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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

All hail the time of the bunny!

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

So many bastards, so little time.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

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You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

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You are here: Home / Immigration / Friday Evening Open Thread: Elon’s People

Friday Evening Open Thread: Elon’s People

by Anne Laurie|  May 9, 20255:15 pm| 123 Comments

This post is in: Immigration, Trump Crime Cartel

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How much of a tariff do you have to pay to import white nationalists from South Africa?

[image or embed]

— emptywheel (@emptywheel.bsky.social) May 9, 2025 at 7:12 AM

Not so much South Africans, or even White South Africans — but White South Africans who can’t cope in a society where they can’t load the dice. Soutpiels:

The Trump administration is planning to bring the first group of white South Africans it has classified as refugees to the United States on Monday, according to officials briefed on the plans and documents obtained by The New York Times.

Although the president halted virtually all other refugee admissions shortly after he took office in January, his administration hastily put together a program to allow in white South Africans, who he claims have been the victims of racial persecution in their home country…

A top State Department official told South African officials on Friday that the United States planned to transport 54 Afrikaners to the United States on a charter flight scheduled to leave Johannesburg on Sunday, according to a person briefed on the call, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of the private conversation.

While the program remains suspended for refugees across the world, such as Congolese families in refugee camps and Rohingya seeking safety, white South Africans were processed much faster than is normal for these cases.

Refugees can often wait years in camps around the world before they are processed and approved to travel to the United States. Before the first Trump administration, refugee resettlement took an average of 18 to 24 months, according to the American Immigration Council, an advocacy group for immigrants. Many refugees must wait years longer.

The Afrikaners, however, had to wait no more than three months…

The arrival of the white South Africans comes after Mr. Trump signed an executive order suspending refugee admissions when he entered office. Then, in February, Mr. Trump created an exception for the resettlement of Afrikaners while also cutting all U.S. financial assistance to South Africa, accusing the government of supporting America’s enemies, like Iran, and attacking its allies, like Israel…

Within weeks of announcing that Afrikaners would be eligible for refugee status, the administration deployed teams to Pretoria, the South African capital, to screen white South Africans for consideration, according to the documents obtained by The Times. The teams studied more than 8,000 requests from people expressing interest in becoming refugees, and the U.S. government identified 100 Afrikaners who potentially could be approved. Trump administration officials have been directed to focus particularly on screening white Afrikaner farmers…

The resettlement of refugees is normally funded in large part by the State Department. But Mr. Trump suspended that program when he took office.

So the administration will be relying more on another agency that has traditionally supported refugees: a refugee office in the Department of Health and Human Services. That office has been reaching out to organizations assisting refugees in recent days to prepare them for the arrival of the Afrikaners, according to a department memo obtained by The Times. The Lever reported this week on the imminent arrival of the Afrikaners in the United States and the administration’s plan to use emergency refugee funds to assist them…

The rapid arrival of Afrikaners “flies in the face of the government’s claims that they aren’t able to process already-approved refugees, even after multiple courts have ordered them to do so immediately,” Melissa Keaney, a senior supervising attorney at the International Refugee Assistance Project, said in a statement. “Thousands of refugees unlawfully stranded by President Trump’s refugee suspension are in limbo and are ready to restart their lives in the United States. There is no more time for excuses.”

Send them to where refugees are typically settled. In Chicago that would be Rogers Park, or Albany Park, or West Ridge. I’m sure they’d feel right at home among the other refugees, from Syria & Burma & Afghanistan & the Central African Republic.

[image or embed]

— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) May 9, 2025 at 1:34 PM

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    123Comments

    1. 1.

      Old School

      May 9, 2025 at 5:17 pm

      I’m glad we could help these poor people.

      Reply
    2. 2.

      Baud

      May 9, 2025 at 5:18 pm

      Hopefully, South Africa can appropriate their land.

      Reply
    3. 3.

      raven

      May 9, 2025 at 5:21 pm

      A bunch of my pals are from Rogers Park. It was a largely Jewish area for years but, when I was up there ten years ago, Devon Ave was little India.

      Reply
    4. 4.

      kindness

      May 9, 2025 at 5:26 pm

      For the Trump regime, overt racism isn’t a bug.  It’s a feature.

      Guillotines are too good for them.

      Reply
    5. 5.

      Suzanne

      May 9, 2025 at 5:26 pm

      Read a great headline today about Souter: “David Souter, Supreme Court justice who disappointed conservatives, dies at 85”.

      I hope they say such nice things about me.

      Reply
    6. 6.

      Steve LaBonne

      May 9, 2025 at 5:27 pm

      Only the best people.

      Reply
    7. 7.

      Parfigliano

      May 9, 2025 at 5:28 pm

      Next DEM Administration should deport them to Libya.

      Reply
    8. 8.

      comrade scotts agenda of rage

      May 9, 2025 at 5:31 pm

      The new go-to definition for oxymoron:

      White South African Refugees.

      Reply
    9. 9.

      Hilbertsubspace

      May 9, 2025 at 5:34 pm

      Diplomatic Immunity!   -Arjen Rudd (Joss Ackland)

      -Lethal Weapon 2

      Reply
    10. 10.

