The Trump budget in one chart: Cut programs that help families and make America a leader of the world, pour money into kidnapping grad students and deporting toddlers.
— Hillary Rodham Clinton (@hillaryclinton.bsky.social) May 5, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Duckworth on if she's open to voting to confirm Mike Waltz: "I think everybody on that Signal chain needs to be fired … he's failing up … I'm not open to voting for him, no, because he's already demonstrated he's incapable of doing the most basic thing, which is handling classified information."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) May 4, 2025 at 10:59 AM
And half the country would be convinced we were in an unsustainable crisis that would guarantee the destruction of everything we held dear
ha ha
In moments like this I get why people believe in God, & that He's angry— Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST (@chathamharrison.bsky.social) April 29, 2025 at 11:58 PM
This fundamentally means that they think that they can't beat Ossoff. There's no one stronger than Kemp.
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) May 5, 2025 at 3:09 PM
So he’s proposing moving the White House?
— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) May 5, 2025 at 1:20 PM
It would take billions to reopen Alcatraz as a working prison, while destroying one of the Bay Area's top tourist attractions.
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) May 4, 2025 at 7:55 PM
This is what’s just mind-boggling. They’re asking us to make sacrifices in the form of more expensive consumer goods in the name of … lower GDP and higher unemployment.
— Josh Chafetz (@joshchafetz.bsky.social) May 4, 2025 at 5:45 PM
years of shared sacrifice leading to a glorious future is literally the insane shit mass movements sell their adherents and that’s fine, believe what you want, but it didn’t work for the nazis or the people’s temple and it ain’t gonna work today either
but we bought the ticket, we get the ride— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) May 5, 2025 at 8:40 PM
On The Road – Hildebrand – Aachen and Avignon – Part I
Baud
Hillary the Hawk, Donald the Dove.
The Audacity of Krope
@Baud: It’s all a show to the media, social and legacy.
ETA: And Shauna up there, that’s the thing, they do think we’re at war.
Baud
catclub
who this ‘we’ kemo sabe? Those idiots bought the ticket, we get the ride.
Baud
@The Audacity of Krope:
100%
Anonymous At Work
Tired: Infrastructure Week
Wired: “Big beautiful trade deal on tariffs”
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Maybe we can exile Trump to Alcatraz like the French exiled Napoleon to St. Helena. It could be a prison for one, made up to look like a replica of Mar-A-Largo or the White House on the inside, with a few loyal sycophants, where he can write all of the executive orders he wants to his heart’s content and he can’t hurt anybody else
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
It would be the hottest ticket in town.
The Audacity of Krope
Special deals on tariffs are going to make a very convenient boycott list in my life. If they think it’s a war, it can be waged more than one way.
Another Scott
We visited Alcatraz on a vacation to SF once. Interesting place.
No water on the island.
Crumbling concrete.
Rebuilding it is a stupid idea. There’s a reason why it was closed as a prison in the first place…
But it keeps him in the news, so Mission Accomplished!!
Have a good day, everyone.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Eric S.
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’d like something a little farther removed. Like Napoleon though, Saint Helena would work for me.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: If only the Dems had a better message we would have won. When Orange said that the immigrants are eating your pets, Dems should have said yeah with spices, can you imagine that? Foreign spices and well seasoned.
We could have got the vote of the xenophobic, bland food loving real Americans and won.
Citizen Dave
“keep them far away from anyone they can harm” You can see Alcatraz from San Francisco. I’ll bet trump would just keep the tours going. ‘Come see the worst of the worst’
After several visits to S.F. we also took the Alcatraz tour. Cool tour for sure.
I thought the local sentiment was to return the island to native americans.
The Audacity of Krope
@schrodingers_cat: Republicans wanted people to believe that Democrats wanted white people to be ashamed to exist.
They sold this lie to get white people to sign onto new shameful things.
Anonymous At Work
@The Audacity of Krope: Tariffs are assessed by “country of origin” (legalism apply to that term), so unless it is one-product nation (such as exempting natural vanilla from Tahiti and Madagascar), you won’t have a company to boycott. But no nation is dealing because the goalposts are so obviously moving, China’s the biggest player by far, and everyone is waiting for China, Japan, and a few other big deals to settle out to know how to proceed. But China holds more cards than Trump, so they’ll wait and threaten markets until America asks, ASKS, for a high-level visible meeting on China’s terms.
schrodingers_cat
@The Audacity of Krope: Hasn’t this been the Republican party MO for the longest time though?
catclub
A strong hint that it is considered worthless.
native Americans got Oklahoma until they found oil.
Harrison Wesley
Alcatraz? Think bigly, bro. Go all the way – reopen Auschwitz!
