Ten years ago, love won. On this day in 2015, Obergefell v. Hodges guaranteed marriage equality across the U.S. The White House, lit in rainbow colors that night, became a powerful symbol of progress and pride that continues to shine today. ??????
— Robin Kelly, Ph.D. (@robinlynnekelly.bsky.social) June 26, 2025 at 9:49 AM
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From commentor JCJ:
I am currently in Bangkok where Pride is much more celebrated. A large shopping and business complex near where I stay is called EmDistrict. Much more acknowledgement of Pride than I have seen in the US. Here are some pictures.
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Absolutely incredible turnout for Budapest Pride! So proud of all the organizers, including some old friends, who estimate hundreds of thousands— major embarrassment to Orban
— Phillip Ayoub (@payoub.bsky.social) June 28, 2025 at 1:23 PM
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Support at Dublin Pride today:
— OleBiscuitBarrel.bsky.social (@olebiscuitbarrel.bsky.social) June 28, 2025 at 2:56 PM
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Pride in NYC ??????
— wlkwerks.bsky.social (@wlkwerks.bsky.social) June 27, 2025 at 9:10 AM
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The Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., includes a section of graves of LGBTQ Americans. We take a pride month tour.
— NPR (@npr.org) June 28, 2025 at 10:42 AM
NPR, “A D.C. cemetery’s ‘Gay Corner’ is a final resting place for trailblazing LGBTQ+ icons”:
In southeast Washington D.C. is a more-than two-century-old cemetery where members of Congress who died while in office are buried. It’s also home to a little-known final resting place for some trailblazing LGBTQ+ icons.
A group of about 20 visitors are quietly led down the oblong-shaped stone markers and squat sandstone blocks of Congressional Cemetery by docent Jeff Rollins, who volunteers for the non profit organization that helps manage the 35-acre cemetery…
As the group moves through the cemetery, Rollins notes the graves of Barbara Gittings, the mother of the modern gay rights movement; the founding father of the Harlem Renaissance Alain Locke; Ken Dresser, who designed Disney theme park parades and shows; and the grave of the man who created a stir when he became the first military member to come out publicly, Leonard Matlovich.
The granite grave is marked with American and pride flags; the headstone is piled high with stones and features pink triangles. The stone reads, ‘A Gay Vietnam Veteran.’ Below that: “When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.”
Matlovich served in the Air Force and did three tours in Vietnam. He was awarded a bronze medal, received a Purple Heart, and was lauded for exemplary service.
Then, in 1975, he told his commanding officer he was gay. Shortly after, the Air Force honorably discharged him.
It was also around this time gay rights advocate Frank Kameny (who also has a memorial marker nearby, though he is not buried at Congressional) was looking for “perfect soldier” to test the military’s ban on gay servicemen. Kameny found that in Matlovich…
Baud
Good for Hungary.
UncleEbeneezer
Earlier this week a student of mine who is heading to college in the Fall was asked by a younger student “Are you Red or Blue?” obviously referring to politics. He responded “honestly neither” with borderline disgust and it reminded me that there is no bigger problem in America than this dumb fucking BothSides, false-equivalence bullshit that is so goddamn widespread despite all the real tangible good things Dems give us and Republicans hate/destroy. This BothSides shit gets spread throughout our society by numerous bad actors and useful idiots and it continually cripples our electoral chances and reverses all of our hard-fought progress. Everyone who participates in perpetuating this widespread ambivalence, even here, even on issue x or y (cough, cough….Gaza) is culpable. It’s not just the media to blame and it sure as Hell isn’t “Dem messaging” either. We will never get anywhere until we can all learn to stop reflexively shitting on the Dem Party every time we are mad or scared. Both Sides are NOT the fucking same and we, the people, need to make that message our constant, relentless refrain.
Fair Economist
@UncleEbeneezer: That’s a righteous rant.
Baud
@UncleEbeneezer:
My understanding is that the post Gen Z cohort is increasingly red.
You can get angry at the BothSides people, but it’s about as useful as getting mad at MAGA. The attitude is ingrained in the culture because of the class of people Dems represent and allow into power for the first time.
zhena gogolia
@UncleEbeneezer: This morning I was so down about the fact that the Founders gave us these checks and balances that have completely collapsed because not a single Repug has any integrity, so both Congress and the Supreme Court are just licking his jackboots. Then I thought, “I would rather be among the powerless right now, if being in power means you have to be evil.”
