I’ll start this open thread with a mishmash of random thoughts.
I hope Amber Ruffin does a roast of FFOTUS, even though the cancelled the comedy part – no, make that the only part worth watching – of the White House Boot-lickers Dinner.
Back when I could still stand to watch the late night shows, I really enjoyed Amber Ruffin. I think she was on Seth Meyers. I’m not totally sure, but I love you all enough to give you a shot at being able to correct me if I’m wrong. I gave us the late night shows because I couldn’t even stand to hear those guys imitating the orange one. So I quit cold turkey and never looked back.
Speaking of which, I normally can’t look at photos of FFOTUS, but for some reason I can look at this one. Hopefully I made it small enough that you can blur your eyes if you find it disturbing.
Mark Hamill is a treasure.
Not satisfied with purchasing a Presidential Election to become co-President, Sissy SpaceX now wants to buy himself a Supreme Court judge in Wisconsin.
You can end his shopping spree, Wisconsinites! 🚫 💰
#VoteForJudgeSusanCrawford 🗳️ ✅ 👍
This is super important.
— Mark Hamill (@markhamillofficial.bsky.social) March 28, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Sissy SpaceX, what can we do to help make that go viral?
We are not worthy of Mark Hamill or George Takai.
Are we great again yet?
— George Takei (@georgetakei.bsky.social) March 29, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Collaborator is definitely the right term.
These are the senators who collaborated with the GOP.
Schumer
Fetterman
Cortez Masto
Durbin
King
Shaheen
Gillibrand
Schatz
Hassan
PetersDon’t let them forget it. No peace for them.
— George Takei (@georgetakei.bsky.social) March 14, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Here’s a photo from era’s upcoming OTR post.
Who’s a good boy?!
Does he remind you of anyone? (Hint: Rhymes with Thurson.)
I thought we might need a palate cleanser.
Enough rambling, open thread!
Jackie
Thurston!!!🥰
lamh47
Anyone watch Jack Reacher series on Amazon? Is it good? I mean Equalizer series level good?
I just rewatched the movie with Tom Cruise and remembered how I enjoyed the film and was just thinking maybe I want to give the series a try
NotMax
Open thread? Bonus weekend watch.
Checking in with magnetic personalities.
WaterGirl
@lamh47: Ha! I started watching it yesterday. I am not even through the first episode, and it does kind of remind me of the Equalizer. The fighting isn’t that interesting to me – really just one scene so far, but that’s what the 10-second forward buttons are for, right?
I think you should try it. We can compare notes!
Matt McIrvin
She’s on Seth Meyers and she also had her own show on Peacock for a while–I loved that show. Now she’s also on Roy Wood, Jr.’s US version of Have I Got News For You on CNN, a show that I’m amazed is still allowed to be aired for the time being.
Trivia Man
I saw that shady vance makeup thing as a short video clip. But his head was replaced with that fat head youve seen with a beanie
lamh47
@WaterGirl: I might give it a try. A friend of mine said she liked it, not as much as the Equalizer series (mahn…Queen Latifah and the supporting cast are great on that show and I actually buy enough of the actions sequences that it doesn’t take away from the chemistry).
If not tomorrow I’ll def give it a go during the next month while I wait to start the new job
WaterGirl
Apropos of nothing (except that I just fed everyone their nightly meal) Miss Willow is still eating like a little piglet. Starting the first night after the surgery, she wants to eat more than she ever has. She’s still a little thing – 7.7 pounds! – and I’m letting her eat what she wants.
Still, it’s very unusual for her.
lowtechcyclist
As noted a couple of threads ago, Elmu has already committed a crime under Wisconsin law by *offering* to pay people for voting.
They need to be waiting to apprehend him the moment his plane lands in Wisconsin.
Jay
@lamh47:
It’s meh “okay”. Mix of copaganda/Death Wish/fights, some smart stuff, (Reacher as a lawyer).
Tracker is way better.
Bg
She was on Seth Meyers. Now she’s on Have I Got News for You, with Roy Wood Jr on CNN on MAX Saturday night. Not sure if you can find it on regular CNN if you don’t have MAX. But she is hilarious
Jay
@lamh47:
New job, whoo hoo!!!!!!!!
Jackie
@Matt McIrvin: Thus far FFOTUS hasn’t sued CNN for this show.
That’s likely to change in one… two…
lamh47
@Jay: Ah…yeah. That’s def not usually my thing…hmm…I might just try out the 1st episode. If it gets my attention, I’ll keep up with it. The Equalizer series def caught me in it’s grasp after the 1st ep for sure.
Michael Bersin
At noon today there was a march and rally in Warrensburg, Missouri protesting the Trump shitshow. I was pleasantly surprised by the turnout. Close to 300 people. Local law enforcement (Warrensburg Police, Johnson County Sheriff, University of Central Missouri Police) blocked intersections as the marchers proceeded in the street from downtown to the UCM campus Quad.
Warrensburg has a population of just under 20,000.
There was also a march in Kansas City today – news reports are stating participation “in the thousands”.
My favorite sign: “Mein Covfefe”
March and Rally – Warrensburg, Missouri – March 29, 2025
Jackie
@WaterGirl:
Cats don’t typically overeat the way dogs do. I say let her have her way, but monitor her. If after a few days she still eats like a piglet, check with her veterinarian.
lamh47
@Jay: yup. I’m both happy and trepidatious at the same time. next week physical and ID badge photo.
zhena gogolia
Calling them “collaborators” is disgusting.
lamh47
Don’t know if I mentioned it here, but I finally will be getting unemployment benefits for the month I was out of work before reinstatement. In CA you don’t get paid for the first week (grace week) but you do get paid for the following weeks of unemployment. So, before my “reinstatement”, I was out of work for 4 weeks, so as of now I’m only getting paid unemployment for 3 weeks. I will take what I can get…any extra money right now is GOOD money…PERIODT!
