Im 100% convinced something serious happened; Trump probably hasn’t gone 5 days without publicly taking to the press since the 70’s. But I’m also convinced the White House & the Trump family will dissemble & try to hide it as long as possible.
— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) September 1, 2025 at 10:48 PM
===
And where are his kids? Are they making deals or near their dad?
— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) September 1, 2025 at 10:50 PM
===
A well-deserved retirement for a true mensch.
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) September 1, 2025 at 9:43 PM
===
Jerry Nadler has had immigrants’ backs his whole career. His office in Congress has been working hard on positive immigration legislation for decades. I’m sad to see him go but I can’t help but feel glad he is able to leave in good health and with time to enjoy retirement.
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) September 1, 2025 at 9:46 PM
===
Republicans control the Senate
But with Roy Cooper in North Carolina, the emergence of @joshturek4iowa.bsky.social in Iowa and Sherrod Brown maybe returning in Ohio, the map looks a lot better
If Democrats beat Susan Collins and @ossoff.bsky.social holds his seat, the balance of power will change— Adam Cohen (My Personal Views Only) (@axidentaliberal.bsky.social) September 1, 2025 at 10:13 PM
===
The only thing we can be sure about is that there's gonna be a fuckton of insider trading being done by cabinet members and other high-level White House officials between market open and 2PM tomorrow.
— Daily Trix (@dailytrix.bsky.social) September 1, 2025 at 10:27 PM
===
Pope Leo XIV met with one of the most prominent advocates for greater LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Catholic Church. The Rev. James Martin said Leo told him that he intended to continue Pope Francis’ policy of LGBTQ+ acceptance in the church and encouraged him to keep up his advocacy.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) September 1, 2025 at 10:00 AM
===
[email protected] “Head in the sand”? Please.
Part of the problem is limp news coverage that turns every Dem wobble into a five-alarm fire while treating GOP extremism as background noise. That’s what depresses our base.— Jaime Harrison (@jaimeharrison.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 at 4:26 PM
===
🚨 BREAKING: On @MeetThePress @RoKhanna says he and @RepThomasMassie will have 10 Epstein victims at their September 3rd Press Conference. #EpsteinFiles pic.twitter.com/ekS7tey5lf
— Maine (@TheMaineWonk) August 31, 2025
===
Distraction achieved!:
Good grief. www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-r…
— Mueller, She Wrote (@muellershewrote.com) September 1, 2025 at 4:57 PM
On The Road – BigJimSlade – Alps 2025 – Milan, Saas-Fee, Chamonix and Courmayeur, part 1
Baud
I never left the grind.
Suzanne
Jerry Nadler is a GD champion. He’s had a great career, done a lot of amazing work, and he’s teeing this up well for as seamless an exit as possible. Minimal drama. I love it.
I read this in Political Wire this AM:
Hopelessness is toxic for politics.
Baud
If Dems are depressed by the posts of the former chair of the DNC, then they deserve to be natural serfs ruled by a fascist government.
Baud
Via reddit
Baud
I’m not a Khanna fan at all, but he’s probably the right Dem to pursue the Epstein story.
Princess
I’m not going to get deeply invested in the Maine primary but I don’t get the Graham Platner love. I learned from the Cox profile on him that he is on 100% disability with a TBI. 100% disability is not easy to get and it means the government thinks he can’t work at all. But he thinks he can do the work of being a senator? It’s an insult. I know he made a great video but in fact, the guy who made it for him made a great video, not him. He just acted on it. TBI is no joke but this candidacy is.
While I’m ranting, a friend posted a video the WH put out in advance of the big “announcement “ by a president today at two. It’s some old speech he gave with a montage of old Trump footage, like an Academy Award in memoriam video. If they want us to think he’s alive, they’re not doing a good job but maybe they’ve decided to lean into it so when he turns up his old self (I was going to say hale and hearty, but no) we’ll look like idiots.
Baud
@Princess:
Nah. If he turns up his old self we’ll just remember the good times we had over Labor Day.
hueyplong
@Princess: I wasn’t optimistic enough to imagine something as wonderful as Trump’s BIG ANNOUNCEMENT being an Oscars In Memoriam video about himself. But of course that would be his version of playing Swan Lake, and I’ll be mad at the writers if it’s not set to “Memories.”
On second thought, this is too good to be true, so it’s almost certainly not.
Splitting Image
@Princess:
The old saw is that if you are explaining, you’re losing.
Trump and his crew have been doing more and more explaining as the summer has gone on, and explaining why the world’s biggest internet troll went off-grid for a week is going to be a tall order.
Princess
@hueyplong: Here’s the video: m.youtube.com/watch?v=SXGIN7Er9Y0
Princess
@Baud: The real presidential death was the friends we made along the way.
hueyplong
@Princess: Marry me.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I assume Trump’s announcement means he has a new crypto thing he wants us to buy
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Suzanne
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I am guessing that he’s going to announce Even More Tariffs! Bigly better tariffs! YUGE!
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all.
No grind for me today … dr. visit, if I can get an appointment.
J.
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Or that he’s a finalist for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Ohio Mom
I see Eric Loomis from LGM has an op-ed in the NYT. But I don’t read his lugubrious posts on his blog so I skipped it. Still, props to him for his moment in the so-called the paper of record.
Baud
@Ohio Mom:
Betty Cracker should be in the NYT.
satby
@Suzanne: I would assume anger, not hopelessness.
Baud
Working class hero.
CCL
@Baud: yes.
montanareddog
I’m sure that Ghouliani is delighted to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom in place of Trump paying the legal bills he owes him.
Bankrupt, disbarred, despised, the butt of every Four Seasons quip possible; but at least he got a bauble.
Bupalos
Between Mamdani and this guy in Maine I think we’re seeing a good swath of the spectrum of left populism that needs to emerge to counter the post-truth right-wing oligarch thing.
Definitely not a minute too soon, as one way or another Trump is about to go lame duck and start the process to the next (likely more competent) right wing authoritarian.
Librettist
He looks like he got trepanned, and they pushed him out of bed against medical advice to feed a servile press.
Well anyways, they are hawking a new crypto/nft thingy. For the bribes.
Baud
@Bupalos:
If they can’t succeed now given the current situation, when can they?
Mamdani is on track to win the general election. The Maine primary is still 10 months away and the general election fight against Collins will be difficult, if the past is any guide.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I’ve been sleeping in all summer. Back to waking up daily at 5:55 a.m. Grrrr……That early is for the birds.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
Glad you brought that up as it reminded me of a op-ed in one of the (many) rightwing rags here in MS, the Magnolia Tribune.
