— Mike Luckovich (@mluckovich.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 4:48 PM
===
BREAKING: Big moment as CDC staff stage a mass walkout.
They have lined the street outside its HQ to greet and salute the four top officials who have resigned in protest at RFK Jr’s attack on the agency’s science base.
(?? AP)— News Eye (@newseye.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 3:42 PM
===
I have never seen so many public servants protest the mismanagement of a government. Trumpists will point to this as proof of the deep state, but the reality is that these are professionals who are desperately trying to get the public to understand how bad things are.
— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 3:09 PM
===
CDC employees standing up and walking out in light of the mass shootings, firings, and *waves hands in the air* everything else.
#USAnotRFK
Lets gooooo— Katelyn Jetelina (@kkjetelina.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 3:00 PM
===
I don’t think most Americans have the slightest clue what CDC does and how much they will miss it.
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 5:18 PM
===
When I reported for duty at Naval Station Great Lakes, I never imagined that some day a US President would seek to use it as a base for surveillance and enforcement activity on American soil. Our military was not set up to cater to the whims of a would-be American dictator.
— Pete Buttigieg (@petebuttigieg.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 4:51 PM
===
Republicans are trying to redraw congressional district lines to keep their grip on Congress in the midterms and beyond.
Voters should pick their politicians, not the other way around.
Get involved with the @democraticredistricting.com as they fight back: bit.ly/3HJ1ayW— Barack Obama (@barackobama.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 12:46 PM
===
On The Road – Captain C – Netherlands, September 2024 Part 7: Mauritshuis Part 3 and Den Haag
Suzanne
What blows my mind is how much of this societal destruction we are seeing boils down to ressentiment. FFOTUS’s cult members lick the boots of rich bosses, while nurturing toxic levels of contempt for middle-class professional people who probably did a bit better than them in school and are now just trying to use their knowledge for the good of us all.
Those CDC employees are brave and good on them.
raven
I was the bat boy for the Great Lakes Naval Training Center Baseball team in the mid-50’s!
Ramalama
Most American may not know what the CDC does but I’ll tell you that Gay Americans esp the guys know and appreciate the work of the CDC thanks to AIDS.
@raven: v cool….you must have some great memories.
Jeffro
Not quite 8 months in, and this is the state of things. CDC (rightly) walking off the job en masse in protest. trumpov pushing to take over the Fed. American cities being invaded by America’s new masked-up snatch-and-grab-ya force.
TONYG
“I don’t think most Americans have the slightest clue what CDC does and how much they will miss it.” I don’t think that most Americans have the slightest clue about anything at all. Idiots who are proud of their ignorance. That is the primary reason why we are where we are.
Geminid
This morning’s Politico Playbook had a section on Barak Obama’s recent public and private activities that jumped out at me as something worthy of “Front Page” treatment here:
The report on Mr. Obama continues for seven more paragraphs.
mappy!
I think the meme that needs promoting at this point is that the dismantling of American society’s safety net is on all Republicans (spit). They have the votes to stop this. So if they won’t stop it, they all own it. Every single one of them.
Baud
@raven:
You have the most interesting life.
Baud
@mappy!:
Doesn’t holding Republicans accountable blow a hole in the space time continuum?
prostratedragon
By Dmitri Shostakovich: “General Confusion — The Embarrassment of the Fascists”
Baud
@Suzanne:
They drive social progress.
Scout211
Reposting this from last night: (no archive version yet)
This is disappointing.
Thanks RFK, jr. You f*ck up everything you touch.
Professor Bigfoot
@TONYG: I’ve come to the conclusion that the majority, if not the vast majority of Americans* are simply stupid.
Ignorant, arrogant, demanding, idiots.
Obligatory #NotAllAmericans
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
satby
The staff of the CDC walked out yesterday, and Senators Patsy Murray and Bill Cassidy are both calling for hearings.
rikyrah
@Scout211:
This is insane 😡😡😡
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
rikyrah
@Suzanne:
They are brave people who just want to do their job to help people that they never will meet
Suzanne
@Baud: I wish we discussed this specific dynamic more. The blah-blah-blah about “the deep state” and “annoying leftist Ivy League students” gets more attention, but the thing we’re not really zooming in on is just the absolute loathing MAGAts have for normal-ass college-educated people. People who went to state schools, probably have student loan debt, who don’t live in NYC or SF….. just the normal professional middle-class workforce of most of this country. Teachers and engineers and accountants and healthcare workers and the like.
