Someone last night asked why no one on the blog ever talks about the current genocide Israel is waging in Gaza, or why we seldom talk about it, and the answer for that for me, at least, is complex. And don’t even come at me with your “It’s not a genocide it’s…” or “It’s not ethnic cleansing…” Get the fuck out of my face with that “it’s not a clip it’s a magazine” bullshit. Look in the mirror and listen to what you are saying. So here are my thoughts- strap in.
First, the basic facts are clear from my perspective, and that the current Israeli leadership composed of Netanyahu and his cronies has no strategy, only tactics, and a grand vision of the entire region as free from the meddlesome Palestinians. From Netanyahu’s standpoint, he wants them gone, but not too soon because he also wants to stay in power. So they are engaging in basically whack-a-mole on Hamas while waging a full on pogrom against the Palestinian people. They continue to let the settlers run rampant, the Israeli government bombs and snipes indiscriminately and seems intent on breaking war crime records in the modern era, and they are starving them in front of our very eyes.
From what I gather, half or more of the Israeli people and probably the majority of American Jews are all mortified by this. But, like MAGA here, the monsters and the vocal minority are in charge there. And also like Republicans, Netanyahu will never let a crisis go to waste and is taking full advantage of the horrific 7 October slaughter of innocents by Hamas. I don’t think much of what I said here is particularly controversial, really. I certainly haven’t said anything that you can’t read on the front or opinion pages of Haaretz. I mean it is fucking obvious enough that our dimwitted man baby of a President even noticed, with headlines today splashing “Trump counters Netanyahu on ‘real starvation’ in Gaza. Not that he’ll do anything and we’ll still vote with Israel every chance at the UN and the money and weapons aren’t gonna slow down. The only way that will happen is if Netanyahu personally embarrasses Trump to a degree he can’t not do something, even if it is just short term.
Second, nothing anyone says or does here is going to make a whit of difference. The last real chance there was at any meaningful change in American policy was on the last election. Maybe 2028 if we are lucky.
Third, I am sick of being called an anti-Semite for stating the obvious. Any debate about Israel has become so poisoned by AIPAC and the Bari Weiss’s and that cohort and others on the fringe (like those fucking insane faculty members working overtime to get their students deported for thought crimes and peaceful protests- every single one of them should lose their jobs) that you simply can not talk about what the nation of Israel is doing without being smeared as anti-Semitic. It’s something that particularly rankles me, an atheist, because I am not on any of y’all’s fucking team.
It’s such a fucking mess that you have to include a condemnation of the Hamas attacks in any discussion of the current starvation of kids by Netanyahu and the IDF like you have to say fucking grace before dinner or the hysterics will start calling your boss trying to get you fired or a handful of lunatics will go insane in the comments section and I will get emails for the next six months. Likewise, I have a lot of Jewish friends who are fucking terrified, and they have legitimate fears. There is anti-Semitism in the US, in the comments here (mostly deleted when caught) and everywhere in the world.
Fourth, any mention of Israel DOES bring out the absolutely worst anti-Semitic lurkers. They exist. They are not figments of the imagination. And they just destroy the comments section. Christ, we get some random asshole every other day who shows up in Adam’s threads about Ukraine just to talk about Israel for the sole reason Adam is Jewish. It’s not subtle.
So it’s fraught with all that bullshit, but even if you get past that, then everyone wants to get down into the weeds and go back and assign blame and relitigate everything done by each side and have their side’s action’s justified by history, and it’s fucking pointless. It’s a fucking distraction. Yes, the history is important. But not when you are using it as a smokescreen to hide the obvious wrong going on now.
So yeah, I don’t talk about Gaza much. It’s absolutely fucking insane to me that it is not the lead story on every broadcast in the country for the first twenty minutes with ten minutes dedicated to everything else, particularly in the digital. We’re fucking watch them starve children. We’re watching them shoot medics. We’re witnessing horrific daily war crimes, and no one fucking cares, and anyone who does is smeared or cancelled.
I don’t know what to do and I don’t think anything is going to change. So it’s fucking depressing and awful and for all the reasons stated above, just something I hate to think about. I’m helpless. And I know there are a lot of Jewish Americans who feel the same way- frustrated, sad, angry, helpless, and scared.
And again, I am not trying to tell you this is exactly how things are. I am telling you how I see things.
Over the weekend, one of the most inexplicably famous and least funny human beings this side of Carlos Mencia had some thoughts about Colbert and late night tv:
Jay Leno believes the late-night television landscape could use more nonpartisan humor.
The former The Tonight Show host had a nonpartisan approach to his humor and has some thoughts about the politicization of late-night television, he said in an interview The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.
“I got hate letters saying, ‘You and your Republican friends,’ and another saying, ‘I hope you and your Democratic buddies are happy,’ over the same joke,” Leno said when the foundation’s president and CEO, David Trulio, made note of his “balanced” approach. “That’s how you get a whole audience. Now, you have to be content with half the audience, because you have to give your opinion.”
First things first, Jay Leno spent years making Monica Lewinsky “jokes,” and the jokes are in airquotes because nothing Jay Leno ever said was funny, and I don’t know if something is technically a joke if no one laughs. He was one of the most criminally unfunny people to ever dominate media, the human equivalent of Golden Corral buffet mashed potatoes. I mean even Joe Rogan back in his standup days could come up with a minor quip every now and then. Not Jay Leno.
Jaye Leno can just shut his cake hatch unless he is going to apologize to Conan O’Brien. He’s a has been who never was and in his entire lifetime, his only demonstration of comedic timing was by making these remarks the same week-end that an actual genius, Tom Lehrer, died.
And even that was unintentional.
I know that is not obvious by my writing, but I had a lovely day today. I honestly just think I am now at a “what the fuck ever I am just fucking over it” frame of mind that is probably irreversible and I will be this way until I die. “You want my opinion? You’re sure about this? Fine. Remember, you asked.”
Regardless, I spent a solid seven hours on the mower, and today was a really good day because it was low 80’s with a breeze and I was cutting my favorite fields, the soccer fields by the creek. It’s always beautiful, it’s long open stretches, there are always deer and crows and all sorts of birds (the robins literally appear to start attacking worms after my first strip down the field), and it’s just nice.
It was especially nice today because there are no camps, so there didn’t have to be any designs, and I didn’t have to push the grass to the sides as I cut (complicating the pattern and cut), and I was not lowering the grass to regulation so I could just cut at 2.75. There’s actually a lot more to mowing playing fields than people probably realize- like you don’t start out in the spring cutting the fields at regulation height- you start at at 4-5″ and depending on when the fields are needed you have to lower a bit every cut and because you are lowering that means more grass on the field, so you have to cut in a way that everything is blown to the sides, etc. It’s actually quite a bit of fun and I am not at all ashamed to admit that I have spent a good bit of time watching youtube videos on cutting fields.
God I can fucking see the big “L” for LOSER on my head as I write this. But trust me on this, it gets nerdier and worse.
I realized while mowing that I keep talking about mowing and at least a couple of you are like me and just mentally screaming “MOWING FUCKING WHAT WHO MOWS THAT MUCH WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON” every time I talk about it, so today I took pictures. Here is a map of my town:
The exceptionally artistic yellow lines on the fields to the north and the south of Bethany Pike (Route 67) are the north and south fields I cut today, which, as you can see, can hold a bunch of soccer fields. Here is a view of the north fields from the road:
And here I am in the middle of the south field looking north.
Another reason why these fields are challenging is because all of them are wrapped by the creek, which floods the fields multiple times each spring. When we have rain storms, the water will stand longer on the parts near the creek than elsewhere because the ground is just so saturated. And because of all of this flooding, depositing all those nutrients, it grows. Like Nile River cradle of civilization growth. You can watch it grow in front of you. And the grass and foliage is just so lush and the soil so rich you can smell the dirt with an almost petrichor like odor.
But, as you can see, it just fucking gorgeous- the sky is blue, the breeze rolls in from the trees by the creek and it always smells so sweet and clean, and they are just really fun fields to cut. I just love cutting these fields, it’s honestly the most relaxing thing I do. Take my shirt and do rag off and drench them, throw ’em back on, listen to music, and just zone out.
