A Black woman who believed in the power of learning. Which amounts to three strikes in Trumpworld.
— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn.bsky.social) May 8, 2025 at 9:54 PM
A smart, articulate, accomplished Black woman? Anathema, to the Trumpists!
Just in case anyone's wondering how bad she's lying: the only people who can check books out of the LOC are congressional staff.
Library cards for use of the research centers are only available to people over the age of 16, and researchers under 18 need permission from a parent or guardian.— Annalee (@flowerhorne.com) May 9, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Googled her name and got the reason for her firing pretty quick smh pic.twitter.com/Rs680hcZME
— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) May 9, 2025
At the start of this year, three of the institutions most important to American cultural preservation—the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History—were run by women for the first time.
As of today, Trump has fired two of those three.— Adam Keiper (@adamkeiper.com) May 8, 2025 at 10:31 PM
One reason this is so interesting is that in American families, it's so often the women who do the work of preservation—memories and stories, keepsakes and scrapbooks, genealogy and connections.
So I was fascinated that women were heading the archives, the library, and "America's attic."— Adam Keiper (@adamkeiper.com) May 8, 2025 at 10:37 PM
<
Happy Mother’s Day!
Baud
Sounds like Trump may be starting the slow walk back from tariffs. I still wouldn’t put money on any outcome, however.
ETA: He needs to get public support back so he can go after minorities without strong opposition.
matt
very on brand for Leavitt to offer fascist lies in justification.
Suzanne
@Baud:
And Big Gretch lit her career on fire for nothing?!
tobie
Carla Hayden did great things for the Enoch Pratt Public Library System in Baltimore. Having good libraries is just too much for this admin.
I read elsewhere that Trump fired the Register of Copyrights because she told Musk to take a hike when he wanted copyright violated for the large language reservoirs for his company’s AI system. The corruption of this admin is beyond words.
From Joe Morelle’s bluesky account:
prostratedragon
@Baud: Think he’s/we’re going to find that after what he’s already done, things don’t just roll back without some frictional losses.
Suzanne
@tobie: I hadn’t heard that. Damn.
Kara Swisher has been saying for months that Musk basically invented DOGE because he needs government data to feed his AI platform. That struck me as a bit tinfoil-hat-y at the time, but things like this make me shift my thinking a bit.
tobie
@Suzanne: One thing we do know for certain is that self-dealing is the way of the wealthy Republican. Musk is using DOGE to funnel lucrative federal contracts his way from satellite systems to the FAA to the federal car fleet. Every LLM depends on a trove of data. Wouldn’t put it past the admin to turn a blind eye to copyright violations. Didn’t Republicans used to complain about China doing this???
One of André Leon Talley's Fifty Pieces of Monogrammed Louis Vuitton Luggage
That’s not right.
MagdaInBlack
@Suzanne: Yes, I listen to her too, and for the most part, she seems to know whats up.
kindness
You know, people say a Terminator type SkyNet thingy couldn’t happen here. The efforts the already fabulously wealthy are putting into making AI work (and eliminate a lot of pesky human’s jobs) so those billionaires can squeeze a few extra coins from a contract tells me it will absolutely happen here.
HopefullyNotcassandra
It looks like this firing also facilitated another (illegal) Musk theft of other people’s creativity, ingenuity and effort.
After firing our Librarian of Congress, this president fired Shira Perlmutter, the Register of Copyrights yesterday.
Why? The Register is a legislative branch employee, hired by the Librarian of Congress.
Representative Joe Morelle (D-NY) has thoughts about the latest GOP illegal termination:
https://democrats-cha.house.gov/media/press-releases/morelles-statement-abrupt-firing-shira-perlmutter-register-copyrights
Another Scott
@Baud: It was transparent from the beginning that he wanted everyone else to panic about him tearing up multilateral trade agreements and him demanding that they come on bended knees to beg him for relief.
And too many countries, starting with Mexico and Canada, said, ROFL, Eat My Shorts, No.
And then he started panicking, saying that everyone (“200 countries”) is calling him Sir with tears in their eyes and telling him how great he is and all the other nonsense and how “deals” are almost pretty close pretty soon just you wait done.
