Dodgers Fans In Echo Park Celebrate Another World Series Victory
@shoton35mm.bsky.social— L.A. TACO (@lataco.bsky.social) November 2, 2025 at 1:21 AM
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Día de los Muertos’s historical roots extend back thousands of years to ancient Aztec Indigenous traditions and are still being observed by descendants, the Nahua people.
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) November 1, 2025 at 6:00 PM
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Lucia Ortiz trudges through endless fields of cempasuchil flowers, the luminescent orange petals of which will soon cloak everything from city streets to cemeteries across Mexico.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) October 30, 2025 at 6:30 AM
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Because Sharing is caring:
If you're worried about delayed SNAP benefits or don’t know where to turn for food assistance — call Project Bread's FoodSource Hotline. 📞 Call or text: 1-800-645-8333 or learn more 🌐 projectbread.org/foodsource-hotline
— Project Bread (@projectbread.org) October 31, 2025 at 12:22 PM
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Mayors and governors from San Francisco to Virginia will cover millions of dollars in missing federal assistance to feed their most vulnerable residents as the Trump administration battles orders from two federal judges to release backup funds.
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) November 1, 2025 at 9:00 PM
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President Trump has done little public campaigning in marquee races where Democrats are running heavily against him, keeping a distance from some Republican candidates and signaling some pessimism about next Tuesday’s elections.
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) November 1, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Don Chickensh*t:
President Donald Trump has done little public campaigning in marquee races where Democrats are running heavily against him, keeping a distance from some Republican candidates and signaling some pessimism about next Tuesday’s elections.
In Virginia, Trump has reserved his explicit support for just one statewide candidate — Attorney General Jason Miyares, who is viewed as the likeliest candidate on the GOP ticket to win. Trump has not officially endorsed the nominee for governor, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who is trailing in the polls.
In New Jersey, Trump has limited his engagement on behalf of Jack Ciattarelli, the unusually competitive GOP nominee for governor, to an endorsement and a telerally. There is some debate in the party over how widely visible a surrogate Trump should be in a state where he made gains in 2024 but has faced a backlash over his agenda.
In California, where Democrats are increasingly hopeful they will win a vote to redraw congressional districts, Trump has mostly hung back and this past week sought to preemptively discredit the vote, without presenting evidence for his claims. Trump’s team worked with GOP allies to raise $25 million for voter turnout, but Republicans’ data suggested Proposition 50 was likely to pass, which made the Trump political team wary of more spending, according to a person familiar with their thinking who, like some others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations.
Trump has long shown an eagerness to put his stamp on what he says are major accomplishments, including electoral victories, at times jumping in at the last minute to claim credit. While he has been known to rapidly step up his involvement as he sees fit and could shift his stance, Trump has no plans to rally voters in person in New Jersey or Virginia in the final days of the race, according to a senior White House official…
Tuesday’s elections, happening in mostly Democratic-leaning states, will provide one of the most concrete snapshots yet of voter attitudes about Trump’s second term. They are also expected to inform both parties’ strategies headed into next year’s midterms.
The president is keeping a light footprint as Republican campaigns are careful in how they talk about him. Polls show Trump’s approval ratings have dropped since he took office again, even as he is still popular among many loyal supporters GOP candidates need to turn out when he is not on the ballot. Some Trump allies are skeptical that the base that came out for Trump in presidential elections will be there Tuesday…
Cliosfanboy
The republican candidate for governor in Virginia is a Black woman, a retired US Marine, an immigrant from Jamaica, and (no surprise) a total nut case. She’s donated money to an anti-abortion group that compares IVF to child trafficking. She keeps attacking the Democrat for “letting boys into girls’ locker rooms.” And she supports trump’s gutting the federal workforce, which is not the smartest tactic in vote-rich blue NOVA.
NotMax
Got some time? Weekend long watch.
A more than decent documentary with a somewhat unfortunate title, James Whale, The Queen of Hollywood.
Includes a lot of neat trivia about classic horror flicks.
TONYG
My suburban New Jersey town, to its credit, has been collecting food for SNAP recipients since yesterday.
H.E.Wolf
The Democratic candidate for VA Governor, Abigail Spanberger, is pro-choice, pro-voting rights, pro-public schools, pro-environmental protection.
abigailspanberger.com/values/
Let’s boost our Democrats! May their opponents go down to ignominious defeat on Tuesday.
NeenerNeener
@Cliosfanboy: Yeah, I think Spanberger’s got this. The ads showing Winnie yelling at her audience “I AM SPEAKING” show just how nucking futz she is. I’m more worried about the Attorney General race; Miyares is slimy but Jones supposedly posted some problematic stuff online for which he has since apologized. I’m not sure apologizing was the right response. Most republicans don’t pay an electoral price for being an @$$hole and democrats apologizing makes them look weak.
Scout211
Government of vibes, with vibes, for vibes.
bbleh
I think ol’ TACO Don is TIRED. He wants to count his money and play with his ballroom, not go deal with some bunch of dumb voters who don’t appreciate him the way they should.
And now we’re gonna go bomb a bunch of Black people in Africa because they hate God and Christians?
Dude is slipping. And I think we’re gonna see more and more of his people trying to claim some of MAGA world for their own, like JD did with the Grieving Widow (and hopefully likewise stepping into a field of rakes), and I think that’s gonna do nothing but rattle the house of cards even worse.
eclare
There are great photos on Twitter and Bluesky of the Dodgers celebrating last night (much more on Twitter).
One of my faves:
x.com/big_business_/status/1984883909872533974
Magic is a part owner. It’s good to see pure joy these days.
mappy!
I wonder what Maggie’s next book is going to look at.
Kosh III
Good morning y’all!
And frak Nancy Mace
tmz.com/2025/11/01/nancy-mace-flips-out-police-south-carolina-airport/
Chief Oshkosh
@bbleh:
Actually, he looked pretty good in the party pix. I’m not counting on a slip-and-fall in the Lincoln toilet to save us.
