a really difficult thing that explains a very large part of the reason we're in the situation we're in is that the average person has a monumentally difficult time accepting and internalizing that these people are doing awful and destructive things *because they like being awful and destructive*
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) March 20, 2025 at 1:27 AM
It takes some practice before a toddler’s fine motor skills are devoloped enough to stack three blocks into a tower. It takes no practice at all to kick over someone else’s tower and laugh gleefully at the resulting chaos…
like, if you can't imagine why some 25 year old computer science student would get a thrill out of firing 5,000 people and stripping them of their health insurance *because he thinks it's funny*, that's good, it means you're a normal person, but that's what's happening and it's no deeper than that
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) March 20, 2025 at 1:29 AM
the world of the past was worse than the modern world in almost every conceivable way but i do sometimes wish we had a battlefield we could send all these young men off to in order to get them vaporized by cannonball
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) March 20, 2025 at 1:31 AM
a big part of the authoritarian worldview/fantasy is the desire to do awful things *which you know to be awful* with total impunity, which is why so many of these guys are republicans
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) March 20, 2025 at 1:03 AM
this, btw, is what i think both old democrats and zoomer leftists alike don't really get and it's the source of a lot of needless discourse and consternation. the GOP has been bad my entire life but they are objectively much worse now and for much different reasons than when i was in my 20s
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) March 20, 2025 at 1:17 AM
======
The Oval Office Occupant, King God-Emperor of the Perpetual Toddler Caucus:
The do something golem strikes again.
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) March 19, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Literally idk what to say other than Trumps administration is obsessed with the idea of looking active and it's causing like.. all the problems? All the claims of fascism, etc. It's all down to needing to look like you're DOING THINGS
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) March 19, 2025 at 8:40 PM
The fun part of all of this is Trump is a sundowning idiot and so probably doesn't have the vaguest idea what p25 is but they're the ones who write all the papers for him to sign and so are orange boy is just snorting it as furiously as possible.
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) March 19, 2025 at 10:55 PM
As a side note, I read the DofEd being an EO they know is going to get tanked, but they're out things to do to "look busy."
Because of this, I honestly think the next two months or so are going to get really unhinged.— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) March 19, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Trump is gonna do real hail Mary shit and DOJ is going to get more desperate.
But i really think it's not because of this fourth dimensional fascist chess, it's because his admin has to look constantly always active or it's failing.— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) March 19, 2025 at 10:53 PM
======
If there is no hope, there is always vengeance!
Here’s a useful:hopeful way to think about things: the broader strategic rationale behind Musk/Trump/Vought is that they can inflict enough damage and move with enough velocity that when election time comes around it’s all a fiat accompli, regardless of the results. But let’s assume the wheel turns
— William B. Fuckley (@opinionhaver.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Govt agencies and universities are non-profit entities. Yes, it’s more complex, etc etc. But fundamentally, they just need to survive. And if the wheel does turn, and balance of power does reverse? All of the people backing this need to actively make money. They cannot simply survive.
— William B. Fuckley (@opinionhaver.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 9:08 PM
So let’s imagine the damage that could be done to a16z, to Tesla, to SpaceX, to Meta, in two years. They can’t just survive. They need to make money. Their employees and stakeholders are not mission-motivated to the same tent that NASA’s are.
— William B. Fuckley (@opinionhaver.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 9:10 PM
I’m definitely not saying that people aren’t hurting right now. I am saying that we can potentially hurt them much, much, more when the time comes.
— William B. Fuckley (@opinionhaver.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Also: the government can rebuild agencies if it has to. It will be tragic and painful, but possible.
You can't rebuild corporations from liquidation.— KANADI-Class NHP (@seed-corn-thoughts.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 9:21 PM
They think we can't rebuild and that all of this will change American political culture. The only thing they're doing is oppressing Americans and creating mass resentment and hatred that will never leave even if it's temporarily quieted by their threats
— Blake Brown (@antiquequaalude.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 11:21 PM
War for Ukraine Day 1,119: Obstruction of Justice
Steve in the ATL
We are so fucked.
