The State of Illinois at this time has received no requests or outreach from the federal government asking if we need assistance, and we have made no requests for federal intervention.
— Governor JB Pritzker (@govpritzker.illinois.gov) August 23, 2025 at 9:07 PM
===
The safety of the people of Illinois is always my top priority.
There is no emergency that warrants the President of the United States federalizing the Illinois National Guard, deploying the National Guard from other states, or sending active duty military within our own borders.— Governor JB Pritzker (@govpritzker.illinois.gov) August 23, 2025 at 9:07 PM
===
Donald Trump is attempting to manufacture a crisis, politicize Americans who serve in uniform, and continue abusing his power to distract from the pain he's causing families.
We'll continue to follow the law, stand up for the sovereignty of our state, and protect Illinoisans.— Governor JB Pritzker (@govpritzker.illinois.gov) August 23, 2025 at 9:07 PM
===
I will not authorize the use of the Maryland National Guard for any mission that isn’t mission critical or mission aligned.
Full stop.— Governor Wes Moore (@govwesmoore.bsky.social) August 23, 2025 at 10:30 PM
This story hadn’t been published when I posted last night, but Gov. Pritzker’s sources are obviously better than mine. Per the Washington Post, “Pentagon plans military deployment in Chicago as Trump eyes crackdown” [gift link]:
The Pentagon has for weeks been planning a military deployment to Chicago as President Donald Trump says he wants to crack down on crime, homelessness and undocumented immigration, in a model that could later be used in other major cities, officials familiar with the matter said.
The planning, which has not been previously disclosed, involves several options, including mobilizing at least a few thousand members of the National Guard as soon as September to what is the third most populous city in the United States.
The mission, if approved, would have parallels to the polarizing operation that Trump ordered in Los Angeles in June, when he deployed 4,000 members of the California National Guard and 700 active-duty Marines despite the protests of state and local leaders. The use of thousands of active-duty troops in Chicago also has been discussed but is considered less likely at this time, said two officials who, like others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue…
Trump on Friday touted his ongoing National Guard intervention in D.C., where more than 2,200 Guard members have been deployed in what he has cast as an overdue effort to crack down on crime. He zeroed in on Chicago as the next target.
“Chicago’s a mess. You have an incompetent mayor. Grossly incompetent,” Trump said, in remarks that were immediately dismissed by Chicago’s leaders as unfounded. “And we’ll straighten that one out probably next. That’ll be our next one after this. And it won’t even be tough.”…
The deployment would come as federal authorities look for new ways to intensify the identification and deportation of undocumented immigrants, including an expansion of ICE and efforts to challenge “sanctuary” policies, as they seek to meet a directive from White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller to make at least 3,000 arrests per day.
The White House on Saturday declined to answer questions, referring instead to Trump’s comments in the Oval Office on Friday. The Pentagon said in a statement that it would not “speculate on future operations.”…
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, both Democrats, hit back at Trump in comments Friday, with the governor accusing Trump of attempting to “create chaos.”
“After using Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. as his testing ground for authoritarian overreach, Trump is now openly flirting with the idea of taking over other states and cities,” Pritzker said. “Trump’s goal is to incite fear in our communities and destabilize existing public safety efforts — all to create a justification to further abuse his power.”
Johnson said in a separate statement that Chicago officials take Trump’s statements seriously, but that they have not received any formal communication from the Trump administration regarding additional law enforcement or military deployments in the city…
A state’s governor generally oversees his own National Guard, but the president can federalize and deploy troops over objections under Title 10 of federal law. It permits the president to issue orders to National Guard members if there is a “rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the government.”
A president also can invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy active-duty troops to perform law enforcement duties in the U.S., but such an act would be politically polarizing and trigger alarm in the Pentagon. Trump flirted with the idea in 2020, during unrest following the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis…
How’s those earlier incursions working out for you, Mr. Miller Trump?
that’s like thirty per shift per state
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) August 22, 2025 at 11:58 PM
===
maybe i am wrong and they split, what, 1700 troops across three states? that’s, what, less than 600 per state? break that into cities, break that into shifts, break that into units, it’s the same horseshit
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) August 23, 2025 at 1:53 AM
===
I have a hypothesis that miller knows Trump is dead soon and trying to force this a shit Asap.
But they don't have the power to do it. So it's this inept flailing.— Trobsmonkey (@trobs.bsky.social) August 23, 2025 at 3:18 AM
===
It actually seems like they've landed on number where the stories/videos of what they're doing will rile everyone up but without having anything in the way of actual enforcement capability.
They must be betting that people will just be intimidated into submission.— JL (@jlwastooshort.bsky.social) August 23, 2025 at 8:18 AM
===
They'll have Secretary Dogkiller and Secretary DUI Hire out there cutting videos with the troops. It's all about content generation. It's all they've got.
— Brett Butlerian Jihad (@skoryy.bsky.social) August 23, 2025 at 4:40 AM
===
Also – maybe the makeup of the guard will change quickly, I can’t tell you what the guard makeup will be in 2 years.
But people I know in the guard who have been called up have less than zero desire to be doing this, and (unsurprisingly) are doing as little as possible.— Charles Xavier (@charlesxavier.bsky.social) August 23, 2025 at 3:43 AM
===
Former National Guard Vice Chief Major General Randy E. Manner says deploying the Guard to D.C. will ruin how the average American views the military.
— NPR (@npr.org) August 20, 2025 at 3:36 PM
===
Trump’s National Guard crackdown in D.C. is reigniting the push for statehood. Because the district lacks full representation and residents can’t elect Congress members, control of the National Guard falls to the president.
— Democracy Docket (@democracydocket.com) August 23, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Suzanne
I still think this is all about photo ops. They don’t intend to do genuine enforcement at a large enough scale to make systematic change. They intend to get some dramatic images, have them go across social media and Fox News, and convince their too-pissypants-to-go-to-a-city base that they’re bringing down the hammer.
Also, it has a terrorizing effect, which means it doesn’t need to be widespread to create mass panic.
Baud
My understanding of Chicago is that most of the crime occurs within a small section of the city. If the DC deployment is a guide, there won’t be too many troops there
ETA: Unlike DC, Trump can’t take over the local police force.
Betty Cracker
Bravo, Governors JB Pritzker and Wes Moore.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Until it has a galvanizing effect on decent people, it’ll keep on happening.
Apparently, a Ohio poll said Ohio slightly favors sending the guard to DC.
Betty Cracker
It’s day three of rain in my neck of the woods, but in a few hours, I’m driving to the east coast to try to find a flock of flamingos who’ve been hanging out near Merritt Island NWR.
Looking forward to seeing the Atlantic! It’s not that far away, but I’m a Gulf of Mexico gal and rarely visit the other side of the state.
Suzanne
@Baud:
Of course old conservatives favor stuff like this. The FFOTUS admin is expected to entertain them.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Have a good road trip.
Rusty
But, but, but….Crime!!! For some reason this brought back a memory of almost 50 years ago. My grandmother had visited Spain, and thought it wonderful that you could leave a suitcase in the middle of an intersection and it would still be there days later. Why can’t America have leaders as wonderful as Franco? My grandmother was also very racist, and hated welfare and the poor. We must stop crime!!
Baud
@Rusty:
Plenty of white Americans would take that suitcase.
Suzanne
@Rusty: It’s always revealing to me that when many white people talk about wanting to reduce crime, they don’t really mean fentanyl or meth use.
Same people also seem to think that drugs come across the border, brought by terrible brown people….. and totally gloss over the white people buying and using them. Why, the drugs are smuggled across the border and no one has any idea how innocent people are overdosing! It’s a Christmas miracle.
Baud
I actually think crime is a more serious issue than perhaps many libs, much for the same reason I think the conservative mindset is a serious issue — it tends to disproportionately harm people who are already vulnerable.
But it’s hard to compete with right wingers who use excessive, racist rhetoric and are willing to ignore the law and civil liberties when it comes convincing people we’re better on dealing with crime.
New Deal democrat
On the subject of masked armed men let loose in cities, I have been wondering when more of this would happen:
“An investigation is underway after two men wearing ski masks and claiming to be police were shot and killed at a home in southeast Houston Friday night, according to the Houston Police Department.
“The homeowner told police the two men said they were police and claimed they were at the home to serve a warrant.
“[The homeowner] became suspicious, because . . . the suspects were saying they had a warrant, but it was just two people and they’re masked up and no police cars, no lights or anything like that,” said Lt. Khan with HPD.
“At some point, police said the men shot at the homeowner through the door, prompting the homeowner to return fire.”
khou.com/article/news/crime/men-impersonating-police-shot-bellnole-drive/285-931f39d1-2f01-4654-b56a…
Suzanne
@Baud: I actually agree with you. I think crime and public disorder are huge threats. To vulnerable populations, yes, but also to the liberal project of good governance. We are trying to make a high-trust society, and if people don’t feel safe, that fails.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Love “The Great Khan of the Plains.”
OTOH, I hate this phrasing:
“crack down on crime, homelessness and undocumented immigration”
They are not “cracking down” on homelessness. That would require imaginative effort to shelter people. They’re pretending they can make homeless people disappear. They can’t even acknowledge they’re just moving people along.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I have no connection to Iowa and am functionally illiterate, but for some reason Google put this story in my feed and I thought of you.
eclare
@Betty Cracker:
Yay flamingos!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: I saw that. At first, I misread to think it was the whole Writers Workshop degree program, which would really be shocking. It’s the summer classes though. I went once and enjoyed it.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all!
Princess
Joe Biden sent the National Guard into Chicago in March 2021 to vaccinate us against Covid. It was the Tennessee guard I believe. Big tents outside the United Center. They were incredibly professional and we thanked them for leaving their homes and jobs to come help us. And now look where we are.
