That rich coming from Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, a billionaire. ??
— AnnieForTruth (@anniefortruth1.bsky.social) March 21, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Perpetually, proudly grifter-adjacent Cantor Fitzgerald macher Howard Lutnick will never need to worry about a missed earned-benefits check. And I guess he figures that if his security detail was good enough to protect him when he used the last paychecks of his employees slaughtered on 9/11 as a ‘safety net’ for the Cantor Fitzgerald corner offices, they’re good enough to keep the mobs of angry Olds and crips from showing up next time he goes on Fox News to shill for Shadow President Musk’s Wankpanzer…
Imagine what will happen if 25-30% of SS recipients don’t get their monthly payment: They wouldn’t have that money, people who receive payments in following weeks would cut way down on spending, there’d be greater than usual withdrawals from 401(k)’s, etc
It’s one out of five Americans!— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) March 21, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick explains that elderly people who would complain about not receiving their Social Security checks are fraudsters.
— MaddowBlog (@maddowblog.msnbc.com) March 21, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Gonna invest everything I have into pitchfork and torch futures
— Phillip Anderson (@phillipanderson.bsky.social) March 21, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Not so fact, Bunky, says Judge Hollander — per the Washington Post, “Federal judge pushes back on acting Social Security head over threat to close agency”:
Acting Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek threatened Thursday evening to bar Social Security Administration employees from accessing its computer systems in response to a judge’s order blocking the U.S. DOGE Service from accessing sensitive taxpayer data.
Less than 24 hours later — after the judge rejected his argument and the White House intervened — Dudek is saying he was “out of line.”
Dudek initially told news outlets, including in a Friday interview with The Washington Post, that the judge’s decision to bar sensitive data access to “DOGE affiliates” was overly broad and that to comply, he might have to block virtually all SSA employees from accessing the agency’s computer systems. But Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, who issued the order, said in a letter that Dudek’s assertions “were inaccurate.”
“Employees of SSA who are not involved with the DOGE Team or in the work of the DOGE Team are not subject to the Order,” Hollander wrote in the letter on Friday sent to lawyers involved in the case. “ … Moreover, any suggestion that the Order may require the delay or suspension of benefit payments is incorrect.”…
Dudek, in a follow-up interview Friday afternoon with The Post, thanked Hollander for the clarification, adding, “The president is committed to keeping the Social Security offices open to serve the public.” He then acknowledged that this was an about-face from his stance in an interview with The Post earlier in the day.
“[The White House] called me and let me know it’s important to reaffirm to the public that we’re open for business,” he said. “The White House did remind me that I was out of line and so did the judge. And I appreciate that.”
Hollander issued a two-week temporary restraining order Thursday that prohibits Social Security officials from sharing personally identifiable information with Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service, which has been empowered to carry out cost-cutting across the government.
Hollander, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, wrote that DOGE “essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion” and “never identified or articulated even a single reason for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access to SSA’s entire record systems.”…
Hollander’s scathing, 137-page order was the latest court ruling preventing DOGE, which stands for the Department of Government Efficiency, from sifting through databases of federal agencies because of privacy concerns. Other federal judges have ruled that the Treasury and Education departments cannot share sensitive data with Musk’s team.
But DOGE’s activities at Social Security have drawn particular scrutiny because of its role as the government’s central hub for Americans’ most sensitive personal and financial information. The agency is the country’s largest benefit-paying entity, keeping data on millions of individuals who interact with other federal agencies, including the IRS, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Agriculture Department, as well as state unemployment offices. About 73 million retired and disabled Americans receive monthly benefits from Social Security…
Since the White House elevated him to the top acting job six weeks ago, Dudek has made major changes. A mid-level data analyst accused by several now-retired career leaders of improperly sharing information with DOGE, Dudek has moved to eliminate 7,000 staff roles, announced plans to close dozens of regional and field offices and has claimed that fraud is endemic to agency operations, despite numerous audits and studies over the years saying otherwise. Trump’s nominee to run the agency permanently, Frank Bisignano, is slated to appear at his Senate confirmation hearing next week…
And I’m sure we’re all shocked that Bisignano is best known as a dedicated job-eliminator and all-purpose Republican tool.
Interesting thread on Activist Judges from Angus Johnson:
I get the impression—and this letter from Judge Hollander in the SSA DOGE case helped to crystalize it—that the federal bench is developing new procedural mechanisms for dealing with the Trump admin. It bodes well, I think. (Quick thread.)
— Angus Johnston (@angus.bsky.social) March 21, 2025 at 4:54 PM
In this letter, issued in response to media hits by Trump’s acting SSA director, in which he stoked fear about SocSec checks getting delays, Hollander does seven interesting things in the course of three quick paragraphs:
She (1) acts on her own initiative, without waiting for the admin to bring an issue to her formally, (2) issues a detailed, specific clarification of her previous rulings, (3) slaps down misinformation propagated in the media, (4) calms public fears of government disruption…
…(5) warns the admin against specific future bad acts, (6) instructs the admin how to get further clarification, and (7) makes explicit that this is a binding Order.
That’s a lot for three paragraphs!…
None of this is a solution for everything—you still have to get the kids to brush their teeth, and figure out consequences if they don’t—but it speeds up the process, and makes imposing consequences a lot simpler and more straightforward.
And in the case of the Trump admin, it protects the courts from the kinds of reflexive low-grade bad-faith bullshit that most lawyers in or out of government would never pull with a federal judge, but which Trump’s minions revel in.
A principle of organizing is that you want to go outside your target’s experience—it confuses them and slows them down.
Trump II has benefited mightily in the last few months from going outside our collective national experience. But that advantage may be weakening, in the courts and elsewhere...
Another way of thinking about this is that Trump’s lawyers have been rampaging through the courts these last few weeks like smallpox in an immunologically naive population.
But judges who are interacting with them are developing immunity, and perhaps some basic vaccines.
Baud
I almost wish they would stop the checks. But decent folks don’t hope for avoidable harm for possible strategic advantage. Life isn’t chess.
NotMax
Open thread weekend watch. The dry delivery is pitch perfect.
Tech Bros Inventing Things That Already Exist.
;)
Gloria DryGarden
Good morning. I’m still awake, which has been a pattern for many months. The AOC speeches have moved me to tears; I think it’s a sense of hope and possibility. When that supersedes the despair, so much grief starts seeping out. Which is good.
Highly OT, I saw my first flowering tree today, white flowers, big old thing, probably a plum, or, I’m not sure. Denver peeps, it was at 18th/ 17th, York, City Park. A FLOWERING TREE! We’re celebrating spring today in my group, so this is a good sign.
Back to your usual discussions about the OP, the engrossing and enraging unfolding and disarray of the USA five-alarm undoings. I hope only the discussion is on fire, in spite of windy red flag conditions and fire dangers. We’ve been rather blown away in Denver this week.
Chilling, penetrating winds, means nice warm ish temperatures aren’t really that inviting. ( take it metaphorically, if you like)
have a great Saturday
Shalimar
If Lutnick’s mom would think he fucked up but not call him to tell him he needed to fix it, she isn’t anything like my mom.
Spanky
@Baud: I kind of wish the checks were interrupted too, and I now live on those checks.
It’s the only way some eyes will be opened.
Baud
@Spanky:
That’s because you, like Lutnik’s mom, aren’t a fraudster.
robtrim
In other news, released on Friday evening.
The Department of Homeland Security said Friday that it will revoke legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, setting them up for potential deportation in about a month.
The order applies to about 532,000 people from the four countries who came to the United States since October 2022. They arrived with financial sponsors and were given two-year permits to live and work in the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said they will lose their legal status on April 24, or 30 days after the publication of the notice in the Federal Register.
prostratedragon
Judgement at Nuremberg (1961)
Baud
@robtrim:
Surprised about the Cubans.
ColoradoGuy
Bernie and AOC are bringing it. The Oligarchs have declared war on all of us, on everyone who’s not their servant or employee. It’s them vs us, it’s really that simple.
And it’s not an accident that Russia, China, and the USA are ruled by billionaire dictators who also control massive media empires. Billionaire = Dictatorship.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud:
I’m skeptical. Who knows what Lutnik’s mom is capable of? After all, look what she raised.
Baud
@ColoradoGuy:
Always has been. But oligarchs and the white working class have been strong allies since Reagan. Will see if Musk can break that spell.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: Weelll, there’re Cubans and then there’re Cubans. More recent arrivals who are poor are not nearly as Cuban as the Cubans of generations ago. Those Cubans were escaping the tyranny of having their upper class social status upended by the fall of Batista. Those were true Cubans. This newer lot are mangy and expendable.
Baud
Via Reddit, capitalism > democracy
Baud
@Chief Oshkosh:
It’s all so complicated.
I can relate.
Baud
Interesting Reddit thread on protests and activism, consistent with what I’ve heard here and elsewhere.
TBone
In the not so recent past, Digby had highlighted an article postulating the reason(s) Elno wants all of the Social Security data so badly (he’s losing the race to train his AI monster because all of the AI thugs are running out of available data to train on). This tracks.
TBone
There has been talk
@veracityaquila.bsky.social
9m
Botched Penis surgery?
“Elongate”
BC in Illinois
@prostratedragon:
Judgement at Nuremberg (1961)
Gloria DryGarden
@Baud: I finally finished writing my answer to your question, last thread. I wasn’t blowing you off, just took a few minutes to create the examples of what I meant about present tense.
I’m glad you asked it.
Baud
@Gloria DryGarden:
I saw it and appreciated your response.
Baud
@TBone:
veracityaquila = NotMax
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: im not looking at the link. I just want to say,
guys. You don’t need a bigger dick. You don’t. It’s ok. It’s how you be, with your person, that matters.
Baud
@Gloria DryGarden:
Maybe that’s the problem.
Gloria DryGarden
@Baud: ok, gracias.
It matters a lot to me, thanks for reading that.
Gloria DryGarden
@Chief Oshkosh: um,
C-c-c- classism? Snark? I can’t tell. I’ll go sleep, get a fresh new mind in a while.
Gloria DryGarden
@Baud: it’s got to be a huge chunk of their creative staff. Of course Dusney won’t sever ties with the lgbtq+ folks on their teams. What, and dry themselves up? All that campy, colorful, aesthetic creativity?
Gloria DryGarden
@Baud: well, yes, excellent point,
but a bigger dick is not going to fix that. Wish those folks knew it.
Plus, don’t mess with those sacred nerve endings, you need them later.
TBone
@Baud:
@Gloria DryGarden:
Mom played this song over and over when I was little!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg7qsW8qboE
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: in awhile, crocodile. I need a lullaby, or a gong bath, or the crystal bowls, so I can get a good nap in.
I was gonna sleep earlier, I keep trying, but I was crying over the AOC speeches, and then Bernie pissed me off, and Baud asked me a great question, something that I’ve Wanted to talk about.
So, differently effective use of my time, I guess. Once again. At least it’s not poetry all night.
TBone
@Gloria DryGarden: sleep well and long, my friend
TBone
BLECH. Stenchstain coming to Philly tonight.
https://www.inquirer.com/politics/donald-trump-philadelphia-today-time-location-traffic-20250322.html
TBone
I would like to see a cage match between my beloved hubby and Lutnick. One would emerge, the other would be unsuccessfully trying to find his testicles.
satby
@Spanky: me too, on all points. Nothing will wake the low-info types up faster.
Chief Oshkosh
@Gloria DryGarden: Snark. ;)
satby
@Shalimar: @Baud: Lutnick lied about that. It’s such a an obvious lie too. Old people like routine, that would upset her routine, even if she didn’t depend on the money. Or she’s cognitively impaired and isn’t in control of her finances enough to notice. Which would make that not just a lie, but a cruel one.
Gloria DryGarden
@Chief Oshkosh: ah. Thank you.
Gloria DryGarden
@satby: trying to cross the song Wake up little Susie, wake up, with some new song about FAFO. Does Randy rainbow have a song like that yet? oh dear. Now I’ll need to query the folks who write the nice cheery political satire songs.
when I sing to the karma department, to suggest another customer for their consequences and ministrations, I use the tune from “oh Christmas tree” It’s never the same twice.
