The International Space Station is marking 25 years of nonstop human presence in orbit. Nearly 300 people have lived aboard the scientific outpost.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) October 30, 2025 at 1:00 PM
===
You don't hear so much anymore that Democrats should have demanded more, or different things, because the Democratic messaging ("Americans need affordable Healthcare") is good and genuine and working, despite GOP and media efforts against it.
— ike, son of mike (@i-bresnick.bsky.social) October 30, 2025 at 3:19 PM
===
NEW: "If this all sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because it is. Republicans have been trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act law since the day former President Barack Obama signed it….But every single time, the conversation leads to the same place: What do Republicans propose to do instead?"
— Adam Keiper (@adamkeiper.com) October 28, 2025 at 8:31 PM
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Everyone who claimed Dems would cave to prevent a shutdown OR that they’d cave shortly after that to keep the shutdown brief OR that they were stupid to make the ACA tax credits the flagship issue can apologize any minute now.
— Charles Ghoul-ba ?? (@charlesgaba.com) October 28, 2025 at 11:23 PM
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For the third time this week, the Senate passed my legislation to reject Trump’s senseless tariffs that raise costs for consumers, create chaos for businesses, and weaken our economy. Now it’s the House’s turn to undo the biggest tax increase in a generation.
— Senator Tim Kaine (@kaine.senate.gov) October 30, 2025 at 4:09 PM
The problem with Politico laundering republican talking points is that it makes it easy for Dems to get their dunks in.
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) October 30, 2025 at 2:07 PM
===
Here Trump takes his entire theory of governance to its logical conclusion by demanding Democrats improve the parts of government he keeps trying to destroy
— Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST (@chathamharrison.bsky.social) October 30, 2025 at 9:13 PM
===
Immediately, six months, next quarter, next year.
lmao— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) October 30, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Believe me, this shit while the president is building ballrooms and giving 40b to Argentina does break through.
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) October 30, 2025 at 11:40 AM
On The Road – ema – Under the Boardwalk
Baud
Only Democrats get to say that!
MagdaInBlack
These fkn assholes, again.
lataco.com/federal-immigration-agents-halloween-masks
p.a
Harry Truman and the Do-Nothing Congress.
Rusty
I will confess that I thought the Dems weren’t asking for enough when they focused on healthcare costs, but it has turned out to be the perfect issue. One item, easy to understand, fundamental so hard for the Reps to dismiss, the cost changes dramatic enough that it matters. The SNAP benefits have become a good supplemental issue, made bigger by the Republicans themselves refusing to use the emergency fund to continue them. Together they show the utter heartlessness of the conservatives.
brendancalling
I was a naysayer at first, but saw pretty quickly how this would tie the GOP in knots.
I think it IS breaking through. At least one of the two brothers next door voted for Trump—he’s legally blind and depends on transit and other benefits—but we are still sociable and chat over the fence. Last night, my new school came up, and I was saying how it was good, and that I had only seen one fight so far, and even that was justified. The fight, I said, was caused by a ninth grader talking shit about someone’s mom who had died, and someone’s older brother who is also on the football team showed up to tell the kid what’s what with his fists. Both of them were like “you never know what’s going on in another person’s life, walk a mile, etc.”
I think their rate hikes may have hit. Or maybe the threats to transit. Not saying they’re democrats or even liberals—but that’s new.
Suzanne
@Rusty:
Yes. Good messaging! Well timed!
Everyone knows their budgets.
zhena gogolia
Too bad it didn’t break through before Nov. 2024, since it was crystal clear what was going to happen — to anyone who was paying attention, that is.
p.a
How foolish of us to think a threat to 200+ years of constitutional government* would resonate.🤔
*as always with the implied “for most white people” caveat.
JWR
This sounds interesting, perhaps another avenue of defense:
Their website is DEFIANCE.ORG ( defiance.org/ )
YY_Sima Qian
Wow, I guess reset of the Sino-Canadian relations really is happening:
While Trump flew into SK just to get a golden crown from Lee & have a quick chat w/ Xi, & blew off the actual APEC summit, Xi is looking to cement ties with/ the rest of the world.
Considering how badly the Sino-Canadian relations have become since Canada detained the Miss Meng Wanzhou (CFO of Huawei & daughter of the founder) while transiting Vancouver in 2018, & some of Carney’s comments wrt the PRC early on, I am a bit surprised by the speed of the reset now.
If Canada really drops the 100% tariff on Chinese EVs, that is a major pivot, given how integrated (& thus exposed) Canada is to the US auto industry. It would tantamount to a declaration of willingness to decouple from the US auto industry. If Canada drops the tariffs on Chinese EVs, there would be no reason for Mexico to impose them, as Sheinbaum had threatened to do a year from now.
lowtechcyclist
1) We can’t do jack shit if the House isn’t in session. That’s on your man, Squeaker Johnson.
2) Even then, we’re in the minority in both houses of Congress. Can’t do jack shit without some GOP votes, and even then House and Senate leadership would have to step out of the way and let the votes happen. Wake me up when they’re ready to do that.
3) There’s a Republican in the White House – You!!! – that the Seditious Six has given nearly unlimited power to. Why don’t YOU do something, you flatulent orange turd??
Oh that’s right, you would’ve had no idea what to do about any of this even before dementia set in. You’re a total dummy about this shit, and you have hired a clown show of a Cabinet with people even dumber than you are. Not sure how people capable of feeding themselves can limbo under that bar, but here we are.
David_C
Yale has had some of their history courses on line. This year, the class (DeVane Lecture) is “America at 250.” Features Joanne Freeman and David Blight and I’d well worth the watch. There’s also an accompanying podcast.
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh9mgdi4rNezTQrY_6XMNBWaZqLRdgpoq&si=3FoOTRpy2oN-cwMZ
Suzanne
@p.a:
Half of the country lacks basic pattern recognition and doesn’t comprehend object permanence.
I remember having a debate with an ex-boyfriend about the Second Amendment. I stopped debating once it became clear that he had never actually read it. I think about that a lot. It explains a distressing amount.
(I was, like, 26 at the time and I broke up with him.)
MagdaInBlack
@JWR: Miles Taylor is the guy who wrote the “anonymous” letter to the NYT, way back when. I’m kinda iffy of his involvement in anything, because:
From Wiki:
In July 2022, Taylor merged his organization—Renew America Movement—with several others to launch a new political party in the United States, alongside former nationally known Democrats, Independents, and Republicans.[90] In announcing the new Forward Party, Taylor told Reuters: “The fundamentals have changed. When other third party movements have emerged in the past it’s largely been inside a system where the American people aren’t asking for an alternative. The difference here is we are seeing an historic number of Americans saying they want one.”[90]
MagdaInBlack
@lowtechcyclist: Trump admin = DEI for Dummies
lowtechcyclist
@YY_Sima Qian:
If Canada drops the tariff on Chinese EVs, will Americans be able to buy Chinese EVs in Canada and drive them back into the US? From what I hear, Chinese EVs are both good and inexpensive.
David_C
And here in furloughland, we just got news that the 33-year old mastermind behind the HHS RIFs was just sent to the Office of Naval Research. The cuts were done so poorly, and the furlough RIFs that Vought wanted didn’t happen. Maybe making a stink and pushing back was helpful.
politico.com/news/2025/10/30/doge-holdover-who-pushed-for-deep-cuts-at-hhs-is-headed-to-the-navy-006…
Princess
@lowtechcyclist: I imagine the US tariff will remain in force no matter where the car is shipped from. But I doubt the Canadian tariff will go — I suspect this is leverage against Trump.
montanareddog
Murdoch’s British rag – headline on the strife in the House of Windsor
Deputinize America
@lowtechcyclist:
They’re great looking cars – I see them all over Africa, and they’re getting EU penetration.
