Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Reminder: The first Zoom to discuss Tom’s book is 2 weeks from tonight.
SAVE THE DATES
Wednesdays
April 8 and April 15
8 pm Eastern time
Zooms will start on time and will last 90 minutes.
More details in the original post.
Interested in a Zoom Book Club to Discuss Tom Levenson’s Book ‘So Very Small’?
We have received about 40 RSVPs so far – the zoom link will go out the week of the zoom.
Well, good news for us, but not so great from the orange guy. Love that they chose ORANGE for the “approve” color! Total accident, I’m sure.
OMG, The War (Simon Rosenberg)
Trump is in a serious bind here now, a far more serious bind than the DHS/ICE fiasco.
For if he cuts and runs now, today, he will leave Iran a stronger power in the Middle East than before the war began. It’s why the Saudis, the Israelis, and the Emirates are pushing Trump to keep going, further weaken Iran, and attempt to take control of the Strait of Hormuz.
For if he leaves now it will be a geopolitical catastrophe for the US, Europe, Israel, and the Gulf Arab states – for the Russian-Iranian “Shahed” alliance will be strengthened, not weakened. So there is a powerful logic now to keep going, and keep fighting.
While the domestic logic has always argued for ending an unpopular war, the reality Trump now faces is that even if he finds some bullshit way to claim “victory” Iran may not let that happen, and can keep terrorizing the Strait and keep our economy – and his political and electoral prospects – in the shitter.
Meaning there is no easy way any longer to “end the war” and have everything magically snap back to where things were before. Easy peasy.
I mean, seriously, could there be a more effective way to make sure that every single person understands that you are responsible for the fucked-up-ed ness of the TSA situation at the airports than to send people in military garb, with weapons, to major airpots?
Are you guys up for making a list of all the problems Donald J. Trump has created for himself? And then attempted to “solve”?
Bonus question: Is FFOTUS his own worst enemy, or has he actually been a success from the perspective of the destruction he has caused?
A year ago we probably wouldn’t have covered these races at all. Now we can see how important even the state races are these days. They have always been important – Republicans absolutely beat us to the punch re: recognizing the importance of state races.
The North Carolina primaries were 3 weeks ago, but the State Senate leader insisted on not one, but two, recounts. Yesterday, after the second recount wasn’t netting him any votes, he finally conceded.
The loser, of course, had been endorsed by Donald Trump.
I have a question: Is Trump so greedy that if a Republican candidate offered him money NOT to endorse them, would T take the money in spite of the insult? I ask because it doesn’t seem like his endorsements are helping the recipients in any way.
Donald Trump – Hypocrite Extraordinaire – Voted by Mail in Florida
Voting for me, but not for thee!
Dems won two out of three. As they say, two out of three ain’t bad. Especially in Florida!
Lots of great details in this article from 270toWin. Good thing Jackie recently moved to Florida, as it seems like she might be our good luck charm in FL.
Another good article at The Downballot.
In the second massive upset of the night for Florida Democrats, Brian Nathan, a Navy veteran and union official, flipped a state Senate seat that became vacant after Gov. Ron DeSantis tapped its previous occupant to serve as his lieutenant governor.
Nathan overcame a huge financial disadvantage to beat Republican state Rep. Josie Tomkow and win the Tampa-area 14th District. Nathan was leading by a margin of 50.2 to 49.8 when Tomkow conceded.Earlier in the evening, Democrat Emily Gregory won a separate special election for a state House seat in Palm Beach County that includes Donald Trump’s seaside lair of Mar-a-Lago.
DeSantis himself put the 14th District in peril for the GOP when he elevated Sen. Jay Collins to replace his previous second-in-command last August. Though the district had voted for Donald Trump by a 53-46 margin in 2024, four years earlier, it had gone for Joe Biden 51-47. On Tuesday night, it returned to form.
Brian Nathan (D), who won, is a Navy veteran and union leader.
The loser, Josie Tomkow, had given up her previous seat in order to “win” this one. And then she lost.
Too bad, so sad for Josie!
This one was a bit of a squeaker, but T won this district by 11 points in 2024. The Republican who had this seat before he resigned won by a 19% margin in 2024.
Trump endorsed the Republican male, of course, who was beaten by a woman!
The person who had vacated this seat – Josie Tomkow – had been reelected by a 57% to 43% margin in 2024. Not all that far off from these election results.
Nathan’s win represents the 30th legislative seat that has flipped from red to blue since Trump returned to the White House. During that time, Republicans have flipped zero Democratic seats.
Open thread.
Another Tuesday, More Wins for Democrats!Post + Comments (69)
Looooooong time lurker, first submittal to OTR.
I’m not a quilter but I am a great admirer. I attended the Modern Quilt Guild’s show on Feb. 20 in Raleigh, North Carolina. These were mostly what I believe are called ‘art quilts’ and definitely not my granny’s designs. If I left with one takeaway it was that modern quilters are woke – and very pissed off.
