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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Squishable Morning Thread

Squishable Morning Thread

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Here’s a thread to tide us over and keep the gardening thread horticulture-focused until a more official morning thread appears.

Something amusing to start us off: Last week, DHS boss and dog and goat exterminator Kristi Noem made a stunt visit to Illinois to hold a press conference to decry “sanctuary policies.” Her advance team sent out a notification for the press availability.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker wasn’t having that bullshit; he sent out a press release of his own. Here’s part of the official response from the governor’s office about Noem’s visit to the region:

“We would urge all pet owners in the region to make sure all of your beloved animals are under watchful protection while the secretary is in the region,” the note said.

You know, I instinctively mistrust billionaires, but I like the cut of Pritzker’s jib. He seems like the real deal.

Open thread!

(Source: NBC Chicago)

Reader Interactions

177Comments

  4. 4.

    Professor Bigfoot

    “Oh, damn, that’s gonna leave a mark.”

    BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!

  6. 6.

    Jeffro

    Pritzker’s good with both the shade and the serious stuff.  He had a commencement speech (or two?) that hit home – “idiots vs kind, smart people”.  Plus he seems to have a pretty sharp staff, too.

  7. 7.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: as will his weight, mark my words. If they wouldn’t forgive Biden his stutter, they’re not going to forgive Pritzker his weight, believe me

  9. 9.

    NobodySpecial

    Longtime Illinois resident: Pritzker is absolutely the real deal. He took over after our previous Republican fuckup refused to pass a state budget for three years and caused a credit downgrade. Since then he not only got the back bills paid, a couple of years ago the state made so much from taxes while Covid cut services they gave a statewide refund to property owners. The worst thing they can hang on him is his weight and the fact that he had toilets removed from a house he wasn’t living in for a tax break.

    The only reason I’d be sad if he became President would be because he wouldn’t be my governor anymore.

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Could be, but Pritzker’s wealth needn’t be disqualifying, imo. I know it’s hard to wrap our minds around, because it’s so breathtakingly dumb, but there are actually people who think Trump won’t steal from us because he’s already rich. They walk among us! I know a couple of them.

  15. 15.

    zhena gogolia

    @Betty Cracker: Yeah, I’m less worried about his money than his weight. This country is even more fat-shaming than it is racist and misogynist.

  17. 17.

    MagdaInBlack

    @NobodySpecial: Illinois here too, and he has done a great job cleaning up after Rauner the Ruiner.

    While I am not so naive to think that running for president is not in his head, I honestly think right now his real concern is that there BE an election, rather than being in that election.

    He also just signed a bill to protect autism records from rfk-jr.

  18. 18.

    Betty Cracker

    @zhena gogolia: If he were a woman, it would absolutely be disqualifying. I’m not convinced weight would doom a man’s candidacy. It would definitely come up, but anyone will have similarly irrelevant stuff to overcome. I think it depends on how they handle it. Never heard Pritzker address it, but he seems like the kind of guy who could handle it deftly.

  21. 21.

    MagdaInBlack

    @zhena gogolia: There have been cracks about his weight, from trump, I believe.

    Trump carries a grudge ( surprise surprise) about the Pritzker’s over a hotel deal gone bad some years ago.

  24. 24.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Betty Cracker: FDR was a trust fund baby, as was JFK.

    One of my favorite aphorisms is, “just because a man is a ‘redneck’ does not mean he’s a white supremacist asshole, and those ‘rednecks’ who AREN’T white supremacist assholes are the coolest people you’ll ever meet.”

    The same might be said of SOME rich people; and JB seems to be demonstrating real allyship.

  25. 25.

    sab

    @MagdaInBlack: RFK Jr. I think we should spread the word that that RF stands for RatFuck not RobertFrancis.

    ETA Or RatFink for the more polite among us

    ETA So he is not Bobby Jr, he is Ratty.

  26. 26.

    Baud

    @Professor Bigfoot:

    those ‘rednecks’ who AREN’T white supremacist assholes are the coolest people you’ll ever meet.”

     

    It takes a special person to go against their tribe on principle.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    I can’t believe the Dems don’t have a single person who’s perfect in every way.

  30. 30.

    Betty Cracker

    @MagdaInBlack: Yes! One of the things I appreciate about Pritzker is that he understands the danger we’re in and communicates it effectively. Walz is good at that too and has also been an effective gov.

  33. 33.

    DFH

    @NobodySpecial:

    It’s good to read this. Pritzker has done a great job and I’d not like to lose him as Gov, but he’s going to be a party leader, as I read the tea leaves. Rauner (R-Greed) was terrible, and as Baud says below, we deserve a good governor after what we’ve had.

