If you live in one of the cities this service covers, this could be a good way to help your community *and* pick up some spare cash!
— rahaeli (@rahaeli.bsky.social) August 8, 2025 at 11:23 AM
===
ICYMI – Trump’s “booming economy” is circling the drain.
This is what happens when you elect a con man to run the country like one of his bankrupt casinos.
*Post by Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline.com) August 10, 2025 at 7:47 PM
===
not that this will happen, but the republican party losing 53% of trump’s vote would put dem supermajorities in both the house and senate
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) August 9, 2025 at 7:05 PM
===
Lest we forget:
I really want to bang on this point: when Congress comes back they are immediately and predictably going to be pickled in the delicious brine of Republicans headed for a Virginia wipeout
— post malone ergo propter malone (@proptermalone.bsky.social) August 10, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Additionally they’ll be looking down the barrel of primary maneuvering, which potential gerrymanders tend to make more threatening rather than less
you may recall this approximate date as when the last two Presidencies ran out of legislative steam and, generally, had copartisan polling start to fall out from under them
Explain? (Don't worry about the metaphors; explain what you mean will happen in the "brine"?)
— Cathy Gellis (@cathygellis.bsky.social) August 10, 2025 at 10:39 AM
===
fear and flopsweat from R electeds
— post malone ergo propter malone (@proptermalone.bsky.social) August 10, 2025 at 10:40 AM
On The Road – Albatrossity – Yellowstone
Baud
The other 53% are lying.
They Call Me Noni
@Baud: Top ‘o the morning to you sir. I do so enjoy your humor.
Baud
@They Call Me Noni:
Good morning.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Per the link, half of the 53% said they weren’t sure or would rather not say. Hard to say they’re lying, though I expect the vast majority of that half would come around and vote GOP.
The other half said they’d vote for another party. Most of them are lying either to the pollster or deluding themselves. And in no case would the other party be the Democrats; it would be the Libertarians or some other even more right-wing party.
Still, the possibility is there that enough normal GOP voters to make a big difference might just skip 2026.
Shalimar
On a positive note, it’s a good thing we are getting rid of all of our immigrant workers since the economy will be so terrible they would have trouble finding jobs anyway./s
Baud
Only the stock market matters to Trump and Republicans.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Well, let’s see how long the stock market can stay up when the economy craters.
The market’s got a certain amount of anti-gravity built into it because there’s a lot of money in rich people’s investment accounts that needs somewhere to go, but it’s not unlimited, as the brief dive it took earlier this summer demonstrated.
lowtechcyclist
Not sure who this quote box is quoting, but:
No, I don’t actually. My recollection is that Biden got a great deal of legislation through Congress after August 2021. His polling took a hit in August 2021, but that was about Afghanistan, as the media finally found something to go negative on him about; it didn’t really affect his ability to pass legislation.
I’m not sure Trump 1 ever had much legislative momentum to begin with, because Trump really didn’t have a legislative program.
E.
I want everyone to be aware that Trump’s July 24 Executive Order on homelessness states his intention to forcibly inter the homeless in what the EO calls “appropriate facilities.” The EO is written to suggest there will be drug and mental health treatment, and only those with drug and mental health problems will be put in those facilities. But if you read it carefully, anyone who is on the streets will be removed.
Many of these people are going to disappear.
Here is the EO: whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/ending-crime-and-disorder-on-americas-streets/
mappy!
But for the price of an egg, all the kinks horses and men couldn’t put Dumpty together again. (It was the shame of the price of groceries that did ’em in.)
***If you truly want to understand Republican machinations and what it takes to counter them, attend a Town Council meeting or two or four or every one…, or a meeting of the Board of Selectmen, Board of Education, Board of Finance, Planning and Zoning, Library Board… It starts at the local level.
eclare
I have a town hall with my D rep, Steve Cohen, TN-9, tonight!
Baud
@eclare:
Please report back.
RevRick
@Baud: And that’s being propped up by the Magnificent Seven stocks heavily involved in AI. It’s the tulip bulb economy.
Steve Paradis
Olbermann’s got a great idea.
WHILE HE’S HERE, LET’S ARREST PUTIN
youtube.com/watch?v=rHQuS3eyvRI&t=9s&ab_channel=KeithOlbermann
NotMax
@RevRick
Pucker up those tulips and kiss your earnings good-bye.
//
Geo Wilcox
@E.: Future farm laborers doncha know. The melting circus peanut with the cotton candy wig (not my description but I had to steal it) has to get someone to pick the rotting vegetables. Why not homeless people?
Baud
@Steve Paradis:
Citizen’s arrest! Citizen’s arrest!
Gin & Tonic
@Steve Paradis: Too bad Trump pulled the US out of the ICC.
Old School
@lowtechcyclist:
It’s follow-up BlueSky posts from the Post Malone Ergo guy started above it
RevRick
Generic polling on the favorability of the Democratic Party is awful, yet generic polling on the potential 2026 match ups have Democrats leading by 5-8 now. I believe that unfavorable judgment on Democrats is more about disappointment with the leadership than loathing. The GOP, on the other hand, is making itself abhorrent to a significant extent. And if Trump tanks the economy with his hare-brained tariff schemes, his deportation policy, and the Big Beautiful Bill’s warping the system, then no matter what the public thinks of the Democrats’ shortcomings, the result will be the GOP losing the House and barely holding the Senate. And even the latter could be in jeopardy.
JML
GOP electeds are hiding from their constituents and barely being seen in public (which has to be driving some of these people crazy; part of why these maniacs ran for office in the first place was to receive adulation they think is their right and now they have to hide).
The Orange Idiot and his lackeys in Congress and the media will try to blame the economic wobbles and failures on Biden…but part of why they got elected in the first place is too many people didn’t care about the why for the economics only that it was impacting them. The GOP is in charge of everything, and people will blame them, no matter the spin.
Which is why they’re trying to monkey with elections and change the rules. It’s all about power, it’s always been about power for these scum.
