Mark your calendars and tell your friends: No Kings 2.0 on October 18.
The sequel will be (and HAS to be) even bigger.— Nancy Kanwisher (@nancykanwisher.bsky.social) September 7, 2025 at 9:02 AM
===
The lack of mainstream coverage of regular huge protests reminds me of a talk from a Twitter employees who explained that they had to drop BLM off the Trending Tags section because otherwise it would have been there permanently. The modern media environment has no appetite for sustained movements.
— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@chronotope.aramzs.xyz) September 6, 2025 at 8:03 PM
===
over time I believe this will end up being one of the most unpopular things the administration ever does
a death sentence for many hobbies and all the average consumer sees is that you’re taking away all their bargains
one of the few policies that has a direct negative effect on almost everyone— Micah (@rincewind.run) September 7, 2025 at 7:12 PM
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America's disrespect for Black women encapsulated in one photo: Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee stands under a canopy to deliver a speech while four young Black girls are left standing in the rain.
— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha1.bsky.social) September 7, 2025 at 8:42 PM
===
More than 1.2 million immigrants disappeared from the labor force from January through the end of July, according to preliminary Census Bureau data analyzed by the Pew Research Center.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) September 7, 2025 at 8:00 AM
===
Lemme speak with directness and a sense of urgency about our most important economic threats, and what history teaches us about moments like this.
— Justin Wolfers (@justinwolfers.bsky.social) September 7, 2025 at 11:07 AM
===
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) backed off his claim that President Trump was an FBI informant in the case of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) September 7, 2025 at 5:30 PM
===
On The Road – Albatrossity – Closer to home
Baud
The Republican base loves that photo. It’s why they stick with the party that harms them so much.
Baud
Problem is, if Trump sees that he’s getting pushback from the people he knows he needs to keep happy, they’ll just reverse the policy and all will be forgotten.
Republicans never seem to experience resentment from people who aren’t already blue voters.
MagdaInBlack
I am surprised Gov Sanders didn’t burst into flame from the looks shes getting from those young women.
Baud
I wonder how the headline would have been written if Jeffries had done this.
Suzanne
There’s a similar photo going viral of Princess Kate last week, with an umbrella over her own head while some elementary-school-age Black girls get rained on. What the fuck, people. I get that Sarah Huckabee Sanders wears a ton of makeup and rain would make it run down her face, but….. all you have to do is invite the cheerleaders to come stand under the canopy.
It’s so interesting to me who has teams who are good at imagecraft, and who does not.
—-
SuzMom is a crochet-er, and apparently yarn prices are nutty with the tariffs. She and I went shopping with the two younger Spawns this weekend, and we were discussing the tariffs. Spawn the Younger said that her class had a lesson about them last week. I will note that she’s a freshman in high school.
Baud
Speaking of Arkansas, a current reddit topic is Arkansas farmers demanding federal money to compensate them for the economic harms caused by Trump tariffs. I haven’t delved into the story too deeply.
New Deal democrat
You have to be careful with this. It is simply the flip side of the Administration’s claim that 2 million more jobs have opened up for native born Americans in that same time period.
They are both derived from response rates when the Census Bureau makes its monthly calls for the Household Survey. The expected population growth for the year is already set in January, so when there are fewer foreign born responses to the Survey, it treats that as a surge in the native born population vs. foreign born.
While deportations may explain part of that 1 million decline, most of it is probably due to foreign born persons now being afraid to give the Census Bureau information about where the live and work, and also the drying up of actual population increase due to a lack of new immigration. This won’t be resolved until the population estimates are re-set next January.
JCJ
@Baud: yup. Feature, not a flaw
p.a.
Rethugs have already pre-approved a very modest farm support in the budget/continuing resolution or whatever the fuck we are currently running under to soften their fuckups. Totally inadequate as anyone with a few active brain cells would expect. They had to do the same thing in the first 🤡 admin.
Good strong Dem Arkansas farmers //s claiming 30% or more will go under without librul tear injections.
Baud
@p.a.:
I don’t understand why they can’t support their families on the tears of trans people.
bjacques
@Baud: those farmers will vote for him anyway, like last time, so they can sweat a bit.
They’re serfs, so maybe they can petition the Little Father directly to alert him to those crooked boyars neglecting them as the Cossacks kidnap and chase away their field hands
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Who/what is making them stand in the rain? Context, please.
ETA: I’m asking you because you shared this photo in an earlier thread.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
It might be an old photo. Supposedly an MLK event. Don’t know why that would happen now.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Or how “progressives” on our side would have reacted.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Well, if Jeffries did what Johnson did, they’d be right to, at least this time.
mappy!
It’s three card monte. The shills are the media. The short con works. Until it doesn’t.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: He just has to exist while being black that is enough for these so called progressives to belittle him. If you are not white you are a lesser person is a belief shared by both the ends of the horseshoe.
different-church-lady
No.
schrodingers_cat
I don’t want someone to be nice to me just for stagecraft. It is easier to deal with outright hate than people who are nice to you just because others are looking on.
Librettist
Standing there playing pocket pool with that dopey look on his face — if anyone remembers this choad, let that be his lasting image.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m familiar with Internet pile-on culture with respect to Dems, including Jeffries, regardless of whether the underlying criticism is within the range of reasonableness.
My immediate concern is how the media simply lets Republicans try out different, contradictory political stances to see what works and treats the endeavor as legitimate.
JML
If there was a functioning Congress, they’d be raising hell about the loss of the de minimus rule and passing legislation to put it back in place. Instead we have Pastor Johnson trying to recess the House so they don’t have to take Epstein votes.