They invented the “cities are burning” narrative in the first place. Now they have a pretend militarization so they can pretend fix it and take pretend credit. The cities will be the same as before except a lot of money that could have gone to solve their real problems will be wasted.
p.a.
No one wants good policing more than people living in high crime areas. What they get is…
Also too, google “police training Europe vs USA”
Snarki, child of Loki
“An investigation is underway after two men wearing ski masks and claiming to be police were shot and killed at a home in southeast Houston Friday night, according to the Houston Police Department.”
So, the homeowner ICEd some masked assholes?
How apropos.
Elizabelle
@Princess: That is a great compare and contrast.
Biden sent the National Guard to help protect you through Covid vaccinations. During a public health threat.
Trump is sending them for a photo op to distract from Epstein.
FWIW, we had the National Guard at our first huge vaccination rollouts in Richmond, VA. In an exhibition hall near the racetrack. It was thrilling to see them there, and I would bet a lot of them were pleased to be helping during a severe public health crisis. People were dying, daily, in droves. Refrigerated morgue trucks outside hospitals.
Never wondered where the Guard were from, precisely. Guessed they were from Virginia, but who knows?
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: That’s my state! Stupid racist motherfuckers.
Professor Bigfoot
@Suzanne: During the “crack epidemic” the answer was ALWAYS to “LOCK ‘EM UP!” Huge, long sentences for possession of tiny amounts.
But now they want compassion for the “innocent victims.”
White people. SMH.
Montanareddog
The Great Khan of the Plains vs the Sultan of Bling
Professor Bigfoot
@New Deal democrat: These ICEmen resemble nothing so much as “runaway slave patrollers” in 1855.
Armed white men snatching free people off the street and bundling them off to slavery.
Frederick Douglass said “a good revolver and a steady hand are the answers to the slave-catcher,” and I FULLY expect people to start taking his advice.
Hold on to your butts!!
mark
Insert 1700 Guardsmen in the state. When the 1700 are removed he is right back to square one. Involving the Guard is temporary by nature. This is not a permanent solution. This is a stunt.
Another Scott
Good morning.
On the “Pentagon Planning” thing – planning doesn’t mean that it will happen. Planning is one of those words with shades of meaning – intend, or draw up contingency documents.
The US military had “plans” for war with the British Empire before the start of WWIi. They get directed to consider lots of things and make “plans”.
I’m not minimizing what 47 is doing. But we have to keep our heads to get through this.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Professor Bigfoot
@p.a.: There’s the thing, isn’t it?
There will be policing. It’s in the nature of the human beast; from the Kings guards to Robert Peel’s Metropolitan police, there WILL be policing.
The ONLY question is whether it’s with the support and consent of the policed; or whether the policing is done by an occupying army, or whether it’s done by the local warlord’s minions.
But there will be policing, regardless of anything else.
DFH
Pritzker is quite good as a politician. I view him as fair-minded and balanced. He says the right things and then does the right things, mostly. Illinois is in far better shape than Rauner (R) left it. JB will run for a 3rd term unless he goes for president. I could see him doing that, and he’d be a good one.
It’s going to be interesting to observe his decisions regarding an influx of National Guard from other states. He seems mild but he’s quite capable of fast, surprising moves. During Covid, Pritzker got two plane loads of PPE safely into the state.
fox32chicago.com/news/2nd-plane-filled-with-ppe-from-china-arrives-in-illinois
Newsom is of course running, and so far winning the meme battles. I’ve not seen JB enter that contest.
Professor Bigfoot
@Betty Cracker: Enjoy!
Hope you see multiple flamboyances!
prostratedragon
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson:
Professor Bigfoot
@DFH: The Great Khan keeps his counsel to himself.
Nukular Biskits
@Professor Bigfoot:
I’d rather hold on to the one of Ms. Biskits … hers is a lot nicer.
;>)
Dorothy A. Winsor
My friend who’s a retired FBI agent kept me company at the book fair yesterday. (Lots of people, no sales for me). She’s horrified at the change Patel is making to hiring requirements for agents. They’re no longer going to require a college degree. She said that was the bare minimum before. You also had to have some sort of work experience that mattered.
Steve LaBonne
Among other things this performative horseshit should do wonders for National Guard retention and recruitment.
Professor Bigfoot
@Another Scott: This, exactly.
The Pentagon have plans for everything they can think of.
War with Eurasia? In there. Invasion by Mexico OR Canada? In there. Alien invasion? IN THERE.
A whole lot of what they DO is put together contingency plans for any and every thing they can think of.
As Ike said, “Plans are generally useless, but planning is indispensable.”
no body no name
The Xavier tweet is correct. If the military doesn’t want to do something they will fuck it up. If the NCOs decide it’s bullshit than they will bullshit and sham their way through it and not a fucking thing will happen.
Professor Bigfoot
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I seem to remember that, at least, once upon a time, to be an FBI agent one had to either had to have a law degree or an accounting degree.
Policing in America does not require any sort of real education, does it?
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: As I’ve mentioned before (bragged about?), the Chieftess has had a long, long career in criminal justice reform. You are correct; crime is bad in some areas. And as others have stated in other threads, the best solutions always involve coalitions of various groups, including and arguably most importantly, the people who actually live right in those areas — not adjacent, not at the town hall, not at the state capitol, etc. Those other people may have important roles, but the people most directly affected must be a driver of the solutions (plural).
You know who leads the best efforts from all of various groups?
Almost anybody who is not Conservative.
eclare
@Professor Bigfoot:
That sounds familiar. I worked with someone in public accounting who left to join the FBI.
Another Scott
PSA – Murderbot books are available as a Humble Bundle.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Nukular Biskits
Today’s Abbreviated Pundit Roundup over at DailyKos brought this to my attention … and I can’t say as I disagree:
Glenn Kessler: On Trump’s Bullshit
Geminid
@DFH: I am not up-to-date on Jay Pritzker’s polotical plans, but it seems like he could win a third term as governor next year and still run for President in 2028. That’s been done before and may even have advantages in Pritzker’s case.
Senators typically retain their office while running for President.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Professor Bigfoot: I also thought agents had to be lawyers or accountants at one time. My friend said that was gone long before she was hired. Of course, in Hoover’s time, you also had to be a man. My friend’s degree is in geography, plus she did a stint in the army that included training in intelligence gathering. She spent a year in Berlin before the wall came down, eavesdropping on the Russians.
satby
@Professor Bigfoot: There was a time, short lived and mostly in bigger cities, where at least some college was required. FBI required a degree and experience in specific specialties that would be applicable to FBI work, like finance, forensic science, etc. (my cousin retired a few years ago). It also, again in bigger cities and the FBI, requires recruits to pass a gauntlet of physical and psychological tests as well as a deep background check, which my son went through before being admitted to the Lexington police academy last year. He graduated last month, his class had over 100 applications, 25 chosen, 15 made it through to completion. The places with no standards are the places that give us bad cops and my father was contemptuous of that back in the 80s. He’s probably rolled his way right out of his grave by now with outrage at what right wingers have done to militarize policing, I should drive back to IL and check.
lashonharangue
@Professor Bigfoot: Who needs an accounting degree if you don’t intend to go after white collar crime?
lowtechcyclist
@Professor Bigfoot:
Yeah, funny how white people’s preferred approach changed when what race they figured the drug users and dealers were changed. Go figure.
Professor Bigfoot
@Nukular Biskits: This indifference to truth makes Trump’s bullshit more insidious than lies.
Whew. I’m gonna have to go read ‘On Bullshit,’ now.
Lies? Truth? Who cares? All that matters is that he wins.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Also, re changes to FBI hiring, the training time at Quantico is reduced from 18 weeks to 8
satby
@lowtechcyclist: Josh Johnson went viral (as almost always) for this clip on who gets arrested.
satby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Jeezus, that’s shorter than my kid just went through!
Geminid
@Professor Bigfoot: I heard that The Great Khan occasionally bounces ideas off of the hawk he keeps on his arm when it’s not hunting.
Professor Bigfoot
Thank you for that little reminder… and of course, a prime qualification was to be a white man at that.
It makes a lot of sense to hire people with expertise in the areas you need— counterintelligence work would seem to need psychology and sociology as well as history and of course the occasional engineer (“Q! GET IN HERE!”) ;^D
suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot:
RIGHT?!?! Simply amazing, how white people have drugs done to them.
Professor Bigfoot
@Dorothy A. Winsor: 8 weeks of training with a high school diploma… sounds like most every podunk-ass police department in this country.
Christ, when you compare the requirements to be a cop in Germany versus one in Alabama…
ETA: What Satby said at 46!
ETAA: And congratulations to the Son of Satby!! Well done, young human!
Steve LaBonne
The FBI basically runs forensic DNA testing in the US via the quality standards required for labs to participate in CODIS. I wonder how that’s going now that the FBI is being gutted and turned into a goon squad. I’m glad I’m retired.
eclare
@satby:
Congrats to your son!
satby
@Professor Bigfoot: yep. And my cousin, a Republican because of abortion, now hates this administration with the heat of a thousand suns. As does my son, who became a police officer because of police failure at Uvalde and how badly we need cops who believe black lives matter. Especially white cops who believe that. The people who join to serve their communities and hold themselves to their oath to the Constitution (police officers take it too) are not on board.
Trivia Man
@Professor Bigfoot: One reason we know they aren’t catching and deporting the worst of the worst is the absence of shootouts. The actual dangerous gangs are well armed.
Point 2 is that if they were picking up any weapons at all then we would be reminded daily with photo ops of confiscated weapons and a running tally of how many DANGEROUS ASSAULT RIFLES were removed from the streets.
TONYG
@Suzanne: “their too-pissypants-to-go-to-a-city base”. Yup; that’s a big part of their base, and it’s not a phenomenon that started with Trump. I “grew up” in the sixties and seventies in a small blue-collar town (North Arlington, New Jersey) that was only about nine miles from midtown Manhattan — yet there were a lot people in that town who hadn’t been to New York City in decades, if at all. Too many scary negroes, I guess. The Nixon voters then, and the Trump voters now.
