Musical accompaniment from another confusing time.
I tuned out the world yesterday evening to eat terrible Chinese takeout and watch a disappointing baseball game with my beloved. I woke up in the cold, gray predawn, checked my phone, and I can only say: What the fuck is going on?
Where does the “Abolish ICE” movement go to get its apology?
open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa…
— Bill Kristol (@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social) April 16, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Bill Fucking Kristol wants to abolish ICE now?
Let’s check in on another unctuous cretin who bears outsized responsibility for laying the groundwork for The Horrors:
It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising. It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump is about power. The only way he’s going to be stopped is if he’s confronted by some movement that possesses rival power.
Right on…David Fucking Brooks of the New York Fucking Times.
***
In other news, He Who Alone Can Fix It is bored and ready to move on. Via WaPo:
PARIS — President Donald Trump is ready to “move one” from peace talks between Ukraine and Russia if there is no progress “within days,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Friday.
“The president has spent 87 days at the highest level of his government repeatedly taking efforts to bring this war to an end,” said Rubio. “We are now reaching a point where we need to decide and determine whether this is even possible or not, which is why we’re engaging both sides.”
If the war could not be ended soon, “I think the president is probably at a point where he’s going to say, well, we’re done,” Rubio said. “We’re not going to continue with this endeavor for weeks and months on end.”
Jesus, I despise that smarmy little prick Rubio. I know that’s beside the point, but what a disgusting, slimy worm. If we get out of this awful time and move forward with some semblance of democracy intact, collaborators like Rubio must be investigated and prosecuted for any crimes they’ve committed, and, at the very least, driven out of public life forever.
Maybe someday we’ll know the body count from reckless and cruel decisions like shuttering USAID. Rubio played a central role in that. People like RFK Jr. must also be held to account. If they can’t be found guilty and jailed, at the very least, they should be afraid to show their faces in public ever again.
Not due to “retribution” under cover of law as their boss is now pursuing but rather because they fear public revulsion. I want them to have to use fake names to order DoorDash for fear some disgusted food service worker will dip their egg roll in a gross public toilet prior to packaging.
***
I was surprised to read that Senator Van Hollen met with the Maryland resident whom the Trump administration illegally abducted and transported to a foreign gulag.
I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@vanhollen.senate.gov) April 17, 2025 at 9:02 PM
I wish I had a senator who was as dedicated to protecting constituents. Instead, I’ve got one who may be in a witness protection program or abducted by aliens or something like that due to lack of evidence that she’s present on this planet. The only sign of Senator Ashley Moody (Lil’ Marco’s replacement) is the occasional no-reply automated responses to constituent contacts.
My other senator, invasive Midwestern python Rick Scott, scurried to Tallahassee yesterday to visit students hospitalized in the latest mass shooting at FSU.
While reading coverage of that event in the Tallahassee Democrat, the paper of record in Florida’s capital, I noticed many of the photos were from past mass shootings.
That’s a thing now. If reporters can’t immediately obtain photos to set the scene for the latest massacre, they can just visit the archives and choose pictures of candlelight vigils and stunned students evacuating the scene with hands up from previous incidents.
***
Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) maybe kinda arguably took a tentative half-step toward standing up against the insane and clownish authoritarian leader of her party yesterday: (Reuters)
Republican U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski disclosed this week that the threat of political retaliation from President Donald Trump is real enough to make her anxious about speaking out about his tariffs, executive orders and cuts to federal agencies.
“We are all afraid,” Murkowski told a summit of nonprofit and tribal leaders in her native Alaska.
“It’s quite a statement. But we are in a time and a place where I certainly have not been here before,” the 67-year-old lawmaker added. “And I’ll tell you, I am oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real. And that’s not right.”
“I’m going to use my voice to the best of my ability,” Murkowski said during an appearance punctuated by applause from the audience. “I’ve got to figure out how I can do my best to help the many who are so anxious and are so afraid.”
Walk across the aisle and have a seat, Senator. We’ve got all the nice things like democracy, due process, bodily autonomy for women, and free speech.
***
It’s a travel day for me, so I’ll be scarce between stops on the road. I am pleased to see a new episode of Rose’s excellent Books of All Time podcast (Bluesky link) queued up. I’m afraid to listen to anything political while driving.
If I hear someone like Ted Cruz has joined the resistance, I might accidentally drive under a truck.
Open thread.
On The Road – ema – 2025 NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade
Paul W.
So happy we have proof of life of Garcia! It’s a start, we should send dems on regular visits til he is home.
this doesn’t seem to be a big news story yet but I don’t know why not.
edit: my first first comment!
Baud
The key to his heart is to call his wife ugly.
JoyceH
I confess to finding myself surprised by Rubio. Lord knows I never had much use for the guy, but he always struck me as a harmless nonentity. Turns out he can feral-snarl with the best of them.
Darkrose
Bloody Bill Kristol says abolish ICE and trans rights are human rights. Meanwhile, Gavin Newsom says Abrego Garcia is a distraction and trans people being denied rights is “common sense.”
WTAF is this timeline?!
Baud
@Darkrose:
Political realignment.
p.a.
The fuckers like Kristol and Brooks should be front-of-line on the street when the firehoses get turned on: “you created it, you take the first hit.”
Gvg
Yes, when Republican Congress people either switch parties or support impeaching the President (with statements they will also do VP if he doesn’t change policy), then we will start to save the republic. Possibly a good warm up sign will be if some of them send their families to neutral countries or safe ones like ? Germany,? Switzerland? I am not really sure right now. Maybe Africa is remote enough. They need to be out of reach of the crazies here. I don’t think Trump people have really developed an international reach, but they have poisoned a lot of foreign relations. The first few to stand up, even if their actual constituents support it, will get hit with a ton of fanatics. Probably need to do it as a group? Not your usual politics I think.
Baud
If this happens, I might come out as trans.
HeleninEire
Finally, we wake up to some good news. Kilmar is alive. At least that is something.
jowriter
One of my most favorite tunes, destined for my champagne memorial playlist. First heard it the first year out of college when my neighbor down the hall in NYC put it on the turntable. As you say, things were going on then, too. Thanks, BC. Marvin Gaye has the most soothing voice.
The Audacity of Krope
@Darkrose: Gavin Newsom is a striving piece of shit who doesn’t make a decision without a future Presidential campaign in mind.
Mr. Bemused Senior
“The world has gone mad” is perhaps a too facile response.
I think these people (Rubio for example) are in way over their heads. Trump himself doesn’t care, he’s not up to the job but to him it doesn’t matter. The rest of them, though, they know they’re in trouble.
When a real crisis comes all Hell is going to break loose.
lowtechcyclist
Not to mention sanity.
Besides, do you really want to hang out with a bunch of fawning spineless suck-ups? Because that’s pretty much everyone on your current side of the aisle in Congress.
And if you leave, you can give one of those classic “I didn’t leave the party, the party left me” speeches. So c’mon over. Save your soul while you still have one to save.
japa21
What a great read to start my day. Thank you, Betty
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all.
Taking the day off (well, from paid work anyway). The shipyard where I’ve worked for almost 40 years closes half-day Thursday and all day Friday and Monday for Easter. Was going to take a lawn tractor up to my sister and do some stuff around her place but I just got a text that she has a runny nose, headache and sore throat, so I may not go.
Not to be a downer and hopefully not to sound like Cole (LOL), but how fucked up is it when you can’t get your elected representatives to offer even mild push back to a joke of a president who claims to have the right to deport anyone/everyone, including citizens?
Mr. Mack
Yesterday my day was productive, if disheartening. The drive shaft for my PTO needed repair, and even here in deep red agricultural state, there is one guy who does that type of thing. Thankfully, I’m 30 minutes away, so off I went. He agreed to do the repair while I waited, and he replaced the u-joint and installed a new yoke. So far, so good. When I went to pick it up, there was an older farmer looking dude ahead of me at the counter, lamenting that he could not find workers. The fixit man said “you need a Mexican.” The farmer said, “Oh, I got one, and we tell him we all voted for trump and if he doesn’t “fly right”, we’ll call him and get you deported. Then he said, Nah, we’ll have to hide him, we need him. They both shared a laugh and it was all I could do to not grab a large shear pin and beat them both to death.
Next, I stopped at the local tractor dealer as I am looking to trade. I’ve talked with the manager there many times, he is always helpful and I liked him. He noted that sales have slowed tremendously, and when I asked if it was the fear of tariffs, he nodded but I could tell he thought the notion was misguided. I sensed an opportunity to educate a little but in no time the conversation went from possible tariff consequences to, simplifying here….gay and trans people pushing a sexual agenda on our kids. Sigh.
I have to do business with these people. I have to coexist with these people. But it is taxing because they are everywhere.
lowtechcyclist
@Nukular Biskits:
It’s pretty damned fucked up. And it just shows how completely and totally the Republican Party has lost its way. And I mean that in a moral and spiritual sense: I doubt that more than a few of them could tell right from wrong if their lives depended on it.
And of course none of them have any fucking backbone. Look at the way they make adoring speeches about Trump as if they were conservative Catholics doing their adoration of the Virgin Mary. I knew Marco Rubio didn’t have any spine, but he was just the forerunner apparently.
WaterGirl
Such great writing to wake up to, Betty! Enjoy your road trip.
Ramalama
I’m here for the BettyCrackerisms like this:
I am standing up, applauding.
Also a little something to bring your blood pressure down: a nice story (WBUR) about a lovely non-profit in Boston that caters to unhoused women: Women’s Lunch Place. I knew someone who worked there long ago and always found it to be unique and interesting and worth it. Founded by a woman who went on to medical school to become a psychiatrist, she’s now back on the staff as the doctor.
Nukular Biskits
You have no idea how much I empathize with that, BettyC.
I have one who is a Trump bootlicker and who wants to bring back the Confederacy. I’d be willing to bet my precious (my 2002 F150) that she explicitly supports white Christian nationalism in private.
