Moon chasing the sun over the Gulf of Mexico.
#stunday #sunset #moonrise #eastcoastkin #gulfofmexico
#photography #beach #shore #water— Landguy (@landguyminor.bsky.social) October 26, 2025 at 9:55 AM
===
Buckle up.
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) October 26, 2025 at 10:17 AM
===
I mean this actually looks like a steady downward trend on approval. It's not as fast and it's also filled to the brim with crap partisan polling (basically 80% of polling rn is GOP aligned or river sampling), but that trend is pretty unmistakable.
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) October 26, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Burning off partisans, which is what under low 40's is going to be, is going to take time and will happen very slowly. A point or two every couple of months puts him in the upper 30's by midterms, which would be flashing warning signs.
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) October 26, 2025 at 1:16 PM
It’s very often the combination: economic pain crystallizes into moral outrage. This is pretty much what happened with Nixon.
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) October 26, 2025 at 9:06 AM
===
Warren: So now Trump wants to give Argentina $40 billion.
He talked about how tough things are for the people in Argentina and how hard they’re fighting for their economic survival.
Look around America. Look at all the farmers sitting on soybeans they’ve got no buyer for now.
===
Here’s how the government shutdown ends.
— Elizabeth Warren (@warren.senate.gov) October 26, 2025 at 3:32 PM
===
Despite all the evidence to the contrary, including their own polls, media outlets still seem to believe that MAGA represents "real Americans," and Trump is way more popular than he is.
— Chris Doll (@chrisdoll.bsky.social) October 26, 2025 at 5:19 PM
===
this is a pretty simple one to figure out: it was bullshit and authoritarian when trump tried to rig and steal the 2020 election while lying about how legitimate results were rigged, it was not bullshit or authoritarian to state the fact that trump was trying to rig and steal that election
— Asawin Suebsaeng (@swin24.bsky.social) October 26, 2025 at 2:21 PM
On The Road – Albatrossity – Canyon de Chelly
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
WTFGhost
Well, I have something to say, and no functioning brain with which to say it. Meh.
WTFGhost
@rikyrah: Good morning; be well, and be happy.
rikyrah
Just a reminder.
Who is in Washington, DC right now
Senate Republicans
Senate Democrats
House Democrats
Who IS NOT IN WASHINGTON, DC RIGHT NOW
HOUSE REPUBLICANS😠😠😠
rikyrah
@WTFGhost:
Morning WTFGhost👋🏾
Just say it🤗
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Rusty
Good morning all. Long week ahead, there is way too much on the schedule. Trying to take a few deep breaths before I launch myself into it.
MagdaInBlack
@WTFGhost: ❤️🌻
Baud
If Republicans falsely accuse us of something, they get to engage in that behavior with impunity. Them’s the rules.
frosty
@rikyrah: Buenos dias, Rikyrah!
Deputinize America
@rikyrah:
Johnson has essentially dissolved Congress.
Try something novel – D caucus shows up with a few peelable Republicans to declare the Speaker’s chair vacant, in return for letting someone like Bacon do it.
Baud
@Deputinize America:
Kevin Bacon would be an awesome speaker.
Deputinize America
@Baud:
Jeffries: “When I said ‘Bacon’, I meant Kevin, not Don. Everybody knows him, you can start calling friends to get a real sense of the man.”
Suzanne
Yes. Also known as: the vibes get bad and people start looking for a way off the train.
Deputinize America
@Suzanne:
Then you get my mother back then:
”He didn’t do anything anybody else didn’t do. I don’t understand the big deal.”
Shes a diehard Trumpist now.
Suzanne
It is 34 degrees right now. The doggo doesn’t want to leave her bed. Spawn came into our room crying last night with an ear infection.
Feel like there are just, spiritually, some days…. that you should get to say NOPE. I just can’t person today.
Baud
@Deputinize America:
She’s probably a big fan of this Favorite Son of Kentucky.
Baud
$40 billion well spent
divF
Good morning, all (especially rikyrah!).
In about five hours, Madame divF and I will be leaving on the Amtrak Coast Starlight to Los Angeles. Given that there have been SNAFU’s with ATC in SoCal, I’m just as happy we are going by train.
mrmoshpotato
@Deputinize America: I’d go with Michael Gross
Also, thick-cut, applewood-smoked.
Baud
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Deputinize America: When people say stuff like that, I put my mom hat on and say more or less, “We’re not talking about what Jimmy from up the street did. We’re talking about you.” Isn’t that in the mom manual?
Baud
Via Reddit, cool video for people who enjoy industrial manufacturing
Betty
When I saw the post above referring to the Gulf of Mexico, it reminded me of the shock and despair I felt when checking NOAA’s tropical update and saw it labeled the Gulf of America. I understand that the employees have no choice, but it’s still another gut punch.
Suzanne
@Dorothy A. Winsor: LOL. I like that,
I have given up entirely on trying to convince people that his behavior is corrupt or evidence of poor character or illegal, etc. I do not see any evidence that it’s a convincing or persuasive line of argument. I personally think it should be, but it isn’t. Some people just have to touch the fucken stove before they’ll believe that it’s hot. But I am not that person.
So, on the now very limited occasions that I will try to persuade someone, I personally go the how-will-he-impact-them-personally route.
I have started saying a bit too loudly in the store….. “God, the cost of coffee has gone up so high! THANKS, TRUMP!”. Just to plant that seed.
Deputinize America
@Baud:
She would undoubtedly minimize it.
She also was a fan of the folk wisdom of Archie Bunker.
Fun fact – she was a 1968 Wallace voter.
Kosh III
Good morning from a wet and chilly Middle Tennessee.
Joe Falco
Good morning from a wet and miserable Middle Georgia
MagdaInBlack
Good morning from ICE infested Chicagoland.
Baud
@Deputinize America:
That’s a long time to suffer from economic anxiety.
Baud
@Suzanne:
I think a lot of people today don’t have objective values. They instead ask if someone is true to their nature. Since Trump doesn’t try to hide his corruption, he’s corruption isn’t a negative for him.
Dems, by contrast, hold themselves to standards of perfection, so they always fall short. Every imperfection gets treated as us being dishonest about who we are, which ends up being regarded as worse than Trump.
It helps that many white people and men who don’t necessarily like Trump still want him to succeed, and want us to fail, for purely tribal reasons.
mappy!
Good morning Jackals. 39.6° in sunny southern New England ; – )
I wonder if keeping R House reps dispersed (not together in session), on their own as it were for too long, might not be be a good idea. Can’t herd them as well if they’re off sweating in constituent country, listening, listening, listening.
One rule that always gets overlooked, it always looks like nothing is going to happen to change course. Then it does. “I’m not a crook.”
Anyway, simple. Always simple: 24 hours, Taco, Groceries. Trump Tax. Trump Shutdown.
Matt McIrvin
Trump still represents the median white American, and that will probably always be the case. As long as any media outlet takes the median white American as the notional real American, they’ll continue acting like Trump has a popular mandate.
Aziz, light!
Good morning from wet but beautiful western Oregon. Inflatable costumes are good for staying dry.
PAM Dirac
@divF: That sounds fantastic. We did the Pacific Surfliner from San Diego to San Luis Obispo last year and it was wonderful. Almost never out of sight of the ocean. Not for those in a hurry, but a MUCH less stressful way to travel. Only complaint is that the food/snack options for sale were pretty weak.
Trivia Man
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I asked my brother why he just shrugs at the white house demolition. “Bill Clinton rented out the Lincoln bedroom.” smh
Professor Bigfoot
@rikyrah: ¡Buenos días, hermana mia!
Baud
@Trivia Man:
So why does he object to Clinton and not Trump?
It’s because he values his tribe’s status over the other tribe.
iKropoclast
My parents have gone all-in on willful obtuseness.
The abuses in the immigration enforcement are just accidents that happen and they get fixed, don’t they? As though a month or two in detainment can’t outright ruin a life. And they’d love for the immigration process to be smoother and more forgiving, but it’s Democrats standing in the way, dontcha know?
And they recognize the intense distress I felt and my fear of democracy itself falling apart when D donors and their functionaries in Congress nixed Biden last year (legally), but deny to this day Trump’s role in the riots meant to assist in overturning the 2020 general election or that this was even the purpose of those riots.
They agree our government supports aren’t doing enough for working people for healthcare or housing, blame Democrats while repeating the same spurious arguments about individual fraud and illegal immigrants being a prohibitive cost barrier they have for as long as I can remember.
On all of these, they’ll happily assert that Republicans writ large actually want all these lovely things I ascribe to only a select minority of elected Democrats; and Trump’s going to get them for us, once he’s gotten rid of all the “corruption,” which they refuse to recognize Trump sees as non-white people being present and benefitting from government services.
All of that to say, this seems fairly typical of a certain kind of Republican; ones who can work and socialize outside their race and with immigrants and afford full respect to people they interact with, but are oblivious to the ways policies affect that aren’t affluent Massachusetts suburbs.
Deputinize America
@Baud:
Imagine the pressure of Affirmative Action….
tobie
@Suzanne: On my way to No Kings in a rural hamlet, which is a blue dot in a red sea, an elderly woman on the street stopped me, read my sign and blurted out, “I just love Trump,” and walked away. His base “loves” him because he’s an incarnation of them: their grievances, their desires, their sense of entitlement, and their conviction that they know best. It’s like Archie Bunker on steroids except that Archie loved his wife and daughter and didnt have airs, which you can’t say about Trump.
HinTN
@Kosh III: Much needed rain.
suzanne
@tobie:
Yes. He is an aspirational figure to his cult. They would behave the same way if they could.
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: Best o the morning to you!
lowtechcyclist
@Deputinize America:
And when I say ‘Bacon,’ I mean meat sizzling on the grill to go with my eggs and toast. 😊
Professor Bigfoot
Yeah, right. 🙄
Another “I’ll believe it MAYBE when I see it” statement from Republicans.
Jeffro
#NoKings III needs to be held in 538 locations across America, and soon! You know what I’m saying?
7M Americans / 538 = 13K protestors at EVERY House and Senate home office in the country. Hell even half of that, 6K, at every office, would be amazing to see! 💙🇺🇸
#CongressDoYourJob
Jeffro
@mappy!: 110%
#NoKings III needs to be held in 538 locations across America, and soon!
7M Americans / 538 = 13K protestors at EVERY House and Senate home office in the country. Hell even half of that, 6K, at every office, would be amazing to see! 💙🇺🇸
#CongressDoYourJob
Deputinize America
@tobie:
Nixon, flawed though he was, clearly delighted at his daughter’s wedding and had great affection for his dog – these are normal human emotions that don’t seem present in the howling void that is Trump’s soul.
