Magical, Alluring, Galvanizing, Adventurous: US Politics March 2025

Good afternoon1

See? My exclamation points broke down.

Last month's thread, for the nostalgic among us.

Turning On The Giant Faucet Of Bullshit - US Politics February 2025

Red Dawn 2: Electric Magaloo

https://www.semafor.com/article/02/28/2025/why-the-trump-zelenskyy-meeting-imploded

guilty lol at this detail

The lunch that had been prepared for Trump and Zelenskyy alongside a cancelled dual press conference ended up getting eaten by at least one White House aide, a second official confirmed.

A friend of mine from grad school just posted this an hour ago.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10163522383055572&id=790405571

Anyway, what a shame:

https://bsky.app/profile/itsalexberg.bsky.social/post/3ljdkp3zidk2p

Fox News reported that JD Vance had to move to an “undisclosed location” due to protests at the Vermont resort where he’s skiing this weekend. For inflicting misery on the world and here at home in America, this is exactly the energy that should greet Vance wherever he goes for the rest of his days.

lol at "hit a tree!" photo in replies.

relentless persecution and mockery for the rest of these hateful people's lives, yes please

If there is any political strategy at all behind this nihilism, disorder and mass destruction, then the only one I can imagine would be that the radical right fascists must believe that if enough damage is done the federal government will become such a frustrating, incompetent, useless mess that ordinary citizens give up on democracy and embrace any strong leader who promises to strong arm the nation back into some semblance of order and direction.

It seems far more likely to me that Trump isn't attached to any political ideology, strategy, or policy outcome, with the lone exception of racism. He's has always used bullying, chaos and lawlessness as a strategy. Pure chaos ensures everyone around him is constantly off balance, confused, and reacting to his last baffling heel turn. This means he is the only person with agency and everyone else dances to his tune.

For him it's a means of control by pushing everything and everyone else out of control. He's applying it now on a scale that beggars the imagination. It's not in the service of any outcome except keeping Trump in control while everyone scrambles to keep up. Not coincidentally, this makes Trump the perfect instrument for Putin's strategy of drastically weakening the USA.

MSN story:

Mexican Billionaire Carlos Slim Cuts Ties with Elon Musk’s Starlink, Costing Musk $7 Billion After Controversial Tweet

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has officially severed ties with Elon Musk’s Starlink, opting to invest in his own telecommunications infrastructure rather than relying on Musk’s satellite technology.

Slim’s company, América Móvil, announced a massive $22 billion investment over the next three years to enhance its network, signaling a major strategic shift in Latin America’s telecommunications industry. The decision is expected to deliver a financial blow to Starlink, which had anticipated a profitable partnership in the region.

Tensions between the two business moguls reportedly escalated after Musk shared a controversial tweet implying Slim had connections to organized crime. Within minutes of the post, Slim canceled all collaborations with Starlink in Latin America, causing Musk to lose an estimated $7 billion.

Shortly after, Slim announced plans to redirect his five-year Starlink projects to European and Chinese companies, further diminishing the U.S.’s commercial presence in the region.

(Nelson Muntz laugh)

Other folks taking business elsewhere. https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/norwegian-fuel-supplier-refuses-u-s-warships-over-ukraine/

yes, very good news

the one phrase that keeps sticking out for me is Robert Evans saying "we're going to have to touch the stove" w/r/t the USA right now, in fact I will do my best to make that the April thread title when it will probably be a lot more appropriate.

Another angry town hall

https://bsky.app/profile/thetnholler.bsky.social/post/3ljecowqgfk2x

Don’t worry, the centrists have a plan

Those gathered then laid out 20 solutions for how Democrats can regain working-class trust and reconnect with them culturally.

More than a few stuck out to Playbook:

The party should “embrace patriotism, community, and traditional American imagery”;
Democrats should “ban far-left candidate questionnaires and refuse to participate in forums that create ideological purity tests” and “move away from the dominance of small-dollar donors whose preferences may not align with the broader electorate”;
They should “push back against far-left staffers and groups that exert a disproportionate influence on policy and messaging” ;
Candidates should “get out of elite circles and into real communities (e.g., tailgates, gun shows, local restaurants, churches)”; and
The party needs to “own the failures of Democratic governance in large cities and commit to improving local government.”

as ever, fuck them

might as well say: “our strategy is to lose harder by appearing even more feckless and unprincipled “

Where was that excerpted from?

lol at ignoring “small-dollar donors,” i.e. the actual people they expect to vote for them. How could that go wrong?

oops didn't include the link - https://www.politico.com/playbook

Third Way retreat o' dumbasses

So the rare minerals deal was just about elon’s cars apparently

“Far-left staffers” … oh the laughters out loud

Searching for the Blue Romney

real communities (e.g., tailgates, gun shows, local restaurants, churches)

damn i should get to a tailgate or a gun show, see what it's like to be in a real community

church, a diner, a gunshow and a football game, you can knock all that out in one day in the right town.

actually it doesn't even say you have to go to the game, just get hammered at the tailgate like a real American

Politico is a republican-leaning website dedicated to distorting democratic talking points, how do you guys not know that?

