Looks like Sam Bankman-Fried, the crypto kid who made a fortune playing digital Monopoly with OPM, found the rich-guy survival handbook: "I've seen the light, & the light is Republican!"
People used to find Jesus in jail. Now, they find Trump. https://t.co/7HwfNoloBw
— Matt Lewis (@mattklewis) March 7, 2025
Effective altruism, they call it. Per the NYTimes, “Sam Bankman-Fried Ramps Up Effort for a Pardon From Trump” [gift link]:
Consulting with a lawyer who has ties to President Trump. Reaching out to Washington lobbyists. And sitting for a jailhouse interview with Tucker Carlson.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced cryptocurrency mogul who was once a top Democratic donor, has embarked on a long-shot campaign to secure a pardon from the Trump administration, six people with knowledge of the matter said.
The effort has been driven by a small group of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s supporters, including his parents, Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried, who are trying to help their son escape the 25-year prison sentence he received after he was convicted of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering in the collapse of his crypto exchange, FTX.
There is no indication that the Bankman-Frieds and their allies have reached Mr. Trump directly or discussed a potential pardon with his White House advisers.
But the push appears intended to capitalize on Mr. Trump’s transactional approach to clemency. The president has favored pardon seekers with connections to him — either personally or through lawyers and lobbyists — and claims of prosecutorial misconduct that echo his own grievances about the cases against him.As part of the clemency effort, Mr. Bankman and Ms. Fried, who are Stanford University law professors and longtime active Democrats, are consulting with Kory Langhofer, an Arizona lawyer who worked for Mr. Trump’s 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns. Politically connected businesspeople and Washington lobbyists have also received outreach from intermediaries who claim to be allies of Mr. Bankman-Fried, three people with knowledge of the situation said…
So far, the push does not appear to have gained traction, the people with knowledge of the matter said. The only indication that Mr. Bankman-Fried may be making headway came this week, when he got an audience with Mr. Carlson, who is close to Mr. Trump. On Thursday, the former Fox News host published a 43-minute interview with Mr. Bankman-Fried that was recorded via video call…
… Mr. Bankman-Fried does not fit the profile of someone Mr. Trump would instinctively pardon. The former crypto mogul not only donated to Democrats, but also voiced opposition to Mr. Trump. His conviction was celebrated by Elon Musk, the president’s close adviser.
Still, Mr. Trump has shown a willingness to grant clemency to people whose causes have resonated with him or who have access to his circle of Republican allies. During the election campaign, he was enthusiastically backed by crypto executives, who urged him to act on several policy priorities. Among them: a pardon for Ross Ulbricht, a cult hero in the crypto world who was serving a sentence of life in prison for running the online drug marketplace Silk Road. Mr. Trump issued the pardon within days of his inauguration…
You can buy Trump’s love — but you need a really big sum to do so.
Even the paleoconservative Angry Baseball Head Guy understands this is a bad idea!
While Bankman-Fried is a fool, he's also a guy who got crazy rich by being able to spot a mark.
He looked at Tucker Carlson and saw a mark. https://t.co/QOMlpRW0St
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) March 7, 2025
A confused Tucker asks SBF why his donations to Democrats didn’t keep him out of jail.
Because Democrats believe in the rule of law! He thinks everyone is like Trump.
Conspiracy theorists never consider maybe their worldview is wrong. They just start looking for more elaborate… pic.twitter.com/HrGoCnocKv
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) March 7, 2025
[*Sad trombone coda*]
Tucker Carlson's interview with Sam Bankman-Fried was not approved by the US Bureau of Prisons, which placed him in solitary confinement after it was published, per NYT. pic.twitter.com/AtMtsYQCUb
— Jacob Shamsian ⚖️ (@JayShams) March 7, 2025
War for Ukraine Day 1,107: Russia Opens Up on Ukraine’s Energy Infrastructure
sab
I am speechless again. My career was in accounting, but before that I got a law degree and passed the bar. Pre Federalist Society. So I have, or had, an almost religious faith in respect for American law. Not the particular rules. But in the general structure.