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
You should say that at church this morning.
Josie
@zhena gogolia:
Evil and spineless.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: We’re having a drag sermon! (In the summer we go to our sister church, then they come to us in August, so this is their celebration of becoming “open and affirming” 20 years ago; we did it earlier).
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I love Christian drag races!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Denver Pride Parade starts in a few hours. New parade route because of the clusterfuck that is Colfax goes thru my neighborhood. Our old friend who transitioned last year is in it again this year marching with Brianna Titone.
The thing has been massively corporatized over the years. This year, Coors appeared to have dropped sponsorship because it changed to the “Vizzy Denver Pride Parade”.
Vizzy is the hard seltzer brand of…Coors (Molson-Coors to be precise). So, they didn’t drop whatever financial support, just changed the “face” of it. For a corporate behemoth, that’s probably as liberal an approach as we could expect.
Thus endeth today’s lesson in Pointless Corporate History of Support for Once Non Mainstream Social Issues.
Another Scott
@UncleEbeneezer: The problem isn’t the powerless idealistic youngsters who want simple, obvious solutions to complex problems. I was a guy like that once – I grew out of it.
The problem is the folks in power now who are actively doing evil things.
Eyes on the prizes.
Best wishes,
Scott.
David_C
Manned our church’s Pride booth yesterday. It was really hot, but I got to hang out with fellow parishioners, greet lots of people, see a former coworker (much to my surprise) and meet an ex-NIHer who wrote a very public letter of resignation, and also supported an impressive Mohawk.
Splitting Image
@Baud:
Actually, getting mad and staying mad at MAGA is a useful skill that I don’t think enough people have acquired.
A major characteristic of Bothsiders is that they get angry once in awhile at Republicans, post a rant or two online, and get over it, but they get angry at Democrats and hold a grudge against them for decades.
The New York Times is very good at representing the way a lot of Americans think. A Republican scandal is worth a day’s outrage at the most, but a Democratic scandal will hold their attention forever.
Baud
@Splitting Image:
I get what you’re saying. But getting angry at MAGA won’t get them to stop being MAGA. I get the impression that UE wants the BothSides people to stop being BothSides people.
NotMax
An open thread FYI.
Promising discovery but hope it is not rushed to market as history teaches there can appear a fly of unintended consequences in the ointment of application.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@zhena gogolia: “I would rather be among the powerless right now, if being in power means you have to be evil.”
Good thought. I’m struggling these days, fighting off despair over the unrestrained greed and cruelty of the powerful.
laura
When I was a foolish young virgin back in the mid 80’s I worked at the Safeway in Guerneville, just a short block away from Stumptown Annie’s Pizza. I knew; as a customer; it’s owner, Leonard Matlovitz- he was no nonsense, quiet, and focused on getting his shopping done and on his way. There was much joy and living out loud, but the sadness of living in the time of a plague just hung so heavy in the air. Here’s Leonard speaking from the DC Cemetary: https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/photos-history-making-gay-vietnam-veteran-leonard-matlovich-once-owed-a-p/?utm_source=article_share&utm_medium=copy-link-button
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: @zhena gogolia:
I hadn’t thought about this situation in those terms, but that is similar to how I feel when someone who is angry and bitter is attacking me for bullshit reasons.
When that happens, I think to myself that I would rather be me on the receiving end than be the person who is angry and bitter.
prostratedragon
Reading of the Plug Ugly Bill continues in the Senate. Like the Qing dynasty mentioned recently, it is a theater without an audience, at least for now.
Kosh III
We celebrated quietly at home after a long day of travel. We did Pride in Nashville last year and had a great time but felt really old and obsolete and ready to pass the torch on to the young folks.
prostratedragon
@WaterGirl: Like the Beatitudes.
bbleh
Getting mad at MAGA is indeed useful, as long as it doesn’t stop there. Anger by itself is just grouchy and frustrating, but it can be a spur to action. Channel it and use it! It’s win-win!
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all!
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
Good morning.