It’s one of the few times where I am completely at peace, and the combination of all the sensations from the breeze, the sweat dripping, the smells, the asmr from the music, the need to constantly focus on what you are cutting, the birds and deers moving in the corners of your eyes, the swaying of the branches of the trees and the blades of grass- it’s just so much going on and so much coming in that it is one of the few times my brain just shuts down and I can finally just think and have some quiet. It’s so good for my mental well being. I haven’t taken a nap all summer because the main reason I take naps is I just need a hard reset to shut it all down for 45 minutes and reboot. But all this time in the fields has negated that need.
Now mind you, I am not fucking solving world hunger or figuring out a cure for cancer now that I finally can think. I mean I do use the clarity to make some decisions and maybe come up with a minor quip or phrase I will use on this here blog one day and eventually the right time to mention it will come up in six months and we’ll get the payoff. But most of the time it’s really just random uncontrolled thoughts and pure fucking gibberish. I’m ashamed to admit some of it is downright obscene and or really embarrassing, but what happens in my fucking head stays in my head. Most of the time. Some of the time.
But really it is usually just the dumbest thoughts. Sometimes I recite a word in my head until it sounds like gibberish and is stripped of all meaning to the point that I begin to wonder if it is even a word at all or if I am even speaking english. Or random thoughts like “I haven’t seen an ashy dog turd in thirty years and those desiccated white turds were ubiquitous when I was a kid. Or were they and this is the Mandela effect in action and I am just imagining ashy dried dog turds of yore. But if they were real I bet it is because we radically changed something in dog food combined with people are much better about picking up there dog poop now. I wonder if the ingredients changed and no white turds mean it is healthier. Or the food is just as good or bad as it was but the ingredients changed because some ag policy made something cheaper to be used as dog food and it just coincidentally does not leave ashy poop. I swear I talked to someone about this recently. Or was it recently really it could have been last year or ten years ago or maybe I thought about this before and thought about talking to someone but never did but now I am just conjuring a conversation that never happened and reifying it by insisting it happened oh look how big that rabbit is…”
IYKYK.
I mean it’s not all just that, I do get a lot of quality thoughts, I suppose, but most of it is just sheer rubbish.
I know there are lots of important things going on and I should probably be addressing them but instead I just pissed away a bunch of time writing about absolute gibberish, and now I want to go sit with my cat and watch some tv until I go to bed. Plus my neighbor just called and I left my car windows down and there are clouds forming. So peace out.
trollhattan
If I weren’t allergic I’d ponder the smell of them dang green lawns. We’re in brown season, green will be back around February if it deigns to rain on us this winter.
I love they’re now using sheep and goats to do brush clearing around our metroplex. Cycling on the parkway I’ll hear “baaaa-baaa-y’all” and suddenly encounter hundreds of the critters.
NobodySpecial
Posts like this are why we love you, Cole. Co-signed. Rock on.
daize
@NobodySpecial: Quoted for truth (am an old).
@NobodySpecial:
Citizen Dave
It’s funny because Jay Leno was actually funny in the 1980s. He was the funniest guest on Letterman’s show then. Of course, it may have been the times and the sense of humor then (that Dave and Leno had helped develop). I had a friend who saw Leno’s act then at the U of Illinois, and he said it was indeed hilarious. Fast forward 10 or so years. I saw him at the Indiana State Fair, main grandstand. Leno meandered through 6-7 very long stories, and that was that. Mildly entertaining. He surely turned into a slice of milktoast.
White Dog Turds! (band name?). Haven’t thought about this in decades. According to (greenmatters.com/pets/what-happened-to-white-dog-poop),
“According to Drool, a blog by Australian veterinarian Dr. Chris Brown, this [the fact the white turds are not around today] is because of the ingredients used in modern dog food. The foods manufactured for dogs used to be full of cooked bones since many companies used the material as filler.
After a dog’s meal, the bone fragments and particles would pass through their digestive tract undigested, coming out the other end as a fine powdery substance.
Then, following a few days of baking under the hot sun, that powder became bleached, allowing it to stand out against the more natural colors of the grass, dirt, and ground.
ETA: And another thing about Leno and his lame-ass pronouncements. Our times are very different. The time for comity and politeness ended, well, all R presidents since Ike have been disasters in one way or another, but they played polite in public until “you’re either with us or against us” fucking W. The time for comity ended when he and his nitwits attacked the wrong nation and spent trillions of dollars doing it
ETA: There are two hits to the google question: what happened to the ashy white dog turds?. One is the source I exerpted. The other is Cole’s post from 13 minutes ago. Kudos, google, kudos.
Scout211
Your town is beautiful, Cole. As a Californian, I do envy all the green grass.
FYI, I just saw a pile of ashen poop on our road yesterday. But it was coyote poop not dog poop so I can’t speak to any of your ashen dog poop theories. But I would bet more people are picking up their dog’s poop these days.
The Audacity of Krope
Nothing I can say that you didn’t say above re I/P, which I have been assured by reliable sources that no one is talking about, so get with the program.
Glad you are providing for the athletic endeavors of the locals. Definitely the best available application for grass cutting.
hells littlest angel
I’m not embarrassed to admit that it took me quite a long time to figure out that you were doing this mowing as a wage-paying job.
Glory b
In reference to the morning thread, which i missed because babysitting, there’s something about the Hakeem Jeffries kerfuffle that no one here seems to remember:
The DSA has had Jeffries in their sites for a LONG time. I recall articles indicating that, as soon as she won her primary, DSA was using AOC to find & promote a primary challenger against him. DSA still seems to think his seat is gettable and makes no bones about hating him.
Not endorsing their candidate makes sense, I wouldn’t endorse him either.
Since Summer Lee was mentioned (and she’s my rep too), I’ll note that she came out announcing she was joining the DSA, then that she was running for the open seat & was greeted by a flood of DSA money.
She endorses the idea that the DSA isn’t interested in working with current Dems & wants a hostile takeover of the party and has called Biden nothing but a “GAHT DAM REPUBLICAN.”
She seems to have walked back a few troublesome things about Gaza & got some heat for refusing to meet with or be interviewed by the local Jewish publication. Remember, her district includes the Tree of Life Synagogue, where the largest slaughter of Jews in the US occurred.
She eventually agreed to meet with them, I guess she figured she had no choice, smart move on her part.
And most of her communications to constituents aren’t about big progressive visions, but how much federal money she’s brought to her district, regular, small ball stuff
But most importantly, I never noticed the ashy dog poop issue & will now be looking.
But not many in my walking paths either.
satby
You’re my anamchara.
Sure Lurkalot
I never found either Jay Leno or David Letterman particularly witty. I pretty much stopped watching that format when they dominated late night, so much so that I’ve never seen the network Colbert, Fallon or Kimmel shows, only clips now and then. I did watch Daily Show Colbert back in the day.
trollhattan
@Sure Lurkalot:
Letterman always on my A+ list. Leno: just why?
FastEdD
I/P issues have torn apart friends of mine. Climate change will destroy us all before there will ever be peace.
In other news, years ago a car went around a turn too fast and destroyed itself and the brick wall in our neighborhood. We rebuilt the wall and a year later another car was totalled and wrecked it again. Rebuilt it and a third was smashed to pieces in the same place. We had some time off and last week TWO more cars totalled right next to each other. Empirical evidence the human race is getting dumber. That’s five cars totalled in the same turn. I think we shouldn’t put the bricks up again, just pile the junk car parts up where the wall used to be. Five cars would make a big pile.
The Audacity of Krope
I could absolutely see that. I do wonder what, if any, involvement Mamdani has had with any such effort. Public statements, private efforts, anything of that nature.
That said, I do think it is important to look at candidates as individuals. I have no way of knowing at this time, but if I found out for sure that what you described was Jeffries’s actual line of thought, I would be very disappointed in him. Officials at his level should be above that sort of pettiness. And I have even less respect for prioritizing concerns on a partisan basis.
In terms of your representative, I’m going to be looking her up. I hear a lot of claims you make about her referred to the DSA, but this is the first time I’ve heard a name put to it. I very much appreciate that you did that. I’ve been looking for an opportunity to corroborate these claims.
