Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

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

Republicans do not trust women.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Let there be snark.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Cat Blogging / Saturday Morning Open Thread: The Week in Miniature

Saturday Morning Open Thread: The Week in Miniature

by | 162 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Broken:



Musk-Trump Feud Goes Nuclear as Musk Lobs Epstein Accusations, Trump Threatens SpaceX: A Closer Look

Reader Interactions

162Comments

  4. 4.

    Jay

    5 million Americans are now going to work in Banana Factories, their kids are going to work in Banana Factories.

  11. 11.

    JoyceH

    What gets me about the current insanity is that not only is Trump’s tariff policy not working and not going to work, but if he was doing it right and succeeding, his goal is to create a version of the economy that nobody wants! People don’t want to work in factories, they don’t want their kids to work in factories! But Trump’s whole thing is to bring back factories.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    Lemme hear you say this shit is bananas

    B-A-N-A-N-A-S

    This shit is bananas

    B-A-N-A-N-A-S

  16. 16.

    Matt McIrvin

    @JoyceH: The nostalgia about mid-20th-century industry is for having a decently-paying union job, not for the specific type of work. But of course that kind of job is not what anyone would get.

  22. 22.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @MagdaInBlack: is there really a model named that? Tga5 is hilarious?
    probably raises testosterone levels.. based on the kind of driving we see…

  23. 23.

    MagdaInBlack

    @NotMax: “Let’s stop in at The Dead Rabbit and have a Psycho Killer” might be a date killer, pun sorta intended.

  28. 28.

    daryljfontaine

    @Jay: “We’re going to bring banana manufacturing back to America. We will build big, beautiful banana factories. From this point on, America will be known as the Banana Republic!”

    D

  30. 30.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @NotMax: I’m trying to think how to get those flavors in a mock tail. Hmm. Lemon lime w banana?
    some absinthe tea (I grow the plant, shhh) with chocolate and banana.. I love an interesting marriage of flavors. But 4 oz of liqueurs and whiskey could be a lot of carbs, I’d have to count it.

    seems like too much trouble. If you’re saying these drinks are gender affirming, I don’t think they’ll help me ….

    je crois pas. Je n’veut pas..

    You let me have a tiny sip of yours, ok?

  32. 32.

    Librettist

    Trump puked up an EO bringing back overland supersonic flights. I guess if the morons just clap hard enough….

  33. 33.

    prostratedragon

    @matt:  Well, there’s always youknowwho. But there might be none so merrily dumb as Lutnick, not even Bessent.

  34. 34.

    Gloria DryGarden

    On a brief YouTube video about

    Mr Abrego Garcia’s return, mr taco said,

    “ bring him back, show everybody how horrible this guy is.”

     

    Remember our saying/ noticing that when they accuse, it’s a confession.

    It’s all projection.
    Mr taco is telling us about himself. How horrible…

  35. 35.

    prostratedragon

    It’s the little things:

    Bondi DOJ has a problem.

    On left:

    DOJ Indictment and Detention Memo allege Abrego Garcia lied to officer by not revealing he was coming from Texas

    On right:

    DHS Referral Report: “Subject stated he was driving ‘three days ago’ (11/27/2022) from Houston, TX to Temple Hills, MD (via St Louis, MO)”

  36. 36.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @daryljfontaine: now I’m wondering how many acres, or hectares of banana growing land, does it take to supply the USA all the bananas we eat here? And what percentage of Central American bananas are sold to USA?
    not going to google it now. But you get my drift.

    it would seem sensible for the tariff planners and the ol bring all production to America ( meaning USA) folks to compare the arable land of Central America with that of Hawaii. Seems Hawaii is noticeably smaller. Not sure we can grow bananas in s. California. Really, the lack of foresight, the inability to see the big picture. ..

    sometimes stupidity is shocking.

  38. 38.

    Gloria DryGarden

    There’s a song and dance number on go noodle (teachers in elementary know what this is) with youngish adults and nerdy people in wacky -do costumes do a piece called “go bananas”. one of my favorites for the kids movement breaks.

    amusing to consider, at this juncture.

  39. 39.

    Geminid

    @Gloria DryGarden: You were asking about Syria the other day, and I thought you might be interested in the interview Los Angeles-based Jewish Jounal did with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa:

    https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/opinion/381746/a-conversation-with-syrias-president-ahmed-al-sharaa-journey-beyond-the-ruins/

    This interview got a lot of attention in the Middle East. It’s not long, but it covers a lot of ground, including relations with Israel (which comments inevitably got the most attention).

    An excerpt:

       [Al-Sharaa] “We have inherited more than ruins. We have inherited trauma, mistrust and fatigue. But we have also inherited hope. Fragile, yes. But real.

    It would be dishonest to speak of a clean slate. The past is present– in the eyes of every person, every family, every street. But our duty now is not to repeat it. Not even as a softer version. Our duty is to create something entirely new.

  40. 40.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Gloria DryGarden: Despite my test scores, I never thought of myself as being “all that.”

    Reasonably bright, able to tie my own shoes, but nothin’ special, right?

    The last ten years have been an abject lesson in just how FUCKING STUPID so many Americans actually are; it’s been a revelation and it’s been depressing.

    There are millions of stupid people out there, and they vote. 

  41. 41.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @matt: You’ve got it backwards. Lutnicki is one of the smartest crabs in their bucket. He’s almost made it to the top!