      MattF

      May 9, 2025 at 5:35 pm

      And, I guess, their boy Elon will buy them US citizenship. Rich or poor, it’s nice to have money.

      Reply
    11. 11.

      bbleh

      May 9, 2025 at 5:37 pm

      I’ll bet the Orange Guy, Miller, and a bunch of the rest of them think it’s an absolute hoot.  Lotta the MAGAts will too.  Lovely people, really.

      Reply
    12. 12.

      frosty

      May 9, 2025 at 5:37 pm

      Fuck. This is not my government. This is not my country. And I need to find a good protest site near me on June 14th; not much yet, maybe something else will come up. At least I don’t have to deal with going to DC – they’re specifically avoiding it.

      I might have to cross the Mason-Dixon Line or (shudder) cross the Susquehanna!

      Reply
    13. 13.

      What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

      May 9, 2025 at 5:38 pm

      I adopted a black South African child in 2022. He was 8 then and now 11. Sweet kid. Kinda wonder if I could get asylum there through him. He’s got dual citizenship so he could go back whenever and me and the Mrs. are loaded by RSA standards but not so rich we could forgo working so we’d need a status that would enable us to work.

      Reply
    14. 14.

      eclare

      May 9, 2025 at 5:41 pm

      Every day you think (or I think) this administration can’t get any worse.  And then it does.

      Reply
    15. 15.

      Ocotillo

      May 9, 2025 at 5:47 pm

      And they are sending a charter plane for them?

      Reply
    16. 16.

      Ten Bears

      May 9, 2025 at 5:48 pm

      They’ll be suckling at the taxpayer teat for a generation or two …

      Reply
    17. 17.

      Martin

      May 9, 2025 at 5:52 pm

      United Healthcare is being sued by shareholders who argue that the public backlash prevented the company from pursuing ‘the aggressive, anti-consumer tactics that it would need to achieve’ its earnings goals.

      The investor class is the enemy you are looking for.

      Reply
    18. 18.

      Old Man Shadow

      May 9, 2025 at 5:52 pm

      Really making me want to lob some Molotov cocktails…

      Reply
    19. 19.

      lowtechcyclist

      May 9, 2025 at 5:59 pm

      @comrade scotts agenda of rage: ​
       

      The new go-to definition for oxymoron:

      White South African Refugees.

      Indeed. Let me know when any of the potential refugees that didn’t make the cut for this flight have trekked the length of Africa and tried to cross the Med in a boat of dubious seaworthiness in order to get to Europe and escape persecution.

      Reply
    20. 20.

      sab

      May 9, 2025 at 5:59 pm

      @MattF: That’s mostly our money that he has.

      Reply
    21. 21.

      VFX Lurker

      May 9, 2025 at 6:02 pm

      Not so much South Africans, or even White South Africans — but White South Africans who can’t cope in a society where they can’t load the dice.

      Sounds like a bunch of losers.

      Reply
    22. 22.

      scav

      May 9, 2025 at 6:05 pm

      Christ, we’re not even importing furriners to do jobs Real ‘Merkans won’t do: we’ve got a complete over-supply of home-grown stone-cold professional racists.

      Reply
    23. 23.

      prostratedragon

      May 9, 2025 at 6:08 pm

      @raven:  Very much so, along with Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc. Still a Jewish presence on Saturdays, and in small businesses going west.

      Reply
    24. 24.

      lowtechcyclist

      May 9, 2025 at 6:08 pm

      @Martin: ​
       

      The investor class is the enemy you are looking for.

      Our democracy has enemies coming out the wazoo. The trick with this particular class of enemies is in getting enough low-info voters to see them as the enemy to make a difference in our politics. If you can figure out how to do that, you can be to 2026 and 2028 what Carville was to 1992.

      Reply
    25. 25.

      trollhattan

      May 9, 2025 at 6:09 pm

      Special deal landed by State Department:

      “With every five Boer immigrants, you get free emerald mine.”

      Reply
    26. 26.

      karen gail

      May 9, 2025 at 6:12 pm

      Black man:

      Newark mayor arrested at ICE detention facility in New Jersey for alleged trespassing

      Reply
    27. 27.

      Gary K

      May 9, 2025 at 6:12 pm

      Keep those people out of my neighborhood!

      Reply
    28. 28.

      Gary K

      May 9, 2025 at 6:13 pm

      @frosty: Cross in which direction?

      Reply
    29. 29.

      comrade scotts agenda of rage

      May 9, 2025 at 6:14 pm

      @kindness:

      Guillotines are too good for them.

      Or this:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF5B1Pt01MU&t=14s

      Reply
    30. 30.

      WhatsMyNym

      May 9, 2025 at 6:15 pm

      @Martin: I think you misread the lawsuit. They are suing because the company didn’t change their forecast earnings. Meaning the stock is not worth as much.

      “As a result of Defendants’ wrongful acts and omissions, and the precipitous decline in the market value of the Company’s securities, Plaintiff and other Class members have suffered significant losses and damages,” the lawsuit says.

      Reply
    31. 31.

      prostratedragon

      May 9, 2025 at 6:15 pm

      @VFX Lurker:  I seem to recall that when the offer went out a few months ago, the initial silence was deafening. Who kmows where or how they scrounged these people uo.