The monsters around him are fine with breaking everything. But he’s upset that he’s not getting a Big Beautiful Deal (with personal vig on the side) to crow about every 3 days. And he doesn’t like it.
There’s a lesson in other areas, of course…
Forward!!
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
prostratedragon
@prostratedragon:
Justin Wolfers goes into this on Ali Velshi’s show.
sixthdoctor
Addressing Dr. Hayden by her first name without her honorific or acknowledgement of her education and career is also a repulsive and racist sign of disrespect on top of everything else.
Parfigliano
@Suzanne: What Big Gretch did might have been a good thing in that she showed she isn’t good at fast decisions and wilts in tough situations.
prostratedragon
@sixthdoctor: Very much so. In a document telling her she’s fired. Which was an email. Which also strikes me as an insult, I don’t care if it has become a “standard.”
hells littlest angel
What, no drag queen story hour? Shit, I could lie better than her.
MagdaInBlack
@sixthdoctor:
You recall, I’m sure, all the bitching over Jill Biden using the honorific Dr.
@prostratedragon:
Steve LaBonne
@Suzanne: To be fair, he’s also gotten some nice fat contracts for his companies out of the deal.
scav
@prostratedragon: The other thing that strikes me is the “Thank you for your service.” Demonstrates exactly how hollowly and insultingly they mean it when addressing soldiers. Drained of meaningful content along with “thoughts and prayers”.
Steve LaBonne
@hells littlest angel: She might well have no fucking idea what the Library of Congress is for and how it works. These creatures are nothing if not low-grade morons.
Spanky
@hells littlest angel: Ah. Allow me to translate:
And the WHPC nods in unison.
Raoul Paste
I see that Trump has promised “his most important and impactful announcement ever”
He says something similar to this almost every day. Half the time it’s an ad for one of his products or ventures. I hope this hyperbole indicates that people are losing interest.
Maybe he’s announcing his birthday parade.
trollhattan
When I’m despairing over Just How Far Will Trump Go? I check in on the other Taliban. Chess? Just nope, Allah forbids it because…
So close to my only Mennonite joke:
Why can’t Mennonites have sex?
Might lead to dancing.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
How can the President fire employees of the legislative branch like the Librarian of Congress or the Register of Copyrights? I hope this gets fought in court. It’s absolutely a brazen power grab and stepping on Congress’ authority
Jackie
O/T, but I had to share this gem of Rick Wilson on MSNBC this morning:
BWAHAHAHAHAAAA! I appreciate Rick Wilson’s dry tone of snark.
(bolding is mine)
Jeffro
@Jackie: it’s time to start talking about all the things we’re going to confiscate from trump once he leaves office…
…after all, he couldn’t POSSIBLY accept them as personal gifts, per the Emoluments Clause, right?
(seen on BlueSky and elsewhere)
Confiscate, impound, indict, punish, scorch the earth. And absolutely everyone right of Che Guevara in the federal government is getting fired, by tweet. From Obama.
prostratedragon
@MagdaInBlack:
@scav:
Grrrr!
Speaking of doctors, this looks interesting, from BK. Titanji, M.D., an infectiuos diseases specialist:
cmorenc
Has Susan Collins gotten around yet to furrowing her eyebrow in concern over the Qatar plane gift to Trump? Or the firing of the Librarian of Congress or head of the Copyright office? Or has she been unable to because she has already exceeded her quarterly quota of eyebrow furrows contemplating whether to run for another term in 2028?
Baud
@cmorenc:
The otherwise good Democrats of Maine (or enough of them) keep sending her back.
LAC
@Baud: I’m sorry, what strong opposition? Where?
Steve LaBonne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): And yet Presidents do appoint the Librarians. I have never quite understood why.
Baud
@LAC:
His poll numbers are down right now. Several reports about his rural and corporate bases being unhappy. If he stops mucking around with the economy, and the Republicans pass their tax cut, he won’t have to worry about his supporters as much.
Melancholy Jaques
@matt:
Very on brand for the Beltway courtiers to let the lying stand unchallenged. Or maybe they don’t know anything about the Library of Congress.