And let’s be honest: part of why they’re continuing with this is to break the USPS and finally sell it off to FedEx or UPS, whomever pays more, and privitize the government postal service forever. Of course, the people hurt the most by this is the rural red areas of the countries…
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Ds have to contend with a hostile left flank and the media in addition to Rs
Mr. Mack
I read that Nexstar will acquire Tegna for 6.2B…giving them 265 stations across 44 states. The major stockholder is someone named Peter Sook. This seems problematic. Progressives got caught sleeping on direct mail, then radio, then newspapers, and it appears TV as well. Anybody know more about the major players than I can find on search engines? Thanks.
schrodingers_cat
@JML: This is the US that wp want.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: Apparently nobody in the MSM will ever, ever bring this up to him, or anyone else, again. I mean, it would just be so gauche to do that, right?
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: There is nothing deeper to that Arkansas farmers story. They plainly state that Trump’s policies (tariffs, chasing off their immigrant workers, killed their domestic market by killing SNAP, etc.) have killed their profits. Therefore, Trump should just mail them checks.
That’s it. That is all they are saying.
It is noteworthy that Trump has actually set the stage for prices of imported foods of all kinds to be lower than domestic product. Boy, that Trump guy is a real genius.
Deputinize America
@Baud:
Nah, they can suck my ass. They voted for it, they can suffer for it.
Hope they lose the family homestead and wind up working as Monsanto tenant labor.
Deputinize America
@schrodingers_cat:
The nicely-dressed white lady at the country club is just as vicious as the Klukker grand dragon, but unlike the Klukker grand dragon, you don’t see her coming at you.
In other words, she’s a little more dangerous.
Librettist
@JML:
USPS is now in the socialist zombie zone, like Amtrak. Congress will continue to subsidize it to a bare minimum, with every administration forced to declare they can make it “profitable”, whatever the fuxk that means.
Geo Wilcox
@Baud: Fuck the god damned farmers. They voted for this shit so they can just eat it. They were so pissed off about student loan forgiveness and now THEY want a bail out for their own stupidity.
schrodingers_cat
@Deputinize America: Yep nailed it.
Betty Cracker
I’m hoping No Kings 2.0 is too huge to ignore — will do my part to make it so, probably at my town’s event rather than joining friends at a larger rally in the Tampa Bay area. The local paper said 800 showed up at the first No Kings, which was surprisingly robust given how Trumpy the town is.
There was a local protest I didn’t know about a couple of weeks ago. Found out about it by chance as I was running errands in town. It was small, but it’s remarkable that it happened at all. IMO, people are more angry, disgusted and fearful about what’s happening than generally acknowledged.
narya
Well, the radio station is playing a Bonnie Raitt/John Prine duet on “Angel from Montgomery,” and maaaaybe (fingers so crossed) the fever has abated, and there are birds in the tree right outside my window (tree was planted maybe 8 years ago), so it’s better than I thought it’d be. My body is simultaneously missing exercise and way too tired to attempt it, and I know from others’ reports it’s a bad idea.
Librettist
Home Depot is gobbling up wholesale suppliers and creating a vertical monopoly, and all you see in the press about it is some company line b.s. about getting consumers back in the stores.
Layer8Problem
@Chief Oshkosh: Accent on the gauche.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
It would be nice to get FL back in the purple column.
p.a.
If you watch Food Inc you’ll see that’s already the norm for lots of them. I don’t know if there’s a voting difference between individual truly independent farmers, the corporate serfs, and those floating in between, that can be teased out. But I know the districts are blood red.
lowtechcyclist
@Mr. Mack:
This is the first time I ever heard of Nexstar or Tegna, but I miss the days when no one entity could own more than seven TV and seven radio stations.
Teresa
@Librettist:
I stopped going to Home Depot when they went all self checkout. Same with Kroger.
If their executives ever decide to treat their customers, employees and communities with respect again, I will re-evaluate my decision.
jonas
@Baud: Last week ICE raided a nutrition bar factory in upstate NY, hauling off a bunch of Latino workers engaged in the outrageous crime of trying to support their families. Naturally today’s headline in the local paper is about area Trump supporters (it’s Claudia Fucking Tenny’s deep red 24th CD) being all surprised that the feds would target these workers because “they’re not hurting anybody.”
Assholes.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Geo Wilcox: Leaves me wondering, if I encounter a Trumpist who got it in the neck thanks to Trumpist economic idiocy, is it unfair or impolite to just say “I’m sorry the leopard ate your face”?
p.a.
@lowtechcyclist: I’ve heard Rupie became a US citizen simply to avoid the limits on foreigners owning US media companies. Don’t know if those limits are even in place anymore.
TONYG
“over time I believe this will end up being one of the most unpopular things the administration ever does”. Almost 50% of the people in the United States will blame immigrants, black people and transgender people. People support Trump because they’re idiots.
Kayla Rudbek
@Suzanne: yarn supply is also nutty with the tariffs as they’re so unpredictable that many yarn suppliers are refusing to ship to the USA right now (which is causing big problems for yarn sellers across the USA). I think I had previously linked to the article on Slate on here, and it made it over to Yahoo news as well (both those articles have been floating around Bluesky/#knitsky for at least a week now)
Needles, hooks, and other fiber-related items are also mostly made outside the USA (I only know of two knitting needle manufacturers in the USA, both of which I found at Maryland Sheep and Wool; Signature Needle Arts was USA and larger but they went out of business a few years ago when they couldn’t find a buyer to take over when the owner wanted to sell and retire). And I think that most of the needle components for circular needles are sourced from outside the USA. Most of the knitting needles come from India, most of the yarn comes from Peru (Knit Picks) or Turkey (most of the European yarn is spun in Turkey) and a lot of the sheep are outside the USA as well. Cotton is frequently Egyptian, linen is frequently Belgian, rayon from bamboo is going to be foreign as well. Clover is a big supplier of fiber-related gadgets and they are a Japanese company. Even most of the knitting books and magazines are now from outside the USA
And even if the yarn is grown and spun in the USA, the components of the machines to process and spin the yarn often are made outside the USA, and the chemicals to process and dye the yarn may also come from outside the USA as well.