I will be eligible to rectify for unemployment for another 2 weeks after 4/6. If I get an actual paycheck from feds I will not certify for those weeks and will not reopen the claim. If feds haven’t re-fired me yet, and I don’t get a paycheck, guess what…I consider myself STILL unemployed. I mean I still have not received an offiical reinstatement notice, so…I’ll think about whether I ethically want to recertify for unemployment or not…tho I probably wont…damn me and my need to be ethically sound…🙄
MCat
@WaterGirl: So glad to hear that Miss Willow is thriving and eating so well. A great sign. Precious kitties.
Kristine
@lamh47: Yea for the new job!
NotMax
@lamh47
Haven’t dipped into the just released season. Previous ones were watchable enough but nothing special.
Ohio Mom
I’m guessing the first photo is AI generated. They look like a wax museum display. Who knows, maybe one day there will be a wax museum display modeled after that. Maybe it will be with the House of Horrors vignettes.
It’s getting harder and harder for me to keep up with the news. It’s too much.
I remember reading somewhere that Hitler destroyed Germany’s democracy in 53 days. I counted from Inauguration Day and 53 days was March 14. Then March 14 came and went and at least some of the courts were still working.
But then I remembered my cousin Eleanor’s observation that you can’t really say when a baby starts talking. Does knowing one word mean baby is talking? No, they are just saying one word, that’s hardly holding a conversation, which she thought was what talking is.
There are many small steps to that point, and does one conversational circle count as talking? One circle would be, Baby says, “Up,” and Adult says, “Sure thing, I’ll pick you up.” Then circle number two, Baby makes happy sound and Adult says, “You like being up.”
Eleanor was not convinced that sort of interchange was really talking because what new information is being exchanged? The adult isn’t learning anything new, not the way we usually do when we are talking with someone else. Even if it’s as banal as someone answering how their day was, you didn’t know that before they told you.
And so it has occurred to me with the fall of democracy, there isn’t going to be any one moment when we can say, That’s when it happened!
So maybe 53 days is accurate enough.
coin operated
mrs coin is a big fan of the Reacher series. She couldn’t stand Tom Cruise in the movie franchise.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@lamh47:
Great news about the new job
Ohio Mom
@WaterGirl: It takes a lot of calories and especially protein to knit oneself back together after surgery. You have to grow a bunch of new tissues.
Professor Bigfoot
I got a new toolbox, all steel, five drawers… and a wee bit bigger than I’d planned on.
Okay, WAY bigger than I’d planned on.
But I got a great price for it and am now busily printing Gridfinity tool organizers (ripping through filament like Sherman through Atlanta) and having a grand old time.
But once I move into it, I’m not sure I’ll be able to lift it…
Jay
@Jackie:
Lil’ Bit, was not little. On the exam table, the Vet said she was fat, she pushed him out of the way, leapt down off the table, pushed a full sized fridge out of the way and hid behind it and nursed her wounded feelings.
When I finally got her out, (much “you will be dead to me, soon” hissing), and got her back up on the exam table, the Vet changed his opinion to “big boned”.
NotMax
@Professor Bigfoot
Tool ownership expands to fill available space.
“That lone stud finder looks so forlorn.”
;)
Another Scott
@lamh47: It certainly has been a whirlwind for you the past few months! Congratulations for landing on your feet and being able to stay out there where you wanted – it’s important!
Enjoy your downtime as much as you can, even though you didn’t want it now. I’m sure you’ll be quite busy quite soon in your new position!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Professor Bigfoot
@zhena gogolia: There is never any kind of benefit of the doubt to Democrats.
Too bad Americans* chose what they did last November; now all anyone has is a series of shitty choices.
RevRick
If the White House Correspondents want to have a dinner that really gets to the heart of the matter, they would eat in utter silence the whole time.
eclare
Cortez Masto hurts. I remember fundraising for her.
WaterGirl
@Ohio Mom: that makes makes me feel better!
NotMax
@RevRick
“Wait a minute. This is real crow.”
//
Chetan Murthy
@eclare: I donated back in 2018. But hell, I gave the Federal max to Sinemansion both. -That- hurt.
WaterGirl
@eclare: she’s still better then a Republican! Way better.
Professor Bigfoot
@NotMax: Oh man “you ain’t neva lied”-
Really, this was to replace the plastic Craftsman mechanic’s kit I bought 7 years ago, plus the many and various wrenches and sockets ‘n’ suchlike (you need a low-profile 24mm socket WITH a big breaker bar to change the serpentine belt on a 986) I’ve collected.
My original plan was to pare the kit down to the metric bits only (ALL our vehicles are all metric)… but then the box arrived and whoah, plenty of room for everything (oh my achin’ back).
WaterGirl
@Professor Bigfoot: sounds like you need to buy more tools!
Professor Bigfoot
@lamh47: GOOD ON YA. All the luck to ya.
Professor Bigfoot
@WaterGirl: Hush, there’s a Harbor Freight two miles from me. XD
Wileybud
That good boy looks like a Rottweiler! Is that what Thurston sees when he looks in the mirror?
SiubhanDuinne
@Ohio Mom:
WHAT??!! I know that can’t be right!
JoyceH
@coin operated: I never saw the Tom Cruise version because I’ve read the books, and whatever else you can say about Cruise, Reacher he’s not. The TV version is much more like the books.
Jay
@Professor Bigfoot:
Don’t lift, roll. Milwaukee makes “sectionals”. Don’t tell Couchfucker.
Jay
@JoyceH:
The First Cruise Reacher was okay and a bit of a warning, ZEK. The second, meh.
Ksmiami
@Professor Bigfoot: the CEO is an active Democratic Party donor
eclare
Oh gosh! Give Miss Willow all the kibble!
lamh47
I’ve been going through the DC animated movies and I gotta say, DC animation is def hit after hit after hit!
I’ve watched at least 7 of them so far and they are def top tier!