Baud
@satby:
I just assumed she was rich and has people who worry about her finances.
satby
I have market today, so I’m not able to stay on, but an update and huge thanks to everyone who contributed to our rescue group’s kitty surgery fundraiser. We’re almost to the goal. Most of our grant money is strictly limited to funding spay/neuters, so anything else is always a struggle. But we’re close enough that the vet will do the surgery and we can hopefully make payments. That they’re able to save the leg is huge! Cute new pictures of Rosie at the link.
satby
@Baud: In my experience (admittedly limited) with the rich, they’re very on top of their funds. That’s how people get rich. Though lots of women of that generation did leave finances to their spouses.
Jackie
@Baud:
Says someone who doesn’t 100% depend on the checks. It’s easy to wish for something that doesn’t personally affect them.
Baud
@Jackie:
Wow. You just ignored the rest of my comment in order to indulge in outrage.
scribbler
@satby: helped out a bit. hoping for the very best outcome for Rosie!
TBone
My Word of the Day is
David W. Brown, the New Yorker:
Usually, when I write about NASA the research points me to primordial asteroids, or icy oceans inside radioactive moons. This is the first NASA story to point me to a Total Wine & More in Palm Beach County, Florida. The Trump Administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency are indiscriminately firing federal workers and cancelling contracts, and I wanted to know what DOGE’s presence would precipitate at NASA headquarters.
As I pieced together the story, publishing today, I heard one name more than any other: Darren Bossie. The new White House liaison to NASA, Bossie seems to be an embodiment of Trump in the hallways of the agency’s headquarters. I’d never heard of him. But I knew that who he was would be telling of Trump’s agenda. I found Bossie’s profile on LinkedIn. To my astonishment, he’d spent the bulk of his professional life as an assistant manager of a Total Wine & More. (The NASA community was surprised, too. “Cannot make this stuff up,” someone wrote on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory subreddit.) I called every Total Wine & More location in the area, repeatedly, hoping to speak with someone who remembered him. I talked with many people, but found only one who did
satby
@scribbler: again, thanks SO much! Her prognosis is good, and we’ll find a safe home for her, she’s a sweetie.
Baud
Via reddit
Welcome to Blue sky, Turkiye.
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: ex-caliber?
you can’t use alcohol in these space vehicles. It’s not like gasoline engines in highways, for our cars…
the icy lake makes we want to invite some people to go jump in a …
Baud
RIP
SFAW
@prostratedragon:
I’m half-expecting Congress (plus some state legislatures) at some point to enact the Stone Mountain Laws.
Naturally, that naming works on two levels: (1) the Stone Mountain ref is (I hope) semi-obvious; (2) “Nuremberg” roughly translates into English as “rocky mountain” (or “stone mountain” if you prefer).
What fun that will be.
SFAW
@Baud:
But-but-but I thought he bought Xitter because he was concerned about free speech?
Narrator: he is, just not in the way most people think of “free speech.”
prostratedragon
@BC in Illinois: Hadn’t seen it since last century sometime. Lays it out pretty thoroughly.
Concerns the trial of judges who committed judicial atrocities in the service of the Nazis, such as ordering political executions and forced sterilizations. Takes place mostly in the courtroom, with several other scenes focussed tightly on the matter at hand.
prostratedragon
@SFAW: Thank you for the translation! Who says there’s no collective unconscious.
JoyceH
Why is the Commerce Secretary talking about Social Security anyway? That’s one thing that never ceases to astonish me about this administration – the completely shambolic lack of discipline. The officials often don’t even really know their own assignment but every one of them is always ready to opine on camera on topics that are completely none of their business.
Jackie
@Baud: I’m sorry. It’s been another very stressful week… your post was the first thing I read this morning and I just snapped. Please forgive my compulsive over the top reaction?
Matt McIrvin
@Gloria DryGarden:
If the investors told them to dry everything up and use their land holdings to simply become a real-estate firm, they would.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all!
SFAW
It (finally) occurred to me that you can’t spell “Melakon” without “Elon.” [OK, so I’m slow. What of it?]
Coincidence? I wonder …
Gloria DryGarden
@Matt McIrvin: and silence Ariel?
after they so carefully sanitized that part of the little mermaid story?
all that color and sparkle has been a big success…
im being silly. But I’ll consider your thought.
Baud
@Jackie:
I have that effect on people. No worries.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
Good morning.
zhena gogolia
Having had to sit through praise of Bernie Sanders yesterday at lunch and keep my countenance because of politeness, let me say here:
Fuck Bernie Sanders
BellyCat
@Chief Oshkosh: Big “C” and little “c”, then. Who says capitalization doesn’t matter!
JFC. I get so tired of people pulling up the ladder behind them…
TBone
@Baud:
GAH
Matt McIrvin
@JoyceH: It sounds like an expression of intent to arrest a large chunk of the over-65 population. The plan might be to raid some people who complain and keep the rest quiet when the checks stop coming.
Ramalama
@TBone: Holy shitbird. Those stooges went on for daysmonths about Kamala Harris once working at McDonald’s as a teenager.
Watch, head of NOAA will be a fry cook plucked from Hardee’s.
Ramalama
@JoyceH: Aren’t rich people obsessed with Other People’s Money. As in how to use it for their own benefit?
Matt McIrvin
@Gloria DryGarden: As it is, their shareholders seem to know they’ve still got a good thing. But I’m thinking about what happened to past industrial giants like General Electric or Hewlett-Packard when they decided to pursue shareholder value over any consideration of craft.
The hit Trump is making to international tourism and to the US’s image as a cultural leader has got to be hitting them hard–they make a lot of their money from people overseas, and their theme-parks department is likely more independent on international visitors to the US than most players in the leisure industry. Of course they are diversified with parks in Europe and Asia.
TBone
@Ramalama: oh yeah
plus, mid-level management is much worse than fry cook – at least the fryer produces something.
I read some bad things about NOAA’s future today. Again I say GAH!
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
AOC is better, and younger. Good place to find common ground.
That’s not very jackel like.
Suzanne
Good morning, y’all!
Finally got some good sleep last night. This last week has been crazy with work stuff…. basically nonstop made-up project-related “crises” which nonetheless demanded instant attention and distracted from the actual work that I have to do. I finally logged off at 7PM yesterday because I was hungry and exhausted. And next week, a whole group of us will be on-site for four days (starting at 6AM each day) of back-to-back meetings and workshops with almost 300 people, many of which I am leading. So I am anticipating losing my voice.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Good morning.
TBone
@prostratedragon: Just aired on TCM during Oscars celebration month. Unforgettable and very worthy. Mebbe should be required viewing IMO.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
And that’s the dilemma – The rain falls on the just and unjust.
If only Karma were laser-focused on those who most needed the Her services. Instead, most of the time, karmic consequences result in damage of a collateral nature.
Ref “decent folks”, that reminds me of that quote by Alan Watts (often misunderstood or taken out of context):
The Unspeakable World
no body no name
@Baud:
They can stop the checks. And we will shout DEI and trans and in a nano second we will lose. They know this. So they will do it. It will work. And while we are correct we can’t take the win on the issue that wins without inserting issues that lose even though we will win on them if we win on the big issue. This is why we suck.
Baud
@no body no name:
Ok.
Baud
Via reddit
JMG
@Matt McIrvin: It isn’t the employees Disney was thinking about when the shareholders voted. It was the customers. Gay people are an important to vital market sector for the company’s theme parks, cruises, movies, etc.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
No dilemma. It’s out of our hands. Republicans are in power. It’s their choice, not ours.
Nukular Biskits
@Gloria DryGarden:
When I was a young man, I thought different.
Now that I’m an old, it is sometimes more a nuisance than anything else … LOL.
TBone
The Inky:
András Schiff is canceling his U.S. concerts for the next season, including dates in May 2026 with the Philadelphia Orchestra. The Hungary-born British pianist and conductor said in a statement Wednesday that “due to the recent and unprecedented political changes in the United States, I feel morally obligated to withdraw from all engagements in the U.S. for the 2025-26 season.
Suzanne
@TBone:
I heard Kara Swisher make this point on one of the dozens of podcasts I listen to, can’t remember which. Essentially…. the government databases have a ton of information and it would be a competitive advantage for him.
I tried to share this link a few days ago but didn’t realize it wasn’t free. Anyway, DOGE is About Sex.
ETA: And if you’re confused by “negative prostitution”, congratulations for being normal. It was defined thusly (and is going around the manosphere):
TBone
@Baud: thanks for that heads up!
As well, I read today but have not confirmed, that the odious Tate brothers are going back to Romania to “clear their names.” Hahahaha!
Professor Bigfoot
@Spanky: As do we; and I’ve been mentally working through just how we go on when that marigold motherfucker manages to stop them.
Open thread, so, please, y’all have a word with your Higher Powers for Mrs. B’s oncologist, who is Indian and has to go to India because her mother is sick. She plans to be back in a month, but well, <gestures generally around>.
She’s a peach, she’s brilliant, and she has a LOT of patients in our small city; and I am worried AF for her.
ARoomWithAMoose
@TBone: https://consequence.net/2025/03/uk-subs-detained-denied-entry-us/ 3 of 4 band members bounced out at immigration controls flying in for some US tour dates.
jwz point out how hard it is for entertainers to perform internationally a few years ago https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2020/12/28.html
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
I think I started with one thought there and finished with another.
It is a dilemma in the sense we, being decent people, wish to see justice visited upon those who truly have no regards for the harm they inflict on others but can’t truly wish for that because it will harm others.
TBone
@Suzanne: I subscribed to the substack Cartoons Hate Her when you posted that! Then I got into trouble here while explaining that rape is about power and control rather than sex (about which I will say no more). Also, I believe it was Swisher’s article that Digby highlighted!
indycat32
@satby: I added a little, in honor of sweetie pie Blondie.
Ohio Mom
@JoyceH: I just googled because I don’t want to be a Lutnick and talk out of my ass and yes, Social Security is an independent agency and has nothing to do with the Commerce Department.
It’s a very small complaint but I am tired of having to learn trivia about the federal government — for example, I’d never heard of the House Energy and Commerce Committee before and now I know it’s one of the oldest standing committees and I’ve seen the list of programs they oversee, including Medicaid and Medicare, and a lot of other things I wouldn’t think of when I hear the words “energy” and “commerce.”
Maybe I’ll be less crabby after I eat breakfast.
TBone
@ARoomWithAMoose: reverse deportation makes us all suffer just like the inverse. Again I say Gah!
Raoul Paste
“ A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling, and complaining…”
Gee, that sounds like an orange person that I know.
Salty Sam
A quick bleg: could someone with better memory than mine please point the way to Adam Silverman’s suggestions and advice for participating in protest actions? I am ramping up my activity in that area.
Thanks!
TBone
@ARoomWithAMoose: my favorite quote
ARoomWithAMoose
@Salty Sam: google has it indexed, if you search on the terms
adam silverman on protest site:balloon-juice.com
https://balloon-juice.com/2019/12/16/peaceful-assembly-personal-security-reposted/
Nukular Biskits
US Rep. Bennie Thompson is the ONLY member of MS’s congressional delegation to hold town hall meetings.
MPB: Mississippians express concern about changes in Washington during town hall meeting
TBone
@Suzanne: just received email information:
Jackie
@Professor Bigfoot:
Wishing her mom healing health by being reunited with her daughter, and a safe and uneventful trip back home when she’s ready. <fingers crossed>
Salty Sam
@ARoomWithAMoose: THANKS!
Suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot: Oooooh, best wishes for Mrs. B’s doctor, and Mrs. B, as well!
Almost Retired
@Salty Sam: Also the 50501 website (www.fiftyfifty.one) has all sorts of info on safety, legality and protest protocol, including helpful links to the ACLU website. I’m looking forward to what I hope will be a massive protest in Pershing Square (Los Angeles) as part of the coordinated nationwide protests on April 5th.