The op-ed was written by the CEOs of Cadence, Hancock Whitney, Renasant and Trustmark banks, and they were basically lobbying for increased FDIC protection by:
Something about this troubled me … and then I remembered the Trump Administration had loosened the requirements on smaller and mid-sized banks to have sufficient reserves on hand to weather economic storms (such as what happened in 2008).
My take on this? Now that the Trump Admin has given them the greenlight to play fast and loose with deposits, they want the federal gov’t to backstop their bad financial decisions.
marklar
Well, we’ve passed the two week deadline he gave Russia to change their behavior, so I assume that the big announcement will be sweeping sanctions against them.
Or perhaps against Ukraine for goading Russia into war crimes.
Or that he’s giving Russia 2 weeks to change their behavior, or else!!!!
Baud
@marklar:
I detest Trump, but if he actually had the stones to stand up to Russia on Ukraine, I would give him positive reinforcement.
He doesn’t have the stones, however.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
Socialize the losses.
Fair Economist
@Baud:
Bad as the NYT has been, I’d subscribe!
prostratedragon
@Nukular Biskits:
Control fraud
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
As I said on Bluesky:
MattF
We’ve done the ‘huuuuge announcement to come this afternoon’ so many times… It’s always a big zero. Always.
Baud
@MattF:
This time the announcement will be proof of life, so a little different.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
Welfare for Baud is best!
Nukular Biskits
@prostratedragon:
Not that they’re completely immune to a banking system meltdown but I’ll keep my funds in the federal credit union, thank you very much!
prostratedragon
Thought this had happened years ago, but gues it’s only now official:
montanareddog
@Baud:
Dowd out, Cracker in!
cmorenc
Trump has fatally trashed any honor-value the Presidential Medal of Freedom at one time may have had, with the rogue’s gallery of people he’s awarded it to: Rush Limbaugh, Joe Arapaio, and (soon to come) Rudy Giuliani. Before his time in office is over, he’ll probably award it to Stephen Miller as well.
geg6
@Princess:
Having worked with veterans over the full 33 years of my career in higher education, I have to vehemently disagree with you about this. I dealt with many who had 100% disability ratings (mainly due to TBI) and they were perfect fine in pursuing their degrees and second careers. Many were the top students on the campus. Yes, some of them needed support but that was not academic support. It was almost always social and emotional support. I have no concerns about him being able to do the job as a senator.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@cmorenc: And himself
bbleh
I’m 100% convinced something serious happened; Trump probably hasn’t gone 5 days without publicly taking to the press since the 70’s. But I’m also convinced the White House & the Trump family will dissemble & try to hide it as long as possible.
I’m also willing to bet that any requests or demands for information have met with a full-on nuclear counterassault, as in “if you ask that question again, this office will never return any of your calls ever.”
TONYG
If Donald Trump is really dying or dead then good riddance to a horrible human being. I doubt that his own children will mourn him. But I wonder how much of a difference it will make politically. The entire Republican Party and about half of the Americans who bother to vote have demonstrated that they are fascists. They’ll find somebody else to anoint as their leader.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: So he’ll be holding up a copy of today’s newspaper?
ColoradoGuy
@TONYG: Yes, but The Cult has shown no signs of transferring their religious devotion to anyone else, and many have tried and failed. JD in particular will NOT have the love of anyone except a handful of weirdo tech oligarchs.
Another Scott
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yeah, or announcing that he’s sending the NG to Chicago in two weeks, or that he ended another seven wars, or something. But probably includes daring tales of 47’s Feats of Strength related by Big Strong Men With Tears In Their Eyes Who Say Sir.
I assume it’s related to the thing that Newsom is mocking here. It does kinda look like a “gold” glow behind the Earth. [ groucho-roll-eyes.gif ]
I think I’ll be arranging my sock drawer then.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
bbleh
@TONYG: but he (certainly he) wouldn’t have the cult of personality that drives the fealty of both Congress and his direct subordinates. I’m sure they’d settle on someone as titular head, he would be only that. If they proclaimed, say, Vance as King, who would follow him? And meanwhile the knives would be out, scores would be settled, jockeying for real power would be lethal, and the Congress-critters would be just as bad as the Executive. The whole house of cards almost certainly would collapse (and float away on the tide of blood)
(ETA: ie, what ColoradoGuy said.)
Suzanne
@satby:
This is an interesting angle. I think of anger as having a direction, whereas hopelessness does not. You’re angry when you lost something that you had, even if all you ever had was a chance.
I think FFOTUS’s greatest strength was intuiting that there was a huge swath of exceedingly angry people in the country and proudly personifying/performing their anger in a way that made them feel very seen. (Yes, that is racist, sexist, anti-knowledge, anti-science anger.)
Hopelessness, OTOH, more when there’s nowhere to put blame?
bbleh
@Gin & Tonic: and if so, neither of his hands will have 6 fingers?
Easy to AI / Photoshop. And they would. After the fake golfing pic from “Sunday” (we didn’t say WHICH Sunday, did we?), I have no doubt they’d try something like that again.
Shalimar
Had YouTube on while I slept and woke up to a rant about how Democrats want you to be a victim of crime and they’re mad Donald Trump is eliminating crime in D.C. Turns out it wasn’t something that came up from what I ever watch. It was an hour-long advertisement of the Liz Wheeler show that I couldn’t skip because I wasn’t at the computer. Fuck YouTube for allowing me to be fed this lying bullshit
edit: I have never been a fan of commercials on broadcast tv, but at least the local stations have never put an infomercial in the middle of Seinfeld that was longer than the actual show.
Another Scott
@Princess: @geg6:
Thanks for your perspectives.
I really, really want us to do a decent job of vetting our candidates before we fall in love and go all-in. We’ve been burned too many times by candidates for important races that clear the field early and then are found to have serious flaws. Or worse.
We need to let the primary play out and not be stampeded by the the press’s need for Must Click Now! stories on a 24 hour cycle.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Where there’s nowhere to out the blame, people have been taught to blame Democrats.
artem1s
@Princess:
His campaign reeks of Bernie Bro style grifting. He’s saying all the right buzz words. He can hit his mark and speak in complete sentences. But so could Ronnie Raygun. Also, that group that’s sitting in back of him with union t-shirts in this clip is pretty unenthusiastic. I would have liked to see what the actual crowd looked like.
Maybe he’s the perfect gridlock buster to get Collins out of that seat, but until he’s actually been elected to an office we won’t know if he’s a reliable legislator whose willing to learn how to do the job long term or if he’s just going to jump into the next campaign – dumping on qualified Dem candidates for the 2028 WH nomination.
