An eternity ago, i.e., last week probably, one of y’all flagged a NYT interview Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) did with Ross Douthat, the neckbearded weirdo Times columnist. “To read or not to read” was a real dilemma for me.
Since I mostly approve of the way Murphy is handling the present authoritarian crisis, I’m interested in what he has to say. But I suspected straining Murphy’s thoughts through a Douthat filter would work like a water un-purifier, adding possibly harmful and foul-tasting crap to an otherwise potable beverage.
I was not wrong. There was way too much Douthat. He predictably tried to shoehorn Murphy into his (Douthat’s) fanatical theocratic worldview. I am not making this example up: Twice, Douthat insisted that Murphy repeat a quote from Barack Obama’s keynote address at the 2004 DNC: “We worship an awesome God in the blue states.”
Murphy acknowledged the reality behind the quote — there are plenty of Christians in blue states. But he declined to repeat the quote, to his credit.
Despite Douthat’s antics, Murphy’s take on where the party is and how it should move forward is interesting, in my opinion. There are a few de-douthatized comments below the fold that outline Murphy’s theory of the case Democrats should be making to voters, and here’s a gift link to the whole thing if you want to pick through the Douthat dung to find the Murphy kernels yourself.
Murphy points out that Republicans’ populism is entirely fake. He notes that Trump is engaging in unprecedented corruption and rewarding cronies like Musk while not doing shit to bring down prices and address inflation, etc., which is what swing voters say they elected him to do.
Murphy believes Dems need to take a genuine populist approach and avoid defending a status quo that wasn’t working for lots of people. He frames it as “unrigging the economy” and “unrigging the government,” saying the two are explicitly linked in a system where rich donors can buy the government they want. And he acknowledges there will be tradeoffs.
(W)hat I argue for is that the Democratic Party should be more overtly populist and more pugilistic, more confrontational in its populism — meaning that you are more regularly naming the individuals, the organizations and the companies that are screwing voters; that we might become more overtly antagonistic to tech companies; that we might be more willing to name individual health care companies and pharmaceutical companies that are price gouging; that we would explain what the takeover of our health care system by the private equity industry is going to mean for quality and prices.
If we did that, yes, you’re right, we would probably lose some piece of our coalition. There would probably be a handful of voters in Greenwich, Conn. — I’ll name it, right? — that would be unhappy with the way in which we were calling out and naming certain companies or certain industries that were harming voters.
I think the net benefit to the party of that kind of confrontational politics of explaining who’s screwing you — which is what voters want, they want you to explain who’s screwing them — and an opening up of the tent would net far more voters into the coalition than it would lose in a group of very, very wealthy individuals who were probably with us only because of Trump’s ethical problems and social issues that they were — that made them very distasteful.
I don’t know that Murphy is right when he says the way back to political power lies in center-left populism, but he’s definitely correct to call the Trump version of populism phony. And I think he’s right to note that Dems need to find better ways to explain to voters who’s screwing them because Republicans are accusing the wrong groups publicly while serving the actual culprits behind the scenes.
Of course Douthat brought up the most important challenge facing Americans today, which is that one of the 10 transgender athletes competing in NCAA sports might out-swim or out-fence or whatever a mediocre cis woman.
Douthat personalized it by noting that he’s raising girls (poor things!) whereas Murphy has sons only, implying that Murphy can’t really comprehend the panic Douthat feels about the prospect that his daughters might find themselves on a sports team with a trans girl. I wasn’t particularly impressed with Murphy’s response on that.
My feeling on this is that we would probably be better off with each individual jurisdiction — state or school board or municipality — being able to make up their mind for themselves. That would allow for a community like West Hartford, Conn., to come to a different conclusion than another community might. It doesn’t change my position on the issue. I don’t have any fear of transgender athletes participating in sports, but…
Yes, my conclusion is that I would support those athletes being able to participate in my community, right? In my community. But I would not substitute my judgment and my community’s judgment for another community’s judgment.
So, basically, leave it up to the states/communities. I think I know why Murphy favors that approach; he wants to reduce the salience of trans rights in elections.
I can understand the logic. On a recent podcast, TPM reporter Kate Riga speculated that returning the abortion issue to the states is probably how Trump and Republicans reduced the salience of it last year.
My issue with that approach on trans rights is similar to my objection to letting states deny women access to reproductive healthcare. I think women are less than fully equal citizens if states can deny our right to bodily autonomy. The same is true for trans people in Murphy’s proposal.
Murphy also shares thoughts about how to keep social media companies from harming kids, i.e., requiring them to have a verification system to ensure minors under age 13 can’t have their own accounts, making sure algorithms can’t get their hooks into minors until age 18, etc. I have no idea how feasible this is or how helpful it would be.
Anyway, I don’t agree with everything Murphy said in that interview with uber-dweeb, but I’m glad he’s out there taking the fight to Republicans. He and Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost have teamed up to do town halls nationwide. Over the weekend, they were in Sarasota talking to people in a chickenshit House Republican’s district. (YouTube) Good for them.
Open thread.
PS: This large-ish gator was booming across the river a while ago. They’ve been frisky lately, which reaffirms my decision to eschew kayaks and other vessels without high gunwales.