I think it’s time we get back to banging on about the Epstein Files. I know, it seems…silly? But for whatever reason, it still seems to be the only thing that totally and consistently freaks out Trump. Who knows why. There must be something truly game-changing in those files, and maybe not just for Trump.
eclare
@NotMax:
The movie Gods and Monsters was about James Whale, with Ian McKellan in the title role.
gene108
Shouldn’t be a surprise. He made the 2021 race much closer than anyone expected against popular incumbent Phil Murphy.
He’s good at campaigning.
Keeping my fingers crossed Sherrill pulls this off.
H.E.Wolf
Good work, your town!
I’m seeing food-drive notices in our locale, too. In disasters, most people’s first instinct is to pitch in and help.
Rebecca Solnit’s short book, “A Paradise Built in Hell”, has many examples; and also talks about the fear-based reactions of a few higher-ups, a contrast to the grassroots level.
Geminid
@Cliosfanboy: In addition to all the federal employees in Northern Virginia, the Richmond area has plenty and so does the Hampton roads region.
These regions account for 30%, 21%, and 22% of Virginia’s electorate respectively, according to a CNU-Wason Center poll of likely voters released last week.
That poll showed Abigail Spanberger up 7 points, 50-43% with 6% undecided. Lt. Governor candidate Ghazala Hashmi’s lead was more narrow, 47-45%; while AG candidate Jay Jones trailed incumbent Jason Miyares by one point, 45-46%.
Democrats were up 8 points in a generic House of Delegates ballot. All 100 House sears are on the ballot Tuesday.
Wason Center polls have been fairly accurate the last few elections. I like to track results on the questions of party and ideological self-identifacation. Their latest poll showed 34% of voters identified as Democrats, 30% as Republicans, and 34% as Independents.
The results for ideological self-identification were: Very Liberal, 6%; Liberal, 16%; Moderate, 34%; Conservative, 24%; Very Conservative, 10%.
Of the likely voters, 72% identified as White, 19% said they were “Black or African American,” and 9% said Other.
Eyeroller
@NeenerNeener: The Attorney General race is often very close here even when the top of the ticket wins fairly comfortably. A lot of D leaners don’t vote downballot and overall the voters don’t pay nearly as much attention to it. Mark Herring won by about 900 votes after a recount in 2013.
trnc
Republican headline writers are working overtime.
TLDR: Judge makes written statement requested by administration that sounds like he has learned that the easiest way to get Trump to do something is to butter him up one side and down the other.
Another Scott
@NeenerNeener: Miyares is bad news. He’s in 47’s pocket and has spent 4 years filing performative lawsuits against Democratic jurisdictions and policies (and losing). He could throw a lot of gravel in the gears of progress (he’s already said that the new redistricting bill is illegal).
Jones was texting with a GQP guy and was angry that they only get upset about violence that touches them personally, and said some stupid personal things in trying to make a point. And he apologized. I hope that enough voters can look past it. It’s an important race with big implications.
Forward!!
Best wishes,
Scott.
NotMax
@eclare
Yes it was, and not a bad flick. However I found the documentary better, devoid of the dependence on fictionalized .plastering together of disparate events as commercial screenwriting often is.
Geminid
@NeenerNeener: Jay Jones’s toxic texts to another Delegate were indefensible, and he did the right thing and the only thing by making an unequivocal apology to Delegate Todd Gilbert and his family. Had a Republican made those texts people here would have spent weeks denouncing him as unfit for office.
I say this as a long-time fan of Jay Jones. I was very happy when he won the AG nomination. He is a young and talented Democrat, and I hope this sad affair does not derail his career.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: Thanks! I love his Show Boat with Irene Dunne and Paul Robeson and Hattie McDaniel and Allan Jones.
H.E.Wolf
@Geminid: Sending you (and the Commonwealth of VA) good wishes for Tuesday!
Soapdish
@gene108: NJ luuuuuvs themselves an asshole.
Absolutely loves them.
I’m not confident Sherrill is going to win.
eclare
@NotMax:
Gotcha. Thanks for the recommendation. I think I can get YouTube on my tv now, I’ll have to check it out.
DanOnTheEarth
Tuesday, I’m walking into my polling site with my 18 year old for his very first election. We’ve been watching the Virginia races and, yikes on bikes re: Winsome-Earles. I like the metaphor of her campaign bus catching fire last week. Simply, Spanberger is a great candidate, full stop and before looking at her shouty-crazy pants opponent .
With regards to the Dodgers, people may want to check out that first linked BlueSky account, about after the initial World Series street celebrations. It’s quite graphic, as the LAPD did what the LAPD does; attack people on the streets indiscriminately, at close range, and on horse back.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@bbleh: Hadn’t heard anything wrt bombing in Africa? My take is he’s always been a developer and can’t run for reelection anymore so he’s focused on what he cares about which his super classy building and remodeling projects.
Geminid
@H.E.Wolf: Thank you. And thanks to you and the legions of other postcard writers. I’ve received two so far
NeenerNeener
@Another Scott: Yeah, I figured the context of Jones’s comments was missing, and it’s absolutely true that conservatives only care about bad things when they experience them personally. My ex-friend is “pro-life”, but because Roe was the law 20 years ago when she had an ectopic pregnancy that burst the fallopian tube she’s still alive. Don’t ever point that out to her, though.
prostratedragon
@Chief Oshkosh:
There must be ways to make his shutdown-noSnap party weekend and the ballroom work together with the Epstdin matter. It’s just a matter of framing.
p.a.
Was hoping the Canadian- and AL- team could pull it out, just as a thumb in the eye of hypernationalists.
Dodgers: highest MLB payroll.
BlueJays: 5th highest.
Neither are little sisters of the poor.
Scout211
Is Prosecutor Barbie on thin ice?
. . .