Now is the time for Democrats for run for everything, and we need to be taking on city council seats and school boards and small town mayors and shoving these evil GOP bastards out of everywhere.
gene108
Paul Krugman on Stephen Moore’s shameless hackery (he gave the presentation with charts last Thursday).
paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-political-economy-of-incompetence?utm_source=post-email-title&pu…
Jared Bernstein.
econjared.substack.com/p/hey-donny-do-you-really-want-to-tell
eclare
@Baud:
Will do!
Suzanne
@RevRick:
Let’s hope. I think there’s also a strong dynamic of “losing faith in the institution of the Democratic Party to be effective”, which is really more about frustrations with the limitations of governance, even if it’s good. But that doesn’t mean the people responding like Republicans any better, necessarily.
RevRick
@NotMax: Fortunately, I and my wife are invested very conservatively, so our losses and gains are minimal. And with no outstanding debts, we can live quite minimally.
Baud
@gene108:
Heh
eclare
Deleted
Baud
@eclare:
I fixed it. The update will show up in a second.
RevRick
@Suzanne: That sounds more like losing faith in democracy by people on the left.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
RevRick
@Baud: I don’t expect any wholesale conversion experiences by GOP voters either, but if 10% of them and their leaners stay home, the party will endure a shellacking.
Suzanne
@RevRick: Sure. And honestly, that’s a sad-yet-reasonable reaction to seeing what has happened. Much of what we thought was strong proved to be weak. There is nothing better than democracy out there, but that doesn’t imply that it’s producing good results right now. I bet a lot of similar feeling is coming out in that poll.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Suzanne: Part of my disappointment is *I saw* this shitstorm coming but the institutional Democrats didn’t until it was right upon them. I work at DOT and went to our outgoing administrator’s going away ceremony and Polly Trottenberg said a few words including that they’d met with the incoming team and that “I think DOT is going to be OK.” Right there I was like Christ you people have no clue even now what’s coming and no plan to handle it. DOT has fared much better than most departments but things are far from OK and DOT isn’t all that matters.
The other aspect is just losing another election to a perennial screwup with 34 felony convictions. I thought Kamala ran a good campaign. Can’t really pick any holes in it. But still seeing that lying sack of grievances win again…it’s just disappointing that the party couldn’t find a way to push through the bullshit and convince enough people to vote for our candidate. It’s hard to be happy with your party when it loses to a guy with so many flaws and who on a daily basis manifests a half dozen ways he’s unfit to be POTUS. But that’s where we wound up.
Soprano2
@Baud: My trust company is having one of their economic summit luncheons on September 10th. The guy who presents the information is a pretty straight shooter – I’ve talked to him one-on-one and I don’t get the sense he’s a MAGA. When you’re talking to people about their money, you have to be able to tell the truth. I can’t wait to go to this one!
Suzanne
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Yesterday, I realized that I am feeling about the Democratic Party like I did about my grandparents when I was a teenager: genuinely good-hearted people who just didn’t get it.
Soprano2
And sadly, a lot of other people will secretly cheer. I’ve come to believe when people say “crime is up”, what they’re really saying is “I see more homeless people”. I had a co-worker says he wished the city police would make all the homeless people get out of the city, because it would solve the problem. I told him that’s not a solution, it’s just relocation. He said he didn’t care as long as they were gone. Lots of people feel this way, even liberals.
Soprano2
@RevRick: I’m waiting for investors to realize they won’t be able to make billions of dollars on A.I. The resulting stock crash will make the dot com crash look tame.
Citizen Dave
@Steve Paradis:
I thought of the opposite. Spread the idea all over that Trump will emigrate to Russia on the 15th. Enough so he gets asked about it before the trip.
gene108
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
We don’t give Trump credit for his skills at connecting with a large segment of the American population. What he’s good at are not things we hold in high regard.
Trump’s skill is as a promoter and salesman, who will say whatever he can get away with to make a deal. He’s shameless. He’s been sticking himself into the news for the last 45 years. He turned being a real estate developer into becoming a national celebrity 40 years ago. I can’t think of another real estate developer who has garnered that kind of celebrity.
Sales and promotion as professions are held in very low regard by people regularly commenting on this blog, from what I have read over the years.
Soprano2
@Suzanne: What’s funny is how much people here slag on the Pod Bros, but that’s basically what their message is every week now. They’re fully aware of the situation we’re in, they aren’t pretending it’s 2008 or acting like if we just did what we did then everything would be OK. They’re not as bad as a lot of people here make them out to be.
gene108
Question: I found mouse droppings on my stove and kitchen counter this morning. I’m scrubbing everything down and throwing open food, like cereal boxes out.
What else should be done to get rid of mice?
I haven’t seen them. I think they come out at night.
catclub
@gene108:
Krugman writes this as if he thinks ‘if only Trump knew this he would not hire Moore’, which is totally back assward. That is why Trump has hired him.
catclub
@gene108: Do you have a cat?
More seriously, holes that mice can get through should be plugged with steel wool.
Baud
@gene108:
We also hold bigotry and punching down in low regard.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@gene108: Call an exterminator
They can squeeze through a crack the depth of a quarter
catclub
because it reflects so badly on the American people.
and again
catclub
@Citizen Dave: Ask Trump if he is planning on giving Alaska back to Putin.
Jay
@gene108:
Mouse traps to start.
gene108
@RevRick:
I’m becoming one of them. I don’t mean I want a dictatorship, but trying to return to the old norms of the last 50 years will not work. Republicans have been exercising naked power grabs for the last 25 years, starting with Bush v. Gore.
Democrats tried showing the old ways might still work with Biden, and they didn’t.
We need to expand not only the SCOTUS, but also all lower courts. Stack them full of Democratic appointees. I’d rather risk a tit for tat with Republicans here than try to work around the bullshit they engineered by stealing Garland’s seat. If we end up with 10,000 circuit courts and 10,000 SCOTUS justices, I’d be okay with it.