Martin
@Professor Bigfoot: We paid out an injury claim a number of years back when a Harbor Freight C clamp snapped in half under the load of a middle school girl tightening it during a summer camp. Questioning if it was a defect, our lab tech pulled a different size one out and tightened it until it too snapped in half.
We set a policy of not buying Harbor Freight tools after that.
RevRick
I like George Takei and think he’s a great treasure, but I think he’s way off base on this matter.
First of all, what are we seeking to accomplish if we follow this path?
A rigid enforcement of orthodoxy? Step out of line, and we’ll punish you?
Second, do we really have all the information or are we just making assumptions based on our own priorities?
I can understand why folks got upset with the outcome, but I don’t know if I could make a better choice.
True leadership sometimes means disappointing one’s supporters. Not all the time, but sometimes.
So, before we hurl these Democratic and Independent Senators into the outer darkness, we need to consider that perhaps they took the bullet for all their colleagues. Moreover, we need to remember that there is a yawning chasm between any Democrat and the nearest Republican.
WaterGirl
@eclare: I am!
HeleninEire
My second home, Ireland, told my Irish friends not to visit me here.
I am angry. I am sad. I can’t wait to go back permanently.
A friend asked me yesterday “what would you do if he tries that bullshit about loyalty to a country?” Meaning, will he ask duel citizens to make a choice?
I did not hesitate to answer.
Chetan Murthy
@RevRick: Nobody’s gettin’ hurled. Hopefully, the ones in sufficiently Blue states will be finding other employment soon enough.
hells littlest angel
Yes. Notably, the “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell” bit.
WaterGirl
@RevRick: You make some good points.
it seems like every single senator who voted should’ve explained exactly what their rationale was and they should’ve been sharing that for quite some time, that they didn’t is part of why it looks like a cowardly complicit act.
Chetan Murthy
@hells littlest angel: And “Amber says What!?!?!” I’m sure there are other segments she does, but they don’t come to mind right now.
zhena gogolia
@RevRick: Agreed.
Professor Bigfoot
@Ksmiami: Oh, good! Makes me feel better about my “Inside Track Club” membership!
WaterGirl
@HeleninEire: Not us, I imagine.
zhena gogolia
@Chetan Murthy: Her book about racism is very funny (I know that sounds weird).
You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism
HeleninEire
@WaterGirl: No. And that makes me so sad. But if I am forced to make a choice; it’s Ireland.
WaterGirl
@HeleninEire: it’s all terribly sad. And horrifying. Hugs,
Professor Bigfoot
@Martin: How long ago was that?
I’ve honestly been impressed with a lot of the hand tools they offer; and I’m an old time Craftsman guy (I bought that new kit 7 years ago because I aged out of changing my own oil in the daily driver… and then I bought this damn jalopy!)
Their Icon line is meant to compete with the likes of Mac, Matco and Snap-on.
Since I don’t rely on my tools to make a living… which reminds me, I have a dead Craftsman ratchet I need to get replaced. ;)
Professor Bigfoot
@RevRick: Well said, Rev.
Martin
@RevRick: It does not matter if there is a chasm between Democrats and Republicans. There was a chasm between Nazi Germany and Stalinist USSR, but neither was an acceptable choice.
We are not in an era of good faith policy disagreements where the traditional politics of Democrats would be reasonable. We’re in an era of authoritarianism, on a clear path that resembles somewhat Hitlers coup following his election where he dismantled all of the checks against his power. Hitler had a lot of political opposition as well, and they were not up to the task of stopping him.
My analogy here is the Democratic Party, and many of their supporters recognize that getting to the moon is the necessary goal, so they embark in ever larger hot air balloons to get there, pointing out that ever time they get further from earth and closer to the moon. It’s unclear if they don’t understand that isn’t a path to ever getting the moon or if they do and figure we’re too dumb to understand it either.
Incrementalism in a time of crisis is usually fatal. In a time of crisis you need to be willing to dismiss all of the existing tools as inadequate, otherwise they would have prevented the crisis from developing, and work the problem from ‘how do we stop Trump from his clear objective of being a dictator’ backward. Trump doesn’t care that Congress didn’t pass legislation to eliminate the Department of Education, he’s doing it anyway. He doesn’t care that we aren’t at war, he’s employing those powers now. Democrats that feel that if they just vote harder they’ll win aren’t useful to us right now. (Same for people that think more jokes about Republicans will win) That’s not the fight. The fight is much more serious than that and we need leaders that both recognize that and will call for the suitable remedies for that.
If my house is on fire and my community leadership suggests that we install smoke detectors (a good idea, to be sure) I’m going to be critical of them because that’s not a solution to the fucking problem. The problem is the house is on fire, and either you aren’t interested in solving that problem or don’t see it as a problem. Either way, you are useless to me.
This is not a rigid enforcement of orthodoxy, this is about rejecting performative politics for that which will work. People’s objection to voting for the CR wasn’t necessary about the legal consequences of that, it was about needing Democrats who were going to raise the flag, and these members clearly identifying themselves as not those people.
This is going to end in violence. Violence is already taking place and that will only increase. That’s unfortunately where the fight is, and we need generals not negotiators.
Professor Bigfoot
@HeleninEire: and rightfully so, blessings upon you.
The USA is on a very dark path right now.
Timill
@Professor Bigfoot: All metric? So you don’t have the fun I had on my old UK Vauxhall Chevette…
The body was basically the Opel Kadett, so everything was metric. But the mechanicals were the old Viva 1256cc, so everything was Imperial. The battery had one 1/2″ fitting and one 13mm…
Martin
@Professor Bigfoot: Would have been about 2016-2017.
Mind you, a toolbox is unlikely to cause injury.
Melancholy Jaques
@zhena gogolia:
Why? When we said Trump would destroy democracy, were we kidding? Exaggerating?
@RevRick:
Do we have any examples from history where cooperating with evil people like Trump helped bring them down?
