Canceling energy funding? Sounds like a great way for our electric bills to go up even more. Congratulations to this Administration!
— Senator Ed Markey (@markey.senate.gov) October 1, 2025 at 3:01 PM
===
I was sent this by a Georgian this morning. 2025 premiums vs 2026 premiums for someone making $65k a year.
Republicans in Washington did this.
This is what I'm fighting to stop. This is what’s at stake in this shutdown fight.— Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (@warnock.senate.gov) October 1, 2025 at 2:33 PM
===
If they claim they haven't heard the quote, play it for them and ask for a response.
If they claim it's being taken out of context, play a longer version and ask for a response.
If they try to sidestep the issue, play it over again and ask for a response.— Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) October 1, 2025 at 10:41 AM
===
Jane Fonda relaunches the Committee for the First Amendment, a free speech initiative originally spearheaded by her father, Hollywood icon Henry Fonda, in response to the rise of “McCarthyism” during the 1940s.
— NBC News (@nbcnews.com) October 1, 2025 at 2:20 PM
===
Trump has decided that no jobs report will issue on Friday due to the government shutdown. But it turns out there is a different reason: that report will, when issued, be catastrophically bad.
— Scott Horton (@robertscotthorton.bsky.social) October 1, 2025 at 10:17 AM
===
* Food inflation: 3.2%
* Meat: 5.4%
* Ground beef: 12.8%
* Beef roasts: 13.6%
* Steak: 16.6%
@nypost.com
www.foxbusiness.com/economy/beef…— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) October 1, 2025 at 6:50 PM
===
New — Just saw Dem Rep. Madeleine Dean confront Speaker Johnson off House floor over CR, health care, recessing chamber, Trump’s speech.
And on Trump’s AI video, Johnson says “it wasn't my style."
Dean: “Not your style? It's disgraceful. It's racist. You should call it out.” pic.twitter.com/Ykw8Mx2r6y
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) September 30, 2025
===
"A lot of folks on your side are too" is both a deflection and, more critically, an admission. Plus "I did't see it" stops being an excuse when it's your JOB to be politically informed.
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) October 1, 2025 at 11:25 PM
On The Road – BigJimSlade – Alps 2025 – Milan, Saas-Fee, Chamonix and Courmayeur, part 7
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
Every night, I take a look at that day’s APOD(NASA’s Astronomy Picture Of the Day). There was none today, I refreshed the page and still nothing. Thanks Trump.
I have a shot that I’m going to submit, once I finish some editing, but I guess it’ll have to wait until after the shutdown, assuming they don’t fire the folk that maintain it. Thanks Trump.
Betty Cracker
Kruse is right — reporters need to stop taking Republicans’ “I didn’t see it” as an excuse for ducking questions about Trump’s demented ravings. Maybe Dana Bash saw how Johnson ducked Stephanopoulas’s question because in a clip I saw, she played Trump’s ramblings about using U.S. cities for military training and asked him to comment. He blathered about how everyone in DC is so much safer and citizens there are just happy as clams to be under military occupation. I mean, it’s bullshit, but at least she pinned the weasel down.
Baud
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
Trump take universe.
eclare
My utility bill presents the current month consumption and last year’s consumption. For July’s electricity bill, I reduced consumption by about 30% from last year. That reduced my bill by $3. I am pissed as hell at these AI data centers using so much electricity and our precious water. Musk has built one here in Memphis and is in the process of building more.
lowtechcyclist
But apparently ICE’s rampages will still be fully funded.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: because he hereby decrees that everyone who is not happy with it is not a citizen.
lowtechcyclist
@eclare:
They’re the real eco-terrorists.
David_C
First full day of an unplanned time off. Federal employees were made to go to their duty stations in person to read their shutdown instruction emails, set up their away messages, and shut off their devices. All of these are tasks that can easily done remotely. A coworker who had just come down sock came in anyway, since the system to enter sick leave was shut down. The social media posts of the various non-political agencies blamed the Democrats—the few comms people who were still left had reached their 4-hour time limit for working so apparently, some HHS (and other) political appointees took over the accounts.
A good time to read and sign. Other declarations from employees at other agencies are on the site.
standupforscience.net/bethesda-declaration
Shalimar
It’s the bipolar administration. They go to extreme degrees to craft their huge shitty bill so that most of the damage isn’t noticeable until after the midterms. Then they let Russell Vought fuck over massive numbers of people with the shutdown. There is no real plan, just pain to be inflicted.
prostratedragon
Sen. Dean demonstrates why I’m not in politics. That is all.
eclare
@Shalimar:
He said that he wanted government workers to feel trauma. What a sociopath.
prostratedragon
Elevating the living daylights out of the discourse:
Baud
@prostratedragon:
I guess Dems should now post a video of every Republican Senator dressed like Nazis.
Soprano2
@prostratedragon: He’s trying to entertain his followers. Evidently that’s what they think their job is now.
Baud
@Soprano2:
He may be right. It’s a debatable point whether politicians need to be entertaining to be credible these days.
Deputinize America
theguardian.com/world/live/2025/oct/01/israel-gaza-aid-global-sumud-flotilla-middle-east-crisis-late…
I’m now convinced that the world would be a better place without the current iteration of the state of Israel.
They’re a pack of monsters.
ETA – I love my Reform friends, but the Conservative and Orthodox can pound sand.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Video about the problems Los Vegas is having.
Part of is Trump driving off the tourist, part of the corporate owners jacking the prices so high it drove off the Americans, and part of it is changes in American culture.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@David_C: Not us. Just about everyone in my agency was declared excepted and has to work without pay. I’ve also been told I’ll be getting a RIF notice because my office is going through a reorganization and the plan is before Congress but not approved so our office, which was going to be split up into three branches in two different existing offices, doesn’t exist anymore on the current org chart so they just decided to RIF everyone in the office…more than a dozen people.
Our politicals are furiously trying to undo it because they can’t get any of their high priority wish list done without us. But to be told you’re so essential you have to work without pay and we’re letting you go in the same day is…something. And the vast majority of us working without pay aren’t on the front lines of safety and security.
But I’m not surprised. I told a coworker weeks ago they’d make us work without pay if there was a shutdown. At the time she was like I haven’t heard that from anyone and yesterday she was like how did you know? I told her I just asked myself what’s the biggest asshole move they could pull on us was and the answer my brain came up with was make us work without pay through the shutdown. These guys are predictable with regard the federal workforce – they will Always Do The Asshole Thing – call it the ADTAT rule.
Princess
Lutnick effectively calls bullshit on the whole GOP Epstein cover up. I wonder if he thinks he’s about to be fired. It’s the Post but the disgust in his tone has the ring of truth.
nypost.com/2025/10/01/us-news/howard-lutnick-calls-ex-neighbor-jeffrey-epstein-greatest-blackmailer-…
prostratedragon
South Shore (Chicago) raid two nights ago:
South Shore racial demographics, 2020 Census:
• White 3.0%
• Black 92.7%
• Hispanic 2.6%
• Asian 0.3%
• Other 1.4%
There might have been an immigrant or two swept up. Side note: Larry Ellison grew up in South Shore; I’d thought he was from my community area, Roseland.
