This is a real thing that a judge had to say to the Chief of US Customs and Border Protection.
— Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) October 28, 2025 at 11:20 AM
===
I assumed this had to be AI.
It is not AI.
It's like concept design for Neil Patrick Harris at the end of Starship Troopers that Verhoeven rejected for being too on-the-nose.
"Dress for the job you want, not the job you have"
— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn.bsky.social) October 28, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Here's the CNN interview he showed up dressed like that for. Photo Credit: Mustafa Hussain (Pulitzer-pending I hope) www.cnn.com/2025/10/08/p…
… Nearly three decades into his career with the US Border Patrol, Gregory Bovino has become the on-the-ground face of Trump’s effort to surge federal law enforcement into blue states and cities regardless of whether local officials want them there — first in Los Angeles, now in Chicago, with other possible cities on deck.
But if he and his officers are an unwelcome presence or face interference from protesters, Bovino said he is not dissuaded.
“We’re going to carry out that mission,” Bovino said in an interview with CNN in Chicago on Tuesday. “And that’s paramount, or else we shouldn’t be here. We’re going to carry that mission out.”
He added that if “someone steps in the way, then … that may not work out well for them, and if we need to effect an arrest of a US citizen or anyone else, then we’ll do that.”
Local officials have described Bovino as leading a branch of law enforcement which deploys tactics that are frighteningly authoritarian and which has been styled into Trump’s own personal police force, used by the president as a cudgel against Democrat-led localities and the people — citizens and noncitizens alike — who live in them…
Bovino, 55, holds the title of chief patrol agent of the El Centro sector and has been the lead on the administration’s crackdown in cities — now, 2,000 miles away from the California sector he helms. His newfound resurgence in the agency under Trump finds him in a position of power unique among his peers in Border Patrol.
His heavy-handed tactics, including immigration sweeps in parking lots and smashing car windows, have fueled consternation among some in the Trump administration while also garnering praise from senior Homeland Security officials…
Greetings from the Dirksen federal courthouse, where Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino is set to appear before U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis.
What you need to know, for @wttw.bsky.social:— Heather Cherone (@heathercherone.bsky.social) October 28, 2025 at 9:48 AM
From Ms. Cherone’s (long, worth reading!) thread:
… We are underway.
Ellis calls Bovino to the stand. He is wearing his uniform.
He is sworn in.
He has no visible head injury, even though federal officials said he was struck Friday in the head by protestors before he deployed tear gas in Little Village.Ellis is reminding Bovino of the oath he took when he became a Border Patrol officer — the same oath she took when she became a federal judge.
“We both agreed to support and defend the Constitution,” Ellis said.
Bovino is listening impassively.Ellis says her job is to ensure that Bovino and the federal agents under his command are acting in accordance with the law and court orders.
Ellis “It may be that what I am seeing is the result if one of three things:”
1. Perhaps the order is unclear
2. No one read the order
3. “Folks actively chose to ignore it”Ellis said it could not be No. 3, because that would violate Bovino’s oath…
Ellis says she acknowledges that things can change quickly and be “dynamic” and that she is not present
“But I am getting videos … it is difficult for me to see that the force being used is necessary.”…
@wttw.bsky.social…Ellis is now questioning Bovino about what the plaintiffs have called “flagrant” and “repeated” violations of her order.
“A warning has to be ‘I am going to deploy tear gas if you do not do whatever it is … get off my car .. and allow people time to comply.”…
Ellis tells Bovino the people of Chicago have a right to tell him and his agents that they don’t like what they are doing and want them to leave.
“They can’t get tear gassed” for doing that.
Bovino: “I understand what you are saying, your honor. We will abide by the temporary restraining order.”…
After an hour and 15 minutes on the stand, Ellis dismisses Bovino.
“I’ll let you get back to work.”Bovino immediately leaves the courtroom, accompanied by a large security detail…
saw a lot of people complaining that the judge wasn’t being harsh enough on bovino but this, coupled with ordering him to start wearing a body cam by friday, sets up a pretty fucking strict compliance structure
— GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) October 28, 2025 at 12:23 PM
absolutely zero ambiguity in exactly what her orders are and what she expects, daily reports, body cam footage, like, this is setting up flaming hoops
— GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) October 28, 2025 at 12:26 PM
===
Teenage boy leaves principal’s office, sullenly…
Bovino places tear gas on the dash board as he leaves, a small detail and perhaps symbolizing a threat that the gassings will continue
— Smash MAGA! (@smashmagagame.bsky.social) October 28, 2025 at 2:01 PM
that's his emotional support CS gas, for when he's feeling particularly diminutive
— The Wurst (@oldandmoldier.bsky.social) October 28, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Brave defiant dude, as long as he’s got a flotilla of vehicles full of armed agents backing him up.