The priority was to send a clear message to Trump, our voters, & the whole world that we do not approve of what he is doing & we will not help him do it.
These senators ignored that & ignored the wishes of the people who elected them. Why? Because they’re wiser & know more than we do? Who believes that anymore? They lost to him twice!
Chetan Murthy
@Melancholy Jaques: I think a lot about those undocumented immigrants grabbed off the streets and shipped to that concentration camp in El Salvador. People from Venezuela, probably other countries. I think about how that could happen to me: because if undocumented immigrants have no rights, then anybody -accused- of being the same, also has no rights.
If that isn’t worth shutting the government down over, WHAT THE HELL IS?
Yeah: collaborators.
Martin
@Melancholy Jaques: I would have gone with ‘appeasers’ but I suspect that would have garnered the same reaction.
Jay
@Chetan Murthy:
Quislings.
Rusty
@Professor Bigfoot: I could never lift my toolbox of sockets, it’s practically solid metal. I have an Craftsman box on a small roller cabinet with a couple of drawers, it got them as a present in high school!! The top drawers are 1/4 inch sockets, then 3/8’s below, 1/2 inch below that and finally a 3/4 set in the lowest drawer. The whole thing together is hundreds of pounds. It’s an insane number of sockets, drivers, breaker bars, extentions and much, much more related items, and yest when I changed the clutch on my Fiat 500c last year, I ended up buying a few more sockets of weird sizes or depths for a handful of bolts and nuts. It was cheaper to buy them in sets at Harbor Frieght than the individual ones anywhere else!!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Chetan Murthy:
But Chuck Schumer works out at the Congressional gym with his GOP “colleagues”, so he absolutely knows better:
I still can’t believe this was a real thing he said, but it was, in an interview with the NYT.
If Schumer hadn’t have gotten so much genuine backlash from Dems, both the base and probably others in Congress, he wouldn’t have felt the need to defend himself in the media
ETA:
I honestly don’t know if shutting down the government would’ve made a real difference or not, but I do know that Schumer and the other Senate Dems did not cover themselves in glory. He didn’t seem to have any backup plan for the possibility that the House GOP would stay united. He flip flopped in the span of 24 hrs, looking cowardly and weak while at the same time lying to voters. In a leader, that’s a huge problem to not have a plan for such an outcome
They Call Me Noni
@WaterGirl: Did the vet maybe give her something to boost her appetite in anticipation of her not having one post surgery? I would check in with him/her. I just know from being a cat mom that after any kind of procedure sometimes they don’t want to eat. My Gizzy had an ultrasound and I had to request medicine from my vet to get him to eat and the pill was a once every three days dose so it does last a while. But I only had to give it to him once.
Chetan Murthy
Chuck Schumer would absolutely hand his wallet over to the Federal Wallet Inspector. Sheesh, what a shithead.
HeleninEire
@Professor Bigfoot: Thank you. If I am forced…I’m out.
They Call Me Noni
@Chetan Murthy: I’m sorry, I am trying to picture Chuck Schumer working out and I just can’t.
mrmoshpotato
Frito-Lay should sue.
Basketball Jones-son?
Chetan Murthy
@They Call Me Noni: Ehhhh, I can. When I lived in NYC I used to see Ben Stiller’s dad (Jerry Stiller, George’s father on Seinfeld) at the gym I worked out at. I mean, if you can imagine him working out you can imagine Schumer working out.
ETA: I work out at the YMCA in SF, and the one thing it has a surfeit of is old guys and ladies. Tons of ’em. And (haha) I turned 60 this year, so I’m one of ’em! Lotsa old folks workin’ out.
Professor Bigfoot
@Timill: Well… truth be told, even though they are both all metric (‘18 Ford SHO and ‘19 Kia Soul) I never touch ‘em. Heh, the Ford goes to the dealership for oil changes!
Ahh, but Moneypenny…
surfk9
@Martin: Well said. I have been saying this to my congressman’s (Harder CA-09) reps when they come to the county central committee meetings. He is a bipartisan type of guy. He is learning. He has attended several private community meetings and has been positively slammed in forums which featured his voters. At one he was left completely speechless. I have noticed a subsequent serious change in his rhetoric lately. It has become edgier. These guys were not ready for the onslaught from T**p
Chetan Murthy
@surfk9: All I can say in response to that is “Where the FUCK have you been these last eight years?”
I read that stuff about Dem Reps saying “they hate us, they really hate us” and all I can think is what I wrote above. We’re -this- close to tyranny (for many of us, the tyranny has already arrived) and these fuckers think timidity and moderation are the virtues we need today?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Chetan Murthy:
What I found pretty disappointing was the all the “Trump is a threat to democracy” or the Project 2025 rhetoric was apparently just for the campaign and something Dems broadly didn’t appear to actually believe. I get it apparently wasn’t a winning message for the election, but come on. You still stand by your principles, whether they’re popular or not
Chetan Murthy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Ehh, I get the idea that if what you ran on didn’t work, then you have to change -some- things. But when what you ran in is “he is an existential threat to our way of life”, you can’t change that without being a hypocrite. Some things you either believe, or you don’t believe.
So in the end, yeah, I agree with you.
ETA: I mean, I donated a shit-ton of $$ last cycle. Would I have done that if I thought Trump was just another politician? Of course not! I did it because it was a matter of the life-or-death of our Republic, and I didn’t want to regret my inaction.
tobie
I don’t know if anyone saw the open letter Marc Elias wrote to Musk after Musk tweeted it must be “generational trauma” that drives Elias to “undermine civilization.” Elias responded by talking about how the trauma his family went through and the refuge the US provided them made him want to give back to the party that represents his values. The letter is strong and it ends with this:
Impressive. Hats off to Marc. His strength inspires.
surfk9
@Chetan Murthy: I think he was stunned and resentful when confronted with his awful vote on Laken-Riley. At one inter-faith community meeting he was absolutely roasted by the crowd(his voters). I think he has learned and it is reflected in his rhetoric. He is talking about going to red districts and doing town halls. I think that as a central valley rep he should go after the red districts in the valley not out of state. Hopefully this will show up in action and not just words.