BellyCat
@Steve in the ATL: Yup. And kids will be in even worse shape.
Rusty
What is also becoming clear is not only the destruction of agencies, but immediate destruction of all their records so there is no way to reconstitute them even if later there is a favorable court decision, let alone a change of administration. It’s a scorched earth policy.
satby
Other countries have gone through this and come out the other end with democracy restored, and eventually we will too. We will no longer be a world leader, and needless pain (and death) will (already) occur. But ultimately, they’re going to lose.
Baud
@satby:
Some say that’s a good thing.
satby
@Baud: It’s the 80th anniversary of VE day this May. Europe had to rebuild from far worse than the self-inflicted wound we gave ourselves last November. I think it might be a good thing for this country to be one of a company of equals, not the 900lb gorilla on crack that the Republicans are making it into. American exceptionalism needs to go.
Balconesfault
A lot of the folks backing Trump, and Vance in particular, want the view of the US as world leader, and in particular the dollar as the global currency, to be no more.
So much better to adopt cryptocurrency for global transactions!
scav
This is all somehow just Frankfurt’s Bullshit, but manifesting as action, because just as pure bullshit has no regard for the truth, this DOGEcrap is really untethered by consequences or reality. The DOGEists, like the vulture capitalists, have no real interest in whether the country or company they’re trashing or asset stripping survives once they walk away, they don’t really have any interest in it whatsoever beyond it was an available opportunity. They’re perfectly indifferent to it, it wasn’t a hated target. Vulture capitalists will at least try to sell assets to the highest bidder, while DOGEists, rather like trolls, will break crap for the shits, giggles and attention. Things currently get muddled because the conservatives, the P25ists, they do care and our form of govt was a hated target for them and they do want the stripped carcass to survive and shuffle onward, but entirely under their iron-fisted 1000-year control.
satby
@scav: and the inherent conflicts in what all those different factions want aren’t compatible and will be their downfall. And it’s all our jobs to push for that downfall in every way we can.
Baud
@satby:
I’m not sure how it shakes out. Maybe it does create a better world in the long run. Maybe we spend less money on a massive military and we more on improving things at home. Not a chance I would take, but now that the voters have decided to tear it all down, we’ll have to do what we can to rebuild it better.
Nukular Biskits
@Steve in the ATL:
But the stewpit libs will have been owned …
Balconesfault
A lot in the business community were banking on deregulation and tax cuts while believing “they won’t make a lot of unpopular moves that crash the economy”.
These guys see a 2 year window with a completely compliant Congress. They’re ideologues who see elections as a flaw, as “the wolves voting on how many sheep gets eaten”.
They don’t care what happens in the 2026 midterms. They’re out to make irreversible changes by then.
Rusty
@Baud: Maybe, because someone will fill the vacuum left behind. Russia, China? Both are extremely repressive authoritarian governments that have no belief in human rights and will inflict violence on their citizens let alone others. For all our failings, we did manage to spread some good values and beliefs in human rights. We like to focus on where we we were wrong (and we were plenty wrong), but we rarely focus on what we got right. The Trump administration is quickly destroying all the institutions and alliances that got it right, so we will see what comes next. A lot of folks around the world will likely find it much worse and there will certainly be a lot of death and destruction in the process. There will be plenty of death in the US as part of this too (lack of healthcare, lack of workplace safety, environmental degradation, shortened life from poverty, police violence and more).
Baud
@Rusty:
This is why our side is weak IMHO. It’s also why people don’t appreciate good things until the Republicans destroy them.
ETA: Some people believe a lot of death is the path to betterment. See Europe’s rise after the Black Death.
narya
They are filling in the swimming pools so they don’t have to share them with black people.
Baud
Call your broker
Baud
@narya:
There it is.
prostratedragon
@Baud: There’s difference between, say, a pass and a jump ball toss or, worse yet, a pick. We’re not under any stress that would cause us to make the rest of the world scramble.
satby
Agree. Didn’t want to be here and am frustrated that the obvious lessons of history need to be relearned over and over, but here is where we are, so build back better is the only choice we have.
p.a.