UncleEbeneezer
@Another Scott: When elections are determined by margins of 1.5% then I’m sorry but the young and idealistic (and clueless) are every bit as much to blame. Including those who simply don’t bother to vote. And if you don’t think Both Sides bullshit plays a huge role in creating that voter apathy then I have a bridge to sell you. There’s a reason Both Sides is the go-to play for every disinformation campaign in every big-stakes election.
eclare
Gorgeous photo today.
UncleEbeneezer
@Baud: Both Sides bullshit plays a huge role in pushing those young voters Red. Young Red-leaning voters won’t go three seconds without spouting some “But Dems are just as bad” nonsense. The two phenomena are not separate or unrelated. Six Million Dems stayed home in 2024.
Tony Jay
Why I always try to bear in mind these days is that we, the people who want everyone to have better lives and the freedom to explore who they are and who they can be in safety, owe the retrograde scumbags absolutely nothing.
Not our agreement. Not our subservience. Not even our surprise. We owe them nothing. Except the blank, obdurate wall of our endless distain and complete rejection of their shitty, cramped worldview.
They’ve always been there, smearing shit on the walls, flicking boogers at the smart kids, breaking things because they don’t know how to make things. That’s just who they are. And however annoying as fuck they’ve made themselves, we’ve always laid them out flat eventually.
Turns out anger actually is an energy.
wenchacha
I happened upon Jeffrey Sachs talking to The Mirror in a podcast.
Summarizing: he says he knows all the people involved in Ukraine/Russia war, and that US is doing this for Netanyahu and other world leaders. Sachs maintains everybody wants to defeat Russia, but Putin didn’t want a war, and Ukraine went ahead with one.
And he said Dems and GOP exactly the same , which never makes me happy to hear from anyone with a microphone.
So we are all naive, etc.
Honest to God, I don’t know. I have to believe somebody.
A very brief search didn’t tell me what he is all about or what he supports, except Putin doesn’t want war.
I know I have heard his name, maybe more through public health?
planetjanet
@UncleEbeneezer:
I see the “Dems are just as bad” crap as not wanting to argue the Rep position. It’s a cop out. They feel things, not understand issues
Raoul Paste
@Tony Jay: A welcome remark, and well said.
Another Scott
@UncleEbeneezer: We seem to be coming at this from opposite ends of the stick. You’re generalizing from one specific example. I’m taking the general case and working back to the specific example.
Yes, when things are close, everything matters.
Yes, both-sides framing is a big problem.
But I continue to argue that making an example of one high school kid isn’t very instructive. And I’d go further and argue that making an example of him is counter-productive.
Pew has more numbers on the breakdown of the 2024 electorate (from 6/26):
Finally!! It’s not The Boomers’ fault any more!!11 :-/
They do a similar breakdown for gender, Hispanic or not, education, etc. If one wants to build a story that it’s this or that group’s fault, there may be data for it. I don’t think that’s productive – figuring out blame won’t help moving forward. Understanding changes and trying to figure out what it means in approaches to get voters to hear and listen to us, figuring out what policies to push and what to downplay, might, though.
I also think that it’s important not to over-count or try to make a stronger case than the evidence warrants. E.g. The percentage of white voters is dropping in younger cohorts – is age or non-whiteness or something else the dominant factor (if any). How do regional differences factor in? Etc.
We’re a big, complicated, messy country. We’re always going to have disagreements. We have to have enough agreement – every time – to keep the monsters out of power.
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Nukular Biskits
@Another Scott:
And, stating the obvious, that’s the problem.
There is very little, if any, common ground when a large swath of the American electorate believes, for example, that all undocumented immigrants are “criminals” and should be deported immediately with no due process. Ditto for silly little constitutional checks on power slowing Big Daddy down from further consolidating his power. The list goes on.
I don’t disagree at all with your statement but the devil’s in the details.
Signed, Captain Obvious.
NotMax
Irony is not dead. Just found out a newspaper in Florida’s capital (first published in 1905) is the Tallahassee Democrat.
;)
oldgold
I am not so damn sure Obergefell v. Hodges is settled law.
Within the three years I expect Obergefell v. Hodges and Brown v. Board of Education to be challenged.
What seemed exceedingly far fetched several years ago as to these two bedrock decisions, now seems to be well within the realm of the possible.