Melancholy Jaques
@Suzanne:
It was so easy & so right there for her to say, while it’s true there are issues, Trumps tariffs are going to crash the economy & not make anything better.
Chief Oshkosh
@Steve LaBonne: Did she get asked to name any of the book titles? Just one?
JoyceH
@Steve LaBonne: They absolutely don’t know what the Library of Congress is! Talking about putting “inappropriate books” in the Library?! The LoC contains ALL the books! They don’t pick and choose, if it’s published in the US, it goes in the LoC.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@LAC:
The courts? The massive protests that have been happening the past few months? Other countries standing up to him? Plus what Baud has mentioned
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
The mucking around he’s already done is baked in at this point. There’s likely going to be shortages in the next month or so
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Probably so. But if the shortages only last a few months, no one is going to hold a grudge against Trump. People who aren’t us don’t like to stay mad at Republicans.
karen gail
So far the GOP seems to be using movies (Ideocracy) and books (1982) as guides on how to ruin a country is “Fahrenheit 451” next up? will someone suggest that they break into Library of Congress and start burning all the “inappropriate” books?
Steve LaBonne
@JoyceH: If we survive this episode, the utter stupidity and incompetence of these idiots may be an important factor in saving us.
Jay
Interesting read,
https://lexisantamaria.substack.com/p/exposing-mark-burnett-the-man-who
karen gail
I meant 1984 by George Orwell. Dog needed some petting.
Baud
@karen gail:
I thought I had missed a prequel.
Baud
FDA bureaucrats snuck this one by Trump and RFK Jr.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
I don’t think that’s true at all. The only reason it’s happened in the past is because a Dem was in charge to place blame on. That won’t be the case this time and many of the people who voted for him this last time are mad at him for not fixing inflation. This won’t help that and inflation will likely continue to be a problem
SiubhanDuinne
I’ve been horrified, of course, and enraged, and — I don’t mind admitting — sometimes terrified at the rapid dismantling of our social and national security safety nets: DHS under Kristi Noem, FBI under Kash Patel, HHS under RFKJr, State under Marco Rubio, DoD under Pete Kegseth, the VA under Doug Collins, airlines and airports under DoT Sean Duffy, etc. etc. etc. Also the bullshit tariffs, the deliberate alienation of former allies and ass-licking of dictatorships, and the gleeful grifting by Trump, his family, and his billionaire buds.
But those mostly make me angry and determined to fight back however I can grrr. What totally punches me in the gut, breaking my heart and bringing me to impotent tears, are the barbaric takeovers of/threats to/firings from our cultural institutions: the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, Smithsonian Institution, CPB/NPR/PBS, the Voice of America, the National Archives, Linda McMahon’s Department of Education, universities, and the media. These just chew me alive from the inside out.
ETA: Also, of course, the deliberate despoiling of the planet.
karen gail
@Baud:
We are living in the prequel.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
It just shows how few people care about this country. They’re usually the ones trying to hide it by wrapping themselves in the flag.
eclare
@Baud:
That is very good news.
Baud
Baud
@karen gail:
Must be. I still hate Big Brother.
Steve LaBonne
@SiubhanDuinne: They (Trump himself very much included) hate everything that makes them feel like the small, loathesome creatures they are, and their impulse is to despoil everything good.
Tony Jay
@trollhattan:
You’d have thought that someone of religious authority in the Islamic world would have addressed the religious considerations around the sport of chess at some point over the last (checks notes) 1415 years. But apparently not. It must have always been so incredibly niche it just slipped through the cracks.
Good catch, Taliban. Golf clap.
Oh, hey, do golf next!
Geminid
@Melancholy Jaques: Governor Whitmer has definitely hurt her chances to win the Balloon Juice primary. But if she runs for President, I wonder how many Democratic primary voters will care in early 2028 about events that loom large here in 2025.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Steve LaBonne:
It’s weird, isn’t it? The next time Dems have Congress they should take that power away and place it completely under Congressional jurisdiction
mayim
The damage being done to the US’s cultural institutions is horrific.
Carla Hayden is very well qualified to the the Librarian of Congress. She’s actually the first trained librarian to hold the position ~ previous holders were historians and the like. Her reputation in the library world is incredibly positive!