Shalimar
@ColoradoGuy: MAGA showed no sign of really becoming a cult when Trump won in 2016. He lost the popular vote. A pretty good percentage of Republicans claimed in July that they would never vote for him before falling in line in November. He really wasn’t intensely popular with that large a part of the electorate at the point. It took a massive slime campaign against Hillary Clinton to barely squeak by. Then he became their only choice as leader and 90%+ of them went hardcore for whatever he said over the next 2 years.
I don’t think they will coalesce around a new cult leader immediately. There will definitely be infighting and backstabbing. But someone will take over and become just as inexplicably worshipped as Trump is now.
Suzanne
@Baud: The GOP has been pretty successful at giving their angry voters an easy villain, yeah. But hopelessness is more tied to non-voting, I suspect.
I see this even in conversations with SuzMom, who remembers the civil rights era (and protested), and the moon landing, and driving (more accurately: riding in the backseat) across the country on new interstate highways. Her relationship to governance is different than mine, even though our values are the same.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Platner is an asshole, judging by his texts.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: That is especially bad as both corn and soybeans are supposed to be the stable-market crops. When farmers who would normally sow a variety of vegetable crops get worried about the future of their productivity or markets, they plant corn.
Ruh-roh.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: I’m interested to see if he is standing. When’s the last time he addressed the nation while standing?
M31
lol reading scuttlebutt on bluesky that the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT will be that the DOD will be renamed “The Department of War”
So the last week has been Trump in the Oval Office, masterfully reading reports, digesting reams and reams of difficult information, and making the kind of decision that only the most decidery of decidists could make.
My guess: Trump stapled to the podium, waving slowly, while a Top Gun-style video plays. No questions.
Matt McIrvin
@Princess: My wife got a fundraising text from him that was weirdly long and rambling, this multi-paragraph essay in text message form. I think his social media team need to tweak things a little.
BlueGuitarist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
@Suzanne:
@Another Scott:
Via historian Kevin Kruse on bluesky, speculation announcement could be about renaming the department of defense as the department of war.
stupid rebranding is his brand.
eta
@M31 Got there first
Princess
@geg6: Sure, a degree, a career. But Senator? No. This feels like Fetterman all over again. At the very least, it gives credence to those people who want to cut disability completely because (they argue) they’re all cheats. “This guy is on 100% and can be a senator? And you’re telling me that someone on disability can’t flip burgers?” Their argument not mine.
Not to mention the Bernie crowd cheering for a guy who volunteered to fight in Iraq. The whole country is through the looking glass at this point.
M31
Donald Trump, in the Oval Office, magnificent Sharpie in not-at-all small hand, making important choices for the future of AMERICA:
THE DEPARTMENT OF ____________
defense
booty
golf
titties
war
ketchup
bigmacnfries
Diet Coke
Betty Cracker
@Baud: To elaborate on what you noted upthread, if the next crop of Dems can’t help voters connect the dots on how the ultra-rich are screwing everyone else, well, we’re truly screwed. The corruption on display is staggering.
To that point, Josh Marshall highlighted how Lutlick and his kiddies are profiting from the tariff regime in which Lutnick plays a key role. As he says, it’s a heads they win, tails we lose deal.
Matt McIrvin
@M31: So many of Trump’s big policy initiatives are the things that the drunk know-it-all at the end of the bar always says he’d do if he were King because it’s just common sense. And of course he announces that he’s doing them regardless of whether he is supposed to have the power, because that’s how you grab power, and there’s no cost to him if it doesn’t stick anyway.
BlueGuitarist
@Betty Cracker:
Nutlick?
lowtechcyclist
@Shalimar:
Yeppers. They fell in line behind the quite un-charismatic Dubya, and showed up at the ballot box for him. What more does the next Republican leader need besides that and the panoply of powers that the Supine SCOTUS Six have bestowed on him?
Another Scott
@BlueGuitarist [ and @M31]: Made me look…
Wikipedia:
Beware the acronym!!
;-)
These days, that name would have been nixed because it contains the evil word “establishment.”
47 loves burning money that comes from the Treasury. If he does this, it’s yet another example – rebranding is expensive.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Jeffro
so what are we betting on once the truth comes out: did he have a stroke, a fall, or Covid?
I’m guessing the latter.
RandomMonster
I predict Trump will announce that he died and was buried; he descended into Hell; and on the third day he rose again from the dead.
Jeffro
hey now when you capitalize both words, you’re talking about the greatest rock and roll band of all time… ;)
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I haven’t watched his addresses so I didn’t realize he has been sitting recently.
Lyrebird
@Baud:
True, and Anne Laurie’s commitment to keeping on resisting is so inspiring. My words are not so polished, but thanks to both of you and to Rep. Nadler, too!
Baud
@Jeffro:
Honestly, there’s a bad summer cold going around. I caught it. It wouldn’t surprise me if that was all it was.
Jeffro
Mrs. Fro and I were trying to picture a world where trump croaks and President Vance selects Don Jr as his VP, just so that the signs read
VANCE/TRUMP
(gotta have that brand name on there, and Jr is just as much of a complete a$$hole as his dad so who in MAGA-land would care anyway?)
The confirmation hearings would be LIT, though (pun intended!)
Betty Cracker
I bet the announcement is something stupid like the “Department of War” nonsense. What a waste. Like the “Gulf of America” bullshit — no one asked for that, and untold time and money being spent to make it so on the whim of an addled old fart.
@BlueGuitarist: That’s the one! 😂
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I hope so. The usual retort is “Dems are just as bad.”
We’re not perfect, but we’re not nearly just as bad. But candidates faces with that retort either end up throwing the party under the bus to appease the critic, or arguing with the critic and looking out of touch with the haters.
It’s a delicate line.
H.E.Wolf
Lyrebird: “True, and Anne Laurie’s commitment to keeping on resisting is so inspiring.”
In honour of a dear, departed commenter (and his beloved cat Bianca), I give us all his favourite quote:
Die Mühlen Gottes mahlen langsam, aber sie mahlen äußerst klein.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Trump obviously doesn’t care about the law, but it’s “Department of Defense” in the statute, so any name change would be unofficial no matter how many executive orders he signs.
Baud
@H.E.Wolf:
Thanks for remembering Amir.
Jeffro
@Baud: that ‘bad summer cold’ is quite likely Covid
etc etc
H.E.Wolf
Electoral-Vote blog has a superb post today about Nadler. [Scroll down to NY-12 section.]
electoral-vote.com/evp2025/Items/Sep02-2.html
Baud
@Jeffro:
There’s a virus that’s not covid too. I didn’t test positive for COVID, and others I know who got sick didn’t say they got covid.
tobie
@Princess: I agree. Platner’s texts are noxious as hell. All he does is rail against Democrats. His whole shtick is that he’s a white working class guy who speaks authentically for the people. This is an image that the institutional forces behind him have crafted and populists in the press (Cox, Sargeant, Beutler) have pushed. The whole buzz about him feels like MAGA image-making.
