Balloon Juice - Open Threads Archives

Cheap Snark Open Thread: President Donny ‘Buys’ A Tesla From His Bestie

by Anne Laurie| March 12, 20253:12 am| 109 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Threads, Tech News & Issues, Trump Crime Cartel, Elon Musk

Trump, who doesn’t drive, announced he will use his office to perform a Tesla marketing gimmick

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— PatriotTakes ???? (@patriottakes.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 12:36 AM

it’s like a golf cart that drives into a gaggle of kindergartners if you turn on the autopilot

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— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 3:36 PM

And we all know Trump got his patented ~~five-finger~~ “friends & family” discount, so it’s not as though there will be a bunch of bothersome paperwork. Or maybe the car was just recompense for his fine, resonant sales pitch to the nation!

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— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 7:40 PM

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Cheap Snark Open Thread: President Donny ‘Buys’ A Tesla From His BestiePost + Comments (109)

War for Ukraine Day 1,111: Truce?

by Adam L Silverman| March 11, 20259:45 pm| 42 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Military, Open Threads, Russia, Silverman on Security, War, War in Ukraine

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Earlier today, the Ukrainian delegation clearly stated that it was willing to agree to a thirty day truce with Russia, which everyone is referring to as a ceasefire.

‼️ Ukraine is ready to accept the US proposal for an immediate 30‑day ceasefire—if Russia agrees and acts simultaneously. The US immediately lifts its pause on intelligence sharing and resumes security assistance to Ukraine.

www.president.gov.ua/en/news/spil…

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— Maria Avdeeva (@mariainkharkiv.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 2:13 PM

Joint Statement of Ukrainian and American delegations following their meeting in Jeddah

11 March 2025 – 19:56

Today in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — under the gracious hospitality of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — the United States and Ukraine took important steps toward restoring durable peace for Ukraine.

Representatives of both nations praised the bravery of the Ukrainian people in defense of their nation and agreed that now is the time to begin a process toward lasting peace.

The Ukrainian delegation reiterated the Ukrainian people’s strong gratitude to President Trump, the U.S. Congress, and the people of the United States for making possible meaningful progress toward peace.

Ukraine expressed readiness to accept the U.S. proposal to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire, which can be extended by mutual agreement of the parties, and which is subject to acceptance and concurrent implementation by the Russian Federation. The United States will communicate to Russia that Russian reciprocity is the key to achieving peace.

The United States will immediately lift the pause on intelligence sharing and resume security assistance to Ukraine.

The delegations also discussed the importance of humanitarian relief efforts as part of the peace process, particularly during the abovementioned ceasefire, including the exchange of prisoners of war, the release of civilian detainees, and the return of forcibly transferred Ukrainian children.

Both delegations agreed to name their negotiating teams and immediately begin negotiations toward an enduring peace that provides for Ukraine’s long-term security. The United States committed to discussing these specific proposals with representatives from Russia. The Ukrainian delegation reiterated that European partners shall be involved in the peace process.

Lastly, both countries’ presidents agreed to conclude as soon as possible a comprehensive agreement for developing Ukraine’s critical mineral resources to expand Ukraine’s economy and guarantee Ukraine’s long-term prosperity and security.

Which is why, at 9:00 PM EDT/3:00 AM local time in Ukraine, Russia is once again bombarding all of northern and central Ukraine with drone storms. Nothing says ceasefire like drone storms in the middle of the night.

It was easy for President Zelenskyy and his team to agree to the truce because it requires Putin/Russia to also do so. And Putin and his surrogates have shown absolutely no willingness to do so. Ukraine is basically calling Trump’s bluff.

The ceasefire ended before it even began. Expecting anything else from russia would have been naive.

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— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 3:09 PM

The Duma has no actual say in any of this. They’ll do whatever Putin tells them to do.

Everyone realizes this except Trump

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— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 8:44 AM

Ceasefires are not peace, nor are they binding. Putin knows this all too well. He has violated every one of them.