I’m a victim of the IMLS cuts. Laid off from my dream job because already appropriated funds have been cut off. Libraries and museums everywhere ~ inner city, rural, tribal ~ in the US are going to be harmed by IMLS grants being stopped.
As disastrous as the lay-off is for me personally, it’s worse for library patrons. Services that in many cases are lifelines <talking books fir the visually/physically impaired, books for people who are homebound, childhood literacy> are being reduced or eliminated ~ for what is essentially pennies per year per person and a miniscule part of the federal budget.
hells littlest angel
@Tony Jay: I mean, it’s played with bishops.
prostratedragon
@hells littlest angel: Just sitting here wondering what that piece is called in non-Christian societies. Note that it’s only maybe the 3rd most powerful piece in terms of how much of the board it can command.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
OT: I smell a ratfuck:
New independent movement wants to deny both parties a House majority
Funny how these “independents” have ties to conservative politics. They want a debt commission and they want it now!
Mr Longform
This is just a total dick move by the ignorant, petty, narcissistic frat bros who now run the government. For them to pass judgement on the work of a woman who has more integrity, intelligence, and accomplishment than all of them combined is utterly infuriating
NightSky
@Suzanne:
i worry that they will use the data to do other nefarious things as well, e.g. step up their strategies to disenfranchise enough D voters in order to throw future elections; target individuals (as done by Cambridge Analytica and Manafort/Russians in 2016) using social media propaganda to suppress the vote and push hopelessness and acceptance; screw with the soc sec or other govt payments/benefits/IRS for people who donate to D causes etc; use it to incite violence to their advantage. Many ways their compiled masses of info (plus mistaken, misinterpreted, and/or made-up data) could be manipulated and used against individuals and groups. My head hurts thinking about the possibilities of all that data in the hands on S Miller, Bannon, the P-2025 fiends, etc.
Steve LaBonne
@prostratedragon: In typical Wikipedia fashion, more than you wanted to know in the “History” section of this article.
Geminid
@prostratedragon: My Atlanta friend follows international chess and tells me there is a 13 year-old Turkish kid who has given some top players tough games. That’s unusual in that not many top players come out of Turkiye.
My friend played in a tournament in northern Atlanta a couple weeks ago, his first one in years. He’s been playing a lot against computer programs and was hoping he might come away from the C-class section with a first place prize of $750. In the event, Warren went 2 wins, 2 losses. A fourth grader in a dinosaur shirt beat him the first game; a humbling experience.
schrodingers_cat
Hey it’s just a messaging problem. We dare not utter a word about racism or any bigotry by those in charge, it might hurt someone’s delicate feelings.
Steve LaBonne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): But mostly they want lots of lucrative grifting.
Another Scott
@mayim: I’m very sorry you’re caught up in this monstrous behavior by 47 and his enablers. Libraries are amazing places and they’re so very important to so many people trying to navigate our increasingly complex world.
:-(
Keep us updated on how you’re coping and what we can do to help.
Best wishes,
Scott.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steve LaBonne: Racism, sexism, and anti-intellectualism all wrapped up in one neat package.
Tony Jay
@hells littlest angel:
That’s how they lure you in. First it’s a polite chess club, then out comes the backgammon set, and before you know it you’re playing strip-poker and His Grace murmurs something about a friendly little baptism.
Best just to ban it all. Safety first.
rikyrah
@tobie:
Corruption with a capital C
randy khan
I won’t say what anybody should do, but she certainly could have written back saying that she needed to see it from the person who has the power to fire her, not from some underling.
And probably the only reason Trump hasn’t fired the head of the National Museum of American History is that he can’t – she was picked by the Smithsonian Regents, who all are either Regents by virtue of other jobs (like the Chief Justice and the VP) or are chosen by Congress.
rikyrah
@Another Scott:
President Xi hasn’t called yet.
Period.
rikyrah
@sixthdoctor:
Yep
That too😡
eclare
@Another Scott:
I feel the same way. I don’t use the library much now, but growing up I was at our local public library two or three times a week. I still remember my favorite librarian there, who had the perfect librarian name, Mrs. Longfellow.
rikyrah
@Jackie:
Outside of the bribe…
It’s a SECURITY BREACH OF EPIC PROPORTIONS
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: He is not going to call.
