Another lovely day here in the desert southwest. It’s 4:30 and the thermometer on my computer says it is 88 out there, which I believe to be accurate. I spent another 45 minutes wearing my straw hat and shirtless out there sunning myself, and it was quite delightful.
Another day of also just so much bullshit going on it is hard to keep track of it all. The one that sticks with me of all of today’s shitty events is they are cancelling the lbgtq+ suicide hotline, which has received over a million calls since it was put in place three years ago. They literally want everyone who is not white and straight to die, and they are more than eager to help you. They are actively trying to kill us.
I know everyone is going through some shit, but my head is just so muddled now because there are so many things I need to do but am not ready to do like sell the house and move permanently and deal with all the shit in my house and on and on aand all of this in the context of the world melting down and again, I know have said this, but everything just seems so fucking surreal. At the same time, I feel like I am happy in many regards.
As I noted elsewhere, there is just so much crazy shit going on that if you dwell on it too much because it is legitimately terrifying. I remember in the 90’s when all those schlocky military movies came out with one in particular being Broken Arrow. It was a John Woo flick and a John Travolta vehicle with Christian Slater (about the time it feels like he disappeared forever until he popped up on my radar on Mr. Robot), the premise of which was that the US lost two nuclear warheads from an inside job to terrorists and they were somewhere in the sw desert blah blah blah. Regardless, the premise was so silly because I had just gotten out of the military and thought “man they have no idea how competent and professional the guys in the brass are and the kind of accountability this shit would never happen.”
I can’t say that any more with the mean drunk Hegseth as SecDef and the team of morons in there now. Am I being hyperbolic? I honestly don’t fucking know and it is terrifying to think about for too long.
I was chatting with someone earlier, and just said to them how tired I am. I and all of you and the people who have been locked in to politics like us knew this was coming, maybe not this exact way, but in some way. and no one listened to us. None of my friends who are themselves starting to feel the pain Trump is causing them listen still- I’m just a left wing crank at this point. So at some point I just feel like it’s up to the normies. They have to notice and learn on their own, I (and us) just have to be there waiting when they wake the fuck up. Keep doing what you are doing, keep donating, keep volunteering, but realize you are doing all you can do. The normies need to get shook out of their slumber, I suppose.
At any rate it appears my internet is out and I had to switch to the laptop to use the cellphone wifi to post this, so see ya tomorrow.
Jackie
Reposting from earlier thread, as more prevalent here:
I have no words. America is planning to starve grandparents and the disabled who depend on Meals on Wheels.
Cruelty IS the point.
New Deal democrat
I wonder how many millions of people are waking up at 3 in the morning with feelings of dread, all directly caused by one man.
And the pain is just beginning.
On good days I think that a Second American Republic will emerge from this, fixing the deadly weaknesses in Madison’s regime.
On bad days, not so much.
rikyrah
@Jackie:
They are just evil
Jackie
@New Deal democrat:
I can’t sleep at night, waking up in the middle of the night multiple times dreading the next morning’s news.
My sleep is sporadic and fitful and definitely not restful these days. I just keep thinking of my grandkiddos futures – I have two granddaughters in middle school, and two grandsons in middle and high school. Two live in a Blue state; two live in a Red state.
Jackie
@rikyrah: Yes.
Old Dan and Little Ann
It’s been a long cold winter. Trying my hand at softball coach this year. We finally had our first practice a few days ago after it snowed last weekend. Throwing BP to 10 year olds and rolling some grounders in the sunshine was a wonderful respite from the madness.
dww44
Everyone should go watch Rachel’s show tonight. Maybe her glasses are too rose colored, but her entire show was about how Trump is losing on all fronts. It’s a great picker upper and I appreciate what’s she’s been doing for almost 100 days. Do yourself a favor and go find a replay. I believe they replay it on MSNBC at midnight EDT.
Timill
@New Deal democrat: I figure that somewhere around late May – early June the shit will hit the impeller, and unemployed truckers with their AR-15s are about to be the Administration’s main headache
ETA: it doesn’t matter what the Administration does between now and then: the supply chain collapse is already baked in.
