Passing Dems call Mike Johnson out as a liar as he’s lying on camera.
ICYMI — “LIE!!”
Dems heckled Speaker Johnson as he tried to put all the blame on Senator Padilla
— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) June 13, 2025 at 10:00 AM
You love to see it. The ultra-pious Mr. Johnson is a liar, so call him one. On camera even!
Some folks on Bluesky were bitching about the framing Democrats were using after the assault on Senator Padilla, i.e., “if they can treat a U.S. senator like that, imagine what they would do to you.” The complaint was that Noem’s thugs already treat ordinary people like shit.
Okay, fair point. But the framing gets to a larger and accurate point, which is that powerful people get deferential treatment the rest of us don’t, and if Noem’s thugs feel empowered to manhandle a senator, their depredations on ordinary people will escalate too.
Empathy deficits are real, especially among right-wingers, but I think it’s universally true that when an action affects your family member or friend or colleague, it’s less abstract and more personal. If the thug assault on Senator Padilla makes Trump’s fascist actions more vivid for congressional reps and any remaining delusions about bipartisan comity are torn away by the incident, that’s a good thing.
Open thread.
zhena gogolia
God, I knew someone would pipe up to complain about that.
Why can’t we be more like Repugs? Just push the point when you have a goddamned chance! Stop pilpullating!!!
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I’m with you. Most ordinary people aren’t treated like that. That’s the problem, because they can’t empathize with the few ordinary people who are treated badly. That’s who the message is for, but folks gotta pretend to be obtuse in order to scold.
Lobo
Action post: Call senators and ask if you can’t stand up for a fellow senator why can you stand up for us? Especially for Democratic senators running for reelection or other office. See law firms on this dynamic.
Jesse
I’ve seen commentary, mainly from the Never Trump-y newish, more conservative members of our coalition, complain about this approach. In particular, these guys seem to think Tim Walz, in particular, looks foolish for bringing the heat on these guys. “Let’s be mean” just ruffles their feathers. I struggle to comprehend that reaction. But some of these guys seem to have perceived things fairly clearly leading up to the 2024 election that I didn’t see. So, I feel stuck in my thinking about this approach.
Baud
@Jesse:
Weird. I always thought the never Trumpers were generally meaner than the average Dem.
Scout211
Since this is an Open Thread, here’s another federal court loss for Trump:
kindness
Oddly Republicans expect to receive deferential treatment, also while giving none of it back to Democrats. The MSM has not only allowed this since Gingrich but reveled in it. Except this isn’t Both Sides. One side (Republicans) is habitually lying, where as Democrats are trying simply to be heard. Our MSM is on Republican side and I have no clue how to rectify that while oligarchs own the media companies.
Old Man Shadow
Now, will they actually do something to hold Republicans accountable if they have power again?
And by ‘accountable’ I mean “throw them into the dankest, deepest dungeon we can muster and never let them see the light of day again”?
Or will we repeat the same mistakes again?
FastEdD
Assaulting Senator Padilla is like mugging Mr. Rogers and handcuffing him. On live TV. I met him 30 years ago and spoken with him several times-he a very mild mannered fellow. Yes this is personal. I have friends and extended family who are in fear every day, but the whole world doesn’t know their names. Most people know their US Senator. I watched the Governor explain last night that the only guardrail we have left is the judicial branch because the others are AWOL. Then right on cue the Appeals Court removes that last guardrail. Again.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
This is the kind of talk and framing that works…and of course it’s from AOC a couple of days ago on twitter about the flag:
Harrison Wesley
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I’m not near her on the political spectrum – I’m a right-wing Dem – but I like her style .
Moondoggus
@Jesse:
sometimes, the adults in the room get angry. Senator Padilla was reacting to SS Barbie declaring a civil war on the state of California.
The time for reasoned discourse in Congress is over for now. Republicans are trying to establish a police state and have abandoned reality to do it.
you can’t reason with someone who’s insane,
YY_Sima Qian
Maybe Trump was lying about being undercut by Bibi:
Then again, not sure I trust any narrative coming out of the Israeli government, either.