The other, though I disagree with his ideology and his demands that every part of the federal budget be cut except for defense, at least had a spine prior to 20JAN2025. Trump apparently ripped it out and shoved it up his (senator’s) ass. One of the fiercest proponents of Ukraine in the US Senate, he has pretty much gone on radio silence.
The Audacity of Krope
I love the work she’s doing. But isn’t prioritizing caring for people over money a professional ethics violation of something?
Professor Bigfoot
@Mr. Mack: This is the biggest reason I quit working as early as I did.
There is no escaping those men in any industry in America, and I realized after Trump I that I was no longer capable of being nice and considerate of these motherfuckers.
Which is a difficult position for a “Director of Sales and Marketing” to be in.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
No. It’s a real life version of Calvin & Hobbes “Opposite Day” except it’s every day for the next four years.
Baud
@Mr. Mack:
These are the people that folks blame Democrats for losing.
The Audacity of Krope
@Baud: Those who blame Democrats for losing exploitive assholes are, themselves, exploitive assholes looking for a new angle to…exploit.
ETA: Gavin Newsom has a podcast now, by the way. Don’t know why I suddenly thought of that…
Baud
@The Audacity of Krope:
100%
ETA: Newsom was really good last year. Maybe he’s looking at polling showing young people moving towards Republicans.
Nukular Biskits
@Ramalama:
Agreed. And this is not to disparage any of the other front-pagers, past/current/future, but BettyC’s writing is one of the things I look forward to for gems like that … or like this (something from years ago that caused me to snort ice tea out my nose):
MattF
Van Hollen’s a good guy. He was my congressperson back in the early aughts and was the Democrat who was able, at long last, to defeat Connie Morella in the district. Morella was an unusual Republican— popular in the district and to the left of many Democrats— but I could never bring myself to vote for her.
The Audacity of Krope
Maybe he should look at the definitions of leader and follower in the dictionary, compare and contrast type shit.
New Deal democrat
Wow: Elizabeth Warren has to explain to a CNBC news anchor that Congress, not the President, has Constitutional authority over tariffs:
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lmzuzydlhs2p
Also, I’m thinking about that photo of Van Hollen meeting with Garcia. The unspoken message it tells me is that the pressure from the public and the courts is working. Bukele felt he had to dress Garcia in clean clothes and allow him to look presentable for a visiting dignitary. Why? I think you only do that if you fear you are going to lose (and maybe don’t want to wind up like Noriega), and have to send Garcia back.
The next question is, if Bukele has come to that conclusion, has T—-p as well? At his news conference yesterday, he seemed to wash his hands of the issue – which in his case is typical of his behavior when he thinks he is going to lose.
Nukular Biskits
@Mr. Mack:
Understood and agree.
I work in the defense industry and am surrounded by Trump supporters. I don’t talk politics at work, as I’ve reminded the guys on our contract that’s not in our Statement of Work and sitting around bullshitting all day would technically be mischarging.
Fortunately, the scuttlebutt in the office is a lot quieter now than it was in the run-up to the 2016 and 2020 elections. Some of that is due to me making it clear to the mgr’s of other companies who work there that a hostile work environment won’t be good for business.
Spanky
@MattF: I would be ecstatic if the Republican Party were full of Connie Morellas. I’ve always been in Hoyer’s district (through 4 moves), but I always watched Morella navigate a highly blue district election after election.
Rose Judson
I was very pleasantly surprised to see that Mr. Abrego Garcia is alive. I’m glad Senator Van Hollen persisted in getting to see him. I hope the senator was able to make clear that the Supreme Court and millions of Americans want him and all the others who were shipped to CECOT brought back to the US. He must have been feeling so alone.
NotMax
While I’ve never agreed with it being one, Good Friday is a state holiday in Hawaii.
Jackie
@Paul W.:
I read/heard somewhere yesterday? that House MAGA leaders refuse to authorize Democrats funding to lead official congressional delegations to El Salvador. They must use their personal funds? I saw two House repugs made the trip – one doing the disgusting FFOTUS thumbs up in front of prisoners?
Anyhoo, I “assume” their travel expenses won’t be reimbursed either.
The Audacity of Krope
@NotMax: I’d say so far it has only been a fairly typical Friday.
Nukular Biskits
@NotMax:
Interesting.
I know in a lot of the contiguous US, Good Friday (and the weeks either before or after Easter) were when schools scheduled spring breaks so kids would be available to help with planting.
Doesn’t explain Hawai’i, though.
lowtechcyclist
@Spanky:
There used to be a lot of Connie Morellas in the GOP, but their ranks have been shrinking for a long time now. At this point, I’d say Murkowski is the only one left. And really, she should come over. She’s sane. Dems are sane. And the Rethugs are out of their fucking minds.
Jackie
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
Fixed for truth.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
The Audacity of Krope
When one party is rational and compassionate while one is insanely cruel; what choice is there for the same, cruel person?
Professor Bigfoot
@Nukular Biskits:
See, back in the day people just built guillotines… our aristocrats today are inspiring much more creativity, aren’t they?
ETA— I’m with you on BC, that woman’s pen is indeed mightier than a sword!
lowtechcyclist
@Nukular Biskits:
That seems like a weird justification, since the timing of Easter can vary by more than a month. In 2008, Easter was on March 23. In 2011, it was on April 24. In 2038, it will be on April 25. Planting season doesn’t move around like that.
The Audacity of Krope
@Professor Bigfoot: Guillotines were made for efficiency, not to torment victims.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Jackie: yes, good point. Anyone sane would run away as fast as possible. The rest of them probably have trouble sleeping.
[ETA I was awake early today but that’s normal for me 😁]
glory b
In other news, the CDC has eliminated its newborn hearing program, disbanded the infant genetic screening panel and ended its maternal health surveys.
No additional assistance to poorer states so that they can catch and address hearing problems sooner rather than later, less (or no) data about maternal health conditions, especially important for black maternal health and fewer genetic conditions caught early.
Just going all out to make America great (turn us into a third world country)
How Having a Baby Is Changing Under Trump | TIME
NotMax
@Nukular Biskits
Relic of the missionary position.
//
narya
The consulting continues, and all of the weird shit that my various bosses had me learn about and do at my last place? Stuff that was probably outside my realm, by a lot? I’m now the only one in this current organization who has the foggiest notion what it is or how to do it or why it’s necessary. They even appreciate what I’m doing. And the work is on behalf of some of the people who are most in need. On one hand, I’d rather be truly retired, but on the other, I’m being compensated well, the work is needed and genuinely useful, and I’m building up a cash reserve to hep survive the next couple of years. Such strange turns life takes . . .
Nukular Biskits
@rikyrah:
Mornin!
Professor Bigfoot
@The Audacity of Krope: More inspired creativity, as I say. ;)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@New Deal democrat: That “journalist” on CNBC is shocking in her belief that Trump “has the authority”
UncleEbeneezer
We often talk about how much of Trumpism and the rise of Fascism threatening every place on Earth is a backlash rooted in Racism, Misogyny and Xenophobia. But I think we often overlook how common this attitude still is towards LGB(and especially)T People. I see it all the time with people who are not MAGA and may even consider themselves on the Left and/or vote Dem.
lowtechcyclist
@glory b:
We used to call them “banana Republicans.” The label totally applies now, because that’s what they’re turning us into: a banana republic.
Nukular Biskits
@lowtechcyclist:
Well, definitely not now but for reasons I’m too lazy to go look up, Good Friday was once THE day to plant, at least here in the South.
rikyrah
That proof of life 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Mr. Mack
@Nukular Biskits: (Apologies to others that commented but haven’t figured out how to “at” multiple peeps)
Yes, but that’s my dilemma. I liked both of those guys, and we’ve “bonded” over shared struggles with various farm related things, I’ve helped them out and they have helped me. But now I’ve lost respect for both of them, and it’s a little like losing friends. I guess the key is sticking to safe subjects but dammit we ought to be able to discuss more than the weather or PTO linkage, like maybe does Nickleback really suck or did the whole world just pile on. ;)
Nukular Biskits
@NotMax:
Yeah, I kinda figured that but didn’t say it.
Apropos, during one of my visits to Oahu, I took Ms. Biskits to the Polynesian Cultural Center. I knew that Mormonism had greatly influenced Polynesian culture but had no idea it had set up, for all intents and purposes, a tax-exempt money machine there in Hawai’i.
Nukular Biskits
@Mr. Mack:
Same. I noted a while back I used to do a stupid thing on our neighborhood WhatsApp group called “SATURDAY NIGHT DRUNK MEMING AND MUSIC!” prior to the election but just lost all interest afterwards and stopped. Why? Because, even now, I continue to struggle with trying to reconcile my faith in the goodness of people with the reality a lot of my neighbors voted for Trump.
And I can’t reconcile those things.
Professor Bigfoot
@Mr. Mack: Ah, there’s that- due to my obvious ethnicity, the hostility was also obvious.
Had you been not an obviously straight white Christian man, they no doubt would never have brought up the subject. They usually only do when they feel they’re “among themselves.”
The Audacity of Krope
Keys to greatness:
Know nothing. Knowledge provides a sense of possibility and aspiration. Greatness comes from feeling in your soul we are perfect as a nation, not from knowing things could be better.
Exploit the weak. Greatness is not achieved together, it is borne on the backs of the lesser. One man’s great fortune is built on the backs of thousands of workers and rightly so. Those too deficient to properly employ in labor should be thrown to the wolves, what did Stephen Hawking ever do for us, anyway?
Be white. Even if it isn’t in your skin; take it into your culture, your beliefs, your cadence, your very soul.
Baud
@glory b:
They are ugly people.
Professor Bigfoot
One of the benefits of knowing Black history in the Americas is that it’s fairly easy to reconcile these things: it’s just white people, doing what white people do.
pluky
@glory b: Eliminating the infant genetic disorders screening program is insane. Many metabolic disorders are masked at birth because the mother’s enzymes have compensated for the fetal deficiencies. With early screening, appropriate treatment can begin BEFORE damage begins.