Baud
SAY IT! SAY IT!!!
Steve LaBonne
Calling bullshit on the nonexistent “problem” of trans athletes is not any harder than calling bullshit on phony populism, and actually adds to the narrative that Republicans are full of shit and have zero answers to the real problems of real people.
Belafon
@Baud: “All of them.”
Omnes Omnibus
Whenever anyone starts calling for more populism, I start getting nervous. Too many times in history, populist movements have gone nativist. I don’t what our side heading down that same road.
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: Well yeah, Baphomet is pretty awesome.
Trivia Man
@Baud: sigh
I didn’t do it
Harrison Wesley
Damn. Wish I had known about the event in Sarasota. Sat on my butt all weekend here in Bayshore Gardens.
Baud
I know we’ve tried that with the NRA. Murphy may have missed his chance to practice what he preaches, since he doesn’t name anyone in the excerpt (and I’m not clicking on Douthat link).
I have no comment on his advice, since I have no clue what would be effective with people who are not me.
Steve LaBonne
@Omnes Omnibus: Framing it in terms of who is screwing whom is the way, just lose the damn P-word which as you say has accumulated too many unsavory connotations. (And people who INSIST on that word should have their motives closely scrutinized.)
Baud
This is nice. Doing is better than advising.
narya
Douthat is one of the reasons I finally cancelled my subscription.
I do like a lot of what Murphy says; same with Crockett and AOC and Warren and Jeffries and Booker and Walz. I also appreciate that they’re NOT all on exactly the same page; I think, at this point, that’s smart. I know the Consultant Class goes on about speaking with one voice, and I see how having multiple viewpoints makes it easier to divide us (“Senator X said this; do you agree with him/her?”), though I also think there are responses to that (“Part of what makes the Democratic Party truly the party of everyday people is that, like everyday people, we have different solutions. That’s actually productive! What we do agree on is [justice, fairness, lifting up working people, etc.], and there are many ways to achieve those ends. In contrast, the R party focuses on taking money out of your pocket and putting it in the pocket of billionaires, and the R party has been trying to break government so they can claim it doesn’t work and then award lucrative contracts to privatize what should be public services to benefit their friends and mega-donors. Let me give you an example of that: . . . “) And when people like Douthat pull their usual shit, point out that it’s a bad-faith argument.
Betty Cracker
A current item about Murphy (Punchbowl News):
Good! I’m 100% in favor of Dems letting foreign governments know we’re watching what they’re doing. For example, El Salvador.
Citizen Alan
@Baud: I don’t even understand what point Douchebag is trying to make with this. Does he think that the awesome God Obama was speaking of is a different God than the one worshiped in red states? Has he never heard that (annoying, IMO) song?
trollhattan
Thanks Betty. You tread where others dare not.
As to Douchethat trying to trans-athlete trap Murphy, hilarious and pathetic in equal measure. The senator did not mention the bill he’s helping sponsor on the Hill: Fair Play for Women Act, which a follow on to strengthen Title IX. Runner Girl helped write it and has advocated for it three times now before at hearings before, wait for it, Senator Murphy. Senate Office Building and the whole Magilla.
murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-adams-reintroduce-bicameral-legislation-to-promote-…
Runner Girl correctly points out the trans-athletes in sports trope is largely an attack on women’s rights in disguise.
Baud
@Citizen Alan:
I didn’t click through so I don’t know why he decided to bring that up.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
They’re also arming the RRF in Sudan in support of the insurrection, presently the planet’s largest refugee crisis. So double good on him.
Cheryl from Maryland
The repetition of “my daughters might be slighted playing against trans students” is such bullshit to me. How many will make the Olympics? What is harmful is that there were NO organized sports available to me as a teen until sophomore year in college. I just wanted to play. Hell, my high school didn’t allow girls to wear pants until my junior year. Stop policing the participants and allow more opportunities. All will benefit.
chemiclord
The problem with any Dem “populism” is that there really isn’t any GOP “populism.”
Populism really only “works” when there is a central charismatic authority to pledge fealty to. Dems don’t have that.
sab
Is that gator trying to eat a log?
Belafon
@trollhattan: “We can’t keep trans-women out of sports so we’ll have to end women’s sports.” That way the target isn’t the administration.
Harrison Wesley
@sab: Probably just trying to get more fiber in its diet.
sab
@Cheryl from Maryland: Me too. I didn’t want to do sports (preferred dance) but my sisters both did and were pretty much shut out of anything but what they did at the country club. Swimming and tennis.
That is not right at all.
ETA My step-grand-daughters loved doing track.
eclare
I don’t know how you live in The Land of the Lost!
eclare
@trollhattan:
Wow yay for Runner Girl! You must be (deservedly) so proud. Way to go Runner Dad!
Betty Cracker
@trollhattan: Hey, good for her! It’s telling that the biggest sexist assholes in politics are all about “protecting women and girls.”
I really don’t know how potent an issue trans participation in sports was/is for Repubs, but I tend to agree with what Steve B says at #2 — the best response is to call bullshit on the fearmongers.