Boy was I naive.
sab
I was wondering how SBF was managing to do an interview with Carlson since I thought he was in prison. So he is still there and still delusional.
oklahomo
Trump will probably put SBF in charge of the crypto reserves.
Warblewarble
Skip jeebus, go direct to tRUMP.
sab
We should have let Shrub put Harriet Meyers on the Court. But of course it was Republicans not Democrats that stopped that
ETA She was not sufficiently a hack. Just a conservative lawyer. Talk about an extinct beast.
sab
Open thread so OT
I used to be a CPA. A few years ago I realized keeping my license cost more than I earned as I phased towards retirment, So I quit.
Somebody somewhere realized I had been a CPA and a tax preparer ond put me online. So I am getting random calls from people.
I googled myself and sure enough I am listed as a tax preparer. Which I no longer am. I do tax input for a very reputable firm, but other people review my work and an actual CPA signs the return
ETA Be careful out there on the internet. Lots of bad people out there.
no body no name
I always laugh when conservatives are shocked rich people donate to Democrats. Supporting socially liberal causes washes away any economic sins. Democrats will not regulate or tax you and liberals who care about cultural issues will defend you. I saw this first hand in management consulting. We were woker than woke and bragged about our diversity and women in top positions. Most of the newer generation were women. But damn if we didn’t loot and steal anything that wasn’t tied down and even then if we found a way!
It’s always skin deep. We had pink hat marches in Trump 1.0, supported BLM, always sponsored pride but those same woke folk jumped to make a killing put in kids in cages and every other screwed up contract that came our way. We sure as shit took part in firing the hell out of people and draining money from companies and nobody cared if it hit mostly minorities.
Tucker gets this SBF gets it. The conservative rubes don’t get that if you want to kill DEI in the private sector get money out of politics and DEI is doomed.
Trump’s going to let him out anyways.
different-church-lady
The first operating rule of manipulators is that they believe manipulation is the way of the world. Everyone wants to manipulate, and either you are the manipulator or you are the manipulated. They do not believe there could be any other motivation in a human being.
different-church-lady
@sab: Google doesn’t give a shit. Google just posts what it wants.
Baud
@no body no name:
This is just false.
And supporting “socially liberal” issues and Democrats is 100% praiseworthy in my book.
Betty Cracker
@different-church-lady: Google is a honey badger.
Baud
IIRC, Greenwald tried to use this case to prove that Biden was going light on SBF because of his donations.
Baud
@sab:
Lots of bad people in here.
satby
@Baud: indeed.
David_C
Of interest to the scientific community was a series of rallies around the country, centered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, in the shadow of the National Academy of Sciences. Perhaps fearful of blowback by Trump, these rallies were not cosponsored by any scientific organizations. I was there – lots of energy and lots of nerdity. I got to meet Francis Collins, too!
At the same time, researchers from Columbia University were cut off at the knees.
https://apnews.com/article/science-doctors-cuts-budget-trump-health-climate-cead2742a686b3dbc2fe4b1294939454
WereBear
Back in the days of rail, rooming houses, and delayed communications, the scam was about roping in men away from home, with money. They show him a GOOD time, make a big fuss over him (this works for cons & cults, lovebombing) admiring him as a man they can let into their plan; stocks, horses, real estate.
Then, when the money disappears, they ALL lost money, and mourn together, vowing to try again as MEN, and put them on the train home.
Some of them even came back. That’s a good con.
Betty Cracker
Current headline at the CNN site:
Of course, there’s nothing on Fox News about this. I googled “Social Security” on the Fox News site, and the most recent entry is almost a month old. It’s about Musk discovering people aged 110-360 in the Social Security database, implying massive fraud, which is a lie.
This is nothing new, of course. We talk about the asymmetrical media ecosystem ad nauseum here. Sharing it because it is a good illustration of what those of us who try to change the minds of relatives who voted for/may have voted for the demented orange shitbag are up against.
My impression is that Musk is a weak link in Trump’s support — no one voted for that asshole. The softening economy is a potential fissure too, and Musk and Trump are making it easier to sell the idea that they’re out to enrich themselves further at everyone else’s expense.