Raoul Paste
I generally don’t read the very long posts, but I read this, and it was very satisfying. I felt temporarily connected to the decent fraction of the human race, with all its quirks.
And I would say that your assessments are spot on
David Collier-Brown
Lots of Israelis, including my old boss, are fighting back against Mr Netanyahu. He flew from our offices to Israel to be part of one of the major protests.
Mr Netanyahu’s supporters claim that’s anti-semitic.
The Audacity of Krope
@FastEdD: The real question, why do you keep building a wall where people are driving?
Heidi Mom
Lovely photos, John! When I look at a landscape photo on Facebook and think “That’s really beautiful,” it’s usually WV (although my own state of PA is not too shabby, landscape-wise).
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
Hear, hear, Cole!
It’s great to have your long-form blog posts back regularly, btw.
Jackie
Only because you had such an amazing day will I correct your spelling, JC, as I’m so happy you had a tranquil, happy day today :-)
I hope for many such days for you. You deserve them!
Chief Oshkosh
No “L” talk from on this topic from me, John. I’ve had to deal with the outcome of incorrect mowing in similar situations. A lot of people who have no idea of what goes on behind the scenes don’t know that they are depending on the the mowers following a plan leading up to and through the season(s)
ETA: Some of what you are describing that goes on in your mind reminds me very much of TM.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@FastEdD: I think you need to put up a stop sign right before that tur
thanks for the long-form post re zen in the art of mowing.
Suzanne
Everything about the I/P conflict just makes me fucken heartbroken. So I basically co-sign everything you said, John.
An unexpectedly upsetting aspect of it, for me, has been seeing a non-zero number of American Democrats turn a blind eye to (and in same cases, engage in) anti-Arab/Islamophobic bigotry, because they’re pissed that Arab-Americans didn’t vote the way we wanted them to. It’s gross and transactional. There are war crimes happening, and that is one of the few things in the world of greater importance and urgency than our domestic political issues.
The Audacity of Krope
@Suzanne: 👏👏👏
Craig
I only figured out you were cutting grass for cash a couple of days ago. I just thought you had a large tract of land and were obsessively chilling out cutting. I’ve always had respect for the groundskeepers of playing fields. Jay Leno. Years ago my buddy and I worked at Escape From New York Pizza in SF. I worked in the Haight, he worked the downtown store. Downtown store was next to the horrible Planet Hollywood. I was getting a slice talking with Dan at the counter one day and heard this familiar voice say Hi, can I get a slice. I turn. It’s Jay Leno over from Planet Hollywood. I popped my Polaroid in his face and said hi. He looked back at me and said Do you want me to sign that? I squinted, and said, Uh, No! No thanks. My buddy looked at and dead panned, uh, that’s 4 bucks.
JCJ
@Citizen Dave: this is indeed a full service blog. I cannot believe that a discussion took place regarding white dog turds. I was going to Google it and then voila! You had already done so. I am pleased that my initial thought was incorrect – that dogs of yore were suffering from obstructing gall stones/biliary stones
Another Scott
@FastEdD:
You shouldn’t put that painting there…
Best wishes,
Scott.
Doug R
Couple of thoughts. Might be able to do something in 2026 to at least slow things down.
Second-I was one of a 3 member crew of summer students who did groundskeeping at a medium security prison in Canada.
We did spend most of the day outside the fence BUT we have to come in every day to clock in and out. Now I know it’s a Canadian prison, but it was still a prison and you developed instincts for when you heard things behind you…One of the days was devoted to a general tour where we visited the guard room-this is one of those prisons with multiple wings in a hub and spoke setup with the guard room in the centre. You could feel all the eyes looking at you through the bullet-resistant glass – all the guards were careful to call it bullet resistant. And gates everywhere-the place had gone through a riot 5 years earlier. Turns out one of the basics is limiting movement.
As I said earlier, most of our time was spent outside the fence mowing the extensive grass and making sure all trees in the area were trimmed to at least 5’8″ from the ground to limit hiding spots. We had two tractors IIRC-the Kubota was a beast that NEVER failed and a few push mowers, one of them a Flymo-yes we had steel toed boots-the other guy in the crew had a big slash across one and he didn’t have a clue as to when it happened.
SamInWa
In my opinion, an attentive and communicative neighbor is the best security that one can have.
laura
Man, I love a blue collar worker and their work life! Few people understand the mower, what it does, how it can take a terrible toll on the neck and shoulders, how necessary and satisfying the work is- and that blade can cut horizontal, vertical and every angle in between.
Re your take on the situation in Gaza, and the (gestures broadly) I am intrigued and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Re Jay Leno- fuck that shite-bag and his years of kick down, kiss up. Mad respect to his wife Mavis who really did the work in highlighting the plight of Afghan women under the Taliban. Too bad she’s now in the depths of dementia and we’ve fucked over the entirety of Afghanistan in escorting the Taliban to the big table and have abandoned our obligations to the people who have risked everything to oppose the taliban, only for that guy and his immigration policies to fuck them every which way possible.
In conclusion, fuck Jay Leno and Kudos to the maintenance and groundskeeping workers for all they do. And hope for peace, and that children be fed and protected.
schrodingers_cat
Bigotry is okay in white liberal spaces if it wears social justice and/or economic justice clothes. Its a tried and tested tactic worked for the British when they made excuses for their empire cloaked in liberal rhetoric. While John Stuart Mill was opining about liberty he was helping write missives for East India Company creating rationales for gobbling up Indian states.
On the issue at hand, I see that Israel(and Jewish people) are held to standards that no other country is held to. Netanyahu’s awfulness is projected on the entire populace and even the diaspora.
Joe Biden was called Genocide Joe and KH, Holocaust Harris but the current incumbent who has been far worse for Gaza and is no check on Netanyahu has earned no such epithet from the Pro Palestinian protest movement in the US.
Peke Daddy
@Scout211: Coyotes may gnaw bones for the marrow, ingesting bone along the way.
Citizen Alan
As gross as those were, they didn’t piss me off nearly as much as his Stella Liebeck “jokes,” which was basically him demonizing an elderly woman who got third degree burns on her genitals from overheated McDonald’s coffee.
geg6
The guy who cuts our grass is the retired head of maintenance for the school district from which both he and I attended in the town next to where I live now. He explained that he was doing what they did with their fields with our grass and told me all about how he gradually gets it shorter and shorter and why he didn’t do that last year because we were in a drought and it would damage the grass (our downsizing of our house did not include downsizing of the property—still well over an acre). Since I have never done lawn or gardening work ( and never will), I found it interesting and enlightening.
Shalimar
Tesla’s Robot Army: How Elon Musk Plans To Hit $30 Trillion Revenue
Another why-are-people-listening-to-this-lunatic-instead-of-putting-him-in-an-asylum story. GDP of the entire country is $23.5 trillion and declining under Trump. Even if robot sales eventually become more than all of our current GDP, Tesla is not getting 100% of a competitive market.
Reminder: Tesla currently has hundreds of almost-finished robots lying around the factory with no hands, because they can’t figure out how to make hands that work right yet. It’s just insane.
The Audacity of Krope
@Shalimar: Not to defend any statement made by Elon, but can’t he sell robots in other countries as well?
Steve in the ATL
@Citizen Alan: she had gruesome injuries, and eventually settled the case for only $20,000.
Percysowner
One of my favorite shows is Babylon 5. In it there is a race, the Narn, that fought its way out of invasion, torturous, genocidal occupation by the Centauri. Once free they are determined to become strong enough to make sure that “never again” becomes a reality for their race. The commander of Babylon 5, a diplomatic station similar to the UN has this to say
I think about that quote a lot when I hear about the situation in Gaza. Then I donate more money to the charities that are desperately trying to provide food to the Palestinians trapped there.
It’s a great show that knows a LOT about how humans work, how history works and how this type of situation spins out of control, time and time again.
Reverse tool order
That eastern Mediterranean Sea thing has been extrapolated from two wrongs not making a right thru two hundred to two thousand wrongs still not making right. Far past time we quit it here.
Not very comparable, but we got out of Afghanistan pretty cleanly about 19 1/3 years late. So, we could clear off from this.
