Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

People are complicated. Love is not.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Everybody saw this coming.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

This blog will pay for itself.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

Let there be snark.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

You are here: Home / Archives for MisterDancer

MisterDancer started writing for Balloon Juice in January 2022.

MisterDancer (He/Him) is what he says on the tin -- a once-and-future, and so-called, belly dancer. Also a former (gospel) singer, a technophile with the career to match, an (very) amateur historian, a struggling writer, a student on gender and race in America, and generally is the kind of person who collects interests like most folx eat popcorn.

He also loves tons of pop culture, especially the parts on display at your local Science Fiction Convention.

Any or all of the above topics are game for his posts here. Except maybe belly dance, 'cause that's a bit obscure for a Top 1000 Political Blog (or so he thinks!)

NOTE: He welcomes engaged critiques of his works, especially with citations for further reading. One-line "critical" responses are subject to mocking.

A Programming Note on the Dept. of Justice.

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I am not a Lawyer. I am, however, a Programmer — also known as a Coder — by education, and trade.

And it occurs to me that the debate over Garland’s DoJ (in)action, is a lot like the debates on writing code.

Balloon Juice readers have years of experience with applications built on code that means well, but has real flaws. Watergirl (among many) has done amazing work to keep the ship here, upright, in the face of some real “oops” in the areas of technology this blog requires.

Yet the level of coding you need to keep a blog up, is not the same level you need to keep an airplane up. The risks for the former coming down are, well, very obviously different.

So, too, the risks around the work centered on Former President Trump and his acolytes. I can only imagine — again, as a non-lawyer — how much work it takes to ensure these cases don’t fall out of the air.

And yet: that’s Justice.

Justice — real Justice, not the stuff we get on TV, or in my fave comic books — isn’t Vengeance. It isn’t swift. It sure as hell isn’t satisfactory from an emotional POV. I’ve not met a lot of Public Defenders, but they don’t strike me as a happy go-lucky bunch of people. Delivering people from poor decisions — including jailing them over those decisions — is work.

Justice takes time. And that means toxic people have chances to disrupt it. To derail it. To shutter it. We saw that with both how the Muller Investigation didn’t have the best start, and certainly was torpedoed in the ending, assisted by a GOP-addled Fourth Estate unable to process nuance and deflection.

I’ve seen something like rushed Justice, in the code that built wobbly Applications. So much of what we’ve built this Internet on is rushed, for a host of reasons. That rush makes it easy to exploit — again, as so many here will recall, just recently.

Garland cannot afford exploits. The code — the legal arguments — this DoJ writes, must be solid. Not solely, as some many has said, because of Democracy being on the line — rather, the reputation for impartial Justice in America, is on the line.

That is the reputation that these Authoritarian Asswipes should fear! Good laws, and wise enforcement, are critical to protecting Democracy. Bad laws? Well, from Dred Scott to Dobbs, we’ve seen how they rip up the landscape of Democracy.

And that is why it pains me to also say this: far too much of what happens in courtrooms in America, is Not Justice. And that’s relevant, as well.

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“DeSantis terrifies me.”

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American Democracy needs Charlie Crist to beat Ron DeSantis and become Governor of the State of Florida. I’m convinced this is a critical race, on many levels. Maybe I’ve learned the wrong lessons from reading Betty Cracker; I’ll accept that.

This started with me pondering how Jim Crow developed. How Southern states, in the US, used terror attacks and “we all hate Negros” and “Brother versus Brother!” and the sheer exhaustion of our Civil War’s aftermath to break what goodwill existed for equality. From that lens? DeSantis terrifies me.

For example, here’s one of many key issues:

DeSantis has taken over all three branches of government in Florida. There is nobody in the state willing and able to hold him accountable. The Miami Herald editorial board calls it “unchecked one-man rule.”

Trump is a Trumpist. But DeSantis is a fascist. (Emphasis Mine — MD)

I see in him the capacity to build a modern Jim Crow system of perpetually abusive and fascist governance. No “Gilead” babble, this time. Just straight-up “here’s how we abuse people to hold power“ in our modern era. And yes, that’s different from using a mess of ad hoc asshole attacks for petty gains.

What gives me hope? We, as a Country, are in a position to break the back of that effort. At least, for a time.

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AG Garland to speak at approx. 2:30 PM ET

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AG Garland is expected to make a statement, topic unannounced, around 2:30 PM ET today — as I post this we’re already 15 minutes behind that time and Garland has not started, yet. This C-SPAN link works for me, and below is a CNBC live view on YouTube:

 

I may not be around to watch/monitor thread, but given recent developments thought this worthy of a Front Page.

Open Thread!

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Musk Runs From Twitter (Friday News Drop Strikes Again!)

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On a break due to a lot of things, but let us savor:

Elon Musk said on Friday he was terminating his $44 billion deal for Twitter Inc (TWTR.N), saying that the social media company had failed to provide information about fake accounts on the platform.

Yeah, lots of us knew, yet it’s good when the other shoe gets to droppin’.

And some ol’ skool to celebrate:

Open this thread up wide and say “ahhhhh…”!

Hope folx have the best weekend y’all can, if you can! I’ll continue to be more away than not, for a while longer.

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FIGHT BACK.

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This is my protest speed today:

(I lost who in the comments first posted this; thank you!)

If you, like me, aren’t near enough to shout at the SCOTUS Six, but have a few pennies to spare? Please consider your local/regional Abortion Fund for giving, along with Clinics like the Red River Women’s that Betty wisely recommended.

While we’ve been staring at the Court for years, these tough orgs have been doing the work, in many cases, well below-the-radar. They connect people who need this right, with the places that can provide Abortions, even if it’s states away.

Their work just got tougher, so it’s time we make it as easy as we can. And yes, giving to groups like the National Network of Abortion Funds, or Planned Parenthood (and it’s regional orgs), or the ACLU (who also has regional orgs) is fine

Yet these local groups matter. Their flexibility and understanding of the local situation can be crucial in these situations! Thus, they deserve our support and respect.

I contribute to several of them, aligned to where I live, right now on a Monthly basis. Be it one-time, or once a Month, I urge you to help if you can.

Finally: I don’t think, this time, we’re alone in this fight. From a comment I made earlier:

Emily Seife, Senior Editor at Scholastic Press, the biggest publisher of comic books in America[…] tweeted; “I’ll mention now that my colleagues and I absolutely do want your YA books with or about abortions. There aren’t enough of them and these stories need to be told and normalized, and that’s not going to change.”

So if you know someone who has the spoons and energy to write their YA Abortion story? You know who to go to.

And our culture, for once in a damned long time, might actually listen.

Open thread.

[EDIT: I was informed that a joke that was meant to be scatalogical, had a homophobia reading I had not considered. I have updated the post to remove that reference, and credit the commentator for asking my consideration in making this a good space to engage in. ]

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