Deputinize America
@montanareddog:
Too little, too late. This is entirely on Her Nibs, useless, entitled hag that she was.
lowtechcyclist
@Rusty:
Same confession here – thought we needed more, bigger asks. But this really has been perfect. Kudos to Schumer and Jeffries!
It sure does. And that needs to be an overarching Dem message as time goes along – that the GOP doesn’t give a damn about you, and no matter how bad things get for you, they won’t lift a finger to help you unless it’s at gunpoint, and even then they might choose to take the bullet.
The cruelty really IS the point.
Suzanne
I just want to note: my dog is so damn adorable. She looks and behaves like a teddy bear. I just told her, “You’re so cute. You’ve got that going for you, which is nice.”
Geminid
Tim Kaine may not deliver the thunderous tomahawk dunks that make the crowds roar, but he has an accurate midrange jumpshot. And two points are two points.
WTFGhost
The Philly scrapper in me loves to think of Republicans opening up a great, big, gut-wound in possibility, so those who feel shot-in-the-gut blame them. The human being in me hates them. People will die, as a direct result of Republicans wanting to hurt them. Democrats should, but can’t, say much about this, because common folk don’t want to think of murderous elected officials.
wjca
Canada has had a ringside seat to the US displacing China as
athe “disruptive global power.”JWR
@MagdaInBlack: Yeah, Miles Taylor, I remembered Mr. Anonymous.. But hey, you never know. Maybe his centrist, “I’m still a Republican”, skills can work for us. I’ll follow them around for awhile to see what they’re up to.
eclare
@montanareddog:
That’s good.
EarthWindFire
Time for that concept of a plan to kick in, Donny. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!
MagdaInBlack
@JWR: Heard him yesterday morning on my progressive radio station. I’m not opposed, I’m just “iffy.”
Glad they’re on our side tho.
p.s. the “Justice” Dept has gone after him too.
YY_Sima Qian
@lowtechcyclist: I believe the Biden Administration banned any passenger vehicles that contains Chinese origin software for cockpit control & assisted driving from US roads, which all Chinese marque cars do (indeed the software is one of their major advantages over American/European/Japanese marques). So, not sure how that will work. I think Mexicans who have bought Chinese marque passenger vehicles are able to drive them into the US, but I am pretty sure you won’t be able to purchase a Chinese EV in Canada/Mexico and import it to the US.
I tend to agree that this is building leverage vis-a-vis Trump, & Trump can escalate a lot further w/ Canada to punish such a move. Then again, Trump himself has spoken on several occasions (including after the meeting with/ Xi) about welcoming investment from Chinese automakers into the US (which would then percolate through the pan-USMCA zone), so who knows.
MagdaInBlack
@YY_Sima Qian: I have seen some whispers of Canada about to make a major break with the U.S.
Internet whispers, but interesting, now that this has happened.
Betty Cracker
@montanareddog: Interesting that consequences for the Epstein scandal so far have been visited on rich, entitled British shitheads (Andrew and the diplomat who was recently fired) while American elites who are equally guilty are untouched so far.
snoey
@lowtechcyclist: You can only import cars that are clones of models already sold in the US – once had a Civic with the speedo in kilometers – or 25 years old.
YY_Sima Qian
@YY_Sima Qian: It was dumb for Trudeau to synchronize tariffs on Chinese EVs w/ Biden. Mexico didn’t.
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker: The consequences so far for Andrew involve moving to a new home on the Sandringham estate, and the King will support him financially. My heart, it bleeds.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
rikyrah
@Suzanne:
🤗🤗🤗🤗🥰🥰
MagdaInBlack
@Suzanne: He’ll have to get all new calling/business cards. And stationary. It’ll be brutal.
rikyrah
@Rusty:
That this is Enrollment period for millions of people, and those bills are there in black and white..
The numbers are the numbers
suzanne
@MagdaInBlack: I kinda understood why the Brits retained the monarchy while Liz was alive. But now, it’s, like, incomprehensible to me. What a bunch of tossers. They’re all so bad.
Lyrebird
@p.a: Sad but true, apparently!
Main point of my comment is just to thank you for posting the Mother Jones link the other day. I found the authors’ view of higher ed to be a bit naive at times, but the article is definitely pointing out critical issues going on now, and this relates to my line of work. I was too late to say thanks yesterday.
TONYG
@zhena gogolia: Yes. What the Trump administration has been doing since January was pretty much laid out in detail in “Project 2025”. One of the many (almost certainly deliberate) failures of the corporate media was their failure to communicate, day after day last year, in simple English, the worst aspects of “Project 2025”. It was almost as though the corporate media wanted Trump to win.
Matt McIrvin
@Rusty: I’m still fretting a bit about the comment in another thread from someone who overheard some Democratic voters who basically had the healthcare part reversed, and thought the premium rises were happening because the Democrats wouldn’t back down (in other words, the line Trump was just trying to sell).
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Marcy Wheeler has an article up on Talking Points Memo on how pro Trump online trolls have been distracting people and driving the media narrative using social media since the 2016 election cycle and why the Epstein files issue was the first time it failed for Trump.talkingpointsmemo.com/tpm-25/without-online-trolls-there-would-be-no-donald-trump
It’s depressing people are are so easily distracted but it’s something we have to find countermeasures for. It’s pretty obvious that it still works, drives vibes, enables one disaster to distract from the last or, as happened in the last election, generate negative narratives around the economy or and Biden’s age that gain widespread traction. I mean reality, when it gets bad enough may still hold sway but it’s a constant headwind for Democrats and it would be nice to have a few cycles of at least dead calm or even the wind at our backs. IDK what countermeasures would be effective other than our own savvy army of online trolls but it’s a major reason nothing seems to stick to Trump and even when it does people still find reasons to support him anyway.
Shalimar
@montanareddog: The first time I ever heard of Prince Andrew was in 1981-82 when they were calling him “Randy Andy” for dating Koo Stark, and the big scandal was that she had appeared naked in several movies. In retrospect, the scandal should have been that she had the body of a 13-year-old girl. I don’t recall anyone mentioning that at the time. She was not developed at all.
New Deal democrat
Per CNBC, T—p has called for the Senate to eliminate the filibuster:
cnbc.com/2025/10/31/trump-calls-for-us-senate-to-scrap-filibuster-rule.html
““It is now time for the Republicans to play their “TRUMP CARD,” and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW.”
While this would enshrine the healthcare premium support cuts, it would put the blame exclusively on the GOP, and enable a future Democratic majority to pass its agenda (SCOTUS permitting /s).
brendancalling
@Deputinize America: True enough, but that headline is hilarious. It would be even more hilarious is her Nibs was alive to read it!
Matt McIrvin
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: The right has an army of online trolls who attack Democrats, and the left has an army of online trolls who attack Democrats. Marcy Wheeler has her hands full on Bluesky dealing with camp 2.
Shalimar
@Matt McIrvin: Trump still has 31% approval on healthcare. Most of those are not people who want higher premiums. They are people who think Democrats are the ones causing the higher premiums. There will always be a certain percentage of idiots who can’t even see basic reality.
Matt McIrvin
@New Deal democrat:
SCOTUS, hell–I’m expecting a post-filibuster Republican Congress to outlaw the Democratic Party and have all the Dems arrested.
But the only way out is through, at this point. A constitutional order perpetually paralyzed by Senate minority obstructionism is a broken one.
Shalimar
@New Deal democrat: There are enough Democratic traditionalists who will never eliminate it that Republicans doing it now is basically our only hope. Democrats are not getting to 60 votes again in the foreseeable future. We need to be able to legislate with 50 the next time there is a Democratic president.
Spanky
Meanwhile, the Shutdown, she has consequences:
And Maryland is already short about $3B in our budget.