SiubhanDuinne
@mayim: I’m so terribly sorry. This is one of those anecdotes that makes me cry, and despair. (I really need help to scramble myself out of these bleak, dark places and start fighting back.)
One of my grandmothers, who was effectively blind for the last 25+ years of her life, relied for decades on the Talking Books program to keep her informed and engaged. It is nothing short of criminal that these initiatives are being clawed back.
rikyrah
@SiubhanDuinne: understand everything you wrote here
Understand that rage
Ruckus
@scav:
I was discharged from the USN over 50 years ago. “Thank you for your service” was common back then as well, and had for the most part the same feelings given. But not always. Some who used that actually meant it. That also may still be true.
suzanne
@NightSky: I share your concerns. Musk will absolutely persecute anyone who he perceives as an enemy.
Melancholy Jaques
@Geminid:
Democratic primary voters tend of have long memories, but they also may be just as clueless about tariffs as Governor Whitmer.
neabinorb
@hells littlest angel: American publishers are required by law to deposit copies of their books at the LC when applying for copyright. That’s how many books are acquired for the Library.
JWR
Don’t know if this has already been discussed, but it fits right into the ongoing conversation about highly questionable terminations.
F*ck Elon and his lumbering pal Donnie.
prostratedragon
Overheard in a movie:
I Remember Mama
Kristine
@prostratedragon: I love Wolfers’ posts. He explains econ so well.
If he ever did a speaking tour, I would do my very best to get tickets.
Baud
@rikyrah:
@schrodingers_cat:
Ghosted by Xi.
sab
Didn’t Andrew Johnson get impeached for firing Congressionally approved Cabinet Officers?
Our Repubs won’t do it, but there is precedent for punishing inappropriate firings.
IMNAL but I do like the idea of clawing back all his bribes that our S Ct allowed during his term. If your term is over, those bribes are not part of your presidential authority. Give them to the next guy.
scav
@hells littlest angel: Even worse, the western version of the game calls the piece with the most flexible moves a Queen, not a properly male vizier and gave her longer moves at that! DOGE will have to get all over this degraded Woke version of chess as well. Pope Leo acts up in slightest, out go the bishops and back to the original Elephants!
Geminid
@Melancholy Jaques: I’m not sure many Democratic primary voters even know about Whitmer’s misteps on tariffs. People here get wrapped up in stuff my real life Democratic friends don’t even pay attention to. It’s not that they are uninformed, they’re just not hyper-informed.
Gretchen
Dr. Hayden was the first person with a library degree to become Librarian of Congress. The position has previously gone to scholars like historians.
LC receives a copy of every new book published in the US. No selection involved. And they catalogue all those books for the use of the rest of the libraries.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Melancholy Jaques:
You know what’s the worst about that whole episode with Whitmer? Is that she covered her face with a folder at the White House and then later willingly appeared at a rally with him in Michigan. Like, which is it Gretchen? Were you embarrassed to be seen with him or not?
Baud
@Geminid:
I’ve already crossed every potential Democrat off my list for various heresies.
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
You have good instincts.
suzanne
@Geminid:
LOL.
“Over-informed” is a nice way to describe this snarling den.
One thing that has really struck me over the last 12-18 months….. the vibe here is absolutely not what I observe in my meatspace life. It’s interesting.
prostratedragon
Too far over his skis, or did someone hack LL’s account?
Baud
@prostratedragon:
It wasn’t too hard to figure out her password was Woke Marxist Pope.
Geminid
@suzanne: “Over-informed” seemed a little invidious, so I changed it to “hyper-informed.”
Melancholy Jaques
@Geminid:
Democrats will remember who stood next to Trump more than they will remember why.
prostratedragon
@Steve LaBonne: Thanks! Interesting that in most places it’s styled more as a ranger type of figure, or a wild card.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Baud: looks like another pump and dump to me. I think this president learned to love the “profit making” opportunities of the pandemic and this is but round 43
This president, along with a supine, sycophantic, delusional GOP has once more torched our supply chain, screwed farmers/ rural America firmly into their abject, terrified place. He is also destroying small businesses everywhere, just because (?)