— Steven Seegel (@stevenseegel.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 4:20 PM

Should Putin actually agree to one, I fully expect he’ll stage a series of attacks on his own forces or on Russian targets and attempt to blame them on Ukraine. He’s been doing this since the initial limited invasion in 2014.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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The American Side Understands Our Arguments and Considers Our Proposals, I Am Grateful to President Trump for the Constructive Nature of the Dialogue Between Our Teams – Address by the President

11 March 2025 – 20:29

I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!

Our delegation has just reported on the meeting with the American team in Saudi Arabia. The discussion lasted most of the day today, and it was a good discussion – constructive, our teams managed to cover many details. Our position is absolutely clear: Ukraine has been seeking peace from the very first second of the war, and we want to do everything to ensure that peace is achieved as soon as possible and in a reliable way – so that there is no more war. Our, Ukraine’s proposal for this meeting with the Americans consisted of three points: silence in the skies – meaning no missiles, bombs, or long-range drones – and silence at sea; and real measures to establish confidence in this whole situation, in which diplomacy is ongoing, which means, primarily, the release of prisoners – our military personnel and civilians – and the return of Ukrainian children who were taken to Russia. The American side understands our arguments and considers our proposals, I would like to thank President Trump for the constructive nature of the dialogue between our teams. And today, during the discussion, there was a proposal specifically from the American side to immediately take the first step beyond that and try to establish a complete ceasefire for 30 days, not only with regard to missiles, drones and bombs, not only in the Black Sea, but also along the entire frontline. Ukraine accepts this proposal, we consider it positive, we are ready to take this step, and the United States of America needs to convince Russia to do so. That is, we agree, and if the Russians agree, the silence will take effect at that very moment. An important element in today’s discussions is America’s readiness to restore defense assistance to Ukraine and intelligence support. Once the agreements take effect, during these thirty days of silence, we, together with our partners, should have enough time to prepare all the aspects at the level of framework documents to ensure a reliable peace and lasting security guarantees. Ukraine is ready for peace. Russia must also show whether it is ready to end the war – or continue it. The time has come for the whole truth. I thank all our diplomats and our team in Saudi Arabia today. I thank everyone who helps Ukraine. I thank each and every one who fights and works for our country and our people. We firmly preserve independence. We firmly protect the lives of our people. Of course, we express gratitude to everyone who helps Ukraine endure and develop – despite everything. There must be an honorable peace.

Glory to Ukraine!

Georgia:

It’s the morning of Day 104. Theater University students and actors – some of the most targeted people by the regime – held the first overnight protest. They are, for now, leaving the place, and will be back in the evening.
“Solidsrity! Freedom! Until the end!”
#GeorgiaProtests

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 4:46 AM

Day 104. New, free and fair Parliamentary elections, and the release of the regime prisoners. The crisis will only deepen without this.

These two days, many stop at the Theater University that suspended students for protesting and it’s hard to 📷 people. #GeorgiaProtests

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 2:08 PM

We have our rituals at #GeorgiaProtests. E.g., every day, people come to Rustaveli and to the Public Broadcaster that serves the regime. Then they march to Rustaveli, arriving with phone lights & enthusiastic chants. We greet with lights and respond to the chants. The reunion energizes our spirits.

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 2:21 PM

Irakli Kerashvili, a plastic surgeon, who was detained for participating in protests, wrote a letter to his mother on Mother’s Day, March 3:

„Do not lose courage—grow stronger and more determined. We will achieve a glorious victory! I love you!”

#TerrorinGeorgia

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— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 3:06 AM

“We must be prepared for all possible scenarios because the greatest loss in this fight is our homeland. We have nothing bigger to lose,” writes Archil Museliants in his letter sent from prison. Archil was arrested for participating in pro-European protests.

