This GOP move does several things:
+ No votes in the House until at least October 14
+ No swearing-in for Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva D-AZ
+ No 218th signature from Grijalva on the Epstein Files discharge petition
+ Continues the House 'jam' of the Senate on the CR— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree.bsky.social) October 3, 2025 at 3:44 PM
===
I guess “district work period” is now a euphemism for “putting off releasing the Epstein files”
— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) October 3, 2025 at 4:07 PM
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Harry Enten: "Who do Americans blame more for the shutdown? They blame Republicans. The New York Times — by 7 points they blame Republicans. Marist — blame Trump and Republicans by 12 points. How about Washington Post? By a 17 point margin."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) October 3, 2025 at 12:04 PM
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An acknowledgement that the all stick no carrot presidency is potentially not working.
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) October 3, 2025 at 11:52 AM
This is stuff that a president desperate for good press thinks about.
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) October 3, 2025 at 11:52 AM
===
Politico is headquartered in Northern Virginia and a lot of national reporters live there.
I would suggest every journalist who is a resident of Virginia do exactly this: enter your information and find out how much your insurance will increase thanks to Republicans.— Laura Chapin (@laurachapin.bsky.social) October 3, 2025 at 10:43 PM
===
So both Thune and Johnson are waving around Vought like a boogeyman whereas Trump’s own staffers are telling agencies to ignore him?
Senior government officials privately warn against firings during shutdown
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202…— PhoenixWomanMN (@phoenixwomanmn.bsky.social) October 2, 2025 at 5:12 PM
===
Trump isn't President. Vought and Miller are running the government. It would be good to punch that message through. These are the guys clubbing puppies and shutting hospitals down.
— Clean Observer (@hammbear2024.bsky.social) October 1, 2025 at 3:22 PM
===
The current batch of the GOP had drunk the kool-aid pretty hard and I don't like their electoral prospects with the strategy of "destroy all of our own voters economic well being."
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) October 3, 2025 at 11:33 AM
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Last time Ds agreed to a CR, republicans didn’t honor it. They went back on their promises. They used rescissions to cut spending they didn’t like anyway. Their word is junk. Plus, if he’s so ready to talk, walk across the hall and talk. No one is stopping you. Feckless cowards.
— Partly Cloudy (@ksunny.bsky.social) October 3, 2025 at 12:00 PM
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fox news to mike johnson: can you fucking dipshits please keep it together, you're making this impossible for us
— GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) October 3, 2025 at 5:08 PM
just incredible that thune's terrible senate leadership has put them in a position where the senate is subordinate to the fucking *house*, a better senator with more self-respect and intelligence would know what is proper in this situtation
— GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) October 3, 2025 at 1:00 PM
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As we’ve been saying about many statements & actions by the administration, this is not a sign of strength (& it probably freaked TF out every Republican who got under 65% their last election)
— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) September 30, 2025 at 1:22 PM
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i think this is poor tactically by Johnson et al; they will 100% take the blame for a shutdown, all of it, if they’re talking about it as an opportunity to do things they want to do
— ghost malone ergo propter malone (@proptermalone.bsky.social) October 1, 2025 at 8:48 AM
this is maybe useful to try and sell internally but it is counterproductive public messaging
— ghost malone ergo propter malone (@proptermalone.bsky.social) October 1, 2025 at 8:49 AM
if Johnson is already trying to have to sell internally that’s good news for the good guys
— ghost malone ergo propter malone (@proptermalone.bsky.social) October 1, 2025 at 8:51 AM
===
i do think there has been some value in the dem strategy of delivering a single message (health care) through every dem member of congress when compared to the every man for himself strategy of the republicans
— GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) October 2, 2025 at 2:26 PM
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i assure you, the joker takes no pleasure in flooding gotham with joker gas, he has to ensure the gang places all of these tanks in the right places to poison all of gotham
— GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) October 2, 2025 at 2:04 PM
absolutely fucking no one who knows who russell vought is thinks he is reluctant about any of this
— GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) October 2, 2025 at 2:26 PM
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Two KFF findings Republicans might want to consider when deciding how much they care about the looming 100+% premium spike:
More than 1/4 of farmers and ranchers are marketplace enrollees.
Almost 1/2 of enrollees are small business owners or work for them.— Drew Altman (@drewaltman.bsky.social) September 28, 2025 at 9:28 PM
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The higher prices, chaos president is not sitting well with folks
— @NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) (@newsjennifer.bsky.social) September 30, 2025 at 11:51 AM
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Trump’s approval in the swing states is abysmal open.substack.com/pub/gelliott…
— G Elliott Morris (@gelliottmorris.com) September 30, 2025 at 9:58 AM
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Reminder:
The Trump Administration does not do stupid things as part of a genius plan. The Trump Administration does stupid things because it is, in many ways, stupid. Evil and stupid so often go together like peanut butter and jelly, but, you know, evil and stupid.
— Jane Coaston (@janecoaston.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Baud
Interesting they’re not talking yet about ditching the filibuster like they did with nominees. I hope they do, because I’m not confident a future slim Dem majority will.
Thanks for the roundup, AL.
Baud
Thanks, Obama.
satby
I don’t think even the most dire prognosticators on the Democratic side, and certainly not our pathetic media, expected the chaos and disintegration of all our social norms to occur so quickly. Even though it was clearly advertised by the felon during his campaign. It’s gotten so bad so fast that I’m pretty confident that the blowback on them will be fierce. It’s building every day.
Baud
@satby:
I trusted Trump to make it this bad.
Anyway, I hope you’re correct.
NotMax
Weekend WTF watch.
Portion of an opera which can only be described as … unique.
N.B.: It’s based on a documented happening. If so inclined search for Dead Duck Day to get the backstory.
satby
@Baud: Yeah, WE did, because we pay attention to details and don’t let blind ideology block our recognition of facts. You know who doesn’t have any of those abilities and is getting blindsided hard right now?
And if it becomes even more obvious that the felon’s dementia is allowing other people to act as president, well, his cultists want HIM in charge. Not Miller, not Vought. They’ll be livid that these people are “sabotaging” their hero, who only wants good things for his MAGA children. And I’ll be there for it, with popcorn.
satby
@satby: and to be clear, the MAGAts are fine with ICE Barbie deporting anyone darker than a paper bag; but that shit will be shoved right out of their consciousness as soon as the bills they can’t pay hit, while the groceries they can’t buy skyrocket. Because IGMFU quits working when they don’t get theirs.
Ten Bears
The Republicans lie. Everything they say is a lie. Cut through the bullshit, wash away the weasel words, set aside pious legaleze, boil it down to ones and zeros, balls on a brass monkey: they’re liars. They just lie. Everything they say is a lie
Should be making this The Big Truth to counter their Big Lie, repeated over and over and over again until it hits home: They just lie. Everything they say is a lie
The Republicans are Liars. They just lie. Everything they say is a lie
sab
The Trump taxpayer rebates ($1000-2000) is basically just refunding to us money that we wouldn’t have had to spend without tariffs.