Trivia Man
@Baud: “Both sides” tribe there. Both sides are exactly the same he says.
Claims to be a textual literalist – parsing words like a Talmudic scholar to say GOTCHA about why Zohran should be deported and not running for mayor.
Every point i make gets an immediate whattabout and 0 words on my point. If i repeat the question 5 times i eventually get a grudging “its bad” response. “I never said it wasn’t.”
We text these exchanges, im still hopeful we can have some kind of relationship. Maybe ill stick to Simpsonsshitpostingmemes on reddit – we share a love of simpsons.
tobie
ELECTION alert: Pennsylvania is having a super important state Supreme Court election in 8 days! If Dems don’t hold the court, Republicans will deliver the 2028 election to the GOP.
You can sign up for phonebanking here:
mobilize.us/mobilize/event/840611/
Geminid
I see that 41 year-old Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer will get the ball tonight in Game 3 of the World Series.
BlueGuitarist
Trump is bragging about his cognitive test again.
Some of those ask, “who is the president of the US?”
taking a page from the current administration’s playbook, maybe in the future no medical institution will receive federal funds if they don’t include as a question on cognitive assessment, “who was the worst president in the history of the US” for which the only answer accepted is Trump.
Soprano2
When I read stuff like this, I want to scream in frustration “It’s because white men support him, that’s why they think that! Why can’t people figure this out? I did, and I’m nobody”. They do think FFOTUs represents “real Americans”, which they interpret as white people, especially white men. He’s still popular with them, so to them ergo he’s popular!
tobie
@Deputinize America: You’re so right. I’ve never seen a person devoid of affection for anything but themselves.
Soprano2
@Deputinize America: My parents said the same exact thing! My mother turned into a hardcore Republican.
Baud
@Trivia Man:
So, I’m curious. What does he say about Republicans that’s negative, other than in response to prodding?
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: Those videos are so cool.
My favorite job across my career was working with auto manufacturing plants. Every time I walked into one I felt like a 12 year old.
Watching a truck assembly line get completely revised in the space of a 2 week shutdown just amazed me.
Soprano2
@Baud: That goes in the category “how do these cocks keep ending up in my mouth?”. The party officials always say they condemn stuff like this, yet stuff like that keeps happening.
Jeffro
I’ll go further and say that it needs to be said quickly, and loudly, to be accepted as proof that the test-taker is ok.
(Or written quickly and harshly, I dunno…are cognitive tests written or oral? I’ve never taken one ;)
Trivia Man
@Deputinize America: and played the piano
Professor Bigfoot
@Deputinize America: You have my sympathies, mate.
I don’t have any white supremacists in my family; but I do have at least one homophobic misogynist… but outside my own kids he’s the last family I have, so… you have my sympathies.
Professor Bigfoot
@Kosh III: Somewhere close to my hometown (that I cannot afford to live in!) 😂
Baud
Man, first everyone is praising Reagan and now everyone is praising Nixon.
How far we’ve fallen!
oldgold
As Democrats fight to have Obama Care subsidies restored and Trump gives $40 billion to Argentina, it is interesting to note that Argentina has a public health system that is free for all.
As to its quality I am unsure, but Argentinians have essentially the same life expectancy as we do – 77.4 years.
lowtechcyclist
@Suzanne:
The problem IMHO is that people have gotten inured to what they’ve long perceived as the reality that there are lots of corrupt politicians. So saying Trump is “corrupt” just isn’t going to break through, it’ll just be ‘OK, one more.’
Soprano2
I think most people believe that because he’s doing it openly, it can’t possibly be corrupt or illegal. That’s why it’s not persuasive. “Wouldn’t someone do something if it was illegal?” they think, without realizing that there is no one who can do anything about it, especially since the Supreme Court said he was immune for “official acts”.
I need to start saying it louder, because I said that to myself the last time I bought coffee.
Paul in KY
@Deputinize America: TACO appears to have prorogued it, as old English monarchs would do when inconvenienced by Parliament.
Trivia Man
@Trivia Man: for all his pettiness, hunger for power, conniving dirty politics – he was an actual human with a range of talents and expertise. As Neil Young sang, Even Richard Nixon Has Got Soul.
stinger
LandGuy: WaterGirl’s opposite number.
Trivia Man
@Geminid: Incredible pitching all around this post season.
stinger
@rikyrah:
Good morning, rikyrah! You help to make it so!
Paul in KY
@iKropoclast: Thank God my parents were proud Democrats!
Trivia Man
@Baud: not a damn word. Never has unless its that they aren’t conservative enough. Like my grandmother who told me several times, “I like the john birch society but they aren’t anti-communist enough for me.”
CCL
@BlueGuitarist: As long as the question isn’t “who was the last US president before the deluge.”
Professor Bigfoot
@Trivia Man: They will NEVER fess up to why they love Trump.
They will find every ridiculous reason to avoid saying “he hates the people I hate and therefore I love him.”
Anonymous Expat
@Baud:
Not only that, if Dems do anything in good faith resembling what the Repubs have done in bad, they’ll just claim it’s sour grapes (see: impeachment). It’s heads they win, tails we lose because their primary motivation is who is and is not “the right kind of person” and thus allowed to be “right” at any given moment.
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: They’ll ‘investigate’ it to see where it was downloaded from so they can show it at their next executive meeting.
Soprano2
@oldgold: My sister was treated there for a shoulder injury. She said the care was good, and she was shocked when she realized she didn’t have to pay anything for it. She came back here to get the shoulder fixed – I’m sure that didn’t cost zero dollars!
tobie
One of the weird things about being a veteran phone banker is that you get to know the regulars, who volunteer for every special election in every corner of the country. We joke we need a 12-step program to get over the phonebanking addiction. I’d wager 70% of the regulars are Jewish. When you read statements like this from Chris Murphy on CNN, you wonder why bother.
I can’t believe he defended Platner. Populism über alles, I guess.
iKropoclast
“Both sides” seems to automatically default to Republicans. Between the media looking for any opportunity to paint left Democrats as broadly extreme, the actually extreme rhetorical position that centrist Democrats in media and elected office take (everyone but us is crazy, but especially our activists, we can at least work with Republicans), the absence of true centrist Republicans, and the willingness of so many at every level of society to handwave murderous violent extremism on the right (they don’t really mean that…); between all those phenomena, it actually makes perfect sense.
Trivia Man
@Professor Bigfoot: I worked for a company with several giant furnaces. Once a year they get shut down for repairs and maintenance. Some outrageous cost of many tens of thousands of dollars lost every hour off line – so they swarm a crew of hundreds to get it done quickly. Never got to see it but i helped expedite parts for them. Delicate job for the crew to arrange every part and tool is there not too soon and not too late.
Baud
@tobie:
The double standard would make Republicans proud.
IIRC, Platner tried to hide all of this by deleting his reddit comments.
Professor Bigfoot
@suzanne: He is an aspirational figure to his cult.
We can’t pretend that those NOT “in his cult” aren’t also swayed by his rhetoric and actions.
He’s playing a tune that’s been popular in certain parts of America since the Compromise of 1877.
Soprano2
@Professor Bigfoot: When I hear them say “he cares about people like me”, what I hear is “he cares about white people, and only white people, and it’s about time someone cared about us”, because they truly believe Democrats only do things for people who aren’t white, straight and Christian.
LAC
@rikyrah: Good morning and amen! And a hearty “get bent” to the DC media village idiots who are still both siding things.
Paul in KY
@Baud: I want Batshit McChimpy back!!! Oh my God what has happened to my nation!!!!
Professor Bigfoot
@Deputinize America: Nixon was competent.
Sure, he was a crook and he was a paranoid and he had hideous taste in Capital Police uniforms… but he also sued the Trump org for racist renting; he created the EPA; and the crooked MF went to China when no one else could.
Richard Nixon was a flawed human being.
I’m not convinced Trump is actually human.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
Agreed. There are gradations in culture. Lots of people who aren’t MAGA and maybe even vote Dem end up subconsciously attracted to aspects of Trumpian behavior.
Soprano2
@Baud: I don’t know why he didn’t own up to all of it and talk about how he’s changed, and what that journey was. That would be a much more compelling story than whatever he’s saying now about comments he deleted because he knew they were a problem. I can’t get over someone thinking they can run for Senate and no one will find out about what they said on the internet. ETA – I totally believe he didn’t know what that tattoo was when he got it, but once he did know he should have gotten rid of it.
ETA – good morning from SWMO, where it was dreary and misty all weekend, and we got little to nothing for it. I think we got around .10″ of rain total over the weekend. We were expecting a lot more, and sure do need it.
WTFGhost
@rikyrah: I’m done with talking. Back in college, I learned to give backrubs. I probably could have gotten laid, back then, but sex is better when you can talk, believe me.
tobie
@Baud: Yes, Platner deleted his reddit posts in the hopes they wouldn’t be found and CNN had a report yesterday that there are emails showing he knew what the Totenkopf meant. I distrusted Platner from the get-go. It’s Murphy’s defense of him that’s so disappointing.
Professor Bigfoot
@Trivia Man: My homophobic cousin/brother. He simply cannot hear any argument against his homophobia or his innate misogyny; and how I rail at folks here for not examining their beliefs around race and white supremacy, my man WILL NOT– CAN NOT examine his own beliefs around sex, gender, and masculinity.
So… I get why we put up with this shit from the people we love; but goddamn it’s hard.
(no, it’s not some kind of Southern gothic incest thing; he’s officially and genetically my cousin, but we were raised together and he’s the closest thing to a brother that I’ll ever have. I know he’d take a bullet for me. [sigh])
Paul in KY
@Soprano2: To me, he’s sorta like Amy McGrath, in that he’s narcissistic (thinking I’ll just start my political career as a US Senator) and just appears to have bad political instincts.
Trivia Man
@Professor Bigfoot: i still engage in conversation because i believe he is not coming here from racism. It is a libertarian, “meritocracy”, devout Mormon, anti-government POV. But he never admits actual racists provide most of his talking points.
Definitely white male centric – he is in tech and is particularly sore about foreign labor undercutting wages. But refuses to blame the companies. Why should they spend more if they dont have to? Like tax loopholes – take advantage if you benefit!
Sad and frustrating
Harrison Wesley
@Soprano2: They’re still deluded since he only cares about them if they’re rich.
satby
@divF: trains are a great way to travel if you have the extra time. Enjoy the ride and the views!
MazeDancer
Loved the clips from last night’s Mamdani rally. Hoping “tax the rich” enthusiasm continues and spreads. (It’s working in MA.)