Soprano2
@Baud: It’s amazing to me that Bernie Sanders thinks if we just threw everyone but white men under the bus we could win those people back. If we did that, what would be the difference between us and Republicans? And they wouldn’t come back anyway because in their mind the Democratic Party is the party of demons and evildoers.
NotMax
Hasn’t been a Passover thread this year, so once again here’s the annual silliness.
:)
Michael Bersin
Missouri Representative Mark Alford (r) is, as always, guzzling the national brand name artificially colored sugar water:
Why does Mark Alford (r) hate the U.S. Constitution and due process of law?
Missouri Representative Jason Smith (r) even made a trip to the prison in El Salvador on Tuesday for a Kristi Noem (r) photo-op moment, just without a gold watch and a hair stylist. (no link because of a word in the post title)
Nukular Biskits
@Soprano2:
They’re not already?
Soprano2
@Baud: I don’t know why the response to something like this on the part of Democrats is to move to the right, rather than to persuade people that your way is better. It’s this unconscious idea they have even now that if some group of white men believe something, they must have a point and we should try to accomodate it.
Kristine
I love you, BC.
The Audacity of Krope
Even at their best, they’re kinda mid. And their best is exceedingly rare. Kinda like the New York Times.
Geminid
@Nukular Biskits: James Michener’s Hawaii has a lot of material on the role American missionaries played in Hawaiian history. I don’t think there was much on LDS involvement though, because they were relative latecomers.
The Audacity of Krope
Hmm, interesting, mind supporting that claim?
Soprano2
@New Deal democrat: Bukule isn’t the only one who should be coming back from that hellhole. Isn’t it interesting that suddenly they’ve found a bunch of “evidence” that Bukule is a hardened criminal? It strains credulity.
The Audacity of Krope
If we don’t screen for infant genetic disorders, then infants won’t have genetic disorders. Use your logic brain…
Professor Bigfoot
I like to put it as “the party of hoes and Negroes.”
Uppity wimmins and n-words.
While they are the party of the Fine Upstanding White Man.
Soprano2
@glory b: These people are penny wise and pound foolish. There’s no ideological reason to end these things.
Nukular Biskits
@Professor Bigfoot:
You and I both agree and disagree on the issue of white supremacy. I do believe it underpins a lot of what drives MAGA (and FSM knows how many other movements) but it’s simplistic, IMHO, to ascribe all of society’s ills to that one thing (although it bears the lion’s share of the blame).
Which reminded me of this from someone who follows me on Bluesky:
Soprano2
@UncleEbeneezer: Oh, they’re terrified that liberals are going to turn their kids gay or trans. They truly believe these things are a choice, not how someone is born. It’s part of their hostility toward higher education.
MagdaInBlack
Apropos of nuthin: there are a pair of House Finches on my balcony railing, courting. Oh the singing going on! How do they pump so much sound out of such tiny little lungs?
Nukular Biskits
@Geminid:
Agreed, but LDS seems to have “invested” (in every sense of the word) more there.
Another Scott
@Mr. Mack: (To @ multiple replies, do the following:
Go to first person’s comment, click the Reply button. Their @ will be in the comment editor.
Click the upper right X in the comment editor to close it.
Go to next person’s comment, click the Reply button. Their @ will be added to the comment editor.
Repeat for next commenter.
When you reach the last person, keep the comment editor window open, edit white space as desired, add your thoughts as usual. Click Post Comment and you’re done.
You can have a total of 6 or so links (including @ s ) in a comment, so don’t go nuts. ;-)
HTH! )
Best wishes,
Scott.
Professor Bigfoot
So, since you agree it bears the “lion’s share of the blame,” why should we concentrate on anything else first?
Isn’t that just nibbling around the edges of the real problem?
ETA— nibbling around the edges of the real problem while conveniently helping make white men comfortable and unoffended?
The Audacity of Krope
I had forgotten this saying, but it describes an aspect of Republican thinking that I frequently try to illustrate in much more verbose terms.
I’m going to have to implement this regularly until it becomes part of my normal lexicon.
They Call Me Noni
@Soprano2: Not to sane people, but if you’re hell bent on cruelty then it’s just another nail in the coffin.
Gin & Tonic
Fuck Murkowski and horse she rode in on. She’s a member of one of the most privileged clubs in the universe. As the crass and sexist saying goes, “grow a pair” (although her colleagues who *have* a pair are just as bad.) But, really, if you’re going to whine, you’re useful as tits on a boar.
Mr. Mack
@Professor Bigfoot: Interesting that you say that. I suppose I look pretty straight, I have the posture and bearing of an ex-military and ex-cop type, which I am. But my skin is brown and my hair is well below my shoulders and in days past, both would have been a barrier to real discussion here. I do have a knack for assimilating and I learned long ago that if I am confident and look these guys in the eye, they tend to respond positively. I understand that other POC may not have that option, but it is how I’ve managed to thrive here despite being obviously different.
Fair Economist
Hopefully the threats will make some Republican Senators realize that fascism is bad for *everybody* – even members of the ruling party are at risk of physical harm at the whims of the leader or the mobs. Liberal society has a place for everybody, and that’s one of the things that makes it so good.
sab
@MagdaInBlack: Birds have auxilliary lungs in their legs. They need a lot of lung power to fly
ETA Not lungs but airsacs.
Michael Bersin
@Professor Bigfoot:
I read the comments on the social media pages of our right wingnut Missouri U.S. Representatives and Senators, so others don’t necessarily have to.
I would encourage others to do such reading if they have the stomach for it. In addition to the now eliminationist posts by those members of Congress, a very common refrain in the comments from the Trump cultists is: “Democrats hate Americans.”
Our country has crossed a line. There is no going back.
MagdaInBlack
@sab: 😊
The Audacity of Krope
@Gin & Tonic: If you see a problem and are among those most empowered to do something about it, but won’t, you are the problem.
Yes, even if addressing the problem is hard or risky.
Professor Bigfoot
@Soprano2: Oh, there is; but it’s so absolutely fucking monstrous that it’s hard to wrap a sane mind around it: the wrong people will benefit.
Davis X. Machina gets more correct every day.
Mr. Mack
@Another Scott: Thank you! But now that I know I’ll have to jump through all those hoops!
Soprano2
@The Audacity of Krope: He’s obsessed with Democrats winning back the “working class” voter. When you listen to him a little while it’s obvious he’s talking about the working class white male voter, the guys who used to work in factories, because most other working class voters are already on our side. He emphasizes economic issues to the detriment of everything else. For example, he’s not great on guns. Like most people, he wants to run after the group of people who are still seen as the “normal, average” voter even though those people are now overwhelmingly MAGA’s who are beyond our reach.
I think the current Republican obsession with “manufacturing jobs” is funny because the only reason those shitty jobs paid well was because they were unionized, and Republicans don’t like unions.
narya
@Gin & Tonic: And the last thing I want is for her to claim that she’s, e.g., caucusing with the Dems, and then proceeds to Manchinema everything. Here’s our [Dem] agenda; you’re welcome to vote for it or not, but you do NOT get to drive it.
Soprano2
@Professor Bigfoot: Yeah, that too.
Professor Bigfoot
@Mr. Mack: I did that before the age of Trump, and was pretty successful at it, too.
But it empowered a significant fraction of white men to let their freak flags fly; and yeah, they might not make n-word jokes aaround me, but they’ll surely try to make f-word jokes because *they’re cruel motherfuckers by socialization.*
As you discovered, they’ll denigrate OTHERS in front of you… so they will absolutely denigrate YOU if you’re not around.
The Audacity of Krope
@Soprano2: Vibes and inferences made that confirm one’s priors are thin sourcing, indeed.
Soprano2
@The Audacity of Krope: Another way to say it is that they’ll spend a dollar to save a dime. I had a boss who was like that.
SFAW
I think you misspelled “incarcerated.”
NB: Not limiting it to Li’l Marco, of course.
glory b
@The Audacity of Krope: He’s been a longtime opponent of “identity politics” and says the party must abandon or minimize it in order to reach out to the “working class.”
His “working class” support also made him an immigration opponent, but he seems to have walked back (or at least pretends he didn’t embrace) that stance.
Sanders Urges Supporters: Ditch Identity Politics And Embrace The Working Class – TPM – Talking Points Memo
Soprano2
@Professor Bigfoot: It’s more that they can’t keep the people they don’t like from benefiting, so they don’t want anyone to get help.
Fair Economist
@The Audacity of Krope:
I’m OK with that, but throwing trans people under the bus isn’t going to help him. This is *supposed* to be the “land of the free”, and that means people should be free to change their gender and appearance, and that we should be free from arbitrary detention. Democratic voters recognize all that. The problem is not Newsom’s ambition, it’s his faulty judgement.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Darkrose:
I was livid when I saw that yesterday. It’s a very far cry from the guy from 20 years ago
Professor Bigfoot
@The Audacity of Krope: I take as evidence of the assertion the absolutely abysmal support he gets from Black people.
Now, of course, we’ve had conservatives crowing about how Joe Biden was a “racist,” but the only way to explain the overwhelming and enthusiastic support he got from Black people is to say that one thinks Black people are so fucking stupid we’d vote for an outright racist.
Now if you’re not going down that road, then you have to accept that perhaps that vast majority of the Black electorate are seeing something that others do not. (and of course, that’s a rhetorical you, not YOU you, you…. ;) )
At least, that’s what William of Ockham tells me.
oldgold
This is probably a minority opinion. I think we would have been better off with Matt Gaetz as AG over Pam Bondi.
My reasoning is that Gaetz is so transparently putrid and unlikable that he would have been more easily countered. Whereas Bondi is as lawless, but her appearance and such make her egregious conduct seem less sinister.