  43. 43.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @JoyceH: I think (could be wrong) what these people “want” is to work in a prototyping manufacturing shop. They want to be makers. Their version of the good old days is when Americans in small towns in small shops with small lathes, small milling machines, small saws, etc. designed and built useful, or at least, marketable, items.

    Hey, who wouldn’t want that? And, indeed, there are entire subcultures of makers out there. I sometimes are one.

    BUT, you can’t base an entire economy of a huge country on niche gigs. And like everything in life that takes more effort than mindlessly taking in what the algorithm is pushing, it is way, way beyond these people to figure that out.

    And so they pout and elect Republicans.

  44. 44.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @MagdaInBlack: Funnily enough, I’m at a conference this weekend with a bunch of high-dollar attorneys. I was getting a rental bike at the valet desk when I overheard the manager tell one of the valets “Yeah, it’s the black Ford F-150…and he demands that it be parked under cover.” To which the they both rolled their eyes.

    And there in front of me was a the most over-optioned pickup I’ve ever seen.

    Yeah, a real working man’s work truck…

  48. 48.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Chief Oshkosh: I’m an office manager for a small body shop in a big company. All our middle management men drive BFD chromed out beasts. My technicians, not so much, and if they do, it is actually a useful truck. Kept nice, but not show-off.

  50. 50.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Baud: Yeah it’s government as cosplay. People want a return to the era when America had the indisputably highest standard of living in the world – at least if you were white – roughly 1960ish. We had lots more factories back then so they want factories. We also bashed minorities so they want to back to that too. Just like they assumed re-electing Trump would bring back the pre-pandemic economy.

    It’s government by simple association. It’s not how things work but if you’re a dimwit it makes sense.

  51. 51.

    Suzanne

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The nostalgia about mid-20th-century industry is for having a decently-paying union job, not for the specific type of work.

    So I would buy that, except for this: people making upwards of $100K a year voted for Democrats, but the working-class income cohort voted for FFOTUS. If you’re genuinely nostalgic for the well-paying union job, wouldn’t you thus support Biden and then Harris?

    Maybe this is just my educated urban coastal elitist ass talking.

    ETA: I support unions more than they do, and I’m not even in one.

  54. 54.

    rikyrah

    @Matt McIrvin:

    All you had to be was YT.

     

    Not YT and educated.

     

    But, just YT .

    And, you were assured of a Middle class life.

    And, “those people” knew their place.😒😒😒

  55. 55.

    Suzanne

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    It’s government by simple association. It’s not how things work but if you’re a dimwit it makes sense.

    I read this piece this morning and it horrified me and crystallized some things for me.

    One thing that I’m hearing myself say is that not at any point am I thinking about policy. It’s all aesthetics. I think Democratic stuff is bullshit because the aesthetics are wrong. There are some policies that I don’t like, but ultimately, it felt like the wrong way to do things.

  56. 56.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Suzanne: What they say they want and what they vote for are two different things.

    Accept that their primary driver is white male Christian supremacy, and anything that threatens that hegemony will be attacked, even though it’s something that would actually benefit them.

    These are not bright people; they cannot see beyond their need for someone to look down on, even when that need brings harm to their own children.

  57. 57.

    Baud

    @Suzanne:

    It’s all aesthetics.

     

    Sounds about right. And it’s harder for disparate factions to unify around aesthetics.

  59. 59.

    Suzanne

    @Professor Bigfoot: Absolutely correct.

    There’s a commenter here who has implied that I don’t support unions when I point out that, fuck, many union members and tradespeople don’t support unions. Nothing could be further from the truth; I absolutely support workers’ right to unionize and I have taught my children about striking, and the victories for people that have been achieved by the labor movement. But I refuse to let someone piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining. The reason for this change in voting pattern is because some people don’t like that the changing social order has resulted in people like me and the multiracial junior staff at my company having higher social status than many white men.

  61. 61.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Suzanne: All I can really do is fall back on some theory of racism- and sexism-fueled false consciousness. Republican successfully convinced their base that the reason they’re not doing great materially is that liberals feminized the world and gave all the goodies away to undeserving minorities. Democrats may support their interests in the abstract but (a) the aesthetics aren’t connecting and (b) Republicans have successfully obstructed or muddled a lot of the material benefit.

  64. 64.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin: it doesn’t help when certain unnamed individuals who are not Republicans endorse the idea that Dems screwed over working class people.

  65. 65.

    RevRick

    @JoyceH: Not quite true. Americans want to bring back manufacturing. It’s just that they want other people to work in those factories.

  67. 67.

    Suzanne

    @Matt McIrvin:

    All I can really do is fall back on some theory of racism- and sexism-fueled false consciousness. 

    You are correct.

    When I’ve tried to drill down on this, the response I’ve gotten is that we don’t do a good enough job “representing working-class values”. When I ask what values those are….. crickets.

  70. 70.

    Betty Cracker

    @sab: A blithering idiot for sure. I think it’s really hard to accept (at least for me) that people can be kind on an individual basis, insightful about some things, good at their jobs, generous, etc., and still be goddamn feckless and destructive morons. I don’t mean that guy in particular — he’s an asshole — but generally. I know for a fact this is true, and yet it’s impossible to wrap my mind around it.

    It will never make sense.

  77. 77.

    PsiFighter37

    Howard Lutnick has to be the stupidest billionaire that’s part of this maladministration, and that’s saying something. The guy is so out of touch and cannot buy a clue.

  78. 78.