Shalimar
@The Audacity of Krope: Of course he could. World GDP is roughly $110 trillion. So he’s projecting humanoid robots will be 25% of everything the human race produces. Remember, he’s not talking about all robots. Just the ones that look like people.
YY_Sima Qian
Not sure if the US-EU trade “deal” has been discussed in these comment sections, but as usual Finbarr Bermingham has good summaries of what has transpired:
The headline terms that Trump touted & the EU Commission wanted Trump to believe. In substance, the “deal” is similar to the US-Japanese “deal”, the US-PRC interim “deal”, & indeed the US-PRC “Phase 1 deal” from Trump 45 term: non-binding promises of purchases of US commodities & goods, non-binding promises of investments in the US, to secure asymmetric tariffs at manageable levels. Unless the EU & its member states are completely obtuse & naive, this “deal” is merely a stopgap to buy the EU time to de-risk from the US.
Von Der Leyen chose to flatter Trump after the “deal” was announced, only slightly less obsequiously than Mark Rutte’s comments after the NATO Summit, surely intended to entice Trump to remain committed to both the trade “deal”, defense of Ukraine against Russian aggression, & defense of Europe against Russian encroachment. However, if the EU Commission thinks Trump is actually committed to any of the above, it is made up of fools.
The summarized comments by Šefčovič, the EU Commission’s Trade Tsar, is probably more reflective of actual European sentiments.
The problem is that the EU Commission failed to effectively play the cards in its hands, or exercise the considerable leverage it possessed (gift link to FT article below):
The results failed to live up to the tough language from the EU Commission over the past few months, & VDL’s flattery of Trump & Šefčovič’s resigned tone stand in sharp contrast to their seemingly principled & uncompromising rhetoric vis-a-vis the PRC leading up to & during the Sino-EU Summit last week. It will not escape unnoticed in Beijing & other non-Western capitals. The EU’s credibility as a geopolitical actor has taken a big hit, & the EU Commission’s credibility among many member states has also suffered, which is not good for the EU.
The EU, the PRC & Japan may have ended up in similar places wrt trade w/ the US, but they got there through different routes. The PRC chose tit-for-tat, & played one of its trump cards (rare earth elements & rare earth magnets) in response to further escalations to force the Trump Administration to beat a retreat back to Apr. 2 starting position, in both tariff levels & export controls of semiconductors, widely perceived as the iconic example of TACO. The remaining 20% asymmetry in tariff levels is due to Trump’s meme tariff on “fentanyls”, which will likely be removed when the US & the PRC reach a symbolic “deal” here. Japan refused to allow itself to be used as Trump’s prop & challenged Trump’s characterizations of the deal. The EU (& European members of NATO) did not follow Japan’s example, & is wide perceived as having been rolled by Trump. More importantly, Trump himself undoubtedly believes he won the contest of wills against the EU, & will keep going back to that well to coerce more concessions.
The Audacity of Krope
@Reverse tool order: But if you do 100 wrongs or more for every one wrong of your sworn enemy, that makes you right, doesn’t it?
For that is might, and might makes it so.
jackmac
Breaking into this open thread with some sad news from Chicago — especially if you are a baseball fan — with the death of Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg. He passed after a lengthy battle and treatment for prostate cancer. Sandberg was 65.
Ramona
@Citizen Dave: Thanks for solving the mystery of the white turds. Once JC mentioned it, it started to drive me nuts!
geg6
@trollhattan:
Same. Leno has always sucked. Always.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Citizen Alan: yes. Those jokes infuriated me as well.
The Audacity of Krope
🤨
Just one would be a good start…
HopefullyNotcassandra
Everything you said about everything but the ashen dog poops. Somehow I missed those.
Craig
@Shalimar: see also his claims of robo taxis. Autopilot does not work, and without Lidar, which they appear opposed to, it’s not going to work the way Waymo does.
Shalimar
@Sure Lurkalot: I always found the criticism of Leno to be overblown. No, I don’t think he is personally funny either, and it was not a show I watched except for highlights. But Leno didn’t write 99% of the Tonight Show monologue jokes. They had staff writers, some good, some mediocre. Leno’s delivery was fine with other people’s jokes. I wouldn’t want to watch his stand-up act where he does his own material.
The Audacity of Krope
His funniest bit was always reading errors and oddities in the news. That was…mildly amusing.
If anyone out there is dying to relive Leno material, a lot of it gets recycled on Gutfeld!* to this day. Not a lot of work involved when Republicans cant move on from anything ever.
Leno should be collecting royalties, though.
*Their exclamation mark.
mrmoshpotato
@jackmac: FUCK! FUCK CANCER! Rest in peace, Ryno!
Omnes Omnibus
Speaking of religious disputes…
Jackie
@jackmac:
Oh, that’s sad… he was still young…
FUCK CANCER.
The Audacity of Krope
@Omnes Omnibus: My ongoing dispute with the Bluesky login screen rears it’s head again…
Scout211
@Omnes Omnibus: Sign-in required?
laura
@Steve in the ATL: yes, she had third degree burns on her labia such that it burned through the entirety of her pubis. In other words, that coffee was so hot, had she been a man, it would have burnt her balls off.
It still enrages me how her massive injuries occurred well beyond the known risk to the Golden Arches.
RSA
One of my favorite words.
I know the feeling. This morning I was thinking that some adjectives for nationalities, if you use them as nouns, are parts of breakfast: a Danish; an Americano; a [full] English.
Shalimar
@Craig: Yeah, exactly. I think robo-taxis are a great idea with a huge future. I don’t want a car and don’t need one if I could get cheaper rides without having to tip a driver. But Musk’s idea that he is going to dominate the market because he produces cheaper vehicles that are less safe is really dumb. Lidar will be important in building trust and cutting it to reduce costs is a terrible idea.
Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus:
Sooo I was at a coffee shop and the girl in line behind me decided to ask if I’d heard about Jesus.
In the United States.
In 2025.
“I have heard the sales pitch, yes,” I said. “I’m happy with my current religious services provider and not looking to make a switch.”
ruckus
Peace out Humphry!
I think we all go through this kind of thinking – being. Now we may do it a bit differently, we are after all human beings. OK most of us anyway.
I did this but not in quite the same manner long ago and now that I’m an old and retired I do it a little more often, but then I have the time….
It’s humanity, in all its incantations, sides and whatever. We all have days where we just sit and reflect on our whatever. When you get old, you have more of these days. And overall it’s better than working your butt off.
NotMax
Mulch is the new black.
‘:)
Shalimar
@The Audacity of Krope:
I still say that sounds like it should be the German word for stomach cancer.
gene108
@Glory b:
Obama was often called the best Republican president, since Eisenhower by people on the left.
JCJ
@jackmac: my goodness! I remember watching the Cubs in 1984 when they finally won their division. My mom and I went to a game against the Mets where the Cubs had a big rally to win late in the game. Wrigley was going nuts. Ryne Sandberg was such a player.
ruckus
@Shalimar:
But Musk’s idea that he is going to dominate the market because he produces cheaper vehicles that are less safe is really dumb.
What’s that saying? You are what you speak. Or something like that.
YY_Sima Qian
The EU prevaricated between rapprochement w/ the PRC to gain leverage over the US, vs. trying to buy off Trump by promising to align w/ the US against the PRC, forfeiting the opportunity play the US & the PRC off against each other, & perhaps the opportunity to execute any of the above strategies.
Trump only respects strength, perceived weakness will only invite further predation (gift links to FT articles below):
Trump is trying to secure a visit to Beijing & a summit w/ Xi later this year, but he did not have to make a concession of Lai’s transit through the US here. Such transit to & from visits to Taiwan/ROC’s few remaining diplomatic partners in LATAM is long established practice, indeed for Taiwanese Presidents the transits through the US are the purposes of the trips, & have been generally uncontroversial as long as “unofficial” visits to the US do not take on too many trappings of “official” visits, perfunctory PRC protestations notwithstanding.
