Per the Washington Post. “Trump order launches Smithsonian and its visitors into confusion, dismay“: [gift link]
President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order to eliminate what he considers “anti-American ideology” from the Smithsonian Institution cast the world’s largest museum, education and research complex into a state of confusion Friday, just as streams of tourists poured into Washington, drawn by idyllic spring weather and the appearance of the city’s famed cherry blossoms.
Trump’s edict, issued late Thursday, marks his second recent attempt to mold America’s cultural life, following his decision last month to purge the Kennedy Center board of his predecessor’s appointees and install himself as chairman.
Both acts, unprecedented in American history, have drawn heated condemnation from Democrats, including some current and former members of the Smithsonian Board of Regents. Outside some of the country’s most beloved attractions on Friday — places such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture — there was an air of bewilderment tinged with anger.
“The Smithsonian has been preserving and sharing the American story for over 175 years, and I’ll continue to support the independence of this critical institution,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada), who sits on the Smithsonian board, said in a statement emailed Friday to The Washington Post. “President Trump’s attempts to rewrite history are a weak, pathetic effort to distract from his disastrous plans to cut Medicaid and use tariffs to raise costs for middle class Americans.”,,,
You’re scaring the tourists…!
A few years ago I visited the National Museum of African American History & Culture with my grandparents. When we stepped out of the building my grandmother kept repeating the words “I lived it. I lived it. I lived it.”
She’s still here. That history is still in her bones. You can never erase that.— Clint Smith (@clintsmithiii.bsky.social) March 28, 2025 at 11:43 AM
one of the racists on his staff probably knows about the special history of African-Americans and the National Zoo and are trying to erase it from historical memory
www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-…
— Irie DC (@iriedc.bsky.social) March 28, 2025 at 3:04 AM
A white bear from West Virginia that didn’t go to college interviewed for the job opening, but instead the elitists at the zoo brought in some mixed-race bears from China.
— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) March 27, 2025 at 11:29 PM
6S
jd vance seeing a penguin at the zoo
— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) March 27, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Baud
I wish he would eliminate anti-American ideology from the White House.
Baud
Glad to hear you’re feeling better, AL.
japa21
So the most anti-American President in US history has ordered the most anti-American VP in US history to purge anti-American ideology. Seems to me the real place to start is the Oval Office.
ETA: Should have realized Baud would beat me to it.
JoyceH
Trump is also decreeing that the Confederate monuments be reinstalled. Next time, taking them down isn’t enough – MELT them down.
Baud
@JoyceH:
I’m not sure how many of those fall under federal jurisdiction.
Baud
Spanky
@Baud: Everything falls under Trump’s authority until he’s stopped.
Quantum man
We now live in a North Korea clone country.
Baud
@Spanky:
Don’t concede power.
Spanky
@Baud: Exactly. There will be lawsuits.
Time travelin
This isn’t trump. He’s very racist but he has no idea about history or what’s in museums. This is all Steven Miller.
Shalimar
We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a stupid and pointless level unprecedented in human history.
Rusty
Heather Cox Richardson hit on the roots of this yesterday, the right wants a conservative cultural revolution where they seized back control of things such as arts institutions. They want to take control of universities, cultural institutions, any locus of power. So that is the reason to take down big law firms and bend them to their will too. We will be seeing a lot more of this during this administration. I don’t think any of us have fully absorbed the scope of this project and its ambitions. Nothing short of a conservative revolution brought about by the exercise of authoritarian power.
Baud
@Rusty:
This is our version of the Great Leap Forward.
Shalimar
@Baud: So their argument is they weren’t provided knowledge that Musk was stupid enough to pay $44 billion and wouldn’t have sold their stock if they had known such a huge sucker was tugging on the bait?
Legally they have a good argument. Seems like the normal risks you take when you invest though. If it were me, the only reason I would pursue it is to fuck with Musk.
Baud
@Shalimar:
I can’t think of a nobler reason.
BellyCat
Nominated!
Betty Cracker
Speaking of fucking with Musk, it’s #TeslaTakedown Saturday! Join a protest if you can! Bring your friends! Bring your enemies!
BellyCat
@Betty Cracker: Excellent! Try not to set any bonfires, but if you accidentally do – – don’t get caught!
moonbat
Good to see you, AL! Hope you are feeling much better.
Re: the Great Leap Backward theory. Miller or whoever still doesn’t get what America is. A nation as diverse (there’s that word again!) as ours cannot be remade as he imagines by changing some placards at a zoo most Americans don’t visit.
BlueGuitarist
Looking forward to visiting a future National Museum of American Anti-Fascism and seeing among the artifacts protest signs from TeslaTakedowns and April 5 demonstrations, some carried by readers of this full service blog. (Heard recently about people donating their protest signs to a museum.)
But first, GOTV phone calls, and going to those demonstrations.
today is Jasmine Crockett’s birthday. Someone is trying to organize/compile video of singing of Happy Birthday to her at many different TeslaTakedown demonstrations today.
Eta: e.g. BC sign at #18. Up all night means typing even slower than usual.
NotMax
Historical sidebar weekend watch.
Sweet tooth, justice and the American way.
;)
AM in NC
We just visited the Museum of African American History last week for the first time. Took our two sons who are late teens/early 20s to DC for a few days. It was a wonderful museum, and we were so happy to see all the school children there from around the country. Of course, we all kept saying how clear it was that Republicans would HATE the museum because it actually told the truth about our history and provided a great education.
It was also nice being in such a racially integrated space.
Suzanne
@Rusty:
If you read any of the freaky social conservatives, like Dreher, they’ve been saying stuff like this for a while. And they are going to ruin a lot of institutions, and cause a lot of pain.
But the thing that they really want…. governance, no matter how authoritarian, can’t provide for them. They are acutely aware of being seen as weird and backward and ugly, and they hate it. They know that their weird lives are not aspirational to most of America, which is still urban, multicultural, often not religious, and is increasingly educated…. and not having their babies. What they really want is to control the social hierarchy.
AnonPhenom
@Baud:
And now Musk, who had the gall to call Social Security a ponzi scheme, is paying his left pocket from his right pocket to cover the failure of his social media purchase.
lowtechcyclist
@Time travelin:
Russell Vought. He’s a ‘Christian’ Dominionist, and they want to take over American culture. This totally fits in with their game plan.
(I have no idea what Stephen Miller’s ideology is, other than Nazi.)
ETA:
@Rusty:
Looks like HCR has been thinking along those lines too.
Suzanne
I will also note that I got to attend the NMAAHC on the weekend if it’s first anniversary, and it is fantastic.
Primary design architect was Sir David Adjaye. See other work of Adjaye Associates. He also was the design architect on MCA Denver.