Plenty of the Sunni countries in the ME don’t mind seeing Iran getting hit hard (despite strong verbal condemnations of Israel issued by the KSA, Türkiye & the Gulf States), including countries that suffered immensely under Iranian supported regimes such as Syria, as long as any blowback are targeted at Israel & the US. OTOH, what unites Israel & the Gulf States is a powerful & threatening Iran.
For now, Iran appears as discombobulated as Hezbollah after the pager attacks. Iranian skies are open to the IDF, & Mossad was able to reprise the brilliant Ukrainian success of Operation Spider Web in establishing attack drone bases w/ Iran to attack Iranian missile launchers. Perhaps the theocratic regime’s governance capacity is as weak as Putin’s, & perhaps Iran will prove as much of a paper tiger as Hezbollah. After Iran is cut down to size, though, then what? Then Israel’s warmongering & hegemonic tendencies, & the bad behaviors of the Gulf States, become more salient.
RaflW
Coincidentally, this is what I had to say to Chuck Schumer just about the moment the OP went up.
The only time “esteemed colleague” should be said in the next many years about Republicans is if the sayer’s voice is dripping with obvious sarcasm.
YY_Sima Qian
@FastEdD: The authoritarianism of the Trump regime gets more brazen by the day.
Anonymous At Work
I think the follow-up point to the Democrats’ framing is also powerful. “Why do you think YOU are immune to such violent treatment? And do you think that that is a proper qualification?” Because a lot of them might point out things like “disrespectful to authorities” or roundabout ways to saying “skin color.”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Yes, this, it’s Heritage not hate when Southerner waves the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, but it’s beyond the pale if a Latino waves a Mexican Flag? That’s a white bit of colonialism people got going there.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@YY_Sima Qian: Bibi supposed to a bullshitter himself, I won’t put it passed him he’s gaslighting Trump.
But it’s likely closer to the truth that Trump was just blathering and not paying attention to what was going on.
RaflW
I have also, though, noted that cowards like Mike Johnson are also the target of Trump-Noem-etc’s thuggish arrests and detainments. The message being sent is that MOCs, state court judges, and other public officials can be rounded up on tissue thin pretexts. The subtext is, even Republicans.
Pious Mikey knows Trump would toss him in the clink in a heartbeat if he wanted to for some manufactured ‘betrayal.’ Now, this does not excuse Johnson or other Republican’s cravenness. Heavens, no. It points out their complete unwillingness to use the powers the Constitution, Framers, and 250 years of precedent have granted them.
Professor Bigfoot
SENATOR Padilla is also a brown man; and so those white cops were perfectly happy to take him down Senator or no.
But if they’ll slam a brown US Senator to the ground, they might start doing that to white people, and THAT’S the message one hopes they get.
FastEdD
Reminds me of the “eloquent” words of Richard J. Daley in 1968. The police aren’t here to prevent disorder, they are here to preserve disorder.
UncleEbeneezer
It’s always funny when white men (especially older ones) just assume I must also be a Trumper, like them simply because I’m white and male.
Yesterday an old, white man nade some comment about how I’m probably glad not to be in Los Angeles now (hur hur). And I told him that actually I regret not being there cause I’d probably be at the protests standing beside my neighbors, friends and their families now being shamelessly targeted by ICE.
Then there was just a long, uncomfortable silence from old MAGA man, lol.
RaflW
@Jesse: Calls for comity have only, ever been used to defang Democrats. Zero percent ‘both sides’ requirement for being nice.
Good on Walz, Pritzger, Newsom etc for saying f**k that.
Ishiyama
Did you know that Barbra Streisand sang this song:
Barbra Streisand (Pins and Needles) – Status quo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjyyLcVnN9M
trollhattan
@YY_Sima Qian:
We didn’t empty our regional embassies on a whim–we knew it was coming. And I don’t doubt for a second we were sharing intel with the IDF in real time.
Trump will lie about every little thing.
Maxim
I haven’t been able to keep up with all the threads here, so I apologize if this has already been shared and discussed; I don’t think it’s been the subject of any front-page posts. This Substack article seems to make a pretty plausible case for the election last November in fact being rigged. I’d like to hear what all you learned folk think.
Suzanne
@Baud:
They’re more mean in the “bless your heart” way.