WaterGirl
@They Call Me Noni: I neglected to say that it’s been a month.
WaterGirl
@Martin: yes, appeasers is better than collaborators. I also agree that it would’ve garner the same reaction.
Ksmiami
We need new leadership that can meet the moment. And if Schumer et Al won’t stand down, we need to make them.
Chetan Murthy
@Ksmiami: Even Pelosi was like “WTF, Chuck?” Even Pelosi. These “leaders” need to fuckin’ go.
JoyceH
@Chetan Murthy: a few years ago I used to see a guy in a WWII Vet cap working out at the Y’s fitness center. One day I was on the rowing machine as he was leaving and he said to me, “The first ninety years are the hardest.”
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Chetan Murthy:
You think Jeffries is better than Schumer? I know he and House leadership didn’t like being hung out to dry by the Senate side
tobie
@Ksmiami: @Chetan Murthy: I agree. Schumer could have used the moment to explain what DOGE and Trump are doing to Social Security, healthcare for veterans, Medicaid, Medicare, special ed, Rx drug prices and so on. These are things that matter to people. Where was the fighting spirit?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@tobie:
Good for Elias. That’s a very powerful message.
@surfk9:
At least Harder appears to be learning
CatFacts
Something to warm WaterGirl’s organizer heart!
In a state election in deep red Louisiana, voters shot down 4 constitutional amendments that would have allowed more juvenile offenders to be tried as adults, made the tax code closer to a flat tax, and made changes to the state judicial system. All 4 were strongly supported by the governor.
It was not close — the early call I saw was that all 4 amendments lost by about 60/40. That’s a lot of Republican crossover voters.
Chetan Murthy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’ll take what I can get, and Jeffries and the Dems in the House at least stood tall. Schumer and the Traitorous Ten …. didn’t.
I’m not the sort who expects all our Reps to be AOC. I mean sure I think she’s great, but I’m OK with most of our Reps being much weaker than that. B/c I understand that America is far more conservative than I wish it were. I get it. I get it. But FFS, we’re at a moment when Our Republic is at stake. And clearly Schumer doesn’t fucking get that. Clearly he doesn’t get that EVERY GODDAMN REPUBLICAN IS THE FEDERAL WALLET INSPECTOR. CHUCK, WHY DON’T YOU GET THAT? THAT YOU CAN’T TRUST ANY OF THEM!?! !
Sigh.
Martin
I posted this downstairs:
If you have a centrist leaning Democrat in a situation like this, and you are a Democrat, it is your obligation to make them more afraid of you than of the Republicans in their district. That’s why these town halls are working – because Dems are bringing anger. You may not be an eat the rich leftist, but you want them to think you are because that’s how you get them to the center of the Democratic Party rather than rightmost margin of it because they’re afraid you will primary them with an AOC or a Bernie. That’s why elevating them is helpful (particularly AOC because she is SO GOOD at broad messaging) – they represent the kind of person who could be representing this district if they don’t get their shit together.
RevRick
@Melancholy Jaques: Your argument is all well and good, except it is all an abstraction. Senate Democrats were caught in a Prisoner’s Dilemma. Our party has long taken the stance that shutdowns are bad, because innocent people will get hurt. But you wanted them to vote for a shutdown, because that was what the cloture vote was meant to prevent.
And then what?
The Democrats would every own single part of the ensuing debacle. And what incentive would Republicans have to negotiate, since breaking government has become one of their favorite sports. You see when shutdowns occur, the President gets to decide who are essential workers.
You wanted the Democrats to stand up against Trump, but you fail to answer the essential question: What next?
Because we could easily be in month two of the shutdown, and you can be damn sure that soulless man would delight in inflicting max pain on the most vulnerable.
Kayla Rudbek
I am having a day and a half here. Felt a hard lump in my breast that I didn’t notice until today (I see oncology for my routine checkin next month, and I need to check my calendar to see when my last mammogram was done). Mr. Rudbek is so freaked out about work that he’s in freeze mode and not getting us out on the tandem. And my knitting is currently being frustrating instead of a diversion. I found an unrecorded project on the needles, and I can’t figure out where I left off in the pattern; this is for my mom so entirely ditching it is not my first choice. And casting on 300+ stitches to make a rectangle on a different pattern is going very slowly.
Marc
“No person” does not distinguish between non-documented, visitor, immigrant, naturalized, or natural born citizen. They can and likely will eventually deport anyone they want to.
tobie
@Martin: I don’t think the struggle at the moment in the Dem Party is ideological. It’s a question of who’s willing to fight and who isn’t. I’m a pretty typical, normie Dem and I don’t see why the party cannot take a stand for the social contract, science and learning, the value of allies, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, good public schools, a living wage, clean air and clean water in every zip code, the contribution of immigrants, and so on. If you can’t stand up for those values, then you shouldn’t be a politician IMO.
Chetan Murthy
@RevRick: Instead, you recommend giving in to the hostage-takers. The WH has already said they’ll impound any $$ they wish for whatever reason they wish.
Yes, what we have in Schumer et al, is a buncha weaklings, unable to actually explain to their constituents that Trump could end the shutdown anytime he wanted, by fucking allowing a clean CR. But no, it’s all on Schumer and the Dems.
But hey, it’s ok: we’re just gonna send more innocents to concentration camps in El Salvador. It’s OK.
Gretchen
tobie
@Kayla Rudbek: Good luck to you. It’s good you have regular checkups and do checkups yourself. Whatever this is, you have probably found it early and that is important. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.
Gretchen
@lamh47: You got a new job? Good for you! I hope you like it.
I don’t see DOGE worried about being ethically sound, though.