Baud
@Suzanne:
This is why our disrespect for them is our primary weapon of resistance.
artem1s
One of the things these dumbass yokels don’t understand about museums is how much is held in storage. The Smithsonian rotates its collection for public view regularly. Some items rarely see daylight, depending on how delicate they are. Curating a special exhibit can take years – prepping pieces for display; moving pieces out of storage; researching the collection for just the right piece; arranging loans of significant pieces from other institutions; researching the subject; writing and editing the catalog or books that go with the exhibit. Special exhibits can be delayed and those collections more easily protected. This kind of purge won’t be as easy as having the Muskrats’ webcrawler delete key words. On the other hand they are capable of public book burnings and other ‘cultural revolution’ asshattery. The obvious targets are going to be permanent displays that piss off the MAGAts. Holocaust, slavery, indigenous genocide, will be ripped out for mayonnaise and white bread. It’s only a matter of time before we start seeing giant banners and painting of hair fuhrer’s face all over the side of buildings a la Sadaam Hussein, Lenin and Mao.
Suzanne
@Baud:
Agree.
Their biggest complaint about these institutions is that they don’t get included in them, and they don’t reflect socon tastes/values.
BlueGuitarist
👍
to quote the other AL
“Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray
that this [neoconfederate farce] may speedily pass away”
Also too, Trump and Musk *are* the
waste, fraud, and abusers
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
I’m thinking more of a watered-down version of Pol Pot.
Geminid
@AnonPhenom: I don’t understand matters of finance all that well, but it looks like this transaction might help the banks that put $12 billion into Musk’s buyout of Twitter in October, 2022. The Reuters story said the Saudi prince who rolled over his $2.2 billion Twitter in that first transaction asked for the new one, so it sounds like losses on the 2022 Twitter buyout could be mitigated by this all-stock transaction.
I got a kick out of Reuters’ typography. The capital G looks almost like a capital C, so “Grok” looks like “Crok” which is apt.
Professor Bigfoot
Good morning, all, and joy of this Caturday to you all!
BlueGuitarist
@artem1s:
Guessing that by “hair fuhrers face” you mean the gruesome visage of combover Caligula, the
tiny, repulsive, ugly, mushroom, prick
But have you seen the graphic with
hitler hair + 2 twitter x logos for eyes + Tesla logo
Usually with red circle and slash
https://bsky.app/profile/gregmorosoff.bsky.social/post/3lkxjprcb6s2s
lowtechcyclist
@Professor Bigfoot:
And the same to you!
My cat Iggy, a muscular 16 pound gray tabby, is curled up on the guest bed, just a few feet from my desk. If I’m still here when he wakes up, he’ll be in my lap within a minute.
AxelFoley
@Baud: That would include himself.
AM in NC
@BlueGuitarist: I would love for this to become real! I definitely think Democrats/Liberals/Normies are going to have to make fighting fascism (and fighting Republican authoritarianism specifically) a highly visible project for a long time. Every MAGA predation recorded. ALL of the resistance heroes noted and celebrated. Every collaborator named and shamed. Corporate malefactors jeered and disparaged.
Culturally, we need to make these evil, venal, cruel, gross, deeply deeply strange people anathema. I am done being kind. I just want their brand of ugly removed. I want their children and grandchildren laughing at them and despising them if they don’t change. No, I’m not proud of it, but that’s honestly where I am.
AxelFoley
@japa21: First rule of Balloon-Juice: Baud is always first.
TS
Peter Marks, FDA’s top vaccine scientist – being forced out of his position – In his resignation letter, Marks rebuked Kennedy for seeking “subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies” about vaccines.
Good to see someone calling them out on such things.
Marks is leaving his post with a “heavy heart,” he wrote in his resignation letter Friday…“It is unconscionable with measles outbreaks to not have a full-throated endorsement of measles vaccinations,” Marks told The Post.
In his resignation letter, Marks also said that he had been willing to work with Kennedy on the health secretary’s planned efforts to review vaccine safety. …However, it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” Marks wrote.
https://wapo.st/4hQn8fm (gift link)
zhena gogolia
I haven’t seen Tbone lately—hope she’s okay
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
John Barleycorn
MAGA has seen:
‘The Taliban’s destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues in early 2001 shocked the world and highlighted their hard-line regime…’
and decided they want to do that too.
artem1s
@AnonPhenom:
Whitewing
Whitewing was the name of a special purpose entity used as a financing method by Enron. In December 1997, with funding of $579 million provided by Enron and $500 million by an outside investor, Whitewing Associates L.P. was formed. Two years later, the entity’s arrangement was changed so that it would no longer be consolidated with Enron and be counted on the company’s balance sheet. Whitewing was used to purchase Enron assets, including stakes in power plants, pipelines, stocks, and other investments. Between 1999 and 2001, Whitewing bought assets from Enron worth $2 billion, using Enron stock as collateral. Although the transactions were approved by the Enron board, the asset transfers were not true sales and should have been treated instead as loans.
1997 Whitewing was created. By late 2001Enron went bankrupt. W’s administration was involved in helping a lot of companies getting away with ‘creative accounting’ and having the DOJ and the Federal Reserve Board overlook the massive accounting failures that eventually led to W’s Great Depression. I wouldn’t be surprised if all this culture war shit is intended to keep everyone looking the other way while Soutpiel channels The Smartest Guys in the Room times a few trillion and at supersonic speeds.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I noticed her absence yesterday.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Quantum man:
On the plus side, we have enough to eat. We don’t?
https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america
Wait, I’ll come in again…
Rudi666
@Rusty: Ron DeStainis has done this for years in Florida. Intelligent design, Lost Cause and flat earth is the “new science and history.”
artem1s
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
We produce enough to eat – problem is distribution. COVID taught us how delicate our supply chain is. As our supply chains collapse due to shenanigans like ending farming subsidies and letting crops rot in the docks and in the ground because the Orange Anti-Christ revels in suffering and waste, more of us will be vulnerable to food shortages.
the other issue is we grow too much corn to make sugar and potatoes to make chips and not enough unprocessed food gets to the market. processing, branding and packaging is where all the dollars are made in the food industry.
Cheryl from Maryland
@artem1s: I worked for 30 years at the Smithsonian organizing exhibitions. The federal allotment covers only employees, leasing of office space and regular building maintenance. Permanent exhibitions can take a decade – years alone just to raise the money. Unless Elon writes a giant check, these vandals will only be able to do superficial changes to the museums as they are now, but can do tight review of future projects (and then, exhibition scripts also take years). I expect temporary exhibitions at the art museums, with a shorter time frame, will be the hardest hit first, especially American Art and the Hirshhorn with their focus on contemporary art. My main worry for the short term are the curators at Natural History and the National Zoo, who are basically behind the scenes research scientists. Many of the ones I knew were working on the effects of climate change, preserving habitats, the environment, how modern man affects the rest of the planet, and other hot button items the MAGAtts hate. I hope they and their work survive.
Another Scott
@Shalimar: Speaking of stupid…
History doesn’t repeat, but the rhymes are over the top but all too real these days…
(via Mastodon.social/Explore)
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
randy khan
The Smithsonian has a very unusual setup for the board of regents – The Chief Justice and Vice President are automatically members (and the Chief Justice is chancellor), then three members each from the House and Senate, then 9 members chosen by the regents and approved via legislation – literally the House and Senate have to approve the slate and the President signs off. Which makes it look to me like the President can’t fire any of them, and they have fixed terms.