Part of that is racism and sexism, of course. Women and people of color make up much more of that workforce than in days past, and thus the nature of the work environment has changed. But there’s a distinct hostility that is also its own thing.
Baud
@Suzanne:
I think libs are averse to admitting to themselves how much they are hated.
Suzanne
@rikyrah:
Yeah, they are. They’re intelligent, hardworking, and self-sacrificing because they believe in their mission. We are a better country for their work.
Princess
@Geminid: Because of course Obama’s successor, Donald Trump, slid quietly into the background after he himself left office. Give me a f#%king break.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: One item of interest in that piece is the news that TX statehouse Rep. James Talarico might run in the Dem primary to challenge Cornyn or Paxton for the GOP-held U.S. Senate seat. I’d never heard of Talarico until a few weeks ago, but the man has a ton of charisma, which seems to be super important these days.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
That would be huge.
Princess
@Professor Bigfoot: I have low key wondered if this is a side effect of Covid and people literally are stupider these days. And I mean everyone because I notice stupid gullibility across the political spectrum. Or maybe I’m just crankier.
Professor Bigfoot
@Suzanne:
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’” –Isaac Asimov
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: I think white libs have a lot of trouble understanding just how much they are hated, much less why.
Professor Bigfoot
@Princess: I’d like to believe that, but this stupidity was rampant before COVID.
Americans* were stupid AF in November of 2016.
AM in NC
@Suzanne: THIS, 100%. It’s White people sucking up to the MOUs who own their asses and grind them into dust (exporting their jobs/forcing wages down/busting unions/hiring undocumented immigrants/cutting government services to give themselves ANOTHER massive tax cut) while attacking the people who got out of their crap town by going to the State U and getting a job as a social worker/teacher/nurse.
Ressentiment 10000000000000%. But not against the people actually harming them. Those folks they worship.
Baud
@Princess:
Maybe people are dumber. I think a lot of people have decided their self empowerment rests on taking other people for granted.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Professor Bigfoot: I’m starting to get the feeling that Trumpists’ hatred of white liberals is no more rational, and no less real, than Nazi supporters’ hatred of Jews. Of course, my perspective may blind me to the actual reasoning.
Scout211
WSJ (web archive version)
I wonder how Trump’s team will spin this as more and more headlines are blaming high prices on Trump tariffs.
Princess
@Professor Bigfoot: I lived in the US as a white person for almost thirty years and I have to admit I was pretty segregated the whole time from the white people who hate us. Mind you, I was in an academic community on the south side of Chicago so I’m not much of a norm. But white people hating me was something in social media or on tv, not my neighbours or in my workplace or my family, which isn’t American. I’m curious about the experience of other BJers. One reason I miss Kay is she had that broader experience, living in normie Ohio.
prostratedragon
These Chicagoans say no thanks on the National Guard. I know the area a little, the folks having lived nearby until 2013. Can’t imagine the feds being in any way useful there; but they’re probably meant for downtown right now.
Possibly related?
mappy!
One of the local conservative R politicos (spit), perennially in favor of slashing taxes and spending, especially education and teacher’s salaries; a former Marine drill instructor, then employee at a local state college. He reads and quotes Mark Twain, hires kids to work on his property, contributes to local scholarship fund and has a much voiced disdain for college education. All education actually. His advice to the kids he hires is to get a state job after High School. Though he would probably be loath to admit it, his view of governance is that it is all about dolling out favors, to his kind, for that which he likes…
Suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot:
You know how I know that this college-degree hate is a thing? Even my white dude husband has been on the receiving edge of it! And he’s a much nicer person than I am!
satby
@Professor Bigfoot: one of my favorite quotes. And it’s from a long op ed he wrote in 1980.
ColoradoGuy
I suspect the year 2020 was so traumatic that many people, particularly the MAGA’s, are in deep denial just how bad it was. How it felt to have an obviously insane President in the middle of a deadly worldwide crisis.