This is very smart and funny and I hope that all ICE/CBP follow bovino’s example by place an unsecured pyrotechnic device at eye level while driving.
— Michael Stahlke (@michaelstahlke.bsky.social) October 28, 2025 at 3:04 PM
War for Ukraine Day 1,342: The Cost
Wilson Heath
If not a Nazi why is it Nazi shaped?
Ishiyama
The next move the Judge will make is to have him sit in jail overnight.
J. Arthur Crank
I always see the word ‘bovine’ when I read that shithead’s name. Christ, what an asshole!
Jackie
Did Bovino wear his Halloween costume to court today?
What’s with FFOTUS’s administration all wearing costumes like they’re playing roles in a movie? Do they not realize they’re being ridiculed for looking ridiculous?
Karen Gail
As long as Bovino believes that Trump and Neom will have his back he will continue with SS behavior; he has the coat, he has the hair cut, he has the attitude all he is missing is the cover hat with gold trim.
Martin
This is the tricky part with predicting authoritarians. We tend to think they’ll behave in the same way that democratic bureaucracies do. A democratic bureaucracy tends to be a pretty legalistic entity – the folks at the top write rules that get passed down a layer where more detailed rules get written all the way down to the rank and file workers. The old immigration agent had a policy manual that told them what they could and couldn’t do, how people should be addressed, what attire they were expected to wear and so on. Those came down through a fairly formal set of rules that was designed to ensure that an immigration checkpoint at LAX would work pretty much the same as one at JFK. The predicability of the process is a hallmark of a functioning democracy. And one upside to that is if you’re that worker at the checkpoint and something goes sideways but you were following the rules, your job and legal exposure is probably not at issue.
Authoritarians sometimes do this as well. I suspect North Korea is very, very rules oriented. But some don’t and are kind of vibes based. The leader says what the goal is and kind of leaves it up to the rank and file to just figure it out. There are no written rules – that’s too slow, and too confining. So you rely on folks that want to do your goal self-select into these jobs and they just go out and do it – they wear masks, they assault people, etc. And if they break the law while advancing the leaders agenda, eh, no harm no foul. But if the leader gets heat over it, because they overstepped, then the leader might make an example of them. There isn’t necessarily any protection because there were no rules.
This is a mostly unheard of state of affairs for Americans (maybe not for black people who lived in the Jim Crow south) and it’s a mostly unpredictable state of affairs as well, because the reality could be anywhere inbetween. Are there rules for engagement for ICE? There used to be, but I think we’re in the period of determining which ones can be ignored without consequence, and that’s a frog we’re going to boil for a while here I think. Same for other agencies. Will Greg Bovino ignore the court? That too might be tested. After all, Trump is a well of infinite pardons.
Speaking of Service Guarantees Citizenship.
Would you like to learn more?
YY_Sima Qian
10 months ago, I would not have thought all of the apparatus of checks & balances in America (damaged & compromised as they were) would fail so thoroughly in face of such naked Fascism.
Omnes Omnibus
@Karen Gail: Given the requirements the judge put on him, he shouldn’t feel too safe.
HopefullyNotCassandra
@Jackie: World wide wrestling federation scripting?
JCJ
@YY_Sima Qian: Clearly the lessons learned by Trump and company include “The pen is mightier than the sword” was supplanted by “Power comes from the barrel of a gun”
Jackie
@JCJ: Or bombs that make Big Booms!
Ishiyama
@JCJ: Dare to struggle, dare to win!
cain
@Jackie:
He loves big bombs and he cannot lie !
Maybe he should just consider having bath bombs instead. Much safer.
Paul M Gottlieb
One consolation is that whether Bovino eats in a restaurant of orders room service, before it gets to the table someone will have pissed in his food
Karen Gail
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m a cynic; since Bovino is a first class bully I mostly expect him to react the same way as other bullies do. He will lash out at people and things are going to get worse before he and rest of ICE and BP are stopped.
YY_Sima Qian
Interesting & indeed, from my perspective somewhat hopeful, development (worth looking at the poll data through the link below):
The report itself:
Normally, on matters of foreign policy, popular opinion tends to follow elite opinion. The collapse in US popular opinion of the PRC tracks the marked shift in elite discourse wrt the PRC during the Trump 45 term, then through the Biden term. We may be seeing Trump 47 having the opposite (repulsive) effect here.