He’s got zero elected experience. At least when Ossoff ran, he had worked as an aide to John Lewis. Justin Wood is also running in thr Dem primary. He was a long-time aide to Katie Porter.
Baud
@tobie:
Interesting. To my knowledge, Mamdani never campaigned against the party. Maybe that helped give him such a big win.
satby
@Suzanne: I believe there’s a lot of anger across the political spectrum and it’s beginning to coalesce meaningfully around the target of the “rich rigging the game”. As always happens when the extreme right wing gets into power, they’ve overreached. The misguided mopes who voted for the felon but aren’t full cultists are already turning on him and the voters for every other candidate never supported him. The disenfranchised, whether by choice or voter suppression, are waking up. The underwater polls, angry town halls, the full venues at Bernie’s road show, the viral glee when a governor fights back are all signs.
BlueGuitarist
@Another Scott:
Thanks.
rebranding is expensive and stupid, and dessert topping….
headache not going away, gonna try checking out some longshot Virginia house of delegates candidates a bit before i have to deal with job stuff
Baud
@satby:
I don’t know if you’re right, but I like your attitude.
Matt McIrvin
@satby: I think a lot of the basic MAGA dopes really like the imagery of military occupation of the blue cities and it’s keeping them from souring on all the other stuff. They probably are impatient for the troops to start shooting though.
But “rich rigging the game” is one of the things that Trump actually pretended to be running on back in 2016. I remember his closing ad could have been mistaken for a Bernie ad if you weren’t paying close attention.
Reverse tool order
@RandomMonster: Made me laugh at #73
Reverse tool order
duplicate error
lowtechcyclist
@Jeffro:
I had a bad summer cold that wasn’t Covid, according to both the home test and the one that the local Urgent Care administered. And it had me under the weather for three weeks in late July and early August.
Whatever it was, antibiotics either killed it or it coincidentally went away within a few days of when I started to take them.
mrmoshpotato
@MattF:
My bald bones have planned to wash my hair.
Betty Cracker
@tobie: I heard an interview with Jordan Wood a while back, and he sounds like a good guy. Wood focused on how much Collins sucks, how she sells out Maine, which of course she does, but I’m not sure how Wood will match up against Platner. There’s a ton of free-floating grievance out there, and voters seem to respond to candidates who channel it.
Baud
satby
@Matt McIrvin: they’re keeping the National Guard on 29 day rotation to deprive them of the housing subsidy and health insurance that being activated for 30 or more days entails. That alienates them. And a lot of veterans are angry and demonstrating at the military being used in cities absent any emergency. Military honors for a traitor who assaulted the Capitol is salt in that wound. Mass resistance takes time to build, but it’s definitely building.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I read, at some legitimate source, but can’t recall which one, that 1 out of 3 “colds” people think they have now are Covid.
Josie
@geg6:
Thanks for this important information.
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist: You know what they say. A cold lasts 7 days. If you treat it, it lasts a week.
Suzanne
@satby:
Yes. I, for one, am angry as fuck. I am fucken livid. I am responding favorably to any candidate who appears to get that and meet the moment in whatever fashion.
stinger
@Another Scott:
Agree 100%. We’ve already got a passel of non-Iowans trying to crown Josh Turek as the Dem to take over Joni Ernst’s Senate seat, but there are other really good candidates to consider for the primary. Just slow down and look carefully!
Shana
On the good news front our older daughter got married on Sunday. Weather was perfect. Reception was great fun. On the bad news front I woke ip Monday with covid
Eyeroller
@Ohio Mom: Late to this thread and haven’t seen most of the comments, but Loomis is exactly the kind of leftist the NYT loves to platform.
Miss Bianca
@Princess: Yeah, I’m not at all sold on the dude either, but I do like him better when he’s slagging Susan Collins than when he’s slagging Democrats. Not a super high bar, I know…
stinger
@Shana:
So great about the first part! So sorry about the second part!
Geminid
When I look at how much attention Zohran Mamdani and now Graham Platner get, and how little goes to Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, I am reminded of a well-known comparison of dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
Jeffro
@lowtechcyclist: three weeks is a lot! glad you are better
I had ‘summer cold’ Covid about a month ago and kicked it in a week, mostly by hydrating my brains out and then hydrating some more.
Socolofi
He’s just gonna announce troops going into Chicago. Make up a bunch of stuff about how bad it is, and how safe DC now that they had troops. Whatever.
Probably some new GriftCoin while he’s at it.
Gin & Tonic
@stinger:
You must be new here.
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker:
I will note that the thing I like about Mamdani is that he is bold. He is proposing ideas of very large scale, and that has the effect of making me feel that he recognizes the scale of the issues that we face. Even if they don’t come to fruition! Bigness! Boldness!
p.a.
Poor HW, the red-headed stepson of Rethuglican hero-worship. Rayguns, HW’s son! W (until the fuckups overwhelmed the woo), tRump (despite the fuckups. Indeed, huffin’ woo for generations means they get to the point where tRump tells them to gargle Drāno and they say it’s ice cream.)
Fair Economist
@Jeffro:
Backing this up, summer respiratory virus outbreaks are usually worse in the Sunbelt than in the North.
chemiclord
@Ohio Mom: When Loomis wants to, he’s an amazingly thoughtful and extremely learned man in his particular field. When he wants to, he can make extremely difficult lessons in labor history very easy to digest.
Unfortunately, most of the time, he prefers to be an instigator and online troll, and why I’ve been banned from LGM by him specifically (because I started treating him like an online troll, and he didn’t like that).
chemiclord
@Shalimar: It took them roughly four decades to find Reagan’s successor. Maybe they’ll get lucky and find someone who tugs the strings of the Confederacy right away… but I honestly don’t think so. There has to be a genuine ignorance and hatred, and most of those inside the Republican machine merely pay it lip service.
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: I like that about Mamdani too — swing for the damn fences, people! Another thing that sets Mamdani apart as a populist, at least from the limited exposure I get from afar, is that he is joyful, not angry. I think anger is more than justified right now, and that can be an effective approach, but that’s not Mamdani’s vibe.
satby
Strong threat of an international dockworkers strike if the Global Sumud Flotilla of relief supplies is blocked or harmed in any way.
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker: It will be very interesting to see if Mamdani gets elected, and *very* interesting to see if he can implement any of his big ideas, all of which I highly approve of.
