A little inspiration for a Saturday afternoon?
Rally pics from bbleh from May Day in Philly!
Totally open thread.
Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
This really is a full service blog.
Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.
They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.
The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.
I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.
Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.
Not all heroes wear capes.
Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.
Everybody saw this coming.
Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity
When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.
Republicans do not pay their debts.
the 10% who apparently lack object permanence
He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!
You cannot shame the shameless.
🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵
… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop
Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.
You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.
People are weird.
People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.
Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.
There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.
The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.
japa21
The most inspiring thing to me is that the protests haven’t been a one day wonder and that the media has been covering them.
oldster
Thanks for the inspiration, WaterGirl!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@japa21: A friend says that at last week’s Indivisible meeting, they said you need about 3.5% of the population in the streets to force change. Presumably you can nudge it along with less.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Hopefully we need fewer since so many of us are overweight.
Harrison Wesley
Wow. Pics brought back memories of protesting outside City Hall against the Iraq war. Several lifetimes ago.
WTFGhost
I just realized, on the Climate Solutions thread, that I’m really glad to be a Democrat, when Democrats are trying to save cattle farming with regenerative farming, and not one of the evil, cattle-killing, “drill baby drill,” morons.
There’s a reason the fascists are bound to lose, and it’s because they are losers, and always have been.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: 1 Average American citizen = 2 citizens of the ROW so we should need about half that percentage?
New Deal democrat
If you are looking for more rays of hope that T—-p is not succeeding in his attempt at a total authoritarian takeover of the US, there are several further signs that even some GOPers on the Supreme Court may have Had Enough.
Twice in the past several days, the T—-p Administration has gone running to their friendly Supreme Court to ask that preliminary injunctions entered by lower courts be lifted. And twice, the Roberts Court has quietly continued filing their nails:
1. Yesterday “DOJ went to SCOTUS [ ] asking for DHS Sec. Noem to be allowed to implement her action ending Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the U.S. while the admin appeals a loss below in which the judge concluded that Noem’s rationale for the move ’smacks of racism.’” The Supreme Court did not act.
2. Also yesterday “DOJ [ran] to SCOTUS in the Social Security Administration/DOGE case. “Generally speaking, the injunction blocks DOGE from accessing “personally identifiable information” at SSA. The Fourth Circuit denied a stay pending appeal on Wednesday and set a briefing schedule in the case.
“Although DOJ asked SCOTUS for ‘an immediate administrative stay,’ Chief Justice Roberts — as of now — only called for a response from the plaintiffs, due 10 days from now.”
Both of these are via Chris Geidner: https://bsky.app/profile/lawdorknews.bsky.social
Reading the tea leaves, it appears a majority of the Court is no longer willing to give the Administration the benefit of good faith that it will not abuse a stay to create a fait accompli in either case.
schrodingers_cat
BTW revanchists don’t always lose if they are shrewd they appropriate some of their competititors agenda .
I have been watching a series on the history of India and seeing the echoes of the past in today’s RSS agenda.
Orange Menace is not smart enough to do that but his successor may be smarter than him.
Lapassionara
@New Deal democrat: I wonder how the Catholics on the Coutt viewed the WH’s use of Trump as Pope on its official account.
Cheryl from Maryland
I’m in Lisbon today. Last year was the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, precipitated by the revolt of Portugal’s African colonies, sanctions by the UN, the military who didn’t want to die in unjust wars, and Portuguese citizens, who took to the streets and handed out carnations to the police and military. No shots were fired in Lisbon. 2025 is the 50th anniversary of free and fair elections for the Third Republic. Let us be inspired by this.
Captain C
@Lapassionara: My guess would be that most were varying degrees of offended, but Alito and Thomas fapped themselves silly upon seeing the pic.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Trump pretends to be a (white) socialist at times. Even fools some people who aren’t in the cult.
JoyceH
@New Deal democrat: Since the administration has been whisking these groups of migrants from one jurisdiction to another with the lightning speed of a sidewalk thimblerig, you can see why the Supremes might start to suspect they’re being conned.
cmorenc
I had a high school classmate with a speech impediment who called the Pope the “Poke”. No, this pronunciation was not the product of my classmate’s sarcastic wit – he simply struggled to pronounce phrases with alliterative consonants.
WTFGhost
@New Deal democrat: Well, I think they’re kind of like John Stewart, saying “I honestly didn’t think he’d go this autocratic this fast!”
“Due process” is just a two word phrase to nonlawyers, but to the courts, it means they get to wet their beak… uh, so to speak. It’s not that they get *money*, but it means they are shown the respect that is their due. I don’t remember if the bastard is still alive or not, but a Republican SCOTUS-judge said that there was no constitutional barrier to executing a man you know is innocent, if due process is followed.
Okay, but summary execution is only supposed to happen if you’re some unimportant slob in their car, who the cops “think has a gun”. It’s not supposed to be a person getting grabbed off the streets, and never getting to so much as speak to a judge! And that’s exactly what they can see happening with Abrego Garcia – picked up by the “cops,” and shipped off some place where he has no rights, and could end up dead, if he’s inconvenient… I won’t say the SCOTUS’s near invulnerability to law enforcement actions makes this especially chilling for them, but it is something that should be chilling to anyone who has gone to any decent law school.
Remember: Even Harvey Specter (“Suits”) pretended he was interested in protecting the rights of every citizen, if and when there was risk, but since there were no big risks right now it’s okay to make scads of money, right? Well, the SCOTUS is probably on a par with ethics with said fictional character… whose first act is to help a known, if uncaught, felon impersonate a member of the bar, is all I’m saying.