Trump is untouchable according to SCOTUS, but anyone and everyone below him are fair game.
MagdaInBlack
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
cnn.com/2025/11/01/politics/trump-pentagon-nigeria-action
Lapassionara
@Chief Oshkosh: in England, Andrew is no longer a Prince because of the revelations about his connections to Epstein. How is it possible that Trump pays no price for his connections. Rhetorical question. I know the answer.
BlueGuitarist
@Chief Oshkosh:
Epstein files have also unhinged trump’s little Johnson (h/t ?) who has kept the house out of session. Historian Kevin Kruse remarked that the pedophile protectors like recess.
NeenerNeener
@Geminid: Yes, but people here aren’t tribal republicans or MAGAts. The comments Jones made would have no effect on Miyares’ election chances had they been made by Miyares. They might even have helped him. And yes, I have a very low opinion of folks who always vote republican.
tobie
Morning, All. Today’s one of those glorious days sunny days where the turning leaves blaze in glory. I’ll be phonebanking for the PA Supreme Court race. It’s not high profile but it’s important and getting out the vote will matter. Will report back later if I pick up on anything mood-wise in PA.
Trivia Man
@Scout211: everyone below him is fair game – for now. Wait for the ruling – anything done with the intent to support the (republican) president is covered by the president’s immunity. It automatically applies and can only be pierced if the president explicitly waives it on a case by case basis.
IANAL so here is how i see it in action. Arrested for a crime. Defense says “I think this will help the president’s agenda.” Boom! Get out of jail free, the mens rea test needs no documentation or proof. The only counter is if the president or his authorized mouthpiece says “fuck that guy in particular.”
MagdaInBlack
@bbleh: Well, Nick Fuentes, Tucker Carlson and the Heritage Foundation have teamed up, so there’s that faction.
Then there’s The Merry Widow and JD.
MTG has called for government overthrow, so there’s that too.
Interesting times.
eclare
@tobie:
Thank you!
Scout211
The Guardian has a nice summary of MTG’s appearance on Bill Maher’s show.
TL;DR: MTG seems a bit unhinged.
RevRick
Today, we’ll celebrate All Saints Day at our church, as will countless others, following All Hallows Evening. It reflects an entirely different mindset of Christian belief from the pagan culture in which it emerged. The Greco-Roman world feared they’re dead. They buried them at some distance from their homes and lives. Their household gods served as a reminder that their ancestors needed to be appeased with offerings.
The early Church flipped that narrative. Far from fearing they’re dead, they embraced them. They wanted some of their saintliness to rub off on them, so the earliest churches were built adjacent to their cemeteries. Eventually, they would bring their dead inside the church, burying them under the floor of the sanctuary and keeping their bones in attached buildings called ossuaries or charnel houses.
Many older rural churches still have adjacent cemeteries, reflecting a belief stretching back over centuries. But in the mid 19th century, influenced by the belief that miasma caused disease, cemeteries were once more set apart, now in parklike places.
Today, we will remember and honor the members who have died with an image, the lighting of a candle, and the tolling of a chime, and then all will be invited to light candles for their own deceased family members. Because love never ends.
Geminid
@NeenerNeener: Yes, people– including those here– are tribal, and had Miyares made those comments it would have had little or no effect on voting by *Republicans*.
But if the polling figures I cite at #15 are correct, only 30 percent of likely Virginia voters identify as Republicans, while 34 percent identify as Independents. That’s where Jones’ texts hurt him. The Wason Center poll said Jones’ support among Independents slipped from +5 percent before the text scandal to -4 afterwards.
Ed. If Jones hadn’t apologized, that number would be much worse.
If you are interested in this matter, I suggest you look up Jone’ actual texts, which were widely reported when this story broke one month ago. They were made to fellow Delegate Carrie Coyner, a Republican. You can also read the apology he made.
MagdaInBlack
@RevRick: ❤️
prostratedragon
@MagdaInBlack:
Consider this.
Chief Oshkosh
@Lapassionara:
@BlueGuitarist:
Yep. The Epstein association brought down a prince. Seems likely that the Epstein Files would bring down the Turd Who Would be King, but Li’l Mikey is protecting him and the other pedophiles.
And all the money guys involved in the laundering.
BlueGuitarist
@Geminid:
@H.E.Wolf:
Virginia elections analyst Chaz Nuttycombe has adjusted estimates for VA house of Delegates a few times recently, briefly up to a 9 seat gain and now back to +8 with NoVA district 30 shifted back to R win, by .1%.
I have hopes for a couple of others, e.g. VAH-73, Midlothian/Richmond suburbs, which has trended D:Harris carried it but Biden didn’t. Postcarded for a few longer shots that Chaz doesn’t think have gotten closer.
re AG Chaz estimates 65% chance of Jones winning.
projects.statenavigate.com/25-26/states/va/forecast.html
BlueGuitarist
@tobie:
If you are not wearing a cape right now, or when phone banking, not all heroes wear capes!
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
MagdaInBlack
@prostratedragon: What the hell kind of perversion of the faith is that?
(That is not surprise I express, it is disgust)
We are Crusaders now?
schrodingers_cat
@Scout211: She should pay some lip service to Gaza and she will be welcomed with open arms by “progressives”. She already hates Ds so that’s a plus in her favor.
Geminid
@rikyrah: Good morning! Another pretty day here in Virginia.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all.
eclare
@Nukular Biskits:
Good mornin’!
Spanky
@Scout211:
#NotAllExtraterrestrials
Geminid
@Scout211: I think Marjorie Taylor Greene is “crazy like a fox.” Nancy Mace, on the other hand, is just crazy.
Mace really needs to be out of politics, so she can get help. I expect she will be after South Carolina’s primary for governor, because Mace’s mental instability is a well-known fact among Republicans there.
RevRick
@prostratedragon: @MagdaInBlack: Perversion of faith hardly begins to describe this. It’s the very opposite of what Jesus wanted. It’s worth noting that the Early Church forbid membership to soldiers.
