just saw a group of masked men stuffing masked ICE agents into an unmarked car, who were saying "we're ICE we're ICE!" but the abductors shouted to the crowd "no we're ICE!" no one knew who was ICE, so no one in the crowd said anything.
— derek guy (@dieworkwear.bsky.social) June 21, 2025 at 1:36 PM
An excellent response to JDivan Vance’s kabuki thuggery. Backstory from the Guardian:
Derek Guy was a relatively unknown menswear writer with 25,000 followers on Twitter in 2022. Now, in 2025, Guy has 1.3 million followers on the platform, now called X, where this week both the vice-president of the United States and the Department of Homeland Security posted threats to deport him from the US – the country he has called home since he was a baby.
“Honestly didn’t expect this is what would happen when I joined a menswear forum 15 years ago,” Guy quipped on X on Monday. “Was originally trying to look nice for someone else’s wedding.”
The threats targeted at Guy, a fashion writer known for lampooning the sartorial decisions of rightwing figures, including JD Vance, marked another alarming escalation in the White House’s ongoing project to mass deport millions of immigrants – raising the prospect of an administration wielding deportation as a weapon of retribution against its critics…
By 2025… Trump and Miller were back in the White House, pursuing a campaign promise to “remigrate” millions of everyday people out of America. In recent weeks they appeared to ramp up this ethno-nationalist project, with disturbing footage emerging online of masked, heavily armed Ice and DHS agents abducting Latino people from schools and courthouses, or kidnapping them off the streets, often separating them from their children.
Guy felt compelled to stand up and be counted.
In a long post on X, he recounted his family’s harrowing story of escaping war in Vietnam, a journey that ended with his mom carrying him across the US border while he was still an infant. Guy revealed that he was one of millions of undocumented people living in the US.
“The lack of legal immigration has totally shaped my life,” he wrote. “It has made every interaction with the law much scarier. It has shaped which opportunities I could or could not get. It has taken an emotional toll, as this legal issue hangs over your head like a black cloud.”
He was sharing his story to “push back against the idea that all undocumented immigrants are MS-13 members”, he wrote. “I know many people in my position and they are all like your neighbors.”
Guy’s post sent far-right influencers on X into a feeding frenzy. “JD Vance I know you’re reading this and you have the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever,” a user named @growing_daniel wrote about Guy’s announcement. (@Growing_Daniel appears to be the founder of a tech startup called Abel, that uses artificial intelligence to help police write up crime reports.)
Vance did see the post, replying with a gif of Jack Nicholson from the movie Anger Management, slowly nodding his head with an intense, menacing look. A short time later, the official account of the Department of Homeland Security joined the fray. The federal agency quote-tweeted a post from another far-right account, which noted Guy’s undocumented status, with a gif from the movie Spy Kids, showing a character with futuristic glasses that can zoom in on a subject from a great distance.
The message to Guy was clear: we’re watching you. Vance and DHS did not respond to the Guardian’s requests for comment about the posts…
For now, Guy – who politely declined to comment to the Guardian about this week’s saga – is still on X, using all of this week’s attention for what he sees as good causes.
“ICE raided a downtown LA garment warehouse, arresting fourteen garment workers,” he wrote. “Many of those detained were the primary breadwinner for young children and elderly relatives. Would you consider donating to help these families?”
He also took time to taunt those calling for his deportation. When an account belonging to a luxury wristwatch dealer chastised him for “disrespecting” immigration laws, Guy responded with a one-thousand word history of how the flow of immigrants and refugees across borders over the past two centuries led to the creation of Rolex, among other luxury watch brands.
He also replied directly to Vance’s post threatening to deport him. “i think i can outrun you in these clothes,” Guy wrote, posting a photo of the vice-president seated at a political conference, his ill-fitting suit pants riding up to his calves. “you are tweeting for likes. im tweeting to be mentioned in the National Archives and Records,” Guy added…
War for Ukraine Day 1,214: Ukraine’s Defense Continues Regardless of Where the World’s Attention Is at the Moment
Jay
https://bsky.app/profile/igd.bsky.social/post/3ls5gwb6lzk2a
Jay
https://bsky.app/profile/marisakabas.bsky.social/post/3ls2zk4szts2e
Jay
Warning, vid of a brutal beating by ICE at link.
https://bsky.app/profile/thetnholler.bsky.social/post/3lsaas4jxqk2y
eclare
FFOTUS and his team are committed to destroying everything that makes the US special.