  34. 34.

    Princess

    Pritzker is the real deal. I didn’t want him. Mistrusted a billionaire. I was so wrong.

    ETA I mean, y’all can reject what Illinois offers you on a silver platter if you like but the cardinals didn’t, and remember Obama. Wink emoji.

  41. 41.

    Betty Cracker

    Lots of hollering birds in the swamp this morning — Pileated Woodpeckers yodeling, Limpkins screeching, Sandhill Cranes trumpeting, Gallinules yelping in alarm, etc. An assemblage of the Loud Set!

  46. 46.

    RevRick

    @Jeffro: Yeah, I watched that commencement address, and my estimation of Pritzker soared as a result. It was, in my opinion, a brilliant analysis, as well as a heads up to the graduates about who to emulate and who to be wary of.

  52. 52.

    sab

    @sab: Note to RFK. Drug addicts who lure their cousins and nieces and nephews into addiction destroy families.

    Kids on the spectrum bring families closer, working together.

    ETA Just a couple of families’ opinion, working through both challenges.

  53. 53.

    lowtechcyclist

    Good morning, yall! Today is Mothers’ Day, so my beloved is sleeping in, and I’m being careful not to wake her.

    Last night was prom night, and the kiddo went to a party afterwards where they presumably stayed up late and then crashed out. So he’ll come crawling in sometime close to noon, in all likelihood. So when my wife wakes up on Mothers’ Day, our son won’t even be home, which is gonna feel kinda weird.

  56. 56.

    p.a.

    Open Thread question: anyone sell on fbook marketplace?  I had (just deleted) some stuff up, my first time trying marketplace, and I got lots of responses, including offers I accepted, and then no response for 2+ days, even with my “callbacks” of “hey you made an offer, I accepted, where are you?”

    They didn’t ALL seem like auto-bot or auto-responses, I mean there were offers made!  Seem like way more jerks than on my area’s craigslist, and that’s saying a lot.

  59. 59.

    sab

    I am a stepmother, but my stepdaughter’s mother died years ago, so she wants me to be her mother. I agree on principle, but I never changed her diaper or did a night feeding or nursed her sick, so I feel accepting the title would be stolen valor.

    And then she left town for mothers’ day for a Pax convention.

    So much for Mothers’ Day. I am relieved.

    Next Sunday is Stepmothers’ Day. I hope to sit that one out. Too much trauma this year to celebrate. Plus Ohio meetup the day before

    ETA Other years Stepmothers’ Day was lovely. Same as Mothers’ Day but restaurant was not so madly crowded. Peaceful and fun.

  62. 62.

    JiveTurkin

    Quick pop quiz:

    Who is Siggy Flicker?

    1.  A porn star who was paid $100,000 hush money by Trump
    2.   A star of the Real Housewives of New jersey who was just appointed to the Holocaust memorial Board

    The correct answer is… #2

    Sometimes I feel bad for wishing that Trump strokes out and ends up drooling into his oatmeal.  Then I read something like this and realize that he truly is an example of pure malevolence.

  63. 63.

    Suzanne

    LOL. I approve of the shitposting/trolling tone from Pritzker. I have mused to myself for a long while on how online habits have made their way offline. It definitely lowers the atmosphere, but I also think it might help us see and name things more clearly.

    Plus, I think one of the real image problems that the broader left-sides-of-the-aisle has is that we’re not really the funny side anymore. We kinda have the joyless scold rep. But we can be funny-snarky and I think that’s good for us.

  64. 64.

    David_C

    Trip to Harpers Ferry with the grandchildren yesterday, who ran me ragged climbing up the Appalachian Trail to Jefferson Rock. This was an easy drive, since their mailing address is Harpers Ferry.

  67. 67.

    p.a.

    @JiveTurkin:Sometimes I feel bad for wishing that Trump strokes out and ends up drooling into his oatmeal.  Then I read something like this and realize that he truly is an example of pure malevolence.

     

     

    I’m ambivalent myself.  Maybe a long life of good mental acuity knowing you’re one of the most despised people on the planet is the way to go?  How does a malignant narcissist process that, if one does?  Long life with physical pain?

    And fuck him I’m not going to feel guilty about wishing this on him, but I am superstitious enough that I worry about rebounding.🙄

  68. 68.

    prostratedragon

    @MagdaInBlack:  Absolutely! Likely why that thing at the Wabash Ave bridge is wedged into that little site, as well. I agree the grudge must partly be that their hotels rarely fail.

  71. 71.

    Suzanne

    @Baud: I listen to the Focus Group podcast every week, because I think it’s one of the better windows into other people’s perception of this weird political moment. This week, quite a few of the people interviewed were Trump voters who said they voted for him because they believed he would lower prices, and he isn’t, and they’re pissed. So…. yay?