#TerrorinGeorgia

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— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 8:58 AM

Finland and several other NATO member states:

“The possibility that the [Eagle S] anchor had dropped accidentally is all but ruled out, investigators said, but they added there was a chance that gross negligence or bad weather had played a part.” www.wsj.com/world/europe…

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— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 11:10 AM

“Investigators established only that the FSB, Russia’s largest security service, which also manages the country’s borders, held the ship for two days after it was loaded in one of Russia’s Baltic ports. They weren’t able to find out why it was held.” www.wsj.com/world/europe…

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— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 11:11 AM

From The Wall Street Journal:

Just after midnight on Dec. 26, a team of Finnish commandos dropped from two helicopters onto the deck of a ramshackle Russian oil tanker in the Baltic Sea and ordered the ship’s crew to sail into port.

They were acting on the orders of Finnish officials who suspected the Eagle S had hours earlier dragged its anchor along the seabed to slice through a vital power cable between Finland and Estonia. The Finnish action also potentially prevented the ship from cutting another cable nearby, officials say.

It was the latest incident of suspected sabotage involving ships carrying Russian cargo in the region, and the first time authorities had boarded a suspicious vessel while it was under way.

Then came the real work: finding the evidence to prove sabotage.

Finnish law-enforcement officials questioned the crew and scoured the 750-foot-long ship, digging through its logs and inspecting its anchor, which was torn from its chain during the incident. But Finnish and other officials familiar with the probe say they weren’t able to uncover enough evidence to issue arrest warrants or for prosecutors to press charges related to deliberate wrongdoing.

The ship was released on March 2, but three crew members are still under investigation and have to remain in the country, Finland’s police said in a statement.

Proving sabotage is difficult and requires significant evidence or testimonies to support the finding, say investigators, prosecutors and officials involved in the investigations. To issue an arrest warrant or bring a case, prosecutors must provide substantial evidence of intentional wrongdoing, rather than an accidental and unnoticed dropping of an anchor.

“Even if you show it was deliberate, it’s extremely unlikely you’ll find a paper trail linking the incident to a state actor,” said Elisabeth Braw, an expert in combat below the threshold of warfare, who is writing a book on subsea geopolitical conflict.

The difficulties of prosecuting such cases are frustrating Western officials who are trying to combat what they say is a hybrid war against critical infrastructure in the West that they blame on Russia.

The Kremlin, which didn’t respond to a request for comment, has denied attacks on Western infrastructure in the past.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has taken a newly aggressive posture in response to such events in the Baltic, home to a handful of Russia’s ice-free commercial ports, and one of the busiest trade corridors in the world. But holding anyone accountable for the incidents is proving hard.

The Eagle S captain told police the Christmastime incident was an accident, according to people familiar with the investigation. Caravella LLC-FZ, the Emirati company which owns the ship, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Having found no link between the damaged cable and the Kremlin or any other government, the Finnish government has released the ship, the people said.

To keep the ship until now, prosecutors have focused on lesser offenses such as environmental and customs violations, these people said.

Captains of other vessels have also blamed mistakes for recent damage their ships are linked to in the Baltic.

In November, the Chinese-flagged Yi Peng 3 was suspected of dragging its anchor for miles along the Baltic seafloor. Western intelligence agencies alleged in private at the time that the captain was acting on the orders of Russian operatives while the ship was moored in a Russian dock earlier that month, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Investigations by German and other European authorities, including a search of the ship that Beijing only permitted to take place on the condition that Chinese officials led it, didn’t result in evidence to support that allegation, people familiar with that probe told the Journal.

Beijing didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The possibility that the anchor had dropped accidentally is all but ruled out, investigators said, but they added there was a chance that gross negligence or bad weather had played a part.

Investigators established only that the FSB, Russia’s largest security service, which also manages the country’s borders, held the ship for two days after it was loaded in one of Russia’s Baltic ports. They weren’t able to find out why it was held.