I’m currently visiting my 91 year old mother in Kansas. Her elderly friends are hyper-pissed about the concept and execution of DOGE. If I had any mechanical or metal working skills, they’d pay me handsomely to fashion a device to attach pitchforks and torches to their walkers and scooters.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: AOC is not my savior either.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Baud
@zhena gogolia: I didn’t say she was Jesus.
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Jackie
I’m surprised it took so long… *Note the emphasis on “any Biden.” Such a childish, petty asshat!
rikyrah
The absolute gall and nerve of that muthaphucka.
If those SS checks don’t come,😠😠😠😠
Spanky
@Almost Retired:
Odds are good that it will come to these folks joining us in the streets after SS and Medicare are stripped away, and the optics of riot cops wading into a sea of gray haired ladies is going to be awesome.
(For certain values of “awesome” that aren’t pleasant. )
Matt McIrvin
@JMG: The cultural conservatives are convinced that going anti-gay will attract more business than it repels. But MAGA folks already go to Disney World anyway. The fraction who will actually boycott Disney over The Woke instead of just complaining about it are pretty small. Whereas if LGBT people actually don’t feel safe at the place they won’t go.
Gloria DryGarden
@Professor Bigfoot: I’ll talk to Her.. for mrs B, also
karensky
@NotMax: Thanks for that video. It was a treat. So funny.
different-church-lady
Let’s just say it: these are shitty people.
kalakal
@Suzanne: I cannot even begin to comprehend the mindset that can come up with “negative prostitution”
The English language has ( I am told) the largest vocabulary of any language. It’s still inadequate to describe how screwed up that ‘thinking’ is.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Honestly, it’s this kind of behavior that leads to tumbrels.
rikyrah
@Baud:
The 92% and 81% are resting.
It doesn’t mean that we are not paying attention.
It means that we aren’t going to be cannon fodder.
Once again…
He told them that they would have
COMPLETE IMMUNITY
COMPLETE IMMUNITY
They are free to kill us AT WILL
WITH NO THREAT OF REPERCUSSIONS😠😠😠
Add to that, we would be used as the bait to keep his stupid cult in line…
See..look how we took care of THOSE BLACK PEOPLE…
And, their stupid racist azzes would be satisfied by the distraction.
After all, it was never about the price of eggs
Gloria DryGarden
@Nukular Biskits: makes me wonder how that gets instilled in boys and men, to be wretchedly concerned about the size of your special parts. And how tied in that gets to identity and worth..how very oppressive.
an annoyance.. I’ll call my other consultant now and ask nosy questions. Lol
as a female, I call such an annoyance, too much of a good thing. But it’s daytime now. Oops.
Suzanne
@kalakal: I have a pretty strong impulse to “know the enemy”, so I read some of this stuff, and I frequently have the same reaction. Like, so many people are just so broken and unhappy in fundamental ways. I don’t fully grok how it happens, or if it’s correctable.
Nukular Biskits
@Gloria DryGarden:
Yeah. Save that discussion for Balloon Juice: After Dark.
LOL
JMG
@Matt McIrvin: On any given day, the percentage of LGBTQ folks at Disney World is probably higher than their percentage in the general population.
rikyrah
@Suzanne:
Negative Prostitution??
DA PHUQ😠😠
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Unreported at yesterday’s massive AOC/Sanders rally here in Denver were the preliminary speakers: two women, one heading the union that (in part and is the largest private sector union in the state) represents the striking (temporarily not) grocery workers, one heading the state education association, then one of the illegally “fired” FTC commissioners and Jimmy Williams Jr, General President of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.
He was great and a reminder of what organized labor brings to the table but also how fraught that relationship with a Dem party many view as too close to billionaires (I’m generalizing). All four pounded “the working class” theme which was followed by AOC and Sanders doing the exact same thing. None of them defined what they meant by “the working class” but it was clear by the representation up there, it’s a very broad definition that clearly resonated with the 30K people present.
Sanders said it was his largest rally and that included his presidential runs. Hyperbole notwithstanding, the line to get into the gated area (which meant passing thru metal detectors) was 1/2 mile long.
Gloria DryGarden
@Nukular Biskits: til tonight, then…
kalakal
@Suzanne: I had a “what colour is the sky on your planet?” moment when I read that stuff
Glory b
@rikyrah: As a fellow 92%er, yep, exactly.
Black and Jewish voters were the only Democratic group that voted in pretty much the same numbers and percentages as they always had previously. I don’t have a problem with those other folks doing the work this time.
Pittsburgh’s PBS station did a documentary a while back called “Wylie Avenue Days,” about Pittsburgh’s biggest black neighborhood before desegregation. It wasn’t half bad…
https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-120-31qfv097
lowtechcyclist
@Gloria DryGarden:
Reminds me of this cigarette commercial from back in the day:
“It’s not how long you make it, it’s how you make it long.”
Gloria DryGarden
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I posted YouTube links from Denver. One was around 1.5 hrs long, might have your opening speakers. The Greeley opening speakers were quite moving- seen on YouTube.
i heard 34k folks came out for it here. Yay
Glory b
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: We know what Sanders has always meant by “working class.”
After Hillary lost, he was bemoaning her inability to reach “his people.” Sunce black people overwhelmingly voted for her, and since he (and many other white people) failed to note that this was the first election after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, we know who he was talking about and it’s not us.
MagdaInBlack
@Suzanne: I have been listening to Kara Swisher on several different podcasts. I did catch the bit about why he wants all the information.
I had not glommed on to DOGE being all about sex, but it does fit their warped thinking.
I also did hear her suggest the techbros are all into AI because they want to reproduce..”they want to create life.”
Such a bunch of weirdos. Who da f knows what they want. I suspect they don’t even really know.
Baud
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
That’s depressing. You make it sound like the focus won’t be on Trump/Musk.
lowtechcyclist
@Gloria DryGarden:
“Strange women lying on their backs in ponds, handing over swords – that’s no basis for a system of government.” – Dennis the Peasant
Ramalama
@ARoomWithAMoose: Everybody getting kicked out, and locking down media (trying to) … trump wants to make America East Germany again.
Maybe North Korea.
zhena gogolia
@Glory b: He’s fucking planning to run for president. Mark my words.
Glory b
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: DI’d they mention anything about why most all the heads of the biggest unions endorsed Trump?
TBone
@TBone: mom knew what she was up to her whole life. Even in her worst dementia. Taught a lot of children of color and otherwise disadvantaged to read (even between the lines). Variation on a theme music:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pmc5H6zAi6M
Baud
@Glory b:
Huh? Cite? It’s union members that are a problem, but most leaders are on our side.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Baud:
Sanders mentioned both by name frequently talking about “stopping Trumpism”.
Both AOC/Sanders spoke out forcefully against Edolph’s role at the moment. It’s not as if names weren’t mentioned.
The best little piece came from AOC referencing their rally earlier in the day in Greeley where Gabe Evans squeaked out a win over the incumbent, first-termer (D):
“I was just at Gabe Evans’ district earlier today, and 11,000 of his constituents would like a word with him,”
His office did respond with the usual talking points while also referencing oil and gas production which, aside from the largest meat packing places in the US, is another aspect of good ole Weld Country.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: He is of course. And those bleating about Biden’s age will be mum. He is attempting a hostile takeover of the Democratic party
You and I are in the minority on this blog where BS and AOC are concerned.
lowtechcyclist
@SFAW:
And you can’t spell ‘dogie’ without ‘doge.’
I want to see them driven from the government with the musical accompaniment:
Yippi-ki-yi-yo, get along, little DOGiEs, it’s your misfortune and none of my own…
Gloria DryGarden
OT
just to feel good, 2 min video
Returning Astronauts arrive in Houston, happy greetings and hugs
Baud
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Good. Let’s hope the people attending keep the same focus.
Matt McIrvin
@JMG: There’s a fanatic market segment of “Christians” (you know, the people who make a big deal about it in a way that implies they’re the only Christians) who will eat up media product that specifically caters to them, but there’s a cap on it. Disney is playing on a bigger scale than the Creation Museum and the God’s Not Dead series.
I think Trump’s election convinced these people that they have the upper hand and can take the cultural mainstream by force. They definitely can force some organizations who are dependent on federal money or regulations, or think they are too weak to fight off harassment from the Trump administration, to do their bidding. So if Trump announced he would do everything in his power to shut down Disney unless they knuckle under, they might do it. But Trump probably doesn’t care in this case.
Spanky
@MagdaInBlack:
I suspect it’s not about sex per se, but a group of emotionally stunted boys stuck at puberty managed (as they seem to do) to find each other. Hence “Big Balls” and Company.
Just like real pre-teens, the world is all about them and they have no care who they hurt.
TBone
Comment from elsewhere (in the nature of a “heads up!”)
“Trump ramps ups retribution campaign against legal community
President ordered attorney general to refer partisan lawsuits to White House and recommend sanctions against firms.”
And why wouldn’t he, he got 40 million in free legal representation from Paul Weiss law firm. Don’t appease fucking Nazis. Someone with that last name should understand that.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/22/trump-ramps-ups-retribution-campaign-against-legal-community
Josie
@zhena gogolia:
Oh good grief. I hope you are wrong. We don’t need him screwing things up again.
Gloria DryGarden
@lowtechcyclist: brilliant! I am charmed..
Spanky
@Spanky: And if one wanted to muse a little farther, one could imply that Elon has gathered a bunch of little boys around him who worship him. Who knows what he’s up to?
Baud
I’m not going to spend any time worrying about 2028.
lowtechcyclist
@no body no name:
OK, I’ll just stay home, sit on my hands, and stay out of your way.
Gloria DryGarden
@lowtechcyclist: oh my gosh, roaring with laughter. Thank you.
Quiltingfool
@rikyrah: I read lots of comments on the Reddit thread Baud linked.
I agree with the posters. It’s time for white folks to get on the front lines. It’s time for white folks to be the shield to protect the ones who have, for many years, put their bodies and lives on the line to fight for freedom; not just for black people, but for ALL of us.
It’s time for white people to be not just the shield, but the sword, too. Now the crappy thing about this is the white protests are happening now because white people’s personal “oxen are being gored,” not because of justice and level playing ground for everyone. But, we white folks have privilege and we get outraged when our privilege is threatened, so if that’s what it takes to get shit straightened out, so mote it be.
If white people outrage saves the day, great. But a caution – if it works, we cannot revert to ignoring or dismissing black people voices. I’m afraid of that. We must stand strong on keeping everyone on the bus, no one thrown underneath the bus.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: And in real life. I had to hear his praises sung all through lunch yesterday. It wasn’t worth arguing.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@zhena gogolia:
Well, somebody at the rally up front yelled out something like that and he specifically said no, that wasn’t his role anymore. I’m sure somebody can pull the specific interaction from the linked videos. I’m not saying he will or won’t, just reporting what happened.
I’m no Sanders fan. I’ve been here forever so have followed all the permutations of how he’s viewed by a lot of people here.
AOC gave a shout out to all the CO (D) Feds including Bennett and Hick during her remarks, Sanders did not.
u
@TBone: I confess that after almost three years of this hype, I do not understand the point of “AI training”. Humans do not develop intelligence by gobbling billions of bytes of random data. Humans develop intelligence by learning rules of logic, starting with simple ones and deducing more complex ones — building a scaffolding of logic that way. Humans can use that logic to read and analyze data — but gobbling data with no logic will do nothing to develop intelligence. Whatever “AI” companies think that they are doing with their “training”, it is not the development of intelligence. It might just be data theft.
schrodingers_cat
@Josie: He is giving speeches in Iowa. You do the math.
Spanky
Bernie is a very flawed ally, but at least he’s our ally. I appreciate him stirring up the right kind of shit.
lowtechcyclist
@Professor Bigfoot:
I have lifted her up in my prayers. May she have safe traveling in both directions.
Baud
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Damn. And he’s in the Senate with them.