But it will probably take real-life fallout like an interruption in benefits or a sharp economic downturn to get these people off the bandwagon.
Jeffg166
@Betty Cracker:
The only thing that will bring the cult down is when the people in red states who support the felon feel the effects of his handler’s plans. When the checks stop showing up they might wake up to the reality they voted for.
I don’t know if this link is free or not.
https://open.substack.com/pub/paulkrugman/p/from-orban-to-trump-part-ii?r=s49uo&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Betty Cracker
@David_C: I’m so glad people showed up for science. So cool that you got to meet Dr. Collins!
When I first heard about the Stand Up for Science rallies, I wanted to attend the one closest to me, which was in Tampa. I couldn’t go because I had a medical appointment for a treatment that would not exist without the type of biomedical research the Trump assholes are defunding.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Is the band Nickelback?
Which coincidentally is about the maximum amount the Musky Patrol will grudgingly allow you in benefits payments.
//
The Thin Black Duke
@Betty Cracker: I’m sure folks here are tired of me repeating myself but the turnaround in public opinion will happen when white people start feeling the pain. Throughout the history of the United States it’s the only thing that’s worked. Selfishness is the moral center of White America’s universe.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Everyone is a believer until THEIR CHECK DOESN’T COME.
The check that came through Democratic Administrations and Republican Administrations.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
rikyrah
@The Thin Black Duke:
Truth.
When THEIR check doesn’t come,
When they have to GO GET GRANDMA OR GRANDPA FROM THE NURSING HOME
When THEIR VETERAN CAN’T GET SERVICES
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Baud
Via reddit
The Thin Black Duke
@rikyrah: White Republican (and lazy and/or bigoted Democrat) voters have been insulated from the consequences of their bad decisions. Not this time. However it resolves itself in the end, America will never get back what it lost when it chose Donald Trump as POTUS and that’s a bitter pill to swallow.
satby
@rikyrah: Sadly true. And even then there will be some denial. But it needs to happen because it’s the shock to the system that we need. And I’m not wishing harm on anyone I won’t feel too.
satby
@The Thin Black Duke: no, not for generations of better behavior at least. But eventually even Germany came back from its past.
TBone
Palate cleanser from The Inky: Philly Mail Cats!
https://www.inquirer.com/newsletters/morning/philadelphia-mail-cats-uspspspsps-instagram-chika-closed-center-city-jefferson-health-crozer-chester-medical-center-closure-philly-20250308.html
https://www.instagram.com/usps.pspsps/
MEOW
Baud
@The Thin Black Duke:
True. Our goal now is just to have an ordinary country.
WereBear
Sadly so. I picked a grand time to (slowly) re-read When Prophecy Fails by Henry Riecken, Leon Festinger, and Stanley Schachter.
This is the field study which led to the theory of Cognitive Dissonance, published in 1956. They studied a UFO cult, where the prophet used automatic writing to get instructions. She and her followers were told to gather a group that would be picked up by the friendly aliens’ flying saucer, before when our world ended in earthquakes and fire.
Spoiler: they were stood up. Find out how many times!
Jeffro
@rikyrah:
so true
when they get upset about it, maybe they can take it up with their local broligarch, who thinks they don’t deserve any of those things?
@Baud: YOWCH!
TBone
Josh Marshall of TPM was on with Chris Hayes last night
https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/new-email-reveals-trump-s-aggressive-new-claim-of-executive-power-tpm-233841733963
Jeffro
@TBone: and I thought I was enjoying my Inquirer subscription! =)
Spanky
@satby: Some of us don’t even have kids to be abandoned by, so it’s going to be a hell of a ride.
My social security hit my bank account yesterday, so the chewing gum and baling wire is still hanging on.
Waldo
@Baud: Every damn Dem in Congress should be taking a similar stand every damn day.
Baud
@Waldo:
I personally try to avoid doing comparisons. Everyone needs to do their own thing IMHO
TBone
@Baud: oh that is SO great, I’m cheering! YAY!!!