Nukular Biskits
@RevRick:
Interesting tidbit of history there.
As for Hegseth, while we can never truly know what is in another’s heart, this is performative.
And here in the supposedly most religious state in the Union, I see a l LOT of that.
Geminid
@BlueGuitarist: Chaz Nuttycombe is young. I think he graduated from Virginia Tech around.two years ago. Nuttyvombe was already making a reputation as a political numbers-cruncher as an undergraduate.
RevRick
@Nukular Biskits: Is it as sickening as it sounds?
bbleh
@Chief Oshkosh: yeah not looking for him to keel over — I think it’s gonna be just gradual disconnection, less attention to relevant stuff, weirder outbursts, occasional absences. I think he’ll continue to do just fine in his happy place — eg big overdecorated rooms full of people who pay him attention. His dad lived to his 90s, crazy AF but not like bedridden, and he’s got the best healthcare in the world 24×7.
But I think the vultures around him are aware of the vacuum slipping in, and they’ll eat each other alive to try to fill it.
H.E.Wolf
@BlueGuitarist:
We are doing our endeavor! Along with so many others here.
I’ve written 475 postcards this year… and I racked up that total by writing an average of a minuscule-seeming 1 or 2 postcards a day.
Work small. Win big. :)
Nukular Biskits
@RevRick:
I am no pastor but even I know that the Jesus of the Gospels had a LOT to say about hypocrites like Hegseth who love to put on a spectacle of public “worship”.
And what Jesus said wasn’t very flattering.
bbleh
@Scout211: I could still see SCOTUS saying she’s doing his bidding, so even if there’s a few bureaucratic slip-ups it’s all still Unitary Executive goodness.
They don’t really need reasoning these days anyway, only sophistry.
H.E.Wolf
Might be it could get stuck in the auto-dialer. Best leave it in the cloakroom!
Betty
@bbleh: Trump is disconnected from reality. As long as the gifts/bribes keep rolling in, he is free to redecorate and play golf while making sure Pam is taking care of the retribution, life is good. What more could he want?
Thor Heyerdahl
@prostratedragon:
prostratedragon
@MagdaInBlack: I don’t know what to tell you. It has been pointed out that the now nearly 100 people he has had blown out of the waters off South America are most likely Christians, but that would barely register on these hypocrisy behemoths’ scale.
lowtechcyclist
@prostratedragon:
Good Lord, violating the Establishment Clause just a wee bit?
I’m used to people misappropriating the Gospel for their own ends. But the Constitution does say the U.S. government isn’t allowed to do that, for any definition of ‘misappropriating.’ As a Christian in this country, I strongly prefer that it stay that way.
jonas
@Kosh III: But it’s always Democrats who are the entitled elitists. Can you imagine if AOC or other Democrat were caught screaming at a cop like this?
Nukular Biskits
@Thor Heyerdahl:
A classic!
jonas
Yeah, but not white and not “born again,” so, you know, not *real* Christians.
MagdaInBlack
@prostratedragon: And the majority of the folks they are kidnapping in this country are most likely Christians.
@jonas: ok, you’re right. There is that little detail I forget.
But wait…are the Christians in Nigeria the proper color?
Betty Cracker
On his Twitter knockoff, Trump doubled down on urging Senate Repubs to abolish the filibuster yesterday evening:
Senate Repubs who are smarter than Tuberville know the filibuster protects their shitty party from its worst excesses and prevents Democrats from governing when in the majority. But if the orange fart cloud really has a bee in his bonnet about it, can they afford to tell him to go pound sand? We’ll see!
prostratedragon
@jonas: Evangelicalism has been rising in SAmerica, fbofw.
@MagdaInBlack: Christian clergy looking to visit or witness have not been treated well, either; turned away, even shot in the face.
lowtechcyclist
@MagdaInBlack:
Any color is the right color to use as an excuse to blow up a bunch of nonwhite people that Hair Furor doesn’t like.
ETA: Remember how we had to intervene in 2003 to protect the poor innocent Iraqis from Saddam Hussein? Most of them weren’t even Christian.
gene108
@Soapdish:
Succinct explanation of his appeal.
Anecdotally, I did a little bit of door knocking and everyone who was home is voting Dem. I am in a book club. People who do not normally vote in off year elections will vote for Sherrill.
I’m not confident she can win, but that has made me more hopeful she has a chance.
Trump folks using money from his campaign funds to micro target ads for irregular Trump voters scares me. Thanks to Thiel’s involvement with Trump, they are very good at focusing ads to connect with their voters.
They don’t dither on would a person prefer seeing a pickup truck in an ad, they have figured out what make, model, and color most appeals to the people the ad is for.
prostratedragon
The President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu:
Deputinize America
@prostratedragon:
OTOH, missionaries suck, soooooooo…..
BlueGuitarist
@H.E.Wolf:
Yes!
daily in the small
Off to get out the vote in person
love all y’all
Nukular Biskits
@Betty Cracker:
I’m all for getting rid of the filibuster, even though I know we’ll be on the losing end for at least the next year or so.
What’s really interesting is THIS is the one issue Senate Republicans have found some backbone to oppose Trump.
Nukular Biskits
For Watergirl (and everyone else):
NPR: Got 3 minutes? This habit may help boost hope and reduce stress
WG and Tamara have been at the tip of the spear, so to speak, on this! ;>)
Deputinize America
LOL
I hope he dies painfully and disappointed.
rawstory.com/trump-cancer-plea-begging/
Eyeroller
@Geminid: I disagree about MTG, at least to some extent. She has mental issues though you may not want to call her “crazy.” She is vulnerable to conspiratorial thinking — there were reports that she fell into a QAnon hole before going into politics (and may be why she ran for Congress in the first place). So she at least has very poor cognitive skills. But it does seem that Mace has some underlying instability.