It takes a lot of time and resources to onshore all of that again (basically we have to reverse most of the trends and laws starting in about the 1960s-1970s if I recall correctly) and nobody is going to do that while the tariffs are so chaotic. Like Lord Vetinari said, people (and businesses) want today to be the same as yesterday, which isn’t happening under this maladministration.
Professor Bigfoot
I have learned that cold weather makes angina worse.
MUCH worse.
It was already playing hell with any kind of exercise, but now…
lowtechcyclist
@jonas:
Ann Landers would have told them, “wake up and smell the coffee.”
Baud
@jonas:
I wish I could say the same for Trump voters.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: You don’t have to wonder.
You already know.
mappy!
When you no longer believe what is being pushed in the media, what do you do? You talk to others. Share.
Word of mouth. Takes longer, becomes embedded.
They succeed in ruse, until they don’t.
satby
@JML: all very on point. The GOP has been trying for decades to gut the Post Office, and every little assault now doesn’t even mention that context. Or that the Post Office, as a federal agency, was so successful at incorporating civil rights in hiring and promotions that for decades in racially segregated areas (and to racists everywhere) its staff were called “black loafers”. Thankfully, now an arcane insult younger people wouldn’t even understand. But the diversity continues to rankle white supremacists.
Suzanne
@Geo Wilcox:
Co-signed.
I strongly support a lot of social programs and redistribution that doesn’t directly benefit me…. because I understand what it means to live in a society. So if we’re gonna be all bootstrappy about student loans, then goose, gander, etc.
Suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot: Are you allowed to do hot yoga? One of my favorite things is to sweat when it’s cold outside.
WereBear
Has Frmph put out an Executive Order to remove the vote from women? Or will it be a total rollback to pre-Bellum status?
lowtechcyclist
@p.a.:
If any limits at all have survived, that would be the one. But I honestly don’t know.
satby
OT, but since Katrina was the subject a week ago and I mentioned this railroad embankment as a buffer for my friend’s house, an article on the rebirth of the Amtrak Gulf Coast line 20 years after.
WereBear
@MagdaInBlack: Perhaps why this power was not gifted to us.
Suzanne
@Kayla Rudbek:
Yeah, no kidding. Business requires stability and predictability to make any sort of plans, even if it’s not the most favorable conditions.
prostratedragon
Wolfers cites the economic history of Argentina as a cautionary tale for the US. As it happens,
trnc
@Baud: I note with some irony that there are actually five in the picture, and probably more out of the picture.
WereBear
This is the optics they want to send out.
Fan service.
chemiclord
@JML: The problem with that theory (and why the USPS continues to endure despite every effort of Congress) is that no one wants that responsibility. FedEx doesn’t want to be responsible for delivering to every point in America. UPS doesn’t. Hell, even Amazon said “Uh… no thanks” at the prospect.
sab
@Suzanne: As I am sire you know, almost all yarn is imported, especially actual wool yarn. And mostly from countries that Trump has some grievance or other against.
oldgold
Every damn day another outrage.
The Short-Fingered Vulgarian has intimidated West Point from giving Tom Hanks an award.
“Actor and veterans advocate Tom Hanks was set to receive the prestigious Sylvanus Thayer Award from the military academy at West Point, but the ceremony has been canceled.”
Of course, today the Orange Menace is taking a victory lap.
Baud
@oldgold:
I read he’s still getting the award but without the ceremony.
Still pathetic. I think this was the alumni association, over which Trump would have no authority. But maybe it’s officially connected to the school in some way.
Kirk
Thought I’d share here – just found out that the Democratic representatives in Missouri are fighting the same battle the Texas democrats had to fight recently. Instead of fleeing, they’re having a sit in.
And even though it’s been going on for a couple of days now, today is the first I found it in the news. (If someone already posted this earlier I missed it – please grab credit with my apologies.)
Link to one news article.
Suzanne
@sab: Yes, I know. Crafters are not, like, who I would have picked a fight with first, but who TF knows what these people are thinking.
The only logical conclusion that I can draw is that FFOTUS stopped having ideas in roughly 1984.
sab
@JML: Postal Service lost three pieces of mail for me just this month. My lawn Service never got their check. My renters’ check never arrived. My insurance bill never arrived.
Kirk
@sab: If you paint – oil, watercolor, acrylic – there are several US manufacturers. That said there are a lot of popular manufacturers that come from outside the US and will not avoid the de minimus spike.
Spanky
@sab: I’m very happy my Social Security benefits aren’t mailed, though I’m sure they’re working on correcting that oversight.
Scout211
I just read ProPublica’s latest, The Untold Saga of What Happened When DOGE Stormed Social Security
After reading that, I had to find something to lift my mood.
Governor Newsom’s team’s latest post did the trick. In response to a clip of Lara Trump interviewing JD Vance where Vance says no one could mimic Trump’s style. It was supposed to be a compliment of Trump and a Newsom burn.
@GovPressOffice response: x.com/GovPressOffice/status/1964840121460826253
Okay, I’m better now.
Spanky
@Kirk: Ninety- plus percent of amateur astronomy products come from the two Chinas. You can be sure that there are a lot of astronomers paying attention.
UncleEbeneezer
@satby: It’s hard not to notice that when Conservatives and Libertarians rant about the inefficiency of Big Govt they always point to the Post Office, DMV and Public Schools. In other words, the places with the most public-facing concentration of Black employees as a result of desegregation/Civil Rights.
zhena gogolia
@Scout211: He always cheers me up. Maybe just for a nanosecond, but I’ll take it.