Soapdish
@Nukular Biskits: I was fortunate enough to do some computer work for Prof. Frankfurt 10 or 15 years ago. Nice guy. His wife was a wonderful, smart, interesting person as well.
stinger
If going to other states to round up brown people for encampments or deportation becomes the role of the National Guard, enlistments will plummet. Leaving states with no NG assistance when natural disasters occur. And no FEMA.
TONYG
@Trivia Man: It’s much easier for these overweight, cowardly “agents” to round up day laborers from Home Depot.
Professor Bigfoot
@satby: oh, man, Josh hit that one out of the park.
It’s a loooooonnngg, slippery-ASS slope; and we’ve been on it for a lot longer than Trump’s been our problem.
There are concentration camps on that slope.
There is ethnic cleansing on that slope.
And we’re picking up speed.
satby
@Professor Bigfoot: @eclare: Thank you both. Very proud of him, a midlife career switcher after 20 years as a mechanic (he was senior technician for Lexington’s fleet maintenance) and oldest guy in the class at 39. Most of them were 15 years younger. He told me he could help more people as a cop than as a mechanic, and that’s true.
I just hope I outlive him.
Steve LaBonne
@TONYG: It’s depressing the way they’re able to reproduce themselves generation after generation.
Baud
@satby:
Did you…. say that backwards?
Professor Bigfoot
@satby: I had an ex-nephew who’s an ex-cop; and he told me long ago that there were basically three kinds of people who go into police work:
First there are the ones who want to help. Who take “protect and serve” as their mission in life. The Good Ones.
Then there are the ones who join because it’s a good civil-service job that doesn’t have huge educational requirements and is safer than doing roofing.
But then you get to that third who join to satisfy their urge to be bullies. To crime with near impunity. To break heads for fun. Some who work forces…
Trivia Man
@TONYG: Perhaps a
reporterstenographer could ask Stephen Miller, “if this is a war, are you a legitimate target?”They love the WAR framing as long as it is just empty words.
Professor Bigfoot
@satby: May he have all the luck in his new chosen profession; he sounds like EXACTLY the kind of cop you WANT to show up when things go pear shaped.
Blessings on him!
Professor Bigfoot
@Trivia Man: You noticed that, didn’t you?
The bastards are obvious, once you actually look at them.
Mark
George Bush used the US military to occupy Iraq. What a disaster that turned out to be. I hope the troops have learned how to do civilian policing since then.
stinger
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Sorry about the no-sales, but I hope you had a good time anyway!
A friend who has participated for a decade in a local writing workshop attended this year’s Iowa Summer Writing Festival and loved it. She’ll be so disappointed that it was the final one.
TONYG
@stinger: Yes. About 20% of National Guard troops are non-“white”. That proportion, at least, might not be interested in serving as a white-supremacist goon squad. A significant proportion of the “white” guys might not be interested either.
BritinChicago
@DFH: As a former Chicagoan, I would really love Pritzker to be POTUS. He’s a really good guy, and he’d be SO much better than the present incumbent (or JDV, who might be Pres by 2028) in so many ways. Of course that’s a relatively low hurdle to clear.
So the real question for me is: of the likely aspirants, who would be most likely to win. And I’ve completely given up trying to figure out what the American electorate (or that small fraction of it who are swing voters in swing state) will go for. (But nor do I have much faith that anyone is good at that.)
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
satby
@Baud: yes. I did. I hope he outlives me. Can’t edit now, got a bit verklempt and had to go dry my eyes.
Miss Bianca
@DFH: JB has others doing the work for him. I may have to activate that Bluesky account I half-assedly signed up for a few months ago just to follow the Great Khan!
Kathleen
@Baud: Their rhetoric reminds me of Nixon’s 1968 Presidential campaign. It’s eerie.
Professor Bigfoot
@BritinChicago: I’ve reached an age where I think, “if I’m still HERE,” and the Great Khan is our nominee he’ll absolutely get my money and my vote.
IF I’m still here. Right now I’m far more concerned about 2026– a whole lot of EVERYTHING will have changed between now and November 2028.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Professor Bigfoot
@satby: Somehow, I read it correctly the first time— if I hadn’t seen Baud’s comment I wouldn’t have looked back and seen the error!
I KNEW WHAT YOU MEANT, and I wish you both ALL the luck, right down to the quantum level.
satby
@Professor Bigfoot: 😂 thanks.
trnc
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I assume that knowing longstanding FBI rules and federal law would be disqualifying for new hires.
Baud
@satby:
No worries. I had a proud mama too. Although she had less reason to be.
Booger
@BritinChicago: I think you are referring to James Donald Bowman, since apparently we aren’t supposed to acknowledge what people would PREFER to be called; we have to use what is on their BIRTH CERTIFICATE.
It’s Vice President BOWMAN, or Couch Fucker, whichever you choose.
artem1s
Behind closed doors, blue state leaders are planning.
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: I wonder if you are thinking of “Nomadic Warriors for Pritzker.” That one’s independent. An Illinois news site wrote up its founder who said he was inspired by another parody account, “Socialists for Pritzker.” He lives in Champaign and works in advertising.
Miss Bianca
@Geminid: Yes, that is indeed the account I am thinking of. Mostly because the posts I have seen from it just tickle my funny bone immensely. :)
Gvg
@lowtechcyclist: to maybe be fair, a lot of people have learned a few things more from a few decades of lock ‘‘em up not working and a few decades more time to acquire friends and relatives or even direct themselves experience with drug addiction. This includes minorities. I seem to recall some black acquaintances being pretty unsympathetic and angry with addicted relatives. This could be because of the trouble it could bring to the rest of the family then and fear, but I think we all just know more now and take that for granted, but we didn’t all then.
We are supposed to learn from experience. But we should also acknowledge that prior reactions and sentences were ignorant and useless, and be systematically correcting past impacts. Looking at who is still serving sentences and modifying to match modern results, and issuing letters stating under current laws the sentence would be different so they could show employers, etc.
Kathleen
@satby: Your son is so cool! I love his energy. Congrats to you too!
artem1s
a poll done in OH diners that are infested with members of the Geauga County GOP is in favor of sending troops into Cleveland and Akron. SHOCKED I TELL YOU.
Also,too expect the Ohio GQP to use ‘urban crime’ as a tactic to blame Sherrod Brown for everything bad that ever happened in Ohio. Best way to suppress votes in CLE, COL, CIN and other “urban” areas is to make sure the AA communities are afraid to leave their homes on election day.
On the other hand, I dare that dumb orange fatass to call out the National Guard in Kent or Athens or any other college campus town. That will really help Husted’s chances of winning the Senate (/s). Even Mike DeWhinge isn’t stupid enough to repeat Rhodes mistake.
how many of these cities he’s threatening are in states where Dems have a chance to flip a Senate seat?
satby
@Baud: 😘
Dorothy A. Winsor
@stinger: I had a good time talking to other writers and hanging out with my friend.
Kathleen
@trnc: I would think “no felonies” would be red flag for selection in Trump’s FBI. Sounds like if you support the Constitution and have no felonies and you want to join FBI you’d better hurry up and apply because who knows when the rules will change.
Kathleen
@Booger: I prefer Vice President Chuckie Doll.
Trivia Man
@Booger: call him james – if he objects summon your best sarcastic voice and say Sooooory! You better tell me your pronouns, too.
His base will glitch
p.a.
Bonhoeffer on why the stupid are more dangerous to civil society than the evil. 6min video. To me, the “solution” posited towards the end sounds amorphous.
youtu.be/dssvGzZ1J_E?si=bSzHe7IT_5Y2U1eY
frosty
@Rusty: When I flew to LAX to start my freshman year of college I left my suitcase at the bus pickup at the airport. I figured it out when I got to my destination, found someone to call, and it was still there. That was the early 70s, so maybe it wasn’t just because of Franco.
@Baud: Not at that time and place!
artem1s
@artem1s:
All of those pro red states’ rights SCOTUS decisions are about to bite those red states in the ass.
cmarmitage.substack.com/p/its-time-for-americans-to-start-talking
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey told MSNBC her state police would “absolutely not” help Trump’s deportation efforts. She’s not bluffing. In Printz v. United States (1997), Justice Scalia wrote that the federal government “cannot require states and localities to carry out its immigration policy.” The anti-commandeering doctrine, reinforced in Murphy v. NCAA (2018), means states can’t be forced to implement federal programs.
I hope they’ve got some lawsuits ready for when Orangemandius tries to make it illegal to count votes in blue districts. Or vote.
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: I ran into them by chance. I happened to be looking a thread about CyberTrucks, and an exhibition staged by some celebrity YouTube archer named Joe Rohan. Video showed Rohan shooting arrows at a Cybertruck’s windows and them bouncing off.
Someone commented, “Well, at least I’ll be safe driving around the steppes!”
“No. You will not be safe,” came the reply. It was Nomadic Warriors for Pritzker.
frosty
@Betty Cracker: Lucky you! Have fun. I was too stupid or lazy or something to drive 65 miles to see the two that showed up at a PA pond a couple of years ago. Or maybe I just wasn’t obsessed enough with my eBird numbers.
And I’d been to Flamingo Bay in the Everglades and seen no flamingos!
satby
@artem1s: Pritzker’s also a lawyer and he has obliquely referred to plans along those lines when he’s said in interviews that several orders from the administration have been illegal. I’m sure the other blue state governors are ready too.
Shalimar
Major General Manner is right. I never personally served, but my step-dad was a Lt. Colonel in the Air Force Reserves and I have strongly supported the VA and veteran’s benefits for my entire life. If we’re going to use the military against Americans from now on, then my opinion of the military would plummet to the same disrespect I have for police.