      Reply
    32. 32.

      frosty

      May 9, 2025 at 6:18 pm

      @Gary K: Eastbound. It’s all Philly and Eagles/Phillies fans over there!

      Reply
    33. 33.

      Sister Golden Bear

      May 9, 2025 at 6:19 pm

      When in doubt, MAGAts always reach for the transphobia…

      MAGA’s brains are so broken. they speed ran the normal Pope conspiracies, and made the quantum leap to “the Pope is worse than woke, he’s trans!” in less than 12 hours.
      [Twitter screenshot of tweet with photos of the pope with overlaid with “female” and “male” skull measurements]
      — Country Over 🎉 Party 🎉 𓅳 (@itsjoelokay.bsky.social) May 8, 2025 at 9:00 PM

      In case you were blissfully unaware, there’s legions of “transinvestigators” over at the Bad Place who promote conspiracy theories that many celebrities and world leaders—usually women—are secretly trans, and constantly posting about how they’ve “proved” a particularly individual is trans.

      I wish I was kidding.

      Reply
    34. 34.

      Baud

      May 9, 2025 at 6:21 pm

      @Sister Golden Bear:

      And they said my phrenology degree would be worthless.

      Reply
    35. 35.

      Jay

      May 9, 2025 at 6:24 pm

      @trollhattan:

      They aren’t Boer’s. The Boer’s are/were Dutch/German South Africans. They are staying put in South Africa.

      Like Felon, these are soutpiels, “salt dicks”, one foot in the Atlantic and one foot in South Africa. Well off white people from around the Commonwealth and Britain who moved to South Africa for the racism and a chance to make a fortune off slavery.

      And they are the biggest, most racist, arrogant and dumb shitheads you will ever meet.

      Reply
    36. 36.

      Miss Bianca

      May 9, 2025 at 6:28 pm

      Open thread? Hey, look, it’s a review of Tom Levenson’s new book!

      Reply
    37. 37.

      schrodingers_cat

      May 9, 2025 at 6:28 pm

      @Jay: I had a coworker/friend who was a Boer we bonded over our love for cricket and rolling our eyes at W’s escapades and our mutual dislike for the British colonial enterprise.

      Reply
    38. 38.

      trollhattan

      May 9, 2025 at 6:29 pm

      @Baud: You got lumped in with the others?

      Reply
    39. 39.

      Miss Bianca

      May 9, 2025 at 6:29 pm

      @Jay: Oh, goodie, just exactly what this country needs more of…*groan*.

      Reply
    40. 40.

      Viva BrisVegas

      May 9, 2025 at 6:30 pm

      @prostratedragon: The obvious way to find them is making contact with the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging.

      Fascist to fascist.

      Reply
    41. 41.

      bbleh

      May 9, 2025 at 6:30 pm

      @Jay: “waaal now ah ain’t so sure about THAT!  This here’s aMERica, and ain’t NObody gonna tell me ANYbody else got bigger, more racist, more arrogant, dumber shitheads ‘n WE do!”

      Reply
    42. 42.

      Darkrose

      May 9, 2025 at 6:31 pm

      @Sister Golden Bear: Even their own aren’t safe. According to the transvestigators, Rowling looks trans. Sadly the lesson is lost on her.

      Reply
    43. 43.

      SW

      May 9, 2025 at 6:33 pm

      Honestly, what more do you need to illustrate in flashing neon that all of this, MAGA, Trump the anti-woke DEI nonsense, all of it is about white hysteria generated by the dawning realization of inevitable demographic change. Period, end of story.  We are in for a very bumpy ride as the privileged status of the undisputed majority of fades away.  This country will never fulfill its original promise until white people are just another minority group.  It is only then that we will discover the virtue of the protections of minority rights and views that are built into the founding documents we have in the past only aspired to.

      Reply
    44. 44.

      prostratedragon

      May 9, 2025 at 6:34 pm

      @Sister Golden Bear:  Um … oh who am I kidding? Just “Oy!”

      Reply
    45. 45.

      Miss Bianca

      May 9, 2025 at 6:34 pm

      @Miss Bianca: oh, wait – it’s not a review, it’s an article Tom wrote about his new book!

      Reply
    46. 46.

      Jay

      May 9, 2025 at 6:34 pm

      @schrodingers_cat:

      Canada got a wave of them, (Muskskovites?) who fled South Africa when Apartheid ended, based on their being white, rich and part of the Commonwealth.(Yes, Canada’s Immigration policy is just slightly less racist now).

      I “inherited” a bunch of them as vendors when I worked in tech, and I got rid of them as fast as I could, 1980’s DEIA style.

      The Boer’s I have met are lovely people, but we didn’t get many of them and most left South Africa before and after Apartheid ended, to come here for school. Most went back.

      Reply
    47. 47.

      trollhattan

      May 9, 2025 at 6:35 pm

      “To be” now “has been” released. Miller just blew a gasket. So a good Friday.

      [Breaking news, published at 6:28 p.m. ET]

      Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk has been released – following a federal judge’s order in Vermont – from a Louisiana detention center where she has spent the last six weeks after being snatched by masked plainclothes officers in broad daylight near her Massachusetts home in March, according to her attorney Esha Bhandari.

      My money was on “Oops, we can’t find her.”

