I started to write this nearly a week ago.
Another mostly “normie” week for me. The big house project, and the start of gardening season.
10 days or so ago I put up the post titled No Data, No Source, Just Vibes, saying that it sure felt like something was shifting. At that point the orange monster had already lost the election in Canada and had not yet lost the election in Australia.
A week ago – last Monday, I believe – Joyce Vance wrote her The Week Ahead newsletter, and she seemed to agree with me. As a country we saved ourselves before, more than once, and she seems to think we can do it again. She even manages to extend a bit of grace for it taking some time for us to pull ourselves up after the shock.
At dinner this weekend, a friend told me that one of the most encouraging conversations she’d had recently involved a look at how other countries that have been through a democratic backsliding process, like Hungary and Poland, did. It turns out that the temporary paralysis that came with the first 100 days of this administration is fairly normal for countries in this position, especially for the opposition. Then, everyone gathers themselves together and moves forward.
The timing of our conversation was perfect, because as I’ve been doing a lot of research about how other countries have worked through attempts by would-be dictators to take over, as I continue to work on my book. I had reached the same conclusion—that giving ourselves a little grace for the shock of dealing with a president who wants to dismantle democracy is appropriate. But it’s also important to remind ourselves that just like Americans saved the country during the Civil War, during the Civil Rights era, during Watergate, we can do it again.
The moment calls for courage, and if elected officials, regardless of party, can’t muster it, then they need to step out of the way (and we don’t need to reelect them). It’s a failure of imagination to think government has to be the enemy. That it has to be stagnant, cowardly, and mired in gridlock. But at a bare minimum, our elected officials should be capable of defending the Constitution. Why else do they take an oath to uphold it? Trump offers only the politics of grift and revenge, and that is not democracy.
This is where we are as we start the week ahead. It’s time to move forward. Our progress may feel slow. It may not always be linear. But we are beginning, and right now, it feels important to be here and to keep going.
For the final piece of the trifecta, Trump lost the election for Pope, as well, on May 8. (How can that be just 4 days ago????)
We have a million miles to go, but it feels like the tide is turning.
It sure feels to me like it’s time for us to ramp things up.
We certainly live in interesting times.
schrodingers_cat
I don’t, I see things getting worse. I see a cold war brewing between blue states and the federal government.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: Well, things are certainly getting worse, and as long as F–khead is in power, they will continue to, but I do see a lot of pushback that is slowing him down.
Omnes Omnibus
The fact that it is taking a little while to find the right way to oppose something unprecedented should not come as a surprise. The right methods and the right leaders will continue to emerge. We also need to remember that executive orders are not laws. Much of what Trump is trying to do will be successfully overturned in the courts. As all of this goes on, we need to hold onto both hope and the will to resist. Do the little things. Donate, call, protest, be kind to others, refuse to let them beat you down and suck all the joy out of your like, and remember to say “fuck you” tot he fascists everyday (even if it under your breath).
Chetan Murthy
There’s a thing I noticed this morning, as I woke up to the sound of cars every now-and-then driving past on my street. And …. nothing else. It’s spring, and the weather is fine, and ….. that usually means that early-morning home rehab and construction is in full swing. And yet I haven’t heard anything this year. Not a peep. I live in Noe Valley, which is prime area for that sort of thing. It isn’t that there’s no constructionn going on: I know that a house across the street has something up. There are probably others here-and-there in the ‘hood. But every year, all spring and summer I used to wake to the sound of construction. It was in fact annoying, b/c I tend to sleep late.
But not this year. I do wonder if this is some effect of the crackdown on immigrants. Or if it’s the coyote-poised-above-the-chasm economy. Or what.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Things are not going swimmingly for Orangina so BS bros like David Hogg are starting fights within the D party to give Republicans an assist.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: Well, we can concentrate on things like that if we want to. I am not sure that It is the best use of our time and efforts.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: I am paying close attention to what Ds do as a party. I am a visible microminority in this country. I can’t get complacent. YMMV.
Baud
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Smoot-Hawley 2.0 is not a popular position.
Steve LaBonne
@schrodingers_cat: He wants to inherit the James Carville role of making the party “safe” for white men. What an asshole. No wonder Maher, who is the exact same kind of shithead, had him on his show.
Raoul Paste
There are some increasingly bad things happening, yet a seeming realization that this group is a bunch of corrupt screw-ups.
But that’s not enough to fill the streets with pitchforks and torches, which may be what is necessary.
Professor Bigfoot
@schrodingers_cat: It IS getting worse.
BUT… the pushback is building, and if we’re lucky it will stop these Nazis before they destroy the United States as we know it.
kindness
@schrodingers_cat: I’m wondering who David Hogg surrounds himself with that’s boosting David’s let’s undermine all the Democrats I don’t like thing. Also too, all the while ignoring Republicans shredding the country (and constitution).
bbleh
@zhena gogolia: This is closer to what I think. And I also think that “progress” or “loss” is not unitary; there will continue to be losses in some areas even as there may be gains in others. That is, it’s not yet a question of whether the “war” is won or lost but of which battles to fight.
— What have we not yet lost that’s worth fighting to save?
— What have we lost that we might win back (relatively soon)?
— What, lost or not, do we not have the resources to fight over right now?
I think the battles we should focus on are (1) state offices, especially in blue states, because those are both important and winnable, and (2) fundamental human rights — habeas corpus, immigration law, voting rights, workers’ rights, and the more deeply dehumanizing kulturkampf attacks eg against Trans people, because those are important, period.
I think it’s way early for national-level elections, intra-Dem fights are pointless squabbling, the blatant corruption is beyond hope, and a lot of the DOGE / budgetary fights (other than perhaps Medicaid) are just gonna have to wait. I’m not too worried about SS or Medicare, because I think those likely are safe even with this Congress, and I’m genuinely unsure about Medicaid.
Your mileage likely will vary.
TaMara
@Omnes Omnibus: Ding-ding-ding!
And everything bad needs to get pasted directly to the Republicans. Hourly.
@watergirl: ignore the doomers. I believe your vibes are correct, and lots of folk IRL (in my world anyway) are having similar feelings.
Still we fight, resist, and most importantly, believe we will win this fight.
Professor Bigfoot
Amen.
They Call Me Noni
One of my “if you could only have 10 albums” albums.
To me it feels like a really bad storm and the weatherman on TV is telling you to get in the basement NOW and my phone is blaring tornado warnings. So I go to the basement and hope the house doesn’t come crashing down around me. I worry about how long the courts are going to hold without the full throated backing of the Supremes on all counts. I worry about judges being threatened and arrested. I am most nervous that every law that used to be respected but relies too heavily on norms and interpretation is being shredded.
Scary times indeed.
Another Scott
Speaking of Carole King (repost from downstairs) – 26 second video of fault moving during March Myanmar earthquake.
Yes, indeed, it’s going to be a slog. We have to fight them every single day – for the long term. They won’t give up; we cannot either.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Professor Bigfoot
@schrodingers_cat: Some will be offended by this, but at this point the beliefs, opinions, and utterances of white men are immediately discarded because white men are ALWAYS the problem.