Professor Bigfoot
@Miss Bianca: SAME HERE!
One major difference between us ‘n’ them— they actually think Trump is a god-king; we kid and tease and laugh WITH Dark Brandon, Slayer Pete, Coach Tim, Governor Hollywood and now The Great Khan
Cripes, I almost forgot my favorite nickname for MVP: “Steppin’ Razor”
artem1s
@p.a.:
They are Man’s and they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance and this girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.
Dickens, A Christmas Carol
Lyrebird
Ditto to this!!
Thank you Anne Laurie for front-paging them! And while i fear for the people and families caught in the maw of the national maladministration, i would be very glad if the b_stards pushed enough of the rest of the people over the line to approving DC statehood.
Miss Bianca
@Professor Bigfoot: Steppin’ Razor! I love it! She’s dangerous!
WereBear
These are signs of fighting back and you ain’t seen nothing yet. The Trump Depression (call it what it is and will be!) might scare ALL the voters who thought they were dealing with a genius businessman who does not lie.
The extent of the monied outreach, that gathered in people who didn’t know voting wasn’t taksie-backsies, was a giant factor in the extent of their win, and these folks might even learn something.
Red states will crater from real estate crashes, literally fleeing Texas and Florida, where it apparently started.. There’s all that outside investment, like fleeing Canadians heading to Europe, instead.
Our loss is the rest of the world’s gain, I suppose. Which is a kind of cosmic fairness. But we still have outsized influence, as MAGAs take to social media, crying about their realization that WE are the ones who have been saving their sorry posteriors.
Oh, and we got meds for our cat’s panic attacks. Bud Abbott is high-strung, but it’s all getting to him now, too.
Another Scott
@Trivia Man: Human names and conventions and legalities can be tricky things.
Jimmy Carter’s name was James Earl Carter, Jr. He campaigned as “Jimmy Carter”. He took the oath as “Jimmy Carter”.
The name on his birth certificate undoubtedly was JEC, Jr.
I assume that the name on his driver’s license and his passport was JEC, Jr.
I have a “, Jr.” cousin who was always called “Butch”, which apparently was a common Americanism (like “Chip”) for “, Jr.” – now, not so much. ;-)
Lots of people go by their middle names.
My MIL’s spelling of her first name changed somewhere along the way from the way it was on her birth certificate (Ann / Anne).
It has always been this way. Names are weird.
The MAGAt demand that “you must forever be called what’s on your birth certificate” isn’t about what they claim it’s about. It’s about punching down on people that aren’t in their tribe and enforcing their demands for their kind of social conformity by others.
As we know.
Still it would be funny if people started demanding to see JV’s original long-form birth certificate and that he prove that he’s not a lizard person who is in office illegally, and such like.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
frosty
@Professor Bigfoot: The few I know of require a high school diploma or GED. Whether or not that’s “real education” is up to you to decide.
frosty
@satby: Congratulations to your son!
Professor Bigfoot
@Miss Bianca: There was a Vanity Fair headline in 2019: “Kamala Harris Guts Barr Like A Fish And Leaves Him Flopping On The Deck.”
She’s been “Steppin’ Razor” to me ever since.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, one for the “thinking outside the box” file… Simple solution to the Königsberg Bridge problem.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Jeffro
Froette and I were talking about this very thing on our morning walk today!
As luck and work and vacations would have it, I’ve been to Portland, OR and Chicago, IL this summer. Froette suggested I print up some t-shirts with a ‘SURVIVOR’-type motif, only with burning city skylines behind the logo and the names of the cities around the edges.
It has blown my RWNJ relatives’ minds that not only did I go there and come back alive, but the pictures I’ve been sharing and posting are of…normal people doing normal city things.
(Chicago in particular was a hoot btw!)
Anyway…it’s long past time that we take a wrecking ball to the crazy-a$$ right-wingers’ narratives that America’s great cities are burning hellholes of depravity.
Professor Bigfoot
@frosty: A high school diploma and 6 to 8 weeks of training… I compare that to the three years it takes from high school to becoming a cop in Germany.
frosty
That’s our unspoken worry about our police officer our son who’s also in the National Guard.
YY_Sima Qian
The times we live in…
YY_Sima Qian
Duplicate post
dww4
@Suzanne: where I live it’s the younger generation, now middle-aged, who most favor this sort of fed intervention. My own theory is that a significant number of them attended racially segregated Christian schools and do not have an understanding of our real history. They will tell you they are not prejudiced but they are the products of a system which promotes it.
Trivia Man
@Another Scott: As Roger Rabbit said – it has to be funny!
i wish more people used Rafael Cruz when talking to and about him. Especially when he bleats about assigned at birth bs.
i have several trivia questions about real presidential names. Like leslie lynch king jr.
Anyway
@satby: Congratulations and best wishes to your son!
p.a.
@Jeffro: Yeah, I’ve told the nitwits, “hey look at this google earth of Seattle! OMG look at the smoking ruins! *laughing* Look! LOOK!”
They just shut down.
WereBear
@p.a.: We ALL want good policing. One effect of the true crime craze is that it does highlight instances of professional work and attitudes.
Might be the first time some viewers know what that is.
p.a.
@WereBear: Yes I just happened to be watching a WW2 lecture and a side-point was that blitzkrieg was a popular tag for German tactics, the German military used bewegungkrieg, “movement war”; attack of large-scale movement (corps and above) on all available targets at once.
This is what they’ve done to the US federal gvt (shock-&-awe I guess in our context) with the disgusting aid of the one supposedly independent branch, the US court system, but now we are recovering and formulating resistance tactics.
WereBear
The loss of 12+ billion dollars as no one wants to come to our party anymore, global tourism. Apparently, no one from the US could afford a trip to Vegas any more, and now, it is a ghost town commercially.
frosty
@artem1s: What if your state has a Democratic governor and a Republican AG? Are we supposed to hope the AG is a “moderate” R and not a MAGA? What if we have a divided legislature?
Can we still be in the soft secession group??
WereBear
Applications for US doctors to practice in Canada have gone up 750%.
Sure Lurkalot
Followed a wormhole to this excellent article about the mainstream (white) media by Michael Harriot, longish but worth every word.
The Great Un-Blackening: How Trump Tears and White Fragility Are Remaking Media
Bonus: dumps Joe Scarborough in a dumpster
Ksmiami
@WereBear: I want red states to go bankrupt and crumble. They’ve been mooching off blue state infrastructure for far too long.
The Audacity of Krope
Worse, they’re criminalizing simple existence without property or a patron.
Iron city
@Steve LaBonne: But they or a lab approved by them still will be the ones digging through your DNA, so be careful where you leave it. Unless 23andme gets back in business.
Kathleen
@satby: My impression is that attorneys general in blue states combed Project 2025 document when it was first published and started planning law suits before the election and I’m sure they are constantly monitoring and updating legal actions as these atrocities unfold along with many other groups.
The Audacity of Krope
Just win, baby!
Citizen Dave
@Nukular Biskits: I’ve been referencing Frankfurt’s book regularly on instagram and mentioned it here is a post several days ago. Trump is a Lifelong Bullshitter. I’ll never fathom how he had counterparties in NYC real estate business. I guess Mr. Kessler is taking that on as his first task as he emarks on a journey to document the universal landscape of trump bullshit. I wish him well.
Garry Kasparov Quote
“The point of modern propaganda isn’t only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.”
Layer8Problem
On a peaceful note, MissWimsey’s picture on the top right is lovely. Seljalandsfoss in Iceland, unless I miss my guess.
Ksmiami
@The Audacity of Krope: I hate to say it but I’m hoping that every state that sends National Guard resources to blue cities has some massive catastrophic event. And no one to help
Anyway
Too little too late, Glenn Kessler. He was the one parsing with a fine-tooth comb every utterance by Biden and other Ds and assigning 4 Pinocchio’s while letting wholesale whoppers by Dumpf and other RThugs slide by. Did that for years. He made a mockery of the beat.
ETA. I’ve been recommending On Bullshit for years. Very prescient analysis.
The Audacity of Krope
@Ksmiami: When they come to Boston I plan to do interviews with the local criminal element, that being Trump’s goon squads.
The Audacity of Krope
Not gonna lie, I don’t want to vote for a white man in 2028 on some stubborn shit, but I could get behind it if people want to pick Pritzker.
Just no opportunistic haircuts.
Central Planning
@WereBear:
I’m heading out there tomorrow. I’ll report back
WereBear
@Ksmiami: It’s all our problem. A Public Health problem that we should tax the rich to fix, many of whome are probably pricing condos in Dubai at this point, since they don’t want to live in Donald Trump’s America, either.
The Red states are looking at all kinds of tax collapse. Their “well-off” are fleeing. MAGA will stay, because they can’t cope with change by doing more change. They don’t get it.
And all these miserable people have children, who had nothing to do with it, and need our help. If we took them on a case by case basis, I won’t how many of them would pass the civic test the scorned immigrants are studying for.
Maybe it should be a rite of high school passage or something. Because these people are not this stupid from public school. It’s all of the home-schooled/Christian Academy/Segregation thinking, and it’s all far too lightly regulated.
Little nuance goes a long way.
Professor Bigfoot
@Sure Lurkalot: Kind of what I’ve been talking about— the white media will give white politicians every single benefit of the doubt, just like white people will do to for other white people.
And they have no idea why.
Professor Bigfoot
@The Audacity of Krope: HE wins.
As Justice KBJ said in her recent dissent— it’s a game of Calvinball only with TWO rules: 1, there are no fixed rules, and 2, HE always wins.
Are we the only ones who actually support and defend the Constitution of the United States anymore?
Professor Bigfoot
No you don’t. ;^)
But I’ve come to believe that’s the only thing that MIGHT change those white voters in those red states.
But if they can manage to see Black and brown folk suffer more, they may well be satisfied with those local disasters.