I went to sleep early, around 8 pm, then woke up around 12:30 am. Still awake. Ugh.
rikyrah
@eclare:
😪😪😪
rikyrah
@Jay:
Horrible😠😠😠
sab
I can see why Steven and Katie Miller and their ilk hate immigrants. Immigrants are the strongest defenders of what we think are American values. And they are fierce about it.
Fionna Hill. Vindmans, Alexander and Eugene. Guy Derek
ETA Other jackals please add more. You know of them.
BellyCat
What’s the over/under on declaration of martial law and countdown? (Obviously focused on blue cities.)
SpaceUnit
Pro tip: Cameo and face masks isn’t menswear.
It’s naziwear.
Suzanne
Derek Guy is one of the best and funniest people on the internet. He wants a house in a walkable neighborhood and to save cats.
NotMax
@eclare
American decreptionism.
//
sab
My own conspiracy theory with norhing to back it except for rumors of heavily masked hispanic men on ICE squads is that is that Trump’s guys have rented some of Bukele’s Salvadoran goons to be in ICE. If they get caught they get deported home to where they want to be anyway. Meanwhile they act with impunity here. Just a theory, but I believe it.
Cathie from Canada
When I read Guy’s original post, I was terrified for him but also overcome with his bravery in writing about his family history. What an outstanding example of courage.
I hope he can take some steps immediately to protect himself – Canada accepted hundreds of Vietnamese boat people in the 70s, as I recall.
sab
@Cathie from Canada: I believe he is Canadian American, so he still has Canada to go home to if he doesn’t end up in a Salvadoran prison.
prostratedragon
Some of Sunday’s antiwar demonstrations.
prostratedragon
@sab: Hope we soon find out about these people. That theory does line up with their behavior, as do other theories.
Matt McIrvin
What the ICE raids and the bombing of Iran have in common is a reliance on simple ruses based on trust in the word of US government officials. I know the administration has active contempt for that kind of trust but I wonder if they realize that, used in this way, it’s an expendable scarce resource.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
I don’t think they care. They assume that when the bills come due, it’ll be someone else’s problem. It’s not a bad assumption. Dems usually take the brunt of the fallout.
Think, also, how modern finance puts short term profit over long term viability. Same right wing mindset.
Wilson Heath
“JD Vance I know you’re reading this and you have the opportunity to do the funniest thing”???
Fuck A Chesterfield while wearing a kimono?
NotMax
@Wilson Heath
Move over, Al Jolson.
I’d walk a country mile
For your plush pile
My set-tee
;
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: I’m pretty sure “Invite the immigrant politely to an office meeting about their status and then raid the meeting” has already stopped working for the most part.
glc
@eclare:
Actually they are rather committed to a number of things that have long made the US special. What they want to destroy tend to be shared values.
Professor Bigfoot
Could you please clarify this? What, exactly, are the things to which they’re committed that “have long made the US special?”
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
Balloon Juice!
stinger
We’re being governed by tweets and menacing gifs. Bunch of 14-year-old boys. Please bring back the adults.
Splitting Image
@Professor Bigfoot:
Not special, perhaps, so much as “peculiar”.
Geminid
@prostratedragon: I wonder who printed all those signs. Some group could see this attack was probably coming and were ready to get their posters printed.
I’ll be interested to see where this protest movement goes. I guess that will depend on which way this war goes. There could be twice as many or more protesters out next weekend, or there might be half as many.
satby
Since the conspiracy theories about the 2024 election being stolen have been mentioned here, it turns out that the origin might have come from a Greg Palast article. Though the accusations now include wild statements about no votes being recorded at all for Harris in some counties and machine tampering, which isn’t what Palast originally said:
lowtechcyclist
@glc:
I join the good Professor in asking about this. It’s not like racism and misogyny are unique to America.
glory b
@Suzanne: He absolutely is.
He and Chris Evans #notcapnamerica are the only reasons I maintain X.
His knowledge of the history of clothing, fabrics, shoes and menswear, his essays on clothing structure and quality and his absolutely devastating takedowns of men on the right (he uses them as examples of bad fashion) are unparalleled.
In case you think he appeals only to the wealthy, he uses teachers, plumbers and men whose clothes came from Goodwill as examples of dressing well.
MagdaInBlack
@satby: Palast has long been beating the drum about voter suppression and purges being the issue. It doesn’t need to be some grand Elon backed conspiracy. They do it in “legal” ways.