I’m 51 and not one day in my lifetime has the SCOTUS been composed of a majority of Democratic nominees. This isn’t something that will reverse on its own, which people thought would happen in the past, and almost did in 2016.
There are other areas where Democrats need to grab the institutions of government and bend them to do our will. There’s no electoral benefit in trying to stick to the old ways. I think most voters have given up on the idea norms exist. They want results. They don’t care how they get them.
p.a
@gene108: the plastic snap traps with teeth like a cartoon dinosaur that come with a chemical bait work great. Place along walls and by stove & fridge wall/counter spaces. Forget the brand name; HD carries them.
catclub
haha
ummmm, have you ever dealt with whole life insurance salespeople? The truth they present is extremely uneven. also annuity salespeople, also ponzi salespeople.
I think lying is much more prevalent than you suggest.
They Call Me Noni
@gene108: Get a cat.
gene108
@catclub:
If you read the whole thing, Krugman writes this is why exactly why Trump hired Moore. Trump wants incompetent hacks whose careers are dependent on his largesse.
p.a
They’re not going to rely on gerrymanders. They’re going to go with a 21st century “Redeemers” plan. Martial law, intimidation, ballot “cleansing”, election negation. They will not give up or share power. And they own SCOTUS & control the military.
IDK a solution. General strike?
Soprano2
I had to think about this a little bit. The way I feel is that sales is a hard job, and when it’s done right it’s good for everyone. I tried it three times, and I was terrible at it because my heart wasn’t in it. Everyone told me that’s how to make money, but if you’re not good at it you starve! The problem is, people feel like sales and promotion people are trying to cheat them and are lying to them, and sadly plenty of them are. That’s the reason for the attitudes. If we felt that sales people were always trying to help us find what is best for us, the attitude would be different. That said, I agree that FFOTUS is good at selling things, but he’s not great at delivering. He sold people on the idea that he was going to bring down high prices “on the first day in office”. How did that turn out?
Belafon
@Gin & Tonic: I don’t think we were ever part of the ICC.
Suzanne
@gene108:
Agree. We are also not great at the emotional side of politics. We sometimes do it well by accident.
Scout211
I had an influx of mice in my house earlier this year. I found where they were entering in several places under the siding of the house and then into the house through the gaps where the plumbing enters under the sinks in several rooms. I bought cans of spray foam insulation to fill up the gaps around the plumbing under the sinks, added sticky traps anywhere I saw droppings and sprayed mint spray and left mint packets. And I stuffed steel wool under the siding in the areas that I could see they were entering. I also have a cat.
I have no mice right now but they are most active during mating season. I was able to kill several, my cat killed two and one died inside the wall of my house which was rather stinky. Ew.
I thought about calling an exterminator but I decided to do the mitigation myself and will likely have to do it again next spring.
Visit your local hardware store and stock up on the spray foam, steel wool and any and all of the traps and mint products.
Good luck.
artem1s
slightly OT. Ohio AARP holding a series of events this week – 90th anniversary of Social Security.
AARP Ohio will host a live “Tele-Town Hall” discussion with Congressman Mike Carey from Ohio and AARP’s John Hishta on Thursday, August 14 10:05 AM-11:05 AMET
A Live Town Hall Discussion” at https://events.aarp.org/x9MXNX or join live the day of the event by calling toll-free: 866-767-0665.
AARP also recently released new survey data showing that Americans value Social Security more than ever, especially as it helps 41% of Ohioans age 65+ stay out of poverty and live with dignity after a lifetime of hard work. Here in Ohio 2.5 million people (or one- in five) receive Social Security payments, and Social Security injects $49.8 billion into Ohio’s economy every year.
1 Social Security Administration. “The Development of Social Security in America.” Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 70, No. 3, 2010. ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v70n3/v70n3p1.html
Of special interest to those who remember when NE OH and Cleveland in particular voted reliably blue and was a leader in civil rights in the country…
Cleveland Landmark to Shine Red as AARP Ohio Celebrates Social Security’s 90th Anniversary — Honoring the City Where It All Began
CLEVELAND, OH — For 90 years, Social Security has been a promise kept to generations of hardworking Americans — and it all began right here in Ohio. To celebrate this milestone, AARP Ohio will light Cleveland’s iconic Terminal Tower red on Monday, August 11, from dusk to 11 p.m., in tribute to the enduring legacy of Social Security.
The celebration holds special significance for Ohio: the very first Social Security payment was made to 1Cleveland motorman Ernest Ackerman, marking the beginning of a program that has helped millions retire with dignity.
“Lighting the Terminal Tower is a powerful symbol of Ohio’s role in Social Security’s history and future,” said Jenny Carlson, AARP Ohio State Director. “As we mark 90 years of this vital program, AARP Ohio remains committed to protecting Social Security for today’s retirees and future generations.”
Soprano2
@catclub: Those are sales people who are trying to get you to invest. This guy is talking to people who have already invested, so there’s no need for him to try to “sell” them. It’s different – his company is already managing their money, so he has to tell the truth about what the economy and investments are doing because they see it in their statements regardless of what he says. It’s this guy too, he’s a straight shooter as far as I can tell.
WaterGirl
@eclare: Write up a report, we’ll pay you $20 for it.
Oops, no training, sorry! :-)
(reference to tweet above)
edit: But we’d still love to hear about it!
UncleEbeneezer
In a world where “OMG Dems Suck” is the water we all swim in and the air that we breathe; from the GOP, from the MSM, all over (social media) and even here where people supposedly support Dems, is there any surprise about this? Of course the public thinks Dems suck. Why wouldn’t they? It’s all they are told wherever they go. Even when the alternative is Fascism/Trump, we continue to whisper “yeah, but Dems still suck” at every opportunity. What other conclusion is Joe Public supposed to reach from that?