IMHO AOC > Sanders. And she has a future ahead of her. We’ll see how it all shakes out.
u
@Spanky: I would amend that to say “just like real pre-teens WHO HAVE NEVER LEARNED ETHICS OR MORALITY”. Plenty of kids learn right and wrong when they’re little. Not these assholes, though.
JMG
The whole dynamic has changed. AOC is the Democratic Party leader hauling Sanders around as a sign of unity. Bernie being the headliner is kind of like that concert where Springsteen opened for Bonnie Raitt. He is akin to a nostalgia act at this point.
oldgold
In the past I have been less than enamored with Sanders; however, at this time, I am in full support of him. I admire the fight in him.
schrodingers_cat
@JMG: Nostalgia for what exactly? Bringing us the Reign of Error 1.0?
Quiltingfool
@MagdaInBlack:
Ah, there it is. Women can create life. A power men cannot have. Maybe why women must be oppressed?
WereBear
Civil War I saw Ds and Rs split: Abolition. 4 parties.
“Civil War II: Electric Booglaloo” is duplicating conditions. Confederacy built by 1% on wage theft for all, by various means.
Declared war because Northern Unionists were getting converts. Awakening class consciousness. Had to close borders.
(I will say Bluesky challenges me to put it with concision.) Sharing here.
Suzanne
@Spanky: The more nuanced take is, “Support for DOGE is largely about an impulse to financially control women and change the dynamics of the ‘sexual marketplace'”. (One of the grossest terms ever devised, but it does get at a real phenomenon.)
So: patriarchy bullshit, that’s why. It’s exhausting. But we soldier on.
Captain C
@satby: If Ma Lutnick’s check was actually late:
“Howard?!? Where’s my check??? You incompetent, disappointing son, what did you do with my check??!?”
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: White people are addicted to him. Don’t ask me why.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: He is the patron saint of white grievance, who uses leftie talking points.
Glory b
@schrodingers_cat: Yep, I’m giving LOTS of side eye at these folks.
Note that the minority leaders in the House and Senate are black and Jewish.
Nobody stops to note that the DSA/Justice Dems/Sunshine Dems are sooooo overwhelmingly white?
Tenar Arha
@NotMax: 😎 thanks
Baud
Whether I like people or not is irrelevant. I don’t like Liz Cheney, but she had the right message and I wish voters had listened to it.
Quiltingfool
@zhena gogolia: Not me. Bernie’s all about white guys. He’ll use women, but he doesn’t respect them.
Women know the men who truly respects them, and Bernie ain’t in that club.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
One final thing from my notes and this is a Sanders quote:
“People in this country have fought and died to create a democratic society and we’re not gonna let Trump take it away.”
He then setup an analogy about addiction and said the greatest addiction afflicting this country is the greed of oligarchs.
He made a couple of references to Trump/Putin. Much of the second half of the speech trotted out most issues Sanders has been promoting for years so in that sense, it was essentially a stump speech.
schrodingers_cat
@Glory b: They will point at the Squad and take it as an affront when you point out how overwhelmingly white BS and his “movement” is.
Baud
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Thanks for reporting. I didn’t listen/watch and don’t plan to since I’m already in the trenches fighting the oligarchs and fascists, but I appreciate the summary.
zhena gogolia
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: No, the greatest addiction afflicting this country is white supremacy.
I believe this with my entire soul and body.
zhena gogolia
@Quiltingfool: I hope more white women get that message. (Having listened to two of them laud him yesterday.)
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I agree. It’s what immunizes the oligarchs.
Misogyny is a powerful force too.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I agree that she missed the part of your comment that shows you’re a good person and that you aren’t willing to sacrifice older people in service of some other goal.
It’s quite possible that Jackie saw red when she read your first line, and never got to the second line.
Seems to me that that would be an entirely different motivation than a desire to indulge in outrage.
MagdaInBlack
@Quiltingfool: Maybe yes. Control.
Eta: as Suzanne said at 161: patriarchy
Dorothy A. Winsor
You could not put Trump and his team in a novel because your editor would say these characters are too unbelievable. Tone them down.
zhena gogolia
I will, however, listen to Chris Murphy, even if he’s asking me for money:
WereBear
@satby: He is implying that complainers ARE fraudsters.
Miss Bianca
@JoyceH: I find myself making Kay’s point repeatedly these days: that a huge amount of the damage in this world comes from people either not knowing what their actual jobs entail, or simply ignoring what their actual jobs entail because they’d rather be doing something else.
In other words, I find myself wanting to scream at a lot of people lately: Just stay in your lane!
Ohio Mom
@zhena gogolia: I like AOC where she is, in a safe seat in the House. Making good noises. Any other ambitions, she’s going to be a modern day Icarus, see Katie Porter.
I don’t get why, after this country’s previous experience, anyone thinks a woman of color is going to be a savior.
danielx
@Suzanne:
What the actual fuck?
I just got up and I’m already exhausted just thinking about the mental gymnastics this asshole went through to come up with this drivel.
WereBear
@satby: Shared on my social media. So glad to do so!
Baud
@danielx:
He discovered the Baud! 20XX! proposal to pay women not to have sex with skeezy right wing douchebags.
Miss Bianca
@Suzanne: Jesus wept.
ETA: If they hate women so goddamn much, if they’re such manly he-men, why do they whine so incessantly about not getting any? Jesus Christ, dudes, stick a bottle on your dicks and jack off into it and just fucking SHUT UP about what you think women “owe” you. We don’t owe you shit.
Josie
@zhena gogolia:
I haven’t always known this, probably due to white privilege. I do, however, believe it now after seeing how our country has stumbled and fallen. I hope it is not the strongest belief and that voters are able to beat it back.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: My normie friend now has an ironclad no-messing-around-with-MAGA rule.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Miss Bianca: They know so little of how government works that they’re not capable of doing their supposed job. Dunning-Kruger, I guess.
zhena gogolia
@Josie: I hope we white people wake the fuck up. That is my fervent prayer. (Along with some other, not very Christian prayers.)
TBone
@Quiltingfool: I am getting closer to being able to concentrate on my quilt request soon. I had an idea about how to show you the colors I need. If I send color samples from the local paint store, would that suffice?
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Once I’m president, she can fill out a Form 69 to claim her payment.
zhena gogolia
@Quiltingfool: I am enjoying my Patron every day!
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
For some things, Ba’al is the better choice.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: I’ll let her know!
zhena gogolia
@Baud: True. Is that the same as Beelzebub?
Ooh, it is!
Another Scott
Meanwhile, in Wisconsin… WPR.org (from 3/19):
Higher turnout is good for democracy. They want to win this, and they’re doing everything they can (even arguing against their precious Easier Voting is Voter Fraud nonsense). We cannot be complacent. We have to work harder to win it. We need every gettable vote.
(47 endorsed the MAGAt in the race, as we knew he would. Let’s do our best to give him a big Loooooser stamp come April 2.)
Forward!!
Best wishes,
Scott.
MagdaInBlack
@Miss Bianca: Pretty obvious you and I will need to be sent off to the “Patriarchy Re-Education” camps.
Doug R
@ColoradoGuy:
Billionaires don’t even care about their employees and consider most of them disposable-look at the bullshit with Amazon and the COVID restriction violations and horrific racism at Tesla.
danielx
@Baud:
I knew there was an explanation. Now everything falls into place.
zhena gogolia
Idle thought: I’ve always wondered who could play Raskolnikov in a non-Russian production of Crime and Punishment. Here is how he is described:
It just hit me — Timothée Chalamet!
TBone
@MagdaInBlack: make that handbasket bigger so I can come along and give some reeducation right back.
TBone
P.S. Edna May Oliver is schooling the men on TCM right now. Such a pleasure to watch and see how it was done in the past.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_on_a_Honeymoon
Miss Bianca
@Glory b:
Yeah, right? White people always, ALWAYS make “economic anxiety” their excuse for not voting for Democrats. And when people like Sanders just pound away at that shit, it just makes me go cross-eyed.
Just *why* is the white “working class” male vote apparently so much more important than anyone else’s?
Captain C
@Baud: You’re an amateur. Many women would likely pay to ensure that they wouldn’t have to ever sleep with or otherwise deal with douchebags. Think of all the money you could make from this (and that I could skim from as your Douchebag Invisiblity Czar King).
eta: Mind you, your proposal is probably more ethical, but much less lucrative.
bluefoot
@rikyrah:
Amen, sister. All the POC I know are trying to figure out how to survive, and for the white people in the room, I mean that literally. Same with the trans folks I know. Those who can, are trying to find ways to leave because they know they’re first.
It also doesn’t mean we’re not working against fascism, but we’re not doing it out in the open.
Baud
@Miss Bianca:
It’s important because their vote is killing us and this country. If Sanders could actually reach them and turn them against Republicans, he’d be a hero. But he hasn’t, and he blames other people for the failure.
The Audacity of Krope
Willful misunderstanding of laws and orders followed by malicious over-compliance is a favored MAGAt approach to spread frustration against authorities and generalized misinformation.
Josie
@zhena gogolia:
I have the same rule. I tried online dating for a while and quit when it became obvious that the percentage of Maga men on the sites was quite high. Ugh!
Miss Bianca
@Baud:
Dude was really born outside his proper time. His brand of White Herrenvolk Socialism-speak would have gone down a treat in the 1930s.
Josie
@bluefoot:
I saw Josh Johnson talk about survival. He made the point that the key to survival in bad times was community rather than money. The audience applauded loudly.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … Phys.org:
(Emphasis added.)
I guess we’re doomed as a thoughtful, empathetic, forward-looking species then, huh.
:-/
Seriously, it does make me wonder if there’s some old lizard-brained reproductive success machination going on that feeds bullying of those who refuse to play the male dominance == success in life game. Peacocks view ravens as deadly unfair competition??
I really like that folks are working on understanding things like this. We’re too constrained by the old ways of thinking and need to understand the consequences and the benefits of alternatives. The richness of nature has a lot to teach us still, if we’re willing to learn.
Best wishes,
Scott.
sentient ai from the future
-yawn-
-looks at thread-
so, recurrent transphobic concern troll and a bunch of regulars pissing on their own allies because of prior perceived slights
par for the course i guess.
i guess we’re gonna do this whole “fascism” thing then, huh? a lot of you cant get out of your own fucking way.
assholes.
eclare
@Miss Bianca:
Sanders lost me for good in 2016 when he complained about Southern Democrats not voting for him, saying those votes shouldn’t count because we’re more conservative.
Bye!
jlowe
Good for AOC. She’ll be the face of Climate Leviathan when it comes to ascendency (search those terms to find the book, which is well worth reading even if it requires wading through some Marxist philosophical sludge). Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, needs to sink into the irrelevance of old age and all of his little minions need to just go off and f*&k themselves. Speaking as someone with personal experience in being elderly.
The Audacity of Krope
I ran into my first red hat on a dating app in years. On the gay dating sites, most of them have been in hiding for a while, or at least not advertising their depravity.
Much more common for folk to express that MAGAtry is an uncrossable red line, like an overly long tie.
cmorenc
@Matt McIrvin: but Disney’s investors would never direct the creative animation/storytelling side to fold up, because the real estate the Disney parks and resorts are on would be much less valuable without the positive feedback generated by the creative side. It would only make sense if MAGA succeeded in poisoning the public attraction to Disneys creative side and they decided to liquidate the parks because of massive operating losses and poor attendance.
NotMax
@TBone
Any of her Miss Withers outings are a hoot, even such a by the numbers effort.
A favorite scene from The Penguin Pool Murder.
Young, gum-cracking female receptionist: Well, it ain’t likely a woman would be calling me “baby,” is it?
Miss Withers: No, not as far downtown as this.
;)
MagdaInBlack
@Captain C: So a nice little protection plan. Can you provide something like the Trunk Monkey?
https://youtu.be/wGwI6gpipbM?si=4OoX7kXfObLOO1Js
Miss Bianca
@sentient ai from the future: Why don’t you fuck off back to the future, then, where apparently everything is wonderful for you.
MagdaInBlack
@sentient ai from the future: Good morning! You seem like you could use a bong hit…
….or 2.