Thanks for posting this.
lowtechcyclist
Good morning, y’all.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
The ‘guy’ is simply another ‘abundance’ bro, Reaganomic “centrist” spewing predictable white market urbanism tripe who fits right in with the rest of the Klein/MattY/Thompson/Shor/Smith/Stancil/Atlantic/Vox types. He spends much of his time blocking people who call out much of his bullshit politics. If he only stuck to sartorial issues and cats.
Geminid
This morning’s Politico Playbook tells me that there’s a NATO summit in the Netherlands this week, and Trump will fly there tomorrow. That ought to be interesting.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Good morning.
satby
@MagdaInBlack: that conspiracy theory bugs me, because it’s not really an attempt to undermine Trump; it’s an attempt (a very clever one) to undermine the Democratic party by claiming (a) it either ignored glaring evidence of fraud or (b) is too feckless and incompetent to counter obvious fraud, or (c) was in on it all along.
suzanne
@glory b:
This is one of my favorite things about him. He writes a lot about how styles that don’t come from the Europeupper class are cool and interesting,
Baud
@Geminid: How long will he stay? Place your bets.
@satby:
100%. Fascists will prevail until lib Dems learn to stop being chumps. So don’t hold your breath.
satby
Agreed. But would expand statement to all Americans. One thing we don’t lack in this country is a steady supply of chumps.
artem1s
@satby: stop passing around this bull shit. Palast has been grifting off the ‘stolen election’ conspiracies since 2000/2004. Air gapped scanners cannot be hacked to change votes. Since that bullshit has been thoroughly debunked he’s now claiming some private company physically changed the software of tens of thousand of scanners days before election.
If his claims were true that there were whole counties that didn’t record a single Harris vote the DNC lawyers would have been all over that. He’s purposely misreads polling data to back up his conspiracies and willfully ignores data that debunks it. Again he’s been grifting off this for over two decades now. If the election was stolen the way he claims that also means Obama and Biden didn’t really win too. Where do you think Donnie Dumbass got the idea these ideas in 2020?
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
Too bad it won’t happen that a bunch of masked men burst in on the meeting, seize Trump, and haul his ass to The Hague to be tried for crimes against humanity.
O. Felix Culpa
@stinger:
Sorry, one was too old and the other laughed funny.
O. Felix Culpa
@artem1s: Did you actually read what satby posted? ‘Cause you’re arguing against something that wasn’t there, and–more to the point–actually supports your point.
Edited.
Geminid
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: You left out Notorious MGP. Although you did include the Powerful and Nefarious Will Stancil.
artem1s
@Geminid: interesting. If I were him I’d think twice about going anywhere near The Hague right about now.
satby
@artem1s: I’m not passing around this bullshit, I’m directly imputing one origin of it and pointing out that the conspiracy seems to have morphed well beyond what Palast has claimed at least in the excerpt I quoted. He claims voter suppression, not machine tampering. And that it’s designed to damage Democrats, not “help” them. Can you read?
Scout211
ICYMI:
. . .
. . .
. . .
Matt McIrvin
@satby: I think Greg Palast is long past his sell-by date– he’s always got an accusation that basically every election result he doesn’t like (including the 2016 presidential primary) is the result of some kind of rigging, and while he’s done decent work bringing various forms of vote suppression to light, he’s always got to make a maximalist claim about the effect that had on the margin, which is usually not credible. I think this kind of talk on the left provided the blueprint for Trump’s insistence that he was robbed in 2020.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Geminid:
Heh heh, I was trying to trim the already way-too-long list.
I should probably rotate names.
Baud
@satby:
If lib Dems can’t lead on not being chumps, the rest of America isn’t going to follow.
Geminid
@Baud: I don’t know how long Trump will stay, but I think his team will have to manage his time carefully (if they can). He’s been looking rough lately, and there could be stamina issues.
O. Felix Culpa
FFS, FTFNYT has a guest op-ed today on why the Dems need their own Trump. Didn’t read it, not linking to it. Sheesh.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
I quit reading Booman Tribune back in the day because it peddled in conspiracy theory about the primary. Credibility is a precious thing.
Baud
@O. Felix Culpa:
Why don’t we just stay a minority party until people are tired of all the winning?