Didn’t watch live, because never watch Bernie if I can help it.
Also, plug for your local food bank. Heard Maury Healey saying MA can’t afford to make up slack for cancelled SNAP and gov shutdown. And we should all support local food banks.
If rich MA can’t do it, we gotta step up.
Loaded up a bunch of staples, and some cat food, and dropped them off in town. Search your zip and “food bank” and gather up good stuff just sitting in your pantry and donate.
Baud
@Soprano2:
Well, he could easily end up the nominee so I’m not going to be too down on him, but I can mock all the purity people making excuses for his mistakes.
Professor Bigfoot
@Soprano2: Major media is still controlled by white men.
Most of the faces and voices we hear in media are white men.
When they say “working class,” they’re talking about white men.
It is all white male supremacy, promulgated and defended by white men. and hidden because white men are just “people,” not an actual demographic with its own beliefs, desires, and agenda.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: Ain’t that some shit???
Trump made me long for Dubya who made me long Reagan who made me long for Nixon.
What would we give for the GOP to be taken over by Ike again!
ETA– Zombie Eisenhower would probably scare the children, but still…
Ben Cisco
@rikyrah: Good morning rikyrah!
tobie
@Paul in KY: Does McGrath have a history of making racist and sexist, not to mention vulgar, comments on Reddit? Does she sport Nazi tattoos? She did spend 20 years in the military as far as I know. You can dislike her, feel like she should throw in the towel with electoral politics, etc. But, I assure you, the kind of entitlement Platner displays as a fabled working man in a burly trade is a pure white male phenomenon.
Professor Bigfoot
@Trivia Man: Auto plants usually have two shutdown periods— one in June, and one in December.
They will completely— and I mean COMPLETELY re-arrange the entire building. I’ve watched them jackhammer out entire concrete floor sections to re-pour them to hold different machines.
They’ll go from producing the 2025 model to the 2026 model (or even a completely different vehicle!) in those two weeks.
The manufacturing engineers who do all this had my total respect. (of course, I was also selling them equipment to go in those plants, so… ;^D)
iKropoclast
@tobie: Murphy isn’t shit posting on Balloon Juice and might be a little sensitive to the possibility of pissing off voters in an election that will be difficult for Democrats or a future potential* colleague.
Let Platner explain himself, if he is so inclined, but that’s Platner’s job and he’ll need to do it if he wants to be elected Senator. It isn’t every elected Democrat’s job to condemn every single American who crosses some line nor is it his job to influence Maine voters, no matter how much the Bill Mahers and media both siders want to make it so.
This same sort of scandal pageantry gets wielded against black activists and candidates and other people of color too. This practice is a known phenomenon named for a black woman, a performer I named in another context upthread, Sista Souljah.
It’s not a double standard in Murphy’s case, not unless someone can point me to where Murphy is issuing harsh condemnations of Democrat embroiled in some scandal of equal or lesser severity. This is Murphy wisely not enforcing a standard that Democrats hold themselves to and no one else holds anyone to.
Another Scott
Have a good week, everyone.
Forward!!
Best wishes,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: If that does happen I won’t be a Democrat. A party that tolerates antisemitic racist bigots is not a party for me. Even if they spout Marxist-socialist platitudes.
tobie
@Baud: I try not to harp on Platner too much, but if he were the nominee and I lived in Maine I’d sit out the election. He is a bridge too far for me. Likely for most Jews. We’d know then and there that using Jews as a scapegoat for all the nation’s ills is now an acceptable ideology in the Democratic Party.
Professor Bigfoot
@Trivia Man: There seems to be a strain of “punch down, kiss up” among American white men.
schrodingers_cat
@tobie: Me too. I am not Jewish. But xenophobia was BS’s plank since he was a Congressman. Antisemitism is the gateway drug to other bigotries.
schrodingers_cat
@tobie: Murphy has been channeling David Brooks since his divorce.
iKropoclast
Yeah, an (extremely) poorly chosen tattoo is massively consequential when weighed against the trivialities of wars of choice, mass incarceration, police using communities as piggy banks, and policies meant to keep working people desperate and dependent on employers.
satby
@Ben Cisco: hey, you got some love here last night for your Blue Sky proposal for the Democrats. Well said!
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
That’s your right, just like it’s everyone else’s.
@iKropoclast:
You do you. I have a different perspective.
tobie
@iKropoclast: Hard pass. Knowingly sporting an SS tattoo for 20 years with no real contrition on display is not acceptable conduct. Byrd apologized repeatedly and profusely for his past. Platner has not. He and Murphy just want it swept under the rug.
Gin & Tonic
What we really need is another week of 350-comment threads demonstrating who hates Platner more.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
I thought we were hating Murphy today.
satby
@iKropoclast: it’s not the tattoo, it’s what’s signified by his [knowingly] choosing to get it combined with his history of statements on reddit. Those skunks don’t change their stripes. If he had, he’d be the first person loudly and repeatedly condemning his former self. Which he ain’t.
AM in NC
@Deputinize America: And she’s equally forgiving of/blind to Democrats’ errors, right?
tobie
@schrodingers_cat: It’s an old prejudice that dresses itself up in new forms. The single-minded focus on AIPAC is just a revival of the old claim that Jews control the govt, the media and the banks. It never takes long for a populist to lapse into this kind of scapegoating, and it always ends up drawing a distinction between “real Americans” and everyone else.
satby
@Gin & Tonic: only seems to show that the strategy of using stalking horse candidates in primaries to split Democratic voters is still viable
Edit: hope you’re recovering well.
lowtechcyclist
@Paul in KY:
So you’re saying ‘the past is prorogue’ then? ;-)
(Had to look it up!)
satby
@lowtechcyclist: oh, that was NotMax worthy.
iKropoclast
From Graham Platner’s campaign website, any sections touching on issues pertinent to racial justice:
So, these are simplistic, more evocative of emotion than providing detail. You can say the same for his other platform positions.
These don’t strike me as positions a Nazi would hold.
Yeah, I’m old enough to remember when he was being too broadly critical of rural communities…for them being racist
I’ll throw it out there that I think it’s entirely possible for someone to have insensitive ideas about a community’s tipping habits while still recognizing and fighting, say, housing discrimination and police abuse.
tobie
@satby: Yeah, we’re eating each other up. Maybe it would help to talk about how Mills has governed. I thought she had a good track record in Maine. Or discuss what Jordan Woods’ legislative priorities would be.
lowtechcyclist
@Paul in KY:
My parents both voted for Nixon for President three times, and voted for Goldwater in between, while I was growing up. My sisters and I all eventually became liberal Democrats anyway.
Baud
@tobie:
Good idea. Better to be for something than against something.
satby
But a candidate chosen to divide opposition and protect the incumbent in a job would.
Professor Bigfoot
@Another Scott: Man. THIS is far closer to our reality than Arthur Clarke’s vision.
RevRick
@Baud: My grandfather was the general plant foreman at the Norma-Hoffman precision ball-bearing factory in Stamford, Connecticut from 1924-1950. I don’t believe they had the foundry part of the operation.
Professor Bigfoot
@schrodingers_cat: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again— that’s my one hard red line.
And I don’t believe the Democratic Party is going to do that.
”They not like us.”
schrodingers_cat
@tobie: I agree.
satby
@tobie: every time we circle the drain over and over on discussions like this I think we have a lot of nerve calling Republicans dumb. Democrats just fall for different shit.
schrodingers_cat
@Professor Bigfoot: Some Ds have decided to lean hard into racism after seeing T’s success. The socialist messaging is a smokescreen.
Professor Bigfoot
@tobie: I’d be right with you. “Those who hate Jews seldom hate only Jews.”
He’s a very typical American white man; but white men have a very hard time accepting that this MF is a solid representation of their entire demographic… or at least, admitting it.
lowtechcyclist
@Paul in KY:
Hell, even Darth Cheney would be an improvement over Donald Fucking Trump. Scary, isn’t it?
schrodingers_cat
@satby: Same shit, different cover stories. For Ds it is socialist messaging, for MAGAs it is “patriotism” but both lean hard into privileging whiteness.
RevRick
@rikyrah: Guten morgen, meine freunde.
Professor Bigfoot
They strike me as the kind of “top of the head” lies a Nazi would tell to try to hide the fact that he is a Nazi.
Gin & Tonic
@satby: Recovery seems to be proceeding on schedule, thanks. Follow-up visit is scheduled for Wednesday morning.
Soprano2
@Gin & Tonic: I don’t hate him. I think he handled the situation poorly. Don’t they do oppo on themselves before they start running for office? If they don’t, they should. The 2026 election is important, and the Senate race in Maine is important for Democrats.
But yeah, there are always more important things in the world. For some reason, humans like to debate and bicker over lesser things.
schrodingers_cat
@Professor Bigfoot: Yep. The RSS in India lies all the fucking time and people fall for it. Because they tell lies people want to hear.
Professor Bigfoot
In Mr. Platner’s case, this assumes facts not in evidence.
Have we ANY evidence that he has, in ANY WAY, actually fought housing discrimination and police abuse?
Done any activism against those scourges?
Spoken out against them, publicly, before he decide to run for the US Senate?
I should like to see said evidence.
Professor Bigfoot
@schrodingers_cat: I also think it’s a reaction to the observed fact that no Democrat wins the White House without the enthusiastic support of the Black electorate.
“There is no horseshoe. There is only white people who are at best uncomfortable with any power being held in Black hands. Those white people are at all points of the ‘left-right’ spectrum.”
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
iKropoclast
Perhaps. They could also be the positions of someone who recognizes and deplores racism, but hasn’t had enough consistent interaction with non-white people to recognize his own insensitivities.
Again, he’s a bad candidate. Not the devil come to claim all that we love from the world
Well, we know police abuse is on his radar. He isn’t posting ACAB during the BLM protests because of how police treat white people.
As far as housing, most of what he has to say on the matter criticizes the way commercial real estate and hedge funds manipulate the market. Financial manipulations are the means of redlining and he certainly hasn’t outlined a plan to exclude non-whites
Again, man ain’t the devil. Comes across to me as shallow, needing to get out more, but most likely well-meaning.
Paul in KY
@tobie: She does not appear to have the ‘colourful’ history that Mr. Platner has, but she’s a retired LTC trying to become a US Senator as her 1st political job and has (IMO) terrible political instincts. That last is mostly what connects her to Platner.
tobie
@schrodingers_cat: @satby: @Professor Bigfoot: @Baud: I don’t have time to do research on all the candidates running in the Maine Senate Primary but will try to see what they say about themselves in the coming days. For now, and in the interest of being constructive, I’ll post this snippet from Janet Mills’ official website as governor about her track record. She did have to clean up after the horrible Gov LePage.