The FSB didn’t respond to a request for comment.Across the world’s 450 subsea cable systems, spanning almost one million miles, more than 150 technical faults and other problems occur each year globally, according to the International Cable Protection Committee, a trade group. Up to 80% of cable-damage incidents are caused by accidents linked to commercial fishing and ship anchors, the ICPC said.

Overall trends in accidents are hard to assess but the number of incidents involving severe harm is increasing, said Braw.

Four major Baltic incidents, which damaged undersea cables and a gas pipeline, occurred over the past 16 months. They all involved ships that had been operating between Russian ports or were carrying Russian cargo. The Kremlin has denied wrongdoing.

The incidents prompted NATO to launch a new mission, Baltic Sentry. It is conducting naval patrols and enhanced drone, satellite and electronic surveillance of Baltic Sea areas that are packed with critical infrastructure such as data and power cables, as well as gas pipelines and offshore wind farms.

In the first incident of suspected sabotage, in October 2023, Chinese bulk carrier Newnew Polar Bear cut a data cable and a natural-gas pipeline with its anchor. The ship was allowed to continue its journey despite being under investigation.

The Yi Peng 3 cut two data cables in the same region in the November incident. The Danish navy effectively forced the ship to stop, and China ordered the captain to wait for investigators to board the vessel, which was loaded with Russian fertilizer.

A month later, Finland detained the Eagle S, registered in the Cook Islands, on suspicion it had cut the power cable to Estonia.

On Jan. 26, Vezhen, a Bulgarian bulk carrier that had just departed the Russian port Ust-Luga, was detained and boarded by Swedish special police after damaging a subsea cable, in the first deployment of NATO’s Baltic Sentry. The ship was detained and later released by Swedish prosecutors.

The owner said armed Swedish officers “aggressively” boarded the Vezhen.

NATO, inspired by Finland’s decisive raid on the Eagle S, will continue acting forcefully to deter attacks on critical infrastructure, said James Appathurai, NATO assistant deputy secretary-general in charge of hybrid warfare.

“The captains and crews of ships that are thinking of acts of sabotage should be aware,” he said.

What Can We Do? We Can Try Like Hell to Win These Special Elections

by WaterGirl| March 11, 20257:17 pm| 128 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Political Action, Political Fundraising, Targeted Political Fundraising 2025-26

We have 7 days left to contribute to the Florida Special elections for the U.S. House. After that, it will be too late for additional funds to make a difference, and we will be pivoting to the special election for the House – this time in NY.

We have an Angel match – PatrickG is matching up to $25 per person, for a total of $1,000.

April 1^st is special election day in Florida to fill the empty seats of two grifters Trump pulled out of Congress to staff his regime. These are safe Republican districts in ordinary times, and we would definitely take a pass. But these are not ordinary times.

Boots On the Ground in Florida!

Florida special elections for the US House – is this a long shot or a potentially history making opportunity?

I would argue that it’s both. Donate or volunteer! We have just 13 days left for our dollars to make an impact.

FL-01 is even more red than FL-06, so we have a better chance at winning in FL-06, but who knows? Pick your own strategy – we have thermometers up for each seat, so you can decide.

FL-06 Josh Weil BlueSky Website

Donate

FL-01 Gay Valimont BlueSky Website

We met our goal for Gay Valimont in FL-01!

We have a new Balloon Juice Angel on 3/11!

PatrickG – thank you, Patrick!

Original post, with lots more details.

Florida Special Elections – Long Shot? Or Potentially History Making Opportunity?

What Can We Do? We Can Try Like Hell to Win These Special ElectionsPost + Comments (128)

O Canada, I’m Sorry (Open Thread)

by Betty Cracker| March 11, 20252:06 pm| 140 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Politics, Trumpery

Sweet poutine-eating, maple syrup-pouring, hockey stick-wielding Christ, I’m so sick of the demented orange shitbag insulting and threatening our favorite neighbor:

O Canada (Open Thread)

I say “our favorite neighbor” because Canada is overwhelmingly more popular with Americans than any other country, and it’s far more beloved in the U.S. than Combover Caligula ever was. Donald Trump started his second term with a sub-50% approval rating (could be his high-watermark, given the frantic pace of his many fuckups). Meanwhile, about 76% of Americans have a very or mostly favorable view of Canada.