The Audacity of Krope
One good choice does not make it so. Capitalism is an opposing force to democracy and is what brought us to the point where billionaire control matters more to democracy than the will of voters who disagree with the oligarchs, regardless of who actually wins democratic elections.
zhena gogolia
Kitty Dukakis, RIP.
Captain C
@MagdaInBlack: Oh, yes. It’ll be one of the best-selling plans.
MinuteMan
Now if we could get leading Dems to undergo the same transformation.
The Audacity of Krope
Separate issues. And all are important. They’re the ones obsessing over trans folk and (denying) minority rights. Pushing back on abuse of minorites by the government does not require ignoring kitchen table issues except according to very same abuser logic pushed on Fox every day.
TBone
@NotMax: I adore the pioneering feminist spirit in her! She’s always been a favorite in everything I’ve seen of hers. Also too though, so many “character actors” had so much talent beyond the roles they were allowed…
Saturday mornings are always better with Edna!
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Most of the diehard Bernie ‘bros” I know IRL are white women in their sixties.
TBone
Poor Elno can’t catch a break
Tesla Is Missing $1.4 Billion On Its Balance Sheet
TBone
I heart Lewis
Only Lewis Black Can ‘Report’ On Airline Travel Today
Baud
@The Audacity of Krope:
Please google “tongue in cheek.”
The Audacity of Krope
@Baud: What? I was triggered.
barbequebob
” a fraudster makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling, complaining..”
That describes Donald Trump prett well, and he sure is a fraud.
WaterGirl
never mind.
Kristine
@satby: Just saw it. Kicked in a little. I’m glad the surgery can proceed.
WereBear
@Quiltingfool: I imagine a delusion where they are so inadequate to the task of being a person they have to eliminate a LOT of people to keep that feeling of being superior…
sab
@schrodingers_cat: The Bernie bros I know are white gay men in their sixties.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
@sab:
Obviously the problem lies with sexagenarians.
Kristine
@Professor Bigfoot: Fingers crossed, best wishes, and everything, You must be so worried.
WereBear
@Another Scott: It’s environmentally determined. Socialized in, and when circumstances change so do the favored genes.
All these jerks moaning about not being able to reproduce. And I’m GLAD.
That’s a functioning system, you ask me.
Baud
Readership capture
I'm Not Rappaport
@no body no name:
@no body no name:
We will have to disagree there.
The rest of us don’t “suck”.
Lutnick, Dudek, Musk and Trump do.
Incessantly.
The Audacity of Krope
Much like a used Tesla…
Baud
If you can stomach the article, the children are amazing.
frosty
To quote Mona Lisa Vito: “What a fucking nightmare!”
(At least it is for this introvert)
RaflW
“Let’s run government like a business!” Unfortunately, it’s modeled after payday loansharks charging strapped people 24% interest – if they’re ‘lucky’.
:/
sentient ai from the future
@Baud:
on friday the stock price gained some juice, but earlier in the week there were a couple articles about how some firms shorting the stock earlier lost their shirts, because they didnt time the market right to benefit from the ongoing crash.
this leads me to think that we are seeing a “short squeeze” kind of effect already, like we did with DJT stock, where all the options holders are falling over themselves to pick up undervalued stock in order to sell/exercise options, and this is actually pushing up the price.
which in turn means that early in the week (options contracts expire at close of business friday) is going to be more likely to show the actual decline in stock price.
Baud
@sentient ai from the future:
I get sad whenever the stock rises, but I understand it’s a long game.
Sister Golden Bear
@TBone: While Elongate may be a thing, it’s far more likely that Musk is using IVF to select the sex of his mini me-s. The odds that almost all of his kids were assigned male at birth without it are about 3%. I’m sure that’s why he had such an extreme reaction when one his daughter came out as trans.
The Audacity of Krope
I’m raising some stocks right now…oh, different kind of stocks.
sentient ai from the future
im hesitant to call this “good news” exactly, but if the shitbird is disclaiming his responsibility and underbussing lil marco it seems like he knows it’s got the potential to do real damage.
https://bsky.app/profile/annabower.bsky.social/post/3lkwh2hr7kk2o
Baud
@sentient ai from the future:
The DC Circuit argument in that case is Monday and he drew a good panel. So really weird that he’s walking away from it.
Suzanne
@Sister Golden Bear: If you listen to the episode of Know Your Enemy that’s about Elmo (just came out this week)….. they get into his strong preference for boy children. Also, Elmo’s first child died of SIDS and there appears to be some evidence that he wants to use IVF to select what he thinks will be the strongest embryos. It is incredibly fucked-up.
Sure Lurkalot
20 years ago, another white man said it IMHO far more effectively and didn’t reach them either.
Both speak a truth, but as so many have expressed and Baud encapsulated above, the truth they don’t say is that white skin and white identity is more important than any other distinction.
WTFGhost
@Baud: I feel the same kind of twisted feeling, though. I will be glad to be wrong if all the blood is behind quiet hospital and home walls, where people die from lack of medical care and hope, without some obvious T-crisis.
@Shalimar: Seriously. This is almost as bad as Saddam Hussein promising “the mother of all battles”.
@robtrim: She’s still happy to shoot puppies. Who coulda known?
@Gloria DryGarden: Well, sometimes, you do, but you call them a “bodyguard” and pay them accordingly :-), I kid. You’re right, though – make a partner happy, they’ll find you sexy. I spent some time pleasuring my partners manually, and they started to find my hands sexy.
@Gloria DryGarden: “what’ll we tell our friends when they say ‘eew bi-gots!,’ wake up a little susie…”
frosty
@u: Read Krugman’s latest post. It’s a conversation with an economist who’s also a technology geek and is the best explanation of what “AI” is that I’ve seen. It also describes the process of training with large amounts of data and might answer your questions.
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/how-should-we-think-about-the-economics?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=277517&post_id=159582550&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=3dg3d&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Melancholy Jaques
I started to write comments to earlier comments, but realized I’ve arrived too late for them to be worthwhile.
I am very concerned about social security checks because so many people are dependent on them. On a personal note, I am also anxious about my recent application to enroll in Medicare B. It just made me think about all the people who are just now applying for their social security who may have to wait for . . . who knows how long?
WaterGirl
@I’m Not Rappaport: I want to let you know that WordPress does not like apostrophe’s in nyms, so all comments posted with an apostrophe have to be manually approved. Every time.
There is a fix to that: Fix Nyms with Apostrophes
Basically you replace the apostrophe with a symbol that LOOKS like an apostrophe, but happily WordPress doesn’t have an issue with it.
WaterGirl
@Melancholy Jaques: It is depressing.
These are terrible people doing evil things. So much stress and uncertainty, in an already stressful and uncertain time.
Fuck these people.
WaterGirl
@Baud: He drew a good panel from whose perspective?
Baud
@WaterGirl:
From his.
WaterGirl
@Professor Bigfoot:
These people are evil and awful, and this has to be adding an unimaginable amount of stress to an already stressful time.
The actual demons are demonizing the good people.
Up is down.
Melancholy Jaques
@Baud:
I don’t think I am a Sanders hater, but I am a Sanders can’t wait till he goes away. Sanders’s rhetoric seems more intended to turn people against the Democratic Party. From what I’ve read & heard from Sanders supporters – admittedly anecdotal – that is the primary impact he has on the electorate at large. And not just in the critical, history changing 2016 campaign.
Lobo
@oldgold: For all the criticism of Bernie and AOC they showed up. In regard to Colorado, where were Bennet and Hick. Big AOC supporter and mixed on Bernie. I give credit to Bernie. He had the best outreach to Latinos. I remember it is always an and with the good being much better than the bad. Like our relatives.
zhena gogolia
@Melancholy Jaques: Absolutely right.
Baud
@Melancholy Jaques:
IMHO the problem of people waiting for some future perfect Democratic coalition before they fight the right is one that goes beyond Bernie people.
ETA: But based on what I see online (always suspect), I don’t disagree with you. People seem more inspired to dislike Dems than fight oligarchs.
Lobo
@bluefoot: This!
The Audacity of Krope
@Melancholy Jaques: Other Democratic officials are turning me away from the party. I was never with them economically. I supported them because of social issues but several obvious strains of bigotry are emerging among top Democrats.
Moving closer to Bernie’s economic ideas wouldn’t fix this either. While I like some of Bernie’s economic ideas and think they could use some collective thought and effort to make them into workable plans, I’m not voting for any version of Democrats who cave to the Republicans on trans issues or immigration or colonialist genocide, or trade-by-military-protection-racket.
Democrats are running back to white Christian supremacy without any help from Bernie Sanders.
People first.
Steve in the ATL
@Baud:
This is correct.
Glory b
@The Audacity of Krope: Who is caving?
Jackie
Who didn’t understand this is the goal? Project 2025 stated it plainly.
Professor Bigfoot
@Jackie:
@Suzanne:
@Gloria DryGarden:
@lowtechcyclist:
@Kristine:
Thank you so much. Mrs. B has completed her chemo/radiation treatments, but is still on anti-cancer drugs and “Doc V” has been watching closely for any other cancers that might spring up.
I’m worried for personal reasons, obviously, but as an American I am absolutely fucking enraged.
Another Scott
@Baud:
I’ll be charitable and blame bad editing rather than a fundamental misunderstanding of supply and demand, there…
Anyone who bought a Tesla with the expectation of knowing what its value would be as a trade-in or resale, after Melon suddenly dropped prices at the end of 2023, wasn’t paying attention. Used Tesla prices peaked in the summer of 2022 and have steadily fallen since then (from February 2024).
When I was looking at what might make sense to replace my 2004 VW Jetta TDI Wagon a couple of years ago I looked at Teslas at Carvana in Richmond. My recollection is that nothing was under $40k. Now they start at $19k.
Caveat emptor, man!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Glory b
@Steve in the ATL: Interesting, Teamsters rank & file endorsed Biden over Trump, bur Trump o er Harris.
WTFGhost
@Matt McIrvin: If the investors were ready to tell them that, there’d be no point in
@TBone: Now, now: only total losers like Trump keep dumping fries their entire fast food career. Now, now, don’t laugh at Trump – it is what it is. He met his match flipping burgers, and went back to dumping timed fries and sprinkling salt, which gets swift customer feedback, so even he could figure it out.
Just thank god no one tried to get him to assemble burgers – he’d have swallowed part of his designer silk tie (he pays designer prices for plain red, because he doesn’t know better) while trying to gobble a Big Mac, drooling all over the station, choking to death, while a manager who didn’t recognize him screamed at him to clean the drool off the station, that’s a LIABILITY issue, unlike an employee dying at your feet.
@Baud: Sometimes, politics deserves no countenance, just a loud farting noise we all hope was a raspberry.
@Nukular Biskits: Alas, America is now signified by “It raineth on the just;
“And also on the unjust fella.
“But mostly on the just because
“The unjust steals the just’s umbrella.”
@TBone: Oh, no. He wants to have data to hand to Trump to help him target his political enemies – I’m sure he’ll also use it for competitive advantage. It’s got nothing to do with AI – it’s all dull data that you could buy from a databroker, *except for the actual payments information*. It’s unlawful for Trump to do that, but not if Leon Trotsky, I mean, Elon Musk, has stolen the data, without criminal or civil penalty.
@Sure Lurkalot: Europe, way ahead of us on the Socialism Doom Train, should be having these problems in such grand abundance, I can’t believe we haven’t studied their cultures to find a surprising solution.
Citizen Alan
@Ramalama: that’s different. They went after Kamala over the McDonald’s story because they denied she worked there and claimed that it was a lie she came up with in order to paint herself as part of the working class.
emjayay
WORST COMMENT SYSTEM ON THE INTERNET.
As my Calculus prof Brother Dominick used to say “Whywhywhywhywhy?”
No up/down votes. Responses to comments show up 100 miles south of the comment being addressed.
Whywhywhywhywhy?
Ksmiami
@Baud: last week was a sugar rush. Long term, Tesla Will bottom out around 30 /share. BYD will eat their lunch internationally and MAGA wants large trucks. It’s basically a Meme stock.