Lyrebird
@tobie: Kudos to you for phone banking so much!
re: Chris Murphy,
I don’t know. I’m only back on this thread bc I just read a (ETA: DKos summary), haven’t played and won’t play the tape, that alleged that Bill Maher said that the accusations against Cuomo were no big deal. (vomit)
So I am here to say THANK YOU ANNE LAURIE for doing all you do!
Thank you tobie again too!
Paul in KY
@iKropoclast: No doubt, if he got to Senate, he’d be much better than Ole Furrowed Brow.
Matt McIrvin
@Anonymous Expat: This is the basis of the Karl Rove strategy of opening by attacking your opponent not on their weaknesses, but on YOUR weaknesses (e.g. implying that there was something suspect about John Kerry’s Vietnam service). It puts the opposition on the defensive and blunts that whole category of attack by making it look like a feeble reversal.
Paul in KY
@lowtechcyclist: Reading a biography of Charles II (dubbed monarch most likely to be fine with doing bong hits in your basement apartment) and he did it several times over his reign. Think at some point after him, Parliament made it much harder for king/queen to do that.
zhena gogolia
@iKropoclast: Murphy failed to defend Joe Biden for being old and stuttering. But Nazi tattoos are okay.
Professor Bigfoot
@Gin & Tonic: Great news— KEEP IT UP! (in fact, are you supposed to even be here yet? ;^D )
Good on ya!
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: Bingo! He used to be so good.
Paul in KY
@lowtechcyclist: My dad revered FDR. He was President when dad was a child and through most of WW II (dad was in Patton’s 3rd). Mom was a sensible lady from Lancashire and once LBJ did civil rights, that was the only party for her.
Matt McIrvin
@MazeDancer: I’m seeing the 50501 people on Bluesky telling people to conserve supplies for the far BIGGER shortages they’re planning to produce when they shut down the whole economy with the great general strike.
Maybe this is a me problem but I don’t think they’re reading the room.
Suzanne
@Paul in KY:
I’d vote for him for Senate.
Eyeroller
@iKropoclast: I feel like we don’t make enough of a distinction between bigotry and racism. A person can be quite racist without being a bigot. Your parents likely fall into that category.
Similarly and even more so, we’re losing the distinction between sexism and misogyny.
Professor Bigfoot
@iKropoclast: Lots of white people think the cops are all bastards, too. Lots of white people have been abused by cops— give them the power and impunity to abuse Black people, they’ll abuse others as well because that’s just the way of the world.
I remain unconvinced.
While I agree he’s a bad candidate; i think we need to go beyond that to understand just why he’s a bad candidate. We need to understand why this bad candidate has such a loyal and enthusiastic following.
Or we could give them the “benefit of the doubt” at all turns, as this society does for white men in general… no, they can’t possibly be motivated by a closet lying Nazi, unpossible! //
Paul in KY
@lowtechcyclist: It is very scary. I think he knows this is his last fling and every motherfucker who voted against him in 2016, 2020 and 2024 is going to get it good and hard.
As a 3 time ‘Fuck TACO’ voter, that scares me as I now have my own family, etc. etc.
schrodingers_cat
@Paul in KY: Not if he becomes a R. He was a Collins voter until 2019 and we don’t know who he voted for in 2020.
Trivia Man
@Professor Bigfoot: I have told him many times “equality feels like oppression if you are accustomed to privilege.”
Professor Bigfoot
@Paul in KY: I’m not convinced of that.
In fact, (and this is my own entirely biased opinion) I would be completely unsurprised if shortly after being elected he didn’t become an Independent and start caucusing with the Republicans… or just go all the way over to the GOP.
But of course, as a Black person, no one is obliged to listen to my ridiculous opinion except perhaps to point and laugh at it.
schrodingers_cat
@Matt McIrvin: Who is 50501 people?
schrodingers_cat
@Professor Bigfoot: Check my comment 161.
lowtechcyclist
@Gin & Tonic:
Glad to hear it!
Baud
It’s interesting that Bernie. Murphy, and Ro Khanna have defended Planter, but to my knowledge AOC hasn’t said a word. (Or Mamdani, Greg Casar, or Maxwell Frost, to my knowledge).
iKropoclast
Obvious question, was he asked?
I think the whole party should have stood up loudly to defend Biden. Didn’t happen. I’m in forbearance regarding the Ds who were silent on this, I’m picking up enough flack criticizing the open coup artists.
Meanwhile, Murphy has been getting a lot of attention on this here blog for being particularly astute in identifying Trump’s abuses and making sensible arguments why they need to be stopped. I probably never would have so much as had a thought about Murphy otherwise.
I actually think it’s kind of funny watching people who argued for years supposedly against purity politics tearing apart an elected D official they had mostly been praising til recently for the MAGA-minded sin of not hating who I hate hard enough.
satby
@schrodingers_cat: one of the orgs that put together the No Kings
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
That’s always a me problem for me. I don’t even pretend to know anymore how the public feels or how they’ll react to things.
Professor Bigfoot
@Eyeroller: This is why I hate to use the word “racism.”
In this country it is white supremacy.
The additional advantages, privileges, and protections afforded to white people that are defended (or at least tolerated) by white people.
No other form of supremacy has any sway in this country; and calling it “racism” invites a white man to say “you’re the REAL racist! YOU HATE WHITE PEOPLE!!111!1”
Trivia Man
@lowtechcyclist: My dad was a Humphrey democrat who loathed tricky dick with the heat if the sun. Until pat buchannan whispered sweet anti-immigrant nothings in his ear. Boom!! Full on nativism and hippie punching. Part of the MI GOP group that arranged for fart head’s introduction to michigan early in 2016. Y’all can blame my dad for this mess,
zhena gogolia
@iKropoclast: Yes, he was asked, and he bobbed and weaved.
I’ll give it to AOC, she was unequivocal in her public support.
Gin & Tonic
@Professor Bigfoot: The two things I’ve really struggled with are having to sleep face-down and not being able to work out. The big bubble in my visual field is shrinking every day, so I expect it will be gone by Wednesday. Otherwise it’s been pretty uneventful.
satby
@Baud: Americans are bad at general strikes and I don’t expect that this proposed one will have much of an effect. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if I was wrong.
Corrected AI’s interpretation of what I meant because it was wrong as usual
Melancholy Jaques
@Suzanne:
It’s in the nature of how right-wingers think. He’s evil but he’s on our side.
Deputinize America
@Baud:
Conversely, you guys could simply be like me and hate everyone.
Deputinize America
@AM in NC:
LOL – You already know the answer.
Professor Bigfoot
@Trivia Man: I can’t say to my cuzz, “man, you’re afraid you’ll find a trans woman attractive and what that says about your own masculinity.” He would absolutely LOSE HIS SHIT. I’m talking about high levels of lifelong homophobia that I’ve only seen/heard from him a couple of time… but it’s there.
I’ll keep trying, but he turns 70 next year and I doubt he’ll conceivably change.
But then, he would be living alone in the condo my nephew bought 20 years ago… <heavy sigh> yeah, this is given me a lot of insight into how a lot of y’all have to deal with white supremacist family that you love dearly.
Paul in KY
@Suzanne: He (in general) was a kind and considerate man for his age.
iKropoclast
Yeah, I’m curious about the particular way he did that. I say this because that’s how I would classify what Pelosi and Warren did.
Another example of being deliberately obtuse to the point of malice. When you’re response to “Biden has decided…” is “when he decides…,” you aren’t being cute or successfully hiding your intention from anyone.
So Platner, Warren, Pelosi, Murphy; whom else am I never voting for?
Professor Bigfoot
@zhena gogolia: I’ll just note that it’s overwhelmingly women and Black people who DID vocally support and defend Joe.
zhena gogolia
@iKropoclast: Bennet.
Paul in KY
@schrodingers_cat: True. That holds for any motherfucker voted in as a DEM and switches to GQP. (and also response to Prof at 163).
Melancholy Jaques
@iKropoclast:
I’m not judging Platner as a human being, but as a Democratic candidate for US senate. There is no compassion or forgiveness for Democrats in politics.
iKropoclast
@zhena gogolia: Oh, policy was enough to not get me voting for Bennett, but you’re right.
Melancholy Jaques
@schrodingers_cat:
Which Ds? Put down the broad brush and name names.
Shakti
@Suzanne:
The key is they believe the corrupt behavior that is evidence of poor behavior or illegal is something they believe doesn’t affect them or hurts other people (they don’t like) worse than it does them.
@Deputinize America: Create a spectacle and provide an alternate vision of what life could be. Republicans have always went ham on fictional characters b/c they understand fiction shapes how people understand reality. A useful aid to people who lack imagination to visualize or conceptualize it.
@Soprano2:
@Professor Bigfoot:
The median voter, this lives rentfree in my head along with the “We are the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration”
Crystal Fucking Minton, during the 2018-2019 federal government shutdown:
Professor Bigfoot
@Gin & Tonic: Excellent. I’ve always believed “it’s not where you are on the curve, it’s the slope of the curve that matters.”
If you’re getting better, the slope of the curve is positive, and you just keep ridin’ it ‘til you get where you need to be.
BTW- thank you for the personal insights into what’s happening in Ukraine; and all I can say is that I grind my teeth in impotent rage at every report I see. May Putin and his bastards get what’s coming to them, and soon.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
It’s not just you. Fortunately I doubt that any attempt at a general strike would do more than fizzle, and demonstrate the impotence and stupidity of the planners.
But a general strike is an absolutely horrible idea at a time when Americans are already hurting. Sure, let’s take the pain the GOP is inflicting, and pile on and make it worse! Fucking brilliant.
Paul in KY
@Trivia Man: That is sad. Sorry that happened to him and your family.
rikyrah
Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski
I can only assume that the CEOs of huge companies and leaders of foreign governments who continue to bribe Trump while getting tremendous benefits and breaks from the govt think that Republicans will stay in power forever or Democrats will forgive and forget.