Baud
I am curious whether our voters would accept bread and circuses directed at corporations.
tobie
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m with you on this. There can be principled opposition to populism whatever its ideological bent. Populism can morph into nativism. It can also become a grievance ideology. Advanced economies are complex. Coming up with a good industrial policy and a regulatory mechanism that keeps the excesses of capitalism in check and ensures equal opportunity is hard work. Murphy is smart. He knows how govt works and is good at explaining it. I feel like Dems spend too much time navel-gazing and talking about process instead of arguing for the things they believe in…you know, the values of the party.
trollhattan
@Belafon:
It would almost be funny if there weren’t so many victims, intended and just “in the general area at the time.”
Big changes are afoot re. removing NCAA athletic scholarship money caps and scholarship counts. Money Ball rules now and for example, the football scholarship count will go from 85 to 105! Now imagine doing that and still meeting Title IX quid pro quo rules. “Okay, from now on the Oklahoma women’s gymnastic squad will have ninety members.”
Amusingly, the biggest single count increase is for women’s rowing. How many schools even have rowing?
ncsasports.org/blog/ncaa-scholarship-roster-limits-2024
Old Man Shadow
You will never… NEVER… have a sports league where every player is equal in strength, agility, endurance, and talent. Never.
Ever.
Ever.
It’s ridiculous to entertain the idea.
So, all ya all fragile snowflakes worried about transwomen competing in sports need to stop being bigots. Most sports leagues have rules about how long athletes have to be in transition, what sort of hormones they are on, etc. to try and respect the humanity of the athletes and the fairness of the competition.
We don’t need to leave it to states. Leave it to the people who run the games and the doctors they consult with.
This is a stupid fucking blood libel panic bullshit motherfucking bigotry act to stir up the lizard brains of people into uniting against a marginalized community for votes and profits and any one promoting that needs to be ashamed of themselves.
Betty Cracker
@sab: I’ve noticed alligators like to partially beach themselves when they’re “booming,” i.e., emitting guttural roars to communicate their size and location. I read somewhere that there’s something significant about making the water droplets bounce off their scaly backs, but I have no idea if that’s true. But it truly is a primordial sound. Still raises the hair on the back of my neck, and I’ve been hearing it all my life.
Wapiti
@Cheryl from Maryland: My mother took surveying courses in college. She was allowed to wear slacks for the fieldwork, but had to change into suitable attire before going to other classes.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: As I vividly recall the Obama speech, that line was the second half of a rhetorical pair, so didn’t sound at all weird in context.
Gretchen
@Cheryl from Maryland: Exactly! If they were so concerned about girl’s athletic opportunities they’d be lobbying for equal spending and facilities for girl’s sports as are allocated to boys. As long as they’ve fussing about the possibility that the one trans girl might wander into their substandard locker room, they don’t have to deal with the fact that it’s shabby and inadequate compared to the boys’.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Obama can make anything sound good.
Gretchen
@Old Man Shadow: Charlie Pierce made this point about fencing: speed and strategy matter more than strength, so there are many coed competitions. MTG brought the head of US Fencing to a Congressional hearing to badger him about a woman complaining about having to compete with a transgender athlete: esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a64718323/house-lawmakers-trans-athelets-usa-fencing/
Good point about letting the sports organizations make their own rules. Some of these bans end up applying to things like chess and darts.
Betty Cracker
RE: populism, maybe differing interpretations of the term have Dems talking past each other, as often happens in spaces like this when “the left” and “progressives” are discussed.
Murphy talks about doing a better job of explaining to voters “who is screwing them” — that’s what he means by it, I think. Rich pricks like Musk, Trump, etc., are screwing ordinary people to enrich themselves. I think we’d all agree that’s an important thing to communicate, right?
I do get that populism can turn in ugly directions, but is that necessarily the case? I don’t think so.
Professor Bigfoot
@Betty Cracker: I would like to understand exactly what is “populism,” more in terms of how the word is used here, but also how it’s used (if it’s used) in poli-sci academia.
trollhattan
@Old Man Shadow:
Tell it!
Things got really ugly last year when CSU San Jose had a transgender athlete on their women’s volleyball squad. Several schools forfeited rather than even play against them. Why? Certainly not girl cooties. It got even stupider in the Mountain West conference tournament when Boise State, after advancing, refused to play SJ in the next round.
apnews.com/article/san-jose-state-mountain-west-volleyball-colorado-state-ncaa-7ba9e8df94b42dc3fa69e…
Here’s the kicker: Runner Girl’s roommate, four-year player on the volleyball squad, said she played on a team with Blaire Fleming, the athlete in question, and confides “She’s not very good.”
The only positive I have is San Jose stood by their player and would not fold under considerable pressure and a whale of negative publicity.
Salty Sam
I jumped over to YouTube to get a clip of a booming ‘gator, and the first offering from the search function was by one Betty Cracker of Florida! I found another one that shows that “water droplets” phenomenon— I read somewhere that the gators body being half in and half out of the water serves to amplify the low frequency rumbling, which makes the sound travel farther both in air and water. The dancing water droplets are just a by-product of the vibrations.
It is truly a hair raising sound. Especially in the middle of the night.
ETA: it is a territorial mating call. I’d stay out of the water for sure.