      Reply
    48. 48.

      schrodingers_cat

      May 9, 2025 at 6:37 pm

      @Jay: This guy was the only one in the lab besides me who was not gung ho on Iraq. This was in the early aughts.

      Reply
    49. 49.

      Gvg

      May 9, 2025 at 6:38 pm

      I assume these 54 bribed Trump somehow, and don’t need “help”. Real reporters would start checking details and connections. Also criminal records and pending court cases with evidence.

      Reply
    50. 50.

      lowtechcyclist

      May 9, 2025 at 6:50 pm

      @Gvg: ​
       

      Real reporters would start checking details and connections. Also criminal records and pending court cases with evidence.

      They all said, “help, help, I’m being repressed, come see the violence inherent in the system!” so clearly they’re all being persecuted. No need to check any further. /s

      Reply
    51. 51.

      cain

      May 9, 2025 at 6:54 pm

      @raven:

      A bunch of my pals are from Rogers Park. It was a largely Jewish area for years but, when I was up there ten years ago, Devon Ave was little India.

      I used to go to Devon Ave since the late 70s, it was the only place we can go for our Indian groceries. It was like a 2.5 hour trip (55 mile hour speed limit!) So, Devon Ave was always little India – that said, Devon Ave is really really long and I think it starts with Indian/Pakistani and then moves to Jewish, Russian, and other immigrant populations.

      About 38 years ago there was a huge ruckus between Indians and Pakistanis over road names, I think Gandhi vs Jinnah type of thing. It was moronic.

      Reply
    52. 52.

      gene108

      May 9, 2025 at 6:55 pm

      The unique thing about MAGA’s white supremacy and victim hood complex is how aggressively they want to export to the rest of the world. Usually our white supremacists didn’t worry about white South Africans, or right-wing political parties in Germany being “oppressed”.

      I’m trying to figure out an end game of what they hope to accomplish should they win (whatever that may be), and I’m coming up blank.

      Reply
    53. 53.

      Baud

      May 9, 2025 at 6:57 pm

      @gene108:

      Whiteys of the World, Unite!

      Reply
    54. 54.

      gene108

      May 9, 2025 at 7:09 pm

      @cain:

      I used to go to Devon Ave since the late 70s, it was the only place we can go for our Indian groceries. It was like a 2.5 hour trip (55 mile hour speed limit!)

      In the late 70’s, we lived in Ann Arbor. Mom got Indian groceries mailed from a store in Chicago. Could’ve been on Devon Ave.

      Reply
    55. 55.

      Gloria DryGarden

      May 9, 2025 at 7:14 pm

      @trollhattan: pix on blue sky if you search her name. I posted one link, in last thread.

      jubilant that she’s out.

      Reply
    56. 56.

      Matt McIrvin

      May 9, 2025 at 7:18 pm

      @SW:

      Honestly, what more do you need to illustrate in flashing neon that all of this, MAGA, Trump the anti-woke DEI nonsense, all of it is about white hysteria generated by the dawning realization of inevitable demographic change.

      It’s not inevitable. They can reverse it.

      All they have to do is kill about 100 million people. That’s, what, about 8-10 Holocausts? Feasible.

      Reply
    57. 57.

      prostratedragon

      May 9, 2025 at 7:19 pm

      Don Moynihan:

      Take the time you would have spent complaining about politics online, and use it to write a comment opposing the proposed Office of Personnel Management rule to politicize public services. You can do it in 5 minutes. Deadline is May 23rd!

      Reply
    58. 58.

      Jay

      May 9, 2025 at 7:20 pm

      @gene108:

      It’s not really an export product. ruZZia spent a lot of time, money, decades and effort, to create a NAZI International. It’s an international network, so when you see couchfucker Vance and Rubio et. al. jumping on Germany for deciding that the AfD is a Nazi party worthy of State Security surveillance, you know how deep the Moscow July 4th dinners dug. And what all that ruZZian money bought.

      Quell surprise, the Leader of the International AtomWaffen Nazi Terrorist group, is holed up in Moscow, in a prime 3 bdr apt, protected by the GRU and get’s a monthly salary and pension.

      Reply
    59. 59.

      suzanne

      May 9, 2025 at 7:21 pm

      @SW:

      This country will never fulfill its original promise until white people are just another minority group.  It is only then that we will discover the virtue of the protections of minority rights and views that are built into the founding documents we have in the past only aspired to. 

      If we didn’t have race, we’d find another way to slice-and-dice society. We aren’t an exceptionally nice people.

      Reply
    60. 60.

      prostratedragon

      May 9, 2025 at 7:21 pm

      Laugh therapy:

      P.D.Q. Bach – Beethoven Symphony No. 5 Sportscast

      Reply
    61. 61.

      Ruckus

      May 9, 2025 at 7:22 pm

      @eclare:

      I’ve never thought that shitforbrains or any of his pals can’t get any worse. Human beings for our entire history have figured out how to get worse. And then pile on more worse. Not all of us, likely not even a majority, but a not in any way insignificant percentage always seem to manage.

      Reply
    62. 62.

      Matt McIrvin

      May 9, 2025 at 7:29 pm

      @gene108: If you talk to white nationalists like Spencer (I don’t recommend it), they claim to want the whole world neatly sorted into some kind of ethnic-racial homelands. I rather suspect a lot of them would just prefer people like themselves to have it all, though.