Of course, the so called bipartisan consensus was always a shallow one, particularly on the Dem side. There was agreement on the vague notion that the US has to be “tougher” on the PRC, but little actual consensus (& thus commitment) wrt “through what means” & “to what end”. On the Republican side, there is the tension among the Establishmentarian global hegemonists, the naked imperialists (Monroe Doctrine 2.0), & the genteel isolationists, even among MAGA. During the Biden term, some of these differences were papered over, as the costs (domestic & international) of Great Power Competition w/ the PRC was not yet apparent to many, most Dem pols deferred to the Dem administration on FP, & it served the political & career interests of R & D leaning elected/appointed officials & think tankers to go w/ the flow of the increasingly dominant zeitgeist.
Here is Ben Smith of Semafor (I know, I know…) sniffing the change in the wind, though I think he greatly over states the case here:
Here is another [perhaps early] signal of the change:
The anodyne & carefully chosen words of their summary belie how extraordinary (& potentially unsettling) some of their specific recommendations are, particularly wrt Taiwan (underlined above), particularly in light of the hitherto dominant zeitgeist in DC & the adjacent the think tank world. They frame their recommendations as putting guardrails on the inevitable & long lasting Sino-US rivalry (a favorite framing of the Biden team) a la détente w/ the USSR during 2nd half of the Cold War, but in substance they (IMHO) are looking to shift the trajectory of the Sino-US relations overall. They wrote an entire section (Section 3) that documents how China Hawks (both R & D leaning) have over the decades systemically mistranslated pronouncements & documents from the PRC government/CPC leadership to inflate the perceived threat from the PRC/CPC regime, in order to build the elite & popular support for Great Power Competition w/ the PRC.
Now, this is a privately funded study, not by the USG. Still, it is coming from RAND, the most Establishment of the DC Establishment.
NotMax
Eat yer heart out, Ollie North.
//
YY_Sima Qian
@JCJ: Unfortunately, power has always come from the barrel of the gun (or the edge of the sword). The pen is only mightier than the sword when the pen is implicitly backed by other swords (in so far as the former could mobilize the latter). Or, the pen might prove mightier than the sword for posterity, which often does nothing for the specific wielder of said pen.
mrmoshpotato
That’s all I read. That’s it. Trials. American Nuremberg trials.
piratedan
I guess what I want to know is….. if our favorite Border Patrol copper decides to defy the judge (and I expect he will because he really is that big of an asshat), what can she do to him that is actually real. If she orders him to jail, will her bailiffs agree and will they take him into custody and book his ass?
How soon before DJT tries to break his ass out or does he let Bovine take it in the career?
Does she shut down ICE and CBP entirely because they have no cause?
Ishiyama
@piratedan: The way that coercive contempt works, the Judge can impose an increasing level of penalties. First, order him to come to Court in person, daily. Next, hold him in the lock-up briefly, just to show him that she can. And yes, the bailiffs will put him in handcuffs and take him away!
Matt McIrvin
@Ishiyama: He’s got an armed force that could likely overpower them all at his command.
Ishiyama
@Matt McIrvin: Not inside the Courtroom.
piratedan
@Ishiyama: granted and that is very true, but as MI implied, these guys are not terribly concerned about optics. To be fair, they’ve been tap dancing and whistling thru the graveyard and never really suffer from it. Shit, we watched J6 happen and they rewarded him 4 years later by returning him to office.
although, watching ICE and CBP storm a courtroom and arresting a judge who is arresting one of theirs would seem to be beyond the pale.
Omnes Omnibus
@Matt McIrvin: You think ICE is going to storm a courthouse to bust him out?
YY_Sima Qian
Speaking of Trump scrambling geopolitics:
Apparently, the DPP government of Taiwan was caught unprepared for Trump’s election in 2024. The DPP (& honestly the opposition parties, too) had invested heavily in relationships w/ the Dem & Repub Establishment, neither of which has purchase w/ MAGA, & the R establishment has been unwilling & unable to stand up to MAGA. AIPAC & Israel supposedly represent Taiwan’s way in to the MAGA crowd, so that the DPP government can then try to influence Trump’s Taiwan policy. I think these efforts will prove fruitless, & ultimately damaging, given the poor standing of MAGA, Israel & AIPAC around the world.
I am tempted to say that Israel & Taiwan make for strange bedfellows, but they are not in fact strangers. Throughout the 70s & 80s, the Republic of China (a.k.a Taiwan), Israel & South Africa formed a band of fellow traveling outcasts, each an regional/international pariah in its own way: the ROC was ruled by a hard authoritarian regime & largely abandoned by the West after Western countries switched diplomatic recognition to the PRC as the “sole legitimate government of China”, South Africa then under a White Apartheid regime increasingly being boycotted around the world, & Israel in the wake of a series of regional wars made worse by its invasion of Southern Lebanon. They assisted each other in their respective clandestine nuclear programs. There are rumors floating around that Israel is helping Taiwan to upgrade the latter’s air & missile defense systems, unhappy w/ Beijing’s ferocious criticism of the former’s conduct in Gaza & the WB & rhetorical support of Iran.