Barbara
@Gretchen: I used to fence and we used to fence across genders all the time — at anything but elite levels it doesn’t matter because of the importance of speed and agility. At elite levels, the big difference in fencing is height. Even in same gender meets, a tall, skilled opponent is probably going to win. This means that the best women fencers are typically way above average in height — probably not as dramatically so as in women’s volleyball or basketball, but it’s easy to see by looking at results. There just aren’t enough transgender athletes and not enough in any single sport let alone enough in a single sport who compete at elite levels for it to make a huge difference because MOST college athletes are not competing for money or the chance to go professional. They are competing for team spirit, not to “win or lose.” Or so we are told.
sab
@Betty Cracker: So he is just resting against a soundboard? I can understand that. Singing is hard.
Harrison Wesley
@Baud: Are you not entertained?
WTFGhost
I had always assumed that simply putting on a girl’s uniform and saying “I’m a girl!” is not enough to get you on a girl’s sports team. Unless that is 100% truth, Douthat is fearmongering through JAQing off.
(JAQ = “Just asking questions, that have good answers, but I’m pretending those good answers don’t’ exist yet.”)
I don’t have any idea what the rules should be, other than “you can’t just put on a girl’s uniform,” but, I would trust doctors, childhood psych experts, social workers, researchers, and education specialists to answer those questions, rather than fearmongering.
I don’t know if that’s a safe political answer, but I think it’s the right one. “We are not girls, nor are we women, nor are we experts in the sport in question. Maybe we should stand back, and let the experts think about it, okay? Then, if we see some gross injustice, the rules will change – everyone wants the game to be fair!”
Splitting Image
@Old Man Shadow:
I just wanted to repeat this for emphasis. No lie being told here.
Betty Cracker
@Salty Sam: I’ll be darned! I finally cracked the top search results in…gator booming! ;-)
I’m UF football fan, and my husband says I should send that video to the team so they can play it on the jumbotron before games. They might — the pep rally before homecoming games is called Gator Growl, and it would be appropriate
ETA: Thanks for adding the detail about low-frequency rumbling. Those dinosaurs are a lot more complicated than they appear.
scav
Plus the whole “eek! my girl might play against and lose to a (known) trans athlete!” is rather based on the daughter necessarily and inevitably being inferior to anyone with a fleeting acquaintance with genetic masculinity and moreover reducing / trivializing the entire value of athletic participation to winning all the games.
Splitting Image
@Gretchen:
I wanted to quote this one for emphasis too.
As usual, there are a host of things that a person who is seriously worried about a problem could do to help the situation, and no Republican would ever be caught dead doing one of them.
I still think that the GOP will make a concerted effort to kill Title IX and start browbeating colleges to shut down women’s sports before this is all over.
trollhattan
@WTFGhost:
Some sports at the HS level are come one, come all while the rest have team tryouts. With those, new/younger players mostly get shunted to JV. Have a hard time believing anybody tries out as a lark if they’re not likewise committed to tons of training and practice trying to be good enough for varsity. On top of schoolwork it’s a big commitment.
Landing a sports scholarship in college is a whole other level and I suppose there’s a mindset that one trans athlete on scholarship is kicking out one “real female.” Just ugh.
UncleEbeneezer
@Baud: Speak for yourself. I’m an atheist.
eclare
@Betty Cracker:
Betty
I know you like cooking shows, have you watched No Taste Like Home? It’s on Max, with Antony Pirowski of the Fab Five. It’s pretty good, the first episode featured Florence Pugh and showcased her ancestors’ ties to food. Episodes to come include Justin Theroux and Awkwafina.
sab
Napping here. I have Echo on her cat tree, Dobby sprawled out on the bed, and Solly sitting on my pillow.
Solly’s first time here, so he can’t sleep. Just watching for threats.
He will be fine and learn. Six months for him to get to this minimal level of trust.
Melancholy Jaques
What status quo does he think the Democrats were defending?
eclare
@Old Man Shadow:
Bravo.
tam1MI
Senator Murphy is on my shortlist of viable Presidential candidates for 2028. Keep up the good work, Senator!
Salty Sam
YW. I forgot to post the link to the other one, with the “dancing water droplets”. Here ya go:
youtu.be/EHQENgxYXPM?si=LZ657OFmyBSjZK_1
Melancholy Jaques
This morning’s LA Times headline declares “Trans rights will be a key issue in governor’s race”
Why would that be? And why would anyone’s rights be an issue in an election campaign? Do they have rights? Then why wouldn’t we always defend them? Who is trying to take them away?
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: But Obama wouldn’t say “radical Islamic terrorism!”
Trying to gotcha people by demanding they say specific phrases with a certain exact wording is a popular pastime.
Matt
The correct response to this is to reply, “Ross, exactly how much of the time you’re supposed to be watching your kids play sports do you spend thinking about the genitals of all the kids on the field? Are you daydreaming about being the one assigned to CHECK??”
It’s time to start calling the Christian pedophile brigade out when they push their lies. Enough with this “well let’s just leave civil rights to the states” bullshit; we already saw how well that worked out with Roe.
zhena gogolia
@Matt McIrvin: “What is a woman?”