Peke Daddy
Installed unauthorized Signal on his office computer, had a make up room put in and his chief of staff quit. BOOYAH!
Sister Golden Bear
Same, same….
Timill
@Peke Daddy: It’s worse than that: the computer with Signal was a personal PC, not his Govt issue one, in a space where having personal electronic devices is a hanging offence.
ETA: and it was connected to a non-DOD internet connection. Also a hanging offence.
Sister Golden Bear
@New Deal democrat:
As someone who’s part of a group that the Trump administration is actively try to eradicate, I dread what will happen when they hit the cornered rat phase. They’ll definitely be lashing out at us.
New Deal democrat
@Sister Golden Bear:
Yes, but you are moving to Portugal and sanity. I envy you. I missed out on automatic EU citizenship by one generation on both sides of my family.
Manyakitty
@Timill: bet he has a starlink setup.
Timill
@Manyakitty: That would not surprise me at all, but I don’t think anyone has said what it was.
cain
@Jackie:
The lack of pushback by the GOP is quite interesting. Trump is setting them up for the fall. Their MAGA constituents are going to fall upon them. They have no spine, no balls, and some of them are maliciously happy about it all.
CHETAN MURTHY
@New Deal democrat: Just have to ask: have you inquired carefully into all the details? I ask b/c I have an Pennsylvania Irish-American friend, whose great-great grandfather was Irish-born, came here. And b/c of that, my friend can apply for Irish citizenship. He is, of course, doing it. He had no idea of this until only recently, b/c this wasn’t easy-to-find-out.
Might be worth looking into a little deeper, just to be sure.
I say this as Indian-born, so, y’know, no way I can get EU citizenship except the hard way, sigh.
cain
Right now those who have a retirement account are very well aware. Those who have autistic kids are aware. The awareness is happening incrementally as the things he does starts affecting more and more people. A lot of conservative people think they don’t depend on the govt but they absolutely do and when funding is pulled it’s going to affect them. Even red states are not immune. Those states are going to eat it way more than the blue states are who have much strong economies.
Trivia Man
@Timill: I deal with supply chain issues daily and I am a little shocked that I am the only one who seems to be expecting issues over the next few months. Our YTG projections from finance just seem… normal. A few caveats and maybes there but they just seem like formalities.
What do you see as some transition steps to chaos? I am expecting a first wave of glee as trucking slows and drivers start applying to other companies. YAY! Drivers! Until the slow down spreads.
Melancholy Jaques
@rikyrah:
So are the people who voted for them, who financed them, and who gave them favorable coverage in the media.
Trivia Man
@Sister Golden Bear: on the bright side, I expect the cornered rat phase to be more flailing than targeted destruction. You are in danger now because they are actively concentrating on eradicating you, when their bills start coming due they will be flailing wildly and quickly with less mainstream cover and support – no time to aim, much as they would like to take certain groups with them as they go down in flames.
Maybe
MobiusKlein
@Timill:
The whole notion that “The guy on the top does not have to follow InfoSec rules” is madness.
Do you imagine the CEO of Bank Of America can wander into the data center and demand the account details of random folks? Or he gets some special ability to not have virus scanners run on his computer, or 100 other rules there?
No – the head honchos are 100% high value targets, and need extra layers of protection because they are well known.
The idea that the Secty of Defense can (and did) order IT to bypass security is tripping balls.
RaflW
I’ll get over 7 hrs of sleep overnight, get up and do a few not very major things, read some stuff like balloon juice and Bsky, and need a 20 minute nap by mid afternoon. I was a napper before, but that was often just a brief lie down with maybe 6 or 7 minutes of light cat-napping after 10 minutes of lolling about.
Now I crash hard and when the alarm goes off after 22 mins I’m like, “huh, what?” groggy.
It’s all so exhausting.
New Deal democrat
Let me add a slight dose of optimism to this thread.