They Call Me Noni
@David_C: This is fabulous! Been looking for something new to listen to when I walk or am doing grunt work around the house. Thank you.
jonas
Reminds me of the quip attributed to Adlai Stevenson when a woman told him: “Every thinking person in America is behind you!” “Well, ma’am,” he said, “that’s very kind, but I need a majority.”
For too long, too many Americans have assumed one of their birthrights is not to have to pay attention to anything but sportsball. So here we are.
mappy!
One of the small ironies here is that the funding that Reds want to cut and are cutting is money that would go to Red businesses. Like, where does that ObamaCare money go? Where does the Snap money go?
Suzanne
@Shalimar:
That puts him in company with probably 40% of men at the time. Maybe now, Who knows,
“I always get it up from the touch of the younger kind” is a lyric in a hit song from around that time, and did anyone think anything of it? The real Sharona was 17.
satby
@Spanky: Pritzker signed a similar order yesterday, for $20 million. I believe all the Democratic governors are doing it as much as their states are able.
Really, it is two different countries depending on where you live.
Princess
@MagdaInBlack: I’m skeptical. I don’t think Canada can afford to initiate a break. But Canada and Mexico see the end to free trade with the US and they need new partners. There’s safety (relative) in numbers.
satby
By Charles P. Pierce
Princess
@suzanne: Constitutional monarchies are at the top of the list of the most stable democracies in the world. The US is way down. I’m not seeing the attraction in getting rid of the king.
Betty Cracker
@New Deal democrat: It might be for the best if Trump bullies the GOP senate into nuking the filibuster. There will be awful consequences, but that’ll be true regardless, and if we ever get a Dem trifecta, we’ll need to enact reforms on a simple majority or ultimately all will be lost. The current arrangement is untenable.
Dorothy A. Winsor
The timing of this shutdown made healthcare premiums a good issue because those notices of increases were on the near horizon.
Suzanne
@Princess:
I mean, maybe it’s just my values, but I think there’s value in not maintaining a rigid, hereditary, class-based hierarchy as a cultural touchstone. And that’s even before this repulsive behavior from Andrew. Obvs YMMV.
Geminid
Podcast fans may be interested in an interview with Rep. Jasmine Crockett, part of Dasha Burns’ series “The Conversation.” It was posted this morning and titled, “In new interview, the Texas Democrat gets candid about Democratic messaging and her role in the party.”
Politico Magazine put up excerpts under the title, “Jasmine Crockett on Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Her Own Party’s Struggles.”
Trivia Man
@Princess: Could it eat into the market of canadians buying USA vehicles? Much smaller market but not 0.
Suzanne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Yes. This is smart “arts and crafts” of politics. It’s turning a situation to one’s advantage.
They Call Me Noni
MTG is going to be on The View this coming Tuesday. I’m not a morning tv watcher, but might have to give it a look see.
rikyrah
@Shalimar:
31% is only 4 points above the crazyfication factor. That’s pretty damn good to me. I don’t expect any GOP to go below the crazyfication factor
mapanghimagsik
@Matt McIrvin:
I see it on Mastadon a lot, and I call it out as just more Republican talking points.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Matt McIrvin: I wouldn’t be surprised if this left wing trolls she’s dealing with are these same guys. They definitely went after the Berniebros in 2016 and saw them as persuadable and are in fact convinced they persuaded some to switch sides.
Trivia Man
@Matt McIrvin: And i suspect those 2 armies have a suspiciously large overlap in members. And funding.
YY_Sima Qian
WTF?:
brendancalling
@WTFGhost: Also in Philly, and just wanted to restate what I wrote yesterday. Those cuts are gonna hurt Philly, but we have something the rural areas don’t have: population density.
We have churches, large family networks, neighbors who can’t help but look out for each other because our houses are squished together, human services nonprofits. Will it be hard and sucky? Absolutely. I’m not thrilled about spending a chunk of my biweekly budget on granola bars and other healthy snacks for kids who would otherwise go without, but fuck it: my colleagues are doing the same. I wouldn’t be surprised if our school sponsors a food drive (I know the churches are doing so). Our sports teams have always stepped up when necessary: last year, my old school got a shit-ton of winter coats thanks to the Eagles. No way are they gonna let their fans go hungry.
Out in the sticks, where Trump is king? They have SOME of those resources, but nowhere near as many.
I think Philly will be OK. And as for the Trump counties, I don’t think much of them at all. But bless their hearts, I wish them luck.
geg6
@Deputinize America:
Can’t disagree with that. I pretty much stayed off BJ when she died because there are quite a few too many monarchists here who I knew would be mourning and I, personally, didn’t want to hear it. She was garbage, her whole family is nothing but heterotrophs. Except Harry. He got out while the getting was good. Good for him.
brendancalling
@New Deal democrat: I’ve been tormenting Dave McCormick’s office for weeks, alternating between “you cruel bastard, why do you hate children,” to “you don’t need to do this, I’ve seen your background and you know better, you ARE better, than this,” and “I thought you were a big brave Airborne Ranger from the 82nd– since when are soldiers little cowards who are scared of elderly old men who can’t run for another term?”
My email today started with “Now that your Daddy, President Trump, says you can nuke the filibuster you don’t have to be scared anymore. Are you going to disobey Daddy?”
I’m sure they love me even more than Rick Santorum’s office loved me.
lowtechcyclist
@Suzanne:
Or Tull’s “Cross-Eyed Mary,” or jokes about Polanski’s next movie being “Close Encounters with the Third Grade,” etc. My recollection is that people in general didn’t take sexual abuse of even the youngest children seriously until the McMartin preschool scandal (which was 1983ish, IIRC, a few years after “My Sharona” was a hit). Which if I remember correctly, itself turned out to be a Satanic-panic invention, with dire consequences for the innocent people running that facility. Nonetheless, that seems to have been the turning point. But it still took years for our society to get to the point of largely agreeing that post-pubescent girls under 18 weren’t fair game for adult men. (I’m sure having a popular culture dominated by the views of men had a lot to do with that.)
geg6
@satby:
Shapiro did, too.
Deputinize America
@Spanky:
GOP Motto:
”For those with everything, everything. For those with nothing, the lash.”
Soprano2
@New Deal democrat: I saw that. I get so tired of the press acting like only Democrats have agency in this situation, maybe this will get them talking about what Republicans could do to break the logjam. I don’t know why the subject after FFOTUS posted “Democrats do something” wasn’t to wonder why he wasn’t demanding the members of his own party “Do something!”.
Deputinize America
@lowtechcyclist:
A quibble – “Cross-Eyed Mary” was Ian Anderson at his satirically critical best. He wasn’t glorifying her or the culture represented by her or her clientele.
Eyeroller
@Lyrebird: I didn’t see that so I suppose I should look for it, but every time I’ve read an article in the popular press about higher education, I get a strong sense of “Gell-Mann amnesia,” where articles on things I know well are wrong but if I don’t know much I’ll assume it’s all correct.
A lot of the issues with higher administration are due to pressure from Boards of Regents (or whatever they are locally called), wealthy donors, or, in the case of state-supported universities, politicians. Especially in red states, university presidents are often nonacademics appointed for their political loyalties (former policitians, military, etc). So they don’t require “persuading.” In other cases it’s difficult to impossible for universities to be independent of the Boards. Administors don’t really have the ability to go against them. And there is plenty of “”obeying in advance.”
Eolirin
@Eyeroller: Yet more reason why we can replace them all with AI without much loss. (This is not a good thing)
Deputinize America
@Suzanne:
For years, I’ve seen comments about the draw that the monarchy has in bolstering tourism in the UK, but I just don’t see it benefitting anyone but “the men in gray suits” (the generational courtiers and royal advisors that have always propped up the rotten edifice just for proximity to the throne). I mean, I love cool castles and cathedrals all over Europe, and their monarchs are gone – the absence of a living inherited hierarchy doesn’t make them any less cool.