Bupalos
@Chief Oshkosh: Epstein/Qannon is Trump’s founding political myth. It’s the totem god for Trumpism and the idea that the elites have been engaged in a conspiracy against the people. While there may be real revelations in there, I think folks on this side of the aisle fail to understand that there doesn’t really have to be anything earthshaking in there for the simple structure of the thing to badly damage Trump.
We look at it a little backwards in this way. The most damaging thing about it is it’s simply a reminder that Trump cannot and will not deliver on his founding myth. In a way it’s just as much a problem for Trump to release them and have there be nothing in them as for there to be something “big.”
Eyeroller
@Deputinize America: “If only the
tsarPresident Trump knew”Matt McIrvin
@Bupalos: I honestly doubt there’s anything in the not-yet-released Epstein files that isn’t confirmation of things we already know. But it seems like every time the issue is even salient, it genuinely hurts MAGA.
Eyeroller
@lowtechcyclist: One of the Bluesky commenters observed how deeply fascist that video is. It is associating God’s blessing with military conquest, which is indeed pretty strongly associated with fascist dictatorships.
trollhattan
Meanwhile, it’s never a bad day to attack your imagined enemies.
politico.com/news/2025/11/01/trump-ilhan-omar-somalia-00632599
And you should go back to Queens, Donny, ready to greet the new mayor.
prostratedragon
That 9th inning play in 3 paintings, from Art But Make It Sports:
“I got, I got it!” (Abduction of Proserpina, by Giambologna, 1579 (from the @NortonSimon Museum in Pasadena), 📸 by @nturchiarophoto)
“What just happened?” (Sleeping Shepherd, by Titian, 1500–10)
“Join us, brother!” (The Good Samaritan, by Joseph Highmore, 1744, 📸 by @patricksmith04)
Geminid
@Eyeroller: Yeah, Greene was pretty much a loon before entering Congress, and through her first term as well. She seems better grounded now, though, at least to me. A Georgia friend thinks likewise.
And I get the sense that Greene may be ahead of many of her Republican colleagues in understanding that there will be a post-Trump Republican party.
She at least seems to understand that there will be a post-Johnson House, and probably looks forward to it. Greene was a McCarthy loyalist, and felt strongly enough about his ouster to come to Virginia and campaign against Bob Good. Good was one of the 8 Republicans who left McCarthy hanging, and he lost his primary last year by 300 votes.
Matt McIrvin
@trollhattan: What did Queens do to you?
dww4
On CBS Sunday Morning just now the producers inserted a text titled American Pulse which showed the results of a survey response to the question “Is the Congress working to end the shutdown?”
No, from 73% and Yes from 27%.
WaterGirl
@BlueGuitarist: Hey Blue, I know what time the polls close, but I am trying to figure out when we will realistically start to have information about how the races are going.
Guessing you will know!
WaterGirl
@dww4: What a stupid question for them to ask. Stupid framing, as if both sides are the same.
Eyeroller
@dww4: It’s not inaccurate, if “Congress” is the only option, since the Rs control Congress and can force Congress not to work on the shutdown.
I saw that Cheetolini is going to be on the new Bari Weiss 60 Minutes. I hope their production values will meet with his approval.
Omnes Omnibus
@Matt McIrvin: It gave us Trump.
eclare
@Nukular Biskits:
Ha! I just sent a text to WaterGirl with that article!
eclare
@prostratedragon:
Very cool!
Jackie
@WaterGirl: Beautiful picture today!
eclare
@Jackie:
Oh wow that is!
Old School
@Eyeroller:
He does!
Nettoyeur
@Betty Cracker: I gather that some Dem pollies are saying “Go ahead, make my day” regarding a GOP filibuster revocation. That alone may keep the GOP from doing it.
Nettoyeur
@Deputinize America: The Dilbert strip raised some important issues about corporate life and American management culture…the having degraded our industrial performance for decades. But as Adams got richer, he turned into exactly what Dilbert despised.
Kayla Rudbek
@RevRick: when I started working onsite for my contractor job, I was shocked by how showily religious a lot of people were (as opposed to my former job where there were a few official religious groups, Christian and Muslim is what I remember, probably a Buddhist group as well, and announcements posted in the pantries about the available minyan meeting on Fridays if you were Jewish and interested). Former job didn’t care if you were of any religion or none as long as you could do the work, as far as I could tell. But nobody at my former job was going around wearing a “I ❤️ Jesus” lanyard like a lot of people at my current job do.
Also, I have met one of the chaplains at my current job and he sets my teeth on edge every time I run into him. More so than almost any Catholic priest or bishop I have ever had to listen to during Mass.
Kayla Rudbek
@prostratedragon: they don’t think that Catholics are real Christians, see all the rosaries that ICE/Border Patrol seizes from people at the border
Deputinize America
@Nettoyeur:
LOL, no. It was warmed over conventional wisdom of the late 80s-early 90s workplace.
I still hope it is painful, and I hope he’s gravely disappointed.
WaterGirl
@eclare: @Nukular Biskits:
Coming from two of you guys at once, it must be goodt! I’ll take a look and see if it lends itself to the front page.
wjca
Wonder if they know (as Trump likely has not figured out) that any bill from the House to release the Epstein Files would pass the Senate absent the filibuster. What is in those files?
Matt McIrvin
@Nettoyeur: Adams was a crackpot even in the heyday of Dilbert, but the strip managed to be insightful in part because the best jokes were driven by reader submissions.
Where you could see the crackpottery come out was whenever he talked about science. Even in the strip, occasionally you’d see a jarring one in which a scientist would show up and the joke would just be “DUUUHHH, I’m a scientist, I’m stupid and I say nonsense” with no real punchline.
The moment I first realized there was something off about him was his book “The Dilbert Future” which had a late section talking about his alternate theory of gravity, in which objects aren’t actually attracted to each other, it’s just that every object in the universe is expanding so it creates the illusion of attraction. It was classic crank stuff, and most readers probably vaguely assumed it was a joke, but he was dead serious.