I made the mistake of buying a GE washer slightly over a year ago. Hunk of junk. It had its first failure a couple of days after the one year warranty expired. Front load washer. The door locking mechanism froze up so we couldn’t retrieve our just washed clothes. 4 repair vists and $1000 later we thought it was fixed until another lockup with every item of clothing my husband owns except for what he was wearing.
Went on the internet, found the secret code that was supposed to unlock it. Several reboots and tries I did get the door open and the clothes out. No way I would trust that machine again. We went out to replace it and the prices are post tariff Yikes!
So I am not believing anything Republicans are telling me. I’ll take any tax break they offer as a reimbursement for what thir policies already stole.
Ishiyama
@satby: I, personally, have been using the term “social arsonists” since the 1990s to describe the agenda of the right wing. It’s no surprise to a hell of a lot of people whose voices were not heard by the powers that be.
satby
@sab: a “smart” washer with all the AI crap they’re shoving into everything now?
In Europe they’re already changing new autos to reduce all the screen centric controls, because of course taking your eyes off the road to tap through screens to accomplish something you used to just turn a dial for made accidents increase.
satby
@Ishiyama: The money guys always think they’ll be ok no matter how bad the right wing fucks up because they think they’ll leave the financial levers alone. And they’re always wrong, because a functioning society keeps the financial world turning too.
Edit: I thought my previous comment made it clear that it’s the true believers in the right wing who never see what’s coming until their own little world gets rocked hard by reality. It’s happened over and over in history.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
My first thought: I used to think that “smart, unprincipled, and desperate” was more dangerous than “stupid, unprincipled, and desperate”, but now seeing the latter in action, I’m not so sure.
My second thought: I was expecting that in about two or three years, the Trumpists would go into full Downfall / Death of Stalin mode. But at the pace things are going now, they might get there before Christmas.
satby
Report from Chicago (my nieces and nephews live there too):
satby
Also, from the Joliet News on FB (50? miles SW of Chicago):
sab
@satby: There weren’t a lot of alternative choices. I could not see the point of having my washer on the internet, much less having the need for a computer interface for the door to communicate with the basic machine. But whatever, that was what was available.
I just replaced my flip phone with a smart phone and that is a stressful learning curve also. Why is Google deciding what calls are spam? Shouldn’t I get to decide my own spam? And so much “information.” I just want calls and messages and reports of missed calls. Not all this other “news” and crap. No wonder the kids are all nutz.
MagdaInBlack
@satby: Yup, I was following it on reddit Chicago. Now we know where all those helicopters were headed.
satby
@sab: I have a Google phone. If people report a number as spam it goes into a database and that’s what’s telling Google the number calling you is spam. Since a lot of spammers use autodialers, a lot of numbers are in that constantly updating database. I don’t think Google is the only company referencing it.
You have the option of ignoring Google and taking the call of course. I don’t, and I love the time Google saves me on junk.
Geminid
@Baud: I wonder if Thune would have the 50 votes he’d need for a filibuster carveout.
Ishiyama
If the Democrats get another chance at running things, the motto must be: What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Purge the bad actors from all three Branches, come Hell or high water. It should have been done after Nixon, but late is better than never. No more bipartisanship.
Kirklin
Since it’s open, pardon my vent.
My car died. I work my 40 hours on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Mechanics are (mostly) only open Monday-Friday, so of course my car died.
If public transit was worth a damn here in Dallas I’d ride it. But it’s 2 and a half hours each way to go 23 miles on a day I work 13 hours.
Guess I’m taking unplanned PTO.
This and I’ll close, fuck ICE.
Kirklin
@Ishiyama: seconded.
Baud
@Geminid:
Probably not. Senators love hiding behind the filibuster.
Tony Jay
@Ten Bears:
True, but one simpering interview with Paster Mike in which he points out the sky is blue would lead to a full-court Media press alerting the public that “As Democrats’ ‘Go Low’ Offensive Misfires, GOP Rises To The Challenge”.
Exposing the Maga Party is necessary, but not necessarily as simple as just telling the truth.
sab
@Geminid: Excellent point. He doesn’t have the control of his caucus that the Democrats have. Everyone on our side bewailing have not noticed the caucus discipline we are showing.
sab
@satby: Thanks for the info. That calms me down.
West of the Rockies
I hope that smug, tiny dweeb Mike Johnson (Thune towers over him) gets his just desserts.
Creepy little Bible-quoting Grindr-bottom deserves misery and ridicule. What a drab and dreary hypocrite.
Suzanne
@sab: Mr. Suzanne and I replaced our refrigerator after the election last year. I usually wouldn’t have replaced it until well and truly it broke, but we wanted a larger one, and we knew tariffs would be significant. We have pretty much dropped discretionary spending to zero, because TACO and we can wait on most things.
sab
OT:
satby: I love the two cats you got me a year ago. Echo is a loving snuggly doll. Solomon is a huge magnificent beast (we call him the Large Lad) with an excellent temperament plus he is gorgeous.
They have finally realized the pitbull is their friend and protector.
p.a
Hey, we don’t want to do this, the
freedmen KulaksJews CapitalistRoadeers*Blue States are making us do it…🙄* just a sampling, historically speaking
satby
@sab: I’m so happy it worked out! Your house is a kitty heaven.
satby
Almost 7 am and still pitch dark. ☹️ I have to get ready to go to the market and it’s still 1/2 hour to daylight, longer until dawn. I should be toast by 3 pm, since I’ve been up since 3am. Whine 😞
Baud
@satby:
Yeah, it feels like it’s getting darker more quickly than I remember, even though I know that can’t be correct.
Baud
More bread and circuses.
sab
@satby: depends on kitty litter changing. They had issues this week.
But I do think think all seven (!) are mostly happy. Other cats to stalk. Lots of space. Big dumb dog to nap with.
None of the previous outsiders want out. Too interesting inside.
MagdaInBlack
@Baud: Between this and the grim reaper ai and the made for video assault on the apartment in Chicago, I don’t even know what to say anymore. It’s just all reality tv/cosplay for them, isn’t it?
Nothing is real
(.. strawberry fields forever..)
Baud
@MagdaInBlack:
They’re doing it because there’s an audience for it.
Suzanne
Others on this thread have much more valid frustrations this morning. But I just sneezed while holding a full cup of coffee. Dang.
sab
@Suzanne: A mess? My cats bang into my arm a lot. Irks me.
Suzanne
@sab: Have to wash the throw pillow my arm is resting on. So a minor annoyance.
James Surowecki made this observation on Xhitter and it gets at the core of why politics is so impossible these days.
I try to maintain some Omnes-ian optimism that there’s enough people for whom results matter.
sab
Halloween.
I do not understand why our whole country is entertained by mocking death. People do die, mostly not wanting to.