    One of the more disappointing things for me in recent years has been the recognition that there’s actually a pretty broad swath of the voting public who can overlook all the racism and criminality and terrible behavior — they’re genuinely not in his cult — because cheap stuff or lower taxes or whatever is really the end-all be-all for them. It blows my mind that anyone is dumb enough to believe him. But at least some of those people have voted for Democrats in the past and may do so again.

  74. 74.

    Suzanne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Agree. I know we try to go high when they go low, not rise to the bait…. but a well-placed shiv can be a good thing on occasion.

    As the influencer Suzanne Lambert said, “Some of us are Regina George liberals”. LOL.

  75. 75.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: ​
     

    Well, that’s what they deserve, for eating the dogs and eating the cats. What did they think Trump was gonna do with them?

    Wait, did they imagine that comments like that were strictly about Haitians?? Seriously?!

  76. 76.

    They Call Me Noni

    @Suzanne:

    One of the more disappointing things for me in recent years has been the recognition that there’s actually a pretty broad swath of the voting public who can overlook all the racism and criminality and terrible behavior

    This right here is what I don’t get either.  How can you vote for a horrible person to lead the country and expect any kind of good outcome?  Character matters.  Or, at least, it should.

  77. 77.

    Suzanne

    @They Call Me Noni: I struggle with it, too. What I especially struggle with is the fact that, due to the makeup of the electorate….. we have to appeal to some of these people in order to win elections. That feels dirty.

    I have been trying to remind myself that politics is about power, and changing people’s hearts is really the task of other realms of society.

  78. 78.

    chemiclord

    @Suzanne: ​
    I sometimes feel like there is a lot of willful misinterpretation of the idea of “go high.”

    It isn’t “don’t match their jabs.” Obama himself frequently takes digs at Republicans, and did so while in office. The concept is really, “Some insults simply aren’t worth responding to.  We still actually have to do things rather than craft the perfect burn.”

  79. 79.

    chemiclord

    @They Call Me Noni: It’s pretty simple.  When you have the ignorance and lack of interest to be informed, it’s actually quite simple to adopt the idea that “Every politician is crooked, it’s the only way you can be a politician, so at least Republicans are honest about their corruption, and they promise lower taxes.”

  80. 80.

    MagdaInBlack

    @chemiclord: “They’re honest about being corrupted/ I trust them to keep their promises” really does sum up the MAGA thought process, doesn’t it?

  82. 82.

    satby

    JB is really just as he presents. The Pritzker family is Jewish and Ukrainian, their ancestors fled pogroms in Russian Ukraine, but never forgot their roots. There’s bad billionaires and then there’s good billionaires. This family did all this with their money (public philanthropy so far):

    • A.N. Pritzker Elementary School
    • Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Chicago’s Millennium Park
    • Nancy Friend Pritzker Psychiatry Building at the University of California, San Francisco
    • Pritzker Architecture Prize
    • Pritzker Family Children’s Zoo at the Lincoln Park Zoo
    • Pritzker College Prep, a Campus of the Noble Network of Charter High Schools
    • Pritzker Institute of Biomedical Science and Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology
    • Pritzker School of Law at Northwestern University
      • Pritzker Legal Research Center at Northwestern
    • Pritzker Hall at the University of California, Los Angeles
    • Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago (UChicago)
    • Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at UChicago
    • Pritzker Marine Biological Research Center at New College of Florida
    • Pritzker Galleries of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago
    • Pritzker Traubert Family Library at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools
    • The Pritzker Organization
    • Pritzker Edition of Zohar (the Book of Radiance), translation & commentary by Daniel Matt and, for last 3 volumes, Nathan Wolski and Joel Hecker; 12 vols, Stanford University Press, 1997–2017
    • Pritzker Military Museum and Library- [started by JB’s cousin Jennifer, (born James), a Colonel in the IL Natl. Guard]
    • Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies in the Field Museum of Natural History
    • Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health in the Lurie Children’s Hospital

    Musk, Thiel, and those of their ilk have contributed nothing to the common good.

    I’m not pro billionaire per se, but just as with all humans, distinctions must be made. While we’re making them, let’s not forget Howard Buffet, Warren’s kid. Howard Buffett’s foundation has given $520 million to Ukraine in humanitarian aid as of last year ( it’s more now). And both Warren and Bill Gates, among others, have advocated for more taxation on the rich.

  83. 83.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @David_C: If you haven’t seen it already, The Good Lord Bird tv series about John Brown is really great.  Ethan Hawke is surprisingly good as John Brown.  And it’s a quirky, interesting way to tell a story about the Harper’s Ferry Raid.