Suzanne
I recently saw this tweet on X, and it is hitting hard for me right now:
And no, these guys are not exclusively white. Maybe not even majority white.
TBone
@Jeffro: sometimes The Inky is just so loveable!
The Thin Black Duke
What’s frustrating is it’s not a difficult decision: vote for the Democrats. Period. End of Story. I wish most of the choices people make in their lives were that simple. Nothing is going to change as long as Americans see the GOP as a legitimate political party.
TBone
@Suzanne: I could get behind this aspect, and this aspect only
WereBear
@The Thin Black Duke: I have come to feel (perhaps for the sake of my own sanity, admittedly) that this flip was inevitable. The Republican response post-WWII was fear and screaming and their base, raised in a death cult and now drawn into another, would not stop. They can only be stopped.
That takes some breaking of people treasured illusions — never ever easy — and that’s what held back normal development in the US for DECADES. Every single step forward wore lead boots.
Now, I view us as a country born with an evil twin, locked in perpetual combat. We’re sorry it’s upsetting Mom, but let’s end this pretty damn hard.
Republicans were out of power quite a while after the Great Depression. FDR could get some things done. WIthout that, we might not have won WWII.
And we did have a coup at that time. Unsuccessfully. This is a PATTERN CRIME. When they are out of power, they try to take over. Over and over.
WereBear
@David_C: I so wanted to go but mine was three hours away. So glad for you!
Baud
@The Thin Black Duke:
Yep.
Much of US political discourse is aimed at making that easy decision psychologically difficult.
The Thin Black Duke
@Suzanne: But they get to beat up on b*tches and fagg*ts, so that’s the entry point the Republicans use to increase their electoral advantage.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: That was fantastic!
TBone
I refuse to be in a foul mood this morning. TBone Challenge be damned.
I dissent! 🎶🤘
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=STy8FWhQPwU
David_C
@Betty Cracker: Thanks! Besides the obvious sadness over future progress towards disease cures, I’m particularly heartbroken for all of the young researchers, many of them women and others who have traditionally been underrepresented in the white coat class, who have staked their career directions on there being a robust research infrastructure. Yes, they’re smart and will be sought by institutions looking for smart people, but it’s a huge opportunity loss.
There’s a local political rally that will miss because I promised the grandchildren a museum trip.
Take care!
AM in NC
@The Thin Black Duke: That is so. fucking.true. God forbid some white man is mildly inconvenienced so others can have their full humanity recognized.
If they get inconvenienced in the wallet by the MAGA horde, maybe MAYBE they’ll vote differently. But it is going to have to be a LOT of inconvenience to get them to turn away from the party of White Male Supremacy.
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: Same damn thing in Florida.
NotMax
Uh oh.
Cigar reorder shipped out on March 3rd. Priority Mail.
USPS now shows projected arrival date of March 21st.
The Thin Black Duke
@AM in NC: Speaking as an American that didn’t vote for the Orange Buffoon but unfortunately has to live with the consequences because too many voters did otherwise, the proposals Europe is thinking about implementing in response to Trump’s foreign policies scares me to death.
In the global Game of Thrones, America is going to find out it’s not the only player with pieces on the board.
YY_Sima Qian
In other news, the PRC just announced 100% tariff on Canadian rapeseed oil, oil cakes & peas, as well as 25% on pork & seafood. This is in retaliation to Canada levying 100% tariffs on Chinese made EVs & 25% tariffs on Chinese made steel & aluminum, which Trudeau announced in Oct. ‘25, following Biden’s lead.
Nevertheless, the timing is probably not a coincidence. Perhaps Beijing is creating leverage to negotiate a mutual draw down of tariffs, given Canada’s current moment of vulnerability.
TBone
@TBone: Effective Altruism
Suzanne
@The Thin Black Duke: Yes, agreed.
Having spent most of my life in this specific triangle…. when people here on BJ make the assertion that Dems are the party of black people, it is a thing I have to remind myself. Because in that chunk of the country, that is not so, at all. The gender divide is much, much more significant there. I remember going to Party meetings and women outnumbering men (of every race) by probably ten to one.