Kayla Rudbek
@NotMax: y’all making me cheer on Southern Cal this morning 😁. Seriously though if they can make it work without too many downstream problems, this is great news.
Eolirin
@Baud: Only the boys iirc.
Another Scott
@Nukular Biskits: Lt. Obvious, here. Sometimes the obvious needs to be said! ;-)
More in the Pew link above:
This stuff is complicated, because people are complicated. There are pacifists working at the Pentagon, Yankees fans in Boston, and atheists working at the Vatican. Groupings of humans only reveal so much, and global percentages aren’t the same as actual numbers of votes in specific areas and precincts…
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Kayla Rudbek
@wenchacha: I thought Jeffrey Sachs is an economist (which is to say that if he’s of the freshwater/Chicago line of thinking, he’s a damned Calvinist pretending to be a social scientist).
Geminid
@wenchacha: There may be a different Jeffrey Sachs involved with public health; but I think this would be the Jeffrey Sachs who has been a persistent contrarian voice on the US’s Ukraine policy. I think thisSachs has an academic background in international relations. Other commenters probably know him better.
Kayla Rudbek
@oldgold: whatever the current state of the law is, the Seditious Six will mess it up in favor of the Republicans and the rich (and the Federal Circuit will also keep on messing up patent law).
UncleEbeneezer
Exactly! And this bullshit behavior makes voter turnout a constant challenge/problem for our side by giving the Media the BothSides narrative they so desperately crave. The Media can then point and say “See, even this Progressive/Independent/Dem says Both Sides are to blame…”
Betty Cracker
@NotMax: They meant the Tallahassee Dixiecrat in 1905. ;-) I read it only occasionally, but it seems to have evolved into a pretty solid daily.
Nukular Biskits
@Betty Cracker @NotMax:
I’m surprised DeSantis hasn’t issued an OE the FL Legislature hasn’t passed legislation to rename it. ;>)
UncleEbeneezer
@Another Scott: Both Sides bullshit has been a problem with EVERY age/demo and has been for my entire life. We would have more Dem voters (in every demographic) without it. I come from a family of Libertarian-ish people who have built their entire political identity around it. This isn’t extrapolation from just one example. It’s one example reminding me that I’ve seen enough of this shit to account for the margin of loss in every major election over the years and especially the tight ones. It’s an avenue that we can work on to get Dem-leaning people to actually get on our side once they see that their Both Sides beliefs are nonsense. To me, this is one of the most important political tasks we face. The fact that Russia, Iran, China etc., weaponize Both Sides sentiments every time they run disinformation campaigns to suppress Dem voting, proves my point.
Another Scott
@wenchacha: @Kayla Rudbek: @Geminid:
Kayla’s recollection matches mine.
Sachs was heavily involved in the USSR/Russia transition in the Yeltsin years, working on the team to try to get their economy working again. E.g. He became a punching bag for all those who – rightly or wrongly – blame the US for the rise of the oligarchs, etc., there.
(I think the folks who argue that the Russian leadership at the time had agency, and the structure of the existing Russian economy (such as it was) fixed the allowable paths, make a very good point. So Sachs and the US had very little leverage on how things turned out. But I’m no expert.
There is a guy on Twitter who had giant threads about this kind of stuff – https://xcancel.com/kamilkazani. I haven’t read him in a long while.)
HTH!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Kristine
@eclare: My thoughts exactly!
Geminid
@Tony Jay: Hey, Tony Jay! I believe you are knowledgeable as to “the Beautiful Game.” I wonder if you have watched any video of Arda Güler, Reál Madrid’s young midfielder,and what you think.
The 20 year-old Güler is from Ankara, Turkiye and was starting for Fenerbahce when he was 17 years old.
Geminid
@Another Scott: I’d be interested to see the breakdown by gender among the naturalized citizens who shifted from Binen in 2020 to Trump in 2024.
Layer8Problem
@Baud, @zhena gogolia: That’s a damned fine sentiment.