You should read the original pdf file instead of just accepting milo's post repeating Politico's talking points

Lol distorting Third Way’s talking points?

Every bullet point on that pdf is vomit inducing

fake news! fake news!

5. Fear of Dissent Within the Party
Democrats are perceived as intolerant of internal debate, where questioning progressive orthodoxy results
in backlash rather than open discussion. Candidates and operatives need to feel more comfortable just
saying NO to activist groups and unpalatable far-left ideas.

well that changes everything, clearly Dan S is right and the centrists are OTM

the exurban quadfecta is taken word-for-word from Third Way btw so you're still cleared for a good Cletus safari without earning Dan S's disapproval

whatever that means

I do think the centrists are right. This country has made a very hard turn to the right, in every voting district, and we have to combat that from the middle and not just be hectoring and shaming people from the left

how do you define "from the middle"

From my experience as a queer person of color "from the middle" means "ignoring the parts of our coalition for which we can offer no reasonable explanations for why we must fight for them."

Which is why we should avoid political consultant jargon.

"meet me in the middle" says the unjust man

etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKsxPW6i3pM

xxxp

I think of the middle as being most of the country, people who are not paying much attention to politics and are generally republican but who don't want their social security or medicare taken away from them and who don't want veterans to lose their benefits

Great song, don't sully it

Dan S, you mean the sort of people who want me, you, and Alfred dead? why bend over backwards for such people?

I think of the middle as being most of the country, people who are not paying much attention to politics and are generally republican but who don't want their social security or medicare taken away from them and who don't want veterans to lose their benefits

― Dan S

Well, Harris had Cheney just for them.

Dan I refuse to concede one single bit more of rhetorical or ideological or real-life territory to fascists, we've seen how this ends and making compromises doesn't work.

also, things like universal health care are massively popular

At any rate this is wrong:

think of the middle as being most of the country, people who are not paying much attention to politics and are generally republican but who don't want their social security or medicare taken away from them and who don't want veterans to lose their benefits

It's "generally Democrats," not Republicans. We won't those people back. We in part lost last year because Dems stayed home, not because we didn't woo Republicans ardently enough.

^^^

Dan, with all due respect, I can't believe I'm seeing MSBNC jargon taken seriously here. I'm gonna take a break from this thread tonight and keep watching the Oscars.

more to Dan: the problem was that the Democrats actively rejected any sort of progressive idea or stance from a specific moment (after Walz was picked) onwards

salut Alfred, I am also taking a break, first time I've had this thread bookmarked in a few weeks.

Every bullet point on that pdf is vomit inducing

― Iza Duffus Hardy (President Keyes), Sunday, March 2, 2025 5:00 PM (forty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I didn't expect all of these responses! I'm watching the academy awards and will answer later

I’m not conceding to fascists or trying to parrot MSNBC talking points, I just believe we have to really see what the rest of this country thinks

I think the majority of the people in this country don’t care about Ukraine or Palestine or Black Lives Matter or transgender rights, etc., they just don’t care and they never have. They care about their social security and medicare, and whether or not they and their relatives can get medicaid benefits and SSI and school lunches for their kids, and whether or not their veteran relatives will be denied their benefits. That has been what a lot of the anger at republican town halls has been about

hate to say they can learn from Republicans but you have to convince people why these things are important the same way they convinced their base that building a fucking giant wall between us and Mexico was a good idea

I’m not conceding to fascists or trying to parrot MSNBC talking points, I just believe we have to really see what the rest of this country thinks

I think the majority of the people in this country don’t care about Ukraine or Palestine or Black Lives Matter or transgender rights, etc., they just don’t care and they never have. They care about their social security and medicare, and whether or not they and their relatives can get medicaid benefits and SSI and school lunches for their kids, and whether or not their veteran relatives will be denied their benefits. That has been what a lot of the anger at republican town halls has been about

hate to say they can learn from Republicans but you have to convince people why these things are important the same way they convinced their base that building a fucking giant wall between us and Mexico was a good idea

I have stayed mostly out of the 'Democrats aren't doing enough' arguments because the only options at the federal level come down to performative actions (not a pejorative use - the Berniebuster didn't kill the Obama/GOP tax deal back in the Before Times but it's the keystone to what passes for a left wing of the party now) or obstruction (not even all that feasible when the White House is doing its best to evade Congress completely).