The I-10 corridor is the fastest-growing part of the country now. I am sure that will change the political dynamics of the country, but I don’t know how.
TBone
@NotMax: any local tobacco growers on that island?
WereBear
@rikyrah: Sadly, so. My sympathy extends to the point that I understand they are so stupid because their minds are stunted early, and kept that way.
TBone
@Suzanne: when I drove along long stretches of I-10, I could literally smell cajun (even if it was my sensory imagination). I traversed back and forth from Galveston to Picayune, MS many times to visit my ship captain lover at his home on the family’s exotic animal ranch. And further points West. I made sure to see the headquarters of the Times-Picayune…
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, I can see that.
Now that I’ve been back in the Mid-Atlantic area for a few years…. it is interesting. The Southwest definitely has stark political and racial divides, but the vibes here in PA are significantly different. The parties feel different, relationship to government feels different.
TBone
Hit a bong music 😁
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OrL9N62eaQc
WereBear
@Suzanne: It’s narcissism, which knows no skin color. The Republicans were long known as the Selfish Party, the Country Club Party, the one you joined, like the church in your new town where all the business gets done.
It’s really a side effect of Red State attitudes, where they are run by the “landed gentry,” STILL.
Look at the Murdaugh murder cases. This was in South Carolina, and it was 2024.
It won’t die. It must be killed.
WereBear
@Baud: It’s devolved into legacy media joining their team in the hopes the beatings would stop.
YY_Sima Qian
@The Thin Black Duke: 2 months ago, the end of the Dollar Hegemony was a distant prospect, at most.
I remember having a discussion w/ Carlo Graziani (I do miss him) a couple of years on how the U.S. has been gradually undermining the USD’s position as the global reserve currency through the obvious political dysfunction, degrading governance & state capacity, eye watering deficits, overuse of financial sanctions for geopolitical purposes & coercion in general. I wasn’t suggesting that the end of Dollar Hegemony was on us, merely that things may develop slowly, then all of a sudden, as the Pound Stirling did. Carlo listed all the reasons why the USD has been the global reserve currency, which I didn’t necessarily contest, but I only noted that should Trump return to power, he has shown that he would be more than willing extort & coerce allies & foes alike, & that it is quite imaginable that he could re-designate friends as foes & wage trade/tech wars & impose financial sanctions. At the time, Trump’s returned seemed a distant prospect.
No one expected that the U.S. would commit national suicide so quickly & so thoroughly, how do many decades would be compressed in so few weeks.
Since I have substantial amount of my retirement savings in my 401K account, denominated in USD, I take no pleasure in the sudden turn of events. But, there is no going back.
WereBear
@AM in NC: They have “low cunning.” Their whole lives are about lying and cheating and being able to get away with it.
We can’t pry that out of their criminal hands. We are going to have to make them more scared of Democrats.
This is how they operate. We made them eat all this progress, and they roll in all the goodies thereof… but they want candy for every meal.
One way to find a wingnut is realizing they want EVERYTHING both ways.
WereBear
@NotMax: A new reason to celebrate the Equinox. For now, my sympathy.
The Thin Black Duke
And it’s not civilized behavior. For the selfish idiots who purposely misinterpret Darwin’s “Survival of the Fittest” premise, Darwin understood that the societies who survived where the ones that learned how to peacefully coexist with each other.
The bully during the Dawn of Man era who solved complex problems by hitting it with a club usually died vomiting his guts out because he killed the member of the tribe who was smart enough to know which plants were safe to eat.
TBone
Heh. Cartoon at link
https://bsky.app/profile/jesseduquette.bsky.social/post/3lip24i2w3c2j
Geminid .
@Suzanne: Virginia’s Democrstic Party is not the “party of Black people,” and I don’t think any Democrat would contend it is (Republicans have for decades hinted that it is).
But Black people constitute 20% of my state’s population and close to 40% of reliable Democratic voters. They are the cornerstone of our electoral coalition here and our Democrstic electeds– White and Black– recognize this. So do most rank-and-file Democrats like me.
Baud
It’s out of our hands now, but libs should decide whether we want the US to be internationally powerful. Last I saw, it was a debating point on our side.