Deputinize America
@Kayla Rudbek:
Conservative Catholics have a bad lesson coming from their erstwhile “allies”; their liberal brethren could have told them long ago.
Kayla Rudbek
@RevRick: and it’s okay to be massively Protestant at my current job, but if I suggested a feast day Mass for Our Lady of Victory, I would bet that the chaplains would blow a gasket. And any public acknowledgment of the ancient warrior goddesses (Nike, Pallas Athena, Innana, Ishtar, Kali, Pele, Bast, Sekhmet, the Morrigan, Freya, the Valkyries, Bellona, etc) would make the roof tumble in…
Tenar Arha
@NotMax: That was very good. Thank you!
Deputinize America
@Kayla Rudbek:
Bingo. The only “free expression” allowed or encouraged is that of evangelicalism and pharisaic morality.
Everything else is just a joke to them.
Meanwhile:
Reproductive Freedom is a First Amendment right.
Trans rights are First Amendment rights..
Gay rights are First Amendment rights.
Kayla Rudbek
@Deputinize America: All the Notre Dame alumni should damned well know this, after all we had to drive them (the Ku Klux Klan) out of town during the 1920s.
I think that’s one of the reasons I hate Coathanger Barrett so much, is because she went to Notre Dame Law and she should have heard these stories as well as I did (and she’s also from New Orleans if I recall correctly and they were lynching Sicilians as well as Black people there in the early twentieth century). She’s a sellout and a traitor and I hope she gets impeached, disbarred, and jailed.
Growing up part Italian in Minneapolis, I never had the luxury of assuming that the Protestants were going to be on my side.
Eyeroller
@Matt McIrvin: I realized pretty early that Adams was a man with a Theory. He often put it into the mouth of the janitor character, who was this great genius working a menial job (see the contrast!? Funny and profound!)
Kayla Rudbek
@Deputinize America: I wonder how many minds it would blow if I started wearing a St. Barbara (patron saint of artillerymen) medal or my Sekhmet necklace to work…
Matt McIrvin
@Deputinize America: The rise of reactionary Catholicism (of a variety that is literally more Catholic than the Pope and sometimes flirts with sedevacantism) as a political force fascinates me because it’s so at odds with US political history.
Though not as much with regional political history… thanks to immigration. Boston famously went from a town founded by Puritans in the 17th century to one controlled by reactionary Catholics in the early 20th. But the nation at large considered that to be a foreign immigrant menace.
Another Scott
@Kayla Rudbek: I’ve got two Saint Javelin and one Saint Zaliznytsia stickers on my car.
Go for it!!
:-)
Best wishes,
Scott.
Deputinize America
@Kayla Rudbek:
Louisville has a large progressive Catholic population, and everyone knows about the Bloody Monday Know-Nothing riots of 1855, when local Protestants attacked the Cathedral of the Assumption and killed a couple of dozen people while burning out German and Irish neighborhoods around the city.
Nobody was prosecuted.
Matt McIrvin
@Deputinize America: I often think that if Abraham Lincoln came back from the dead and asked me about contemporary politics I’d just tell him “the Know-Nothings took over the Republican Party” and he’d instantly understand most of it.
(Maybe with an addendum that it was in alliance with neo-Confederates who’d left the Democrats, to explain the rest.)
Professor Bigfoot
@Kayla Rudbek: I may have mentioned before- the very worst, most devious and racist people I’ve ever had to work with were very LOUD “Praise Jesus!” “Have you heard the good news?” Christians.
The best part of being retired is that I never, ever, ever have to deal with one of those… estimable gentlemen ever again.
Kayla Rudbek
@Deputinize America: I hadn’t heard about this! I suppose that they had less opportunity to fight back than the Notre Dame men of the 1920s did. The book about Notre Dame vs. the Klan also explains that after the Klan was active, that the Holy Cross priests decided to try to get the students living on campus and really cut off the town. Marquette University and Loyola Chicago didn’t have the same physical attacks against them, I think, so they didn’t try to pull away from the cities they were located in quite as hard. And I think Georgetown University was kind of separated from the main part of DC anyway…
Deputinize America
@Matt McIrvin:
Go 100 miles northeast from here to Cincinnati/NKY for the most reactionary pack of Catholics you can imagine. When my youngest was at University of Cincinnati, she started dated a UC student from NKY – kid was Catholic, and we’re Greek Orthodox, but non-dogmatic, and I’d gone to an all-boy Catholic high school here. I warned her to not get too attached – that NKY Catholics aren’t “bingo and good times, free and easy Louisville Catholics – that instead of having a leisurely morning in, they’re likely to spend their Saturdays at the abortion clinic screaming “SLUT” at the young women seeking services.
It didn’t take to long for her to discover the truth about my warning.
Kayla Rudbek
@Professor Bigfoot: I have seen the I ❤️ Jesus lanyards being worn by both white and Black people at work, but it only makes me nervous/edgy when it’s worn by white people. I figure it has a very different meaning when it’s a Black person wearing it.
Jackie
Moved
Professor Bigfoot
@Kayla Rudbek: The patron saint of artillerymen?!
Sent me running off to Mr. Google and wow, thank you ma’am, I have learnt something new this day.
WaterGirl
@Professor Bigfoot: Decades ago I worked for a small networking business when almost no one knew what networks were.
There were maybe 10 or 15 of us in a small office and one of them was a very religious guy who thought we women belonged at home and not at work. Did I mention super conservative and super religious?
I took enormous delight in his having accidentally sent email to the entire office about the “hard dick” problem we had experienced the day before.
signed,
Shallow, petty, WaterGirl
edited for clarity: He was an IT guy for the office, and *hard dick was supposed to be “hard disk” – the cause of the technical problem the entire office had experienced the day before.