Interesting how the people who think gubmint is incompetent also think gubmint’s boot, when applied to their targets, is infallible.
Baud
@p.a.:
100% of their principles are context specific.
Rusty
@Baud: To believe that death will lead to betterment is to treat people as objects that can be discarded as means to an end. Of course it will be the poorest and most marginalized that will suffer. This I don’t abide (and I know you don’t either).
Asparagus Aspersions
I was so mad last night when I read about the French scientist being denied entry to the US because he had personal exchanges on his phone criticizing Trump that I immediately called my R congressman. I call weekly and normally take a couple minutes to organize my thoughts and express them coherently and politely , but I was so enraged at the idea that people could be punished for expressing negative opinions about politicians that I just grabbed the phone and pummeled the intern with questions (at one point, he just said plaintively “ma’am, I’m just an intern answering phones” to which I responded somewhat sharply “I’m not asking you to comment on a policy matter, I’m asking if the congressman believes in the first amendment “, so at least we managed to clarify that).
Maybe my frequent calls do nothing but as they say, it’s better to light a candle than curse the intern who answers the phone.
sentient ai from the future
@Rusty: EU-Canada coalition. canada might even wind up joining the eu
Baud
@Rusty:
Yep. It’s the ultimate anti-liberal attitude.
sentient ai from the future
@Baud: making explicit what earlier in the day was merely implicit.
smells like flop sweat
Baud
@sentient ai from the future:
Hopefully. If TSLA falls, it’ll probably take months. I think they will be making a financial report at the end of the month. That should be revealing.
Suzanne
From FTFNYT:
Why would anyone think name-calling wouldn’t help?! Of course it helps!
sentient ai from the future
@Baud: also, him saying this publicly the day before a big recall is announced seems pretty pump and dump-y
sentient ai from the future
@Baud: quarterly report expected early to mid may. normally when i buy options i like to target a week or two after the quarterly report date but i didnt bother with this one.
this morning another shitass investment house reiterated “buy!” but lowered their price target. everyone knows the stock is warm dogshit, just a matter of the timeline and how many degenerate gamblers can be soothed by more happy talk
Baud
@sentient ai from the future:
Didn’t realize it was that late.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So they are setting Vance up for his 2028 run.
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/18/vance-trump-maga-2028
Asparagus Aspersions
@Suzanne: What is he talking about? ”Skipping dipshit”, which he coined, is a name for the ages! More broadly speaking, attributing names to groups and repeating those names is incredibly important for framing. I had friends in the early 2000s, when we were in our 20s, who referred to “tax -and- spend Democrats”, not because they had any examples, but because that’s how Dems had been characterized our entire lives. Twenty five years of repetition does wonders.
Baud
@Asparagus Aspersions:
We don’t have the patience for long term slogans.
ETA: Except for “both sides!”
Asparagus Aspersions
@Baud: Or the time, I suppose.
Hildebrand
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Vance has negative charisma. Yes, he’s got Trump’s mean streak and bigotry, but he is a black hole in terms of personality.
Jeffro
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Asparagus Aspersions: That’s because name calling leads to never ended debates on our-side over the correct use of words, and he doesn’t want to be distracted from motivating our voters in those states.
Suzanne
@Asparagus Aspersions: “Skipping dipshit” and “South African nepo baby” and probably “weird”.
God, we need to do more name-calling. It serves multiple purposes: it sort of mentally consolidates these random thoughts one might have into something identifiable, and when that’s funny, it creates a moment of shared joy. And fascism needs to be laughed at and ridiculed to be dismantled. Also, quite frankly, it gives us some swagger. No one wants to hang out with the humorless kids who are getting picked on.
Suzanne
@Hildebrand: Vance has the backing of the worst people in the country — maybe the world — and I’m not confident that elections will matter in 2028.
Baud
@Suzanne:
We call Trump and Musk plenty of names. I don’t think we’re deficient in that area.
