Democrats are standing up to Trump, and now he's threatening to lay off hundreds of thousands of Americans and burn down the United States government.
It's dangerous, irresponsible madness. Trump is failing, unpopular and losing his sh-t. Dems are right to fight for something better than this.— Simon Rosenberg (@simonwdc.bsky.social) September 25, 2025 at 6:44 AM
===
The Trump Administration does not do stupid things as part of a genius plan. The Trump Administration does stupid things because it is, in many ways, stupid. Evil and stupid so often go together like peanut butter and jelly, but, you know, evil and stupid.
— Jane Coaston (@janecoaston.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 10:55 AM
It’s worse! The evil genius who is more powerful bc smart & so more dangerous is just a myth. A fiction.
The real danger of evil people is they put their stupidity into action & make the whole objective situation irrational & incoherent & really hard for smart, responsible people to respond to!— Jonathan Heaps (@jonathanrheaps.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 2:12 PM
It’s much worse. Because genius has a strategy, stupidity has a cause.
— Jane Coaston (@janecoaston.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Stages on the Trump Retribution Tour:
Ed Martin’s intimidation tactics against FBI agent who responded to Sandy Hook is too much even for Todd Blanche.
edition.cnn.com/2025/09/24/p…— Barb McQuade (@barbmcquade.bsky.social) September 25, 2025 at 6:48 AM
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REMINDER: James Comey's daughter, Maurene Comey, who was one of the lead attorneys that prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, was wrongfully terminated from the DOJ just one week before Todd Blanche cozily met with Maxwell.
Now, her father is being vindictively prosecuted by Trump.— Katie Phang (@katiephang.bsky.social) September 25, 2025 at 8:22 PM
On The Road – dmkingto – Death Valley 2006 Pt. – Misc.
Baud
I’m absolutely no Comey fan, but his response was good.
Baud
Reposted
oldster
“Trump is targeting Comey, because Comey’s daughter was going to reveal the truth about Epstein.”
I don’t say I believe it, but I wouldn’t mind seeing disaffected Trump voters believe it.
Suzanne
It’s an evil-stupid PB&J with a side salad of disorganized, unstrategic, and ugly.
Baud
I assume the appointed prosecutor hack will try Letitia James next.
Princess
@oldster: I won’t say I *don’t* believe it. Comey is not the guy Trump hates the most but he may be the guy Trump fears the most.
Suzanne
@oldster: I’m kind of surprised that someone hasn’t leaked the Epstein info yet.
Elizabelle
When I heard about the threat to government workers, I thought “hello Governor Abigail Spanberger.”
different-church-lady
TRUMP 2024: “I will go on a retribution tour!”
PRESS 2024: “He’s not gonna go on a retribution tour price of eggs”
PRESS 2025 “Holy shit, he’s on a retribution tour!”
Betty Cracker
@Baud:
Reposted
@Baud: That’s bad news since TikTok’s algorithm will soon be controlled by Trump-aligned oligarchs. Better Xi Jinping than the Murdochs and Ellison!
Geminid
James Talerico fans and podcast enjoyers might like this one. From this morning’s Politico Playbook:
Professor Bigfoot
Gotta bash them Democrats, right? Incompetent, feckless, useless– gotta have a white man like James Talarico to tell them what they’re doing wrong, right?
Yeah, what the fuck ever
ETA– not YOU, valued commenter Geminid… but fuck Politico.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
Yep. That’s politico’s spin. I’d be interested in seeing how Talarico responded.
After all, given Texas’s history, Texas Democrats have really failed Texas voters, am I right?
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: Being the only state to secede from two different countries, both for the purpose of defending human chattel Enslavement…
But mostly what I see is white people who only have smoke for the Black and Jewish and female led Democrats; and as I’ve said before, FUCK if I’m gonna just ignore the demographic aspects of our political situation.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Thanks for the tip — will check it out! I don’t know if Talarico can win the primary, let alone the senate seat. But I hope other Democrats are taking notes on how he explains his position on culture war issues like trans rights. There’s a refreshing absence of hemming and hawing and tortured legalistic bullshit.
NotMax
TGIF, indeed. Upbeat Friday music.
;)
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: China and Russia are our news sources no wonder we are so fucked up.
Betty Cracker
Watching some dinosaur drama in the lagoon right now. A Great Blue Heron is encouraging a Great Egret to GTFO by repeatedly flying at it.
When Mr. Blue gets too close, the egret flies a short distance and resumes fishing. Then the heron begins stalking it again.
These species usually hunt in fairly close proximity without rancor. Not sure what the beef between these two is. 🤔
Belafon
@Baud: in so many ways. The party here in Texas doesn’t really organize. It’s more of a country club. Which is why Beto did it all on his own, and even though he handed the state party his organization after his losses, they don’t really use it.
Betty Cracker
Speaking of a refreshing absence of tortured legalistic bullshit, kudos to Hakeem Jeffries for calling Vought what he is: a “malignant political hack.”
NotMax
@schrodingers_cat
🎶 Hey,
MacarenaPropaganda,ayAI! 🎶Chief Oshkosh
@Geminid:
FFS, how about “…the broad and deep spectrum of important life issues for which Republicans are fucking voters into the ground, like healthcare, inflation, housing, etc…” ?