Last year I lost my dad 99. This year I lost my grand-daughter 24.
The losses didn’t make sense to me then, and 15 foot plastic skeletons don’t make sense to me now.
What the phuck is wrong with these people that they don’t think their stupid fake death fun won’t hurt other people? Death is the subject after all
ETA Fake graveyards in front yards! Nobody you know died, hoping for respect?
I can’t even..
MagdaInBlack
Apropos of nuthin: listening to Kara Swisher on Trevor Noah’s YouTube channel. I just find her really interesting, and this is a fun chat they’re having about tech and tech bro’s.
MagdaInBlack
@sab: “they don’t think” is the key phrase here.
eta: also “mocking death”
Baud
@sab:
You’ve had a disproportionate share of tragedy recently.
sab
@Suzanne: He will be horrified, but Omnes is my hero.
Suzanne
@sab: Many hugs.
Come hang out here when it gets to be too much.
sab
@Baud: Everybody bad years. Yes but..
Grand-daughter was a slam no one expected. Where was God that week?
Suzanne
@MagdaInBlack: Agree, Kara Swisher is a really interesting and enjoyable guest. Whenever she’s on an episode of a podcast that crosses my notice, I listen.
MagdaInBlack
@Suzanne: I struggle with it when shes on with Scott Galloway. He’s interesting too but gives me the “icks.’
Md. Arafat Rahman
The chaos described here really highlights how deeply the GOP has embraced dysfunction as a political strategy. It’s disheartening to see how quickly norms can unravel when power is prioritized over governance. At the same time, I agree with others that the public is noticing, and backlash is building. People want stability, fairness, and accountability—values that can’t survive in a system run on lies and manufactured crises.
Scout211
@Baud:
And if the FBI agents refuse, they are relieved of duty.
sab
@sab: I know. I watch St Jude’s ads all year. Almost everyone has catastrophes. I cry when I see those ads.
Let’s just keep it off our lawns. Go back to fictitious witches and scary dragons. Not graveyards as fun.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Suzanne: It sucks when that happens. Been there.
Baud
Suzanne
@sab: I’m not big on Halloween decorating. Much prefer Christmas.
Which brings me to a silly thing I’ve been thinking about. I have been very disappointed with the quality of the live Christmas trees I’ve found since moving to PA. Too short, usually have bare spots, needle drop is ridiculous even with watering. I was considering buying a fake one this year. But tariffs. Meh.
Princess
I know that Dems regularly have been getting crap from places like the Bluesky peanut gallery for focusing on healthcare in this but historically voters have responded really well to Dems on that issue. It’s. It a bad focus — and it gives room for an s tusk resolution to this if the GOP wants one.
NotMax
@Suzanne
Pennsy’s pretty rural. Got to be a Christmas tree farm within reasonable driving distance from the big city.
AM in NC
@Suzanne: Surowecki was an acquaintance of mine in college. It’s been cool following his career. And he is on point with that observation. Let’s hope not being able to afford health insurance or coffee is more important to the normies we need than “kicking out all the illegals” with a police state.
p.a.
@Baud: Expensive, especially considering, from my admittedly limited research, unless the user changes the habits that made these drugs necessary in the first place, they will be on them for life to maintain the weight loss.
There are people whose weight issues are genetic, and these drugs are lifesavers, but otherwise we’re now in caveat emptor territory.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@NotMax: I have a cousin who teaches at Penn State so visit there regularly and there are at least two Christmas tree farms there. And State College isn’t a big area once you exclude the college kids and I doubt the kids are buying Christmas trees because they go home for Christmas break.
Dog Mom
This made me laugh this morning. Sorry it’s from fb. facebook.com/reel/1436702334677057
Suzanne
@NotMax: Yes, there are, but fairly expensive. But maybe I’ll go that route this year.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Someone needs to rewatch A Charlie Brown Christmas.
mrmoshpotato
Oh, there will be swearing, because fuck these pedophile-protecting bastards.
Suzanne
@AM in NC: That’s really cool that you knew him. I follow him on X.
The scary thing about everything being about cultural alignments is that normal political tools don’t work on those people. My sense is that the effectiveness of those tools is dwindling and most of our political strategy people haven’t figured out a way to penetrate.
kalakal
@sab: My mother-in-law died on Oct 30th, my mother on the 31st one year apart. Halloween isn’t that big a deal in the UK anyway* ( we’re all into Nov 5th and unleashing our inner pyromaniac) so it is fair to say I take a dim view of Halloween fake graves.
*At least when I was growing up
JMG
Halloween decorating in suburban Boston is almost as prevalent as Christmas decorating, and many displays are well over the top. I have always said that if you asked Massachusetts residents that they’d have to pick one holiday to celebrate, Christmas or Halloween but not the other, it’d be a very close vote.
mrmoshpotato
When the Rethuglican party has lost the “We fucking hate the USA too” corporation…
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
My experience over the past week is that the folks running the Agencies are definitely trying to keep staff on rather than RIF them. I don’t think Vogt has much of a policy agenda but the appointees at many of these Agencies do and they know that’s toast if they lose any more staff because we’re skeleton crew already with the losses we’ve already had. So they aren’t down with Vogt’s agenda of firing everyone. So I think that’s mostly smoke and mirrors. But we’ll see. I do think someone should point out that wrongfully terminated federal employees are reinstated and that the government would be on the hook for back pay, legal fees and other compensation so it would work out really badly for taxpayers if all these folks are illegally fired. They’ll wind up paying the fired workers for not working and then other penalties on top of that.
prostratedragon
@satby:
Yesterday’s cherce video, from Logan Square area I think:
Kudos to the biker.
p.a.
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: NO bureaucrats worth their salt, left, right, center, want their department cut in total employment. At best, they want ideological dissenters replaced.
“Worth their salt” does imply “non-ideological whackos”.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
There’s also another issue with Vogt’s plan which is that some non essential employees can stay on the job to support the essential employees but can only do work that supports those employees’ essential duties. So a procurement person can stay on to purchase protective equipment for first responders. Maybe some limited HR staff can stay on too but with the same limitations on the duties they can perform. RIF notices have to come through HR and pretty much all the HR staff have been furloughed at the agencies that have furloughed staff so there’s nobody there to carry out the firings.
p.a.
Need something positive? Fbook, so apologies.
facebook.com/reel/1436702334677057?fs=e&fs=e
mappy!
It’s all culture, all the way to the bottom…
Republicans’ confidence in mass media to report news “fully, accurately and fairly” now at 8% (Gallop)
zhena gogolia
@sab: I am totally with you. This is a fairly recent phenomenon.
It used to be pumpkins and gourds, and a few black cats ON OCTOBER 28 OR SO. Now it’s cemeteries in front yards starting in September.
geg6
@Suzanne:
Come my way to Hozak Farms. They have a variety of types of trees and you can get pre-cut trees or cut your own.
Baud
@mappy!:
Yet the media covets that 8%.