Anyway, too often our victories, like thwarting Gaetz from becoming AG end up being less positive than we first imagined. Another example is when we successfully stopped Harriet Miers appointment to the Supremes, only to end up with Samuel Alito.
Professor Bigfoot
@Soprano2: Exactly and precisely so.
Aesop has something to say about that, didn’t he? Something about a dog and a manger…
Gin & Tonic
@Soprano2:
He courted the NRA and got their endorsement when he ran for Congress, so “not great” is a real understatement.
The Audacity of Krope
@glory b: The “working class” looks like a pretty diverse group from where I’m sitting. In terms of immigration, I don’t know Sanders’s full range of views, but I do recognize that immigration reform efforts in the past have been designed to benefit employers and not workers; not immigrant or native-born workers.
I could understand him resisting prior reform efforts on those grounds. Also, people’s views change. It happens. But, to be real, it seems the obsessive tendency some folk have here to go out of their way to assume bad faith on Bernie’s part seems, itself, in bad faith.
In terms of the identity politics argument, I disagree with him in that fighting on behalf of disenfranchised groups is right on its own terms and should be fought, in the relevant contexts, on its own terms. That said, money is a source of power the white supremacists crowd retains even when they’re thrown out of political power, so ignoring questions of equitable wealth distribution won’t offer any permanent relief on matters of social justice.
prostratedragon
@NotMax: 😄Sounds like what happens when one crams for a test at the last minute.
Professor Bigfoot
@oldgold: The law of unintended consequences is always enforced, isn’t it?
Still, one can only do what one can do— and who knows, maybe Harriet Miers on the Court would somehow have turned out WORSE than Alito!
(don’t ask me how, cripes, I just know the Universe is absolutely perverse that way! :D )
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Michael Bersin:
For years when I was back in Central Misery and watched how the state was trending, I always said that (R)s in the legislature had a serious Kase of Kansas Envy cuz back then, Kansas was in the foregfront of batshit, rightwing insanity.
They wanted to Out-Kansas Kansas.
And they have done that in spades over the last 15 years.
Eduardo
He is such a coward. I felt so much contempt for him.
I don’t rule out that one day he kill himself. It happened many times in Cuba with people that were given high positions in the government even thou they weren’t really hard core commie material. They were used and they gave away their humanity until they couldn’t take it anymore
I hope that doesn’t happen only because it will meant the rest of us would be royally f*ed
Nukular Biskits
@Professor Bigfoot:
Prof, the last thing I want to do is get in a pissing contest this morning. You have in me an ally here who agrees with you but your continued insistence that EVERYTHING boils down solely to white (mostly male) supremacy doesn’t take into account that where we are as a society is the result of a confluence of factors, including white supremacy.
As for “nibbling around the edges”, quite frankly and with all due respect, what the fuck do you suggest? Education? You can’t educate those who won’t accept facts that contradict their personal beliefs. Use of the power of government to … do what, exactly? I’m at a loss here to understand what you think will be the “one weird trick” to solve the issue.
I’m not dismissing your personal or shared experience or your scholarship. I am submitting,however, you are looking at current events through a single, narrow lens and risking alienating those who have similar experiences and/or whom agree with you.
I’m not suggesting we abandon the discussion. I am suggesting you consider a more holistic view of things.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jackie:
I think that’s another tell that they know this looks bad for them and Trump
Professor Bigfoot
@The Audacity of Krope: Well, we do have literally decades of history with the Senior Senator from Vermont; so making assumptions about his motivations is actually based on observation.
zhena gogolia
@oldgold: I kind of think Gaetz would have been better too.
Professor Bigfoot
@Nukular Biskits: I suggest that white men recognize the role of their white male existence in their choices of policy and tone.
But since we really need to cater to the proclivities of white men… Oh, I’m so sorry, you’re right, let’s talk about something other than the centrality of whiteness in the life experiences and choices of straight white men.
zhena gogolia
@Eduardo: Who’s “he”? Trump?
Ksmiami06
Rage. Time to destroy the Republican Party once and for all.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Soprano2:
You mean Garcia? Bukule is the shithead president of El Salvador. I hope he ends up at the ICC like Duerte has recently
Professor Bigfoot
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think he may be feeling the possibility of that happening, thus the Senator’s successful(?) visit.
Let’s hope so.
glory b
@Soprano2: Once again, “Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland” by Jonathan Metzl.
Now updated.
prostratedragon
@They Call Me Noni: Or destroying the US as a power for more than a generation.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@p.a.:
Driftglass coined a phrase for this years ago: Republican Detachment Disorder.
This whole “I never had anything to do with this madness during my career as a water carrier for the modern GOP” is cognitive dissonance we typically only see among right wingers who’ve spent their lives voting against their economic interests. To believe klowns like them (George Fucking Will is another) is to believe that the whole Trump Phenomenon suddenly appeared one day like a mushroom cloud over the offices of the RNC.
They helped create this and are now simply embarrassed that the id of the modern GOP is president with a pack of like-minded people in Congress.
They have been busily ejecting clouds of ink for years now to obscure the fact that they’re stripping off and burning their lab coats, notebooks and mad scientist goggles, fervently hoping we don’t notice that their decades long careers in mainstreaming the worst impulses of the GOP base helped create this shambling monster now ravaging their castles with the pitchfork and torch-wielding villagers at the monster’s side.
The only energizing force within the Republican Party is a radically extreme conservative movement that is becoming more mindless and more hysterical by the hour.
Now, though, the hysteria concerns the monster of its own making, the creature of its own Id. People like Brooks were perfectly willing to make peace with the Bible-bangers, the anti-science crackpots, and the Black Helicopter Liberation Armies as long as they could use them to shuffle some more politicians into office who were guaranteed to shove more of the country’s wealth upwards.
The answer is not that the Republicans failed to deliver on their promises to the fringes. The answer is that they never should have made those lunatic promises at all. If you keep pounding unreality into your most enthusiastic supporters, decade after decade, then, sooner or later, they’re going to demand an unreal candidate.
narya
@Professor Bigfoot: what I really value of your commentary is that I’ve learned even more that STARTING with white male supremacy gets me really far in analysis. Then asking, what does that lens not capture?
Jackie
Of course Rubio’s State Department is going here:
Ksmiami06
@Michael Bersin: exactly. Time to bring the fight
jonas
Trump’s really on a roll here. Promised to bring egg and grocery prices down on day one. Of course he couldn’t do that, so he’s never brought it up again. A dozen free-range eggs are still $8/doz where I am. Then he said he could end the Ukraine war with one call to his bestie Putin and that didn’t work, so he’s going to walk away from that now. Slapping tariffs on everything last week blew up in his face, so he punted on that for 90 days and pivoted to attacking Harvard, but Harvard told him to pound sand and now a lot of other universities, as BC points out, are starting to square up in Cheeto Mussolini’s face as well and we’ll end up in a stalemate that bores him again after five minutes. Oh, and he’s evidently done with Musk, too. Whatever happened to that guy?
If there’s one upside to Trump’s profound stupidity and off-the-charts levels of Dunning-Krueger syndrome, the second anything turns out to be more complicated or require more attention than he feels like it should, he just drops it and wanders off to golf. I think as blowback builds around his insane deportation operations as well, this could also end up getting stalled as well. He’ll throw Homan under the bus and go golfing.
Suzanne
100%. I hope they get farted on in public a lot.
jonas
@Jackie: Well, I guess at the very least, they can’t accuse us of hypocrisy about any of that stuff any more…
sab
@Professor Bigfoot: I think you were in the hospital when my grand-daughter died in a car accident last month. Age 24.
My husband is still devastated. She wasn’t a biological granddaughter. She was my stepdaughter’s stepdaughter. But to us and her we were grandparents.
My husband used to drive her everywhere, to and from middle school and high school. To and from her job later.
And always they talked. She was Black and female. He is old, male and white. Over the years they always compared notes about how different similar events in their lives were experienced as a young Black girl and an old white man. In school, out shopping, at work. It really opened his eyes to how the world or at least America acually functions.
We had so much hope for what she would do in her life…
Soprano2
@oldgold: But Democrats didn’t stop Miers from becoming a Supreme Court justice, Republicans did that.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jackie:
Well, that’s quite the tell for where the Trump admin wants to take the US.
I never thought Rubio of all people would be this horrible, yet here we are. He was supposed to be the least controversial pick
Nukular Biskits
@Professor Bigfoot:
A few thoughts and then I have to go meet the day:
Again: HOW? Where are your specifics on how this is to be accomplished?
Accepting your repeated premise that white (mostly male) supremacy is at the root, if not THE root, of all that currently ails American society (yes, I know it’s worldwide but for the sake of this discussion, I’m keeping it domestic), what is your proposed solution?
I’ve already pointed out that education is going to have limited success and that’s not even getting into the weeds of how state governments are responsible for public education curriculum.
Using the levers of government? What gov’t programs/measures/laws, specifically, will that cause so many white men to have an epiphany?
If you’re personally seeking some form of contrition and atonement from every white American male, you’re in for a very long wait, my friend. I grew up with these folks. I have family members who’d fall into this category. I work with them. And short of a Thanos-like snap of the fingers, they are not going to change overnight.
By all means, keep pushing. But jamming every issue into the white supremacy hole isn’t the way to go about accomplishing the change you seek.
v/r
Nukular Biskits
@sab:
I think I missed that. Condolences.
Jackie
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Some people actually manage to evolve in their positions over a twenty year span.
We’ll keep an eye on him and see. I never thought I’d see eye to eye with Jennifer Rubin, either.
brendancalling
There’s a YT video of a recent Brooksie speaking engagement where he says all this stuff (along with his “character” and “morality” bullshit. Several commentators were celebrating his wisdom and didn’t appreciate my blunt appraisal of Brooks’ own lack of character. I was called “MAGA” as a result.
people are desperate for a hero, so desperate they’re like “sure, David Brooks. Why not…?”