Soprano2
@geg6: I learned a new word today. I had never seen the word “heterotroph” before.
Soprano2
@lowtechcyclist: There’s a song, can’t think of the name of it, where the man sings about how people “just don’t understand” their relationship, and he wants to pick her up and fly away. It’s pretty obvious it’s about an adult man with a teenage girl. I get the creeps now every time I hear it. Once you start noticing, there are a substantial number of older songs with this type of theme. And don’t even get me started on “Tonight’s the Night”, I’ve always hated that song.
narya
@rikyrah: I think about the crazification factor a LOT. The person who came up with it kind of did it on the fly, IIRC, in the context of a discussion (I wish I could remember the details/who it was), and I remember thinking it was as good an analysis as anything I’d seen.
Shalimar
@Deputinize America: I think the argument is that having a head of government without political power makes it less likely that a prime minister will try to take over the state like Trump has done in the US. There are many historical refutations of that, starting with Shogunate Japan.
prostratedragon
It’s Halloween!
“The Raven of the Republic,” David Shuster
Spanky
@narya: It was John Rogers back when he wrote the Kung Fu Monkey blog, and I think he kind of blew it off when folks started noticing the 27% number popping up a lot in surveys. I think it really represents some boundary, but I have no clue how one would chase that down
ETA: Here’s the actual post, still on the intertubes.
Eyeroller
@Matt McIrvin: The Chief’s wife’s friends’ (got that?) concern over SNAP was completely understandable, but getting the healthcare premiums issue so wrong was bizarre and concerning.
This may or may not be related, but I occasionally check NYT Pitchbot on BlueSky and he re-?skeeted? a thread from somebody who was hyping an e-book or something about “What Republicans Get Right.” The argument was one we’ve seen here. Democrats raise plenty of money but spend nearly all of it on TV ads. Republicans built an infrastructure. That commenter said that this is because Democratic consultants drive the spending and presumably they do this because the “data” say that’s what they should do–which the commenter compared to Robert McNamara cutting R&D at Ford to the bone. Meanwhile Republicans built up institutions, hired influencers before that was a job description, and so on.
I remember the late Steve Gilliard complaining about the lack of funding for young activists among liberal and Democratic groups years ago. This is a longstanding issue.
If we had better infrastructure we might be able to deal with media better.
FWIW I’ve also head that Democratic consultants skim fat commissions off media buys, so their motivations may not just be based on “data.”
Jeffro
“well…what’s YOUR plan?” is a pretty good question for any D to ask of any R
Eyeroller
@narya: It’s amazing how accurate it is (in reality +- a few points).
Also, in the case of healthcare premiums, we need to remember that a good chunk of the population, especially the better off, are not seeing huge increases in their employer-provided plans. My premiums went up about $25 a month.
David_C
@They Call Me Noni: You’re welcome! I had burned through the Freeman and Blight courses on the Revolution and Civil War and learned a lot.
Albatrossity
We hear a lot about how one Trump mess is just a distraction from the previous Trump mess, and how that is just another example of how he can manipulate the news cycles.
Frankly, I am convinced that Trump IS the distraction, and is an example of how the oligarchy/media/Heritage Foundation/Federalist Society et al. keep us from focusing on the real destruction that they have planned since FDR. He is a useful tool for them, and they have figured out how to use him.
Eyeroller
@Eolirin: I said on I think the AI thread a couple of days ago that the top candidates for useful replacement by AI are CEOs. They seem to do little to no work, spend most of their time doing sales in one form or another, and parrot bullshit they read in business magazines and their group chats.
RevRick
@Rusty: @Suzanne: @lowtechcyclist:
There are really only three possibilities when it comes to providing healthcare coverage:
1). Tighten the screws on health insurance companies so that more of their premiums go to actual health care;
2). Medicare+ For All;
3). The Heritage Foundation proposal that essentially lets health insurance companies do what they want.
Options one and two violate every tenet of GOP economic principles. Option three would drop a thermonuclear bomb on our health care system.
The reason why the GOP replacement is so elusive is because they can’t. And option three would be catastrophic, and they know it.
Spanky
@Albatrossity:
It’s right there in the open if you choose to see it. Of course, as Upton Sinclair once said …
Jeffro
oh trump, pleeeeease don’t throw us in that briar patch! ;)
narya
@Spanky: The intertubes are truly a wondrous thing sometimes; thank you!!
Jeffro
110%
Project Overnight Overhaul
I just want to see John Roberts’ face when he wakes up on the morning of January 21st, 2029 and finds that he has six new flaming liberal colleagues.
Jeffro
true, except for wanting the Epstein Files released. I think only 15-20% of voters don’t want those out there?
but you’re right – a significant portion of the GOP will always just swallow whatever the Republican Noise Machine throws at them and accepts it as gospel, evidence be damned
UncleEbeneezer
@zhena gogolia: Too bad we didn’t make THIS the central focus of 2023-4. We all knew damn well it was coming. Trump/GOP spelled it out numerous times. But the Biden-So-Old and “genocide” psyops worked like a charm in making sure this stuff never stood a chance of breaking through with the media or voters.
Jeffro
@Spanky: thanks for the link!
this part
still makes me LOL
Matt McIrvin
@Princess: I know some Canadians who are monarchists precisely because they equate republics with the United States political system. One who argues that every country seems to have to have a head of state who is a personification of the country and an accumulator of nationalist “mana”, and that the ideal situation is in fact for that head of state to be someone you don’t have to worry about, who wields no power over government, and who lives far, far away on the other side of an ocean.
narya
For those who don’t want to click through, here’s the relevant bit:
And, despite my inability to come up with it on my own, that just sums it up for me. The quote is from 2005, so, 20 years ago, and . . . there it is.
jonas
@Shalimar: I think she’s actually a bit *older* than him and she came to his defense when Virginia Roberts came forward with her accusations about being trafficked to Andrew a few years ago. Go figure.
RevRick
@Albatrossity: Ah, but like the rightwing German business elite of the 1930s, they now have a tiger by the tail.
Trump may seem like a useful tool for their agenda of dismantling the welfare state, but Trump’s personal grievances and psychological flaws threaten to destroy the foundation of their very prosperity, which is built on a broad-based middle class.
Spanky
@RevRick: I suspect that when they finally turn on him it’ll be slowly, then all at once. Can we get to the “slowly” part now?
JML
@Eyeroller: lol. Not entirely wrong. While some CEO’s really are visionary business leaders that set the direct for a company in important ways, make critical hires and decisions…most of them are vastly overpaid for their actual contributions. It would be funny for a large company to replace their CEO with an AI and have things simply not change in any real way.
prostratedragon
“This is the United Nations General Assembly. This is not a Signal Chat,” said the Cuban ambassador to the USA ambassador.
prostratedragon
@Albatrossity: Think I might be with you there. Certainly it would be easier to focus without his wide ass in the way.
Deputinize America
I’ve finally seen the JD Vance/Erika Kirk hug photos, and have thoughts:
Erika’s pants probably reminded him of his favorite couch.
If my wife saw photos of me hugging a younger woman like that in public with his hand placement and her hand placement on his head, she’d kick my ass, would demand that I hand her my phone for inspection, and would review my credit card statements.
I can’t speak to whether Usha is like that, but it sure should be drawing some questions.
narya
@Jeffro: great minds . . . . :-)
Suzanne
@Deputinize America: I deeply enjoy anything that makes Couchfucker miserable and causes drama for him. I share your assessment.
Matt McIrvin
@Spanky: The problem is, they’re all extremely cowardly men who also to some degree buy into the adolescent macho thing that is associated with Trumpism. He can control them just by fear.
iKropoclast
No, that was really happening and a legitimate point of concern for non-ghouls.
p.a.