One mental adaptation was a slide into pseudo-medical Social Darwinism, which we see in full-blown form in RFK Jr … “oh well, they would have died anyway, that’s just how it is” cynicism mixed with despair. The Party of Nihilism.
BenCisco
@Geminid: Politiho can get stuffed.
zhena gogolia
@ColoradoGuy: Boy, I remember it vividly. And I’m reliving it now.
H.E.Wolf
@satby: The late US Rep. Patsy Takemoto Mink (Dem – HI) would be cheering current US Sen. Patty Murray (Dem – WA) in her call for hearings.
Patty Murray is the 2nd-highest-ranking Democratic member of U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP).
Baud
Suzanne
@Princess:
I think your experience is actually not that unusual. I think there’s a big split happening amongst white people that isn’t happening amongst people of color….. though maybe, given enough time, it will.
White people have been going to college long enough at this point, and most importantly, marrying one another, that we’re sorting ourselves out into socially distinct tribes. Culturally and geographically and even religiously. It’s showing up in the vote….. from what I have read, even college-educated white dudes essentially broke even for Harris and FFOTUS.
Professor Bigfoot
@Suzanne: “Those who hate Jews seldom hate Jews.”
Those who hate, usually hate much.
But the hate for college educated people “who think they’re bettern’ I am!” is a different flavor from hate for “them n-word-lovin’ liberals.”
But it’s probably still the same bubba. And that contempt for a college education is nonexistent among the Black folks that I know.
Baud
Geminid
@Geminid: It being Friday, this morning’s Politico Playbook also featured the lineups for this Sunday’s politico shows. Some of the guests:
ABC’s This Week: Maryland Governor Wes Moore, Rep. Tom Emmer (MN).
Rep. Emmer is a member of the House Republican leadership team and the House will return from its August break next week. They’ll face a September 30 deadline for funding the federal government, so Emmer can be expected to lay out Speaker Johnson’s public strategy for passing a funding bill; or more likely, lie it out.
Fox News Sunday: DC prosecutor Jean Pirro; Senator Senator Bill Haggerty (TN); Rep. Jake Auchingloss (MA). As I recall, Auchingloss’s district runs from Boston’s southern suburbs down to New Bedford.
CNN State of the Union: Rep. Ihlan Omar (MN); Sebastian “Fuvking” Gorka (Asshole); Cindy McCain, World Food Program director.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has been a major story for most of this summer, and I expect Ms. McCain will provide some informed advocacy regarding this pressing issue.
And if it’s Sunday, it’s Ro Khanna!
NBC Meet the Press: Senator James Lankford (KS); Ro Khanna (CA).
I imagine some Sunday show booker has Ro Khanna filed along with Lindsey Graham under, “Cheap Dates.”
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
I think you left out a word.
Anyway
yep – lots of immigrants I mean invaders in these sectors as well.
Professor Bigfoot
Yep. I see that as an outgrowth of ignorance, though— they’ll mouth all the shibboleths of “liberty” and “freedom” but have absolutely NO IDEA of how their government(s) work.
They’ll tell you how “freedom isn’t free” but they’re completely unwilling to do the simple WORK required to maintain it.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: DAMMIT. 😉
Absolutely. “Those who hate Jews seldom hate ONLY Jews.”
Crimony, you’re BAUD, you knew what I meant!!! 😉😂
Professor Bigfoot
@Princess: The proud Trumpers across the street from me will try to smile and wave at me and I’m completely at fuck you, you Nazi motherfuckers.
Sure, they’ll be nice to your face, but when the lynch mob shows up at your door they’ll be back there, too.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
I knew what you meant. Other people who read this blog might need the clarification, however.
Gin & Tonic
@Geminid: It’s “Auchincloss” and yeah, that’s Barney Frank’s old district. Interesting mix of communities.
Tony Jay
Seeing the CDC professionals stand up, link arms, and tell Walnut Kennedy to go and explore his inner workings with a fully-extended desk lamp is just lovely. It’s something that shouldn’t have to happen in a million years, but Denihillistic voters did what they did last November and here you are, watching the FO of reality rebound from the impact of FA delusion.