Kelly
Border Collie Daisy had her first birthday last week. She also became a confident swimmer. She’s always loved wading. Before last week if she wandered out deeper than she could touch she worriedly swam back. We’re going through another phase of pulling hard on her leash when I walk her. We always walk her for about 10 minutes on leash before we turn her loose in the woods. She minds better for Mrs. Kelly.
https://bsky.app/profile/northsantiam.bsky.social/post/3lsqx6ktn2k2f
MagdaInBlack
@Kelly: Does swimming wear them out faster? Cause holy cow, Border Collies are high energy =-) Love them, but wow!
Another Scott
@Geminid: I don’t see those numbers – the absolute numbers surveyed may be too small to have a statistically-significant fine-grained result for that. Dunno.
I did see this there (note the Pew link is 6 pages):
(Emphasis added.)
There’s that unstated woman/Black president thing again, I think. :-(
And that’s yet another bit of evidence that the “everyone hates the loooser Democratic Party” story is propaganda.
This figuring out the electorate stuff is complicated.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Kelly
@MagdaInBlack: Currently swimming wears her out a little faster but she’s gaining endurance.
MagdaInBlack
@Kelly: Great….
I had a Fox Terrier of similar energy level. I loved her then but I am now a lazy old crone who needs a lazy dog =-)
Nukular Biskits
I know this is an open thread but, back to the subject of this open thread (which is a contradiction, I know … LOL):
I honestly couldn’t recall if there was a Gulf Coast Pride Festival down here this year so I had to Google it. This post got me to wondering if it had be canceled/postponed in light of the increase in hateful rhetoric from those primarily (but, sadly, not exclusively) on the right.
Turns out it was held on June 7 and I just happened to miss it:
WLOX: 2025 Gulf Coast Pride Festival brings peace, love and pride
This also caused me to realize I’m not tracking local news/events as closely as I used to, partly because of my extreme frustration with local/state media outlets largely refusing to commit actual acts of journalism.
MagdaInBlack
Chicago Pride Parade is today at 11 am. I am pleasedto see my company still participates. I had my concerns, because I know much of upper management favors trump. We have a giant shop on Halsted Street (parade route) so they damn well better be involved.
My best experience of that parade was watching it from the windows of a friends 2nd floor apartment on Halsted. It’s like having a box seat to the festivities,
zhena gogolia
Our drag sermon was great!
zhena gogolia
@wenchacha: Jeffrey Sachs should STFU for all eternity.
zhena gogolia
@wenchacha: He brought “shock therapy” to the Russian economy, with disastrous results. He should STFU.
caphilldcne
@laura: I never got to know Leonard Matlovich but I did get to meet Frank Kameny. My junior high friend Rick Kinne who reconnected with me after college and we had both come out updated the star charts Frank was working on when he was kicked out of the army. We presented the charts to him at a fun dinner at Annie’s in DC. Guys came up to our table all night to thank Frank for his work.
After Frank died Rick worked with other astronomers to name an asteroid after him. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/wbna48142044 Rick died during heart surgery in September of 2024. Rick’s partner, Arielle, who started their own transition journey a few years ago passed away in February. A broken heart is as good an explanation as any. I honor the legacy of all those named, including Barbara Gittings who I also had the pleasure of meeting once.
Curses upon the cold treacherous hearts of these evil people who have turned the very existence of trans and gay people into some kind of sick campaign issue. The real indecency and tragedy of all this is how little moved or bothered the general public has been in failing to protect not just LGBTQ people, but people of color generally and immigrants specifically. Such good christians they all are.
Well, i will do my best to return their hatred with love. I hope people like Alito, Trump and all these other miserable anti-LGBTQ politicians who profit off our persecution have many loving trans and gay kids and grandkids to enrich their lives and perhaps learn a thing or two about decency.
wenchacha
@zhena gogolia: In his talk, he definitely came across as something of a know-it-all, and I was interested somewhat until he said both sides are the same. Then I was pretty sure he had his own agenda.
Thanks, everyone for the info on him.
The Audacity of Krope
Fuck that. The Democrats through everyone under the bus, every last one of us, in order to fight on behalf of the legacy of colonialism. I never believed the both sides arguments until Democrats proved it themselves.
Splitting Image
@The Cowardice of Dope:
Like I said. Netanyahu could raze Gaza to the ground with the support of the entire GOP and ten years from now this guy will still be angry at Joe Biden.
TurnItOffAndOnAgain
@The Audacity of Krope: Keeping those hands clean is more important than saving lives, huh?