SuzMom has decided she is not physically up to protesting tomorrow. That’s a good decision, but I’m a little bummed about not getting to make her sign. I was kind of tempted to make one that said SO BAD THAT I SHAVED MY LEGS AND LEFT THE HOUSE.
Hilbertsubspace
@YY_Sima Qian: So Israel started planning the attack in earnest right after the election of Trump. Sounds about right.
Omnes Omnibus
@Old Man Shadow: Let’s not be predisappointed. Instead, let’s reward the behavior we want to see more of. Call them. Encourage them. Tell them that you have their back if they keep fighting.
Can’t hurt, right?
bbleh
@Hilbertsubspace: military planning being what it is, I’m confident they’ve had such a plan for, well, decades, and it’s constantly being adjusted and brought up to date. I’d say what happened several months ago was, they decided to start operationalizing it.
And although we tend to interpret world events through the lens of how did the US affect this and how does it affect the US, at least from what I’ve read this was driven at least as much by domestic Israeli politics, including the various charges against Netanyahu and the recent no-confidence vote.
Harrison Wesley
@Professor Bigfoot: Prof, surely you’re not suggesting it’s Niemoller Time? Like,us white Olds should get prepped for our very own Marty Minute?
Professor Bigfoot
@Maxim: Thanks for the link; I hope to give it a thorough reading a bit later.
I think a LOT of us feel like there simply had to be some kind of shenanigans but “it ain’t what you know, it’s what you can prove.”
Professor Bigfoot
@Harrison Wesley: Yuppers, exactly that.
Once I recognized the bastards were bog-standard Nazis, the Niemöller Constant came into play: Sooner or later, they’ll come for you, too.
Ten Bears
I called a troll a Liar at one my ecoblogs day or two ago. Boy did that ever twist his panties
Fair assumption “Gingerbaker” is a him … ?
samr
Padilla confronted power with facts and got physically attacked for it. If a reaction to that is “the Dems are using this incident slightly imperfectly” then perhaps reconsideration of that focus would be a wise idea.
Harrison Wesley
@Professor Bigfoot: I’ve noticed that the people I know in my age group (Olde Farte) are mostly unaware of the good reverend, regardless of their race/ethnicity. But they all vigorously agree with him as soon as they’ve heard his warning.
Another Scott
@YY_Sima Qian: We know 47 lies about everything. We know Bibi lies about everything.
They do what they want, and will continue to do so until they face consequences.
The truth doesn’t matter to them. Only getting what they want matters to them.
When things go badly, they’ll blame others.
All of this is known.
Grr…
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Jeffro
just out of curiosity…other than lining his own pockets at a furious rate, where or how is trumpov “winning”?
(I’m not talking about on
North Korean State TVFox News or trumpov’s own UnTruth Social mental diarrhea blasts…I mean, what is there for even his supporters to truthfully* celebrate?)*I know, I know, but still…anything?
there’s obviously no peace in Ukraine (despite him having a plan that would settle the war in 24 hours)
no peace in Gaza (and now Israel is leveling Iran)
tariffs? total joke, they get taken off as soon as they’re slapped on
economy? going nowhere at best and likely about to tank due to tariffs, inflation, oil prices, etc
the ‘Big Beautiful
AtrocityBill’? still stuck, polling poorly, maybe not going anywhereICE raids backfiring to the point that poll numbers are dropping and even the Mango Menace is worried about deporting too many hotel and farm workers
Where’s the ‘win’ here?
I don’t even think they’re nominating too many judges, are they?
artem1s
@Maxim: The article does not make it sound plausible that the election was rigged. It’s full of innuendo and has no factual evidence backing up their claims that somehow air-gapped optical scanners changed and/or deleted votes for Harris while the paper ballots were being scanned.
This is all based on conspiracy theorists ‘internet’ research that there were last minute changes to hundreds of thousands of air-gapped machines’ software just before the election by some company and that they say no longer exists.
There is a lawsuit in one NY county that is moving thru the courts to have a hand recount of the ballots to determine whether there were discrepancies between the paper ballots and the count taken from the scanners that was reported on election day.