Chetan Murthy
Yes. So if anyone in any of those categories can be deported without access to due process, then anyone in -any- of those categories can be so deported. It is only due process that allows us to argue for which category we belong in.
Marc
You know you’re old when Ben Stiller is more famous than his Mom and Dad.
Kayla Rudbek
@tobie: since I have already survived bilateral breast cancer, my first fear is a recurrence. I am about four years out from my initial diagnosis and surgery and I was hoping that I could get off the tamoxifen next year
Darkrose
@lamh47: Congratulations on the new gig! Does this mean you’ll be staying in Norcal?
Darkrose
@RevRick: So when our representatives vote in ways that are counter to what their constituents want, we should just shut up and quietly nod because it’s the best they can do, and they’re better than Republicans?
Fuck that shit.
I don’t plan to let Adam Schiff forget that he voted to confirm Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Agriculture–you know, the one who was completely unqualified and who is now attacking CA schools because we protect trans kids. I also want an apology from every Democrat who voted for Marco Rubio, who is attempting to prevent trans and nonbinary people from traveling to and from the US, while he’s revoking visas fro students who have the nerve to say that Palestinians shouldn’t be massacred by Israel. Anyone who voted for him owns that shit.
The biggest problem the Democrats have right now is that they don’t seem to stand for anything. Yes, they are in the minority, but the one power they have is the filibuster. For years, the party elders insisted that they couldn’t get rid of it because we might need to block GOP nonsense. Well, we had a real chance to maybe block some nonsense, and the leader of the party handled it about as badly as he possibly could…and then people here are insisting that we should never criticize the poor, powerless Democrats because true leadership is apparently rolling over and showing your belly to the mad king and his drug-addled vizier.
RevRick
@Chetan Murthy:
I’m not saying it’s okay, and you’re suggesting I am is wrong. What I am saying is that there was no easy choice for Democrats and no matter what they did the outcome would be horrendous.
I find it to be extremely bad faith to impute motives to others absent consistent evidence. When Democrats held full control of the Senate, Schumer was a hero for getting so much of Biden’s agenda passed and so many nominees confirmed. And now he’s in league with the Devil?
Chetan Murthy
@RevRick: A politician can be great when times are normal, and be entirely unsuited to defending our Republic. The latter is the task at hand today. Schumer is failing at it.
cain
@lamh47: I loved the series. I’m going to read the book series. So far, the book (the first season) is really good.
cain
@Darkrose: As long as they continue to pursue white male votes they will never stand for anything.
Another Scott
@RevRick: This is sort of where I am. I get the righteous anger, and share some of it, but I also know that one has to look beyond the immediate step and consider what’s next.
There’s a recent Chris Hayes interview with Schumer (25+ minutes) that people can watch if they want to hear his reasoning.
Something older – Frontline interview with Schumer from November 2, 2021:
I have no recollection of reporting like that on the 25th Amendment before. But it makes sense, seeing it now. They both know and understand the House and Senate very, very well. They were looking at all available levers to protect the federal government from Donnie’s lawlessness.
Nobody wants to see 47 and his minions broken more than Schumer. Nobody. Does anyone here honestly, seriously, doubt that? He knows better than anyone that the man is a menace. He was there on January 6 remember… If there was a way to do it with the CR vote, he would have done it.
Another thing that I haven’t seen discussed much – Senators are powers unto themselves. Fetterman had already said – a week before the vote – he was not going to vote for a shutdown. One can be sure that other senators were worried about the vote and no Minority Leader could have kept them all on-side on a vote that was contrary to all of the previous positions the party had on on shut-downs.
Sometimes being the leader of the minority means “taking one for the team” in bad situations, so that colleagues can have a better chance of winning in the future. I’m reminded that when I was growing up, Ted Kennedy didn’t mind Georgia Democrats beating up on him as an out of touch liberal, etc., etc. because he knew that that was part of what helped them win their races against Republicans.
Being in the minority in Congress sucks.
The solution isn’t to beat up on our side. The solution is to do everything possible to get the majority back as quickly as possible.
My $0.02.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
George
Jeebus, people. Stop chirping about replacing Democrats with Democrats. Maybe it’s a better strategy to figure out how to replace Republicans with Democrats. Use some brain power on that problem. Otherwise it sounds a lot like all the chirping done during Obama’s first term, when purists simply could not tolerate blue dog Democrats and called for them to be primaried. End result: Shellacking.
And also: Stop whining about Democratic votes to confirm cabinet nominees. The nominees were going to be confirmed anyway with Republican support. Sometimes it’s fine for a Democrat to vote in favor of a nominee just for posturing reasons. With the exception of Rubio’s nomination, Democrats voted overwhelmingly against the other nominees. Focusing on the times that one or two Democrats voted Yea is pointless.
Another Scott
@Kayla Rudbek: I’m sorry for the stress and the worry. Sending you all the luck I can find with everything going forward, we’re all pulling for you.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Chetan Murthy
Primarying a weakling in a safe seat isn’t “beating up on our side”. It’s moving the Overton Window leftward. That’s all it is. Cold, bloodless movement of the window of possibilities.
Darkrose put it well: the -only- power they have in the minority is the filibuster. When Mitch was in the minority, he used that fucker like it was goin’ out of style. Now that Schumer is in the minority, somehow he can’t be arsed. And yeah, I get that maybe some of the Senators are unwilling. That’s what the base rising up and screaming down their throats is for: that’s how we fuckin’ explain to these candy-ass weaklings that if they can’t do the fuckin’ job, they need to fuckin’ resign.
Candy-ass weaklings. None of these fuckers is in danger of being shipped to El Salvador. None of them. Candy-ass weaklings.
frosty
@lamh47: I just finished the first season. Yes it’s good, especially the actor who plays Reacher and does it deadpan and deadly. I never saw Equalizer. I didn’t see the movie either; I mean, Tom Cruise as a 6’3 230 lb Reacher? It is to laugh.