From the nearly 2/3 that supported Trump directly to the Hogg and Carville Show, I immediately discount anything from a white man until he’s demonstrated actual allyship to the rest of us.
(Joe Biden and Tim Walz and Slayer Pete hadda come from somewhere, so we know they exist… but they’re damned thin on the ground, fellas.)
trollhattan
@Another Scott:
I believe the USGS has been directed to henceforth use the term seismic woketivity.
schrodingers_cat
@Professor Bigfoot: Yep and I just got called a doomer for voicing my concerns.
trollhattan
Sure Jan.
Baud
@Raoul Paste:
Who can afford pitchforks and torches with these tariffs?
schrodingers_cat
@TaMara: Being aware of what’s going on doesn’t make you a doomer. That’s how one survives in a world where one is not the default.
Ruckus
@schrodingers_cat:
In any large assembly of human beings it is far easier for things to get worse than better. Getting worse only needs one thing, doing nothing. Getting better takes effort, thought, sweat and in some cases a lot of swearing, quietly or shouted from the rooftops. IOW it takes a lot of humans to do the right and proper things to get back to better, to return the pompous, arrogant jackasses to their hiding places. Or jail cells. Especially in a democratic government that someone is trying to turn into the opposite. And it has to be done in the proper, legal, democratic manner.
And in a democracy people elected this pompous arrogant jackass to be president. Enough of the people that did that have to change their minds about what they want – and what they do not want. That tide takes time to change. And in this case that tide seems to be changing rather rapidly and strongly. We know that the person causing the majority of the problem is not going to get better, he is incapable of that. What has to happen in a democracy is that minds need to be changed. And that is happening, seemingly rather rapidly for this size of a group of humans. Not everyone will change, adapt. But the reality is that only a portion have to.
NotMax
@trollhattan
Terrain refreshing.
//
artem1s
@kindness:
the same sorts that have been slowly destroying the GOP. It’s all about power and who gets control of the party money. The aren’t concerned about being progressive or saving democracy or making government work for anyone except themselves. If they don’t have ‘overturn Citizen’s United’ and kill the EC some where near the top of their legislative ‘to do’ lists then they are nothing but campaign $$$ grifters. They will throw anyone and everyone under the bus to get power and the money that goes with it and then keep it.
I was highly suspicious of folks Beto when he first got going – same with Fetterman. The former continues to educate and GOTV in his state. The other is joining the ranks of the chaos creators in Congress which I highly suspect is where he would have ended up even without the stroke. Fetterman never had any strong issue he was passionate about. It was all about which silver bullet will help him ‘win’. And was already having issues as LT Gov because he couldn’t do the hard work of understanding what it took to be a good legislator. All vibes, no substance. Hogg has probably reached the end of the fundraising gravy train on gun control. He’s looking for a new tag line to grift on. “Democrats are the same as the GOP” is probably a good bet to raise a bunch of money. Easier to destroy the competition from inside the house too.
schrodingers_cat
@Ruckus: I am pretty active in my community and the Democratic Town Committee. That is not nothing.
eclare
@Professor Bigfoot:
My good friend the late Steeplejack, older White guy, would have agreed with you wholeheartedly.
Kelly
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s probably going to get worse before it gets better. Much damage will be difficult to repair.
It’s been worse.
The USA was not a democracy for women until the 19th Amendment in 1920. The USA was not a democracy for blacks until the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The 14th Amendment of 1868 was meant to grant full rights to blacks but the racists suppressed it following the abandonment of Reconstruction with the Compromise of 1877. Native Americans could not be citizens until 1924. Many people died for labor unions.
Ruckus
@Chetan Murthy:
It’s just possible that a lot of the change people were making is finished. Or that they have realized that something more important is happening around them and it cannot go unrecognized. And when recognized, proper action is needed. And is more important than being comfortable.
Betty Cracker
Pope Leo has two brothers, one who lives near Chicago where they grew up and one in Florida. I saw a couple of interviews with the Chicago brother but nothing about the other. Turns out the Florida brother is a big-mouthed MAGA asshole! Poor Pope Leo. So relatable.
Librettist
I presume Hogg is doing advance work for the Gavin Newsome Express. He’s been market testing the “Now with more white male!” messaging for a while now.
If it were only were as simple as doing Joe Rogan’s show….
Belafon
@Professor Bigfoot: I’m reserving my “not all white men” for when another white man thinks I’m one of their allies.
Chetan Murthy
@Ruckus: If there’s been one constant in my ‘hood over 17 years I’ve been here, it’s “spring is when the saws and hammers come out”. I’m awakened every goddamn morning by the sound of hammering, sawing, trucks backing up, etc. Every morning. Noe Valley has a ton of older houses, so there’s lots of work. But this spring, it’s quiet.
I mean, it’s nice for me: I like the quiet.
trollhattan
@Chetan Murthy:
SWAG a crapton of major remodels/new construction is on hold because they didn’t lock down lumber and other supplies before Tariffpalooza. Budgets be blown @ current pricing.
Chief Oshkosh
@Omnes Omnibus:
Don’t forget to send a comment to the Federal Register about Schedule F (see a few threads down). Comment to Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRMs) are a real thing, even if the current administration will almost assuredly ignore them, they give ammunition to the good guys.
Baud
@Chetan Murthy:
That’s how I felt about the covid lockdowns, but I was told I had to prioritize the lives and health of “other people.”
Harrumph.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Leo now has the power of excommunication. Just saying.
eclare
@Chief Oshkosh:
Done today.
Betty Cracker
I’m not interested in arguing about David Hogg or defending his recent comments, which I haven’t heard outside of a short clip from a recent discussion he had with Jen Psaki. But I will note that when Hogg was a traumatized 17-year-old mass shooting survivor, he and his fellow students banded together and thoughtfully formed a diverse mass movement to address gun violence. They shamed the wingnut Florida governor and super-majority hard-right Florida statehouse into raising the age for gun purchases from 18 to 21 and passing red flag laws that reduced the state’s firearm homicide rate by more than 10%. They saved lives. I will always admire Hogg and his fellow Parkland survivors for accomplishing that, which most people in the state, including me, didn’t think was possible.
WTFGhost
@schrodingers_cat: Technically, we’re in a state of cold civil war. When one party tries to establish dominance across the country, and sees the other side as illegitimate, and uses the law as a cudgel against the other side, that’s precisely what a cold civil war *is*. Our “Civil War,” the war of whipping the the slavers for once, is a rarity.
In W’s administration, you could have said the US was in a state of cold civil war; but during the Trump administration, it’s obvious, and blatant. The deliberate planning to murder residents of blue states, by overspending on red states, should have people more furious, but, meh, murder happens.
Now, I confess, my definition of “civil war” probably comes from a Vox article, and I only trust them to be middling accurate – I’ve seen Vox articles repeating Republicans bullshit talking points verbatim. Still: deliberately withholding medical supplies from blue states, including those hit the hardest, so more blue-staters die, is obviously, objectively, evil, and it happened right before our eyes.
