In recent months, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has hosted private virtual briefings with social media influencers, equipping them with information on key policy issues and Democratic messaging.
Dubbed “creator briefings,” the senator and her staff answer questions from content creators.— NBC News (@nbcnews.com) September 26, 2025 at 1:20 PM
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www.latimes.com/entertainmen…
— Alex Segura (@alexsegura.bsky.social) September 30, 2025 at 5:01 PM
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Making America great is realizing that this country is incomplete without each and every one of us, including immigrants.
Happy African Heritage Month. Let’s keep up the work, and let’s leave no one behind.— Governor Wes Moore (@govwesmoore.bsky.social) September 30, 2025 at 11:41 AM
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Good news, but I hate that it took a judge to do it.
— John Collins (@logicallyjc.bsky.social) September 30, 2025 at 4:49 PM
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It's funny because thousands of federal employees don't know when they'll get paid.
— Il Pomodoro (@dabenner.bsky.social) September 30, 2025 at 6:37 PM
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Q: When he tried to hand you that Trump 2028 hat, what was your reaction?
JEFFRIES: They just randomly appeared in the middle of the meeting on the desk. It was the strangest thing ever. I just looked at the hat, looked at JD Vance & said, 'Don't you got a problem with this?' He said, 'No comment.'— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) September 30, 2025 at 10:19 PM
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this is the third time Donald Trump has shut down the government while his party controls both houses of Congress
— post malone ergo propter malone (@proptermalone.bsky.social) October 1, 2025 at 12:11 AM
we went nearly 40 years without that particular bonehead thing happening and then President Deals did it three times
— post malone ergo propter malone (@proptermalone.bsky.social) October 1, 2025 at 12:18 AM
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This is Donald Trump’s shutdown.
— Senator Tammy Baldwin (@baldwin.senate.gov) September 30, 2025 at 7:23 PM
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the president of the united states wants to use the american military to kill american citizens on american soil. that's the whole story!
— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) September 30, 2025 at 10:43 AM
regular reminder that "he wants" ≠ "he will"
— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) September 30, 2025 at 10:50 AM
like, the fact that they felt this spectacle was necessary is itself evidence that they don't have the military support that they want
— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) September 30, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Looks like he still doesn’t
— Rubare DiPugno (@rubaredipugno.bsky.social) September 30, 2025 at 10:56 AM
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— 123simco.bsky.social (@123simco.bsky.social) September 30, 2025 at 9:07 AM
On The Road – BigJimSlade – Alps 2025 – Milan, Saas-Fee, Chamonix and Courmayeur, part 6
Baud
Speaking of Vance, reposted.
MagdaInBlack
The flaccid tank barrel is a nice understated bit of perfection.
mrmoshpotato
It’s his bone spurs! Oh, wait, no – it’s Dump’s sucking of Kremlin cock since at least 1987.
Princess
The third Trump shutdown *while* controlling all three branches of government, plus scotus. Yeesh.
mrmoshpotato
@MagdaInBlack: Why is Kegsbreath naked?! LMAO!
satby
@MagdaInBlack: The entire cartoon, from crosseyed Kash, to Rubio running behind and RFKjr gutting the eagle, to a ball-less Kegsbreath is pure artistry.
Jeffro
“my offer is this…nothing” – America’s generals in response to trump, we hope
p.a
@Jeffro: Best guess: they deploy. No weapons: garbage detail.
suzanne
@mrmoshpotato: Drawing him naked is picking up on the exhibitionist freak show vibe Kegsbreath brings to the Cabinet. (Meanwhile, RFK appears to be a never-nude.)
But, in the spirit of praising Democrats doing good work…… good job, Senator Professor Warren. Influencing the influencers strikes me as a good thing to try. I have noted here before that I think the mainstream media has never been so irrelevant, and that is becoming truer with each passing day. So f those guys.
Baud
@Princess:
SCOTUS doesn’t really have a role in budgetary matters.
Although they may if Trump follows through on his attempt to use the shutdown to cause harm.
Geminid
@Jeffro: This morning’s Politico Playbook tells me that House Democrats will hold a press conference today at 11:15am. We’ll see how Jeffries and company fight the battle for public opinion.
Also, the White House has withdrawn Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni’s nomination for director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Antoni’s old Tweets did him in.
Ocotillo
First of all, Anne Laurie thank you for your tireless work it is such a joy to stumble to the front of my computer with coffee in the mornings and know there will be a post from you on Balloon Juice.
Second, my pet peeve with Tammy Baldwin’s statement is we need to hang all of this horror show on Republicans, not just Trump. When the old bastard keels over they will still be here needing to be fought.
Baud
@Geminid:
Which black Dem did he say nice things about?
NotMax
Some days I feel as if I took the brown acid. Repeatedly.
;)
Baud
Shutdowns, like recessions, are mostly Republican affairs. But it’s gauche to observe the pattern.
lowtechcyclist
Since “Reading Rainbow” is front-paged, I must share Jimmy Fallon performing it in the style of Jim Morrison and The Doors.
MagdaInBlack
@satby: Certainly does illustrate what Gov Walz said: Weirdos.
Ignorant and dangerous freaks and weirdos. And now they’re in charge.
NotMax
@Baud
“It’s not a recession, it’s a pre-boom.”
//
Van Buren
@Baud: Kind of surprising they didn’t try to blame it on youthful indiscretions and brazen it out.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
1) Thank goodness.
2) Now let’s brace ourselves for whoever they find who’ll likely even worse for this position.
MagdaInBlack
@lowtechcyclist: Lol. Nice =-)
Chief Oshkosh
It is still so grating that the MSM reports ALL of this, the fucked-in-the head “rally with the troops”, the shutdown, the House on vacay, ALL of it as just a difference of opinion, or maybe partisan squabbling, of maybe just a fucking accident of nature.
The view from nowhere
ETA: And yes, thank you AL for the great OPs
ETA2: And the hilarity in the Oval at the shutdown meeting — Trump and his squad just LOVE that they’re going to bring more pain to government workers. It thrills them.
Suzanne
@MagdaInBlack:
I frequently muse on how many of our social problems could be avoided/reduced if we brought people up in more supportive environments and were more accepting of human differences. In all ways. I think Kegsbreath (and much of the GOP) has some sublimated sexual stuff going on. But there’s a reason we often say, “It’s always projection!” and are so frequently correct.
Baud
I’m familiar enough with Reddit that it’s interesting and funny identifying troll posts and comments looking to turn conversations against Dems whenever events like this happen.
Stay safe out there, kids.
Geminid
@Van Buren: It sounds like they could not get enough Senate support to push Antoni’s nomination through. The Playbook report said that Senators Collins and Murkowski, who serve on the relevant committee, refused to even meet with Antoni.
MagdaInBlack
@Suzanne: I agree. This group of people also, I guess, illustrate what happens when differences are repressed. Need (pain?) always finds an outlet, and unfortunately, that outlet is often times destructive, to both the person and those around them.
Librettist
@Van Buren:
Charlie was the one that smoothed over the internal dichotomies, and gave reach arounds across the aisle.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Geminid
@rikyrah: Good morning.
narya
One of the things I found interesting (and disgusting) is that Mango needed to be told that the military folks in the room wouldn’t applaud. It’s his second term, FFS, and he still has absolutely NO idea what the proper posture is. And having heard extended clips from both him and Kegbreath, I cannot imagine that many folks in that room were supporters. Yeah, probably some–I have no way of estimating the true percentage–but a majority?
Librettist
The hat just means no one on the staff thinks he is lasting past the new year, much less to the mid-terms.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Suzanne: I’ve never seen a man less certain of his masculinity than Hegseth seems to be.
iKropoclast
My opinion that you don’t deserve full rights and maybe should die is a perfectly valid opinion. And if you can’t disagree with me politely as I call for your disenfranchisement and death, you have no respect for open discourse.
schrodingers_cat
Is Warren speaking with White Women Whisperers?
Suzanne
@MagdaInBlack: Yes, strong agree. And it’s really almost every kind of difference. All the bigotries we talk about here all the time, but also just all the differences in interests and personality and upbringing and acculturation we have. It’s just pervasive, it seems for our culture to be judgmental and unkind.
I often think about my grandmother, SuzMom’s mom. I grew up living in a home with her, but we weren’t close. She was a stereotypical 1950s housewife, hooked on Valium (such a cliche). Letters between them that we found from when my grandfather was in the war indicate that they had plenty of prejudice against Japanese people during that time, but after the war, she made lifelong friends, more like sisterly bonds, with a Japanese woman and her family who moved to their neighborhood after being released from an internment camp. So my grandmother was capable of growth and learning. But she adhered to the ideals of the time in terms of being a homemaker (which she hated), and then a secretary at the high school (which she loved). And she struggled with depression her whole life. I often wonder about how different she might have been, how much happier, if she hadn’t been acculturated into marrying at 19, if she had gotten an education and gotten to travel and meet more people and experience some single-girl life, if she had gotten more choices about how to spend her time, if she had gotten real and sustained mental health care. I know all of her kids have worked over their lives to break some cycles they were taught, about how to better be in the world and cultivate more acceptance for difference, how to break out of expectations. But it’s the work of a lifetime. Several lifetimes, TBH.
Baud
Via reddit, RFK Jr’s next target after mifepristone.
Baud
Why is BJ asking me if I’m human all of a sudden?
schrodingers_cat
T2.0 was a message by his voters to all non white and non male voters that we choose our worst over your best.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Redis knows what you did.
schrodingers_cat
I think I have asked this before is anyone here going to do Inktober?
The Thin Black Duke
@schrodingers_cat: Whatever works.
Princess
@Baud: Yeah, I’m thinking they’re a backstop for any weirdness he might pull. Or in fact the absence of a backstop.
The Thin Black Duke
@Baud: Busted.
Jeffg166
The mediocrity of incompetence on display.
different-church-lady
I don’t want to dump on Warren’s efforts, but if that information isn’t “how to win over enough of a horrible electorate that wants racism and hatred” then we still have a problem.
In other words: it’s not that the message isn’t getting out, it’s that too many people actively want the thrill of hurting others. Sound policy re-wrapped with a dance beat ain’t gonna solve that.
Layer8Problem
“I don’t get it, Jodl and Keitel would have been doing the macarena in front of the guests at Berchtesgaden if their president ordered it! Where can I get generals like that?”
different-church-lady
@Baud: Well… are you, punk?
JML
@Baud: seems right; this administration is all about breaking stuff that works, especially if it keeps women and minorities alive.
The kind of damage these morons are doing is staggering.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@schrodingers_cat: And they were saying it to a sizeable minority of white voters too, those who understood the disaster that a second maladministration would cause.
iKropoclast
So my Dad is watching another WW2 documentary, as he does. This one is about Mengele. Some of the footage included an image of a metal cross among another Nazi artifacts.