(The biggest stumbling block always seems to be relations with the NYPD, from this outsider’s perspective. Wonder if he could leverage any populist anger that actually enlists *them* on the side of the angels? As in, “we don’t need no stinkin’ ICE or NG here in NYC! We can take care of our own!”)
Anyway
@Geminid: Primary vs general?
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker: I haven’t fully sorted through, in my own mind, what differentiates populism from good governance to serve the needs and aspirations of regular people. Like, I am a John Rawls liberal. Does that mean I’m a populist? Is Elizabeth Warren a populist, or a technocrat? Is that a meaningful distinction, really? Or is it just style/vibes?
But. Having said that, I think the mood out there is fucken grim. One of the general issues I have had with our politics, even when it’s less bad than it is now, is a sense of bringing a squirt gun to a forest fire.
chemiclord
@Miss Bianca: Well, he also made a couple of promises that he simply can’t do from his seat in the Mayor’s office, and they are both relatively big pillars of his campaign.
For the starters, and the big one, he can’t freeze rent prices. He can’t even influence them. He can nominate people to the board that does make those decisions, but it’s not his call as to when that happens.
The second one is free bussing, which he has absolutely no power or influence on. Public Transportation pricing is handled completely by the state legislature in Albany, and I strongly suspect they will have absolutely zero desire to do Mayor Mamdani a solid on this.
How will New Yorkers react when their rents keep going up and the subway isn’t free? I suspect not very well.
Nukular Biskits
Y’all really need to see this. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Bluesky: “New York does not miss.”
Sorry for no preview …
Belafon
@WaterGirl: Something like 1 out of 4 colds people get were a coronavirus before covid came along.
p.a.
@Miss Bianca: Don’t know shit-all about NYC politics, but wasn’t DeBlasio well left, and the results were 🤷🏻 for, I suppose, the $$$ & cop resistance reasons?
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: Great point; the definition is fluid for sure. I know some folks believe nothing good can come of populism, but I suspect their definition of it differs from mine.
Warren is a great example. I would classify her as a populist because she says the game is rigged against ordinary people in favor of the wealthy, but she also understands the financial levers at a molecular level, a technocratic competence.
Geminid
@Anyway:
Both in the case of Mamdani and Sherrill. It would be the general election in Spanberger’s case, since she was unopposed in the primary which is a story in itself.
chemiclord
@Betty Cracker: At least in the colloquial practical application sense; “populism” generally requires a weaponizing of anger and a centralized theme that creates an “in group” and an “out group,” which is usually some form of nativism or nationalism.
And with that definition, you should be able to see why the conclusion is that “nothing good comes from populism,” because when your movement is centered around that much negative sentiment… no, nothing good really can come out of it.
satby
@Belafon: correct. And I believe one of the research projects aborted by DODGE was an attempt to create a vaccine that would cross immunize against all coronaviruses. The Army was also researching that as well and I read that it was showing promising (edit:early) results.
Betty Cracker
@chemiclord: Ever heard of a “reply guy”? Look it up.
WaterGirl
He has everyone talking about his big news, which I suspect it’s going to be just the usual bullshit.
He has successfully changed the subject. Again.
Citizen Dave
@Ohio Mom:
Your use of lugubrious to describe Loomis is most apt. I like music but his music roundup posts are unreadable.
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: What she said.
satby
@Betty Cracker: 😂 so many candidates 😂
Belafon
@WaterGirl: What’s interesting his he didn’t plan it for Wednesday, at the time of the Epstein victims’ press conference.
Cliosfanboy
@Baud:
He does have the stones, but they’re in his head, alas.
TONYG
@bbleh: Well, I hope so. I agree that (for reasons that remain incomprehensible to me) about half the country belongs to a cult worshipping Trump (of all people). But I’m just making the obvious point that the rot in this country long predates Trump, and will continue after Trump drops dead.
rikyrah
@Princess:
Just get the feeling that once again, we are blowing a chance to get rid of Concerned Collins 😒😒
Harrison Wesley
@Belafon: Maybe he’s going to announce the arrest of all press conference participants.
Keith P.
@Baud: I just caught it going to the grocery store (my only contact with people this weekend). It’s been 3 days of misery (I haven’t been sick since before COVID)….started with a sore throat, and now the slightest itch in my throat kicks in a hacking fit.
...now I try to be amused
@satby:
Apparently no one in the Trump administration is aware of a Roman emperor’s (Septimius Severus?) advice: Pay the troops.
Ken B
@satby: It’s kind of fascinating; any rational actors trying to illegally seize control of the country would be doing everything they could to keep the military sweet.
The GOP, not so much. Bullshit deployments of the NG, with no provision for quartering them, and screwing them out of their supplemental pay by limiting their deployment length, going after the VA, firing respected leaders and replacing them with incompetent hacks, appointing a man that isn’t qualified to mop the floors in the Pentagon as SecDef, sending troops into harm’s way on a whim.
It’s like they want the military to hate them.
Jackie
We can ignore FFOTUS at 2 ET if Reuters is correct:
This was bound to happen…
Baud
@Jackie:
If only he could be as tough on Putin as he is on blue states.
Chief Oshkosh
@geg6: Similar experience here. IF the TBI sequelae are addressed (and that can be a big “if”), then he ought to do as well as anyone else. In fact, as one of our leading clinicians recently reminded me, everyone has had some trauma, some of it pretty bad, and our vets who have been treated or are undergoing treatment often do better than non-treated non-vets.
Betty
@stinger: I have seen Zach Wahls a few times on MSNBC programs as a candidate for the Iowa seat. I have seen the Turek ad and that Scholten has endorsed him but am not aware of any national coverage.
Melancholy Jaques
@Princess:
I haven’t seen anything anywhere about a disability, but I also found Graham Platner to be uninspiring. Anytime a person says that “[t]he working class abandoned the Democratic Party, primarily because the Democratic Party abandoned the working class,” I figure the person is either really stupid or an asshole.
MisterForkbeard
@Jackie: Space Force Command is marginally useful at best. In Colorado there were dedicated facilities and there’s a reason to be there.
In Alabama… you’ve got rightwing crazy people, so I guess it’s okay.
Melancholy Jaques
@Betty Cracker:
For some reasons I have never been able to figure out, voters do not seem to care that Republicans are corrupt. Nancy Pelosi’s ice cream is an outrage, but Republicans taking more or less open bribes & engaging in self-dealing do not make them angry.
NotMax
Haven’t been around here much while away so apologies if this bigger, beautifuller brainstorm has already been discussed,
U.S. Navy Wants to Hold a Massive Boat Parade to Cheer Up Trump.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: I got it, too. Thanks a lot Baud, you asshole.
