Soon to be retired Senator Tillis (R-NC), wearing a bolo tie for reasons I can’t fathom, sort of tells the truth about the reconciliation bill:
Republican Senator Thom Tillis: What do I tell 663,000 people and two years or three years when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid. Trump’s advisers in the White House are not telling him that the effect of this bill is to break a promise.
— Protect Our Care (@protectourcare.org) June 29, 2025 at 9:22 PM
I say “sort of” because Tillis implies that Trump doesn’t understand that the bill will strip healthcare from millions of Americans. The truth is Trump doesn’t give a shit, and whether he knows what the bill does or not is immaterial. But it’s rare enough for a Republican to tell the truth that even a half-truth is remarkable.
Anyway, I contacted my shithead Republican senators and pointlessly left a message asking them to find the courage to oppose this piece of shit bill. They demonstrably don’t give a shit about their constituents either, but maybe they care about their political prospects going forward, so I noted that Trump won’t have to face voters again when the full effects of this bill are known, but they will.
It won’t change my senators’ votes — both are deeply corrupt right-wing hacks. But I do think there’s some value in squawking.
Open thread.
On The Road – Albatrossity – The road to summer is paved with yellow
hueyplong
It’s probably fair to say that GOP senators recognize Donald Trump as their sole constituent. It’s also probably fair to speculate that Tillis would have come around, Collins-style, but decided to walk away after receiving the first half dozen or so death threats after the Trump assistant who can spell or type hammered out his master’s reaction on social media.
Baud
I thank you for your thankless efforts.
frosty
Good for you for calling. I’m sicking of calling my R Rep Smucker, Dave McCormick (R) and Fetterman, but I’ll do another round today. Same response as you, either nothing or an email from Smucker with the talking points disputing what I told him. “This will boost the economy” yada yada yada.
It’s sad that all I get from Balloon-Juice is fake news.
MazeDancer
Squawking is always vital.
Stopped public land sales.
And if no one protests, they just grab more.
NotMax
“Qui tacet consentit.”
– Plato
.
espierce
Yeah, no.
Rick Scott has introduced an amendment to remove even more Medicaid matching funds from states.
There are a lot of obituaries I’m looking forward to reading and the list grows longer every day!
Layer8Problem
The bolo? Undoubtedly he’s retiring to the Great American Southwest and is wearing one in order to seamlessly blend in with the locals.
Nelle
I called, but my tone, I fear, was fatalities. I found myself using the word barbaric, in describing the intended consequences of the bill. I was not feeling like bothering, but BC reminded me to keep going. We never know which pebble (or call) tips the balance. Thanks.
hueyplong
@espierce: Not sure that’s going to work for you, as Scott is likely one of the undead.
Other MJS
I know my Senators Duckworth and Durbin are fighting this monster, so I just emailed each with thanks and support. I don’t know what else to do right now.
Mai Naem mobile
I just cannot understand how these GOPigs can justify giving really wealthy people tax cuts. Most of wealth has gone towards the top one percent in the past 40 years. They’re insatiable. Will they be happy with any amount of taxes being paid by rich people? One of the stats I saw was that somebody making $700K will get a $12K tax cut while someone making $40K gets a $1600 increase in costs related to healthcare and other help they may be receiving. $12K wouldn’t even be missed by somebody making $700K but $1600 is a big chunk of change to somebody making $800/week.
eclare
Could only leave a message for the DC offices for Marsha Marsha Marsha and Hagerty, but I did. I used Ms. Cracker’s line that FFOTUS will not have to face the electorate once all of the provisions go into effect, but they will.
catclub
Does it cost them votes? My guess is not enough to change their opinions.
TONYG
In the movie version of this, Tillis would run for re-election anyway, would fearlessly tell the truth in the primary against whatever undead zombie Trump would choose as his opponent, and then would be re-elected by his constituents, who will have seen the errors of their ways. That would not happen in real-life. In real life most of Tillis’s constituents are brain-dead members of the cult of Trump, who not only would vote against him but would actually try to murder him. So, he will retire. At this point I want to see a lot of those white, red-state, bigoted assholes really suffer for their stupidity and racism. The problem, though, is that a lot of innocent people will suffer with them.
Betty Cracker
@hueyplong: Fair point. Navy hat Nosferatu will be dining on the blood of our great-great-great grandchildren, probably.
brendancalling
My democrats—even fetterman—are a solid no, not that it matters.
TONYG
@catclub: In red states most of their constituents are racist idiots. Fuck those people.
Jay
@Mai Naem mobile:
Rich people make big donations, and if they like what you do for them enough, will set up a bigly PAC and get all their Club Members to donate, and every dollar a PAC spends backing you, is a dollar your Campaign can save, or us to hire your brother, wife or cousin.
CaseyL
Look, these people were not elected for their dedication to public service or the common good. They were elected to hate on the same marginalized communities their voters hate, and their campaigns were financed by the same kleptocrats who’ve funded the GOP in general and Trump in particular.
The idea that they have, or are aware that they have, a responsibility to their voters is absurd. They don’t even understand that as a concept.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@catclub:
It clearly don’t. Assuming the predicted rurl medical ramifications come to pass on this, I’m not holding my breath it’ll change anything electorally.
kindness
One advantage Republican politicians have is their shamelessness. They are all too happy to repeat what they know to be lies. All too happy to screw their very voters and states all to shove money upwards away from the normies to the very rich. They get away with it because larding the extremely wealthy with tax breaks fills their campaign chests with contributions from the uber wealthy. Their citizens though? Obviously the citizens don’t matter. Look at their actions, not their statements.
espierce
@hueyplong: The guy is a walking cadaver.
FDRLincoln
Left message with Senator Jerry Moran’s voice mail account. Fun, fun. Sometimes they actually answer the phone there, and Moran actually does decent constituent services when you can get through.
Voice mail for Senator Roger Marshall was full. It is always full. In fact, i think it has been a couple of years since his voice mail has accepted calls. He doesn’t hold town halls either. No constituent services either.
He’s so horrible he makes me long for the days of Bob Dole as my senator. Dole was generally evil, but his people took constituent services seriously and could get the Federal bureaucracy to respond quickly to specific problems for individuals. He was the old-style evil GOP senator, rather than the pure even-more-evil nihilistic fanatics we have now.
Kansas sucks. But at least we have a Democratic governor, although the fascist legislature usually overrides her vetoes. Sigh.
Baud
@CaseyL:
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Here’s the thing. Let’s say white rural voters actually hold Republicans responsible for this rather than Dems. The only thing Republican candidates have to say is “I will address your concerns if you elect (or reelect) me.”