What they should be doing is hitting the airwaves and streets every day promoting a positive vision of the future, all the shit that passes in referendums even in red states and/or has overwhelming poll numbers on its side - legal weed, higher minimum wages, free community college (I know free community college polls extremely well, dunno about four year), giving Elon a vasectomy so he can't keep paying women to have his children, a Medicare public option. (note: this is more moderate than the Bernie platforms so the left is giving up plenty). I think the public would respond pretty well to make-work programs for people -

You need a blue wave of all blue waves and you've got two years to convince people to give you a mandate to beat down the MAGA freaks and two more to convince them to give you a mandate for rebuilding the state.

But... the Democrats aren't actually a political party with a positive vision of the future to sell so lol we fucked.

I do think the centrists are right. This country has made a very hard turn to the right, in every voting district, and we have to combat that from the middle and not just be hectoring and shaming people from the left

― Dan S, Monday, 3 March 2025

I understand this impulse but I think its a mistake. I agree that hectoring and shaming people "from the left" has been a problem, but I think its a lesser problem. The bigger problem has been non-performance and downright disappearing act from the center, in the US and across Europe as well, both in terms of policy and in terms of messaging. The rise of the right has been much more of a reaction to the abscence of anything from previously governing centre-left or center-right parties than it is a reaction to "hectoring woke over-reach". The rise of the right preceded the emergence and amplification of this stuff. And it happened in countries where that never even really gained any traction or amplification of this stuff in the first place too

And the continued response to this has been one of, "lets say this is an aberration, people will come to their senses of their own accord, we shouldn't get in the way of that process, lets keep quiet, they'll come back" or this milquetoast "we'll go and meet them and listen to their concerns politely and nod sagely"

It didn't work, and its getting less likely to work not more.

I agree with the going and meeting people in the middle part though.

Except the middle isn't what you think it is, there isn't a middle to meet in. The person who actually went and did this, was Bernie Sanders. And he went and met people and sold them an alternative vision, he didn't hector, he didn't scold, and he didn't coddle either. The true centrist is Bernie Sanders and always was

Empty suit politicians are getting destroyed everywhere no one wants this. Even the people who vote for them are lukewarm about it and do it only to keep whatever monster they're running against out. You can't go into market against a well advertised coherent product with no product and no advertising and expect to win.

Catching up on some reading. this is a pretty bracing interview from December with a guy named Thomas Ferguson.

Even within the wage data, there’s something of an optical illusion: Hourly wages rise, but working hours are dropping a lot. Average weekly real earnings are falling. No matter how you do it, most people are not keeping pace. As of our most recent paper, the overall loss is about 3 percent. Now the numbers in real wages were getting better over the course of 2024, and so that number might change slightly, though not by much. The fact is as we said, inflation’s decline without a recession came mainly from restored supply chains, some delayed expansion on the supply side, and a loss of widely distributed purchasing power—a fall in American real wages.

What was happening to people’s wages and incomes would have been much clearer if analysts would have stopped confusing people with statistics about hourly wages and simply focused on household median real income, where the numbers have been obviously disastrous if very slow in coming.

Almost everybody knew this, intuitively, when they went into a food store to buy anything at all. For the Democrats to keep parroting their “we’re the most pro-worker administration ever” line in 2024 was suicidal, even if their appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were truly labor friendly and had key impacts on specific campaigns. All the numbers for 2024 are not yet in, but the net change in the percentage of the workforce unionized during the entire Biden presidency is going to be either zero or very close to that.

In the election debates, it did not help that Democratic economists kept ignoring the actual record of the first Trump administration. Trump sharply criticized the Fed for prematurely hiking interest rates. Wages barely rose during his first term—leading to increasing doubts about the Phillips curve—but working hours went way up. Accordingly, the median household income figures rose a lot. Democratic economists were not wrong to note that the tax code and deregulation measures tilted heavily in favor of the rich, but many just ignored the short-run income rises that benefitted everyone, including minority groups, substantially. The number of pages in the media over the last two years pushing weird theories about why people didn’t appreciate that they’d never had it so good was a vast diversion.

