Sometimes it’s hard to take in the good news through all the pain.
Bad news first, but even some of the bad news (for us) is also bad news for this out-of-control administration.
We are in the midst of one of the worst measles outbreaks since the measles vaccine was introduced over 60 years ago. When kids are dying will the anti-vax parents get a clue? The jury is still out on that one.
The economy has slowed, inflation remains too high, people are losing their jobs and trade wars are tanking our stock markets.
But I like the looks of this word cloud!
Simon Rosenberg had a (relatively) optimistic take today.
The last few days I’ve been writing to you that it has felt like some of the wheels have started coming off the Trump-Musk bus from hell.
The ridiculous car-salesmen-in-chief’s pitch for Teslas yesterday in the White House driveway showed how worried the two madmen are about their joint stumbles (WHY ISN’T MUSK WEARING A SUIT!).
- Musk has seen his Tesla stock lose half its value.
- SpaceX had another rocket blow up.
- Twitter/X had a global outage that appears to have been from their own internal mismanagement.
- Anti-Tesla protests are popping up in more places and getting bigger.
- Musk’s rancid attempt to dissemble the US government keeps losing in court, including the Supreme Court.
- Trump’s approval has dropped.
- Consumers have lost confidence in Trump’s economic stewardship.
- Trump’s dangerous abandonment of Ukraine is being challenged very aggressively by our European allies, Democrats and even Senate Republicans.
It’s kind of nice seeing that all in one place.
There was also an upbeat report from Dan Pfeiffer, who is the smart Obama bro and the only one I pay attention to anymore.
When people say America is turning into an oligarchy, this is what they mean. It’s corrupt, but it’s also politically tone-deaf.
The so-called populist presidential candidate who ran as the self-proclaimed champion of the working class is responding to rising prices and a sinking stock market by writing a check to the world’s richest man.
I don’t need a poll to tell me how poorly that little stunt will go over.
And of course I’ll add that that the CR vote did not go Trump’s way, and we’ve had some strong statements today from the Democratic leaders in the House and the Senate.
BritinChicago
“When kids are dying will the anti-vax parents get a clue?” Or, as I think of it, for what values of X and Y is it true to say when X kids are dying will Y anti-vax parents will get a clue. One might think it would be true for X = 1 and Y = all, but I fear the numbers will be frighteningly far from that
ETA: frist!
Baud
Has more than one kid died? I heard about the kid in Texas.
Old School
There was article this past week that interviewed a parent of a child who died from measles and he still had doubts about the vaccine.
Ugh.
I’m not sure who put together that word cloud but tariff/tariffs appears at least four times in it.
WaterGirl
@Baud: It’s like fleas. If you see one, there will be more.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
No doubt.
WaterGirl
@Old School:
Three different spellings of tarif. The people who know how to spell tarif correctly appear to be significantly more concerned than those who aren’t so great at spelling. But that kind of tracks, anyway, doesn’t it? :-)
And even the non-spellers are fairly concerned, so that’s a good sign.
edit: even adding the tariff and the tarriff peeps together, they still (collectively) don’t appear to be as concerned as the Tarif people.
Scout211
@Baud: A second death, an unvaccinated adult, died in New Mexico.
StringOnAStick
@Old School: Tariffs is spelled 3 different ways in the word cloud, so a single entry for this would be even bigger than the central large one. Also, you can mentally combine Musk and elon and get a bigger image too. I’d day tariffs and Elmo are by far the hot words in that word cloud
sab
Hope so.
But Ohio has been extremely corrupt for at least fifteen years, and nobody seems to give a fuck. We keep voting the same crooks back in. We know it. The press sort of covers it. Some people even get convicted and go to prison. But the instigators and the organizers at the top are still organizing and in charge. And the voters oblige.
WaterGirl
@Scout211: From the link:
Most. Thanks to these anti-vax people, herd immunity will be circling the drain, and even vaccinated kids and adults will be hurt.
Scout211
I hope this turns out to be good news:
Judge appears likely to grant request to reinstate thousands of fired probationary workers
WaterGirl
@StringOnAStick: I’m really glad to see that Ukraine is as big as it is.