It would be nice if the Media called this what it was – Real America reacting in horror to the ugly lunacy of this Krackpot Konfederate Konspiracist regime, but I hope no one’s holding onto hope that that’s ever going to happen. I’m fairly certain that Trump and Co could be holed up in a burning Mar El Lardo with 300 million pitchfork wielding Americans outside howling for blood and the courtier media would still be running headlines like “White House goes on the attack over ‘mob violence’ as Democrats fail to rein in activist fringe”.
Facts on the ground, though, are facts on the ground. More of them, please. It is very encouraging.
Professor Bigfoot
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: “Liberals,” in 21st century conservative speak, are just “nigger-lovers” in mid 20th century conservative speak.
Professor Bigfoot
@satby: It occurs to me that there’s a corollary to that quote: “If democracy doesn’t mean my ignorance is as good as your knowledge, then “democracy” is nonsense and should be destroyed.
waves around generally
Matt McIrvin
@Ramalama: They protested the CDC and NIH back in the 80s and 90s because they wanted them to do MORE of what they do. Not less.
(And they got results!)
Scout211
. . .
. . .
In this administration, “conflict of interest” seems to be just a quaint notion.
Matt McIrvin
@Princess:
I wasn’t. I got the punches directly to the gut. Though it was in some ways worse to get the friendly resentment-talk from the grownup ones who weren’t aware what tribe I was in.
So, yeah, my default assumption has always been that there’s a lot of ugly out there.
sab
@Scout211: CVS has really declined in quality over the last ten years. I left them years ago. My stepdaughter left last year. Hopefully this will be the last straw for my husband. There are other pjarmacies out there if you don’t live in the boondocks.
Professor Bigfoot
@Scout211: This level of OBVIOUS corruption in criminal cases is pushing me to conclude— yes, we are a “failed state.”
Gods help us all.
Geminid
@Gin & Tonic: Thank you for the correction. Rep. Auchincloss interests me, as does Rep. Omar. The two Democrats differ some ideologically and plenty in their biographies, and they are both bright, relatively young politicians.
I won’t be watching these shows, but I’ll follow reporting on them, especially on Cindy McCain’s comments.
Suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot:
SAME.
What’s really weird about the intra-white educational divide is that it isn’t even genuinely about economic class. Most of the professional workforce of the country is not wealthy! And I don’t mean in that annoying “I make $250K but I have nothing left after I spend it all on vacations and private school!” kind of way that gets hate-reads on social media. Most college-educated people are solidly middle class and there are plenty of blue-collar workers who outearn college grads, even though there is a measurable degree premium. If it was really about class resentment, they’d have contempt for the MotUs and the bosses.
So: it’s something else.
eclare
@sab:
Walgreens almost has a monopoly in Memphis, so there aren’t many CVS’s. But I lived in ATL when they first opened there, and I went in one to look around. I remarked to a friend that it seemed dirty, and his response was that that was because it was carpeted.
I haven’t been in one since.
raven
@Ramalama:
@Baud:
What I remember most is being on a train trip with the team visiting Naval bases on the East coast and having an abscess tooth!!!
Soprano2
@Scout211: I saw a story the other day about how people are getting used to inflation. I guess we’ll find out if that’s true.
eclare
@raven:
Ouch! Memories of tooth pain stick with you, I know.
prostratedragon
Don’t ever change, 🤡:
Soprano2
@Princess: As a white American living in red SWMO, what I will tell you is that they don’t often express that hatred to your face, especially if they know you. If questioned, they’ll quickly tell you that it’s not you, you’re one of the “good” ones, it’s those others “out there”. I pointed out to my mother more than once that I was a government employee, and she quickly said “Oh it’s not local government employees who are the problem, it’s just those lazy federal employees”. That’s been my experience, anyway. I had a boss here who insisted that since we were a “utility”, we didn’t really work for the government, even though our checks come from City of Springfield! The level of denial can be extremely high.
p.a
I think a lot of times the focus of anger is on those just above (holding “us” back, thinking they’re better than us) and those below (kick out that ladder rung to protect “us”)
The way way ups are considered untouchable, part of an unchaneable environment.