Ramalama
@Professor Bigfoot: Director of Sales and Marketing? Did you have a hand in ad campaigns? I’d think those skills would be sought after for guillotines.
Ah just kidding. I love the idea of skewering Gingrich. But I am against the death penalty even for the scummiest plankton.
sab
@Soprano2: She would probably have been the next David Souter and they knew that. The MSM clobbered her, but Immanetize, who actually knew her professionally, always spoke highly of her.
jonas
That’s exactly right. They want manufacturing ca. 1890, not 1960. Sinclair’s The Jungle is read as erotica for these people.
Anyway
Rolling back maternal health care esp for black women really makes me mad!!! These mofos – how did they win??
MoCaAce
@Professor Bigfoot:
Thank you
As a straight old white guy living in a rural Trumpy area I have spent most of my life looking past my neighbors bigotry and soft white-rural supremacy. It makes life easier. At first I bristled at your in-your-face style and have more than once had to stop my inner “not all white people” from surfacing, but I have come to agree that it will never change until we face the ugly unvarnished truth.
For my part, as the orange shitstain made it more acceptable to be loud and proud with their political beliefs I found it impossible to look away. Where possible I try to push back by falling back on our shared “Christian” values, but as age erodes my patience I find a hearty fuck off to be quite satisfying.
Professor Bigfoot
@sab: I remember, and I am heartbroken for you both; for your whole family.
May her memory be a blessing; may your family live well and prosper.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Professor Bigfoot:
Yeah, I think he’s feeling the pressure. I read that Van Hollen’s car was originally stopped at a checkpoint 2 miles from the prison while other traffic was allowed to go on past at the time, so Bukule eventually caved.
I was so relieved yesterday to learn Garcia was alive. In the back of my mind I’d thought that he was dead and that was why all the stonewalling was happening.
For any lawyers, would the prior immigration judge’s order allowing him to stay protect him from any deportation efforts by the Trump admin if he were to be returned?
Matt
She chose to join the most racist police agency in the country, spare me the “pworr widdel fash” routine. There’s no shortage of utterly awful cunts in this world.
Ohio Mom
@lowtechcyclist: Easter moves because it occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox.
The lunar and solar calendars don’t match up so religions basing holidays on the lunar calendar have to make kluges to keep matching somewhat with the solar calendar.
brendancalling
@lowtechcyclist: I just gave a call anr said exactly that!
My colleague at Progress Pond argued for the same yesterday: https://www.progresspond.com/2025/04/17/its-time-for-lisa-murkowski-to-switch-parties/
202-224-6665, give her some encouragement!
Professor Bigfoot
@Nukular Biskits: I start from this: nearly 2/3 of white men voted directly for Trump.
Of that remaining third, how many are die hard Sanderistas? As was discussed elsewhere, it’s plain to Black folks that his idea of “working class” does not include us; but that’s who appeals the most to straight white men.
I don’t have an answer, because it’s not my social circle.
I can only observe the behaviors of white men from the outside; and I don’t believe what I see is mere happenstance or coincidence.
What should white men do? FUCK IF I KNOW, I just want their fucking boots off MY neck and off the necks of everyone else who is not straight white and male.
YOU are the ones who have to figure that shit our— or make excuses for it or even join them because “they weren’t nice to me.”
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
jonas
@Nukular Biskits: Not sure how it could be accomplished legally, but blowing up the entire Murdoch media empire and sowing the remains with salt would be a good start…
Bokonon
This whole business of GOP politicians not being responsive to their constituents is a feature, not a bug, of the way that they govern.
They don’t represent the public – they represent the people that voted for them. And once elected, they RULE rather than govern. That includes telling their constituents what to think, rather than listening.
And when things get too hairy, they simply shut down communications and end even the staged engagements that they have with their districts.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@brendancalling:
Brooks, aka The Republican Testicle Cozy, can be summed up as follows:
Writing columns about social cohesion while taking money from Facebook is like writing a book about morality while leaving your wife for a younger research assistant.
Also too, like every dumb asshole who thinks he’s really smart, when they’re proved fucking wrong they just move on to the next nonsense like it never happened.
But the most important thing, even at the peak of Very Serious Person Mountain, it is very important to not be seen as an icky liberal.
I’ll give Rubin credit, she really has tossed all that aside. I didn’t trust her for years. It’ll take a kkklown like Brooks decades to earn that same trust. Maybe his wife will be outta college by then.
Professor Bigfoot
This entirely.
They are effectively an aristocracy, who have sworn fealty to their liege lord; and so long as they never cross or plot against the King they are free to rule as they wish.
Oh well, conservatism was born in the defense of monarchy, after all…
catclub
@NotMax: This year Easter Monday is a state holiday in massachusetts. well… Patriots day happens to fall the same day.
frosty
Wow, no kidding. But IIRC you’re an engineer by training. Promotion? Cast into the depths? j/k
I was surprised how much I enjoyed writing proposals and making a pitch, but I sure as hell didn’t want it to be the only thing I did.
Librettist
@Baud:
He is tap dancing for old, deep pocket backers who are convinced he is Slick Willie v2, and can bring back the status quo of 1996.
catclub
Trump admin did not even wait for some self caused crisis to shut down all public health information.
Next is NOAA and weather.
RevRick
@NotMax:
When I was a child in Connecticut, I recall that Good Friday was a school holiday, but I was really surprised when I moved to Western Pennsylvania in 1975 for my first pastorate and discovered how big a deal it still was. Basically, the community ground to a halt from noon until three as they held a community Good Friday service. Local Protestant churches took a half hour block each, their choirs sang, and their pastors preached on one of the “Seven Last Words of Christ.” The Roman Catholics, meanwhile, did the Stations of the Cross.
YY_Sima Qian
I supposed this is a positive trend, all things considered:
As a rule, on matters of foreign policy, population opinion tends to follow elite opinion. That is the case everywhere. I don’t think US elite opinion has softened at all wrt the PRC since the start of ’25, but perhaps the governing “elite” being associated w/ MAGA has made “elite” opinion somewhat more disreputable to the masses…
frosty
@Professor Bigfoot: It’s the “lightly scored” that takes it to the next level for me. Chef’s Kiss!
Suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot:
Well, that’s the interesting question, isn’t it? I know a lot of white men (and others) who really like Bernie, but I believe that every one of them slid over to voting for HRC and Biden. Ex-Mr. Suzanne is one of them, BTW. So I approach this question from my grass-touching life.
The Bernie dead-enders are, I suspect, a vanishingly small slice of the electorate. Perhaps disproportionately irritating online, granted. But the disproportionate focus that they get here is also annoying, IMO. It serves to mask where our far greater problems lie…. which is a whole broad swath of people who don’t really believe in anything other than their own personal aggrandizement and narrow self-interest, who are enticed by cheap flattery and cheap distraction and cheap eggs.
Lyrebird
I have no idea if it’s correct, but this is my theory as well. or at least giving an inch to Sen. Van Hollen and at least allowing a photo from a distance is a movement AWAY from treating the abducted man as disposable and disappearable. I’m not Catholic, not even Christian, but I’m saying the prayers my RC friends are posting today for Mr. Albrego Garcia.
dww44
I’ve not read the comments yet but I’d like, once again, to thank BC for a wonderful piece of writing. So enjoyable. Also I feel about Rubio just as you do.
By his words he has proven that has absolutely no principles. Has there ever been a more worthless SOS?
Lyrebird
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): IANAL, but I was really glad to read that a very conservative judge did a good thing and said no way not gonna stay the order from Judge Xinis.
Librettist
The desire for a white protestant male hero to “Sister Soulja” their way to the Democratic nomination, and the White House, is palpable among out of touch elites.
TS
@NotMax:
In the last census, 43% of Australians said they were Christian, 39% said they had no religion.
Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Sunday & Monday are all country wide holidays – 4 day weekend.
Professor Bigfoot
@frosty: I did it all from straight line engineering to project management to engineering management, then I transitioned into sales and discovered I was really good at it.
My B2B sales philosophy was, “shake ‘em by the ankles. Take ALL their money. Then, as the project goes along, never nickel and dime them. If there’s a problem, solve it. If more engineering time needs to be invested, invest it.
Because I absolutely guarandamntee that if the machine/system/process/software comes up and does the job well, they will completely forget how much they paid you. And will come back waving their cash the next time they need you.
Melancholy Jaques
@Gin & Tonic:
Agreed. Murkowksi would not be a senator if it wasn’t for Democrats who supported her & Democratic voters who voted for her in the her last election. A fact that she promptly forgot right after she defeated the MAGA candidate.
The Audacity of Krope
@Professor Bigfoot: That may be so, but no one can point to a particular racist policy he has supported, just a generalized sense of not having the community’s back.
That’s valid. Though at the same time, everyone is a mixed bag. We can evaluate people in parts for the parts we like and the parts we don’t
Also, too, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think certain white Democrats played up any stress between Bernie and the black community and worked to set it in stone for their own benefit. Those same Democrats very much support the system that allows private interests to wield their money as power which creates a permanent undemocratic power base for the white supremacists.
Bupalos
@Lyrebird: I don’t know about “know you are going to lose.” I think the Trumpies did the math with Van Hollen going down there and decided the best move was to use the visit as a way to obscure the reality of the extraordiary rendition/torture site. I don’t know that this individual is any safer or closer to being released than before the visit.
The Bukele tweet is chilling and possibly politically effective. They’ve escalated to simply insisting this is a dangerous criminal and that his gang affiliation is “verified.” That changes the stakes on ever letting him in front of the media.
Anyway the tone of the reactions I saw on bluesky felt way too celebratory.
They Call Me Noni
Just read that the shooter at FSU was a Charlie Kirk fan and a member of TPUSA. I wonder if Charlie Kirk will continue his college campus tour. Awkward.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Professor Bigfoot: what?? Solve the customers’ problems? That’s crazy talk. /s
Danielx
@Mr. Mack:
Sign I saw in a bar restroom: Every time you throw a tobacco pouch in a urinal, Nickelback promises to record a double live album.