JPL
@Baud: White hoods would work also.
TONYG
@eclare: Yes, those goddamn AI data centers. And for what useful purpose. I have yet to see a way that “AI” has improved my life.
Booger
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: How much of it is folks having the ability to financially ruin themselves one bet at a time from the comfort of their smartphones?
God I hate this timeline. The 2018 Supreme Court decision that took the shackles off gambling had a primary effect of impoverishing scores of Native American Tribes who, for bettor or worse, had a monopoly on casinos in many parts of the country up to that point. Like sure, let’s find a new way to fuck over the tribes.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: We’re at the point where they may consider that a compliment.
Princess
@Deputinize America: Last week you were hating on white women; this week it’s most Jews. Who do you like? A lot of those orthodox and conservative Jews also vote for Democrats. You sound like Karl Lüger.
Matt McIrvin
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: We like to make jokes about how hard it is to lose money running a casino, but those jokes are based on a world in which gambling was illegal in most places and there wasn’t a saturated market for it. I suspect these days it’s actually not hard to lose money running a casino.
TONYG
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Well, since the advent of gambling apps about seven years ago, gambling addicts can throw away their money while eating Cheetos on the couch. Why travel to a casino in Vegas (or anywhere else) now?
Aziz, light!
@Deputinize America: Would that be the Conservative and Orthodox denominations of Jews in Israel who should pound sand, or all Conservative and Orthodox Jews everywhere? I was raised Conservative and wonder if I need to get my sand hammer out.
MagdaInBlack
@Princess: I saw and mentioned that last night but was reluctant to post anything as it had not percolated to the surface of the media sludge yet. Now its getting there. Interestin’ ain’t it?
Another Scott
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
+1
I think another one of their goals is to fire, or force to quit, everyone competent who takes their oath to the Constitution seriously. They probably plan to then hire people as patronage hires to reward their followers and loot the Treasury and continue to try to bend everyone else to their will using the awesome power of the federal government.
It’s not about fiscal responsibility or efficiency – that’s mouth noises for the rubes. They don’t care about that. They love deficits as they can point to them as a reason to wreck even more.
They’re looters.
They’re not subtle.
Grr…
Hang in there.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Deputinize America
@Princess:
You’re assuming facts not in evidence on voting patterns, and my understanding is that outside of some gross clusters of patriarchy hat and beard boys (primarily in Brooklyn), most American Jews are Reform, a thoroughly honorable tradition..
Anyone who excuses or props up that fetid regime of Likudniks because of a faith myth is an enemy of social morality.
mappy!
How did it all end? That CNN morning diner breakfast interview in Iowa? Groceries brought them down. /s
Sep. 5: 21oz bag of decaff beans: $13.99, Oct. 1: $24.91.
prostratedragon
@Princess: Does sound like something coming ’round the bend. Him speaking openly about blackmail actually gives him some credibility, tbough, of course, it’s only Epstein and so strictly historical. Scenario: someone has some routine business with another person who is known for shady activities. Their transactions are handled through a vehicle with a little nickname. Then in the fullness of time as the shady activities that person 1 might not be involved in begin to come to light, that nickname surfaces as part of a cockamamie story designed to set off violence somewhere against other allegedly shady people. What would person 1 think?
Deputinize America
@Aziz, light!:
My anger is directed at those who prop up that evil state from within and without.
Princess
@MagdaInBlack: Fascinating! Basically, he makes Patel — who claimed under oath that Epstein only served himself — out to be a liar.
Aziz, light!
@Deputinize America: About 35% of American Jews are reform. Jews voted 71% for Kamala Harris. Also, fuck you.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Princess
@Deputinize America: Sone of the loudest voices I know in Israel attacking the regime are Orthodox. You’re clueless about Jews and about Israelis but it doesn’t stop you from casual bigotry. I’m going to lie you do I don’t need to see it any more.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@rikyrah: It’s neither for me, but I wish you a good morning.
rikyrah
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Vegas forgot about why it was Vegas.
I don’t gamble.
But, I love to eat and go to shows. I did both while my sister gambled. Good housing for cheap. Good buffets for cheap. Half price tickets.
Vegas forgot about that.
Ohio Mom
@Deputinize America: It doesn’t work like that. Only about half American Jews are affiliated with a formal branch of Judaism, there are other branches (albeit small ones) you left out, there are plenty of Reform Jews who consider themselves Zionists, feelings about Israel range widely among Jews, but the kicker is:
There are more Christian Zionists in the U.S. than there are Jews (of any stripe).
snoey
@rikyrah: Legendarily, when the mob ran Vegas they figured that if people got a deal on the show and the steak they had more to lose at the tables and felt good about it.
Then the MBAs took over and each part had to be it’s own profit center.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
More convenient gambling is part of it. But as people were pointing out in the comments, for Americans, gambling is more of a boomer thing along with heavy drinking .
rikyrah
The Democrats need examples all over the country of what Senator Warnock showed.
THAT NEEDS TO BE THE ADS THAT THEY ARE RUNNING. THAT NEEDS TO BE THE FIRST THING DEMOCRATS SHOW WHEN THEY GO ON TV IN FRONT OF THE CAMERAS. THAT THE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL DID THIS TO THESE AMERICANS.
Betty
@Betty Cracker: I just saw a post about a judge in D. C. getting furious about the numerous frivolous criminal charges Jeanine’s attorneys are bringing. It’s time for sanctions.
Madeleine Dean is awesome, and I am trying to get a campaign started “Dean for the Senate in 2028” to replace Fetterman. I read he is about b to announce leaving the Democratic Party. She would be better than Conor Lamb whom the establishment is already pushing.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Friends of mine were doing that too back in the day.
That was big comment in the video was the outrageous food prices. $30-$40 for just a burger and a drink, stuff like that.
dc
@prostratedragon: This needs to be challenged in court, criminal and civil. What a pack of racist assholes.
marklar
@Deputinize America: “Anyone who excuses or props up that fetid regime of Likudniks because of a faith myth is an enemy of social morality.”
Last night, the sermon at the Kol Nidre service at our synagogue focused on the theme of “Not all criticism of Israel is antisemitism, but some criticisms are.” The rabbi then went through some tells.
One was painting with an overly broad brush. Your post and response to Princess did both. Had your initial post specified the Likud party instead of the entire state, which includes many people protesting and standing up to Netanyahu, your post wouldn’t be problematic. Had your comment about Orthodox and Conservative Jews not been as general, your post wouldn’t have been problematic (BTW, are you aware that American Conservative Jews are mostly, i.e.,70%, politically liberal).
And then you rejected the entire foundation of a longstanding faith tradition as a “fairy myth”, insulting not just the Jewish people reading this blog, but all people with a faith tradition. I won’t call that AntiSemitism…it’s just pure obnoxious.
Oh, and another tell, a pattern of comments that frequently conflate Judaism, Zionism, and the current practices and policies of the Likud government. You clean up on that one.
Have a meaningful and reflective Yom Kippur…the day in which we reflect on our shortcomings, realize our imperfections, and try to be better in the future.
Suzanne
@Aziz, light!:
I’m impressed that you kept it! I probably would have donated it.