Belafon
@UncleEbeneezer: Would you like to hear about our lord and savior Athe?
trollhattan
@Matt McIrvin:
I remember those Three Magic Words. We have come so far, since then.
trollhattan
@zhena gogolia:
I like lamp.
JML
@trollhattan: college athletics is heading for a real crash soon; I think it’s increasingly likely that D-II will mostly go away and you’ll have D-I which will have paid athletes, scholarships, etc and D-III where you get to play and try to put together some NIL money. Because the economics of it are falling apart.
D-I has the potential of TV revenues and sports that generate significant crowds with gate revenues and concessions. D-II increasingly does not get the levels of attendance that it used to even at fairly large schools (10K+) either from the student, the alumni, or the community. there are examples where it happens, but increasing numbers where the gym is mostly empty except for family, high school/middle school kids in the same sport, non-athlete school friends, and a few others. Covering the costs to compete is brutal.
While interest and attendance for women’s sports has gone up in some places, it’s a) been at a time where interest and support for men’s college athletics has declined, and b) it’s tended to be unequal. (if a school starts drawing for the women’s basketball team, it doesn’t mean any increased support for Volleyball or Softball) There’s so much competition for people’s time that “going to the game” is just one option on the menu.
And unfortunately, despite over 50 years of Title IX, women athletes don’t give back to their programs in significant numbers as alumni, either. (men’s athletics alumni do better, but the % that give back is frequently shockingly low) So at a lot of school philanthropy isn’t a real answer.
I think we’re going to see a lot of programs close in the next decade as school with struggling enrollments decide they can’t support an athletics portfolio with 15-20 sports and annual losses heading for the millions. And I suspect certainly people will find a way to blame this all on the small group of trans athletes, when the challenges of collegiate athletics and the widening gulf between the haves and the have nots has nothing to do with trans athletes at all.
Betty Cracker
@Melancholy Jaques: The bedraggled state of our democracy in the wake of Citizens United, etc. I’m paraphrasing, but he wasn’t criticizing any specific Dems per se, he’s saying a better way to communicate “vote Dems if you want to save democracy” would be to offer a vision of reform so people could believe their vote matters.
@eclare: Have not seen that, but I’ll check it out! Always on the lookout for good cooking shows. ;-)
trollhattan
I nominate this phrase for encapsulating everything Trump.
“Share markets jumped on Monday after President Trump said”
Only missing detail: jumped off of what?
Sure Lurkalot
More insanity from the FTFNYT:
Eric Lipton NYT
@ericlipton.nytimes.com
· 7h
“Corruption requires explict quid pro quo. It is not corrupt to take an action that aligns with the interest of a person who gives you a gift, unless the official action was in direct response to that gift–a bribe. Terms matter. Accuracy and fairness matters. Regardless of what social media wants.”
So, NYT, now that you’ve declared corruption is not corruption unless it’s a clear bribe, Donnie won’t sue you or call you the enemy of the people? Sane washing Trump’s wrongdoing and here come those tax cuts. No quid pro quo here either, amirite?
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I’m not criticizing Murphy here, but it seems to me that our bigger problem is that people don’t believe us. If we don’t fix that problem, nothing we say will matter.
Baud
@Sure Lurkalot:
Doesn’t apply to the Clinton Foundation or Hunter Biden’s work for a Ukrainian company.
SpaceUnit
I ain’t here for a fight, but some of you folks are seriously in denial about what Joe Public thinks of trans women in sports. And I’m not just talking about the MAGA crowd. I’m talking about non-MAGA normies who care about sports like swimming or volleyball or fencing or rowing exactly once every four years. They think it’s bonkers.
Splitting Image
@Sure Lurkalot:
Well, in fairness, this is the law of the land and has been since the Supreme Court handed down its decision last year in Synder vs. the United States. The case was decided by a 6-3 majority that included (*checks notes*) the three justices appointed by Trump during his first term and the one accused of accepting more bribes than all of the others put together.
Bupalos
Here’s the thing though- from my perspective as a softball coach and someone with a trans sister: There’s literally no way you can help the tiny number of trans kids that want to actually meaningfully participate in sports from the federal or state level right now. You just can’t. I’d have to ask you to come and see the reality of these teams on the ground in exurbia to understand it. It’s not like making sure a clinic stays open where if the service is there the women can use it. Teams are much more fragile and social and dependent on community interaction.
And you can do a shit ton of very real damage to them (and the ?90+% of trans kids that wouldn’t want to play sports if you paid them) by losing these national elections. The balance of costs and benefits simply isn’t there.
This has to happen locally and within the places and institutions that can handle it first. And there are a lot of these places. I think Murphy has taken the exact right approach there.
sab
I am still not sure that Solly and Echo like each other.
Glorious cats, but the only reason I adopted them was I thought they were a bonded pair who couldn’t be separated, Due to be euthanized because. My experience is that they don’t hate each other but they don’t much like each other.
Solly on my pillow. Echo was nearby on cat tree but moved when Solly came through. Typical of these two. They do sniff noses when they meet in the hall, so they don’t hate each other.
Bill Arnold
@Splitting Image:
Truly, a gift of $100 gift card poses precisely the same questions as the gift of a $400 million flying orgy palace.