Republicans cave all the time in response to pushback. And their bases appreciates their responsiveness.
lowtechcyclist
@TONYG:
North Carolina has a Dem governor, and frequently elects Dems to statewide office. It’s just barely red. Dems have a decent shot at winning his Senate seat.
Scott
Yeah, I fired off an irritated email this morning to both Cruz and Cornyn. Berated them on Graham’s magic math, the closure of Texas rural hospitals, and the decimation of nursing homes (many of which are also in rural Texas). For extra measure, I told Cornyn that groveling to Trump will not help his primary against the adulterous, indicted felon AG Ken Paxton. He will lose
Jay
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Raine at Emptywheel has a good post up, quoting the effects on rural hospitals from a rural Dr. from the Doctor /Patient standpoint.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/06/30/making-america-gross-again-big-fugly-bill-hits-the-senate-floor/
Shit is going to hit the fan way faster than 2028.
mayim
Just finished my morning round of calls. Collins is undoubtedly a lost cause, despite a furrowed brow, but I hope public pressure can keep Golden on the good side with whatever bill lands back in the house.
Many Maine rural hospitals are in rough shape already, so this bill will kill them. Healthcare in Maine overall is tough ~ long waits and long drives for access, so making things worse will cause lots of pain.
Splitting Image
@CaseyL:
What they mean when they say that government should be run like a business is the sole obligation of a company is to create value for shareholders. Giving tax cuts to wealthy people is no different than doing stock buybacks or paying dividends to shareholders.
Giving tax cuts to poor people would be like paying customers to buy your products, which makes no sense.
Another thing that makes no sense is “running government like a business”, but that is another story.
Belafon
@Mai Naem mobile: Once Republicans have beaten down the people making less than $70k a year into working on farms for pittance, the wealthy will then go after those making $700k.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Downpuppy
That Tillis can just casually state that Trump has no connection to or interest in any reliable sources of information about basic policy, and nobody questions that because it’s obviously true, is a bit depressing.
H.E.Wolf
This is true especially in bad times.
One of my Quaker relatives taught at a Quaker school, where the tradition was that upon retirement, a teacher was invited to give a talk to the students on a topic of that teacher’s choice.
My relative, retiring during the height of the Vietnam War and before J.R.R. Tolkien was popular, talked about the Lord of the Rings trilogy: specifically about the small, seemingly insignificant hobbits who defeated Sauron.
(I made my hobbit phone calls last night, so that the voicemails would greet my Senators’ office staff in the morning.)
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Jay
@Belafon:
You kinda need farms for that to happen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drb8_MF5_vM
Baud
Supreme Court is going to open up the cash spigots for campaigning even more next year.
rikyrah
@Baud:
😊👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Bokonon
Those rural voters? They will rant and rave, but they will find a way to direct their anger and blame at the Democrats for any bad things that happen. They always do. Even if they need contortions and conspiracy theories to do it.
BritinChicago
@NotMax: Pedantry: Not Plato, Not Max. Pretty sure he didn’t know Latin. Reasonably sure the Greek version is not in anything he wrote.
Baud
@Bokonon:
It’s the only thing left that unites America, other than Dolly Parton.
JML
I feel like the best argument for that evil bastard Rick Scott is “if you do this, how will rich executives in the health care industry plunder Medicaid to buy themselves public office?”
No rural legislator should touch this bill with a 40,000 ft pole…but they will, and then somehow blame all the damage on Democrats, immigrants, and the LGBTQ community.
Geminid
@espierce: I read that Rick Scott has this weird diet: egg whites, poached fish, salads etc. It’s specially formulated to help White assholes live longer.
Baud
Matt McIrvin
@Mai Naem mobile: Gotta reward the “job creators” to create those jobs, and besides, tax is Communism! I think it doesn’t go deeper than that.
mayim
@H.E.Wolf:
One of my favorite knitting bloggers The Yarn Harlot, when she started raising money for Doctors without Borders a couple decades ago, noted that few people know better than knitters that doing the same small thing over and over and over can create something.
So I often think of all of our efforts ~ calls, donations, protests ~ as stitches that will help bend the universe’s arc the correct way. Eventually….
Belafon
@Bokonon: “Why do Democrat cities have hospitals and we don’t?” Showing a giant lack of understanding in how supply and demand works.
It would be awesome of there was a way to get through to these people that most liberals understand that we are subsidizing mail, schools, and health care for rural areas, and we’re ok with it.
satby
We seem to be at the acceptance stage of grief. I’ve been there since Nov. The bill was going to pass, but some bad stuff like the public lands sale, got stripped out. I’m focusing on making them pay for it.
RaflW
If Lisa Murkowski votes yes after the parliamentarian overruled her craven “deal” to exempt Alaska from Medicaid cuts, she should be spit-roasted (electorally, of course) by her constituents. It was already quite terrible that she voted for cloture. Final passage will be devastating to Republicans, Democrats and Independents in all 50 states (and our unrepresented siblings in PR, DC etc).
Just the fueling of ICE is enough reason to say Fuck This to all of it! I’ll call Ron Johnson again, not that he’ll care, but I agree with the OP that they need to hear how bad, craven and flatly immoral they are being.
Bupalos
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: It will surely change things electorally, but I don’t think it’s very predictable either how significantly or in what way it will change them. The Repubican bet (and it’s a decent one I think, but still a gamble) is that we’ve past a certain polarization point, and that there’s basically no policy issue or outcome that won’t squeeze itself into the shape of that polarization without breaking it.
The hardening of this polarization across the electorate works in their favor, and it’s a calcification that continues apace, mineralized and remineralized by internet discourse. Also working in favor of the oligarchs – the very inequality that the policies produce. As these policies go into effect, we will have a more fearful, more stressed, more unequal, less educated electorate that looks ever more fondly backwards. Which is an electorate that is ever more manipulable and dependent on the billionaires. This is how Trumpism happened in the first place, and this is how it strengthens.
Lots of well meaning but frustrated folks on our side of politics– that hate these effects– will nonetheless offer equal-and-opposite nihilistic silver-lining cheers that these policies also hurt the right people. Good, They get what They deserve. Every one will get what they deserve, and none shall scape whipping.
I don’t think Trump really knows or has much of any opinion on the very specific effects of this Big Steaming Pile. But he does have a intuitive genius for understanding that it is a move that can structurally make politics even worse, and thus make him more powerful. The fact that this bill is unpopular is in fact a feature rather than a bug.
Layer8Problem
@satby: For some, ineffectual pissing and moaning will never get tiresome.
Jay
@Belafon:
As Raine at Emptywheel and McNadoMD point out, it’s not just rural hospitals that will be crippled.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/06/30/making-america-gross-again-big-fugly-bill-hits-the-senate-floor/
The entire medical system from Practitioners to Insurance, basically the whole existing Medical system is going to be horribly damaged.