AM in NC
@Suzanne: I hear you. I think the MAGAs are lost to us 100%. Both because they are cultists AND they exist in a completely sealed-off rightwing billionaire-owned media bubble that pumps lies and fear into their brains 24/7.
I do think we have a chance to make good inroads with the mostly disengaged people (who do vote in POTUS-year elections), and the “swing voters” who just want to “vote the bums out” every time because they respond to their current lived experience – and that experience has been crappy for a while now – but will be significantly worse now because of the GOP killing our economy.
The question is, can we keep those voters for more than one election cycle, because it is impossible to fix all the damage the GOP does in one term, and the Dems get blamed for not fixing the GOP-created shit show quickly enough, and they get voted out of power, with an ENORMOUS assist from our corrupted information/media environment.
Another Scott
@prostratedragon: Kinda shame that the tear gas didn’t end up back in the white Suburban (or whatever it is).
Pretty close though!
:-/
I’m glad brave people in Chicago and elsewhere are standing up. The monsters won’t stop until they face pushback and consequences.
Grr…
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
geg6
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
There are four Christmas tree farms here in Beaver County. I already commented above to Suzanne about the one I prefer. She’s not very far from me and the farm I think is best is near the Pittsburgh airport.
Scout211
I’m beginning to think that billionaires owning news networks is not a good thing.
It does sound like the reporters feeling lied to by Ellis makes them seem a tad bit naive.
But props to the Independent for a great description of Bari Weiss.
Kirklin
I’m peculiar, I admit, but I prefer Halloween to Christmas and I love the over-the-top decorations.
I do not consider it disrespectful of the dead. It is to me a recognition of and mockery not of death but of the fear of death. It is a day on which to remember those who have passed done in a more joyful fashion than black veils and weeping at the grave.
geg6
@JMG:
I don’t like either. In fact, I really hate them both. Give me Thanksgiving. It’s the only holiday I enjoy.
iKropoclast
I do love Thanksgiving. It’s my second favorite…to Christmas. Christmas is effectively, for me, Thanksgiving plus colored lights. Wonderful.
Baud
I’m a President’s Day man myself.
Another Scott
@zhena gogolia: +1
Several NoVA neighbors put up their stuff the weekend before October 1.
There seems to be a competition to see who can have the biggest plastic skeleton and giant scary ghost these days. There’s a guy down the street with an absolutely huge inflatable thing with a Cheshire cat with a rotating head and a smiling Jack O Lantern and a bunch of other stuff that he’s put out for about 5 years now. It was kinda interesting when it was only a few houses doing the giant things. Now, it seems to be a competition to see who can spend the most at Walmart or Amazon to have lighted, motorized, giant plastic stuff from China taking over their yard. (Those things are spendy!!)
I’ve got some purple and orange LED string lights that I plan to put out along the walkway, but that’s about it. We’ll see if I actually get it done in time…
Hang in there.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Baud
I like Halloween because I’m old enough to remember when the religious righties hated it because it was demonic.
p.a.
I prefer any/all holidays that don’t traditionally require family contact: mine is overwhelmingly wingnut. So, New Year’s Day👍🏻, Independence Day👍🏻, Halloween👍🏻, Memorial/Labor/Veterans👍🏻
Betty
@Suzanne: Maybe you need to take a trip up to north central PA where you can cut down your own tree. Guaranteed to be fresh.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: They need to keep the operation secret so ICE doesn’t disappear him first.
mrmoshpotato
@prostratedragon: Throw that canister back into the car.
ETA – Another Scott and I are on the same page.
sab
@MagdaInBlack: I don’t find that forgivable. ” Forgive me for being an unfeeling asshole.”
Nope.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: I enjoy a holly jolly Christmas. But I shake it throughout the year.
Trivia Man
I personally think a sound strategy is for reporters to ask trump “did you get Stephen miller’s (Russ Vought’s) permission to say that?
Every. Damn. Time.
Trivia Man
@geg6: No love for Arbor Day?
NotMax
@Kirklin
Admit I was stumped trying to shoot out a short comment on this.
You put my inchoate thoughts into words better than I could. Thanks.
Another Scott
In which a young Popehat takes on the 82nd Airborne.
[ rofl ]
Best wishes,
Scott.
prostratedragon
Somewhere recently I ran across a database in some form of these incidents. Maybe I’ll find it this weekend.
mappy!
@Baud: Confirmation bias.
That 8% isn’t their target audience however…
Eyeroller
@Kirklin: It has its origins in festivals to remember the dead. Our version has influences both from Europe and the New World that predate Christianity. In both, it was the time that the dead could return to the physical world to visit their descendants. In Europe it was also associated with harvest festivals. I am less versed in the history of Dia de los Muertos other than that it was largely Aztec and the Catholic Church consolidated various festivals into All Souls’ and All Saints’ days.
Edit: Dia de los Muertos is in some ways both more and less grim than European Samhain-type traditions–they use a lot of skull imagery (maybe descended from Aztec displays of skulls) but also abundant marigolds.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
prostratedragon
@mrmoshpotato: I think they expected to just toss and drive away. Whoops.
Scout211
That’s why I admire Dia de Los Muertos, November 1st. My daughter’s family celebrates that day (or days for some families) and it does include costumes but it is designed to honor loved ones who have died, not celebrate scary ghouls and skeletons. She also teaches dual language English-Español and her classroom celebrates Dia de Los Muertos.
I have always enjoyed the trick-or-treat aspect of our US Halloween, though. As a kid going door to door and as an adult giving out treats. Moving out here to the boonies, we haven’t had a trick-or-treater since we moved here 17 years ago. I miss it.
iKropoclast
@mappy!: 92 percent of Republicans are definitely right that the news is not reported completely or fairly. They’re wrong to think it isn’t entirely for their benefit.
rikyrah
Partly Cloudy above makes my point. The GOP completely went back on the last deal made. They can’t be trusted. So, they can open the government all by themselves.😒😒
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Suzanne
@AM in NC:
I agree with you. But I do think all the squishy stuff really matters with these people. All the stuff that we here at BJ show some amount of disdain for: “vibes” and “speechifying” and emotional tingles and parasocial relationships and going on weird podcasts and performance art tactics and branding and likeability. All of these are drops in a very big bucket, but they all work around the edges to make these types of people (disengaged, incoherent, swingy) more receptive to our message.
I want to be very clear that I am not saying, by any means, that our policy positions or results don’t matter. Of course they do. But at the levels at which we are competing…. everything matters. Everything has to be good. All of the “arts and crafts” parts of politics. So many politicians are lawyers by training, and I think that doesn’t always give the perspective of what makes people do the things they do, how to persuade.