As an aside, Nelson Mandela won the presidency of South Africa in ’94, but did not switch formal diplomatic relations to the PRC until ’98, despite the PRC’s long standing material support of the ANC throughout the latter’s struggle. Taiwan was a major investor into South Africa until the late ’90s, after which Taiwanese businesses shifted their attention to Mainland China.
Ishiyama
The Judge can get creative; I order you to sit in the lock-up for 12 hours and write 1,000 times: I will obey the order of the United States Court. All he can do is seek relief from a higher court, but if he is only held for 12 hours, he won’t have any luck with that.
Jay
bsky.app/profile/debpearlstein.bsky.social/post/3m4bzoqhg6k2a
Complying in advance, seems to have some costs.
Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: You think that’s completely out of the question after Jan 6? I think it’s really, really unlikely. I don’t think it’s out of the question.
Gretchen
I read that Bovino, like Stephen Miller, is quite short. You can see that when he’s walking with staff they tower over him. And of course AOC raised hackles when she laughed that Miller is 4’10”. If only these bozos would get therapy for their body image and daddy issues instead of siccing an army on the rest of us.
Gretchen
@Wilson Heath: Miniature Nazi-shaped.
Jay
nitter.poast.org/robbystarbuck/status/1980985160586625186#m
Gretchen
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m wondering what happens if he defies the judge. I was surprised that he even showed up today and was respectful. But can she have him arrested if he keeps up his tear-gassing or will he walk?
Jay
@Gretchen:
Not “Fun Sized”, given Halloween.
Jay
Let’s see,
Georgia gutted their CDC, (the state, not the Country), a couple months ago,
Got rid of their ERST, the people who respond to measles outbreaks, Ebola, est,… a few weeks ago,
Truck overturned today with a bunch of disease ridden research monkeys who got free,……..
and the MSM wonders why Canadian Tourism is down.
Gretchen
I used to date a man about the same size as Bovino. He admitted that his greatest fear was being called “little man”. I hope for that for Greg. Will Trump call him “Li’l Greg” when they’re on the outs?
mark
@YY_Sima Qian: wow. quite the post.
lgerard
RIP Prunella Scales
Gretchen
Jen Psaki interviewed Graham Plattner tonight. He insisted that he had no idea that the tattoo was a Nazi symbol, even though he referred to it as “my totenkopf” years ago. Was he so incurious he never looked up what that word meant? (Sure). Or is he just lying? Apparently Maine still likes him, and in typical mediocre guy fashion he’s complaining that it’s everybody else’s fault for being mean to him and not giving him second and third chances and “redemption” and “growing”. Grow on your own time, bubba.
YY_Sima Qian
The utter incoherence of Trump’s omnidirectional trade war, even on its own terms (useful chart & screen cap through the link):
The WSJ reporting that Brad Setser is responding to (gift link below):
piratedan
@Gretchen: why the folks at MSNBC would even give him a forum is fucking beyond me. Too much Beltway nethers tugging going on there IMHO in regards who gets time in front of the camera and who doesn’t.
Mai Naem mobile
@J. Arthur Crank: that’s what I thought so I looked it up. I was expecting it to be Italian for bovine. It is but it also means a big and (intellectually)slow human being like an ox.
sab
@Gretchen:
@piratedan: Jen Psaki is not our friend.
Jay
@Gretchen:
In my late 30’s, post divorce, I got a tattoo.
Left shoulder, 1/4 of my back.
It’s the first sutra of the Diamond Sutra, in Sanskrit, over a grey scale pencil drawing of a water lily pond.
I put a lot of time and thought into it, knowing I would wear it forever. Searched artists who could make it.
Just saying,…………………….
Martin
@Gretchen: Miller is 5′ 10″. Not exactly short, but a LOT of guys have a hangup if they’re under 6′. So I may not think he’s short, but he might think he’s short.
Aussie Sheila
@JCJ:
In any State internal power relies on the gun barrels, more specifically, on who controls them. External power likewise, except that the gun barrels have to be able to be efficiently and effectively replaced at scale and speed.
The rule of law is of course, preferable. But its rule ultimately depends on who controls force. Without such command of force, collecting taxes becomes voluntary.
In democracies such force must at least appear ‘legitimate’, and be plausibly based on the Will of the people.
Elsewhere, not so much.
In foreign affairs, the rule of law is honoured more in the breach than observance precisely because no one nation state ultimately controls all the guns.
sab
@Martin: I am a WASP and our men feel deficient if under 6 foot. My dad was 5′ 11″ so didn’t make the cut.