      Reply
    63. 63.

      Jackie

      May 9, 2025 at 7:35 pm

      So much Friday news!

      “Exasperated by the turmoil that has dogged Pete Hegseth’s office in recent weeks, the White House will block the US defense secretary’s choice of chief of staff and select a candidate of its own,” The Guardian reports.

      “Hegseth had suggested giving the chief of staff position to Marine Col Ricky Buria after the first person in the role, Joe Kasper, left last month in the wake of a contentious leak investigation that brought the ouster of three other senior aides.”

      “But the White House has made clear to Hegseth that Buria will not be elevated to become his most senior aide at the Pentagon, casting Buria as a liability on account of his limited experience as a junior military assistant and his recurring role in internal office drama.”

      “Ricky will not be getting the chief position,” a source familiar with deliberations told the Guardian. “He doesn’t have adequate experience, lacks the political chops and is widely disliked by almost everyone in the White House who has been exposed to him.”

      While the White House typically controls agency appointments through the presidential personnel office, blocking a Cabinet secretary’s top aide “is unusual and reflects Donald Trump’s intent to keep Hegseth by trying to insulate him from any more missteps,” the Guardian added.

      “The intervention comes at a time when Hegseth’s ability to run the Pentagon has come under scrutiny,” according to the report. “It also runs into the belief inside Trump’s orbit that even the president might struggle to justify Hegseth’s survival if the secretary does not have a scandal-free next few months.”

      Reply
    64. 64.

      gene108

      May 9, 2025 at 7:37 pm

      @Jay:

      At some point all the roads around Trump lead to Putin.

      Reply
    65. 65.

      RaflW

      May 9, 2025 at 7:38 pm

      What Miller says they’re considering seems like desperation, frankly, because I don’t think they have anything like public support for this level of power grab. Can they get away with it? I don’t know, but if they do, then we’re all seriously fvkd.

      ‪Qasim Rashid, Esq.‬ ‪@qasimrashid.com‬

      Trump sycophant Stephen Miller says the White House is considering suspending Habeas Corpus.

      As a human rights lawyer, let me be clear: Due process & habeas corpus is arguably the last line of defense before fascism takes permanent hold.

      I cannot emphasize enough how dire this is for our nation.

      Miller & Co. are actively seeing what happens when they disregard Scotus on Abrego Garcia. So far I’m not confident that Roberts or our system of institutions will have the gumption to fight back effectively enough. All is not lost, the public can turn on Trump in large enough numbers to end this slide, but for how much longer will that opportunity remain?

      Reply
    66. 66.

      Kirk

      May 9, 2025 at 7:38 pm

      @Matt McIrvin: It is telling (to me, anyway) how those neatly sorted ethno-racial homelands change when new resources are discovered.

      Reply
    67. 67.

      gene108

      May 9, 2025 at 7:39 pm

      @Matt McIrvin:

      My feeling is the “race realists” want to recreate 19th century colonialism, and they’ve taken over large parts of the Republican party.

      Reply
    68. 68.

      Ruckus

      May 9, 2025 at 7:39 pm

      @gene108:

      They want everyone but them gone, because that’s the only way they can actually come out on top. And even then likely a large percentage of them will still fail. Many in this country do not seem to understand that very few like them because they are pompous, arrogant asswipes that think they are the top of the heap. They think they will make a better world than anyone else, but they can’t because a better world is one where everyone does not look like everyone else. Nor are that stupid.

      Reply
    69. 69.

      SW

      May 9, 2025 at 7:40 pm

      @suzanne: oh I am not suggesting a revolution in human nature. I just think it is likely that when everyone is a minority of some sort the appreciation for and enforcement of minority rights will be enhanced.

      Reply
    70. 70.

      YY_Sima Qian

      May 9, 2025 at 7:40 pm

      WTF! Off the looking glass & through the map indeed!

      White South Africans, whether Soutpiels or Afrikaaners, remain to this day a privileged class in South Africa, & have always enjoyed the means to leave if they wanted to. Yes, w/ the way governance in South Africa has degraded in the past 2 decades (incompetence, corruption, crime, capriciousness), many White South Africans have felt their positions increasingly precarious. However, it remains the case that the vast majority of Black South Africans (& to an lesser extent other POCs) bear the brunt of the consequences of this degradation in governance.

      Reply
    71. 71.

      NotMax

      May 9, 2025 at 7:42 pm

      @prostratedragon

      Post-game snack: Peter Schickele, Quodlibet.
      ;)

      Reply
    72. 72.

      Phylllis

      May 9, 2025 at 7:42 pm

      @Miss Bianca: It’s got a starred review on Kirkus.

      Reply
    73. 73.

      gene108

      May 9, 2025 at 7:46 pm

      @RaflW:

      because I don’t think they have anything like public support for this level of power grab

      They don’t need support. They need lack of serious opposition.

      Institutions are only as good as the people running them. The people running a lot of our institutions are terrible people.

      Reply
    74. 74.

      Geminid

      May 9, 2025 at 7:54 pm

      @Jackie: Hegseth was scheduled to visit Israel this coming Monday, ahead of Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE.* Hegseth’s trip was postponed yesterday. I’m not sure why, but there is some tension between the Trump administration and the Israeli government right now, and Hegseth is a loose cannon.