Princess
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: According to my son, that’s not quite true. In his experience, young Millennials and Zoomers are being destroyed by gambling.
Suzanne
@Betty:
Conor Lamb sucks. Definitely would prefer Madeleine Dean. Is there any way I can be of help?
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Booger:
A longstanding ‘Murkin tradition!
/s
marklar
@Ohio Mom: “There are more Christian Zionists in the U.S. than there are Jews (of any stripe).”
Thank you for bringing that up. Part of the Rabbi’s sermon last night discussed the Heritage Foundation’s “Project Esther”, created and promoted by Christian Nationalists (the same group who have brought us Project 2025) to use Israel as a cudgel to silence American dissent, while allowing those being silenced and subjugated to deflect their blame onto the Jews for being the reason they are being silenced and subjugated.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes, this.
What I got out of that video Trump is just part of the problem were the rich are out of touch with reality.
Booger
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: And apparently, the court’s decision was kinda unexpected; lots of tribes had their annual budgets for several years out planned on anticipated casino revenues…it was pretty devastating. There’s only so many cheap cigarettes you can sell, what with smoking on the decline.
ETA: Besides being the only places you used to be able to gamble, buy cheap cigs and discounted booze, a “Casino” in Lower Brule, S.D. was the only place where I have ever seen Coke and Pepsi soda dispensers side by side. Life on the rez must be magical!
(I put casino in quotes because it also sold live bait, so adjust your mental image accordingly)
prostratedragon
Something kind of nice:
Who knows what good things may come about.
Deputinize America
@snoey: The mob understood hospitality – they were off the boat or the generation after the boat.
They also understood how/why average schmucks could be convinced to part with money, and everybody in the enterprise got to dip their beak.
New Deal democrat
@prostratedragon: There is already a terrific legal shorthand for these raids where everyone including US citizens are taken, and only sorted out later:
”Kavanaugh stops”
Aziz, light!
I overreacted to Deputinize. Not that I haven’t been aware of Jew-hating lefties all my life.
Jews everywhere today are deeply conflicted about Israel. I was raised to defend and honor it, but I no longer do, and question its continued future as a state. By the way, a plurality of us are unobservant, if not outright atheists like me, which doesn’t change our ethnic identity or cultural foundations. Ohio Mom is right; the most passionate support for whatever Israel does is expressed more by Christians than by Jews.
Deputinize America
@Aziz, light!:
I was pretty supportive up through the 90s, ambivalent in the double naughts, and then Netanyahu, leader of a nuclear armed state, whined about Iran’s nuclear efforts at the UN while using a poster of a cartoon bomb.
Given the pressure his US domestic operatives were putting on Obama, it struck me as the height of hypocrisy. The man has been running the place as his own personal fiefdom, both as front man and power behind the throne, for decades now.
That’s a problem, and doesn’t speak well to the skills, resolve or efforts of his internal opposition.
Suzanne
@Aziz, light!: You didn’t overreact. It was a category error.
Ohio Mom
@marklar: I wish your synagogue was in Cincinnati, I would join for sermons like that.
The right-wing is formenting a lot of antisemitism in the guise of supporting Jews and Israel. I’m expecting the harm to reverberate through the rest of my life, if not beyond.
Betty
@Suzanne: Right now I am promoting her every chance I get on social media. I am happy to see this confrontation with Johnson has gotten quite a bit of tv news coverage. I am essentially a nobody, just trying to spread the word.
David_C
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: That’s really bad. I’m at NIH, where there seems to be some safeguards in place. With so many awards done at the end of the FY, October is usually prime leave time. For extramural, only Medical Officers heavily involved in clinical trials (patient safety) are excepted. For us, the pain comes from the attacks on funded scientists and institutions, obstacles that prevent us from doing our jobs, and attacks against science and public health. But for each agency, YMMV.
Take care.
Baud
Has PA elected a woman to statewide office? My recollection is that PA tends to skew sexist.
Suzanne
@Betty: I’m in western PA, so where both Fetterman and Lamb live. We hear much less from pols from the other side of the state, but everything I know of Dean is positive.
eclare
@Princess:
My second cousin who is a sophomore in college loves to gamble from his phone. I don’t think it’s a problem, yet.
Professor Bigfoot
Americans* don’t know how to do that.
marklar
@Ohio Mom: “I wish your synagogue was in Cincinnati, I would join for sermons like that.”
I’m fortunate…I’m in RevRick’s neck of the woods. Even attended some services in his church when we was leading it.
And Aziz, light!, Suzanne beat me to it. Also, you framed your response in a more measured way than I tend to do.
David_C
@Another Scott: The competency part will be a sticking point. A lot of people may have specialized technical abilities, but working within the bureaucracy takes skill and training. The top-down approach from people who don’t know what they are doing will not improve essential government functions.
Steve Paradis
“I did’t see it”
Oh, he watched it all right. But where we saw the slow creep of dementia and sociopathy, all Mike was Big Brother.
And he loved Big Brother.
prostratedragon
Alternative football:
Soprano2
I agree, that is……something. Elect clowns, get a circus. These aren’t even competent clowns – they really do seem to have no idea what they are doing.
Betty Cracker
@marklar: Thanks for this.
NotMax
@Baud
Catherine Knoll, lieutenant governor earlier this century. Currently three women on the commonwealth’s Supreme Court (2 elected, one appointed).
iKropoclast
That’s probably true. But I have to give this one to the MBAs, they probably saw people like me who gamble very little, if at all, and are there for the other entertainments.
Baud
@NotMax:
Thanks.
sab
@Princess: I hope you meant “pie” not “lie”. The p and l keys are adjacent.
Soprano2
@prostratedragon: That is horrifying, especially the destruction. The purpose isn’t to arrest people, it’s to terrorize them.
Soprano2
@TONYG: Voters voted to make that shit legal in Missouri. It’s coming in December. I voted against it. As you can imagine, all of the big sports franchises in MO lobbied heavily for it. I think someday they’ll regret that.
chemiclord
@Baud: Welcome to Politics by Vibes. It’s one of the few things in our country that is truly a “both sides” issue. Far too many of us want our politicians to make us feel good rather than be… ya know… competent at managing and juggling the interests of 350 million people.
sab
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Drinking is a boomer thing. The kids are more into ketamine. But the kids are gambling in a way we boomers never could. We had to go to Vegas. They can do it at home on their phones and they do.
Soprano2
@rikyrah: That’s what I’ve always heard, that everything is relatively cheap because they want people to have money to spend on gambling. If everything is expensive there, and there are casinos all over the place, why would I go to Vegas for anything? I could go to Kansas or Oklahoma instead.
iKropoclast
I love Vegas. The lights, the clubs, the shows, the food, the no-strings sex. Brilliant place. Gambling wouldn’t make my top 20 list of things to do there.
ETA: Never tried ketamine.
mrmoshpotato
@prostratedragon:
I wonder what inspired this choice.
Soprano2
@Princess: I saw a short story on the news about that last night, and it focused on young people. They’re the ones who are most likely to gamble with phone apps, and it’s ruining their lives.