The Audacity of Krope
@Anonymous At Work: Let me provide an example. Trump has need a broad exemption for electronics. So no new video game systems, controllers, no replacement phone, disposable vapes, headphones, replacement chargers…
You get the idea.
bbleh
And the MAGAts will buy it, as long as they believe that THOSE people are getting HURT. They will set their jaws and endure.
Forget not the words of Davis X Machina: “The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of whom will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn’t even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it.”
The Audacity of Krope
@schrodingers_cat: It used to be…more subtle. You could only sell that line to their worst of the worst. Everyone else needed polite euphemisms.
Trump showed them the polite euphemisms were bullshit, which is correct, but then rallied them to join the worst of the worst. That’s on them, at least the ones who were nominally paying attention.
Betty
So nice to see you able to post again, Anne. Happy your health is improving.
satby
@catclub: in our democracy the losing side has to ride with the winners; and saying that because we didn’t vote for him we’re somehow exempt from the consequences isn’t going to work. We’re all stuck, and until we get it unstuck, here we are.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@The Audacity of Krope:
They’re right about the ‘war’ part, just the wrong kind. I say this repeatedly, we’re in a cold civil war.
Thor Heyerdahl
@Eric S.: Start at St. Helena and keep sailing south another 20 degrees. Tristan da Cunha would be fine.
RaflW
75 million of us bought the other ticket, but we’re dragged onto this ride anyway. I get that this is how it works, but “we” are fractured, and my desire for shared sacrifice in this moment is so far below zero molecular motion is at risk of ceasing.
The Audacity of Krope
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I’ve been saying it for ages myself.
They won a battle in that cold civil war and think they can take it global while still escalating at home. Let’s make them regret it.
I have no problem with shared sacrifice. But not for their depraved goals.
twbrandt
I read somewhere that one of the reasons Alcatraz was closed was that it cost 3 times as much to operate than prisons on land because everything had to be brought in by boat.
Princess
Happy Carney at the White House day, to those who celebrate.
The Audacity of Krope
@twbrandt: This term “government efficiency,” they say it so often but they don’t seem to know what it means.
This has been today’s episode of Half-Remembered Movie Quotes.
NotMax
@Another Scott
Rebuilding it is a stupid idea.
Kim Jong Dumb.
//
Soprano2
@Another Scott: This is one of those things that can hopefully be slow walked until he forgets about it. Someone should take him to a Supermax prison, so he can see where we put the worst of the worst now. He also probably doesn’t know that most of those people are in state prisons, not federal ones.
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat:
You’re still arguing over how the Dems should have campaigned last year. I’ll pass.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I was thinking that, and then read a transcript of an interview with Trump about it. Came across as dementia plus being surrounded by syncopates, and that was the first time anyone ask him to explain it.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
The Alcatraz nonsense isn’t much different than the Gaza-Into-A-Resort nonsense, it’s just another day in the Firehose of Falsehood, a Russian-style of propaganda in the age of information abundance:
Alcatraz is a National Historic Landmark preserved thru a joint agreement with the National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, thus is covered by tons of rules and laws.
Did I just imply that rules and laws matter to Hair Furor?
Wait, I’ll come in again.
narya
Except (and I’m not arguing with YOU) it’s NOT “shared sacrifice.” The wealthy and super-wealthy won’t even notice, especially once everyday services are cut even further to fund more tax cuts for them.
evodevo
@Eric S.: Yes, this…remember they exiled him before to Elba and it didn’t work…
The Audacity of Krope
@narya: You’re absolutely right
RaflW
@The Audacity of Krope: Yep. As someone with above average resources, I’d have been fine with a Harris-Walz admin working with Congress to raise taxes on higher incomes and on investments/cap gains (and “carried interest”, not that I have that but it’s a Mac truck sized loophole). I’m well aware that there are significant needs in this society, and to whom much has accumulated, much should be expected.
But for this shitshow? Fuck that. I am stepping up my donations while ignoring gut-checks about the retirement funds, but shared sacrifice is doublespeak in Trumpworld. He and his cronies don’t plan to make any changes whatsoever in their lifestyles.
George
@catclub:
So true, and I wish that various other commenters would stop with the “we” elected an idiot trope.
If anything, liberals and Democrats and other sensible Americans who voted for Harris are hostages to lite fascists and idiots. I don’t appreciate when those various other commenters include me as a perp.
suzanne
A chunk of the right-wing freaks on Xhitter have said something different, which is that they want tariffs so that working-class people can afford the same lifestyle as those with “email jobs”.
It’s weird to me that their vision of income equality basically tops out there.