By any standard that matters, we are in a state of civil war already. It just hasn’t gotten to the “shooting dissidents” stage, except in rare circumstances.
ETA: To keep with hopeful vibes, I will note that when corruption is this blatant, and the abuse of power this obvious, people start choking on the propaganda that they used to swallow. It’s reasonable to expect people to get angrier as time goes on.
Rusty
As much as I dislike Trump, he didn’t lose the pope election. There are over 1.4B Catholics world wide, the US has only 53M, or less than 4% of that total. Among actively practicing, the percentage is probably even lower. The pope was picked to lead the whole Catholic Church, of which the US is a very small minority. Not everything that happens has some relation to the US, the rest of the world makes their own decisions. Pope Leo’s decades in Peru and other places in the world, and his personal skills and faith had far more to do with his selection by other cardinals. We are not the center of the world.
schrodingers_cat
@WTFGhost: ICE is targeting communities in blue MA. Many of the cultural institutions have had their grants canceled. And we have lost some research grants as well.
I am not seeing them cause the same havoc in the red states.
Bupalos
@Professor Bigfoot: Well I want to be offended by this, but noted white man Zach Wheeler really was the problem for my Guardians last night. And my Cavs had so many problems that I can’t really blame any of them on any particular ethnicity or gender. So I have no choice but to at least provisionally rate your statement of ethnic essentialism “mostly true.”
Baud
@Rusty:
You’re not wrong, but I would suggest that the Trump effect did make a difference in Canada and Australia, despite us not being the center of the world.
NotMax
@Baud
Whereas Elonmandias wields the power of X-communication.
//
NotMax
No linky in #44. Dunno why FYWP tried to stuff one in.
Chetan Murthy
deleted.
Ruckus
@Professor Bigfoot:
You are not wrong – but.
Not all white men have conquering everything over everyone else because of their color in their heads. Some of us see humans of all types, sizes, colors as actually what this countries founding at least stated, all humans are equal. Now of course some see other groups as less than human but they are actually looking in mirrors when they see others as lessor than them, they just don’t recognize themselves as the problem. If you watch animal behavior this concept is not limited to humans, many animals are this way. I believe it is the basis of a lot of living creatures – survival. But survival, far more often in this day and age does not require hate and destruction to move on, it requires a concept that we can live together, if we actually try. Success in survival in this day and age requires learning how, not just beating, killing any perceived threat, because that perception is far, far more often 100000% wrong. But this is humanity and far more often it seems that many humans see only 2 possible ways to solve any problem, real or perceived – kill or be killed. And yes that is SOMETIMES not wrong, but it is far, far more rare than it used to be. But some humans haven’t figured that out, and some, possibly many of them, likely never will. It’s got to be difficult to see reality with one’s head stuffed up one’s exit orifice. Or someone else’s.
suzanne
@bbleh:
Not a very nice thing to say about Balloon Juice.
;)
Baud
@suzanne:
Is there a nice thing to say about Balloon Juice?
WTFGhost
@schrodingers_cat: Well… and, that’s why I say we’re already “at war” with Republicans. They are using every weapon they can, to beat us down, to drain our resolve, to waste our time and energy.
That’s bad, getting worse, but, perversely, is the same kind of thing that can get people angrier and more contemptuous and more willing to fight back.
suzanne
@Baud: I think there’s a lot of nice things to say about Balloon Juice! Cole is insightful, Anne Laurie is informative, WaterGirl is uplifting, BCrack is hilarious, etc etc etc. Most of the commenters are nice people with interesting viewpoints.
Belafon
@Rusty: You could use your argument to state that he didn’t lose the Canadian election or the Australian one. It would be silly to think that the election of the Pope is not affected by world events. The US only makes up 4% of the world’s population yet the one man in charge of the country right now is wreaking havoc on the world.
WTFGhost
@Baud: Ah, Balloon-juice! What a nice thing!
Ans: Yes.
Baud
@suzanne:
Those are nice things.
I was being facetious of course.
TurnItOffAndOnAgain
I can’t say I agree with this read, but the overall message of trying to keep yourself safe while shoring up motivation and hope is a good one. If there’s a light at the end of this tunnel, it’ll be a while before we get there, because this is one long-ass tunnel.
@Rusty: I mean, you and I know that, but that shouldn’t stop us from framing it that way.
Belafon
@Ruckus: This was a very quick “Others are doing it too” rebuttal.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@schrodingers_cat:
Do you live in MA? What’s your opinion on Healey? I read some very disturbing things about her (and some other Dem officials in other states) recently where they’ve cut social services for tax cuts and falsely blamed migrants and the homeless for it, claiming they’ve put a strain on the system
WTFGhost
@Ruckus: Hee! And what you say is true, but what Prof Bigfoot said could still stand – “I’m still waiting for strong evidence of ally-ship, before I respect what’s said.”
Really, I think both of you are saying almost the same thing. Sometimes, a white person doesn’t even realize their (e.g.) “color blindness” has led them into error. They need to have their proverbial consciousness raised, so they go “oh, eff me, I never realized that!” Then, if they walk the walk, it’ll dislodge their cranial capacity from their lower sphincter… so to speak.
schrodingers_cat
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I like Healey and voted for her. She was one of the most effective AGs in the first term of the current president
Can you link to the article where she has blamed the homeless and immigrants?
schrodingers_cat
@WTFGhost: They don’t want anything of the sort. There has been more than one comment in this very thread, hinting at how BJ would be a big happy family if anyone not white with a contrary opinion would just shut up.
Ruckus
@schrodingers_cat:
No it is not. I was not accusing any one of not doing nothing, sorry if it sounded that way.
Humanity needs to change in a world that has the population it does, because with this many of us it isn’t just a group of humans doing their own thing. We all live far closer together than we did in the lifetimes of many alive today. Where I live in LA county now used to be, when I was a kid, orange and lemon groves, almost as far as the eye could see, with a home every so often and rarely in sight of another. And now it is homes and businesses. And a rather occasional lemon or orange tree in someone’s yard. The world has changed, in the lives of many alive today, like me, and not just where I live. There are far more of us, living in the same areas that use to be wide open spaces, like Los Angeles county, and in the lifetimes of many still here. And it’s like this in many parts of the world. And we have to recognize this and understand that it isn’t the world it used to be and it requires that we recognize this and learn to live in a massively different country/world than in the life time of many still alive today. Which is the direction humanity has been going in for a very, very long time, but it’s possible that we’ve arrived at a time when we can not just wave it off and build a wall around whatever. We have to learn to live in a far different world than it was in the lifetimes of many. Because there is almost always only two ways to do this. Work on it. Or destroy it. At least that seems to be human history. I say work on it. Seems to be a far better concept.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@schrodingers_cat:
Link
I know you’re not going to like the title, but just bear with it and read the whole thing
schrodingers_cat
@Ruckus: No apologies necessary.
Bupalos
The biggest movements towards Trump between 2020 and 2024 occurred in non-white younger voters, and these are unprecedented eye-popping demographic movements. Go try to find margin changes like this in modern elections:
-35% in D margins for Black men or Hispanic men, -29 for black young people generally, -45% for Hispanic youngs. -24 Black non-college, -32 Hispanic non-college.