6:39 AM · Oct 27, 2025
x.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1982774240656122096
schrodingers_cat
@Melancholy Jaques: The ones making excuses for Platner. You can do your own google search.
satby
People, look up the definition of “stalking horse candidate” and start to assess every wonderful great white hope candidate against that description. It really would save us a lot of time and $$. And pointless discussions.
rikyrah
The Associated Press
@AP
Former President Joe Biden spoke publicly for the first time since completing a round of radiation therapy for an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
He addressed an audience in Boston on Sunday after winning the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Edward M. Kennedy Institute.
x.com/AP/status/1982807757884371014
iKropoclast
That might be true for you, personally. It just seems like the whole purpose of fixedly discussing this man that virtually the entire blog agrees would be a bad candidate is first to call him a bad man, but also to satisfy priors against hated groups (not just white men).
rikyrah
Harry Sisson
@harryjsisson
WOAH: Trump just accidentally let it slip that he got an MRI scan at Walter Reed recently. His team claimed his visit was for a regular physical but MRI scans are not done at a routine physical. They’re for diagnosing serious conditions. Very weird…
x.com/harryjsisson/status/1982735363522142526
Paul in KY
@Gin & Tonic: Glad it is shrinking and that you’re on the mend!
Professor Bigfoot
Come on, bro. Warren, Pelosi, Murphy have all done documented good things for people. I think we have every right to be angry with them, but that doesn’t mean they’ve been cast into the outer darkness or that we would not ever vote for them again,.
PLATNER, on the other hand, is an essentially unknown entity; he has never held any elective office before and the evidence of his actual personal beliefs (the Reddit posts, the Nazi tattoos, the unwillingness to explain or describe how his views and beliefs have changed when that’s just to goddamn easy to do IF YOU’VE ACTUALLY CHANGED) is all negative.
I don’t think the two are equivalent— do you, really?
suzanne
@Eyeroller:
Every one of us is infected to varying extent by thoughts that are influenced by race. (And sex, gender, ability, orientation, etc.) It is unavoidable. And we should avoid the thought trap that being on the receiving end of marginalization in one context gives you insight or motivation to be better in another. It doesn’t. The abused becomes the abuser all the time.
The question is more about whether or not you’ve attempted to do work on yourself to break some of those cycles.
lowtechcyclist
@Professor Bigfoot:
I wouldn’t put it outside the range of possibilities. I don’t trust the SOB any further than I could throw a Sherman tank.
rikyrah
That’s a muthaphuckin’ lie. Democrats wouldn’t defend the destruction of any part of the actual WH.
FOH
Sarah Isgur
@whignewtons
If Obama were building a White House ballroom, Republicans would be losing their minds about how he has no respect for this country’s history. Democrats would be defending it completely. But it’s 2025, so everyone switched jerseys.
1:12 PM · Oct 26, 2025
x.com/whignewtons/status/1982510624375791937
The okayest poster there is
@ok_post_guy
Obama asked the historic preservation commission for how to build a basketball court, he would not have demolished an entire wing of the White House while lying through his teeth to the press corps and general public about it
x.com/ok_post_guy/status/1982698663131644242
satby
@rikyrah: judging by pictures of him after his absence for several days, he looked like he had a minor stroke: one side of his face dropping, arm and leg less mobile than before. I’m rooting for more.
rikyrah
ABC News
@ABC
The strongest hurricane on record to make landfall over Jamaica was Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, a Category 4 hurricane, with sustained winds of 130 mph.
As of Monday morning, Melissa was classified as a Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 160 mph. abcnews.link/Ap9BCeh
x.com/ABC/status/1982757440190844991
Professor Bigfoot
But isn’t that the Balloon Juice Way? ;^)
iKropoclast
I think the idea is that the pain needs to reach the owners or nothing ever gets fixed.
Professor Bigfoot
@iKropoclast: we’re not prepared to give a man who wore a Nazi tattoo for decades, then lied about it, then fake-covered it up with more lies any benefit of the doubt.
Sorry, not sorry. He’s not earned anything like any kind of “benefit of the doubt.” By ALL evidence that doesn’t come from his own mouth, he’s a fucking Nazi.
Shakti
@schrodingers_cat: @Professor Bigfoot:
@Professor Bigfoot:
I’m pretty convinced Bernie will start caucusing with the Republicans — a Lieberman but more obnoxious.
@Matt McIrvin: @satby: As people run out of money from being out of work/not being paid, it will start looking like a general strike as such even if never labeled.
I saw a story, probably from here on, on the news about a guy who is an air traffic controller, who is getting paid nothing, is at work, but is doing delivery and ride hail work, tapping into his retirement and has taken out a high interest loan while this shutdown is going on.
I know the air traffic controllers can’t strike — since that union was broken in the 1980s. Anecdotally, I had to pick up my father from the airport yesterday, and almost every single flight was delayed, by hours. And I wasn’t aware of any huge storms affecting air travel.
Eyeroller
@iKropoclast: Keeping one’s mouth shut is an option. I assume he was specifically asked, but he could have said “It’s going to be up to the voters in Maine.”
Some people here were pissed at Jeffries for not endorsing Mamdani but I can see why “keeping his mouth shut” would be best for him. Though one difference is that Mamdani had already won the primary. That is not the case in Maine.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@tobie:
It’s good to see somebody in here actually say that, none of this “no blue no matter who” crapola to justify voting for candidates we shouldn’t be voting for, *cough*Cuomo*cough*.
Everybody has a proverbial “line in the sand”, it’s just that many folks feel many other folks’s “line in the sand” isn’t justifiable when in many cases, for longtime Dems who actually vote Dem in many cases squeezing their nose so tight it bleeds, it is justifiable.
satby
@Professor Bigfoot: I remember, in a far off time, when the discussions here were more free-wheeling, informative, and fun; and oftentimes still a little pointless. Now it’s pretty much the only adjective we can apply.
suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot:
Right?!
Like, I swore to myself, in my twenties, watching the country go insane with bloodlust and Islamophobia, that I would never vote for anyone who voted for the AUMF. I have held to that in primaries. But not only have I voted for people who voted for the AUMF, I have donated money and a great deal of time/effort to their general election campaigns.
But we all have our own red lines, which are usually deeply personal. I would hope that we could all accept each other’s varying levels of enthusiasm.
rikyrah
When Misogyny, Racism, and Antisemitism Aren’t Deal Breakers For Your Revolution
Posted by T.LaFauci October 27, 2025
establishmentbar.blogspot.com/2025/10/when-misogyny-racism-and-antisemitism.html
Deputinize America
@Shakti:
House Republicans and the rest of the government are on strike regarding payment for work….
NotMax
@satby
Amen, sister.
Baud
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
I think it made sense after 2016, when we won the popular vote but lost because some people felt that they had a free protest vote.
After 2024, we now know that opposition to fascism isn’t as high a priority among the people as we would like. So it makes sense to retire the idea of unity.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: He apologized? I thought
lovebeing a Republican meant you never have to say you’re sorry…Baud
@satby:
Must have been before I joined.
lowtechcyclist
@rikyrah:
A video window was embedded (as often happens now) in a news story I was reading, and it showed a clip of Trump talking about how the MRI showed everything was perfect. But man, he looked rough. He is not a healthy man, and one can only hope his denial about it speeds his deterioration.
Shakti
@tobie:
I think the cold calulation/assumption they’re making is
rikyrah
@Melancholy Jaques:
SANDERS
RO KHANNA
any number of Podcast Bros
They Call Me Noni
@Professor Bigfoot: Good distinction. Thank you.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Did you see Mamdani Sr saying that Lincoln was the inspiration for Hitler?
Whatever your opinion of Mamdani Z, DSA is going rip the D coalition apart.
NotMax
@Baud
“We’re abjectly sorry for any insult to apes.”
//
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: Hope the island doesn’t get it bad! There’s alot of very fine people there who live day to day without a bunch of infrastructure.
tobie
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: This isn’t the gotcha you think it is. I’d vote for Mandami, though many of his past statements disturb me and I don’t agree with all his talking points. Platner is unique in sporting a Nazi tattoo for 20 years and making racist and sexist statements as recently as four years ago. You may be okay with this. I’m not.
rikyrah
Anti-Semitism is a no go for me.
As a Black woman, I know all I gotta do it wait 5 minutes,and the RACISM will come out too.
After all, they are kissing cousins. Don’t see one without the other.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Yeah, have we forgotten cudlips and credenzas?
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
I have not. Not sure what that would be based on.
Deputinize America
@lowtechcyclist:
Big Medicine has lied to me for years about diet, lifestyle and exercise.
That fat c*** continuing to live proves it.
Professor Bigfoot
@satby: I joke, really; but I rely on this joint for a lot of things and these “pointless” discussions can also yield tidbits of wisdom.
There really aren’t any stupid people commenting on this blog— some stubborn, some thoughtless, some so annoyingly single-minded (raises hand) but all in all, as a gestalt if you will, it’s the Jackaltariat that make this place as fascinating as it is.
That’s not to diss the FPer, either, because they keep putting up fascinating subjects for discussions; beautiful photos; delicious recipes… I dunno, I’ve seen more than one complaint about BJ as it is being inferior to BJ as it WAS (and I’ve been here since shortly after JGC’s “road to Damascus” event!) and they make me wonder, “what happened? Seems like it’s still a lot of smart people in a big room to me!”
Eyeroller
@iKropoclast:<Murphy was one of the first "Biden must go" elected Ds.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Baud:
I’ve often used my story of Chuck Fucking Robb in 1994.
After he sheperded Uncle Clarance thru confirmation hearings *and* voted for the vile bastard, I said I’d never vote for him.
Then the GOP nominated Oliver Fucking North and I went to the polling booth with vice grips attached to my nose and pulled the lever for Robb.
Things are worse now although given where I live, I can afford to not hold my nose in an electoral sense. Not everybody has that luxury.
YY_Sima Qian
This will be interesting:
Probably Trump looking for a face saving way to reduce/remove the 20% meme tariff he imposed on imports from the PRC, ostensibly because of the PRC’s disinterest in cracking down export of fentanyl precursors. Removing the 20% meme tariff is likely among the key asks from Xi to Trump (alongside things like the port fees on cargo ships owned/operated/built by the PRC, the expansion of BIS Entity Lists to all subsidiaries, etc.), as the two sides attempt to reach a truce in the trade/tech. wars (is it version 5.0 now?) ahead of the Xi-Trump meeting in Seoul on 10/30.
Perhaps that is also among the motivations for Trump pivot the “war on drugs” to Venezuela, which is not involved in the fentanyl precursor trade.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Here it is
Something to do with how Native Americans were treated by his admin.
(Basically Twitter history where the US is the greatest evil on earth, main character syndrome but as a villain)
Paul in KY
@Shakti: I pretty much hate Bernie from his 2016 shenanigans, etc. But I can’t believe he’d ever caucus with GQP.Ha! That would be like the Nazis and Commies signing a pact in WW II! Er…wait….
tobie
@rikyrah: Thanks for the allyship. I hope I’ve been able to return it in some small measure.