Haltbakk Bunkers, first supplier in Norwegian ports, announced that it will no longer supply American ships with fuel after, I quote, the biggest shitshow ever seen on American TV presented by T/V. Norwegian government felt the need to clarify the company decision wasn't based on a government policy. Boycott of American products has started to take shape in Scandinavia where the practice is well established. In Denmark, the number one retailer is applying stickers on EU products. Another commonly cited example is the sales of Tesla cars nosediving in the region / EU since the start of the year.

https://bsky.app/profile/atldemsoc.bsky.social/post/3ljgmxotcwc2i

What a ghoul.

Jamelle Bouie's response to that was OTM:

the thing about “democrats should take popular cultural positions” is that what constitutes popular is a function of an interaction between the public and elites. if a faction of elites start screaming about a vulnerable minority and another faction says they have a point, this shapes the public.

Seems to me that "no one in government should obsess over my kids' private parts" should be the easiest of responses. Moving to "the middle," whatever that means, makes things WORSE for trans people because it concedes to the GOP one of their talking points about the danger of trans people.

Ugh, that clip is especially dispiriting to me because Elena Parent was recommended to me as one of the most progressive members of the Ga. legislature. Which she may be, for that matter, but so much the worse if so. (Glad I hadn't followed up with her for an interview ...)

I hate so much the Democratic diffidence on trans rights. Especially because it's such a rerun of where they were on gay rights in general as recently as the Obama administration, but somehow that doesn't sink in to them. A big part of it, obviously, is that a lot of Dems themselves are transphobic and/or ignorant. Alfred otm about the appropriate response.

Now more than ever we need younger voices, LBTGQ+ voices, minority voices etc. going for the reigns and running for office.

REINS

Oops.

Re: that Bouie response, Ferguson touches on that a little in that piece I linked. I’d like to see more reporting and analysis of this.

People talk about the fragmented media context—what we really have is media balkanization with overarching partisan divisions, and almost everybody, including bloggers, takes their cues either from some party or party-related apparatus.

not to mention its moral reprehensibility, equivocating on trans rights feeds directly into what voters actually dislike about democrats. very little of it has to do with a specific ideology, most of it has to do with how the dems are feckless and wishy-washy, with no affirmative vision of the future for our country. median voters will respect you if you stand for something, no matter what that thing is.

a USAID senior official blew the whistle over the weekend and of course was fired over it.

The Trump administration’s decision to withdraw foreign aid and dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development is likely to cause enormous human suffering, according to estimates by the agency itself. Among them:

up to 18 million additional cases of malaria per year, and as many as 166,000 additional deaths;

200,000 children paralyzed with polio annually, and hundreds of millions of infections;

one million children not treated for severe acute malnutrition, which is often fatal, each year;

more than 28,000 new cases of such infectious diseases as Ebola and Marburg every year.

Those stark projections were laid out in a series of memos by Nicholas Enrich, acting assistant administrator for global health at U.S.A.I.D., which were obtained by The New York Times. Mr. Enrich was placed on administrative leave on Sunday.

it’s nytimes (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/health/usaid-cuts-deaths-infections.html) but here’s a free link: https://archive.ph/WIsAE

not to mention its moral reprehensibility, equivocating on trans rights feeds directly into what voters actually dislike about democrats. very little of it has to do with a specific ideology, most of it has to do with how the dems are feckless and wishy-washy, with no affirmative vision of the future for our country. median voters will respect you if you stand for something, no matter what that thing is.

otm. And I think about trans people I know in the South, and parents of trans kids who are good friends of mine, and how much dignity and courage they show every fucking day just being willing to be themselves and support their loved ones in a relentlessly hostile environment. A lot of their elected representatives can't muster a fraction of the courage of a single mom I know who loves her trans daughter and has been willing to speak publicly in the media about supporting her, knowing that it makes both of them a potential target for harassment and abuse.

voodoo chili otm, I get that trans issues are kinda far down on the list given all the immediate horrors that have been unleashed by this administration but this goes way beyond even the usual culture war shit, they are actively trying to erase the existence of these people which should actually be a pretty easy and obvious thing to take a big stand on, and if you don't I feel the ramifications will extend beyond trans issues pretty quickly

Yeah I mean not to be all Niemoller, but there is no limit to the number of potential scapegoats they will come for. The correct answer to "How many vulnerable and marginalized groups are you willing to sacrifice to avoid uncomfortable fights" is ZERO.

Trans issues are kind of on the top of the list of the current horrors imo?!?? Few if any other groups are as directly targeted in ways that are obviously meant to erase them from existence.