Shalimar
Since Trump apparently has the power to fire hundreds of thousands of government employees according to SCOTUS, there is no reason to let him use that as a bargaining chip to prevent a shutdown. He can come to an agreement with Democrats and then fire all the workers the next day anyway. Nothing anyone can do to stop him. We could really use a SCOTUS majority that actually believes in the constitution.
Baud
@Belafon:
I’ve never tried to take over a state party, so I don’t know what barriers stand in the way of people actually participating in the process and effectuating change. But it’s hard to believe that there’s that big a disconnect between voters and the party for that long a time without any change.
That said, IMHO state parties are the weakest link for Dems. Probably because Dems tend to focus on national news and issues.
Ned F.
I may be paranoid, but earlier this past week Hegseth prohibited any news on the pentagons actions is top secret and illegal to print. Yesterday he called up 800 top brass from around the world to come meet with him in his office, (he has a big office). So, what could go wrong?
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud:
It’s not hard for me to understand; it’s basic human organizational behavior. It’s not that I am smart about any of this, it’s just that various jobs have given me a ringside seat to it over the decades. I think the jury is out as to whether we’re the best apes.
Baud
@Ned F.:
He said that any media given Pentagon credentials must clear all stories in advance. Awful and disgusting, but not what you said.
Geminid
@Belafon: Rep. Veronica Escobar’s Wikipedia biography is worth a read for the story of how she, O’Rourke and activists Steve Homez and Susie Bird hoined forces to wrest control of El Paso City and County politics from an entrenched Democratic machine. The four were known locally as “the Progressives.”
schrodingers_cat
@Ned F.: Our news media, the supposed watchdog has been a lapdog for the Republican party for a long time. It dare not question the white people’s party too much. Their only job is to police the Ds.
Deputinize America
@Betty Cracker:
I trust Xi to act rationally, a fuckton more than I do about Trump and his dipshit cabinet.
Baud
@Chief Oshkosh:
Democratic voters aren’t part of the organizational structure. I think the hard part is what we face nationally in dealing with Republicans. MAGA aren’t the majority, not the non-MAGA are divided on what should be the main opposition to MAGA. Same with taking in an ineffective state party apparatus.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Massachusetts has DTCs whereby one can get involved in Democratic politics at the town level. You get to go to the state convention and have several opportunities to make your voice heard and speak with state level stakeholders in person and on Zoom.
Democratic Town Committees are elected every 4 years on Super Tuesday of the Presidential Primary year.
Josie
@Belafon:
Do you think the new leader of the party in Texas will shake things up by moving the party offices from Austin to Dallas? Will this be a positive or negative decision? I read that many officials are resigning.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Deputinize America
@Shalimar:
Newsflash – the 1789 Constitution is a worthless piece of shit. It’s always been a worthless piece of shit (it completely collapsed in the wake of Dred Scott), and the only thing that has prevented us from doing the Weimar slide into 1945 has been the relative character of the men in the Presidency and Congress.
Fun fact – the Weimar constitution was in full force and effect through May 1945.
rikyrah
Last time Democrats cut a deal, a bi-partisan deal, the GOP just went behind them and threw away all that they negotiated.
Proving that the GOP cannot be trusted.
Disaster is coming soon, and they just want to.be able to say that it’s a BI-PARTISAN DISASTER.
ABSOLUTELY NOT
NOT ONE DEMOCRAT SHOULD VOTE.FOR.THIS.SHYT.
They control BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS.
THEN THEY CAN PASS IT WITH ONLY GOP VOTES
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Even as someone who’s paid a great deal of attention to politics for most of his life, the state Democratic party organizations in Maryland and Virginia, two states that I’ve lived in for over a quarter of a century each, have been practically invisible to me.
If I’m far from alone in that, of course there could be a long-term disconnect.
Baud
@Baud:
Not = but
mappy!
The general view of what Republicans have become Is probably baked in at this point. Regardless of whatever national media spin or social media effort to obfuscate is attempted.
We have local elections coming up that usually trend R. I’m curious about a neighboring town (rural/suburban), a solid safe red, that went Harris, 2 to 1. They’ve voted for some beyond the fringe local and state Rs in the past so It’s gonna be interesting to see where they land this time around…
rikyrah
@Shalimar:
Thank you
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
I plead guilty as well to paying more attention to national issues rather than state level issues.
Geminid
@Professor Bigfoot: Politico was bound to ask that question about Democrats failing voters. That seems to a hot topic everywhere. After all, we only lose elections and never win any.
This reminds me of a fun Politico fact: the site is owned by Axel Springer, a staunchly conservative, anti-Communist German publishing house founded in 1947. That just happens to be the year Congress established the CIA and began appropriating large sums of money for it to spend combating Communism in Europe and elsewhere.
Asparagus Aspersions
Here in France, former President Sarkozy was just sentenced to five years in prison for corrupt dealings with the Libyan government in 2007 to help finance his presidential campaign (he’s appealing, of course). I was listening to the news last night while I was making dinner, and they had a panel of various journalists, lawyers, professors, and other talking heads.
One of the big topics was the reaction to the verdict, and whether people saw it as Sarkozy being railroaded, or as evidence that no one is above the law. It was a panel full of French people, so the discussion was lively, to say the least – French people love disagreeing with each other. But then one panellist said how lucky they were that the case was actually tried, and that the reactions were peaceful and that “we can only rejoice that we are not the United States.” And everyone agreed with that.