My totally unsupported by any evidence (as usual) theory is that with the fall of the USSR and obvious weakness of Russia, the need for a broad-based middle class to support the economy and fill the needs of our universal military obligations, is now not seen as necessary for a certain now dominant sector of conservative oligarchs- the neocons have lost and the “War on Terra” is now domestic.
It’s Robber Barons all the way down- without library building.
Deputinize America
@Suzanne:
“Swear to God, Usha, it was nothing. NOTHING! She was grieving, see her in black? Just because I’d had my hands on her hips and we were hugging it in with her hand on the back of my head doesn’t mean anything! And my hand brought her in by the small of the back for just a few seconds!”
Nettoyeur
@David_C: That turd can destroy an organization that played a key role in protecting the US and making us richer.
Omnes Omnibus
@Matt McIrvin: He can up to a point. When they fear something else more than they fear him, they will turn on him.
trnc
Has anyone asked Mike Johnson why he supports the president illegally withholding SNAP funds appropriated by congress?
Geminid
I read that Barack Obama will campaign with Mikie Sherrill tomorrow. The New Jersey Representative faces a close election for governor this coming Tuesday.
iKropoclast
Because he supports the president
illegally withholding SNAP funds appropriated by congress?period.MattF
Somewhat OT. Trump is now claiming credit for the recent Nobel prize in physics. I think anyone who doubts that he’s suffering from a serious marble deficiency should inspect the receipts here. It’s certainly the case that a lot of furriners have noticed.
iKropoclast
@MattF: I know the dead matter in Trump’s skull is so dense it can simulate the conditions of a black hole (no light can escape), but being the subject of an experiment does not qualify you for a Nobel, not in the sciences.
Harrison Wesley
@Spanky: I think I like this guy.
Aziz, light!
Speaking of pedo songs, there’s “Donna” from the 1968 musical “Hair.”
Once upon a looking-for-Donna-time
There was a sixteen year old virgin
Oh Donna oh oh Donna oh oh oh
Looking for my Donna
Layer8Problem
@RevRick:
“Consequences-schmonsequences, as long as I’m rich.”
Their ideology is too important to moderate their program, and whatever does happen their loyal security team would never turn on them if foundational disaster strikes.
Mr. Bemused Senior
What we have in Trump is a personification of all the worst aspects of American society.
Quoting Douglas Adams
Matt McIrvin
@trnc: Yes, actually, if I recall correctly. He pivoted to some rant about how the Democrats need to be taught a lesson or they’ll just keep taking hostages. Lovely projection.
Geminid
@Jeffro: The Obama/Keyes race set a 27% “crazyfication” benchmark, but that was for a blue state. I expect it’s higher in purple states, and higher still in red states. Keyes might have beaten Obama in South Carolina. Nationally, my guess is a ~40%.
Matt McIrvin
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Oh yeah, that passage was about how the galactic government had solved the problem by appointing Zaphod Beeblebrox as an attention-getting celebrity figurehead who wouldn’t do any harm.
trnc
@satby:
The liars don’t have to be any smarter than the people who choose to believe them.
Mr. Bemused Senior
The thought occurs to me too. Think of the money it would save.
Deputinize America
@Aziz, light!:
Gary Puckett and the Union Gap
iKropoclast
They don’t even have to be that smart. Motivated reasoning is a hell of a drug.
TS
@Suzanne: Andrew is not the King – he will never be the king. Every family has the odd person who causes them grief. In the days of yore Andrew would have been shipped off to Australia as a remittance man (an emigrant, often from Britain to a British colony, who was supported by regular payments from home on the expectation that he would stay away.)
What is amazing is that Andrew has been stripped of all honors, titles and his grand house – sent to live in the wilds of Norfolk, while trump who was also great friends with Epstein has been voted into the highest office of the land & supported by the judiciary and the congress.
The Brits are better off with their King who did as much as he could to remove privilege from his brother.
Harrison Wesley
@brendancalling: My last full time job was at Philabundance 10 years ago. Glad to hear everyone’s stepping up.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Matt McIrvin: well Zaphod’s just zis guy you know. Another example of the law of unintended consequences.
iKropoclast
@TS: What if we actually made Trump king, in the UK sense? Let him have the pomp and circumstance, that’s all he wants, anyway. Then leave the governing to adults.
Geminid
@Spanky: If the business class turns on Trump, I think that shift will be telegraghed in the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal. From what I see, if there is an alternate power center in the Republican coalition, it’s the Murdochs.
Suzanne
@TS:
He now has to live on an estate, be supported financially by his brother, and have a last name. Thank you, Sir, may I have another?
lowtechcyclist
@brendancalling:
Pro tip: don’t go out and buy food to donate – just donate cash, and the food bank can buy (a) the stuff they most need (b) at bulk pricing.
Less work for you, and they don’t have to have volunteers organize the contributions.
Matt McIrvin
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: There’s some bona fide stuff. I follow “Parkrose Permaculture”, this very Portlandian lady on YouTube and she will go as hard against “establishment Democrats” as anyone who irritates us here–she really despises Joe Biden, Schumer, Jeffries etc. and thinks they represent a mindset that needs to be swept away. But she’s really keen on nonviolent protest movements, is utterly jazzed at No Kings and even she spends a lot of her time these days fighting the baby Leninists who crap on all that because they want us to lead with pipe bombs and guns. I do suspect many of them are false flags.
Geminid
@Suzanne: “Andrew Lackland.”
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist: Yep. I give to food banks a lot but I give cash. I think these charity organizations only have drives for in-kind donations because they’ve noticed that many people LIKE doing those and will put more effort and resources into them than into cash funding. If they annoy you, just do cash funding; it’s better anyway.
Deputinize America
@Suzanne:
I like to think that he’s been shuffled to an abandoned gardener’s cottage in a forgotten and forever boggy corner of the Sandringham grounds with a toilet that has to be plunged 7 out of 10 uses, with one dangling light bulb in a kitchen, a wood stove with a clogged flue for heat, a leaky roof and a single electrical plug that will support either a lamp or a charging cord (never at the same time) in a drafty bedroom.
Oh, and he be allowed the use of a shopworn Austin Allegro to drive.
TS
@prostratedragon:
That was a joy to hear – absolute truth, especially “this is not the house of representatives”
Has it been reported anywhere in the US media?
Suzanne
@Geminid: Andrew’s punishment looks better than my current life. LMAO.
lowtechcyclist
@Jeffro:
😁😁😁
twbrandt
@Soprano2: Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) had the perfect response to the question “Will you call on your Democratic colleagues to reopen the government?”
It’s really good.
Geminid
@Suzanne: “Suzanne Mustwork.”
MattF
@twbrandt: Yup. Everyone should see it.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@twbrandt: oh, yes!
TS
@Suzanne: Being supported by family is the fate of many. He has lost all privilege and power and is basically banished to the country – so he doesn’t have to make do on social security (British equivalent) – such is life – many criminals in the US have been pardoned by trump because politically they are his friends. They keep their money, their homes, their lifestyle. I see little difference except that trump is King of his country – and Andrew is not. I’ve lived my life under a constitutional monarchy and only once has their been an issue when the GG (Queen’s representative) overstepped his power and decided to sack the Prime Minister. Since the monarch’s loss of political power, this has never happened in the UK.
A constitutional monarch has zero political power (which is why any of them had to accept a visit from trump), they work as the government requests.
@iKropoclast:
America would be the better for it – but trump would still be filling his coffers and helping out his friends. The damage would be limited – especially on an international basis.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: Remember that people really hate losing things. He has lost a shitload of privilege and been publicly humiliated. Apparently he was the biggest jerk about his royal prerogatives in the family, so losing them hits him where it matters to him.
I am guessing that your life isn’t steaming mass of humiliation and embarrassment.