/s
ETA: I tested negative for covid
piratedan
@Melancholy Jaques: yeah, someone starts jumping on Dems and the working class bashing and I raise my eyebrows when I look at everything that Dems have done to promote unions and the bumps in the minimum wage and in recognition of what groups kept us going thru COVID and I come to the conclusion that this is a script being followed by someone who has very little understanding of the work that is being done and continues to be done.
All the DEMS can do is put forth policies to lend a hand, even the playing the field and if a bunch of dudes want to vote for the racism instead, well that ain’t on Dems, that’s on how your momma raised you and the life choices you made.
catclub
If it would shut him up about it, I would ask the committee to award it to him. But it wouldn’t.
Belafon
@Jackie: We can ignore the announcement, and pay attention to who’s delivering it and how.
Belafon
@Melancholy Jaques: Once again leads me back to the near fact that “working class” means white for too many people. They don’t want all working people helped, just the white ones.
catclub
@MisterForkbeard:
 
NASA has Huntsville in Alabama. Of course, Werner Von Braun was there so that qualifies for rightwing nazis in Alabama. But he is dead. NASA scientists might be the only white Democrats in the state.
catclub
@Belafon: kremlinology!
MattF
@Belafon: There was a recent New Yorker cartoon showing a group sitting around a conference table with the guy at the head of the table saying “Let’s give it to Obama again”.
Geminid
@Belafon: I figure Trump will do something else tomorrow to step on Khanna’s and Massie’s news conference.
He needs to because the Epstein story is not going away. A new Harvard/Hartis poll asked the question:
42 percent of respondents said “very important” and 23% said “somewhat important;” total 65%. Only 12% said “somewhat unimportant” and 10% said “very unimportant.”
Trump might not see that poll, but I expect Susan Wiles has and knows those numbers show a real problem.
Melancholy Jaques
@tobie:
On the Maine senate primary, I would like to remind people that our last candidate was a very well-funded, well-established Democrat the Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives. In a state that Biden won by seven, she lost by eight.
I’m not saying it’s hopeless, just that Maine voters – bless their fucking hearts – seem to really like Collins. At the very least, we Democrats have not been able to convince them to get rid of her.
JML
@Melancholy Jaques: It’s more important to GOP voters these days that people they don’t like get the knife. They’ll excuse anything so long as they think that people they don’t like are getting hammered. That’s priority one. Alternatively, they’ll stay in bed with almost anyone they think will let them do what they want. (that’s mostly for the evangelical right wing)
IOKIYR is now the foundational plank of the GOP.
catclub
@Melancholy Jaques:
Porque no los dos?
ExPatExDem
I’ve suspected that Trump is dying from heart failure, ever since the photo of his edema swollen ankles hit the internet.
During his last term, one of his medical exams noted him with moderate coronary heart disease, and I very much doubt he made any lifestyle changes in the past 5 years.
The hand bruise is probably from receiving IV diuretics.
Chief Oshkosh
@satby: Not sure what effect any of that will have on vets’ voting habits, but I will say that veterans in my family who are longtime Republicans and who votes for Trump THREE FUCKING TIMES are now saying that they all suck, that they don’t watch the news anymore, that it’ll be what it’ll be.
Hopefully this means that they simply sit out the mid-terms.
catclub
CNN:
… and now we are taking it back to 1857.
Deputinize America
I just got back from Switzerland last night. A couple of observations:
1. All the televised news blurbs featured imagery of kitted up American troops at iconic DC locations along with headlines featuring the name Trump. The coverage was decidedly negative in tone.
2. Our trip was a scenic train tour made up of Americans, Aussies, Kiwis and Canucks. The canucks were from rural Alberta and I suspected could be Trumpy, the Kiwis and Aussies were super anti-Trump, and I suspected that only one couple from New Jersey was Trumpy. The rest of the Americans were pissed, and everybody had tales of children and friends losing jobs and EVERYONE despised RFK.
3. I saw pro- Palestine demonstrations in Zurich, Lucerne and Lausanne. I found that heartening.
Jeffro
@Geminid: that is indeed a problem, as the 12% + the 10% is 5 points below the magic ‘crazfication factor’
I mean, when even the “Fox Floor” can’t keep you in the 30%s…
scav
@MisterForkbeard: Maybe we could set up a pool about proportionally how many more people would believe in the moon landings in AL post-move? Double? Treble? Although imagine the depression when the addition of Space Forcers to the AL-pop doesn’t budge the needle whatsoever.
Sure Lurkalot
Alexandra Petri knocks it out of the park again:
Premise, but read the whole thing!
archive.today/2025.09.02-123834/https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2025/09/america-free…
Deputinize America
Another personal observation:
We went to Beijing several years ago, and one of our stops was Tiananmen Square. Everybody passes through a checkpoint from civilian to military control. Same checkpoint was used for everyone, regardless of citizenship or nationality. The checking was professional and polite, thorough but not obtrusive. Once you got into the military area, you saw more troops at the platoon level, wearing the Chinese equivalent of Class A uniforms, doing marching drills and looking really sharp – but not under arms. No camo, no tanks, no web gear. They were also smiling and in a great mood.
Compare that to what is happening in our capital.
Baud
@Chief Oshkosh:
Honestly, the best you can do with some folks.
NotMax
@catclub
“toward a more imperfect union”
//
Melancholy Jaques
@Belafon:
That exactly. Republicans do not promise or deliver policies to help the working class.
tam1MI
Fetterman 2.0
Trivia Man
@NotMax: lol at the birthday parade tidbit – “it was his opportunity to sleep with his wife so he took it”
Suzanne
@Melancholy Jaques:
Yeah this.
Maine is a weird place. Ultra-white and with a significantly older-than-average population (yes, those two things are correlated!). If we’re gonna remind ourselves that what works in NYC isn’t generalizable, we should remind ourselves the same is true about Maine, too.
I don’t have any feelings, good or bad, about Platner specifically, but I am probably more willing than others to be okay with candidates who are somewhat heterodox. Our coalition is broader, and I also suspect getting a bit weirder, and I am less convinced that the typical resume is going to be compelling enough to win elections. So we’ll see where it goes. He’s got a fair amount of competition and he’ll succeed or fail on his own merits.
piratedan
@Geminid: hey! will you consider coming to the Virginia meetup?
Geminid
@Jeffro: Some anecdotal evidence: my friend Stephanie votes Democratic every election because she knows who the assholes are, but she stays relatively unengaged between elections. She is a “normie” in that respect. But Stephanie takes the Epstein story very seriously
Ed. You may have met Stephanie if you frequent the Charlottesville Farmers Market. She runs the Chiles Orchard stand.