  86. 86.

    Baud

    @Suzanne:

    I have been trying to remind myself that politics is about power, and changing people’s hearts is really the task of other realms of society

     
    100%

  87. 87.

    artem1s

    I don’t care how much money a legislator has. I care whether they are working in the best interest of their constituents – all of them, not just the .0001%. There are 900 or so US billionaires. We have a hand full who have decided that instead of being happy with their wealth and living their best life, they’ve decided to make the rest of us as miserable as they are in their apparently black hearts.
    We only have 50 governors and we need more of them to be good legislators. Pritzker seems to be one of the good ones. Newsom not so much. DeWhinge has been terrible to Ohio’s constituents for decades. He’s decided to bend the knee and force state workers to police each other’s bathroom habits rather than protect the citizens of Springfield, OH from lies and misinformation. And he’s nothing about our failing infrastructure, manufacturing that has fled to other states, helped our public schools and our brain drain.
    The Governor of Wisconsin chose to stand up in defense of the law and the state’s residents and workers. I have no idea how rich Evers or DeWine is but I do know who I’d prefer as a governor and legislator.
    Wisconsin governor’s guidance on dealing with ICE agents draws GOP backlash

  88. 88.

    Suzanne

    @Steve LaBonne: Oh, absolutely. That is definitely another chunk of the electorate. No argument.

    But, at the risk of reopening the debate about calling people evil…. This other chunk that I’m talking about has probably voted for Dems in the past and might again. We can note that being willing to overlook racism is in fact racist, and we’d be right, but I think we also show poor theory of mind when we group them in with the people who are genuinely motivated by active bigotry and thus we give away an opportunity for persuasion.

  90. 90.

    chemiclord

    @Baud: Oh certainly.  I’d argue an overwhelming majority of American voters on both the left and the right do “research” merely to reinforce their priors rather than any genuine desire to find information that enlightens them.

  92. 92.

    Eunicecycle

    @Betty Cracker: I had my first pileated woodpecker in our yard on Friday! I heard him first, then he landed on an old stump in our yard and started hammering away! It was so cool!

  94. 94.

    frosty

    @p.a.: ​ I’ve sold some stuff on FB Marketplace but my experience and that of one of my friends was the same as yours. People say they want to buy then disappear. In the meantime another offer comes in. I told one to hang on, there was an earlier one. Mistake. Take the first offer to give you $$ and make it plain in your listing that you’re doing that.

    Frustrating, but it’s the only place I can sell something to big to ship.

  95. 95.

    chemiclord

    @Suzanne: My counter-argument there is that these people you’re talking about aren’t actually gettable.  The only meaningful difference between them and the outright racists is that the first group doesn’t feel comfortable letting their racist flag fly.

    Once they are by themselves in that voting booth, and have to make a choice between their social standing, or improving their lives but at the “cost” of helping “those people” in the process, they will always pull the lever for the GOP.

  96. 96.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @lowtechcyclist: I made a crack at work about that line. I was telling a friend I went to college at Wittenberg which in Springfield OH and said that “when Trump’s done with the economy we may ALL be eating the dogs and cats.” It got a laugh.

  97. 97.

    Betty Cracker

    @Suzanne: I think it’s really important to internalize this — to accept the cognitive dissonance that results from knowing there are people who are so detached from politics or so single-minded about a pet issue or confused in their thinking or whatever that they can vote for a man like Trump without buying into all components of his garbage agenda. And they aren’t necessarily stupid or actively malicious people.

    I’m not making excuses for them. There is no excuse. They deserve all the blame for the terrible shit that’s happening.

    But speaking for myself, I know these people exist, and understanding that some not-insignificant portion of the 49.81% of U.S. voters who handed power back to Trump aren’t on board with the GOP agenda gives me hope, not only for future elections but for U.S. democracy itself. It’s messy and maddening, but all is not lost.

  98. 98.

    Suzanne

    @chemiclord: Yeah, I’m not sure about that. My experience is that there a ton of people with really incoherent politics — I remember talking to a colleague who identified himself as Libertarian who wanted the federal government to set price caps on prescription drugs. And these people vote inconsistently, if they vote at all, and they think most of political discourse is a food fight.

    But…. As I’ve noted, some of them do vote for Dems, at least some of the time. I remember one year, when I made roughly 5,000 phone calls to voters on behalf of my Dem Congresscritter….. their research indicated that GOP women voted for him much more than would be expected. So I was calling Republican women. (Vomit.) I ended up talking to quite a few people who said that they usually voted for Republicans but thought Mitchell was a great guy. So there’s that.

  99. 99.