Soprano2
@Suzanne: Oh yeah, they automatically believe that you think you’re smarter than they are just because you have a degree, and that you look down on them. A guy I lived with a long time ago would express this when he got drunk; he barely graduated from high school, but he had a good job in a factory and made good money. He was still insecure about his lack of education.
Betty Cracker
@Princess: & @Suzanne: I’m a white woman and college graduate married to a non-degreed, blue collar (but liberal) dude. I’m also related to lots of white Republicans, some with college educations, many without. I also know a few non-white Republicans.
I agree there’s a lot of free-floating contempt for white liberals and educated people among that cohort, but it’s mostly abstract. Maybe they think the people they personally know are the “good ones” or something.
I’ll admit to harboring loads of contempt for Republicans in the abstract as well as deep and abiding hatred for what they’ve wrought. And yet I personally know Republicans who are intelligent, kind, generous and loving people. Not just one or two — lots of them.
That’s my version of the “good ones,” I guess. I’ve accepted that I’ll never understand it. People are really fucking complicated.
Scout211
The WSJ article I posted went on to interview businesses and most said that prices haven’t gone up much yet because they were mostly selling goods that they already had on the shelf or in warehouses (before tariffs) so prices hadn’t yet been raised significantly. The “getting used to inflation” folks are in for sticker shock.
ETA: typos
satby
@Professor Bigfoot: he really evicerated the lack of knowledge in that op ed. Especially that Americans didn’t read. I did and do, and remember reading that when it was published, but I was a big fan of his.
Soprano2
@Professor Bigfoot: I hate that you’re right, but you’re right. We can’t talk about it, though, which means a lot of things we talk about don’t actually make much sense. It’s also about gay/trans people, too.
satby
@p.a: It’s also resentment at college education “stealing” their children by giving them the tools and knowledge to leave their family of origin’s way of life or religion. The left behind consider it a betrayal of all they value rather than just attempts to move further up the socioeconomic ladder. Choosing differently is seen as a rejection even when it’s just an economic survival calculation.
Soprano2
I went to my high school music teacher’s funeral yesterday – she died of pancreatic cancer. She was 74. There were a lot of people there, she was a much-loved woman. I had to take the day off because it was in Butler, MO, which is a 2 hour drive from here. I learned that Butler is the birthplace of Robert Heinlein! Anyway, it was a tough day. She was instrumental in my life – she’s why I went to the college I did, because she went there.
Today I’m going to the funeral of one of my previous bosses’ wives – we’ve stayed friends. I’m not sure what she died of, I’ve heard cancer. She was 67. What’s sad is that he retired from his second job in March, and they were going to get a fifth wheel and travel around the country. How can good people like this die when people like Stephen Miller and FFOTUS are still walking the Earth? That’s one reason I can’t believe in God. It makes no sense.
Soprano2
@satby: They also think college “turned” their son or daughter gay.
Ramalama
@Matt McIrvin: right.
And when COViD hit, gays went out and got vaccinated en masse. We all knew Tony Fauci. One of the curveball variants was hitting the world, and one particular summer the variant spread rapidly but nobody in the Provincetown, gay central, died thanks to keeping up with more vaccines.
rikyrah
Cdseghetti (@cdseghetti) posted at 9:36 AM on Thu, Aug 28, 2025:
If you were on that train David Hogg is not attacking Lauren Underwood you were wrong. He was attacking her and when he got called out he went silent for a very long time. Now he’s back attacking another Black Congressional member. He tried it with Lauren because he thought he
(x.com/cdseghetti/status/1961075315830394894?s=02)
Cdseghetti (@cdseghetti) posted at 9:36 AM on Thu, Aug 28, 2025:
Could get away with it and the retribution was Swift and absolute and that’s what made him quiet now he’s going again. Do not allow him to disrespect Eleanor Holmes. He has one purpose and one purpose only to destroy Black leadership and to destroy the Black base.
(x.com/cdseghetti/status/1961075317201912068?s=02)
Cdseghetti (@cdseghetti) posted at 9:37 AM on Thu, Aug 28, 2025:
You are helping a racist Target Black leadership and therefore the Black base of the democratic party without us you can’t win an election. These are people that actually put in the real work not like white male grievance David Hogg.