Absolutely.

The Trump administration has called trans people in the armed forces dishonest and anti-American, so by implication all queer people are. I'd say it's at the top of the list of horrors.

Maybe a tie with the groups being deported

I mean that article posted just above detailing what dismantling USAID will do is a good example, like he's straight up gonna get a bunch of people killed, including children, all so Elon's taxes can go down, I mean it's all so nakedly evil

like these people are even beyond cartoon villains at this point. cartoon villains are more nuanced than these motherfuckers. even Dr. Evil tried to have a real relationship with his son

trump would absolutely without exaggeration claim that he invented the question mark

I went to the Hands off of NOAA rally this morning outside of the agency's headquarters in Silver Spring , MD not far from DC. A former NOAA probationary period employee who was just 14 days shy of working there a year, and then got fired, nicely spoke as well as MD Dem Senator Van Hollen, MD Dem rep Jamie Raskin, the former head of NOAA and a bunch of scientists. While it was inspiring at times, and there were some clever signs dissing Musk & Doge, it was often depressing and disconcerting as federal government workers are under attack and more will get fired, and court cases are moving slow. I wanted Van Hollen and Raskin to chain themselves to the front door or go in, not just to deliver speeches calling out Musk and Trump and their unconstitutional actions and then heading on. There were about 700 or so people there - not bad I guess for a not very well promoted event on a workday Monday morning. Saw a few press folks and cameras there. Will see if it gets any attention. There are more barely publicized protests this week-- state of the union speech day ones tomorrow March 4 supposedly in all 50 states and at the Lincoln Memorial in DC, and Friday March 7 March for Science ones in DC and elsewhere.

I wanted Van Hollen and Raskin to chain themselves to the front door or go in, not just to deliver speeches calling out Musk and Trump and their unconstitutional actions and then heading on.

cosign

Thanks for being there, curmudgeon.

And what you wrote nails exactly what bothers me about those events (specifically with politicians) - is it really … accomplishing anything meaningful, moving the needle?

the needle's not gonna really move until the economy starts tanking which guess what

and he's only been president, what, six weeks?

Well he's forcing these tariffs through tomorrow, apparently, so that tanking will start to get worse, faster.

yah there are vids that show the dow going down in real time as he's speaking

^^ link plz

I tend to think it's a bad time for a normal person to draw the attention of violent authority figures or end up with a case and a record when the supposed systems of fairness and civil protections are likely to be withdrawn. It seems unsafe even for people who usually benefit from those systems. Maybe that's a good argument for why electeds and public figures with more power and visibility should be doing it, but also...don't we want them to be in hearings and stall policies and challenge legislation and stuff? Idk

a USAID senior official blew the whistle over the weekend and of course was fired over it.

The Trump administration’s decision to withdraw foreign aid and dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development is likely to cause enormous human suffering, according to estimates by the agency itself. Among them:
up to 18 million additional cases of malaria per year, and as many as 166,000 additional deaths;

200,000 children paralyzed with polio annually, and hundreds of millions of infections;

one million children not treated for severe acute malnutrition, which is often fatal, each year;

more than 28,000 new cases of such infectious diseases as Ebola and Marburg every year.

Those stark projections were laid out in a series of memos by Nicholas Enrich, acting assistant administrator for global health at U.S.A.I.D., which were obtained by The New York Times. Mr. Enrich was placed on administrative leave on Sunday.

it’s nytimes (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/health/usaid-cuts-deaths-infections.html) but here’s a free link: https://archive.ph/WIsAE

― z_tbd, Monday, March 3, 2025 12:22 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is very important.

usaid was sometimes used as a vehicle for political shenanigans. whatever. but it also provided relief to people.

foreign aid was one good thing that america stood for. and now it's gone because trump and vance do not believe non-american lives matter. famine, disease, poverty -- they don't care.

the thing that makes me physically ill is how giddy musk was about the whole thing. like, the chainsaw to me just looked like he was saying "lol" to the 200,000 children who will now become paralyzed from polio.

the needle's not gonna really move until the economy starts tanking which guess what

not to pick nits with you waterface, but here’s how i translate that sentence:

"nothing’s gonna happen until the thing that is out of our control happens”

cool, i bet you’ll be right. what if everyone did that

it also puts you in the position of waiting for absolute catastrophe - almost rooting for it - to happen before acting.

there are so many things that people can do right now, 100% #teslatakedown

i don't think that's what waterface was saying, or i don't think that's a generous read.