Redshift
@Mai Naem mobile:
Mai Naem mobile:
It may make it slightly easier to understand (though still horrifically evil) to remember that they’re avoiding raising rich people’s taxes, not actually cutting them (much.)
Not raising rich people’s taxes is the closest thing Republicans have to a sincere religious belief, but I think the real driver of this zombie march to do something incredibly unpopular is that the Trump tax cuts were the only legislative accomplishment of his entire first term, so keeping them from expiring is all-important.
CaseyL
Repeating from last night’s (dead) thread: I have called both my Senators, Murray and Cantwell, thanking them for opposing the bill and urging them to use whatever parliamentary tricks they can think of to derail it.
Murray, in particular, deserves a lot of praise as she has been putting up quite a fight on every front.
Bupalos
@Mai Naem mobile: Oligarchs don’t want money, they want power. The way money translates into power is by relative wealth levels. As long as the masses of people have enough money to be able to refuse slavery to the few, the few will keep hammering away at that relative equality.
I think we sleep on the degree to which inequality itself is a positive goal for the upper class. So sure, the 12K is a pittance to them, but the desperation they’re brewing up in the lower classes is priceless. We shouldn’t be shocked when they also deliberately raise carbon emissions as a positive goal and fast-track the coming destabilizations of technology. We have the tagline “the cruelty is the point,” but I think that’s wrong. The inequality is the point, because that is the source of power.
eclare
@mayim:
That is a great way to think about my calls to my R senators. Thank you.
Betty Cracker
@Bupalos: You’re right, but as always, it will come down to how loosely affiliated voters react. Our existing political framework is inadequate to meet the moment — that’s clear to me, but how people in that group will interpret coming events and react isn’t.
Quiltingfool
The major hospital at Lake of the Ozarks (Missouri) has shut down two departments; cardiology and ENT. They now direct all heart patients to Columbia MO.
We have LOTS of old people (or as I like to call them, My People) in the lake area. Folks from Kansas, Illinois and Iowa retire here at their lake homes.
We also have a lot of old, poor, rural people, too.
This area is Republican. I think they do know who is doing this, but they won’t speak it. They won’t blame Democrats, per se, but they’ll mumble something about both parties can’t be trusted.
satby
@Baud: Went off to read something else, and it was interesting enough, and follows up what you said enough that I came back to share it: Donald Trump and the End of Power
Ohio Mom
You all (Betty Cracker mostly) shamed me into calling my two useless Republican Senators. I called every office and left voice mails. I have no delusions anyone will hear them, no one is going to press Play, just Erase.
I started out in February going great guns on phoning but it was a terrible way to start the day for me. Left me brooding and worrying for the rest of the morning. So I petered out.
I think I’ve said this before. This period of time reminds me of the weeks between finding that lump in my breast and walking into surgery (I was quite surprised that I had to walk into the operating room and climb up onto the table myself).
Anyway, those weeks were full of tests and appointments and being frozen in fear, it was the closest to being a dead man walking I want to get.
And that’s how this feels, I don’t know what is going to happen next but there is no off ramp.
I told you making those calls puts me in a bad space.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Bupalos:
We see far too much of that crappy “sentiment” expressed in here by people who forget that these policies hurt *people* and that includes a lot of rurl Dems. It’s nice, on occasion, when those of us who actually lived the red, rurl Dem lifestyle for decades push back on that bullshit.
satby
@Quiltingfool: you’re also going to find that column interesting.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure he offers a proposal to fix things, but the first step is to identify the problem correctly.
catclub
Yeah. ‘Why do those union workers have a good salary AND a pension and we don’t.”
“We should take that away from them.”
Eyeroller
@satby: It’s likely that social media has turbocharged this, but it seems reminiscent to me of the late 1920s, just before the big crash. Especially but not just in Germany. That was largely a consequence of various results of WWI. Some of what we are seeing now feels like the unraveling of the world order after WWII, with a much longer time lag this time.
Betty Cracker
@Ohio Mom: It is a bad way to start the day/week! Your experience with the uncertainty and hopelessness of it all mirrors mine. But thank you for calling anyway.
Baud
@satby:
Thanks. Not sure I agree with his predictions about the analysis is interesting and insightful.
Jeffro
I’m calling Warner and Kaine to say thank you for voting ‘no’ on this Horrendous Bill.
I’m calling my useless MAGA Rep McGuire to remind him that if it passes the Senate, it’d better not pass the House…the Medicaid cuts are on his head.
RaflW
@Bupalos: The hollowing out of the middle class was step one of this. When there was less income inequality, the middle could exert more influence on politics (people meting their needs working one 40/hr a week job have time to dabble and track these things, and some free cash to support candidates or civic groups), and that provided some stabilizing effects.
Especially as housing costs & college have risen so fast, what we think of as middle class requires so much labor that people are exhausted and feel very precarious. I agree it’s intentional.
The loss of high wage manufacturing jobs has done a lot to destabilize non-college life prospects as well.
CindyH
I’m a constituent of Tillis and have been in contact with him weekly, sometimes daily. There are ads running constantly about us needing Trump’s tax cuts, but I don’t see any that show the harm in this bill. I wish we had ads running to spell out the most egregious aspects of this bill to counter those hyping the tax cuts, but I don’t have the resources to fund them.
TONYG
@lowtechcyclist: Well, good. Maybe this abomination will accelerate the process of residents of North Caroline turning away from the Republican Party.
rusty
@Jay: Thanks for this link. Our daughter is going into her 4th year of med school, will be applying for residency programs. Given the uncertainty in funding directly and indirectly from the government, I have to guess the process will be even more fraught this coming year. She wants OB/GYN, not a desired field because of the all the changes in state laws around abortion and maternal care. OB/GYN programs in red states can’t even train residents in complete maternal care, the best candidates aren’t won’t be applying to them.
No one will want to go into emergency medicine with a future described by the link. Another specialty that will be facing staff shortages for years if not decades.
Quiltingfool
@satby: It is a very interesting essay.
What jumped out at me was the contrast between internet organized protests and protests organized pre-internet; that with the internet organizing is easy compared to the hard grind of organizing in the past. The downside to “easy” is that there is no foundation and it falls apart, is not sustainable.
I’ve been watching Bosch. In one season they had a protest quickly generated via social media. An assistant to the Police Chief stated that these protests fizzled out compared to the protests in the old days because the grinding work of building a base of protesters was gone.
satby
@Baud: thought provoking, at least. We’re in one of those times when the old order isn’t working and a new order hasn’t developed.
TONYG
@Geminid: Years ago I used to work with a guy like that — a hardcore libertarian with an extremely rigid diet (and who would lecture anyone who followed a less-rigid diet). The standard joke was that he might not live longer, but that it would seem longer because his diet was so boring.
