Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Too little, too late, ftfnyt. fuck all the way off.

The lights are all blinking red.

Fight them, without becoming them!

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

He really is that stupid.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Stand up, dammit!

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

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Totally Open Thread (and book sponsorship for the Elle Reeve book club)

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This is a totally open thread.

Plus one housekeeping detail for those who are interested in the Elle Reeve zoom.

For the Midnight in Washington book club, we paired up folks who had extra walking-around money with people who wanted to participate in the book club but didn’t have funds for the book.

Maybe we can do the same thing for the Elle Reeve discussions?  Send me an email message if you resemble either of the descriptions above.

Who is Elle Reeve, and Why Would You Want To Read Her Book?

Open thread.

 

 

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War for Ukraine Day 1,061: Who Could’ve Possibly Imagined?

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We now know the official policy of the Biden administration DID NOT include Ukraine successfully defeating Russia. We know this because the former senior director for Russia policy on Biden’s National Security Staff/National Security Council has now confirmed it with a direct, for attribution quote.

“When Russia invaded Ukraine nearly three years ago, President Joe Biden set three objectives for the U.S. response. Ukraine’s victory was never among them”

I often disagree with this particular author, yet this article is a heartbreaking truth

time.com/7207661/bide…

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) January 19, 2025 at 4:39 PM

From Time: (emphs

When Russia invaded Ukraine nearly three years ago, President Joe Biden set three objectives for the U.S. response. Ukraine’s victory was never among them. The phrase the White House used to describe its mission at the time—supporting Ukraine “for as long as it takes”—was intentionally vague. It also raised the question: As long as it takes to do what?

“We were deliberately not talking about the territorial parameters,” says Eric Green, who served on Biden’s National Security Council at the time, overseeing Russia policy. The U.S., in other words, made no promise to help Ukraine recover all of the land Russia had occupied, and certainly not the vast territories in eastern Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula taken in its initial invasion in 2014. The reason was simple, Green says: in the White House’s view, doing so was beyond Ukraine’s ability, even with robust help from the West. “That was not going to be a success story ultimately. The more important objective was for Ukraine to survive as a sovereign, democratic country free to pursue integration with the West.” 

That was one of the three objectives Biden set. He also wanted the U.S. and its allies to remain united, and he insisted on avoiding direct conflict between Russia and NATO. Looking back on his leadership during the war in Ukraine — certain to shape his legacy as a statesman — Biden has achieved those three objectives. But success on those limited terms provides little satisfaction even to some of his closest allies and advisers. “It’s unfortunately the kind of success where you don’t feel great about it,” Green says in an interview with TIME. “Because there is so much suffering for Ukraine and so much uncertainty about where it’s ultimately going to land.”

I have been explaining that this was the actual policy of Biden and his administration since late 2022 when it became clear based on his and his team’s actions. I’ve explained it doesn’t matter what Secretary Austin says in public, that’s not actually policy. All that matter is what the actual policy is. And we now have confirmation that it was not and is not for Ukraine to defeat Russia. It was and is – at least for another seventeen hours or so – for Ukraine to merely survive.

Pathetic.

Here’s last night’s/this morning’s Ukrainian air defense tally:

🛡️ Ukrainian air defences destroy 43 out of 61 drones launched by Russia overnight, 15 disappear from radar

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— Ukrainska Pravda 🇺🇦 (@pravda.ua) January 19, 2025 at 4:47 AM

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

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People’s March and Coverage vs Attention

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People's March and the Coverage

Kay made a point in the last comments that her TikTok feed was full of People’s March coverage, but not her Bluesky feed.  I saw a couple of pics of the marches, but it sure wasn’t wall-to-wall.  So, first point is that what you see on social media is a lot who you follow, as well as what the platform wants to suppress.

Comrade Scott asked if NPR covered it, and the answer is “kinda sorta”.  Oregon Public Broadcasting had a story on the Portland protests, and NPR folded it into their big “Trump is coming oh-oh” piece.