Kirk
@Kirk: should note, though, that canvas and most of the watercolor paper used is made overseas.
YY_Sima Qian
More fall out from the ICE raid to the LG battery factory in Georgia, where hundreds of South Korean engineers & specialists onsite to help stand up the massive plant where detained & publicly humiliated, for inappropriate visa paperwork (due to USG refusing to be accommodating on the appropriate visa paperwork):
The new ly elected left wing President Lee had just recently concluded a “good” visit to Trump in DC, & here Lee gave a speech at the CSIS stating that the bifurcation of the global supply chains & tech. ecosystems due to the Sino-US tech/trade/Cold War means South Korea has no choice but to align w/ the US (because South Korean, like Japan & Europe are completely beholden to the US on security). Whether what is indeed the geopolitical & economic strategy that Lee would pursue, he clearly felt he had to say those words to gain credibility w/ the DC FP establishment (who tend to view to the South Korean Left w/ distrust for being insufficiently hawkish on North Korea & the PRC). Trump & MAGA sure is working hard to change the minds of South Koreans across the political spectrum.
Spanky
I’m sure we’ve all read about Elon’s billion dollar deal, which depends on the stock price. Meanwhile:
Heh.
Geminid
@sab: Maybe Turkish yarn will be available. I haven’t followed how Turkiye has fared in the tariff wars but generally, President Erdogan has done an effective job cultivating Trump. Someone like Donald Trump is not hard for people like Erdogan and his trusted Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to figure out.
Spanky
@YY_Sima Qian: No one has ever profited from pissing off the Koreans.
Geminid
@Spanky: I think there are ~25,000 US military personnel stationed in South Korea. I wonder if commanders are keeping them on base right now. I would.
Baud
@Spanky:
Obviously, it’s stock price will increase 10% today.
oldgold
@Baud: You are correct.
Here is a fuller rendition of the story.
hueyplong
What happens to Elon’s gazillions if he somehow suffers a chemical mishap or private aviation misadventure? Seems like most of his various offspring seem not to share his “values.” Is there someone in line to get the money who shares his Apartheid and oligarchic core values?
YY_Sima Qian
@Spanky: The utterly gratuitous way in which Trump & MAGA are thoroughly alienating South Korea & India in the past month is pretty incredible. BTW, the Japanese PM Ishida just resigned, he cited the [widely perceived to be] one sided & humiliating deal he felt he had to agreed to w/ Trump to reduce US tariffs on Japanese imports to 15% as the proximate cause.
Right now, the PRC is coasting on “do nothing, win” mode.
Lyrebird
@Suzanne:
I think someone added the photo as a reply in the bsky thread Anne Laurie posted. The little girls are of multiple colors, FWIW, and someone is trying to get a coat over them. It looks less bad to me than the scene with the Ark. Gov.
Glad to hear some schools are educating the kids about tariffs!
Baud
@YY_Sima Qian:
PRC should give Trump voters the Chinese version of Medals of Freedom.
Librettist
The media framing is the shitwit cut an immigration deal with South Korea.
Translation…. he rolled over.
Belafon
@Mr. Mack:
Liberal billionaires won’t buy media companies.
Jeffro
I hope the Dems can get it together and refuse to fund the government until:
Heck, pick any one or two, it doesn’t matter.
No funding ICE snatch-and-grab squads, no funding dumb Department of War renaming, none of it.
I mentioned in the overnight thread that
Ezra “Normally Useless” Klein covered many of these same points in detail yesterday and agrees that a shutdown is not only in the Democrats’ best interest but might be America’s (as in, the America that has a Constitution, laws, etc) last hope.
The piece quotes Jon Ossoff at length, noting that Dems can tie all the disparate arson/vandalism/etc of trumpov & the GOP together under “corruption”, as in corrupting the functions of government. I agree:
More importantly:
Shut it down until the funds (including university and NIH grants) have flowed as they should have, until ICE agents are unmasked, and the full, unreacted Epstein files have been released.
End the corruption!
Gloria DryGarden
@sab: maybe yarn can be imported from Uruguay. Lots of sheep, and wool. A country of knitters. Trump might not know where it is, or that it exists. Argentina, too, lots of cows and sheep. Though people have heard of Argentina.
( more snarky comments available on this topic)
schrodingers_cat
@Jeffro: Ezra Klein and NYT are why we are here among other things
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: I usually skip Klein’s columns these days, but you’re right — that one is worth reading. More importantly, Klein seems to be considered credible by many centrist and left-of-center politicians, so maybe they’ll take that argument seriously.
lowtechcyclist
@YY_Sima Qian:
Makes sense to me. Why rock the boat when your primary geopolitical adversary is self-destructing?
Gloria DryGarden
I see the article about immigrants disappeared. People “disappeared” brings back echoes of hearing about the desaparecidos in Argentina and a few other places nearby. In the 1970s. A jarring and devastating piece of history.
Gloria DryGarden
@YY_Sima Qian:
Also
such important points.
I have no idea if this all came about from stupidity, or destructiveness, or a desire to shoot himself in the foot. Appalling is not quite a string enough word.
And your comment on the Japanese PM resigning. I’m remembering that loss of face, and public humiliation, are huge concerns in Japanese culture, perhaps most Asian cultures. Please forgive my lack of specifics and depth on this, it seems this situation may be an even bigger deal than folks here realize.
Gloria DryGarden
@Jeffro: I like your proposal to refuse to fund the government until xyz are rectified and se5 to rights.
I just want people to understand this isn’t simply garden variety corruption, that vandalism, and massive concerted intentionally damaging corruption in the style of vandalism might be more precise.