On a *relative* basis, historically republics (by which I mean polities governed by the Rule of Law) are actually more stable than monarchies or autocracies. That’s because leaders are allowed to rise through merit. Monarchs and autocrats always have to watch out for their unusually competent brother or nephew or general, so mediocrities rise to the top. I know this because for the last decade I have studied ancient, medieval, and modern republics.
Sure, the Roman Republic fell. But only after 500 years, which is a hell of a lot longer than most monarchies last.
So I have some hope – but only after the American Nazis are definitively tossed into the dustbin, either internally or by external force majeure – that the entrenched rural, reactionary, racist interests that have paralyzed the first American republic will be defeated and a more egalitarian second Republic will arise. But alas not in my lifetime.
CHETAN MURTHY
@Trivia Man: @Sister Golden Bear: I would say a different thing, to you, Sister Golden Bear. You’re surrounded by people who have your back. Millions of Asians, Hispanics, and LGBTQ folks in the Bay Area. There are a ton of people the bastards have to get thru, to get to you. Take comfort in that. I live over the hill from the Castro, and I take comfort in that too.
I confess that I am alarmed that there has been no effort by state or local governments to get people organized to resist, if shit starts hitting the fan. At a minimum, Gov. GoodHair Mk II Newsom should be laying down a marker that any federal agent who detains any CA resident without affording them due process, will themselves be arrested and detained without bail. Period. Period.
Instead he eats Charlie Kirk’s shit.
Timill
@Trivia Man: What I think I’m seeing (and I’m no expert – I drive old computers for a college in Florida) is that the imported goods that will replenish the Walmart shelves in late May have not sailed.
So the Admin could reverse everything tomorrow and they’re still stuck with no goods until mid June. Maybe.
And MAGA patience isn’t going to run that long.
RaflW
Oh I did see that Alaska Airlines is warning of a 6% drop in revenue (and they made no profit last year before this backtrack on ticket volume/prices) and Southwest has cancelled all earnings forcasts they made for 2025 and 2026 today. Just a shruggie emoji now.
So some very ‘demand elastic’ (as my econ profs would say) news from Trump jacking the economy already percolating.
New Deal democrat
@CHETAN MURTHY: My understanding is, Irish grandparent= you’re good. Irish great-grandparent = you are ineligible unless there has been an uninterrupted relationship with the island.
CHETAN MURTHY
@New Deal democrat: My friend has most definitely not had any sort of relationship with the island, going back all the way to that great-great grandparent. If your ancestry is Irish, I could ask my friend for any pointers, and could pass them along to you. I could give you a “burner” email address you could contact me at, so I could them send those details to you directly.
New Deal democrat
@CHETAN MURTHY: Feel free to send them to WaterGirl, and ask her to pass them on to me. Thanks.
LNNVA
@dww44: Rachel’s positivity the past three months has helped me to keep from being totally depressed. I wish she wasn’t going back to just Mondays in May.
Timill
@CHETAN MURTHY: Luxury! We were EU citizens until some idiots voted for Brexit…
And some people wonder why I’ve cut off all contact with my used-to-be brother…
sentient ai from the future
with covid, i was able to see that there was going to be some kind of rescue because NANCY SMASH is a living god. so i held tight and sure enough, things worked out for me
now, i have no fucking idea what’s happening because we don’t have a singular leader, and particularly not one with deep knowledge of congress.
and i’m pretty scared because hodgepodge fascism will often win over less-than-completely-unified democracy, in my assessment. at least for a while, and a while can be years.
lets get our shit together, like fucking yesterday. it doesnt matter if the figurehead leader needs some OTJ training, we just need to coalesce.
CHETAN MURTHY
@Timill: lolsob. Back then, Brexit was the greatest act of political self-harm in modern times, eh? But then Li’l Donnie said “hold my Diet Coke” and awwwaaaaaaay we go!
CHETAN MURTHY
@Timill: I have to confess that it seems like the UK is still heading downhill. I see no evidence that they’re ready to confront the wealthy who are still rent-farming the carcass of the nation, and instead are going to keep gouging out chunks to hand to those rapacious vultures. In my prognostications about where to flee, the UK never appears, even though my first tongue is English, and most of my family only speaks English (and hence would find a non-English-speaking country to be quite a challenge).