Matt McIrvin
@SpaceUnit: Joe Public wants a whole lot of immigrants in concentration camps too, even when he IS an immigrant (he thinks he’s the exception). I accept some politician hemming and hawing to try to reduce the salience of issues because I know Joe Public is often wrong. But I’m not a politician.
Omnes Omnibus
@Splitting Image: Corruption covers more than just bribery.
@SpaceUnit: How many trans woman complete at Olympic levels. Beyond that scaremongering is making it seem like tons of trans athletes are driving “real” girls out of competitive sports. This not the case. BTW this is one of the things that bothers me about populism. Sometimes, we shouldn’t do what most of the people want because they don’t know what the duck they are talking about.
Belafon
@SpaceUnit: Yep, they’re against it until a family member comes out as trans, who they will love completely for who they are and suddenly wonder why people think their trans-daughter shouldn’t play sports.
SpaceUnit
@Matt McIrvin:
Joe Public is quite often a moron. But that’s the reality we’re dealing with.
Betty Cracker
@SpaceUnit: I know that, and I suspect most of us do. We may disagree with how to address the problem. I know for a fact public opinion can be moved on this issue. Repubs moved it, made it a salient issue in all the wrong ways. The facts are on our side, though, and I think most gettable voters want things to be fair. That’s where to start.
Jeffro
officially dead here and ALSO stealing this type of metaphor for future use!
Jeffro
This is correct.
Take the leap, Dems. Stop worrying about the rich folks’ donations and focus on the VOTES.
John Revolta
@SpaceUnit: OTOH, it’s true what you say. OTOH, there was a time, not long ago when you could say the same thing about gay marriage. Or racial equality for that matter.
Progress has to come from somewhere, and some people need help to get brought up to speed.
Jeffro
@SpaceUnit: I have to agree.
@Betty Cracker: I rarely disagree with you BC but I don’t think public opinion can be moved significantly on this one. Dems are likely better off pointing out that the GOP are oddly, creepily, weirdly focused on trans people while offering diddly-squat to working families and leaving it at that (at least for the near future).
mappy!
Have to admit that Murphy wasn’t my first choice to replace Liberleach. He clobbered Mcmahon though (she’s still the same piece of work). We had to suffer Dodd too (Dodd was the reason the Dems didn’t get behind Lamont I was told).
Murphy has grown into the role tremendously. He’s pretty good about outreach to DTCs so he understands the need to foster good grassroots support. As to the letting local jurisdictions decide things, CT schools are town based, not county or state. Every town here is it’s own little BOE fiefdom, in other words there are 169 BOEs, plus the regional school and municipal critters.
So yeah, Murphy is right about the needed trajectory, to re-post something I came across recently:
Jackie
@Cheryl from Maryland:
Ditto, but I was a sophomore. Frigid winter days we could wear pants UNDER our skirts/dresses, but had to remove the pants before going to class.
I think the combo of the Women’s Movement, coupled with women’s pantsuits being the rage finally broke through the stereotype MEN set for us. Wasn’t it about this time the Catholic Church finally allowed nuns to wear mid calf habits?
karen gail
I said something like this the first time he held a “rally” he doesn’t want the office he wants the adoration of rallies.
Trump is running for reelection (right now)
karen gail
@Jackie:
My younger brother said that they started allowing pants after the skirts got “too short.” At least 5 years after I graduated.
Baud
Add McDonald’s to your blacklist.
Jay
usermag.co/p/hasan-piker-detained-at-the-border-and-questioned-for-hours-over-politics-trump-immigra…
Princess
@tobie: I’m with you and Omnes. Not only does populism slide into nativism, it also tends to centre white men and their needs and no one else.
Baud
@Jay:
I’m out of the loop. I’ve never heard of him.
They obviously have a list.
Barbara
@Matt: What about the panic of knowing that your kids could get shot the next time they walk through a classroom door? Infinitely more likely to happen and infinitely more likely to inflict irreparable harm. These people are fucked up, or at least, they are if they aren’t lying (which I strongly suspect people like Douthat are at least about this).
Jackie
@karen gail: Yah, that, too lol! Micro minis… the ruler rule – no shorter than 3” above mid-knee… memories of teenaged girls with fat waists due to rolling up our waistbands… and rolling them back down on our way to the principal’s office to get measured… lol
Princess
@Baud: I agree with that too. It doesn’t matter what we say if no one believes we’ll do it of that we care about it.
Jackie
@Baud:
They’ve been on my blacklist since before Covid – when they started jacking up prices like crazy.
strange visitor (from another planet)
so the thing i think people are missing is that while this hullabaloo is CLOAKED in a “debate” about trans people, it’s really a sick, misogynistic way to remind women that they’re lesser beings with fewer rights.
they demand someone sitting by EVERY ladies’ room and checking the hoo-ha of EVERYONE entering to deem whether it passes MUSTER.
that’s some fucked up shit.
Jay
austinkocher.substack.com/p/immigration-judges-closed-and-denied
Glory b
@Baud: The whole quote (I paraphrase) included the rest of the sentence, that we don’t like federal agents deciding which books are in our libraries in the red states, that we coach little league in the blue states and love our gay friends in the red states.
In other words, we are more alike than not.