This looks like the same cross on Hegseth’s chest, or am I crazy
ETA: Found an image. This symbol appears to significantly predate the Nazis, but they apparently liked it. So what’s Hegseth’s deal?
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@different-church-lady: Does “feeding racists and bullies feet-first into a meat grinder” count as “the thrill of hurting others?” Because the only people I want to really hurt are those who get off on deliberately causing pain to others.
NotMax
@Layer8Problem
Newly minted four star general Barron will handle it.
//
Baud
@different-church-lady:
It’s both. We underestimate the number of people who don’t accept our message and overestimate the number of people who hear our message IMHO. Regular folks aren’t engaging in the same conversations as the liberal Internet.
different-church-lady
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Hey, sometimes I share you fantasy, but I still get no thrill from it.
The Thin Black Duke
@Jeffg166: Back in the day when Chris Rock used to be funny, Rock had a bit where he said to the audience, “There isn’t a white man here who would trade places with me and I’m rich. That’s how good it is to be white in America.” There isn’t a reality in the multiverse where a black or brown person would be allowed to be as stupid as Trump shows us every single day. Even now white people are trying to blame Kamala Harris for how they voted in 2024.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
That’s between me and CAPTCHA.
Layer8Problem
@NotMax: And this Senate would confirm him too.
different-church-lady
@The Thin Black Duke:
For christ’s sake man, she’s a woman of color! What did you want them to do?!? (Do I really need to add /s?)
Matt McIrvin
@narya: I’m guessing a majority of them, if not a large majority, voted for him, twice.
And are now regretting that intensely.
Fester Addams
Well I don’t know (but I have been told) an important part of military leadership is being able to ascertain the person in front of you is a fucking moron.
Suzanne
@different-church-lady:
There’s a fair amount of bigotry that is borne out of ignorance and shortsightedness rather than contempt. Which is not to say that it is okay. It is to say, however, that some of those people are educable or that they might be able to be convinced that Dems are better on issues they care about.
Dems used to get a lot of racist (sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, religiously bigoted, etc) white people’s votes. Hell, we probably still do.
different-church-lady
@Fester Addams: I really gotta learn how to do that.
Betty Cracker
Bouie’s observation above bears repeating:
All the power and dominance spectacles are designed to paper over weakness. Maybe Trump himself doesn’t even know that, but it’s always true of authoritarians.
stinger
@satby:
I would note that there are more women in that one tank than Kegsbreath wants in the entire military.
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The way Hegseth comes back over and over to how things LOOK is telling. He’s a man marinated in Internet macho brainrot.
I keep thinking of a thing that happened online back before Russia invaded Ukraine. There was this Russian Army recruitment commercial going around online that showed all these incredibly ripped sweaty white guys doing macho things to (an honestly thrilling) Russian male-voice-choir soundtrack, and it got passed around in the right-wing noise bubble with all these people saying the Russian Army could clearly whip the asses of our pussified feminized DEI military in a hot minute. And they seemed not for a moment to even consider that they were looking at a TV commercial and this was all on the basis of advertising aesthetics. They thought that macho aesthetics are how you win wars. It’s this completely superficial idea of the world.
frosty
@iKropoclast: The Iron Cross was a medal from Prussia and Germany from 1813 to 1945 and is now the emblem of the current German armed forces.
If Hegseth is really wearing it, that’s disturbing.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Cross
SFAW
@Baud:
It finally sussed out that your nym/nom is actually pronounced “bot.”
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
And women.
iKropoclast
I voted for Kamala Harris and you damn well better believe that Kamala Harris was front of my mind when making that decision.
schrodingers_cat
Is NYT as bothered about this meeting yesterday as it was over Hillary’s email server?
Deputinize America
Scoldy schoolmarm Liz is running a fine campaign for 2014z
Time to retire.
I find her as utterly useless as RBG’s “I Dissent” campaign.
SFAW
@Baud:
Except they spell it “wimmen.”
SFAW
@schrodingers_cat:
The FTFTFNYT is waiting for the Bezos Post to break the ice on that one.
different-church-lady
@frosty: Oh he really is “wearing” it permanently. As in ink.
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker:
Yes. They are also there, in a deeply visual culture, to serve as a simulacrum of Doing Things.
This was one of the biggest giveaways, IMO, that the liberal internet was not understanding the vibe of the present day. The whole idea that, “we wanted the president to be boring, to not think about it!”. No way. Revealed preference indicates that people want short, easy-to-digest visual spectacles and entertainment and merch.
Librettist
The pursed lip thing on those influencer’s publicity shots. It doesn’t speak well of their audience.
Karen Gail
@iKropoclast:
What he is wearing is often called “crusaders cross” or Jerusalem cross. It has become a symbol of white supremacy.
Jerusalem cross – Wikipedia
iKropoclast
@frosty: If Hegseth is really wearing it, that’s disturbing.
Five of them, in formation.
stinger
@Baud: Finally!
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Ha, I was just watching a video about that–how if you survey women “do you prefer guy 1 or guy 2” the majority of them don’t go for the steroidal lantern-jawed veiny bodybuilder aesthetic; they generally prefer guys who are, well, fitter-looking than I’ve ever been, but not what dudes would consider a gigachad. And some of them really go for twinky Timothée Chalamet types.
And then if you ask men about that, they’ll insist the women are lying.
Basically, what they think women consider an attractive man is what THEY consider an attractive man. And then they get confused when it doesn’t always work that way.
schrodingers_cat
OT: This is the coloring page from Hanna Karlzon’s Summer Nights, that I worked on when I was in India.
iKropoclast
@Karen Gail: So the formation of the Jerusalem cross is the same, but each component cross isn’t straight lines as depicted here.
So it’s a Jerusalem Cross made of Iron Crosses.
schrodingers_cat
@Deputinize America: She is beloved among college educated white D voters. That’s her constituency.
She elicits a yawn from any group outside of that base. Just my observation. I have heard her in person several times. And I tend to tune out 5 min after she begins speaking.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: Gorgeous!
Deputinize America
@schrodingers_cat:
LOL
The Chico’s shopping (followed by a wine brunch) demographic is all in for that sort of thing.
Maybe they can compare their Longaberger basket collections after….
frosty
Haha you’re killin’ me here!!
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Thus, incels.
iKropoclast
Gross.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
It’s an important constituency. College educated white voters were a small bright spot last year.
Dems should embrace division of labor better. Everyone wants everyone else to do the same thing, and gets upset when they don’t.
frosty
@iKropoclast: But not an Iron Cross, looks like #78 got it right. Also very disturbing.
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: Men often dress/style for other men, women often do the same for other women. (Most men express preference for natural-ish makeup and long hair on women, and many women don’t do this stuff.) Which is all fine. It’s just a misreading of the purpose of style and presentation, which is probably more often about social status by standing out, rather than attracting a partner.
Aimai
@different-church-lady: i think thats a bit negative. Lots of people are only tangentially involved in politics at all. Blending our information with their entertainment has to be usefully. RFK’s woo followers in the crunchy to antivaxx pipeline didn’t start out as full blown racists in a political sense. If we flip one ir two people thats an unmitigated good.
zhena gogolia
@iKropoclast: Yeah, and I don’t appreciate the mocking of Chico’s!
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Agreed. Was just making an observation.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Nothing against Chico’s but their sizing is so weird.
EW is pretty skinny and quite tall. I have no idea why she dresses so frumpy
I think she belongs to a generation where frumpy==serious.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Or, for that matter, of The Man.
:)
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Thanks so much. Mostly done in water color and ink because that’s what I had in India. I only had one small set of pencils.
Suzanne
@Baud:
Seriously. Everybody has their favorites and that’s fine. There are people who love AOC in Idaho and they’re probably more likely to show up to vote for their local Dem candidate if we can be inclusive of all the different flavors of Democrats.
We have a broad range of pols, and we really need to bring everybody along. And pick up a few more, while we’re at it.
schrodingers_cat
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah I have seen that dynamic on social media. And their proof is the covers of romance novels like Harlequin and Mills and Boon.
iKropoclast
@frosty: Yes, but look closer at each component cross of the Jerusalem Cross.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne:
So maybe what we should have had is a parliamentary republic where the President is basically an elected constitutional monarch, a flashy embodiment of the zeitgeist, with only theoretical powers that could easily be taken from him if he actually threw his weight around. Congress elects a Chief Secretary who runs the real executive branch.
Suzanne
@Deputinize America:
I will just note that mocking the things women like as frivolous/unserious is one of the more common manifestations of misogyny. You don’t like Warren and that’s fine.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Or conversely, they compare their local Dem candidate to AOC and are disappointed.
That’s a bigger danger to me.
(It works the other way too. Some centrist voter doesn’t vote for their local Dem because they see AOC and think all Dems are too far left).
iKropoclast
???
Dorothy A. Winsor
@schrodingers_cat: Is Chico’s the place that has sizes 1, 2, 3? It’s very weird. I like some of their stuff though
Deputinize America
@schrodingers_cat:
As a beyond-college educated white voter, I find her voice grating, her speech pattern tedious, and her priorities as stated to be inadequately strategized. Reminds me of a professor who has infested an endowed chair well past her sell-by date.
AOC and Jasmine Crockett are the future. White women in Congress and the electorate have fucked up by the numbers.
piratedan
@schrodingers_cat: My guess is that since white women voted for GOP candidates in numbers that most of us would be surprised at, perhaps it’s wise to reach out and make an effort to build support there.
Another Scott
@Matt McIrvin: Speaking of which…
I had the RedSox game on ESPN briefly last night and saw an ad for the new Dwayne Johnson movie.
I mean, maybe it’s great, maybe it’s a compelling story and he’ll get an Oscar, but the images in the trailer just grossed me out. You couldn’t pay me enough to willingly go to see that.
People are weird.
Best wishes,
Scott.
eclare
@schrodingers_cat:
Agreed about weird sizing at Chico’s. I looked at a store years ago and quickly discovered that there was nothing for a short person. Maybe that’s changed, I don’t know.
schrodingers_cat
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I think so. I have seen some of their stuff at a really nice thrift/consignment store I sometimes go to. And I can never make sense of their sizing. They do seem to use good quality materials in their garments. I haven’t taken a close look at the stitching and seams.
schrodingers_cat
@Deputinize America: How good is her scholarly work? IANAL so unable to judge. Academically she is/was an expert on bankruptcy laws IIRC. Her views on trade are headscratchers. I am so old that I remember that she was one of the leading voices to kill TPP during the Obama admin.
My views of EW are based on what I have seen of her political skills and policy views not just how she looks and how she speaks. Although the last two are pretty important for politicians.
Soprano2
@Suzanne: I’ve wondered the same thing about both of my parents. They met when they were in their early teens, never dated anyone else, and got married at the age of 21. I was determined not to repeat that pattern, and I didn’t.