UncleEbeneezer
All I can think about is how much this terrifying weaponization of DOJ, skirting the rules, throwing out due process, firing people based on their political leanings and racing to politically-motivated charges etc., is eerily similar to what people here were longing for when everyone was bitching about Merrick Garland. I’m so glad he knew better and had greater respect for process, caution and the rule of law. Because this is what the opposite looks like and it is not good.
Dave
@Baud: Yep. There is sort of classic tragic irony to Comey and his “only honest man in DC hubris”.
That said if he successfully beats this back and manages to be particularly effective while doing so this also seems to be narratively appropriate.
I’ll even tolerate a smug Comey victory tour if he is part of us actually successfully winning free of this moment. Even though he shouldn’t since he played a pretty key role in creating this moment.
Dave
@Betty Cracker: The egret knows what it did.
Soprano2
QFT. I can’t tell you the number of times I heard random people say “He’s not going to do that”, and I wanted to yell “How do you know?”. It’s hard to fight something when people don’t believe it’s real.
Ben Cisco
@Ned F.: The fact that he even requested such a meeting (let alone broadcast it to the WORLD) is proof that he is unfit for the job.
Operations Security – OPSEC
Communications Security – COMSEC
He’s failed MISERABLY on both counts.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: Will there be blood?
JPL
An early morning conservative panelist name is Bluey, Rob Bluey to be exact and there is nothing sweet coming out of his mouth.
Professor Bigfoot
@Dave: I would too… but I think Mr. Comey should definitely avoid tall buildings with open windows.
Professor Bigfoot
@JPL: Leave it to conservatives to want to rob Bluey.
They will take candy from babies, won’t they?
Soprano2
@Shalimar: It’s particularly dumb in the face of the stories just a couple of days ago about how agencies are hiring back hundreds of people that *gasp* they needed after all, because Elmo had no idea what he was doing when he was firing people. Plus I agree, he could make a deal and then order those people to be fired anyway. Who wants to make a deal with someone who never honors the deals they make? Eventually people learn that you’re untrustworthy (we all knew that a long time ago, I’m not sure why it took Congressional Democrats so long to learn that particular lesson).
Another Scott
@Baud: I don’t think your summary is quite right either.
Archive.IS is an image of the DoD memo.
Appendix A part (9) says that Pentagon access can be denied if reporters possess or publish Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) that has not been cleared.
The DoD has all had all kinds of rules about disclosure of information for decades. CUI is fairly new (a decade or two old), but the same things apply. Processes have to be followed for such information to be released. Reporters who go around those rules, as sometimes they must to inform the public, should not expect that they will have normal access to the Pentagon. (IOW, muckracking reporters should expect to have to do their jobs differently than walking the halls.)
I’m not apologizing for the monsters. It’s clear that they’re continuing to try to make reporters and critics cower. But we have to be clear-eyed about what they’re doing to respond effectively to it.
How should the press respond? It seems to me that genuine news agencies should send their cub reporters to these locked-down and managed facilities and briefings, and have their ace reporters working the phones and rolodexes to find out what’s going on behind the scenes. IOW, if the monsters demand to control on-site access and information, make sure that the best reporters are not subject to those restrictions.
My $0.02. FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
They Call Me Noni
@Ned F.: Mandatory shots and beer pong?
Belafon
@Josie: I’ll have to look into it. I don’t know much about it.
Manyakitty
@Betty Cracker: seriously. We need this version of Jeffries all the time.
JPL
trump is going to NY today so he can watch the Ryder Cup. Does that mean that Stephen Miller is in charge.
Manyakitty
@Asparagus Aspersions: look at us, giving the French a point of agreement.
JPL
@Professor Bigfoot:☺️
prostratedragon
Yes!! This!! Thank you !!
// tearfulgratitude
NotMax
@JPL
One more trophy to crowd on the Oval Office mantelpiece?
JML
Only this administration could make me root for Comey, a self-righteous, self-aggrandizing prick.
I hope the Orange Idiot keeps going after people like him though, because these are the DC elites who think they are above it all, and have done nothing but sneer at Democrats for over 30 years. No one deserves this more. Wonder if they’ll come for Woodward?
Thought it was hilarious how they had some bobo on FauxNews insisting that Jimmy Kimmel has blackmail on everyone in Hollywood and “every knows” that you can’t cross him or he will reveal all your secrets. Logical consistency just doesn’t exist with these clowns…
narya
@Ned F.: I’ve been seeing this, too. What he doesn’t seem to realize is that this is also an opportunity for those who are not on board with the current fascism to find each other, in person . . . I’m sure there’s some fuckery afoot, but also a whole lot of incompetence in its attempted execution.
Kayla Rudbek
@JML: every accusation a confession, after all…David Brin also thinks that the Republicans are being blackmailed
NotMax
@JML
Comey is not the story, The corrupt and blatant manipulation of and interference in the office of a US Atorney is.
M31
lol pretty sure it’s “bitch stole my fish”
Matt McIrvin
When Trump fired Comey during his first term, there were leaks about the discussion beforehand that implied that they thought Democrats would actually welcome it. We hate Comey, right? The idea that we might have an objection based on principle to something bad happening to someone we hate never occurred to them. That’s not how they think.
Betty Cracker
@Manyakitty: It’s been interesting to watch the evolution of some of our more establishment-type figures, pols, pundits and just regular people. I mean, when you see guys like Ken White (Popehat on the socials) get radicalized in response to the fascist menace, well damn!