Suzanne
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
This is the shit that makes me grok the urge to fill one’s pockets with rocks and walk into the sea.
NeenerNeener
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: And yet Bannon told somebody yesterday that Trump will be elected to a third term in ’28.
Suzanne
@Baud: We call FFOTUS and Musk names. The electeds mostly don’t. ….but they should!
satby
Paul Krugman, yesterday: Smears, Sadism, and Social Security:
Baud
@Suzanne:
So what you’re saying is, there would be no harm in nominating me.
Suzanne
@Baud: I’d vote for the Pantsless Wonder!
gene108
@satby:
The death and destruction from WW1 and WW2 brought a certain level of clarity to Western Europe that they had to change.
We are not (hopefully) going to have such clarifying events.
In other countries that came out the other side with a democracy, the anti-democratic forces were defeated, and fled the country, were jailed, or executed.
The people driving our push to fascism will still be around. The Heritage Foundation, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, right-propaganda outlets like Fox News. NewsMax, Daily Wire, etc. are not going to face serious enough consequences to force them to keep their heads down.
******************
This summary of poll results from Gallup about whether people are satisfied or dissatisfied shows most people have been dissatisfied for the last 20 years.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/1669/general-mood-country.aspx
I’ve seen similar polls from going back further, and the last time most Americans felt the country was headed in the right direction was the early 00’s, which I think was a carry over from the late 1990’s, when 60%+ of people felt things were headed in the right direction.
I don’t see how a pessimistic, angry, and divided electorate will dig deep to force long term pro-democracy changes unless leaders come along who can motivate most people to see their divisions hurt more than it helps.
Edit: It’s always possible to come out with a better future. The work required to convince people to come together for pro-democracy changes against the right-wing propaganda machine is beyond my ability to conceive. I really don’t know what to do right now.
Gvg
@Hildebrand: I think it means that they can’t agree on an alternative so they are stuck with him. Not only are there multiple factions, and lots of egos, I don’t think any of them have charisma. In fact I don’t think Trump has. He had 60 years on television and the news but especially that TV show building him up and the wrestling stint too. I guess those made up for the laughable bankruptcies and vulgar taste. Somehow the tabloid affairs and divorces became pluses.
Asparagus Aspersions
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I’m thinking more along the lines of “weird” which was a perfect distillation of the ongoing freak show. One of the biggest – maybe THE biggest – advantage the Rs have is this concentrated firehose of propaganda that allows them to brush aside most brush fires of discontent (not that they object to name calling). We also have to deal with mainstream media outlets shrieking about civility ONLY with regard to Ds.
But let’s give it a shot. We have a year before the next election season starts. And we’re sure as hell not going to win with prospective candidates deciding to host podcasts that provide right wing extremists a way to make their opinions sound mainstream.
ETA – What @Suzanne said in 39
Gvg
@Suzanne: but it works better if it seems spontaneous and doesn’t get called just name calling.Also if it’s not the only tactic or weapon. We don’t want to be seen as just like them. So Walz saying name calling doesn’t help doesn’t mean a few genuine lines of real observation that are short and funny and repeatable don’t need to happen. Just don’t be juvenile and crude only and think that helps. IMO.
Suzanne
@Gvg:
Climb into their heads….. he has been married to three hotties and divorces them when they start looking old and he bangs porn stars. That is the ultimate aspirational fantasy for a lot of trash men.
That’s why I said the other day that a bit of horny energy probably helps us. It’s a huge part of Bill Clinton’s appeal, IMO.
MagdaInBlack
@Suzanne: I’ve read that piece 3 times now and I’m still not entirely sure what the point of it is, but it seems (to me ) to be low key “both sides do it.” As in “name calling is straight out of trumps playbook and now Democrats are doing it.”
Yeah, we’re calling elno names. So?
(right after the paragraph you posted, they go on to say Walz did it anyway….called elno a nepo-baby)
prostratedragon
@Suzanne: I must say, “skipping dipshit” is perfect. Can’t find the swastiskip image someone made of him — maybe they had to take it down — but the name and inage fit together perfectly.