Reading the media and social media, it doesn’t appear like we add any value anyway.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: Man, you know damn well if any of them sonsabitches ever read Balloon Juice they’d be looking for most of us to send to the gulag! 😂
artem1s
@O. Felix Culpa: yes, I’ve read it. It’s been posted here before and doesn’t have anything to do with Palast’s claims. So why even mention him or ‘stolen votes’? Palast is speculating on the outcome of a legal battle that hasn’t gone to court yet. He has no idea what the outcome will be but he’s claiming to anyway because it gets him more donations, clicks and gullible readers.
Baud
According to Blue sky, last Emerson poll has Mamdani with a slight lead.
Professor Bigfoot
Aiight, I can get to that. We are the home of “the peculiar institution,” after all.
satby
@Matt McIrvin: sigh.
That wasn’t a commentary on Palast’s veracity. It was a guess at where the origin of a conspiracy theory began, as I clearly stated at the beginning of my comment. And that the conspiracy has gone beyond his claims.
I apologize to everyone for apparently posting my original comment in English rather than wingdings.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
There are benefits to not cracking the top 10,000.
Baud
Military strategy
O. Felix Culpa
@artem1s: It seems we didn’t read the same post. I saw it as a potentially more plausible “origin story” rather than the fantastical (and ridiculous) claims it morphed into. It was decidedly NOT the same content as was posted by some commenters yesterday. Definitely not a buy-in into conspiracy claims about stolen elections involving tampered machines and vote counts.
Ohio Mom
@glory b: Derek Guy is also on BlueSky:
derek guy
@dieworkwear.bsky.social
Betty
@Splitting Image: Do you mean “exceptional”?
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
I’m sure Melanoma will be OK with that. ;-)
lowtechcyclist
@O. Felix Culpa:
But please tell us who wrote it so we can keep track of whose advice to ignore.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
All of them, Katie.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud: Your point, it is taken. Besides, we may not have a choice in the matter. It appears that the media are enjoying themselves much more these days. None of that boring competent governance stuff to understand and communicate, not that they made much of an effort.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Geminid: Recall that some of the horseshoe left believed Harris would start a war. They’ve been waiting for someone to start a war they can protest. Forgive my cynicism, it frustrates me that the whole country isn’t united against Trump.
O. Felix Culpa
@lowtechcyclist:
Made me look. It’s a Galen Druke, host of something called the “GD Politics” podcast. Maybe he’s aspiring to be the Dems’ Joe Rogan?
Baud
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
Based on my Blue sky reading yesterday, they still believe that. It’s why people still shouldn’t believe who won the election mattered.
lowtechcyclist
@O. Felix Culpa:
Of course not, that would have felt too much like work.
Baud
@O. Felix Culpa:
As always, we can only control ourselves.
O. Felix Culpa
@lowtechcyclist:
Indeed. So instead we have a never-ending evil clown show with DRAMA! and EXPLOSIONS! So way more better.
lowtechcyclist
@O. Felix Culpa:
Thanks. Never heard of him, but if I hear of him again, I know better than to take him seriously.
Another Scott
Good morning. Stay cool this week.
Meanwhile, … Warning! TheHill.com:
The monsters are up to their usual attempts to say the math is wrong, reality doesn’t exist, all that matters is what the party says.
Grr…
Presumably they’ll pass something – they have the majority and know that they won’t get this chance again. We have to make the cost as high as possible, and use this dangerous monstrosity against them in every upcoming election to regain the majority.
Eyes on the prizes.
Forward!!
Best wishes,
Scott.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud:
Are you sure we can even do that? I find your faith inspiring. ;)
suzanne
@O. Felix Culpa: Galen Druke used to be host of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@O. Felix Culpa: I honestly think that’s what some leftists want, a socialist dictator who will enact the policies they want, regardless of whether they have popular support.
O. Felix Culpa
@suzanne: Thanks, that podcast was not on my playlist, so I’d never heard of him.
Baud
@O. Felix Culpa:
Anyone who proposes a Democratic Trump needs to identify which vulnerable population Dems should demonize unapologetically.
lowtechcyclist
@O. Felix Culpa:
From their POV, yes.
Until their turn to get rounded up and sent to CECOT comes along, that is. But they won’t believe that’ll happen until it does.