When Dumbfuck Hitler first started inanely and insultingly referring to Canada as the “51st state” and calling its then-PM “Governor Justin Trudeau,” a certain brand of U.S. pundits snickered. It wasn’t funny then, and it’s definitely not funny now.

Trump is escalating the rhetoric and appears hellbent on plunging the continent — perhaps the world — into a recession for no reason other than that he’s an addled old fool who doesn’t understand how anything works and is fixated on yet another moronic, self-aggrandizing notion.

Canada, you don’t deserve this anymore than Mr. Rogers would deserve Idi Amin moving next door. I know it’s not much, but I am sorry, and I’m rooting for y’all. I know plenty of other Americans are too.

In fact, you would have my enthusiastic support if you sent a flock of your meanest geese to converge on the shithead’s golf course, besiege his cart, pull him out onto the green and angrily hiss at and peck him until nothing was left but a sticky and unattractive pile of tangerine-colored goo on the grass. Those geese would be greeted as liberators!

The end.

O Canada, I’m Sorry (Open Thread)Post + Comments (140)

Getting to NO: Looming Fight in the Senate

by Betty Cracker| March 11, 202510:32 am| 121 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Politics

The government runs out of money in a few days unless a funding bill passes. House Democrats appear united on opposing the continuing resolution (CR) now under consideration in that chamber to fund the government through September. From Hakeem Jeffries’ “dear colleague” letter last week:

House Democrats would enthusiastically support a bill that protects Social Security, Medicare, veterans health and Medicaid, but Republicans have chosen to put them on the chopping block to pay for billionaire tax cuts. We cannot back a measure that rips away life-sustaining healthcare and retirement benefits from everyday Americans as part of the Republican scheme to pay for massive tax cuts for their wealthy donors like Elon Musk. Medicaid is our redline.

So far, so good. As we know, theoretically Repubs could pass their bill without Democrats’ help since they are the majority. But until recently, most folks assumed the Freedom Caucus crazies who vote against every funding bill would vote against this one too.

Maybe not this time. The political calculus has changed. Even old-timey bagman Repubs are either fully infected with MAGA madness or too chickenshit to oppose it, which is why Trump was able to install the most unqualified cast of kooks ever nominated for cabinet positions and why party bosses are telling R congressmen to avoid constituents rather than criticize Musk and his destructive kinderchuds.

Trump is leaning on House nutjobs, including Thomas Massie (R-KY), whom Trump threatened yesterday with a vow to “lead the charge” to oust him via a primary opponent. The other hold-outs are quieter than usual, and they are a loud bunch. So, it’s looking likelier that they will cave and the bill will pass with Repub votes only. (Or maybe a Dem or two will defy Jeffries and cave; this will be an interesting test.)

Anyway, TPM reporter Emine Yücel explained why the so-called “clean” House CR is a shitty deal here:

For weeks now, Democrats have been in talks with Republicans to find a way to get to a bipartisan government funding deal. For Democrats, the key demands center around Musk’s lawless rampage through the executive branch.

But GOP negotiators have, reportedly, continuously shut down requests from Democrats for a guarantee that Trump and Musk will stop unilaterally rescinding and withholding congressionally approved funding.

In fact, the current CR may make the problem worse: It gives the Trump administration and DOGE significantly more leeway in shifting federal cash.

So what happens if Repubs pass the bill and it moves on to the Senate, where it would need eight Democratic senators to vote YES? Josh Marshall is keeping a tally of Democratic senators’ positions on the CR here.

Fettermanchin is the only hard YES so far. Kim, Sanders and Kaine are a hard NO, according to Marshall. He records a soft NO for Slotkin, Coons and Murray. The rest haven’t declared a position yet, per the latest update.

