we really need to improve our society and ourselves get further out of reach.
Harrison Wesley
@p.a.: Is this turning into a hereby drive-by?
David_C
Stand Up for Science in one hour. At the local (DC) event.
NotMax
@TBone
Accidentally linked to the whole album above rather than the one tune.
Captain C
@schrodingers_cat:
“Hey, our clicks are way up and I’m not in a concentration camp (yet). Life is good!” — an editor from the MSM, probably
Professor Bigfoot
@SFAW:
Including whatever political power someone like Jim Clyburn has in the Democratic Party.
tam1MI
Might be kind of nice if there was an organized effort to give money to Green’s campaign on the day this came up for a hotel. The old Ron Paul tactic.
Captain C
@Jeffro:
FTFY
Captain C
@WereBear: That just means you’ll eat less, not necessarily better.
TBone
@NotMax: wow, it’s like they know me hahaha! How do you do that? I was missing you yesterday, glad you’re back and thank you!
artem1s
Don’t temp fate. The GOP and MAGA voters are more than happy to elect some pretty awful people. Remember Walker in GA. Warnock only won in a runoff. I’m not sure that would have come out the same in 2024.
TBone
@NotMax: I’ve always been a lover of the real deal but as a rule do not indulge more than occasionally in any type of soda (and especially never diet). This year is different, I decided to treat myself while on nursing duty and now I’m hooked! It’s like crack soda!
TBone
@WereBear: great idea, thank you!
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I was just wondering how long Francisco Franco hung on–he only made it to 82.
TBone
@p.a.: he’s so fucked in the head. Gobsmackingly stupid. Like a black hole vortex of stupid. So. Fucking. Dumb.
Ruckus
@schrodingers_cat:
Even talking about this makes people uncomfortable.
Which is WHY it has to be part of the discussion.
And no, not because it makes some uncomfortable, because it is a part of the entire concept of their bullshit. Which is that they are the only humans in this country, everyone else is a crook. It comes from having their heads located in a very dark, smelly body orifice. Their’s or someone else’s – makes no difference – it’s located in a dark, smelly place that allows no concept of anything except dark and smelly.
Now this may seem crude but then look at who we are talking about, those who want never have to recognize that anyone that doesn’t look like them, bland and stupid, can possibly be a citizen.
And they are 100000% wrong.
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
no lie told
Ruckus
@J.:
@Van Buren:
They get hungry enough they will. (brought to you by your conservative “friends”)
We have to understand that many of these people, who want to make America Great Again want to, or at least seem to want to, bring back slavery. Maybe they don’t actually, obviously think that, but in the not all that far back parts of their “brain” they do. They want to be officially be seen as better than some group that doesn’t look like them. They don’t get the actual concept of humanity. That we come in differing sizes, 2 not so solid walled genders, and equality. Back 150+ years ago, before radio, TV, the web, your community was maybe 40-50 miles wide, and mostly looked like you. Crossing the states took weeks, and I’ve driven it in 3 1/2 days by myself. Decades ago. And I’m an old, 3/4 of a century old. Humanity has changed a tad in my lifetime, and mostly for the better. But not all of it has changed all that much, not in the bits and pieces that matter most. Of who we are and who EVERYONE ELSE IS. That word respect often gets decimated in the minds of many humans. Or more likely completely ignored.
tam1MI
What will be hilarious is when vast portions of the native born Gazassholes discover that the FBI has files on them and are more than willing to update said files by calls to prospective employers…
tam1MI
As a proud Michigander, I must take a moment to push the awesome Vernor’s Ginger Ale for this purpose. Good and good for you!
Ruckus
@WereBear:
What will they pick? That is the question before me.
Well I’d bet it’s the worst possible answer for any question.
They want superiority, they’ve earned zip, nada, nothing, especially in a country in that everyone is supposed to be equal. Their concept is that they are far superior to everyone else. It’s bullshit, and the only people that can’t see that in a country that supposedly recognizes everyone as an equal is – them.
NotMax
@TBone
Never been big on soda. Might take a year or year and a half to finish a six-pack of ginger ale.
;)
bluefoot
@schrodingers_cat: A Black person with FFOTUS’s history would be in jail or dead.
Ta-Nehisi Coates once said that part of racism is who gets the benefit of the doubt and who doesn’t. I was once in a leadership development program for minorities in my industry, and it was amazing to me to hear how similar our experiences were despite working in different parts of the sector and all over the country. About how we don’t get second chances, how we have to constantly prove our competence now matter how long we’ve been successful in a role/job, etc etc…
The Lodger
@Baud: Looks like the D, Gay Valimont, is SOL in the special election in FL-01 against Matt Gaetz.
YY_Sima Qian
@Geminid .: IIRC, Erdogan also used to lean very hard into Pan-Turkism, & employed Turkish intelligence & the Grey Wolves toward that end, causing concerns in countries w/ sizable Turkic minorities from Syria to the PRC.
Like the PRC, India, KSA, the UAE, etc., current Turkish FP is largely amoral, cynical, self-interested, & certainly not above brutally suppressing dissent at home & abroad. However, they also value stability, predictability, order, & are all developmentally minded.
Geminid .
@YY_Sima Qian: I think Turkiye’s goal of stability has a morality in its own right.
The Gray Wolves were the “youth wing” of the MHP party which has been AKP’s coalition partner since 2015. The Gray Wolves were major and malign actors from the 1960s through the 1990s, I’m not sure they have been during the Erdogan’s tenure which began in 2003.
Fun Gray Wolves Fact: Austria banned the Gray Wolves hand sign. Its made by extending the index and pinky fingers up like wolf’s ears, and formiing a wolves muzzle with the thumbs and middle fingers.
Germany does not ban the Gray Wolf sign, but last fall a Turkish footbal player received a two-game suspension for flashing it after scoring a goal in the Euro championship.
chemiclord
@schrodingers_cat:
Oh even we expect perfection (or more accurately our individual definition of perfection) from Democrats while expecting nothing from the GOP.
Hell, we delight in eating our own. Bashing each other is apparently far more fun than fighting the common enemy.