White demographic preferences were much more static, with no movement either way outside single digits.
Then just to completely underscore how much this maybe a kind of look forward, our only double digit % improvement was among Hispanics over the age of 55, and our largest haul of net positive votes demographically was white people over 55.
And I think we’re simply not thinking about this because we’ve got an old hyper-identity story and we’re sticking to it. To be sure, that old story remains a coherent description of demographic voting structure. It’s just less true year by year and election by election, and the real “thing that’s happening right now” is that non-white, less educated, and less wealthy people are jumping ship.
schrodingers_cat
@Bupalos: Instead of talking about percent changes can you talk about raw numbers instead? Thanks. May be make a data table and share it with us.
Chetan Murthy
deleted
Geminid
Hamas released American/Israeli soldier Idan Alexander an hour or so ago. Alexander’s former neighbors in Tenapaly, New Jersey staged a celebration, but if Alexander flies back to the Garden State it will be after Wednesday, when he is supposed to meet with Trump and the Emir of Qatar in Doha.
Israeli PM Netanyahu called Trump to express his thanks, and his office announced that an Israeli team would head to Qatar to finish negotiating a ceasefire in Gaza. Trump envoy Steve Witkoff met with Netanyahu today, and it sounds Witkoff put “Bibi” in a figurative hammerlock.
trollhattan
@Bupalos:
Thanks, still wrapping my head around what happened those six long months ago.
Nationally, voting was well down vs. 2020 when despite a red-hot pandemic people managed to turn out. And then four years later, MORE showed for Trump and far fewer for Harris, with the net % dropping from 66.6 to 64.1. Despite it being easier to vote, fewer did.
And, with the actual vote out of the way, a forensic statistician I heard interviewed reinforced the observation that lacking voter suppression, Harris wins in ’24. Cheaters never prosper? We know the answer to that one.
Jeffro
he continues to over-reach…he continues to lose in court…he continues to make a corrupt pig of himself in ways that might even give some MAGAts pause…
…I’m encouraged, but now is definitely the time to really pour it on, not let up.
#CallCongress
Jeffro
great points, great list, 110%
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: +1
Mutual admiration societies are boring. And don’t get much done.
If Hogg is pissing off too many people, then he’ll lose power and influence. It was ever thus.
If he drives people away from voting for Democrats, then we need to continue to work hard to bring them, or other voters, to us. It was ever thus, as well.
Politics isn’t easy. It’s a knock-down drag out slog. And it should be when monsters are at the door – we have to be willing to fight for progress in all its forms.
OpenSecrets – Largest PACs by amounts raised in 2024 cycle.
#20 on that list raised $95+M.
$20M is a lot of money, but not in politics these days.
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
THIS.
shitforbrains really, really is. He is not a leader, he just guesses about everything, does whatever floats into that jumble in his head and goes full speed ahead because he thinks (such as it is….) that he is the world’s bestest human. He Ain’t.
But.
There are a lot of humans that think money is the end all be all of humanity, and shitforbrains has some so he must be a better human. But money is NOT humanity. It may help it work better but it is NOT the end all be all. It is a way to allow each of us to do what we do for our part of this humanity thing to keep it going. Not the end all be all of it. But of course some is better than none, but almost as often, too much can actually be worse. And it’s humanity on either side, better or worse.
Jeffro
@trollhattan: if it’s a gift to America, great…liquidate it and either cut everyone’s taxes by that amount, or add it to DoD’s fleet of transport planes, or use it to transport FEMA aid workers wherever needed…
…but if it’s a gift to trump, well, he needs to have Congress approve that. So let’s take that vote, shall we?
Ruckus
@suzanne:
@Baud:
OK, the top comments of the day!
Kirk
I don’t argue “not all whites” because I’ve listened to Muhammad Ali when he spoke of the 10,000 snakes. Same goes, as it happens, for “not all men”.
Sure, we white and/or men know we’re part of the thousand, but the ones who deal with us haven’t a clue. And we are apparently the minority of our group so, well, better safe than sorry.
Bupalos
@schrodingers_cat: Here’s a fairly comprehensive report on 2024 exit polls with totals and movements. My point here is that we’re missing what is changing and how it’s making the marginal difference in our politics because we’re focussed on a broad picture that feels static. The only ethnic/gender group to actually complete a ‘switched sides’ move from D to R I believe is Hispanic men. But essentially all the movement now from D to R is centered in the young and non-white.
Emily B.
Here in New Jersey, ICE is threatening to arrest my congressperson. I agree that a shift in vibes has eroded MAGA’s momentum, but that just means they’re doubling down. We have a lot of resistance ahead of us.
Josie
@schrodingers_cat: That is not what I see in the thread. It is true that some see things a bit differently. There is a scale from terrible and getting worse all the way to terrible and slightly improving, but no one has mentioned color in any way that I have seen.
ETA: And no one has told anyone else to shut up.
Rusty
@Baud: I agree, Trump had a definitive influence on both elections. My comme was more a reaction to the overwhelming US press coverage that made the US central to the papal election.
Jackie
@Geminid:
I, like everyone else, is elated Alexander is FREE!
But I won’t watch him and his family stand awkwardly to the side while FFOTUS talks about ME! I! ME ME ME!!! I! I!!!
lowtechcyclist
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m gonna need to print this up and post it over my desk. And share with friends.
Ruckus
@Belafon:
Power is not the number of humans involved, it is the ideals and weapons they have.
And while we may have, because of the type of government we have, some edge, that edge comes with a requirement of a lot of thought and concept. A democracy REQUIRES not a ruthless leader but a thoughtful, open and involved population, not selfish money worshipers. So of course we have as our current leader, a selfish money worshipper. Now of course money does make the world go round so it has a level of importance but we humans often forget that it is NOT the end all be all of humanity, it is a tool to make it work, if not better, at least in many different directions. And modern life does go in many more different directions than life did even in the lifetime of more than a few still with us. Yes life is still about survival but today there are more options on how to do that, how and what to provide to keep doing it, and more options on what it looks like. Look at healthcare. It is far different today than it was in the lifetime of many alive today. Medications, operations, day to day self betterment, it’s a long list of difference.
Kirk
re the golden goose egg, while I’d prefer the whole thing lead to his impeachment and subsequent imprisonment I have a fall-back to a fall-back hope.
If it goes to the extent of going to the presidential library I hope he gets the law good and hard. Someone NOT the taxpayer has to pay for the grounds and maintenance. If material is to remain operational that cost includes related costs. Costs can be reduced by rendering equipment inoperable except for display and research purposes.
It’s petty and late, I know. I have many, many consequences I wish to occur including the aforementioned impeachment and imprisonment. But it’s on my list.
Belafon
@Kirk: It’ll be the most audacious entrance to an adult bookstore in the country.
eclare
@schrodingers_cat:
They just had a massive operation here in TN on the interstates. IIRC 100 detained.
https://apnews.com/article/immigration-arrests-nashville-ice-tennessee-0fe523bc9d0ed143e105da0e96ad0c6c
Jackie
Ruckus
@WTFGhost:
True and well said.