Professor Bigfoot
@Suzanne: These motherfuckers sincerely believe that women don’t work, that Black people don’t work, that nobody fucking wants to work except them, the poor, put-upon, hard-working, tax-paying pillar of the community, The White Man.
I am so fucking sick of these assholes.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@Melancholy Jaques: As far as I’m concerned about Bernie Sanders, this is the kind of people that he caters to:
And it’s because of stupid shit like that that I can no longer call myself a progressive. The amount of disrespect these people have for black people like me is absurd.
Almost Retired
@Citizen Alan: Off topic, but IIRC you work for the ED California Fed ct in Fresno? A couple friends and colleagues of mine were on a trial team (carpetbagging from Los Angeles) who got a $30 million dollar verdict in a police shooting case last week – the largest in Fresno history. Judge Sherrif’s courtroom. Were you involved? I don’t know the lead attorney (Dale) except from his billboards and Facebook pop up ads, but 2nd and 3rd chairs are old friends. Way to go Fresno jury pool!!!
Another Scott
@emjayay: Tradition! (7:35)
HTH!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Captain C
@Professor Bigfoot:
And then they do everything they can to get out of working and avoid paying taxes.
The Audacity of Krope
@Glory b: Half the party pre-caved on human rights in Palestine and get no latitude from me on this issue after last November. None.
Fetterman has been taking the lead on this in addition to encouraging stochastic terrorism against University protestors, this also provides material argumentative support for the administrations aggressive deportation policy. Newsom is out there making anti-trans mouth sounds. Obama and Biden both cracked down on immigration for street cred with the bigots, that emphatically did not work.
And let’s not forget the Democrats overturning their own democratically conducted primary over fucking optics by suddenly embracing Republicans’ view of Biden’s mental state.
Democrats are a fucking shambles right now. There are more of them in office I do not support than support. Even people I once viewed as personal heroes, like Obama and Warren, have lost all away with me.
Miki
@Baud: He can’t walk away from it. His actual fucking signature appears in the Federal Register.
Sister Golden Bear
@Another Scott: I’m a “buy it and drive it into the ground” kind of owner and back when I bought my Tesla 3 in 2001 there weren’t many EV alternatives in my price range. (Leaf had battery longevity issues, Chevy had announced they were discontinuing the Bolt.)
It’s all well and good for people (not you) to scold me and tell me to sell my Tesla but the reality is that I’d barely break even after paying off the loan — and being unable to work due to my shoulder problems means no one’s gonna give me a car loan to get a replacement. I’m already resigning myself to getting hit with a steep auto insurance increase, and if insurers decided to put Teslas on their “uninsurable” list, I’m fucked. (Currently, it’s just one company that’s cancelling policies for Wankpanzers, but…)
Trust me, no matter how much you hate Musk, folks like me who bought Teslas a few years ago (eco-conscious liberals) hate him far, far more. Yeah, I knew he was Phony Stark when I bought, but lots of tech billionaires are assholes and I wanted to do something to help the environment.
WTFGhost
@zhena gogolia: So, Lisa Murkowski finally figured out Trump was a horrible person for America, WHEN?
After he’d separated families, with no mechanism for eventual re-uniting? (“Reunification” didn’t sound right; wrong phase of the moonie.)
After he’d tried a Muslim Ban?
After he colluded with Russia?
After his son and son-in-law took a meeting, purportedly for an intelligence operation in the US, which might have actually been the basis for an intelligence op in the US?
After he met with Putin and had the notes destroyed?
After he tried to trump up charges against Hunter Biden?
After he killed some 400,000 Americans during Covid-19?
After he tried to overthrow a free and fair election?
After he took home SCIF only documents, and left them in haphazard locations (including a bathroom, which some numbnuts said “has a lock on the door” – yeah, on the INSIDE, moron!)
After he refused to take even as much responsibility as to say “it looks bad, but I’ll be acquitted. I did nothing wrong,”?
When, Lisa? When was it, you finally had “all you can stand, and (ya) can’t stands no more!” and pulled out the spinach can, huh?
Because you’d get PRIMARIED. That’s what gets the spinach can out! Your *personal* grievance. (spits as if a bad taste is in his mouth – conveniently, I’m using my new Medical Marijuana Card, which I believe is, in itself, not intoxicating, and, it’s also kind of laminated. So I’ll switch to my usual concentrates instead).
ETA: pulled a comment to another poster out, made it separate, since this first bit is a mountain to go through.
WTFGhost
@Jackie: I hear you, friend. I once made a joke about how, it would be great if civil rights violations targeted lawyers first, because they’d fight back. Well – a few lawyers I loved let me have it. And they were right! But you can see, I was making a joke, like, “if you want to be Mr. Dictator, first beat up Heracles!” but Heracles is now 85 years old, trying to spread rumors he died heroically, and is getting tired of dictators coming to fight him.
Baud was making a similar joke – but yeah. I hear you.
Miki
@frosty: Thanks for highlighting this here – it’s a really good explainer of a lot of things.
Citizen Alan
@Matt McIrvin: everyone who is going to boycott Disney over gay stuff, started doing so almost forty years ago. My last year teaching before I left to go to law school.I was supposed to take the kids on the biannual band trip. The parents were adamant that we not go to disney world in florida because “they support the gays.”
So we took the kids to busch gardens instead. Because a theme park/zoo build around a gigantic brewery is so much better for kids than a theme park.Where they might possibly see two men holding hands.
Steve in the ATL
@Glory b:
Another Scott
@Sister Golden Bear: Understood, and I get where you’re coming from. Buying a car is never an “investment”, but one usually expects them to retain some value.
My VW was too old to be part of the Dieselgate recall, but of course it still had its resale value destroyed. The dealer I bought it from around 19 years earlier offered me $100 for it.
:-/
(I sold it to Carmax for $700, just to get it out of my hair. The guy who bought it at their auction was overjoyed to get it.)
I’m still greatly enjoying my 2023 Kia Niro PHEV. It’s a nearly perfect commuter for me – it almost never runs the engine (I charge it with 120V in the driveway every night or two (depending on the season)). Not having to buy gas except when I’m on long trips is very easy to get used to!
Hang in there. And thanks for your participation here – it’s important.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Ruckus
@different-church-lady:
Naw, they are shitty people.
They are pure shit.
Gloria DryGarden
@Captain C: I’m happy to not sleep with those maga people. I’d love to be paid for my troubles. Because sometimes it’s a bit tricky to evade those fellas. Hand out.
this is yet another example where a bigger one still won’t get you anywhere.
goodness it’s still daytime, oops
AND I swear this isn’t my usual kind of dick jokes, albeit humorous repartee is so welcome
And I didn’t set out to make any dick jokes,
nor was I trying to get my dicks in a row ( this from a misspelled text my predictive text did to me)
WTF GHOST, good skill to have. People thank you.
Kelly
@Melancholy Jaques: Our decades old retirement plan included applying for Social Security next year, when I turn 70. Mrs. Kelly will apply the year after. This gives us the largest Social Security monthly checks. Up until a few weeks ago the full faith and credit of the US Gov plus annual inflation adjustments made SS checks the safest income stream in the USA. We’re sticking to our plan but Oh Boy this is some unexpected pucker factor.
Citizen Alan
A kid is made to feel embarrassed about his genitals in the locker room or at summer camp by by other boys his own age or a little older because kids can be cruel that way and are always looking for a way to cut their peers down. And some of those boys, because of other psychological factors going on in their lives, internalize it and let penis length become something fundamental to their identities.
Honestly, I think everyone in the entire country should be required to start undergoing therapy at age sixteen.
Professor Bigfoot
@schrodingers_cat: I think we’re seeing the success of the JD plan for a “hostile takeover” of the Democratic Party.
Citizen Alan
@JMG: On any given day? I was under the impression that the impetus, for the Xtian hostility to disney arose from the fact that Gay Day became a thing.
Gloria DryGarden
@emjayay: used to be able to track by reading from the bottom – got in trouble for it last week- and could use back arrow to toggle or jump forward to wher one was. The back arrow isn’t doing it for me anymore.
what changed?
CliosFanboy
@Baud:
of course not. She was a bartender. Jesus was a carpenter
Totally different
u
As a wise man once said: “Fuck you. Pay me.”
Professor Bigfoot
@no body no name: Exactly why y’all will be out there without Black folks.
Good luck.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
As a mental health counselor in the way back, I can add a bit to this.
Most really broken unhappy people are from one of two things.
Either they are unable to grasp the concept of belonging to humanity as a whole, or they are unable to grasp the concept that they are not in charge of everyone else. Which if you think about it, end up at the same place. And they have zero idea/concept of why that is. They want to be better than everyone else without any concept of good, better, worse, what/who is the problem. So 2 actual issues, they have no idea about the concept of humanity, other than they are better than everyone else – they think, or they have their head stuck in a very dark smelly place – which ends up being the same concept. Or they just have no understanding of what they think they see. And of course it is possible that both these things can be true. Because it is very likely that with one’s head stuffed up one’s exit canal, vision and smell will be severely different than in it’s normal operating location.
Uncle Cosmo
For about 1.5 summers across my first 2 years of college, 1967-69, I delivered mail for the US Post Office in my home working-class row-house suburb of Dundalk, just southeast of Baltimore City. The work wasn’t all that demanding[1], it got me out early in the morning before the day turned incandescent[2], and the pay was pretty good for summer work[3].I have two stories to relate re Social Security checks, which in those days before direct depositwere delivered to recipients on the 3rd of the month, no exceptions. The first:
And so I did. And nothing more was ever said about it. Although from then on I made a point to check the filing case to make sure no letter had gotten stuck inside.
[1] Unless you had a “relay” of 60-70 houses to deliver in one loop where half the houses got LIFE magazine. Oy gevault. And the bag was heavy leather. I was crawling on all fours by the time I got finished with the 6700 block of Woodley Rd…
[2] We started filing between 6 and 6:30 AM and hit the streets at 8:30. Even “Bawlmer summer days” were mostly pleasant when I came in.
[3] $3.12 an hour wasn’t bad at the time – my only friends who did better worked “Down The Point” at the Sparrows Point steel mill, and those jobs were no picnic.
lowtechcyclist
@sentient ai from the future:
Glad you stopped by to tell us how to do it right.
WTFGhost
@Sister Golden Bear: I sympathize greatly – I am glad I’m in my 2012 model gas car, still (I drive less than 100mi/month, but may need to drive a thousand miles in an emergency). It’s like Wal-Mart; I won’t shop there, but I won’t ding anyone who does.
@Interesting Name Goes Here: The poster you refer to reminds me a bit about Zhaydee Vance, and the whole “Who goes Nazi?” bit. “See him? First in his family to go to good schools? He’s already a Nazi. They didn’t need to find him – he found them!”
@emjayay: You can link back to the comments (as I demonstrate here), but, please understand if you’re not offering to pay for a better commenting system, then I can say that this commenting system, the one you’re using, is a bargain at twice the price!
Yes, there are problems with it.
Citizen Alan
@zhena gogolia: Every republican he’s a coward at heart. Which carries a silver lining, because I also believe that every republican is a rapist or pedophile at heart. Every republican, deep down, is someone who can only experience pleasure by hurting and degrading other people. And their cowardice and fear of imprisonment is the only thing that keeps (most of) them from acting on the worst potential for their depravity.
WTFGhost
@Professor Bigfoot: Um. Obviously, I missed some news, and I hope Mrs. B has a comfortable, cancer-free recovery, and I hope the causes of your rage are reduced.
Gloria DryGarden
@Citizen Alan: it’s Actually kind of heartbreaking. Any idealizing of bodies, body shaming. You get what you get.
women, too.
want this a little bigger, that a little smaller, etc. Self hate is another isolator.
therapy yes.
a friend had a book, pix of genitalia. It normalized it, showed the variety within the basic format. Like. Oh, ok. Lots of people have these. It’s all ok. Just humans, normal. All that crazy shame we learned in other generations…
u
@Baud: The sad thing is that if the Social Security and Medicare payments were to stop tomorrow, a significant percentage of Trump supporters would STILL support their cult leader.