Belafon
@catclub: “We” as in the country. As much as I want to be separated from it, “we the people” voted for this.
schrodingers_cat
@The Audacity of Krope: I agree that Rs used to be more subtle about their bigotry. Orangina showed them that the being in your face about xenophobic bigotry works.
Librettist
Privatizing the gulag archipelagos in the name of “law and order” failed due to ever escalating costs.
Nothing new here, just worn out Reaganism.
...now I try to be amused
@Another Scott: Heather Cox Richardson pointed out that the Alcatraz prison was closed in 1963 after having operated for only 29 years because it was three times as expensive as other federal prisons. It made quite a legend in a relatively short time, though. Reminds me of the Pony Express in that respect.
Melancholy Jaques
@The Audacity of Krope:
People don’t just believe that, they believe it is the central purpose of the Democratic Party.
The Audacity of Krope
@suzanne: My job is entirely data entry right now. Transcription and billing. I promise I don’t make as much as any average trades worker.
Baud
@suzanne:
They don’t care about income inequality. They care about being above other people when it comes to status inequality. They’ll happily give the rich the top spot to have that. It’s a modern day version of feudalism.
Baud
@Belafon:
Agreed. We shouldn’t accept guilt or blame for other people’s actions, but we also can’t separate ourselves from the national collective.
The Audacity of Krope
@Melancholy Jaques: It’s become my own central purpose.
Renounce whiteness. It is the way forward.
Belafon
@lowtechcyclist: Actually, I thought that was a pretty good Baud impression.
Jeffro
I’m trying to guesstimate just HOW LOUD the howling would be from the right if President Harris was promoting her own memecoin from the White House…
…or if the Emhoff kids were circling the globe, making gazillion-dollar real estate deals that featured the Harris ‘brand’…
…or if the Harris/Emhoff family opened a club in DC called “Executive Branch” specifically designed to funnel bribes to the family in exchange for access.
I’m guessing it would be PRETTY LOUD.
The Audacity of Krope
@Jeffro: Standards and consequences are for criminals and Democrats, but I repeat myself…/MAGA
Glidwrith
I’m willing to bet that pea-brain thinks since Gitmo is on an island, Alcatraz is better, because then we don’t have to pay Cuba for it.
Gah, I just destroyed a bunch of brain cells.
lou
I keep going back and forth on whether Trump is really that dumb or if things like Alcatraz, the pope image, the movie tariffs are distractions to have people focus on those silly ideas, instead of the scary, real news coming out, like not sure about upholding the constitution or terrorizing immigrants, scientists and higher ed institutions.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I have winning message for Dems, throw immigrants under the bus, it is the patriotic thing to do. A lot of Ds will go with it especially many of the self anointed progressives especially if you throw highskilled immigrants under the bus. That was the cause celebre of their patron saint from Vt back in the day.
There is no downside to it.
...now I try to be amused
Trump also mentioned Sing Sing. He’s just thinking of notorious prisons he’s seen in movies. Has he considered asking France to lease Devil’s Island?
suzanne
@Baud:
I know. If they cared about income inequality, you start at the top. The billionaires and the CEOs. If you care about status inequality, you complain about college grads and professionals.
Soprano2
@Jeffro: They would have impeached her already. Only R’s are allowed to be openly corrupt.
Baud
@lou:
I think he’s that dumb. But I also think that his dumbness is a natural trait that makes some people not perceive him as a scary threat. It’s why he’s been able to pull off what other right wingers might not have been able to
schrodingers_cat
@…now I try to be amused: Since he wants to recreate mercantalist Victorian England, allow me to present the most notorious prison of the British Empire, the cellular jail in Andaman.
Its a museum now. But the islands are remote and hard to get to.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
You could extend that to everything. Over the years, I’ve heard how we need to abandon abortion rights or gun regulation or tax increase or some other issues to broaden our base.
We obviously have to do something, but all advice on what we should do is bunk.
I’m sure there’s a German word that describes that situation.
Omnes Omnibus
@…now I try to be amused: There’s always the idea of federalizing and expanding Angola. Stephen Miller could even tell Trump it is overseas.
suzanne
@The Audacity of Krope: I obviously don’t know how much you make, but there is still a significant income premium for college grads. Tradespeople often don’t do well financially until they own their own business or climb a bit of a career ladder to become a superintendent or foreman.
And trades like hairstyling or manicurists don’t pay great.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I was being facetious but the likes of Ezra Klein get NYT gigs for giving such suggestions.
Soprano2
@Baud: I think he really believes we closed the prisons where the worst criminals were housed, which is why he thinks they’re running around loose everywhere. I’ll repeat, someone should give him a tour of the Supermax prison so he knows what a high security prison looks like in the 21st century.