The Audacity of Krope
@Splitting Image: I’m mad at 50 years of policy Democrats have been supporting. Biden too, yes, but the whole party too to bottom.
This wasn’t Biden’s fault. This is the fault of rampant bigotry and parochialism and parochialism in both parties. If Democrats want to change that, they need to fix themselves.
Baud
Haha. Murkowski sold out for nothing.
The Audacity of Krope
@TurnItOffAndOnAgain: I’m sorry, was there a candidate on offer interested in saving lives? Could have fooled me.
Y’all are such fools. I voted for Harris. You may remember I was pretty excited for her. This has been a problem with the party for decades and I’m now realizing I’ve been wrong to keep voting for these Democrats, prioritizing my own freedom and safety over people abroad subject to our policies but who have no say in our elections.
But keep trying to convince yourselves the Democrats are perfect as they are and have been and that you’re entitled to the blind support of anyone who doesn’t want the government doing monstrous things.
Librettist
You are trying to convince people who land on the GOP because they gain value from an absence of shame. The wailing and gnashing of “both sides” teeth is that there is no other party to switch to that allows broke main character syndrome.
The Trumpiest dipshits I know are now whinging about how they don’t support Trump “–but- blah, blah, blah…..”
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
Yeah, but the libs were owned and that’s what REALLY matters!
japa21
@The Audacity of Krope:
When you start throwing stupid statements like that around, any credibility you are trying to achieve is lost.
The Audacity of Krope
@japa21: If it is deemed inappropriate to challenge Democrats or their priorities in any regard in this forum, what else am I supposed to think?
CaseyL
@UncleEbeneezer:
I agree with you!
But.
The Democratic response since November has been so disheartening that I’m this!close to giving up on them altogether.
There are a few real fighters – one of my Senators, Patty Murray is among those – but mostly they seem incapable of, or unwilling to, see where the country is right now. They offer stunts (Booker’s filibuster) or anodyne statements (Schumer) or go off the deep end altogether and become an outright foe (Fetterman, Gillibrand).
It’s not that both parties are the same. It’s that one party is united, focused, and intent; and the other party is none of those things.
When I talk to people who loathe the GOP but won’t vote for Democrats, nowadays it’s not because of “bothsides,” it’s because Democrats won’t fight effectively. It does seem, even to me, a proud and dedicated Democrat for all of my life, that the purpose of our national-level elected officials is… simply to stay in office. Since even I am tempted to give up on the Democrats, what can I tell other people who gave up on them a long time ago?
Splitting Image
@The Cowardice of Dope:
The issue isn’t so much that it is inappropriate to challenge Democrats or their priorities. It’s that you picked a way to do it that 1) won’t help the people you claim to be worried about, 2) will end up killing more people than would die if Netanyahu massacred every man, woman, and child in Gaza, which 3) is not impossible at this point and is in fact more likely to happen now than it was last October.
Honestly, if you people would commit to helping Russia as much as you’ve helped the people of Gaza, Ukraine would be rolling into Moscow in three months.
TurnItOffAndOnAgain
@The Audacity of Krope: They wouldn’t have needed to be interested in saving lives. Just them existing in office would’ve done the trick, as has been borne out by the evidence around us.
The Audacity of Krope
@Splitting Image: You know what? I did what you wanted. I gave your supposedly benign imperialist party my foolish vote. I’m still watching human rights being shredded at home and abroad.
It is Democrats own fault for giving in to bigotry, primarily religious but also age. Always too busy trying to thread a needle on what they think people will accept instead of offering some gottdamn sincerity.
Another Scott
@CaseyL: I’m not going to try to argue you out of your feelings. And I’m not going to make you play politics guru and do the Democrats leadership’s job for them.
With that said.
What does “effective fighting” mean to you, given Democrats being in the minority?
WARNING TheHill.com:
Eyes on the prizes.
Meanwhile, C-Span.org shows the floor staff still reading the Senate bill, as Schumer demanded.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Scamp Dog
@Another Scott: I think the reason for the knife-edge elections is that big money isn’t willing (able?) to buy a landslide. But they keep working the media machine (mainstream and internet) to peel off a few voters from this group, get a few more to give up voting from various Democratic-leaning groups, and that gets them the edge they need. This time, they barely pushed an authoritarian through, and they can (maybe) finally get rid of the necessity for elections and such nonsense that gets in the way of their libertarian or social conservative paradise.