Try it. The good guys win, the bad guys lose, and the Women In Jeopardy all survive. At least in Season One.
@WaterGirl: The fighting wasn’t interesting? Reacher fought with everything – particularly head butts. Lots of those!
Another Scott
@Chetan Murthy: We just had an election. Our teams are set.
As George just said above, we’d be in a better situation in January 2027 by flipping seats than replacing Democrats with different Democrats.
Eyes on the prizes.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Chetan Murthy
Hard disagree. Primarying long-term Dems in safe seats is how we got AOC. I’m happy with that trade, and want many more like it.
frosty
Five drawers? No kidding it’s a bit heavy. I have my dad’s two-drawer Craftsman toolbox which is great for organizing everything but I can’t carry it. I went back to my 17″ one that I’ve had forever. It can hold everything I’ve needed for Road Trip trailer repairs. It’s a little heavy for carrying far but I can take the tool tray out, carry it in one hand while I carry the box in the other.
Another issue with being a car geek when you get older. Dammit!
frosty
@eclare: For me, it’s Fetterman. I got a picture with him at a Meet’n’Greet, sent money, knocked doors in two different counties and this is what I get?
Another Scott
@Chetan Murthy:
ICYMI
I think that he’s kinda high on his own supply there (we’d probably do worse than McGovern in 1972), but YMMV.
🤪
Best wishes,
Scott.
Chetan Murthy
@Another Scott: I Google his name, and all I get is fluff. He’s as content-free as any cosmetics Instagram influencer. His profile page has a pinned skeet:
Jim Appleton
@Chetan Murthy:
¿Porque no los dos?
Caravelle
I saw this post about a woman rescuing cats in Gaza and thought of here:
https://bsky.app/profile/meave.bsky.social/post/3llkpr4o3fs2f
(TW: video starts with & features a cat burial, but it’s not just that there’s clips of the cat alive too, and its friends)
frosty
@Timill: More fun: the Triumph motorcycle I owned for awhile (until it just quit running) was all Whitworth nuts and bolts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Standard_Whitworth
My favorite part of this Wikipedia entry: “In the 2011 movie Cars 2 by Disney / Pixar, the vital clue to the discovery of the villain, Sir Miles Axlerod, is that he uses Whitworth bolts.”
JoyceH
@frosty: I really enjoy the novels too. Reacher is always Just Passing Through, not here to cause trouble, until the sinister baddies do something awful to some helpless innocent and suddenly it’s Reacher’s business – and chaos ensues. Usually a high body count but hey, they needed killin’.
Martin
@tobie: It is not, and I don’t suggest that it is. I’m not even saying that from a management of government perspective what Schumer did was wrong.
What I’m taking issue to is the following:
“Our party has long taken the stance that shutdowns are bad, because innocent people will get hurt.”
Indeed, that has been our stance. It has also been our stance that Trump represents an existential threat to democracy and the rule of law in the US. RevRick is making a choice that consistency to the former is a morally superior stance to actions which are consistent with the latter. I will further note that if Democrats are correct regarding the latter, and it goes unaddressed, then it doesn’t fucking matter what your stance is on the former or how consistently you acted toward it.
If your focus is maintaining the consistency of the former stance (smoke detectors are good from my previous post) at the expense of the latter (the house is on fire), then you are lying to us regarding the latter. You cannot actually believe that and not favor acting in accordance with it at every opportunity, even at the expense of all other things. There is no virtue in holding consistency to previous convictions that are immaterial to the actual problem. I’m not a person who favors violent solutions to problems, however, I do recognize that the last solution to every social problem is violence. The whole point of politics is to avoid that outcome. That’s why I think violence is the inevitable outcome here because our politicians are not taking the incredibly difficult steps of avoiding it, and shutting down the government in order to stop some parts of this agenda and drawing attention to others, while bad and harmful to the public, is a better outcome than riots in cities.
Another Scott
@frosty: I’ve told the story before of my favorite uncle trying to rebuild the engine in his 1960s MG Midget and buying all-new block bolts…
Hmm, these aren’t going in easily. Oh well, we’ll just use the ratchet…
☹️
It’s great that fasteners are pretty well standardized worldwide now, as opposed to the olden days. Don’t get me started on plumbing fittings!!!
🤪
Best wishes,
Scott.
Chetan Murthy
@Martin: Thank you, Martin. You laid out the problem really well.
rikyrah
Those gutless muthaphuckas😠😠
Doing that to Amber
NotMax
Y’all see anything about this?
Limo from Presidential Pool Explodes in Central Moscow..
Chetan Murthy
@NotMax: adam’s post covered it
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: She might have been better that Michelle. And Wolf just slapped the press left and right for humping the orange shitstain.
Chetan Murthy
@mrmoshpotato: I still remember her smoky eye joke. That was classic.
Anne Laurie
@Professor Bigfoot: Pro tip, from watching my beloved Spousal Unit: Bins like this usually have ‘supplementary’ wheeled dollies designed to fit them. Get your cool new toy its ‘wheels’ *before* you fill / lift it…
Interesting Name Goes Here
@Martin: Except Musk is on record as explicitly wanting the shutdown.
That changes the calculus quite a bit, because now instead of a straight up fistfight, the other side gets a hostage who gets actively tortured while the fight’s going on, and last I checked the GOP doesn’t particularly care whether the damage is permanent.
I honestly wish that, at some point before I die, some people on the left realize that there are loftier goals to achieve than being a Star Trek redshirt. Maybe they’ll figure that out at the same time as they finally get clued in to the meaning behind the proverbial Ounce of Prevention.
Martin
@Interesting Name Goes Here: No it doesn’t, not unless you understand _why_ Musk wants it shut down, and if his rationale for that is correct. Musk is so goddamn stupid I don’t know why you would assume his rationale was correct, or even if it made sense.