The Audacity of Krope
@suzanne: It’s very…median.
Which is certainly not bad. But I expect most trades workers tend to be doing a bit better.
I’d say I should’ve been a plumber, but not really in my set of aptitudes.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: That’s perceptive, we laugh at him but he won the WH twice when even once would have been one time too many.
Melancholy Jaques
@schrodingers_cat:
On that subject, I read a Josh Marshall article on the various suggestions offered by Yglesias, Slotkin, & others for underbusing. I am so fucking tired of these people.
WTFGhost
@schrodingers_cat: They’ve added in “boys” who are supposedly told to be ashamed to be boys or young men, and therefore need a testicle tanning “expert” to tell them about what Real Men are like.
Which is stupid – there’s some old books from the 70s or so, “Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche” which are far more instructive then testicle tanners.
NotMax
@…now I try to be amused
Meanwhile he’s turned the Oval Office into Bling Bling.
schrodingers_cat
@Melancholy Jaques: Josh Marshall has provided a home to the immigrant hating John Judis for a long time, so I know he would be quite comfortable with my suggestion.
No One of Consequence
@Eric S.: I offer up for consideration, Mars. He can have his choice of what he considers to be the finest real estate on the planet there.
Hell, send along a big bucket of gold paint, and tell him that if he paints the letters big enough, we’ll all be able to read the name ‘TRUMP’ on Mars, from Earth.
The Biggliest.
Think of the public funding campaign for the rocket etc. to get him there. That would unite Our Country, Dems, Pubs and Indies. Hell, if would unite the planet at this point.
-NOoC
Omnes Omnibus
Those books are stupid too.
mappy!
Three card monte media.
Pick-a-con. short con, long con, con-a-rama.
Gotcha talking about it. Obsess about it.
That’s the point.
suzanne
@The Audacity of Krope: Trades is a wide range, like anything else. Some people do well, but lots of others do…. meh. And one has to weigh it against the risk; I have worked with lots of tradespeople who are missing fingers, or who have blown out their knees by age 40.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Melancholy Jaques:
Those kinds of “Democrats” are a significant reason why we are where we are. Toss in Ezra Broder Klein (h/t to s_c for that one), Totebagger Radio, the majority of Atlantic “writers” and a whole host of self-professed progressives who think their liberalness is enshrined cuz they voted for Obama and support abortion rights and here we are.
Tenar Arha
@Jeffro: GOP motto: Corruption is for me not for thee!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@The Audacity of Krope:
Interesting piece recently in of all places realtor.com, talking about immigration and the construction trades (which is what most people think when using the generic phrase “the trades”):
https://www.realtor.com/advice/home-improvement/housing-market-hispanic-workforce/?cid=soc_shares_article_X
One of the salient observations:
...now I try to be amused
@Tenar Arha:
Wilhoit’s Law doesn’t just apply to the law. Conservatives believe in inequality in everything.
Soprano2
@Melancholy Jaques: I think Marshall is on the right track with this part:
There have been all kinds of local stories here about how FFOTUS’s cuts to programs that help everyday people are hurting us – the local food bank is advertising that they need an extra $3 million to make up for their grant that was cut. I saw an article the other day about how CASA is under threat of closing because the national organization lost money “because their goals don’t align with the administration’s”. They advocate for foster care children! I saw another one yesterday about how the local family planning clinic that’s operated for over 40 years might have to close because they haven’t been able to access their Title X money since April. Those things are out there if only Democrats will use them.
Montanareddog
@…now I try to be amused: the Château d’If is probably too obscure for his “poorly-educated” mind.
Soprano2
@Omnes Omnibus: My husband used to make a great quiche Lorraine. Now I’d be afraid to let him try it.
Soprano2
@suzanne: I’ve worked with men in their 50’s who look like they’re in their 70’s. It’s definitely a trade-off.
The Audacity of Krope
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I will say, one thing Democrats have missed in terms of education policy; the discussion has mostly centered on childhood education and financing university.
These things are important. But we need a more comprehensive look at access to education. We need to push, publicly, for more support for trade school and helping people with professional certifications.
University isn’t for everyone at all times. Sometimes the same person will have different educational needs at different times. Not even everyone who might benefit from university in some respects necessarily needs a four year program.
Education needs to be more accessible, flexible in its goals, and involved in local communities.
WTFGhost
@The Audacity of Krope: Technically, it was Rush Limbaugh who showed that you didn’t need euphemisms, nor did you need to be especially funny, so long as you found the right kind of nasty cruelty that most people reject, but some losers think is the mark if a Real Man.