Matt McIrvin
@schrodingers_cat: obviously SOME women go for really big guys. Someone here was just going on about the hotness of Jason Momoa, who is an absolute monster. But there’s a lot of variation and there’s also a difference between, say, the look of Fabio and John Cena.
Jackie
@Geminid:
Will Faux News and other rightwing outlets cover it live? If they’re only covered by MSM, the Democrats will only be preaching to the choir, so to speak.
iKropoclast
This, I hope, is true. But why does their advancement have to come at the expense of another Democrat that isn’t even in the same house of Congress?
I’m aware of the ice-floe-centric nature of your demands to purify the party along your lines. Still gross
ETA: And stop making me defend Warren. I’m big mad at her. But this is like Republican attacks on Hillary, you’re way out of line.
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: Not the worst idea ever. I have often thought that the real purpose of the European royals is to kind of scratch the emotional itch of people to have some sort of parasocial relationship with the country.
It’s very difficult for most people, even people like us who try to be aware of things like the inflation rate or changes in the tax code, to have a sense of how much progress or change is happening at the federal level. If things are effective or ineffective. It can feel so disconnected from one’s personal life or neighborhood. All that ribbon-cutting stuff, big signs on the highway, photo ops and media events, etc etc etc…. they’re all essentially to capture attention and create the feeling that the things we are doing are creating the change you want to see. All very lizard-brained stuff, but performance and imagecraft are components of communication and messaging.
Baud
@Jackie:
Eh, our choir unfortunately needs a lot of preaching to.
schrodingers_cat
@Matt McIrvin: I like smart guys. No matter how pretty someone is, if someone is stupid that can get old fast.
Soprano2
@The Thin Black Duke: That’s the definition of “white privilege” in a nutshell.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
Getting snotty about potential voters who align more with our values than the GOPs and who could be persuaded to vote for us is partly why we are in this mess. If you have this Junior High School need to mock potential voters, spend that energy on mocking the people who will vote red until they are dead. I want a bigger tent so we actually win elections. I’m actually fine if that means we are less ‘pure.’ Diversity of thought and perspective extends well beyond skin color. I believe it makes us stronger.
jonas
@iKropoclast: Karen Gail is right — this is a Crusader cross tattoo. It’s part of a neo-Nazi/white supremacist/Christian nationalist subculture with big anti-Muslim, antisemitic overtones. “Defend the White Homeland via Religious Purges” is the very unsubtle message. Why is the Secretary of Defense wearing what amount to prison gang tatoos? Because that’s apparently where we are as a nation. Fucked up and unserious.
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: I think Kegsbreath was creating TV clips for himself. When I saw the set up and how much it looked like the famous scene from “Patton”, I figured that was exactly what the purpose of this idiocy was. This could have easily been a Zoom, but then he wouldn’t get the visuals he craves. These people are all consumed with how things look, and don’t care that much about actual competence. They treat reality as if it’s a reality show.
iKropoclast
There are different kinds of big, muscled guys too. Short version, Jason Momoa is a beefcake, but he isn’t hideously veiny or so overly muscled it has eliminated his neck.
Makes a big difference.
He’s also charming as hell.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: I do think the “parliamentary America” scheme wouldn’t work without also either eliminating the Senate or reducing its power to something on the level of the UK House of Lords.
narya
Handwringers about outreach: “We have to reach out and educate voters.”
Warren: “Here’s some info that might help with some demographics we need.”
Handwringers:: “Not like THAT.”
FFS, I get that not everyone likes Warren. I personally think she does an excellent job laying out the stakes and processes and goals; YMMV. But the immediate pile-on (and misogyny) is quite tiresome.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: No, of course not. They probably didn’t notice that FFOTUS ranted at them like the addled old man he is, either.
prostratedragon
@The Thin Black Duke: Preach! (And that was probably Chris Rock’s funniest routine.)
Suzanne
@Baud: Yes, definitely a potential double-edged sword. But I think people need to see themselves reflected in the party to feel like they have a place there, especially younger people.
As someone who lived in a red-ass state for a long time, and reliably showed up to vote and volunteer for a lot of deeply underwhelming people (Sinema and Glassman, I’m looking at you!)….. I often justified it to myself by saying that I was effectively helping the better Democrats who I didn’t get to vote for.
Matt McIrvin
@jonas: Note also, ICE and the administration are declaring Hispanic-looking immigrants to be narcoterrorist gang members on the basis of THEIR tattoos.
Belafon
@different-church-lady: Let me know when you figure that out so I can use it here in Texas.
Deputinize America
@piratedan:
When white women roared in numbers too big to ignore, it seemed like it was about having their kids go to good (translation: white) schools with good (translation: white, well-off) kids and not to have to put up with icky racial and cultural differences.
They were strong and invincible about Roe as well.
Soprano2
Don’t be dumping on Chico’s, that’s a fantastic store! (and yeah, I’m in that demographic).
Belafon
@The Thin Black Duke: Someone made a similar comment on bsky that a white person wouldn’t trade places with a black person, and I did offer to trade places with Courtney B. Vance.
Baud
@Suzanne:
They also need to look for it. People today seemed trained to find others who are different from them in order to hate them.
You had the right attitude IMHO. A lot of people don’t.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: I’ve heard her say that she doesn’t want to have to think about her clothes too much, that’s why she dresses like that. I wish she’d put on a necklace, that would add a lot to her outfits.
ETA – Chico’s sizing is different, but once you get used to it not a big deal. All women’s sizing is weird!
Quiltingfool
I admire Senator Warren. I like smart people. I sense some of you here don’t care for her personality, speaking style, etc. and that’s fine.
I guess you aren’t happy about the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau, which she created, right? Boring, scoldy, old schoolmarm Warren tried to help ordinary Americans.
Tell you what – you don’t like Warren as your Senator? I’ll trade you Warren for one of my Senators; you can have Hawley or that other buffoon, Schmidt or Schitt or whatever his name is. Deal?
Ohio Mom
@Suzanne: Ohio Family actually went to Longenberger headquarters, long ago when they were still a big thing.
It was on the way home from the Wilds Safari Park (highly recommend with one caveat, go on first tour of the day. The keepers put breakfast down on the road so animals are more likely to be hanging out there and visible, later on in the day they retreat to shady spots and valleys where they are harder to see).
Anyway, our goal was to see the basket building and the other two giant baskets. We were getting hungry for lunch and saw that part of the Longenberger campus included a restaurant so off we went for the full experience.
The crowd there consisted of middle-aged and older obese women in cheap, clingy teeshirts and elastic-banded pants, accompanied by obese and very bored husbands.
Too long/didn’t read: The Longenberger crowd had neither the money, taste or desire for shopping at Chico’s. I’m not even sure Chico’s carries their sizes.
schrodingers_cat
@narya: Well I find all the fawning around EW cringe. She is boring and preachy.
I have voted for her, and even collected signatures to get her on the ballot. (Its a requirement in MA). Not once but twice.
And my opinion of her is as valid as that of the amen chorus on BJ.
If you don’t like it. Mute my comments.
Belafon
@Deputinize America: Yet we still need their votes.
In the rankings of people that need to retire, she’s nowhere near the top of the list. The guy representing the state to her north, on the other hand…
piratedan
@Deputinize America: I believe that any outreach that gets done to garner more Dem voters is a good thing. I applaud the reality that my political inclinations are more in alignment with POC, but I just see that as not seeking an advantage, but fairness, compassion and tolerance (you know those Christian principles that apparently a lot of supposed Christians disdain) in how you deal with the actions of government. Seeing all people as citizens and where they come from, how they worship, who they love as being irrelevant.
Granted, that’s some radical ass shit for circa 2025, but that’s where I am…
Soprano2
@Suzanne: When my husband would say something about women and shopping, I’d say “Let’s take you to Lowe’s and see how much you hate to shop”. For many men you can say Harbor Freight or Bass Pro, it’s the same. What they really mean is that they think the things women like to shop for are frivolous, while the things they like to shop for are important.
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: Sad but true.
@Soprano2: Fascism-flavored content creation, as someone on Bluesky called it.
@narya: Yep.
schrodingers_cat
@Quiltingfool: I have voted for her twice, canvassed for her. I just don’t go gaga over her like her core base
The reactions on this page prove my initial point that she has a base and BJ is a good
representation of that base. But not everyone (not even all Ds) are charmed.
She was third in the 2020 presidential primaries in MA. After Biden and Sanders. Her appeal outside her base is limited. That is not criticism that is reality.
IIRC she did not win Amherst, which is home to 5 UMass, Amherst College and Hampshire College.
Anyway
@Deputinize America:
Can we stopping piling on Ds?!?!?! Schoolmarms are great – no need to use a MAGAt caricature.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: 😂 Took me a second.
Anyway
Thanks Baud!
iKropoclast
David Attenborough voice:
zhena gogolia
@iKropoclast: In the comment you’re replying to.
Betty Cracker
@Quiltingfool: Same, and I’ll see your offer of Hawley and raise you a Rick Scott and the vapid twit who replaced Rubio.
Suzanne
@Baud: Yes, of course people need to look for it. But people are looking at a lot. The “attention economy” is a real thing. Any effort that pols make to break through and grab attention is helpful, IMO.
I have noted before that I have a different relationship with AOC than I do with any other pol — and I have never voted for her and I may never do so. I literally know what lip gloss she wears (Stila’s Beso). I read beauty magazines while waiting in the lobby for my haircut, and she crosses my attention. She’s good at that, and it’s because she thinks that getting attention on behalf of herself and the things she cares about is a critical part of her job, and part of being on Team Dem. This sounds like Warren is doing something similar, within her wheelhouse, and I absolutely applaud that. Rather than snarking on her for reaching out to her people….. a wiser reaction would be to get other Dems to do so toward others. Young men could stand to hear from some of our younger Dem dudes more.
Soprano2
@Quiltingfool: I would take that trade in a second, too!
iKropoclast
@zhena gogolia: Unless I’m missing something, the only names entities in that comment were Elizabeth Warren and RBG.
The good news is I have since sussed out that Chico’s appears to be a women’s clothing store.
Anyway
Exactly! Dumping on a core D demo is ridiculous.
satby
@stinger: good catch!
Belafon
@narya: And the CFPB was such a good idea that Republicans had to gut it to make it stop working.
zhena gogolia
@iKropoclast: Deputinize was using Chico’s shoppers as an exemplar of the demographic he was mocking. I have found Chico’s to be (sometimes) a lifesaver. Try to find a nice dress to wear to an evening event but that you can also wear elsewhere since you almost never go to evening events. And no sequins!
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: They have a size comparison chart on their Web site. In “regular” sizes I usually wear Medium, and 10 or 12. In Chico’s sizes I wear a 1 or a 1.5. They also have some petites on their Web site, but not nearly enough IMHO.