The recount effort and lawsuit is real. But there will be no way to tell if there were problems until such a recount takes place. Outside that, any ‘reporting’ on what a recount will show is at best speculation born out of desperation and at worst high test hyperbole designed to cast doubt on our elections, discourage voters and to raise lots of money. There is always a way to con and grift off those who are desperate to discount what the general election told us about America.
Which is – it’s full of people who can’t be bothered to perform basic civic duties like voting and serving on juries; or they don’t care if people are hurt as long as they are safe and well off; or they are actively rooting for chaos and dumpsters fires; or they hate women so much they can’t overcome their hatred even to keep TCF out of office; or they want to live in an authoritarian, fundamentalist, fascist dictatorship; and/or all of the above.
trollhattan
@Jeffro: Many of his enemies are suffering from his admin, so that’s a tandem reward for Donny. That many of those enemies are imaginary and yet still suffering is just bycatch.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
“Empathy deficits” among liberals are caused by Conservatist brutality.
Prove me wrong.
tobie
@kindness: I’m trying to figure out why the press is so much harder on Democratic than Republican administrations and the only thing I can come up with is that their owners know Republicans will punish them by impeding their mergers and the MAGA base will harass them.
CNN’s Brianna Keilar wrote this rancid piece in 2022 criticizing Biden for giving a speech at Independence Hall where 2 honor guards were posted. She has said zip, nada, zilch about Trump’s brazenly partisan speech at Fort Bragg. So much for Keilar’s principles.
Marc
Trump lies, but not always. There’s a decent chance he had no idea any of this was happening. The real danger may be that others in the administration have known all along that the boss is losing it, and have started executing their own agendas.
Chetan Murthy
Comity is a prisoners dilemma game: it makes sense to cooperate unless the other party is consistently defecting, in which case you gotta punish the bastards.
Doug R
Padilla is on the committee that has OVERSIGHT on DHS.
THAT is biggest part of it, aside from assaulting a sitting Senator in his HOME state.
trollhattan
Crap, just realized it’s Friday the 13th. Talk about redundant.
Ken B
@YY_Sima Qian: A lot of air defense missiles we’re diverted from Ukraine to the ‘Middle East’ earlier this week.
Someone in the Trump administration knew what was coming and supported it.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Doug R: Seems Noem recognizes her auditors as well as she understands habeas corpus.
Hilbertsubspace
@bbleh: US centric bias is difficult for me to adjust for because the US is a big player in global politics. However, going from a filing cabinet plan to an action timetable requires at least an neutral shrug from the US. Maybe it happens with a president Harris, but more likely they would have received strong pushback and gone with a lesser strike.
Eyeroller
Some commenter on Bluesky said that Sen. Padilla’s local LA office is in the federal building where the puppy-killer was holding her press conference, but I haven’t been able to confirm that after flipping through several pages of Google hits about the incident. Assuming it’s correct, he would definitely have the right to be in the building (if that were even a question).
Soprano2
@zhena gogolia: Those scolds get on my last nerve. It’s a great, pithy message that they want us to turn into a paragraph to explain it to everyone. That’s why people tune us out, we’re always explaining things!
Doug R
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq):
Her dog’s name was “habeous”.
West of the Rockies
“Whether by the sword or the slow decay of time, Aragorn will die…”
As will Trump, Putin, and Netanyahu. Probably sooner than later. They are all aged men with health issues. Keep the faith.
They Call Me Noni
@Maxim: I’m not learned, but I really had a hard time believing TACO won ALL the swing states. Not on substack but I did recently read a similar article and I am not colored surprised.
Soprano2
How many of the weapons we gave them are they using in their attacks on Iran? If that involves us in what’s happening in Gaza, it certainly involves us in this also.
They Call Me Noni
@Jeffro: Lining his pockets is his goal. Other than that he’s a tool.
Steve LaBonne
@artem1s: I completely agree with you- under the existing rules this was a completely legitimate election. But there’s the rub- from a broader perspective ALL of our elections are rigged by Republican voter suppression
Itinerantpedant
Can we PLEASE stop tone policing effective fucking messaging?? Please?!?
Both this message and the fuckery around the AOC “Oooh. The girls are fighting.”