Suzanne
@Soprano2: Vegas is expensive, everything. If you just want to gamble, stay close to home. But the restaurants are great, the shopping is great, nightclubs, performances, the hotel pools, etc. It’s a spectacle.
I can neither confirm nor deny the quality of the sex, but I have no trouble imagining that it’s great. My starter marriage was not great, but…. eh, a memory.
Soprano2
@Aziz, light!: I listened to a “This American Life” podcast yesterday about what’s happening to Palestinians in the West Bank. It would make anyone except the most Palestinian-hating person outraged. It seems that many Israelis believe all Palestinians are Hamas or Hezbollah, and they treat them that way.
Belafon
@prostratedragon: and those immigrants are there because Abbott bussed them to Chicago.
Quiltingfool
@Steve Paradis: The way Johnson shifted his eyes around when confronted shows me he was a big fat liar-head. He watched that speech. He’s a chickenshit oath breaker.
Princess
@eclare: It’s really dangerous. It puts two addictive behaviors together — scrolling the internet, and gambling. Hard to fight.
Soprano2
@Quiltingfool: I’m sure they all watched it, or at least the parts that got on the news. IMHO not enough is being made about the ‘enemy within’ stuff. That’s direct Nazi shit.
iKropoclast
Eliding that statement was the only sanewashing option they had.
Quiltingfool
@Soprano2: Seneca is just a hop-skip-jump from Springfield, lol! My husband used to go to Disney, Oklahoma for remote control car competitions and other gear head stuff, and on the way home they would stop at the casino near Seneca to eat at the buffet.
Hubby finds gambling to be tedious. Yay for me!
eclare
@Princess:
Decades ago I went to a casino in the Bahamas. I sat down at a blackjack table and lost $20 in about one minute. I just thought that wasn’t fun at all! I haven’t gambled since, other than the office NCAA pool, which was $5.
Soprano2
@Quiltingfool: I see ads for several casinos in Kansas and Oklahoma all the time. They look like fun places to go even if you never gamble (which I don’t).
LAC
@Steve Paradis: well, to be fair, since ole Pastor “worrying about his son’s peen” took up prime residence inside Trump colon condos, he sees nothing.
Geminid
Ankara-based Clash Report says Israel has intercepted all the boars in the Sumud Flotilla, except for one that’s lingering 100 natical away from Gaza. They report that at least 449 Flotilla members have been detained and will be taken to Israel and then deported.
So far there have been no reports of injury. If that is indeed the case I say, all’s well that ends well.. I don’t think the Flotilla organizers believed they would land any supplies in Gaza; they had no means of getting any ashore because there are no dock facilities, and they weren’t carrying that much anyway.
This effort was made to publicize the plight of Gazans under blockade and the organizers accomplished that. The Flotilla’s seizure was expected, and it triggered a number of labor actions and demonstrations around Europe. And I expect the detainees will receive heros’ welcomes when they get home.
We’ll see if the Flotilla has a long-term impact, but I kind of doubt it. This war has gone on almost two years now, and plenty of bad, tragic things have happened, but this wasn’t even one of them.
SFAW
@Soprano2:
It has (belatedly) occurred to me that this that TFG and his minions combine the “best” of two worlds — the Nazis and Stalin: Miller et al. embody the racial/”other” hatred and are seeking to destroy the non-Aryans [sic], while TFG is doing the Stalin thing of attempting to kill all his political enemies. [Of course, he also hates the darkies, Jews, Mooslims, etc., but he has others to do that for him.]
Yeah, maybe it’s an imperfect analogy, but I don’t think it’s too far off.
ETA: Someone smarter than I may note that Stalin had a fair amount of hatred of various groups (e.g., Jews) that drove his genocide. That may be true; my knowledge is not as deep as I’d like it to be vis-a-vis Stalin. If I’m wrong, apologies for the error.
p.a.
US support for Israel has been at best regretful and at worst disgraceful for years across the political spectrum, across multiple administrations. Because some of the criticism, again from both extreme ends of the political spectrum, is based on anti-semitism, means the USG can’t act in its own political and moral self interest to attempt to rein in a client state is patently ridiculous, whether said state can actually be reined in or not.
And aren’t Palestinians also a semitic people?
SiubhanDuinne
Deletedzz
Aziz, light!
@iKropoclast: While a federal employee in Carson City, I took a new job in Portland to avoid a planned transfer to Las Vegas, which I have long believed should be used for nuclear bomb testing.
Kidding. Just not a lifestyle I wanted anything to do with.
sixthdoctor
Assuming Zohran Mamdani becomes mayor, or even if he doesn’t, every Democratic candidate should look to his team for advertising. Exhibit A:
bsky.app/profile/zohrankmamdani.bsky.social/post/3m26gygvj4c25
Betty
@Baud: It would definitely be a break with the past, but I think she can win with a good campaign. She would have to win the primary first which should be open since Fetterman said he’s no longer a Democrat. Hard to say who Republicans might come up with, but McCormick certainly isn’t impressing anyone. Another multimillionaire should be beatable this time.
NotMax
@Suzanne
There’s probably someone in Vegas who couldn’t cut it as an Elvis impersonator and now ekes out a meager living performing marriages as a Dolt 47 impersonator.
(Eww.)
iKropoclast
I missed that one. You got a cite? I haven’t been able to find anything.
Princess
@Betty: Has Fetterman officially left the party and is sitting as an independent? I hadn’t heard that.
Betty
Sorry, it was a social media post that had him saying in essence he was done with the Democrats. It wasn’t an official announcement, but his words and actions indicate his dissatisfaction with the party. He voted for the CR. I expect he would be declare as an Independent, not a Republican. I think that’s how he sees himself, the new maverick.
Eta: His social media posts have been receiving angry comments from Democratic voters for sometime so he ought to see he has lost them in any case.
Princess
@Betty: Dean is already 66. That would not be m first choice if I were from PA. And she looks like Hillary. Are they going to go for that? Since looks and age seem to be the main criteria these days (I’m sure she’d do a good job but that seems to be irrelevant).
Karen Gail
Fetterman’s last “official” statement.
Fetterman: I’m not going to switch parties
iKropoclast
For shallow losers. You don’t need to validate them if you don’t want to.
Aziz, light!
@p.a.: Semite was originally a linguistic term for speakers of Middle Eastern languages that included Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, and Amharic. That meaning was eclipsed after a 19th century German writer coined the word antisemitism in order to foment Jew hatred.
marklar
@p.a.: “Because some of the criticism, again from both extreme ends of the political spectrum, is based on anti-semitism, means the USG can’t act in its own political and moral self interest to attempt to rein in a client state…”
I’m commenting much more than I am comfortable with on a thread, but I think you stated the whole crux of the problem perfectly.
Part of the sermon given by the rabbi last night was that Jewish ethics require speaking out against injustice, and there is clear injustice being committed against the Palestinians.
I get frustrated with some commenters on this blog because, while they don’t think they are Anti-Semitic (and very well might not be), they frequently use Anti-Semitic tropes in their criticisms of Israel. The blood-libel one by Matt last night was particularly egregious. Claims of “That’s not what I meant by using this trope” are, frankly, no different from Trump posting a meme full of Jewish donors funding the Democratic Party as ‘puppetmasters’, and then claiming that “Oh no, that’s not Antisemitism…I’m just pointing out that those wealthy people control the Democrats”. When somebody uses the trope of Jewish control of the US government, they own the Antisemitism implicit in that trope.