until many people feel the economic pain of what Trump is doing, they are going to keep going about their lives.

until then, it is up to those of us who already know the pain and anticipate more of it to try to stop it in its tracks.

yah there are vids that show the dow going down in real time as he's speaking

― a (waterface), Monday, March 3, 2025 4:19 PM (fifty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

^^ link plz

― sleeve, Monday, March 3, 2025 4:22 PM (fifty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3ljiq426kff2r

ty!

until many people feel the economic pain of what Trump is doing, they are going to keep going about their lives.

this is also true, the two quotes I have come back to repeatedly this last month when talking to friends are "shrink your sphere of concern" and "we're going to have to touch the stove"

Not really sure what the touch the stove thing means. It’s usually a metaphor for being punished for curiosity.

Me too. I've always heard that phrase in the context of "the cat'll jump up on the stove once, but if it's on I guarantee he'll never do it again." As in, you do something you're not suppose to, you pay the price but you also learn from it. Who's the cat here, Trump voters?

whatever, STFU Pam the whole thing was a calculated distraction and you know it

Attorney General Pam Bondi was duped into thinking she had all the files related to investigations into disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, she told Fox News host Mark Levin over the weekend while defending Thursday’s widely mocked document dump.

“I kept saying, there has to be more. There has to be more,” Bondi said Saturday. “I was assured that’s it.”

Regardless of what it means, let’s just go ahead and touch the stove and find out

The answers is blisters.

Ghoul of the day (from WSJ)

Sen. Roger Marshall: ‘Patriot’ Farmers Will Support Tariffs Despite Pain

By
Gavin Bade, Trade and Economic Policy Reporter

American farmers will support President Trump’s tariffs even if it hurts them monetarily, Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas said on Monday evening, in a rare instance of a GOP lawmaker and Trump ally admitting that the new duties could have negative economic effects. “Even though Canada and Mexico were the number one trade partners for Kansas agriculture, I think that my farmers are willing to be patriots and stand beside President Trump to make their families safer,” Marshall said outside the Senate chamber.

Looked up Roger Marshall, he’s a millionaire obstetrician with a rich wife.

Oh, the tariffs are making us safer! It all makes sense now.

I think that my farmers are willing to be patriots and stand beside President Trump to make their families safer

If the GOP and their propaganda partners can play the patriotism card successfully it could create a lot of social pressure to conform in places like Kansas. But the tariffs aren't about our troops going to war and dying. It's about pretending Canada and Mexico are horrible neighbors who are screwing us through negligent indifference to our immense suffering, as a result of their lackadaisical cooperation in policing our common borders. That's pretty hard sell to farmers in the geographic middle of the nation, thousands of miles from those borders.

I don't think patriotism as we knew it after 9/11 is really a thing anymore, half of Americans hate this country and the other half voted to destroy it

"touch the stove" means "feel pain" on a structural level like table was saying, sorry if that was unclear

So I understood that Dems were being encouraged to go in and then walk out of Trump's State of the Union speech to show that things were not normal, but instead they're going to go and sit there and a few of them are bringing fired Feds with them

Ideas: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/04/serbian-mps-set-off-flares-and-smoke-grenades-inside-parliament

Send that to Chuck and Jeffries

They should not go to the state of the union.

He’s doing everything within his power to undermine the interests of the US and our allies. Why? I have no idea but that is what the tariffs are, that is what the Ukraine policy is, and that is what DOGE is.

It’s preposterous to act like he is just some president

When they attend this and sit there sulking they will look like idiots. Like people who stay in their house as it is burning.

it also puts you in the position of waiting for absolute catastrophe - almost rooting for it - to happen before acting.

― z_tbd, Monday, March 3, 2025 10:05 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

yah that's not how i meant it i am not rooting for catastrophe.

rooting for it and understanding it's probably gonna happen are two different things.

not sure what ordinary folks can do to really move the needle. it's going to take more than one day of not buying anything. a lot more

they don’t go to the state of the union and the whole chamber applauds the dismantling of the government, the dissolution of the state department, the tariffs, etc

the non-fascists in the italian parliament all resigned in 1924 and what did that do? made everyone in government a fascist and started a multi-decade dictatorship

Nobody is telling Democrats to resign

Trump knows this stuff. He didn’t show up for Biden’s inauguration.

either way, i like the smoke bomb idea

saw someone suggest that they show up, but then all walk out as soon as it starts.

i feel like that would be a good idea--better than not showing up even

Agreed. Plus trump would lose his shit

I'm curious how those exiting Dems might respond should Trump and his GOP sycophants start chanting, "Traitors!" or "Losers!"