Deputinize America
@twbrandt:
Only Democrats have agency, y’know.
bluefoot
@p.a: yep. And I can’t help but think of the administration promised to help only white people, approval would turn around completely. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s justice and equality that most people want. Or a Constitutional government and a nation of laws. If it were, we wouldn’t be here in the first place. It makes me sad.
lowtechcyclist
@p.a.:
Mine is that during the Cold War, our right wing wanted to be able to point to our system and have there be no argument about whether it was better than what the godless Communists had in the USSR. That meant our proles had to live better than their proles.
With the fall of the USSR, they didn’t need to give a damn about our proles anymore.
Professor Bigfoot
@prostratedragon: THAT is simply brilliant. Thank you.
twbrandt
Charles defenestrated Andrew to neutralize an existential threat to the Family’s multi-billion pound enterprise. But Andrew still gets to live a pretty comfortable life.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
Good point, and yeah, 40% nationally sounds about right to me too. No matter how horrid a mess Trump makes of this country over the next year, I’m sure he’ll still get 40% of the overall House vote.
Omnes Omnibus
@lowtechcyclist: I think you are basically correct. Oddly, that ends up being one of the places the Neocons and the now MAGAs differ. The Neocons actually believe at the shit they were peddling. It’s one reason why Rubin, Kristol, and some of the others switched sides.*
*Being Jewish and recognizing incipient fascism and its dangers was, of course, another.
JML
@Matt McIrvin: it’s certainly less efficient for them to get in-kinds rather than the cash, but there’s no doubt there are many people who will never ever give cash, but will donate items consistently. Sometimes it’s about trust: the media loves to run fraud stories, so there’s plenty of people who will no longer trust that cash they give will actually go to buy food, so they’ll actually spend more to get less just to “make sure”. But sometimes it’s about making it more tangible to them, and putting in more effort than hitting a donate button or even writing a check. I can certainly understand the satisfaction aspect about dropping off bags of food and making a real effort that involves physical labor and so forth.
Even though a well-run food bank is better off with the cash and can do remarkable things with small amounts of cash that individuals simply can’t.
Matt McIrvin
@bluefoot: Most white people still don’t want to be SEEN AS racist, they want to euphemize it away–so Trump has been promising exactly that, but in terms that still involve these transparent euphemisms, which don’t fool anyone but that the MAGA core are comfortable repeating.
But this inhibition is eroding.
lowtechcyclist
@Deputinize America:
At least the protagonist of that song was horrified when he realized he’d been banging an underage girl who apparently looked like she was of age.
bluefoot
@TONYG: Re communicating about Project 2025 prior to last November, it’s interesting to me that it was all over Black traditional and social media. Hell, Taraji Henson talked about it from the podium of the BET awards (iirc) in 2024. I didn’t see much sounding the alarm about it in the Asian spaces I frequent. There was also a lot about it in some professional fora like public health, but that’s all pretty niche.
Miss Bianca
@lowtechcyclist:
@Deputinize America: Dammit, I’ve been forced to agree with you about something! At least with regard to Jethro Tull, lol.
JML
@twbrandt: I think Charles has been out on his brother for a long time; there’s been plenty of stories that he tried to get his mother to push Idiot Andrew out more than once. I kind of doubt this is just about “threat to the throne”, though I’m sure they’re reading the PR tea leaves.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus:
My life also hasn’t been marked by sleeping with trafficked underage girls.
My life has the normal humiliations and embarrassments of having to sell my labor to pay my bills or be homeless. Which…. this dude will never have to do, and never have to fear. He’s gotten to raise his children in unimaginable privilege. Pardon me if I think that this “punishment” is laughable and honestly indefensible. This feels like the Windsors are doing the bare minimum to preserve the appearance of doing something, while still ensuring that nothing genuinely harmful will happen to any of them.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
I’ve always assumed that the food drives were more about raising awareness than anything else. As such, they’re fine, but people here on this blog should know that giving cash is much better all around.
Matt McIrvin
@JML: My wife told me she was recently thinking about what she’d do if she won a giant lottery pot (not that she actually plays the lottery) or somehow suddenly got fantastically rich.
She started thinking about what it would take to set up a charitable foundation to do good for some cause, and all the work involved in picking something worthwhile and making sure the organization would approach it intelligently… and then she mentally stepped back and thought, “Wait, there are all sorts of people already doing this for all manner of worthy causes. What makes me think I can personally do better, or found the one thing that’s underserved? Why not just give all the money to THEM?”
But this is a leap that, say, most billionaires cannot make; their egos won’t let them.
Deputinize America
@Omnes Omnibus:
Rubin, Kristol and the old GOP national security establishment genuinely believed in a post WW2 world order centered around beneficial multilateral trade and defense alliances and the cultivation of international friendship with all via soft power and trade. I tend to have this same view, even if I disagreed with certain decisions on specifics (in my case, excessive deference to the actions of Israel, as well as the propensity to cater to old rightist demagoguery on the Cuban embargo and Taiwan).
What Trump and his cohort sought instead was the pre-Great War order of really entangling bilateral arrangements in order to facilitate “one side wins and one side loses” trade – which failed spectacularly over a century ago, taking most of a generation of the then-developed world along with it. I think this has been facilitated to a great extent by dumbass oligarchs who believe they can profit even more in this arrangement.
Kristol, Rubin and the old establishment were essentially right in the core premise. Unfortunately, the white working class decided that they want it good and hard.
sab
@trnc: Palm trees in Chicago should be a clue that something ain’t right with their proofs.
Citizen Alan
@Suzanne: i had a similar experience, about ten years ago, when I completely stopped talking politics with a conservative acquaintance once I realized he was using the terms budget deficit, trade deficit, and national debt interchangeably, because he didn’t understand what any of them were.
Eyeroller
@Deputinize America: Murc’s Law. Over and over and over.
It was a great response but a little long. Also perhaps he should have reminded the reporters that the Ds control nothing and the Rs could do this entirely on their own.
Soprano2
@twbrandt: That was good, more like that. Challenge the premise of their question about “what will Democrats do?”
p.a.
@lowtechcyclist:
Hell, the CIA actually secretly subsidized US avant garde art to highlight the freedom of expression(ism 😉) “inherent” in American society in the McCarthy years.
news.artnet.com/art-world/artcurious-cia-art-excerpt-1909623
Matt McIrvin
@Deputinize America: I think that for Trump and the MAGAts (though not the oligarchs funding them) it’s fundamentally a psychosexual pathology, not even any matter of rational self-interest. They think the rules-based international order is for pussies and suckers. That’s all.
Matt McIrvin
@p.a.: That is still one of the funniest things ever to me, because I remember seeing the John Birch Society magazines in the 1980s that were still insisting that Abstract Expressionism was a Communist plot.
I dismissed it as frothing conspiracy garbage. But they were actually really close! They just had it backwards!!
Fair Economist
@Matt McIrvin:
I think it’s more “and the right has another army of online trolls who pose as leftists to attack Democrats”. Some genuine leftists get sucked in, but the drivers are Putin’s troll armies in St. Petersburg, and probably some similar armies paid for by various US conservatives at this point.
Eyeroller
@lowtechcyclist: I would not call that strictly “crazification,” more like “tribal loyalty.”
Herbert Hoover got just under 40% of the popular vote in 1932. They weren’t all crazy, because not everyone was equally impacted by the Great Depression and there were arguments over how to address it.
The 27% shows up regularly in other types of surveys, such as belief in chemtrails and the like.
Deputinize America
@Matt McIrvin:
For an example of the mindset……
“I mean, I’ve got this thing and it’s (bleeping) golden,” Blagojevich says excitedly to an aide, Doug Scofield, the day after Obama’s election in 2008. “And I’m just not giving it up for (bleeping) nothing. I’m not going to do it.”
sab
@TONYG: MSNBC had lots and lots of coverage of Project 2025 before the election. Alo Velshi is still brining his huge battered copy on the set wevery time he does his show. O’Donnell, Maddow and Ruhle also covered it a lot.