Gloria DryGarden
@Ruckus: other ways to be broken. More later. Waking from a too short sleep time.
prof Bigfoot, I have a story about women and work. Womens work. Later, though.
The Audacity of Krope
@Gloria DryGarden: In my experience, bigger isn’t always better. Communication and sensitivity to the other’s feelings matter more. What’s good there is that those skills can be developed, unlike augmented body parts.
Professor Bigfoot
@no body no name: Exactly why y’all will be out there without Black folks.
Good luck.
trollhattan
@WTFGhost:
Spousemobile is the next candidate for replacement (~140k mi) and while it will be an EV, not clue 1 as to which. We’ve certainly got a list of non-contenders to help narrow our choices! (TBH was never to be Tesla, on account of the interiors having all the charm and warmth of a fridge.)
u
@Uncle Cosmo: Ha. Yes, there are an awful lot of Americans who will experience real hardship if their Social Security payment is even a day late. And now we have one asshole saying that people should just calmly wait until next month, while another asshole threatened to burn down the whole system.
lowtechcyclist
@TBone:
He lost me ten seconds in when he said airline food used to be good.
I can testify that ‘airplane food’ was a term of derision the whole time I was growing up back in the 1960s.
Gloria DryGarden
y@The Audacity of Krope: yes!
You read me perfectly! Well said.
It’s one of those things that can be said many times, because it’s a story of human kindness and connection.
The Audacity of Krope
Or sadism and connection. But that’s a personal choice…
Professor Bigfoot
@zhena gogolia:
I’d suggest making a deal with the loa Papa Legba.
(if you’ve read Gibson’s “Neuromancer” trilogy, you know that I mean ;) )
Rick Taylor
@lowtechcyclist: I have fond memories from when I was a child of airline food in the 60’s. I particularly remember those very hard rolls with butter.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
who aren’t getting any.
Omnes Omnibus
@no body no name:
With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Yes, a very interesting conversation between Paul Krugman and Erik Brynjolfsson. Brynjolfsson is an optimist on AI. He has a technical background but switched to economics for his graduate study and career.
When it comes to how ML training works, the conversation doesn’t really address it. Simplified thumbnail sketch : the simulated neurons receive inputs and use a matrix multiply to weight them and produce an output. The entire network eventually produces a result (a prediction) which is compared with the training data by an error function. The error value is “back propagated”, adjusting the parameters in the matrices to get closer to correctness. This is done over and over, one tiny increment at a time. That’s why it’s so expensive to train models.
Matt McIrvin
@Citizen Alan: I got shit for going through puberty slightly later than the other boys, having a high-pitched voice and being generally skinny and odd. Got called “gay” a lot because that was what boys did.
Someone else might have decided to affect a hypermacho attitude to get past that. I figured it wasn’t going to fly. Eventually decided, enemy of my enemy, gay people were clearly my allies because they got shit from the same people I did.
The Audacity of Krope
@Omnes Omnibus: No, you don’t understand. All the problems of the world are because we choose to defend the disenfranchised.
Ruckus
@Kelly:
I’m an old and what I paid into SS for six decades is MY money. Sure there is a government part to all of it, the holding it, the sending it out, the concept that it is bigger than all of us but still it belongs to us, as a way to have a retirement that isn’t living in an alley foraging for scraps and a place to sleep. IOW we can work for 50-60 yrs and retire with some semblance of an actual life. All of us, not just those that inherit a ton or 12 of money. All of us that worked in some way to help create a nation and an economy and all the rest of actual living. Take away my SS that I paid into for DECADES so that others could actually retire, not die on the job while someone else gets fucking rich from that work, whatever that work is/was. It works, it doesn’t hurt shitforbrains or his savior, but it makes a better workforce and gives people a better life. But NO we can’t have that, actually give that money away – rather than put it in some asshole’s bank account – that is so big he couldn’t ever spend it all if he tried.
Can you tell how I feel about one uber rich asshole, the richest dick alive, who is so damn petty he can’t let anyone else have the least bit? That they earned…. And he didn’t.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: or Venus, if you like traditional 1980’s Scottish music
brantl
It always startles me, that not only does Stumpy pick dicks for all of his appointments, but giant phosphorescent divks.
The Audacity of Krope
Phosphorescence being a sign you should see your physician.
Ruckus
@Gloria DryGarden:
Absolutely there are a lot of ways to be broken.
Really was just stating the 2 biggest reasons humans display. Many of the others did not so consistently show up, at least not with a rather deep dig.
Mr. Bemused Senior
At this point it’s no longer startling. After all, who would be willing to work for Trump at this point? It explains the quality of his lawyers, too. He’s scraping the bottom of the barrel.
BarcaChicago
WW here. It’s crazy to me to discuss any American election without acknowledging the primacy of white racial identity and subsequent fear of changing demographics affecting racial hierarchy status, along with other social changes that threaten the patriarchy. Bernie Sanders and others who actively deny these realities infuriate me. Anyone who uses the term “identity politics” is telling me everything I need to know about them. I had an initial Hinge date with a white lefty guy that went fine until he came out with his “identity politics” bullshit. Called it out and went on my way. NOPE.
Doug R
@Baud:
And yet if you call out people for wishing a “magic negro” to swoop in and save them, they get mad
The Audacity of Krope
@Doug R: As a person who values change, I think we’re due for a magical homo.
Gloria DryGarden
@The Audacity of Krope: more on bigger, better, later (see #309.)
Ruckus
@lowtechcyclist:
As stated here before I used to work in professional sports and was on the road traveling all around the country – by air, 8 months a year. Airline food has always been eatable, as food in the USN was. Good? On occasion yes. VERY RARE OCCASIONS. In the USN the food, when carried on board by crew members, in 50 pound boxes, was decent. With a good master cook, the served food could be far better. Good master cooks were rare. Close to hen’s teeth rare.
trollhattan
@brantl:
One lesson retained from Trump 1.0: “These assholes aren’t big enough assholes. Next time, YUGE assholes, only.”
“Sir [said the giant Marine with tears in his eyes] these are the biggest, yugest, most assholy assholes I’ve ever seen, and I’m a fucking Marine!“
Baud
@The Audacity of Krope:
Pete B is ready.
PatD
@schrodingers_cat: You both have some obsessive hate with BS and AOC because of the past and because they don’t share your brand of politics. What’s interesting about this is that AOC actually supported your other obsession, not dumping Joe Biden from the ticket.
Bernie would be 86 in 2028. He is most certainly not running for President. The only reason you see him, AOC, and Walz out there on the trail is because they are among the few Dem politicians who get the moment and people actually want to hear from them.
The Audacity of Krope
@Gloria DryGarden: Gotcha. You have an intended time on that? I sort of come and go so may be nice to plan.
TBone
@Uncle Cosmo: excellent tale well told
The Audacity of Krope
@Baud: Not exactly what I had in mind; but given that I’m not inclined to simply wait for magic to manifest, I’ll duly consider what he has to offer should he put himself forward.
PatD
@JMG: this is so obvious I’m not sure why some don’t see it. Bernie is actually trying to cede the stage to AOC because she’s the closest to sharing his politics and he has no political future. It helps that this particular moment also better fits his always the same economic argument.
PatD
@Glory b: Always placing the race card. Weird how these evil whites are always pushing POC like Omar, Tlaib, AOC, Frost, Caesar etc. This divisive shit is getting old.
u
@no body no name: What you mean “we”? If/when they stop Social Security payments, I, for one, will be shouting about stopped Social Security payments. Maybe the people in your fertile imagination will choose that moment to talk about transgender issues.
PatD
@Miss Bianca: The story of the election was significant Dem underperformance in their own backyards with Hispanic, Asian, AND Black voters. What people consider the base. WWC voters? We’ve always struggled with them. Now we’re also struggling with minority working class voters.
The Audacity of Krope
@PatD: You just brought my attention to this comment, thanks.
I haven’t caught any of these events yet, though I noticed one I can watch from the BJ page. If that’s how it is, I gotta say I like the baton-passing energy far more than the ice floe energy of last July.
Gloria DryGarden
@The Audacity of Krope: um,when I come by, it’s often between 11 pm mtn, and 4 am mtn. Messed up sleep cycle, trying to fix.
3-7 days a week. Or between 10 am and 2 pm mtn, when Im Trying to wake up, or falling back asleep If I can.
try those times, sorry. Got a lot going on. In n out. For the really fucked up days, could be anytime.
The Audacity of Krope
@Gloria DryGarden: Hmm. If I’m not mistaken, that’s 1 to 6 am Eastern. The earlier end of that I’m sometimes around.
frosty
@Professor Bigfoot: Hey, I’m a White Man and I don’t want to work either! Finally retired and it’s behind me now.
I’ll admit I enjoyed some of the things I did …. But meeting budgets and schedules? Performance reviews?That was work and it sucked.
JaneE
People were willing to wait for government checks when they could be sure the government would honor it’s obligations. That is no longer the case.
The number of retirees with no other resources may be fewer than in the 50’s but there are still people on SS who really can’t go a month or more with no income. Those are the people Musk and Trump are targeting.
zhena gogolia
@Sister Golden Bear: I don’t hold people’s cars against them. I find that silly.
Gloria DryGarden
@Gloria DryGarden: or check last few comments on several threads in a row. I come late but comment, sometimes.
satby
@zhena gogolia: yep, I think he’s just high enough on his own supply to try it.
FUUUCK him.
zhena gogolia
@Professor Bigfoot: I don’t think they’ve succeeded. The attention will shift elsewhere.
Gloria DryGarden
@The Audacity of Krope:correct time zone conversion, yes.
see #351
zhena gogolia
@BarcaChicago: Good for you.
frosty
@Gloria DryGarden: Back arrow hasn’t worked well for years. Workaround that I learned from a Valued Commenter. Click on the date/time stamp of the comment you want to return to. Back arrow will take you there.
zhena gogolia
@satby: A few more u’s, please!
The Audacity of Krope
@frosty: Stands to reason, thanks.
@Gloria DryGarden: Gotcha. And I definitely see you around when I’m on. I do love matters of personal intimacy, so I’d be happy to jump in if I ever see you leading such a discussion.
satby
Truer words were never spoken.
WTFGhost
deleted
Glory b
@PatD: That turns out not to be true of black voters. Their numbers turned out to be almost the same as for Biden in 2020.
Hispanic voters seem to vote along religious lines, most of them are Catholic, more and more are going evangelical, both religions disagree with Democrats’ support for LGBTQ people.
https://www.iheart.com/content/2024-11-06-heres-what-exit-polls-say-about-black-voter-support-for-kamala-harris/
prostratedragon
@Spanky:
Imply?! Is that your coy way of screaming, “shout from the rooftops?”
rikyrah
@zhena gogolia:
RIP🙏🏽😢
satby
@emjayay: then go to a discus comments site. No matter how much you whine, it ain’t changing.
WTFGhost
@PatD: I will always point out the surprising effects that microtargeting can have in cases like this.
Are “Democrats” losing minority working class voters, say, by doing something wrong? I say “maybe not.”
“Are Democrats failing to fight back against microtargeted attack ads, that are proven to decrease interest and turnout?” is something I’d expect to be a far more important question.
Show an ad to 100 Black working class. If 5 of them feel less interested after the ad, you run it, but, only to Black working class voters, and see if your polling shows a 3-5% total decrease in “very interested” and “interested.” Iterate as desired.
Well, what if you find it only works with Black working class voters who have experience with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, that’s okay – you can send it only to Black working class voters who have experience with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, whether proven, or rated “very likely” by the JW matching algorithm. As long as you can tease out an effect, in today’s world, you can target that message precisely.
And, for example, white people don’t see what bigoted BS is microtargeted to non-white people, so it’s not like an offensive ad on TV, where there can be a response from everyone.
rikyrah
@Professor Bigfoot:
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
rikyrah
@Interesting Name Goes Here:
And the thought that they think Black people should be their MULES
WE ARE NOT THEIR MULES.