Baud
@gene108:
And then voted to make the 2000 election close!
The oligarchs and the fascists know that urging people to be dissatisfied helps them, because it leaves the world of positivity under their exclusive control.
Suzanne
@Gvg: Agreed. Name-calling should be one ingredient of imagecraft, among many others. Not too much, but not none, either. Needs to be juuuuust right.
Suzanne
@MagdaInBlack: To me, it’s more of an observational piece that is documenting a change in tone of public discourse. Kind of like how Millennials openly talk about going to therapy….. a shift in a norm!
MagdaInBlack
@Suzanne: Ok, that works too =-)
WTFGhost
Trump doesn’t feel a need to look like he’s doing things. He’s getting tongue baths from every soi disant “conservative” they can find.
He’s being told “do this! No one has EVER done this before! It makes you a HERO!” so he does it. As mentioned in other messages in the post, you have 25 year old Randroids who, yes, think it’s funny that they’ve been given power without responsibility, and, like so many Republicans over so many years, think at cutting two trillion dollars from the federal budget won’t make a much-bigger-than-two-trillion-dollar hole in the economy.
And remember, most of that money is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Military – all domestic spending. That’s why cutting two trillion from the budget creates a bigger-than-two-trillion hole: all those paychecks being lost, means people are spending less, and businesses are spending less because demand is lower, and this is called a “recession” except if you really cut two effing trillion from the federal budget, you’d probably have a depression, once enough months had passed for the economists to state the obvious. Also: this isn’t high level econ; this is macro econ 101.
Now, one reason people do this, is, when there’s economic pain, there’s economic vultures. You lose your house, but don’t worry – the greater economy is glad to have someone to buy and flip your house, so, all the money you paid into upkeep gets put to good use, padding someone else’s paycheck. And isn’t that just what America is all about? People causing corpses to keep the vultures fed?
Another reason is, if you’re rich enough, you can ride it out, and, usually pick up some assets at fire sale prices. You stop thinking of “economic pain” as killing people, because no one you know has ever died of it. (ETA: yes, I used “economic corpses” in the prior paragraph, but spoke of literal corpses here. Deal; people who lose health insurance may die of cancer, or worse, die of some easily treated condition that a doctor’s visit might have cured.)
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: I think Americans think of voting for bigots and demagogues as a luxury good. When things are basically all right, the tendency to find liberals boring and off-putting takes over and they figure nobody’s going to really ruin things.
The highly federated nature of the US government also means many Americans are insulated from terrible decisions at the federal level as an immediate consequence. The state and local governments you actually deal the most with are still the same, until they’re not. The exceptions are people who are directly dependent on federal money in some way–the people who are being immediately hurt now.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne:
I’ve been wondering if that’s going to shift back because of aggressive eugenicism–especially when they start forcibly breaking doctor-patient confidentiality and punishing people for saying scary or anti-Trump things in therapy.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Vance is a charisma black hole. Maybe MAGA voters will glom onto him anyway, but it’s hard to picture
ETA: Or what Hildebrandt said at #36
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
I share that view.
sentient ai from the future
@Baud: also the capitalists. But you said that already.
Baud
People should stop trying to predict 2028. Predicting four ahead is always hard and a burn it all down regime makes it impossible.
ETA: That’s my morning scold for everyone.
Dorothy A. Winsor
March 20.
Two months down, 46 more to go
Matt McIrvin
@Hildebrand: Doesn’t Trump want the 2028 nominee to be Donald Trump Jr., as a proxy for himself? He’d just openly campaign for it as his third term.
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: I personally doubt that, because a relate thing I have observed is that those people who say anti-Trump things in therapy also say and text them to their friends (maybe even their colleagues), post them on social media, etc etc etc. I think it’s a permanent norm-shift.