Andrew Abshier
Herr Reichkanzler will vote the way he usually does, but maybe there’s some value in leaning on Ashley Moody. I’ll try it.
satby
@Quiltingfool: and the instant gratification society undermines the grinding work both of building a protest movement AND of effectively governing, because impatience has us all whipsawing be between extremes before anything comes to fruition.
Elizabelle
@mayim: That is a great perspective. Knitters unite.
Eyeroller
@Quiltingfool: That seems consistent with the supposed overall breakdown of “meatspace” community. The pandemic apparently worsened this and it was already pretty bad.
BritinChicago
@Belafon: “It would be awesome of there was a way to get through to these people that most liberals understand that we are subsidizing mail, schools, and health care for rural areas, and we’re ok with it.”
Well I guess I’m ok with it, but I’m getting less and less sure. I’ve been wondering about a constitutional amendment saying that no state should pay more into the Federal government than it gets back from the Federal government. Is MAGA stupid enough to go for that? It could certainly be dressed up in ways that might appeal to quite a few maggats. If it were implemented there’d be some pretty quick learning, I suspect. (I know it won’t happen, but a guy can dream, right?)
H.E.Wolf
@mayim: Thanks for the info about that blog! I see that she is also doing an annual long-distance bike ride, along with dozens of other riders, to raise money for AIDS organizations in her locale.
The knitter community has exceeded all other donor groups for that fundraiser, for several years running. :)
Small actions add up to big results… even when, partway through, it doesn’t seem like it.
Lyrebird
I usually send thank-yous to my senators, who work very hard to limit MAGA damage.
I did call and leave a message for Sen. Gillibrand just now after reading what she said about [media-ginned-up] concerns about Dem. Mayoral Candidate Mamdani. Asked her to follow through on the plan she stated and indeed sit down with him for a real conversation. That could turn some of the whisper (or megaphone) campaigns into positive earned media for him.
Feeling very bleak about htis bill, also woke up feeling bleak anyhow.
Steve Paradis
@hueyplong:
Rick Wilson is pretty big on that cheeseburger that finally induces vapor lock on Big Stupid–hopefully in public, doing a long pratfall down the steps of Air Trump One.
And then the scramble for power, and the dismay among the MagaRats. Ever see an anthill kicked?
But for the truly faithful, that will happen three days after his death, and he’s still dead.
satby
@BritinChicago: a proposal like that might be popular with uninformed people, but it cuts away at the core value we’re supposed to believe in: one nation, Indivisible, with unity and justice for all. If we throw that away because the other guys have, what’s the difference between us? What’s the point of trying to preserve the Constitution?
Baud
Opportunity for young Dems
Steve Paradis
@Quiltingfool:
That’s Michael Connolly, longtime LA reporter before he started writing crime novels. If I ever get to LA, I’ll bring a list of Bosch’s favorite eateries.
And in one novel he tells a colleague to listen to KJAZZ. I told my smart device to play KJAZZ–and he’s right.
https://www.kkjz.org/
Sandia Blanca
My calls to Cornyn and Cruz today focused on the $45 billion (with a B!) increase in the budget for ICE, and who’s gonna pick our crops and make our tacos in this burgeoning police state? (Actual calls were not quite that coherent, but I think the message carried anyway.)
I normally call their local (Austin) offices, because I’m more likely to speak to an actual person. Today Cornyn’s line was busy, and I had to leave a message. So keep those calls coming, Texans! 512-469-6034 for Cornyn. 512-916-5834 for Cruz.
Jay
@Lyrebird:
Anatomy of a smear,
Video at link.
Betty Cracker
@Quiltingfool: A while back, I read an essay that included, among other things, suggestions for strengthening the non-fascist coalition IRL. I think I shared one of the points in a post here: using community centers and other local spaces, block parties, etc., to develop social bonds.
Meatspace protests like No Kings, etc., could also be useful for this purpose. But it can’t be a one-off. It’ll take sustained effort.
Professor Bigfoot
@Bokonon: They’ll blame those “inner city rats.”
When their own choices have made it so the only hospitals are in the cities they despise.
rikyrah
@rusty:
I hope that she only applies in Blue States.
RaflW
@Ohio Mom: I feel ya. I just called RonJon’s D.C. office and left a rather bitter voicemail. I flat out called him immoral for saying that we “can’f afford” Medicaid while he sits on $50M of personal wealth and will directly benefit from the tax cut for the rich that we genuinely cannot afford.
I doubt the staffer listens to more than the first 10 seconds of messages like mine, but I was wound up enough that after calling Johnson immoral my coda was to say “I don’t understand how anyone can staff this guy, how embarrassing. Good luck.” and hug up.
I assume Senate staffers are a mix of ideologues who agree with the corruption, and some entry level people who just want to work their way up in the striving, crush anyone in your way D.C. rat race.
satby
@rusty: @rikyrah: she should apply in Canada. Or Mexico. Or even the UK.
Bokonon
Rural voters – “IT’S A CONSPIRACY!! Soros-funded liberals took away our hospitals and gave them to the Mexicans!!!
Actual liberal: “Wait … look at what your Senator and Congressman voted to do! You elected these people! They represent you! Go tell them to stop!”
Rural voters – [Loads shotgun and points it at liberal]
RaflW
@mayim: How to summarize what Collins is doing:
“The pain in Maine flows mostly from disdain.”
These days one sees that all these Republicans just hold contempt for their own voters. Complete overlordism, 0% constituent services.
Bt really, it’s 100% constituent servicing, because a few hundred extremely rich people are the only constituency that matters.
espierce
@Geminid:
💯
Hunter Gathers
The GOP is voting to slit their own throats.
You can not propagandize your way out of ‘Trump take hospital’, ‘Trump take doctor’ ‘Trump take insulin’ or ‘Trump kicked grandma out of her nursing home’.
Do you really want to be a GOPer facing re-election next year in with a 10 point generic ballot deficit, with the knowledge that they underperform whenever Trump isn’t on the ballot?
Downpuppy
@Eyeroller: Germany crashed right after WWI, Britain in about 1925, & the US 1929. The Post-WW2 order was set up very carefully to avoid the mistakes made the time before.
This time around is about giving too much money & power to the rich & stupid, and a long term fairly out in the open plot by the right wing (Murdoch, Leo, Putin, Musk & thousands of minions) to consolidate power.
That rising inequality would eventually lead to economic as well as social problems is not a worry to them.
Professor Bigfoot
The thing is, it’s a positive goal for the not so upper-class.
After all, that white guy who has a high school diploma but now owns his fathers’ plumbing company needs someone to look down upon; and while his wealth compared to the Muskians is miniscule, it’s still more than them.
I think it’s more widespread than the “upper class.”