44 and Forever FLOTUS served this country for 8 years.
They don’t owe us shyt 😡
Glory b
@WTFGhost: BUT exit polling indicated that, at least for black voters, the conventional wisdom that they were leaving the party, was incorrect.
satby
@Baud: I almost went there, but thought better of it 😂😂
Martin
@PatD: I stand by my thesis that Democrats struggled because they continue to fail to deliver for workers, and rather than strenuously work for change, they defend the status quo. Say what you will about Trump, he promised radical change. And when you’re making no progress with the status quo, radical change starts to sound appealing.
You know what program generally doesn’t directly help the working class? College debt forgiveness. It usually helps their bosses. It’s not that I’m opposed to college debt forgiveness, particularly in the cases of students who were scammed, but there was no counterpart to that program for workers. EV credits also generally don’t help the working class. There just aren’t a lot of latino construction workers arriving on the job site in a Nissan Leaf and a college degree. But they struggle with rent, which has gotten MUCH worse, with no plan to address by Democrats. Nor republicans for that matter, but one of these parties campaigned on preserving the current system that isn’t working and the other campaigned on changing it. Probably for the worse, but change is change, and sometimes you can’t imagine worse.
WTFGhost
@Suzanne: Gawd.
Re:
I think I could teach guys how to get laid in three lessons.
First, learn to pet, or, learn to leave alone, any cat. Cats will only let you touch them if they trust you. Find the magical ways to make a cat super-happy, which you can only do by finding out what they want, and how they want it – trying to get them to like what you want is how you get scratched.
Congratulations, you now understand consent. Pretend every woman has claws and teeth, plus a cell that can call 911, win their trust, and learn to do things that make them happy. Or, learn they are one of those kitties who doesn’t want your touch, no harm, no foul.
Now: talk to women, in a friendly, transparent way. “Hi, ma’am? I know you’re 60 years old, but I’d like to talk to you for a while. I’m trying to learn to talk to women, without realizing that it’s different from talking to one of the fellas (except, fewer crude jokes). What do you like to talk about?”
Some will bore the eff out of you, but if you make an effort, and only excuse yourself at a good breaking point, any woman who bores you will see you’re trying, right? And soon, having seen a wide variety of tits, you can look a woman in the eyes, with only a flirtatious glimpse downward, instead of, you know.
Make sure you’re open: if you’re practicing flirting, don’t try to break any hearts, think about how you’d feel if someone over-flirted you, right? Hand the barista a card, “I’m practicing flirting, how did I do?” and compliment her piercings (unless she only has a tongue piercing!), or whatever. Third day in, say “that’s a lovely outfit,” and if it displays something nice, take an approving, but quick, look, not a leer.
Now you’re ready to date – you know how to use your touch to make someone happy at an animal level, and you know how to have a conversation with the biggest pair of beautiful blue eyes (“I didn’t even think tits for more than a moment!”) you’ve seen in a while.
Seriously. Cats, talk, cuddle.
If you get really good at cuddling (including sweaty snugglebunnies), remember that giving a woman an orgasm on the first date, without demanding anything in return, can really create a complicated set of issues in a relationship, but… not all complications are bad.
The Audacity of Krope
@Martin: I’m a regular person working a regular job and student loan forgiveness would have helped me and my retired parents, who are helping me, tremendously.
Trouble is it didn’t reach us because my student loans are with private banks.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@rikyrah: Of all the stupid takes that I’ve seen since November, that one pissed me off fiercely. And that stupid viewpoint is depressingly prevalent throughout a lot of the left-leaning communities I read into. It’s angrily amusing to see someone upthread claim that the race card is being played against them when too many so-called progressives actually think that the Obamas and Kamala Harris (among other prominent POCs) should be performing for their benefit.
Another Scott
@Martin:
About 3 seconds on Google showed me this:
NHC.org (from September 2024):
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
The Audacity of Krope
@Interesting Name Goes Here: Sorry, no blue sky. Who is that quote from?
WaterGirl
@Glory b: I’m sure it had nothing to do with race or gender. //
Gloria DryGarden
@WTFGhost: BEAUTIFUL. Great analogy on consent.
Accyrate Accurate.
(AI runs the predictive text and auto correct right? Shall we have it run the government like mr x wants to? Left my typo tgat it wouldn’t correct for me. So ineffectual)
.
WaterGirl
@WTFGhost:
Just wanted to see that again.
WaterGirl
@Gloria DryGarden: Probably an update in your browser.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@WaterGirl: what works for me: click on the link of the comment you’re reading first. After that the back button will work.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Pretty sure the ship has sailed on assumptions of good faith with this commenter.
I loved that so much it is now a rotating tag.
WaterGirl
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Yes, I do that, too! I thought everyone knew to do that. If it worked before and it doesn’t now, Chrome or some other browser had an update that made it not work.
Professor Bigfoot
@The Audacity of Krope: Yeah, well, that’s what you get when you insist on white male leadership– mediocre white men.
White Democrats didn’t like the Black woman Vice President enough, so we’re sitting back and letting the white men take the lead.
And this is what we get.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The Audacity of Krope
For the record, I have emphatically not insisted on white male leadership, myself. When 2020 was down to Biden and Bernie, I was already at “there’s no way this ends well.”
Biden actually did a fair job of beating my expectations before the coup caucus brought me back down to Earth.
I also feel for Kamala having to deal with the aftermath of that.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@The Audacity of Krope: A user named Andrew Lawrence, whose bio says that they’re the Deputy Director of Rapid Response at Media Matters.
There have been several response threads, all from POCs, effectively taking that user to the woodshed. It’s an astoundingly stupid and arguably racist take, and if I were Media Matters, I’d be considering some form of punishment as a result of being so stupid on main.
Professor Bigfoot
@PatD: Schrodinger’s Cat only recognizes that *white people will listen to white-presenting AOC over the highly capable and qualified Black woman who ran for President last year.*
Unfortunately, most white people never examine the ways in which whiteness affects their beliefs, right down to their unconscious decision making.
Y’all don’t want to listen to anyone who isn’t white, but you don’t want to ADMIT that you don’t want to listen to anyone who isn’t white. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Professor Bigfoot
@PatD: Oh, my, here we have another white person determined to defend their whiteness.
HERE, in this bastion of liberalism!!!
The Audacity of Krope
@Interesting Name Goes Here: That was definitely one of the worst takes I’ve ever seen. Think what you want about how the Obamas spend their time, but public harassment campaigns are virtually never justifiable, save for a situation where the target is causing active, egregious harm.
How about booing Elon and Republican Congressfolk everywhere they go?
ETA: Not sure what any of this has to do with Bernie.
Professor Bigfoot
@frosty: I’ve gotten into 3D printing and am starting to learn 3D modeling software and absent any requirements or deadlines, it’s actually FUN to be an engineer again!
Professor Bigfoot
@zhena gogolia: As a Porsche owner, I am qualified to say this:
“What’s the difference between a Porsche and a rose?”
“Why, with the rose, the prick is on the outside!”
I’ve heard BMW and Audi owners described the same way (and I really try not to be that prick, too) and present company excepted, I’m seeing that with Teslas, too.
Professor Bigfoot
@zhena gogolia: Your keyboard –> God’s monitor.
Professor Bigfoot
@Glory b: As soon as they start talking about the “race card,” you know exactly where they’re coming from.
The weakest, most unreliable demographic in our coalition, period full stop.
Professor Bigfoot
@WTFGhost: One more thing– work on your comedic skills.
You can be as homely as Mel Brooks and win a wife a gorgeous as Anne Bancroft if you can make her ROFL regularly.
Make her smile, make her laugh, make her– oh, yeah, you already touched on that. ;)
Professor Bigfoot
@The Audacity of Krope: (not you personally, brah!)
But nonetheless, that’s what happened.
The Audacity of Krope
@Professor Bigfoot: No, I know. I’ve had some positive interactions with you on this topic.
But I feel it’s good to reestablish some priors once in a while for when Democrats are insisting we must have a safe, straight, white, conservative male as nominee in 2028.
Citizen Alan
@Baud: Am i a bad person because I think the two Haitiian girls that amy comer barrett and her husband adopted, are basically used as free au pairs for the two children barrett had biologically?
Interesting Name Goes Here
@The Audacity of Krope: For me, it’s a concentrated example of the type of people Bernie attracts and caters to. Not all of them are like that guy, but enough are that it can’t be ignored or diminished, and I have seen similarly awful takes from that crowd going back to 2016. I remember The Young Turks, after one particularly disappointing primary for Bernie in a southern state, openly bemoaning “low-information” voters for choosing Hillary (mind you, this was before they really got started on their Villain arc) and questioning if a Trump presidency would really be so bad (“As a matter of fact…it was.” Thank you, Dr. Loomis). Personally, I don’t feel that Bernie has ever truly addressed that in a meaningful way. He’s made vague noises and gestures towards it, but he would rather talk about “safe” (for lack of a better term) subjects instead of actually confronting it and showing himself to be a consistent ally to everybody instead of one of convenience.
WaterGirl
@Citizen Alan: If you’re a bad person, then so am I.
prostratedragon
@emjayay: When you refresh, you can immediately pick up where you left off. Never found the other stuff as big a problem.
Marc
Most recent Cuban arrivals are also not “white” which is the real reason they don’t matter. The rich whites left Cuba for the US in the 50s and 60s.
My god: there are 400 comments in this thread. Never mind.
PatD
@Professor Bigfoot: I dismissed your argument the second you assumed I was white. I’m tired of the lazy generalizations I often see from the same people over and over. We are not all the same. We do not believe the same things, the same way. I do not give a shit about whiteness because I am not white.
Kamala Harris was eminently qualified to be elected POTUS. She lost primarily due to inflation and her ties to an unpopular President. Any Democrat would have lost and the data shows that nonvoters preferred Trump. Her loss has zero to do with AOC today and I give zero fucks about the haters who are going to hate regardless.
PatD
@Professor Bigfoot: Ah, yes. More racebaiting from you someone who can identify your race based on whether you agree with them.
PatD
@Professor Bigfoot: I see you and a few others constantly shit on white people and you think you’re correct because a few people in the amen choir here praise you for it. I see it for what it is. It’s racebaiting.
PatD
By the way, you can look up my posts from June and July where I was one of few people who, respectfully at least, pushed for dropping Biden for Harris.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@PatD: You accused someone of playing the race card, got called out, and are now crying about racebaiting.
Andrew Lawrence, is that you?
Marc
@Professor Bigfoot: What did you get? I just got a Bambu P1P which has amazing quality relative to my old Creality CR-10.
Ruckus
@Professor Bigfoot:
I’m building a cabinet for one of the workers at the complex where I live. This black man was just in my apartment checking in on the cabinet for him and his wife, who live next building. He works his butt off. And so did the black man that worked for me when I had my manufacturing business. This concept that many humans of color refuse to work, and or get dirty doing it is pure, unacceptable bullshit. I served and slept in the same compartment on board the USN ship I was stationed on for 2 years with a number of black men. My favorite human in my 3/4 of a century of living was a beautiful black, smart, funny, gay woman. Who died of Sickle Cell. I will absolutely agree that there are a hell of a lot of shitty human beings on this planet, but their skin color is not the problem. Their ignorant, racist, shitty concept of a crappy nonfunctional brain is the problem.
PatD
@Interesting Name Goes Here:
What are you talking about? I stand by what I wrote and don’t hide from it. I do not care that you or some idiots “call me out” for it. What they’re doing by constantly lecturing about whiteness is a form of bullying. No one here needs to accept that.
Citizen Alan
@Almost Retired: Not my department, but congratulations to your friend.
Chris T.
@Nukular Biskits:
Reminds me of (who wrote this? … ah, search finds a variant by Charles Bowen):
The rain, it falls upon the just
And also on the unjust fella
But mostly on the just, because
The unjust stole the just’s umbrella.
Here’s the original as well:
“The rain it raineth on the just
And also on the unjust fella;
But chiefly on the just, because
The unjust hath the just’s umbrella.”