Professor Bigfoot
@The Audacity of Krope: JB is Jewish; and I have it on good authority that Jews aren’t actually “white.” ;^)
The Audacity of Krope
As long as I’ve been alive and, if the classic TV shows I spent the 90s watching from before my time are any indication, long before that.
Depends on the needs of the observer.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@The Audacity of Krope: No more Bill Clintons, please. I’m sick of slick.
Kristine
@artem1s: I recall reading last fall that JB had his people working on ways to counter Trump immediately after the election (if not before).
Layer8Problem
I am in Washington visiting grandkids. We have no plans on visiting any of the police state theater locations, but did we did eat yesterday in Columbia Heights and did not see anything performative, dramatic, or petulant. And someone has been putting up Masked Sandwich Guy posters flinging a hero. I saw a nice set of four large posters spaced a few inches apart: Masked Sandwich Guy Flinging, followed by Just Arcing Sandwich, followed by Sandwich in Descent, ending in Sandwich Hitting Stephen Miller in Male Pattern Baldness. Nice.
Professor Bigfoot
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: I get that… but I’ll take slick if they then GOVERN like Bill did.
I still remember the economic boom of the late 1990s and that was ALL Bill.
It’s why I don’t speak ill of Zohran Mamdani; even though I’m not a New Yorker I’m willing to wait and see how he does the job before I write him off.
Kristine
@satby: Heartiest congratulations!
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@artem1s: Thank you for sharing this. The real work of using federalism to resist is happening in the blue states, often under the radar. It’s so important, but it doesn’t get attention like ALLCAPSTWEETING.
Glad to see Democrats collaborating and cooperating. Even Governor Goodhair.
suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot:
My cousin who was in the military said the same thing; good people who believe in the mission, perfectly fine people who want a solid career with benefits, and those who just want to play with guns as a job. My cousin estimated that third group at 33%. Other military people I’ve discussed this with have estimated it at 25%.
Wouldn’t be surprised if it really was…. 27%.
The Audacity of Krope
That’s all well and good for the first two groups, but if they refuse to do anything about the third…
WereBear
@Professor Bigfoot: And they have no idea why.
I can tell you, having lived among the MAGA, but not of them (we moved a lot and I was never from around there…) they live vaguely.
Pressured to give up all individual expression, abused into gender role compliance that is a Procrustean bed, and defaulting to what authority wants when frightened, which is usually.
Always on the hunt for someone to blame for them not making their own decisions.
But this culturally embedded indoctrination system, the “Murdaughs on Jebus” mess it became, was because they were desperate to keep it going… when their society wasn’t hermetically sealed any more. When a budding atheist could resort to more information than Voltaire and
I’d heard online this was an extinction burst. I’m starting to hope so because acceleration only started in 2007, and here we are. I’m glad I get to see it.
But unguided deconversion is agonizing. No wonder some lost it. Atlanta now has a church attendance rate below Boston.
“Church” was how Confederate culture was imposed and held.
matt
@Rusty: I went to a convenience store the other day.. Chinese store owner. There was a smashed window in the front of the store. I expressed some sympathy for him at the window getting smashed. He said ‘In my country the police shoot you for doing that. It’s better.’
eclare
@Layer8Problem:
Hahaha…
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Professor Bigfoot: I also remember his triangulation, Mark Penn, ‘welfare reform’, etc. I remember how he turned Sister Soulja into a verb in political science.
Bill Clinton was better than the alternative, for certain. I’ll vote blue, no matter who. But after the substance of President Obama, VP Harris, and other politicians with integrity, it’s hard to go back to slick.
The Audacity of Krope
We won’t give Miller the dignity of that moniker. He has cuck-pattern baldness.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, it’s important to feed your bees a balanced diet!
ScienceDaily.com:
Good, good.
More at the link.
Best wishes,
Scott.
The Audacity of Krope
Probably one of the worst things he’s done. Basically made it a requirement forevermore that Democrats police and actively denounce any activists who might be viewed as on side, but doing too much per our white bread pissy pants media.
Professor Bigfoot
ME NEITHER. 🤣
p.a.
n.b. That Dems are required to respond to any whacked out statement by anyone anywhere who can be coded as left, while actual ELECTED Republicans spew sewer-chow on a daily basis and the media is: 🤷🏻
Professor Bigfoot
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Oh yeah.
But remember the times— we were still in the apogee of conservative thinking and control; the Reagan Revolution hadn’t been that long before and TBH, Bill had the same problem we have now- since VRA65 white people have largely refused to vote for a Democrat.
Sister Souljah was Bill’s opportunity to appear to shiv Black folks… which let the “Reagan Democrats” and “hard hats” and frankly the white working class vote for him.
Tim Ryan and Sherrod Brown tried the same triangulation— “…sure, I’m running as a Democrat but I’m not like those people!” and I don’t think it can be successful here in the 21st century— but at the time anti-Blackness was a requirement to get white people to vote for us.
The Audacity of Krope
All of us came up through that environment or worse, but if you try to scrutinize potential bigotry among fellow Democrats, woe betide you.
brendancalling
@New Deal democrat: This is what we call FAFO.
and it couldn’t have happened to more deserving people.
brendancalling
@Professor Bigfoot: wasn’t there an ambush in Texas, that the news is being very quiet about?
why yes there was!!
Cheryl from Maryland
Donated $50.00 to the Good Kim. Thanks again for doing this.
The Audacity of Krope
The statement doesn’t even have to be that whacked out. The person could be 100 per cent on point; but if it defies conventional wisdom, what everyone knows regardless of actual fact, it is treated as whacked out and an urgent problem Democrats must address among their own ranks.
Mai Naem mobile
From what I’ve heard restaurant bookings are way down in DC. I can tell you anecdotally I get cold drinks from fast food places in Phx and I see traffic down. Even street traffic which usually goes up when schools are back in session hasn’t gone up like usual. I know construction people whose work has dropped like a rock. It’s all anecdotal but I don’t think having soldiers in military vehicles driving around in a city is going to help business.
brendancalling
@Nukular Biskits: if anyone knows about bullshit, it’s Glenn “Pinnochio dick” Kessler, who ironically enough was born a real boy but turned into a puppet.
The Audacity of Krope
Other than the business of performative displays of machismo by weak men and their tradwife enablers.
Citizen Alan
@Nukular Biskits: Glenn Keesler spent most of his career defending bullshit while awarding Pinocchios to democrats if a single word of what they say could possibly be construed as incorrect.
The Audacity of Krope
Well, isn’t it nice that he finally noticed after he retired and all his money was made?
Eolirin
@YY_Sima Qian: Yep. And it’s why voting won’t save us.
Baud
@Eolirin:
Voting won’t save us because we’re a minority in this country.
The Audacity of Krope
We’re a faction of free-thinkers and decent people v the Borg
Which might make Newsom our Locutus.
Baud
@The Audacity of Krope:
He should shave his head.
Eolirin
@WereBear: The risky thing about an extinction burst is that it can kill everything around it in its flailing. The rest of us may not survive it either.
Steve LaBonne
@Anyway: Part of me is glad creatures like Kessler are scrambling to get on the right side, because we need all the allies we can get. Another part of me is looking at them with very squinty eyes.
Eolirin
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Welfare reform was pushed by the Republican controlled congress and a massive and ultimately fraudulent pressure campaign driven by right wing backers. I don’t blame Clinton for that one.
It’s been absolutely devastating to the disability community, and it’s only going to get worse from here, but it’s not really his fault.
Gloria DryGarden
@Another Scott: very cool.
native bees also pollinate native plants in their ecosystems. I don’t know much about the numbers, but I understand there is some competition.
But we are utterly dependent on bees, honey bees, and natives, and the other pollinators.
at a recent bees/ gardening class, I became aware of the native bees (800 species in Colorado) on the native plants, and the honey bees on the European and eastern hemisphere plants. Now I’m watching that at my home garden. How did I not know this before?
so glad there will be enough honeybees to get transported around to pollinate our food crops that we don’t have enough immigrants to harvest for us. I love almonds (France), and apples(Kazakhstan), and crocus and tulips ( Mediterranean, Persia, Turkiye), and beef (Europe/ Africa), and the cows love alfalfa ( honeybee pollinated, too). And peas, and green beans…I need to get more into it. I’m busy pulling Asian weeds and removing Asian beetles from my garden.
The Audacity of Krope
No, that’s where he soaked up the Exxon-Valdez spill and has been profiting from it. We can’t release that into downtown Sacramento.
Professor Bigfoot
@The Audacity of Krope: Let it come.
I refuse to not see the commonalities and realities of the history I’ve lived through.
Anti-Blackness is a common feature of American* society and culture; and I recognize how the “Southern Strategy” was really a “white strategy” and how it works.
Sure, Bill deserves his full share of opprobrium, but we still haven’t answered the question of “how do we get white people to vote for Democrats?”
The simplest solution is “ditch the whole civil rights thing.”
(for every complex problem there is a solution that is simple, clear, and wrong)
Gloria DryGarden
@Ksmiami: pls use your sharpie to direct these catastrophes to the red areas in these states.
thank you.
Eolirin
@Baud: Even if we win elections, we can’t enforce their outcomes through the legal system at this point.
It’s not going to be enough to just win an election now.
Miss Bianca
@Anyway: Yeah, I was a little dubious about this post when I realized who was writing it.
cain
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
They just want bodies. Their task is pretty single minded. Go after whatever Trump wants them to go after. It’s top down stuff.
It’s essentially turning the govt agencies into the Trump organization.
Gloria DryGarden
@Betty Cracker: ooh. Flamingos! Atlantic coast! Big waves! How fabulous. Cool breezes, even?
I look forward to pix. I hope you find those flamingos.