And! he is openly accepting “tips”* from middle eastern potentates while torching the 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th amendments (not to mention numerous laws) in the name of fighting anti-semitism which he also vigorously endorses in his appointments (see Ed Martin)
* which “tips” ( that our ancestors called bribes) may or may not be taxable depending on just how hard gop Congress critters want to screw their own constituents down into the ground.
thank you John Roberts for obliterating our longstanding “honest services doctrine” and giving this man carte blanche to rob us all. What a marvelous way to devolve from your Taney-curious decades.
prostratedragon
@Geminid: Kids of modest gifts could probably wipe me out in chess. Don’t know, though; haven’t played in decades and in some ways I’m smarter than I used to be. Maybe I could beat most kids now. Would rather devote time to go, though.
Baud
@HopefullyNotcassandra:
Trump’s hard to predict. He probably doesn’t even know what he’s going to do next.
hells littlest angel
@Baud: Nor does he remember what he did last.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@prostratedragon: excellent catch
later cdwilsher correctly noted Ms Loomer “is not bothered by the bribe. She is bothered it came from Muslims.”
Baud
Y’all, maybe the Qatar bribe was to pay for a cease fire in Gaza.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Baud: he wants to be biggly rich and have real gold everywhere. He wants more pump and dumb. He needs to be seen as a real (cool) boy
I could be wrong. I will not bet on it in the stock exchange or in the bond market.
Gvg
@Chief Oshkosh: it doesn’t matter. That would be playing by their rules which they always change.
The relevant fact is the library of Congress is required to have a copy of all books published in the United States. All librarians of Congress. It was in an earlier thread, that this is related to establishing copyright here. She doesn’t chose.
I hope she spells out this fact publicly very soon. There are a fair number of journalists and a large number of the public who don’t know important context. Let’s make it clear once again that Trump and this administration are ignorant and racist bullies.
Geminid
@prostratedragon: My friend says that from experience, he only gets one chance to beat a young player; by the next tournament the young players have advanced well beyond his own abilities.
Warren took chess very seriously. He accumulated a whole book case full of chess books, studied them all, and worked really hard on his game. His conclusion: “I have everything it takes to be a good chess player except talent.”
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): these firings are not legal.
Of course, does the clear wording of a statute mean anything? It will not to Justices Thomas and Alito. To the other cons? I don’t know.
Has anyone ever actually witnessed a conservative standing athwart history while shouting “no!” ?
If such a person existed outside of William Buckley Jr.’s imagination, he or she is now extinct.
Geminid
@Baud: I read the Israelis only found about hostage Eden Alexander’s impending release was through their own intelligence services monitoring Hamas. They were similarly blindsided when Trump announced the ceasefire with the Houthis that Oman brokered.
It really does seem that Trump is fed up with Netanyahu. I am reminded of a Bible passage:
“I mean, I hardly knew the guy. I think he used to sell us bricks, but we had to reject them because he skimped on the straw.”
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Steve LaBonne: the president hires the Librarian for a term. This Librarian had two years remaining on her term.
The Librarian hires the Register of Copyrights.
Baud
@Geminid:
Trump didn’t get to place peacemaker in Ukraine. He wants a win. The Taliban took him to the cleaners. Hamas might as well.
Sally
I presume others have said this, but the contempt, the disrespect, from these barbarians towards Dr. Hayden incenses me. “Carla”. It’s Dr. Hayden to you, you dumber than a bag of hammers jamoke.
zhena gogolia
@Sally: I know that people being snatched off the streets and sent to God knows where is the most horrible thing. The global implications of Trump’s “foreign policy” are horrifying. Universities and medical research are being irrevocably damaged. But this cultural barbarism is what cuts me to the quick.
SiubhanDuinne
@Sally:
That pissed me off SO FUCKING HARD. The utter contemptible disrespect.
zhena gogolia
Seeing the petty revenge-taking of this disgusting little man play out, does anyone now doubt the Steele Dossier? Do you doubt that he paid sex workers to pee on a mattress that Obama supposedly slept on so he could watch? I don’t.