Trump may also be sensing political weakness on the part Lai. The ruling DPP has just suffered a humiliating political defeat, when the attempt to reverse its minority status in the Legislature by recalling all opposition KMT legislators (& a mayor from the TPP, another smaller opposition party) was sounded rejected at the polls. The Taiwanese polity have polarized further through the recall campaign, & now the opposition will be even more united & relentless in their obstruction, rendering Lai a lame duck just a year into his administration.
laura
@The Audacity of Krope: what! A Shite-bag amplifying the work of another Shite-bag, on the regular!?! Say it ain’t so. For unknown reasons, I wasn’t able to add the see Greg Gutfeld hyping Jay Leno on the regular, but, yeah, fuck both those guys and their audience.
gene108
@Suzanne:
Trump actively courted the Muslim vote in Michigan. He met personally with Muslim mayors. He sent Tiffany’s FIL to drum up support, i.e. a Lebanese man with a family connection to Trump. He didn’t send some campaign operative.
Turned out Trump lied to them, but they were desperate and angry for anyone to side with them on Gaza. Democrats ignored them.
Betty
@Citizen Dave: The cooked bones theory makes sense to me because I feed my dogs rice with chicken necks. Only one of the dogs, however, consistently produces white turds. I assume it’s because he also doesn’t seem to drink much water.
The Audacity of Krope
@laura: I mean to some audiences, Monica Lewinski and McDonald’s coffee and “person fat” are still relevant humor.
gene108
John you live a very exciting life.
NotMax
Leno carved out a career of performing the Muzak of comedy, the most whitebread, middle of the road routines one can imagine.
IMHO.
Geminid
@Glory b: I’ve watched the Jeffries hate ever since he won the election for Democratic Caucus Chair in November of 2018. I would describe as coming DSA-adjacent people and groups, not the DSA itself..
That “primary Jeffries” story came out the evening after the caucus election. Politico reporter Laura Barron Lopez reported on some big talk from “two people close to” Rep-elect Ocasio-Cortez. These were two staffers who were mad about Barbara Lee losing to Jeffries. One was co-founder* of the Justice Democrats organization and the other was his sidekick. They had formed an alliance with the DSA’s New York City chapter to put Ocasio-Cortez in office, but they weren’t DSA themselves.
I think the DSA catches flak for stuff a larger and less organized bunch of people say and do. Most of these guys– and they seem to be mostly men– are too cynical and lazy to join the DSA. I call them the Dirtbag Left.
Hakeem Jeffries is a particular target of theirs because he’s a strong Black man who will not bend the knee to them. I really hope Jeffries gets a serious primary challenge this time, because I want these people to come out in the open. They’re big talkers, and they need to put up or shut up.
*This person happens to be running for the San Francisco House seat currently held by Nancy Pelosi.
.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Thinking that the government of Israel is currently run by a bunch of monsters is quite easy at this point. I used to be 100% pro Israel but after this disaster that the current government of Israel is maintaining to keep Bibi and his wife out of prison, Israel could cease to exist tomorrow and I wouln’t give one shit about it. I fucking hate the right wingers in Israel and after what Bibi and Likud did to Biden/Harris in the run up to the election, fuck them all.
If Israelis want to change my opinion, which I really doubt they care about, they can stop and pull back on the settlements, rein in the murderous settlers, stop killing women and children like there is no tomorrow and feed them. That would be a nice start.
Instead we are going to get more death and destruction because that’s what Israel wants.
Ramona
@laura: Her sweatpants were rayon or polyester which are derived from petroleum and the high temperature of the coffee melted the fabric into her flesh. McDonald’s had been warned that their coffee was dangerously hot.
Glory b
@Suzanne: Many black people are pissed because of folks in the Uncommitted/ Abandon Harris groups now standing aside while Trump runs roughshod over rights our ancestors fought, died and were lynched for, for no better result than things being much worse for the people they claimed to protect.
And now, the same people are seen as demanding we join with them in supporting their DSA/Uncommitted/ Abandon Harris candidate for NYC mayor.
Black (and Jewish) people have been the base of the Democratic party for generations.
Arabs and Muslims were largely Republicans until 9/11, before 10/7, many were joining Republicans protesting at schools about LGBTQ content in libraries & lessons.
We also remember the Occupy folks that booed John Lewis and escorted him from their enclave. The lefties that currently hate Jim Clyburn because they see him as dashing Bernie’s hopes for a second presidential run.
But they expect us to willingly back Mamdani, NOW laughingly telling us “vote blue no matter who.”
We still dont buy his explanation for checking the “Black/African American box on his college application.
Lots of politically active black voters aren’t happy with this, it feels like Fetterman 2.0, another one lots of us warned about, only to be immediately dismissed by the DSA folks who couldn’t see past a pair of shorts and a hoodie.
geg6
@Glory b:
Just saying but my antipathy, at best, for Jeffries has absolutely nothing to do with the DSA or whatever conspiracies are out there about them and their motives. I am not a Jeffries fan based on my own observations of the man. He’d be just fine in any normal political timeline. But that’s not where we are and I have only seen slight evidence of his ability to meet the moment. He’s not alone in this but he is, unfortunately, in a leadership position where he needs to be extraordinary. He can certainly change my mind, but he hasn’t yet. I’m done blindly following whatever party leaders decide. I’m going to be critical about whomever and whatever I think is wrong, my own side included. My own self included. I was wrong about Fetterman and have been calling and writing him to tell him how much he sucks and will pretty much support anyone who primaries him.
Last summer taught me to not trust the party. I am still a Democrat but I’m no longer a tame one.
Glory b
@Geminid: I’ll agree with the dirt bag left moniker.
E.
Okay I will be the asshole who says what is on everyone’s mind. Right before posting, John needs to do a search for the word “just” and eliminate 9/10ths of them. /you’ll thank me later
NotMax
@E.
Strunk and White live!
:)
Glory b
@geg6: Iinteresting fact, Jeffries is more popular in his district (about 80%) than AOC is in hers.
The appearance that, for instance, AOC, Mamdani supporters and white lefties are coming after him isn’t a good one for a challenger.
Some of them call them “Team Gentrification” for a reason.
The Audacity of Krope
C’mon guys, that slogan is only to shame lefties into voting for
diet fascistsestablishment Democratscomrade scotts agenda of rage
@Scout211:
You’d hate the godawful humidity that makes that grass possible.
RevRick
@Suzanne: The ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians just fills me with sadness and dread. It’s the tragedy of two peoples claiming the same land, and the eliminationist rhetoric of one side is being met with what seems like eliminationist intent on the other. It is headed for a catastrophic denouement.
But then the world is filled with murderous conflicts in Libya, South Sudan, Sudan, much of the Sahel region, the eastern part of the DRC. But they seldom impinge our consciousness, because, well, white supremacy never cares much about death and suffering and war in nonwhite places, except to say, “See.” (Conveniently erasing the centuries of wars in Europe and the violence of their imperialism). White racists here do the same here by saying, “Chicago.” Meanwhile, we have the glaring example of white-on-white violence with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I will not mention our murderous follies in Vietnam and Iraq.
And there are always simmering tensions that can explode on the Korean Peninsula or the Taiwan Strait and the Trump administration’s cavalier disregard for the legitimate security interests of Japan and South Korea can easily lead to those nations seeking to create their own nuclear weapons stockpiles.
Clauswitz, l believe, identified three causes of war: fear, honor, and coveting.
We humans long for peace, but all too often it becomes the violent peace of one people imposing their will on another.
The Audacity of Krope
@schrodingers_cat: Colonialism thanks you for your support. Nothing white supremacist about that institution…
BellyCat
Piling onto the Jay Leno scrum. His greatest accomplishment was making one realize Johnny Carson was actually funny (at times).
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@schrodingers_cat:
You’ve just described every racially tone deaf “pale blue”, entitled white “liberal” in metro areas like Denver and many commentators here. They define their liberalness purely by the fact the might have voted for Obama and support abortion rights. Peel away that layer of the onion and they are *no* different than any pro-choice moderate Republican from back in the day. They’re now represented by the Broder Klein/Thor/MattY/Stancil/Atlantic/Vox/ New Liberalism segment of the party, extreme classists.
I fought them back then and now I’m expected to accept them as part of the Democratic Party that sets the agenda and messaging? I’ll take their vote but am not taking their advice on where the party should go. People like Noah Smith and the rest of that crowd shouldn’t be listened to in terms of how we proceed.