Melancholy Jaques
@iKropoclast:
Some people are using this Platner situation to express their usual grievances with groups and with each other. That guy is done, let it go.
What’s fucked up about it is that Maine voters are probably going to re-elect Collins by a wide margin.
iKropoclast
Knowingly creating a situation where the results of 57(?) elections needed to be cast aside to satisfy donor jitters was the worst attack on our electoral process I’ve been alive to witness. Utterly disqualifying. This is the very foundation of my current hesitation to vote for Democrats.
Elizabeth Warren is the only one of these names I’m in a position to vote for. She was a personal hero of mine, going back years before she ever even ran for office. I will never vote for her again, given the opportunity.
Red section: These are countervailing issues. I continue to say he confuses me on these. But his history of activism is more in line with his rhetoric than the tattoo, so I’m not ready to jump to the worst conclusion.
Pink section: Campaign is still ongoing, I don’t know how he plans to deal with this. He should be working very hard to clear the air. It need to be soon.
No, I hold people to a higher standard once they’ve successfully achieved elected office. Their poor decisions affect us all. Speaking to the issue that brought them into the Platner conversation, Pelosi and Brown and Schiff and them should have known better. They’ve all been politicians and have been living under campaign scrutiny for years. As far as I’m concerned, they effectively are the ones who elected Trump last year.
rikyrah
@Shakti:
Crystal Fucking Minton, during the 2018-2019 federal government shutdown:
I will NEVER forget that story. It was so on point
Paul in KY
@Baud: Just Some Fuckhead had the Baudian Chair then…
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@tobie:
Far from it, I wasn’t making a judgement call about your “line in the sand”, I applaud it *and* saying in here you have one.
Eyeroller
@Gin & Tonic: There’s an experimental procedure that I might possibly have to restore decent vision in my right eye, and it requires some face-down interval (I am not sure how long) and I would really dread that, so kudos for sticking it out.
zhena gogolia
@Eyeroller: How do you even do that? Don’t you smother?
Melancholy Jaques
@rikyrah:
I’d bet dollars to donuts she voted for that asshole again in 2020 and 2024.
They Call Me Noni
@rikyrah: Like a series of mini-strokes for instance…..
Nettoyeur
Paul in KY
@YY_Sima Qian: He put a tariff on ‘memes’?!? Are you sure that wasn’t a Southpark episode?
lowtechcyclist
@Professor Bigfoot:
Man, just pie this dude. He isn’t worth the attention.
But having done so myself ages ago, I realize that’s a big reason why I didn’t realize there was some heavy-duty defense of Platner going on here. Most of it is Krope.
Deputinize America
@Melancholy Jaques:
The thing that bugs me is this – what’s been her draw locally?
In KY, it drove me nuts that people let re-electing McConnell, but I have to concede that the man could deliver pork in big ways up until the Teatard push to crush earmarks (which I hold was the thing that broke bipartisanship). The man banked a metric fuckton of in-state goodwill.
rikyrah
Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) posted at 7:17 AM on Mon, Oct 27, 2025:
Trump on a third term: “I would love to do it. I have the best numbers ever. Am I not ruling it out? You’ll have to tell me.” t.co/8tsuvIOeVf
(x.com/atrupar/status/1982783779597959567?t=7YXw_-H818vUYWnOfmLQwA&s=03)
Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) posted at 7:36 AM on Mon, Oct 27, 2025:
My big takeaway from Trump’s lengthy Air Force One gaggle is that he’s talking about shredding the Constitution by being in office for a third term increasingly openly.
If you don’t think he’ll try it, you’re in denial.
(x.com/atrupar/status/1982788603500470660?t=biCxlN8P8JXbiBStdqXQ_w&s=03)
Paul in KY
@schrodingers_cat: His father is an idiot.
iKropoclast
You…just hate Bernie.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Now jackals are supposed to have the manners of Victorian ladies otherwise they get sermons from the FP.
BJ was self policing back in the day and it worked well.
WaterGirl
The food is terrible and the portions are so small!
Professor Bigfoot
@tobie: I’m with you. “Those who hate Jews seldom hate ONLY Jews.”
You know who is never “hated” in this country? Who’s rights have never been abrogated in this country? The demographic that every other demographic has to keep a wary eye on for their own safety?
Straight white Christian men.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
I always make sure my ankles are covered before posting.
Professor Bigfoot
@iKropoclast: Aight.
I’ll always give you that— you’re a CONSISTENT MF. Respect.
ETA: “We can disagree and still love each other, unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression, in the denial of my humanity and my right to exist.” —Robert Jones Jr. “Son of Baldwin”
THESE are the things I’m happy to ‘agree to disagree’ on.
Carry on, you Kropoclastic so-and-so, you! :^)
Kirklin
@Professor Bigfoot: … except male supremacy. But that’s not race based, so yeah white supremacy not racism is a phrasing I’m going to add to my habits. Thank you.
Deputinize America
@iKropoclast:
…and? What’s wrong with that?
A thousand years in office and his only genuine accomplishments seem to be naming some post offices and repeating “billyunayuhs” on cue like a retarded parrot.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: That must be difficult without pants.
Geminid
@schrodingers_cat: That’s if the DSA doesn’t rip itself apart first.
I followed some controversy on DSA Twitter after one of the NYC mayoral debates. Some of the comrades were mad at Mamdani for using the word “war” to describe the Gaza conflict. For them,”genocide” is the only acceptable word to use, and calling it a war is a betrayal of DSA principles.
One of them noted that their New York chapter has been a problematic element of the party because it’s the most centrist.
lowtechcyclist
@rikyrah:
It damn sure is a lie. Remember how the entire Democratic Party rallied around Al Franken? Me either. (Someone should remind this person of that.) And that was the most borderline of borderline cases.
Eyeroller
@satby: It’s somewhat distressing to remember that a lot of the commenters who contributed to that are no longer here because they actually died. I suppose that happens when the group skews older.
Deputinize America
Test
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Ankle garters.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for US?
@Deputinize America: I got an uncle, former physician, who never ate all that healthy or exercised (he’s overweight but by today’s American standards he’d be described as stout rather than fat) and pharmaceuticals can address a lot of the negative impacts of unhealthy living. He’s 84 and not in great shape physically but it’s mostly due to an injury he had round about 78 years of age that messed up his leg rather than any major health problem, but cognitively still OK.
I saw him this summer and asked him about the findings that metformin (which he’s been taking for decades) seemed to reduce aging and he said yeah he’s heard about those studies. I was like maybe I should go on a low dose and he went off about how people need to die (true) and he didn’t buy into any of this longevity bullcrap. About an hour later he was filling up his 7 day pill dispenser with the cocktail of drugs that have been keeping him alive lo these many years and I couldn’t help thinking…I guess “people” need to die but I guess that doesn’t apply to you in particular? But maybe I shouldn’t be so lucky? But I’m sure FFOTUS is on diabetes medications and statins and that stuff can make up for a lot of diet and exercise related chronic health problems.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: How safe is it to google that term.
Professor Bigfoot
@Kirklin: The “male” in “white male supremacy” is often silent, but is ALWAYS in force.
Eyeroller
@zhena gogolia: Ask G&T, I’ve only had to do face up.
One uses things like airplane pillows.
Face-down is sufficiently common that one can rent equipment for it, though I think most patients just improvise.
iKropoclast
But he has earned the penthouse suite in several minds, rent free.
“You shouldn’t vote for this man, but maybe he doesn’t deserve weeks of posts dedicated to piling on” is a funny sort of support.
Or maybe a handful of preening shitheads @lowtechcyclist can’t tolerate being called out. The Professor and I were having a conversation,if you don’t mind.
Deputinize America
@iKropoclast:
…and? He’s a worthy object of disdain. A thousand years in office and his only achievements are in naming post offices.
Oh, and derailing Hillary Clinton while ushering in Trump.
schrodingers_cat
@Eyeroller: Plenty are alive and kicking and commenting just not here.
Paul in KY
@Nettoyeur: Well, with your last 2 examples you’ve convinced me!! Not.
To take Mrs. Clinton as a good example, she marinated in politics at the highest level for 25 years or so before jumping in. As for Ms. McGrath, before she ran for US Senate I think the O-6 Board was the last time she’d been involved in any ‘politics’.
Kirklin
@Shakti: re the air traffic,
I have modified my existing plans and will implement in plans going forward that if the only way there is to fly out of or into a US airport I won’t go. So more travel time for the car/bus/train with possible costs for additional hotels and meals en route, less time at destination (or for work, cut out of schedule time).
At this point I believe a major incident is a matter of when, not if. I’ve no desire to be a participant.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: The rest of us just wear socks.
satby
@Eyeroller: yes, several did. More just left but comment and post in other places.
Suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot:
I hope Krope knows that I genuinely intend the utmost respect for him (him?)….. but this is NOMINATED because it genuinely made me LOL.
I enjoy the range of perspectives here!
iKropoclast
@Deputinize America: Hate who you want. Making false insinuations and spinning wild conspiracies is behavior that we rightly deplore when Republicans do it.
@Suzanne: Nothing wrong with consistency.
That’s usually what people reach for first with me. Not that I’m too fussed about it or it doesn’t branch out more when folk get to know me.
Professor Bigfoot
Digital white flight? ;^D
Miss Bianca
@tobie: Oh, but that stuff, you know, it’s just accomplishments. Not vibes, which I’m told are the only things that matter to voters now.
Jackie
FFOTUS is applying the screws to Indiana governor:
satby
@Professor Bigfoot: #notallwhite
Or old, for that matter.
Eyeroller
@schrodingers_cat: Yeah, “Twitter history” is a good way to put it.
However, it’s not wrong that Hitler was inspired by Jim Crow laws. That gave them ideas of how to modify and implement them for their purposes.
Omnes Omnibus
@satby: I remember a time when Trump wasn’t president for the second time, the stakes of a lot of political discussions were lower (metadata, anyone?), and calling the GOP fascist was generally nutpicking. I wonder if those were the same times. We are different people now, these are different times, and it is a different blog.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
The liberal Internet wasted a lot of time debating whether Glenn Greenwald was a good guy.
iKropoclast
More like “quick on the uptake.”
lowtechcyclist
@Nettoyeur:
Hillary Clinton had had an extensive career in the public eye before running for Senate. More than enough that everyone could see what she stood for and what sort of Senator she would be.
Re Tuberville and Rand Paul: if Republicans want to advance bad examples to high office, that’s their thing. Platner would be US doing it.