I would hope that the non-Antisemitic jackals who criticize (legitimately) Israeli domestic and foreign policy would try to be sensitive to these tropes, and temper their comments as such. And if they can’t be bothered, that too is a form of Anti-Semitism in that it discounts the sensibilities of Jewish people in a way similar to White Privilege discounting the sensibilities of people not granted ‘Whiteness.’
Your comment is a perfect model of pointed and targeted criticism without lazily tapping into damaging tropes. Thank you.
Matt McIrvin
@SFAW: And Hitler’s regime started out by wiping out his political enemies too.
Geminid
@Betty: I think the Pennsylvania’s 2028 Democratic Senate primary will be open whether or not John Fetterman remains a Democrat. I don’t think Fetterman will run again. He sure doesn’t act like he intends to.
sab
@Aziz, light!: I lived in Vegas for four years. It was easy to avoid the casinos. Most Las Vegans do unless they work there. It’s really as much an LDS city as a gaming city.
But it is so fucking hot, and so right wing, and so dry.
Las Vegas in Spanish means The Meadows in English. Mormons settled it. There was an oasis.
Decades ago the landowner of the original oasis donated that land as Nature Park, to show what it was like before everything built up.
When I lived there the mayor flexed all her influence to turn Nature Park into yet another fucking golf course, with greens fees $50 a pop, but she could let her supporters play for free.
The Paiute tribe wanted to start their own golf course. Local government wouldn’t let them: too much water use. But Steve Wynn could have fountains at his casino and Adelson could have a lagoon at The Venetian.
Just a corrupt city. They couldn’t even manage to fund a kitchen at their battered women’s shelter. Brown bag sandwiches instead of real food. The only charities are through the LDS church and you have to belong. My own Episcopal Church was more worried about our misssionaries in Muslim countries than what was going on in our own city.
trnc
Not to mention, the quote in question is about military training in a city. Even aside from the goalpost moving where we’re all supposed to be psyched about illegal use of the military on US soil, he can’t even bring himself to say that training in occupied areas is a bad idea.
WaterGirl
@Princess: That really does have the ring of truth. I hope what he said gets a lot of play.
Belafon
@Aziz, light!: I saw this on bsky yesterday (paraphrased because I can’t get to the site from work): Most American (Christian) right-wingers “love” Israel in the same way that people “love” firewood when making smores.
Baud
@Geminid:
I saw a recent headline that he was underwater with PA Dems but just barely.
Suzanne
@marklar: Thank you for your excellent and thought-provoking comment.
Matt McIrvin
@marklar:
just to be clear, that wasn’t me (I think I pied him a while ago).
David Collier-Brown
Looking at the anthem premiums for someone making $65k , the 2025 and 2026 premium went up from $307.20 to $964.30 a month
Back when Ontario Hospital Insurance Plan (OHIP) came out of your paycheck, this person would have paid $62.50 a month. Now they come out of your taxes, so the amount each month is $0. That change cut processing costs, so the effective amount is now less.
Could I encourage folks to move to Canada? Please?
marklar
@Matt McIrvin: “just to be clear, that wasn’t me (I think I pied him a while ago).”
I am well aware. I’m glad you pointed that out to everybody!
If I ever criticize them again, I’ll be sure to specify “Matt…NOT Matt McIrvin.”
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: Can we have another baseball post? Times are Eastern.
Thursday, October 2, 2025
3:00 PM
ABC
Tigers
(87-7541-40Away)
Guardians
(88-7445-36Home)
ALWC – Game 3, Series tied 1-1
Progressive Field
Cleveland, Ohio
5:00 PM
ESPN
Padres
(90-7238-43Away)
Cubs
(92-7050-31Home)
NLWC – Game 3, Series tied 1-1
Wrigley Field
Chicago, Illinois
8:00 PM
ESPN
Red Sox
(89-7341-40Away)
Yankees
(94-6850-31Home)
ALWC – Game 3, Series tied 1-1
Yankee Stadium
Bronx, New York
Paul in KY
@Baud: That would be OK by me. Sorta true also. Too.
Aziz, light!
@Belafon: As I understand the end times theology, (1) Israel must conquer and rule the Holy Land for Jesus to return, then (2) all the Jews will be killed. That seems fair.
RevRick
@marklar: Well, thank you for the implicit praise. I hope you’re not misidentifying me with someone else.
Kirklin
@New Deal democrat: As you said, Kavanaugh stops. AKA “
killseize them all, God shall sort them out.”(and for my fellow pedants, I know. “Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius” has more accurate translations. Don’t care, this works best.)
jonas
OF COURSE the NY fucking Post is now providing critical context for why some food prices are rising. Last year it was “BIDENOMICS SENDS EGG PRICES SOARING EVEN FURTHER!!” and no mention of minor details like bird flu and such.
The hackery I get. It’s who they are. The shamelessness with which they practice it is what’s reaching new heights. Like it’s some kind of superpower or something.
NotMax
@trnc
Can’t get the filigree on your cap without breaking some eggs.
//
p.a.
I was in Victoria BC a few days ago, and just based on the driveby tour OMG, given a different personal situation, I’d move there in a NY minute. Which would be foolish, but FIAOR (first impressions are often right.)
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: Already written earlier this morning and scheduled to go up at 2pm blog time
*Jackie is sending me information daily for the posts. :-)
WaterGirl
@RevRick:
That second sentence made me laugh!
Baud
@p.a.:
While BC isn’t Alberta, my impression is that it’s fairly conservative.
NotMax
@p.a.
Not to diss Vancouver in any way but my understanding is they’re struggling with a fast growing population of homeless. Must be bloody hell for them in winter.
David Collier-Brown
@marklar:
Somewhat related to that, John Shelby Spong, a bishop of the Episcopal Church, wrote a book entitled Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy, goodreads.com/book/show/25817219-biblical-literalism
In short, many supposed Christians are espousing a creed that only entered the church once Gentiles had pushed out all the Jewish followers of Jesus.
Layer8Problem
@David Collier-Brown: “Could I encourage folks to move to Canada? Please?”
Sorry, already looking at France.
Eyeroller
@Aziz, light!: The language subfamily is still called Semitic. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Wikipedia says that Arabic has by far the most native speakers in that family (not just the subfamily).
Princess
@NotMax: Winter in Vancouver isn’t very cold, usually above freezing. But there is a long-standing housing shortage in the region and it is very expensive to live there.
It’s not especially conservative though, Baud. They have an NDP premier (think: left wing Democrat and though it doesn’t match perfectly). But even Alberta elected a NDP premier recently. I can’t imagine Texas doing that.
Paul in KY
@eclare: It will be.