Belafon
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: One of the things that Republican propaganda achieved was making the different groups in the Democratic party believe that the party was supporting other people over them. Republican state legislatures passed a huge number of anti-trans bills. When Democrats would talk about how bad they were, they would get accused of supporting trans too much; when they didn’t talk about them, trans people would accuse them of ignoring what is happening. Jews and Muslims would get onto the party for not supporting them. It became impossible to hold it together.
Though I think Democrats need to watch Fantastic Four for what I consider the one pivotal scene where Sue walks out to the crowd with Franklin (I won’t spoil is for those who haven’t seen it).
Belafon
@catclub: None of my cats ever went after rats. My dogs did, though.
eclare
@WaterGirl:
Hahaha…happy to do so for free.
Ohio Mom
@gene108: Snap traps are more humane than glue traps but either will work. The problem with poison pellets is that the rotting carcass might stink.
But you have to figure out how that mouse got in and close off that entrance. I’d find an exterminator who does that, not all of them do.
Because there are always more mice. New ones will find the entrance the old ones used.
Hoodie
@Soprano2: I’ve seen analyses that AI data center construction is propping up the economy right now, i.e., we’d already be deep into a recession otherwise. Hard to see how a technology that strives to put people out of work will generate a revival but I’m not a MOU. It all seems to be driven by an irrational, unfocused faith in a technology (LLMs) that seems to have obvious limitations. Someone said that they look forward to architectural efforts to turn windowless data centers in the middle of nowhere into modernist housing.
Scout211
True, but I found that mice are too clever for the snap traps and remove the bait quite easily. I had to resort to using the sticky traps.
And the mice might wander somewhere before they die where the predators who feed on the mice would also be poisoned.
catclub
@Soprano2: fair enough
Big Fly
@Jay: The battery powered traps are great; we’ve used them for years, and in several states. “No-touch” are available.
PS Glue traps are cruel. I tried them once, and couldn’t believe what that poor critter did to itself, trying to escape.
@gene108:
catclub
How about the tractor? Put agricultural workers out of work.
Will AI put knowledge workers out of work? They can all become sales people…. and sell to the AI agents!
Jay
@Scout211:
If you run into a mouse, who has figured out snap traps and is stealing the bait, switch the bait out to one that cannot be easily stolen, like peanut butter. Then, bait the trap, but don’t set it. Keep doing this regularly until the mouse get’s used to the trap not being set. Then, set the trap.
Baud
Buy a flute and entice the mice to leave by playing a song they can’t resist.
RevRick
@Suzanne: @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: @gene108:
The thing about democracy is that there’s no quick fixes available and both Presidential and Parliamentary versions are liable to run off the rails. As the late Juan Linz pointed out, the problem with Presidential democracies is that there are two separate bodies that can claim popular sovereignty, and when they are not in sync, you end up with gridlock, which breeds radicalization.
With Parliamentary democracies the danger is you get so much fragmentation that governments spend half their time herding cats and that renders them ineffective. Which leads to radicalization.
Throw into the mix cultural issues that generate heated irrational fears and anger and you end up with an increasingly polarized society.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: We just coexist with them. We use the peppermint spray so we don’t see them.
zhena gogolia
Three giant assholes are in charge of the world right now, and I don’t see any way to stop them.
Suzanne
@RevRick: I agree with you.
The dynamic that is so difficult to manage is that most people out there judge a process by its results. They don’t feel great allegiance to the process itself. This is visible across the political spectrum, too.
Melancholy Jaques
@RevRick:
Notwithstanding that asshole’s low numbers, we have to get to work on this. We are the good guys, we do things to make people’s lives better. We have to remind people.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Regarding mice control…
Back at the B&B in Central Misery, we always dealt with various critters and rodents given where we were (country, along the banks of the Osage). We also had a ton of cats on site literally within a month of first moving there.
Did the cats help control the mice problem? Yes and no. They basically drove all the mice inside the B&B. Did a great job of keeping them out of *their* spaces we carved out for them in the garage (they were out in the daytime, taken in at night).
Which means having an indoor cat, even if it’s the most slothful, lazy bastard of a cat alive, does a pretty good job of keeping mice away. Maybe not all but it does help mitigate the problem.
Snap traps are, as noted above, the most humane and most effective way of killing mice. The bait should be something like peanut butter or something you can smear on the little arm so that they can’t knock it off.
Free roaming chickens are also another great anti-mouse tool but obviously not applicable for most people in most situations.
zhena gogolia
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: When we had three indoor cats we still had mice. Once we found the three of them just staring at a mouse, whom we then escorted outside.
Miss Bianca
@mappy!: Oh, you mean, like…doing *my* job? Government meetings reporting ain’t for the faint of heart or weak of stomach.
Deputinize America
@Big Fly:
I used a glue trap one time only – I drowned it, and swore I’d never do it again.
geg6
@UncleEbeneezer:
Vote for Dems who don’t suck, maybe? Ya think?
FWIW, I think the Dems suck. Not all, for sure. But the party bosses and congressional leadership sure suck. I’m not going to quit criticizing my own team until they quit sucking. If criticism from lifelong members of the party (like me) weakens the party, there’s something terribly wrong with the party. I want them to be better. Telling them they’re great, nothing to see here, everything is fine is not being a good member of the coalition, IMHO. That’s what has gotten us here.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@geg6:
+1
RevRick
@catclub: Tractors today already operate with GPS and scanners that detect weeds and measure fertilizer and pesticides. But they still need someone sitting in the cab in case of breakdown.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@zhena gogolia:
Heh heh, yeah, I’ve seen that over the years.
Thing is, even with cats like that, remove that cats and the mice population goes up, we saw that time and time again over the years.
If nothing else, the funny factor of the visual of your cat throwing out most of it’s evolutionary history is worth it.
cmorenc
@Soprano2:
More accurately, when you’re talking about money to people with money, you have to be able to tell the truth.
zhena gogolia
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: They were too well fed!