YY_Sima Qian
Some basic lessons from the PRC’s experience, for any US’ effort to re-industrialize (perhaps reference for a saner administration in the future):
Melancholy Jaques
@narya:
First thing that comes to mind is the anti-intellectualism, which morphed into anti-science generally & anti-medical science specifically & emphatically.
frosty
@Professor Bigfoot: The County engineer who I talked to before writing my first big proposal had this quote from Ben Franklin on his wall:
“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”
So according to Ben you were doing it right!
Spanky
@They Call Me Noni:
Awkward? Charlie Kirk is looking to make $$$ off it. Guaranteed.
Michael Bersin
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Pre-Covid I would spend time covering the General Assembly session in Jefferson City – making the hour and a half drive a few times during the session.
I explain to people that the republicans in their super majority are insane. I get a look, then I have to add, “No, it’s not hyperbole. They’re actually insane.”
Melancholy Jaques
@Librettist:
I have said – sarcastically I hope everyone noticed – that our next presidential candidate has to be a white male Protestant military veteran with a blond wife who has never worked outside the home & two children who have never had so much as a DUI. Because every other kind of person makes white people tremble with fear.
Professor Bigfoot
Ain’t that just the dang truth!
I still remember the whole Rush Limbaugh thing through the 80s harping on “rrrrrugged individualism that made this country great!”
They’ve been socialized to the point of not believing even in the concept of community.
Just them, the “rugged frontiersmen.”
E.
@Bupalos: Same here. I fear he is in for a very long stay without some kind of uprising. Which I aim to attend or start.
Miss Bianca
@sab:
Whatever happened to Immanetize, anyway? I haven’t seen him around this juke joint in a while.
cw moss
@p.a.: Brooks will be drunk on airport bourbon so he won’t feel a thing
Soprano2
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Yeah, I copied the wrong name.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bupalos:
What is the exact amount of “celebratory” that would have been acceptable? At the moment, I think we need to celebrate resisting.
narya
@Melancholy Jaques: and even that stuff! If your POV is that your knowledge and worth are automatically superior, you don’t need science because you can do your own research. But I see your point.
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: Immanentize (sp?) said he bought an old house in upstate New York that he was going fix up. So we probably won’t hear from him again until 2027 at the earliest!
More seriously, Imm has been spotted on social media since he left here. Maybe he thought commenting on this blog was taking up too much time.
But my favorite theory is he’s gone to work on Abigail Spanberger’s campaign for Virginia Governor. Imm always had a soft spot for Abby.
oldgold
Trumplethinskin cannot stand for anyone other than him to have the media limelight.
I laughed out loud when I saw this.
Trump: “Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland looked like a fool yesterday standing in El Salvador begging for attention from the Fake News Media, or anyone. GRANDSTANDER!!!”
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Professor Bigfoot: @narya: @Melancholy Jaques:
There’s an old lesson about filling up a container with solid objects. The “solution” is to start with the big rocks, move on to pebbles, sand. I think Professor Bigfoot has nailed the biggest rock.
Ruviana
I have been afraid to ask but what happened to Immantize?
MagdaInBlack
@oldgold: ..said the Grand Puba of Grandstanders .
Geminid
@Omnes Omnibus: I thought a lot of people were celebrating the proof that Abrego was alive. There was some justified doubt on that score.
They Call Me Noni
@Professor Bigfoot: My husband is an engineer and he said when putting together a big project you always want to under promise and over deliver.
Librettist
@Melancholy Jaques:
Al Gore has entered the chat…
The only reasons Don Jr. was hanging around Newsom’s ex was for the oppo research and party powder.
MagdaInBlack
@Geminid: That was my great relief: he’s alive. For now.
New Deal democrat
Here is a note of general interest, but especially for YY Sima Qian:
A poster named Micah on Bluesky has written “the China tariffs were a large, slow-moving gun fired at the economy and the bullet is still in the air”
By this he is refering to the consequences of China banning the export of rare metals used in components like microprocessors. Apparently this has already impacted trans-Pacific shipping, and will be affecting US domestic freight traffic in a few weeks, per “Freight Alley:”
“ Many truckers I’ve spoken with don’t realize how quickly container volumes have collapsed. Starting in May, port freight out of California will be almost eliminated. It’s going to be a bloodbath in dray, followed by intermodal, and then a collapse in I-20 and I-40 trucking.”
“May 2020 had 51 shipments blank sailings. Over 80 so far in April 2025. COVID will look like good times.”
ETA: Mack Trucks has already laid off several hundred workers in its Lehigh Valley PA plant.
rikyrah
The Tennessee Holler
@TheTNHoller
🇯🇵 WATCH: “Their (tariffs) theory is a mess and there is no consistency. I hope you never give in to the American extortionists… if you give a mugger money, they’ll come back to mug us again. Watch the Roy Cohn documentary to understand Trump.”
Yeah, Japan gets it.
https://x.com/TheTNHoller/status/1913210558028914703
rikyrah
Where?
Where in America is an American town or city being overrun by immigrants from the Congo?
Spell it out!
Really American 🇺🇸 (@ReallyAmerican1) posted at 2:18 PM on Thu, Apr 17, 2025:
BREAKING: In an unbelievable moment, the President of the United States said that “many, many people come from the Congo,” but admits that he doesn’t even know what the Congo is.
What an embarrassment to America.
https://t.co/PB032HwkZ1
(https://x.com/ReallyAmerican1/status/1912948859275182275?t=KP7n14f56EaCsqpSQx01MQ&s=03)
rikyrah
Tim Wise (@timjacobwise) posted at 9:06 PM on Thu, Apr 17, 2025:
I did not have David Brooks quoting Marx (and/or Assata Shakur) on my Bingo card, but there it is…from his NYT piece today. That’s how bad you know things have gotten https://t.co/2V6wr3eZ3f
(https://x.com/timjacobwise/status/1913051482485854566?t=zJ8qVj-CvSJbyxm3rLpMOw&s=03)
Baud
@New Deal democrat:
I’m sure there will be another trucker protest.
rikyrah
Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) posted at 7:21 PM on Thu, Apr 17, 2025:
Probably one the biggest economic blunders in history.
$500 million in 15 days means $12 billion a year in additional tax revenue.
Literal trillions in wealth destroyed, interest on the debt increased, the dollar weakened, businesses wiped out all over the world, literally every single country in the world antagonized… all for raising a yearly amount of taxes that can fund the US military budget for just 4 days.
(https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1913024966116970543?t=SP3PEN_Vu_G51hlC8UmMhA&s=03)
Professor Bigfoot
@frosty: The issues I had with my colleagues was always about how we needed to reduce our bid in order to get the work; and to a certain extent that was true; but (I couldn’t put the poster on the wall, but I often went by the Ferengi rules of acquisition ;) ) “good customers are as rare as latinum, treasure them;” and “happy customers are repeat customers.”
(also, “once you have their money, you never give it back,” but there are ways to do that and still keep a happy customer)
WTFGhost
I do just want to make clear, I don’t see any of these people joining “the resistance” – I see most of them as mealy mouthed twits trying to walk back the obvious abuses that they begged for, in the hopes that everyone remembers that they didn’t “want” this, they just wanted people to have the unchecked, unmonitored, power to do precisely this.
I don’t know what they thought would happen, but I see them more as people who picked up a hot cast iron pan, while trying to pull it off a flame they’d kindled, and going “OMG, I got a burn! Everyone, look, I think it’s a SECOND DEGREE burn!” and people can say “Oh, poor dear, want some ICE on that?” so they give them a quick henna tattoo and call Homeland Security.
I might be in a mood today.
Suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot:
The biggest threat that I see is a generalized attitude that politics isn’t about anything other than forwarding one’s own financial or social interests. Like, that it has no moral component, no underlying values. Just a system of favors and disfavors. Carrots and sticks, winners and losers. That we don’t have responsibilities to one another and we don’t have responsibilities to future generations or the rest of the world.
A lot of white guys who have this attitude, but certainly not exclusively. It’s not even at core a civics problem, it’s a failure of moral formation.
Old Man Shadow
If what I read yesterday is true, the number is about three and a half million children in the coming year with another three and a half suffering permanent disabilities as a results of malnutrition… assuming they also do not die.
Oh, no… I absolutely want retribution for the unrepentant. I want such consequences to fall upon this cadre of evil, depraved sociopaths, that anyone who escapes the net will flee in terror to whatever country will have them and live in fear that we will find them every moment of every day of the rest of their miserable lives.
Baud
@They Call Me Noni:
Yes. It’s working for them. College kids are moving right.
Geminid
@MagdaInBlack: Washington, D.C.’s allnews WTOP Radio follows the Abrego case closely since he is an area resident. Their report this morning clued me in on something I had not noticed: Senator Van Hollen did not visit the prison; instead, Abrego was brought to the capital to meet him in a hotel dining room. I should have guessed that from the pictures I saw last night.
Baud
jonas
As boyars to the tsar…
tam1MI
@Jackie: But Genocide Joe.
rikyrah
Silvia Ramirez
@shoutthetruth2
Clooney being interviewed by Tapper is by design. Tapper’s been on a mission since the debate to tarnish President Biden’s legacy. Tapper’s coverage on Biden’s poor debate performance was/is obsessive. He covered Hillary’s email story the same way. He’s enabled Trump twice.
7:57 PM · Apr 16, 2025
https://x.com/shoutthetruth2/status/1912671719833170419
Spanky
@Baud:
And hippies will be punched.
Omnes Omnibus
@Geminid: Yes, Nazi influencers get tours of the place, but van Hollen wasn’t allowed inside. That tells us something
Kristine
@oldgold: Idk how anyone can read his truths/tweets/whatever and not comprehend on every level that he’s…not well.