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: You’re right – Republicans are fine using the laws against their enemies, and protecting their own, squealing like stuck pigs every time an honest indictment comes down. And, they ran a common criminal, who doesn’t understand the Constitution, and doesn’t even believe he has to follow the law, because there are no consequences to his lawbreaking. And they’re happy with the death of “the enemy,” their family, friends, and neighbors in this country, who they believe are Democrats.
@Thor Heyerdahl: I’m fine with any island that won’t become underwater if sea level only rises a quarter inch in a century, but will go underwater quickly if sea level rises a quarter inch a year, as it is now, due to climate change.
The Stable Genius has spoken; let him live with his wisdom.
@suzanne: So, sacrifice the buying power of the working class, so they are less well off, but it’s okay, because people who can work from home will also be hurt? I don’t get that – it doesn’t make sense. (I’m not suggesting you’re incorrect, mind you – I’m willing to believe right wingers believe nonsense. It’s just a strange argument, even for them!)
@lou: Trump really is stone cold stupid. Remember, he’s the guy so stupid, he hears disinfectants can kill Covid-19, so he immediately starts suggesting they can be used in the body, as if every single doctor in that room wouldn’t have thought of the same thing, and rejected it, because (hospital speak follows) you can apply an ANTISEPTIC treatment to a body, but not a DISINFECTANT treatment, which only gets used on surfaces.
What makes Trump an effing moron is, he asked about it, on TV, never once imagining “if bleach kills covid this quickly, there must be a reason doctors don’t use it in the body, and no one on this stage right here is here because they’re stupid.
ErgothereforeDUH, “can’t use disinfectant.”(Sorry – had to think of a word a moron like Trump knew.)
schrodingers_cat
OT If any BJers are into fountain pens I am loving Jinhao’s swan pen a lot. Its a budget pen and I am using these pens with various colored inks that I bought 2 years ago. I am absolutely loving it to write with. I have vintage pens like Parker and Shaeffer and even Lamys. So I am familiar with fountain pens. And love writing with them.
It was less than $2 per pen.
Jeffro
because even people without consciences can, and in his case should, have nightmares
suzanne
@Soprano2: Yeah, for sure. I worked for years with one superintendent who has a son about the same age as mine. He was telling me that his son wanted to follow in his footsteps, and he was advising him not to do that. He and I were discussing that we were both approaching 40, and that he lived with some significant pain due to injuries, and he didn’t want his son to live like that.
Also, I also have pointed out that, in construction, at the medium- and large-contractor level, there isn’t really a career path to work one’s way from the field to the office/project management track without a college degree. Most of the people at any GC or subcontractor of any size have BS degrees in construction management, or business/accounting, or engineering. (Also a fair number of humanities majors work in construction.)
And immigrants, many of them undocumented, make up something like 50% of the so-called “low-skill” trades…. that was last I checked, probably higher now. And they get paid crap.
Citizen Alan
@WTFGhost: ” real men don’t eat quiche” was from the eighties, i think. And my recollection, was that it was satire, though it’s been nearly forty years since I read it so I could be wrong.
Jeffro
@Soprano2: I’m good with “here’s how trumpov & Co are hurting your family” as an overarching Democratic campaign theme for this year and next
it’s not like we will lack for examples to point to
(oh wait…I forgot that the bad things are still, somehow, part of the ‘Biden economy’, my bad…) #eyeroll
Tenar Arha
@schrodingers_cat: definitely interested, thank you! “Jinhao’s swan pen”
WTFGhost
@Baud: You know what I think? I think in July, we injured our coalition in a dozen different ways, and we lost a major election, and now, people are insisting that everything matters except July.
@Omnes Omnibus: Why on earth would you guess otherwise? The title tells you all you need to know.
suzanne
@WTFGhost:
Much of the BJ commentariat has focused on racism as an axis of hatred, which it absolutely is. But we have given comparatively less attention to the blue-collar/white-collar hatred dynamic. And as Cartoons Hate Her pointed out….. the hatred of white-collar professionals is really a stalking horse for loathing of women, and the shifting social order in which women are not financially dependent.
Fair Economist
@schrodingers_cat:
African and Indian spices, to be precise. We’d have been assured victory!
WTFGhost
@Citizen Alan: Yes…
It was satire….
“Okay, y’all, who thought I was serious, I’m backing away now, okay? haha, just good friends, no sudden moves on me, no siree bob! Is that the door behind my back? What a wonderful door…”
ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
(faintly, as if from a great distance) “… you have on this place…..”
(Pro tip: do not try this with a closet door.)
ETA: “Far more instructive than testicle tanners” is not a high bar to clear. Just sayin’.