Anyway
@zhena gogolia: who is the third? so many choices …
RevRick
@Melancholy Jaques: A big part of the problem is that the media environment has changed dramatically. Newspapers are a dying breed as well as cable TV. And what there is has largely been captured by the right, including the influencers and podcasts that are a big part of the alternatives for the barely informed.
We win handily amongst those who are informed. It’s with those who seldom pay attention that we struggle.
Matt McIrvin
@geg6: I think people talk past each other on this because some people personally identify with “Democrats”, and others don’t and think of “Democrats” as something separate from them, the party leadership or whoever.
Personally, when people say “Democrats suck” I instinctively take it as them saying I suck, not the DNC or whoever. But then they say something like “the Democrats had nothing to do with Mamdani winning the mayoral primary” and I think, wait, the Democrats in NYC are literally the people who voted in the primary? And I realize they mean something else.
zhena gogolia
@Anyway: My list is DJT, VVP, and BN.
zhena gogolia
@Matt McIrvin: Good point. We are the Democrats, in my view. We the voters.
Matt McIrvin
@zhena gogolia: Political parties in the US are weird in that they’re very loose, not membership organizations– there aren’t cards or dues or anything, and in many states you don’t even need to register with a party to vote in the primaries. So the concept of party identity can be nebulous. But I figure that if we’re going to try to be any kind of democracy, “the party” needs to be defined very broadly.
But I think we also have a lot of people who aren’t instinctively joiners or fans of institutions. I’m not one myself, but I think that instinct has served us poorly, too.
Deputinize America
@Baud:
“But King David!”
Its the battle cry from a truly shitty origin story, oft repeated by evangelicals to excuse everything.
Fair Economist
I live in CA, a state run by Democrats, and they absolutely do not suck. The state is very well run. Low crime, long lifespan, nearly universal health care, moderate taxes on all but the wealthy, decent minimum wage, and lots of nice things like strict limits on noncompetes. There is only one big problem: the cost of housing, and the state level Dems are working to fix it, they are just being blocked at the local level.
The improvement since the Republicans were made irrelevant statewide is fantastic. For one, no annual budget crises!
geg6
@Matt McIrvin:
That would be not the usual case here, I’m pretty sure. The pushback always is when the topic is the leadership of both the Party and the electeds. I rarely criticize actual party voters like you or me. I get crap when I mention how much Jeffries and Schumer suck at their jobs. I get crap if I criticize Pelosi in any way. And I would expect to get crap if I criticized anything the party is doing. I don’t get crap for that because I don’t criticize an entity that doesn’t seem to be doing anything except asking me for more money. If they aren’t doing anything that is visible in any way except asking me for cash, I can’t really form a critique. I did, however, absolutely quit giving any money to them. Great job Democrats!
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Left wingers portray James Carville as the representative of the Democratic Party.
Centrists portray AOC and Mamdani as the representative of the Democratic Party.
It’s all a game.
Professor Bigfoot
You want to talk about frustrating…
You’re right there at the answer but you still can’t see it.
Why in the fuck would 77 million Americans vote for a 34 count felon and adjudicated rapist over a former prosecutor, former state AG, former US Senator, and sitting Vice President?
BECAUSE SHE WAS A BLACK WOMAN.
This is what frustrates me the most about most white men— that they simply cannot see how white supremacy dictated ever goddamn thing the white electorate has chosen since the second Obama administration.
And until white men finally fucking grapple with this, they’ll continually complain about the Black and Jewish and female led Democrats.
Frustrating? It’s fucking maddening.
Professor Bigfoot
@Soprano2: But I guarandamntee you this— the vast majority of those cheering will be white people, including white people you wouldn’t suspect of feeling that way.
Matt McIrvin
@Fair Economist: Well, you’re also being burned to death and invaded by hostile federal paramilitaries, but these are problems not primarily of the Democrats’ making.
Belafon
@Deputinize America:
“But King David!”
Ask people how much God cares about the unborn considering His punishment for David for getting his wife’s husband killed in battle.
Professor Bigfoot
@catclub: When I moved in to sales (B2B capital equipment sales) I promised myself that I would never lie.
That I can spin like a top; I can certainly hammer on our qualitative differences and the competitions shortcomings in measurement accuracy or whatever, but if anyone ever asked me a straight up question, I’m not gonna lie. “Yeah, that’s challenging for any test machine; and it’s one that we’re working on but I gotta admit we haven’t quite gotten there yet.”
I never realized how rampant outright lying seems to have become.
Professor Bigfoot
EXACTLY why I was determined to never lie to my customers.
Oh sure, I grabbed ‘em by the ankles and took ALL their money; but i also instituted a policy of “if there are hiccups in the project (and there will be!), don’t bother the customer, just take care of them. Because if they’re pleased with the equipment and service, they won’t remember how much money I shook out of them and they’ll come back for more.”
mappy!
@Miss Bianca:
I spent a year attending almost every local board and commission meeting before running for office, taking notes and audio recording almost all of them. And I continued doing it after being out of office. I followed every ongoing shell game and then some.
What shook them up the most wasn’t what I reported back to other board or commission members (and to the DTC), it was that I was simply sitting there, witnessing…
Melancholy Jaques
@RevRick:
We have to fix that. We have to find some way to get through to people. Those who seldom pay attention are not going to change their ways. We have to change ours.
tobie
@UncleEbeneezer: You’re right but hell will freeze over before populists admit fault. The whole ideology is based on the opposition between the good, honest, hardworking people and the cabal of powerful elites keeping them down. Just this weekend Bernie Sanders criticized Kamala Harris for being too cozy with the billionaires. Cole was there. I wonder if he cheered this on.
Citizen Alan
@Baud: i agree. I interpret that poll to mean that 47% of Republicans will openly admit they will support a pedophile over a democrat. I submit that the majority of the remaining 53% consists of people who will also support a pedophile over a democrat, but who are ashamed to admit it to a pollster.
Belafon
@Melancholy Jaques: We could start a podcast, maybe find someone who could talk to the people who aren’t paying much attention. Maybe a white guy…
Or we could start our own news channel.