Matt McIrvin
(I think the misunderstanding of how liberals work is a strategic advantage. There are a million handwringing articles about how we can’t get into the heads of MAGA supporters, but they’re honestly not that complicated–they have as rich inner lives as anyone, but their political impulses are simple and dumb. But they can’t get in our heads.)
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Agreed. It’s also why they’re convinced we condone violence against political foes. Because they do.
Betty Cracker
Goddamn fucking Redis error ate my update about the heron vs. egret spat!
Shakti
For some reason I’ve had this vachana sprang into my mind, and it translates to this:
Maybe it’s because of recent events. Maybe it was because I was remembering my grandmother and my Atti, who were both very devout women, who both passed away in September.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Redis is who should be indicted.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Using the back arrow saves the edits most of the time.
Baud
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: I just saw Gutfeld bringing up an old one: “we [conservatives] call liberals stupid and misguided, but we don’t call them evil. That’s their game.”
Which is just a flat-out lie, as we all know. For my entire life I’ve been hearing the religious right in the region where I grew up literally describe liberals as servants of Satan. And these days, if you listen to Trump or to his favorite state governments, we’re all pedophiles, terrorists, election cheaters, illegal people doing illegal things illegally and we oughta be arrested.
scribbler
@Betty Cracker: Please try again! Waiting with bated breath!
NotMax
@Baud
At least on my set-up (Firefox, Win 10), when Redis appears after hitting Post Comment, simply refreshing the page with the Redis notice reconstitutes the thread, with my comment which had appeared interrupted posted as if naught had happened.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
To be fair, they don’t consider those things to be evil.
Professor Bigfoot
@Kayla Rudbek: From Eric Trump saying “we get our financing from Russia” to Maria Butina, the NRA, and millions in campaign money to Republicans all across the country, to the fact that the Vladimir Vladimirovich is a KGB trained intelligence officer, Dr. Brin is just listening to William of Ockham.
suzanne
@Betty Cracker:
This is the biggest fault line among Dems, too. It isn’t left vs center, progressive vs moderate. It’s those who are more styled for the politics of the past vs the oriented toward the threats of the future.
Professor Bigfoot
@Shakti: Thank you.
Thank you.
I should like to have that on my wall- can you please link me to the source? 🙏🏾
Layer8Problem
@Asparagus Aspersions:
Damn, we just got back from France. My general feeling over there? A strong relative sense of peace and order – in the midst of a day of nationwide demonstrations! – as compared to the States right now. If I could bottle that and sell it here I’d clean up.
We saw a demonstration of pharmacists and pharmacy personnel. Music! Green smoke! Smiling, dancing people marching against health care cuts in Bayrou’s budget. Police standing on the sides just watching. The biggest disruption on the 18th was the trams not running. Whatever opinion one has about their government there are no malign idiots breaking things because they can and revenge indicting people, although there are parties there who might like to do some of that if they ever got in power.
Bupalos
@Dave: I continue to be slightly amazed at how bad the left is at solidarity.
“Don’t get me wrong, Comey is history’s second greatest monster, a smarmy self-important prick inflated with misogyny and whiteness. He deserves terrible things and I enjoy watching him suffer. But if he wins, I guess that’s better.”
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: that’s a good thought! 💙😁
Baud
@Bupalos:
We wouldn’t be in this mess if the left (of center) were good at solidarity.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: any attempt to make Vought a (hated) household name should be applauded
Betty Cracker
Re: Redis, most of the time I don’t lose a post or comment when I encounter that error, but sometimes I do, and it really fucking sucks. That’s all I have to say about that.
Re: egret vs. heron recap: they’ve flown, both heading east. I don’t know if they took their conflict to another venue or eventually went their separate ways.
I’ve seen birds in our lagoon of many different species peacefully hunt in close proximity. I’ve also seen birds of the same or another species spot a bird landing across the river and then lift off and fly the 100 yards or so just to fuck with that bird. That’s the nature of the waterfowl. And we all know how contentious hummingbirds are too. I can only conclude that birds are Democrats.
narya
@suzanne: I’d say that Ken White’s radicalization started awhile ago: he was a AUSA, is now a defense lawyer; he has been public about his own mental health struggles; and he has three adopted kids (all Korean, I think?). He’s never going to be a full-on radical, but I have learned a whole lot about the judicial system and its inherent unfairnesses from listening to him. His 4th of July essay, which he has published on his blog each year, is quite moving.
Baud
@Jeffro:
Schumer is derided, but he put maximum effort in trying to get Republicans not to confirm Vought. He knew.
suzanne
@Bupalos:
I have this thought, too. But then I also think that if we were better at it, we’d be Republicans.
mrmoshpotato
@Suzanne:
The salad comes with Russian dressing.
Paul in KY
@Baud: I rather think the voters have failed Texas Democrats.
Dave
@Bupalos: Sure sure it’s not great communication style but then again do I have to be that on point on a top 10,000 political blog open thread?
The point isn’t wrong the left as whole is absolutely awful at this (especially with policy wins) particularly people with platforms.
And the idea that “this guy sucks but also shouldn’t be persecuted and I hope he does win” is apparently too complicated for the audience we need to reach but again is that audience in the blog comments section with us?
Chief Oshkosh
@UncleEbeneezer: Not true at all, but hey, carry on.