WaterGirl
@Scout211: Hopefully LAMH will be one of the people who (again, hopefully) will be reinstated.
bbleh
Gotta admit, the Schumer statement gives me SOME limited hope (the first in a while). Just gotta hope (that word again) they don’t fold when — inevitably — the Republicans scream bloody murder.
But let us remember, the oligarchs’ deafness is BUILT IN. It’s who they are. They. Don’t. Care. And their supporters — not just the other oligarchs but the local Poujadistes, and the even more numerous bigots, don’t care either. It won’t matter how far the stock market sinks, or prices rise, as long as they feel they are maintaining their Rightfully Earned (indeed, arguably Jesus-mandated!) status. And why shouldn’t the President of the United States be shilling a brand on the lawn of the White House? Isn’t that what ANY smart President would do? It’s certainly what THEY would do!
New Deal democrat
Sorry to be a Debbie Downer here, but
Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched. The crucial vote is on cloture, not the CR itself.
And while I am venting, last night at a restaurant I overheard a conversation between what appeared to be a grandfather and his young adult grandson (or else it was really weird, but pass that …). Anyway, the older man asked the younger, “What do you think of Trump’s plan to make Canada the 51st State?” Followed shortly after by “I think the people of Greenland will go for it.”
I had all I could do to stop from turning around and screaming at him. All I could think was that the MAGATs are taking him seriously and beginning to fall in line, while everybody else thinks it’s a joke and isn’t seriously opposing him.
And then this morning a pretty serious investment advisor who I respect wrote on Bluesky, “He’s going to invade Canada, isn’t he?”
Between those two things, my stomach was turning.
like I said, sorry to be such a downer.
wjca
Rosenberg gets one thing wrong here. It’s not the Trump-Musk bus from hell. It’s the Trump-Musk bus to hell.
Ohio Mom
@sab: You left out that Ohioans voted to redraw our gerrymandered state legislature and Congressional districts and the Legislature simply ignored us. Twice.
mrmoshpotato
Deeeeeeelicious! Can the dumbshit parents be charged with child neglect and then murder?
Martin
@mrmoshpotato: No because religious freedom, but only if you proclaim to be a certain kind of Christian.
Sister Golden Bear
Entertaining BlueSky thread chronicling a DoJ attorney arguing for kicking out trans people from the military and the judge not having any of it.
Lawyer jackals is there anything in the bar code about being obligated to walk straight into the sea after being brutually humiliated by a judge that badly? Especially when you didn’t read or write much of what was submitted to the court before appearing for the hearing.
TBone
I saw this on Rachel Maddow last night: “The Long Day.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/congress-just-made-it-harder-for-congress-to-block-trumps-tariffs/ar-AA1AN9OX
Baud
@TBone:
Headline is misleading. The House passed it. And hasn’t taken effect.
Xavier
Having the Treasury Secretary go on the Sunday shows and claim that falling stock market prices are a good thing because now you can buy them cheap is also tone deaf. Imagine how that sounds to someone who’s worried about being able to buy groceries, or if they are luckier, being able to send a kid to college.
TBone
@Sister Golden Bear: bwahahahaha!
TBone
@Baud: yep, they always are these days, it seems. Now it’s all the same fucking day, man…
Martin
Well, everyone I knew in IES got fired. Looks like the entire unit is gone.
Just so everyone is clear, the Dept of Education is the vehicle that enforces the nations school segregation policies. Without an enforcement mechanism, laws are neutered.
Cheryl from Maryland
@Old School: the article was distressing to me. The father didn’t feel it fair to blame his family for not vaccinating his daughter, but also didn’t want communal support for universal vaccination.
rk
20 years ago there was a child in Portland Oregon who got tetanus. He spent months in the hospital. Afterwards the doctors recommended that he be given the tetanus shot. Parents refused.
Some people will never learn. They have no capacity to admit they’re wrong.
TBone
@bbleh: thank you for enlarging my vocabulary and knowledge. I had to look that P word up.