My first husband was Jewish from Ukraine. He used to joke about the ideal male height being “well over 5′ 8″. He was 5′ 10”. An inch shorter than my dad but in his cultural context he felt fine while my dad an inch taller felt
tinyundersized.Gretchen
@Martin: I once went to a management meeting about who is seen as having authority. They had everyone stand up. Then told the women to sit down. Then the men under 6 feet sit down, since tall men are seen as having more authority. It was hilarious the number of shorties who remained standing. I knew I they were eye level with my 5’6” self, but there they were in front of God and everybody claiming to be 6 feet tall with their whole chests.
My son in law was using dating apps before he met my daughter. He said women would say with surprise, on meeting him, hey, you really are taller than 6 feet tall. It seems it’s very common to match with someone who claims to be 6” and meet a 5’9”fellow.
I’ll believe that Miller is 5’10 and Trump is 6’3” when I see an independent measurement confirm it.
Gretchen
@Gretchen: That same tall son in law once stood back to back with his dad demanding that I assess who was the taller. Both pretty close to 6’3”, but it was still important to both that they be the taller.
Another tall friend found it hard to believe that my Italian husband and his brother really didn’t know exactly how tall they were, which was taller or care. How could you not care who’s taller?
I’m sure Bovino cares so I hope people start pointing out that he’s short.
Gretchen
@Gretchen: And if he says he’s 5’9” he
will turn out on meeting to be 5’6”.
Shalimar
@Matt McIrvin: He doesn’t have an armed force larger than that available to Illinois and the city of Chicago. He may think his huge security detail will protect him. If the judge decides to put him in jail, she will make sure they are outnumbered.
sab
At 5’5″ I always felt somewhat short but as a woman who cares? But US women are median 5’4″. Then I noticed that around my office if I disregarded the men I was actually taller than average. Disconcerting realization, but I am still at who cares.
Spouse spent most of his life at actual 6’2″ until with back injuries and spinal collapse he is well under six feet and always in pain. Lately we are almost eye to eye. Weird feeling for both of us. He should be the taller one.
Martin
@Jay: Yeah, I think this outrage is preemptive. What we know is that if we don’t take the Senate one of the important tools we have to stop this administration including the people who do really have Nazi tattoos and damn well know they are Nazi tattoos will be lost for another 2 years. There is no universe in which I think that Plattner will be more of a threat to the nations checks and balances than Collins is. Even if he’s a piece of shit, what’s most important is Democratic control of the senate. I’ll take every Manchin in the country in order to achieve that.
If the people of Maine pick Plattner, I’m not going to argue.
And if Democrats decide that anyone who shitposts is ineligible for public office, we’re never going to have a Democratic politician born after 1990. And my experience working with people, the only folks that would casually say ‘oh, this is my totenkopf’ are either people who are really proud to be Nazis, or don’t know what it is, or I guess are narcissists, and I suspect he’s the middle one. Maybe he’s just dumb – the legacy of dumb tattoos is probably as long as the legacy of not dumb ones. Everyone else would be self-conscious about it in some manner or another.
I’m not saying any of this is a great look, but considering how many Democrats we’re willing to give passes to that are still giving defense to Israel, we can clearly live with this. We can’t die on every hill. If Mills can beat Collins, elect Mills. If she can’t and Plattner can, elect Plattner. If neither can, elect a fucking labradoodle, so long as it promises to caucus with Democrats.
TheMightyTrowel
@sab: I moved from the US where I’m a tall woman to northwest Europe where I’m a relatively average height woman and then to australia where i’m a tall woman. Going from being tall to being average is really weird and a bit dysmorphia inducing.
ETA: the worst bit of being tall and female in australia is that i cannot find a single pair of trousers or long-sleeved anything that’s long enough. land of the short-limbed ladies! I buy all my clothes in the US or Europe or 2nd hand shops
Shalimar
@Martin: I am fine with Platner if that is who the people of Maine end up voting for. I just don’t understand why they would. Even if you set aside the nazi tattoo and the history of shit-posting, how is he qualified to be in the US Senate? He has never held a lower-level government job or elected position, and his private business is just a sinecure his rich mom gave him so he wouldn’t be bored and get in trouble. His only positive contribution to society was in the military
edit: I am extremely leery of people who decide to get into political office and start at the very top. Why didn’t he at least run for a local or state position first and hold that for a few years just to show he will actually do the work and can be effective? To me, the MyPillow asshole is more qualified. At least the business he has run involved far more employees. And the MyPillow asshole thinking he should start public service in the Senate is a joke.
Aussie Sheila
@TheMightyTrowel:
The average height of Australian women is less than 166 cms. I’m 3cm more than that and I have no problems buying clothes that fit.