(x.com/cdseghetti/status/1961075768018211064?s=02)
pluky
@Geminid: Interesting tidbit about Auchincloss. He’s somehow related to Hugh Auchincloss who married Jackie O’s mother after the split with Black Jack Bouvier.
Kristine
@eclare:
That was the reason I suffered my first asthma attack in decades after going to a newly-opened CVS to get a flu shot. I sat in my car and wondered if I was reacting to the shot—things settled down, and I went home. Then I had the same reaction when I went back a few days later to shop. The store was carpeted, and there are certain types of carpeting that I’m allergic to.
The store was also packed with scented candles, which made matters worse. I had to use them as my pharmacy because insurance at the time, but I stuck with the drive-through pickup for years.
frosty
@raven: You’ve got a picture for everything!
Scout211
Everything is “fast and furious” as this administration break things and pulls off guardrails.
Because having a job with good benefits and pay in national security threatens national security?
They don’t even try to make it sounds legitimate these days.
eclare
@Soprano2:
I’m so sorry about your losses. Those women were both way too young.
Elizabelle
@Princess: I wonder if people are just overwhelmed by all the information on the internet and social media, when they try to do “their own research.”
When they did not start out with critical thinking skills or a base of general knowledge to begin with.
Jeffro
OT but I took Mrs Fro and Froette to see an IMAX showing of the Prince concert film “Sign O’ The Times” last night. They were blown away. So guess what we are all listening to today? 💜
(also saw trailers for Spinal Tap II and for a new David Gilmour IMAX concert, both are coming out next month!)
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: Hogg has his faults like everyone else, but he didn’t “go silent” when accused of plotting to take down Underwood; he publicly said the rumor was bullshit and praised Underwood as “one of the best members of Congress we have.”
He didn’t “disrespect Rep. Holmes Norton” — he called her a civil rights icon and DC legend but said that at age 88, she should pass the torch to the next generation.
He’s right on both counts, IMO.
It’s fine to disagree, but lying isn’t okay. If the person whose tweets you republished above has evidence, they should show it. Otherwise, they’re spreading lies, and they should stop doing that.
m.j.
…the thing at the top…
I’ve said this to myself.
You don’t have to believe me. Take a group of your friends to a cemetery and note the dates of the children’s graves. You might see a decline in the latter half of the twentieth century.
chemiclord
@Betty Cracker: I had lived in what is now “Trump Country” until I was 25. From my lived experience, those voters who are now MAGAts have and express the full range of human emotion, all the way to kindness, empathy, and charity… as long as you were one of them. As long as they considered you one of their tribe, you would experience people as varied and as welcoming and as friendly as anyone.
But anyone outside that monkey sphere would get every bit of the bile, scorn, hatred, disinterest in general well-being, and even outright violence that we see in the most deplorable MAGAt today.
eclare
@Jeffro:
I saw the regular movie when it came out, and it was amazing. I’m sure IMAX was even better.
stinger
@Soprano2:
`When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean–neither more nor less.’
Geminid
@Geminid: I left out CBS’s Face the Nation. I just heard host Ed O’keefe tell WTOP news that Illinois Governor Jay Pritzker will be a guest. Another guest: WFP head Cindy McCain. That’s in addition McCain’s appearance on CNN’s State of the Union.
Another Scott
@Suzanne:
There’s a lot there, for sure. No doubt.
I think in 47’s case, though, he mostly wants to be the essential cog in nearly every decision so that he can reward himself or punish his enemies. Because he’s so special, you see.
Remember in the early COVID days when he and his minions wanted to decide who got PPE and suchlike. When he wanted to claim credit for the vaccines, on the condition that all the researchers and administrators praised him no matter what stupid stuff he said.
And he absolutely must be at the center of attention or he’s extremely upset with the world.
This time around, sure, he’s punching down on the CDC and FDA, but mostly he just wants the world to see him as being in charge and nothing like “science” or “facts” or “the law” is going to get in the way of him being able to decide any . single . thing that he wants to decide. And things that his minions want him to decide to push their own agendas. He doesn’t care about the details. He signs whatever is put in front of him. Every action must send him more money or more praise, or the people are out and he’ll try something else.