The Audacity of Krope
@rikyrah: CNN trying to front Tapper in the videos it was promoting is the reason CNN is blocked on my YouTube.
Old Man Shadow
@rikyrah: Well, since Carter’s gone to the undiscovered country, Biden is now History’s Greatest Monster, you know?
NutmegAgain
Thank you for the Marvin Gaye. That’s all I can say in the face of so many horrors.
Mr. Bemused Senior
And he’s been this way for a long time. It seems Bill Kristol and David Brooks have taken notice. Some people are slow to catch on.
Professor Bigfoot
I don’t disagree; but to me it’s a denial of fundamental humanity.
Ambassador Delenn said that humans build communities, it’s what we do and how we have succeeded as a species (and to put that into perspective, we’ve been so MF successful at survival as a species that we’re literally affecting the planetary climate!) and I’ve always felt she* was fundamentally correct.
*Okay, J. Michael Straczynski as the writer, crimony… ;)
MagdaInBlack
@Geminid: Yes. I picked up on that right off. That was all staged. And now we have the right posting “oh look they’re having margaritas together.” and other bs as we would expect from them.
Interesting they did not set it at the prison, while other GOP suck ups are having photos ops IN the prison.
Old Man Shadow
Sometimes it’s misogyny. America really hates women too. Not as much as it hates non-white folks, but it’s a close second.
Paul in KY
@lowtechcyclist: I hope she has the woman balls or ‘skirt’ to do it.
jimmiraybob
It is good to hear someone like Murkowski almost say something helpful. Very courageous. Golf clap.
But seriously, she should seek asylum withing the Democratic Party and take up the fight to live her sworn (or affirmed) oath of office. Dear Lisa, do these words sound familiar?
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.”
Jackie
@rikyrah: I’m amazed FFOTUS ADMITTED he doesn’t know what the Congo “is!”
The most profoundly ignorant president in American history.
They Call Me Noni
@Baud: I admit I’ve never listened to CK, but it I guess he’s even more craven and disgusting than I was imagining.
I honestly don’t know how these people live with themselves.
Professor Bigfoot
@Old Man Shadow: Simpler to say “everyone who isn’t straight white male and nominally Christian.”
Because really, that’s who they demand dominance over.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Jackie: Stephen Miller will explain it’s in darkest Africa. [/S just in case]
Paul in KY
@The Audacity of Krope: Was supposed to be more humane, as people wielding axes often didn’t get em on the first chop.
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: Very true!
Professor Bigfoot
@Paul in KY: I wonder how much physical security slows her from moving across (or at least to “independent”).
We know MAGA are violent and heavily armed; and who want’s some SOB showing up at their home in the middle of the night with a hammer?
”Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” after all.
Suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot: I think we’re saying the same thing. Babies are born with literally no conception of the boundary between the self and the other. It’s a conceptual and moral growth process to learn that other people exist, that they have agency and needs of their own, and that they can be affected by your behavior. That you can’t always do what you want because it harms another. That sometimes forwarding your self-interest hurts others, and you shouldn’t do that.
Look how many people don’t grasp that basic fact.
Paul in KY
@sab: Birds and (at least) theropod dinosaurs have/had much better and more efficient lungs than mammals do.
Professor Bigfoot
@Suzanne: Despite the fact that every single human tradition of faith I’ve ever heard of has, somewhere in its writ or traditions, “don’t do shit to others you wouldn’t want done to you.” <sigh>
That’s why, as an atheist and a humanist, I still have great respect for all the various human traditions of faith because ALL of them, as far as I’ve ever been able to find out, include the “Golden Rule,” one way or another.
Peale
@Old Man Shadow: And the right wing pretty much started becoming Russian Fanbois when Moscow banned its pride parades.
jimmiraybob
@They Call Me Noni: It’s amazing that the White House will go after colleges for alleged anti-semitism but doesn’t go after far-right, anti-America groups selling revolution against the constitution, our liberal democracy, and promote violence against those citizens that would stand up for the constitution.
Shirley this is an oversight. Shirley.
YY_Sima Qian
@New Deal democrat: I don’t think the PRC’s tariffs or export restrictions are having quite that level of impact, yet. It takes months for something like the ban on refined rare earth elements & rare earth magnets to ripple through the global supply chains, since the major users will have weeks if not months of inventory on hand, & until the PRC implements an effective end user certification & enforcement mechanism for export controlled REE/REM, rerouting through 3rd countries will address the most urgent needs (just like the Nvidia GPUs under US export control routed through Singapore & Taiwan before going to the PRC). While the REE & REM are critical inputs across a large number of advanced sectors, they themselves do not make for large USD values or large physical volumes. Their effect will be felt 3 – 6 months down the line, if the tariffs & export restrictions remain in place.
No, I think the current trans-Pacific shipping bookings dropping off a cliff is entirely due to the Trump’s 145% tariff on PRC imports (up to 245% on select items such as syringes), as well as the PRC’s 125% retaliatory tariff. & the PRC halting all orders for US beef, LNG, & soon farm products.
IMO, the large, slow moving bullet is the coming apocalypse for small businesses dependent on the PRC supply chain unable to diversity (or do so quickly enough), forced into bankruptcy, sell themselves to their PRC suppliers looking for branding power, or perhaps to larger corporations.
SFBayAreaGal
@Professor Bigfoot: Love Babylon 5
Bupalos
@Nukular Biskits: I’d venture to guess that Professor Bigfoot considers his posting here as personal activism. He’s making sales, not doing product research.
I’d just suggest this product he’s passionate about selling is the very one that has left us politically without a pot to piss in. A hyper-identity politics that sets to one side the task of exploring and explaining the common universal good in dismantling systems of oppression is actually working against itself. I think we are seeing that now. There is no politics on earth that has ever worked on the basis of asking a power majority to be more introspective and recognize that they need to sacrifice to atone for past and current wrongs without centering the language of common good.
It’s so tied up in a narrow-lens academic theory that it’s openly dismissive of the practical. That’s how we get to these really shockingly passive lines about what needs to somehow happen in the minds of others, followed by an irresponsible shrug as to the psychological-political mechanics involved. And a blind eye to the actual psychological-political results.
To Professor’s credit, I think he sincerely believes in his “once people become more virtuous, society will be better” theory of change and he is acting on trying to bring that about through scolding internet posts that insensibly shift between whiteness as a social concept and a personal trait.
I also think he’s a very useful poster here and almost always worth a read.
WTFGhost
@rikyrah: I do wonder why people don’t point out that Trump is an ignoramus. Moe Howard would have gouged his eyes, then hit him over the head with a sledgehammer, and say “Curly does better tariff negotiations!” while Curly crawls around in a circle on the floor going “woo woo woo woo woo woo” and Larry is trying to repeat Moe’s insults, getting them subtly more wrong as time goes on.
@Baud: They’ll have time, if not $$, for their protest, way things are going. Shall we all stand by and shout “get a paying job” to mock them? (I think someone here said more than a few truckers are taking runs that lose them money, just to generate cash flow)
@rikyrah: Great. He thinks a bunch of drummers are invading.
@Omnes Omnibus: If we’re celebrating heavily over “OMG a Senator actually got to SEE the PRISONER!” I understand a person feeling things are too celebratory, without meaning that others shouldn’t celebrate. “I hope y’all’s optimism is rewarded with future good news…”.
@Professor Bigfoot: Even the most rugged of frontiersmen wanted civilization close enough by that they could trade their furs and hides and buy some supplies, maybe find some unattached womenfolk, etc.. They might not be the most sociable of people, but they would have known the value of society.
@Melancholy Jaques: Without trying to be a smartass, I would say that anti-intellectualism might well be captured by white supremacy. You need to stay stupid to consider white men to be superior, especially tinhorns like Trump who really think his skin makes him superior.
Jackie
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Exactly. But, once FFOTUS learns the Congo is in Africa, he’ll state “The Congo: the darkest shithole in Africa,” won’t he.
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: If you can’t stand the heat…
She’s a freaking senator. They have very fine security. Being a GQPer though, means she has cravenness in her, so odds probably low that she’d do it.
SFBayAreaGal
Is Raven still around?
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: Wondering about worship of Baal…
In general, you are correct good sir! Most of them also have the ‘just stay in your lane and obey your betters and all will be fine in the afterlife/next world. No kidding…’
WTFGhost
@Professor Bigfoot: Damn. If I worked, I’d want my company to hire you, but, if I was working, I’d be working for an evil company that wants those of us with invisible disabilities to die – even if that would be more costly than paying disability.
@Librettist: I would change the descriptor from “elites” to “elevated stupid people,” but that’s just me.
@dww44: as long as he’s continent, he’s better than a literal leaking SOS, so, yes, there has been a more worthless one, but, only by being extremely literal.
@Nukular Biskits: Nod. It used to be that some 30% of Americans did some form of agriculture, so setting the school year around planting and harvesting time made sense. That no longer holds, but if a tradition has lasted long enough, some people mistake it for natural law.
rikyrah
@Geminid:
they refused to let him in the prison to see him.
Jackie
@Professor Bigfoot:
I think the exception is Christian nationalism. That, and WWJD are not found in the Old Testament.
rikyrah
@NutmegAgain:
What’s Going On is a masterpiece
Shalimar
Very late to the thread to say I hope this never becomes a thing because I believe most on our side would never actually do such a thing, whereas MAGA people generally would love to treat others this way.
Ramona
@Nukular Biskits:
In your response to Professor Bigfoot, you said:
“By all means, keep pushing. But jamming every issue into the white supremacy hole isn’t the way to go about accomplishing the change you seek.”
It seems to me that characterizing his stance as “jamming every issue into the white supremacy hole” is your constructing a straw man.
There is great value in repeatedly pointing out insidious destructive ideas explicitly. I struggle to imagine a more essential instrument of raising consciousness.