The other big shift I am observing is see young people be much more open about their finances. It’s eye-opening to me.
gene108
@Asparagus Aspersions:
A lot of us go gravitate towards insults directed at Republican voters to indifference, on social media, with FAFO being the mildest comment towards Republican voters being hurt by Musk and Trump.
Calling Musk a “skipping dipshit” or “tax -and- spend Democrats” are branding exercises to negatively define the opposition.
They aren’t insults directly aimed at dissatisfied Republican voters.
TBone
Here in PA there are challenges to ballot secrecy being put forth as a way to prevent (through the chilling effect) mail voting. Using our Open Record laws. Back to in-person only may be coming soon…if elections remain how leaders get chosen.
https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2025/03/commonwealth-court-rulings-compromise-secret-ballots-transparency-elections/
Jackie
@Hildebrand:
Sounds like DeSantis. An upcoming battle between him and Vance for the MAGA title?
Ohio Mom
@Asparagus Aspersions: I’ve yelled at my share of phone-answering interns. Yelling on ocassion might be a good thing, maybe it will impression them that their bosses are playing with fire.
AM in NC
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Looking forward to repeating the term “couch fucker Vance” about a billion times between now and then.
Also hope to drive a wedge between him and the non-white and non-male members of his own family, based on his horrible horrible statements and policies targeting them.
Why yes, I do take his rise personally.
Ohio Mom
@Rusty: The idea that Europe came out better after World War II leaves out the role the U.S. played in making sure it came out better.
Who is going to be our U.S., who is going to give us a Marshall Plan?
catclub
@p.a.: Authoritarian followers
Shalimar
@satby: Other countries didn’t have half the nukes in the world. A scary prospect when your leader who likes to watch the world burn starts losing his grip.
sentient ai from the future
@Ohio Mom: Canada, I think. After my state surrenders and is annexed. Just gotta figure out how to get them to attack now.
satby
@Ohio Mom: Europe? After WW2 most of Europe was physically destroyed, literally smoking craters; the US won’t be. And we’ve never been the only democracy. The Marshall plan was to stabilize and rebuild Europe to prevent another war, and there’s lots of models of democracy that would be available to us as we rebuild ours. And we’ll still have the people who remember how it worked.
TL:Dr We’re not fucked, but we’re going to have some hard, miserable work ahead to repair what we (the people) broke because we took it all for granted.
satby
@Shalimar: That goes for Russia and North Korea too, and with even less checks on the leaders there.
Baud
@satby:
I’m getting a head start by already blaming future Dems for not moving fast enough.
satby
@Baud: You’ve always been ahead of the curve.
TBone
Speaking of getting ahead of the curve…
https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/doges-ai-first-strategist-is-now
I’m fantasizing about simply unplugging. But I doubt there are any pencil sharpeners or paper left in the supply room.
catclub
@Matt McIrvin: I agree. The US will voter for the Democrat if they are terrified economically. I would say the only elections in the past 30 years where that did not happen was 1996 and 2012. Incumbent presidents.
Matt McIrvin
@satby: I think the physical destruction of the US is a real possibility. The military Hegseth wants to build is one that will do a U. S. Grant in reverse. His fans openly fantasize about killing as many Democrats as possible.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
It would be an economic disaster. Even Putin knows not to destroy his own (Russian) cities.
Shalimar
@Baud: Trump isn’t as sane as Putin, and he knows the cities in general did not vote for him. I’m not sure he wouldn’t order the destruction of a city that made him angry. I do hope we still have enough checks in the system that the military would not carry out that command.
Baud
@Shalimar:
I’m not going to play guessing games. I’m just saying it’s not something that’s in their self interest.
Shalimar
@Baud: Guessing is pointless if it doesn’t enable some kind of preventative or ameliorative action. I will only say that most of the comfort I get is from all the things they are doing that are not in their self-interest. They’re harming their own voters when they harm all of us.
Soprano2
@Shalimar: He would make the thing they’re always saying about protests “destroying” a city true. I hope you’re right that the military wouldn’t do that.