    Baud

    IMHO, the fascists believe they are popular because they think there are a lot of squishy people who don’t overtly support them only because of moral qualms or social pressure.

    Two ways to overcome those misgivings are through it coercion and disillusionment.

    “I had to go along or they would come after me. I’m morally blameless.”

    “Why bother fighting them when everyone is the same and there’s no hope of things getting better?”

    It’s an effective tactic because these excuses are sometimes legitimate feelings, and it’s difficult to separate the people who gave up too easily because they secretly want what the fascists are offering, from those who just gave up, as sincere people often do.

    ETA: Anyway, that’s what I think explains a lot of the content we see on media and social media.

  100. 100.

    Suzanne

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think it’s really important to internalize this — to accept the cognitive dissonance that results from knowing there are people who are so detached from politics or so single-minded about a pet issue or confused in their thinking or whatever that they can vote for a man like Trump without buying into all components of his garbage agenda. 

    The other thing about this….. if we get it in our heads that everyone who votes for him is actively racist and evil, we’re basically giving up. We’re accepting losing. We’re giving up on persuading, and I don’t like that.

    It’s a way of letting our own side off the hook, too. There are parts of our current shared life together that I think are genuinely working badly, and need government engagement to fix. If the argument is that every FFOTUS voter is irredeemably racist, that’s a way of eliding the discussion about things that we haven’t done well.

  102. 102.

    scav

    @Baud: They’re still guilty of the crime if they drive the getaway car. Or provide alibis. Especially self-exonerating alibis.

  103. 103.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @p.a.: Something about ‘tempting fate,’ if you will… keeps me from wishing the very worst possible fates for that vile gombeen.

  104. 104.

    RaflW

    @Baud: At least a third of Americans are large people.

    Figures like “70% are overweight” are based on BMIs that, while I’m not a Dr or public health official, strike me as unrealistically stringent (there are better tools). But for a quick post, let’s just say BMIs over 30, that’s now up to over 40% of the population.

    Does not mean that even the hefty won’t pile on to the body shaming.

  105. 105.

    stinger

    @Baud:

    Too bad he’s rich. It’ll be a distraction.

    I don’t disagree, but shame on us if we let that happen. The current occupant of the White House made “I’m rich” the basis of his run. I know, IOKIYAR, but we tend to sit back and let that happen. Damn, we’ve just got to get better at this.

  107. 107.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @NotMax: Joy of the day, joy of your victory, sir!

    (for indeed, every single day is a victory in itself, is it not? Huzzah!)

  108. 108.

    Baud

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Agreed. For all the talk about wanting the Dems to stand tough, the reality is our elected officials represent the weaknesses of our party really well.

  109. 109.

    BellyCat

    Here’s a thread to tide us over and keep the gardening thread horticulture-focused

    Upvoted idea for EVERY Sunday for the benefit of Gardeners and NonGardeners alike!  (Thank you, BC)

  112. 112.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Suzanne: I do hope that the over the top comic book racism of this administration will turn off a significant number of white voters who are soft racists but don’t want to think of themselves as such. After all the “we’re voting for the N word” contingent helped elect Obama. But while I recognize political reality I am not going to stop being disgusted by such people.

  113. 113.

    cope

    Pritzker will be giving the commencement speech at my alma mater next month.  The class of ‘05 heard from freshman senator Barak Obama and the following year, Stephen Colbert had the honor. On his old show (which was actually funny), Colbert had his honorary diploma on a shelf on his set. The speaker at my graduation in the early’ ‘70s was George Ball.

  114. 114.

    suzanne

    @Steve LaBonne:

    After all the “we’re voting for the N word” contingent helped elect Obama. But while I recognize political reality I am not going to stop being disgusted by such people. 

    Hard agree.

    We don’t have to be their friends.

  115. 115.

    no body no name

    I would not distrust the rich.  They are more socially liberal than the poor or working class.  Our social gains come from going with the rich.  As I am a social liberal, that means an alliance with the wealthy and upper middle class that screws over everyone else.  That is the price we pay.

  117. 117.

    They Call Me Noni

    @Suzanne: I’ve come to the conclusion that the people who are closest to that portion of the electorate are going to have to change their minds.  Hell, they voted for him for economic reasons and he’s filed bankruptcy six times!  He can’t run a business, has cheated on each of his three wives, he is the exact opposite of everything that any religion teaches and does not respect veterans.  I just don’t get how they don’t get it.  Boggles the mind.

  119. 119.

    Eric S.

    Re: JBP

    As a love long Illinoisan, I think he’s pretty clearly or best governor in a long time. He’s a billionaire that the business world works hates. The obvious COVID policies is part of it. He’s also installed commissioners at the Illinois Commerce Commission that has disrupted some business as usual.