just keep walking. saying nothing is the bigger move. don't even turn around. just walk out

it sounds like some might walk out when he says something offensive (lol) and he's gonna lose it when that happens

Unless they decide en masse to offer a credible alternative to Trump who cares about any grandstanding perforative nonsense the Democrats do or don’t do in this moment? It’ll be spun to make them look like dicks regardless. While they continue trying to appeal to Trump voters on trans rights etc, and focusing on his horrific foreign policy stuff when everyone knows that the atrocities in Gaza happened with their support, the emptiness of gestures like this is so embarrassingly obvious

While they continue trying to appeal to Trump voters on trans rights etc,

versus this yesterday

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/03/politics/senate-transgender-sports-bill-vote/index.html

here let me pull the headline for you

Senate Democrats block GOP-led bill to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports

the first two words of that headline in case you missed it are Senate and Democrats

Ah sorry I got confused by the video from yesterday of a Democratic Senator telling a voter trans rights are too unpopular to vote for - my mistake, they are obviously doing a great job communicating what they stand for - back to working out which variant of pointless grandstanding is coolest

Good on them for voting no as a bloc.

Ah sorry I got confused by the video from yesterday of a Democratic Senator telling a voter trans rights are too unpopular to vote for - my mistake, they are obviously doing a great job communicating what they stand for - back to working out which variant of pointless grandstanding is coolest

― crisp, Tuesday, March 4, 2025 1:52 PM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this was a *state* senator, Elena Parent. Which is different than a Senator in Congress but I'm sure you know that. i don't know all the details of her position but this took me two seconds to look up. the video posted by her by the DSA is shitty quality and i can't really hear what she's saying. it sounds like she does support trans rights

https://apnews.com/article/transgender-gender-affirming-care-785a7ecf69ecd25eb7cdbdf82cda5b41

Sens. Elena Parent and Sonya Halpern, both Atlanta Democrats, reaffirmed their commitment to protecting the rights of transgender people but broke with their party to vote for Robertson’s bill because they said they do not think taxpayers should pay for gender-affirming care for people in prison. Parent proposed an amendment to make an exception for incarcerated people already undergoing hormone replacement therapy that failed.

This fuckin' guy.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/mar/04/uk-mps-condemn-deeply-disrespectful-jd-vance-comments

I know people make this point all the time, but the degree to which the right are just internet posters down to their cores really bowls me over every now and again

A pure poster

On one hand who gives a fuck about the stock market, because it’ll bounce around like a yo-yo as those fuckers chase their tails and read tea leaves, but on the other hand, wtf did they think would happen?

If they were smarter, you might think this is a deliberate effort to tank the economy, but I don’t give them that much credit.

Elon said he was going to tank the economy!!!!

lol line go down bigly today

Oh

https://bsky.app/profile/thetnholler.bsky.social/post/3ljiuuifuoc2j

If they were smarter, you might think this is a deliberate effort to tank the economy, but I don’t give them that much credit.

this is what i don't understand. . . what's the next move when the stock market crashes?

buy the dip iirc

800 points!!!!!!

I know people make this point all the time, but the degree to which the right are just internet posters down to their cores really bowls me over every now and again

― rob, Tuesday, March 4, 2025 8:32 AM (fifty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's irritating because they're all such shitty posters too, the sort who add nothing to the conversation but slurs and stale memes and get incredibly defensive when called out. Trump is the only true poster amongst them and I earnestly think that's why this whole movement will take a huge blow once he's gone. everyone else (particularly Elon) is just a shitty reply guy and nobody likes those

this is what i don't understand. . . what's the next move when the stock market crashes?

― a (waterface), Tuesday, March 4, 2025 10:21 AM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

global economic catastrophe means the richest men in the world (and blackwater) can buy the dip; we all become serfs

and do we think that's going to work out ok for them?

well we're not in the streets presently, so yes maybe

xp - yes, Trump and Musk will skip off to sleep on their millions (or billions, in Musk's case) for the rest of their lives, regardless of how much pain the rest of the nation suffers. why would they care?

Gonna be interesting to see how quickly gas prices go up, they usually do that at the first hint of supply issues.

i am just saying i don't think it's going to work out well for these chuckleheads

I really hope not! and yes I try to remain optimistic, when the Soviet Union fell apart it happened fast

Just saw that NRCC has banned reps from doing town halls. I’m guessing people were - gasp! - shouting at them?