Baud
jonas
Not quite. Yes, dispensationalist theology, which is where all this is coming from, teaches that the fulfillment of God’s promise that the Jews will inherit the Promised Land (the State of Israel, in this view) is a prerequisite for Jesus’s return. When that happens, though, the Jews won’t be killed, but they all (well, 144,000 of them) will realize that Jesus was the true Messiah and essentially become Christians. The ones who don’t will join the rest of the unbelievers in hell. Maybe that could be considered killing a lot of Jews, but frankly, it includes a good chunk of the earth’s population (Muslims, Hindus, anyone else who doesn’t believe)
Paul in KY
@sab: I do my gambling at the track. Takes longer to lose the money and you get to see some beautiful animals in action.
Baud
@Princess:
Thanks for the correction.
Paul in KY
@Suzanne: I want to see a cool concert at The Sphere. That’s the only reason I would go.
p.a.
@Baud: 2024 NDP: Center-Left 47 seats, Conservative: Center-Right to Right Wing 44 seats, Green: 2 seats.
@NotMax: I was in Victoria, some homeless seen in the central city.
I was just talking natural beauty & conditions; yearly highs about 80°F, lows about 40°F, protected from the rain the western side of Vancouver Island gets.
What type of climate is in Victoria, BC?
JML
@Layer8Problem: I’ve considered Malta as a possible retirement destination…
oldgold
I never thought there would be a Speaker of the House I disliked more than Newt Gingrich. But, I was wrong. Mike Johnson is worse.
Newt Gingrich was a pompous ass with low character and an unhealthy thirst for power. Something I had seen in many pols before him. As such, I was familiar with his failings.
With Mike Johnson, there is what I saw in Newt with a false piety added to the mix; but beyond that, there is a creepiness that lies just below the surface that is different and very disturbing.
Paul in KY
@Karen Gail: Becoming an Independent would technically not be ‘switching parties’.
Suzanne
@Princess: I was listening to a podcast some weeks back, and David Frum was discussing the housing shortage in Canada. Said that the population is really collecting in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Ottawa, and that it is a huge stressor on those cities and is having a great deal of political effect due to affordability concerns. True?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@David Collier-Brown:
In the vast majority of cases, don’t you need the “right” skills (that the target country needs and can’t meet domestically) to legally immigrate? What if you don’t have the “right” skills?
From everything I’ve looked at, legally emigrating is basically impossible for the vast majority of people
matt
@Baud: I’d post them all dressed like the Gimp.
LAC
Kinda still need this to be here:
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/10/01/massive-immigration-raid-on-chicago-apartment-building-l…
matt
@oldgold: I wouldn’t trust Johnson alone with a child for 15 seconds.
RevRick
@Aziz, light!: So-called End Times theology is poppycock. It’s Platonic philosophy combined with the ADD-fueled obsession of John Nelson Darby, who thought he could organize scripture into neat little boxes he called Dispensations. It cherry picks some Bible verses while ignoring others.
Just to make things clear, there is no battle of Armageddon. it’s an immediate capitulation when the Resurrected Jesus appears on the scene. Besides, the kings of the earth who are allied with the Beast in Revelation 19:19, end up leading the victory parade into the New Jerusalem in 20:24! Not exactly the expected outcome of the End Times.
Librettist
If Americans were all they claimed to be, Senator Raphael Warnock would be president rather than the golden rattlecan of false prophecy.
Paul in KY
@Belafon: That quote sums up their ‘love’.
Paul in KY
@NotMax: The reefer is great up there.
Miss Bianca
@David Collier-Brown:
Sure you can, but would Canada take us? That’s the real question, and for most of us, the answer would be “no”.
Paul in KY
@oldgold: I think he’s ‘central casting’ for the bland dweeb who’s a serial killer.
eclare
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
A friend of mine did, in her 50’s, but she inherited a lot of money. She lives way up in Nova Scotia with a view of the ocean.
eclare
@Librettist:
I love listening to him talk. You can tell he’s a preacher!
Karen Gail
Don’t know if anyone has mentioned this, if they have, I missed it.
Jane Fonda is relaunching her father’s work;
Nearly 80 years after McCarthyism, Jane Fonda relaunches Committee for the First Amendment: ‘The stakes are too high’
cain
@Ohio Mom:
Which is why ADL actions really screwed themselves aligning with the malignant right.
Now we have lost another protector Jewish interests.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Miss Bianca:
The Canadian government (among others) hasn’t even publicly condemned the Trump administration’s many domestic human rights abuses, where in the recent past they’ve condemned Uganda for it’s anti-LGBTQ legislation.
I’m sure part of it’s because they’re in a difficult position, and maybe they feel doing so would do more harm than good, but it’s pretty glaring when you compare the two situations
WaterGirl
@matt: Do we still have a matt (lower case) and a Matt (upper case)?
catclub
@snoey: Canadians will tell you that if a large part of the Canadians who usually go to Vegas, don’t, then that makes the difference on whether Vegas has a good or bad year. The Trump buying Canada put them off US tourism.
mappy!
@oldgold: He reminds me of George Santos. A fraud and fabulist.
catclub
@Paul in KY: Also Mint Juleps.
Layer8Problem
@WaterGirl: ‘fraid so. (You’re cool, matt)
It just seems like a simple matter of regular expression application in the Pie Filter, but maybe there’s more to it than I know javascriptwise.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: Ah. Excellent. Thanks.
RevRick
@jonas: Like all numbers in Scripture, 144,000 is purely representative and metaphorical. The 144 part is the 12 Tribes of Israel times the 12 Apostles times a big number (or the whole of Judaism plus the whole of the Church).
chemiclord
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
When I would say that the United States has some of the most liberal immigration policies among developed nations, I wasn’t saying that as a compliment to the United States, but a condemnation about how horrible the rest of the developed world was and is in regard to immigrants.
For all the shit we (justly) give the USA about their treatment of “outsiders,” the rest of the world happily embraces immigration policies as a perfectly reasonable norm that even a good chunk of the GOP would consider absolute non-starters.
Canada, for example, happily embraces a “point system” that couldn’t even make it out of a GOP committee. And don’t even get me started about the “Democratic Socialist paradises” of the Nordic countries.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Paul in KY: To paraphrase Sergeant Frank Drebin, Detective Lieutenant, Police Squad, I only gamble when I order out. Losing at card games or feeding my money into a mechanical random number generator isn’t all that entertaining for me. I can see why people would like horse races, though, in much the same way someone would watch the Olympics or the Indy 500.
p.a.
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: The old truism/joke was that only Donald tRump could lose $$$ as a casino owner.
Now, president Donald tRump loses $$$ for all casinos!😂😂😂
Princess
@Suzanne: Definitely true. Carney basically won by promising a mass home building initiative (okay, and because of Trump but housing was his central policy initiative). Canada has a lot of the issues the US has, but they don’t get refracted through quite as strong a racial lens.
I don’t agree with everything Frum says all the time — but I agree with most of it.
Steve in the ATL
@Suzanne: absolutely—I go to Vegas every year just to see Carrot Top!
(do I even need to add /s?)
Meanwhile, I am at a meeting in Atlantic City and it’s the first time I’ve smelled cigarette smoke indoors since…I was here last year for a conference.
Madeleine
@marklar: I appreciate your reports of your Rabbi’s sermon and in general your very thoughtful comments. Thank you.