Layer8Problem
@UncleEbeneezer: Well yeah, but breaking rules and walking away from “bipartisan” agreements and yelling “SEIZE THEM!!!” is so much more efficient, y’see, and one can really get things done and our side would never do bad things or have to deal with unforseen results if we just had the guts to throw the rule book out the window. Judiciously, of course.
Baud
@Paul in KY:
There are possibly things Dems can do to be more popular in many of the redder states, but there not the things that average liberal would like.
We’ve made the choice to be more moral than popular.
Betty Cracker
@suzanne: My sister used to be a sort of centrist-ish liberal normie. Not anymore!
Paul in KY
@Asparagus Aspersions: Can’t blame them for rejoicing.
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady:
PRESS 2025: “And we’ll continue jerking it to his retribution tour! Because otherwise we’d have to look at ourselves for welcoming a fat, orange fascist – again! 🍆💦”
Paul in KY
@Soprano2: Alot of times (IMO) they mean this: “He’s not going to do that, TO ME”.
They’ll find out they are wrong, sooner or later…
Bupalos
@Matt McIrvin: Well of course a lot of people do this kind of one foot in one foot out hokey-pokey thing where they’re alternately “conservatives” or “MAGA.” It’s true that the old conservative tradition was to call liberals stupid and brainwashed, just as the old liberal tradition was to call the conservatives heartless or soulless. For the most part those rhetorical positions have switched, even as policy positions within the parties largely stay consistent.
stacib
@M31: This will make me giggle all day. Thanks!
H.E.Wolf
@Shakti:
Thank you for the vachana. It’s beautiful, and that last line hits home: a reminder to me, to walk my talk. :)
I will keep you, your Grandmother, and your Atti in my thoughts today. Namaste.
Professor Bigfoot
@Layer8Problem: Some of us actually support and defend the Constitution of the United States.
As flawed as it is, it’s all we got.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker:
Swamp cows?
prostratedragon
Trigger warning: ICE at work🤬
Paul in KY
@Shakti: Beautiful thoughts, but a high standard to live up to.
Paul in KY
@Baud: Good point.
suzanne
@Betty Cracker: Many such cases!
I have my favorite pols, as we all do, of course. Some I like for their policy positions or views, some for other personal qualities that I think make them interesting or effective. But more than anything else right now, I am looking for boldness. I think it’s the quality that we need the most right now.
I don’t know that political life has historically drawn many bold thinkers.
Baud
@suzanne:
By definition, only a small percentage of politicians will be stars. When we deride some regular politician for not being a star, we’re just shooting ourselves in the foot. IMHO.
schrodingers_cat
@prostratedragon: They also deported a 73 year old Sikh grandma to India in shackles. T2.0 is totally letting India and Indians know where they stand with him. Modi’s response so far has been pretty tepid
@Baud: :Look at what being led by social media stars has got the Republican party. I can’t believe that people on our side see that and say I want more of that.
lowtechcyclist
@UncleEbeneezer:
99% of what I saw here amounted to “couldn’t Garland have moved through the process a bit more quickly?” I can’t remember anyone wanting to throw it out.
So hardly the same thing IMHO.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: One thing I hear a lot is that we are irrationally anti-gun.
Like we don’t believe it’s even possible to be a reasonable, safe gun owner. Like we think guns just jump off tables and shoot people.
“Common sense” gun laws to us means background checks and red-flag laws (with proper due process); to them it means “THEY’RE A COMIN’ FER MAH GUNS!”
(personally I think a lot of current gun law really is crazy— ‘constitutional carry’ my fat ass— but people want to be able to defend themselves; and it’s not just right wing white men)
Paul in KY
@Baud: See your point, but when I consider Patton and the wheelchair dude (for example), I just have to think that their Democratic opponents were miles better and would have been much much better for the citizens of Texas (Repub or Democrat) and any voter who actually took the time to compare them would have to have seen that. Thus my ‘failure’ quip above.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Paul in KY: “I didn’t think the leopard would eat MY face.” Or an actual quote from an actual somewhat-disillusioned Trumpist in the first maladministration: “He’s not hurting the people he’s supposed to be hurting.”
suzanne
@Baud: Agree. But we also only have so many leadership spots, there’s only so much attention we can grab. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to determine if someone isn’t performing to the level we need and replace them. Businesses do it all the time.
These people don’t need our loyalty, these aren’t jobs like any other.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker: Like a fish down the hatch!
schrodingers_cat
@Professor Bigfoot: One issue that Biden spent a lot of capital on which got him no thanks at all was the student loan issue. I remember EW hectoring him daily on Twitter about it, saying he could make the loans go away with the flick of a pen or something similar.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
I don’t know of a mainstream Dem proposal that really harmed gun ownership, except for the ban on assault rifles, waiting periods, and red flag laws. I can’t really fault the Dems for any of those.
Bupalos
@suzanne: I’d suggest the phrase you’re looking for there is more “awkward conspiracy,” not solidarity.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: I keep thinking “there’s campaigning, and then there’s governing; and they’re two very different tasks.”
I believe a lot of people get wrapped up in how a given candidate campaigns, and are less concerned about how that candidate will govern. How will they do the actual job?
I think a lot of AOC and Bernie love comes from their campaign mode behavior, but they’re really not that good at doing the job, are they?
Baud
@suzanne:
Constantly switching leaders isn’t a great thing either, especially in the middle of the season. The House leadership changed not to long ago. I expect Schumer won’t run for reelection in 2028.