Bokonon
@Hunter Gathers:
Well … the GOP thinks they can. They seem to be pretty confident that they will not suffer electoral consequences for this outrageous legislative sh!t sandwich they are about to serve up. And I think that comes from equal parts pure contempt for the intelligence and long-term memory of their constituents (probably earned), the amount of sweet, sweet dark money behind this legislation, and confidence that Trump will manage to poison and distort the next few elections thoroughly enough that they’ll evade responsibility. And keep their seats.
As a former Hill Rat that worked for a US Senator many years ago and who used to organize canvassing and voter outreach, I find the current realities really, really depressing.
RaflW
@Jay: An American nonprofit that is very dear to my heart, that provides support to marginalized people during crises both here and abroad, is launching a 501(c)4 this year, first time they’ve considered this in 80 years of work (non-Jews who used their privilege in WWII to try to rescue Jews).
And I’ve decided that a big chunk of my political donation budget for this cycle will go to them this time. I’ve donated to too many Democrats who’ve turned out to be feckless, or who even go so far as to frontally attack the voter-chosen nominee for mayor of NY, for example. I cannot stomach that sort of disloyalty and personal striving at the cost of others.
I don’t need that shit. But I’m very much not at the level of starting my own PAC, nor do I care for what the handful of liberal PACs that periodically text me (despite trying over and over to unsubscribe) say they’re up to.
So I’m really glad that W.G. finds us great civic orgs to support for registering, mobilization & turnout , and now I’ll add this new (c)4 when it launches.
Sure Lurkalot
@Jay:
In my lifetime, the medical establishment has deteriorated significantly due to regulatory capture of insurance companies and private equity, doctors are bought (just like our politicians) and shoved into models of efficiency, the 10 minute consult, the medical coding, the “ask your doctor” model of prescription….
Different programs for the elderly, the poor, the gainfully employed, veterans…it’s a bit crazy, no?
I hope when the Republicans’ legislation breaks it, its pieces parts are built from scratch because the US system needs a total overhaul, has dozens of real world examples.
rikyrah
@satby:
I didn’t even know that was possible for residency. But, yes, if she can, take her skills where they will be appreciated.
trollhattan
I’ll nudge Trump from Doesn’t give a shit to Gets a rare stiffy at the idea.
Whoever coined The cruelty is the point remains on target.
rikyrah
Robert McCartney (@McCartneyWP) posted at 10:37 PM on Sat, Jun 28, 2025:
Katharine Graham’s granddaughter, writing in The Nation, blisters Bezos for betraying the WashPost’s legacy by kowtowing to Trump. https://t.co/nyLRIDQiyT
(https://x.com/McCartneyWP/status/1939166204620321198?s=03)
Raoul Paste
@Jay: That post by emptywheel is really eye-opening. The impact on emergency rooms will hit us all.
Betty Cracker
@Hunter Gathers: It’s a battle for public opinion, and elected Republicans are losing badly on this shitty bill. Lots of them are stupid, but not all of them are. So, I assume they understand what they’re doing and either don’t think they’ll have to face the music because real elections will be over by the time they’re up for reelection, or they don’t care because they believe they’ve amassed enough wealth to insulate themselves from the blowback.
FDRLincoln
One theory I’ve heard from someone who claims to have an inside view of things, is that the GOP knows the bill will kill them next year, and they are OK with that, the idea being “the Dems will take power in 2026, patch up the worst of this with a ‘save Medicaid’ bill in 2027, and keep us from facing the consequences in 2028 while keeping the Trump cult from killing us now”
If the damage is as bad as we expect, I don’t think that will really work, if only because the Senate will kill or Trump will veto any fix a Dem house manages to pass. A lot of the worst stuff is backloaded to take effect in 2028, but a lot of bad things will happen before that in anticipation
When people start getting thrown out of nursing homes, the backlash will be fierce. And that will happen before 2028.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I keep hoping that Trump and the R congress are the last gasp of the old, white, male power monopoly, that they’re extreme because they fear their displacement and see it coming. Sort of like extreme anti-gay measures were passed shortly before marriage equality was legalized.
But I’m increasingly in despair
TS
It is fact that trump is president for the few. First time I have ever considered this in a US president. If you dare to question his rule, you are to be erased from society.
Any GOP member who disagrees with him will be primaried – but removing funding from cities because they vote democratic will turn 80% of the population into paupers. It is difficult to understand how anyone ever voted for this horror when they knew who he was & what he would do.
From the Australian media
US President Donald Trump has threatened to cut off federal funding to New York City if the Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani wins and “doesn’t behave”. Mr Trump, himself a native New Yorker, told the Fox News Channel that if Mr Mamdani wins the mayoral race, “he’d better do the right thing” or he would withhold federal funds from the city. “He’s a communist. I think it’s very bad for New York,” the US president said.
Thinks its like his dad withholding the pocket money because he did badly at school. An angry toddler.
And why any world leaders are negotiating about anything – when all this regime will accept is 100% compliance with what trump wants – I will never understand. It’s all about $$$ – sadly nothing else seems to matter in trumps version of the world.
satby
@rikyrah: I don’t really either, but doctors are in short supply everywhere and the rest of the world is delighted to invite our educated citizens into their countries. Researchers and scientists were specifically invited by the head of the EU.
Eolirin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It very well may be, even success will lead to collapse here, but it’s also entirely possible, and maybe even likely at this point, that they’ll take us down with them.
JML
On the positive side, my union reached a TA on the contract, so I don’t think I’m going to have to walk a picket this summer! (I would have, if management hadn’t backed off on the health care increases; while someone like me would have experienced some pain, it would have been disastrous for entry-level positions and younger workers, and ended the idea that working for the state might be worth it for the benefits)
Proud to be a union member.
Redshift
@Betty Cracker:
That was an explicit purpose of the No Kings protests as discussed on the organizing calls – making connections with your local community, working to activate people who attend the protest to take more sustained local action. It’s hard work and it doesn’t happen everywhere, but we’re trying!
rikyrah
@Jay:
This is a great post. I hope that everyone will share it across social media.
Sure Lurkalot
@satby: “One nation, indivisible” doesn’t work so well when states boast about their low tax rates, decry high tax, liberals ones, immiserate their citizens with low wages, high property and sales taxes in order to have no state income tax to burden their wealthy and then accept more federal money than they collect. I think people become less charitable about the inequity when some of it is self-imposed and boasted about.
Professor Bigfoot
I’ve always believed there will be governance of one sort or another, it’s inherent in the nature of humans— just like there will always be policing, the only question being whether that’s with or without the consent and support of the governed/policed.
Given that fundamental reality of human nature, I wonder how that “end of power” affects governance?