Matt McIrvin
@chemiclord: Most of the European ones have an ancestry-based system for determining whether even native-born people are citizens, which means there’s a multigenerational native-born underclass of “immigrants” who don’t have the rights or privileges of citizenship. This is what all Republicans and even some Democrats now want for the United States. (Only worse, because at least those “immigrants” are generally legal residents–they want to have millions of native-born “illegals”.)
I don’t know if they’re not thinking through the resulting can of worms or if they actively want that. They may feel inappropriately secure that their own citizenship isn’t going to be revoked out of the blue.
jonas
@RevRick: Right — they get that from Revelation iirc. Dispensationalists often connect that to the “remnant” of Israel mentioned in Romans 11 who will be redeemed. Dispensationalist “connect the dots” is a wacky game at times.
SFAW
@matt:
I absolutely would, as long as the child is Anthony Fremont.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Princess:
Read Patrick Condon’s book:
amazon.com/Broken-City-Speculation-Inequality-Crisis/dp/0774869550
Or a piece he did prior to its publication:
planningreport.com/2022/03/07/patrick-condon-should-cities-now-mandate-affordability-inclusionary-zo…
Something he’s done recently:
planningreport.com/2025/07/22/dear-atlantic-stop-publishing-propaganda-housing-its-too-important
He’s from Vancouver, was on the “other side” (the one I push back against whenever it rears it’s lying-sack-of-shit head in here) of this debate for years but has changed his tune.
SFAW
@Steve in the ATL:
My condolences that you’re no longer able to see Gallagher there.
iKropoclast
@jonas: You’re better off reading entrails if you want insight into the future. At least a fresh kill lived to see the modern world …
Another Scott
@RevRick: Thanks.
Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” was a genius piece of work, imho. The idea that so much of what we have received as the “inerrant Word of God” is either a misunderstanding, or mistranslation, or allegory, or a colloquialism that doesn’t translate exactly into English, or …
Wasn’t “hell” the town dump that was like the Springfield Tire Fire that never went out (partly from burning wicked children)??? Of course, people have been arguing about that interpretation for a few thousand years, so I’ve got nothing original to add there…
I always appreciate your contributions here. Thanks very much.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Matt McIrvin
@RevRick: And the Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that passage means that only 144,000 *people* will ever go to heaven (but many others will have some kind of OK afterlife on Earth).
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@iKropoclast:
We keep a supply of chickens just for that reason! Or is it goats? I never can remember which one provides more reliable future readings.
jlowe
An act of resistance anyone can do is to never forget any of this and to pass the stories on to future generations. All of today’s MAGAts should be made to feel the pain and the shame about what they had unleashed upon America so that even their children, and childrens’ children will spit upon their graves.
iKropoclast
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Goats, of course, but not domestic ones, silly. Go to the mountain top where the goat is high enough to see the whole world lain out before it.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@chemiclord:
Yeah, it’s just total bullshit. I kind of already feel abandoned by our allies saying nothing while our government rants about the “enemies within” and has already attacked vulnerable people, but it’s another slap in the face when it’s essentially impossible for me to have the option to leave legally. It should be enough that I’m willing to work and be a good citizen
Karen Gail
@oldgold:
Johnson has always reminded me of the sibling who tattles to parents, the one who gets others in trouble while making themselves look blameless. (One brother is like that, when Dad was still living with us he punished tattling more than crime. After he left mother would reward tattler and double punishment for crimes. At 67 brother still behaves same way.)
Then there is something sneaky and questionable about Johnson’s whole behavior; he is that person who gives you creeps without knowing why.
schrodingers_cat
@David Collier-Brown: How long before Canada goes full bore nativist? Canada also has a long history of xenophobia and racism. Komagata Maru incident for example.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Matt McIrvin:
That is just so wrong. Those people presumably work and pay taxes and yet can’t reap the benefits of citizenship.
As legal residents, what rights and privileges aren’t they entitled to? I know usually legal residents can’t vote in elections, for example
Harrison Wesley
@Karen Gail: I’ve mentioned several times that he reminds me of Norman Bates.
schrodingers_cat
The way the world has reacted to Oct 7 underscores the need for Israel. I don’t hear many calls for destruction of a nation because its leader is corrupt and vile, other than when it comes to Israel.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@iKropoclast:
I appreciate the pro tip! We certainly have plenty of 14-ers here for the altitude requirement.
JBWoodford
@Belafon: Well, sure. Jews in Israel are (as someone more clever than me observed) the material component for the Evangelicals’ Summon Jesus ritual.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@eclare:
Now if only I could win the lottery lol
mrmoshpotato
@SFAW: You’re a bad man!
Paul in KY
@catclub: That too! Personally, a nice lager on a Sunny day at Keeneland is awesome.
Paul in KY
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: You absolutely have to consider the money lost, when you go. I only take cash. If I have a day where I’m even on the expenditures, then I ‘won’. I’ve hit some nice licks over the years at the track, but I’m still down.
Belafon
@schrodingers_cat: And Gaza.
Matt McIrvin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Non-citizens have to regularly reapply for residence permits, and some states deny welfare benefits to people who don’t have them. There’s also been a push to deny those permits to people perceived as a burden.
In most of Europe, it seems like naturalization is available to the native-born children of legal residents once they reach a certain age, if they’ve spent some number of years as legal residents themselves–but they do have to actively pursue it, and it can be denied for reasons like spending too much time outside the country. One of the strictest is Denmark, which also requires holding down a job for some amount of time. I rather suspect, though, that US Republicans wouldn’t be up for anything as lax as that.
Karen Gail
@Harrison Wesley: I don’t know, I think Johnson makes Norman Bates look like a saint. Might be because I know Bates is a character and Johnson is a “real” person?
Anthony Hopkins did a great job but he couldn’t give the underlying sliminess that Johnson gives off, worse Johnson wraps the whole thing in his version of ‘christian piety.”
schrodingers_cat
@Matt McIrvin: There is a reason why the nativist “Progressive” BS of Vt loves Sweden and Denmark. They are not immigrant friendly.
Paul in KY
@Karen Gail: I can certainly see him in church garb circa 1525 burning heretics with a smarmy smile on his face.
Harrison Wesley
@Karen Gail: Anthony Hopkins? I was thinking Tony Perkins.
Can you hear the lambs screaming,Clarice?
Matt McIrvin
@Ohio Mom: A thing that struck me about the Charlie Kirk memorial was how many powerful people were outright calling for Christianist government without even the fig leaf of “Judeo-Christian values” they used to use. And then there was that weird aside from Tucker Carlson about the people plotting the death of Christ while “eating hummus”…
WTFGhost
I remember a time if a reporter got a bullshit quote like “I have no comment on your characterization,” they’d respond “No comment on using the cities as training grounds against the enemy within!” loudly, as if they misunderstood the comment’s intent.
Major LickspittleMajority Leader: “No, I mean, you are mischaracterizing…”R:”Any attempts to correctly quote President Trump are ‘mischaracterizing’ him, President’s speech can’t be trusted,”
ML: “The President’s speech can be trusted!”
R: “President wants to use cities as training grounds against enemy within, Johnson says you can trust him on that.”