Also got a bit of a laugh out of it so well done!
twbrandt
The Episcopal Church is refusing to resettle white Afrikaners and is ending its partnership with the federal government to resettle refugees.
Matt
@kindness:
Yeah, a person would have to be surrounded with some real assholes to be attacking Democratic Party leadership at a time of rising fascism.
For instance, you and @schrodingers_cat and a bunch of the “more-centrist-than-thou” jackals here. Keep on fuckin’ that chicken, morons!
Belafon
Pie has entered the building.
twbrandt
@Belafon: sure has
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
Whar comments on the next thread?
Trump take
jerbcommentsRaflW
@Rusty: Thanks. I’d say Pope Leo is a testament to years of careful groundwork laying by Francis and his allies. The Catholic hierarchy is of course, like any institution, a political (as in “affairs of state”, and I mean that more broadly than Vatican city). The politicking of who gets elevated to Cardinal, who is in the Vatican orbit and who is kept busy in the provinces, etc.
Props to those who held a vision for a more loving, grace-filled and common- or even poor-person centric Papacy. From John Paul II to Benedict, it looked like the trendline was ever more conservative. Until it wasn’t!
Hmm, is there a lesson there?
Belafon
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: mistermix’s guest posts here have the comments blocked.
Betty Cracker
@eclare: Tons of ICE raids in FL too with detainees held in squalid conditions. The Trump admin basically stopped processing ongoing FEMA claims for the hurricanes, so those of us with legit flood/damage claims are screwed. Research universities in the state lost billions in funding, so education and the economy will suffer. I guess it doesn’t make news outside of the immediate area because our governors don’t have a problem with it?
schrodingers_cat
@eclare: Thanks.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Thanks for the info.
TurnItOffAndOnAgain
@Josie: schrodingers_cat isn’t wrong. In this thread and others there has been pushback against people of color trying to speak their minds or question certain narratives on this blog.
They bring up an incredibly important subject: passive privilege. And how it needs to be addressed because if the heat’s not turned off or at least turned down, it’s the simmering pot that can boil over into explicit racist bullshit that now rules this country’s three branches of government.
schrodingers_cat
@Josie: Check out the replies to me and Prof Big Foot both direct and implied.
sab
@twbrandt: That does not surprise me. Bishop Desmomd Tutu was an Anglican.
Geminid
@Belafon: It’s easy enough for someone to see the comments on Mistermix’s blog if they look up his BlueSky account, or go direct to the blog. To make a comment, one has to log in to the blog, just like here.
Chetan Murthy
@twbrandt: @Belafon: Amen and yum!
schrodingers_cat
@TurnItOffAndOnAgain: Thanks.
schrodingers_cat
@twbrandt: Good for them.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: So that advocacy has earned him a right to badmouth Jim Clyburn on TV as a sitting DNC official.
And then we wonder why we lose. With DNC officials like these who needs Republicans.
Betty Cracker
@twbrandt: This part:
Glad the bishop highlighted the ILLEGAL nature of the EO. It’s frustrating how often media coverage elides that point, as if it’s perfectly normal for a POTUS to issue royal decrees all day instead of urging lawmakers to pass, you know, LAWS.
eclare
@Betty Cracker:
Who knows?
Here the raids seem focused on Nashville, not so much Memphis. I think Memphis might be more of a powder keg, just my opinion.
Hate that about your claims, that must be so frustrating. One more effect of the election.
TurnItOffAndOnAgain
@schrodingers_cat: ⇑ thumbs up ⇑
Josie
@TurnItOffAndOnAgain:
Disagreement does not necessarily mean a putdown. It is possible to disagree without color being a reason.
Harrison Wesley
@Betty Cracker: The Pudding Molester was destroying higher ed here in Florida before Trump II, and he’s been eager to have state and local LEOs work with ICE.
trollhattan
How much do the media 💘 Trump? Current headline:
Fox? No, CNN.
Betty Cracker
@schrodingers_cat: I didn’t say or imply anything remotely like that. Simply added some context since Hogg is a frequent topic of derision around here, and people might not be aware of the whole story.
Josie
@schrodingers_cat:
I agree with you. DNC officials should never badmouth members of the party or state openly their preference for a candidate.
eclare
Gorgeous photo today, WaterGirl!
Betty Cracker
@trollhattan: Sweet tap-dancing chipmunks. CNN is hopeless. I’m glad they started pay-walling a lot of their content; it’s breaking me of the bad habit of looking at their site for breaking news.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@suzanne: @Baud:
🎶 Nice, nice very nice. (So many people in the same device)
Belafon
@Geminid: I was just explaining why the comments are off HERE, as was asked.
Edit: This is a little too defensive. Sorry.
rikyrah
Skyler Johnson (@SkylerforNY) posted at 8:19 PM on Sun, May 11, 2025:
Hillary Clinton wasn’t allowed to keep a $425 necklace gifted to her by Bangladesh when she was Secretary of State.
Donald Trump is about to accept a $400 MILLION plane as a bribe from Qatar.
(https://x.com/SkylerforNY/status/1921736883970757025?s=02)
Baud
@Josie:
Agree. I haven’t heard anyone make the case for a different rule.
TurnItOffAndOnAgain
@Josie: It depends on what the disagreement is. And how it’s addressed.
Baud
@twbrandt:
Nice. Very Christlike of them.
schrodingers_cat
@Geminid: But you can’t comment on his posts here.
rikyrah
Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) posted at 7:20 PM on Sun, May 11, 2025:
“It’s a great idea to take a half-billion airplane from Qatar as a bribe” really does show the absolute moral collapse of Congress, his followers, the Pocket Constitution bros, abd the MAGA “media.”
(https://x.com/TheRickWilson/status/1921722089620361601?t=6XO4KGoaoninXN10jXLjfw&s=03)
rikyrah
Congressman Greg Landsman (@RepGregLandsman) posted at 5:21 PM on Mon, May 05, 2025:
1. “Kick it to the states”
Medicaid covers 70 million Americans. The federal government pays 70% of the cost– states cover the rest. If you “kick it to the states,” they can’t make up the difference.
Translation: they’re cutting healthcare. https://t.co/ZWRSkuvvro
(https://x.com/RepGregLandsman/status/1919517729729450046?t=sioLJ9-zqjb8sVtROmWKmw&s=03)
Geminid
@Belafon: I was just adding to your comment, but I probably would have done better to reply to the commenter you replied to.
schrodingers_cat
@Josie: Disagreement is fine. Its a pattern of behavior that I am talking about not a stray comment.
sab
@Betty Cracker: I am pretty annoyed with him lately, but I agree with you that the context needs to be pointed out.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
I swear it’s gone past keep our access to capitulation—what won’t make him mad?
Victory? What victory? Here’s how a grownup’s headline at BBC frames it:
“China has come to the table – but this fight is far from over”
Professor Bigfoot
@Ruckus: Jeez, EVERYONE KNOWS it’s not all white men; and the need of white men to pipe up with “not all white men” is a red flag in and of itself.