Emphasizing the role that the formerly inchoate idea of White male supremacy plays in the undermining of human dignity is indeed an effective strategy. We non-White, non-male people need to remind ourselves that White male supremacy is a lie because, believe me, we internalize a sense of inferiority when the culture all around us puts forward a White man as the unquestioned norm for what constitutes a valuable person.
I suppose, and please correct me if I am wrong, that you have the sense that emphasizing this is counterproductive in part because it won’t work on White men. So, you want more and what you deem are better tools to bring about economic and social justice.
What would you put forward as examples of the latter?
Do you perceive emphasizing that White male supremacy is a lie as being detrimental to these more effective strategies you may propose?
Bupalos
@Omnes Omnibus: Cheering the effort is great. Celebrating as if there is some outcome I think is a fairly bad sign, and that felt like the flavor.
He was taken from his cage in the lawless rendition zone, made to look like he was having an easy time of it, further smeared as a violent criminal, then stripped and taken back to the cage. Relief that he’s still alive and so there’s a chance for a good outcome seems appropriate, celebration really does not. I’m left with the thought that Trusk/Bukele created a certain media image that they may now need to defend by making sure this individual never gets in front of the press.
Professor Bigfoot
@Paul in KY: we are in complete agreement here, what she should do is state that out loud and walk away from the murderous bastards. But again that requires courage, doesn’t it?
Professor Bigfoot
these “rugged frontiersmen” today are just not that smart. LOL
The Audacity of Krope
They were born into a well-functioning interdependent economy and never thought once about the cooperation such a thing requires or any other aspect of maintaining it, though they feel entitled for it to continue working for them.
Baud
@SFBayAreaGal:
Haven’t seen him in a while.
Steve LaBonne
@The Audacity of Krope: Also down the memory hole is the fact that those good factory jobs they yearn for were only good because of strong unions.
Jackie
@Baud: Has he posted since March Madness? I think that’s the last time I saw him, but I haven’t read every post. I do hope he’s ok!
karen gail
@Nukular Biskits: I have no idea where spring planting would be taking place but in the northern part of country people are thankful if all the snow has melted; as a child in Wisconsin Easter could bring snow or sunny weather. But the ground wasn’t warm enough to plant anything, in some places it was still frozen.
The Spring break was a college thing where those who could afford it went South for sunny weather or it was time when “snowbirds” returned so grandparents could spend Easter with grandchildren.
WTFGhost
@Jackie: Well… WWJD is actually an okay religious reflection. You’re right – it’s not in the old testament, but, it’s a far cry from Christian Nationalism in intent.
If you want to trace Christian Nationalism, first you need to skip the Gospels, and read the writings of a Jesus-hater, who swears he was struck blind, and then, the scales fell from his eyes, and he started to whip this new church into shape. From there, you’ll get the most important message of Christian Nationalism: once you’ve accepted Jesus into your heart, and been baptized, you are FREE of SIN, so you can do anything you want to, because all of your sins, now and in the future, are forgiven!
(There are a couple-three verses that say “of course you shouldn’t sin, just because you’re saved!” but one can ignore them through a process called “exegesis” in which you find true Inspiration from a set of verses that don’t quite say what you mean, but, taken together allow you to declare that you know the mind of God. Obviously, you don’t do this, unless the exegesis proves your favored opinion is correct.)
So: to the Christian Nationalist, their cause is holy, and therefore exempt from some mere “moral” considerations, and besides, all individual sins are forgiven, so, why not do anything and everything to achieve the glorious victory that will usher in a new age? Plus, you don’t even need to go to church! You can just say you’re a Christian, and people call you brother, or sister, and say something like “let’s go torture some infidels!” and think it’s a funny joke until they bring in some infidels.
Jesus wasn’t into that kind of crap. He told you to turn from wickedness, and love one another as he loved you; he said your good deeds, your prayers, all that, should be between you and God, not so you can look pious and generous. Figuring “what would Jesus do?” is a decent meditation. It was a bit like a pop hit that you overheard for a while, but, unless it’s gotten pretty effing twisted, it seemed decent to me.
Another Scott
@jonas: Well said. You too see that he has no clothes. He’s kinda transparent that way.
Good job
:-)
Best wishes,
Scott.
different-church-lady
I say it a lot, I’ll say it again: every Frankenstein thinks he can control his monster. What we’re looking at in this post is a bunch of Frankensteins who have realized the monster has escaped the lab.
Elizabelle
@Jackie: @SFBayAreaGal:
Raven was here yesterday. Briefly. Discussing some place in Illinois with WaterGirl.
I noticed, because I’d been wondering where he was, too.
Elizabelle
@different-church-lady:
And are fine with the monster running amok in the village. What have those people ever done for them? Eaters! Scofflaws! Not paying their fair share.
different-church-lady
@Nukular Biskits: Racism is a subset of hatred — it’s one of the biggest, but it’s not the whole thing. It’s significant because it’s ready-made, off-the-shelf place to stick the knives in.
If it seems like the American experiment gone wrong is solely based in racism, it’s because the racism is so strong and so entrenched. But in the end, it’s still about dominance and fascism. The racism is the tool wielded by those who are evil, but it’s not the only tool and if the tool of racism didn’t exist, a different tool would be used.
So there we have the irony: it looks like the whole pie, but it’s really just the biggest piece. It can’t be dismissed, but neither can the rest of the pie be obscured.
Steve LaBonne
@different-church-lady: Dominance of whom over whom?
different-church-lady
@rikyrah: Right now it’s a lot like the parable of the Emperor’s New Clothes, except there’s a whole lot of children going, “He’s naked!” and half the parents are saying “Hush child” and the other half are saying “FUCK YEAH, HE’S NAKED!!!”
different-church-lady
@Steve LaBonne: Over anyone and everyone. They start with the easy targets and then work their way as far as they can.
Klpe
Good advice for Senator Murkowski — It’s one small step for her and a giant step for all humankind1
different-church-lady
Gosh, Senator, if only there were something like… oh, maybe a legislative body that had some power to rein him in or something…
WTFGhost
@Steve LaBonne: You’re asking a good question – if hate is all about dominance, dominance of who over whom?
But it might be a subtly wrong question. Ideas evolve, and take on a bit of a life of their own. Hateful ideas form around whatever seems likely to satisfy the hate. People pick up ideas from other haters. Soon, it seems like Revealed Truth that one is supposed to torture any lynching victim one can dream up. No one says “there needs to be a physical display of cruelty and blood to satiate the hunger,” but, somehow, there ends up being one.
Steve LaBonne
@different-church-lady: “Everyone is dominating everyone” is in no way an answer to my question. I respectfully suggest that you give it some more thought being sure to take the un-bowdlerized history of this country fully into account.
Steve LaBonne
@WTFGhost: Some ideas are remarkably durable over centuries. White male supremacy is one of them.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: I believe he was in this very thread.
different-church-lady
I think you misunderstood my answer: The powerful and hateful (almost entirely white and male, in our society) attempting to dominate everyone else. And they start with the ready-made targets: blacks, other minorities, women, non-cis-gendered, etc. But eventually they want it all.
I was not saying war of all-against-all.
(Also: maybe I should pipe down a bit, due to not having read the entire thread…)
karen gail
@Steve LaBonne: White male supremacy is not only the foundation of US but many other countries; it has been baked in since the days of Empires and Kingdoms. We really don’t think about it because the US is not a monarchy but for many only the oldest male child was eligible to be next ruler.
No intended offense against King Charles, but he got the throne not because he was most qualified but because he was oldest male child. His sister Anne might have been a better ruler but she wasn’t even in line for the throne.
Miss Bianca
@Old Man Shadow: I think America hates women even more than non-white people. Witness the misogynist men of color who voted for Trump, even though they must have known it would damage them in all kinds of ways. But hey, gotta put those uppity wimmenz in their places, you’re not gonna be the boss of me, no siree!
But it is kind of a chicken and egg situation, truly. And it’s undeniable that women of color suffer from double jeopardy in that regard.
Pappenheimer
@They Call Me Noni: ah, the Scotty system
Steve LaBonne
@karen gail: And the wealth of modern Europe was built on the flogged backs of enslaved Africans. The concepts of whiteness and white supremacy were developed as “justifications” for this.
Timill
@karen gail: Huh? Anne was second-in-line at birth, as she’s younger than Charles. I think after the revisions she still follows Edward and his children, but Charlotte takes birth order precedence over Louis.
If it ever got to Andrew, Beatrice and Eugenie would take precedence over Edward.
Eduardo
@zhena gogolia: he is Marco Rubio.
karen gail
@Timill: I know the birth order, What I meant was the line of succession has gone through the males, rather than taking into account whether or not they would make a good leader.
Too often we see males in charge of monarchies because they are male not because they are the best qualified. One history professor lectured that he believed this was in response to how many places had women in charge until religion relegated them to a lessor position.
Paul in KY
@Ramona: Sad it has to be ‘taught’. Any white person with a lick of sense knows (like they know water is wet and up is up) that being white sure don’t hurt in this country. Those that say they never knew that, or act like they just discovered an inconvenient truth or say it isn’t so, are either A) lying B) Too stupid/vapid to function competently in modern USA.
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: Yes sir, it does.
Paul in KY
@WTFGhost: Good commentary on those false ‘Christian’ nationalists. Jesus would consider they were possessed by demons and/or another form of Pharisees.
Paul in KY
@different-church-lady: Excellent point! Wish I had written that!
Paul in KY
@karen gail: Excellent point about Princess Anne. She probably would have been a better monarch than Charles (who’s doing fine, I guess). There aren’t many dynasties where someone (monarch to be succeeded at some point, council of some kind, etc.) picked the successor with little or no regard for birth order. Not sure why. Seems you’d get more of a chance of getting a good-not-bad ruler.
Kayla Rudbek
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): it would establish that he doesn’t have a criminal record, although who the heck knows with these clowns who treat settled law like it’s wax to be molded into what they want.