Baud
@Shalimar:
I’m not certain that’s no their self interest, since they have gotten their voters to blame Dems and the Dem base for their problems, and their voters really want someone to punch down on. They’ve formed a really perverse bond.
Baud
@Baud:
“Not in their self interest…”
Baud
I’m pretty sure nuking a US city would cause Susan Collins to furrow her more than it has been furrowed before. No one wants that.
artem1s
@Baud:
Assume they will be Enroning their quarterly reports – or more accurately, they already are Enroning their reports but the closer they come to collapse, the more their earnings reports will be pure bullshit tied together with bailing wire.
artem1s
@Asparagus Aspersions: problem is once the Muskrats fade into the background the name isn’t effective anymore. ZEGS was a great tag that perfectly encapsulates what the GOP has become but fell out favor when Ryan got ousted from the cool kids table for not being cruel and terrible enough for the New Young Turks.
Soprano2
@Baud: They really do want someone to blame for everything that’s wrong in their lives. People are resistant to the idea that sometimes things just happen and no one is really to blame.
Omnes Omnibus
@Asparagus Aspersions:
Walz didn’t call Musk a skipping dipshit. He described him as “skipping like a dipshit.” Also, calling someone weird isn’t name calling; it is a description. He is describing behavior not labeling people.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Walz called Elmo a “South African nepo baby”. He’s name-calling. It’s okay.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: I also see “South African nepo baby” as a description. But whatever. I am sure referring to Trump as “Orange Fart Cloud” is the same thing and equally effective.
artem1s
or you white wash it and call it the Great Recession. Remember a lot of people got hurt during W’s great economic experiment – even the white ppl who thought they’d be safe when the GOP killed Obamacare and privatized SS. They were finally pissed off enough to reject the whole damn Bush Family (plz clap). But the lesson they refuse to learn is that you can’t sustain the growth bubble that lead to that depression without creating corpses. When it was all over they were more pissed that Dems and Obama didn’t let them immediately return to their glorious raping and pillaging. Instead mommy Dems Obummer and Warren made them eat their peas and tighten their belts and clean up the mess AND live within their means again. American are spoiled children and whingers who want endless unfettered growth without any downsides and if they don’t get it they punish those who tell them to grow up and try contributing to the community instead of bankrupting it every year and quit living like there is no tomorrow.
RMoney didn’t get elected because he said the quiet part out loud that the GOP considers all of us moochers and takers who don’t deserve a living wage or benefits or a bridge to live under. The only reason any of the MAGAt mob cares now is because it’s obvious the 20 year old Muskrats think we’re all moochers too.
cmorenc
@Jeffro: Trump may push Don Jr. to go for the nomination over Vance – because even this SCOTUS isn’t going to allow Trump to run for a 3rd term, but Trump, Sr would still effectively pull the strings as if he was a 3rd term President. The marriage of Trump Sr and Vance is entirely one of convenient alliance, not love and like every other relationship Trump has ever had with anyone outside his children, he will discard his ties with anyone who is no longer serving Trump’s wants.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: “Nepo baby” is a known insult. It hits because it’s accurate, but it isn’t a neutral descriptor.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: It is probably a semantic argument at this point, but descriptions can be insulting.
Niques
@Omnes Omnibus: I’ve personally been using pbp … putin’s butt plug … because it’s the most disgusting thing I can think of.
VFX Lurker
This gives me some insight into the senseless Salem Witch Trials.
chemiclord
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
This is the truth of the matter. For every person who feels a dopamine surge for “calling a spade a spade,” there’s a person that finds it distasteful and childish.
Gloria DryGarden
@VFX Lurker: I wish I understood your insight
Planetjanet
@Omnes Omnibus: That is the critical difference.
Ruckus
this, btw, is what i think both old democrats and zoomer leftists alike don’t really get and it’s the source of a lot of needless discourse and consternation. the GOP has been bad my entire life but they are objectively much worse now and for much different reasons than when i was in my 20s
This, from golikehellmachine above.
He speaks the truth.