WTFGhost
@suzanne: Ah, that makes sense. Yes, I see a way that this would be an appropriate way to describe it. Thanks!
Omnes Omnibus
@Citizen Alan: It was ’80s. It was satire. That doesn’t mean some people didn’t take it as a how-to manual. OTOH, my view, then and now, is that an actual real man can wear pink if he wants to, drink tea, and a eat as much quiche as he wants. Or not. Who fucking cares? I mean it’s not like they are calling a vodka based drink a martini.
Fair Economist
@Jeffro:
They’d be pre-empting cartoon shows with “special bulletins”.
schrodingers_cat
@Tenar Arha: Here is the Amazon link
schrodingers_cat
I am also on a lookout for old drafting tools, compasses, set squares and the like. Trying to figure out what I need. My father gave away my uncle’s old drafting set (he was an architect), it would have been great to have that. This was before I rediscovered art during the pandemic. Of course I am still an egg when it comes to drawing.
Omnes Omnibus
@Fair Economist: I still like the threat of taco trucks on every corner. HRC would have given us that.
schrodingers_cat
@WTFGhost: Do I really want to know what a testicle tanner is? I think not.
Dorothy A. Winsor
One of my neighbors says he just checked in investments and he’s lost 7% in the last three months.
People say it will be back in the long term. When you live where I do, lots of your neighbors don’t have a long ter.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: It’s what it says on the box. Tucker Carlson’s show suggested it (the tanning) as helpful. I have no further details nor do you want them.
The Audacity of Krope
@schrodingers_cat: It was a whole…thing a couple years ago.
Tucker Carlson features it prominently in a well-publicized special he did on making men more manly* or some bullshit. The mockery was everywhere, I’m surprised you didn’t run into it.
*If I trust anyone to tell me what a man ought to be, it’s Tucker Carlson
catclub
@Belafon: fair enough
catclub
I think this is the key and most destructive point.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@The Audacity of Krope:
Preaching to the choir on that one.
Funny thing is, a lot of red states are actually doing this somewhat under the radar with “state technical colleges”. For example, the one I lived near for 22+ years and my wife taught a couple of math classes there in the late 90s after we ditched our DC careers for life in red, rurl, Central Misery:
https://krcgtv.com/news/local/over-24000-students-enroll-at-state-tech-breaking-previous-records
Back in the 90s, it was literally an after thought of a school, definitely for locals (at least in the Central Misery sense, not just the immediate surroundings). Starting in the late aughts, it became a “state” school which meant it’s credits were more integrated into the university system but still retained something of a “trades” attitude.
Do you learn how to be an electrician there? No, it’s not that kind of school. But it is the kind of school that kinda tracks students into future bachelors degrees if they chose to go that route in a construction trade.
And enrollment there is booming. In the 6 years that we’ve left, well, follow the link.
And I’m seeing this approach in just about every Flyover Country state I travel thru, all red, all doing something that pertains to your comment.
The piece I linked to earlier also explains the issues of “the trades” in terms of the Hispanic workforce, the health issues, etc. People who continue to discount this as an entry to what’s considered middle class now are unserious thinkers. Sure, tradeoffs but as you say, not everybody is cut out for a 4-year degree and that shouldn’t automatically be a pre-reg for economic upward mobility.
WTFGhost
@schrodingers_cat: A t-square, compass, architect or engineer scale (those long triangular-tube rulers – a different scale on each edge), a 45×90 and a 30/60/90 triangle, a French curve, and a good mechanical pencil, were what I remember most, other than the drafting table. Oh! And sandpaper paddles if you’re old school about putting a point on your pencil. They also had pencil lead sharpeners, for the same purpose.
Librettist
If the kitchen remodeler with the spartan sticker and over-leveraged RamTruck could have sweated it through a union apprenticeship, they would have.
Small business training might be more helpful, because that’s where they usually run aground.
Belafon
@Omnes Omnibus: They even had an image, and it was quite hilarious.
Soprano2
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: You should see how Ozarks Technical Community College has grown since it was started in the early ’90’s. It’s been a huge neighborhood improvement project for us, because the neighborhood has improved a lot since they started it. Geez, they have a choir now! It’s a launching pad for a lot of kids to see if they really want to go to a 4 year college or not, plus lots of training for the trades.
suzanne
@WTFGhost: When I taught technical drawing, I used to blow their minds by showing them how they needed to learn how to twirl their lead holders as they drew lines, so that the point stayed consistently sharp. LOL.
It’s a fun skill to develop. No one hand-drafts anymore except for show, but it is beautiful and it trains your eye.