Beyond that, wealth itself is a form of power in a time of great wealth inequality— and only (small-d) democratic governmental power can offset that by, for example, implementing a tax system that does not favor the aristocracy but instead the Commons.
If the power of governance is shattered, there is no way to control the power of avaricious wealth, is there?
Eolirin
@Professor Bigfoot: There is. Murder.
I do not want to live in a world that comes to that
We have the lesson of the French there. It is not a place to want to be.
Ramona
@BritinChicago: the proposed amendment should also specify that no state should get less than it pays in federal tax. If not, Blue states will be retaliated against as Trump is currently threatening.
Betty
I wanted to add a more cheerful note to this conversation. My normie sister-in-law posted an anti-RFK Jr. video on Facebook (the pediatrician Congresswoman castigating his anti-vaccine crusade). This is evidence that a lot more people than usual are paying attention and willing to speak up about it. She has a number of Republican family members and neighbors so this was a brave move for her. Keep hope alive!
Ruckus
@frosty:
Oh it will boost the economy – for those that have already been boosted far, far more than the very vast majority.
This big bill is about the rich getting richer and most everyone else getting screwed. And I’d bet that not even all the rich actually approve of this piece of shit bill. Of course if you are rich and believe that you should be far richer and that screwing everyone else to get you there is fine and dandy. They have a person at the head of government that believes in two things – he deserves everything, power, money, power, money……. even though he’s NEVER done anything for any other person on the planet. It has always been about him and his “greatness.” His very laughable “greatness.”
Xenos
Trump’s advisers in the White House are not telling him that the effect of this bill is to break a promise.
… but if only the Führer knew what was happening, surely he would save us!!!
Jeffro
all of this (unfortunately)
PLUS
in his own malicious and corrupt way, trumpov has led the rest of the GOP so far down the path of lies and corruption…so incredibly far from any sense of responsibility, even to their own voters…that he’s making it nearly impossible for them to do anything but stay on that path, no matter where it goes from here on out.
and considering this is the guy who green-lighted all the various J6 plots without a moment’s hesitation, I think we know what he will ‘sell’ to his MAGA enablers next
Ramona
@Dorothy A. Winsor: This! But the established corporate media has to crumble as well or reconstitute itself.
Eolirin
I wonder if the Dems in the Senate shouldn’t all be voting yes on the worst ammendments being offered before voting no on the final bill.
Baud
@Eolirin:
They’re already going to be blamed by the usual suspects when this bill passes without any of their votes. Why would Dems want to make those arguments more persuasive?
Hunter Gathers
@Betty Cracker: They are completely ensconsed in thier own bubbles. They avoid public appearances, only appear on conservative propaganda outlets and are working off the assumption that any constituent who says anything that isn’t ‘Trump’s taint tastes like candy’ is a paid agitator.
Hoover got his ass handed to him even while keeping 75% of his voters.
Hell, Trump retaining 85% of his voters breaks most gerrymanders and tosses the Senate map into the air.
Most of them are walking blind into a wood chipper.
Eolirin
@Baud: Because if an ammendment that’s so bad it can’t pass with just Republican votes gets into the bill it might cause the bill to lose necessary support.
I’ll grant it’s a very high risk play.
chemiclord
@TONYG: The biggest critique I’ve ever had of the book Idiocracy is that it overestimates the intelligence and introspection of the average human being.
Baud
@Eolirin:
Risky.
john b
@TONYG:
I get the frustration with Trump and those who voted for him, but most of Tillis’ constituent are in fact not members of the cult of Trump. In 2024, Trump got 2.9M votes, Harris 2.7M and the population of NC ~11M people. So Trump cultists are (at most) 27%. Let’s tone down the homogenizing of millions of people.
Eolirin
@Baud: For sure. But I’m not sure I can think of much else that we can control that might have a chance of doing anything. Prolly too late now anyway. That kind of strategy would have needed to have been agreed on before the votes started.
Though I should note the only reason we’d even have the option is because of divisions in their caucus. Without an even more radical fringe willing to bring those kinds of votes there’s no fracture points to try to exploit.
rikyrah
@FDRLincoln:
THIS is the kind of reality that you can’t conspiracy theory your way out of.
Jay
Jeff Tiedrich covers the Iran Shitshow.
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/iran-taunts-donny-your-mother-was
Ruckus
@catclub:
To many of the uber wealthy, it’s THEIR MONEY. And money being the most important thing in life, and them being deserving of every cent they have more than most anyone else is their entire point of being. There is some old saying about money, as in some money is good but a lot of money is mine, or something to that effect. Money is nice, a fair bit is nicer but several tons of money is their goal in life, because a lot of money says how grand a human they are and that everyone with less is a sucker. To many humans life is a game of points, and there are a lot of people that believe that money is the end goal of breathing. And yes having enough to live IS nice, having so much that one has to at least look like you own a bank (and not those things you put dimes and quarters in) is grand!
I worked in professional sports and have met a few people with MONEY and most of them understood that money is nice, more is nicer, but that there is a point to having a lot – especially if greed is your single most important position in life. Now none of these people seemed to believe that money alone was the greatest accomplishment in life, most of them respected other humans. But the people that value money over every other thing in life are only proving that while they may have bank they are not worthy of anything.
Eyeroller
@Downpuppy: A lot of the bitterness in Germany in particular was due to the hyperinflation of the early 1920s. This was separate from later pressures due to the Depression and led to a lot of unrest throughout the 1920s and the first rumblings of “Dolchstosslegende”. France and the UK did not go through that but lost a shocking number of their young males as well as a lot of economic activity.
It was never going to be possible to maintain the post WWII order either, but we seem to be doing a poor job of managing the changes.
I subscribe to Krugman’s substack and he has been writing about the rise of inequality. Much of it seems to date from — of course — deregulation of banking activities during the 1980s and subsequent soaring compensation for high-level financiers. Right now techbros dominate the billionaire lists but there are still plenty of hedge-fund managers.and other high rollers.
We had comparable levels of inequality during the Gilded Age and it took the Great Depression and WWII to wring that out. One shudders to image what may happen now.
rikyrah
@Sure Lurkalot:
The thing is for me…
as a Blue State..
WE PAY FOR THEIR PHUCKING LIVES.
And, all we asked for in return, is to be LEFT THE PHUCK ALONE.
And, they can’t even do that.
So, no. I don’t see why we have to subsidize their lives.
Professor Bigfoot
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The sudden turn of young white men to “the manosphere” and Trump is what’s most depressing.
I despair that it’s an inherent characteristic of white male culture.
Redshift
@rikyrah:
Which reminds me, are BJ posts auto-posted to BlueSky anywhere? On the bird site, they used to appear on Cole’s account (though I don’t know if that was automated or if he just did it.)
It would make them easier to share.