I can’t control other people, but it’s just not something I’m going to put a lot of effort into.
gene108
@Matt McIrvin:
It was an extreme abuse of presidential authority to fire Comey in the first place. FBI directors were supposed to serve one 10 year term, so they would be insulated from political pressure, but could be fired for misconduct.
Comey’s commentary on Hillary’s emails, IIRC, was used as the justification to fire him as it violated DOJ and FBI protocols.
Betty Cracker
@suzanne: I checked out TX Rep James Talarico’s interview with a Politico marketeer (flagged by Geminid upthread), and it was pretty fucking bold, IMO, though he has the most lowkey manner. I’m rooting for him in that primary, but Texas, man.
@Baud: By definition, only a small percentage of humans have charisma. You’d think the percentage would be higher among politicians.
I once would have agreed that we’d be shooting ourselves in the foot to focus on show ponies at the expense of work horses, but now I’m not so sure. The qualities can exist within the same person, e.g., Obama, Bill Clinton, AOC, Crockett, for example. Maybe in a vibes world, we need pols with both?
Paul in KY
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Yeah. I just want to cackle at them.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
I’m not going to get into Bernie because I’m not interested in setting people off today.
I’d like to give AOC more of an opportunity as part of the majority. She’s pretty talented but she’s only had two years under a Dem trifecta.
Matt McIrvin
@Professor Bigfoot: I do think that the self-defense motivation often is irrational– going by the statistics, most people are much more likely to intentionally kill themselves with their gun than to genuinely use it in self-defense, and it takes a HIGH level of danger to reverse that calculation. But you never know when that will flip society-wide. Also, “what if you suddenly want to kill yourself?” is not something the average person will accept as a legit danger, even when it is.
different-church-lady
@JPL: AlwaysHasBeen.gif
Layer8Problem
@lowtechcyclist: At least 75% of what I saw here were complaints of how Garland wasn’t moving fast enough with certainty that he was doing it wrong and with the complainers giving no enumeration of which corners he should be cutting or which rules needed bending. Perhaps Adam Schiff had a list of how a pro would be doing it, but I didn’t see it.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Agreed. Neither is micromanaging the DNC or whichever org that is the latest obsession of the BS left.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: I know! I’ve pointed this out to gun humpers before but they just still stick with that stereotype.
Steppin’ Razor said she doesn’t carry a gun, but “somebody coming into my house is going to get shot.”
I should like to see more of that from our side— “Yeah, we believe in armed self defense too. Don’t some busting into our homes… and don’t think you’re going to recreate Tulsa 1921, either. We just don’t want to see kids shot in job lots at school, unlike you.”
zhena gogolia
@Layer8Problem: Right.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I didn’t talk about show ponies vs. work horses. I said stars, which could include work horses that people admire. For a period during Trump 1, policy was a bit of a star.
In any event my point is that very few politicians will be exceptional. We still have to be inspired to elect the non-exceptional ones. And we can’t always exceptional to be faithful servants of the stars.
Professor Bigfoot
@Matt McIrvin: Going by statistics, that’s true.
But at the same time, I know the history of the Civil Rights movement and how it would have been strangled in its cradle by nightriders and Klansmen if people like the Freedom Riders hadn’t been defended by Black men with guns.
So, yeah, there’s statistics, and there’s history.
Those guns the conservatives have been stockpiling against “tyranny” can’t stand against the US Army, but they can kill their neighbors and appropriate their stuff in a fit of ethnic cleansing.
Sally
@Betty Cracker: Me too – I have followed KW for a while, and I am astonished at his recent transformation.
lowtechcyclist
@Another Scott:
Alternatively, it strikes me that there’s probably not that much overlap between the reporters who can think on their feet well enough to ask the best questions at press briefings, and the reporters who are skilled at finding otherwise buried stories by digging through publicly available documents.
To the extent that that’s true, one has reporters in the second group break the stories that rely on CUI documents.
Matt McIrvin
@Professor Bigfoot: Yeah, and those stats are across the whole society– someone in an openly targeted minority group might be in much, much more danger. It’s the random middle-class white suburbanite anxiety about home invaders or street muggers that I suspect is based on an action-movie fantasy of having an excuse to kill some bad guys.
Bupalos
@Professor Bigfoot: Right it’s like women CEO’s. I mean, everyone thinks they sound great when they’re telling you how they would do things differently for the company and getting everyone excited about those opportunities. But then when you don’t hire them, it turns out they’re incredibly ineffective at the positions you didn’t put them in. And they’re all like “wait, but you hired the OTHER person!” That’s how women are, with the endless excuses! Show me some results or shut up, lady!
suzanne
@Betty Cracker:
Yes. This is a country of 340 million people. We can find really great people with multiple skillsets.
The ability to “bring people along with you” is a critical skill in politics (and many other arenas of public and private life). Which is not to say that there aren’t places for our great nerds and introverts and the like. But, find the talent, nurture it, grow it.
lowtechcyclist
@Kayla Rudbek:
By Putin. or someone else? I haven’t read anything Brin’s written lately, but his Uplift trilogies were terrific, so I’m still a bit of a fan.
Shakti
@Professor Bigfoot:
Thank you!
Transliterations of this vachana are inconsistent.