Matt McIrvin
@O. Felix Culpa: Palast’s claimed mechanisms are usually relatively plausible ones, often things we know Republicans really do… he just puts his thumb on the scale when he makes claims about numbers, assuming every single possibly suppressed vote would have gone to the losing side, that kind of thing. That gets him to the shocking topline claim that the election was stolen. And he does it every time, unless the candidate he favors wins.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
I have no interest in a Democratic Trump, but does it necessarily have to be a vulnerable population that such a person would demonize? Couldn’t a Dem Trump demonize oligarchs? “Malefactors of great wealth” and all that?
satby
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: It’s clearly what some leftists want. Democracy frustrates them just as much as it does right wingers because they have to accommodate people who don’t agree with them.
Another Scott
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Something something a solution that’s simple, neat, and wrong.
Most people have enough trouble keeping their lives together. They don’t want to, and won’t, spend lots of time thinking about social policy, government efficiency, and the advancement of humanity. We, sensibly, developed the “division of labor” so that some people worry about that stuff so normies can do what they need to do.
We need to find ways to have more normies buy-in to the necessity of investment in government and the commonweal, and we need good people on our side finding the language and pomp and circumstance to make it fun and exciting and enjoyable to believe those things. And, of course, the pace of progress has to be fast enough, and visible enough, so that normies see that leaders are walking the talk and doing what they said they would do.
It’s going to take a while…
:-/
Best wishes,
Scott.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
No, that wouldn’t be a Dem Trump. That would be something else entirely.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: Invited to a meeting ostensibly about something else. Maybe he will be arrested for war crimes?
Chief Oshkosh
@O. Felix Culpa: Yep. When I awoke to yesterday to the morning “news” shows, it was clear how absolutely THRILLED every single talking head and expert is about being able to cover a “war” again. Their excitement and energy is palpable.
Sick fucks and ghouls, all of them.
Another Scott
… Mmm. That’s a good fungus. We’ll put it in the soup! – Gahan Wilson
Phys.org:
Nature has been doing biochemistry for a few billion years or so. It’s smart to look at what she’s built. We’ve still got a lot to learn.
Best wishes,
Scott.
O. Felix Culpa
@Another Scott:
I agree with that goal. At the same time, the prevailing winds in powerful circles are explicitly against that understanding. For example, Ms. O was shocked to discover that her evangelical brother stands firmly against the “common good,” even as a concept. Apparently that is a bad thing these days. Along with empathy being a sin. So there’s a whole lotta education and reorientation that needs to happen, and where is it going to come from?
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud:
Sounds like Baud is angling for the nomination…AGAIN.
I have to admit, “Vote for me; I’m something else!” is a much better campaign slogan than “Vote for me; I’ll rule naked!”
Another Scott
@O. Felix Culpa: Everyone speaking up who can.
E.g. those religious leaders speaking up out in LA.
It’s going to take a while, but it can be done. Life is change. We can help guide that change.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Princess
@satby: That conspiracy theory is also an attempt to attack democracy itself by getting people on the centre-left of the spectrum to decide it doesn’t work and there is no point voting. It’s vile.
O. Felix Culpa
@Another Scott:
I’m glad they’re doing that. Thanks for the link. These people aren’t “Christians” in my BIL’s world, but hopefully they and others will make an impact over time.
ETA: I was thrilled to see the Catholic bishops bearing witness through their presence at the immigration courts, causing ICE to melt away.
satby
@Princess: that too.
Princess
@Baud: I don’t get the Mamdani love. Dude is 33 and has never done much of anything, no experience at all in city government. Pretty difficult platform he has no hope of implementing. If he were to become mayor, he’d be eaten alive. If he wins the primary he’ll get destroyed by Cuomo in the general. I guess he’s cute and I assume he’s charismatic because he has nothing else going for him.
I’d like Cuomo and Adams to be beaten but I don’t think this is how to get there.
Bupalos
@O. Felix Culpa: We do need politicians that can punch above their policy weight by understanding new political dynamics. That’s what Trump does. We’re busy practicing a respectability/institutionalist politics that is deader than a doornail.
One of the problems with the way we fall all over each other with one-upmanship on “I hate Trump and MAGAs more than you do” all day is we can’t recognize what Trump does well or how a lot of his support has been won. We spend very little time thinking about the state of the electorate and how we can approach it effectively in this increasingly destabilized age.
Another Scott
@O. Felix Culpa: +1
We can only control ourselves.
We also need to recharge our laughter reserves. I glance at Vee’s page on Mastodon a few times a day to try to do that.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Baud
@Princess:
I’m not there, so I can’t say. I respect whatever the voters decide, however.