Unfortunately, the Smithsonian gets 2/3 of its funding from the federal government, so there’s definitely the ability to put fiscal pressure on it. But I think this is a place where it wouldn’t be hard to put pressure on Congress – people love the Smithsonian.
BlueGuitarist
@AM in NC:
you are kind: genuinely empathetic with people who are suffering, and you are working to make things better.
Imo Kindness requires confronting malefactors, not avoiding confrontation.
Differing ideas about kindness will be a hurdle on the way to funding a museum of anti-fascism, because some allies will consider it a luxury diverting resources from alleviating other suffering.
But there will probably be fewer allies urging look forward not back.
Meanwhile we need to keep the music alive:
From Greensboro’s NC Rhiannon Giddens, a cover of
Woody Guthrie, All you fascists bound to lose
https://youtu.be/dWUa7aAIfLE?si=9_XR3jxtgAHcXoC3
different-church-lady
“Hmmm… let’s see, some Hitler… a pinch of Mussolini… we’re missing something here, what is it, what is it? Oh, right, we gotta get some Stalin in there!”
Professor Bigfoot
@Cheryl from Maryland: Amen.
We have so much to lose that the vast majority of us had no idea even existed.
Professor Bigfoot
@Another Scott: This rhyme is so close that it’s starting to look like a repeat.
randy khan
@AnonPhenom:
I took one of my rare dips into Twitter last night, and naturally the first post was Musk’s announcement of this “deal.” It grossly overvalues Twitter, obviously, because Twitter has bled users and advertisers since he bought it. (The “price” is just $1 billion less than he paid.) It probably also grossly overvalues the AI company. So it’s not even moving money from one pocket to another – it’s more like announcing that my house is worth a $800 million and my car is worth $200 million, so together they make me a billionaire.
I suspect the real point of this transaction was to make the investors happier – instead of 25% of a garbage pile, they have around 10% of a company that includes the garbage pile as a component but might be able to take advantage of the inflated values being given to AI businesses.
randy khan
@Cheryl from Maryland: About 2/3 of the Smithsonian’s budget comes from the federal government. That’s where the Administration can do real damage.
I went to the annual state of the museum event for American Art a few weeks back, and the slate of exhibitions likely will raise a lot of hackles in the Administration – Nick Cave and Bisa Butler both have upcoming shows at SAAM, and the current shows at SAAM and the Renwick feature Black and Asian American artists. (The Renwick has a show on state fairs coming up, though, which looks like a lot of fun and shouldn’t offend the MAGAs.)
Geminid
@Baud: There’s someone with a similar mym commenting over on Mistermix’s blog, and they appear to be from Pennsylvania. Maybe T-Bone has left the Snark side for the Dark side.
RaflW
I know I’m a press-basher, but I’m just so f’king exhausted by this “Both acts, unprecedented in American history, have drawn heated condemnation from Democrats, including some current and former members of the Smithsonian Board of Regents.”
It’s not just Democrats, goddamit! Do not leave independents and non-aligned people out of this! I strongly suspect that most people, even quite a few putative Republicans actually understand that government interfering in the operations of museums is creepy and wrong. Yeah, MAGA choads will like this. But they don’t f’king go to the Museum of African American History. And I maintain that MAGA choads are maybe 30% of the electorate, or less. Jebus.
Gvg
@JoyceH: I think they did with a bunch of them, because the time before when they were removed some of them had been brought back, and people had learned. However they also did it quietly and didn’t make a production out of it, so these illiterates didn’t notice. This may be a good time to play dumb for some employees. I don’t know….not my job.
artem1s
@randy khan:
he’s cooking the books Enron style and once again Goldman Sachs is helping. Xhitter is a private company now so less subject to regulations. But I expect all of Soutpiel’s public companies probably also have similar bookkeeping problems. Their stock price is far too dependent on brand and the brand is taking a major hit.
Baud
@Geminid:
Thanks. As long as she’s doing ok.
Matt McIrvin
@artem1s: They can wreck all the stuff in storage by just firing the staff and selling off the facilities, I’d think–the new owners would just toss all the stuff in the dump and put up condos. That’s what you do if you really want a Year Zero revolution
A lot of these institutions they want to wreck are semi-private things with federal funding–the first step in destroying them is, ironically, probably to fully nationalize them.
They Call Me Noni
@BlueGuitarist: Oooh! My oldest daughter and I are going to a protest on the 5th and we were thinking of what to put on our signs. I don’t know yet what else I will add but this will definitely be prominent on mine. Thanks!
Cheryl from Maryland
@randy khan: yes, but that money is mainly for people. Shredding the staff is horrible, but it will take time and money to do an exhibition on the musical CATS, and the money it takes to do a big permanent exhibition is tremendous. As I said, SAAM and the Hirshhorn will be in trouble – SAAM particularly as it doesn’t shy away from much. I went to their exhibition on American Women in Paris, and the text was clear regarding the lesbian relationships many of them had with each other.
Geminid
@randy khan: I think 7 banks put $12 billion between them into Musk’s original Twitter buyout. My understanding is they’ve had to carry a substantial loss on books ever since. This transaction should help their financial situation, as you suggest.
Gvg
@Rusty: yeah well will data coping and the internet, they CAN’t erase it. We can duplicate every file multiple times and send it everywhere, then delete A file while they watch. So everyone watching even if you don’t think there is any logical reason for them to go after whatever research or information you are in charge of should quietly make regular backups off site (classified and sensitive info exceptions) and make plans. Because these people are too stupid to aim well. They have also been marinating in paranoia for decades so their judgment is terrible.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@artem1s: Is this kind of financial trickery sustainable?
prostratedragon
@zhena gogolia: I’ve also been wondering. Seem to recall that there was something that might or might not.be a problem.
tobie
Morning, all. I read that DOGE’s cuts are hitting counties that voted for Harris to the tune of 90%. This essentially means the death of Maryland as a reasonably profitable state. Montgomery and Harford counties generate the state’s GDP and they will be hurt the hardest with the loss of NIH, NSF and CDC funding. Baltimore is dead. The state’s largest private employer is Johns Hopkins and over $800 million of the university’s grants have been cut. This is all so depressing.
BC in Illinois
@JoyceH:
Yes. St Louis took down its Confederate monument in 2017. “As of 2022, it awaits a new home outside St. Louis City and County limits, per an agreement between the city and the Missouri Civil War Museum in Jefferson Barracks.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_to_the_Confederate_Dead_(St._Louis)
I wrote a letter to the editor of the St Louis Post-Dispatch that year, suggesting that the people taking down the memorial make use of a major river, conveniently located nearby.
Spanky
So this happened this morning.
Maintenance? Maybe, but that’s usually Sunday mornings. Time will tell.
Professor Bigfoot
QFT.
Another Scott
@Spanky:
My Rep:
Grr…
They’re continuing to try to break everything as quickly as possible.