Kent
@Matt McIrvin: I religiously followed 3 comic strips in the 80s and 90s. Calvin & Hobbes, Far Side, and Dilbert. Even when I was working on fishing boats in the Bering Sea I’d catch up on the strips when back in port.
Amazing to see how the trajectory of those three artists has diverged over time. Larson and Watterson basically finished their body of work and honorably stepped back to let their work speak for itself. Which has only underscored the genius of both of their bodies of work.
Adams who also lost his muse descended into “pay attention to me” MAGA lunacy. And it hasn’t been pretty. Of course he is dying of cancer and won’t be long with us.
Kayla Rudbek
@Deputinize America: yeah, that was the thing about going to Notre Dame, we had the business Republicans and the religious Republicans (some of whom wanted to burn some of the Holy Cross priests at the stake as heretics). Opus Dei hung around the periphery of campus and had off-campus houses, but weren’t allowed to come and openly recruit on campus if I recall correctly (too much competition for vocations and donations). Although being a woman hard science major from Minneapolis was probably enough to scare all the Opus Dei types far away from me 😁
Ave Maria and Steubenville were for the Catholics who thought that Notre Dame was too liberal (I would also have to ask Mr. Rudbek and my eldest brother-in-law where else some of their classmates went to college for a more complete list; I remember Mr. Rudbek telling me that there were people at an awards banquet disapproving of my brother-in-law going to Notre Dame because they thought it was too liberal)
Professor Bigfoot
ONCE AGAIN you people send me off to the google machine, and once again, I have learned something new.
They’re the Catholics REALLY mad about Vatican II, aren’t they?
Kent
Tax cuts, MAGA judges, deregulation, none of that is subject to the filibuster anymore. Today it really only constrains Democratic agendas, not the GOP. The smart GOP-ers understand this.
Kayla Rudbek
@Professor Bigfoot: I’m looking at Etsy and there are medals which specifically recite “St Barbara, patron of artillery, pray for us” sometimes in Latin or French depending on where they were made. Also holy cards, I think…
Matt McIrvin
@Professor Bigfoot: They’re mad about a LOT of things, and that is one of them…
Deputinize America
@WaterGirl:
OK, you can’t just throw that out there without explanation, LOL.
Kent
@Kayla Rudbek: My wife comes from Catholic roots but abandoned the church after all the sex scandals of the 90s.
One thing I learned doing college visits with my daughters here on the west coast is how much the different branches of the church diverge and how that is reflected in the different universities.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle University is Jesuit and has lots of liberal traditions. Similarly ranked University of Portland is Congregation of the Holy Cross (same as Notre Dame) and markedly more conservative.
Matt McIrvin
@Kent: Larson spawned a whole subgenre of imitators who even aped his drawing style, and none of whom were as funny as Larson.
Watterson occasionally resurfaces, says something wise about the creative process and the corrosiveness of the capitalist work ethic, and vanishes again.
Kayla Rudbek
@Kayla Rudbek:
@Deputinize America: and one of my roommates commented that I was the type of liberal Catholic that they needed to keep in the Church (my parents were probably more conservative by Minneapolis standards, we didn’t go to Mass at St. Joan of Arc which was the radical feminist parish)
Professor Bigfoot
@WaterGirl: <evil snicker>
Matt McIrvin
@Professor Bigfoot: In a subculture where trust is extended on the basis of signifying membership in the group and saying the right stock phrases, you don’t actually have to be trustworthy.
Deputinize America
@Kayla Rudbek:
As Pope Leo breaks Opus Dei into a bunch of pieces, I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the more reactionary quarters of the USCCB.
Kayla Rudbek
@Kent: yes, I am really glad that I have some Jesuit education under my belt. I always was very irritated at Charles Rice at the Notre Dame law school who would write articles for the student newspaper about how working women were selfish and bad mothers, etc. I think these are archived online (Notre Dame Observer).
I experienced less overt sexism in the physics department from the professors and graduate students than the law school displayed during my time there, and Coathanger Barrett is a product of the law school and would have had Charles Rice as an instructor.
Kayla Rudbek
@Deputinize America: rahaeli over on Bluesky always has excellent takes on what’s going on with Pope Leo.
Professor Bigfoot
I might add, “outside the in-group.”
MIGHT.
Although, I imagine that once one starts scamming the out groups, they can’t help extending that to the in-group people they don’t like, so yeah, QFT.
Matt McIrvin
@Kayla Rudbek: “more sexist than the physics department” anywhere is a real accomplishment.
Matt McIrvin
@Professor Bigfoot: They’re not trustworthy within the in-group either. Multilevel marketing/pyramid schemes are a HUGE deal in the evangelical Christian community, and have been ever since I was a teenager at least. It’s because it’s relatively easy for evangelical MLMers to convince people in the in-group to be part of their downline. All the signifiers of group membership mean that they’re automatically trusted, and the pitches are basically the same as Prosperity Gospel rhetoric.
I think this has been the main avenue for the embrace of alt-medicine woo by the religious right. There are a lot of MLMs that revolve around selling “health” supplements.
RevRick
@WaterGirl: Follow Dave Wasserman. He’ll tell you when he’s seen enough to decide.
Kayla Rudbek
@Matt McIrvin: for a physics department in the era, they had a lot of women professors and graduate students. So never any overt sexism from the faculty, instructors, or graduate students.
I would have preferred to do more undergraduate research than I did, but I did wind up as a TA for a non-majors course and I met Mr. Rudbek there, so everything worked out well in that aspect.
Some undergraduate backbenchers gave me a hard time, but they have apparently all washed out of STEM from what I can see in the alumni directory, and I am still in it (although on the dark side as an intellectual property lawyer).
divF
@p.a.:
I’m totally off baseball, ever since MLB ownership unanimously approved moving the A’s to Las Vegas. The idea is to make them Washington Generals of MLB, whose job it is to lose to the visiting teams to attract the latter’s fans to games / gambling on baseball.