Suzanne
@iKropoclast: You know, your consistency in your values, from your perspective, is one thing I genuinely appreciate about your viewpoint.
I don’t necessarily share it. But I’m terrible and I have a bad personality. So.
dnfree
@Deputinize America: My father believed Nixon had been framed by the press. My dad died in 2014, and I often wonder at what point (if ever) he would have seen through Trump. He saw through the John Birchers back in the day.
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: Seems like a pretty clear-headed analysis to me.
Matt McIrvin
@schrodingers_cat: One of the many protest organizations that have popped up this year. More recent and more radical than Indivisible, seemingly devoted to the idea of building up to a general strike.
lowtechcyclist
@rikyrah:
I think it’s not too soon for Dems in swing states in particular to start leaning on their public officials, to get them to commit to keep Trump off the ballot in 2028.
jonas
@MazeDancer: We’ve decided to take about $25 of our weekly food budget and purchase staples for the food bank during our weekend grocery runs. Luckily our neighborhood has several drop-off points for donations, including the local library just down the road, so it’s easy just to fill up an extra grocery bag and put it in the bin.
Food is critical, of course, but baby formula, pet food, diapers, period products, etc. are also in high demand right now.
Kirklin
For what my two cents is worth in today’s market, I’ve become less concerned about a third Trump term. Oh, I think he wants to and it’s a non-zero chance, but all the medical stuff and his rapidly declining presence (physical and mental) lead me to think that he won’t last the two, two and a half more years that he needs.
Note that I’m not saying he’ll die before them. It’s just becoming more and more obvious that he’s aging and I think there’s a threshold he’ll cross amongst all but the absolutes. That infamous 27 percent, if you will.
Geminid
I keep in mind that Chris Murphy has presidential ambitions. That’s not the only lense through which I view his statements, but it’s one of them.
Eyeroller
@satby:TBH some of those I don’t miss.
Blogs fell out of fashion, as we know, so the commenter pool is probably fairly small to begin with. If it gets divided up then the group at each site will shrink further.
And ever since Usenet in the 1990s, my observation is it’s always pretty much the case that the number of commenters at any Internet forum will be relatively small and as time passes can become more and more limited even without any other factors operating. It’s not as obvious at a site like Reddit with a huge userbase and the ability to make multiple accounts, but it happens there too. That doesn’t even take bots into consideration.
Deputinize America
@Baud:
I had the unusual benefit of hating Greenwald from the beginning. His over-the-top defense of Gluteus Maximus and his personal subtext of self-loathing by engaging in a persistent campaign of facilitating hard right hate speech were enough of a turnoff.
Dave
@Trivia Man: How doesn’t that also apply to the foreign workers that are hired?
After all they clearly believe taking those positions is in their interest?
The inability or unwillingness for so many people to look at systems, incentives, and apply a moral lens to then is incredibly frustrating.
Matt McIrvin
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for US?: I suspect all the stuff we do to stave off aging is only ever going to give people more years of relatively good quality of life before they fall off the cliff, but that’s a worthwhile endeavor. Actually halting the aging process would be a hammer blow to civilization (in ways that science fiction has explored in detail) but it’s also not gonna happen.
schrodingers_cat
@Professor Bigfoot: I don’t think so. This blog is predominantly white.
tobie
@Miss Bianca: Yeah, we’re all feeling old these days. Social media has done a number us. It’s changed our wiring, made us feral, and eroded our judgment.
Are you getting down there in temperatures in Colorado? It’s starting to hit us here in the mid-Atlantic. This year I have well-cured wood, so I’m feeling stocked. I recall you feed several wood stoves in the winter, one called the Beast.
iKropoclast
Please don’t say that. Your contributions here are lovely. Lots of them even come with subject matter expertise. I really appreciate your posts.
And it’s not exactly like I’m this shining paragon, beloved by all…😏
I try when I’m here to mainly criticize arguments rather than people*. Good people make bad arguments all the time. And bad arguments might only be bad from certain perspective or even might be “right” but lack nuance or empathy.
This is why we talk, to work through those things. Not necessarily to fundamentally change perspectives, but broaden them.
*There are three nyms who are exceptions I can think of. They have their own sort of consistency…
lowtechcyclist
@Eyeroller:
Due to similar demographics, the message board that used to be my main online hangout (I still spend some time over there, mostly in the Wordle thread) has a permanent ‘In Memoriam’ thread to note the passing of (formerly) frequent posters, with links to individual threads for each one.
Deputinize America
@lowtechcyclist:
“The two term limit is only enforceable via voter decision. We decline to enjoin the Trump Campaign as the matter is self-enforcing and non-justiciable….”
– Opinion by Chief Justice Roberts, joined by Justices Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Alito (by separate concurrence referencing a Royal Edict of 1689) and Thomas….
Eyeroller
@tobie: Social media may well have made it worse, but I saw plenty of flame wars on Usenet 35 years ago. There were also plenty of awful 4chan-ish newsgroups.
But Internet access was much more limited back then.
Shakti
@Deputinize America: Yup.
@Paul in KY: :/ People surprise you.
@rikyrah: Burned into my brain for the rest of my life.
@iKropoclast: No, actually. This is very disappointing– I hope it doesn’t come to that, but…
In the interview he gave to that podcast ( you could look at context and listen to the entire podcast but most won’t and he knows this) and his backing of Platner is for what reason then?
If he wanted to signal a heel turn, this would be perfect.
@Kirklin: There have already been major incidents (crashes).
Between TSA, the air traffic and Boeing’s issues (still ongoing from the Biden administration btw, doubt it’s been made better) and whatever chaos Trump decides to do/back up causing flights to be redirected (thanks Israel) — air travel is so bad. My parents searched for aircraft that’s not certain Boeing models for travel; delayed a major trip to visit family from summer to fall because of this. They are not, and have never been nervous fliers.
schrodingers_cat
@Matt McIrvin: Thanks.
Paul in KY
@Deputinize America: The ‘Royal Edict of 1689’ was a nice touch! And spot on for Cotton Alito.
Suzanne
@iKropoclast: I don’t feel badly about being terrible and having a bad personality. ;)
Professor Bigfoot
@schrodingers_cat: True, this commentariat is mostly white; but I’d wager the “splitters” (heh) are almost all if not all white.
(I’m perfectly willing to be wrong about that, also, too.)
Melancholy Jaques
@rikyrah:
With respect, Sanders is not a Democrat. Ro Khanna, is just barely, Podcast Bros strike me as “but some” Democrats.
And Democratic bona fides aside, I don’t see these people as “lean[ing] hard into racism.” It’s more that they don’t see this guy’s behavior as racism because they don’t see a lot of things as racism. Nothing new with Sanders.
But with some people it’s like, something is in the news, how can I use this to attack Democrats and other people on this blog?
Am I overreacting? Maybe probably, but the time and the energy spent attacking one another is depressing.
Kathleen
@Paul in KY: Tulsi Gabbard nominated Sanders at 2016 Convention and served as fellow on “Our Revolution”.
Old School
This one is real.
Professor Bigfoot
@iKropoclast: This is what I’m talking about.
Your opinions/beliefs/statements come from deep thought about stuff. They’re not just the basic reflexes our society has wired into people— especially white people— but to be the product of self examination, reason, and logic.
Others may not see all the variables that go into that equation; but that equation exists (if you can forgive a tortured metaphor!)
Melancholy Jaques
@Deputinize America:
I have no clue about Maine voters or why they apparently love Collins. The reasons or excuses offered seem to be fantasy versions of the actual person.
Tenar Arha
@rikyrah: Good morning!
Jackie
FYI: Rumbling sounds from Maine.
schrodingers_cat
@Melancholy Jaques: I guess some people is a reference to me.
I am feeling politically homeless since Biden was driven out as a nominee. I bet I am not the only D who feels that way.
Since becoming a citizen I have canvased and donated and worked hard to get Ds elected. Participated in and lead voter registration drives, collected signatures to get people on the ballot etc. But go ahead and dismiss my concerns as a hater of Ds
Geminid
I started commenting here a little over five years ago. I have since come to understand that this blog has had a Golden Age, a Silver Age and now a Bronze Age that started about the time I got here.
But coincidence is not causation!
Miss Bianca
@tobie: Only two woodstoves! And one of them is a Beast, altho’ “Stovezilla” is the usual term of art around here. ; )
Yeah, it’s been getting down into the 30s at night pretty routinely lately. Still warming up to the lower 60s some days.
YY_Sima Qian
@Paul in KY: Tariffs imposed for memes & vibes, such as the 10% because Canada (specifically Ontario) ran a factual ad embarrassing Trump & his omnidirectional trade wars.
Geminid
@Jackie: That leaves press secretary and strategist Joe Calvello, who so far as I can tell is the brains behind this operation. Calvello strikes me as the bitter-ender type.
Melancholy Jaques
@Baud:
Wasting time debating seems to be what the liberal internet finds most enjoyable. Do right-wingers do this? I never see or hear their conversations unless my brother mentions something.
schrodingers_cat
@Geminid: I appreciate your posts!
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: He was considered a hero on this blog.
iKropoclast
@Suzanne: Yeah, that made me laugh.
I don’t like being made to do things…/FalsePetulance
By some, maybe. I had his number from the beginning and I was here so I can assure you I was far from the only one.
At best you can say he was divisive on this blog.
Fair Economist
The crucial point with Platner is that even if his change of heart is genuine, and that’s not at all clear, he has absolutely zero chance of beating Collins. If he is nominated, next year, every LGBTQ and ally will see an ad on social media every 5 minute about his homophobic comments and slurs. Every black person or ally will see an ad every 5 minutes reciting his racist comments and slurs. Every Jew or ally will see an ad every 5 minutes showing the SS tattoo he wore 20 years. And everybody else will see an ad every 5 minutes about his flipflops on all these issues and how he can’t be trusted. And he will lose, big.
Collins’ campaign will absolutely have the money for all this. Anybody supporting Platner now wants the Democrats to lose.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Geminid: I first came to Balloon Juice for the Midnight in Washington [Adam Schiff’s book] discussion. Bemused Senior had been commenting for years before that but I wasn’t paying attention. Now I consider myself a jackal.
“The theater [blogosphere] is certainly not what it was.” [reply] “It never was what it was.”
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: I also feel some disconnect from the broader party after last year. But fascism forces me into a home with roommates I wouldn’t necessarily choose myself.
@Geminid:
Iron Age is fast approaching.
Matt McIrvin
@schrodingers_cat: More specifically, I think 50501 was where the slogan “No Kings” came from– their first one was a coordinated nationwide “No Kings on Presidents Day” back in February. Others took it up.