IIRC, Warren said they should vote for a shorter-term CR because funding the proposed CR for the fiscal year codifies the DOGE nonsense. So she sounds like a NO too?

Anyway, if you’re lucky enough to have a Democratic senator and have an opinion on whether they should support the CR or not, now’s the time to contact them. I am not so fortunate, but if I were, I’d urge them to vote NO.

The primary arguments for YES are that shutdowns are bad, and Dems would get blamed. Shutdowns are bad, but so is the illegal power grab that is causing episodic shutdowns of key programs and enshittifying current government operations already. Also, are we sure Dems would get blamed?

Trump, Musk, Fox News, certain MSM outlets, etc., would blame Dems for a shutdown, sure. But to the extent they pay attention at all, unaffiliated voters see Trump and Musk taking a chainsaw to the federal government and Trump’s erratic behavior tanking markets. Nobody knows for sure what will happen, but I wouldn’t bet the farm voters will blame a shutdown on the minority party in Congress under these unique circumstances.

Meanwhile, eight YES votes from Dems would surrender the last bit of leverage and in essence enable Trusk-Mump’s illegal power grab without a guarantee that funds will be spent as appropriated. So I hope Repubs can’t find eight Democrats to help them pass this shit sandwich.

What do you think?

Open thread.

Getting to NO: Looming Fight in the SenatePost + Comments (121)

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Five Years of the Covid Pandemic

by Anne Laurie| March 11, 20259:13 am| 104 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19, Excellent Links, Open Threads

Good morning… the @cenmag.bsky.social team put together this incredible package looking at next gen vaccines, antivirals and what the business case is for developing more COVID treatments.
Happy 5 year anniversary of the pandemic
cen.acs.org/pharmaceutic…

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— Laura Howes (@laurahowes.bsky.social) March 10, 2025 at 3:36 AM

Not exactly an upbeat topic, and yet: We could be in an even worse place than we are today, and for many months it looked like some unimaginably worse place was somewhere between inevitable and possibly almost a relief.

Will Leich, professional sportswriter (& novelist), at his Substack:

… Unofficially, I’ve always considered March 11, 2020, a date we’ll hit the fifth anniversary of this coming Tuesday, the start of the American version of the pandemic. Obviously, it had hit China and swaths of Europe, most notably Spain, before then, and there were segments of the country, specifically the Pacific Northwest, whose Covid story began earlier than the rest of the country’s. But March 11 was:

– The night that Utah Jazz forward Rudy Gobert tested positive for Covid minutes before he was supposed to take the floor for a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder and days after he famously touched every reporter’s microphone as a way to mock the NBA’s new Covid protocols. This would led to a shutdown of the NBA and, less than 24 hours, all American sports, including the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament…

– Then-President Trump addressed the nation live in the Oval Office, as he sniffled and slurred and made it vividly clear that, as the most dangerous public health threat of the last 100 years landed on American shores, the worst possible person was going to be President as it happened…

…[F]ive years later, the overarching societal takeaway from Covid these days seem to be something like embarrassment—like we all got too excited, that we overreacted, that our deepest fears early in the pandemic were replaced by a sense that all that tumult was for nothing. DWW notes how wrong this is, how the misery and death that ultimately resulted from Covid would have been considered worst-case scenarios during most of the pandemic itself…

To even bring up Covid now is to be, plainly, annoying. I guarantee you all the five-year-anniversary pieces that will run this week, including this one, will be among the least-consumed pieces by everyone who produces them. People’s eyes glaze over when you talk about Covid. People do not want to talk about it. Part of this is of course human nature; no one wants to marinate in their lowest moments. Part is also the natural course of the virus itself. There was a time in which I was terrified that anyone who had Covid was going to die; now, if I were in the middle of a conversation with you and you told me you had Covid, I probably wouldn’t even move from where I was standing…