Quiltingfool
I get griping about Democratic Reps and Senators, it’s okay to criticize. At least you HAVE an elected Democrat representing your state TO gripe at!
I’m in Missouri. I’d love to have a Democrat to gripe about. Instead, I’ve got Republicans who aren’t interested in the needs of Missourians, they just vie to see who can be the best Trump ass kisser.
Some of you are bitching about your shoes, but some of us don’t have any feet…
Jeffg166
@The Thin Black Duke:
I asked my 90 year old Nazi neighbor if he would like to be black in America. His response was if I was rich. He still doesn’t get it.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Another Scott: I had similar thoughts about The Long Walk. It’s supposedly a great story, from one of Stephen King’s better works, well-done, a great villain in Mark Hamill, but you couldn’t get me to watch it if you put a knife to my throat. I just … can’t.
lowtechcyclist
@NotMax:
Just so long as they like Groucho and Harpo.
Soprano2
@zhena gogolia: My closet is full of Chico’s, White House Black Market, The Limited (sob) and Banana Republic clothes, with some Land’s End thrown in. Chico’s has interesting, different clothes than the other clothing stores, that’s why I was drawn to them.
iKropoclast
@zhena gogolia: Yes, I found it. Too much misogyny on this thread, I hadn’t attributed all of it.
Deputinize America
@narya:
They can’t be educated.
The shit I overheard from white women running up to November 2024 was jaw-dropping.
satby
@schrodingers_cat: HEY NOW!
Frumpy old ladies of the world, unite!
danielx
@Baud:
Well, you know, it’s out there…to quote somebody. Doubts have been expressed.
Suzanne
@Ohio Mom: I literally have no idea what a Longenberger basket is, but it’s gross to crap on things women like because one thinks they’re silly. Most people have some less serious things they enjoy collecting or experiencing. That’s a normal part of being a person and it indicates nothing about morals or intellect.
As for Chico’s, I have never bought anything there, but they are the corporate parent of White House Black Market, which is where I have purchased some of my work clothes. Michelle Obama raised their profile once by going on The View and saying that she shopped there. I will note that Chico’s clothes are primarily targeted to middle-age-and-older women, and using it as a synecdoche in this way belies what one may think about middle-age-and-older women.
Quiltingfool
@schrodingers_cat: I don’t go gaga over ANY politician. EVER. Fastest way to be disappointed, I think.
I have known for a very long time that no politician is ever going to do everything that I like. So it’s okay if I disapprove of them occasionally. For example, I think Obama was a great president; however, I wasn’t thrilled with his education secretary and thought he could do a bit better with public education. I do understand he was doing what he thought was best, I just didn’t agree!
schrodingers_cat
@Quiltingfool: As a senator I have no complaints against her. I have done my fair share in both her senatorial elections since I became a citizen. I just am not a part of her cult that’s all.
Karen Gail
A piece about Hegseth’s tattoos;
No matter what Pete Hegseth says, his tattoos are anything but typical symbols of Christianity
trnc
They have the same role in budgetary as they do in any policy matter – indirect by way of rulings, but highly influential. Allowing Trump to spend or not spend as he sees fit will have a huge impact, as will giving him the ability to sidestep congress on how agencies function (or not).
Suzanne
@iKropoclast:
It is specifically a women’s clothing store targeting the 40-and-up demographic, once menopause and other body changes start to make themselves present, and presumably one needs more clothes for professional and casual occasions rather than a nightclub. Fairly spendy for me, but if I needed an outfit for a special occasion, I might go there.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@schrodingers_cat: One of the proudest moments of my life was when my teenaged son said girls who weren’t smart were boring
WTFGhost
You know, I think if you make flag rank, you have at least a master’s degree in learning from experience, and maybe an actual accredited one. You’re not just the product of a liberal arts education, but of graduate work. You need to do a lot of reading, and writing, and you need to know how to whip a problem into a resolvable shape, even if the source of the problem isn’t yet apparent to anyone, yet.
You need to be really smart. There wasn’t a single really smart person, to advise Trump and our Secretary of WarCraft that their bullshit would go over like a cowflop? Because, see, bulls… never mind, explaining a joke ruins it.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: Where it gets gross is that I think a lot of male heterosexual behavior toward women is actually performance for other men.
My theory of the incel subculture is that a lot of those guys really aren’t that interested in any kind of relationship with a woman; what they want is a woman who will enhance their status among other men. And the inability to confront that fact and just back off until/unless they ever are actually interested in women causes them a lot of cognitive dissonance and mental stress.
schrodingers_cat
@Dorothy A. Winsor: You did good as a mom!
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’m surprised that Trump or Hesgeth hasn’t dubbed loud applause into clips from yesterday’s show.
satby
@Anyway: note, it’s mostly older female Dems, i.e. Warren, Clinton, Ginsburg. Misogyny with a heaping helping of ageism. Bonus points for critiques on their voices.
eclare
@schrodingers_cat:
Ron White: you can’t fix stupid.
Scout211
Maybe we can bitch less about certain Democratic voters and more about things like this. (Trump’s statement to the military to use US cities as training ground for war fighting).
Trump and his band of nasty minions are worthy of our bitching, but whole groups of Democratic voters? Really?
And then maybe we could praise the Democratic pols who fight the good fight.
Thank you, Governor Pritzker.
Betty Cracker
Lotta sexist assholery stinking up this thread today. Y’all have fun. I’m gonna go open a window and turn on a fan…
schrodingers_cat
@satby: I love HRC. She is my hero. Chef’s kiss, her spot on critique of the Maplesugar Messiah.
lowtechcyclist
@Deputinize America:
Clearly white women are all clones of each other, so that shit you heard from some of them means none of them are reachable.
Belafon
@Matt McIrvin: That and someone to do the chores.
Geminid
@Jackie: Plenty of unaffiliated and/or not-politically-engaged voters watch mainstram media. They are the target sudience here, along with Democrats who want reassurance.
Suzanne
@Deputinize America:
Guess what I heard from white dudes.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Every criticism of your personal hero is not sexist.
WW as a demographic want to speak for all women but when it comes to voting, its fuck you, non-ww you are on your own
WW calling KH a coconut (as a joke ofcourse) or a cop: Progressive
Not falling and worshipping EW: Misogynist.
WTFGhost
Yes, I loved how Heinlein once referenced collections of naval officers, one of whom was into stamp collecting, and another who had an impressively pretty collection of women’s undergarments.
You can just bet if the second was closeted, he scorned feminine fripperies of all types, to shed suspicion. Some men never quite get past the “girls are icky” stage of pre-pubescence, they just get rid of the “pre” and start fucking up in all kinds of ways.
(Damn, I’m cynical this morning.)
satby
Changing topics because misogyny is BORING: Charlie Pierce:
In a Brutal Ruling Against Trump, a U.S. Judge Asked the Question That Will Determine America’s Fate
David Collier-Brown
@different-church-lady:
It’s something of a circular dependency. Citizens who can no longer have “the american dream” are pissed off at government. That encourages them to look for someone to blame and therefor harm.
Progressive parties need to address both the “what are we doing for ordinary folks” question and the “stop blaming the people your rulers want you to hate” one. Doing just one make doing the remaining one exponentially harder.
iKropoclast
Scoldy schoolmarm, she needs a necklace, her voice is irritating, frumpy
Those criticisms are sexist
You know better
*Someone missed their calling to demand a smile
WTFGhost
@Another Scott: I think people who are becoming numbed to certain images seek out more extreme versions of the images, rather than, you know, think about other, more important things for a while. Maybe that’s why there’s more extreme musings about crime – there’s so much about crime and evil and violence in our entertainment, and entertainment does seed ideas (good and bad),
Suzanne
@WTFGhost: Countless men (and women) will sit in a chair for hours and watch other people play a game, and they get emotionally invested in the outcome. This is considered normal — and it is. And no one ever makes insinuations about their character or their intellect or their seriousness.
But I’ll take notice that a women-coded activity such as a “wine brunch” — another totally normal thing to do on a Sunday — comes with wink-wink-nudge-nudge derision and implications of frivolousness and irrationality.
Anyway
It’s the schoolmarm dig that got me — RThugs constantly use that or similar label for female D politicians. Find some other stereotype to dis female pols.
Deputinize America
@Suzanne:
Oh, white guys are irredeemably worse – as a demographic, white dudes SUCK. I live in a red pustule outside the deep blue city where I grew up and still work. It was purple when I moved here, but is now full of mouth-frothing MAGAts, both men and women. It’s the far western edge of Massie’s sprawling district, and experienced a huge influx of heroic evangelical paper shufflers, the odd money handler and their shopaholic partners over the past 10-15 years.
We do NOTHING in this community anymore besides going to the grocery. Our social lives are bound to the city.
The Thin Black Duke
New Rule: Democrats are not the enemy, regardless of how we might feel about how they use their specific skill set in getting things done. That’s how politics work. Republicans are the enemy. At this point in time, I ain’t gonna say nothing bad about Democrats because Republicans own the MSM, so they’re going to make sure that negative coverage of Democrats by Democrats about Democrats is all that the public is going to hear. I’m not going to contribute and amplify to the “Democrats in Disarray” narrative. It’s demoralizing and counterproductive.
Geminid
@Suzanne: Yes, not the worst idea ever.
But this one might be: Crou-Tots. My local radio station* informs me that Ore-Ida, the Tater Tots creator, is rolling out potato-based croutons. They’ll test the Crou-Tots in the LA, Chicago, Atlanta, New York and *Pittsburgh* markets. I hope you will report back after testing them.
Ed. That would be WSVA-550AM out of Harrisonburg, Virginia. The Charlottesville station is closer actually, but they take themselves too seriously. WSVA is more fun, plus I like the agriculture news.
iKropoclast
Meanwhile, I’m a white supremacist because I’ve expressed reluctance to vote three years in the future for :;checks notes:: Gavin Newsom.
stinger
@different-church-lady:
“If” is such a small word that it’s easy to overlook. Criticizing without actually knowing is what we do here on Balloon Juice, I guess.
CCL
@The Thin Black Duke: thank you for the Rock quote.
It inspired me to do a thought experiment, I e. Who would I trade places with — gender/race non specific.
I found that the person needed to be someone to be brilliant in a field I aspire to succeed in…and be my gender. And after trying on several names, I found that I really didn’t want to trade places with anyone…though I sure wouldn’t mind being better at my craft and, well, have more money.
WTFGhost
@NotMax: Per Krugman, who I trust, the “Reagan Miracle” was precisely that – a long, grinding recession the Fed imposed to crush inflation, followed by a dull, ordinary, bog-standard expansion. Remember, everyone praised W because “the surge worked!” and we were labeled as misunderstanding the news, if we understood the surge was purely theatrical, and didn’t meaningfully change the situation on the ground – they’d just started proper anti-insurgency tactics (AT LAST!) the prior year or so.