Eyeroller
@Scout211: As I mentioned above, Dia de los Muertos has plenty of death imagery in the form of calaveras and the like. It’s just different from the European-inspired graveyards and such.
rikyrah
@sab:
I completely understand. You are so right. I am still raw about the loss of my sister. Her birthday was this week.😪
iKropoclast
It’s weird, though. One would think they’d be able to recognize this fairly obvious fact and would willingly cut any deal the Dems propose because Trump will just sign it and ignore it anyway.
rikyrah
I am.glad that for a number of workplaces, Open Enrollment is coming soon . People are going to see those rate increases IN REAL TIME.
Eyeroller
@Suzanne: I’ve been convinced for quite a while now that our politicians need to do more “political theater” but too many of them (and even more so the advisors and consultants) are wonks who hold that in disdain. It’s “beneath our dignity.” No, it isn’t. I like to consider myself a highly intellectual person and even I want to see some theater, not as entertainment but as an illustration of caring about the issues.
WaterGirl
@Md. Arafat Rahman: Welcome
Now that your first comment has been manually approved, future comments from you will show up right away.
mrmoshpotato
@prostratedragon:
Yup.
Central Planning
@iKropoclast: We need better Thanksgiving music. That’s what puts Christmas at #1 for me.
iKropoclast
They’ll tell you that until you have to hold a member of the in-group accountable, until you have to be fair to a member of the out-group. Far too many are willing to bear a little instability to lift themselves above others.
Scout211
Yes, but the Dia de Los Muertos death images are in honor or celebration of loved ones who have died. That differs from our US Halloween images that sab was talking about.
Anyway
RThugs have become good at combating Ds strengths. Dems are good at process, incremental steps towards large goals, legislation that’s often difficult to explain etc — RThugs flood the zone with culture vibes easy to access stuff and when they get in overturn Ds achievements in no time. Sorry for all the doom on a Saturday. The Chicago ICE raids really got to me — they should be the hot topic ( outside BJ I mean) as in people should be aghast — I don’t see that happening.
Eyeroller
@Central Planning: “Jingle Bells” originally had no connection to Christmas — it was just a song about riding a horse-drawn sleigh in the snow — so it’s really more applicable to Thanksgiving, especially in the past when there would have been more and earlier snow in winter.
Although Wikipedia claims it was originally written as a minstrel song, so…oof.
Kathleen
@satby: I am praying for the people in Chicago.
Kirklin
@Anyway: It broke through enough that People magazine did an article about it.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
Well, that’s his problem, isn’t it? The Republicans can end this shutdown all by themselves. If Thune has a problem rounding up the votes, well Johnny boy, get it out in the open and put public pressure on the holdouts. They apparently did a filibuster carve-out just a couple weeks ago to ram through a bunch of judges. No reason they can’t do another one for this.
I don’t care which Republicans are the problem, it still comes down to Republicans are the problem. They’re pretty good about falling in line anyway.
rikyrah
Delina DiSanto (@delina4az) posted at 11:23 PM on Fri, Oct 03, 2025:
Trump isn’t just putting the Afrikaners to the front of the line, He is kicking years-long-waiting refugees out of the line.”
Trump Administration Is Said to Plan to Cut Refugee Admissions to a Record Low t.co/CEpOU0JX9U via @NYTimes
(x.com/delina4az/status/1974329532892229825?s=02)
rikyrah
Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) posted at 8:11 PM on Fri, Oct 03, 2025:
FBI agent fired for refusing to arrest and perp walk James Comey t.co/iPUlDQhjkM
(x.com/JonLemire/status/1974281204493861097?s=02)
Phillips P. OBrien (@PhillipsPOBrien) posted at 2:15 AM on Sat, Oct 04, 2025:
As perp walking someone publicly is illegal, this FBI agent seems to have been fired for following the law.
(x.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/1974372840171581793?s=02)
mrmoshpotato
@Central Planning: Here you go.
Another.
Gravy Boat
Turkey I Need You Beside Me
Anyway
@Kirklin: thanks for highlighting that.
rikyrah
Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) posted at 2:13 PM on Fri, Oct 03, 2025:
Trump wanted to give King Charles one of Ike’s swords. The Eisenhower presidential library said it could not provide one because it is government property and illegal to give away. Now the library director has been fired. @jennyschuessler @minhokimdh t.co/rZF5BBdkGJ
(x.com/peterbakernyt/status/1974191152384651497?s=02)
rikyrah
Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) posted at 7:05 AM on Fri, Oct 03, 2025:
Trump has sought emergency intervention by the Supreme Court 28 times in the first eight months of his new term, more than Bush, Obama and Biden did combined over 20 years. @WheelerLydia t.co/SIz9HDyuHX
(https://x.com/peterbakernyt/status/1974083418901324220?t=rfOZnPHER2opiNdabkI-oQ&s=03)
Kathleen
@MagdaInBlack: But..but.Democrats are (fill in the blanks). I swear the corporate free “Liberal” Podbro/Substackers are doing anything they can to cast doubt on Democrats’ unity, strategy, messaging, etc, Their Democrat Derangement Syndrome is worst now that they’re “independent” (except for business plans that are based on prominent Dem haters who they need to appear on their podcasts or push their books). I commented on one of their sites that considering media’s and their hatred of Democrats it’s amazing how polls are blaming Rethugs for the shutdown. They must be doing something right with their “woeful messaging”.
Also Chris Murphy is their new mascot.
Another Scott
@Suzanne: +1
Almost any elected official is going to have to make decisions about things they didn’t campaign on. The bottom line, voters have to – for whatever reason – trust the people they elect to decide things in ways they generally agree with. They have to feel some sort of tribal afinity.
(And generally is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.)
That’s why vibes and getting people to be willing to listen to us is important. Most of us wouldn’t give Randy Weber or Virginia Foxx or Tommy Tuberville or Mike Johnson the time of day – for good reason. We don’t trust them. So even if they had a position that we agreed with – stopped clock and all that – it wouldn’t enter our thought processes. There are too many people who default to using that same kind of sorting for Democrats of all stripes. We can’t convince them to consider our positions if they won’t even listen to us.
It’s a tough problem.
We’re great on issues. We need to be better on figuring out how to master campaigning and tickling that parts of our lizard brains that make normies want to listen to us.
tl;dr – Campaigning and Governing are two very different skills. We have to put more smart effort into the former. We can and must do both well.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Eyeroller
@Scout211: The US imagery is in the same vein but comes from European traditions. The Aztecs displayed skulls on their temple steps, though not those of honored ancestors. Europeans believed in ghosts/spirits and had a cultural belief in — something — rising from a grave. (Vampires are another aspect of this folklore.). Samhain was the time of “thinning of the veil” when spirits could visit their descendants. Walpurgisnacht was the time of witches and demons — it is a spring festival but traditions like that tended to get rolled into the fall festival. Both are roughly associated with what are called cross-quarter days, the times midway between equinox and solstice.
I’ve had my own losses but I guess I’m not as triggered as some, so “cemeteries” don’t bother me.