Searcher
I know it’s futile to try to understand what’s going on inside Trump’s head when random stimuli produces weird mouth sentences, but–
Does he think we have an epidemic of prison breaks? Like, insomuch as there’s a problem with “repeat criminal offenders”, it’s not “they break out of prison constantly and go on more crime sprees while on the lam”. If our laws allowed us to “throw away the key”, it’s not like our current prisons are unable to hold these prisoners indefinitely, in inhuman conditions even. Re-opening a decaying, mythical “inescapable prison” isn’t solving the problem you’ve imagined.
But on the other hand, if we’re going for pure vibes, I think we can do better than the harbor island prison.
Why not the decommissioned oil rig on one side or the other of the magical “international waters” line? There’s no one swimming back from that. You could even look for shark-infested water to moor it in!
Or you could one on the peak of Mt Den– erm, McKinley, for the frozen mountain prison vibe.
As long as we’re defiling National Parks, why not drill a prison into the side of the Grand Canyon? You could have it only accessible by a platform lowered down from the top. That seems inaccessible! Plus, you could install viewing platforms for tourists on the opposite canyon wall.
Or, if we want to go all future-y, what about an underwater prison? It seems like you could violate human rights pretty easily down below the depth that sunlight reaches.
suzanne
@Librettist:
Yes this. When you’re hearing about the $150K plumber, that’s the guy who owns his own business and has a few junior guys working for him. Which is a great career path, but it definitely requires development of other skills.
schrodingers_cat
@WTFGhost: I am not going to do any drafting just use it to draw repeating patterns. I do have a french curve and some rulers. That I used while making an answer key for a class I was teaching. I have some small set squares, I need larger ones. I think I need to make a list and see what I have and what I need. I do have the triangular scale too. Actually 2 and a metal ruler. My grandfather had a folding wood and brass ruler which was lovely. I wonder what happened to it. I like these old writing/drawing tools.
I have a T-square from my old carpenter neighbor that I needed for some DIY home improvement project. But its too huge for the project I have in mind.
The Audacity of Krope
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Bookmarked. Very interesting, thank you.
Matt
@The Audacity of Krope:
Speaking only for myself, anybody who voted for Trump SHOULD be ashamed to exist. They’re garbage that love to support garbage, and they’d make the country better if they never existed.
If I could Thanos-snap every MAGAt out of existence, I’d do it without hesitation – it’d take out every one of my living relatives, but they’re nasty assholes anyways.
artem1s
It didn’t work for Jimmy Carter when we had an actual oil crisis and it didn’t work with MAGAts or vaccine deniers when we had an actual pandemic either. American’s won’t sacrifice their own comfort or give up buying cheap plastic crap from China just because Orangemandius tells them to. And they will never listen to his piss poor hires who have been tasked with selling Project 2025 to the masses. But they are more than willing to throw minorities, women, and other marginalized, struggling communities under the bus in a heartbeat if it means they get to keep their discretionary dollars for gambling, crypto, take out, sportball tickets, and home delivery of groceries at rock bottom prices. Given Trumplandia does not understand how tariffs or massive layoff work, they will be shocked, shocked I tell you when they lose their jobs or experience shortages of essential goods (and not just dolls and playstations).
Just wait until the unemployment cascade starts. You can’t fire tens of thousands of federal workers without it affecting the GDP and the job market. Even with gutting labor laws and DEI the upwardly failing white guys are going to have even more competition once their companies start layoffs and downsizing. Those federal workers will start submitting their resumes and those folks have actual job experience unlike the upper middle management and CEOs who have ‘people’ to do all their work for them. Having experience as an ‘influencer’ might get you a job in the current WH but hardly anywhere else except maybe fast food.
There go two miscreants
@suzanne: I still have my erasing shield around here somewhere.
Jeffro
@Matt:
Yes, yes, yes, me too, same, and…well…my relatives are not nasty but they are MAGA assholes when it comes down to it.
The Audacity of Krope
@Matt: If I could Thanos-snap every MAGAt out of existence, I’d do it without hesitation – it’d take out every one of my living relatives, but they’re nasty assholes anyways.
This covers a lot of my family and, depending on how you define it*, probably a few of my friends. Their political views range from unfortunate to ignorant to evil, but we do need to live with these people.
* in terms of commitment level and engagement
Baud
I feel sorry for the son.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: They didn’t apply for their son’s naturalization when they became citizens? I smell a rat.
EarthWindFire
@suzanne: Tariffs aren’t going to solve that “problem” for them either. If anything, it’ll exacerbate it as small manufacturers’ supply chains go to hell. But hey, as long as some lib is upset…
VFX Lurker
We survived two terms of George W. Bush, then we struck him from all human memory. Most (not all) of us survived Trump 1.0, then we tried not to think about it.