The amount of equity platitudes that come from them is appalling given the racial tone deafness they exhibit on everything. Black and brown voters see thru that charade quite easily.
The Audacity of Krope
I’m familiar with most of these conflicts, though I confess to not knowing what the Sahel is. Question, is the United States providing weapons to any of the parties in any of these conflicts?
Archon
@gene108: Makes as much sense as saying, “Kennedy isn’t doing enough for us on civil rights so let’s vote for the segregationist candidate!”
Scout211
True.
Madeleine
Thank you for the photos and information about mowing in general and in your experience of doing it in particular. Also your views about Gaza and Israel. Also the rest of the post. “The Life of John Cole.”
Glory b
@gene108: Democrats didn’t ignore them.
Several attempts were made by the Harris people to reach out to them, each time they refused.
The Muslim mayor that Trump reached out to, and who is now an ambassador, is also the one who called his black constituents “a bunch of animals.”
RevRick
@geg6: I think the expectation that various party leaders should be able to rouse the masses is questionable. They are chosen by their peers to fulfill a specific task: help the caucus legislate. They have the responsibility of doing the slow, boring work of passing budgets and making legislation. Aside from Henry Clay I cannot name one legislative leader in either the House or the Senate who was known for soaring rhetoric. Those who were known for their rhetorical skills were usually at the fringes of power.
In the postwar era, the two Presidents most responsible for the most liberal/progressive legislation were LBJ and Biden, and they were borrring. But they understood how to get the reluctant to say yes.
mrmoshpotato
Enjoy the storms, Minneapolis!
Glory b
@RevRick: Thank you for this.
BellyCat
@Omnes Omnibus: Stealing this.
The Audacity of Krope
I perceived the reverse. Perhaps there was a situation going where two groups in an intractable adversarial relationship needed to come to the negotiation table for the benefit of themselves and everyone around them yet neither believed the other to be acting in good faith, perhaps neither were. So, instead, they each set out to damage the other to maintain their own influence in their own domains, even though one eclipsed the other in power and influence. So now everyone suffers, though the privileged do so less.
We’ve seen this pattern before.
prostratedragon
@jackmac: Sorry to hear that. He was notably quiet and low-key on the baseball field. My father used to chuckle about the time Sandburg actually got thrown out of a game. There was a question of a baserunning out, and some back and forth at first base mainlybbetween the Cubs manager and an umpire, when suddenly the umpire whirled around to Sandburg standing there with the “out-of-the-game” signal. In the postgame show someone asked Ryno, as he was known, why the umpire threw him out. “I just asked him what was he looking at.”
Some people’s words have power.
R.I.P.
Mr. Bemused Senior
How about Charles Sumner?
Glory b
@The Audacity of Krope: You might say that, but you’d be wrong.
npr.org/2024/10/04/nx-s1-5140179/kamala-harris-arab-americans-michigan
Bettemcourt
In 2025, for my mental health I’ve had to cut down on my reading of politically themed blogs, but I just wanted to thank Mr. Cole for his essential decency, which shines through in all of his writing, and which seems all too rare in the public sphere in these challenging times. Thank you, and thank you for this blog.
Glory b
@gene108: reuters.com/world/us/harris-meet-arab-american-leaders-flint-michigan-friday-sources-say-2024-10-04/
RevRick
@The Audacity of Krope: It’s the semi desert and grassland region of Africa south of the Sahara. It’s wracked by civil strife of various ISIS like engaging in guerilla warfare. The United States is not heavily involved in these conflicts. Much of the weaponry involved comes from black market trade in former Soviet Union arms.
RevRick
duplicate
RevRick
@Mr. Bemused Senior: He was not a party leader, though he definitely attained semi martyr status
dnfree
On PBS NewsHour Gaza is the first, or at least the second, story every night. More people need to be faced with what is going on every day, not just escape into cat or bunny videos. Many people don’t watch any news.
cain
@Omnes Omnibus:
Lol I have said similar things.
Of course, I could add that I wasn’t interested in a religion whose adherents colonized my country and stole all its wealth and left it in abject poverty.
The Audacity of Krope
@Glory b: So, what I see here is that a meeting happened, we don’t know who participated other than Harris, then she made a bland statement that amounts to “I support peace and self determination.”
Well, isn’t that swell?
Then there is some polling around interest on the issue and how it might affect voting. Then a statement from an Abandon Harris type who we had no reason to associate with the meat of the story. That is to say, there is no reason to believe that the person making the statement was referring to or even knew about the meeting.
What I didn’t hear was anything about how the actual interaction went or any sort of commitment to particular action.
Forgive me if that story was not enough to persuade me.
chemiclord
Best way I’ve ever heard the I/P conflict described was (and from a Palestinian professor during my undergraduate days):
“Two of the world’s most inconvenient peoples fighting over one of the world’s most coveted pieces of real estate.”
The Audacity of Krope
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I’ll put some articles in my tabs til it sticks.
This is what best describes, for me, why I take a particular interest in the plight of the Palestinians. Imagine if we were subsidizing Russia’s army.
schrodingers_cat
@Glory b: Excellent summary.Waves, how have you been?
Glory b
@The Audacity of Krope: I get the feeling that Harris talking to you personally wouldn’t persuade you.
I understand there were several meetings or attempts at meetings.
But the mayor of Hamtramck called black people there animals, got a meeting with Trump and is now an ambassador, so good for him!
And as I mentioned before, even before 10/7, Muslims were returning to the Republican party based on shared animosity towards LGBTQ people.
Anyway…
reuters.com/world/us/harris-meet-arab-american-leaders-flint-michigan-friday-sources-say-2024-10-04/
frosty
Great line! Did it work?
Years ago I was hitchhiking and the driver turned and said “Do you know the Lord?” So I thought what the hell, and said yes. Apparently I didn’t know him well enough.
I had him let me off at the next exit so I didn’t have to learn where I’d gone wrong.
schrodingers_cat
@gene108: And they stopped complaining about drones when he was no longer the President.
The Audacity of Krope
@Glory b: Maybe a little more than meetings? And maybe a minimum of 20 years ago. Perhaps more than double that. Democrats have been making that bed for a long time.
Archon
@The Audacity of Krope: If Ukraine had responded to the Russian occupation of Crimea by invading Russia and murdering, raping and killing thousands while kidnapping another few thousand I would be alot less sympathetic to the Ukrainian cause.
I despise what Israel is doing right now but I also can’t pretend October 7th didn’t happen either.
cain
@frosty: wait till you tell him about the origins of Yahweh when he was part of the Babylonian pantheon of gods.
Glory b
@schrodingers_cat: Busier than I’d like.
My mom had a fall and a stroke, putting things together for her has been harder than I’d like.
But we ended up realizing that she couldn’t stay at home and last week she moved to a senior living center where my aunt, her sister in law, already lives.
So far, so good.
How is your artwork coming along?
The Audacity of Krope
@Archon: It hasn’t so much been tit for that for a long time as tit-for-BABOOM.
The disparity of the scale and effectiveness of the violence is off the charts and the longevity is longer than probably most human lives on this planet. Much, much longer if you look past the current colonial project.
I truly don’t wish harm on any Israelis. Palestinian self governance, I believe, supports the safety and security of Israel. But colonies gonna colonize.
Glory b
@The Audacity of Krope: She was running for president, her time was limited.
And how has that Uncommitted/ Abandon stuff worked out for Gaza?
Why is no one protesting Trump?
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Glory b: so who do you want for mayor of NYC? Cuomo? Adams? Silva?
schrodingers_cat
@Glory b: I have been dabbling in watercolor and other water soluble media.
I recently painted this sunset, from a photo I took.
prostratedragon
@frosty: Speaking of Dad, he was a UCC minister. One Sunday morning as we were streaming out to the car, he in uniform, we were acosted by two Jehovah’s Witnesses. We kids adjourned to the car as he was asking them if they noticed what he was wearing, and what it might mean. I was reared to believe that “faith” was no substitute for plain cognition and reasoning.