EVERYONE KNOWS that at some point in human history everybody got abused and everybody did abuse; but I’m talking about the 21st century United States of America.
No, we all know it’s not all of you. But it’s so goddamn many of you that the rest of us are only rational to assume it of any white man we run across; and y’all ain’t fuckin’ ready to deal with that.
Belafon
@Geminid: Sorry about my reply. Afterwards I realized I had gone too far.
Professor Bigfoot
Along they way that kind of behavior leads to respect, admiration, and true friendship.
But too few of that demographic are willing to STFU and actually LISTEN to anyone else. And why should they; they or *men who look like them* have controlled this country since before the Founding.
Harrison Wesley
@rikyrah: Just saw an item at Raw Story in which Nosferatu, Florida’s senior senator, advised that he won’t raise taxes and that Medicaid needs to be slashed because “too many people are sitting at home on their butts.” Indeed – who would know more about hanky-panky with Federal healthcare funds than Senator Medicare Fraud himself?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@trollhattan:
IMO, even that BBC headline sucks because it frames the situation too neutrally and still makes it sound like Trump has won a small victory and not actually basically capitulated
Geminid
@schrodingers_cat: Personally, I commented enough on Mistermix’s last few posts here that I got my fill. Mistermix might have also.
But despite our differences, I hope Mistermix’s blog succeeds, so I don’t begrudge him crossposting here without comments every now and then. If I see something objectionable I’ll just comment about it here, on an open thread.
rikyrah
Trump administration may rescind mental health parity rule, filing says
May 12 – The Trump administration will not enforce a federal rule meant to ensure Americans with private health insurance have access to affordable mental health services and is considering rescinding it altogether, the U.S. Justice Department said in a court filing on Friday.
The filing in U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., was in response to a lawsuit brought in January by the ERISA Industry Committee, which is representing large employers challenging the so-called mental health parity rule. The group says the rule limits their ability to provide affordable health benefits for workers. The parity rule became final in September.
more here: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trump-administration-may-rescind-mental-health-parity-rule-filing-says-2025-05-12/
Geminid
@Belafon: It just goes to show that this is a touchy subject.
trollhattan
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I’m okay with it because it’s factually correct and also emphasizes that Trump’s still caught in a briar patch of his own making, because it’s an interim agreement.
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat:
SC, can you point me to the comment where that was suggested?
Professor Bigfoot
@Josie: No, but at the same time I have absolutely NO reason to give some commenters any benefit of the doubt.
I have too much respect for the Blogfather and the majority of the commentariat here to actually speak my mind to some here.
But I remain utterly convinced that “there is no horseshoe. There is only white people who are at best uncomfortable with any power held in Black hands. Those white people are at all points of the ‘left-right’ spectrum.”
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: Is this a cross examination?
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@schrodingers_cat: Wait until they cut Medicaid. It helps keep rural hospitals solvent. Expect more to go under and the GOP not to care.
Librettist
Well… if comments on the other thread are closed, can we dance on Gerry Connolly’s grave some more?
Nuthin’ but class.
Baud
@Librettist:
What happened? The other post doesn’t mention Connolly.
Josie
@Professor Bigfoot:
I totally agree with that quote. I didn’t always realize it, but it becomes more obvious to me all the time.
Belafon
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: “Why are all of these small towns dying?”
It’s another one of those things that drives me nuts here in Texas, along with the fact that Republicans here are bent on destroying public schools and rural voters keep voting for them even though the school is the largest employer in many small towns.
Belafon
@Professor Bigfoot: And a huge overlap in that group is also uncomfortable with women having power, so 2024 was a perfect storm for them.
JoyceH
@Betty Cracker: Wow, Pope Leo’s MAGA brother sounds like a real piece of work. I’m sure plenty of big brothers bully their little brothers. But not so many would brag about it sixty-some years later, especially in an interview about that little bro becoming pope!
And it occurs to me to wonder – do American priests, bishops and cardinals assigned overseas get absentee ballots and vote in US elections like the military does? Did Pope Francis vote absentee in Argentinian elections?
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: You appear to be accusing multiple people on Balloon Juice of being actively racist.
If that’s true, that’s against the comment policy and something can be done about it. So I asked you to point to where that was happening; your response makes it clear that you are not interested in doing that.
I would recommend something more constructive.
Name names when you feel this is happening. If someone named Harold makes a statement you think is racist, how about an @Harold saying you feel like you are being put down or your opinions are being dismissed because you are not white. Or whatever.
Then, if there’s a misunderstanding, it can be cleared up. Or at least everyone can learn something.
If “Harold” doubles down and makes a blatant racist comment, then the the comment policy comes into play.
But a vague statement about racism smears a bunch of people, and it smears BJ as a whole for allowing the racism.
When you accuse me of “cross-examining” you when I ask followup question, it feels to me like you prefer the current situation you are complaining about over looking for a solution.
sab
@Belafon: When I was in college in the 1970s, one of the strengths of the Midwest was their institutional belief in public education.
South Dakota had one of the best teacher education universities in the country.
Ohio had strong public schools.
Now they don’t believe, and their economies reflect that.
Nixon’s Southern Strategy made the whole center of the country as weak as the economic system that lost the Civil War for the South.
Andrew Johnson was illiterate until he married up and his wife taught him to read. What kind of social structure thinks it’s okay to neglect educating their kids?
My family is Ohio based, but I grew up in the Jim Crow South where our teachers told us to be gentle to our books because the Black school kids needed them in good shape after we got new ones.
Ruckus
@Jackie:
I like it that he has his own criminal defense lawyer.
I mean all things considered he should have but how many of us have ever paid a criminal defense lawyer a dime? I mean I don’t even have A lawyer waiting for my call or any lawyers in my contacts list. Used to have one did work for me when I owned a corporation, but I can’t remember his name or the firm. I’ve known a couple as friends (were neighbors at one time) but haven’t seen/talked to them in years. It isn’t difficult to not get into legal trouble, but some seem to need a lawyer, or lawyers, on speed dial. I wonder why…….
sab
@WaterGirl: Why do you spend so much time picking on schrodinger’s cat? It seems really inappropriate for a front pager.
She has a point of view. She is not shy about expressing it. She gets attacked a lot because of it. She fights back, but she rarely gets personal. She doesn’t derail threads.
Ruckus
@Bupalos:
The young do not have the experience and history to see what was and what is. And often don’t care because most everything for most young is what does the future hold. Humans have been like this my entire life and I don’t believe it’s ever really been a lot different. Maybe when the wrong decision cost a hell of a lot more but today it seems not to as much, which may be the size of the population, one person rarely has a large voice. Now in the way back one had far less ability to get that voice out, but now that has changed, from like what we are doing here. It’s not a back fence or a small town where most everyone knows most everyone else. Most of us have never met and likely never will. But we can still communicate. Learn, listen, teach. Can’t remember where I heard that but it still rings true. It’s just far easier today.