      * Trump is supposed to spend May 13-16 on this trip.

      Reply
    75. 75.

      different-church-lady

      May 9, 2025 at 7:57 pm

      Goddamn, they don’t even try to disguise it anymore.

      Reply
    76. 76.

      different-church-lady

      May 9, 2025 at 7:58 pm

      I hope they send them to Martha’s Vineyard. Because even those cream cheese whities will eventually just pound the shit out of them for being such fuckin’ assholes.

      Reply
    77. 77.

      RevRick

      May 9, 2025 at 8:00 pm

      @Baud: I hear you failed the pants-wearing part of the final.

      Reply
    78. 78.

      mrmoshpotato

      May 9, 2025 at 8:00 pm

      @Martin:

      United Healthcare is being sued by shareholders who argue that the public backlash prevented the company from pursuing ‘the aggressive, anti-consumer tactics that it would need to achieve’ its earnings goals. 

      Assholes – on both sides! (Shareholders and UHC)

      Reply
    79. 79.

      OGLiberal

      May 9, 2025 at 8:04 pm

      About 6-7 years ago we had a global marketing event at my company.  We are not Citibank but we are not small and we are pretty much everywhere.  The former head of our department – he reported to the CEO – said he went to a conference and was mesmerized by a woman who said that, in 5 years, nobody will be driving their own car.  How’d that work out?  These fucking CEO types are either complete fucking dupes or they lie to us.  At the time I felt like saying “dude?”, but even though “disrupting” is supposed to be encouraged, well, yeah, no.  He’s gone, I’m still there so, fuck him, but I still have to go along with the thinking that AI is going to save the world.  I work in tech, I am tech, I love tech.  AI has its benefits but it is a false promise, just like Elon’s driverless cars.

      Reply
    80. 80.

      mrmoshpotato

      May 9, 2025 at 8:06 pm

      @Sister Golden Bear:

      MAGA’s brains are so broken. they speed ran the normal Pope conspiracies, and made the quantum leap to “the Pope is worse than woke, he’s trans!” in less than 12 hours. 

      That is so, so stupid.  They can’t even be smart with their bigoted bullshit.

      Reply
    81. 81.

      ThresherK

      May 9, 2025 at 8:10 pm

      On one hand, Steve Nash. On the other hand Blood Emeralds Musk and Peter Thiel.

      The odds are not in our favor.

      And I’m waiting for the leak of documents which still have Rhodesia written on them.

      Reply
    82. 82.

      Matt McIrvin

      May 9, 2025 at 8:11 pm

      @RaflW: So as historians point out in reference to Abraham Lincoln, the President does not in fact have the Constitutional power to suspend habeas corpus in the event of rebellion or invasion; Congress does. (Lincoln did it illegally because there was a civil war on and Congress wasn’t in session, but they did approve it later.)

      So the question is, how this plays out exactly. Does Trump get Congress to pass a law granting him the power? They passed “Laken Riley”, which had the effect of (unconstitutionally) removing due process protections for undocumented immigrants, but would they give him this? It’s a different world already than when that was passed. He’d need Democratic support.

      Or does he just declare it suspended, like Lincoln, and dare someone to do something about it?

      Reply
    83. 83.

      Suzanne

      May 9, 2025 at 8:16 pm

      @SW:

      I just think it is likely that when everyone is a minority of some sort the appreciation for and enforcement of minority rights will be enhanced.

      I am skeptical of even that. I mean, we’re discussing South Africa, where a white minority held onto racial privilege for decades, and still holds significant wealth and property privilege.

      Those with wealth/property privilege are usually loath to do anything to reduce that. Just watch your local NIMBYs in action!

      Reply
    84. 84.

      MagdaInBlack

      May 9, 2025 at 8:17 pm

      @Matt McIrvin: But Steven Miller told me the Constitution was very clear the president could do this. Ain’t it funny (not ) how they pick and choose the law the same way they pick and choose their Christianity

      Also too: The answer to your very last question is yes, he just does it and says neener.

      Reply
    85. 85.

      mrmoshpotato

      May 9, 2025 at 8:18 pm

      @gene108:

      At some point all the roads around Trump lead to Putin. 

      Dump has been a traitorous, Kremlin-owned bitch for longer than that.

      Reply
    86. 86.

      mrmoshpotato

      May 9, 2025 at 8:23 pm

      @different-church-lady:

      I hope they send them to Martha’s Vineyard. Because even those cream cheese whities will eventually just pound the shit out of them for being such fuckin’ assholes. 

      LOL!

      Reply
    87. 87.

      ColoradoGuy

      May 9, 2025 at 8:23 pm

      @OGLiberal: Dead giveaway that they are in chauffeur-driven cars 100% of the time. And have a personal concierge do their shopping for them.

      “Groceries? How quaint! Do people still buy them in stores?”

      Reply
    88. 88.

      JPL

      May 9, 2025 at 8:25 pm

      Greene is not going to run for Senate.   In good news, I won’t have to cross over and vote for her for Senate, but in bad news, Ossoff is going to have a rough time.  I already saw four ads for Carter.