  124. 124.

    They Call Me Noni

    @Steve LaBonne: And I really don’t understand that frame of mind either.  But I wasn’t raised to be racist and I suppose they were.  The premise that someone who doesn’t look like them should have the same rights and opportunities enrages them and I just do not get it.

    The unfairness of it all is what enrages me.

  125. 125.

    BellyCat

    @Suzanne:I have been trying to remind myself that politics is about power, and changing people’s hearts is really the task of other realms of society.

    Absent any other insight on ’Murica’s idiotic voting record, I’ll happily adopt your perspective on this in the hopes that those “other realms” someday, somehow, become more effective.

    ETA: I see Baud got there first, with less verbosity, unsurprisingly.

  126. 126.

    Miss Bianca

    y’know, I think I could get behind a Pritzker for POTUS campaign. He is a Warlord, after all, as opposed to a “warfighter”.

    ETA: And as for his weight, Jesus Christ, *Trump* is as fat as a whale.

  127. 127.

    suzanne

    @BellyCat:

    I’ll happily adopt your insight on this in the hopes that those “other realms” someday, somehow, become more effective. 

    They’ve been incredibly effective. The cliche is that “Will and Grace” led to legalization of gay marriage. It’s probably true.

  129. 129.

    chemiclord

    @They Call Me Noni: They have a whole lot in common with the feudalists of the old days; that by the virtue of their birth, they are entitled to certain privileges (not rights) that no one else deserves.

    It’s especially funny since damn near all of them would have been serfs.

  130. 130.

    Librettist

    Backstory on the Springfield visit/protests – a local activist was murdered by her immigrant S.O. a few years back and her family was having none of the Fox News hate stew of brown man, white woman.

  132. 132.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Suzanne:everyone who votes for him is actively racist and evil

    No, just white.

    White people (as a demographic) never want to examine why they make the choices they do.

    White people support white supremacy by never thinking about it, just going along and never questioning.

    Mind, (as has long since been established) I believe there are quite a few outright racist and evil MFs— but many are just being white.

  134. 134.

    They Call Me Noni

    @chemiclord: It’s especially funny since damn near all of them would have been serfs.

    Exactly.  They consistently vote against their own self interests.  The billionaire who brags about cheating on his taxes actually gives a damn about me!

  135. 135.

    satby

    @eclare: his entire family, not just him. Big philanthropists.

    And before someone rushes to point out they get tax breaks for that; of course they do. That’s what tax policy is for: to fund the government on things we (hopefully) mostly agree are needed for the common good, and to encourage the private sector able to donate to do the same. Everyone likes to get tax exemptions. We need Democrats in office to help fix what’s broken so that people like Musk decide to fund a hospital (or whatever) rather than buy a president. And pays ALL his taxes, which should be high.

  136. 136.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @They Call Me Noni:I just don’t get how they don’t get it.

    It just seems to me that the defense of white supremacy is the ONLY other explanation for their choices.

    That, or you have to convince me the vast majority of the white electorate is just stupid.

  137. 137.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @satby:The Pritzker family is Jewish and Ukrainian, their ancestors fled pogroms in Russian Ukraine, but never forgot their roots.

    Well there go his chances at higher office, lol. We can look forward to calls to protest him from the FreePalestine, BDS, and Uncommitted assholes.

    Seriously though, I’ve been reading a bunch about the pogroms and just how damn common and widespread they were, over the last several months. The Left is in deep denial about how prevalent that shit was (I mean it’s hard to find places in Europe and the Middle East that DIDN’T have pogroms!) and how it was this constant threat of deadly violence, not some sort of Imperialist Conspiracy, that led to the rise of Zionism and the need for the establishment of Israel.

    Just this week I discovered the work of Albert Memmi, an influential Jewish, anti-Colonial (but also proudly Zionist) author from Tunisia who was pointing out the Left’s hypocrisy towards Jews starting back in the 50’s.

    He noted that the Left championed Nationalism and Independence for colonized people so by the same virtue the only Progressive stance would be to vigorously support a state for Jews (Israel), who had also been colonized and ethnically cleansed from their ancestral land. He supported Independence for Tunisia, only to then see Tunisia force he and his fellow Jewish Tunisians out while the Left merely shrugged (or worse, cheered.)

    “Must we accept the hangings [of Jews] in Baghdad, the prisons and the fires in Cairo, the looting and economic strangling in the Maghreb, and, at the very least, exodus?” Perhaps addressing Rodinson—the two knew of each other’s work—Memmi angrily explains that Zionism was the result, not the cause, of such depredations. To argue otherwise is “historically absurd: it is not Zionism that has caused Arab anti-Semitism, but the other way around. . . . Israel is a rejoinder to the oppression.”68 He reminds the reader that he and his young Tunisian friends became Zionists in the early 1930s in reaction to what they perceived as an implacably hostile Arab world, not in response to Hitler.”