Eolirin
@rikyrah: Because even the reddest state is not so red that the majority of its population is made up of monsters like that. People who need help need help.
Should we cut off Atlanta because white Georgian voters are statistically assholes?
Nelle
I have mentioned before that I have porch gatherings for similarly minded neighbors. Used to call them porch wine, but then some nondrinking neighbors came. Well, last Saturday, a couple came who are Republicans. We kept it a bit light but on point. They seem to want to come back. A small crack? Who knows. Someone warned me that our newest neighbors, over on the next block, are Trumpers. I intend to take them cookies. I’m a great believer in introducing cognitive dissonance, as in I’m the known Democratic get out the vote person for the neighborhood but I’m pretty nice. I’m making a casserole for a family down the street with a newborn. They are “people of faith” who are distressed because, while regularly R, they take very seriously the Biblical injunction to welcome the stranger. We may have another chat when I deliver the casserole.
I suppose that I’m following my mother’s footsteps in making community where I am at. A small stab at fighting polarization. Because we moved here just before the Covid lockdown and I sat on my porch and visited with those walking by, sidewalk to porch talk, I’m very local and pretty centered on this little neighborhood. I’m mostly content with that. Less car time for socialization. And benefits? Somebody or other drops off a plate of baked goods several times a month..”I made a little extra for you.”
rikyrah
@Professor Bigfoot:
instead of asking these young men to improve themselves…
they want to sit with their entitlement.
I have little, if no patience for this nonsense.
No, you are not ENTITLED to a woman’s company for doing the bare minimum.
No, you are not ENTITLED to a middle class lifestyle, just cause.
Professor Bigfoot
@Eolirin: Indeed, and I agree… but at the same time, while I can deplore the violence of the Revolution, I can also compare it to the literal *centuries* of aristocratic depradations against the peasantry.
Rather like I find it hard to take much offense at what happened to the slavers in the Haitian Revolution.
rikyrah
Democratic Wins Media (@DemocraticWins) posted at 1:50 PM on Sun, Jun 29, 2025:
BREAKING: State Senator Mallory McMorrow just perfectly explained how Donald Trump’s big, beautiful bill is the largest transfer of wealth from the lower class to the wealthiest 1%. This is exactly the message that all Americans need to hear right now. https://t.co/bB3fgoB2Ds
(https://x.com/DemocraticWins/status/1939395984582205600?t=UDn-1CedLsltNFTXcVunoQ&s=03)
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
Maine
@TheMaineWonk
🚨BREAKING: IDAHO SHOOTER IDENTIFIED AS 20 YEAR OLD WES ROLEY.
SOCIAL MEDIA INDICATES DISDAIN FOR GOVERNMENT AND LAW ENFORCEMENT. ACCOUNTS HAVE SINCE BEEN DELETED.
PARENTS REPORTED TO BE MAJOR MAGA SUPPORTERS.
https://x.com/TheMaineWonk/status/1939717529535991913
Baud
@Nelle:
ExLax cookies?
Eolirin
@Professor Bigfoot: If it only limited itself to those responsible it’d be one thing, but it never ever does.
And yeah. It’s still probably better than the alternative.
Splitting Image
@Professor Bigfoot:
I think it’s an inherent feature of social media culture, which might be even more cause for despair. White males are at least in demographic decline.
I think a lot of these guys have the attention span of goldfish coupled with an enormous sense of grievance.
They’ll turn on Trump, Musk, Rogan, and the rest if they are hurt badly enough, but they won’t do ten minutes’ worth of self-reflection to ask themselves how they got suckered. So while a lot of them will vote Democratic in the next election, it won’t be because they have learned anything or become more liberal. And they will simply begin stockpiling their grievances against Trump’s replacement and they’ll end up getting suckered again by whatever minor sitcom actor replaces Rogan ten years from now.
trollhattan
@Professor Bigfoot:
Not inherent, perhaps excessively reactive.
My kid’s cohort HS class of 2020 registered +D while the class of 2024 registered +R.
Learning the why is job 1.
Jay
@Professor Bigfoot:
https://iop.harvard.edu/youth-poll/latest-poll
2024 before the election,
https://circle.tufts.edu/2024-election#gender-gap-driven-by-young-white-men,-issue-differences
Steve LaBonne
@Professor Bigfoot: The problem is that peasants and laborers were sidelined quite early on and the Revolution just ended up inaugurating the rule of the wealthy bourgeoisie.
MoCaAce
@Geminid: I think you forgot “blood of the innocents” in that list.
Omnes Omnibus
@Eolirin: That’s a form of accelerationism. Pretty much always a bad idea.
Geminid
@rikyrah: State Senator McMorrow is one of the four Democrats running to succeed U.S. Senator. It’s a young field; McMorrow is 38 years old, and the oldest of the other three is 44.
Next year will feature primaries for three open Midwestern Senate seats currently held by Democrats. Besides Michigan, Illinois Democrats will nominate a candidate to succeed Dick Durbin and and one in Minnesota to succeed Tina Smith Smith.
RevRick
I called my GOP Senator, Dave Mccormick to thank him for the thirty pieces of silver he’s giving me through tax cuts so that I can betray those struggling financially and future generations by gutting programs to provide food and health care and address climate change.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve LaBonne: Andre-Louis Moreau warned about that.
RaflW
@Geminid: I’m on Team Flanagan here in Minnesota. Would be great to get another Native woman in high office!
Ruckus
@Eyeroller:
There was an unraveling after WWII. As there is after every war, because war destroys a lot, that is the point of every war. The size of the unraveling is seemingly in step with the cost of said war. As we know how to make weapons that kill more and more, we end up with bigger, more expensive wars, just as with more and more people living on this planet we find that war is/can be actually desired by those with money, because it often gets them more money. There is a reason greed is human trait, one that many use as their one and only premise in life and that is because they use money not as a means to survive but as a sign of their greatness and that they must be better than everyone beneath them in bank account levels. It may be a conscious concept but isn’t always. Let’s face it more money is nicer than less, much more says to some that they are the greatest. They must be, that’s why they have MONEY.
And I doubt that this will ever change, even as books have been written about future life where everyone will be basically equal in all aspects of life. But there are many, many humans that will worship money over everything else in life. It is often what they think money was invented for – to show how great they are. More is better, too much is far better – it must be – right?
Omnes Omnibus
I just left a message for Ron Johnson that included such phrases as “have some courage”, “put on your big boy pants”, “defend the people of Wisconsin”.
OTOH, I thanked Baldwin and her staff for working hard to defend the people of Wisconsin and urged them to keep up their valuable work.
catclub
There is no evidence of any Trump electoral magic if he is not on the ballot.
satby
@Professor Bigfoot: I didn’t write that, the author of the linked piece did. I found it interesting, in the way it linked the problems many democracies are having, not just ours, in the struggle against authoritarianism.
catclub
@Nelle: Good on you! Great work!
satby
@Eolirin: nope, bad move IMO.