Why was Trump denying it if it wasn’t getting coverage?
Tazj
As Patty Murray has said, Republicans believe Trump has unchecked power to do whatever he wants but now he doesn’t have the power to release SNAP contingency funds.
Now Mike Johnson is giving another press conference and he’s saying that the contingency funds can’t be released unless the underlying program is funded. Now droning on about how bloated and corrupt the program is how people are receiving funds who sit on their couches watching video games.
They look heartless and awful to me but who knows how this goes over nationally. Here’s hoping that judge rules to release the contingency funds people obviously need to eat.
Kathleen
@twbrandt: Neguse is another Dem star with many legislative accomplishments and is highly regarded in the Dem caucus. ETA The Dems have a very deep bench of talent.
Jeffro
well, we’ll know Tuesday with whatever percentage Winsome Earle-Sears gets. I think you’re probably right about it being near 40%, unfortunately.
Eyeroller
@Tazj:There you have it, the “poor are just lazy moochers” attitude that drives so many Republicans.
Johnson also admitted that it was to pressure the Democrats, because as Matt McI noted a day or so ago, it’s like Superman’s true weakness, which is not Kryptonite but that he cares. Republicans don’t care if people suffer, especially if it’s people they perceive to be not like them.
But this was pitched as some big revelation. Like Duh? Of course they’re using it to apply pressure.
Matt McIrvin
@Tazj: The things they say reveal the hollowness of their claims– they can’t even stay on message when it’s not a cruel right-wing message. They’ll claim some pain being inflicted on the population is the Democrats’ fault, but then brag about it or claim the victims deserve it practically in the same sentence. It’s not a facade they can sustain.
Jeffro
exactly right
GiveWell has a nice list of charities that can make effective use of funds
Scrounger
What we do every night, pinky. Cut taxes on the rich!!
satby
Can’t be emphasized enough. A lot of the bullshit is calculated to divide. It’s not a “discussion”.
trnc
@Matt McIrvin: Sounds like a democratic campaign ad waiting to be made. Campaigns could probably consist entirely of Fasctor Mike statements.
StringOnAStick
@Albatrossity: Accurate.
Kathleen
@twbrandt: I’ve been sensing an undercurrent of Dems in NFLTG mode with the media and I’m liking it!
satby
@Suzanne: Mountbatten-Windsor is all their last names. Thanks to Prince Phillip. Their titles come first, last names are superfluous, unless you no longer have a title.
lowtechcyclist
@Scrounger:
LOL!!!
Another Scott
@Jeffro: +1
WARNING TheHill.com:
“Traditional views!” Wow! Much important!!1
:-/
OMG! A Relatively Short Period of Time!!11 Scary!!1ONE
GTLaw-HotOffTheHill (from January 2022):
(Emphasis added.)
The high-minded purpose of the supermajority requirement in the Senate was to protect the republic from hotheads and demagogues. The GQP Senate refusing to convict Tmurp – twice – and ramming through stuff they want to ram through without a supermajority shows that that high-minded purpose does not constrain them.
Ultimately, in a representative democracy, the majority must be able to rule. The Senate cloture/filibuster system should be scrapped.
People need to see what their representatives are doing in their name, and if fake “bipartisanship” gets in the way, then that should be scrapped as well. Votes and legislation needs to have consequences in the electorate, for good or ill.
If they want to exclude Democrats from all legislative decisions, then they can do the work to change the procedures to do so. And voters can see the result.
Grr…
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
StringOnAStick
@TS: I found out recently that my dad’s side of the family came to the US in the early 1800’s in the form of a remittance man, apparently quite the drunken, rich boy asshole.
Ruckus
@Rusty:
Remember why they are conservative. Why they can’t see anyone but themselves or their “equals” having money, position, a voice.
In a democracy.
linnen
@Suzanne:
@Shalimar:
Given the stories my Mom and women her age tell of being creeped upon for having a ‘well’ developed bust and hip at age 12 and 13, maybe lay off the whole body shaming bit?
Chief Oshkosh
@lowtechcyclist: Also, food banks and other organizations that try to address hunger IN THE WEALTHIEST FUCKING COUNTRY THIS PLANET HAS EVER SPAWNED (sorry, that just slipped out) have many needs for worker bees. I’ve mentioned before that might wife and I drive food straight to the homes of the elderly and infirm (hell, anybody on the list). Same groups often need meal packer/preppers and cooks and someone to clean the floors and take out the garbage and and and etc. If you’re in a major metro, there are probably many such orgs that could use your help, starting this weekend.
And BTW, there’s lots of joy in those organizations, even though the pathos is high when you meet the meal recipients face-to-face.
JML
@Matt McIrvin: There is something to be said for setting up a foundation whose goal is to fund other people. You could have a small, lean organization where the job is to sort out who can use the money effectively and impactfully, not actually do any programmatic work yourself. And if you put in a sunset provision you can make sure basically all the money gets spent on those causes over time, instead of starting to perpetuate an organization. Some insanely rich people have actually done this, but the specific names escape me.
It’s probably how I would approach things, should I somehow become that level of rich (nigh-impossible, though I do take a flutter on a lotto ticket from time to time).
brendancalling
@lowtechcyclist: nah, bro. I’m talking about having those snack on hand for the kids in school. Guaranteed they will need it.
JML
@Chief Oshkosh: Truth. money and free labor make a real difference to those organizations, and they do great work. volunteers who are willing to do whatever is needed are amazing.
Geminid
@Jeffro: As someone pointed out, tribal loyalty creates a floor of support for Republican candidates. And as mediocre as Winsome Sears is, I think she is still a better candidate than was Alan Keyes,
Although, I don’t recall his bus ever catching fire like hers did yesterday. The climb up to Swift Run Gap was more than than that bus could handle, bless its heart.
gene108
@Eyeroller:
The Republican party didn’t build jackshit. There are a bunch of wealthy people who hated the New Deal and have been spending their vast fortunes to destroy it, and what it represents.
There are no wealthy liberals. Period. No rich fuck will set their money on fire to support a party that wants to regulate their ability to make money and tax them more.
The national Democratic party can do more to keep state and local Democratic organizations from withering away, and more to support new candidates.
But the Republican propaganda media machine was not built by elected Republicans or anyone at the RNC.
Eyeroller
@linnen: I think they were talking about men who were attracted to adult women who looked like young teens, which is “suss” as the kids say.
But all those “classic” songs that were discussed earlier were about adult men pursuing teen girls (or possibly younger, though usually the songs were careful to imply they were “sweet 16”). The only one that seemed to suggest that this was a bad thing was “Young Girl” by the Union Gap. The rest were basically romanticizing pedophilia (well aktually ephebophilia)
mapanghimagsik
@Matt McIrvin:
I think we need a camp 3.
gene108
@Chief Oshkosh:
In purchasing power parity terms, China is wealthier. Their citizens can afford more, equalizing currency rates, than we can in the U.S.
Eyeroller
@JML: One doesn’t have to be all that rich to set up a foundation, though normally foundations are for a fairly large chunk of money. What those of substantial but more modest means can do is buy in to a Donor-Advised Fund. These are like mutual funds but tax sheltered (so yes, they are a tax dodge) so somebody else manages them, for a fee of course.
Donor-Advised Funds are not intended for anonymity, the donor’s name can be attached to a donation and usually is.
m.j.
Elon Musk should hire Buzz Aldrin to slap Kim Kardashian and pay all Buzz’s legal fees and eventual damages.
Eyeroller
@gene108: Democrats still raise a lot of money, though much more from small donors than the ultra-wealthy. There are a few somewhat to pretty liberal wealthy donors, but they tend to focus on “causes” and not influence/power. But we still have ample to lots of money for TV ads. It would be a matter of setting up an infrastructure that isn’t grifter PACS but it could be done. Obama set up what could have been the seed of such a thing, but let it decay after he left the Presidency.