      Reply
    89. 89.

      prostratedragon

      May 9, 2025 at 8:27 pm

      @mrmoshpotato:  Yabbut those guys are dead.

      Reply
    90. 90.

      OGLiberal

      May 9, 2025 at 8:35 pm

      Not even reading the thread.  So, for years, even under horrible Republican presidents, we kind of shunned the apartheid government of South Africa and now we’re going to lick their ballsacks – not the government but the white assholes who think they should still be the government?  Because those poor white folks live in a country where they can no longer be raging racists?  Fuck you, Elon and fuck your cousins, your mates, etc.  Man, do I hate that man.  I always have.  How many of y’all fell for his BS early on?  I never did.  I’m not a sage – he just smelled of assfuckmonster from day one…he was never good.

      Reply
    91. 91.

      Geminid

      May 9, 2025 at 8:38 pm

      @JPL: Senator Ossoff has raised a big war chest already and he’ll raise plenty more money this year and next. Ossoff still has a tough race ahead of him, but if he loses I don’t think it will be because he’s outspent.

      Reply
    92. 92.

      OGLiberal

      May 9, 2025 at 8:40 pm

      @JPL: Neither Osoff nor Warnock will win re-election.  That was an anomaly.  As diverse as Atlanta metro is, Georgia is still the Dirty South.  It will always be racist.

      Reply
    93. 93.

      Jackie

      May 9, 2025 at 8:43 pm

      @JPL:

      Greene is not going to run for Senate.

      She’d get her butt kicked.

      Is she still contemplating running for governor?

      Reply
    94. 94.

      JPL

      May 9, 2025 at 8:45 pm

      @Geminid: Carter’s ads are pretty weak so far.   He know the difference between a man and a woman.   Ossoff is well liked and besides being a warrior for trump on the border Carter has nothing.

      Reply
    95. 95.

      Matt McIrvin

      May 9, 2025 at 8:46 pm

      @OGLiberal:

      So, for years, even under horrible Republican presidents, we kind of shunned the apartheid government of South Africa

      Well, not really. I believe the term was “constructive engagement”, until Congress passed a law with a veto override canceling it.

      Reply
    96. 96.

      Aziz, light!

      May 9, 2025 at 8:50 pm

      Of course the maggots said the pope is trans. They saw it on TV in the movie “Conclave.”

      Reply
    97. 97.

      Glory b

      May 9, 2025 at 9:00 pm

      @Martin: Interestingly, the murdered CEO believed in universal healthcare coverage, and that private insurance companies had a role to play in providing it.

      Many of his company’s shareholders disagreed.

      Meanwhile, Luigi’s family owns one of the largest and most cited  and fined nursing home chains in the state.

      As someone said on X, if Luigi wanted to target wealthy corporate Healthcare offenders, there were a bunch of them at his dining room table.

      Reply
    98. 98.

      zhena gogolia

      May 9, 2025 at 9:04 pm

      @Glory b: I have never seen that interpretation.

      Reply
    99. 99.

      karen gail

      May 9, 2025 at 9:13 pm

      @SW:

      Founding documents? the papers that white slavers drew up after stealing the land from those who lived here before?

      White people are not the founders they are the invaders, the destroyers, the conquerors; no one is completely sure when the pasty people started conquering but history shows that they destroy whatever society existed before their arrival.

      Reply
    100. 100.

      lowtechcyclist

      May 9, 2025 at 9:13 pm

      @OGLiberal: ​
       

      Neither Osoff nor Warnock will win re-election. That was an anomaly

      Warnock already did win re-election, in November 2022.

      Reply
    101. 101.

      mrmoshpotato

      May 9, 2025 at 9:18 pm

      @OGLiberal:

      he just smelled of assfuckmonster from day one 

      Nominated.

      Reply
    102. 102.

      rekoob

      May 9, 2025 at 9:19 pm

      Former Rogers Park denizen here (Farwell between Clark and Ridge). Devon, a few blocks south, is pronounced “Deh-VON”, not “DEV-on”.  We had a good friend ask “Where’s Devon?” to a native Chicagoan in the latter emphasis and he replied, “I think that’s in England”.

      It is a showcase of multiculti Chicago, from South Asian to European. A real slice of Americana.

      Reply
    103. 103.

      Glory b

      May 9, 2025 at 9:24 pm

      @zhena gogolia: His family (they are fabulously wealthy) owns a chain of nursing homes that has been cited multiple times for multiple violations, including patient abuse.

      https://nypost.com/2024/12/13/us-news/luigi-mangiones-family-operated-nursing-home-empire-that-was-cited-for-abuse-and-health-violations/

      Reply
    104. 104.

      They Call Me Noni

      May 9, 2025 at 9:26 pm

      @Jay: like we need more of them. JFC

      Reply
    105. 105.

      RevRick

      May 9, 2025 at 9:27 pm

      @suzanne: @Ruckus: @Matt McIrvin:

      The world has sorted itself by race, class and gender since the dawn of civilization. We have assertions from Thales and Rabbi Judah circa 200 BCE where they thank Fortune or God that they weren’t born a barbarian/Gentile, a brute/uneducated, or a woman.
      Transforming the world is arduous, and it begins with each of us. As children of this world we all have learned these rules unbidden. I find myself surprised and tripped up by eruptions of bias about race, class, gender and ability. I’m always trying to learn new ways of living better and letting go of my privileged assumptions given to me as a white male.