Bupalos
@Professor Bigfoot: The marginal difference between 2020 and 2024 in U.S. politics is non-whites abandoning the Democratic Party for the Trump.
White people have remained marginally republican for the last 50 years, with the Trump years seeing lower economic class and lower education whites shift R and higher class and more educated whites shift D. This was a great trade for the R’s tactically speaking, because lower class and lower education whites have more electoral power because of they live in less dense districts.
Nonwhites have been overwhelmingly Democratic for the last 50 years. One would have thought that the explicit racism and worship of the past that characterizes MAGA would have at the least left those margins static, if not improved them – though there was little room for growth from the high 80’s. Instead the Trump years are seeing huge inroads with Hispanics and increasingly concerning ones with blacks. I think it would be worth our time to consider how this is happening and what it means for the party and what and whether we can do anything about it. I specifically like to hear the perspective of non-whites on how this is working.
To my mind, the totality of shifts in voting patterns suggests that ethnic identity is losing some of its force in electoral politics. Trump has ramped up the explicit racism and sexism, but manages thereby to just make some marginal trades that are par or a little better than par for him. Upscale whites for downscale whites, white women for white men. That doesn’t seem too mysterious to me. What is mysterious is how the explicit racism fails to buttress D advantages with non-whites, and in fact those advantages are in historically unprecedented free-fall.
sab
@Bupalos: My take, as a white woman after 2016, is that we were out of our minds to run an exceptionally competent woman (especially not white) against Trump.
Our senile guy might have beat their senile guy (especially since our guy wasn’t senile.)
Professor Bigfoot
@Belafon: Indeed— any power “over” them by anyone who is not a straight, white, Christian man is the bogeyman for them
Thus their constant opprobium for the Black, Jewish, and female led Democrats.
Geminid
@Bupalos: This is just the perspective of a White person, but I always encourage other White people to refer to African Americans as “Black people” and not as “Blacks.” The latter grates on my ears.
Bupalos
@sab: Counterfactuals are what they are, but every measurable suggests that Harris pretty drastically improved on Biden’s electoral position. There was no polling surprise and no reason to think the polling was particularly off at any point. Read through cross tabs on issues and you’ll probably get the idea that Harris simply didn’t differentiate herself from a very unpopular administration.
As to the ethnic or gender identity question there, there was of course a wider than expected gender gap, but that looks likely to have worked very slightly in our favor. And then again, the marginal difference in ethnic terms was non-whites fleeing for Trump. Though that flight was most pronounced with Hispanics.
Bupalos
@Geminid: “Black voters” is probably what I should be going with here. And that’s always worth putting in on all these categories, to remind ourselves that “voters” is a subset itself.
sab
@Bupalos: Maybe. I do love Ms Harris, but people are people and they don’t like older women and they think younger women are idiots. Ask any female college professor about her student reviews compared to drunk groping male professors.
Bupalos
@sab: Systemic misogyny is a thing, no doubt about it. But some of the stereotypes can offer advantages as well in politics. It can depend on what the most salient issues are. Women aren’t necessarily less likely to win elections in the U.S. generally. And though there is an argument that the Presidency with its pseudo-military angle may be a different beast, the reality is we simply don’t have any kind of meaningful sample. I’d really argue that Harris’s performance given incredible headwinds is kind of encouraging here.
Also something people might want to think about along the lines of Trump trading upscale whites for downscale whites and profiting – Women turn out more reliably than men.
Gravenstone
TurnItOffAndOnAgain
@sab: Women have an uphill battle in politics in general, that’s true; but Clinton and Harris were also unique cases, and it’s worth keeping that in mind when we talk about their campaigns and about what to do going forward. Harris had less than a year and she almost beat him; she played a poor hand remarkably well.
sab
@Bupalos:Be sensible. We are both in Ohio. Women here (not in other states) never win elections unless the opponent is also a woman.
One exception. Betty Montgomery for AG.
Nowadays even Republican women won’t run for office. They know they will get no support and few votes. Electoral hole they dug against themselves.
Ruckus
@Professor Bigfoot:
I have more black friends today than white. You might or might not believe this but my favorite human being on this planet was a gay black woman I knew and who I visited in a hospital on her last day of life when she died of sickle cell. I met her when she was my sister’s partner. This was a couple decades ago. I met her parents, in their home, where I was invited.
I’ve build all my own furniture and am building a large piece for one of my black neighbors. And not charging him and his wife a dime. Yes I’m a white man, but I was taught and believed in equality since I was in single digits. Sure white people in this country have it easier in some ways than most black or brown humans. But it’s not the fault of all of us whites, any more than it’s yours. There are a lot of white humans that do not deserve the oxygen to breathe because they are racist assholes. I can’t change them, only they can do that, but I am and have been for my entire life not one who thinks that darker skin than mine is in any way negative. The color of one’s skin is from a chemical all humans have in their bodies, your genetics just cause you to make more than me. I grew up and went to school in a racially mixed town and have known and had black people in my life, my entire life. I can fully understand why you might not believe that and I’m sorry that we are in a place that brings that on. It’s not in any way your fault but it’s also not mine. I have worked for and with black people since I was 12, and I haven’t been 12 in a very, very long time. I served in the USN with many black men. I have been invited into their homes and met their families. And they have been in mine.
The only way we move on is to discuss, listen and communicate about who and what we are, because that is far more important in the real world than the color of our skin, made by that same chemical we all have in our bodies.
And I am sorry if I said something in a way that you took as racist, because it was not meant that way, not from me. I value your comments and your breathing, I respect you, even if you do not always see it that way, and enjoy reading your comments. You bring to this place a different vision of life, if for no other reason than you have had a different life than others. Same as me. I hope we can get through this because if we can’t, nothing changes. And it needs to.
sab
@Bupalos: Women aren’t less likely to win? Please show me your proof.
sab
Columbus Ohio meetup.
I am thrilled with attendance expectations but wish a couple of NE Ohioans could come.
I am sure other parts of Ohio feel the same . ( Did you know we are bigger than Scotland in area, and a lot bigger in population? ) We are not peanuts.
Matt McIrvin
Whenever people counsel against despair it kind of makes me want to defend despair.
We might need people willing to die violently for the cause. Despair can help with that.
Bupalos
@sab: Sexist sentiments are already encoded in the two parties. I highly recommend the link, and think particular attention should be paid to the idea that perceptions that women are at a disadvantage may create the entire disparity in representation. Women don’t win because they don’t run, and they don’t run because people think they won’t win. But it’s just not true, when they run, they win.
Even here in now-Republican leaning Ohio. Marcy Kaptur regularly stomped on the men that she didn’t manage to chase out of the race before they even announced. Even as her district drifted Republican she still whomped the red boys. But just by the numbers, 29% of our officeholders across all levels of government are women, slightly higher than the national average.
Bupalos
@Matt McIrvin: I guess I shouldn’t have gone for the afternoon coffee that I just snorted out my nose.
Bupalos
@sab: Gotta follow the link there.
Or here.
catclub
@trollhattan:
That plane is guaranteed to be full of chinese bugging devices. also Israeli.