And outside the Beltway in this great country of ours, there are people like my best friend from high school who went off the rails in his hatred of HRC (“Anybody But Clinton”), ended up going to see the Bundy folks when they were doing their takeover, was an enthusiastic Trump supporter (went to rallies a couple of times). I think part of what broke him was family issues about wills and battles over which sister got what after his parents died, a bad relationship with his wife, the divorce, getting caught up with some crazy woman who he thought was the love of his life but she wanted to use him to do very illegal things to her husband, and on and on. :-( :-( :-(. (Fortunately, he kept enough sanity not to do that.) He died of leukemia a few years ago, before the pandemic. I can only imagine what those times would have done to him… :-(
People are complicated and weird. Political decisions and behaviors are always affected by the particular details of what’s going on between our ears. We’re not machines.
Just like voters, we can’t pick our fellow Americans – we just have to find a way to get through life with them.
Resentment? Sure. White hot ball of rage? Sure. :-(
So, tomato, potato…?
Yes, all praise to the CDC. We need them.
Hang in there, everyone. We need to keep pushing forward as best we can.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
chemiclord
@Betty Cracker: The problem is that his actions immediately nullify his words.
You can’t say, “This person is a paragon of humanity, and represents everything we say is upright about our society. Now here’s why we should drive a metal tent stake through their temple.”
Because if you believed the first sentence, you wouldn’t be saying the second. If you believed the second, you wouldn’t be saying the first.
It’s also completely fair for black America to note that Hogg has only seriously gone in on black politicians, and think there’s probably a reason for that (possibly a reason even Hogg himself doesn’t realize).
Suzanne
@Another Scott: You changed my word when quoting me, FYI. I said this boils down to ressentiment, which is “a psychological state arising from suppressed feelings of envy and hatred that cannot be acted upon, frequently resulting in some form of self-abasement.”
And I think all of the various hatreds and bigotries we talk about here operate less on the candidate themselves and far more on each other, i.e. who people see succeeding. So this crabs-in-a-bucket shit going on is about deep ressentiment, directed at middle-class professionals, often liberals, more and more often women and people of color.
Geminid
@chemiclord: I’ve noticed that former Intercept reporter KenKlipp. has targeted Delegate Norton over the past few weeks. David Hogg might be following his lead.
My suggestion for both of these young White whippersnappers: okay, now do Maxine Waters. She’ll fight back.
artem1s
@Scout211:
If they think Biden era inflation was ‘heavy’ they are kidding themselves. The same companies that used COVID as an excuse to price gouge never dropped their prices and will use the tariffs to do it again even if their supply chain and vendors aren’t affected.
aren’t impacted by tariffs. They will raise prices first on those staple products that people can’t avoid buying. You can often put off buying another car but not daily consumables like food or toilet paper. And you might be able to go months without items like shampoo or aspirin or band-aids. to But sooner or later you have to restock on those too. Those products are going to be where they will price gouge consumers first.
Betty Cracker
@chemiclord: Do you have any evidence Hogg tried to sandbag Underwood? I can’t find any.
If you or anyone else produces said evidence, I will revise my opinion, but all I’ve seen is evidence-free assertions that are refuted by what Hogg said in public.
It’s true Hogg thinks Norton is too old and should pass the torch. My guess most people would agree. She’s 88 years old!
Also, can you back up the assertion that Hogg has “only seriously gone in on black politicians?” Haven’t seen any evidence of that so far, just more fact-free inuendo.
Another Scott
@Suzanne: Sorry. It was underlined so I thought it was a typo. Stupid autocorrect.
And stupid me. I blame lack of caffeine.
And stupid autocorrect.
Apologies.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Suzanne
@Another Scott: No problem. I just used that word specifically because it means exactly what I want to say.
Denali5
I am sorry to see David Hogg embroiled in controversy. We really need young politicians in our Party to fight the image of older politicians staying too long in their jobs.
bluefoot
@Scout211: I saw one of my doctors this morning and she said MA is working on making sure everyone in MA has access to the Covid vaccine. I had asked if I should get the booster now just in case or could I wait for the new one.