ETA: I’m surprised to hear that NY doesn’t have a sore loser law, and that Cuomo can run in the general even if he loses.
schrodingers_cat
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Can you give us some examples. I have followed Derek Guy for over a year and I haven’t come across what you are talking about. I did however see the white purity left dunking over him and calling him names because his family managed to escape from Vietnam not that long ago.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Definitions, nomenclature, whatever.
schrodingers_cat
@Princess: The purity left has latched on to him because he has radical politics and is good looking.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
All we have are words until more people learn to mime.
ETA:
If a Bill Clinton type Dem wins in 2028, would people call him a Dem Trump simply because he won.
The essence of Trumpism is bigotry. I hope we never have a Dem Trump.
satby
@Princess: Chicago has had some pretty mixed results electing a similar Democratic Socialist mayor, who at least had a little experience.
I wish people could get past slogans and focus on actual, attainable goals and results, and vote accordingly. But, that would require the ability to read and analyze accurately, so I don’t like our chances. Anywhere.
schrodingers_cat
@glory b: I like his account. I would love it if there was an account that does what Guy does for women’s fashion.
Suzanne
@Princess: Multiple people whose politics I trust believe that Lander is the best candidate. I am not a NYC resident, so I am not familiar with all of the candidates.
What I don’t get about this race is why it seems like everyone has settled into camps behind one of two really problematic candidates. Like…. there are other good choices.
I get the concept of harm reduction when the choice is binary, but this isn’t.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: People clamoring for a Dem Trump love them some Bernie Sanders. He is a xenophobic misogynist whose bigotry has a veneer of class warrior rhetoric and wears economic justice clothes.
Belafon
@Baud: Democratic voters like their chumps, or Cuomo wouldn’t be back in the news.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
True, but there just seemed to be an element of arbitrariness there. Humpty Dumpty used words too.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: What white Dems want is to be reunited with their race without having to sell out their values. That’s what I think a Dem Trump is all about.
@Belafon:
True.
Suzanne
@Belafon: Many Democratic voters also don’t like women having any power or respect. And that includes a chunk of women who have internalized misogyny…. many such cases.
So we get Cuomo slithering back out of the swamp. “He’s been punished enough” and all that.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
I didn’t invent the phrase “Democratic Trump.” I acknowledge there are people who see Trump’s success as grounded on something other than punching down on innocent people. But I don’t.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud:
QFT.
@Baud: Agree with that point too. Trumpism is all about bullying, dominance displays, and punching down. Perhaps those behaviors are attractive to a certain subset of (mostly) men, but they’re not what I want my party or candidates to reflect.
Anyway
Apparently the awful Bill Ackman was an early backer of a Cuomo candidacy and a big supporter. Ackman is no friend of Democrats, he was very anti-Harris in last year’s elections. He was also an early mover in bringing down the (female) presidents of Harvard, Penn — he is no friend of Democrats. News that he is supporting Cuomo is scary.
Belafon
@Baud:
They’re ok with equality in theory, but it shouldn’t inconvenience them in any way.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
“How can Republicans keep voting for that serial creep and blatantly corrupt asshole in the Oval Office?”
say people supporting Cuomo, unironically.
I ran across a piece last week about Super PAC donations:
https://x.com/rozina_ali/status/1936474115512180819/photo/1
Can’t verify its accuracy. If so, that’s a lot of money going to a guy who I’m sure won’t be allowed to hug women.
Finally, this dire warning from noted political liberal, Larry Fucking Summers:
Most people I network with in NYC are ranking Mamdani/Lander 1/2 in whichever order the individual prefers.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: I know it’s a pleasant fantasy, but Donald Trump is not gonna be arrested and taken to the Hague this week.
Matt McIrvin
@Princess: Vote suppression is a real thing and probably does swing some close elections– and if it does, I want to know about it. But when people start claiming that every Republican win is the result of cheating I start tuning them out. I haven’t heard of any really credible reason to expect that Harris was headed for a win, just last-minute hopium.
Baud
@Geminid:
Oliva Rodrigo isn’t going to ask me out this week either. Let people have their thing.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Since he done nothing, he’s made no mistakes, therefor he has a perfect record.
Is the real problem with the Left is we have an excessive number of middle managers who are mentality incapable of seeing how dumb this thinking is?
Princess
@Suzanne: yeah, I have the impression there are several good candidates in the race for mayor — Lander for one has relevant experience and seems like a good progressive. But NYC tends to make terrible choices.
bjacques
@lowtechcyclist: the NATO summit is *in* The Hague, and the International Criminal Court is just a few tram stops away from the venue, so it’s as good an opportunity as ever.