Well, now, someone is going to try to glom credit for a 4% growth rate, even if it’s after a 8% dip.
Suzanne
@Geminid: I might try that. I have been known to hide Froot Loops in my closet so my kids don’t find them. #noshame
jowriter
@Suzanne: Agreed. There are many flavors of Democrats and Independents, and since we are supposedly the “big tent” party, it should be acceptable that our spokespeople hail from different demographics and speak in different voices with different wardrobes, etc. We get nowhere talking smack about each other’s favorite Dems; we just waste time annoying each other. Let’s take better aim at the targets who are really doing some terrible damage to our country and our fellow Americans.
lowtechcyclist
@satby:
Any excerpts? I’d had a subscription that allowed me to just read Pierce’s columns, but I guess it didn’t automatically renew, because I’m blocked as a nonsubscriber.
Suzanne
@Anyway: People hate teachers, man. That is a strong, strong bias. I forget what book I read this in, but the writer noted that it’s often men’s first interaction with women in authority and they hate it.
WTFGhost
@Baud: Yes, and the four drones following you are a courtesy we extend to all humans! Why don’t you walk, by moving muscles and bones, just like all we humans do, and stop by the rest room to oil your joints? They’re squeaking a bit.
What? Oh, yeah, and you come across this tortoise in the desert… no, I can’t do this one, it’s stupid.
iKropoclast
Most of my favorite people Ive had outside my social circle and family have been teachers
I must not be people…
billcoop4
I believe (although I’m willing to be told otherwise) that it is at least informally expected (if not required) to have completed appropriate advanced study to advance to full bird Colonel rank (and maybe lower) — many do this work at one of the War Colleges (and my friend who taught at the Naval War College indicated that he also taught folks from the Army, Navy, and Air Force (and, I suppose, the Space Force) there. Many also earn Master’s degrees through these programs.
BC in NY
Matt McIrvin
@schrodingers_cat: While I married an extremely smart woman with cool tastes and interests and probably wouldn’t be compatible with any other kind, that’s actually not the most important thing about her–her kindness and ferocious sense of justice are. But these are things you can’t necessarily detect immediately.
Geminid
@Suzanne: I’d like to see a sweet potato-based crouton.
stinger
@schrodingers_cat:
Lovely!
Miss Bianca
@Deputinize America: oh, shut up. She’s doing more to try to save the Republic than you or I. Add your disgusting sexism to your disgusting ageism and man, you really are a nasty piece of work. How about deputinizing *yourself* – you’re starting to sound like a Russian bot.
Suzanne
@iKropoclast:
SuzMom was an English teacher, my uncle was a science teacher, Mr, Suzanne is a school-based SLP (speech teacher). And tons of my friend group are teachers.
Genuinely makes me realize why the GOP is so hostile to public and higher education: many of them sucked at it and are resentful that it affected their life prospects.
Barry
@Baud: “SCOTUS doesn’t really have a role in budgetary matters.”
Aside from supporting the GOP President taking the power of the purse.
schrodingers_cat
@stinger: Thanks so much!
satby
@lowtechcyclist: Snippits:
Judge William G. Young lambasted Trump and his administration for attacking free speech “under the cover of an unconstitutionally broad definition of Anti-Semitism” used in efforts to deport non-citizen activists. Notably, Young devoted more than a dozen pages of his decision to discussing in stark terms the president himself, the First Amendment and the state of the country, in ways seldom seen by any federal judge—let alone in a formal ruling. Trump’s conduct, the judge wrote, violated the sacred oath of a president to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Young’s ruling is 161 pages long, which means he had a lot to say and that no words were minced when he said it. Young was nominated in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan, and he went right back to his sponsor for material.
Bokonon
@frosty:
It’s possibly even worse than that. Kegseth’s huge chest tattoo is of the Jerusalem Cross … which goes back to the Crusades. It’s now been borrowed to become a symbol for militant Christian nationalists.
Back when Hegseth was enlisted, his fellow soldiers apparently complained about the tattoo to their superiors. They thought it was disturbing. Which may explain why Hegseth seems to have a jones for the military’s complaint system, and wants to gut it.
So … Hegseth is one of THOSE GUYS. And has been for a while, back before it was hip.
mali muso
@lowtechcyclist:
Here’s an archive version: archive.ph/Ks8Cr
Melancholy Jaques
@The Thin Black Duke:
That’s pretty much standard when we Democrats lose. Al Gore, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton were all blamed. Voters themselves, apparently, have no agency.
Baud
Uh oh. Looks like BJ is going to a subscription model.
iKropoclast
There’s that, for sure.
Also a more educated population is more capable, their advancement is a competitive threat to established industry that donates heavily to politicians.
Also, they seem to believe disagreement with them in general and the academic requirement of supporting arguments with facts is some form of abrogation of their free speech.
Also just the skill of being able to evaluate a source is death to their political project.
And they just want us all as docile slaves, just smart enough to perform a task for a business owner for a pittance.
Deputinize America
@iKropoclast:
I absolutely adored HRC, and doubly so for Harris. Their messages were clear, no nonsense, and to me, they didn’t come off as condescending (which I have a BIG problem with regarding mediocre careerists like Warren).
White women as a whole rejected that. I couldn’t help but notice that the alleged WW solidarity had an GLARING exception.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Just saw that. WTAF?
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
I blame Joelle!
Jay Essel
@schrodingers_cat: Been thinking about it — just need an accountability partner ;) since I’m more of a watercolor person. I love your colored pencil work!
Soprano2
@iKropoclast: I like EW just fine. I happen to believe her outfits would look better with some kind of necklace. That’s my personal thing. She looks fine without one, too.
ETA – Ooooh, I hate the smile thing. I finally challenged a man on it once, and he didn’t understand why it upset me. He said “You look nicer when you smile”, as if my purpose in life is to look nicer for men all the time.
Jeffg166
What is the password thing about?
Miss Bianca
@schrodingers_cat: You do realize that there is some difference between pointing out a sexist, ageist critique of a Democratic woman politician and “falling and worshiping” her, right? Or don’t you?
Yeah, I also get that you’re less than enchanted with her. And white women in general. I get it. I get it. WE ALL GET IT.
I’m outta here. We have real fucking fascism on our hands and you and Reputinize America have decided that a white lady Democrat is the real sign of the Beast.
Belafon
@Baud: But you have to guess your password.
satby
@SiubhanDuinne: @Baud: presumably trying to fix Redis errors. Probably for the web and server team
Been out of the IT field for a long time now, but 12 years ago shit like this we called a career limiting event”.
iKropoclast
@Soprano2: Sorry if you felt singled out, but the comment emerged out of a discussion of her frumpiness. It’s a fine evaluation, in purely fashion terms, but I can’t escape noticing how rare it is for discussions of male politicians to center on their style choices or tone of voice.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: I had a mix of good and awful teachers in my childhood, probably about fifty-fifty honestly. But the good ones were real prizes.
My parents had actually both been schoolteachers at one point and my mom’s whole career was in the public education system, mostly as a psychologist and often doing field work with the social workers. So I heard a lot about it from inside.
tam1MI
@iKropoclast: Misogyny is as alive and well on our side of the aisle as it is on the others.
Baud
@satby:
You’ll never make it on the Internet with that sort of nonconspiratorial mindset.
schrodingers_cat
@Matt McIrvin: Same. The good ones are great and the bad ones cause lifelong trauma.
satby
@Baud: see my edit.
WaterGirl
PSA: Dedicated Post for all 4 Wildcard Games Today!. post will go up at 12:30 for the game that starts at 1:08.
edit:
PSA: Ignore the Test post that is password protected. It’s just a test to see how that works because we may go that route with the wedding video. There’s no mystery here.
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: I think we all had some great teachers, some terrible ones, and most were average. Just like most people are average.
mapanghimagsik
@Deputinize America:
I heard the same complaints about Hilary
@Tam1MI has it right
Soprano2
@iKropoclast: That’s true. I’m a fashion-conscious person who likes more classic looks. I like her look, but for me it’s too plain. That’s all. For men it’s much easier – put on a suit and a tie, you’re done.
Ruviana
@Miss Bianca: Thank you.
Suzanne
@Soprano2: I am minimal with jewelry. I usually find it annoying.
iKropoclast
I don’t like that for professional men. How boring. How…enforcement of conformity.
stinger
@satby:
“This article is for subscribers only.” Can you say what “the question” was?
Suzanne
@Soprano2: Menswear Guy has a Xhitter thread today about Kegsbreath’s stupid socks. It’s funny and bang-on.
mapanghimagsik
@Miss Bianca: i hear a lot “sounds like my x” which is then telling on themselves.
schrodingers_cat
@Jay Essel: Thanks for your kind words. I too dabble in watercolors. I am more a mixed media person. I want it all and I want it now!
Color pencils are the most frictionless of all my art supplies.
BTW I am thinking of branching into ink. You can email me at
[email protected]
Mike E
@WaterGirl: what’s this biz about passwords?
Belafon
@iKropoclast: I absolutely hate suits, but I have made sure my son’s have one for interviews.
schrodingers_cat
@Miss Bianca: Never said she was the devil that was your inference. Just was pointing out that besides the core demo that finds her appealing she is not necessarily the best messenger.
And we should use her messaging for the demo it works for.
iKropoclast
My dreams have finally been answered!!!
Ruviana
I’m not even sure I have a password.
schrodingers_cat
@Ruviana: Same. Its to keep riff raff like us out.
iKropoclast
Follow up:
Is this sexist?
Consider, perhaps, if this were any other woman.
Belafon
@iKropoclast: It depends, and I think we can be pushing the limits of what sexism actually means. I can’t stand Trump’s voice.
Deputinize America
@iKropoclast: Wanna get me started on the Bloated Orange Mediocrities badly tailored bag suits, his comically long gut hiding ties, or his persistentent keening whines?
Kegsbreath’s surplus of hair gel?
Vance’s candyass beard?
The absence of a chin on Cotton and Hawley?
I’m old timey Catholic boys’ high school labor left. Slagging on people – particularly dudes – is engrained in our very souls.
iKropoclast
I wish sweats had better Representation in Congress. Not necessarily more but better.
Give me a nice matching fit, maybe with some tasteful graphic design.
Instead we got baggy, bland, and stuffed full of a genociadaire whose rhetoric endangers American students.
chemiclord
@Deputinize America:
Do you feel the same way about the venerable St. Bernard of Vermont?
Because he’s also been useless and is just as old.
A Ghost to Most
So, pie filters weren’t enough to stifle dissent, you’re now password protecting content. I think you folks are as bent as the fascists.
Mel
Reading Rainbow!! The only thing better than its return is that it is returning with such a kind, bright soul at the helm.
Baud
@iKropoclast:
That wasn’t SC who said that.