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You can make an argument that so much of the current madness is a direct result of our desire to pretend that Covid didn’t happen—to punish ourselves for changing as much as we did during Covid. The department responsible for our health and safety is run by a lunatic vaccine denialist; our long overdue clear-eyed look at systemic racism in the wake of George Floyd’s murder led not to widespread change but instead craven opportunism and then a backlash that has now been weaponized by the new administration; the silos we retreated into Covid are now the only places many of us live. That desire we all have to return to “normal,” whatever that means, has led us to willfully overlook so many things that are obviously not normal. If I’ve learned anything from Covid, it’s that once people lived through an entire planet shutting down because of a virus in the air that can kill you, it’s difficult for anyone to be shocked by much of anything after that. Including, I suspect, another public health disaster. Right now, there’s bird flu, and measles, and lord knows what else. But, you know, shrug: Whaddya gonna do, you know? …

Everyone has pivot moments in their lives, when nothing is the same after that moment than it was before. But Covid was a pivot moment that happened to everyone on earth at the exact same time. It is no wonder that we are still reeling from it. And it’s equally no wonder that we continue to collectively try to act like we aren’t. But on this anniversary, this five-year mark, it’s vital to remember. It’s less important to reflect on what it felt like on March 11, 2020, or whatever the moment that the enormity of what was happening finally hit you was. Instead, remember who you were in the months before then … and how different that person is from the one you are right now. I know we don’t want to think about it. I know we all want to move on. It’s perfectly natural. I’m still pretty sure it’s the biggest thing that has happened to the world since I we arrived on this planet, and that we’ll still be dealing with its aftermath when we leave it.

Professional doomster David Wallace-Wells, at the NYTimes — “Why can’t we remember the pandemic clearly?”:

In December, a group of the world’s leading virologists and epidemiologists gathered in Japan to contemplate the “next pandemic” — and to try to make sense of the last one. “The world I live in right now,” one of the W.H.O.’s lead Covid researchers told the assembled crowd, “everyone is acting as though this pandemic didn’t really happen.”

Frankly, though I can hardly survey the world without seeing the collateral damage, I feel the same. The pandemic was a world-historical trauma, one which “took more than 20 million lives, cost $16 trillion, kept 1.6 billion children out of school and pushed some 130 million people into poverty,” the journal Science tallied this winter. And yet just five years since it began Covid-19 has already become a vague and somewhat distant memory…

But beyond vibe shifts in politics and culture, the pandemic memory gap also raises an epistemological question: How could such obvious capital-H history become so quickly invisible in so many Americans’ understanding of the world and its recent past? And if one answer to that question is just, “It’s how we coped with mass death and the fact of our own uncomfortable vulnerability,” and another is, “The cost of getting back to normal was pretending that the pandemic was no big deal,” a third is, “The Covid experience itself was pretty complicated and pretty confusing, even for those of us trying our best to track it.”

To begin with, there were really four pandemics. They blur confusingly together in our collective memory, but each came with varying levels of threat and different kinds of policy responses. First came the emergency phase, in which few Americans actually got sick with the original variant but a large share of those who did got very sick or died. Then: the vaccine era, in which the choice to get a shot became the clearest marker of your pandemic politics and a major driver of personal risk. (This is also when the country began to move from health solidarity to something far more individualistic.) Then: the Omicron phase, marked by rising breakthrough infections, rampant spread and much lower mortality rate per infection. (Many of us told ourselves, during this time, that the disease was a diminishing threat, even though the rampant spread led to daily death tolls that approached the pre-vaccine peak.) And finally: the pandemic exit, with illness and diseases shuffling along in the background and memories of Covid dominated by recriminations…

But wait — there’s more! Craig Spenser, infectious disease specialist, at the Atlantic — “The Diseases Are Coming” [gift link]:

… For more than a decade, I have worked as a physician and public-health expert responding to infectious diseases around the world. In 2014, while treating Ebola patients in Guinea, I contracted and survived Ebola myself. I know how lethal Donald Trump’s assault on America’s outbreak preparedness could be. We are sure to regret it…