Gretchen
@TheMightyTrowel: I’m surprised about this. I had a friend who served in Vietnam and he said that the Australians were all huge.
no body no name
@Martin:
Rule of six for men in blue areas. Six feet, six pack, six figures or you aren’t datable. If you are all this though you don’t have to settle down and get to bone a new woman a month and don’t settle down.
Them’s the rules now.
Aussie Sheila
@Gretchen:
They would have been young fit men. In the last 60 years the Australian population has undergone welcome and major ethnic change. I suspect that average heights may have diminished a little. My male rellies were all very tall, even those born more than a century ago. Today, everyone looks a little less tall.
But who cares? It’s a nothing burger.
Tony Jay
no body no name
@Aussie Sheila:
As a dude that clears six feet, with abs, and with a six figure income I can tell you how the world, especially women, treats you changes like magic.
The dating dynamic is completely different. You get the pick of the litter and you get to one night stand like crazy. Especially if you have liberal social values.
Looks and income are really all that matter in that game.
Aussie Sheila
@no body no name:
Oh dear! I’m so sorry. What a terrible life you must have. You need to get different friends or a different mindset. Either way would be better for your mental and emotional health.
Baud
Isn’t this the natural outcome of vibes based online culture? The more outlandish the better.
Gretchen
@no body no name: Delusional. That’s what undateable men tell themselves, while not trying to explain how the short, chubby, sweet , thoughtful fellow who is good with kids and knows how to cook the occasional meal has a nice wife and family! How can that be? My abs! My income!
Really, women want a nice partner who will share the load and be pleasant. Guy who thinks he’s giving you a gift to be with you isn’t a prize.
Gretchen
@Aussie Sheila: Has Australia lost its mind over the ethnic changes as much as the US? Because some folks here seem to think that it is an existential crisis that things are changing. There are some in my suburb who are nostalgic about the early days. You mean when there were covenants that prohibited selling your house to Black or Jewish people? Those are the good old days that you want to go back to ?
Gretchen
@no body no name: Sure you do, hon. I assure you that the kind of women worth dating aren’t lining up to date someone who wants to “bone” them. Sorry you’re alone with your caviar and champagne again tonight. Maybe work on seeing women as people and your luck may change
daveNYC
I’m glad that the judge gave him a good talking to, but these guys won’t stop until you force them to stop; and I don’t think the judiciary wants to push too hard there because they’re scared what will happen if they’re ignored.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@daveNYC: Sooner or later, probably sooner, a judge is going to take the option of ordering bailiffs to put him in cuffs and take him to a cell, and if anybody tries to interfere with officers of the court obeying a judge’s direct orders, well, to quote Gregor Vorbarra, “let’s see what happens.”
TS
@TheMightyTrowel:
You need to be a larger size in Australia to get long legged pants. I am 5’4″ which in current times is relatively short, but when I was relatively wide any clothes that were my size were way too long. Now I can fit size 10/12 the length is just right for my height.
Aussie Sheila
@Gretchen:
Some are trying to make people lose their mind. But after the drubbing the Right wing parties got in the May federal election, it looks like such a tactic is a loser. 90% of the electorate or close to it live in urban areas within 60ks of the coast. The ‘verandah’ as we call it. Just over 50% of households have someone of non English speaking background living there.
The anti immigrant rants of right wing cookers here have little electoral sway.
There are big problems that the current federal govt must address. Immigration as a synecdoche for housing shortages may get some traction in some places unless there is appreciable efforts to relieve the affordable housing issue.
Fortunately anyone with a political brain understands this.
frosty
@no body no name: It’s the $$ that matters first. I have a shortish friend with no abs, brown, but with a big salary in the 70s. Me? Shorter, white, good job, average pay, terrible time dating.
It didn’t get better until I left SoCal and moved back East.
On second thought, height was a big deal too. I wouldn’t get a single swipe these days.
frosty
@Martin: Miller is 1” taller than average. Taller than most US women. He isn’t short. Fuck him.
rikyrah
He needs to be IN JAIL. PERIOD😠😠
WTFGhost
@YY_Sima Qian: To be brutal, I’m not surprised. Masked cops were rolled out to “protect federal property” during BLM protests. No one ever suffered the appropriate consequences for that, so, there’s no surprise that similar, worse, things happened. Me, I was expecting the Biden DOJ to forcibly retire anyone who agreed to be so involved. Apparently, Sam Vimes has a stronger sense of executive branch/”copper” ethics than the US DOJ.
@Ishiyama: Absolutely! Bailiffs in the court are not at all under the control of the executive, and they know that they can take an armed cop, who wants to fight them, into custody. A judge, and a bailiff, expect the rule of law to be followed. It would be completely unprecedented for cops to resist the jailing of a cop, pursuant to a judge’s orders. That said, Trump is exactly the kind of lawless hemorrhoid who would break that precedent.