Looking at a Google News search, the top story about the marches is from the BBC, but there was a Post, Seattle Times, Minneapolis Star Tribune and even local Rochester station covering local marches.  Even Axios covered the DC march. (Why it matters?  Zoom in!  So fucking stupid.)

Anyway, there’s a difference between coverage and attention, and I’d say that it was covered but the TikTok ban, the cancellation of the outdoor inauguration due to the cold crowd size and worrying about what comes next with Trump got more attention.

(The photo above is from the NBC Channel 4 coverage in DC, which has more photos.)

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TikTok tick tock from AOC

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Betty already posted about the “hail Trump” message showing on TikTok.  AOC was on Instagram last night talking about this.  Instagram is such a walled garden (this link might work if you follow her and if you have an Insta account), that I transcribed it:

OK, I want to talk a little bit about this TikTok ban, which I voted against by the way, since this is coming up soon.  Last year, when they brought this ban up for a vote, number 1, they said it’s a national security issue, it’s a national security issue.  I said, “OK, that’s serious, let’s see the case, let’s see the intelligence.”  I can tell you that what was presented to all of the members voting on this thing was not very compelling.  There was no real information that was given that was a smoking gun, that was anything specific, that was very convincing.  And, frankly, it was not convincing to many other members as well.

In fact, very high-ranking members on the House Foreign Affairs Committee came to me after the briefing, and they were very shocked and pretty surprised at the lack of substantive information in the briefing.  They were genuinely expecting there to be some real or compelling intelligence shared that would substantiate the argument.  And there just..wasn’t, and they were surprised at the lack of information presented […]

This bill, which was very large and substantive in terms of its impact, came to the Energy and Commerce Committee, it was marked up, it was brought to the floor in a matter of a few weeks, which is very, very fast.  The degree to which corporations surveil the American people without genuine consent and genuine opt out should be illegal, point blank, period.  So many of us naturally said the answer isn’t playing endless whack-a-mole with apps, the answer is that we should have real privacy legislation in the United States, and we should help people own their information and have greater agency over their information so they’re not being spied on all the time whether it’s a domestic company or a foreign company.  We need privacy laws in the US, which of course big tech is going to fight against, and their lobbyists are going to fight against.  So they just targeted an app rather than targeting the problem.

And then, lastly, when this thing was passed, all these legislators who supported it were [saying] “Oh it’s not a ban, it’s just a forced sale”, which, to be fair, forced sales happen.  Grindr was a forced sale.  […]. First of all, they provided very little time for that to happen, for an app that big.  Who’s going to buy TikTok, hello, it’s very large.  But besides that, after leaving no time for a forced sale, now, here we are.  I would say that the lack of forethought and the rushed nature of this bill is evidenced by both the Biden and Trump administrations are now looking to see if there’s any way to reverse or stall it.  If they’re looking at that now, why didn’t they look at it then?

This is an issue that people actually pay attention to.  My Instagram feed, which is not for following politicians (I only follow AOC and Claudia Sheinbaum on it), is full of creators bemoaning the loss of TikTok.  They think it’s dead, period.  So whatever brogliarch, greased-palm deal that Trump comes up with to save the platform is going to be very popular with people who just want their platform back.

As for who is going to get TikTok and why, I don’t know, but with the hurt feelings of many brogliarchs, as detailed and explained by Krugman this morning, will probably cause whichever buyer to turn TikTok into the next Xitter, another rightwing hellhole.

(Edit:  Dorothy Winsor says that TikTok is back up.  Here’s the AP story on it. )

TikTok tick tock from AOCPost + Comments (155)

Open Thread: Happy New Year, Day 3 Day 19

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Medium Cool – What Movies, Books or TV Shows Do You Keep Coming Back To? 1

Today is already weird, and I have only been up for about 45 minutes.