Ruckus
@Albatrossity:
I’m calling this one B I N G O!
djt really seems to have nothing left except his position. As an old not all that far behind him, and a person who has served in our military, during a war, and worked in a professional sport, I have to say that monied people are often only worried about how much money they have (to impress others) and how to continue that having that impressive money. And money is nice, more money is nicer but like everything else in life, the concepts that one uses for their daily concept of life can create a falsehood about actually being human, in that a lot of money often creates a pompous, arrogant concept that their bank book value makes them a better human. What’s that phrase about what money can’t buy…. I believe the word is humanity. Money buys things, and yes can often buy humans, maybe not directly, but it is possible. How do we know that? Look around, looked at the monied. I worked in a professional sport and have met people that had MONEY. Some I didn’t want to know and some did not let that money buy them. A huge difference.
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro: Her related peeve is wealthy people who make large gifts to local government but earmark it for something specific they’re preoccupied with, of limited public utility. E.g. some local tycoon dropped a big wad of cash on the city school system but specified that it MUST be used to build a pickleball court at the high school. So that high school is still hurting in all sorts of ways but they have the sweetest damn pickleball court in the region, mostly taking up space.
Come to think of it, these things are often about sports.
Matt McIrvin
@mappy!: The intuitive mental model of “welfare queens” has always been that they just burn money and it goes out of circulation entirely, instead of being paid to somebody else who then has it.
Paul in KY
@MagdaInBlack: I got ‘malicious site’ when I clicked on your link.
Matt McIrvin
@Eyeroller: And even they had a followup song called, I think, “Girl, You Are A Woman Now,” about how DAAAMN she’s legal today, time to hit that!
Paul in KY
@Suzanne: It won’t be the main house (where the real Royals will celebrate Christmas) and he can watch (as he’s not invited). Also the weather is generally terrible.
I also think his servant will no longer have to call him ‘Prince’ Andrew. Which will gall him immensly. I know: 1st World problems…
Paul in KY
@suzanne: Wait till Darth Willy assumes the throne. He will really put the screws to Andrew.
Eyeroller
@Matt McIrvin:This is SOP for the wealthy. They nearly always want to fund some pet project and/or get their name on something.
It’s the reason that at most universities, most of the endowment is encumbered. Universities can’t just draw on them like ordinary investment accounts. The income from the donation is dedicated to the donor’s cause, and the corpus can’t be touched. But people read about huge endowments and get mad that universities don’t spend them.
Eyeroller
@Matt McIrvin: Still less icky and creepy than typical for the time. We also don’t know the age difference between the two. So though yeah, it’s borderline, still not too bad.
Compared to, say, “You’re 16, you’re beautiful, and you’re mine”
Paul in KY
@prostratedragon: Ha! Kudos to Cuba!
Paul in KY
@TS: He can do more and William will. William will get Parliment to formally strip Andrew of Duchy of York and thus have it resumed by the King. King Charles III has not done that. Andrew is still ‘technically’ Duke of York as of today.
Paul in KY
@Deputinize America: It won’t be that, but to him it will feel like that. Hope he only has one servant (the poor devil, whomever gets short straw on that job).
Jeffro
110%
see also, “highly specific gifts to universities” (or what Eyeroller said at 222)
every big bucks donor ought to at least be asked that X % of the donation go to the general scholarship fund
Paul in KY
@Eyeroller: I think Nationally it may be closer to 37%
Geminid
@Eyeroller: Politico has a story up today titled:
Striking while the iron is hot.
And it being an October day ending in “Y”, there’s also a Graham Platner story:
The finance director hired on in August and quit today
Platner is still a hot topic. The Nation published a Platner article yesterday and the New Yorker put one up today.
Paul in KY
@satby: At least Edward VIII was made Duke of Windsor. Of course, he’d been a king and not a douchewad spare…
WTFGhost
@MagdaInBlack: Yes, but not the popular “Dummies” series of books, you mean, it’s DEI, giving a diverse population of dummies, equity stakes, involving them in all aspects, of our government, right?
Because the production on the Dummies books was well and competently done.
Geminid
@Paul in KY: During WWII, the British stashed the Duke of Windsor in the Bahamas, as Governor. The Duke had some potential value to the Germans, so I expect he was well-guarded.
Now, Herschel Walker is the US Ambassador-designate to the Bahamas. This makes me think of a one-act play, in which Herschel Walker encounters the ghost of the Duke of Windsor and the two opposites hit it it off.
Timill
@Paul in KY: I did see a report that Charles is having the appropriate decrees drafted. But I suspect they require Parliamentary approval, and I don’t think Parliament is in session currently.
Miss Bianca
@Geminid: Man, they are really desperate for a “Democrat” that isn’t really a Democrat, aren’t they?
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: A lot of Platner’s most ardent supporters aren’t really Democrats themselves. I’m thinking of the Jerkobin and Common Dreams crowd.
Ben Cisco
@Layer8Problem: The Daffy Duck shoutout is a deep cut, most appreciated.
dnfree
@Eyeroller: Here is where “value above replacement” or whatever that calculation is would come into play. There are no doubt CEOs who are worth the premium they are paid, and others who are dragging their company down. Apparently Tesla thinks Musk is one of the outstanding CEOS who could not be replaced by AI.
Layer8Problem
@Ben Cisco: Some things just seem to be truth distilled down to the essence and that line was always my favorite with regard to greed.
dnfree
@Jeffro: Thanks for looking that up! I remembered it came from the Obama senate race because I’m from Illinois. The original Republican candidate flamed. Out in a sex scandal and the party brought in someone with no connection to Illinois whatsoever, plus he was nuts.
Paul in KY
@Geminid: You could have something there. Would make for some arch comedy!
Interesting Name Goes Here
@Miss Bianca: This is where I would once more point out that Progressives have a serious problem with vetting and hero-worship, but I’m sure someone here will be along to accuse me of not wanting to “move on”.
dnfree
@linnen: I don’t think referring to someone’s lack of a voluptuous figure in this context (men being attracted specifically to young-looking or childlike bodies) constitutes body-shaming. Basically men attracted to a pre-pubescent pr pubescent-appearing body are pedophiles. That says nothing negative about an adult woman who has a body that appears sexually immature.
Professor Bigfoot
@Miss Bianca:
We’re not supposed to talk about Graham Platner. 😉
H-Bob
@snoey: If you go up to Canada, buy the car there, put on some decals drive through some mud so it doesn’t look new, and drive it home across the border, will ICE really check whether the car is a clone of a U.S. car? They’re kind of busy tear-gassing childrens’ Halloween parades!
H-Bob
@Betty Cracker: Even if the Republicans toss out the filibuster, I’d give it 60% likely that the Democrats will reinstate it when they get the majority!
Pappenheimer
@lowtechcyclist: And then there was Piers Anthony…part of his creepiness crept into at least one novel (Shade of the Tree IIRC) but I wasn’t aware of his predilection until after his death.
Gloria DryGarden
@MagdaInBlack: who is he even going to call on? Who will invite him over?
@Suzanne: poor guy, rent free, private, secure, gated estate living, and probably he’ll get a food and clothing allowance too. It’s not exactly suffering, except for being shunned and not getting to interact in all his grifting and self benefitting ways. Being kept out of more social connections, losing his reputation, may sting a bit. But he’s set for life.
Kayla Rudbek
@lowtechcyclist: there was a huge amount of that in the science fiction and fantasy community (particularly in the 1970s and 1980s published works) so although I was and am still a SFF fan, I wasn’t particularly interested in going to many conventions as a teenager.
There are times now where I seriously want to update the virgin martyrs’ legends for the 21st century (same rotten attitudes in Roman Pompeii, Victorian London, and modern times)