Suzanne
@Deputinize America: I’m sure you recognize that men and women exist in very different realities when it comes to cultural body and beauty standards, yes? And that power dynamics are not the same when men criticize one another’s appearance versus when men criticize the way women appear?
Deputinize America
@iKropoclast: Wanna get me started on the Bloated Orange Mediocrities badly tailored bag suits, his comically long gut hiding ties, or his persistentent keening whines?
Kegsbreath’s surplus of hair gel?
Vance’s candyass beard?
The absence of a chin on Cotton and Hawley?
I’m old timey urban Catholic boys’ high school labor left. Slagging on people – particularly dudes who deserve and need slagging – is engrained in our very souls.
Ruckus
@Van Buren:
They have no brazen.
They have bullshit and pompous arrogance. And they aren’t good at either one.
WaterGirl
@Jeffg166: Sorry, I thought it would be obvious from the title:
Protected: Test Post with Password
It’s just a test post. Nothing to comment on. Carry on.
Geminid
@Soprano2: I noticed that Elizabeth Warren endorsed Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss. Biss is one of the 15(!) Democrats in the running to succeed Rep. Jan Schakowski, who represents IL09 and is retiring.
Belafon
@WaterGirl: What would the internet be without speculation and conspiracy theories? Useful?
schrodingers_cat
@chemiclord: Not DA but I do think that of the Vt Jesus. His pomposity is on another level compared to EW.
tam1MI
And here is where I shed a tear for my beloved and now gone Blair online store…
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
You’d expect a man who is barely human to be certain of anything?
iKropoclast
For me it isn’t so much the voice as the burning sensation of brain cells dying as I process his words.
It’s funny, when I was finding the tattoos I found myself thinking he might actually be cute* if he got rid of the racism, hair gel, and alcohol. In that order.
*Hatred ruins your countenance, drags everything down
I love South Park’s portrayal of JD Vance as Tattoo fromFanatasy Island.
Not intereted enough to look that closely.
Good, an opportunity to balance the scales.
Deputinize America
@chemiclord:
I’ve hated him, his hectoring and his accent forever.
Soprano2
@Suzanne: Is that Derek Guy? I love his stuff.
WaterGirl
@Baud: In what world do you think that would ever happen? Not in this one, that’s for sure.
iKropoclast
No, she denied that sexism was present in this discussion and ongoing
mapanghimagsik
@WaterGirl:
Testing in production always goes well! (I’d add a smilie, but om told they’re verboten)
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
This world did not really recognize women as individuals in the 50s. They were moms and spinsters. A lot of laws at the time did not recognize them as anything more. Those laws spoke not of humans but of MEN. Women were housewives and should have known and abided by their place in the world. About the most they could achieve was elementary school teacher. I was a kid and could see this. It seemed like BS to me then and still does.
trollhattan
IDF many hours deep in discussions re. whether to assassinate Greta Thunberg.
Spokesperson pro forma statement shall contain the standard question “Why does she not denounce Hamas terrorism?”
satby
@stinger: the last line of the longer post where it’s quoted.
Omnes Omnibus
JFC, you kids are cranky AF today.
Anyway
HOW Dare you restrict our posts!!!
satby
@Omnes Omnibus: the new normal.
trollhattan
As though Florida needs to take another state’s trash. Don’t they have enough?
schrodingers_cat
@iKropoclast: No what I said was not every and all criticism of a woman can be boiled down to sexism and misogyny.
Ruckus
@Fester Addams:
It was important but most often it was extremely visible. Little off time allows you to often see far more than you actually want to.
Miki
@narya: “FFS, I get that not everyone likes Warren. I personally think she does an excellent job laying out the stakes and processes and goals; YMMV. But the immediate pile-on (and misogyny) is quite tiresome.”
Thanks for this.
Matt McIrvin
@Ruckus: The old saying about English-derived common law (often attributed to Lucretia Mott): “The legal theory is that marriage makes the husband and wife one person, and that person is the husband.
Even today we have some mortgage- and real-estate-related documents that list my wife only as “et ux.” and that drives her up the wall.
WTFGhost
@David Collier-Brown: Well, and, Republicans will tell you that the reason you have a hard time is, you’re a white man, and DEI has caused all the good jobs to go to less qualified women and minorities. And you might not believe that, entirely, but they say they are fighting for you, “and no one else gives a damn about white men.”
There are other reasons Republicans will use for why you’ve been held back – tax burden, if they’re pushing for tax cuts, or NAFTA if a Democratic President negotiated that. The point is, they don’t want to help, they just want to give a target for rage.
One problem is, Democrats are realists. We could pass Medicaid for All, because rising medical costs are a national emergency, but we know it wouldn’t last past the next Republican chance to run reconciliation. So we don’t *do* that.
But Republicans can threaten to burn it all down, assuming (as LongerMcConnell) “they’ll get over it, they’ll forget you buttfucked them in full public view, they’ll decide that Democrats are evil, because we’ll keep their hate targeted, and, they’ll vote for us again.”
I may have misquoted McConnell above – something about the “shorter” and “longer” formulations seems to cause that, even when one is aware of all internet traditions.
Jackie
Part of a NYC public housing highrise collapsed. Thankfully, no reports of injuries – as of yet. Live conference with Eric Adams right now
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
The list of what he doesn’t know is long and disgusting reading. Because he knows 2 things and 2 things only. He’s the greatest person ever, and he’s worth a hell of a lot of billions. And he’s 1000000% wrong on both counts.
iKropoclast
Right, but the particular criticisms being had here today have been sexist. I strongly suspect your identification of EW as being part of the left and your bias against the left are blinding you to this fact.
The obtuseness is so willful.
No one here has been criticizing the CFPB or her Senate votes and I’m the only one who alluded to her participation in the Biden underbussing and I have really soured on her but this shit has been gross. You would see it immediately if this conversation were about Kamala Harris.
Geminid
@trollhattan: Italy’s Prime Minister requested that the Sumud Flotilla offload their relief supplies at ports in Italy or Cyprus. The Italian, Spanish and Turkish navy vessels that were escorting the flotilla pulled back when it crossed the Israeli blockade perimeter.
Fair Economist
@schrodingers_cat: Warren is one of the world’s top experts on lending regulation. She was so respected that during the housing bubble she was the #1 speaker at lender’s conventions, even though she was saying they were going to destroy the financial industry (which they did).
I was in the housing bubble decriers and Warren was our hero. It was very frustrating that the lenders invited her and listened to her but kept on with the crazy lending. We would have saved hundreds of billions if they or the regulators had listened.
Mike E
@Belafon: I hate JK Rowling but the bit about “saying His Name aloud” being an evil spell is kinda genius…Ramblethinskin, his image and voice, is a curse upon the land so I avoid that abomination and everything associated with it. ymmv
eclare
@iKropoclast:
I am just as critical of men in public as I am of women. FFOTUS especially cannot get a suit tailored to save his life, and they are always, always wrinkled. When he went to the state dinner in the UK during his first term, the difference between how his tuxedo was tailored and how King Charles’ was tailored was glaring.
The photo of Obama with the royals was perfect.
pieceofpeace
@Suzanne: Haha….and sometimes it’s not so subliminal, or maybe women pick up on that, and consider the women they choose to spotlight.
And listen carefully to Jim Morrison’s “The End,” that touches on those origins.
Aziz, light!
I have discovered that my password is not “Bite me.”
schrodingers_cat
@Fair Economist: Agreed. But that doesn’t make her an expert in trade policy. Her opposition to TPP and being the case in point.
Mike E
@schrodingers_cat: get a
roomblog, you two, you’re gatekeeper narcissism and hatred is tedious and an impediment to real, productive political discussions.@WaterGirl: I hope this new model works! I’ll move on.
Karen Gail
@Mike E: That was something that long predates Rowling; a warning to say the name of evil is to call it to you. While some have claimed that hearing your name called can be god calling out to you.
Deputinize America
@trollhattan:
“America’s Bestest Ally and God’s Chosen People, just being the Greatest Democracy in the Middle East….”
Mel
@Suzanne: Career teacher here who spent six of those years teaching at a private school for boys. It was eye opening, to say the least. The kids (high school aged) were, for the most part, good kids who understood the concept that they had choices about their behaviors, and the choices they made had clear outcomes.
The adult men (teachers, admin, parents) were the issue. From the administrator who asked a kid if he had gotten written up “just because the teacher was a girl, and most girls get upset at little things ” (said 6 foot, 3 inch tall student had violently pushed a small, younger child down stairs and threatened another child on a stairwell, and to his credit told the admin that he had been “awful” in all his male taught morning classes and gotten away with it, and deserved the write -up), to the fathers that came up with a “brilliant” fundraising idea to sell sleeveless t-shirts with the slogan “Wife Beaters Here”, to the fathers that would try to verbally threaten the few female teachers into raising students’ grades or removing behavioral consequences, to the coaches who told athletes to skip makeup work sessions or detentions with female teachers because “those girls can’t make a man do anything he doesn’t want to” etc.. – it was made quite clear that the cultural message was that women in general, and especially women in work/ professional settings were to be seen as nothing more than “the help”, at best.
When I was headhunted for a university teaching position, one admin at the private school said, “I hate to see you go. Would a raise make you stay? I’m going to have to hire three people and pay three salaries to get coverage for the jobs you’ve been doing, so I’m sure that I could get you a little something extra if you’ll stay…”
He thought that was a compliment. As did the person who said, “You should stay. You’re so good that we forget that you’re a lady teacher.”
That ingrained despising and devaluing of teachers absolutely is a societal issue, and often increased exponentially if the teacher is female.
i really think it all goes back to the perception of teaching as a female profession )and of “women’s work” in general as worthless) and especially as one of the few available lifelong professions available for “unmarriageable” women. The message is that those who teach are weak, unprotected, vulnerable, unfit for the supposedly “normal” gender expectations of society, and as such make easy targets.
Check out some of the rules set by community schools for teachers in the 1800s and early 1900s and you’ll want to weep. The rules may be less draconian snd humiliating now, but the underlying attitude still flourishes.
schrodingers_cat
Not being an EW fan means you are a misogynist who hates teachers and all women who shouldn’t comment on this blog.
schrodingers_cat
Not being an EW fan means you are a misogynist who hates teachers and all women. Also, you shouldn’t comment on this blog
Wow your teachers must be so proud of the conclusions you pull out of thin air. Your need to police statements by people not in the echo chamber is also noted
I encountered this during Biden must go threads also. You can only speak if you agree with us and tell us how wonderful we are.
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
ALWAYS, EVERYDAY. ANY DAY.
Belafon
@Mike E: I was always fond of her asserting that great doesn’t mean good. “He did great things. Terrible things, but great things.”
Her turning into a TERF was definitely a WTF?