Suzanne
@Anyway: So there have been plenty of Dem men over the years who have been gross to women. But Cuomo is among the worst, in my opinion, because his behavior was serial, an abuse/flex of his authority and power, and in the course of exercising his public duties, often with other people around. So it’s not just a matter of consensual adults making ill-advised choices, or crossing personal/professional boundaries, or a one-off thing that he apologized for. It was an ongoing flex, with the effect of humiliating the victims and also to create a culture of low-grade fear amongst women government employees. It should be disqualifying for him to have any position of public trust again, IMO.
satby
@Geminid: clickbait rules our world.
O. Felix Culpa
@Suzanne: Agree. I hope the citizens of NYC choose wisely.
schrodingers_cat
@O. Felix Culpa: Who is the author?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes this, their mouths say no, but their ballets say yes, what the hell? I could see voting for Cuomo if the alternative is that evil gnome Rudy Giuliani, but it’s not.
schrodingers_cat
@Belafon: No not even in theory. Their equality involves the ones deemed less than to STFU and cheer on. Modern version of the white man’s burden.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Marist poll and FTFNYT piece on said poll from the 18th:
https://archive.is/sWs2D#selection-891.0-891.284
One of the key takeaways from the poll, fwiw:
It also indicated that Cuomo supporters were the least likely to rank anybody other than him.
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat:
Galen Druke, host of something called the “GD Politics” podcast. (#70) According to Suzanne, he is the former host of the 538 podcast. Never heard of him myself, but I am not aware of all internet and/or podcast traditions.
Suzanne
@O. Felix Culpa: I have to say, seeing powerful elder statesman and -woman Dems endorse Andrew Cuomo has been just incredibly disheartening.
Sigh.
schrodingers_cat
@O. Felix Culpa: That sounds like a fake name. NYT politics desk is garbage.
Jackie
Speaking of staying cool…
Elizabelle
Betty Cracker has a fresh thread up. Vibe on over when you like.
Belafon
@Suzanne: Because being a good political voter is a lot of work. Why study when you can either pick a name you know or the name that is the most exciting?
O. Felix Culpa
@Suzanne: I suppose there’s some realpolitik reason driving those recommendations, but I find it disheartening too.
ETA: I wonder if gross misogynistic behavior is still somewhat more acceptable overall than racist behavior (I mean in non-rightwing circles). The Cuomo endorsements might suggest that.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
It could come to something akin to that if Cuomo wins the primary. Current hated Mayor Adams is running as an independent in November. Oh wait, Cuomo’s said he’ll run as a write-in in November regardless of the primary. I kinda doubt he would if he loses badly this week and then presumably all that PAC money will dry up but wtf knows.
Talk about quality choices! Talk about holding one’s nose until it’s like being crushed by a Vice Grip!
Suzanne
@O. Felix Culpa: I haven’t listened to 538 Politics in probably two years. I didn’t know Galen Druke had left it. He’s also a frequent guest on….. CNN? MSNBC? One of those. (SuzMom watches those, and I sometimes can pick him out, because he has a distinctive voice.)
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Yep. Nailed it.
Suzanne
@Belafon: The Dem pols endorsing Cuomo could also do some damn extra work. Normies have the excuse of having their own lives to lead.
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat:
Truth.
Belafon
@schrodingers_cat: I just still see a continuation of the “If you’ll just keep quiet, eventually things will get better for you” type of white “caring” politics that was around in my childhood. But I am a white man looking at the “concerned” white Democrats, not a minority looking at them.
Until this year, I was a part of my local CERT team. I was the only Democrat on the team. I even tried to change that by visiting the local Democratic party meeting. For a group of people who claim to want to help others, too many Democrats are unwilling to lift a finger to do it.
Jackie
@Another Scott: I thought the Senate parliamentarian has already disallowed several other aspects of the bill? And if the Thume senate pushes for the vote anyway, the Byrd Rule kicks in, meaning it will only allow the bill to pass with 60 yes votes rather than the simple majority?
Suzanne
@O. Felix Culpa:
I don’t know how this could possibly be measured…. but I can assure you that gross misogynistic behavior is not just acceptable but encouraged in all manner of social arenas.
O. Felix Culpa
@Suzanne: Agree. That is why I have opted out of a lot of social arenas.