The fallout from these sweeping cuts is particularly evident when examining USAID, or what’s left of it. The agency’s tagline was “From the American people,” and perhaps the American people didn’t understand that it was also for them. Musk disparaged the agency outright—declaring it a “criminal organization.” The White House pointed to alleged wasteful spending, including funding for a “DEI musical” in Ireland (which wasn’t even funded by USAID, it turned out). In decrying the agency’s downfall, many Democrats focused more on the importance of “soft power” foreign policy than on-the-ground impact. Yet much of USAID’s budget was devoted to addressing humanitarian and health crises abroad with the implicit goal of preventing these emergencies from reaching our own shores. (Explicitly, the goal was to “advance American security and prosperity.”) Americans are safer when instability and infectious threats are effectively managed on foreign lands…

… USAID’s efforts to stop Ebola at its source are also now gone. USAID’s role in Ebola containment has long been essential. During the 2014 West Africa outbreak—during which more than 11,000 people died—USAID oversaw training of local health-care workers, the building of Ebola treatment centers, and passenger screening at the borders and airports. A decade later and just days into Trump’s second term, Uganda reported another Ebola outbreak. This time, though, the foreign-aid freeze Trump had put in place meant that USAID was unable to supply the usual resources for transporting lab specimens or implementing airport screening. The day after Musk reassured the Cabinet that Ebola prevention had been swiftly restored, the State Department canceled crucial contact tracing and surveillance efforts for Uganda’s outbreak. With USAID nowhere to be found, the WHO scaled up its own response. That’s something, for now, but America’s absence is shameful…

Now, and with startling speed, the country is turning its back on global health. In doing so, it is endangering other nations, and also itself. USAID’s account on X, once a digital chronicle of its achievements, is gone. When I search for it on my phone, I get an error message: “Something went wrong. Try again.” We must heed that warning. Musk and Trump have destroyed the shield that once protected America from the next global contagion. Deadly diseases don’t bother with borders; no wall will keep them out. If America stays the course, “Something went wrong” will become the epitaph of a great country, one that once led the world in global health preparedness. It will be deeply missed.

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Five Years of the Covid PandemicPost + Comments (104)

Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: Lose Ten Pounds of Ugly Fat…

by Anne Laurie| March 11, 20254:55 am| 189 Comments

This post is in: DOGESHIT, Open Threads, Trump-Musk, Elon Musk

Again: Musk is laying out the flim flam to try to cut Social Security by $500-$700Billion per year [this is 1/3 of the program, roughly, using his ketamine math].

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— Clean Observer (@hammbear2024.bsky.social) March 10, 2025 at 5:06 PM

… Cut off your own head, DOGE. Not like you’re using it for anything but a MAGA hatstand!

The goal of DOGE pretty clearly appears to be:
1.) Blow up discretionary non-defense spending
2.) Find a way to stop paying around 500-700b in Social Security. Cynical take is they'll just target blue state social security payments and hold them.

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) March 10, 2025 at 5:08 PM

honestly the DOGE program (you can barely call it one) might be the most unpopular policy slate every put into practice in american history tbh

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— Reconstructionist (@unavaleable.bsky.social) March 10, 2025 at 5:17 PM

It’s all bullshit. The real question is whether they stick with it in the face of the incontrovertible evidence that he’s completely full of it. This stuff is very easy to disprove.

— Clean Observer (@hammbear2024.bsky.social) March 10, 2025 at 5:13 PM

It's honestly hard to come up with a policy program more likely to blow up the GOP coalition than what they're doing

— Reconstructionist (@unavaleable.bsky.social) March 10, 2025 at 5:20 PM

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Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: Lose Ten Pounds of Ugly Fat…Post + Comments (189)

They spent the last eight months firing professionals and replacing them with ideologues.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

In my day, never was longer.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

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

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

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

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Original post, with lots more details.

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Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: Lose Ten Pounds of Ugly Fat…