I have a new friend who is into everything pink, and flamingos, and I’m sending her every pink or flamingo pic or item I can find. Deliciously entertaining. She gifted me a flamingo rubber duckie, at the recent festival in thanks. Fun and joy are necessary.
Baud
@Eolirin:
Maybe not, but I’m not going to make it easy for them by assuming their victory.
Mart
At least that DC pic of troops shows they have the decency to collect their vehicles leaking oil.
The Audacity of Krope
That’s before you even get into other minority groups and the way needs and grievances are played off one another. They force criticism of the Israeli government into an anti-,Jewish v anti-Muslim box and ask you to pick sides. Black activists protest an interview between a Presidential candidate they haven’t been getting enough attention from and immigrant activists who have his attention in this moment, now it’s black v brown and we gotta line up. How do you even pick? Are you even allowed to an opinion if you were raised white, male, and Christian? FuckifIknow, though my answer is to offer one anyway cuz I have no truck with that white shit and I didn’t choose my birth condition, to the best of my knowledge.
That’s a Clinton-ism, isn’t it?
I don’t know the answer. My answer has been to talk to my nearest and dearest, whenever appropriate, about ditching white identity. It benefits almost no one other than those providing its strongest support.
Then I talk to no one else about it outside obscure political blogs because I have no idea whether it’s rhetorically helpful or even the best way to get others to understand the principle.
Gloria DryGarden
@Professor Bigfoot: seems trumplet is both a skilled bullshitter, and a liar, and a con. His behavior fits all the descriptions.
lately a woman in the grocery store told me what she listens to for news, that she doesn’t follow cnn or any of that, it’s all truth, what she listens to. I retorted that when they tout it as truth, it’s something to be careful of. I’m thinking of Truth Social.
How dare they take the word truth and reuse it for nefarious heinous bullshitting and twisting of information
to slant people toward strange right wing, white wing agendas? How dare they? Truth is a word in my vocabulary, and I resent them trying to dilute it into meaninglessness. Like your angle on bullshit.
mrmoshpotato
Glad to see IL and MD going all French on the fat, orange fascist.
“Suck my balls, invaders!”
Also, too, Stephen Miller can gargle a dead horse’s nuts.
The Audacity of Krope
Don’t threaten him with what I have on good authority he would consider a good time.
Gloria DryGarden
@Eolirin: you worry that we can’t . You’re concerned the legal system won’t enforce election outcomes. You don’t trust the system. You believe it may not be enough..
am I understanding you correctly?
just reframing, to remove all negative affirmations that state an outcome we don’t want.
not to step on your toes. But to recast it for the readers and lurkers.
mrmoshpotato
Step aside Subway!
We’ll do it the Chicago way if we have to!
Geminid
@brendancalling: Are you thinking about the incident where a group vandalized some vehicles in front of ICE office, and then tried to shoot the agents when they came out to look? That incident got a lot of play on Texas media sites and in right-wing social media.
All but one of the attackers were caught that night and their names and mugshots were part of the stories; an interesting group. There was a manhunt for one who got away but he was arrested 3-4 days later. He was a military veteran and may have been the ringleader.
But it’s true the incident did not get a lot of national attention. I think this was around the time of the terrible floods in Hays County and that may be why. Plus, no one was killed.
Gloria DryGarden
@Baud: thank you for reframing it.
The Audacity of Krope
So, what’s with all these zeroes in my odometer reading?
cain
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
They just want bodies. Their task is pretty single minded. Go after whatever Trump wants them to go after. It’s top down stuff.
It’s essentially turning the govt agencies into the Trump organization.
Eolirin
@Baud: Of course not. We just need to be prepared to fight back and can’t rest on the idea that we’ll win a couple of elections because of backlash to terrible policies and somehow things will go back to normal without additional effort on our parts.
People need to be ready to do more than that.
I don’t mean to imply that we can’t be saved. Normal levels of civic participation just won’t be enough anymore. We needed to win in 2024 to have a chance of that route working. We lost. More extreme measures will be required as a result.
The Audacity of Krope
@Eolirin: It seems to me that, unfortunately, any extraordinary measures beyond voting must necessarily include support from the very people who seem to have more important things to do than vote.
That’s just to say it won’t be easy.
prostratedragon
@Jeffro:
Peaceful Explorations is a ytube channel of strolls around Chicago neighborhoods. It’s been up for about a year, providing fresh evidence that the city is not exactly a hellhole.
The Audacity of Krope
@prostratedragon: So you’re telling me that Shameless and Chicago aren’t documentaries?
And all these efforts I’ve made staying away from jazz and liquor…
Another Scott
@Eolirin: I understand the sentiment. And it’s true that there’s never One Weird Trick (e.g. no, just winning elections will not solve our problems), but…
The Constitution gives the Congress the power to restrict jurisdiction of the courts, create new courts, add or remove seats from the SCOTUS, impeach judges, and more.
We’re in tough straits, but we’re not doomed.
The steps, as I see them, for improving our situation are:
It’s not going to be easy (if it were, it would have been done already), but it needs to be done and we can make incremental progress in getting it done.
Hang in there.
My $0.02.
Best wishes,
Scott.
RaflW
@p.a.: Minneapolis police suck so badly we as taxpayers have had to fork over $70,000,000 in just five recent years of settlements.
Meanwhile red light running, hit and runs, speeding and other quality of life (or straight up life in some crashes) crime get worse and worse here.
Trigger happy when they feel slightly threatened, but understaffed and deeply unmotivated when expected to do anything else. Our po-po suck, as does the mayor who does jack to fix the multiple systemic, decades-long problems.
Layer8Problem
@Another Scott: “Always with them positive waves,
MoriartyAnother Scott.” 😄The Audacity of Krope
@RaflW: A vision of policing that is respectful toward and has the respect of policed communities seems more likely to draw true professionals, jussayin’.
Eolirin
@Gloria DryGarden: Republicans will do what they did in the Jim Crow south to the entire country now that they have this degree of control over the federal government.
About the only chance we have of avoiding them throwing out election results or just straight up disappearing and/or murdering opposition is going to come from not having enough of people holding the guns willing to go along with it. I would not want to bet the whole future of the country on that.
Look up the history of that period and what it took to overcome it. And unfortunately we won’t have the feds stepping in the way they did then.
We’re not going to be able to coast on souring sentiment to win a few elections and return to business as usual. Our institutions are broken. Fixing them is going to take a lot of concerted effort from a lot of people. This is going to be a slog. It’s going to require much more extreme involvement than we’re culturally used to. It may eventually require actual insurrection. We need to be prepared for that or we won’t be positioned to resist the overturning of election results or the unfounded mass arrest of political opposition.
We’re so clearly headed in that direction. Even the ICE deportations are a dry run for consolidating power in that fashion. These national guard deployments are an escalation in that direction. The hollowing out of military leadership is another. The reduction in requirements for ICE and FBI members. It’s all part of a set of actions to subjugate the security apparatus so it can be wielded against the regime’s political opponents.
We can’t rely on elections to blunt and fix this. Those require a functioning system of laws and for our institutions to have held. Both are on extremely shaky ground already, I genuinely do not think acting as if they’ll hold is a useful way to evaluate the moment we’re in. It’s a good way to make sure we lose.
Geminid
@brendancalling: The incident you may be talking about occured the night of July 4, at the Prairieland Detention Center near Alvaraodo, Texas. That’s around 40 miles SW of Fort Worth. The attackers spray painted vehicles in the parking lot and shot fireworks at them. Then when deputies showed up a couple people opened fire.
Ten people were arrested that night, trying to get away. Some had firearms and bullet-proof vests, balaclavas, etc. One Johnson County deputy was wounded in the neck but not too seriously.
The incident got a lot of play on local TV stations and newspapers but like I thought, that was the night of the terrible floods in Hays County so national news sites like CNN barely mentioned it.
@Geminid:
The Audacity of Krope
@Eolirin: The reichwingers might win a war, but they’ll never win a true peace. Count on it.
Gloria DryGarden
@Eolirin: yes.
makes sense.
(dang it, so much work ahead..)
Gloria DryGarden
@Another Scott: another one of your many posts that I appreciate a lot. Your steps make sense.
we gotta…
Gloria DryGarden
@RaflW: and yet, you have a pretty fabulous governor, I hear. What influence might he have?
Eolirin
@Another Scott: Your step three assumes that will be allowed. I do not accept that as a legitimate assumption. We need to be ready to counter the attempt to deny us that. There will be an attempt.
Whether we can stop that is an open question. What’s left to us if that fails is an even harder path.
What we can’t do is just think of this is a continuation of normal politics. It’s a discontinuity. How bad things are going to get is unknowable. But stuff just isn’t going to work that used to work. The path through this won’t look like coming out the other side of the W administration, with a Republican induced crisis leading to a massive Democratic win that then lets us attempt to pursue legislative changes. It’ll look like a more serious attempt at Jan 6th, one that might actually succeed this time, and what we’re going to need to do in the face of that is going to be very different than running something like the Obama presidential campaign.
Eolirin
@The Audacity of Krope: For sure. But a lot of us will be dead in the process, if it comes to that, and I’ll probably be one of them, so that’s cold comfort.
Eolirin
@The Audacity of Krope: That is what makes me despair, yes.
The Audacity of Krope
I’m certainly not equipped for a fight. I’ve been mentally preparing myself for the gulag since Trump I. Unfortunately, getting our society to see just how extreme that segment has become might require them doing increasingly extreme things. Doesn’t mean there isn’t a better day in the future.
With or without humans.
Layer8Problem
The citizens of DC are keeping their breathless charm in the face of those who really want everyone to think they are an unstoppable tidal wave. Two helpful stickers on lampposts: “Jury Nullification: Your right to say ‘Nah, they good.'” and “Trump has an outie butthole.”
satby
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: which is unfortunate, because he was a really good president. Personal failings aside. I don’t have to like them as long as they’re effective at competent governing in service to the majority of all our citizens.