Trump, though, isn’t really in their control, so he’ll do whatever he wants, instead of providing the competent authoritarianism they want. This will end badly, of course, but we might be able to wrest power away from them at some point, hopefully before too many disasters.
Jackie
@Librettist:
Absolutely my experience, too. Ask most of them who they voted for and I get the magic combo of “didn’t vote, write in name, and ‘the least of two evils,’” which translates to FFOTUS.
Baud
Elizabelle
@Baud: Good news for us, and for Tillis, very honestly
Another Scott
Probably a dying thread, but …
I mentioned earlier that I haven’t read Kamil Kazani on Twitter (XCancel) recently. I took a gander today.
Thread:
It’s obviously not the whole story, but there may be an important nugget of truth there. (Especially when the candidate is a relative newcomer, especially when the candidate is a member of and identifies with a minority group.)
More is at his substack thing. Worth a click.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Steve LaBonne
@Elizabelle: NC Dems need to kidnap Cooper and force him to run if he’s wavering. He should crush whatever psycho gets Trump’s endorsement in the GQP primary.
Geminid
@Elizabelle: That could be a hard-fought Republican primary to replace Tillis. I’m hoping it consumes plenty of money and creates lots of hard feelings.
Glory b
@Another Scott: Yes!
Anyone who complains about Dems not “fighting!!!” has no idea what that would look like when I ask.
But note that Dems have overwhelmingly won the special elections held since November.
Why isn’t actually WINNING good enough?
Why does WINNING get ignored?
If you’re WINNING, you must be doing something right.
Right?
Jackie
@Elizabelle:
YES! Tillis can continue to be a YUGE thorn in FFOTUS’s fat ass, and opening up a bigger chance Roy Cooper will run!
The Audacity of Krope
Maybe it wouldn’t be if there were any indication that these elections were anything other than unsatisfied people supporting whichever party is out of power currently, like that has ever fixed anything.
Winning is great when someone wins supporting ethical trade agreements, humane immigration policy,and human rights-oriented goals for home and abroad.
Democrats should do that instead of offering trying to split the difference (perhaps anthrax lasagna would be good, no? Tire rims scallopini?)
Elizabelle
@Geminid: May they come to actual blows. Injuries, injuries.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@The Audacity of Krope: You don’t challenge shit. You just regurgitate whatever Fox News tells you to. Son, people can see you.
The Audacity of Krope
@Interesting Name Goes Here: Odd assertion considering I’m criticizing Democrats for toeing the Fox News line on pretty much any issue related to a matter past our borders; immigration, trade, middle east policy. I’ll make an exception for Ukraine. Goodie, they got one right.
You can also expand that to Democrats agreeing too much with Republicans and the Fox noise machine on those same matters as they affect people within the country; student activism, collective bargaining, immigration again.
Not that Fox ever gives them any credit for it. They accept the split difference without gratitude and ask for a new split, ever more in their favor.
WTFGhost
Random thought:
The problem of the left in this nation, right now, is the problem of torture: the only thing worse than *no* intelligence is *false* intelligence.
Do we demand that a guy can say “I’m a woman now!” and win women’s track and field events? No – we ask that sports be fair. It’s just, you have to explain that – and if you’re explaining, you’re losing.
Republicans can throw enormous amounts of BS claims against us, creating false intelligence that requires negation, or, eventual burning of the source. (But when so many sources parrot the same BS, it takes a long time for a source to be burned!)
And just like what happens if you let your interrogators torture prisoners, you can waste all your time chasing the fake stories, rather than finding the right intel that should be followed.
Honestly, I think it is important to highlight some rightwing hatred, no matter how ridiculous, both because I don’t think they can dream up as much hate as they show us. Plus, it’s important to note that “gee, only one side seems to have a penchant for accusing the other of being child molesters…”.
Happy close of Pride Month. I’m always on Pride’s side, because I don’t ask anyone’s permission regarding who I love or how I love them, and anyone who thinks one *should* need to ask permission, much less that permission might be denied, is an enemy of mine.