Scout211
@Betty Cracker: @Jeffro:
I almost posted a link to the Klein opinion piece last night. The first half was great but he had to go and end it by slamming the current leadership and questioning whether they are up to the challenge.
YMMV, but I am not a fan of discussions where the writers think they know better how to handle this crisis than members of Congress or leadership.
Added: we are all free to criticize but leadership is just one of the many problems that this current crisis is bringing.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: he made some good points – this shutdown discussion is not and should not be the same as the last time
and he’s right to sound the alarm about taking action now instead of thinking we’ll be able to coast to the midterms
2liberal
@baud – hey did you ever get that bird app working ?
Jeffro
Exactly.
And a shutdown based on just a few simple demands helps grab everyone’s attention to that very distinction – this isn’t because trump paved over the Rose Garden.
It’s because masked goons are snatching people off the street in America’s cities. It’s because the MAGA Congress is letting trump impound funds/grants/payrolls with impunity. It’s because he refuses to do anything about RFK Jr’s insanity.
Shut it down and broadcast those demands far n’ wide, Dems. Restore the rule of law, including funds appropriate by Congress by law.
iKropoclast
I want to see the politician who will give their speech in the rain and let those who showed up to support them, willingly or otherwise 👀, enjoy the protection of the canopy.
I will fight for that person. Probably.
Baud
@2liberal:
Haven’t tried yet.
Geminid
@Gloria DryGarden: Hey Gloria, I think you are interested in the metaphysical and your friend PollyannaFH might be also. I saw an article in New Lines Magazine a couple months ago that might interest you both. It’s titled, “Reincarnation and the Legacy of Lebanon’s Civil War.”
The article is about Lebanon’s Druze minority and their belief in reincarnation. The Druze believe that some reincarnated Druze remember there past lives, and call them an Arab word meaning “those who speak.” The phenomenon most often occurs when someone dies a violent death, hence the connection with Lebanon’s civil war that claimed 50,000 lives from 1975 to 1995, many of them Druze.*
Like all New Lines articles, this one is long and thought-provoking. This link might work:
share.google/nxQV290UT5iMR62jg
* The Druze follow an esoteric, “syncretic” religion that was founded in Cairo ca. 1050 C.E. It was declared heretical but the Druze found refuge in the mountainous areas of the Levant. There are now ~1.2 million Druze spread across Lebanon, Syria and Israel.
iKropoclast
I have no corroborating info. But if this is true, those are their tariffs. Trump ran on tariffs like he ran on the wall the first time. Tariffs were always an even worse idea for anyone who put half a second thought into it. You made your bed, lie in it.
Who am I kidding? Their co-dependents are in charge.
Peale
@YY_Sima Qian: Yeah. Even I was kind of shrugging my shoulders on that tariff framework. Basically “committing” to hundreds of billions of dollars for a tariff rate that turned out to be 2% lower than the Philippines?
iKropoclast
You sent me on a little research hole on them, myself, not too long ago. I found it surprising just how little publicly available on their doctrines and practices. Still a fascinating read. Seemingly an immensely consequential people in their neck of the woods, despite their relatively small population.
Miss Bianca
@Suzanne: Hot yoga definitely increases your heart rate – at least it did mine. Which was great for me (and I still miss it!) but I’d be hesitant to recommend it to anyone with heart issues.
Peale
@Gloria DryGarden: Yeah. I’m not sure why the South Koreans are surprised by this behavior. Like in his first term, I think Korea was number 2-3 on countries who are “ripping us off.” After Mexico and tied with Germany. China is in its own category. I’m not certain why it is, but its probably a combination of having some deal fall through in Korea and the fact that in his mind, Koreans are poor people who work in nail salons and laundrymats and if they are not wealthy, they must have stolen something. Its always personal with him.
Betty Cracker
@Scout211: My mileage does vary because Jeffries and Schumer have telegraphed willingness to fight over a temporary restoration of the ACA tax credits and not much else. The tax credits are important! But Jesus, Mary and Joseph, what about the seizure of previously appropriated funds, the federal assault on American cities, the lunatic in charge of HHS, the incontrovertible fact that a “bipartisan agreement” with members of a fascist cult of personality is worthless?
Geminid
@iKropoclast: Right now, Syria’s Druze are at the center of one of that nation’s acute internal conflicts. In the aftermath of fighting that claimed hundreds of lives last July, the Druze are calling for autonomy for Syria’s majority-Druze Suweida Governate. Suweida lies south of Damascus and borders Jordan.
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, after all, he got them to agree that Joe Biden was old and needed to go. (That worked out so great for all of us, btw, didn’t it?) So why wouldn’t he get them to agree the same thing about current Democratic leadership?
As far as I am concerned, people like Ezra Klein are part of the problem, not part of the solution. But a lot of people seem to disagree with me.
ETA: Altho’ for what it’s worth, I am starting to feel more sympathy for the “shut it down unless/until” position that Jeffro outlined. Thinking of taking his bullet points and putting them in a message to my Rep.
gene108
@TONYG:
People support Trump because blaming black people, immigrants, and transgender people are what they feel serves their interests the best.
They are not idiots.
They have a vastly different value system than I have and you have.
Treating them like idiots denies the agency every adult inherently has. Quit giving them an excuse for their bad choices.
iKropoclast
@Miss Bianca: In other words, Klein is part of the reason Dem leadership is what it is. He has some serious brass balls to try to demand bold action from Democrats now when as far as I can see he has always been pulling for team status quo.
Seems likely he perceived a trend and is trying to ride it. Might turn out good in the end if it helps light motivate the “this is fine” crowd. Doesn’t mean he’d built any trust with me.