We have to do all we can to vote the monsters and their enablers out.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Nukular Biskits
Seriously? WTF?
But, then, anyone who had a damned lick of sense KNEW this was coming.
They’re not going to stop until every vestige of history that doesn’t put white men on a pedestal is erased.
DAMMIT.
Sorry, guys. I should have said “Good mornin, y’all” first.
Geminid
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I think so long as the investors can handle the costs and/or lack of cash flow this trickery is sustainable. Musk is by far the largest investor, so matters could change if Tesla stock dives too far.
Spanky
LOL. Good luck with that.
NotMax
Topical long watch.
Hitler’s Vision for Art and Culture.
Ohio Mom
@Another Scott: I’ve always found it difficult to reach Social Security by phone. They’ve been understaffed for decades after all.
Fortunately for me, there is/was a field office a few miles away, and I used to be able to just drop in. Sometimes I’d have to wait for up to an hour but just sitting, chilling out, reading, was pleasant enough.
But I think those days are over. I can only hope Ohio Son’s SSDI account is finished hiccuping.
rikyrah
@Rusty:
I read Project 2025. It was all in there
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
that’s a great poster
Geminid
@JoyceH: Charlotte’s Lee statue was melted down in 2023. The Stonewall Jackson statue was reported to be heading to a Los Angeles art museum, but I don’t think it has been displayed.
@BC in Illinois: Have you ever vidited Jefferson Barracks? It’s a little ways downstream of downtown St. Louis. A nice spot. Ulysses Grant was stationed there when he graduated from West Point, before the 4th Infantry Regiment was sent south in the buildup before the war with Mexico.
rikyrah
Symone D. Sanders Townsend
@SymoneDSanders
I love the Smithsonian. Last year, one of the museums invited me to host something for them taking place this year (it was not the NMAAHC). Tuesday of this week, I got a call from the museum uninviting me to host because they “got cold feet” and frankly were concerned about their funding.
By Thursday, the President put a target on the back of the whole Smithsonian Institution. They were right to be concerned, but compliance in advance will not save us.
https://apple.news/AuzzBXPPkRmaeROoYmngLaA
9:25 AM · Mar 28, 2025
https://x.com/SymoneDSanders/status/1905627248276701578
Nukular Biskits
@AxelFoley:
I thought the First Rule was something else … but now I’ve forgotten.
The Thin Black Duke
Happily, whatever happens next, Musk has permanently trashed the Tesla brand. This is the infamous “New Coke” debacle dialed up to 11. Once consumers make up their minds about a product, it’s almost impossible to win back their loyalty, especially when the CEO is yelling at you about how stupid you are for not buying his cars.
catclub
Much later in the 14th Amendment there is this bit:
These people want that part of the 14th overridden as well.
prostratedragon
@rikyrah: So, participation of a Black person is automatically to be taken as the engagement of an inferior person in the name of whatever hey think “DEI” is. Got it.
BlueGuitarist
@They Call Me Noni:
Thanks for going!
this one has the red circle and slash but i think you have to be logged into bluesky to see it:
https://bsky.app/profile/cvantifascists.bsky.social/post/3lkrfipik2c2n
hope you will post what you and your daughter decide and that others will share sign ideas/chants as well.
I love BC’s at 18
(not everyone has heard the chant
No Trump/No KKK/No Fascist USA)
Nukular Biskits
I remember the very first time I visited a Smithsonian museum.
I was in DC for a meeting in Crystal City and, after the meeting, had about six hours to kill before heading to the airport for my flight home.
I took the Metro and went to the National Museum of Natural History and was there in the geology section for all six hours. It wasn’t until I had to leave I realized THERE WERE ACRES OF MORE EXHIBITS I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW EXISTED.
It’s been years since the last time I was in one (my oldest was in first grade when I drove up for a meeting and took the family and he’s 35 now with kids of his own).
This one hits me kinda hard.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, on Dean Baker’s Patereon today:
It’s a good idea (and another illustration of how the GQP messed up the tax code).
The piece will be showing up on his Beat The Press blog at CEPR soon.
Best wishes,
Scott.
kalakal
@The Thin Black Duke:
Gerald Ratner would like a word
https://thehustle.co/gerald-ratners-billion-dollar-speech
Sure Lurkalot
@Spanky: We’re going to send troops to war in Europe over DEI? I can’t fail to see this as the plan.
catclub
@different-church-lady: I am definitely not hoping for some Pol Pot in the year zero remake.
catclub
I think it scans better as:
No to Trump
No K.K.K
No to Fascist USA
Baud
@catclub:
I always get Pol Pot and Pad Thai mixed up at the restaurant.
Miss Bianca
@Baud:
“The Great Lurch Backward”?
trollhattan
Meanwhile, the Burmese junta are giving Trump ideas for future disaster relief: they’re bombing rebel-held areas within the earthquake zone at the same time international relief workers are trying to enter and help quake victims.
Lovely people.
The Thin Black Duke
@kalakal: Thanks. That was fun to read.
trollhattan
@John Barleycorn:
That was quite the advertisement for the Taliban Brand®.
In a twist, they were fuckups with explosives and had to bring in Saudi engineers to properly blow them to bits.
George
@Rusty:
You are spot on. The average American has not yet grasped the extent of what is going on, and what will occur within the coming years. What is playing out is the quote misattributed to Werner Herzog, something to the effect that one-third of the population will kill one-third of the population, while one-third does nothing at all to stop it.
Soprano2
@lowtechcyclist: They want all public spaces to be comfortable for them, to avoid anything that challenges their view of the world. They feel this is their right.
trollhattan
@Baud:
This is great news, because now my NIMBY neighbors can’t stop me from building a steel smelter in my backyard. Winning!
“Honey, where’s the Dutch oven.?”
“I’ve melted it and sent it to the Party so they can build a tank.”
NutmegAgain
It’s making me sick to my stomach, these Trusk-Mump cretins. When I was little, my mom worked at the Smithsonian (she was trained as an archaeologist). I still have vivid memories of being allowed “backstage” at the museum and how amazing that was. And I’ve loved the place ever since. If my mother was alive she would absolutely be beside herself with rage and indignation (she’d be 106, and mighty grumpy anyway.) I just have to channel that for her, I guess.
MagdaInBlack
@zhena gogolia: Ya, I’ve noted her absence too.
S Cerevisiae
@AM in NC: I agree completely. I want people to spit when they say his name. All of them should be shunned.
MagdaInBlack
@lowtechcyclist: All part of the “Seven Mountains” plan, isn’t it.
https://oracioncristiana.org/en/seven-mountain-mandate/
Librettist
@trollhattan:
From what I’ve seen/heard of Yangon, grabbing the go-bag is best option for that bunch.
zhena gogolia
@prostratedragon: She has mentioned health issues, but someone upthread says she might be at mistermix.