TBone
@Martin: I don’t know what IES is but I have been livid about the
goings on surroundingattacks on education at all levels.Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Xavier:
It legit reminded me of news articles from the Fallout games you’d find on terminals:
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Heh.
Martin
@TBone: IES is the Institute for Educational Studies. They do formal evaluation of educational processes and throw off a lot of data that most institutions rely on. That’s going to have to be replicated inside of states, which some states will do, and other states will distrust the results from those states.
One thing being overlooked is that the data that Dept of Ed throws off often forms the foundation for how most educational funding in the states is done. A lot of that is going to have to be reinvented. The college rankings (no love lost there) are going to be even worse garbage than they are now.
One benefit of the federal model is that there’s a set of rules for data collection and reporting that are stable. You can do long longitudinal studies over generations of students. As soon as you break that consistency, you can’t do anything. And it can take another generation to get a sufficiently robust dataset built to restart that effort.
WaterGirl
@wjca: It’s both!
different-church-lady
Hey, when you hire a couple of fuckups to run things, you get fuckups. (shrug)
sab
@Ohio Mom: Excellent point. Same legislature every time doesn’t mean we all wanted it.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@sab: Yeah. We have way too many states like that these days. Ohio has decent journalism too. Care to speculate as to why?
HopefullyNotcassandra
@WaterGirl: Me too. The Ukrainians are out there fighting on the ragged edge.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I was watching Mushroom Dick’s press conference with the Irish Taoiseach more like dimwit Donny thinks everything a real-estate deal.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@New Deal democrat: our soldiers have fought and trained side by side with Canadians. There is no actual (or even pretensile) outrage here. I don’t think our soldiers would follow an order to fire on Canadians. How I hope we don’t get to find out.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Ohio Mom: that explains a lot
TBone
@Martin: thank you for explaining that, it really helped me understand how deep the Orwellian rot is going to be. I’m digging my heels in even harder now.
Jay
@HopefullyNotcassandra:
@WaterGirl:
Perun has noted, that the current rates are 100 ruZZian 200’s and 96 armoured vehicles for every square KM ruZZia claims to have taken.
At the current attrition rate, that’s 450,000 200’s and over 13,400 armoured vehicles for the ruZZians to just occupy the Oblasts they have claimed to have annexed.
He also, points out that a snail, moving at full speed, day and night would make it from Dnipro to Liev in 38 days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhTjj_2Nldc
Kriegsforscher put’s the Kursk situation into context.
https://nitter.poast.org/OSINTua/status/1899863928441561468#m
rekoob
@Martin: On today’s “Fresh Air” Tonya Mosely interviews Laura Meckler of The Washington Post (I know, I know) about the cuts to the Department of Education, and they talk about the Institute for Educational Studies. Here’s a link to the transcript:
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/nx-s1-53257
My great uncle chaired the Board at Wellesley in the late 60’s/70’s. My dad chaired the Board at his alma mater for much of the 80’s/early 90’s, and I served on the Board of my alma mater in the 20-teens. I sincerely appreciate your perspective on tertiary education.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@mrmoshpotato: how about those profiting from the lies they tell to convince these parents to forego getting their kids life saving vaccines ?
The gop is a death cult
TBone
Oh forgot to say I saw that Catherine Rampell, formerly of WaPoo, is gonna cohost evenings on The Weekend show on MSNBC.
https://www.msnbc.com/ana-cabrera-reports/watch/catherine-rampell-to-co-host-msnbc-s-the-weekend-234076741876
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Sister Golden Bear: There certainly should be.
Today, a DOJ lawyer representing the government against fired government employees did not know how many people had been fired. DOJ Ignorance appears to be self inflicted & required these days.
Jay
@HopefullyNotcassandra:
DOJ has also been cut, massively. Over half of the DOJ has been fired, laid off or resigned, amidst a massive number of court cases and lawsuits DJTdiot’s actions have caused, that the DOJ has to try to defend.
TBone
@Jay: the DOJ Public Integrity Section that prosecutes politicians for corruption is being purged also too!
https://apnews.com/article/justice-department-public-corruption-unit-cuts-4123347b1ffe4a0f3c681e49a15ab4ca
Jackie
@Baud:
Sadly, there’ll be a coverup of all who have died from measles, bird flu, covid… you name it. If it’s no longer publicly available, it didn’t happen.