Kathleen
@sab: I am so sorry. Being a grandmother myself I can’t begin to imagine how painful this is. Sending you love and prayers.
tobie
I was listening to a podcast yesterday complaining that Dems had made the shutdown all about healthcare and kitchen table issues instead of democracy, the constitution, anti-corruption, etc. and I have to say that I think the Dems have united around a good point and are showing real discipline. Those upset about the corruption and lawlessness of the Trump admin are already ‘on our side.’ It’s voters who don’t think much about politics that Dems are trying to appeal to. What is the govt doing for you? If it’s stripping you of healthcare, making it hard to afford basic stuff…well, that’s not a govt serving you.
TerryC
@sab: “… away on business”?
lowtechcyclist
@sab:
People do it because it’s fun. Kids get to dress up in cute costumes and go trick-or-treating. And adults get to dress up in interesting (especially if female) costumes and go to parties.
What gets me, though, is the way the Halloween season has massively expanded. It used to be something you’d decorate and buy candy for maybe a week ahead of time. Nowadays, the stores fill up all their seasonal aisles with Halloween stuff back in the heat of August, and Halloween decorations start showing up in our neighborhood about then too. I like Halloween, I like doing seasonal stuff like baking pumpkin pies, but not in freakin’ August. Do we really need a two and a half month Halloween season?
Scout211
Another Signal scandal
Kathleen
@tobie: I agree with you 100% and I’ve already ranted enough of the Podbro/Substack Democrat Derangement Syndrome Complex ETA I’ve also unsubscribed and cancelled a lot of paid subscriptions. Eff these Fo’s.
Kirklin
@tobie: Yes, this. @rikyrah already pointed out that open enrollment starts soon.
So we’re going to have a simultaneous overlap of seeing heavily increased health insurance rates against GOP complaints that the democrats are fighting to keep the rates low.
I can’t help but think that this is why the DEM leadership focused on that issue.
Kirklin
@lowtechcyclist:
Well, they’ve stretched the Christmas season about as far as it can go already, they need something to bump sales before Black Friday. /s
Suzanne
@Eyeroller: Lots of people — heck: me — make the most important decisions of their lives based on feelings and vibes. Relationships, careers, big purchases. I don’t think we will ever find success by forgetting that.
Kathleen
@Kirklin: It’s exactly why they’re focusing on this issue. They chose one thing that had the most impact because they’re trying to keep it simple and reach people who “don’t pay attention to politics”. I think it’s a great strategy and it’s how they added so many seats in 2018 ETA Dem strategy not focused on doing what the beltway podbro kewel kidzzz want us to do.
iKropoclast
@Scout211: It’s nice to see top-level government officials conducting business on the same app I use to share homemade porn.
iKropoclast
@Kathleen: Democrats to Republicans: Please let us pull your ass out of the fire to (maybe) help our constituents.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: Actually, it is correct for people who have reached a certain age. It’s all downhill from here, baby.
Snarki, child of Loki
MAGAts and the GOP are in a murder-suicide pact, which is FINE except that they keep pulling in bystanders.
Just get on with it, and leave the rest of us out.
They Call Me Noni
@tobie: And these same folks were bitching when the Dems made saving our democracy an issue. Heads I win, tails you lose.
lowtechcyclist
@Another Scott:
Wonder if anyone called 911 on them. I mean, masked men in an unmarked vehicle throwing tear gas grenades
are no basis for a system of governmentshouldn’t be granted the assumption of acting on behalf of the government. No matter how much this Administration has forced us to assume they probably are.iKropoclast
But even then only half an issue and still 30 years late.
KSinMA
@prostratedragon: Yikes.
The Pale Scot
I want to spend a day drinking with this guy (French MP)
reddit.com/r/conservativesareajoke/new/
“we are fighting against a dictator supported by a traitor”
Professor Bigfoot
@Suzanne: Yes, but those feelings and vibes are driven by reason and thoughtfulness— as much as I want to buy that souped up Sig, the numbers in the checking account say “NO.”
We’re not ENTIRELY driven by vibes and feelings.
Eyeroller
@Professor Bigfoot: I have read about research indicating that people make their best decisions when they can balance their reasoning and their emotions. People with some particular brain disorders cannot process emotions properly and their “reason-driven” decisions are usually bad. But conversely, “going with one’s gut” entirely is also bad.
It’s the “ego id superego” or if you will Kirk-McCoy-Spock :-) theory, to some degree.
lowtechcyclist
@Scout211:
Gotta admit, the promotion of Bari Weiss from just another RW yammerhead (as far as I could tell) to being in charge of CBS News seemed like a rather sudden escalation of status to me. Did I miss a few steps in there, or is Ellison that far into the cult?
Eyeroller
@lowtechcyclist: She’s been prominent in the RW for a long time even though she got somewhat less noticeable after being deplatformed by the FTFNYT. The Ellisons are also huge supporters of Israel so I suspect that may be a factor.
lowtechcyclist
@geg6:
It’s one of the few holidays they haven’t figured out how to massively commercialize.
Another Scott
So I was looking around Ari K’s YouTube channel (trollhatten posted one yesterday).
This is interesting – Love Force One (1:14), in an alternative universe kinda way.
Yeah, if things were different then things would be different.
But things don’t change until they do…
Have a good weekend, everyone.
Best wishes,
Scott.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Commenter RaflW said this within the last year and it succinctly describes the issue:
One problem of many we have is that long-term, Dem actions have been treated louder than their words and votes we’ve been shedding, and have no business shedding, come back to voters hear words but see actions that strongly suggest the people speaking those words don’t mean them.
Candidates gotta candidate and that helps immensely. AOC is who she is because of that great candidating. Somebody like Kat Abughazaleh is another who hopefully will a) get traction and b) get elected. But then they stand for things, not for tossing every shred of what makes Dems Dems in order to get forced-birther red state voters who are ungettable, and other recent examples from the center-right Klein/MattY/Atlantic/Vox/New Liberalism crowd.
lowtechcyclist
@Another Scott:
Latecomers. 🙄
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: I loved his from yesterday (or Thursday?) but this one was just creepy. I feel like i need a shower! :-)
Not a criticism for posting, just a reaction.
lowtechcyclist
@prostratedragon: Holy shit, that’s horrible!
Anyway
after that she got beacoup dollars for running a fake RW university. No wonder media people are afraid of pissing off the RW ecosystem— it’s a bottomless pit of grift.
Professor Bigfoot
@Eyeroller: >ommmmmmm<
Balance. Balance in all things. This is the path to enlightenment. 😉
Layer8Problem
@Eyeroller:
“It’s the ‘ego id superego’ or if you will Kirk-McCoy-Spock :-) theory, to some degree.”
A rough equivalent of my Kelly-Oddball-Big Joe theory.
I have a happy memory of explaining that one to one of my better bosses after my second martini at a bar on Kingston Street in Boston. His response? “THERE IS NO FREUDIAN INTERPRETATION OF KELLY’S HEROES!!!”