CHETAN MURTHY
@New Deal democrat: My friend got back to me. It was Luxembourg (!) not Ireland. He suggested this link ( https://www.reddit.com/r/IrishCitizenship/s/jmVOOkHWYO ) but you probably already know about it.
rikyrah
@Melancholy Jaques:
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾truth
prostratedragon
Behold the National Garden of Heroes to come:
They should give all of them archaic smiles.
NotMax
America the
BeautifulSkiinner Box.//
Trivia Man
@Timill: im hearing that the inbound volume has dropped, especially LA/LB. But only casual mentions in passing. I think you are right – the amount of physical stuff in the pipeline is way way down. And unless they airfreight it, the transit time will mean empty shelves for domestic period.
Exporters seem to still be making stuff for export, don’t know if they are shipping it or just filling warehouses now. Seeing Boeing planes refused delivery seemed significant to me.
UncleEbeneezer
Just got back from seeing Sinners and WOW!!! Probably the most creative/artistic horror film since Get Out. Great story, acting, suspense, action, sets, costumes, cinematography and the MUSIC…the music alone is worth seeing it in a theater. It also had a lot of humor. And it’s definitely the kind of movie that will have you thinking afterwards. It’s a pretty brilliant statement on racism in America. Bravo Ryan Coogler!
I hope it wins all the awards.
prostratedragon
Harvard girds for battle:
NotMax
@prostratedragon
FYI.
The checkered history of the Hall of Fame for Great Americans.
The Pale Scot
Trumping up the White House
The McMansionization of the White House,
Of course
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Trivia Man: Having the Boeing planes refused by China struck me also. And I hadn’t expected empty shelves at Wal-Mart, just thought things would be more expensive. But it is now obvious there will be empty shelves.
I did a “thought experiment ” at my house last week, idly picking up various objects in the kitchen, living room, and bathroom, and pretty much everything was from China. The bamboo TP I like to use (to save trees) was from China! Actually, that one kind of makes sense. Anyway, I am now hoarding TP like during early COVID.
VFX Lurker
I signed up for a free screening this Sunday. If I can’t make the free screening, I’ll see it in a regular theater. I’m only hearing the best things about it.
thalarctosMaritimus
deleted as irrelevant
Gretchen
@Timill: It has been a hanging offense until now, but who is going to convict him?
Gretchen
@cain: they backed off today of making a list of autistic kids and cutting the women’s health initiative. Who knows if they’ll actually do what they say, but they at least realize it would cause a firestorm. I’d be up front with a torch.
Gretchen
@CHETAN MURTHY: This! I am gobsmacked that plainclothes people, some even masked, with no uniforms, badges, ID of any kind or warrants, can just grab someone off the street, stuff them into an unmarked car, and say, we’re Homeland Security and you’re under arrest! What’s to stop an angry ex or serial killer from doing this? How would you ever even know until it’s too late? And yet the reaction is, so far, well, let’s challenge the arrest later. You’re not going to challenge it later if it was a gangland revenge. Why is an anonymous grab legitimate in any circumstance?
Gretchen
@New Deal democrat: I have an Irish grandparent but I have his citizenship papers renouncing his allegiance to Queen Victoria and the British empire. I wonder if that cancels my right to Irish citizenship. I’d think it probably would.
EireIAm
@CHETAN MURTHY: the other half did his paperwork to get his Irish citizenship through his grandfather back in 2016 (basically post Brexit vote). There’s a lot of good information on the Irish gov web site. My understanding is it has to be a grandparent, not further back. But I haven’t looked since I got my citizenship last year.
sab
@Trivia Man: We are already havking shortages at my local grocery chain. It’s like Covid all over again. Toilet paper and pet treats have empty spots on their shelves.
prostratedragon
@NotMax: I’m aware of the place. Had some friends in the NYU engineering school, which was up there before BCC bought it. Though I went to a couple of functions on the campus don’t think we swung by there; it’s a sign of the times that I’m not entirely sure. I do recall my friends expressing an opinion similar to Prof. Brown’s.
satby
Definitely stock up on TP, it’s primarily made in Canada, Mexico, and the bamboo stuff is from Asia, mostly China. As soon as the felon started his bullshit with Canada I got the mega pack of the kind I like, and will get another next week. Which, because it’s just me will last (probably) all summer.