Belafon
@Citizen Alan: Or themselves. They will find a way to tell themselves that it’s not about supporting him, but being against Democrats.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Professor Bigfoot: Extremely maddening for sure.
Soprano2
@Professor Bigfoot: Yes, that’s true. Here the vast majority of the homeless are white people because of the demographics of this city.
mappy!
Canadian Car Visits To U.S. Plunge 37% In July
zhena gogolia
@tobie: Fuck Bernie.
JCJ
@Baud: Now that is an excellent idea!
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I wish we could be billionaire-free like Republicans.
laura
@zhena gogolia: I can’t say what pisses me off more about bernie; there’s the using the democratic party to shit on/split the democratic party; there’s the pretend insider skinny about her campaign- as if he’d been given a seat at the table; or the insistence that democratic candidates refuse to accept money from big donors or super pacs knowing that republicans already have a fundraising advantage, and will continue to do so until citizens United is overturned.
In conclusion, fuck that fucking guy.
Chief Oshkosh
@catclub: That is not at all what Krugman wrote. Krugman’s entire essay today is about what you state in your last sentence: Moore was hired exactly because he’s incompetent and happy to lie about everything.
tobie
@zhena gogolia: You do wonder why the hell he’s talking about the past instead of the future and Harris instead of Trump. It’s almost like his only concern is his own brand. What a dick.
Chief Oshkosh
@catclub: Agreed. Often just the scent of a cat will ward off rodents, especially once you’ve removed easy access to food.
Chief Oshkosh
@p.a: But be sure to get mouse-sized ones if you’re pretty sure that the droppings are mouse and not rat. The rat-sized ones will, at most, snap the tail off a mouse, which will then depart wounded and in pain.
Soprano2
@tobie: That is such bullshit. How does he explain that many white working class people (and more and more non-white working class people) have decided that the actual party of billionaires, that is open about being for billionaires, has been pretty successful in selling themselves as the party of the working person? It is so frustrating that people like Bernie mostly disappear all the other issues – race, gender, sexuality – in favor of promoting the idea that it’s all about class. IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT CLASS! Has he ever actually talked to these people? I was talking to a regular at the bar about the four college students in Idaho who were shot. I said I thought they were of East Asian descent and that might be why. He replied something like “No, I think they were regular Americans”. This is how a lot of white people think – they are the “regular Americans”, everyone else is “other”. I didn’t say anything because he’s a regular customer, but I had to suppress the urge to ask him exactly who is a ‘regular American’. It wasn’t worth the grief to embarrass him, because I’m sure he’s not racist – he lives with a black woman from Kenya! It’s an automatic way of thinking that I think a lot of people aren’t even aware of unless it’s pointed out to them, and they’re often embarrassed when you challenge them on it.
satby
@catclub: no, Krugman’s column went on to discuss Hanna Arendt and how authoritarian regimes require incompetent people in support positions because competent people aren’t as likely to lie. The excerpt barely scratched the surface of the column.
rikyrah
Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) posted at 10:05 PM on Sun, Aug 10, 2025:![]()
Utter bullshit. Crime is at a 30yr low in DC. Fuck Trump. If you do not want to live in a fascist state, then resist this. Get in the way of this. Do not allow this.
(https://x.com/WalshFreedom/status/1954740870307336274?t=3F9RXmVwsNDhWoUWHdD7Sg&s=03)
rikyrah
Symone D. Sanders Townsend (@SymoneDSanders) posted at 7:44 AM on Mon, Aug 11, 2025:
The president uses terms like “liberated” because if people repeat it then the idea of a “siege” seems more real.
Don’t fall for it.
(https://x.com/SymoneDSanders/status/1954886612271214759?t=V6xaXWhxomStjYH7h7kFEA&s=03)
TerryC
For mice and red squirrels* my neighbor uses a bucket trap he built. Very effective.
*Between the traps and his pellet gun he killed more than 100 red squirrels in 2024. Did I mention that we have a lot of nut trees?
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@gene108: I get that he’s good at self promotion but his political opponents had nearly a decade to adapt, find a way to take the shine off…find some way to break through, and failed, and whatever the reason that’s somewhat disappointing. And I get that some of is racists and misogynists voting for the white guy but again, we’ve known about that factor for long enough at this point.
I get the headwinds but it’s still disappointing that we lost to THAT guy. Then were unprepared for what was coming even though it was being telegraphed well in advance.
rikyrah
Marco Frieri (@MarcoAFrieri) posted at 6:49 PM on Sun, Aug 10, 2025:
Real question: why does the media continue to push Bernie Sanders?
(x.com/MarcoAFrieri/status/1954691594491429279?t=SFhcqXEdsF6GLrOf3PwhGQ&s=03)
Biden/Obama/HRC/Harris Democrat (@KTforBiden) posted at 6:12 AM on Mon, Aug 11, 2025:
For the EXACT same reason they constantly platformed trump.
To make Democrats lose.
(x.com/KTforBiden/status/1954863568316178570?t=zUmLcja2-Pa79b1FHpIhvA&s=03)
Chief Oshkosh
@Scout211: It also helps to clear out any scrub brush or detritus that abuts your home’s foundation and keep the lawn mown. This somewhat discourages rodents from entering your home as it exposes them to a jaunt across open ground. Rodents hate being exposed. No political commentary meant.
rikyrah
ProPublica (@propublica) posted at 5:18 AM on Mon, Aug 11, 2025:
New: Frustrated by oil companies mysteriously withholding large amounts of royalties, North Dakota mineral owners lobbied for change. Instead, lawmakers provided an oversight program that, owners say, fails to address the issue it was created to solve. t.co/mdEZrGtdSX
(https://x.com/propublica/status/1954850009825808551?t=h8PQJQvqfoVro90datrFqg&s=03)
Belafon
@rikyrah: Crime is another one of Trump’s synonyms for black. Blacks in DC are at an all-time high.