Origuy
@HopefullyNotcassandra: I want to know how the MAGAs in the
DefenseWar Department plan to pull off an occupation of Canada. They aren’t going to be greeted with flowers and cheers. Lining up tanks at the border is going to give it away, so they probably think the same kind of “shock and awe” that started the Iraq War is a brilliant idea. At some point they would have to send in ground troops, but there aren’t that many crossings.trnc
Don’t be surprised when a number of judges lets them string out cases forever, because how can they possibly work all these cases with a shortage of lawyers.
TS
And I was so pleased to see this in our local news – although I fear if our opposition wins our soon to be election, their leader will see trump as his bff
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Origuy: Taking Canada is one thing that has never worked out well for our country.
Jay
@Jackie:
While death is the worst that can happen with measles, roughly 1:1000, measles can cause deafness, blindness, other life long issues, and even just a mild case, reset’s all past disease immunity to zero.
Jay
@HopefullyNotcassandra:
1775, 1812, 1860 to 1872.
Capri
If they didn’t care about 1 million COVID deaths, or women dying in hospital parking lots I doubt they care about a few kids with measles.
Nothing gets in the way of their beliefs.
dm
Watergirl,
Agreed about Dan Pfeiffer, but Jon Lovett, when he is serious, says some of the wisest things on those podcasts.
Ben Rhodes is worth listening to, also.
Jay
@trnc:
So far, the DOJ lawyers have been on the receiving end of judicial humiliation and also the Riot Act. Some have been walking into Court to try to argue cases they know absolutely nothing about.
Melancholy Jaques
@Ohio Mom:
You left out that, despite that, Ohioans re-elected those very same legislators. So while they can vote in favor of things Democrats support – like abortion rights – when they are stand alone ballot issues, they just don’t like Democrats on office.
ArchTeryx
@Melancholy Jaques: I think it comes down to the fact that urban Ohio is losing population, which strengthens the rural vote, and they’re almost to a one tribal Republican. Exurbs like Delware County, north of Columbus, ain’t exactly voting blue either. The state’s been steadily emptied out of middle class professional jobs outside of the colleges, and they aren’t enough.
Now add gerrymandering to the mix, to make sure the few blue areas are thoroughly cracked and packed.
These people would literally rather die than vote for a Democrat. As was showed vividly during the COVID years. They may like the bennies D issues bring them, but they’ll NEVER vote blue. Just another illustration of how much candidate voting, especially in rural-dominated states, is racial, tribal, or both.
Ramalama
@WaterGirl: In a nod to the various ways tariff is spelled I’ve decided that the pronunciation is ta-reef, like “sharif” as in, “the tarif don’t like it…rock the casbah, rock the casbah.”
Ramalama
Dan Pfeiffer has almost the same voice as Teddy in Bobs Burgers, though Dan is not at all a cartoon character sad sack kinda guy.
There. I said it.
Torrey
@HopefullyNotcassandra:
You speak truth. I haven’t seen this posted here, but then I’ve missed a few threads. So, just in case, and also because it deserves reposting, IMO, here’s Three Dead Trolls In a Baggie’s musical recap of the War of 1812.
Kayla Rudbek
@Sister Golden Bear: the professional term is “Rule 11 sanctions against the attorney of record”
Professor Bigfoot
@Melancholy Jaques: You leave out that Ohio is so massively gerrymandered that Republicans have built themselves permanent rule.
I keep a picture of my Ohio House District 49; and it’s absolutely ridiculous on its face.
Barry
@Origuy: “: I want to know how the MAGAs in the
DefenseWar Department plan to pull off an occupation of Canada. They aren’t going to be greeted with flowers and cheers. Lining up tanks at the border is going to give it away, so they probably think the same kind of “shock and awe” that started the Iraq War is a brilliant idea. At some point they would have to send in ground troops, but there aren’t that many crossings.”And infiltration down south would be child’s play.