    Geminid

    @Suzanne: I found the comments on the Gaza war interesting; an example of how that issue peeled off voters from the Right side of the Democratic coalition as well as the Left. I don’t think it cost a whole lot of voters from either, and many had other reasons to defect, but this was a close election and the war may have made a difference.

    .That makes me think of an even closer election, in Israel on November 1, 2022. That’s when the liberal Meretz Party fell just short of the 3.25% threshold for Knesset representation, with 3.24% of the vote. That one hundrenth of one percent shortfall meant that instead of four Knesset seats Meretz won none, and Benjamin Netanyahu was able to form the rotten coalition that lead Israelis and Gazans into their current mess, and by extension dragged Joe Biden and Kamala Harris into it.

  80. 80.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @RevRick: I heard a segment – maybe on NPR – where they talked to a manufacturer of some small household appliance that manufactured abroad but also in the US and did a natural experiment where they made the same product but splashed “made in the USA all over the one made here. It was, of course significantly more expensive. They sold hardly any of the made in the US ones. We’re talking a 50% ish markup on something in the range of $100 -,$300 dollars a pop so even marked up someone with a reasonable amount of disposable income could but the US made one but nobody did. So yeah Americans may want to make things here but apparently don’t want to buy the things made here, so…not sure how that’s going to work.

  81. 81.

    Splitting Image

    @Suzanne:

    When I’ve tried to drill down on this, the response I’ve gotten is that we don’t do a good enough job “representing working-class values”. When I ask what values those are….. crickets.

    I think that “working class values” ought to include the idea that people cannot be fired for being too old, for being not pretty enough, for getting married, or for getting pregnant. But I’m told that that is “woke culture”.

    I think that “working class values” ought to include the idea that a company should not have veto power over who you date or who you marry, or over what medical treatments you ought to take for your own health, just because they send you a paycheque every two weeks. But I’m told that that is “woke culture” too.

    I think that “working class values” ought to include the idea that if a society is arranged so that all of the necessities of life – food, water, clothing, shelter, and health care – can only be obtained by having a job, then that society has an obligation to provide opportunities to work. But I’m told that that goes way past “woke culture” all the way to “communist subversion”.

    All of this stuff is bread and butter Democratic politics. But I’m told that they have “abandoned the working class”.

  83. 83.

    Baud

    @Splitting Image:

    My values are my values. I don’t care what label people want to put on them. The individuals of the working class make their own decisions about their value same as every other class of people.

  86. 86.

    Nukular Biskits

    @PsiFighter37:

    Howard Lutnick has to be the stupidest billionaire that’s part of this maladministration, and that’s saying something. The guy is so out of touch and cannot buy a clue.

    It’s my personal opinion that 99% of those with wealth above the $100K line (an arbitrary demarcation, to be sure) have no real clue as to the lives and struggles of those living paycheck to paycheck … and definitely those who have no paycheck at all.

    As those with wealth in the millions/billions, I have no data to support this (and I’m not going to take the time to compile said data) most didn’t get there by being dumb.  Instead, along the way, they lost their souls.  And, of course, this doesn’t include those who inherited wealth, never having known what it was like to work for crap wages with no benefits or to be homeless.

    I have no issues with people working hard and being successful. But, as President Obama put it, “You didn’t build this”, which is why I want to see us go back to an income tax north of 50% (w/o all the loopholes) on people making (regardless of means) $1 million or more.

  88. 88.

    JMG

    @Chief Oshkosh: The version of the American economy you describe (I’m not saying it isn’t an accurate picture of a common delusion) vanished during the Civil War.

  89. 89.

    suzanne

    @Splitting Image:

    All of this stuff is bread and butter Democratic politics. But I’m told that they have “abandoned the working class”. 

    I do think the Dems are too in love with their wealthy donors. But the GOP is even worse in that regard, so I am forced to conclude that any member of the working class who voted for the FFOTUS did so based on the aesthetics of white patriarchy noted previously.

  92. 92.

    Layer8Problem

    @Baud:  I dunno, maybe someone could ask Clooney to try.  We might peel off some from the other side.

  93. 93.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Betty Cracker: do you have those ones with exotic flavors? I heard about some that could go more temperate, lower zone numbers.. was it a purple thing, or a jasmin-ey vanilla custard thing?

    what do yours taste like?

    if the cavendish banana we all eat succumbs to the microbial illness that’s going around, their mono culture is going to collapse, and you’ll have the next generation of bananas, different species to cross.

    what do you do when a whole enormous bunch ripens at once?

    we have bananas in the conservatory at the botanic gardens. Sometimes you can see them forming fruits… we also have a chocolate tree, I mean cacao.

    Im veering off topic to say if I had a big warm window or a greenhouse, I’d grow a grapefruit (citrus paradisii) for it’s fragrant amazing flower. I hope you have one growing there. Just thinking of tropical things we can’t grow here without a special  glass house. Jasmine, awapuhi… but I don’t know the first thing about growing such creatures.

  95. 95.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    People who represent the Dems “Gentrification Problem” (typically entitled, white professionals, if not white, as one local black activists labels them “Culturally Caucasian) always pivot to find reasons to throw organized labor under the bus in an effort to cheaply rationalize their classic antipathy toward such groups.  If Kay were still here, and lord knows I don’t agree with Kay on a lot of things, she’d again walk people thru how organized labor still forms one of the most important components of helping Dems get elected.  And of course, the data supports that but as we see here time and time again, people ignore data when it doesn’t fit the world view from the bubble they inhabit.