Republicans have a position. They’re just lousy about implementing it because they think dipping into the savings = earning new money.
Suzanne
@WereBear: Agree.
But in these older parts of the country, where families might have lived for generations….. the Dems really are how Black people have built political power over decades, often linked to churches. In the parts of the country where very few people have that kind of rootedness, and most people of every race are pretty recent arrivals…. the link between racial identity and the parties is much weaker. The themes of “government intrusion” and wanting low taxes — and yes, misogyny and homophobia — are much more prevalent.
Rusty
@rikyrah: I’m not convinced even that is enough. There was the story yesterday of federal workers being laid off and their own families not only being unsupportive but gleeful at their loss. My WP subscription still has a few days to run, and I was reading the comment section to an article on Columbia being cut off from funding. The hatred expressed toward the universities and the joy at its likely destruction was stunning from a crowd that is almost exclusively college educated and informed. There are things fundamentally broken in the American heart and culture. The loathing for institutions goes deep, even among supposed liberals. It will be at least a generation to climb from this hole.
WereBear
@The Thin Black Duke: But more cooperation, and less US bigfooting, could be a good thing. We once exported innovation and medicine, science and tech. Now, our bad directions get picked up by other nations, to everyone’s detriment.
My own pet peeve is that dietary advice comes from a religious base, operated to support giant corporations taking over-advantage of economies of scale, and is now 90% marketing to sell corporate goods, blanketing the first five pages of search engine results, and dominating the AI “conclusions.”
We’ve had far too much corporate “science sponsoring” and this administration wants to sink corruption more deeply into our whole academic/professional matrix.
JiveTurkin
II was thinking about Green’s censure, and wondered when nancy Mace will receive her censure. She used a slur repeatedly and intentionally during a hearing about USAID expenditures. The slur was tran**, and Gerald Connolly brought it up to the Chairman, James Comer. Predictably, Comer did nothing, saying: The inquiry is about decorum. Decorum is at the discretion of the chair. I’ll be honest with the ranking member. I’m not up to date on my politically correct LGBTQ term—terminology. We’ll look into that and get back with you on that.”
Suzanne
@Geminid .: Yeah, that’s a different dynamic. When I’ve said here that “lots of people don’t know what the Dems stand for”….. I’ve been told, “Don’t be silly, the Dems are the party with Black people in it and that’s why lots of white people won’t vote for them”. That’s absolutely not the case in the SW. At all.
WereBear
@Suzanne: The Patriarchy Thing is so damn OLD.
It’s why a 2,000 year old book’s instructions on how to live seems to work for them. They just impose their will on the weaker ones around them.
Frankly, I think we can rise above baboon troupe.
TBone
Teh Narrative can get bent 🎶
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K64MvxlKZy8
WereBear
@TBone: I WANT to read your autobiography.
Start now.
Baud
@Rusty:
The climb out will be slow. But anecdotes aren’t informative about whether and how many people will turn if faced with hardship.
Suzanne
@WereBear: Patriarchy is older than Christianity and has a longer reach. It has appeal to some men of every race. Betty Cracker has noted that she is observing the emerging MAGA coalition is multi-racial. I observe the same thing. And I believe misogyny is a major component of that.
TBone
@WereBear: thank you mahvelous dahlink! I will get a Dictaphone and talk it out because I detest my P.C. and my printer can SUCK IT.
P.S. the ship captain closely resembled Paul Newman, rowr!
Baud
catclub
@sab: If Bush’s personal lawyer had been a man, it would have worked out differently.
Rusty
@Baud: Point taken, we need to wait and see when folks are directly faced with hardship. It’s also about enough switching to voting Dem, not all of them switching.
WereBear
@The Thin Black Duke: Back in the day, I suspect everyone handled it like the Inuit.
Once language had started working well, one of the leaders was asked, “We have people who always lie, who won’t behave properly, and just cause trouble for no reason at all. Do your people have similar problems?”
The reply was, “Yes. But there are many dangers in this land. They can have an accident.”