Belafon
@Belafon: Also, though, what would be more comfortable and simple than to just slide over to the other people that won’t make you work?
schrodingers_cat
@Belafon: I think we are saying the same thing with different words. This was the exact paternalism self identified British liberals used in India. Many white liberals/leftists are just carrying on that august tradition
I am studying about the British Empire in India right now since Trumpists are itching to launch East India Company 2.0. Mercantilism with a navy to back it up.
Ocotillo
@Baud: I wonder if polling is done by RCV?
Lyrebird
@Baud: The extra waste, fraud, and abuse is tiny compared to the awfulness of Trump’s foreign policy, but what a fkn waste
May I come sit by you for a spell? I brought my own hankies.
Jackie
@Anyway: Bill Clinton also endorsed Cuomo over the weekend. What the hell?
Baud
@Ocotillo:
Yes. The post said that Mamdani takes the lead in the seventh round of counting.
Belafon
@schrodingers_cat: Agree.
glory b
@Bupalos: What does Trump do well?
How has his support been won?
In hi first primary, he was at the back of a very large pack until he came down the escalator, called Hispanics a bunch of rapists, murderers and drug dealers and promised to prohibit Muslims from entering the country.
He shot to number one and stayed there for the rest of the primary.
What lessons should Democrats take from that?
Soprano2
Thanks for the laugh! Who uses wingdings, anyway?
I understood what you were saying.
Matt McIrvin
@Another Scott: We need to be able to make this work even while losing over and over and over. Because we’re going to lose a lot.
Its a tall order and I’m not sure it can be done. Liberals need some assurance that liberalism can actually sometimes be effective. Lost causes work better with homicidal and/or suicidal fanatics.
Soprano2
@Baud: This is the person a majority of voters thought would be a better president than the black woman. I can’t roll my eyes hard enough.
schrodingers_cat
@Soprano2: That is the power of whiteness.
Soprano2
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: It’ll be interesting to see how they make this war against Iran the fault of Democrats.
Soprano2
@Chief Oshkosh: I swear, they think “manly men” start wars, and only “weak men” want to end them. Or something like that, it keeps changing. I agree that they’re excited at the thought of another war to cover, the previous ones got too boring for them.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: So he’s promising people things he can’t possibly deliver and has a charismatic package. That explains his popularity. People want to believe they can have things that aren’t politically possible, at least not immediately. They hate the long slog that is necessary to make the things they want a reality. It’s why they want a dictator from the left.
Soprano2
In spite of the idea of “Me Too”, our society as a whole still doesn’t take sexual harassment and assault of women seriously. I think many women are terrified that their sons will be wrongly accused of it and thus metaphorically tarred and feathered forever, that’s why they’re inclined to forgive someone like Cuomo.
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: As with Iraq, some chunk of high-profile Democrats are going to endorse these attacks– the foreign-policy blob and the media have a bias in favor of such things, and there’s, I think, an emotional need to believe that the people in charge aren’t just being stupid, even when it’s Trump’s crowd. And nobody wants to get smeared as an Iran apologist.
That’s going to make it easier to claim that these Democrats would have done the same if they were in charge.
Suzanne
@Soprano2: Some women also find that behavior validating, in a weird way. I have witnessed this…. sexual harassment is interpreted as proof of one’s attractiveness. And everyone tends to recreate the dynamics they’ve grown up with. Like I said: internalized misogyny.
Also, I keep noting: women in positions of power in the workplace is a really new social order. Newness is threatening.
schrodingers_cat
@Soprano2: In a nutshell, yes.
Suzanne
@Soprano2: ETA: The other thing that I think is important to note is that there’s a large generation gap amongst women and how they vote. Of course there is. I would love to think that older women have younger women’s best interests in mind, and want them to have full liberation, even if they didn’t have it themselves. But most people, including women, are self-interested. Women who have structured all of their values and life choices around patriarchy have a strong incentive in upholding it. To reject it is, in a fashion, a way of saying one’s life project was a failure.
Geminid
@Soprano2: One line of argument I’ve seen is that Democrats are responsible for what the Trump administration does because they let Trump beat them.
dww44
@satby: Thinking voters are what we need a lot more of in this this country.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Suzanne:
This.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Geminid: It’s like an abusive household. “Why didn’t mom stop dad?”
Ben Cisco
@Geminid: Sounds more like a line of coke got done by whoever blurted that line out.