In my lifetime they weren’t all that good, rather selfish for sure, but not what they want to do now to screw everyone. Not just everyone else, their concepts will screw them just as hard, maybe even harder. It’s not leadership, it’s not governing, it is stopping everything from moving forward. And as we can’t move back in time, no matter how much they want to. I mean they voted for shitforbrains – AGAIN. They don’t want a government, they don’t know what they want, other than pure crapola.
Good times….
Oh, and BTW, I use the VA for my healthcare. They are fucking with a lot of people who EARNED their healthcare, serving in the US military for crapola pay, but with the understanding of what comes after one serves. The VA for one thing.
These people are trying to destroy this country. Might as well ask Vlad for a job.
Seanly
One of the problems is that you can’t change someone’s beliefs at gunpoint. Maybe they say “oh, I’ll vote as you wish” or “oh, yes, I will convert to Catholicism so you stop torturing me.” And maybe some percent of the coerced do go along and become good Catholics or stop being so woke or hide that they’re gay/Jewish/Muslim/whatever-out-group-you’re-attacking.
I’m 57 and in my lifetime I have seen so much cultural change in the US. We’re much more multicultural, we’re much more accepting of others, we’re so much more openly diverse than ever before. There are tons of caveats with those statements (basically a lot of these started at zero) but we are a better place than we were. These times will be tough & a lot of folks will be unjustly hurt for which I am profoundly saddened. But the genie can’t be put back in the bottle. These setbacks & betrayals of what it means (to me) to be an American will pass.
YY_Sima Qian
@Baud: The US not be the world leader is neither good or bad, it is just a condition of the world, and depends on what replaces it. Just like multipolarity is just a distribution of power, it is neither good or bad in itself. Depends on the type of multipolarity.
YY_Sima Qian
@Rusty: The U.S. , by the fact of is superpowerdom & it’s unipolar moment, has also managed to inflict a lot more pain & destruction on the world, & extracted a lot of value from ROW via coercion & unfair practices, than the PRC has ever done (because the latter has been in less or a position to do so since the 1st Opium War). We will see what the PRC does w/ superpowerdom, early indications are that it will be same ole same ole as past superpowers.
As a baseline, Americans tend not be the best judges of US hegemony, just like White people tend not be the best assessors of White supremacy. Engrained & internalized privilege work at a subconscious levels. Thinking the U.S. as the “the indispensable nation” is liberal hegemonism through & through. Thinking the U.S. has necessarily done more good than ill for the ROW is self-absorbed navel gazing. Americans are generally convinced, Westerners more likely to agree (because the U.S. led international order structurally benefited the U.S. 1st & foremost, but also structurally benefitted the West that had industrialized 1st & accumulated enormous advantages through the age of colonialism & imperialism). The view from outside of the West, not so much.
As a U.S. citizen working for a U.S. MNC, benefitted from an Ivy League education, enjoyed 1st World living standard for most parts of my life, & even the most part of my decades back working in the PRC had been on an expat package, I too enjoyed imperial/hegemonic privilege, & liberal internationalism/hegemonism once dominated my views on FP. However, coming from a non-Western country, & having now spent the nearly 2 decades living & working back in that non-Western country, afford me a more distanced view of the U.S. Nevertheless, the PRC is now also a superpower, & China has a looong history being a continent sized civilizational state & as the hegemon over its known world. That colors my worldview, too, & someone from a country w/o such history would be a very different still.
Finally, as I mentioned many times before, the alternative to U.S. hegemony does not need to be PRC (or Russia, Indian, EU) hegemony. None will be nearly as powerful as the U.S. post-WW II or post-Cold War, & we need to exercise our imaginations if we are to build a more perfect world out of the ruins (like FDR once did), just as Americans need to exercise our imaginations if we are to build a “more perfect union” out of the ashes.
YY_Sima Qian
@YY_Sima Qian: The U.S. not being a world leader, giving its enormous “endowment” (stolen from the Natives) & even greater accumulated advantages through the centuries of colonialism, empire, hegemony & early lead in development/industrialization, is just sad.