Whereaway
‘right ideology’? Sounds like communism to me
mvr
Late to this thread and I haven’t read every comment. But this hits close to home. I’m a monthly donor to the National Museum of African History and Culture and have been since around the time it opened. That Trump would mess with it pisses me off even more than I was pissed off.
I first went to the NMAAHC a few days before Trump was first elected. It was an incredible experience, including standing in line in the dark early in the morning waiting for the doors to open. The camaraderie amongst the people in line was one of the coolest things, even as some of us had premonitions that the election might go sideways as it did.
One of the things that I found most moving/troubling inside was the part of the basement devoted to Thomas Jefferson’s slave holdings. I have known he was a slaveholder for most of my life, but the sheer number (over 400) was much much larger than I had any idea of. It made the dissonance between the Declaration of Independence and his actual actions so much greater somehow, though I’m not completely sure why. Owning one person while recognizing the wrongness of slavery should in some sense be just as dissonant. But in fact the number did surprise me.
So we should recognize and publicize that the president does not run the Smithsonian. It is a congressionally chartered Trust. US Code Section 20, Chapter 3, section 42 says that the Regents of the Smithsonian are
And there are rules for appointing these people that don’t give the president the power to appoint whomever he wants. So this is not a done deal.
trollhattan
Did Elmo break NOAA? Our local report/forecast is stuck at 3:53 yesterday afternoon.
“Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not after you.”
They Call Me Noni
@trollhattan: I will also donate my Dutch oven, but they will have to pry the Le Creuset braiser out of my cold, dead hands. But I can donate a bunch of tools my husband has if it helps. I’m certain he won’t mind.
prostratedragon
@zhena gogolia: Ah.
rikyrah
@The Thin Black Duke:
He didn’t understand the base of people who bought his cars…and that maybe, they weren’t Nazi sympathizers.
Those who want to buy an electric car, now have options that don’t include giving money to the outright Nazi sympathizer.
prostratedragon
@trollhattan: I’m getting correct updates at forecast.weather.gov. i have seen it get stuck a few times in the past.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@The Thin Black Duke:
We’ll get our first good snapshot of this next week when all the automakers will release sales reports. Most do it month-to-month and we’ve seen how Tesla’s sales have nose dived since last December.
But GM only releases quarterly sales data so when that hits next week, we’ll get a good idea of the EV market trends in ‘Murka.
But as we’ve observered and remarked upon before, in Yurp, it’s been dire for Tesla.
And that Is. A. Good. Thing.
Deputinize America
@Soprano2:
“The Divine Right of Assholes”
A Ghost to Most
On the bright side, they are pissing off more people every day, and for the dumbest reasons imaginable.
Chris
@zhena gogolia:
@Baud:
@MagdaInBlack:
TBone’s banned at Balloon Juice. Just posted something over at MM’s blog requesting that you be notified so that you wouldn’t worry. Just FYI.
Sister Golden Bear
@Baud: More like our Great Leap Backward.
Deputinize America
@trollhattan:
Clearly, you need an industrial hog lot, complete with lagoon….
MagdaInBlack
@Chris: Well, I missed that drama. Thank you for updating.
narya
Okay, you all have inspired me. Even though the consulting I’m doing supports people in dire straits, it feels like not enough. I do not have it in me to do much–lots of overwhelm, like many of us–but I stumbled across a group that picks up trash in the neighborhood and then goes and has a beer together. I think I can manage that.
WTFGhost
So, should I post a query about Anne Laurie, to see how many people failed to notice the post author? (“Welcome back… your dreams were your ticket out…”)
@lowtechcyclist: Trump is surrounded by losers, because he is a loser, and the loser-type he’s surrounded himself with are Evangelicals trying to control their “seven mountains” again.
They keep thinking they can get everyone to love like the Nazis did, and, they kind of forget that the Nazis didn’t love, in the first place, which made the whole goal really fucking stupid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Mountain_Mandate
People tell Trump he’ll be a hero if he fulfills the SMM, or cuts the eff out of government, or, destroys the deep/regulatory state, or, makes sure all appointees are political appointees, no one Fauci-ing their mouth off, telling the truth!
And, as someone pointed out Trump doesn’t know anything about anything, but he’s ultravulnerable to flattery.
@Another Scott: I did think there had to be a lot of stupidity in Germany at that time, and it’s kinda good to have it acknowledged, but it does mean we have to hope our current idiots are the right kind of self-immolating stupid.
RaflW
@Spanky: Hopefully the US lawyers that French companies doing biz with the US will have a better understanding of E.O.s than it seems most news orgs do.
The Trump Admin can attempt to ‘reinterpret’ anti-discrimination laws, but Donald can’t just turn everything on it’s head with these orders.
What the Supremes decide to do with this shite-pile once cases reach them is, of course, a lousy crap-shoot.
different-church-lady
@Chris: Da hell? What was the transgression?
zhena gogolia
@Chris: Wow, I wonder how that happened! Glad she’s okay.
Jackie
@Chris:
Seriously? It takes a hurricane, tornado and a tsunami happening all at the same time to get JC pissed off enough to ban someone!
zhena gogolia
@A Ghost to Most: Hey, you never mention the bright side! Glad to see it!
BellaPea
@AM in NC: We had a beautiful trip to DC last April. I wanted to go while Biden was still president. We visited the Smithsonian African American History museum and were very impressed. It was a beautifully organized and dramatic way to tell the history of African Americans. I hope that the Orange Idiot and his minions don’t close it down.
The Audacity of Krope
@Jackie: That’s shocking. I wonder what happened?
Baud
T-Bone’s banned and I’m not?
What a world.
Suzanne
@Chris: I like TBone and I hope she’s well. I don’t know what happened.
A Ghost to Most
@zhena gogolia: Your programming usually conflicts with my bright side, which admittedly tends to the Far Side.
jonas
@Baud: Important to point out that this is a lawsuit filed several years ago by shareholders of Twitter back when it was a publicly- traded company.
Not related to Musk selling his own company to another of his own companies yesterday at a grossly inflated price in order to mine everything on it for AI.
Ben Cisco
@Another Scott: Good morning all.
Just logged into the site and downloaded my records.
However, it will not allow me to update my mailing address. Odd…
jonas
Most people can’t get away with this because if you try to broker some huge business deal using your $1 billion in assets as collateral, they’ll send men in white coats and large nets after you. If you’re Trump or Musk, though, and they think you have enough cashflow to at least pay the origination fees and high interest rates, you can say you’re as rich as you feel and it doesn’t matter. Trump has done this his whole life and in certain circles in this country, it apparently works.
Harrison Wesley
@Chris: What’s up with that? I never saw anything from her that would get somebody banned.
trollhattan
@jonas:
Am feeling left out. While my car is veddy nice, it’s worth maybe $165 million tops, and even that’s stretching things so alas, my scheme for fiscal domination shall have to wait for my next 401(k) quarterly statements. What could possibly go wrong?
frosty
@Chris: I went back through the posts and the last time I saw a comment from TBone was around 3/22. No indication of anything other than normal commenting in the post, so whatever happened was in the background.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: The pictures you have of Cole with the sheep, the fur-lined handcuffs, and the goldendoodle probably keep you safe.
trollhattan
What a world. Ann Coulter is pissed at Trump Co?
https://bsky.app/profile/ronfilipkowski.bsky.social/post/3lljegvjvfs2m
Geminid
@zhena gogolia: I don’t second-guess Mr. Cole’s decisions but still, I will miss the Saucy Wench.