Geminid
@Baud: I read that Trump is complaining about Israel blowing up the ceasefire in Gaza, but not because of the 2500 Gazans killed since then. Trump’s gripe is that the Israeli onslaught is making the place harder to rebuild.
Keith P.
Is Congress not in charge of the Library of Congress?
Sally
@zhena gogolia: This macaroon can sink lower than any of us, even Baud, can imagine.
Baud
@Sally:
I’m pleased your sentence didn’t end at “Baud.”
karen gail
@prostratedragon:
You made me curious so I looked up names for chess pieces; which appears to have started in India and Persia. What is now a bishop was elephant. The game is over 1500 years old. wow!
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Jay: who told us to crave “outsiders. Anti-heroes”? This has been a gnawing question of mine for years. The anti-hero is all over modern Russian literature. Is that a coincidence?
Would Robert Kennedy most junior get his tooth filled by somebody who did their own research? Would he hire a firefighter who learned to suppress flames on-line in chat rooms?
Who actually craves incompetent cosplaying nincompoops? I think that answer is easy. Nobody does. So how do we keep getting tricked into letting such silly persons into positions of power? We don’t crave anti heroes.
I think the incompetents are hidden as competent men complete with costuming, makeup and even scripted commentary, very carefully curated
Maybe it started in entertainment. I think it is more carefully planned these days.
Sally
@Baud: Oh, and it was right there in front of me too!
Another Scott
@Baud: Even Pat Paulsen??
Best wishes,
Scott.
Baud
@Geminid:
One of the most perceptive statements he’s ever made.
Darkrose
@sixthdoctor: It’s absolutely appalling. This is a woman who is more credentialed than most of the Trump administration being treated like the help by a bunch of mediocre at best nepo babies who think they’re god’s gift to the world because they’re white. I was so angry when I heard this on Thursday, and I’m still furious.
Jay
Galling, but not surprising a mere $25K got her to drop charges against Trump University, a bribe that she asked for.
Steve LaBonne
@Darkrose: This is what Ta-Nehisi Coates meant by Trump being the first white President- in that he had absolutely nothing else going for him.
Ruckus
@JWR:
This is a serious time in our country. Complete and utter assholes are trying to steal everything from the citizens. Including the concept of what this country has been since it’s founding.
So I say spell out the words, in full.
I will take this back if I get enough pushback but in my mind, having worked in our government for 4 years and having seen that can be tough in the best of times – which this is no where near and as I am likely losing most/all of my healthcare, as I use the VA services that I EARNED, and I have zero idea if there will even be anyone at my next appointment to tell me there isn’t a next appointment. Or if my social security payments will arrive. Which I also earned by paying into it for 60 years. If shitforbrains has fucked those up – I may be a tad pissed off. OK it will be an absolutely massive pissed off. Not that I’m not on the verge of already massively pissed off even without losing the VA.
WaterGirl
@One of André Leon Talley’s Fifty Pieces of Monogrammed Louis Vuitton Luggage: I wrote to you by email at the address you used for Balloon Juice, but it was returned.
WordPress doesn’t like apostrophes in nyms.
If you follow the directions here: Fix Nyms with Apostrophes
Then your comments will show up right away for everyone. As it is, I find them much later and it’s likely that no one gets to see them after they are released because the thread is dead.
Ruckus
@Steve LaBonne:
In the opinion of this old white fart – absolutely true.
Really though, does he even have a white majority going for him?
I don’t know but I’d bet there is a real possibility that the answer is no.
Jay
Just wondering, what’s the current Tariff FFS on a $400 million dollar jet from Qatar, and who pays it?
Another Scott
@Jay: Google tells me 10% on Qatar.
Who pays it? Why the leprechauns, of course. No Americans ever pay tariffs. It’s just common sense.
//
Best wishes,
Scott.
Steve LaBonne
@Ruckus: Election results say yes. We can only hope that’s eroding but I’m not counting on it.
Glory b
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Didn’t Andrew Yang already try this, without much success?