      Reply
    106. 106.

      MagdaInBlack

      May 9, 2025 at 9:29 pm

      @rekoob: I’m so glad you fixed the DEE, because I was about to comment with ” Duh-VON.”

      For a few years, I worked on NW Highway just east (ok its s.east but you know what I mean) of Harlem and Devon.

      eta: boy is that a fun intersection.

      Reply
    107. 107.

      Glory b

      May 9, 2025 at 9:33 pm

      @mrmoshpotato: Lets put some respect on the names of the Martha’s Vineyard residents, they treated the Hispanic immigrants sent there with an outpouring of kindness.

      Reply
    108. 108.

      schrodingers_cat

      May 9, 2025 at 9:35 pm

      @zhena gogolia: His family has a swimming pool named after them at Loyola University. So he comes from wealth.

      Reply
    109. 109.

      rekoob

      May 9, 2025 at 9:36 pm

      @RevRick:

       I’m always trying to learn new ways of living better and letting go of my privileged assumptions given to me as a white male.

      Thank you for saying that. A constant reminder.

      Reply
    110. 110.

      Suzanne

      May 9, 2025 at 9:38 pm

      @RevRick: That’s because you’re a genuine mensch, Rev. Appreciate you.

      Reply
    111. 111.

      Glidwrith

      May 9, 2025 at 9:58 pm

      @karen gail: My hubby says he’s been released.

      Reply
    112. 112.

      LeftCoastYankee

      May 9, 2025 at 10:14 pm

      No doubt a slow motion fleeing of the Second Boer War.  Can’t wait to welcome the Hungarians fleeing the Ottoman conquest.

      Reply
    113. 113.

      Anyway

      May 9, 2025 at 10:21 pm

      There are plenty of solid reporting about Luigi’s background — no dispute there. Looking for citations about discord between the shareholders and the murdered CEO.

      Reply
    114. 114.

      Jackie

      May 9, 2025 at 10:55 pm

      @lowtechcyclist:

      Warnock already did win re-election, in November 2022.

      Thank you for stating the obvious.

      Reply
    115. 115.

      Ramona

      May 9, 2025 at 11:31 pm

      @RevRick: Race only goes as far back as the late 17th  century. The Roman Empire was cosmopolitan. People identified with where they came from. Words like White, Black, Red and Yellow were not used to describe people until the discovery of the New World. Europeans fought war after war among themselves when they were in the Old World. They only turned White after getting to America as a contrast to the indigenous people and African slaves.

      It’s only in your imagination that people have divided themselves into races since the dawn of civilization.

      Reply
    116. 116.

      Mai Naem mobile

      May 10, 2025 at 12:00 am

      Knowing tfg and how corrupt he is I wouldn’t  be surprised if these ‘refugees’ are coming here in some form to launder some tfg money. Also I don’t see these people lasting here. They have it easy in South Africa. The US is a difficult country to live in if you’ve been wealthy in a third world/second tier country. These people have multiple house maids, yard guus chauffeurs etc. and labor is cheap. You move here and you have to wash your own dishes, do your own laundry and clean your house  make your own bed. Trust me they aren’t used to doing that in South Africa.

      Reply
    117. 117.

      Matt McIrvin

      May 10, 2025 at 12:12 am

      @Mai Naem mobile:

      These people have multiple house maids, yard guus chauffeurs etc. and labor is cheap. You move here and you have to wash your own dishes, do your own laundry and clean your house  make your own bed.

      Maybe in a few years they won’t have to–it’ll be like that here. The rest of us will be their chauffeurs and house maids.

      Reply
    118. 118.

      Ramalama

      May 10, 2025 at 3:16 am

      @prostratedragon: A 504 error for the govt website. I’ll bookmark it and see if I can’t come back to it to comment.

      Reply
    119. 119.

      Ramalama

      May 10, 2025 at 3:36 am

      You guys want a creative way to combat South Afrikkkaners… go ahead and read Trevor Noah’s gorgeous memoir Born A Crime.

      This review made me read the book.

      Although it was almost instantly a bestseller when it came out, I didn’t pay much attention to it then, since celebrity memoirs are not usually at the top of my reading list. (I have since talked to a few others who wouldn’t have read it but for their reading group, or, in Booker’s case, because of the interview he had agreed to do. In all instances, people were very glad that they had.)

      Reply
    120. 120.

      Gloria DryGarden

      May 10, 2025 at 5:10 am

      @Ramalama: maybe it’s time for me to re read it. Loved it the first time…

      Reply
    121. 121.

      Ramalama

      May 10, 2025 at 6:41 am

      @Gloria DryGarden: same

      Reply
    122. 122.

      Glory b

      May 10, 2025 at 6:48 am

      @Anyway:

      https://weeklydose.uhg.com/episodes/a-path-forward-achieving-universal-coverage

      Reply
    123. 123.

      Kayla Rudbek

      May 10, 2025 at 12:49 pm

      @OGLiberal: the better applications of AI are not in the areas that everyone thinks are hot (and if it works as badly in other areas as it does in legal research, we are so fucked)

      Reply

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