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: I grew up in a conservative neighborhood and I was always kind of conscious that my upbringing was *weird*. My parents never hit me; they made very little use of punishment at all; the “rules of the house” were established very informally, no great list of pseudo-statutes and penalties I had to memorize; when I was scared to do something, my parents rarely just ordered me to man up and do it, even if they’d have preferred if I did.
All these authoritarian-parenting things were normal for many of my friends, and I’d occasionally read a handwringing newspaper op-ed or something about how society was going to the dogs because liberals didn’t raise their kids this way. (That’s even aside from more specific things like the supposed need for religious training.) And since I was prone to become very concerned about a lot of things, I would sometimes worry that I was in fact being ruined by this, because the people in the newspaper said that would happen.
But somehow I never turned to a life of crime.
Quiltingfool
@Suzanne:
Oh, if I had a nickel for every time someone told me how to do my teaching job better, or told me their “teacher horror story” I’d have a bunch of nickels, lol!
There were students who didn’t like me, and that’s okay. I didn’t demand that students like me. I just wanted them to feel respected and safe.
I have a piece of original art in my house. A bunch of my students (at the direction of the art teacher) made me the most charming collection of cat art, done in the style of Laurel Burch, for a retirement gift. I treasure it.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@schrodingers_cat: She’s sharing policy and ideas with young white, women influencers, who then will be the messengers to their mostly younger white women audiences. This keeps these influencers up to date on the issues these women care about and what Dems are doing about them. That is a critical slice of the electorate and we want them voting Dem consistently, something you’ve pointed out to death they don’t do. Not sure what your problem is with that.
Mel
@schrodingers_cat: As per my experiences and comment, it’s really not about any particular person or politician. Rather, it’s about the way that this country devalues and attacks educators in general, and educators who are female even more aggressively.
Of course, gender discrimination is an enormous problem in the vast majority of workplaces, but there is something about the views of/ attitudes toward educators that often make them a special target for abuse. That abuse too often takes gendered forms, in terms of women being seen as “too sexy” to be trusted around children (this accusation made at a colleague who had modeled in college, after a parent saw an old department store ad of her modeling juniors one piece swimsuits, and tried to get her teaching license revoked (you have to ask why a fifty- something man was late- night Google stalking his daughter’s kindergarten teacher, but that never became part of the ensuing traumatic events) or “old maids who can’t get married”, or “babysitters”, instead of being seen as and treated as educated professionals (who do a damn near impossible job for minuscule pay).
I can’t speak for anyone else, but that is my opinion, and I think that the societal attitude is an attitude that’s handily harnessed and weaponized by the far right.
WTFGhost
@Betty Cracker: Well… not exactly.
Trump thinks he should be able to win the same valorizing that, for example, Putin gets, from his military in grand parades and such. Well, in America, the officer corps has a proud tradition of being apolitical. Are some conservative? Yes, and I’m sure some are in the bubble, and think what Trump is doing is okay. But they are still trained “you show no partisan preference.”
I’m surprised they got a shot with one officer facepalming – but, you can always “achoo” if you realize you had done so unintentionally.
Anyway: Trump doesn’t get “apolitical,” so he couldn’t even *give* them a speech they’d cheer to.
But the other side is, Putin rules by fear. If Putin can get his military to march properly in a big, wonderful parade, and sing his literal praises, while pretending to sing “pro-Russia” songs, because if he doesn’t get that, heads will roll, but only because they’re attached to bodies that have been dropped out of windows, and no longer have muscle tone.
(I have no idea if Putin does parades, I just don’t want to go straight to North Korea on Trump, it’s too early on a Monday morning[1].)
*THAT* is what Trump doesn’t get. If he’d risen through the ranks, he could ooh-ah! his way through a speech, with appropriate spelling and emphasis. If he’d commanded an actual military exercise, and not just “I’m lazy, make it a single saturation bombing”), he’d be able to get through the speech. If he’d been willing to speak terms like honor, and dignity, and discipline, he’d have hit plenty of applause lines.
But of all the things the star-ranked people understand, is, even the kindest, most gentle, person on the planet will, on occasion, want to kill someone, quickly, slowly, whatever, and the only thing that will hold their wrath back is the shame that will be showered on them for breaking military discipline. (Or, for us civvies, “some people are alive, only because murder is illegal.”)
Well – they understand what loosening the rules does. People who are expected to fight wars aren’t the best people. You need rules to keep them in line. And while they might tolerate *some* bullying of *some* “faggy” behavior, if they suspected someone was bullying a real homosexual, who hadn’t bothered anyone, they want to come down with full force. Men will self-police some “manly virtues” by mocking their lack, but, when it comes to hating what another person is, that’s *terrible* for military discipline. You want any two people two be able to work together without a hitch, and if someone hates gayfolk, that’s *bad*.
See, Trump doesn’t get any of that. He really thinks a lot of military people just stopped maturing sometime in high school. (And, I’m sure some haven’t, but, I’ve met just as many in the IT world, so I’m not dissing servicefolks!) He really thinks it’s okay if the military wants to punch (derogatory word for gay men, elided).
[1] yes, I know. Don’t remind me.
schrodingers_cat
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Where did I say that I had a problem with that.
Mel
@Quiltingfool: This, absolutely and completely. It was always about making sure that the kids had a safe space and developed the verbal, intellectual, and emotional skills they needed to take good care of themselves and others.
Karen Gail
Just read an article where asked veteran about yesterday’s “dog and pony show,” “Don and Pete show” “Fat man and little boy show”
Said some of Flag Officers were calling it “fat man and little boy” because it bombed.
Baud
Eyeroller
@eclare: Male politicians are criticized for the fit of their clothes. Totally fair. But it seems that female politicians, not only but especially Democrats, are criticized for their style of dress. It’s never right. They wear pantsuits. They should wear more (or less) jewelry. Their attire is “frumpy” (whatever that means). It’s so much easier for men, who have a very narrow range of standard clothing styles.
And women’s voices are always grating. Their laughs are irritating. Most tellingly, perhaps, they are “schoolmarmish.” This has been lobbed at others besides EW. Commenters like Mel have made some points about how female teachers are perceived by our society.
Paul in KY
@Matt McIrvin: I sure hope so! The regretting part…
Matt McIrvin
@WTFGhost:
The conservative formula for this is that it means you need to get rid of everyone who is different, and bullying them HARDER is the first step. Then when they’re all gone and everyone is the same, you’ll have no more trouble.
We all know the problem here. The finer and finer parsing of differences does not end.
In First Amendment law there’s a concept of the “heckler’s veto”, which means the pattern in which some speech is suppressed because of the troublesome reaction it gets from the people who hate it. It’s not considered legitimate to do that. You can’t give hecklers a veto, because you’ll never see the end of it–freedom of speech nobody objects to is no freedom at all.
If there’s a pattern I hate more than any other in politics, it’s the “heckler’s veto” writ large. Some group or characteristic of people is consistently persecuted or marginalized and then the victims are blamed for any resulting social trouble, because they brought it on themselves by being different. Maybe the persecution drives them to mental illness, and then that’s used as evidence that the thing that makes them different causes, or IS, a mental illness. And the reaction is to go harder with the marginalization.
The push to kick gay people out of the military was Exhibit A and the push to kick trans people out of the military is the same damn thing. Ooh, it’s bad for unit cohesion! Why? Is it anything these people are doing? No, it’s that the bigots in the unit hate them, and we’re encouraging them to. But the great heckler’s veto is to encourage them more.
Paul in KY
@iKropoclast: Even better, if you’re a sick racist fuck.
Paul in KY
@schrodingers_cat: Tenured English professor style.
Paul in KY
@Soprano2: Patton’s flag was bigger.
Paul in KY
@Matt McIrvin: That ship sailed 190 years ago.
Matt McIrvin
@Mike E: Rowling’s turn to hateful TERF obsession has driven both haters and ex-fans of her work to look back and find all the things that were questionable in the Harry Potter books, and they’re definitely there. Lots of lazy ethnic stereotyping, a recurrent fat-phobia, etc. etc. Several recurring issues I haven’t mentioned. You can find encyclopedias’ worth of discussion of it out there, and some of this started years before Rowling’s heel turn; it was just a matter of how much people excused it.
All that said, I think the reason she got so much slack for so long was that the political storyline of the Harry Potter books was a vivid tale of progressive resistance against a bigoted fascist resurgence within its secret subculture. And, of course, they work just like the X-Men comics and the Tomorrow People and similar “you’re a secret superhero” tales as metaphors for any kid growing up with an unusual identity. The TERFism is such a betrayal in part because so many LGBT kids took comfort from the stories.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: How about McConnell’s skeleton and the self-credentialed doofus with a tribble on his head?
Paul in KY
@iKropoclast: I have never (until this day) heard of Chicos the women’s store. I would have thought it was a restaurant chain, like Chueys.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: Then there is the race of devious banker gnomes Rowling introduced partway though the Harry Potter series. They just happened to have hooked noses. That made me look at Rowling in a different way once I read about it.
Paul in KY
@WTFGhost: You have to have graduated from War College or the Naval equivalent. That’s like getting a Masters. I would also say the vast majority have a Masters from some civilian university as well.
Mel
@schrodingers_cat: That’s beautiful!
Paul in KY
@The Thin Black Duke: Me too!
Paul in KY
@iKropoclast: If he’s up against whatever abomination the GQP barfs up, you damn well better vote for him.
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid: Right, that was one of the others. I mean, I always just took it as this sort of Dickensian touch, not really fully recognizing that the trope she was drawing on was always antisemitic in the first place.
And I think that was a lot of it. Rowling was working in the traditions of both English fantasy and English boarding-school stories and a bunch of associated literature, but those traditions themselves had a lot of terrible stuff to unpack.
Mike E
@Matt McIrvin: thanks for that. What made it feel like a betrayal to me was how cynical her storytelling was. I’ll admit to assigning “snarky” to her clever but manipulative world building when it actually took me until the fourth book to figure her out, so I’m gullible that way! The whole terf shit finally made me question that she ever believed in any sort of social justice in her headlong pursuit of attaining her empire. She blends in with so many evil characters we have to contend with today, sad to say.
Matt McIrvin
@Mike E: One of the authors she was definitely drawing on was Roald Dahl, and I always loved Dahl’s style but he was both a bigot and a generally terrible person, and this sometimes came through in his work.
Ruckus
@Fester Addams:
Or at least acts like one to get out of anything requiring actual thought to complete.
If I’m right it hasn’t changed in over 1/2 a century. Because that’s what it was like when I was in the US military and I’d bet nothing has actually changed.
Mike E
@Matt McIrvin: heh, never meet your heroes! Though, when I worked for an entertainment complex I had the nice opportunity (in some pretty mundane encounters) to meet many celebrities and was happy to be pleasantly surprised by a fair few of them.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@schrodingers_cat: I think I mixed you up with Deputize. Apologies.