Kayla Rudbek
@tobie:
@Suzanne: Musk and some other techbros came out and said “delete IP law” which is getting some of the other business Republicans mad at them, including Trump’s former director of the US Patent and Trademark Office https://ipwatchdog.com/2025/04/24/former-uspto-director-iancu-delivers-stinging-rebuke-to-delete-ip-law-ideology/id=188422/
Kayla Rudbek
@Tony Jay: I thought that chess was invented in India and transmitted to Europe through Muslim culture, although it wouldn’t surprise me that the Taliban is as ignorant about this as they are about everything else.
Kayla Rudbek
@HopefullyNotcassandra: and who’s funding the publishers that are making antiheroes, mafiosi, motorcycle gang members, and bullies the romantic leads in a lot of modern romance novels?
Matt McIrvin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It’s Third Way, No Labels, Connecticut for Lieberman, etc.
chemiclord
@Melancholy Jaques:
*sigh* Whitmer did the exact same thing Fein (the head of UAW did); celebrate the concept of “bringing manufacturing jobs back”, because that’s what their constituents (i.e. union workers) wanted to hear.
Just ten seconds of looking into the story would reveal that they had no expectations these tariffs were the answer, and were not pinning any hopes on them.
In other words, it was performative politics, targeting their base. Jesus, I thought that was what our “leaders” are supposed to be doing.
Geminid
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
@Matt McIrvin: I doubt if these folks can elect even one Representative. They might throw a few close districts to the Republican though, and that could be their game. We’ll know more if and when they announce their candidates.
PJ
@zhena gogolia:
I never doubted the pee tape. It sounded absolutely like something so petty and tacky that Trump would want to make it happen.
prostratedragon
@Geminid: Do I ever sympathize. Pretty good with backgammon and most card games though.
Geminid
@Melancholy Jaques: What I’m saying is, most Democratic primary voters won’t have seen Whitmer standing next to Trump. They can’t rememember what they never saw in the first place.
Same with all the controversies over Gavin Newsom’s podcasts. In Newsom’s case though, I think that even if they don’t hold the podcast crap against him they will detect the lack of moral ballast that led him into those stupid podcasts. They might not know about the effects, but they’ll recognize the underlying cause when he’s a candidate and they start paying attention. Newsom is a lightweight and he blows with the wind. I think voters will see this, with plenty of help from Newsom’s rivals.
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid: The idea that both sides are too extreme and what we really want is a Center Party is always going to appeal to a certain type of well-off technocrat, and when people say they’re dissatisfied with both sides, they’ll interpret it that way whether it makes sense or not. The junior Marxists annoy the hell out of me but I think they’re closer to the mark than *these* people.
lou
I’m betting this is at the heart of the reason they fired her: She appointed Jason Reynolds as National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. He co-wrote a children’s version of Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You with Ibram Kendi.
chemiclord
@Matt McIrvin: Meh, I’d say the young Marxists are simply wrong in a different way. Anyone who espouses the idea that there is a “silent majority” out there just waiting for the right message to mobilize is fooling themselves.
If there is one thing in this world that Americans aren’t, it’s silent. These groups really just don’t want to accept that Americans mean exactly what they say and do.
Gloria DryGarden
@Geminid: his poor plans for a beach side resort, the ruined infrastructure, his chance of opening some casinos and businesses he could fail, some poorly constructed hotels he can cheat on building codes with. The potential for aggrandizement combined with more tax write offs to offset all the new money he’s made as president…
Gloria DryGarden
@Kayla Rudbek: you’re raising an important point. Perhaps we make lists of books that give the lead character to bullies and etc, and then we refuse to read those books, read romances with decent characters in it, instead.
it really could be a way of enculcating readers, of desensitizing us to the shitheads in society, normalizing abusiveness… Romances can be great escape reading, but sometimes I think hard about which characters I like enough to want to spend time with.
it’s an interesting idea for a boycott, and for library reading lists, as well as being a corollary of “read the good books first, or else you won’t get to them”
Re Dr CarlaHayden, are there any women in the USA, or in the world who don’t know about being disrespected, belittled, or having our intelligence insulted? (Normalized, baseline fury…)