Geminid
@trollhattan: Ann Coulter broke with Trump some years ago.
Ed. Maybe around the time Matt Drudge did.
trollhattan
Guess what guys, we’re getting ALL THE DRUGS.
WaterGirl
@Shalimar: Have to remove a few words for length. New rotating tag.
Unbearably sad, but very true.
Baud
@trollhattan:
Whoever said it’s a surprise is an idiot.
Ksmiami
We’re goo to have to drag these people out of our public spaces
Harrison Wesley
@trollhattan: This ain’t part of Project 2025. This is the Diaper King his own self.
frosty
@frosty: This one:
https://balloon-juice.com/2025/03/22/setting-the-shredded-welcome-mat-on-fire/
zhena gogolia
@frosty: Maybe whatever happened was deleted?
MagdaInBlack
@frosty: I don’t know what happened, it is not my blog, I do not make the decisions, and so my opinion of any decision is irrelevant.
I can say that MM now has new subscriber =-)
Betty
@BellyCat: I thought they did destroy them.
A Ghost to Most
@WaterGirl: Who are hastening the oncoming climate disasters.
Jackson Browne had it right long ago.
Jackie
@trollhattan:
I think she’s been fed up with FFOTUS since his first term. Something about not building The Wall to her satisfaction.
Jackie
@trollhattan:
Is a qualification to work in FFOTUS’s administration.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: for the record, I believe that your interpretation of “nude school” last night was correct and the Aussies were gaslighting us.
Matt McIrvin
@rikyrah: I think he thought he would get a new base of Nazis/Trump worshippers who would be irresistibly compelled to buy them. But these people don’t actually like electric cars, and many of them can’t afford Teslas.
WaterGirl
@The Thin Black Duke: Agree. But I think it’s more like 11 x 11.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: They do that sort of thing.
jonas
@Chris: Really? They could be passionate at times, but I don’t recall anything ever crossing any red lines, being abusive, etc. Were the problematic comments removed or something?
Geminid
@Omnes Omnibus: I see Mark Pocan held a town hall at Baraboo yesterday. Sounds like it was-attended.
John S.
@Geminid:
We are delighted to have TBone as a regular commenter over at the “Dark Side”.
karen gail
@trollhattan: For some reason I thought Ann Coulter started “hating” Trump by end of last term in Oval Office; vaguely remember something setting her off that made her change her tune. I suppose could do a deep dive to try to find it, but not worth the effort; I have sci-fi comfort to read.
Not sure what it is but sometimes get sick to pit of stomach just before everything seems to go sideways and that is where am now.
Geminid
@John S.: I’m glad T-Bone is ok. I have been breathlessly clutching my pearls over her absence from Balloon Juice.
different-church-lady
@Baud:
oh now that’s about as nominated as it can get.
Baud
@Geminid:
I had to sell my pearls to pay for eggs.
jonas
@Matt McIrvin: That would be really weird if Musk thought he could rebrand Tesla as MAGA because Trump has spent the past 10 years doing nothing but shitting on EVs. At his rallies last year, he would ramble on about how they can’t hold a charge and you can’t go anywhere in them.
Maybe Tesla can make a “Rolling Coal” special edition Cybertruck that has a special smoke machine on the back that belches toxic, black exhaust whenever you accelerate or something. That might bring some MAGAts around.
RevRick
@Suzanne: Exactly! Whenever I see on Twitter someone defending Confederate statues, I reply, “Yeah, let’s celebrate treason in defense of the barbaric institution of slavery.” And if they dare reply, “It’s about heritage/history,” I reply, “It’s a heritage/history of shit.”
lowtechcyclist
@Spanky:
One can only hope that (a) few recipients sign, and (b) some of those not signing give “because fuck you, that’s why” as their detailed reasoning.
Salty Sam
Maybe George Clooney wrote a guest post about her.
different-church-lady
@RevRick: Put the statues back up. Change the pedestals to read TRAITOR in large letters. History!
RevRick
I believe it’s important to translate MAGA language into plain English.
“Anti-American language “ = anything that makes a white male bigot uncomfortable/ashamed/ called to account.
John S.
@Geminid:
And to her credit, she asked that someone spread the word over here so people wouldn’t worry about her.
Such a mensch.
Geminid
@John S.: Yes, I saw that. I feel a little bad for Gloria D. T-Bone befriended Gloria early on when she needed a friend here, and they stayed pals.
The Audacity of Krope
I won’t follow. F MM.
artem1s
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
no, its a ponzi scheme – that’s why Enron went bankrupt and then took Anderson down with them. W’s scheme to privatize SS was all about pumping dollars into the market to keep the bubble inflated. but eventually you run out new
moneyrubes to grift and then the bubble burst and it’s clear even to a casual observer that it’s not sustainable – then every dumps their shares but usually after the insiders have already dumped theirs. Ken Lay was robbing the company emergency fund while he was walking out the door.MagdaInBlack
@The Audacity of Krope: Entirely your choice and your right.
lowtechcyclist
@Soprano2:
Exactly. They want the whole world (or at least, anywhere they might go to) to be their ‘safe space.’
John S.
@RevRick:
And yet, there are folks here who make bigoted comments without remorse, who are actually cheered on and encouraged by others.
Isn’t there something in the Bible about taking care of the plank sticking out of your eye before worrying about the splinters in other people’s eyes?
Geminid
@The Audacity of Krope: I guess we’ll put you down as, “Undecided.”
The Audacity of Krope
@Geminid: I’m finding it nearly as disconcerting that no one remembers what happened.
trollhattan
Now they’ve done it. They’ve challenged the Mouse. Never fuck with the Mouse.
John S.
@Geminid:
People can still be friends outside of BJ. 😊
The Audacity of Krope
@MagdaInBlack: MM has been routinely pushing a very particular line of bigotry that is responsible for the most heinous political act of my lifetime.
The perpetuation of that is disgusting me and I don’t think it should have any home in our politics, particularly among Democrats.
Steve in the ATL
@lowtechcyclist: “Allez-vous faire foutre. Merci bien!”
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL:
Putain lettre. Beh!
Deputinize America
@trollhattan:
Within three weeks, Disney Channel will be running “Song of the South” and “The Jungle Book” in constant rotation.
As Jeremiah Wright so correctly noted, “God DAMN America”.
Salty Sam
Serious question here: what line of bigotry is that? I haven’t read every word posted by MM, so I must have missed something. Please explain.
MagdaInBlack
@The Audacity of Krope: As I said above.
The Audacity of Krope
@Salty Sam: He’s a full-time advocate for putting old folks out on ice flies.No discernment, no respect for the fact that Democrats may choose to advance younger candidates in certain instances and not others and the reasons they may have for doing so, that they’re working with each other as colleagues making these decisions.