People are screaming for politicians to listen to and represent them, not monied interests, not triangulation. That would be both cynical and violate whatever Democrats say they stand for, which is already a problem Democrats have because people keep saying that they don’t know (which is bullshit, they do; they just don’t like a lot of it). No reason to muddy those waters even more.
JWR
Deleted.
Mai Naem mobile
@john b: on his American Voices show this weekend Bill Bradley had a NC home schooling mom who has set up a book donation program for areas affected by hurricane Helene. I mention the homeschooling because I assume she was one of those Christian homeschoolers. Listening to the show I kept on thinking this woman probably voted for the Orange Kkklown and yet she doesn’t get that he’s not helping fix the same areas she’s having trouble accessing coming up on a year after the hurricane.
Ruckus
@Downpuppy: .
That rising inequality would eventually lead to economic as well as social problems is not a worry to them.
Of course it isn’t. Much of the uber wealthy do not see their wealth as in any way a bad thing, nor do they see laws that help mitigate the greed and pompous arrogance of much of the uber wealthy, they believe that their money makes them and the world better, and often question why they have to pay a higher percentage in taxes than those beneath them. Which on the other side of wealthy is a hell of a lot of people. Greed is a human trait. It has to do with survival. I know that given how much really wealthy people have that doesn’t make a lot of sense but it is the reality. It is how some with a LOT of MONEY don’t see any issues with being uber wealthy while some go hungry. It’s why we have a minimum wage and income tax rates increase with personal value. They have more, sometimes far, far, far more than most others and while having more isn’t wrong, paying one’s fair share isn’t either.
Other MJS
@kindness:
Yup. It’s a superpower, and McConnell and Trump normalized it.
Soprano2
And it’s their money being wasted on the wrong things and the wrong people.
Professor Bigfoot
@Splitting Image: White men were joining the Klan long before there was an internet.
They sacked Black Wall Street and burned Rosewood long before there was an internet.
Freedom Riders were able to sleep at night because Black men with guns were watching for those nightriders– white men with guns and effective legal impunity.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Captain C
@Betty Cracker: I suspect that some of them figure they can retire on their nice pensions and people will forget them. That may turn out not to be the case.
Professor Bigfoot
@Steve LaBonne: And Haiti is paying for its insolence to this very day.
Captain C
@TS:
If he does that, I hope Mamdani confiscates all his properties and sells them off to people who will tear them down and build better buildings.
Professor Bigfoot
@satby: I know!
Sorry, I just found it, as I think you did, a fascinating take on our current situation; a thought (and conversation! 😉) provoking take; and I thank you for bringing it up!
Steve LaBonne
@Professor Bigfoot: Gotta give some “credit” to the US as well.
Captain C
@rikyrah:
FTFY to better reflect the entitled manosphere.
Professor Bigfoot
@Steve LaBonne: Yeah, just like Stewart v Somerset, the Haitian revolution sent shockwaves through American wealth that we too are still feeling.
ICE looks a whole lot like runaway slave patrollers in 1855, don’t they? Unknown and unidentified men with guns kidnapping people off the street and making them disappear is really not that new a thing.
Captain C
@rikyrah: I would love to see a reporter ask those parents if they’re proud of their son for murdering firefighters.
Professor Bigfoot
@Captain C: Accurate update. <“I’ll allow it” gif>
Professor Bigfoot
@rikyrah: What was I saying earlier about American white male culture?
Steve LaBonne
@Professor Bigfoot: Indeed.
Splitting Image
@Professor Bigfoot:
No argument about any of that. I think that is an accurate description of everyone who voted for Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024.
I was thinking more of the ones who voted Trump, Biden, Trump in those years. Enough of them will get angry at Trump for raising their taxes to elect a Democrat, then get angry at the Democrat in turn and vote for a Republican down the line.
Paul in KY
@H.E.Wolf: They did. Tho only the hubris of Sauron (thinking the Ring would affect anyone as it did him and thus not guarding Mt. Doom at all as he felt nooooooo ringbearer would ever let it get a country mile from the only place it could be destroyed) allowed that to happen.
Eolirin
@satby: It’s not triangulation and I think it’d be hard to read it as such. It’s transparently cynical sabotage; crossing lines not out of support but to enable poison pills from extremists that even the other side can’t support in a deliberate and transparent attempt to scuttle the bill. But it’s high risk because they might swallow it and pass it anyway and then we end up with something even worse.
Low info voters will buy anything, including that this Republican passed bill and its consequences are because of the Democrats, so I’m honestly not that concerned with messaging. Everyone else should be able to follow what’s going on.
@Omnes Omnibus: Only if it fails to scuttle the bill. The point would be to try to scuttle the bill. I do think the risk of failure is pretty high though. Which, I expect, is why they’re not doing it. At some point we’re going to have to do riskier things though. And at some point, if things continue as they are, the only options left to us will be really bad ones.
Ruckus
@TS:
An angry toddler.
Bingo! One of shitforbrains issues is that he’s really never grown up. He doesn’t know why or how or even that it’s normal. He’s in his upper 70s and yet mentally is barely in his teens. Growing up, maturing, is different for all of us, but most of us do some version of this a lot younger than he is. He’s never had to, was seemingly never shown how or why. And no, this is not something that can be brought, even as it’s earned. He’s never really had to try. Most of us have to do this at some point, and most of us do at some point in life, but not everyone does. Most of us do this earlyish on in life, but there will always be those that don’t.
TONYG
@Bokonon: People in general are very reluctant to admit that they’ve screwed up. I could bore you with plenty of stories from my four decades of working in I.T. In addition, stupid people (i.e., people who have voted for Trump even once) usually do not have the intelligence to figure out how to learn from their mistakes. So, here we are.
TONYG
@Professor Bigfoot: People should start calling the local police when they see unidentified, armed masked men (who might or might not be ICE) abducting people. If the cops openly support the masked men, then at least the cops are revealed what they are. If the cops do their jobs then I suspect that the ICE cowards will back down.
TONYG
@Eyeroller: Yes. Also it’s my understanding that German civilians suffered a lot during World War One — even though there was no combat on German territory and even though there was little arial bombardment of German cities to speak of. Britain maintained a tight naval embargo on Germany throughout the war and there were major food shortages as a result. To go through that for four years and then lose the war was more than many Germans could bear. Hitler came along with a winning message — “It was all the fault of the Jews and the socialists!”. Easy scapegoats. (Americans in 2024, in contrast, had nothing to complain about except the price of eggs and the fact that the candidate was a woman with brown skin.)