I’m not sure it applies today, but that was from the DNC speech in (I think) 2004.
dnfree
@Cheryl from Maryland: My soccer-playing daughter played on unisex teams in grade school.
tam1MI
I know some died-in-the-wool Dems who are against trans women in sports. I have been trying to bring them around, but it’s discouraging.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Princess:
Then what is the way forward if we don’t start directly attacking those who have screwed over the average American and present an alternative vision to voters?
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): So you think the choices are populism or doing nothing?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@SpaceUnit:
You could pick pretty much any civil rights fight of the past and say the same thing. They have to be persuaded, just like enough people were ultimately persuaded to give women the vote, to end Jim Crow, and accept gay, lesbian, and bisexual people
zhena gogolia
@strange visitor (from another planet): It is.
Bupalos
@Omnes Omnibus: Personally I think that’s more or less literally the choice. Populism is a form of politics that arises when the elite and institutions lose trust, and when government function becomes opaque to the citizen. You don’t really get a choice about whether or not to be populist in a populist age, in my opinion. It’s a question of whether or not you’re going to compete.
We basically have to come up with a story about what happened to the United States people thought they knew, in a form that less educated and confused voters can understand, and which resonates. Trump has that and is driving us into the wilderness with it, in all its “poisoned blood” mendacity. AOC and Bernie have a populist counter-narrative that can be done ethically, and is the only thing on offer that I can see competing.
Barbara
@strange visitor (from another planet): Yes, agreed. It’s a point that AOC has tried to make. This is a way of policing and controlling women in an aspect of their lives that RWNJs don’t even think is appropriate for women in the first place. They adore the idea of forcing women to adhere to disgusting examinations of their private parts as the “price” of being able to participate in sports.
karen gail
@Jackie: I am old! or maybe it was just principle was old when I was in high school our skirts were too short if could see the whole knee. If we wore a wrap around or kilt is they could see garters when you walked you had to put on gym shorts under your skirt.
mrmoshpotato
🎵Boom boom! Let me hear you say “Gator!” Gator!🎵
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Omnes Omnibus:
No, I don’t, but I think it’s the most promising way out of this nightmare in my opinion. Reactionaries are blaming trans people, migrants/immigrants, etc for why people’s lives suck and driving resentment, leading to the atrocities we’re witnessing now, while letting the true culprits off the hook. Even some Dem pols have engaged in some of this at least with migrants and the unhoused, which is absolutely unforgivable
Link
Bill Arnold
@karen gail:
Yet another photo of Mr. Trump pretending to be an “alpha male”, making a stage “fist” and embarrassing America.
(Thumb should be touching the ring finger, not resting on the index finger)
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
That part is a nonn sequitur. The first part isn’t connected to the second part.
Socolofi
Re: populism… naming someone who has gone in with Trump is a good thing. Telling the world how Musk or Andreeson is screwing them is a good thing. Bernie / AOC / etc. have been raging about billionaires running things; this doesn’t stop the Cubans of the world from donating a lot to Blue causes.
Industry / company-wise… I think Dems need to go on offense, but be smart about it. It also adds teeth. Remember when PharmaBro jacked the price of whatever the hell it was? That got attention and a fraud conviction fast. Saying “Big Pharma makes you spend too much” tends to get shrugs, as for most people, there is insurance / copays and they don’t see it. However, when you call out things like Eli Lilly is charging $1000 for a 1-month supply of Zepbound, whose research was conducted via NIH grants YOU PAID FOR, that will get attention.
Also, there is already a long list of targets Trump & the Republicans have already made, either intentionally or through incompetence (looking at you, auto industry and toy industry). Trump make F150 cost more. It’s a rare occurrence when UAW, auto manufacturers, and auto dealers may all support you, but given they’re all about to get the business, go for it.
zhena gogolia
@Bill Arnold: He looks like he belongs in a nursing home.
I know, ageist, but I will never forgive or forget what was done to Joe Biden.
Geminid
@Baud: Hasan Piker is Cenk Uygur’s nephew. He worked for Uygur’s Young Turks platform before becoming a very successful live-streamer. My impression is Piker’s audience is mostly male; sort of a “Left” version of Joe Rogan’s.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
The broader point the author is making is that Dems weren’t/aren’t confronting the premise that migrants/immigrants/the homeless are a drain on the system; that instead of actually meaningfully addressing the problems of a broken system they’d instead make budgets cuts to social services for tax cuts
ETA: Also that by not confronting this premise and offering an alternative, it has partly led to the current suffering we’re seeing right now
Baud
@Geminid:
Thanks.
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I can’t speak to the facts without doing more research. But the illogic of that paragraph jumped out at me.
ETA: Regarding your ETA, everyone has a theory of our current woes. I have no idea.
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
How do you educate a population that has a 6th grade reading and comprehension level at best, and an average IQ that is borderline functionally incapacitated, at best, on anything?
One would think that pointing out that 90% of the productivity gains since 2000 have gone to the 1%, would be a simple message.
But they don’t know what “productivity gains” are,
Who you mean by the 1%,
and their eyes glaze over.
They still don’t get it when you use dollars rather than productivity gains.