    That was on full display at the Wankfest in DC this past week where the likes of extreme centrism clowns like MGP, MattY and the rest of the entitled, white podcastocracy that gets referenced glowingly by some here.

    We continue not just to lose votes in areas obvious but it’s now nibbling into groups we shouldn’t be losing and that’s because the party is seen as largely abandoning the working class, not the white working class, the working class.

    The Dems focus on urban cosmopolitan business liberalism over the last 20-25 years with it’s alignment with the glibertarian tech bro crowd marginalizes such groups, the minority poor and again, makes us vulnerable to the populist right.  And when we ask what could we do to counter with a populist left strategy…crickets.

    Instead we get doubling down centrism by the likes of Ezra Broder Klein/MattY/Smith and the rest of the “left” online clowns that are basically preaching trickle-down Reaganism after all these years just using rebrand after rebrand to hide it.

    And then wonder why people who aren’t white and don’t make tons of money look at Dems and go “what have you done for me lately?”, *particularly* from Dems at the state and local level who are more prominent in their day-to-day lives and more threatening.

    Two good pieces for people who like to actually explore the data and analysis:

    https://x.com/owasow/status/1930315361976557815

    The charts are very telling.

    And this one is about the urban/rural divide that has a lot of relevance to this debate:

    https://lpeproject.org/blog/the-political-economy-of-the-urban-rural-divide/

  96. 96.

    zhena gogolia

    Has any public appearance by Trump or any of his minions been interrupted by shouting about Gaza?

    I didn’t think so.

  98. 98.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Suzanne: aesthetics.
    reminds me of how women are supposed to be beautiful and pleasing, and disappear if we get old or don’t have the femme-y beauty looks. Aesthetics…

  100. 100.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Nukular Biskits:

    It’s my personal opinion that 99% of those with wealth above the $100K line (an arbitrary demarcation, to be sure) have no real clue as to the lives and struggles of those living paycheck to paycheck … and definitely those who have no paycheck at all.

    That gets displayed here routinely.

  101. 101.

    oldgold

    To be fair to Lutnick, in many respects, the Manchurian Cantaloupe is doing everything in his power and then some  to turn us into a Banana Republic.

  102. 102.

    suzanne

    @Gloria DryGarden: Yes, in that guy’s formulation….. “the aesthetics are wrong”. Aesthetics isn’t just about how something looks, it’s about how it looks relates to what it means.

    So what’s the “wrong aesthetics”? Can’t help but conclude that the educated Black woman as a leader — and the increased social status of college grads, Black people, and women that she embodies — is “wrong” to those people.

  103. 103.

    tobie

    @Matt McIrvin: In my ruby red county, there is no industry, so outside of govt services, most folks work either in retail (chain stores) or small biz. As far as I can tell, the latter group hates unions with the heat of a thousand suns. But Joe, the Plumber and Jack, the Roofer are convinced they’re the engines of the economy and everyone else feeds off their labor. Maybe this is just how things look in my neck of the woods but I suspect it’s true of the MAGA base. They don’t want to see more doctors, lawyers, accountants & baristas. They want more trades people doing manly things just like them.

  105. 105.

    Nukular Biskits

    @tobie:

    That reminds me of my hometown, Meridian, MS, seat of Lauderdale County.

    Other than the healthcare system and nearby Meridian NAS, I truly don’t know how the economy of that area stays afloat.  There’s a myriad of smaller manufacturers, businesses, retail, etc, but that’s really about it.

  106. 106.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Also too, for those readying the “Biden Did This” and “Biden Did That”, yes.  Remember, I supported the man all three times he ran, call him the “Best President of my Lifetime” and wasn’t part of the Loyal-Dems-But/Tonya Harding Dems who turned on him at the first opportunity.

    But that was a) just a start and b) didn’t trickle down.  Heh heh, ‘trickle-down’ not in the Reaganomic sense but in a way people could see.

    This is further exacerbated by the fact that the Dem party at the state and local level is, unfortunately, run by these same entitled white, extreme centrists people here beat on but in the next breath support the crapola they pitch.  Such Dems enact policies that the working poor and the working class in general see as detrimental.  Sure, it helps the entitled white gentrifier/colonizer (a term black activists use frequently and the butt hurt it generates among those same white people is telling) class.  Thus, when asked for their vote at the Federal level, there’s an understandable “huh?” as a reaction.

    I hear that constantly in the “black spaces” (to borrow UncleEbeneezer’s characterization).

    And beating on organized labor, in all the disingenuous forms it takes, is beating on some of the most diverse organized groups in the country.

  107. 107.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Nukular Biskits:

    Not cluelessness but a pursuit of a broader policy direction that doesn’t give a shit about that income demographic you reference.  So much of conservative economic policy is baked into both sides of the aisle and then you have a large number of self-professed progressives who spew it.  Peter Theil sits back in his chair each day and in his best Montgomery Burns voice says “Excellent”.

    Go to the twitter link I provided above and plow thru the charts to look at the income disparity, now, of people who vote Dem.

  108. 108.

    tobie

    @Nukular Biskits: I don’t know how one brings industry to remote rural locations. It’s possible on the I95 corridor because no place is truly rural in a region that dense. But elsewhere, like the Gulf states? I dunno. Folks smarter than me would have to figure that out.