The Audacity of Krope
I protest him in private settings any opportunity I get. Doesn’t change that Democrats have never given a shit about Palestinians. It shows up in the voting. Who gets elected as Democrats?
Geminid
@Glory b: There’s a New Mexico jackal who served as county Democratic chair and did other organizing work for the party. She used “Dirtbag Left” to describe some very obstinate and obnoxious people who harassed her and others, driving some away. I’d heard the term before and I really think it fits a certain type.
I heard another word that describes that type: “Wrecker.” I was checking out New York DSA Twitter a week or after Mamdani’s primary victory, to see what the scuttlebutt was. Evidently they’d had a large influx of new members. One of the veteran comrades cautioned the others to be on the lookout for “Wreckers” and another said yeah, gotta watch out for the Wreckers. It sounds like they have their own Dirtbag Left problem.
Archon
@The Audacity of Krope: All I know is if black America during the heart of Jim Crow would have committed anything close to what Hamas did on October 7th there wouldn’t have been a black person left alive and or free in the United States.
Marc
@Glory b: Tomorrow is Tuesday, I’ll be happy to take some photos of our weekly protest in front of the local theater. Among the 100 or so anti-Trump, anti-ICE, anti-fascist, and anti-Musk signs, there will be plenty of pro-Palestine and Free Gaza signs.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Archon: for that you can thank the abolitionist movement; Nat Turner’s slave rebellion in 1831 was, I think, the last slave revolt in the U.S. and it was pretty bloody.
NotMax
@Mr. Bemused Senior
William Maclay?
James Madison?
J. Q. Adams?
Daniel Webster?
Everett Dirksen?
Margaret Chase Smith?
The Audacity of Krope
Jim Crow America sure seemed keen to paint that picture, anyway. And well beyond.
I would never want the party to be generally unwelcoming. The only thing I might caution some against would be not weaponize the language of betrayal v wrecking to fight ideological battles about who may join or leave the party.
Marc
@Archon: White folks went pretty scorched earth on Nat Turner and his revolt. Executed everyone they thought even remotely involved on the spot, and killed a few hundred others besides. Just so it was clear to the slaves that this was not going to happen again.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Marc: they did, and I agree, but they created an interesting loophole for any slave even tangentially involved: as long as the slave claimed that he was obeying as a slave, and only because he saw Turner as a master, that slave could admit that he now understood his white master was his real master and as long as he confirmed his continued subservience, he could be released to his former white master (who, of course, was now perfectly free to go back to working his returned slave to death, or raping him, or whatever). The slave owners twisted the existence of the rebellion itself into supporting the ideology of slavery.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
Glory b
@schrodingers_cat: Its beautiful! I’m jealous of people with artistic talents.
prostratedragon
Norm Eisen:
Can’t find the ACoop clip yet, but here’s a bonus from Beyoncé, with a special message for a very special person.
Archon
@Marc: I’m not even talking slave revolts because I don’t think the Palestinians plight however bad it is equaled anywhere near chattel slavery, in fact I think the Jim Crow south is a good analogy.
If black America would have responded to our plight with violence and terrorism? It would have made Israels response positively tame in comparison.
If I were Israeli, the last people I’d want to hear from on how to handle oppressed minorities especially from a position of taking some type of moral high ground are Americans.
LAC
@Glory b: I am with you, gurl. Apparently, alllllll the wrong lessons of the civil rights movement continue to be learned, but with selfies. 🙄
schrodingers_cat
@Glory b: Thanks! I am glad you like it.
The Audacity of Krope
Ordinarily I would agree 100 percent, but my work goes to pay for this
And please don’t think I don’t recognize and detest the horror black America has and continues to suffer. For what it’s worth, most of those outside my family who have been truly kind to me in life have been black. I take nothing from them.
Martin
@Glory b: Right, but this right here is why I think Democrats are in such deep shit right now.
The ‘team gentrification’ quip by his staffer was politically unhelpful, but it wasn’t inaccurate. The problem is that it’s treated as some identity politics bullshit – that Bernies young white liberal supporters are going to get a bunch of benefits from these ideas, join the asset class, and then throw poor people of color under the bus. That’s what Jeffries constituents are rightly worried about.
But that result doesn’t derive from Bernie/AOC/Mamdani policies. It derives from rank and file Democratic Party polices, and has ever since the 70s. Once Democrats signed onto Reagan neoliberal ideas, protecting the middle class asset class became the real project at the steady expense of wage earners including even white union members. They still see themselves as the protectors of wage earners but almost none of their policies actually deliver for them. Even when Democrats tried to get a minimum wage hike in 2021, 8 Democratic senators voted against it.
And what has been the result of this division within the Democratic Party – those wage earners, including black and latino and unions have steadily become Trump voters. That’s the group that Jeffries claims to defend, and I believe he is earnest in that, but the Democratic Party isn’t structured to deliver for them and it’s not Bernie and AOC and Mamdani causing that. Yes, the white professional class has fucked over black voters, but that was Clinton’s coalition, not Bernie’s. (And to be clear, I don’t believe the intent was to fuck them over, I think they simply didn’t recognize the consequence of the policies because they couldn’t see out of their own class.) And yet, we keep pushing the people whose policies fight gentrification out of the party simply because they resemble the people who 30 years caused it.
I think it’s interesting that people keep mentioning calls to primary Jeffries but can’t provide names to the people calling for it. Just because some rando with an Instagram account calls for a primary doesn’t mean it’s a real threat or should be taken seriously. AOC seems to fully have his back. Mamdani is trying to get on the same page with him.
Reverse tool order
@The Audacity of Krope: I paused for a nice dinner.
I’m not clear on what you’re getting at. For myself, I’m not keeping a close score. My irrelevant inclination is to reduce our (USA) hardware input by at least an order of magnitude and see how much fight is left in the belligerents. Especially when it could do a lot of good in another place.
It’s a shame we mostly flushed our influence in the world away.
Martin
What box should he have checked? Seriously.
Glory b
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: Hhonestly, I dont live there so whoever runs the city makes me no difference.
But I will note that the leftie/progressive, no-executive-experience mayor of Chicago now has a 14% approval rating.
The Audacity of Krope
For us or the world?
I agree on reducing arms stockpiles, but the method matters. Feeding them to belligerents ain’t it, brosef(ina).
Marc
@Archon: Believe me, I agree with you. We’ve had plenty of homegrown urban pacification campaigns at various scales, some state sanctioned, some not.
prostratedragon
@Glory b: On the other hand the even-younger, and similarly-named, mayor of Baltimore seems to be the hit of the season. When it’s a crapshoot, single cases don’t tell much.
Martin
@Glory b: Would you also note that Democratic establishment mayor Eric Adams has a 20% approval rating? Can we conclude that voting for Democratic establishment candidates is a terrible idea, or does he get the benefit of simply being bad at his job?
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Glory b: me, I’m counting on Brad Lander pulling Mamdani’s ass out of the fire.
The Audacity of Krope
I laughed.
Marc
The cities out here in the Bay Area have this thing going on where, when one of these leftie/progressive types get elected, the local police stop fighting crime, the city manager and/or council start messing around, people start noticing all of the homeless (who were there long before the leftie), petty crime rates go up, headlines come out saying downtown and rapid transit are impossibly dangerous, the odd murder (usually someone white) gets 24/7 coverage, then some billionaire funded low tax faux-Democrat gets elected, everyone is happy again, but nothing really changes.
Reverse tool order
@The Audacity of Krope: Yes for us and the world.
I was being too cute. I meant supplying Ukraine, for their sake and ours and “our side” in that war and beyond.
The Audacity of Krope
@Reverse tool order: Yes. Defendants… for lack of a better word are a much better applicant for surplus materials
I’m not as sure as you that we were so great for the world.
Eolirin
For what it’s worth, I think what you wrote about mowing was more important than any of those important things going on you might have otherwise talked about.
Martin
I honestly do wish the people who say Mamdani checked the wrong box on the application would tell us which one he should have checked. They never seem to say what would have been acceptable which makes me think none of them would have been.
chemiclord
I really dislike the argument that Israel is a colonial presence because that is using “colony” in a way that would be ridiculous if used in any other context.