    The Left, correctly believes in fairly open borders that allow persecuted people to relocate for their own political and physical safety. And it celebrates/supports those who want to return for sanctuary in their ancestral homes.  Marcus Garvey advocated Black People returning to Africa to escape America’s racism.  And even now, we see people we know looking into Citizenship rules to possibly flee to other countries that their families left a century or more ago, in order to escape American Fascism. But the Left never wants to admit that this is the very heart of Zionism. As Haviv Rettig-Gur often notes: the 20th Century was already the most deadly violent one in history for Jews, all over the world, and that’s even BEFORE the Holocaust. Jews had every reason to feel that nowhere was safe and to long to return to their ancestral land, just like any other victims of political oppression.

  138. 138.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @satby: It is a MOST impressive list, is it not?

    The Warlord is proof that not all rich men are gombeens.

    (I’d suggest that Gates and Cuban are on that list, too)

  139. 139.

    BellyCat

    Take Two:

    @suzanne: I hope to be infected with your positivism even if “All in the Family” (Archie Bunker) had a broader viewing audience. It sits at #4 in the 50 Greatest TV shows.

    Hopefully enough people have killed their TVs so these other more positive realms can take root?

  140. 140.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Professor Bigfoot: Did you see Sinners yet?  Brilliant film, and imo, what you just typed is a big theme of the film though in the movie Vampirism is a metaphor for Whiteness.

  141. 141.

    RevRick

    @They Call Me Noni: A huge part of the problem is that the most disengaged members of the electorate are often quite cynical. And this cynicism is eagerly spread by Republicans.
    Besides being portrayed as a doddering old fool, the GOP also fed the message that he was somewhat of a perv, sniffing children’s heads and showering with his granddaughter. They conveyed the message that every politician is corrupt and dirty and some are just better at hiding it, so just vote for us, because we are open about it.
    The result is that they were quite open to the message that Joe Biden’s policies caused the inflation that hurt you, and we’re going to fix it.

  142. 142.

    suzanne

    @BellyCat: I don’t know that I feel especially positive. It’s more that I feel that there is no plausible alternative.

    I get frustrated by discussions of racism, sexism, etc. here…. because we end them too soon, IMO. Like, those forces are at work and it is great for us to dissect those and it makes us more aware and that’s great. But it’s also led us to giving up on people.

    Like, clearly, telling people that they are racist or sexist has not helped us in our goal of accumulating power. It has led to a pretty big backlash. It has led to ineffective tactics, or throwing our hands up and saying that the media wants FFOTUS to win. None of that advances our interests.

    But, potentially…. taking a step back, trying to appeal to enough of these incoherent to win the next election, and work on strengthening these other ways of influence….. that might work.

  146. 146.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @schrodingers_cat: They did it when Hillary fainted from a bout with pneumonia too.

    And watch how the people who make a big show of  body-positivity and opposing fat-shaming will find reasons to shrug because they are worried that while THEY don’t care about his weight, other voters might so let’s keep the toxic conversation and speculation that hurts our Party’s chances going…

  147. 147.

    schrodingers_cat

    FWIW. When I asked for introspection, it was among our own ranks. Not as a messaging strategy. Some of the bigotries we accuse MAGAs of are alive and well within our ranks as well.

  148. 148.

    satby

    @Professor Bigfoot: I’d suggest that Gates and Cuban are on that list, too).

    I’d agree. Cuban personally has saved me hundreds on prescription costs.  And Buffet Sr. too, who still lives in his middle class house in Omaha, made all his kids work, and didn’t really support them financially as adults, pledging the majority of his wealth to the Gates Foundation. I know the Gates Foundation is a bit of a bug to our beloved commenter Scott, but I admire the work they’ve done on reducing malaria and funding research for a malaria vaccine.

  150. 150.

    suzanne

    @satby: I’m with you on the Gates Foundation. But I’m a “tax the rich” person, not a “eat the rich” person.

  151. 151.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Professor Bigfoot: As a member of the antiracism ministry at my church I am painfully familiar with the apathy even of many white people who think of themselves as very liberal.

  153. 153.

    gene108

    I think a billionaire president demanding fellow billionaires pay more in taxes has a certain appeal that might get tax cuts reversed.

  154. 154.