Gloria DryGarden
@Geminid: thank you. I opened it in a tab to read later. I’ll ask Pollyanna, not sure his thoughts on reincarnation. But I certainly have a sense of past lives. Metaphysical stuff does interest me, you’re quite right. And I’ve been curious about the Druze. Isn’t that also found among people up near Kurdistan? Or is that another group?
Heresy is an interesting topic. In Christianity, there have
evolveddeveloped so many sects, cults, and denominations, but a few hundred years ago, in Europe, the variations on how you arranged you bouquet of father son and Holy Spirit, and what job titles and relationships you ascribed to them, could get you into real trouble. Imprisonment, torture, I forget, wasn’t there some violent erasure trend?Then there’s the history in France and England, or Protestants vs Catholics. My lineage may be tied up in that.
It seems the Sunni and Shia Muslims may see each opposite group as heretics.
Even Catholics have many variations, and don’t agree with each other. How many people think amy coney Barrett is a heretic? When will jd Vance be excommunicated? But now I’m digressing.
Growing up Protestant Christian, we thought praying to Mary, and saints, was weird. But then I read about the option of god being female, and I needed that, and the more I learned bits about the history of Christianity converting the British isles, the more I began to see the Catholic Church as preserving, in altered form, many of the old ways and gods. So many saints, and Mary herself, link to previous beliefs.
That’s a whole
mnother discussion.iKropoclast
I hope they get it. More autonomy for more local populations seems a good answer to a lot of the world’s problems right now if I’m to be honest. Such local populations understand their needs best and shouldn’t be subject to larger national entities exploiting them.
Closer to home, I’d like to see more autonomy for our states. If our blue states had a little more say over their own funding they might, big might, be less inclined to wield their financial influence in a way that denies others autonomy elsewhere in the world.
Citizen Alan
Fucking welfare farmers. No democrat should ever vote for a farm bill again, unless we get huge concessions for democratic constituencies.
Gloria DryGarden
@iKropoclast: “he ran on the wall”
a slightly rhyming thought prayer incantation:
he ran on the wall/ he had a great fall
and since it was autumn, the leaves fell around him
Piled high, they buried him/ orange and brown
and then no one could find him at all.
gene108
@Jeffro:
The risk of a shutdown, and trying to pin the blame on Republicans corruption, is the assumption Democrats can win a messaging battle with the general public.
I think the time to force a shutdown was last March, when we hoped Democrats might still be able to show some fight.
No one takes the Democrats as serious determined opposition anymore. That ship sailed months ago.
The Democrats advantage is people hate what Republicans are doing, and they’re the only viable alternative.
iKropoclast
@Gloria DryGarden: That cheered me up a little today. Thank you.
iKropoclast
Self-fulfilling Prophecy Co.’s best selling product.
Paul in KY
@Baud: I do wish the poor young ladies had run under that cover. What was Gov. Suckabee going to do, order them back out in the rain?
Of course, anyone with any humanity would have had them stop standing there and go get dry. If that had been my daughter, I would have had her get the fuck out of there and get dry, optics and cheerleading be damned. Where was the coach of the cheerleaders? He/she should have had them get out of the rain!
pieceofpeace
@Spanky: I’m one of the USPS receivers, and have been notified there will be no further mailings after 10/1/25.
iKropoclast
@Paul in KY: Hate to say it, but their coach was likely part of the decision that put them in the rain to begin with.
pieceofpeace
..oops…..a repeat
Geminid
@iKropoclast: I think Syria’s Druze will get a form of autonomy. Unfortunately, they are been helped– or exploited— by Israel. Some of that is due to domestic pressure, from Israel’s 140,000 Druze. But part of it is because of this stupid Israeli government’s determination to overreach strategically.
iKropoclast
@Geminid: What has been Israel’s engagement with Syria’s Druze?
Paul in KY
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: I’d just snicker at them and move on.
Paul in KY
@Baud: The Alumni Association are probably just a bunch of wusses, IMO.
chemiclord
@gene108:
Well, they ARE idiots AND have a different and brutal worldview than rational people.
Paul in KY
@hueyplong: Maybe his son who wiped the snot on TACO’s desk? I did like the spunk in him!
Paul in KY
@Baud: Order of the Red Banner!
Betty Cracker
@Miss Bianca: I’m not particularly a fan of Klein either, though I don’t blame him for the Biden fiasco. Plenty of blame to go around there! That said, lots of important people apparently take Klein seriously, so I hope they hear what he’s saying about the funding fight. Because I think he’s right about that; a small-beer approach would be disastrous.
Paul in KY
@Gloria DryGarden: Several hundred years ago, these ‘variations’ would have got you a date with the stake.
Paul in KY
@iKropoclast: Probably. Most cheerleading coaches are mini tyrants anyway. I know my HS’s was.
Scout211
@Betty Cracker: I am in agreement with every point you made.
My concern is that Klein and too many Democrats are pre-disappointed in how leadership will handle things instead of pushing leadership and MOA to act more aggressively.
Shorter Klein (IMHO)
Trump is destroying our government unchecked. Agree
The Democrats are powerless right now. Agree.
A shutdown is the only way right now to gain leverage against Trump’s agenda. Agree.
Jeffries and Schumer are not up to the task. He lost me right there.
He may end up being correct on this but how does he know just how they will handle this? Why is he saying Democrats are powerless but leadership, who are also powerless, are not up to the task to fight back?
I would really like to see more focus on urging voters, constituents and people who have been affected by this Trump administration to start putting pressure on leadership and on other members of congress.
No Democrat has been powerful enough right now in congress to change anything that Trump has wrought. There are some strong voices, for sure. But the only thing that has made any headway this year are lawsuits.
I am not opposed to a shutdown but being pre-disappointed in leadership instead of actively working to put pressure on leadership is frustrating (to me).