Matt McIrvin
@Glory b: I think the STATES are still more alike than not–it’s just that mortally opposed red and blue factions are mixed up within them. It’s why national partition is only a recipe for misery and bloodshed.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
There’s a song, Warriors of the Wasteland, by Frankie Goes to Hollywood from the final album, Liverpool. Wasn’t their most popular album, but it’s a good song. This particular part of the lyrics stands out:
It can be as simple as that, more or less
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro: Basically public opinion is all over the place on trans rights. Most people, even most Democrats, *don’t* go so far as agreeing with activists that “trans women are women” etc., but on the other hand, the vast majority of people will tell you they are against discriminating against trans people in employment and housing.
It’s the sort of middle position that Abigail “Philosophy Tube” Thorn years ago called “Yer Dad”–a person who hasn’t thought that much about the subject, may think it’s all a bit puzzling but is very “live and let live”. She argued that this isn’t really good enough, and it isn’t, but it’s something.
The reason Republicans make up lies about surgery on minors and harp on trans women in sports is that those are the very specific areas where they get majority support. Part of my problem arguing about this is that, honestly, I don’t really give a fuck about sports, but the average guy really intensely does and his whole world view can be swung by talking about it. Though it’s correct to say that many of these people don’t actually care about women’s sports, any suggestion of sports cheating pushes their berzerk button.
So I do think one thing we can do is emphasize the sheer meanness of the administration’s position. Few people, as a fraction of the population, actually want trans soldiers banned from the military, for instance, but that was the thing they opened with–and it was framed in an incredibly mean way. That was not a mainstream position!
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Let me know how that works out for you.
Another Scott
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Biden had a comprehensive compromise proposal on immigration that had buy-in in the Senate. It had good and bad things, but on the whole was addressing issues that the public said it cared about, and it would have helped lots and lots of people (while not going as far as many of us wanted).
And, as we know, Donnie blew it up.
The first step in implementing sensible policies is getting elected.
Ipsos.com:
I take all that as being an indication of general dissatisfaction. People are confused (the high “don’t know”), they’re riled up, and they want something done about it so they don’t have to think about it anymore.
Biden’s compromise would have done that.
But too many monsters on the other side didn’t want the problem addressed, and especially didn’t want Biden to get any credit.
So, if one accepts that explanation, then I think a few things are clear. The issue of immigration has to be addressed, but we cannot obsess over it (IMHO) – the public is all over the map. And I think it’s clear that it doesn’t really matter how Democratic candidates address the issue in a campaign (because the public is all over the map) – if it doesn’t help enough of them get elected to get the leadership in the House and Senate and also get the White House. Magic messaging isn’t going to pass legislation.
Winning elections is going to pass legislation.
If that means changing the way people campaign, if strong Ds in areas where voters really do want something done about immigration, then that message has to be part of their campaign. And that may include messages about “getting tough on people who break our immigration laws” or even “I’m a strong supporter of border security and am going to be working with my colleagues on an effective border wall bill” and the like. Whatever it takes to minimize their electoral strengths and increase our own has to be carefully considered. The stakes are too high right now.
It sucks.
But the alternative is often much, much worse.
“Just win, baby.” – N. Pelosi.
My $0.02.
Best wishes,
Scott.
dnfree
@Sure Lurkalot: The Supreme Court ruled that corruption requires a specific quid pro quo. Don’t blame the New York Times.
Manyakitty
@zhena gogolia: come sit by me.
Omnes Omnibus
@dnfree: No, the Court said that one particular bribery statute required a quid pro quo.
Gloria DryGarden
@Geminid: so, he’s exactly who we NEED.
Gloria DryGarden
@Sure Lurkalot: I’m trying to understand all this, I may contact you, to see if you can explain this past my stupidness. ..
Gloria DryGarden
@Omnes Omnibus: On a separate but important topic, aren’t you fluent in French? And a third language?
on the geography feed on blue sky, there are many articles in French, by a guy, Patrick Marques, about climate change, environment changes, important shifts around the world. I rely on cognates and my very basic simple French to (partly) understand some of it.
It’s an incredible source for world news, science, trade, natural resources, and it intersects with the world politics we discuss over here. Any of it might be worthy of further discussion.
He always posts 9 or more articles, when he come on.
I wish you’d have a look, see what you think…
Thanks
Soapdish
@Geminid:
Well that’s one way to make me never listen to them.
Soapdish
@Matt McIrvin:
This 100%. The issue of trans people existing and the possibility of them participating in sports has a shocking salience even among otherwise left-leaning males.
Ideally this wouldn’t be an issue at all, but it is an issue, and we need to figure out how to address it without throwing trans people under the bus. Straight-up saying, “Just let them play!” isn’t going to cut it. It sucks, but it’s true.
Jay
@Soapdish:
How do you educate people against “Satanic Panic” when there is a whole, well funded “industry” from the MSM to Griftopia to hype the fears?
Eg. Maine. One female trans player in a team sport (vollyball I think) when the TERF’s singled out Maine. Not ranked, not dominating, just “crew” to fill out a minor High School Volley ball team.
Maine currently has 0 female trans sports players.
the player in “question”, went on to University and currently plays no organized competitive sports.
Currently there are 0 female trans players in organized sports in Maine.
Soapdish
@Jay: That’s exactly the problem.