This is a good source because there is an English transliteration; couple of slightly different translations in English; and a couple of translations in other languages: Śivaśaraṇara vacana sampuṭa
This vachana is often sung.
@Paul in KY: @H.E.Wolf: They are beautiful words and a high standard to live up to. Everyone in the family tried their utmost to live up to their high standards. My grandmother had such an elevated opinion of most people’s goodness that the family would go out of their way not to disappoint her.
Matt McIrvin
@Professor Bigfoot: Also, of course, there is no reasonable home self-defense justification for having the kind of arsenal we often see used in spree shooting events. Those collections are guys justifying their cool hobby (and, yes, it is a cool hobby–I see the appeal!) with lofty constitutional rhetoric.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I don’t understand your last sentence, but I think we’re talking past each other anyway. Also, I have to go bring my mother-in-law some lunch, so later gators! ;-)
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
My last sentence was garbled thanks to typing quickly on my phone.
Matt McIrvin
…oh, yeah, and those gun death stats have another weird wrinkle:
Black people have a way lower suicide rate than white people, if I recall correctly. No, I don’t know why. Asians, really low too. But Native Americans are on par with white people.
lowtechcyclist
@Professor Bigfoot:
We can’t do a damned thing about the lies they tell each other.
Of course, to the extent that they believe any restriction on firearms is a violation of the Second Amendment, they’re right, of course: that background check is just the first step to TYRANNY!!1! including us liberals coming for all the guns.
Paul in KY
@Matt McIrvin: Statistically a miniscule chance of it happening, but if they come in your house with a gun, you better have a gun.
Otherwise you’re bringing a club or knife to a gunfight.
Manyakitty
@Professor Bigfoot: nice Neuromancer reference. I freaking love that book.
Paul in KY
@Shakti: Your grandma sounds like she was a beautiful person, inside and out. Wish I had been able to meet her.
Paul in KY
@Matt McIrvin: It’s a very expensive hobby. Like scuba diving or playing polo.
Miss Bianca
@Professor Bigfoot: Even Bruce Springsteen, man – the fuckin’ Boss! – had to get his sideswipe in at Democrats “failing” people, in the Time article I just read about him.
And I couldn’t help but hear the old Professor’s voice in my ear saying, “man, for some reason, white people just really have a problem with the party that elevates women and POC to power, doesn’t it?”
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
Lips so pursed.
I remember they wanted the Hyundai Koreans to wear shackles to the airport for their flight home- – a FIVE hour bus ride.
ABSOLUTELY THE PHUCK NOT, the Koreans responded
WTFGhost
Fixed that for you – strong writing means you shouldn’t mention that they can probably put salt and ketchup on their fries, so aren’t stupid “in all ways” but, since those aren’t relevant to the national discussion, just say “they are stupid”.
(I kid, of course – I only said that because it was a quoted text-blit, not writing from someone here. It *is* good writing advice, that I need to use
, because I occasionally overexplain things, leading to run on sentences, sometimes.)Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: This is also how you know the Supreme Court really doesn’t believe the president should be able to do whatever he wants, because if they truly believed that they would have led Biden forgive those loans.
schrodingers_cat
@Soprano2: They are an arm of the Republican party.
WTFGhost
@Miss Bianca: Well… ow. And yet, I’m starting to understand people a bit better.
People felt personally betrayed by Joe Biden having a bad debate, and felt they had a right and a reason to be furious that something was being hidden, when, in fact, it was just a confluence of factors that all came together on a single night.
If Bruce and I were sharing a beer – ha, like that would ever happen! – and he said he was disappointed in Democrats for failing people, I could handle that. He might say “It’s not that *I* know how to win elections and protect people legislatively – but y’all do, and I don’t know what you’re doing wrong, but you’re doing something wrong!”
And if I happened to know what the Democrats were doing “wrong,” it would be easy to listen to that. “They just need to adopt my personal preferences!” But because I don’t know what’s wrong (other than Republicans are gleefully detached from reality, and lie about everything), it makes me frustrated and angry. I know it’s not *fair* to be disappointed in Democrats for not protecting the people of the USA. And yet, they chose that job – to win elections, and protect the people of the USA, and they’ve failed, and people are hurt and disappointed – even if feeling *personally* hurt is wrong.
Just like it was wrong to feel betrayed by Biden, for them as felt that way. But it still happened – it’s still a human reaction.
Uncle Cosmo
There’s a good deal of chickenlittling on the net presuming Kegsbreath is handing out assignments for going to war against Eurasia/Eastasia/meanie-du-jour.
My take is rather different. Consider who Cheetolini had in his office the other day – Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Turkiye – and his history with the Turkish armed forces.
Supposedly the mass gathering of officers is taking place at a base in Virginia. Is there a military prison at that base? How many beds are free? Because, a la Erdoğan, I would expect that at the conclusion of that kaffeeklatsch, any officer up to & including flag rank that’s ever shown less than total loyalty to Hair Furore to be frogmarched off to one of those cells, their places taken by reliable Trumpisti.
Anyway, that’s what I’d expect – but I’d be happy to be proven wrong.
Dave
@Soprano2: it’s not even subtle. If they ruled for Biden the way they rule for Trump he could have forgiven every student loan ever and sent everyone who’s ever paid a student $20,000 with his name on the check.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
John Cleese summing up the Hard Right and the Hard Left, forty years ago:
youtu.be/mRtGg9F5xyA?si=8r3JnfzkneHkbOMB
Baud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
The part about Russia being one of the enemies of the hard right is out of date.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Baud: True, but both groups consider moderates a common enemy is.