Sure Lurkalot
@tobie: Seriously? Bernie’s screed about “fill in the blank” cosying up with the plutocrats has been his schtick forever. Many fans go to his rallies just to hear it again and again and again.
Bernie isn’t wrong about the billionaires, never has been. It’s that Bernie has been ineffectual for decades to form a willing and able coalition to change a damn thing.
He can draw a crowd though. He has that “charisma” that Trump has. They both feed their followers grievance that someone is taking something away from them. Trump is not incorrect that many Americans want to take away white man’s privilege. Bernie is not incorrect that the rich have taken wealth from the poor and middle class of this country.
Baud
@rikyrah:
DC is still seen as a majority black city by his racist base, although I think it’s now a plurality black city.
Anyway, that’s what “liberated” means to the people in his world.
Belafon
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: How do you prepare for the Republican party abdicating the legislature’s role as a coequal branch of government?
They Call Me Noni
@Professor Bigfoot: Amen. And we should all be shouting this so that the people in the back can hear it!
catclub
@RevRick: I was referring to tractors in the early 1900’s that drove down agricultural employment dramatically.
tam1MI
@gene108: Get a cat. 😊
catclub
I remember in Trump I he was told about the royalty system and basically said “Why don’t they just steal it? Who’s gonna make them pay?” Obviously he was not going to direct the government to enforce the law against rich oil companies he thought were his allies.
When they were stealing off Indian lands, that goes double.
gene108
“Democrats suck” as an attitude is because Democratic leadership is often at odds with the majority of Democratic voters. This got better during Biden’s first two years, but the pathetic shell shocked reaction to Trump’s 2024 win threw that away.
Republicans don’t do this as often. They are acutely aware of where their voters are on issues, and try to cater to them even if their voters are at best self-destructive. At their worst, Republican voters will drag the rest of the country down with them, like the shift to accepting anti-vax bullshit.
I don’t know how to change this. It erodes from being able to focus on the good things Democrats have done like expanding the APTC for the ACA, strategic investments and incentives to bring manufacturing back that were working, etc., because more time is spent trying to get leadership’s attention.
tam1MI
@Belafon: None of my cats ever went after rats. My dogs did, though.
Terriers were specifically bred to hunt rats and other varmints. And they are cute, too! 😊
kindness
I keep hearing that polling for the generic Democratic Party is terrible. I’m beginning to think they only poll in hardscrabble midwestern diners or Fox News addicts. For the life of me, ‘Democrats Are Terrible’ vs ‘Trump is a rightwing dictator wanna be’ are contradictory in every sense. If I’m being kind I might wonder about the wording or base of those polled. I’m not there though. Those polls are manufactured to show Democrats as terrible. That’s my take.
rikyrah
Sarah Reese Jones
@PoliticusSarah
Gov. Pritzker put on a master class for how Democrats should talk about Trump and his party on Meet The Press.
x.com/PoliticusSarah/status/1954581756385825191
Melancholy Jaques
@rikyrah:
Like the ICE actions in Los Angeles, this DC stunt is meant to entertain the ignorant, hateful bigots who voted for him. They wanted a lawless asshole who would hurt the people who they hate and he is going to deliver for them.
Professor Bigfoot
The problem is y’alls complete inability to grapple with the SIZE of the “racist and misogynist” vote among white people.
Y’all insist on believing it’s an aberration, just “a few bad apples” and cannot entertain the idea that it’s MOST WHITE PEOPLE.
MOST OF YOU.
Ask any Black person you might know (who trusts you enough to be honest).
munira
@gene108: I had mice when I lived in an old farmhouse in Quebec. I tried everything I could think of to get rid of them and finally called an exterminator. That worked although they had to come every year.
Matt McIrvin
@kindness: I think a lot of people are saying “…but Democrats are terrible too” as a socially acceptable cover for hating Trump. Not just on the right, either– it’s not *cool* to love an institution like the Democratic Party, so you’ve got to get that proviso in when you’re hating on Republicans. You might still hold your nose and vote for those cringe wine moms and student council presidents.
Professor Bigfoot
How do you define “Democratic voters?”
Because you will not hear a lot of “Democrats suck” from the Black electorate, which happens to be the one most reliable demographic for Democratic votes.
But you’ll hear it a lot from white people. All the damn time.
Professor Bigfoot
@tam1MI: I have two terriers and four cats, and NO mice or rats or much of anything else other than the occasional flying insect.
A poor baby squirrel got into our yard, inside the fence and my terriers literally ripped the poor thing apart; as it screamed in terror.
Yeah, that was a shitty day.
Belafon
@Melancholy Jaques: That, and the homeless are another group, like trans people, that people will ignore something being done to. This also allows Trump to normalize a federal police force doing local governments’ job so that it won’t be out of the ordinary when they move up to the next group of people.
Professor Bigfoot
@Matt McIrvin: Nobody likes Democrats except Black people, and that’s why.
Belafon
@Professor Bigfoot:
Us white libs have this annoying “Have to be above politics” thing. We either bash on Democrats for not being good enough, or, we start too many sentences with “Democrats aren’t perfect, but…”
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Matt McIrvin:
That’s basically an historical echo of the “socially liberal/fiscally conservative” trope from the 80s-90s allowing people ‘cover’ to vote GOP. Backwards in this case today but the same rational of never wanting to admit anywhere from behind closed doors what their real political leanings were always about.
Kirk
@Professor Bigfoot: Sadly, this.
Even (or maybe especially) those of us who think we’re on the other side. I’m better at recognizing when I’m being unintentionally racist, but I still get called out from time to time.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@laura: The only possible difference between Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump is that Bernie may have a conscience. Certainly not a big one and he’ll freely ignore it in favor of his universally-sized ego, though.
gvg
@Gin & Tonic: The US has never been a member. Clinton didn’t submit it to the Senate for ratification and Bush Jr was hostile. We sometimes have supported it’s aims since but I don’t think it ever stood a chance of ratification. Congress has had a lot of anti international law members for a long time. If there is a backlash against the current period, maybe that will change, though I can’t see that from now.