That latter with, as I understand it, the added benefit of white liberal ignorance of PoC slang?
This is how the left continually self-sabotages.
Omnes Omnibus
The complaint in the OP is along similar lines of one I saw earlier complaining about a sign that “I could be at brunch right now” or some such. They said the sign-maker was telling on themself, that they weren’t really committed, etc. It makes no sense to me. The “protest people” always protest. Having them show up means little. It’s having the brunch people show up that swells the crowds.
Also, when did brunch become counterrevolutionary?
Tony Jay
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Clears throat. Adopts Generic ‘Disappointed Daddy’ Voice
“What we have here, I’m sorry to say, is what my professors called ‘a misunderstanding of relevant terms’. The contretemps sparked by the aggression of the Northern States is an indelible and formative part of the Real American experience. Heritage in its purest form, fuel for a thousand thousand stories that have informed countless American lives. Any attempt to ban displays of relevant regalia is an act of impious sterilisation and an attack on our national soul.
In contrast, brandishing the alien flag of the Mexican Republic at American peacekeepers while they attempt to carry out their lawful duties in the face of naked aggression is an insult to the memories of all those uniformed heroes who fell in the War of 1846 to 48 and the heritage of freedom they gave their lives for. Real Americans remember The Alamo, and who our enemy was, then and now.”
Something like that. It’s all BS.
Geminid
@YY_Sima Qian: I was looking at TRT-World, which is Turkiye’s public news network, and saw a picture of Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan standing at a podium with a stern expression, with bullet-points from a statement:
TRT also posted a striking video. It showed the view out the port side of an airliner cockpit, a few minutes before dawn: a nice scene. Then two bright lights come flying across the horizon and pass out of view some distance to the right and above. The caption:
And this was somewhat of a dunk: a picture of a passenger jet with blue trim parked at an airport, with the caption:
tam1MI
I’m so glad we got rid of Genocide Joe last year. Otherwise we might have been implicated in a widening regional war!
[/Do I Even need a sarcasm tag?]
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
If they want my mimosa, they’ll have to take it from my cold, dead drunk hands.
Steve LaBonne
@Omnes Omnibus: Somebody earlier brought up the well-known “temporarily embarrassed millionaires” quip. Turns out that’s a somewhat distorted paraphrase of something John Steinbeck actually wrote. And the full quote applies quite wonderfully to our online / trust fund leftists:
“Except for the field organizers of strikes, who were pretty tough monkeys and devoted, most of the so-called Communists I met were middle-class, middle-aged people playing a game of dreams. I remember a woman in easy circumstances saying to another even more affluent: ‘After the revolution even we will have more, won’t we, dear?’ Then there was another lover of proletarians who used to raise hell with Sunday picknickers on her property.
I guess the trouble was that we didn’t have any self-admitted proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed capitalist. Maybe the Communists so closely questioned by the investigation committees were a danger to America, but the ones I knew—at least they claimed to be Communists—couldn’t have disrupted a Sunday-school picnic. Besides they were too busy fighting among themselves.”
Bupalos
@Maxim: I think it’s conspiratorial nonsense and like most conspiratorial nonsense, works by telling you things that you already want to believe.
I’d just say, if it were true that the election apparatus had been secretly hijacked by a shadowy cabal, we’d be in a much worse place than we actually are.
Baud
@Steve LaBonne:
Damn.
That’s up there with “first, kill all the lawyers” in terms of literary memes taken out of context.
ETA: Also too,
Splitters!
Baud
WRT election rigging, people have been pushing it on Reddit since the election. Can’t say I’ve paid much attention.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@tam1MI: Hush, you. It’s in exceedingly poor taste to criticize people like that, doncha know?
Baud
Drag queen headquarters
Steve LaBonne
Republicans in Congress should be addressed with the famous words of Oliver Cromwell:
“It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue and defiled by your practice of every vice.
You are a factious crew and enemies to all good government. You are a pack of mercenary wretches, willing, like Esau, to sell your country for a mess of pottage, and, like Judas, to betray your God for a few pieces of money.
You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.”
Archon
When has being cordial to fascist movements ever worked politically?