Gloria DryGarden
@Eolirin: thank you for clarifying.
I probably need to get myself a reading list, on Jim Crow and civil rights activism, read more civil war and reconstruction history. It all went over my head as a kid; I liked math, and science, and could not relate to the history of men, their wars, businesses, governments, dominance plays and power moves.
I wasn’t good at chess either, though I can handle seeing the big picture and multiple consequences in other ways.
I think you’re right, we have a lot of work ahead to rectify the situations.
when I read that chick Schumer is suing trump, or that other legal processes are in motion, should I be hopeful? It all seems so slow.
injunctions that have not been readily obeyed, to stop doing damage that’s already been done, it can feel so futile.
I’m turning to my open question, sort of a koan, or meditation, or a request of the universe,
how does it get any better than this?
and,
what else is possible?
The Audacity of Krope
Agree to disagree there. Sure, there was prosperity. But if it was built in an unsustainable way; furthering dependency on unaccountable private interests, stigmatizing poverty, making access to help more difficult for working folk and families who stay together, with enforcement priorities designed around the notion that certain communities exploit the system, accepting and propagating the highly phobic narratives of the bigots who nevertheless refused to support even our half-measures, and all just so very resource intensive; was it really all that good?
Another Scott
@Eolirin: Again, I understand the sentiment.
But 47 doesn’t run elections. We still have divisions of power. The 10th Amendment still applies.
I’m not willing jump to the conclusion that the law and our systems of government are completely broken. Yes, indeed that day may come. But it’s not here yet.
Watch what’s happening in DC with the federal police and national guard, and with the courts, over the coming weeks. We’ll get a clearer picture soon, but even then, the courts work slowly.
Working on winning elections is an important part of the path out of this. Energy spent there is more helpful right now than us thinking of ways that it won’t work well enough. We don’t know the future and have to live in the present.
Hang in there.
Best wishes,
Scott.
prostratedragon
@mrmoshpotato: The Chicago hot dog: the fragmentation grenade of sandwiches.
(Surprised we don’t here more of this.)
Gloria DryGarden
@Eolirin: I marvel at how many in government have acted like it’s just a continuation of normal politics. It’s been obvious since day one of this president slamming down executive orders and enactments of project 2025 faster than a person cauldron breathe.
How did so many in congress fail to see it, and end up confirming so many unqualified people to positions? I keep thinking of what Kamala Harris said in an interview, that she wasn’t surprised at trump et al doing what they said they’d do, she was surprised at the CAPITULATION.
The Audacity of Krope
Has Kamala Harris met a Democrat in the last 40 years?
Fully rhetorical question.
Layer8Problem
@Another Scott: Nothing would make the current administration, their fellow travelers, and their foreign enablers happier than for all of us opposed to them to be hiding under our beds, having convinced ourselves that the bad guys are unstoppable and are going to eat us all.
jackmac
I might quibble with the headline since the Plains states start west of Iowa.
So to make it a little more Illinois-centric, Pritzker can be “Great Khan of the Cornfields”.
Other than that, great post and comments.
The Audacity of Krope
@Layer8Problem: If I’m gonna give them hell, it first requires that I accept that they might be coming for me and mine.
Gloria DryGarden
@Another Scott: so some people are working on winning elections. A good achievable target.
and others are focused on preparing for a deeper fight, more complexity, more stuff hitting the fan. It’s good to be prepared, since those pro authoritarians have shown us how dirty they’re willing to play.
both aims may be necessary, and maybe different people have the right makeup to be part of each of these niches.
satby
@prostratedragon: The Beverly /Morgan Park one is my old neighborhood, where my son and DiL live in my old house now!
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Baud: I agree with you. Liberals do tend to minimize the effects of crime. While conservatives really do exaggerate crime levels, we don’t need to go in the opposite direction. The easiest way to deal with crime is to move to a neighborhood where it’s less prevalent. Addressing the root causes is harder and more expensive. Doing the easiest thing is human nature. We need to recognize that, plan for it, and not just get mad that people don’t do what we think they should.
no body no name
@The Audacity of Krope:
She’s lying. That’s not a criticism. She’s lying because she damn well knows better but she also knows people are pissed off about it so she has to lie and pretend she didn’t know this to stay relevant.
Eolirin
@The Audacity of Krope: I agree.
@The Audacity of Krope: This was hardly Clinton’s fault. He had a Republican controlled congress willing to shut the governnent down for most of his two terms. His true skill was in threading the needle in a way that minimized the damage quite significantly. We could not have had better at that moment in time.
prostratedragon
@satby: Nice to see those, isn’t it? The Grand Boulevard one, after the left turn at Corpus Christi church, goes right down the block where my mother lived with her grandparents. For the Bud Billiken one, the stroller was stationed a couple hundred yard from where I live now.
Layer8Problem
@The Audacity of Krope, @no body no name: Well all I can say is thank god we still have two people left with the guts to trash Democrats.
The Audacity of Krope
@Eolirin: That might be true. My memory of the time is that of a child. But this gets to the core of my biggest lifelong criticism of the Democrats, even as I continued to vote for them, they will not make a principled argument for anything unless they have polls firmly on their side.
Democrats, particularly those running for President, have this habit of pre-planning a compromise position based on their wants and Republicans’ previous stated objections. As though those objections either made sense or were stated in good faith. Say what you want to do, it doesn’t have to be what I want but it has to be coherent and a legitimate solution, then argue for that. State what your priorities are and make it clear to everyone listening that whatever the end result is will be from a collaborative process.
We don’t need 100 page healthcare blueprints that will never, ever become law. And we don’t need wishy-washy support for an at-risk community because they don’t poll well among white moms in Peoria.
Shana
@TONYG: I chaperoned a high school seniors’ trip to DC to visit the House of Representatives several years ago for a government class. Our high school is about 3 blocks from the metro station we took downtown so we walked from school. I was stunned to discover how many of these 17 year olds had never taken the Metro anywhere, and how many had NEVER BEEN TO DC. We’re a 35-40 minute metro ride to the center of DC, full of all the Smithsonian museums WHICH ARE FREE (“your tax dollars at work”) and yet there were probably 7-8 of the 15-20 kids I was in charge of who had never been to DC despite having lived their entire lives here. Just stunning.
prostratedragon
@no body no name: Only, the main capitulators have been the Congressional GOP. They have the majority, but have not even tried to defend their own Article 1 prerogatives.
The Audacity of Krope
@Layer8Problem: Say what you want. Democrats capitulate as surely as rain falls from the sky.
ETA: That’s what Sista Souljah was about. To sideline black voices that aren’t honoring respectability politics and to avoid the question of police hurting communities that white people can’t seem to deal with.
EATA: Use that floating preposition however you want, both ways I’ve interpreted it upon reading work.
Quiltingfool
@Gloria DryGarden: Not flamingos, but cats. Pink cats.
pin.it/1j7mh6myB
Eolirin
@Another Scott: If it’s all we focus on, then if or when it doesn’t work it’s too late for plan B. We can’t rely on it. That’s different from saying we shouldn’t put effort into it. I’m not saying that.
This is what Hope is Not A Plan is really meant to be saying. If your strategy requires that something that has a good likelihood of going wrong instead goes right, and you’re not preparing for that thing to go wrong you do not actually have a plan; it’s necessary but insufficient to focus on elections.
We need just as much of a focus on protests and mass mobilization, to be prepared for large scale civil disobedience. And for those to be sustained efforts over a long period of time. And if worst comes to worst, we’ll need a bunch of stuff that can’t be talked about in a place like this.
dnfree
@Rusty: When the Soviet Union still existed, my parents went on a tour trip and were very positively impressed that no one tried to avoid the bus or train ticketing process. Much better than here.
Eolirin
@The Audacity of Krope: It’s because of the political realignment. Dems only have a majority if they appease enough whites and they know this. They also know they can’t say this without losing those whites.
We can’t talk about racism in this country without creating a massive backlash that wipes out any progress we’ve managed to eek out. This has been a problem going all the way back to FDR.
Archon
@Professor Bigfoot: I always have to remind myself that southern whites were the CORE of FDR new deal coalition. As soon as blacks were given even a fraction of the political and economic benefits of the New Deal those very same New Deal whites Democrats became Nixon-Reagan conservative Republicans.
The Audacity of Krope
I’ve heard this stated all too many times. But have they, you know, tried?
dnfree
@Another Scott: I know exactly when my name changed from what was on my birth certificate. My parents named me one of the very common girls’ names from the 1940s, but they spelled it differently. (I always feel sorry for a grandniece named Izabella.). By the time I reached school age, my parents realized I’d have to spend my whole life spelling my first name, so they just registered me under the conventional spelling. I am grateful for their common sense.
Another Scott
@Archon: Humans are weird and politics are complicated.
I lived in Georgia as a kid when Carter was Governor (left GA around 1975). Last night I did some looking around in Wikipedia at some of the Black political leaders of those days.
E.g. Hosea Williams:
Humans are weird. Politics are complicated and nobody really knows how things are going to turn out. Hindsight can polish away the roughness and make things appear to be smoother and simpler than they really were.
And human personalities and interpersonal relationships matter – a lot!
FWIW.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
satby
@prostratedragon: And they all showcase how beautiful and peaceful our (it’s still my) city is! Thanks for letting me know about it.
Gloria DryGarden
@Quiltingfool: I need to send this to my friend. I do not know how to move a Pinterest photo into a Facebook post, on this tablet. Ideas? Exchange emails?
I’ll see if I can do it on my android. I need to open a Pinterest account anyway..
Gloria DryGarden
Who said that about the plains not being Illinois? Illinois is mostly a very flat plain.