ML: “YOU WILL BE BANNED FROM THE PRESS POOL!”
R: “Republican
pussiespansiespissants celebrate cancel culture, after pretending they hated it.”WTFGhost
@Harrison Wesley: Having just seen Wednesday (the Netflix series about Wednesday Adams) the bit about the lambs screaming brings up some truly morbid conversational thoughts. “We always used megaphones, to concentrate the sound, until we learned about amplifiers; uncle Fester put together one that emphasized both the subsonics, and the high treble component, necessary for full enjoyment. Spring lambing was always a special time of the year.”
@Karen Gail: It’s true – Hopkins would look menacing, like a really evil man, with a plan, and knowledge that you couldn’t do nearly as much as you thought, to try to stop him.
Johnson looks like the guy, in that old war movie I saw, who was a hapless German bureaucrat, and made a joke that “Caesar became a salad, but Hitler, will be a pickle, because he’s a bit of a sourpuss!” and the nazi-bagging spies went all SHOCKED, and said “we would NEVER… about der fuhrer?” and, of course, throughout the rest of the movie, he’s always *just about* to catch the spies, when they’d once again fake a *higher* level German, and note, “oh, the man who thinks der fuhrer is a pickle!” finally ending with one of the spies playing Hitler, making the guy faint dead away, “Are YOU the man who said I’m going to be a PICKLE?”
That’s speaker Johnson. Especially compared to Mr. Hopkins.
Deputinize America
This is bad, and licenses lawlessness in the Trump Administration.
I got this email last night:
Layer8Problem
@Deputinize America: From whom?
WTFGhost
@prostratedragon: You know, Trump just *might* ruin the assumption that cops are smart enough to know what they’re doing, and should be given deference *every single time* they state a predicate for investigation.
People will keep hearing bullshit excuses for massive attack… and does Trump think suddenly a bunch of people named “The Left” will pour out, angry as hell, to be mowed down by rifle fire and grenades? Doesn’t he realize people will keep hearing “mass roundup, bullshit justification”? Eventually, even the American public will stop believing it.
@TONYG: I’m sure the answer is, “man, if you have to ask, you’ll never understand VEGAS!” Me, I thought it was hilarious hearing stories of high rollers, “and then they dropped twenty grand on the craps table, and in those days, that was real money!”
To some people, to be *near* those high rollers, to *hear* someone blow a ten grand on a hand of blackjack, to hear someone else won a fifty grand on a hand of blackjack, to be surrounded by all that action and adrenaline and excitement….
It’s a lot like the stock market. In fact, it’s a lot more like the stock market than stock professionals like to admit. In most cases, buying stock is *not* providing cash to a business – it’s propping up the price. That’s not a valueless thing, but then, neither is providing jobs for those who provide the glitz and glamour in Vegas.
WaterGirl
@matt:
Are Matt (uppercase) and matt (lower case) the same person?
I am aware that neither is Matt McIrvin.
edit: okay, matt and Matt have two different email addresses set.
matt can you add something to your nym even if it’s just matt (lowercase)? Even though WordPress allows it, we really can’t have two people posting with the same nym. It’s too confusing.
Ohio Mom
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): That is my impression as well. Ohio Family is stuck here in the USA.
Deputinize America
@Layer8Problem:
US District Court, Western District of Kentucky
Ohio Mom
@cain: Yeah, the ADL has lost its way, actually lost its way a while back. I am not sure its big backers get that though.
The entire organized Jewish community is in crisis and the establishment keeps doubling down on their mistakes.
tam1MI
@Betty: Madeleine Dean is awesome, and I am trying to get a campaign started “Dean for the Senate in 2028” to replace Fetterman. I read he is about b to announce leaving the Democratic Party. She would be better than Conor Lamb whom the establishment is already pushing.
Conor Lamb was and is a perfectly good candidate for the Senate, and we would all be a lot better off if he had won the Senate seat currently occupied by the hoodie wearing lunatic. I have no beef against Ms. Dean, she would probably be a fine candidate too, but this slighting of Lamb is absolutely ridiculous.
Nettoyeur
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I wouldn’t miss Las Vegas.
StringOnAStick
Las Vegas is the only reason why NV has voted mostly blue for Senators, it’s all the workers there. Since their industry is being destroyed by greed and politics, a side benefit to R’s and MOTU’s is that NV will no longer have any D Senators once the gaming industry collapses because those working class folks will move on.
Nettoyeur
@SFAW: Stalin actively helped Germany rearm (raw matlsand training Luftewaffe), got caught out by German invasion in 1941, but rallied into an effective if brutal war leader. By the 1950s, he was demented and paranoid, and fortunately died just as he was about to send all the Jews to the Jewish Autonomous Region in the desolate border region of China and commit other crimes. See the black comedy Death of Stalin which is based on that craziness.
Aziz, light!
@schrodingers_cat: Canada has resettled more than 100,000 Syrian refugees, twice that of the U.S., which has a population eight times bigger. Is that a nativist policy?
Ohio Mom
@schrodingers_cat: That’s always the rub. Israel exists, you can’t make it not exist. It’s had a fault line from the beginning, balancing being a Jewish state and a liberal democracy at the same time, which just isn’t possible.
It’s done/is doing crappy, horrific things, like many other nations have done and continue to do, and criticism of those things gets mixed in with antisemitism.
Israeli Palestinians deserve to live in Israel as equals to Jews (they live a sort of a Jim Crow existence), and Palestinians in the occupied territories deserve their own state; they’ve been used by other interests and have never had a good and fair advocate.
There’s plenty of blame to go around, if anything, Iraelis and Palestinians share the similar self-destructive streaks.
Aziz, light!
@Ohio Mom: I’ve long thought that the only just and peaceful solution is for Israel to annex the West Bank and Gaza, then give full citizenship and representation to the Palestinians, along with reparations for what has been stolen from them. Yes that will end the Jewish state. Enough with fucking tribalism.
Aziz, light!
Deleted duplication.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Aziz, light!:
Trudeau and the Liberals were going to get trounced by the Conservatives before Trudeau stepped down and Trump starting being a belligerent asshole threatening Canada. Trudeau had been fairly liberal on immigration policy in the prior years and it appears some Canadian voters blamed increased immigration on the housing crisis up there, which the Cons took advantage of. At least, that was my impression
Captain C
@p.a.:
The term “antisemitism” was coined in the 19th Century to denote a more respectable, reasoned, prejudice against Jews, contrasted with the more unwashed plebean judenhass.
Matt McIrvin
@Nettoyeur: Even weirder, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast still exists there, near the far eastern border with China. Has Yiddish as an officially recognized language. There are fewer than 1000 Jews living there, among a shrinking population of about 150,000.
schrodingers_cat
@Aziz, light!: The current Canadian government is miles better than T2.0. And Canadian immigration policy is much saner than ours. But as an immigrant I have no idea whether the current sanity will always prevail.
I was speaking of Canada’s history not its policies right now.
Kathleen
@schrodingers_cat: So true. I’m still appalled at the cruelty and indifference so publicly displayed about 10-7 and how the plight of the murdered and captive Israelis was trivialized. And still is.