Geminid
@John S.: Oh yeah. Gloria can hang with T-Bone over at MM’s blog. That is a very serious forum though, not a place to pal around outside of serious political discussions.
But I am glad Kay posts there. I think she’s a real asset.
lowtechcyclist
@MagdaInBlack:
Yeppers.
Funny, the Bible says “love not the world” (1 John 2:15). As the New English Bible translates it, “do not set your hearts on the godless world or anything in it. Anyone who loves the world is a stranger to the Father’s love.”
But there they are, seeking worldly power to control and dominate what the rest of us can do or see or live or love. How can one more deeply adopt the ways and values of this world than that?
It seems to me that, having failed in winning people to their version of Christ because they are a pack of fucking assholes (funny how that crimps one’s evangelism), they’ve decided instead to just force people to at least outwardly appear to be like them, whether they want to or not.
In Matthew 23, Jesus tells the Pharisees that they’re a bunch of whitewashed sepulchers, all clean and shiny on the outside but dead inside. I’m pretty sure Jesus didn’t intend that as flattery, but these people want to turn everyone into whitewashed sepulchers. In the name of Christ. Brilliant.
George
@The Audacity of Krope:
I agree with you completely.
The deification of MM by some commenters is ridiculous.
MagdaInBlack
@lowtechcyclist: I feel pretty sure the people running the show are completely unfamiliar with any of those verses you mention.
And so it goes..
comrade scotts agenda of rage
The deification of some commenters by some commenters is equally ridiculous.
Eunicecycle
@lowtechcyclist: I’m also fond of Matthew 25, which MAGA definitely does not follow. Letting food rot when it could feed the hungry; letting companies poison the water so it’sno good for drinking; making healthcare unaffordable for many; deporting the stranger who comes here for safety; keeping prisoners in appalling conditions. It’s almost like they don’t really believe in what the Bible says.
Harrison Wesley
@The Audacity of Krope: It’s so heinous you can’t name it? Ok. I get it.
randy khan
@Geminid:
That reminds me – something like 90% of the debt already has been sold off at steep discounts, so the banks that made the original loans already have taken their well-deserved baths. It’s the buyers of the debt who will benefit (assuming there is any benefit, which is, let’s say, not obvious just yet). As others have said, the AI business is totally private, too, so the $90b valuation isn’t necessarily built on anything but Musk saying so for purposes of this deal. And if it’s worth, oh $45 billion, or $10 billion, then the Twitter shareholders aren’t really getting anything like full value for their original investments.
WaterGirl
Looks like it’s time for an open thread!
lowtechcyclist
@Whereaway:
Indeed. At the very least, it sounds like (gasp!) political correctness.
randy khan
@Cheryl from Maryland:
The Renwick, too (technically part of SAAM, but they typically do their own exhibitions). The show before the current show was “Subversive, Skilled Sublime: Fiber Art by Women,” and it definitely talked about the subversive part.
But I think what happens is that Vance tries to use threats to federal funding to redirect future exhibits, and maybe even to force some reinterpretation of current permanent exhibitions. Since, as you say, that takes a while, we can hope that nothing much happens before sanity is restored, but we also could see shows like the Nick Cave and Bisa Butler shows cancelled because Vance doesn’t like them (or understand them).
Gin & Tonic
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Got it. Mentioning you worship Baud is out.
lowtechcyclist
@MagdaInBlack:
I would bet a decent chunk of change that Russell Vought would tell you he’s read the whole Bible, cover to cover. Probably more than once, and probably the New Testament several times. Because that’s the sort of thing these people do as virtue signaling to each other.
Now what part of it he’s absorbed, that’s a whole ‘nother question.
Geminid
@randy khan: I hadn’t been keeping up. I just remember reading that 6 months in or so the banks still had not syndicated the loans as is typical.
That whole deal was screwed up. As I recall, Musk made his whopping offer in April, 2022 and then spent all summer trying to crawfish out of the deal. Then he decided to close in October. I think by that time Twitter had sued him. Anyway, the banks still lent him the money to purchase the overpriced platform.
MagdaInBlack
@lowtechcyclist: It appears to me that they to have absorbed the old testament wrath and retribution parts really well.
The Audacity of Krope
@Harrison Wesley: If you failed to notice the heinous dipshittery he’s been putting out or how it is of a piece of what Democrats did in July or that I alluded to these things or where I did, in fact, say it out more explicitly in a later post…
…I can’t help you.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Gin & Tonic:
Heh heh, okay, we can grant a carve out in that one case.
lowtechcyclist
@RevRick:
The condensed version: statues don’t document history, they show who we’re honoring.
If they insist that the statues of Confederate leaders and generals are history, they can build a museum for them, and have it document where each statue was located, and for what period of time it stood there. That would give a concise history of how they honored the defenders of slavery.
Geminid
@randy khan: The original Twitter shareholders did great. They got paid much more than their shares were worth. It’s the lenders and e private investors in the buyout who are taking losses.
One was that Saudi prince referred to in the Reuters article linked at #25 above. He rolled his $2 billion stake in the publically held Twitter into the new, privately held company. I read that while he was the nominal investor, this was Saudi sovereign wealth fund money. The Reuters article said the prince pushed for the merger with the other Musk company.
My recollection from an October, 2022 CNBC article is that Musk put up somewhere around $27 billion of the purchase price of $44 billion plus another 1 $billion in fees. Six or 7 banks put up $12 billion and the Saudi prince and various private equity investors like Sierra Capital put up $6 billion.
lowtechcyclist
@Eunicecycle:
They just pull out a handful of verses that (to them, at least) justify beating up (usually punching down) on people they have it in for, and rely on their adversaries being secular liberals who don’t know the Bible themselves.
Some of us liberals know the Bible pretty damn well, and if they ever run into one of us in a public forum, it’ll be interesting.
lowtechcyclist
@Gin & Tonic:
Baud, Ba’al, what’s the difference? ;-)
frosty
@WaterGirl: Agreed!! I’ll be right over.
HopefullyNotcassandra
How soon before our history is for sale on-line like occurred under Bush II?
I hope someone has saved all of the interviews!
For your Saturday musical pleasure
https://folkways.si.edu/
Listen to our living past before this goons yank it away from us.
John S.
@The Audacity of Krope:
Nobody should be allowed to live rent free in your head. Certainly not an anonymous blogger who you’ve never met before and really know nothing about. But you do you.
The Audacity of Krope
@John S.: A former front pager here has two new projects being discussed here and it’s a problem for you that I have an opinion about that front pager.
So you engage in armchair pop-psychobabble to say I don’t have a right to an opinion without actually saying it.
Sound about right?
satby
@Chris: et al: she [TBone] was not banned. I asked John. She was given a time-out when 83 of 120 comments on a post were from her. And then she didn’t reply when he emailed her about it.