Kristine
@p.a.: that was great! Thanks for the link.
It starts with a single pebble rolling downhill.
bluefoot
@Baud: And the audience just eats it up. I think as the economy gets worse, ICE and unlawful detention, deportation and disappearing people will ratchet up. Need circuses to distract from the lack of bread and reassure the base that others have it worse and the “right” people are getting hurt and terrorized.
Professor Bigfoot
@lowtechcyclist: I loved Thanksgiving as the one true American holiday.
I loved the idea that first, it’s a feast. Then, that every table has a turkey, but all the other dishes run the gamut from spaghetti bolognese to steamed dumplings to collard greens & hamhocks.
The late Steve Gilliard put that in my head decades ago… but then it’s also a celebration of genocide; which, alas, is also profoundly American.
AM in NC
@Suzanne: Oh I 100% agree with you. We need to start winning the vibes war again. And attacking on all fronts to do so.
That’s why when I was at Costco this morning I put a bunch of little post-it notes with the words “Are our groceries cheaper?” on the price signs throughout the store. Especially meat, milk, coffee, eggs, chocolate, school snacks.
Anyway
they’re flooding the zone with their content so other things get drowned out. Was it Karl Rove (someone from the Dubya era) that said “ we create our own reality”.
Geminid
From Guy Elster:
Ed. They’ve still got Virginia beat. We won’t have our first female governor until Abigail Spanberger is sworn in next January, and we’ve been electing governors for over 200 years.
Karen Gail
@sab: Halloween is a made-up holiday to counter the pagan holiday of Samhain. It is a cross-quarter day that is celebrated as the veil between the living and the dead is thin. The day of the dead is celebrated in Mexico and other South American countries as a celebration of honoring the dead.
It became commercialized and since then companies make big bucks with all the stuff and junk they sell for this “holiday” many stores go from Halloween stuff to Christmas stuff.
dnfree
@sab: Do not answer any call from a number that isn’t in your contact list or that you don’t recognize, spam or not. Let them leave a voicemail. Don’t answer any text message from an unknown number. If someone seems to have accidentally messaged you, don’t answer to tell them they have the wrong number. They are almost always scams; they will strike up a conversation. Don’t accept calls that seem to be from your area code and prefix thinking they’re someone local; phone numbers can be spoofed. Be wary and suspicious ALL THE TIME. That’s the new way of life.
jonas
@Geminid: I saw some headline the other day claiming Spanberger’s in trouble and the GOP candidate is leading in the polls, etc. Was that just so much bs or has the race really tightened that much?
Eyeroller
@Karen Gail: I wouldn’t call it “made up.” So is Christmas by those criteria. Commercialized and overhyped for sure. But a genuine festival.
In both Europe and Latin America, the Catholic Church sometimes deliberately and sometimes unintentionally co-opted and subsumed pre-existing traditions and festivals into their liturgical calendar. The various “days of the dead” were fairly seamlessly transferred to “All Hallows.”
Halloween was a bigger deal in North America due to Irish and, apparently, Scottish influence. But All Hallows was itself a fairly important holy day.
Glidwrith
@rikyrah: Thank you for regularly posting these links. It’s hard to keep up with all the crap, but sometimes what you post is something I can do something about.
Eyeroller
@jonas: Was that on NBC News? I saw an article like that as well. It was hyping the shutdown as a boon to Republicans and now Spanberger was going to be in trouble.
There have also been somewhat breathless articles about a “tightening” race, though nothing about Winsom leading–just gaining (which looked more like base consolidation).
I’m sure some poll or another might show them tied or the R ahead.
jonas
@Eyeroller: Maybe that was it, but I forget. Federal workers are a huge constituency in VA, though, and I don’t think they’re unaware of where the blame for the shutdown lies.
dnfree
@sab: Look around. Where is God any week? If there is a God, that being does not work the way people would like to think.
RevRick
@sab: Clearly, because your grief is so raw, these displays pain you. And I thoroughly understand that grief. My niece was killed in an auto accident at age 17. In my forty years as pastor, I officiated the funerals of a 20-year-old woman who died of stomach cancer, a 21-year-old man who died of brain cancer, an eight-week-old baby (on the day my son was born), and my daughter’s friend, who died of brain cancer at age five (on Mother’s Day no less!). And that doesn’t count the several hundred others. And all the hospital rooms where I sat with the dying and gave them permission to die. I have seen the myriad ways, seldom easy, we exit this life.
And I also understand why people feel the need to mock death. It eases the pain of that inevitability, of our finitude. Two of the things that we most tell jokes about— sex and death — are the biological wild cards of human existence. Humor is a way of dealing with their unpredictability and their fierce tug on our souls.
Personally, I find those displays hilarious, because they are so over the top. I believe it’s possible to both mock death and to honor our dead. We humans are capable of both solemnity and silliness and knowing when each is appropriate. I hope you can see that.
We Christians have a day we mock death — Easter. In the Middle Ages priests often told jokes, and even bawdy ones, on Easter Sunday. And every time we live out our hope, every time we belly laugh at a good joke, every time we savor a moment, we mock death. I think that’s a good thing.
And by the way, Halloween used to be a Christian holy day, the Hallow Evening before All Saints Day, when we remember and honor our dead. Where the ancient Greeks and Romans feared their dead, the Church embraced them, and even for a time, buried them inside the church walls, disinterred the bones, and stored them in ossuaries for display. Those displays both mocked death and honored the dead.
I pray you find the comfort and peace you deserve.
lowtechcyclist
@Professor Bigfoot:
Oooommmm, ooooommmm, raaaaaaannge ;-)
-Firesign Theatre
“Stay sane inside insanity” – Columbia, Rocky Horror Picture Show
Layer8Problem
Baud’s not dreaming it, he’s being it.
lowtechcyclist
@Eyeroller:
Oh yeah, and liturgical churches (Catholics, Episcopalians, etc.) celebrate All Hallows’ (All Saints’) Day on November 1.
The idea of Hallowe’en is that on All Hallows’ Eve, the night before All Hallows’/Saints’ Day, the ghosties and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night have a brief reign.
Karen Gail
@Eyeroller: Christmas is also “made up” since it is a bastardization of Winter Solstice; when the Romans were setting out to conquer the Celtic world they had to do something to destroy the foundations of their society. So celebrated days were turned into holy days but placed close enough to quarter and cross quarter days that people would go along with them.
I grew up with grandparents and great grandparents that mostly still celebrated equinox’s, solstices and cross quarter days. Once the area where lived become more “civilized” and they had children attending public schools “normal” holidays were added. Thanksgiving was a family day of big meal after deer hunting; but Great Grandma never failed to remind us that it was celebrated originally as a celebration of killing, massacring the Native peoples.
Geminid
@jonas: I haven’t seen those polls. I checked a few days ago when I saw someone assert it on another blog. The polls I’ve seen show Spanberger maintaining a lead of around 10 points. There have been reports of good early voting voting turnout in Republican precincts, and those could be the source for the alarmism.