    Ben Cisco

    @Suzanne:

    One of the more disappointing things for me in recent years has been the recognition that there’s actually a pretty broad swath of the voting public who can overlook all the racism and criminality and terrible behavior — they’re genuinely not in his cult — because cheap stuff or lower taxes or whatever is really the end-all be-all for them.

    Yes, this gets to the heart of it. Worse (for me, anyway) is that even if I had the strength to engage (like that brother who reaches out to Klan members), it feels as though my impact would be minimal.

    Frustrating doesn’t begin to describe my feelings on this…

  156. 156.

    Geminid

    @Miss Bianca: Jay Pritzker looks good to me; not “fat” but rather, “heavy-set.” And as one person said, Pritzker may be Jewish but he doesn’t present as Jewish, but rather as a big, happy Midwestern guy..

    Democratic primary voters will have the final say on these questions. As for me, I am breaking out my banner and polishing up my helmet; I will ride with the Prairie State Khan!

  157. 157.

    Miss Bianca

    @Geminid: WE RIDE WITH THE KHAN!

    or, perhaps, ‘Don’t you know you’re ridin’ with the Khan?’

    (with all due apologies to BB King.) ; )

  159. 159.

    Geminid

    @schrodingers_cat: I’m not really looking past the midterms, just having fun.

    But I keep 2028 in mind because it’snot something I can avoid or feel I need to. And I think we’ll have some solid contenders in the field, and I am basically confident Democratic primary voters will pick a good one.

  161. 161.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @suzanne:Like, clearly, telling people that they are racist or sexist has not helped us in our goal of accumulating power.

    I’d suggest that it’s much more that when white men are told “that’s a racist/sexist thing you said/did there,” they immediately howl that they’re being accused of being racist when they never ever have a racist bone in their bodies.

    Doing and saying racist shit is much less awful than being accused of racism.

    It’s the unwillingness to listen to anyone else that’s core to “Dying of Whiteness.”

  162. 162.

    Anyway

    @schrodingers_cat: I have a feeling that KH will run again.

    interesting —- I just wait until the general election candidate is determined and get behind them. I’d be ok with her running again. Not looking forward to the 2028 primaries,

  163. 163.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Steve LaBonne:As a member of the antiracism ministry at my church I am painfully familiar with the apathy even of many white people who think of themselves as very liberal.

    That brings me to something that I’ve pondered for a while: where, exactly, are civil rights and human rights on the “liberal-conservative” spectrum?

    I believe human rights are orthogonal to the ‘left-right’ spectrum; that there are enemies of freedom all across that spectrum.

  165. 165.

    karen gail

    Trump admin poised to accept luxury jet as gift for Trump from Qatar: Sources

    I see someone mentioned this earlier.

    I doubt the legality of it since so many toadies have lined up to say that it is legal since it will be going to “his library.” Nope! Trump and family see this as a personal gift to them and will continue to fly it until it breaks down and is unrepairable. Nor can I see them allowing the tech to be removed that makes it presidential plane.

    After all any and all crimes are legal as long as trump is president; he fully believes he runs the country and the world. When all he truly is a prop and meat autopen. So before long there will be an EO that makes presidential plane his personal property.

  166. 166.

    suzanne

    @Professor Bigfoot: When I’m being emotionally generous, I think about how people generally need to feel safe in order to engage in the kind of introspection we’re asking them to do. And if there is anything that characterizes the current political environment….. it is not a safe place, there is very little good faith on either side. So it creates backlash. I think we are living with the effects of significant backlash to Gamergate, #MeToo, etc.

  168. 168.

    sab

    @satby: I remember a television interview with Buffet and his daughter. He went on about how all his kids got free college and were then on their own. She then commented that she and her husband really would have liked help for the kitchen remodel.

    That always makes me laugh. Such normal people.

  169. 169.

    Miss Bianca

    @Geminid: Seriously, tho’, I almost feel like a cult of personality  built around such a sheerly hilarious parody of the Great White Warrior Patriarch Man would not only be great fun in and of itself as a social media campaign; but also a.) possibly appeal to this crowd of Young White Men we are supposed to be endlessly chasing; and b.) annoy the MAGAts who are, just possibly, self-aware enough to realize they’re being made fun of.

    @schrodingers_cat: That said, I will be very interested in seeing what KH wants to do.

  173. 173.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NobodySpecial: I didn’t like the billionaire vs billionaire governor race, but Pritzker has done a great job.  I would gladly vote for a third term for him.

  174. 174.

    Geminid

    @mrmoshpotato: I think you’ll get your chance, because Illinois does not term-limit its governors and apparently Pritzker will run for a third term next year.

    But I’m curious: having watched his campaigns and observed Jay Pritzker as your governor the last six years, do you think he’d make a strong presidential candidate?

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