Kelly
@jonas: You are kind and generous. Please give the food bank cash. They don’t pay retail prices thus can make the dollars go further
Miss Bianca
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Yeah, I take the “this blog ain’t what it used to be” comments with more than a pinch of sodium chloride.
Glad you consider yourself a jackal now. I certainly do! :)
schrodingers_cat
@iKropoclast: By many of the FPers, including JGC. He was divisive among the commenters.
Geminid
@schrodingers_cat: Thanks. In the Bronze Age, we must make do with what we have.
lowtechcyclist
@Jackie:
“Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked, have been sacked.”
Kirklin
@Shakti: Kind of, yes. But painful as it is to say this, they’ve not been exceptional and indeed some got noticed because of the air traffic situation but weren’t atypical.
To explain, how many crashes did you recall happening in Biden’s last year? In 2024 in the US there were 1417 airplane crashes; 248 of those crashes had deaths. The reason most didn’t hit the news was that they were private or “small carrier” or cargo crashes and didn’t disrupt everyone’s travel.
Catches the attention are things like the Potomac helicopter/airliner crash. (Though that one’s been waiting to happen for a few years.)
What I’m expecting as example are mid-air to mid-air airline crash over a major airfield. Most likely times are high traffic (holidays) and less than ideal weather (also holiday typical). Another example is weather driven when a major airliner tries to land on top of another one that’s just lining up for take-off.
More likely though less injurious is a rash of repeats of the Delta-Delta taxi impact from three weeks ago. Fair notice, taxi impacts happen anyway, but from my rough views have increased this year. So “spectacular” in this case is multiples on the same day/week.
Melancholy Jaques
@schrodingers_cat:
Not just you and not just today and I didn’t dismiss anything other than your overstatement about leaning hard into racism. I don’t see anyone doing that.
You’re obviously very angry. I’m sorry about that. I’m just suggesting that you and everyone might consider giving the other people who frequent here a break.
Another Scott
Re: Maine – my general approach, given the other party is an insane cult and given that progress is incremental is:
1) The Democratic candidate will be chosen in the primary. The primary is a long way away. Democrats who care need to show up and vote.
2) If someone wins the primary, especially with a majority, they generally should be given deference as the potential representative of that electorate.
3) What matters most right now is having the majority. The leadership of majority sets the terms of debate, decides what bills are voted on, has a hand in committee membership and leadership, etc. Leadership will decide what the Legislature does.
If, in some alternative universe, Platner were to win the Maine primary with a majority, and he committed to voting for Democratic leadership, and voting for him were the best way to remove Susan Collins from office and give Democrats the majority in the Senate, then it would be very difficult for me not to vote for him in the general election if I lived in Maine. Which I don’t.
But I don’t expect him to win the primary.
FWIW. YMMV.
Best wishes,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@Melancholy Jaques:
Their default mode is to agree on practically everything, so I wouldn’t expect much of that.
schrodingers_cat
@Melancholy Jaques: You don’t owe me an apology. I am not angry. That was during T 1.0. Now I am resigned. I have some hope, that’s why I post sometimes.
BTW you are not the only one who wants me to STFU
Its not like being in a band when they only want you to clap and never speak
Anyway that’s enough of this fruitless discussion for me.j
Melancholy Jaques
@Baud:
It’s like being in a band. You have this close, important relationship with people you otherwise would not be seen with in public. Not always, but quite often, the drummer.
iKropoclast
@Professor Bigfoot: Your opinions/beliefs/statements come from deep thought about stuff.
Haha, I’m not sure Id go that far. Or rather the only things I think very deeply about are ethics, spirituality, and logic.
I appreciate it, though, most people just find me confusing or frustrating. Not just on politics and not just here.
I will say I have kind of a weird knowledge base, better than average in many things but expert in nothing. People seem most uncomfortable when I can be “not sure” about certain particulars but still be sure of my conclusion or if I point my bullshit detector in an unexpected direction, i.e. the people conventional wisdom dictate you’re allowed to be skeptical of.
That’s all where discernment and trust come in, those metrics seem to be big fail points for a lot of people.
lowtechcyclist
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
“We speak of things that matter
in words that must be said:
can analysis be worthwhile*,
is the
theatreblogosphere really dead?”;-)
Quoting S&G for the second time today.
* A question often asked by algebraists. 😁
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Just so long as it’s not the Catastrophic Age.
iKropoclast
@Geminid: Aside from the overall lower engagement, I’d be hard-pressed to say that was a better overall time for the blog. Cliquish behavior was a lot more prevalent in that time, a lot more knee jerk reactions against favored blog chew toys.
The lower engagement is regrettable, but I’d wager at least what a couple people miss is the lack of pushback, or group uniformity of pushback on those pushbacks, on their very particular shibboleths.
Ben Cisco
@satby: Well, I only quoted the guy that had the idea, but I appreciate the sentiment!
iKropoclast
Hey, we learn. Some of us…
This would be an excellent opportunity to find solace in the fact that you were right about that two-bit grifter and recognize virtually no one here takes him seriously anymore.
You won that one, congratulations.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@Melancholy Jaques: I don’t care if the person in question is Jesus Christ himself – if they’re defending a Nazi (and a former soldier and military history buff willingly getting a tattoo of an SS death squad emblem MOST DEFINITELY IS), not only are they getting attacked but they’re also giving plausible reasons to believe they’re Nazis themselves. Of all the hard red lines not to cross, that might be the hardest of them all, because anyone willing to accept that shit is only concerned with securing their own power, no matter how much they dress up as someone who cares. You want to call that airing out a grievance? Well, I don’t know what to say to you.
Deputinize America
@Melancholy Jaques:
The bass player, I mean, come on – the drummer is a hopeless loser always, and you can find a modicum of sympathy for his plight, but the bass player is always the worst….
Eyeroller
@lowtechcyclist:The consensus on Reddit is that the r/conservatives sub ruthlessly suppresses comments that don’t toe the party line and bans commenters for minor deviations from the message. So there’s an example.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: By some.
iKropoclast
@Eyeroller: I’ll testify to that. In the earlier days of the Internet, I was banned from Ann Coulter’s blog for suggesting immigrants were humans who should be afforded rights.
Eyeroller
@Interesting Name Goes Here: I’m not Jewish so I could potentially be more accepting of him getting a Totenkopf when he was young and stupid and before studying much history so not fully understanding the implications, or even to be “edgy,” as we put it nowadays. But he kept it for years and there are reports of him telling people what it was, so he knew. Once he matured and if he actually cared he should have immediately thought “Holy shit, what the fuck was I thinking” and gotten it removed, not just covered up, removed.
And his Reddit comments whining about how being expected not to sexually assault military women was holding back officers, well, that was as recent as four years ago.
I know we’re in a constant search for how can Democrats appeal more to white people, especially white males, which I suppose may be the rationale behind e.g. Murphy’s comments, but please can we not do it this way?
I also wonder how much of the “enthusiastic support” is actually coming from Maine.
Melancholy Jaques
@Interesting Name Goes Here:
I don’t know anyone here who is defending Nazis. I know I’m not. But I am happy you got that off your chest. Do you feel better now? Good.
JaySinWA
New Cell Block Tango Lyric.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@Melancholy Jaques: …Well, since you want to be a proper dick about it, do you have something you want to get off of your chest, seeing as how you’ve somehow managed to gleefully ignore the events of the past 10 days or so? Or should I start to consider you in that same camp of opportunistic assholes looking to shore up their own position regardless of who gets tossed to the wolves? I’ll let you choose.
Professor Bigfoot
I’ll wager I’m not far behind you on that list.
“And so it goes.”
Professor Bigfoot
I’d wager damned little of it.
lowtechcyclist
@Interesting Name Goes Here:
Ah, that’s right – I’d pied you on the laptop, but not here on the desktop. Easily remedied.
Shakti
@Kirklin: I have friends who study air safety and they’ve said much the same thing.
Most Americans don’t fly much at all and have little reason to, and don’t get subject to suspicion at the airport, so they didn’t care about Patriot Act stuff, and the security theater measures. I suspect the same dynamic with air travel even now.
I remember the tone about the Boeing crash in India — the tone of the coverage was barely disguised glee/relief they could blame the crash on foreigners, and foreigners died. That meant US commenters online could make tasteless jokes and didn’t have to care. If felt like there was some kind of crash on the nightly news every two weeks, btw.
It takes a lot to make people like my parents skittish about flying — 9/11 didn’t do it.
Trivia Man
@jonas: consider including a camping can opener. I bought a box if 50 for less than $20. Small enough to put in your wallet. Look for a P-38.
Kirklin
@jonas: I’ve said this elsewhere but I’ll make the plea here as well.
Instead of buying $25 of staples, just donate the $25 to the food bank.
They’ll have better purchase rates and will get more.
They will know what particular staples are shorter on their shelves.
And they might have a bill (or work that will be billed) that if not dealt with could close the site – food or no food. Can’t pay the utilities bill with beans.
Paul in KY
@YY_Sima Qian: So that was a joke? TACO hasn’t literally put a Tarriff on ‘memes’? Cause I don’t see how that would work. Even for them (the crackpots he has surrounded himself with).
MisterForkbeard
@rikyrah: I hate twitter so much. The comments to that thread are just… awful, lying assholes.
Soprano2
@rikyrah: That was the story where apparently the reporter didn’t ask the obvious follow-up question “Who do you think he should be hurting?” That’s what pissed me off about it so much.
Glidwrith
@lowtechcyclist: I got that reference!
dnfree
@iKropoclast: Hindsight is 20/20, and Harris came close to winning even with the disadvantage of having a very late start.
I was agnostic on whether Biden was fit to run for a second term until I saw the debate. That sealed my view that Biden might be able to complete his first term, but he did not have another four years in him. (Neither does Trump, in my opinion.). Again, in my opinion, he should have announced a year before that debate that he didn’t plan to run again. His ego put us in this position. I don’t blame the people who saw the problem from a lot closer up than I did.
As for the result of elections being ignored, I voted in the primary for Biden/Harris. If Biden had died instead of blowing a debate, most likely Harris would have been the candidate.
The Biden who was able to beat Trump in 2020 was not the same person as the Biden of 2024. It’s a fallacy to think the 2020 election predicted the 2024 result.
Gloria DryGarden
@Baud: I think T needs to pay back the treasury, and supply that 20 or 40 b out of his own funds and assets. It was a personal expense, a favor to a friend. Congress didn’t approve it.
grrr
Kayla Rudbek
@Professor Bigfoot: I’d add Protestant to that…