Ruckus
@raven:
I attended a class there for my assigned duty when in the USN, in 1970.
Glidwrith
@Princess: I’m from a small Oregon town. The best I can figure, we break the hierarchy. By getting educated, we become our own authority, so the made up bullshit they use to justify grinding us under their heels is false. And we show their leaders as false and hierarchical people can’t stand that.
bluefoot
@prostratedragon: I bet he and his minions will start ramping up rhetoric against Harris in the hopes a “lone wolf” will do something.
…though people should know not to fuck w Oaktown homegirls. We -will- beat your ass if you come after one of our own.
Ruckus
@TONYG:
Many people are happy if their lives continue to exist. Many go through life shuffling along, glad that they have a life. They don’t exist in the middle of it all. They have a job, a life and hopefully reasonable health. They go to work, they have a couple of weeks of vacation every year, they talk to their neighbors on occasion and otherwise keep to themselves.
Now of course that’s not everyone but just getting along and doing their job or relaxing if retired, taking a vacation once a year, putting up with family and fitting in is enough for many. They know there is a segment of the population that is pompous, arrogant assholes, there always has been and likely always will be. They may even complain every so often about something that has changed for reasons they don’t understand or have never been able to find out why. A big difference today from decades ago is the deluge of people wanting them to buy stuff that they don’t need or want and telling them that their life is in horrible shape because BS,BS,BS. Or people walking through their town/neighborhood in masks and uniformed and doing who the hell knows what. Or seeing on the news how absolutely horrible it is that BS/BS/BS is happening and is requiring uniformed, armed, masked people running amuck.
Is this really a country any longer, or a government takeover?
bluefoot
@Ramalama: I knew someone who was exposed at that one Provincetown potential superspreader event and I was SO impressed at the spontaneous contact tracing that the gay community did for everyone at Ptown that weekend. Everyone participated, no shame, really matter of fact about pulling data together and getting it out there. Would that the rest of the planet behaved similarly.
Citizen Alan
@satby: i am low key bitter about how my parents subtly guilted me out of moving out of mississippi decades before I did (and, in fact, i did not leave until both of them were deceased).
Paul in KY
@Baud: This lib don’t give a shit. Hate me motherfuckers. I generally hate MAGAs, so I assume they hate me and I continue on with my fine life…
Paul in KY
@Baud: How about: Australopithecus baudi?
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: I was flummoxed…
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: With that same smile on their face…
Ruckus
@Princess:
I’ve lived in several places in this country and actually traveled to all 50 states for work. Have lived in SoCal, NorCal, Ohio, South Carolina. I’ve traveled to much of Europe, Africa, New Zealand, and have stood on Antartica. (some of the travel in the USN) My point is that I’ve seen a lot of this earth and met a lot of people from different countries/states, walks of life and every one of them I met was human. Some better, some worse. It’s humanity, in all it’s good, it’s not so good and all it’s pure shit. We are animals, we survive until we don’t. Sometimes that’s a good long life and sometimes it’s not even close – to either good or long, had a cousin made 6 months. We call it humanity, in all it’s levels, segments, languages, countries, shades of skin, intelligence and stupidity. Many/most try to do better and as an old I can easily say, life is better than when I got here over 3/4 of a century ago.
But better is a relative term, not an absolute. Some of the better is from learning, some from doing better, some from not believing war is natural and necessary. And still it’s better. Not perfect, that wouldn’t be real, but better. We know far more than when I was a wee lad, we know that war doesn’t usually win anything, we just liked to say it does to justify all it costs, in money and in lives. Humanity has learned a lot in the last 100 years, I’d say more than in the prior 500. Some good, some not so much. But that is often how learning goes. Living today is in many ways different than when I was young, but it’s still living. Do it reasonably and enjoyably, don’t be a jackass, it’s better that way.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
There seems to be 2 very distinct views of shitforbrains.
Number one is 10000% delusional.
So number 2 is all that’s left in reality.
MinuteMan
Donnymandering is even more undemocratic than gerrymandering.
Professor Bigfoot
@chemiclord: “Southern Hospitality” is for white people.