  109. 109.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @tobie:

    Ask any foreign automaker (or subsidiary supplier) who’s setup shop in the US over the last 40 years.

    They go to the South.  Sure, where they setup isn’t remote in the sense that someplace like Scott City KS is remote but certainly not someplace where they have to deal with unions or a workforce that isn’t anything but nominally rural whites.

  110. 110.

    Nukular Biskits

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    Got it. Thanks for the clarification.

    Basically, what you’re saying here (and I apologize if I’m putting words in your mouth) is a lot of current center-Dem policy is little more than a real-life attempt to “solve” the problem captured in the quote (mis-)attributed to Steinbeck:

    Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.

  111. 111.

    different-church-lady

    In a perverse way you gotta admire the way they just keep up with the bald faced lies even when totally pinned to the floor.

  112. 112.

    Baud

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    I think we lose people mostly because of cultural issues. Mostly people who aren’t really that poor but have some means to care about cultural issues.

    But whatever. Absent a tsunami of a realignment, I’m not going to run away from our side because I’m anti fascist. So Dems can do what they want. They’ll either succeed or we’ll remain a minority party. Either way, I’m good.

  114. 114.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @suzanne: The more reasons they give for why they think and vote as they do, the more obvious it becomes that THIS is the only thing that actually ties their entire coalition together.

  115. 115.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, …

    Roger Parloff
    ‪@rparloff.bsky.social‬

    While govt moves to dismiss Abrego Garcia case, his own attys seek to pierce atty-client privilege invoking the “crime-fraud exception.”

    “There is ample evidence that defendants have actively strategized to avoid compliance with court orders.”

    storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us…

    [ highlighted image of filing ]

    June 7, 2025 at 7:50 AM

    Oh please, oh please….

    The whole point of the court system is to have a neutral arbiter to decide between two competing arguments. When the government intentionally and continuously lies about the facts and the law and their actions and their motivations, they are attacking the idea of neutral courts. It will break the system unless they face consequences for their lies. The courts must stand up and slap this dangerous administration down.

    Grr…

    Best wishes,
    Scott

  116. 116.

    Baud

    @Professor Bigfoot:

    Right. It’s why trying to chase people based on what they say they want from us is not going to work.

    Makes me angry that Dems wasted $20 million on a bro study.

  117. 117.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Baud:

    @different-church-lady:

    Like any deadly enemy, you don’t have to admire the bastards, but you absolutely do have to respect them.

    Respect that they are wily, dangerous adversaries who will use whatever lever they can scramble up— and I mean ANY lever— to acquire and maintain power.

    I have to respect the fact that they are successful by spewing the lies that a majority of Americans* want to hear. There’s no other way to combat it.

  118. 118.

    Betty Cracker

    @Gloria DryGarden: I’m not sure what type of bananas we grow, but they do have a vanilla custard-ish flavor! When a bunch ripens, I make tons of banana bread, and we give loaves and lots of bananas away. There’s no way we could eat them all!

    We don’t have a grapefruit tree, but we do have an orange tree and a lime tree. Our lime tree has tons of fruit right now, but it won’t be ready to pick for a while. I love the smell of citrus blossoms too!

  119. 119.

    ExPatExDem

    @zhena gogolia:  Has any public appearance by Trump or any of his minions been interrupted by shouting about Gaza?

     

    Yes. RFK the lesser and Marco Rubio most recently.

  120. 120.

    different-church-lady

    @Nukular Biskits:

    It’s my personal opinion that 99% of those with wealth above the $100K line (an arbitrary demarcation, to be sure) have no real clue as to the lives and struggles of those living paycheck to paycheck … and definitely those who have no paycheck at all.

    ““It’s one banana tariff, Michael. What could it cost, ten percent?”

  122. 122.

    tobie

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: You might remember this story from 2014.

    CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (Reuters) – In a stinging defeat that could accelerate the decades-long decline of the United Auto Workers, Volkswagen AG workers voted against union representation at a Chattanooga, Tennessee plant, which had been seen as organized labor’s best chance to expand in the U.S. South.
    The loss, 712 to 626, capped a sprint finish to a long race and was particularly surprising for UAW supporters, because Volkswagen had allowed the union access to the factory and officially stayed neutral on the vote, while other manufacturers have been hostile to organized labor.

    Fast forward to 2024: the same plant votes to unionize. In March 2025, VW cuts production at the facility.  One step forward, two steps back.

  123. 123.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    With the DOG-E Boyz fingers in all of the highly secure government systems, perhaps they can track down those Epstein files and release them.

  124. 124.

    Librettist

    @JMG:

    Maybe more like mid 20th century metal fabrication shops. Ten men and a dog. The manufacturing owner-operators I’ve dealt with were all sketchy as hell, but their employees loved ’em.

  125. 125.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Betty Cracker: Lady, I don’t often envy your life down in the swamp with the gators ‘n’ such… but hooo, boy, do I ever right now! 🤤

    Banana bread grilled with Kerrygold and goddammit that ain’t heart healthy!

  126. 126.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Another Scott: Sigh. Of course the government will move to dismiss. They think that now that Kimar’s back in the US, all the arguments about his deportation in defiance of court orders and the government’s contempt of court orders to bring Kimar back home are now all moot.

    The bastards were probably worried that the judges breathing fire down their necks were about to lock some of them in the courthouse basement cells for contempt, and they think they just figured out how to forge a get-out-of-jail-free card.

    The hell of it is, according to the rules of the courts, they might just get away with it in this case.