Baud
@Rusty:
Yeah, 40% of voters voted Republican in 1932 even after 3 years of the Great Depression. And that was before the parties were divided by civil and human rights.
NotMax
@Suzanne
Accompaniment?
;)
prostratedragon
@Baud: I think that it is foolish to destroy the basis of one’s power — much of which is “soft” power — with no regard for who or what will fill the vacuum. I’d be all for taking sensible steps away from hegemony and toward shared leadership, but that is not what we have here. I need some sleep.
The Thin Black Duke
Bwahahahahah!
Darwin proven right again.
WereBear
@Suzanne:
the link between racial identity and the parties is much weaker. The themes of “government intrusion” and wanting low taxes — and yes, misogyny and homophobia — are much more prevalent.
On Obama’s first run, a friend asked me who would win the Dem primary, Clinton or Obama, and I said it would never be the lady of any color against any man, even if he actually came from Mars.
That’s how deep the Patriarchy runs. Now that we plow with machines (women forbidden because it affected their fertility) and fight with drones and joysticks, men get a look at how they really stack up when they aren’t able to shove their someone’s head into the toilet anymore.
We are now in that GAP.
catclub
@TBone: It is caturday, after all.
Suzanne
@Baud:
A thing to reckon with: I guarantee you that 50% of voters — maybe more — do not think of the parties as divided by civil rights.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Doesn’t matter what they believe. What matters is what influences voters.
The Thin Black Duke
@WereBear: It’s why I think Barbie was more culturally significant movie than Oppenheimer. The ideology of The Patriarchy is much more likely to destroy civilization than the atom bomb.
mrmoshpotato
Dammit! I was hoping it was Fucker Carlson who was thrown into solitary confinement.
prostratedragon
@Baud: How you say “ghost[wood] forest” in Portuguese?
WereBear
@Rusty: I think this is QAnon talking. There are “prophets” all over the Internet (and I’ve heard this for years) that when King Cyrus takes the throne:
People are exhorted to hang in there during this Transition Time. “We will see the enemies wiped away” is another fond phrase with this set.
Suzanne
@Baud: What people believe influences how they vote. The voters who weren’t around for the civil rights era don’t have the same associations. Pictures of segregated lunch counters may as well be on Mars to them.
TBone
@NotMax: is there any day or any way you can’t surprise me? In a delightful way!
TBone
@catclub: 💋
WereBear made me remember that laxatives can be a weapon when used
covertly. Accidentally.TBone
@The Thin Black Duke: Womens History Month points!
Baud
@Suzanne:
Sure. But what people believe isn’t the only thing that influences how they vote.
Civil rights is about much more than ending segregation.
TBone
@prostratedragon: that’s part of the cajun smell on I-10 !
TBone
@Baud: amen brotha! I was conceived during The Civil Rights Movement and today’s Heather Cox Richardson (Dread Pirate™) is a must read. BRB with link.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-7-2025
TBone
@mrmoshpotato: they should have kept him for traitorous treachery.
Suzanne
@Baud: I understand. But what I am saying (apparently poorly) is that we Dems think that being “the party of civil rights” is a self-evident differentiator. It isn’t, for a huge cohort of Americans. They either are actively into the white supremacy (probably the smaller part of this cohort), or they think that they can get the tax cuts with no overt, blatant racism (probably the bigger part). The GOP has formed a coalition of these two groups. I understand that this is not accurate, but if we are to effectively persuade anyone ever again, it helps to have a better understanding of their thought process.
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: This country is too big to know itself, as Hugh Laurie said. So a person can describe their lived experience in place A — and back it up with data — and it still doesn’t ring true to someone in place B because it doesn’t match their lived experience.
Another relevant quote I also read here: you’re more related to your time than your family. So a person whose formative years were the 1960s doesn’t see the world the same as someone born in 1980. Lots of misunderstandings ensue!
Geminid .
@WereBear: The Equinox marks the begining of Nowruz, the Persian New Year festival..
Nowruz comes in March 20 this year, at 5:01 a.m. (I’ve read. I will be interested in how it is celebrated in Iran this year. The Islamic Republic knew better than to try suppressing this age-old holiday, and it has become a focal point for anti-regime sentiment.