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve LaBonne: That one’s a banger. Always good to see the classics.
Sister Golden Bear
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
More accurate description.
Chetan Murthy
Since there’s a new open thread, I figure I’ll ask an off-topic question in this one.
Has anybody tried stamping “RETURN TO SENDER // no longer at this address” on junk mail, and does it work to get it to stop? I have literally been getting SPLC junk mail (what seems like) weekly for a decade (after I made the mistake of donating a bunch to them — never again, never again). Ditto the ACLU. Ditto Doctors without Borders.
ETA: I’ve -had it- with importuning texts. Some days I get TEN of them. I started marking ’em as spam, and that seems to reduce the -flood-.
Geminid
@Soprano2: The U.S. provided all of the aircraft being used in these strikes; reportedly F-15s, F-16s and F-35s plus tanker planes. Israel purchased them with money out the $3.6 billion yearly subsidy aporoved by the Obama administration and voted by Congress in 2013. That’s a continuation of the subsidy began after the 1978 Camp David Accords.
Some of the weapons Israel used in this strike were produced domestically. Those would be some powerful air-to-ground missiles, and possibly some of the earth-penetrating bombs.
On the defensive side, Israel is using US-made planes and weapons for missile and drone defense.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s associated with girls-and-gays, so it’s therefore frivolous and silly.
You may think I’m overreaching here, but this is a common method of expressing misogyny and homophobia: coding of women’s and gay people’s interests as less interesting, complex, or meaningful. Men do arts, women and native people do crafts. Same through-line.
BC in Illinois
@Harrison Wesley:
@Professor Bigfoot:
And I think that we need to always remember that Martin Niemöller DID say enough to get himself thrown into the Sachsenhausen and Dachau prison camps from 1937-1945; he did oppose the “Aryan Paragraphs” that excluded Jews from holding any public position; he opposed the “German Christians”; he opposed the Nazification of German Protestant churches.
And he looked back on it and said it was not enough. It came too late.
And he didn’t speak up for others, when he had the chance.
That’s where we’re at today.
I will be at a St. Louis “No Kings” rally tomorrow. But I should be doing more.
Another Scott
@Chetan Murthy:
USPS FAQ – Return to Sender.
Have you tried the SPLC form here?
HTH!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: In this particular case, I think the criticism was primarily class based. That is, only upper middle class people and above have the leisure to lounge about day drinking. Or something. I recall responding that I was strong in favor of everyone being able listen to Vivaldi and get wrecked on Bloody Marys before noon. I am quite socialist that way.
Chetan Murthy
@Another Scott: Oh ha, I didn’t know SPLC had such a form. Heh, I wonder if now I’ll start getting spam from them. At least I can mark it as spam and Gmail will deal with it. Thank you!
The USPS page was …. less than helpful. But now that I bought the “return to sender” stamp, I’ll use it. Got an entire shopping bag full of this crap junk mail: my plan is to mark 10 letters a day and drop ’em into the mailbox on my way to the bus.
Ruckus
@Jeffro:
Well their leader is an incompetent boob so what do you expect?
And what does it say about them that they think an incompetent, aging out boob can make any kind of leader? That he’s smarter than what? Them? That they think he is wonderful because he has money? That he’s pompous, arrogant and capable of what, possibly breathing?
thalarctosMaritimus
I thoroughly approve of calling out Republican lies (and worse) any chance we get. It’s way past time we spoke out.
My only refinement, and it is a small one, is that I would twist the knife a little harder on his performative religiosity at the sane time by publicly mixing the term “false witness” in among there, along with “lies” and “liar”.
RaflW
One new poll had the BB
AB polling 30% – 50% yay/nay. That’s radioactive level bad. Not that most GOP Senators will care, but a couple of them will be up in 2026 and passing this will be an absolute anvil around their necks.RaflW
@Chetan Murthy: If a PAC texts me (or, g-d forbid “James Carville” texts me) I send 5-20 increasingly angry and naughty words, each word as a separate text, and finally ‘stop.’
I did text banking a while ago and the services as I understand it charge per text sent or received. No matter the length of each text. PACs get no mercy from me, don’t care if they’re nominally Dem, their overheads are usually bullshit-level salary buffing for consultants.