Eyeroller
@Miss Bianca: Even without needing any insights from Prof. Bigfoot and others, though that’s clarified some things for me, it’s for some time now been apparent that there is a large chunk of Democrats or Democratic leaners (not just the “left”), the majority of whom seem to be white males, who are completely focused on the white working class and assuming they don’t vote for us anymore because we “failed” them. They never seem to be aware that Democrats have tried over and over to reach out to this group and mostly gotten their hands slapped away.
Matt McIrvin
@Paul in KY: But you do have to weigh that against the chance that you or someone in your house is going to be killed by your gun, either by accident or on purpose.
There are many gun owners who take reasonable steps to reduce the chances of that–but the things that make that less likely (e.g. keeping the gun securely locked up separately from the ammo) will *also* make the gun less useful as home defense. So the reasoning is tricky. And then there are the people who keep the thing loaded on the coffee table or in the sock drawer.
As a parent with a kid in the house, despite living in a place where crime and gun violence are definitely not unknown, the calculation always came out “nope”.
Matt McIrvin
@Eyeroller: yeah, we failed them by not being racist or sexist enough.
lowtechcyclist
@Paul in KY:
Sure, and if 30-50 feral hogs show up in my yard while my kid is outside playing, I better have a gun for that too. Whatever.
If I had a gun in the house, the threat I’d be worried about – far, far more than any outside threat that could be countered with a gun – would be that my teenage son might use it on himself in what would otherwise be a passing moment of depression.
I don’t really think that would be very likely at all, but still, orders of magnitude more likely than a home invasion by someone with a gun. Which (along with the fact that in >50 years of adulthood, I’ve never once been in a situation that would have been improved by my possession of a firearm of any sort) tells me that I might as well not bother to acquire a gun once he’s moved out of the house.
emjayay
Fran Liebowitz, recently:
“Everyone says he is crazy – which maybe he is – but the scarier thing about him is that he is stupid. You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump. You just don’t.”
Paul in KY
@Matt McIrvin: Agreed. I once shot a hole in my couch when I mishandled a pistol. My leg was next to that hole. When I lived alone, I could keep firearms. Once my wife and son moved in, all the guns went to a relative’s gun safe. Now I am back to medieval weapons. Just hope that 1 in a million thing doesn’t happen and a gun armed intruder storms in.
Paul in KY
@lowtechcyclist: I only kept firearms when I lived alone. Your kid must be pretty badass if it would take 30-50 feral hogs to require armed help :-)
hitchhiker
@rikyrah: I hope someone can explain to me how this could be framed as something the Democrats did.
If Republicans want to pass anything at all, they can do it. They have the majority. The voters put them in power. They don’t need Democrats, as they’ve repeatedly shown when passing their tax cuts for the 1% and installing their insane judges and incompetent cabinet members.
Why are we even talking about what Democrats want?
WTFGhost
@Paul in KY: Me, I should have a gun, because I know me, and I know I wouldn’t show it, unless I had to, and if I showed it, I had to be ready to use it, or some skeek might panic at seeing it, and now, I have to geek the skeek. (I’m sorry – I’m stoned.) Since childhood, I’ve had the rules and morals of self defense established inside myself. I know if and when I’d be willing to shoot, and if and when I’d shoot (rather than “becoming ready to shoot” if you know what I mean – once you’re ready, boom.)
Ghostwife shouldn’t have a gun – not yet. She’s untrained, and, she does not want to have the gun. For her to show the gun is to put herself at greater risk than if she didn’t. At the least, some punk might end up with a gun, and an inflated sense of power, and find out that I’m willing to risk the 9mm for the .357 I’m planting center of mass.
If you don’t have a gun, and choose to rely on a different weapon, you either get the clear drop on them, or you surrender, until they cross the invisible line, where “no, I won’t do that, not even with a gun to my head.”
Republicans want us to think it’s acceptable to say “…and I was forced to defend myself,” but you’re never forced. You always choose to do so. Me, I choose to have lethal force at my disposal, and am proud of Ghostwife’s wisdom for her own choices.
Um. Did I mention being stoned? But I’ve dissected a lot of propaganda on this issue. I don’t ever carry – the odds that I’ll need lethal force are miniscule, and, an accidental display of a gun might turn an argument into a gun fight; or, there might be a tragic accident. Will I regret not having a gun, if I’m in one of the vanishingly improbable situation where li’l ol’ me, having a bang-bang, could save the day? Sure, just like I’ll regret wearing my seatbelt in one of the vanishingly improbable situations where not having it on was better for me.
What’s more important than the weapon is the user of the weapon, and their understanding of what they can, and can’t, do, if and when something horrible happens.
Kayla Rudbek
@lowtechcyclist:
@Professor Bigfoot: yes, Dr. Brin is definitely following the money and the public record. Putin is KGB, after all…
Paul in KY
@WTFGhost: You do have to be ready to use it if the situation warrants. Also you can’t let them get control of the firearm. I usually laugh at the open carriers who have the weapon strapped at their waist and you can see it and they are standing in line at the Speedway getting their bacon sandwich. All you’d have to do is whack them in the back of the head with a blackjack, they fall to the ground like a sack of potatoes and voila! you have a free firearm!
Sounds like you were smoking the killer!