Nowruz is also a big holiday for 40 million Kurdish people spread across Syria, Turkiye, Iraq and Iran. This Nowruz may have special significance in Turkiye, where a recent opening betwen the government and PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan could have a major impact on Turkiye’s ~20 million Kurds.
For myself, I intend to celebrate Nowruz with the traditional ceremony of jumping over a fire (not a big fire ’cause I don’t jump very high these days). This is meant to symbolize leaving behind the bad spiritual energy of the last year.
If the USPS can get its skates on, maybe NotMax will be able to jump over his fire with a freshly delivered cigar in hand.
Baud
@Suzanne:
I don’t see how white supremists don’t hate Dems precisely because Dems are for civil rights.
frosty
@YY_Sima Qian: You’re right, I haven’t seen Carlos Graziani around for awhile. Do you know why?
Geminid .
@The Thin Black Duke: I saw two interesting maps of Turkiye in 2023. That summer, Oppenheimer and Barbie were released at same time, and one map showed the provinces where each movie scored the higher attendance.
Someone posted this map alongside a map showing which provinces each presidential candidate– Erdogan or Kiliriçdoglu, the opposition candidste– carried in the May runoff. They matched up almost perfectly, with Barbie winning Erdogan’s provinces and Oppenheimer winning Kiliriçdoglu’s.
I didn’t really know enough about Turkiye’s population to make much much sense of this, but it was still a striking phenomenon.
different-church-lady
@Suzanne:
Dems think everything is a self-evident differentiator. It’s why they’re always caught short when the propaganda against them works.
YY_Sima Qian
@frosty: He popped in to one of the Ukraine threads a few weeks ago saying that he is taking some time to focus on work, while trying to process what is happening. I hope he comes back at some point.
Suzanne
@Baud: I think the active white supremacists are not Dems. But I also think they’re a pretty small slice of the pie. A far bigger cohort is people who want tax cuts, don’t think of themselves as racist, and don’t think of the GOP as racist, either.
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker:
Yeah, I think this is really, really true. I’m a half-click younger than many of the commenters here, and there are times I feel like I’m living in a different country.
Old School
How does SBF do an interview with Carlson without it being approved? I thought prisons had more restrictions on inmate activity.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Bingo. White supremacy can have a non-white face. Think the British Empire. There were only a handful of Brits in India in any given time but that does not mean that British Indian Empire was not based on white supremacy.
The bedrock ideology of the BJP is Brahminism even if it has a non-Brahmin face as the PM in Modi.
cmorenc
@sab: If Thomas or Alito decide tho retire while Trump is in office and the GOP holds the Senate, the strong possibility Trump will nominate Judge Aileen Cannon is a nightmare disgrace. Cannon is an incompetent partisan hack as a judge, but cynically savvy enough to play to Trump’s transactional MO, and she has a huge transactional chit with Trump in getting him off the hook in the one case the RW SCOTUS hackery could not have saved him from bc document retention was entirely post-presidential.
Trivia Man
@The Thin Black Duke: my uncle in utah is very proud HE never voted for trump. But loves mike lee. And is getting nervous about how education cuts will affect HIS family as they try to go to college.
frosty
@YY_Sima Qian: Thanks. “Processing what’s happening” – that’s a big chore for all of us.
YY_Sima Qian
@frosty: Even though he is a world-historically bad national leader in every aspect, Trump (& Musk) has gotten inside of everyone‘s OODA (observation, orientation, decision, action) loop, to borrow a military term.
Glidwrith
@David_C: First generation researcher here, non-binary kid following in my footsteps in their first year of college.
I’m not despairing, not yet. Researchers are some of the toughest, most stubborn SOBs you’ve ever run across. We spend DECADES hunting nuggets of information to forge new tools. Break the company or network, we scatter and reform in different networks, creating something new.
The US is going to lose its edge in science and engineering for now. But the country won’t survive if we don’t succeed in pulling this corruption out by the roots. Create the pluralistic society we are meant to be and the science will come back, because we will still be here.