Which is higher, your nearby overpass, or Charles Mound?
corn fields? It was all soybean fields where I used to live, nw suburbs of the city.
no body no name
@prostratedragon:
Not fucking relevant as we can’t control them. We can only influence our party. Which is now in a fight between populists to expand it, moderates who refuse to change the product and hope suffering makes their minority views tolerable enough to piss off more of the electorate, and abundance bros who take bribes. This blog is the second and it’s the most sure to lose an election.
The Audacity of Krope
Not so, at least in opposition. They can take the same route as Labour in the UK, demonize their activist set while they wait for the harder core of bigots to suck at governing; then when voters run back to them as the only option, they’ll declare victory was because of their brilliant moderation.
Come to think of it, Labour might have stolen that from Democrats first.
lowtechcyclist
@Another Scott:
You’re gonna need a bigger bridge. ;-)
A Streeter
@prostratedragon:
That is fantastic. One of them passes 71st and Indiana, half a block from my childhood home. Thanks for the link!
Citizen Alan
@The Audacity of Krope: not even close. The worst thing he did was make an big production of presiding over the execution of a man who was clearly mentally disabled because of the perception that “being soft on the death penalty” was what sank michael dukakis four years earlier.
Archon
@Another Scott: While I agree with your overall point about politics it seems to me that Southern Whites are the least complicated voters in the world. We have a pretty clear idea on what their main political motivations are.
mrmoshpotato
@The Audacity of Krope: That’s a shame. More jazz and booze for us then!
mrmoshpotato
@prostratedragon: Extra sport peppers!
The Audacity of Krope
@Citizen Alan: Ok, I missed that one. But I’ll give it to you.
ETA: And I did say “one of…”
Eolirin
@The Audacity of Krope: Yes. Clinton’s struggles with an insurgent Republican congress was driven in large part by attempts to pass universal health care and voter backlash over it.
Obama’s administration was kneecapped by voter backlash in the process of succeeding in passing that
And that realignment that shredded the FDR coalition? That happened because Johnson passed a bunch of legislation that helped black people, including but not limited to the civil rights act. We’ve been paying for it ever since.
The Audacity of Krope
@Eolirin: Well, maybe the backsliding and hesitation among Democrats was the real problem.
Perhaps we don’t persuade more white people, or more any people, because they can sense the lack of sincerity. Getting halfway on board with gay rights 30 years ago, considering dumping trans folk overboard now, a decades-long steady diet of outright denigrating the rights of Palestinians; all of these things contribute to a generalized sense that Democrats aren’t truly committed to their stated human rights values, so why should normie white voter find it persuasive?
Both parties insult voters’ intelligence, but one party is courting voters that should be smart enough to recognize it.
Timill
@Gloria DryGarden: Paste this URL into your FB post:
pinterest.com/pin/232216924529566755/
Tim
Professor Bigfoot
@The Audacity of Krope: Clinton shivved one individual, Sister Souljah. Thus earned the acceptance of white people and once he won he could and did do good things\
Remember he tried to get universal healthcare done by his magnificent First Lady?
That won’t work anymore, because there are too many Black people with too much power in the Democratic Party. The presumed Democratic Speaker is a Black man, the Senate Majority Leader a Jew; and the only way white people are going to support us is if we shiv THEM.
Oh, yeah, that’s Bluesky most every day, innit?
The Audacity of Krope
Couldn’t tell you. I downloaded but haven’t logged in yet.
And yes, Democrats will totally put women and POC into positions of power, provided they conform to the respectability politics defined by the white men before them.
FDRLincoln
I work for a local law enforcement agency.
Last academy, we had 225 applicants for corrections officer positions.
We hired 7 of them, after deep background checks, written and oral exams, psych eval, physical, and polygraph to back up anything unusual in the background.
Then we do 16 weeks of training. This is for COs…to become a deputy requires 2 years of CO duty with no reprimand, then another battery of testing, then 600 hours of more training.
satby
@FDRLincoln: Respect to them all. It’s a hard job when done well.
2liberal
@Professor Bigfoot:
the Senate Majority Leader a Jew
Sorry but Shumer is the minority leader.
FDRLincoln
@satby: we try really really hard to keep bad cops out of our agency. Step One is to select against sociopaths in hiring.
My agency does a good job with that Step.
What’s harder is keeping cops from burning out, growing too cynical and abusing their power, starting to see the public as enemies, etc. That takes constant vigilance and training and a persistent effort to maintain a culture based on Peel’s principles.
no body no name
@Professor Bigfoot:
Obama did the same over gay marriage and that’s how he got elected. Gay marriage got put into action and now Iowa, Indiana, and other states are gone. Not because black they voted black it was gay that did it. Obama also met with evangelical hate pastors to pull off his elections.
But you won’t admit that or touch that.
Ksmiami
@Eolirin: I agree but people here seem to think passive resistance will win: spoiler warning – it will not
Ksmiami
@Gloria DryGarden: blue states stop contributing – secede softly. Give no quarter. Partisan activity
Eolirin
@The Audacity of Krope: Yes.
Even Clinton.
White voters have historically punished us for trying to expand the social safety net or improve equality once we started providing good things to black people. Clinton tried to get universal Healthcare done and couldn’t because white people flipped out and then there was a massive electoral backlash. Same thing happened with Obama.
And the thing that broke the FDR coalition was the civil rights act. You kind of act like politics started during our post W, you weren’t really old enough to pay much attention to or know what was happening for any of what came before it. I get it, I wasn’t either.
But if you look at the history of the various movements that have had success in this country, it puts lie to the idea that our problems are because Democratic politicians aren’t authentic and aggressive enough. That it’s some kind of messaging issue.
It’s not that. The problem is that not enough white people want to share. What you want to have happen isn’t what most Americans do. There does not exist a viable electoral coalition for it. And the reason for that is that the overwhelming balance of white men do not want it, and they have just enough other people they can make common cause with to prevent it from happening.
Like FFS, the second white people were told COVID disproportionately hurt blacks and minorities, they significantly shifted their opinions on whether it was a good idea to try to mitigate it. And not in the direction you’d want.
That’s what we’re up against. Not an authenticity gap. We can’t keep being blind to that. White people, especially the men, need to take responsibility for their actions and be better. And we need to encourage that instead of ignoring it. But politicians aren’t the right people to be making that case. They need to get people to vote for them.
The woes of the Democratic party are on us as voters, and the failures of our culture, more than on the party as an organization. Even this idea that the party needs to sell people… It’s completely backwards.
It’s not how any significant progress has been made in the entire history of the country. People have always been the driving force for change in this country. Pressure gets applied to elected officials on the back of broad based social movements.
It’s how we won labor rights, how women got the right to vote, women’s lib, gay rights, civil rights, all of them have been social movements that organizers turned into politicial pressure. None of them were driven by elected officials.
The New Deal stuff is maybe an exception to that, but it was a response to the worst economic crisis in the country’s history and FDR made sure it only benefited white people specifically so he could keep his coalition in tact.
Eolirin
@no body no name: Let’s not pretend that a lot of white voters in Iowa and Indiana don’t also have a problem with black people, their willingness to vote for Obama aside.
There’s no need to split hairs on bigotry, people hating queer folk tend to also hate blacks. Anyone who hates anyone tends to also hate the Jews. It’s all of one piece.
The Audacity of Krope
I agree wholeheartedly. This is a big part of what I’m actually arguing.
This is where we split. I expect if we’re choosing leaders, they ought to lead
ETA: That is to say even if they have to compromise, even if they’re forced into ugly tradeoffs, they should at least argue for whatever is best as they see it. They should do so as earnestly as possible.
Miss Bianca
@The Audacity of Krope:
@no body no name:
Oh for fuck’s sake, you two, go and get a room and jerk each other off, why don’t you, and leave the rest of us out of it, since you’re apparently so damn disgusted with us? You’d be doing all of us a favor by restricting your moaning and groaning in mutual ecstasies over how much Democrats and BJ commenters just suuuck by just…removing yourselves from our despised presence.
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
He will use federal jails for homeless people, because he hasn’t got a clue. Not one clue, not about anything. He’s just a rapidly declining old fart. Now his old fartitus is worse than most because he seemingly has the mental capacity of a 3 yr old. I may be overstating his lack of capacity – it might be of a 5 yr old. So entirely different. Hard to type that last bit while laughing.
The Audacity of Krope
@Miss Bianca: I’m trying to argue for a place for my own and similar views where none currently exists. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think there was a better chance of that among Democrats. That said, the exclusionary attitude and hostility to criticism you’re exhibiting is both harmful to my goals and, in my eminently fallible judgment that is nevertheless my own, one of the biggest things holding Democrats from success.
You’re so ride or die for Democrats you can’t handle even a mixed opinion on them, cool. You’re allowed that but I don’t think it’s helping.
Kayla Rudbek
@Professor Bigfoot: nope, and a lot of police forces don’t want people who are “too smart” as members
Paul in KY
@Baud: They’ll all be at Millenium Park, Grant Park, Lincoln Park, Field Museum…all the grimiest parts of Chicago I tells ya!
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: The 3rd cohort seems to be most of them.
Paul in KY
@Shalimar: It is not the fault of the individual soldier if some POS who somehow became POTUS orders them to have to do stupid things.
Paul in KY
@Citizen Dave: All real estate developers are to one extent or the other ‘bullshitters’. It’s part of the jerb.
Paul in KY
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: He won 2 terms as POTUS. Was alot better for working people than the GQP alternatives. Please don’t let ‘perfect’ be the enemy of ‘good’.
Paul in KY
@suzanne: It is more than 50%, IMO
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: I don’t really think Mr. Brown did that. Mr. Ryan, for sure!
Paul in KY
@The Audacity of Krope: We are not going to ditch Civil Rights. Even if it costs us elections.
Paul in KY
@dnfree: Knowing you would have a trip to the gulag will (I admit) stop alot of that.
Paul in KY
@FDRLincoln: That is tough, as all your general interactions with people are when stressful situations are happening.