Gin & Tonic
@Jackie:
I’ll ignore him all day, if that’s OK.
Belafon
@Deputinize America: The Chinese troops already won that war.
Geminid
@piratedan: Not sure if I can make this one. I have transportation issues– long story– that effectively limit my travel to 20 miles from home. But if you reprise it in the Spring I should be able to make that one. The one in October ought to be “lit,” as we olds like to say.
lowtechcyclist
@WaterGirl:
Tru dat. My rule of thumb has always been nine days; I have no recollection of where I picked that up.
Anyway, this bug lasted three weeks, so it wasn’t just a cold.
Jackie
@Geminid: In depth article you’ll enjoy :-)
The link isn’t paywalled, so enjoy!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@chemiclord:
(g)Loomis is, as you state, a worthwhile read when tightly confined to his academic area.
Outside of that, worthless, pretty much like Campos and Lemieux.
piratedan
@Geminid: once we firm up the date, maybe we can find a way for you to ride with someone….. would adore meeting a fellow jackal who is held in such high esteem. The rest of us are pretty much snarly growly and the like :-)
lowtechcyclist
@satby:
That’s just such an assholish thing for Trump to do. It isn’t even his money, why should he care? Deficit reduction? The amount would be too small to notice. But it’s a big deal for the soldiers in the Guard that are being swindled out of it.
Trump to National Guard: fuck you.
NotMax
@lowtechcyclist
The old saying: Three days to catch it, three days to keep it, three days to get rid of it.
Melancholy Jaques
@Jackie:
I do not think we really are wrestling with historic unpopularity. 1989 was about the lowest I can recall and it was much worse than now, party wise.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@satby: I haven’t seen a good source for this.
lowtechcyclist
@stinger:
This. I’ll let the good Democrats of Maine, Iowa, and other states figure out who they want for their candidate in 2026. They should be paying more attention to the different candidates than I’m likely to, and I’ll happily support their choice once they’ve made it.
Bill Arnold
@Jackie:
Did they say which president?
Trivia Man
@Geminid: I helped Mikie get elected to congress, she has a lot of substance. A little too pro military for me but she is truly an expert in the subject and much more competent. My impression is she would also be an excellent governor.
Trivia Man
@Betty Cracker: “Dare big to win big”
Geminid
@Jackie: Thanks! I’ll forward the article to my local Democrat friends.
I expect Abigail Spanberger will follow the same Governor-to-Senator path Mark Warner and Tim Kaine took. Her term will end January, 2030– just in time to run for Kaine’s seat. Kaine was on the fence about running last year and will most likely retire. Spanberger will be 51 years-old then, I think.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Geminid: That’s not surprising. The very online left have a ridiculous amount of time on their hands and spend it endlessly promoting anyone who is vaguely Berniesque. Journalists hang out in the same spaces. The key constituency of someone like Spanberger is going to be the folks who have busy lives that understand the impacts of good, realistic, pragmatic governance. No journalist is writing breathless articles about those folks.
Geminid
@Trivia Man: My impression is that of this year’s three major races,* Sherrill’s is the toughest. New Jersey Republicans are highly motivated.
* That would be for New York Mayor and Virginia and New Jersey Governor. Interestingly, the three jurisdictions are close in population: New York City at ~8.3 million, Virginia at ~8.6 million and New Jersey at around 9.5 million.
Suzanne
@lowtechcyclist:
This being the rub, yeah? I think, moving forward, we’re going to have a lot more candidates like this…. unconventional or even problematic backgrounds, heterodox views on some issues, ambivalence toward the party, weird style and presentation. Different stuff is going to be disqualifying than what has historically been the norm.
Heck, Gen Z has terrible taste in pants. (Though at least they can commit to either untucking or tucking in their shirts, unlike the Millennials and that fucken half-tuck thing they do.)
Ruckus
@geg6:
I’m a vet and I use the VA for my healthcare. Pretty decent care and I earned it. And I agree with you. Over the 50 years I’ve used the VA it has been pretty good. Now I’ve had as my doc, once in those 5 decades a doctor who should NEVER have been hired by the VA. He lasted 2, maybe 3 months. As far as I know, no one actually hit or beat him up, although he massively deserved it. It seems he thought so much of himself and so little of most/all other humans on the planet, that I’m pretty sure that had he stayed on at the VA as a contract doctor, he would have been relieved of his ability to speak. Or maybe more. Lucky for him the complaints piled up rapidly so it never got physical. As far as I know. I met some really pompous, arrogant assholes in the USN, and if the stories are true, which I believe, most of them got their attitudes adjusted rather harshly. Just for the concept here I also met many who were not pompous and/or arrogant. From ships captains on down.
Baud
@Suzanne:
There’s a solution to that problem.
zhena gogolia
@Bill Arnold: 😂
JBWoodford
@lowtechcyclist:
AISI you and Shalimar aren’t talking about the same thing as the people you’re responding to. I have no doubt that the next Republican leader would be able to carry out even more of their wish list. The issue they’d face in the near term, though, is who that leader is going to be. Vance has an edge, but I can’t see him steamrollering his opposition the way Trump did in the 2016 primary.
Geminid
@Baud:
Sansculotte > Jacobin
Jackie
Fake emergencies to steal an election and democracy.
satby
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: I got it from Adam Kinzinger’s Substack; I guess a military analyst blogger WarMonitor also reported it, but I don’t know or follow them.
satby
@tam1MI: as much of a PIA Fetterman has become, he still votes with the Democrats the majority of the time. Unlike the current Senator from Maine. So we need to take what we can get.
Scout211
I’m not sure if this has been posted yet: NBC
More of the ruling:
Geminid
@JBWoodford: Vance may be the incumbent Preesident in 2028. That could make a big difference in the 2028 primsry
That is, if a Trump/Vance adminidmstration isn’t a fiasco. If it is one, I look for Brian Kemp to beat Vance. If Trump holds up– which I’m beginning to doubt– Kemp could still give Vance a run for his money.
There will be other candidates of course, but right now Kemp looks to me like the strongest of the bunch.
Anyway
As I’ve stated here before I’m always worried about Jersey. My feeling is that if Sherrill was in trouble the doom’n’gloomers would be out in full force. So no news is good news?! Maybe.
Captain C
@Baud:
That might turn out to be like Frank Costanza’s Festivus speech, “I got a lot of problems with you people…” and then 1000 words of legit, incisive criticism of the FTFNYT.
Followed by the esteemed BC suplexing Pinch the Lesser and feeding him to a gator as part of the Feats of Strength.
Anyway
@Suzanne:
Shush, I love the half-tuck!!!!
NotMax
@Anyway
So Tuck is not everlasting?