Quality nonprofits and most candidates just get the word ‘stop’. There are bad days, but overall I get now maybe 0-3 unsolicited texts per day. (Shows how much I’m inured that I think that level of intrusion is okay).
Gloria DryGarden
@Tony Jay: the whole interweaving of Mexican American relations, people and territories, is a big part of the American experience.
i eat every day. No doubt, a lot of that food was grown, harvested, and processed by people. In Colorado, we’re in the northern extent of land and people that used to be part of Mexico. I don’t know exactly how many states are in former Mexico territory.
Gloria DryGarden
@Baud: some of the children weren’t ever reported missing.
implies to me, some family involvement. Which doubles the horrificness
Lyrebird
@Baud: ..and in this case they’re scolding Sen. Padilla himself, which is insulting.
I didn’t know what to think when that same DKos story was up at the top “front page” slot, it’s titled “Democrats are furious over ‘totalitarian’ attack on California senator” …and at the same time, peopel were jumping on other diaries, not reading about what Dem Senators were doing, complaining in advance that oh they would probably not do anything. When they were busy marching down the corridor to demand answers from Sen Thune and posting bluntly.
Tony Jay
@Gloria DryGarden:
Oh, I know. Hence the “BS” part.
Lyrebird
@Chetan Murthy: I haven’t read the full FAQ (but thanks @Another Scott: !), but you might want to check whether non-1st-class main can even be returned to sender in that fashion.
Bulk mail from nonprofits might not work that way… we have several deceased relatives who still get buckets full of appeals, so I have been wondering as well.
Timill
@Gloria DryGarden: Something like 8: CA, NV, UT, CO, AZ, NM, OK and TX.
Boris Rasputin (The Evil Twin)
@Chetan Murthy: My father in-law got TONS of mail from every rotten branch of the Trump world, and the related grifters, in 2020. He died in 2019, so I had a great time sending it all back, postage due, with notes like, “He’s as dead as Trump’s brain.” “Find another dupe.” and asking the Trump spawn which of them was Beavis?
The 2024 mail was much lighter.
pajaro
The United States was involved in negotiations with Iran to reestablish a nuclear agreement, and there was a meeting scheduled for this weekend. Israel could have waited until Monday, to see if there was any progress. They chose not to.
Yes, of course Israel used American equipment, we have been their chief supplier for decades. But it really is possible that Bibi attacked when he did to forestall the possibility of an agreement. Bibi does not believe in peace agreements, whether they are with Palestinians or Iranians. His attack makes any agreement between the US and Iran out of the question, because Iran is not going to go back to the negotiating table any time soon. Trump revels in his supposed ability as a dealmaker, and here, and if a deal had been reached, he could have said that his deal with Iran was much better than the one that the weakling Obama was able to reach. So I’m not convinced that he is wild about the turn of events, not that it will make much of a difference for the way things go from here.
Geminid
@Gloria DryGarden: I think a large part of the Trans- Mississippi West was one a part of the Spanish Empire. Then Napoleon basically stole it from Spain around 1800 and sold it to the U.S in 1803– the Louisiana Purchase.
And Texas belonged to Spain before it became part of the Republic of Mexico.
Glidwrith
Ran right into an empathy deficit the other day. Told my winger parents that ICE raiding a 5th grade graduation was scary.
They wanted to know why?
Once done explaining the obvious violation of rights and my hubby could end up in the middle of one of these conflicts….
They wondered if he was afraid for his job.
Ishiyama
@Steve LaBonne: Brave Oliver came to the House like a sprite,
His fiery face struck the Speaker dumb,
I say in God’s name you have sat long enough,
Do you mean to sit there til Judgment come!
Archon
@Glidwrith: i have a couple conservative friends who at least pretend not to be MAGA. I found the main difference between conservatives and liberals is that conservatives have absolutely zero empathy for people they don’t identify with, zero. MAGA just amplified the lack of empathy to malice.
Captain C
Fair or not, normies are more likely to notice and get pissed off a serious-looking senator getting manhandled and cuffed for asking reasonable questions.
Steve LaBonne
@Archon: I’m betting they’re “good” Christians.