Again, we can disagree but I am not a fan of being pre-disappointed in the leadership that we will continue to have at least until January 2027. I just hope we can actively put pressure on them to be more vocal and more aggressive right now.
Maybe Klein wanted to keep his sources and not urge voters to write congress and leadership. He did brag that he speaks to Schumer. Maybe urging the public to contact his office (like how we pressured congress to save Medicare years ago) is not to Klein’s liking.
But we do need to push leadership to be more aggressive. But being pre-disappointed in them is what bothers me.
iKropoclast
Little to offer on the substance of the statement, but it does occur to me that statements of this nature are often made as a challenge. So, the positive interpretation here, I think, is that Klein is goading them
ETA: Not that I’m inclined to offer Klein a positive interpretation. I’m not a fan of Dem leadership, either, and he sits lower in my esteem than they do.
They weep, I’m sure.
iKropoclast
A Huckabee fan, no doubt.
Geminid
@gene108:
I think you should speak for yourself.
Scout211
I hope you are right.
Geminid
@iKropoclast: Israel intervened in the July fighting, even went so far as to bomb sites in Damascus to warn the Syrian government to stay out of it. They’ve supported Hikmet al-Hijiri, a Druze Sheikh who instigated a lot of the fighting. Hijiri’s militia is unvolved in drug-smuggling and there were aspects of cartel-on-cartel violence because local Arab tribes are competitors.
Hijiri’s militia also employs ex-Assad regime officers who want to destabilize the Syrian government.
US Syria envoy Tom Barrack brokered the ceasefire that ended the July fighting, and now he’s trying to broker a broader settlement between the Israeli and Syrian governments.
This is one of two important negotiations going on now, the other being between the Damascus government and the US-sponsored Syrian Democratic Forces which control Northeast Syria. The Israelis are interfering with that process also by encouraging the SDF to hold out for autonomy.
Back in January, some Israelis were floating a map of Syria divided into three parts: an Alawite enclave on Syria’s coast, a rump Sunni state in the center, and some sort of Israeli protectorate running from the Golan Heights through the Druze area all the way to Kurdish controlled Northeast Syria.
I liked one Turkish commentor said: “Sounds nice. That will make us neighbors. We’ll come over for tea.”
Betty Cracker
@Scout211: I really want to be optimistic about Dems’ congressional leadership, but so far, there’s every indication they’re going to make ACA credits the sticking point. (See Jeffries – Schumer press release here, plus this article about Repubs trying to balance their keen desire to undermine the ACA with the electoral risk of not making a deal to temporarily preserve the credits.)
Maybe this is all just a ruse, but it sure looks like we’re heading down that path, and it doesn’t meet the moment, IMO. It’s like a passenger in a car that is hurtling toward a cliff making sure everyone is wearing their seatbelts.
Another point that almost never gets made, which makes me question sometimes if it’s even true, but I think it is: Repubs can change the filibuster rule and pass the budget without a single Democratic vote. It would be yet another “norm” gone by the wayside, but AFAIK, the 60-vote threshold is a function of senate rules, which the majority party controls.
So, why can’t Dems refuse to offer a single vote unless the lawbreaking and fascism stop and counter accusations that they’re responsible for a shutdown by noting that Repubs can pass a budget all by themselves if they change the rules they control?
iKropoclast
@Scout211: The media speaks for the donors. Leadership’s big donors being media’s advertisers. If the media calls for a shutdown, it will happen.
iKropoclast
Sometimes fighting is needed and I don’t know a whole lot. Leaving that one alone.
Doing the Lord’s work, I see…
Or not…
See? Part of the whole idea of wanting to provide more people with autonomy only works if people leave each other to nom their own damn auto. Can’t people leave each other to their own devices?
Someone was on here the other day trying to argue that Israel is not a colonial project. Zionism may not be, in the abstract, but this particular implementation absolutely is. To the bone.
That’s cute. I like that too.
Gloria DryGarden
@Scout211: just repeating your apt words, because they go in a forward positive direction:
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Have the Democrats in fact offered a single vote? This is a potential negotiation that will likely not become actual until the last few days of this month, maybe not until the last few hours.
And it’s not just Jeffries and Schumer involved here. There are 211 other Democrats in Jeffries’ caucus, and 56 in Schumer’s. These are the ones I want the two leaders to listen to, not a couple of opinion writers like Josh Marshall and Ezra Klein who have nothing to lose however this matter turns out.
iKropoclast
Agree wholeheartedly, aside from that we all have plenty to lose. And we all might consider preparing ourselves mentally to lose a lot. Just so when it comes it doesn’t knock the fight out of you.
Geminid
@iKropoclast: There was a certain amount of randomness to how the Middle East was divided up after the First World War. One fortunate aspect was how Turkiye and the state of Israel founded in 1948 do not share a common border.
Israel does share one with Syria though. But ever since their 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement, that might have been the quietest border in the whole region. There’s no reason it can’t be again, but that might not happen until this stupid and corrupt Israeli government is out of power.
iKropoclast
Certainly in terms of who got grouped together, but I can’t help but wonder if European and American material interests weren’t heavily involved in the decision making.
That assumes whatever replaces it is any better. It’s a hope, but that’s all it is for now.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Yes, it’s a negotiation that will take place later this month, and no, we haven’t heard from all members of the caucus. But Jeffries and Schumer are the minority leaders in their respective chambers, and what is the purpose of their joint press release if not to telegraph the terms of the upcoming debate?
Maybe it’s a ruse and Jeffries and Schumer are lulling Repubs into a false sense of security by making it sound as if the entire budget showdown will be about the relatively small-beer issue of ACA tax credits and then BAM! Jeffries and Schumer will pounce on Repubs for enabling a lawless authoritarian who’s using state power to dismantle American democracy. I suppose that COULD be what’s happening. I can only go on what they say.