  127. 127.

    oldgold

    The Wa Po is reporting Trump is now claiming Musk “is a big-time drug addict.”

    Isn’t that a damning admission? Why isn’t the headline: Trump Appointmented Big-Time DRUG ADDICT Co-President!

  129. 129.

    Librettist

    @Professor Bigfoot:

    The loved for the old school industrial estates and company towns is for their rigid social order. White was right, and that was infused into every institution. Police, employers, union hall, fraternal orgs, etc.

  130. 130.

    Baud

    13 House Republicans urge Senate to scale back clean energy cuts in bill they voted for

    The lawmakers said they’re “deeply concerned” by some of the Trump agenda bill’s provisions and called for changes to mitigate “significant disruption” to certain projects.

    They’ll vote for the Senate bill with a heavy heart.

  131. 131.

    Matt McIrvin

    @oldgold: “Trump is a genius of high moral character–he just keeps hiring all these criminals, assholes, losers and addicts! Where do these people come from?”

  133. 133.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud:

    it doesn’t help when certain unnamed individuals who are not Republicans endorse the idea that Dems screwed over working class people.

    Well, they did! It’s just that this happened as a more or less necessary political move at the tail end of the Age of Reagan, when almost everybody in the US spectrum of acceptable discourse believed that deregulation and privatization would save the economy. Jerry Brown ran for president advocating a flat tax!!

    Yes, the American left was correct to be appalled by all that. It was that or lose every election for a generation, though.

    What they missed is that the Democrats have been slowly, painfully correcting for that tendency for about the last twenty years, but seemingly getting no cookies for it.

  134. 134.

    Geminid

    @tobie: The I-85 corridor that runs from Petersburg, Virginia through Atlanta has seen a lot of new industry. The German auto companies operating between Greeneville and Spartanburg, South Carolina are best known, but there are plenty of others, including the Kia plant in West Point, Georgia 75 miles past Atlanta on I-85.

    This corridor has good rail and highway access to port facilities in the Norfolk area east of Petersbug.

  135. 135.

    kindness

    I love Seth Meyers A Closer Look segments.  Several times I’ve considered dvring (is too a word!) the show to watch it.

  136. 136.

    oldgold

    @Baud: Yes, I do; however, the Democrats need to seize on this. That is, Trump’s current criticisms of Musk are proof of Trump’s piss-poor judgment and remarkable recklessness.

  137. 137.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    It was that or lose every election for a generation, though

    Because the white working class went all in for and with Reagan. They screwed themselves, and others.

    but seemingly getting no cookies for it.

    The most broken part of our system.

  141. 141.

    Splitting Image

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Well, they did! It’s just that this happened as a more or less necessary political move at the tail end of the Age of Reagan, when almost everybody in the US spectrum of acceptable discourse believed that deregulation and privatization would save the economy. Jerry Brown ran for president advocating a flat tax!!

    Yes, the American left was correct to be appalled by all that. It was that or lose every election for a generation, though.

    Is it really “abandoning the working class” though, if the Democrats made some lousy deals to prevent a Republican trifecta from ramming through policies that would have been much worse for the working class?

    The Democrats faced electoral catastrophe throughout the 1980s because a good chunk of the working class abandoned them, not the other way around. 1994 cemented Republican control of rural America and its “working class” voters.

    More than half of the white working class has been voting for decades to reward Wal-Mart with enormous tax breaks for moving into small towns and undermining all of the locally owned businesses, and to reward the old manufacturing companies with enormous tax breaks for offshoring all of their jobs overseas and closing down local manufacturing.

    The Democrats simply went where the votes were.

  142. 142.

    Another Scott

    @tobie:

    I don’t know how one brings industry to remote rural locations.

    We’ve got lots of examples.

    One does it with money. Money spent to serve goals other than “make more money the absolutely cheapest way possible.”

    NPS.gov – Manhattan Project – NM, WA, TN

    NASA.gov – Centers and Facilities

    CapTimes.com:

    Most West Virginians had more immediate concerns, and Mr. [Robert] Byrd strove to address them. On the Appropriations Committee, he pumped billions of dollars worth of jobs, programs and projects into a state that ranked near the bottom of nearly every economic indicator when he began his political career as a state legislator in the late 1940s. Countless congressional earmarks later, West Virginia is home to prisons, technology center, laboratories and Navy and Coast Guard offices (despite being a landlocked state).

    Critics mocked him as the “prince of pork,” but West Virginians expressed their gratitude by naming countless roads and buildings after him. He also was the only West Virginian to be elected to both houses of the state legislature and both houses of Congress.

    (My brother was born at a Navy station in Kansas. The Navy is everywhere – for good reasons.)

    Money is a useful tool to address many, many issues.

    Thanks.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  143. 143.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Precisely.  Except, with the exception of Biden, I don’t see the progress you infer as happening over the last 20 years, particularly at the state and local level where it’s actually gone in the opposite direction.  The fact we have people who still preach that shit, albeit rebranded using banal, progressive-sounding language, here for years is a case in point.

    I always say  that people like me are the face of the party that lost to a demographic that defines their liberalism as voting for Obama and supporting abortion rights but love them their school “choice”, hating on organized labor and a variety of racially tone-deaf policies that are costing the party votes.

    I kinda agree with some points Splitting Image makes in response to your comment when looking back at the electoral landscape of the 80s and what Clinton did in the 90s, but, that ignores the reality of our current economic, social and electoral climate that’s the result of 40+ years of trickle-down Reaganomics (and all it’s second and third order effects/policies) baked into both sides of the aisle.