Whoever survives Trump 2.0 needs to make sure future generations of voters never, ever forget the price of putting stupid people like him in charge.
frosty
@schrodingers_cat: I have a bunch of this stuff looking for a home. I’ll send some pics to WG to forward to you. Or get your email addy.
suzanne
@EarthWindFire:
Yes. Crabs in a bucket, tall poppy syndrome, however you want to phrase it.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
I think it is more to him than it keeps him in the news. He wants an extremely shitty federal prison to put his enemies in so that he can be president for life. He does not care for or about the rule of law, he cares about the rule of him. He does not give any shits about the rule of law, this country, any human, only himself. He wants a place to throw anyone who is against him being king for ever. And he has sycophants that at least want him to win now so they can take over from him. He is not rational, reasonable, responsible, respectable, at the very least. This is his last chance to be (in his tiny, warped, irrational, disgusting pea brain) the leader of his world. Forever.
Westyny
@Eric S.: I was thinking along the lines of Bikini Atoll
Marc
I had the small drafting set (and handwritten note of encouragement) my grandparents gave my father as he got on the train to MIT for his EE degree (class ’51). I gave it to his oldest granddaughter and my niece (MIT EECS ’15), who he lived just long enough to meet as an infant. Hopefully, she’s held on to it.
schrodingers_cat
@frosty: Or you can contact me directly at my bloggy email [email protected] I might even have your email address actually
Thanks so much!
Scuffletuffle
@Soprano2: Better yet, tell him it’s a tour, then lock him in and dispose of the keys on the way out.
Ben Cisco
@schrodingers_cat: Since about 1965 or so…
Ruckus
@suzanne:
Owning your own business is fun! OK that’s often BS because it is work, and quite unlike having a job with a time clock. I’ve owned 2. One a manufacturing business and one a retail business that I opened a rather short while before we had a nice recession. Timing seems to not be my forte. Anyway, you are correct owning one is quite unlike working as an employee in the same business.
TEL
@lowtechcyclist: Pretty sure that was snark.
schrodingers_cat
@TEL: It was.
karen gail
@Omnes Omnibus: At one time pink was considered a masculine color since it was based on red. It wasn’t until 20th century that it changed; also both boys and girls wore white dresses until their hair was cut for the first time.
Believe it or not that was a question in a clothing and textile class at college level.
Miss Bianca
@…now I try to be amused: Jesus, Alcatraz has been closed as a prison since *the year of my birth* and Shitgibbon still can’t let it go, for whatever fucking reason?
I ought to be used to the level of drooling idiocy, spite, and incompetence that comprises this creature’s mental capacity, so I’m kind of annoyed to find that I can still be blown away by it.
Melancholy Jaques
@Omnes Omnibus:
I thought Stuff White People Like was funny.
Miss Bianca
@Citizen Alan: It was satire, but as is the fate of most satire through the ages, some of the dumb people it was satirizing took it seriously.
karen gail
@Westyny: Ah yes, he is already so messed up that whatever radiation is left can’t do any more damage.
Miss Bianca
@schrodingers_cat: whatever it is, I hope it kills sperm so that whoever is steeped enough in the dumb-ass “Manosphere” to do it is rendered sterile as a mule.
It would improve the species. Just sayin’.
Melancholy Jaques
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m not a martini drinker, but I know that vodka martini is both a popular drink & a trigger for purists. What I don’t get is why the vodka variation never got its own name.
Lauryn11
@Soprano2:
Josh Marshall’s point about woke-ism being in the past should be turned back against Republicans, Karl Rove style. “Store shelves are empty, tariffs have hiked prices sky high, cancer research is being halted, they’re slashing Medicare and Social Security — and all they care about is killing DEI and wokeness. How is that going to help struggling American families?”
...now I try to be amused
@Ruckus:
I’ve never done it myself, but I know that when you start a small business you find out your most demanding boss is yourself.
Paul in KY
@Baud: We’ve always been at war with Eastasia…
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Melancholy Jaques:
It was incredibly predictive of the entitled white people on both sides of the aisle of today.
Paul in KY
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Being pedantic here :-)
The allied powers exiled his ass to St. Helena.
Paul in KY
@Soprano2: It’s not serious. It’s just gish gallop slop (IMO).
Paul in KY
@…now I try to be amused: How about Azkaban? He’d like saying that.
Paul in KY
@schrodingers_cat: They used to put them in old warships too. Called them ‘the hulks’. Lots of cute rats in them…
Paul in KY
@VFX Lurker: Hear fucking hear!!!