As for Marshall and Klein, they — and we — have plenty to lose, and I don’t mean elections; I mean democracy. We all have a stake in what happens next. I sure hope all our elected reps, including the leaders, understand the existential stakes, but the jury is out on that, IMO. We’ll know more soon!
tam1MI
He is consistent, if nothing else.
Geminid
@iKropoclast: I cannot think of a future Israeli government as bad as this one. Netanyahu could barely put together this one, and only by combining the worst elements in Israel polotics.
Polling consistently shows the coalition parties losing the next election. The projected winner: a Center/Left coalition led by Naftali Bennett.
Bennett was Prime Minister from June 2021 to June 2022; coalition partner Yair Lapid was caretaker PM from then until January 1, 2023. That’s when Netanyahu took over and started running Israel into the ground.
I’m not sure many people over here even noticed the Bennett/Lapid governmment at the time, but Israel’s two biggest neighbors did. Relations between both Egypt and Turkiye with Israel were the best in years. Same with the Arab Gulf States.
So I think the next Israeli government will be a lot more responsible than this one.
The problem is, elections are not required until October of next year. Netanyahu’s coaltion might fall this year because they all hate each other. The problem there is they hate the prospect of being out of power even more.
iKropoclast
Sounds familiar…
That is actually glad news. More cooperation is always better. Still, the no one noticed thing gets me. I see center-left governments frequently not acting with the urgency of the issues they seek to address. I can only, again, hope that a Bennett government would exceed those expectations. They’re kind of a critical piece of what’s happening in the world right now.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Maybe Jeffries and Schumer will be right ito extract those concessions and not go for a more expansive set. I see some very optimistic projections as to what Democrats can leverage out of a shutdown, but the people making them ignore what the Republicans could leverage out of a shutdown.
There’s a notion that even though Democrats may seem headed towards consequential gains in next year’s midterms, this can be made certain by allowing a government shutdown; conversely allowing a compromise appropriations bill will somehow prevent those gains.
I don’t buy it, no matter how certainly Josh Marshall asserts it. Marshall is too certain, which is a common weaknes in men like him.
That’s why I want to see what Democrats like Reps. Sharice Davids, Nikki Budzinski, Lauren Underwood and Emilia Sykes say and do. They know the stakes here as well or better than Josh Marshall or Ezra Klein, and they stay in much better touch with voters than either of them.
I guess what I’m saying here is that I trust practioners more than pundits.
iKropoclast
@Geminid: I think part of the notion that a shutdown preventing gains for Democrats comes from the perception, what I see as a correct perception, that everyone attributes everything the government does to the President. Preventing harm in this scenario is effectively protecting the President’s image.
I think they should do what they genuinely think is right, though I think right and wrong are difficult to suss out here. Protecting access to healthcare is an absolute good that I can’t deny. Still, no deal can eliminate the threat while Trump claims the right to simply cancel legally approved spending.
I think pressing for concessions is the right approach. But not on ACA subsidies. Those are secondary to rule of law concerns. If this deal goes through, the best possible outcome I see is healthcare access is protected for only a few more months while Trump continues to run rampant.
It pains me, but I have to come down on the side of shutdown; not for subsidies but to rein in the Presidency for now and all posterity.
Geminid
@iKropoclast: A shutdown could unleash Trump instead of reining him in. Trump’s people will fund whatever they want, and cut whatever they want.
iKropoclast
@Geminid: True. And I don’t see Congress coming through with a veto-proof majority to inhibit the President, least of all Trump.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: I don’t see Marshall or Klein as being certain at all. Both acknowledge it’s a shitty situation and that Dems have limited power. Klein explicitly says shutdown politics are unpredictable and he’s not sure how it would unfold, and Marshall acknowledges that too.
One thing both allege, at least tacitly, is that the way Schumer handled the fight last March hurt rank and file voters’ faith in leadership and dangerously demoralized way too many Dem voters. I think that’s true. Some folks seem to be in denial about that.
I don’t know if you are in denial or not, but it’s a pattern I’ve noticed at this blog. I usually bite my tongue when someone denies any real damage occurred because why bother arguing over something like that? But here we are at another inflection point, and I’d rather not see the only party that can credibly oppose the fascist takeover step in a giant pile of shit again.
Bottom line: these aren’t normal times, and there’s a real downside to playing it “safe.” Maybe elected Democrats are political savants and I’m just a dumb blogger who should shut up and trust them, but it affects me too, so I’m glad Marshall and especially Klein, who is more influential than he deserves to be among the political class, IMO, are speaking out before the die is cast.
I’ve seen what happens in a state when a party institution collapses. You get crackpots trying to abolish polio vaccine mandates. It’s not good!
dnfree
@Miss Bianca: Biden did himself in with his debate performance. And many of us don’t think he could have won after that debate, so we’re the same place we would have been if he hadn’t been convinced to drop out at such a late date. Maybe if he had announced well before the primaries that he had decided to pass the torch….
In other words, Biden is not blameless in where we are.
Kayla Rudbek
@Kirk: the biggest embroidery/cross stitch floss company is DMC which is French if I recall correctly
Kayla Rudbek
@Gloria DryGarden: too many Spanish-speaking people for the MAGA cult to accept their goods
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: This is late and I won’t rehash the same arguments. But you brought up a new one stated by Klein and Marshall– that many Democrats were demoralized by Schumer’s handling of the CR vote– and suggested peiole here are in denial about this.
Speaking for myself, I have commented on this demoralization several times. But I’ve argued it was unjustified and given reasons why, which is not the same as denying it.
Gloria DryGarden
@Kayla Rudbek: dios mio. Son idiotas. And the sheep, surely they don’t speak spanish, so the wool would be untainted.
you have a point. Aiy , carajo!