And yes, the GOP doesn’t particularly care whether the damage is permanent. That’s my goddamn point. A shutdown pulls the public into the fight in a way they aren’t right now, rather than kicking that 6 months down the road, after which time so much damage has been done that it can’t be undone. It would prevent a lot of the foreign policy damage from being done because nobody would be able to get off of domestic policy.
And the government shutdown becomes a hostage the Democrats are holding, because the GOP wants to do specific damage to the country, which they can’t while it’s shut down because nobody is allowed to work. Democrats need to be willing to freeze things, and they are not. They are enabling that dismantling by allowing this to continue. There are major changes to Social Security being implemented potentially in 2 weeks (delayed from Monday). Nobody knows if it’ll work. There’s no pilot. Congress wasn’t even consulted on those changes. That could have been delayed by temporarily defunding the people who are working on it. If those changes disenfranchise people (as I expect they will), checks will stop being delivered. At least under a shutdown the existing arrangement would continue unchanged because it’s mandatory spending.
sab
@Anne Laurie: I bought my husband a big toolkit on wheels for Christmas. He didn’t want it and I knew he didn’t want it but I did. It now has all our tools tidily packed away in the broom closet next to the vacuum cleaner and the broom. I use it a lot.
My husband bought me a set of expensive frying pans for our anniversary. I didn’t want them, but I am getting to be too old (weak) to be using cast iron anymore. They are amazing, but slippery. Catching the food to flip it while cooking is not easy in these newfangled non-stick pans. But I do love them.
Ramalama
@Professor Bigfoot: maybe next project could be to put wheels on the new toolbox.
sab
@Martin: My husband and I have been bickering all week on this. He is on your side. I wasn’t but I am now.
Just shutting down or making Elon pay for DOGE muskrats is worth shutting the rest down. Shutting ICE down is worth shutting the rest down. We cannot keep on pretending that these are just slightly odd times.
Canadians are admitting that they never really liked us.
Naturalized citizens who gave up everything to come here are no longer safe here,
sab
My family just had a big loss. I cannot say how much I love Joe Biden for his very useful advice over the years to bereaved families. Everyone grieves at their own pace, and couples are not always in sync, and parents and children are not always in sync.
As we grieve, and realize this, we also rmember we heard it first from Joe Biden.
Ramalama
@lamh47: new job? Yes yes yes. Congrats and felicitations.
Ksmiami
@Another Scott: yes. They need to do better and protect their constituents. Or get the fuck out of the way. This is a war
Ksmiami
@RevRick: and we appreciated Schumer then, but we need a wartime consigliere Rt now who can handle the media better and use everything possible to slow down the destruction of our government and way of life.
Ramalama
Also just clarifying that embedded tweet in this post…Canada officially still lists travel to the US like so: “Take normal security precautions.” Green light. I am following closely as I an expat am going with my French wife to California to visit family, We will be doing things, in advance yes, to certain electronics. If I could get her a flip phone I would.
sab
@Ramalama: So flip phones are now safer and not just archaic?
Interesting Name Goes Here
@Martin: And months down the road into a shutdown, when federal regulations have long past kicked in and Trump and Musk get everything they wanted (everyone fired and absolutely nothing beneficial working) and then some? All they need are 31 days. There’s 1,318 days left until November 7, 2028. How do you think the public would take that? Bear in mind who caught the blame for the last few shutdowns, and ask yourself why things would work out any differently just because it’s the Democrats doing it now?
Ramalama
@sab: as someone who resisted smart phones (I’m cheap and often broke) until the last minute, whatever that means, flip phones don’t have apps that can get foreigners into trouble. In America.
I mean I really like smart phones. My wife loves hers. But going through customs this time is already going to be fraught.
Adult niece, Canadian, bi-racial, went to Florida recently for a long weekend. They pulled her aside put her into a room with other international travelers, grilled her. Didn’t look at devices. But she was unnerved. And didn’t enjoy her short stay to visit friends. She said she felt an ax was going to fall at any minute.
George
@Chetan Murthy:
All you propose is a scheme for fewer Democrats in Congress, unless you propose primarying weak progressive Democrats who are in center-leaning districts in order to get safer centrist Democrats elected.
Ocasio-Cortez got elected because her district is highly urban and liberal. Using her as an example of how to elect Democrats in centrist and even conservative congressional districts across the country is weak.
George
@Chetan Murthy:
Replacing a Democrat with another Democrat–in your example, Ocasio-Cortez–helped increase the Democratic majority how, exactly?
Answer: It didn’t.
Ocasio-Cortez did not come into Congress as a wunderkind. She was kind of a surprise winner who has since built a national following because of her hard work. Her success now was not preordained just because she was a progressive who defeated a sitting Democrat in the primary.
If circumstances were different and she had defeated an incumbent centrist Democrat in, say, Michigan or Iowa or Pennsylvania, in the primary, she would have lost in the general election and Democrats would be down a seat in the House that they likely would not be able to recover easily.
Ocasio-Cortez has tended to win general elections with a lower percentage of the vote than Joe Crowley, the sitting Democrat whom she defeated. Fortunately that particular district is Democratic enough that she still mops up against her Republican opponents.
Another Scott
@Martin: Isn’t it possible that folks on our side who have been doing federal politics for decades, who were there on January 6, who have decades of personal history with the players, have considered the arguments you are making and reached a different conclusion?
Maybe you’re wrong?
Maybe there isn’t a binary choice between acquiesce and civil war? Maybe muddling through for a limited time period, because politics is slow, is actually the best path?
The mania for Rapid Action Now can be deadly.
I don’t know the future more than anyone else. But our team knew better than to Kill The Bill in the Obamacare days and I think that they probably made the better choice here with the CR.
We’ll see how much has changed in September…
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Timill
@frosty: What Wiki doesn’t give is the reason why Joe Whitworth developed the standard: he had needed it because he was one of the contractors for Babbage’s Difference Engine.