Bupalos
Here’s 538 taking a poke at the “are women less likely to win” question.
Nut ‘graph:
There have been 92 incumbent-less Democratic primaries pitting at least one woman against at least one man so far this year; women won 67 of them (73 percent). And there have been 108 such Republican primaries so far; men won 54, and women won 54.
George
@Matt McIrvin:
Do you think we also need people who are willing to do the opposite of die for a cause? That is, instead of giving their lives, taking lives?
I hope it does not come down to that, and I’m not endorsing that at the moment at all, just noting that we have a civil war on our hands.
Matt McIrvin
@George: If I did think that, I sure wouldn’t say it here. There’s been some work on effectiveness of revolutions that seems to support the superiority of nonviolent approaches, but “nonviolent” doesn’t mean “safe”– often the mechanism is to provoke violent responses that shock the conscience. And I doubt any one approach is going to work everywhere.
Geminid
@Bupalos: Marcy Kaptur barely won last November. She got less than 49% of votes cast, and the Libertarian candidate may have kept the Republican from winning.
George
@Matt McIrvin:
There is proactive stuff and then there is reactive stuff. I wasn’t referring to the proactive stuff, but rather what might transpire if the country continues on its apparent path.
What I perceive from American society in general is that there is no realization that civil wars or creeping fascist coups always lead to casualties, sometimes high casualties. The U.S. is not immune to those outcomes.
I’m not advocating for it. I’m just noting that the U.S. is on the same sort of pathway to domestic unrest that has occurred throughout history–in the 20th century Russia, Spain, Germany, China, and Italy being the most notable. I don’t foresee America veering off the current path unless there is an overwhelming electoral defeat of MAGA. And given that the GOP, the media, business, evangelical Christianity, and other institutions seem unwilling to confront MAGA, I don’t think that an overwhelming electoral defeat is possible.
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
Glad that you see it so clearly.
Never been impressed with him.😒😒
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
I have said from the beginning that they could have the visuals they wanted from Red States.
They would have given them to this Administration.
They had the school systems telling them to come. They knew THE EMPLOYERS and where to go .
The entire thing about criminals was BULLSHYT.
Them going so fast to the LEGAL IMMIGRANTS is the only surprise. They were always going to them .
Doing them so quickly exposed that they are flailing, because they won’t go to Red States, who would cooperate. They are getting nightmare visuals from these Blue States .
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: Please show me where I have called somebody racist. Also, you I haven’t seen you ask anyone else to justify their comments nor is this the first time you have singled me out like this either.
schrodingers_cat
@sab: Thanks for standing up for me. I appreciate it.
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat:
If you don’t think “hinting at how BJ would be a big happy family if anyone not white with a contrary opinion would just shut up” isn’t racist, then I don’t know what to tell you.
More than one person saying or implying that in the same thread wouldn’t be racist?
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: I haven’t seen you give anyone else this treatment. You pick apart my comments and ask for justifications. Last time you did this was in an Anne Laurie thread in January.
As for the sentence you have bolded, I was expressing of how it feels like to post on this blog, at times. Given how you are on my case, am I wrong?
Also, how you or anyone else interprets my comments is not up to me, is it?
O. Felix Culpa
@WaterGirl: Seriously? You have a pattern of targeting s_c, while others (see Matt at #92) get a pass. Please stop.
Gloria DryGarden
@schrodingers_cat: water girl moderates and monitors a great deal of this blog. She calls people out when they go too far, or when she thinks something is out of line; she responds to complaints.
I’ve seen her notes to others on some threads. Maybe on threads you weren’t on, so you don’t know. I think she’s trying to maintain civility here, and productive conversation.
I’ve been called out, too.
We also don’t know how many emails she fielding, and writing, in the same vein.
It doesn’t always feel good, or fair, but I have experienced her skill at being diplomatic in these difficulties.
Sometimes one has to adjust.
O. Felix Culpa
@Gloria DryGarden: And sometimes the one who needs to adjust is the person doing the moderating, when that moderator has a long history of targeting one particular individual.
Gloria DryGarden
@O. Felix Culpa: it might not be targeting.
I do agree, it doesn’t always seem fair; it might not be fair, and that’s uncomfortable.
maybe she’s choosing her battles. Sc isn’t the only one She calls out.
I’ve been on both sides of it, glad to see her call something out, but also, at other times quite upset when it’s been me, and upset when it hasn’t seemed fair. I subscribe to the idea that pretty often, people are doing their best.
I don’t like it. One doesn’t like it. And sometimes, balance is improved.
see #187
Gloria DryGarden
@O. Felix Culpa: um, several particular commenters. Not just one.
Not arguing with the rest; it’s just not my day to take someone else’s inventory.
sometimes when someone is doing their best and I think it sucks, I have feelings about it.
But I still assume they picked their battles, and are doing their best, even when I wish …..
She’s gone to bed, btw, so she wrote , half hour ago. so you’re unlikely to get her reply tonight.
cheers
(PS, hate the unfairness, also hate the fighting that goes on at times around here. Glad to see the unfairness brought up.
and, seeing both sides of it..)
StringOnAStick
@Gloria DryGarden: OK, I see everyone’s points here, but what I mostly see is a lot of touchiness that seems nearly Peyton Place in scale, and reminds me of why I quit reading comments during the electoral loss fallout, a policy I am going to return to because this is just junior high all over again. Ugh. I used to love this place, now the little bits I learn in the comments are not worth nearly rolling my eyes out of my head. Peace out everyone, have a good life ya’all.
Ruckus
@StringOnAStick:
This seems to be a political time when we all maybe need to take a breath. Myself included. Things can sound off to some when there is no bad intent whatsoever. How many of us are best selling authors, english majors in college, etc, etc…..
Do we always read every comment with exact knowledge of the person? How many of the commenters have any of us met? We see a sentence or 12 and we respond to what and how we see their post. I’ve met some commenters when meetups were seemingly more common and am often surprised how in person is different than their comments. We sometimes see a comment differently for one reason or another. This may be a response to some event in our lives and really has nothing to do with the commenter. Or the written word trips a memory, one which has no connection to the commenter. I’ve been reading this blog for a long time, one long enough for my life to have gone through some changes, friends made and lost to age, I was the youngest in my family, as of 2 years ago I’m the only one left. I am now the oldest in the extended family and some of them are gone. Life is often unfair, often not a lot of fun, we all go through things, and some of those things are not in any way positive. But if we are still living we go to sleep, we wake up and have another day under our belts – one of the first concepts of life, it starts, it goes on a while, it ends. Humanity has made up concepts of an after life because we know it has a start, a middle and an end. That afterlife concept could be real, we won’t know till we know will we?
Gloria DryGarden
@StringOnAStick: touchiness. Well said.
I sure didn’t mean to make it worse, just trying for a balance, all sides of it have their points.
it’s part of why I read comments from the bottom, and thus follow a thread of commenters on an aspect that catches my interest. Part of why I scroll past a lot, for various reasons.
sometimes I just go to blue sky and get one persons news list, catch up on basics in 10 minutes.