:)
Jackie
@Scout211: FFOTUS and his justice department say they will defy that ruling:
Matt McIrvin
@TONYG: The median white American, in their heart of hearts, wants an American autogenocide in which all minorities, immigrants who speak funny languages, liberals, feminists, academics and other weirdos will be tortured to death, or at the very least eliminated in some way.
They might not like this if they really saw it happen, but the feral voice that wants it is there and driving voting behavior. Trump’s basic appeal is that he is promising to bring the Great American Autogenocide in one way or another.
When Trump dies, it will not end the basic desire of about 70-100 million Americans to murder the rest of the country. I doubt that if we go eliminationist against *them*, it will solve the problem either since aside from the practical obstacles, such a blood torrent is incompatible with the values we profess to support, though not really with theirs.
cain
@Baud: leopards are biting faces. They voted for this.
cain
@Baud:
His voters are busy watching alternative news. :D
Captain C
@Baud: Mamdani ran and is running as a proud Democrat whose attitude is “NYC is the greatest city in the world, but we can make it even better!” I think this is a big reason why he won. It’s kind of hard to rally people around a “you all suck!” message (paging Cuomo the Lesser).
cain
@Jeffro:
why not all three? Por los tres?
Baud
@Captain C:
Baud! 20XX! learned that the hard way!
cain
@Jeffro:
I can’t imagine a more boring campaign of two losers who have zero charisma.
tam1MI
I wish Mamdani all the luck in the world, but odds are he is going to be David Dinkins 2.0.
Jackie
YAY! Joni Ernst confirms she’s not re-running in ‘26!
cain
@Betty Cracker:
Most non-whites can’t appear to be ‘angry’ in politics. It sets off people.
Baud
@Jackie:
Hopefully that’s gettable. Iowa used to be such a good sensible state.
Kathleen
@Baud: I think he’s a ranking member of a subcommittee that has some jurisdiction.
M31
OK, my prediction:
The Defense Dept is going to be renamed “The Gulf of America Department of Warfighting Men’s NO SLIMY GIRLS just Mens of War Department”
Scout211
@Jackie: I ANAL, but I’m not sure an Acting US Attorney (Trumpie sycophant) has any authority here. Isn’t this case the responsibility of the DOJ attorneys?
I’m certain they will appeal this ruling like they did to the initial stay but Essayli‘s word on X is not the DOJ.
But correct me if I am wrong.
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: it’s been going downhill since Dorothy Windsor left. But they still have corn! And, for the brave souls amongst us, rhubarb wine. You could replace “brave” with “tasteless”, of course.
Scout211
But then I moved to California and it all fell apart.
Captain C
@Harrison Wesley: FTFNYT headline the next day:
Why We Deserve This
subhead:
Obviously, We Weren’t Hard Enough on Biden and the Democrat[sic] Party
NotMax
@Steve in the ATL
Plus the Amana Colonies.
;)
Captain C
@…now I try to be amused:
Their knowledge of the Roman Empire comes from selective watching of Gladiator, 300*, and various all-male Roman-themed porn.
*Yes, I know it’s about Sparta and the Greeks. Do they?
Paul in KY
@Princess: If he can retire Ole Furrowed Brow, that’s some hard and great work accomplished right there!
Steve in the ATL
@NotMax: I went there last year and wasn’t impressed. Touristy, and the food was just average. Others have had better experiences, I hear.
Paul in KY
@Baud: Putin has his stones. He keeps them on the mantlepiece in one of his dachas.
Captain C
@Melancholy Jaques:
Or means white working class. (Note that stupid and/or asshole can also apply in this case.)
Paul in KY
@Princess: Sen. Fetterman is way better than his GOP alternatives. Even now. Please don’t let ‘my dream senator’ get in the way of defenestrating Susan Freaking “Stab em in the Back” Collins!!
taumaturgo
@artem1s: I would trade you ten MAGA legislators for one Graham Platne. Enough about purity test.
Paul in KY
@Shana: Congrats on a great marriage day. Sorry you’ve come down with the Rona.
Scout211
Oh geez, he’s moving the Space Command to Alabama. That’s the big annnouncement according to CNN.
Jackie
@Scout211:
You’re not wrong. I’m just sharing the typical FFOTUS reaction to rulings they don’t like.
Paul in KY
@MisterForkbeard: You have Space Camp in Huntsville….
Paul in KY
@Deputinize America: Every day in the Vuelta there are hundreds and hundreds of Palestinian flags flying.
Shalimar
@MisterForkbeard: Huntsville is one of the least crazy parts of Alabama, but yeah, that isn’t saying that much.
Trivia Man
@Anyway: I learned the French Tuck method on Queer Eye. I dont use it, but i learned it there.
Belafon
@Scout211: Did he make the announcement?
Scout211
artem1s
the biggest advantage I see Mamdami having is he actually understands the legislation and mechanisms that lead to the free mass transit project that he’s in favor of extending and expanding. He’s not throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. He does seem to have a pathway in mind when he talks about these things. I saw an extended post from him on BS about the free bus program coming to an end. He went into great detail how it benefited the communities and riders and economy. He understands the funding mechanism that made the program possible. He’s not on a grievance tour. Even his ‘attack’ ads against Cuomo aren’t really attacks as much as educating the listeners about a particular campaign issue. So far he’s not a ‘burn it down’ asshole. I truly hope he can thread the needle and keep the ‘vibe’ going without turning into another cult leader looking to indoctrinate a bunch of hand-sitting assholes into non-voting zombies who send him money every time he pounds on Dems. I don’t care how much energy anyone brings to the table, If they are refueling by splitting off one issue, purity pony voters, then they are not on the side of democracy. They are just in it for the $$$$$
Scout211
@Belafon: He made the announcement:
ABC
MisterForkbeard
@piratedan: But why haven’t they FIXED the lower and middle classes?
I get that people are unhappy with the current state of things. But there’s a party that actually tries and has proposal to make things better… and then there’s the party that has a couple of gimmicks, lies about actually implementing them, and then massively makes things worse for the working class.
When Dems are in power, they make things better. They can’t fix everything or even most things, but protections, help, and better policy are pretty much Democratic-only policies. The best you get from Republicans is taking away your healthcare, while simultaneously removing some tax on tips but doing it incompetently so you still have to pay taxes on it.
Urza
@MisterForkbeard: That wasn’t incompetence on the tax on tips it was intentional. As with all their middle class tax breaks they offer, make it nearly useless and pretend the problem is solved at least until a democrat is in power again. Also tips being taxed wasnt as big of an issue when it was all cash, but now that its not only mostly credit cards but also the processing companies take a cut.