    The rise of the billionaire oligarch and the massive issue of income-inequality that’s quite frankly *the* underlying issue on many subjects I routinely butt heads over around here are just two entirely predicted results of this.

  144. 144.

    TS

    @Betty Cracker:

    In my part of the world the main bananas grown at home are “lady fingers”. For reasons I can’t remember – probably related to disease issues, cavendish – the major commercially grown fruit are not allowed to be grown in home environments

    When I was young we called lady fingers – sugar bananas because they were sweet – so these may be the ones you grow. they are smaller than the cavendish type you see in the fruit markets/grocery stores

  145. 145.

    WTFGhost

    I saw a hilarious bit over at Digbysblog.net, about how Bondi had to prove her charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia “without lying under oath.”

    Pam Bondi very likely obtained an indictment on the thinnest possible grounds, and therefore, had already violated her sworn duties. WTF would “lying under oath” mean to her?

    Oh: you mean she can’t tell lies *THAT WOULD GET CAUGHT IN OPEN COURT* under oath. But the idea that she won’t lie under oath is ridiculous. She’s already lied to her clients (that’s us, “we the people of  the United States (who) ordained and established this Constitution….”), which is a massive betrayal of trust, and makes her eligible to be disbarred; why would committing perjury be a step too far?

    Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying she’d lie *stupidly* under oath, just, having told fantastical lies about a US citizen, when her duties required her to see he did not lose freedom without due process, means she doesn’t give a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut over democracy, justice, or the Constitution.

    Typical Republican these days – they love Trump, because Trump loves hurting people.

  146. 146.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: I don’t really see ANY bashing of unions from Democrats, at least not the politicians. Maybe from some of the punditry but from actual elected representatives or candidates? I’d need to see some evidence to buy your argument there.

    I do see them downplaying race and income disparity stuff. The reason isn’t that it’s “centrist” but because when they push that stuff too hard they get accused of being woke or communist and “only caring about people that don’t want to work” and those accusations cause them to bleed a lot of votes from loosely affiliated white voters. So they’re in a bit of a catch 22 there and it’s a tightrope they’re walking.

    Your argument seems to be the one Bernie Sanders keeps making – double down on working class values writ large. I’m not convinced that’s a winner of a message. It gets demonized as communist/socialist, or when it includes non-white folks tooany while folks see it as a threat to their privileges and reject it. I wish it weren’t so but that’s the electorate as I see it.

    The big failure I see from Democrats is they’re generally right on policy but they fail at selling their policies and more generally fail at reshaping the electorate by convincing people that they’re on their side. The Republicans spend a lot of energy convincing people to vote against their own interests by playing up culture stuff. Democrats don’t see the need to fight that culture war because gee the public likes where we’re at on Social Security, Medicare, Medicare and everything else. They let the opposition define them on culture war grounds so people see them that way – as out of touch, white collar intellectuals, privileged, too woke, wanting to give handouts to every deadbeat that’s not willing to work for a living. They have to find a way around or through that caricature.

  147. 147.

    Gvg

    @JoyceH: what people really want is jobs with a living wage, and a feeling that it’s worthwhile, plus good health insurance and retirement. A living wage means enough to live on and save for kids in college and retirement. To afford kids if they want them.

    They don’t want the wealthy distant “owners” to walk away with millions while a company dies along with their pensions.

    They do want “good” schools for their kids, and employers need good schools even if they don’t always know it. They need reliable childcare (schools with vetted employees) so their parent employees can come to work. And the next generation can be useful.

    The problem is, too many people don’t know how to get that and are supporting the wrong “solutions”.They are trying to time travel, as if forcing us into antique social roles will bring back the economic situation that happened at that time. The working class boom economy we had was independent of the social time, proof being that the women stuck at home had thousands of years of history when we were NOT prosperous.

    Getting people to see that certain actions won’t result in their assumed result is problematic.

  148. 148.

    Betty Cracker

    @Professor Bigfoot: Banana bread French toast!

    @TS: Bill says ours are “Grand Nain” and “Dwarf Cavendish” bananas. They are smaller and stouter than the grocery varieties.

  149. 149.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Professor Bigfoot: I admire the fact that they always, always, always vote against the party they hate.  I wish our side had the same level of commitment not keeping our enemies out of power instead of tapping out every time we don’t get the pony that Dems (never) promised.

  150. 150.

    Another Scott

    ICYMI, Robyn Pennacchia at Wonkette has a good rundown of the Democratic NYC debate a couple of days ago. (I know there was some discussion about it at the time – I’m slow.)

    Still, I applaud Mondani for his response and his suggestion, which was to send teams of mental health outreach workers down there in the subway to get at the root of the problem and help the unhoused people and others down there with mental health problems.

    He explained that he talked to actual police officers about the fact that they feel they are handling too many mental health crises they are not qualified to deal with, that some are even leaving because they don’t want to do that. In fact, I think the only people who think cops should be doing that are people who think they’re defending cops from bad cop-haters like me, who also think mental health crises would be better handled by mental health professionals than by police.

    SHOPLIFTING!

    One of the moderators asked “Do you see any need for change to the state’s bail laws and how do you plan to tackle retail theft as mayor?” It was very clear what she wanted in an answer. She wanted someone to say, “Bail reform was bad, we should go back to cash bail and that will stop all of the shoplifting.” To their credit, no one wanted to say that, and every time they tried to say something else, she just moved right on to the next person. It was kind of weird.