I’m not a Platner hater, but, every time I hear of him, he sounds like a Republican, who thought about how cool it would be to win as a Democrat, then switch parties.
If he was a true progressive, he would be speaking about how glad he is that someone explained this totenkopf was a Nazi symbol, so he could take it off with an effing cheese grater, if necessary. He’d feel sick, and horrified, and calling up the friends who didn’t tell him it was horrible. Because that’s what non-Nazis do, when they realize they look or sound like Nazis. I mean, I know Elon Musk has his excuse, “see, I didn’t really do a Nazi salute, I just made it look like I did!” but god damn, man, “you just looked like a Nazi!” makes non-Nazis want to hurl.
I truly don’t buy his relaxed attitude toward the tat, and his “oh, but I’ve changed!” doesn’t fit with the claimed lack of knowledge.
I’ll give you one thing: I might have an oversensitive bully/Nazi detector (the two are roughly the same…), but, too much seems off. As (Gretchen?) above suggested, I’d like Platner to grow as an ally for a good while before I’d trust him with a Senate seat… but, as you say, if he won the primary, he’s the only D we have a chance with.
rikyrah
@Martin:
Blackwater and a Nazi Tattoo
In addition to his Reddit postings
And how he got funding for his business😒😒
Plus, he is already shytting on Democrats.
He is another Fetterman.😒 We see how that has turned out.
Mills has won statewide office before. He has not. He is another phucking plant. Why this isn’t obvious is beyond me.
Baud
Baud
Both sides depioy the national guard!
MagdaInBlack
@Baud: JFC, that asshole again.
Baud
@MagdaInBlack:
Evergreen comment.
satby
@Martin: oh, let me help you out here: Planter is most likely a narcissist with rightwing leanings. He’s lying about his ignorance of the tattoo meaning, and he’s a stalking horse to split an anti-Collins vote. If he gets in, he won’t be a Manchin, he’ll be worse. What he says doesn’t matter, talk is cheap.
But it’s up to the people of Maine to figure out.
satby
@TheMightyTrowel: I clearly need to move there.
Gloria DryGarden
@Baud: that is beautiful. This is our national guard, as they’re meant to be.
satby
@Baud: I think “vibes” is a permission structure for people to ignore inconvenient things like “facts” and “laws” and IMHO we need to stop feeding into that as if it’s legitimate.
Baud
@satby:
Like fascism, it doesn’t have to be legitimate to be prevalent.
p.a
All this lookism about relationships! My gf’s 1st ex-hubby was an abuser, her 2nd an alcoholic. I’m a keeper: low bars are the keys to success! 😉
But then, given her past choices, maybe I should do a little more self-reflection.
satby
@Baud: true. But we don’t need to feed it or buy into it. When we do, it leads to multi paragraph analyses on why people do whatever tf they do, almost all of which ignores Occam’s razor.
lowtechcyclist
@sab:
That’s so weird. I’m somewhere between 5’9″ and 5’10”, which is about average for a guy, and during my adult life I can’t say I’ve ever thought much about my height, let alone been the least bit self-conscious about it. Practically the only time and place it comes into play is at home, where my wife occasionally asks me to get something for her off the top shelf. Other than that, I never think about it.
Gloria DryGarden
@Gretchen: I’m reminded of a Trevor Noah skit, where he says with men, you can only have two out of three things.
1. “dick”/ good sex, 2 got their shit together, (I’m trying to quote him from memory)
and the third thing I vaguely recall was something about emotional availability/ communication skills.
It wasn’t over 6 feet, or 6 figures, or athletic build…
Lacuna Synecdoche
CNN via Anne Laurie @ Top:
Exactly — You shouldn’t be there.
Professor Bigfoot
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: “Everybody wants his throne, but nobody wants his DESK!”
Thanks for the reminder, I need to go check on Miles and is (not really an) idiot cousin Ivan again.
Gloria DryGarden
@lowtechcyclist: my first long-term partner was an inch or two shorter than me. Perhaps he was 5’7”, slightly short for a man. He was caring, thoughtful, smart, present, and to me he was beautiful. Is it nice to be with someone a little taller? Maybe. But it’s not the essential thing. Not. At. all.
lowtechcyclist
@Lacuna Synecdoche:
Did the CNN interviewer ask him what the mission was, and what local officials thought of it?
I’m guessing not. Mainstream media was pretty useless even before they all bent the knee this year.
lowtechcyclist
@Gloria DryGarden:
Back when I was single, if my height ever made any difference one way or the other, I was totally oblivious to it. OTOH, treating a woman like she matters just as much as you do is always a winner.