For example, let’s say the United States decided to give New York to the descendants of the Iroquois tribes. Would we call them colonists? I would hope not, because that would be a profoundly stupid thing to claim.
Fuck, the reason Israel exists at all was because no one in Europe wanted them, and if Israel were to collapse and the Jews pushed into the sea, they’d find next to no safe harbor in all those countries that they are supposedly a colony of.
The actions of Israel are plenty vile and evil enough on their own merits without needing to raise the flag of colonialism all over again.
Geminid
@The Audacity of Krope: The comrades weren’t talking about excluding these “wreckers.” They were cautioning each other to be aware that some new members might be problematic.
But the DSA *is* a membership party, and a chapter can throw someone out if members deem it neccesary. My understanding is they do occasionally.
But I doubt if they’d throw you out. You’d probably be a copacetic comrade. Or more likely, kropacetic.
prostratedragon
I wouldn’t cook this fish:
Reverse tool order
@The Audacity of Krope: That’s not an accurate description of my views. We’ve effed up a lot in the middle east since before I was born 7+ decades ago. And in Asia & in all of America south of our southern border. A lot bad, but short of 100%.
Geminid
@Martin: I would need to see an application form before I could say which box Mamdani should have checked. Do you know what the other choices were?
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Geminid: an applicant could check off where he had grown up: Africa, Europe, Asia or America. Apparently Mamdani checked three.
Archon
@Martin: Don’t check the box that says black when you aren’t black and don’t identify as black.
Glory b
Glory b
@Martin: There was a box that said “Asian.”
The category was RACE, not country where you were born.
Glory b
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: No, the category was RACE.
Glory b
@Geminid: The category was race, Asian was an available box to check.
Glory b
@Archon: Right?
It’s just that easy.
Glory b
@prostratedragon: Yeah, but he’s a standard Dem, was president of City Council, a known quantity and a political insider.
It’s not all about youth.
Msb
@Archon: “If I were Israeli, the last people I’d want to hear from on how to handle oppressed minorities especially from a position of taking some type of moral high ground are Americans.”
Probably, but they still accept $4 billion annually from Americans. And I’m still waiting to discover the human individual group that deserves no criticism whatever.
John, that was an excellent summary.
Martin
@Geminid: Yes. That’s why I asked the question. The choices were:
Ethnicity (choose one):
Race (depending on the application and timeframe, choose one or choose one or more)
There isn’t a choice there that he wouldn’t be criticized over. There’s no ‘Indian Subcontinent’. There’s no ‘Southeast Asia’. There’s no ‘Other’. There’s no ‘Decline to State’
I will tell you that a lot of Indian students checked ‘White’. A lot checked ‘Asian’. I fielded a lot of questions from students wondering what to check because none fit. I’ve see accusations that he checked ‘Black/African American’ because he was trying to get in on affirmative action, but he wasn’t eligible because he wasn’t a citizen at that time. In the federal dataset we condense this information down to he would have been ‘Not US Citizen’ with ‘Uganda’ as the nation. That would have overwritten all of the race question, because none of them apply to non-citizens, but you are still required to check one.
I had a colleague who was born in Israel who would always check ‘Asian’. Why? Because the way the US Dept of Education does their classification is stupid, and everyone knows it’s stupid the moment they see the classification. Israel is in Asia, so who is to say it’s not valid.
Had he checked white, people would blast him because he’s not white. Had he checked asian, people would blast him because he’s not asian. Had he said ‘unknown’ people would blast him because he obviously knows his race. Going to war with a 17 year old who is faced with a set of options, all of which are wrong and none of which matter, doesn’t tell us anything about the 17 year old, but it tells us a lot about the people who choose to go to war with him.
Martin
@Glory b: And people would blast him for picking Asian. Are Israelis Asian? Russians? Saudis?
I will tell you having worked with the people who do these classification – they don’t even agree among themselves who belongs in what category. Indians have been both classified as Asian and White, depending on when you ask the feds, and who you ask. They don’t even agree with who is Black/African-American.
I just think it’s wild that people here are choosing to die on the same hill as the ‘what is a woman?’ crowd simply because I suspect they just don’t like Bernie Sanders.
Glory b
@Martin: Indians are Asian.
They apply to colleges and seem to figure it out.
Glory b
@Martin: He wasn’t required to check one, he could have left it blank.
Glory b
@Martin: The guy who gave a space with a title to his good, good friend, Tulsa Gabbard?
glc
The view from Israel (B’Tselem): btselem.org/publications/202507_our_genocide
Martin
@Glory b: The instructions are to check one. Again, 17 year olds fill these out. The 17 year old wasn’t trying to get one past you.
Why are you trying to die on this hill? It doesn’t matter. It didn’t matter on the application and it certainly doesn’t now. You’re like Trump calling Warren ‘Pocahontas’. It’s stupid because it doesn’t matter.
Martin
@Glory b: And then after that Democratic delegates unanimously elected her to be DNC vice chair. Why aren’t you burning them down if supporting her was such an egregious act?
Your arguments make no sense. Is your hatred of anyone with the DSA tag so deep that you will just invent argument to hate them? Do Democrats have so many spare votes that they can afford to burn people who otherwise vote for our candidates?
Chris Johnson
Good to hear :)
satby
@Glory b: just pie them. All the mansplainers never listen anyway.
Suzanne
@Glory b: All of what you listed are important issues for Democrats and Americans to resolve amongst themselves. But they have nothing to do with the starvation and suffering of Palestinians, which is honestly more urgent and important than those issues.
Whether or not American Jewish and Muslim voters are Democrats or Republicans is not the lens through which to look at this.
FGB
@Glory b: So just to make sure I have this right, if a person from India moves to Uganda, and the next 100 years of their family lives and has children in Uganda, to the point where some of them adopt Ugandan names and become professors of African history, they still are not allowed to call themselves Ugandan/African?
This is literally the logic Idi Amin used to kick Mamdani’s family out of Uganda (and kill some of his relatives). You should be ashamed of yourself.
Miss Bianca
@RSA: “petrichor” is my new word of the day that I never knew I needed! Thanks, JC!
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Martin: thanks!! I was wrong, and I sincerely appreciate this.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Glory b: I’m pretty sure that when Mandami was applying to college, he wasn’t thinking about how his application would look on the NYtimes, but on whether he would look like a good student who dutifully filled out his application.
Martin, thanks for the correction.
Nelson
John, it was interesting to read about the craft involved in something so supposedly mundane as mowing.
Some of my favorite YouTube clips are videos of construction workers from all over the world employing various clever methods to transfer materials from one site location to another.
BillD
I used to write about the TV business for various trade publications. I was pretty familiar with NBC PR people. When my daughter graduated from high school in Oregon, she and three friends took a trip to L.A. I was able to get them tickets to the Tonight Show. My NBC contact got them in the first row and Leno brought them up on stage in the warm-up, kidded around with them. (They were headed for Boston U., Carnegie-Mellon, Harvard and Oregon State. Jay gave the OSU girl a joke confusing it with a state prison. Good naturedly.) He couldn’t have been nicer and posed for photos with them. Also, he restores and collects old cars. Can’t be all bad.
John Cole
@BillD: It’s possible I just hold a grudge around what he did to Conan.
Paul in KY
@schrodingers_cat: The ‘Pro Palestinian’ protest movement was a GQP funded ratfucking operation.
Paul in KY
@jackmac: I generally hate the Cubs (go Sox), but Mr. Sandberg was a class act on and off field.
Paul in KY
@laura: That poor lady! Woooweee!
Paul in KY
@Omnes Omnibus: You answered that very well. You must have looked like a heathen :-)
Paul in KY
@NotMax: I saw Bob Hope in concert back around 1980. Was a funny set and much racier than anything you saw from him on TV.
Paul in KY
@Odie Hugh Manatee: If they (Israel) ever do rein in the settlers, that will be a tell that they might be serious about signing some peace accord.
I’m not holding my breath…
Paul in KY
@RevRick: There’s only one side that can eliminate the other.
Paul in KY
@RevRick: LBJ was many things, but ‘boring’ he was not. Do understand your point, though.
Paul in KY
@Geminid: ‘Wrecker’ was a Bolshevik epithet, at one time.