Paul in KY
@trollhattan: She should. In same sentence where she denounces Israeli terrorism/war crimes.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: Maybe Rowling did recognize the stereotype, and she just doesn’t like Jews.
Anti-Semitism runs wide and deep.. I could no more assert that I am free of Anti-Semitism than I could assert that I am free of Misogyny or Racism. Most of us Whiteand Gentile people grow up surrounded by these prejudices and they make their impression on us. We either overcome them or we don’t, and it looks like Rowling didn’t try very hard.
Paul in KY
@iKropoclast: Anyone to the Left of the Cat is going to get it.
Ilieitz
In regards to the above post. What passwords?
StringOnAStick
@Miss Bianca Thank you, agreed and I’m out of here. I’m not sure this place is worth a damn anymore except to keep track of Ukraine. Fuck this shit.
Paul in KY
@Mel: Think this school had a hardon for Mr. Chips.
Paul in KY
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: I think maybe the influencers were all white? Not sure.
Mel
@Paul in KY: It was one of those “May you live in Interesting times,” experiences, without a doubt.
Matt McIrvin
@Mike E: I will say a good word about Dahl: he was a ferocious and energetic pro-vaxxer!
This, however, drawing from his personal experience: his child died from measles encephalitis just a few years before the measles vaccine became available, and he didn’t want that to happen to anybody ever again.
Paul in KY
@Eyeroller: I do know there’s a cohort of women voters who if they get the idea that the women is not a man-lover (like them) and/or doesn’t ever like to appear in stereotypically feminine garb, they will not vote for her.
Ruckus
@WTFGhost:
In the military it is rank that leads. The higher the rank the more people that have to follow. I have zero idea about now but 50 years ago most of the men I knew that were higher than me were basically followers of those higher. They couldn’t decide hamburger or cheeseburger without a word from upon high. And that included most captains and department heads. For some sucking butt was a full time job. It didn’t have to be but then this is humanity. There were some bright lights around but most of the time 5 watt bulbs – with a broken filament. Some not seemingly even that bright. I seem to recall that on the ship I was stationed on for 2 years, had 5 captains. Only one was a realistic human being. And every officer at the time had to be a college graduate. Some of them seemed to have attended Murry’s school of Larnening and learned nothing, zip, zero, nada. They did even learn “How to be Stupid, Gracefully.”
Paul in KY
@Ilieitz: Think it is ‘wAteRg1RlrOolE5’
Paul in KY
@Mel: I’m sorry you had to deal with that crap. Also glad you left and got a better situation!
Ruckus
@tam1MI:
It may leave us at some point but first I’m not holding my breath and second, I bet it will be a long time coming. I mean “we” elected shitforbrains a second time, when he is in such fine mental health. What does that say about the overall state of mental health in this country?
Ruckus
@Geminid:
Most people growing up want to be involved in something. Sports, education honors, clicks…..
Most (many) people don’t see getting to adulthood as a process other than the sun coming up and going down. Do the minimum, stay out of jail, don’t give parents the idea of use of the belt. Some see past that. Some see past that but not in an ideal direction. And some people learn little.
WTFGhost
@Eyeroller: Don’t forget the cowardly dems who said they crossed their legs when Hillary spoke. Seriously, why cross your legs, when you’re so threatened by a woman, it’s clear you have no balls to protect?
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah, and today, hate means “smear.” So instead of attacking actual transfolk, the haters attack hypotheticals, most of which are, “I don’t know, someone, who isn’t me, should be making that decision.”
Should transwomen (IDed at birth as male) be allowed to join a woman’s only space? Well, someone, who isn’t me, should figure that out. The organizers of the space or the event get to say that. Will they sometimes be wrong? Yeah, sure, but, why are *we* arguing about it? It’s not our problem, nor is it our decision.
Should transwomen be allowed to participate in sports? Let the sports decide – they’ll know better than I do if being born male is likely to give you an advantage, and can decide on things like maximum testosterone/minimum estrogen, if they need someone on hormone therapy long enough to soak out any leftover boyhood muscle.
Should transwomen be allowed in the women’s bathroom? Look – anything anyone does to anyone else, in a bathroom, is going to be treated as sick actions by a sick individual, so, there’s already laws, and social mores, regarding using bathroom access to be a rapist or harasser. The only reason for “bathroom bills” is to get transfolk arrested for using the “wrong” bathroom, without disturbing anyone (because the disturbance would be crime enough).
All the hate is ephemeral bullshit.
Karen Gail
All these idiots that get bent out of shape over bathrooms or anything that isn’t really their business claim to be “good christians” and god created man and used his rib to make a woman. So if rib was used to clone Eve; “she” started out as a male.
Plus, do all these people who complain about another gender using “wrong” bathroom have more than one bathroom in their home and are they clearly marked?
WTFGhost
@Ruckus: it says the nation is crazy. Hopefully, they’ll recognize the insanity and heal, but it won’t be easy.
@Ruckus: Well, I know a guy who was a major, higher than a captain, who was a total dillwad, and got to be SecDef of Warcraft, so I can’t say you’re wrong.
But I’m talking flag rank. Lots of people make colonel, but never put up their star, and some of them are *good*. You’d enjoy serving in their unit, I’d bet. You have to be educated, and, hopefully, you’ve solved a lot of problems, and understood the solution to many, many, more. And still, you might top out and eventually be retired for failure to advance.
Now: I know my flags from retired, never former, Master Sergeant BillG of the USMC. He respects them all, greatly. If I had a tenth of the respect for him, that I actually had for him, I’d have to believe “I bet I’m wrong about flag rank; there are surely some right bastards – just like anywhere! – but they try to select for good, relatively wise, men.” So, I feel strongly that he’s probably right about flag rank.
The lower ranks are going to have a lot of crappy people, because, people that earn a shot, get a shot, and earning a shot can’t be so difficult that you always get good officers, because you can’t always be sure what a good officer will be, until you see them perform. So it will, alas, have a lot of people who are failing upward to their level of incompetence.
I’ve been told, reliably, that flag rank is different. We might disagree, even after meeting some flag rankers.
WTFGhost
Hypothetically, if someone had standing (hahaha, someone with standing! I kill myself, sometimes), does that mean they could then sue the Trump administration for a heckler’s veto, through his use of the full communications apparatus of the federal government to prevent any dissenting ideas from being heard?
(hahahahaha hahahaha hahahah coughha hahahahacoughsnort(strange contortions as I stop the muscle spasms that cause me to lose cranial blood supply) ah-hah. And then, the SCOTUS repubs would force a 9-0 decision, by promising a much, much, worse 6-3 decision. So there’s no point in thinking about this. Funny to imagine it getting really considered, though – gotta tone down my imagination on days like this.)
Ruckus
@MagdaInBlack:
it’s a pre-boom
It’s a lot bigger and more damaging than a pre-boom.
A hell of a lot.
I used hell in there because it seems appropriate.
Ruckus
@WTFGhost:
As stated here before I’m an OLD.
But I remember a hell of a lot from my time in the USN. You live it, in it, on it, around it, under it, in pure hatred of it. Hopefully one does their job because often someone’s life may depend on it, and that someone may be you. I’ve actually climbed out on the yardarm of a not insignificantly sized USN ship. That’s 50-60 feet above the deck, if you fall you better be ready to dive over the side because landing anywhere else below you could easily kill you. That is not the only thing that can possibly go wrong. But isn’t that why you enlisted? (That last statement is what is known as BS)
Much of that over 50 years ago stuff is still in my head, seems like one cannot forget it. Seems like the only stuff that won’t fall out.
Ruckus
@WTFGhost:
I had one good captain and one almost decent. That’s 1 1/2 out of 5.
I spent my last two weeks stationed across the country from the ship I was on for 2 years, on a helicopter landing craft ship, rather new at the time. The captain of that ship had been the squadron commander for the ship I was on for 2 years. He was a complete pompous, arrogant jackass. And I’m being nice. He was seemingly the only human that approved of him for any reason what so ever. Good times.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
The world has changed significantly in the lifetimes of people still breathing. This country has as well. It sure has changed a lot in my lifetime. My parents were born in the second decade of the LAST century. Hell I was born in the first half of the last century. And I know older folks than me. One of my neighbors in the seniors apartment complex I live in is 99 years old. My parents, if still living would be 107 and 108 yrs old. My point is that things like the first car I rode in was a 1947 Ford 4dr sedan, olive drab color, a surplus US Army staff car my parents bought not long after WWII. So much has changed in my lifetime that it would take pages to discuss all of it. And those changes apply to most US citizens born after WWII till say the end of the 50s. There are likely people here older than me and a lot many years younger. I was old enough to see where I was when ridding in a car when the only freeway in SoCal was the Pasadena Fwy. I was working in a gas station a block from where the current 210 freeway is. They started building it after I started working there. Now the Pasadena Freeway was opened in 1940.
My point is that a dramatic lot has changed since many of us were born, and not just in SoCal, in this country. Actually in this world.
Of course we still have shitforbrains – and as president. It’s great to live in a world where that can happen…….
Ruckus
@WTFGhost:
When I served I met good officers, one of the several captains on the ship I was on for 2 years was one of the best officers I ever met. However we also had some of the absolute worst. One of them was captain on the ship I was on for my last 2 weeks – they put me on it and 8-9 days later the Pentagon sent my discharge order. He had been the squadron commander of the destroyer group I had served in those first 2 years. He was one pathetic asshole, barely human at best and had badly wanted to work at the Pentagon but seemingly not one of the people there at the time wanted him to even be in the area or ever set foot in the building. Smart humans. Not him of course, he was one of the most deranged humans I’ve ever met and I worked in a mental health clinic as a counselor for 4 years.
schrodingers_cat
@Mel: Thanks so much Mel.
dnfree
Duplicate because of Redis.
dnfree
@Matt McIrvin: That’s a very interesting thought. Women as status symbols, not actual human beings to incels (and some who aren’t incels).
ETA first I got the Redis error, and when I tried again I got “You are posting comments too quickly. Slow down.” This is the third try, and so late to the post that no one will probably even see it!
WTFGhost
@schrodingers_cat: You know, sometimes, you don’t see an issue, because it’s too close to you. And sometimes, sometimes women are oversensitive about misogyny. But in one sense, misogyny really does lie in the eye of the beholder. If you *look* just like a misogynist, but deep in your heart, you aren’t, does it matter in an interaction with a given woman? She’d just see someone looking and acting just like a misogynist would.
It’s always possible to learn you’re innocently mistaken about some ideas, or how their expression might sound.
Lauryn11
@Deputinize America:
I don’t know many college educated women who shop at Chico’s, even if they are older. Loud prints, cheap fabrics, bad sizing. Maybe I’m a snob who doesn’t know any “wine moms.” <eyeroll>