And I’m with John, we just need to gather strength for the next election, but time for the normies to figure it out for themselves since they didn’t bother listening to us political junkies.
satby
@Gretchen: Probably not, because during the rebellion and subsequently the establishment of the Irish Free State, and finally the Republic, they all did. I would get Irish citizenship if I could, but my last direct relatives born in Ireland were great-grandparents.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
It’s all so exhausting. I work for DOT…it seems so many people took the deferred resignation that they’re actively trying to keep on some. But I’m not even sure it’s up to the people in the Department.
It’s not just the normies that need to wake up. I went to the going away ceremony for our administrator in January and the Deputy Secretary said a few words among which were that she’d met with the incoming people and she thought “DOT is going to be OK.” It was then I realized most mainstream Democrats in power had their heads in the sand and had no idea what was coming.
I really sort of feel like they thought bureaucratic inertia would save the day for a while at least. I have a little resentment to be honest… it’s like they left us holding the bag with no backup. But that doesn’t get in the way of putting the blame where it really falls. It’s just what a failure of imagination these folks had. Harris warned us all during the election but even most of her own party seems not to have really believed what she was saying.
And it feels a little like the public is blaming Democrats and Harris in particular for all the bad shit that’s going down – it’s the ultimate Republicans have no agency double standard – if only you’d convinced us to vote for you things wouldn’t be going so sideways! So yeah, the normies have to learn it’s not Harris or Democrats that are the problem, it’s them. They won’t heed the warnings or give Democrats a fair shake and vote responsibly until it’s too late. That has to change.
Baud
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
It’s what society trains people to do.
Exactly right. Stand strong.
AM in NC
@cain: Ask Sarah Fuckabee Sanders and her fellow Arkansan authoritarians how they feel about Trump denying them FEMA funding this week because “it’s a state responsibility, and your natural disaster didn’t rise to the level of needing federal help”.
Wishing everyone the day they voted for!
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Baud: It’s crazy though right? I mean the public seems to be like “If only the Dems had more rizz we wouldn’t be in this mess! Trump may have evil rizz but it’s rizz and we have to vote for more rizz ’cause what’s the worst that could happen?”
Well now they’re finding out. Hopefully.
Baud
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Completely nuts. MAGA aren’t the only people who’ve drunk the Kool aid.
zhena gogolia
Exactly how I feel.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Baud: People complain about Obama for not getting more done, but one thing he did was use social media, which was a lot less prevalent back then, effectively. In that sense he stole a march on Republicans and it really helped him beat Romney.
Then Trump… it’s his big edge. Dumb as he is in many ways he’s understood the power of viral marketing his entire life. So he saw social media’s potential. It’s how he beat Jeb and the other guys in the 2016 primaries and part of why he eked out a win on a technicality vs Clinton.
Biden for everything he did right never got that, which is understandable given his age. The Harris folks maybe did but only had a few months and that wasn’t enough time.
sab
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Obama’s ACA ( I give Biden way more credit than Obama) saved my life. I had been uninsured because pre-existing condition for several years. Any emergency room visit would be impossibly expensive.
When I had my heart event I was finally insured. So we went to urgent care. They knew what it was but couldn’t treat it. They called the ambulance guys who did know what to do. So I am still alive.
Biden did that.
terraformer
I’ve often thought of likelihood that, if we make it through all this, there will be many a thesis and dissertation exploring the collective stress and anxiety the MAGA regime has created amongst the populace
gratuitous
I think I may have seen Broken Arrow, not the kind of movie I would usually watch. But if I recall correctly, one of the early scenes is one character explaining to another that the military calls any nuclear weapon that’s unaccounted for a broken arrow. The other person says he doesn’t know which concerns him more: That the military could be missing a nuclear weapon or that they have a term for it.