MLB desperately wanted to align with the gambling money, and Oakland was the obvious choice for this. The owner John Fisher has been using being cheap as a business model for the last 20 years, plus their fan base skews not-white.
Deputinize America
@Matt McIrvin:
You described my wife’s brother and his idiot wife perfectly.
They buy into EVERY MLM possible.
Kayla Rudbek
@Kent: yes, every time the Catholics have an argument about theology, they wind up founding a new religious order (as opposed to the Protestants who just walk out and found a new denomination)
Matt McIrvin
@Kayla Rudbek: I was wondering if the Catholic Church was about to schism (again) in the same way that the global Anglican communion has, with the more reactionary Catholics actually rejecting authority of the Pope, maybe joining one of the tiny sedevacantist splinter groups with an antipope or some such. But this seems to be an extremely rare type of event, that only happens every few centuries.
Kent
@Matt McIrvin: I have lots of fundie relatives too, and yes, they (the women) get heavily into MLM schemes.
It is also due to “complementary” non-egalitarian mindset where women are not expected to have actual careers outside the home. And so out of boredom and and economic necessity fall in for these types of work-from-home scams.
Citizen Alan
@RevRick: Shit like this is why I am frequently haunted by the suspicion that donald trump is the literal antichrist, and we’re in the End Times.
RevRick
@Kayla Rudbek: The problem, as ever, is not so much the beliefs per se but the marriage of imperialistic ideology with those beliefs. And Hegseth’s video is exhibit “A”.
The early church was thoroughly anti-imperialist. In his letters, Paul opened with the slogan, “Grace and peace,” which was a huge diss of the Imperial slogan, “Victory and Peace.”
Augustus Caesar, in his campaign to Make Rome Great Again,” began by ordering the rebuilding and restoration of pagan temples, because he believed that right piety led to victory in battle which led to peace. Of course, it was all erected on massive injustices.
The early church, under the impact of the resurrection, saw faith as a matter of participation in the cosmic transformation of the created order, which, of course, meant putting matters of justice front and center. The Apostolic Fathers like Gregory of Nyssa and Chrysostom went so far to assert that superfluous wealth represented theft from the poor! Imagine what they would say about Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. And they would definitely say that Mamdani is a piker, though at least headed in the right direction.
Citizen Alan
@Matt McIrvin: i turned off of dilbert and scott adams once I realized that the only prominent female character in the strip was aggressively anti feminist.
Citizen Alan
@Professor Bigfoot: everyone I have ever known who I consider to be genuinely hateful, as in literally full of nothing but hatred, was a loud and outspoken fundamentalist christian and would happily point to their fundamentalist christian beliefs as the basis for their hateful behavior.
WaterGirl
@Deputinize America: oops, yes, I see that could be taken more than one way. i edited my comment for clarity.
WaterGirl
@RevRick: I follow Wasserman, and for VA I also follow Chas Nuttycombe.
I guess I should clarify that I am trying to figure out what time to put the VA election post up – no point in putting it up at 7pm if we’re not really going to know anything until 11pm. :-)
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@MagdaInBlack: Merry Widow LOL. Nice!
Timill
@WaterGirl: I’d say go for earlier. There will be exit polls and forecasting from about 6pm EST, so people will be talking about them in other threads if there isn’t a dedicated one.
Deputinize America
@WaterGirl:
Edit was SO disappointing, LOL
Geminid
@WaterGirl: I say put the post up at 6 p.m. Eastern Time, on the same principle you put the Baseball posts up an hour ahead of the games. There will be plenty to discuss ahead of time, and a lot of individual races will be called from 7:20 on.
I suspect all but the closest races will be decided well before 11 p.m. That’s been my experience listening to election night coverage on WRVA* out of Richmond.
* WRVA is a “clear channel” radio station that powers up after sunset, so people with good radios ought to be able to pull them in if they live east of the Mississippi. They broadcast at 1140AM.
I remember listening to coverage of the January 5, 2021 Georgia Senate runoffs on WSB radio out of Atlanta. They had 8 people reporting including the anchors. It was quite exciting.
So on the first Tuesday of November, 2022, I was really looking forward to their coverage of Raphael Warnock’s reelection. Around 7:30 I grabbed a beer, went out to my car, tuned in 750AM and heard: “And it’s Georgia Bulldogs basketball! Tonight they’re playing….”
“Those fuckers,” I muttered.
WaterGirl
@Deputinize America: LOL
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
Thanks for the tip! Most days, I pretty much forget that the AM dial still exists, and given how much the regulation of the broadcast spectrum has changed in the ~45 years since I was more familiar with it (worm’s-eye view as a paralegal in a firm with a communications law practice), I wouldn’t have been sure that clear channel stations still existed, had someone asked me.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: I sometimes listen to stations in Boston (1030AM); Charlotte (1110); Cleveland (1100); Chicago, Philadelphia and Atlanta (750). Sometimes I can even pull in KMOX from St. Louis.
I can always tell the Montreal clear channel station.because they speak French, and I can tell the Toronto station because it’s all-oldies. They have a rule up there requiring them to play so much Canadian content so there’s a lot of Gordon Lightfoot.
New York City has three clear channel stations: WABC, WCBS and Bloomberg Radio. I was out driving one Sunday evening and happened to catch “Sundays With Sinatra” on WABC. That’s a one-hour show of Frank Sinatra tunes with Joe Piscopo playing disk jocky. Beats the hell out of Gordon Lightfoot!
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
I remember listening to WABC in the evenings when I was twelve or thirteen years old, on whatever cheap radio my parents bought for me that Christmas. I know there were a few other distant stations I picked up as well, but your mentioning WABC jogged my memory.
Gloria DryGarden
@Kayla Rudbek: I’ll google sekhmet. Well, on duck duck, since google is a donor to the “ballroom” project. I know others who call on her, I should probably become acquainted with Sekhmet.