Matt McIrvin
@Professor Bigfoot: Like I keep saying, over the past year or so, the people I’ve been hearing complaining about the party the most (over on Mastodon) are Black. A couple of them see the party and Joe Biden in particular as in thrall to racist white law ‘n’ order politics, and blame this for the Democrats losing some Black men’s votes in 2024. Maybe they’re unusual. I think there’s a generational split.
gvg
@p.a: Arrest SCOTUS for crimes they actually committed that are state crimes and try them. I strongly think a few of them have taken bribes and been involved in illegal money operations.
Start with some very public evidedence so it’s clear why they would want to supress the trials. I know federal laws trump state but I don’t know of a law that says they don’t have to obey state laws like anyone else, just like you or I.
You may need to add a few memebers of Congress too. Depends on what evidence turns up. Don’t spare a democrat if one is guilty. Has to have party ready for it though.
satby
And yet when I call Bernie the Trump of the left there’s so much butthurt. Especially by white males.
satby
satby
The “Democrats suck” attitude seems to me anger at the Democrats for not being authoritarian, not breaking laws or norms like Republicans. It shows up most in criticism of Garland for not getting Trump convicted, even though both trials were deliberately subverted by SCOTUS delays and the immunity ruling. Democrats are blamed for Republican actions, and if they don’t act the same unlawful way they’re penalized as wimps.
tobie
@Sure Lurkalot: Bernie paints everything in broad brushstrokes and that makes it impossible for him to propose any real legislation. Take healthcare. You listen to him and you’d think there’s no such thing as private insurance in Europe. Funny thing is that one of the two most efficient healthcare systems in Europe is in Switzerland and the system is 100% private. Maybe that’s not right for the US but I expect legislators to know the options. We used to value this expertise in the people we elected. Now it’s just non-stop grievance and soundbytes from Trump, Sanders and their acolytes.
I’m fine with “tax the rich” and assume that means things like taxing carried interest, microtransactions, stock options, etc. I’d also like to see everyone pay their fare share and what I observe from my perch is that small business people in the home trades make off like bandits.
RevRick
@tobie: Bernie is a crank. He got his start running on a far left whacko party ticket in Vermont, and, I believe, got elected to Congress as a Socialist. And like all cranks is convinced that he’s in possession of the TRUTH.
TEL
@Professor Bigfoot: Yep. I got into a disagreement with another commenter here last week about that. According to him, it was the economic uncertainty that made so many (especially male) voters go for the felon, as male voter vote for economic reasons more than women do. Racism and misogyny were not major factors according to him. Super frustrating.
tobie
@RevRick: I get that politics needs an entertainment side. It is after all based in the art of persuasion. I just think it’s healthier for a democracy if its elected leaders can persuade through the strength of their arguments. Bernie peddles grievance; he scapegoats; he demagogues. He’s able to raise people’s hackles but he doesn’t get them behind any specific legislative action, which is how governing is supposed to work. A lot of people think that doesn’t work any longer. Maybe they’re right. But that means we no longer believe in democracy. Burn it all down is a form of tyranny.
Splitting Image
@Matt McIrvin:
The Democratic party could stand a lot of improvement in many respects, but it’s still easier to make those improvements from within the party. Part of Trump’s ascendancy is the fact that a solid majority of people, from all over the political spectrum, have embraced the idea of being savvy outsiders because only savvy outsiders can fix things.
A lot of these people have latched onto Bernie Sanders as the only leftist who can fix things, even though he has a worse record of getting things done than even Donald Trump. Schwarzenegger got votes from a lot of these people too.
People complained about the Democrats for a lot of reasons in 2024: gerontocracy, Gaza, inflation, being too cozy with billionaires, being overrun by crazy ideologues. And what all of these people have in common is that they gave their support to someone who has made all of these problems worse. Bless their little hearts.
Juju
@gene108: Put cinnamon sticks in places where the food they’ve eaten is located. Mice don’t like strong smells. You can try peppermint or clove as well. If you want to get rid of them, equal parts baking soda and peanut butter. Mice can’t digest baking soda. The upside is if you have a dog or cat who’s a mouser, there is no danger to dogs and cats who have eaten a mouse with baking soda in their system. Mouse poisons are dangerous to the family pet. The downside to baking soda is you don’t know where they may have died until you smell it.
Citizen Alan
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I remember seriously pissing off a young college kid I met at a Superbowl party many years ago. Politics came up and he described himself as “socially liberal and fiscally conservative,” and I immediately responded with “Oh, so you’re a Democrat!” He tried to argue back, but I asked him how old he was (22) and then informed him that the GOP had not been fiscally conservative at any point in his lifetime and it hadn’t been socially liberal at any point in mine. He didn’t like that and changed the subject.
WTFGhost
I think people think they’d still vote for Trump if he was found to have had sex with ho-ors, but not with underage women. Once “pedo” attaches, it’s not going away. And since that’s a very likely subject of a 50th birthday card that looks like a 10 billion dollar exposure to a desperate pedo, I think it might attach. I hope so – that’s one thing that could really ruin the Republican brand, even making his judges look suspect (which they should so look), possibly leading to judicial openings as disbarments and retirements from the legal profession happening.
I can hope and dream.
WTFGhost
@TEL: Well, most people hate the very idea that they aren’t perfectly rational actors, from one minute to the next. The idea that unconscious racism might have played them is a horrible, toxic idea to them.
Me, I’ve been forced to acknowledge my brain lies to me all the time, so, dealing with the idea that unconscious racism affects me is trivial. What’s surprising to me, is, how many people don’t know their brain lies to them sometimes.
Matt McIrvin
@WTFGhost: There are a *lot* of people out there who think sex with 13-year-old girls is OK as long as she’s hit puberty and it’s not gay. Look at the debate over child marriage laws.
Was even more the case when I was a kid but it’s still the case.