Honestly, I don’t miss the firehouse of spam.
prostratedragon
@Another Scott: Thanks for this. I’d forgotten about the OpenCulture site, which used to be a regular stop for me. Guess things have been a bit too hectic lately.
Geminid
@satby: I wonder what the hell got into T-Bone to write so many comments. That’s prolific even for her! Still, I’m glad it’s only a time-out.
satby
@Geminid: she’s always spammed threads even when she got few responses. The lack of courtesy was pretty obnoxious. But I just blanked and moved on. But I doubted she was banned, John doesn’t ban for being cluelessly annoying.
Gin & Tonic
@Geminid: Some people think they have a lot to say.
Steve in the ATL
@Geminid: adderal and ketamine?
satby
@Steve in the ATL: 😂😂😂
Steve in the ATL
@Gin & Tonic: is this a callback to a song I posted the other night?
Geminid
@Gin & Tonic: I’ve noticed.
T-Bone likes to share a lot of music too. I generally pass up naked YouTube links, music and otherwise, because they eat up my high speed data. I keep passing on the opportunities AT&T offers for more high speed data, partly so I have to pass up naked YouTube links.
Steve in the ATL
duplicate
satby
@Jackie: @The Audacity of Krope: @Baud:
Nope, not banned.
Gin & Tonic
@Steve in the ATL: Sorry, I’m not so clever.
Jackie
@satby: per TBone at mistermix’s:
As JC always starts with a timeout, before permanently banning anyone, I think your report is more… probable? At any rate, it appears she’s decided to move on. I wish her happiness.
pluky
@The Audacity of Krope: Which is a very good measure of the ultimate ‘significance’ of blog thread flame wars.
satby
@Jackie: Well, that’s what John told me 30 minutes ago. Not answering her email from him about it is on her. Since she often “joked” about getting banned for her barrages of comments and emojis as comment responses to almost every single other commenter, I assume it’s mission accomplished for her. But she wasn’t banned.
Edit: Oh wow, just read the “reasons unimportant to me” snipe. Classy.
Geminid
@satby: It’s a good thing Mistermix is such a patient guy!
Denali5
I agree that her barrage of comments was annoying. Let others comment- don’t take over the space.
satby
@Geminid: right?
zhena gogolia
@Geminid: OMG
Jackie
@Geminid: LOL!
randy khan
@Geminid: Oh, yeah, it absolutely was great for the original shareholders because Musk way overpaid for it. I was talking about the current ones, who have not done so well.
way2blue
All the museums should lock their doors and post signs saying ‘Trump objects to our displays. We will stay closed until negotiations on what to keep & what to jettison have finished. Oh BTW. Here’s the phone number for the Whiter House switchboard…. ’. [FWIW. That’s a tactic Secretary Babbitt utilized during the Clinton/Gingrich shutdown. He demanded that the national parks close when learned that rangers were manning them unpaid.]
Also. Wait till Trump finds out admission to these American treasures is free!
frosty
Something which many of us can be thankful for!
WTFGhost
@Geminid: For what it’s worth, when I’m emotionally overwhelmed, I want to talk – I don’t have people to talk to normally. This is one of the few places where I might be heard, which sometimes seems overwhelmingly important.
To me, it’s like a family member being upset, and you’re not sure why, and you might never be sure why, unless you’re close enough, but, meh, it happens to the best of us. Which means it happens to me and I try to forgive myself, which isn’t always easy, because I might not be able to put my finger on *why* things got weird.
I just hope family mends just fine.
Also: Cole *is* a good man – checked in on me when I’d forgotten I probably got darker and more at risk than normal.
Geminid
@randy khan: I figured that’s who you were talking about and I should have said so. I was not sure everyone knows we’re talking about three successive entities.
I think the private equity folks didn’t get in too deep. The Saudis certainly didn’t, even at $2.2 billion. I think there was a Qatari stake but these guys could lose ten times that one and hardly notice.
I think it’s the banks that got pinched. They’ll get over it, although some executives might have walked the plank. But I expect they had soft landings.
WTFGhost
@Steve in the ATL: I can’t answer for the ketamine, but the adderall is more likely to either overwhelm you – you might not think “20migs” is a big deal, but it’s pure-D Dex-and-Methamphetamine – or hyperfocus you.
Of course, some really stupid people (like Trump) crush and snort adderall, and, reportedly, end up losing bowel control, but, at least it’s because he purchased illicit drugs, like a dose of ‘Shrooms or an eight of pot, and belongs in jail. He has prescriptions that he can order his underlings to fill, so long as they won’t impair his performative capabilities, so, eventually, maybe he’ll Elvis out.
Ketamine – that’s one of those “out there” drugs, like LSD, intended to break you outside of your ordinary brain. Thing is, for someone like Musk, I’d bet his ketamine use just confirms to himself that he’s on a spiritual high, and Trump, trying to kill the disabled, isn’t doing something mean or evil. For someone like Trump, I think his mind is stuck in such an evil rut, he’d have a vision of hell, and think it came from nowhere, because he never does anything evil or mean, to anyone he loves, he… just doesn’t love anyone but himself.
Miki
@WTFGhost: Thanks for this. AFAIK Jackals are a big tent kind of pack. No need to shit on folks that annoy or piss you off unless they’re true trolls. IMO I’m not the only one who can empathize with occasional boundary problems.
Giving grace is most often a good thing.
satby
@WTFGhost: Cole is a very good man.
sab
@mvr: I was late in my donation this year. Now I get to increase it substantially.
David Collier-Brown
@artem1s: It can be run as a Ponzi scheme, but it need not. Canada’s equivalent is fiscally stable. Of course our very own Trump, Mr Poilievre, says it’s broken.
Gloria DryGarden
@satby: i probably would benefit from reading a definition of what spamming a thread means.
Sometimes I comment a lot, and assume people not interested will scroll past.
Gloria DryGarden
@Geminid: thank you. I miss her.
And thanks for having my back, you.
Gloria DryGarden
@Miki: I’m thankful for all who *do* give grace around here.
I try to scroll by when it gets to people getting mean and entering into verbal attacks. It can sting.
Gloria DryGarden
@Geminid: if I could ever figure out how to get a comment live on there. Have tried several ways, and consulted mm. Will find another way. I like his writing.
im not comprehending the big complaints some folks have about mm. I must have missed a thread full of arguments. I don’t enjoy making people wrong when I disagree with them, if they’re basically in my world view. ( I don’t extend that to those maga people, nope)
Well, sometimes I stay away, and materially participate in the real world. Nice to avoid the bickering sessions that occur sometimes
satby
@Gloria DryGarden: 83 comments in a thread of 120 seems to qualify. So there’s a measure. But she’s not banned.
Gloria DryGarden
@satby: over 2/3 does seem like a huge amount of comments. I missed that thread.
Some people appear to think it’s spam if there’s one off topic comment or a re -direct for a question or a tangent.
thx for your reply
mvr
@sab: I’ll probably up my monthly donation as well, but I want to be sure it doesn’t go to helping Trump whitewash the museum (so to speak) first.