I went to the Media Library to choose today’s image for the sidebar, and with a little sleuthing I can always fairly easily figure out who took the photo.  If it’s a Garden Chat photo, I get the name of the post it was in, and then I go see who was being featured that day.  If it’s from On the Road, then  the person’s name is in the title.  Today’s image was tougher, since it wasn’t from an OTR post or a Garden Chat.

Eventually, I found the original post, and it turns out that that photo was mine.  That was weird, and good for a chuckle.

During the course of my mini-investigation, I discovered that the photo was in a post I had started in 2021, but had apparently never posted.  A happy and hopeful little post, filled with beautiful kittens (the cards are from Stephanie Luke, whose cats were the cover photos for the 2021 calendar).

This is just one more instance of 2021 showing up right in front of me this week, seemingly everywhere I look.

I have been watching a lot more TV and I catch up on shows as an escape from the signs all around us that are flashing DANGER!  WARNING!

I have been catching up on Queen Sugar, and all the episodes this week have had the pandemic front and center, and details came flashing back.  Wiping down groceries, letting packages sit for days before opening, people not getting to say goodbye to loved ones, the dangers of someone in your circle secretly not following the rules and putting other people in danger.  Choosing to quarantine with someone changing the trajectory of your life.

We simply cannot let them gaslight us about the pandemic or about anything else from the Trump years and the Biden years.  Every single day they are going to lie about the last 10 years.  We have to hold on to our truth, and we have to tell it every time someone we know spouts the lies they have come to believe.

Medium Cool – What Movies, Books or TV Shows Do You Keep Coming Back To?

Open Thread: Happy New Year, Day 2
The world outside is gorgeous at the moment, everything covered in snow or ice, or both.(Jan 2021)

I have another post scheduled for later today that also harkens back to 2021.

It all makes me sad.  I could never have imagined that in 2025 I would be looking back at 2021 with sadness because I had so much more hope then than  have today.  But I can’t live in despair, so action is my only choice.

Open Thread: Happy New Year, <s>Day 3</s> Day 19Post + Comments (82)

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Zettai Daijoubu

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Jack Smith should have stuck around and charged Trump with perjury for taking the oath.

— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) January 18, 2025 at 7:16 PM

“Everything will be all right (I am sure)”, my new mantra, the motto of Sakura Kinomoto (Cardcaptor Sakura), who over the years between fourth grade and junior high saves the world, not through extraordinary talents or outsized gifts, but by relentlessly focusing on doing what she can to protect her own neighborhood and the people she loves. We take our inspiration where we find it, here at the end of history.

(If kiddy cartoons make you squeamish, try “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well”, from a historical figure who survived the Black Plague.)

genuinely remarkable polling result given how much the media has been promoting him and pushing the idea that he is popular and has a mandate to govern.
trump enters office as an unpopular lame duck

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— mtsw (@mtsw.bsky.social) January 17, 2025 at 11:20 AM

Working class Americans who voted for the balls and galas ticket

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— mtsw (@mtsw.bsky.social) January 18, 2025 at 8:19 PM

LMAO the dumb MAGAs are calling their congresspeople looking for a refund ????

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— WuTangIsForTheChildren (@wutangforchildren.bsky.social) January 18, 2025 at 2:09 PM

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Tick Tick Tick (Open Thread)

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So this happened overnight:

Screenshot of TikTok app landing page in U.S. that says, "Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned! In the meantime, you can still log in to download your data."

It barely affects me directly. I never post and only sporadically follow a handful of foodies plus a woman who pretends to get revenge on her cheating, disparaging husband by hiding gross things in his food.

But the political fallout promises to be irritating, as TikTok’s message indicates. The rent-seeking frauds and clownish charlatans are ascendent, which sucks, but there’s not a goddamn thing I can do about it. In a sense, that’s freeing.

Open thread.

Tick Tick Tick (Open Thread)Post + Comments (216)