Gin & Tonic
I’ve read that Vladimir Putin will be in attendance at the Moscow Victory Day commemoration “by video link.” Is mighty Vova afraid of the Ukrainians’ demonstrated skills with drones? It would be irresponsible not to speculate, nyet?
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Maybe Musk will rent Putin a child to perch atop his shoulders.
//
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic: He’s afraid of everything. Just like our fearless leader.
p.a
@WTFGhost: No the p.o.s. is dead, but his spirit resides in the two headed monster SCOTUS orcs we all know and loathe.
prostratedragon
@New Deal democrat:
The legal profession more broadly, at least in pockets. NYT (archive.ph link) tells of Emil Bove’s recent attempts to use the FBI and the Civil Rights Division against Barnard/Columbia pro-Palestinian demonstrators. His request to have FBI agents dressed in raid jackets go to the campus in a display of force somehow has failed to be answered so far. Attorneys in the Division flat refused to seek the “membership lists”[!] of one group that might have been involved in the demonstrations, or not. Part of their concern was that such lists might be turned over to ICE. This led some to leave, part of the wave of resignations we’ve heard about.
So Bove, assiduous as ever, turns to Federal court, seeking a warrant for the lists. Denied by magistrate. Following appeal to a judge, magistrate is ordered to reconsider, whereon [my bold]
Wow. Among her objections is that there were no SDNY prosecutors signing the application, but I’m thinking for such an unusual requirement that’s hardly all. NYT article also summarized by David Kurtz at TPM.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: A brilliant idea!
Captain C
@Gin & Tonic: Perhaps. Or perhaps he’s in such shit shape health-wise that he can’t allow anyone to see. Or both.
zhena gogolia
@Captain C: Yeah, I’ve been hearing that for years. I guess it has to happen some time.
trollhattan
@prostratedragon:
Related
NotMax
As it’s Open Thread, a question.
Anyone have experience with so-called Forever Roses?
Only recently found out they exist and thinking might make a nice gift for Mom Day. Live up to their prolonged promise or a waste of moolah?
Jeffro
hell YEAH for some DBTs!
Jeffro
@Gin & Tonic: I am a little surprised that we haven’t seen more drone strikes on world leaders of all types, honestly. It seems like a cheap and easy way to slip past 20th-century security arrangements.
frosty
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That’s 11,500,000 people in the US. On April 5th, Hands Off got 3-5 million, according to Wikipedia.
It’s a start.
Asparagus Aspersions
My friends and I were just discussing big news events from the past few decades. Someone mentioned Oklahoma City and we were trying to remember the details of Timothy McVeigh. I googled it and clicked on the link at fbi.gov. There is … nothing. Just a blank page that says “This page has been blocked”.
I tried the Weather Underground next (to see if an example of left-wing extremism would work) and that was blocked as well. So just – no more history, I guess?
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
Love experiencing 1984 as a how-to guide!
Thor Heyerdahl
@prostratedragon: Looking at the picture of Bove in the TPM article. Evil ages the man – he is only 44 at most (birthdate at some point in 81/82) but he looks 10 to 15 years older than that in the photo.
Timill
@Asparagus Aspersions: https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/oklahoma-city-bombing is working here. Was that the page you looked for?
prostratedragon
@trollhattan: Picture accompanying is cherce.
@Thor Heyerdahl: Something about that has amused me since the Manhattan trial, when I discovered how young he is. You’d think he’d take the hint.
WTFGhost
@Asparagus Aspersions: Republicans regularly block investigations into right wing terrorism, claiming wisely that it would ensnare Republican supporters.
They’re really quite horrifyingly cynical, those that aren’t closet Boogaloo Bois. Or Boys. Whatever. (“Boogaloo” refers to people hoping for a second race war, which would show just how stupid, stupid white people, are. It’d be like, “hi, there. Here you go; it’s your ass. Yeah, I’m handing it to you.”)
BlueGuitarist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
@frosty:
some cases failed despite involvement of more than 3.5%.
Erica Chenoweth, the scholar who worked on this most has an explainer. (One of her findings is that nonviolent groups are more successful than armed insurgencies.)
https://www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/2024-05/Erica%20Chenoweth_2020-005.pdf
Ken B
@Thor Heyerdahl: Yeah these right-wing assholes’s hate makes them all like portraits of Dorian Gray, except it shows on their faces and bodies instead of a hidden painting.
TONYG
@Lapassionara: The Catholics on the Court are right-wing fascists. They’ll be fine with Trump’s little pope joke.
Matt McIrvin
@TONYG: Not Sotomayor, I’m pretty sure.
Matt McIrvin
@WTFGhost: They are bound to lose, but it might be after they kill all of the rest of us. Well, that’s something.
Kayla Rudbek
@Jeffro: apparently there’s some sort of prohibition or gentleman’s agreement that countries don’t go assassinate other countries’ leaders, which is stupid from a certain utilitarian point of view – why have wars which kill millions of troops and innocent people instead of having one person killed and the wars prevented?
Asparagus Aspersions
@Timill: Yup, when I click on that link, I still get a “page blocked” message
dnfree
@schrodingers_cat: No, because the rest of the population weighs more too, so same percentage.
dnfree
@frosty: Remember how VERY LONG it took the general public in a sufficient number to turn against the Vietnam War.