Gloria DryGarden
Jamaica pretty hard hit, they hope to open he airport by Thursday for emergency flights and supplies to come in. The pix look pretty bad.
Melissa is in Cuba now. Prayers.
Gloria DryGarden
@lowtechcyclist: yes.
As if both parties are human beings of equal value, worth caring about. A meeting, of people capable of partnering.
eta why does the comment box sometimes forget who I am and make me reenter my nym and email? Is it the word press site, or my device? It was working fine a few minutes ago, it’s just these last two comments. Maybe I’m supposed to shush now.
Deputinize America
In a better universe, he’d be struck in the head by one of the NRA’s anti-tyranny projectiles as a lesson to others, particularly Miller.
Kosh III
In a quoted text: “regardless of whether local officials want them there — first in Los Angeles, now in Chicago,
And in Memphis where they are also unwanted.
Kosh III
tennesseelookout.com/2025/10/24/democracy-forward-represents-shelby-county-mayor-in-national-guard-l…
Kosh III
It would be nice if the media and national D orgs stopped obsessing over someone like Platner; instead someone like aftynforcongress.com/ Aftyn Behn, a D state rep with a good track record. She is fighting an uphill battle in a highly gerrymandered district.
Paul in KY
@Karen Gail: Sorta reminds me of the Strell character from Hunger Games.
Paul in KY
@sab: I’m sorry to hear your husband has those physical difficulties and pain. Hope he can get some good pain relief.
Omnes Omnibus
Nope.
Deputinize America
@sab:
5-11 here, and I’ve never had a problem.
Miss Bianca
@Shalimar: I am currently in a discussion group focused on the Founders’ Constitution and our other US foundational documents, and one thing that came up in discussion this week was the root of the word “Senate”. (Because we were talking about “why is there a bicameral Legislature, anyway?”) If you go back far enough, the root is “Senex”, which literally means “old man”.
In other words, the Founders saw the Senate as a Council of Elders, presumably not only older but wiser than the general run of the politicos that would be elected to the House. (Because at the time, of course, Senators were supposed to be appointed by their state legislatures.)
So, this idea that Mills, for example, is “too old” to be in the Senate? Kinda BS, really.
I think the Founders would be rightly appalled and amazed by a lot of things 250 years later, but one of them would probably be the notion that a guy like Platner was a candidate to be a Senator. Not old enough, not wise enough, no relevant experience.
Hamlet of Melnibone
@lowtechcyclist: Yup. I’m 5’9″ and I’ve never thought much about my height either way.
I certainly never thought of it as a major obstacle to dating.
Omnes Omnibus
@Hamlet of Melnibone: FWIW those us in the 5’9”-5’11 probably have never been disadvantaged by our height nor have we been greatly helped by it, so it goes unremarked.
Matt
CBP’s entire staff should be liquidated when this is over, along with their families. Enough is enough.
wjca
One thing you learn, if you are much over 6′ tall: the world is designed for short people. Getting into most cars is an exercise in contortion. Whether it’s car seats or seats anywhere else, your knees are going to be grinding into the dash or the back of the seat in front of you. And if you are visiting any pre-1900 building, and especially any pre-1800 one, give serious thought to a hat with padding over the forehead. (Laying open your forehead on the low lintel over a door is no fun at all. Ask me how I know. )
Sure, it is sometimes handy to be able to reach a high shelf — but that’s what stools/ladders are for. Average height women are familiar with them; no reason why you can’t embrace the same solution.
wjca
If you want to eliminate all those hired since Jan 20 this year, that’s probably reasonable. But, at least in my experience, the folks working customs any time in the decades before that, were generally reasonable people. Nothing like the thugs hired recently.
opiejeanne
Yaxley, from the Deathly Hallows movie.
Another Scott
@Martin: +1
It’s still very early. Maine Democrats have lots of time to pick a good candidate that can (fingers crossed) beat Collins.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Kayla Rudbek
@wjca: and if you’re under 5 feet, the world is also not designed for you either (the default that engineers, architects, builders etc use is the 5’10” male body)
SteverinoCT
Late to the convo, but I found that at 5’11.5″ give-or-take 0.5″, I was the max design height for a US submarine. The bunks are about 6’6″ long, my station on a 688 was directly under some piping with bare clearance, and so on. Aft in the machinery spaces it’s worse. FWIW I have always considered myself to be tall, and of course I round my height to 6′ even (doesn’t really help my BMI, alas).
Paul in KY
@SteverinoCT: Gotta tip my hat to anyone who voluntarily gets in one of those things. Think you and our other submariners are badass (with a side helping of crazy).