    Here is what I like about Zohran Mamdani, though. Rather than come up with his own theories about how to improve these situations, he actually asked those involved with it what would work best for them. That tracks with him being a socialist. After all, a large part of “the workers should own the means of production” was that, in most cases, the workers knew what they were doing far better than the owners did. A factory could run without an owner, but not without workers.

    Mamdani also noted that what retail workers keep saying they need is more staffing (which, you will note, I have been screaming at the top of my lungs for years).

    He sounds like a smart, sensible guy. Work to implement policies recommended by people who actually deal with the day-to-day problems! Resist the MAGAt and GQP framing of problems and responses! I like to think that that’s a path forward for our team.

    One of the genius things about HRC’s first senate campaign was her “listening tours”. It’s important.

    90% of the battle in politics is figuring out how to navigate the way through the linguistic land mines. The other 90% is getting people to listen to what you have to say.

    We can do better.

    Forward!!

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  151. 151.

    Baud

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    Your argument seems to be the one Bernie Sanders keeps making – double down on working class values writ large. I’m not convinced that’s a winner of a message

     

    He’s been at it on a national scale for almost a decade. Has any area of the country been receptive to it?

  152. 152.

    TS

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’ve not heard of “dwarf cavendish”. Interesting – I lived in a large banana growing area when young, my Dad was a local school teacher & in the summer season, parents of his students would leave a complete bunch of bananas on the doorstep, we had them to share far & wide (well as wide as our small town) When I now see the price at the market, I just remember we had them at zero cost for so many years.

  155. 155.

    Soprano2

    @Matt McIrvin: A high paying union job that’s “manly” and doesn’t require much education. That’s what they’re trying to bring back. Blue collar men consider a lot of jobs not “real” jobs,  that’s where “e-mail job” came from.

  157. 157.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @schrodingers_cat:

    If you think I’m a Bernie bro, you are exceedingly wrong.

    Nobody here I think disputes the overwhelming influence that racism and misogyny has on this debate.  My point is that people who hold and peddle shitty policy views (ala the Ezra Broder Klein/MattY/Smith/Atlantic/and-a-host-of-others) always bring it around to those two issues as a way to avoid talking about other salient issues that have been percolating for a looooong time as additional root causes of our electoral problems.

    Whenever we deliberately say “working class”, it’s immediately taken and reframed as “white working class” because that’s what they do: reframe in order to bait somebody into arguing with them from their point of departure.

    The beloved urban/metro areas of these same entitled whites pitching this crap aren’t full of white working class, they’re full of working class people with typically significantly lower incomes but hey, who cares!  I always say that these self-professed progressives are the most racially tone-deaf people in the body politic.

    The projection is incredible, we can’t do anything for white working class because yunno, racism, but white professional class?  Bring it on baby!  And then people wonder why the Dem party is being increasingly viewed as a party of affluent white, urban professionals.

    Again, look at the twitter link I provided above on income and wealth and how it translated into who voted in 2024.

  158. 158.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Dead thread but bringing it around to what it should have been about: kittens!

    Best Friends continues to air commercials about getting people into kitten fostering.

    We fostered for years after coming back from doing animal rescue in NOLA immediately after Katrina.

    You wanna feel good and do good?  Reach out locally and ask about getting into a fostering program.  The low-cost spay/neuter cat clinic my wife volunteers for is always on the lookout.

    https://www.ispot.tv/ad/2pIH/best-friends-animal-society-kitten-season-more-urgent-than-morning-coffee

  159. 159.

    suzanne

    @Soprano2:

    A high paying union job that’s “manly” and doesn’t require much education. That’s what they’re trying to bring back. 

    Note that there is zero rhetoric about “restoring the dignity” and higher pay of jobs like hotel maids or home health aides or retail clerks. Three guesses why.

    CHH pointed out that “the gender wars are class wars”. The inverse is true.

  160. 160.

    Anonymous At Work

    @matt: WARNING.  That recitation of party slogans is EXACTLY what Hannah Arendt referred to as the “banality of evil” in her book “Eichmann in Jerusalem.”  Adolf Eichmann’s testimony during his trial in 1961 for his part in the Holocaust was almost exclusively in Nazi slogans and propaganda, a person who had hollowed out his mind to fill it with “right think” and canned responses.

    That was what she was warning about: the unthinking obedience to authority that everyday people adopt as part of fascist and authoritarian regimes.

  162. 162.

    Ruckus

    @JoyceH:

    His concept is one from decades ago. One that people with money should get to hire people for crap wages to build, make, assemble stuff while rich people make a lot of money, paying others to do their bidding at minimum wage. As a retired employer who paid highly trained people to use their skills to build tools that made commercial products – and paid them very well because they earned  being paid well, this is pure unadulterated greed. And very often a touch of ego. OK, well over a touch. A modern world works because of volume, not greed. Or slavery. A very few get rich while everyone else suffers. Now not all wealthy people are pompous, arrogant, whatever, some actually understand rationality and greed and choose rationality instead of that greed. Which means that their business(es) can be very successful and they have wealth (often far more than those that try to screw their employees) while their employees do well (maybe even very well) and actually like working there. A win/win is far better than a WIN/bullshit. It lasts longer, works better and builds rather than steals.

Comments are closed.