WTFGhost
We don’t need a word to describe that kind of villain. They’ve named themselves: Republicans. Or, MAGA, if you prefer. I mean, *come on* man, this really isn’t hard!!
Geminid
@jonas: The Trump administration has treated federal workers, in Virginia and elswhere, like shit from its very first day. I don’t expect this shutdown to change their opinions that have formed over eight months.
And Trump was a powerful Get-Out-The-Vote force for Democrats during his first term, and I don’t think that will change either.
dnfree
@Professor Bigfoot: My mom did not cook poultry of any kind, and my dad was okay with that because, as he said, he grew up on a farm during the depression and ate a lot of chicken. Some years we went to my grandmother’s house for thanksgiving and she made turkey, but if we were home we maybe had a roast or, if my mom felt particularly stressed, we had hot dogs. My husband, whose mother always did the whole Thanksgiving production, nixed any future Thanksgivings with my family after encountering a hot dog meal.
WTFGhost
@lowtechcyclist: traditionally, it’s also the night when the wall between the normal and spirit world are thinnest, so the times when you might most want to celebrate and remember those who have died. There used to be a lot more people dying – babies and young children, people who were hurt and got an infection, accidents that can be fixed, now, but were impossible to fix with crude surgical techniques then, etc., so these days of the dead were probably more important then.
Trump, of course, is trying to help kill the babies and young children by letting doubts be sown about vaccinations. But that’s only because he LUUUURVES it when you dumb maga folk cheer him, knowing full well he wants to kill your children, just to score cheap political points.
(Oh, I’m sorry if any maga folk were offended by hearing they were stupid for supporting a man who thinks vaccinations are so unimportant, he’ll appoint a vaccine skeptic to HHS. I could be wrong. They might be *okay* with dead babies and children, and if so, they weren’t the least bit stupid for supporting Trump. But, if they weren’t okay with that, you’d have to consider them pretty stupid for voting for death among the very young, when just not voting for Trump would have been a vote *against* death for the very young. So: I’m sorry if they thought I was trying to offend them, by saying they were stupid, for voting for dead babies.)
LAC
@Karen Gail: my favorite take on the holiday.
youtu.be/S0aZaeF7odg?si=AIoUXEkufdMuokZR
Still like this movie, despite the flaws.
KSinMA
@The Pale Scot: That was great–thanks for posting it!
WTFGhost
@sab: Ouch. I’m sorry, friend. Hugs offered, if you want ’em.
I felt sort of the same way after watching Harold and Maude, when I was actively suicidal. Everyone wanted to talk about what a great movie it was, and I was spending the entire movie trying not to throw up. So I guess I might know a tiny bit about what you’re going through. Please hang in there. You are loved.
WTFGhost
@dnfree: Hee! My first Thanksgiving in Washington was at Jack In The Box (which wasn’t very widespread in Ohio), and included everything on the menu I thought sounded good, and included a $40 tip for the guys working that day. Not hot dogs, but if it was Thanksgiving, I’d have chopped onion, pickle, and had sauerkraut, relish, pepper cabbage if I could find it, ketchup, and a variety of mustards as well as peppers and chili, to go with the hot dogs. Because, for me, Thanksgiving could be called (as a friend does call it) feastmas, and even if it’s just plain food, you should do it up as best as you can.
(My friend has Feastmas, Giftmas, and I’m sure “Candymas” for Easter or Halloween. There may be more “mas” holidays – I didn’t try to memorize them, just to help celebrate them as friends do.)
@dnfree: Do you also do funerals?
@Anyway: That *is* the legend. That “a Republican source” said it is as accurate as anything we get from any reporter on political matters.
@AM in NC: The other side of the vibes war, is, once compassion is meaningful, then all of Trump’s machinations make him look *horrible*. If people cared about one another, and thought about what it means that Trump’s goons can throw a grandmother to the ground, for the crime of being lawfully in the US, but not yet a citizen, which makes her eligible for deportation, because Trump will find a way to get rid of her. And if she *is* a citizen, no worries – if she’s naturalized, Trump will still try to trump up a way to get rid of her. Its only that pesky 14th Amendment holding him back from deporting all non-whites, but the SCOTUS might let him ignore that pesky issue.
WTFGhost
Hey. I’m now in crisis mode. What’s that mean? It means pain has taken over my life. My pain is neurological, and that means, it warps my brain.
This will never, ever, happen, but, my brain imagines worst case scenarios, so, if some doctors were saying I were cray-cray, I’ve already told GhostWife why they are likely full of shit. “They might see X symptom, but that’s pain knocking my brain offline.” If she were overwhelmed, I’d ask her to come here, to ask for help. Again: it will never happen. She trusts that I’m not crazy, and that will be all we need to keep me out of situations in which she needs to force stupid doctors to stop being stupid.
Still, the last time a crisis, that required an ED visit, developed, the doctor just lied on the chart, so, who knows what could happen this time? I just loved how a BAC of 0 was used to prove I was an alcoholic drying out. That reminds me: I still need to put a sworn affidavit in the hospital record saying “PANTS ON FIRE, MOTHEREFFER!”
Be well, and be *happy*, y’all. Remember: without joy, our lives wither. There’s always reasons for joy, even in the darkest times. That’s what keeps us alive, and keeps us *human* – human in it’s best sense.
@Eyeroller: One thing that confuses the issue are people like me. I have horrible neurological pain, which mucks with my emotions. Now, if someone didn’t have the self-knowledge I now possess, they might feel (as I did) that they had poor emotional control. Well, I never had poor emotional control – I had extraordinary emotional control, given the unique challenges I faced.
I recently explained to GhostWife how I would present, to doctors, in a way they would assume “do this” is the right action, and I explained why the diagnosis would be wrong, but, why I was willing to attempt treatment anyway.
“If they think I’m bipolar, they’re full of shit. That said, it’s possible someone, who looked just like me, was diagnosed as bipolar, and mood stabilizers helped. So, I’m willing to try a course (add’l medical information elided), because I’m no longer afraid my ‘special something’ will be squashed, without my noticing.”
(History: I’ve been in pain all of my life. As a child, I was in pain, and I was not ‘normal,’ emotionally. I was punished, for poor emotional control, when I was holding back pain and rage and grief far more than most were capable of doing.)
satby
@Dog Mom: @p.a.: I saw that, but I figured I wouldn’t share it, I’m already obnoxiously proud of my ancestral land 💚
Lily
@WTFGhost: What you say makes a lot of sense. These kind of perceptions matter. Maybe rare to read because it takes much to write about. Thanks.
dnfree
@WTFGhost: I’m not very comforting at funerals either. But I feel sorry for the pain of the bereaved, of which I have also been one, like most people. And I feel sorry for young people taken from us who never had the opportunity to live their lives.
I’m sorry for your lifelong suffering, too.