On The Road – Mirona – Quilt Show – Raleigh NCPost + Comments (27)
This quilt gives you an idea of the amazing quilting – i.e. – the stitchery used to sew the layers together. These days, the majority is done using fancy machines, and will give you more respect for all the work done in the good ‘ol days.
So last week we talked about the last time some of us changed our minds about something, which I thought turned into a really interesting conversation.
We talked about what we changed our minds about and I’m sure some of us talked a bit about how our minds were changed.
What are the ways our minds have been changed? Through persuasion? New information that we sought out? New information that we stumbled upon, or that just happened to come our way? Through deliberate messaging from a source we trusted? Through deliberate message from an unexpected source? Through repetition? Something a friend or colleague or stranger said?
I’m obviously asking with an eye toward what we can learn about what might help persuade someone and what would most likely lead them to tune us out.
It’s obvious to me that facts get dismissed whenever someone comes in with a closed mind. So I have one more question. Is there a way to make it past that? Or is that a dead end? “There are none so blind as those who will not see.”
Okay, one final question. Can we extrapolate from what works with us? Or are the kind of people who hang out at a liberal political blog fundamentally different from normies? Are we fundamentally different from the kinds of people who hang out on a right-wing space? Or are we similar enough in behavior related to how we learn or what might change our minds?
Even though the sources of information are obviously very different, is there a difference in the kinds of information that make it through?
We Talked about the What, Now Can We Talk about the How?Post + Comments (137)
No matter how bad things get, there is one thing always brings me happiness, however fleeting.
Do we all have things like that? Mine is related to my little Henry.
When Henry tore his ACL in 2017, the vet told me that something like 25 or 50% of pets will tear the ACL in their other leg. Yes, I am aware that there’s a huge difference between 25 and 50 :-) but all I remember is that it was some horrendously big round number.
Anyway, that was the end of Henry getting to hop on and off my (high) bed a hundred times a day like a little bunny.
So he started having to sleep in a crate in my bedroom at night. Sad for both of us! Fast forward… Henry has started waking me up at 5 or 5:30 to go to the bathroom. I turn my heat really low when I go to bed at night, so the house is very cold when we get up around 5. When we come back in, I turn the heat up and we go back to bed.
The kitties sleep with me at night, but they bail once we’ve been out to the bathroom. So I close the bedroom door and go back to bed, leaving Henry’s crate open. Sometimes we sleep for hours, sometimes not that long, but at some point Henry comes out of his crate to see if I’m awake. I often play possum if I’m not ready to get up.
Anyway, the sound that never fails to make me happy comes when little Henry steps out of the crate and I hear the patter of his little feet as he runs over to the bed. I can hear the happiness in his little footsteps. “Are we getting up now? Is it time to get up?”
He’s such a happy little boy, it never fails to make me smile. And if I’m not ready to get up yet, he runs right back to his crate with the comfy blankie and tries again a little while later. Every time, always hopeful. He is such a blessing in these terrible times.
Do you guys all have little things like that?
A particular bird call? The sound of your partner snoring? The sound of the kitties who inevitably start to play like crazy after the lights are out? The sound of your child or grandchild laughing? Something that never fails to trigger a happy memory?
If you do, I hope you’ll consider sharing it with us.
I traveled to Japan in late October to join a 12-day trek on the island Kyushu. I decided to arrive in Fukuoka a day early so I could visit Nagasaki. In particular, the Peace Park and Atomic Bomb Museum. The train from Fukuoka to Nagasaki was delayed an hour (!) owing to a broken train signal. Which flipped my plans to visit their Chinatown first. Instead, I tagged along with an Australian couple headed to the Peace Park. Who were way better at navigating than me (Apple Maps rapidly depleted my iPhone’s battery alas). After touring the park and museum with them, I had to skip Chinatown as I needed to get back to Fukuoka to meet up with the tour group.
Weirdly, while in Nagasaki, I noticed that Trump had just visited Tokyo—to sign a ‘trade deal’ on October 28th. A couple days later he ordered the Pentagon to restart nuclear weapons testing. Oh.
On The Road – way2blue – NAGASAKI 31 October 2025Post + Comments (15)
The Nagasaki Peace Park was established in 1955 to mark ground zero. At 11:02 on 09 August 1945 (3 days after Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima), Fat Boy was dropped by B-29 Bomber Bockscar and exploded ~500 meters above this black stone monolith. In a flash, about a third of Nagasaki was destroyed; an estimated 40,000 people were killed instantly. Note, a fragment of Urakami Cathedral, relocated to the park, stands behind and to the right of the monolith—accompanied by a plaque:
“Nagasaki City installs this plaque as a prayer for the repose of the souls of the atomic bomb victims and to ensure this tragedy is never repeated.”