Cue Tim Walz, who says Dems should run shadow town halls where GOP reps don’t/won’t appear, says that he’s going to run some in the four districts in MN where there are Republican reps.

that is a good idea

Our congressman has never done a town hall in his life and I'm sure will continue not to. Local Democrats try to make an issue out of it, but he just got reelected with more than 2/3 of the vote, so ...

Sorry, my post was pretty pessimistic. I just know that billionaires like Musk will never feel any actual pain from their decisions, even wiping out 95% of their net worth would still leave them very very very comfortable and isolated from real life struggles forever.

And Trump? I just don't know. The ultimate failson who has managed to somehow avoid consequences for anything for many decades. It's just hard to see what actually brings him down at this point.

I certainly would love them both to rot in misery, but feels increasingly unlikely.

It's just hard to see what actually brings him down at this point.

Thomas Matthew Crooks set the bar for resistance. It's up to someone else to clear it as soon as he starts giving outdoor speeches again.

A storm that crashes the little boats is good for the big boats

But I agree it potentially isn't going to work out well for some of them, if they create the world they're looking to create. If in 2027 or at some point in the future Musk decides he wants Zuckerberg's businesses, or Zuckerberg imprisoned, or Zuckerberg dead, how much protection from this would Zuckerberg potentially have by that point?

I think on some level some of them are already aware of this, and are playing ball early due to fear of this more so than just greed or avarice

Sorry, my post was pretty pessimistic. I just know that billionaires like Musk will never feel any actual pain from their decisions, even wiping out 95% of their net worth would still leave them very very very comfortable and isolated from real life struggles forever.

I think this is mostly true and am not arguing against it, but Epstein ended up in prison and would probably still be there had he not killed himself (or whatever actually happened). Being rich and powerful doesn't necessarily permanently insulate one from consequences, though right now it feels like it does.

Unless they decide en masse to offer a credible alternative to Trump who cares about any grandstanding performative nonsense the Democrats do or don’t do in this moment? It’ll be spun to make them look like dicks regardless.

In a pre-2016 environment, maybe. But looking like a dick is no longer a negative with the swingy voters that decide elections - they literally chose a pro-rape oligarch who spent more time talking about pro golfers' junk or accusing Americans of eating pets than on any plans that will improve people's lives, instead of the issues-focused polite technocrat. Plus, google searches spike for any term used in an interruption/heckle - as Trump proved, no publicity is bad publicity. As disgusting as it may be, the lesson from 2024 is that being loud and mean just plain works.

As for the post-event fallout and spinning, if the Dems were competent at this, they'd take 3 steps to maximize the effectiveness of all antics. First, they would have already crafted coordinated heckles/chants ("TA-RIFFS RAISE PRICES!", "Musk was not elected!", "Musk is a deadbeat dad!", "Stop stealing our data!", "RA-PIST!", etc.),; second, prepare the online world to amplify their messaging all over the web, especially in the video-forward sites; and third, have their electeds ready with talking points that amplify them in all media appearances. It's not that difficult. Too bad the party is run by a gerontocracy stuck in the '90s.

yeah but that's mean

"When they go low, we go high" or some such bullshit that has clearly worked very well.

Alfred otm, iow.

mean >>> weird

yup. tap into the anger

"Musk was not elected!", "Musk is a deadbeat dad!"

Fuck that. You want to really set him off, shout "Where's President Musk?"

I was kidding lol

Sorry, my post was pretty pessimistic. I just know that billionaires like Musk will never feel any actual pain from their decisions, even wiping out 95% of their net worth would still leave them very very very comfortable and isolated from real life struggles forever.

maybe so, but both Trump and Musk seem miserable basically all the time. someone who spends 12 hours a day defending himself on the social media site he bought while paying people to make it look like he's good at gaming is probably going through some kind of pain

President Musk with a chainsaw and rollerskates

If I had Musk's money I'd pay so I never had to touch a computer or smartphone ever again.

I'd pay a smartphone to mother my child.

Agreed with sleeve

D Congresspersons should all dress like Musk, white fish bellies hanging hanging out of their too-small shirts

Broadcast a Vic Berger mix as their SOTU response

with state of the art kevlar vests underneath xp

I wonder if DOGE cut the Designated Survivor position

we are stooges for a bamboozler!
https://www.stormlake.com/stories/we-are-stooges-for-a-bamboozler,134520

That's a helluva editor's letter

that guy won a pulitzer a few years ago: https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/art-cullen

we are rubes for a hornswoggler, even!

marks for an executive legerdemain!

Midwest farmers are conservative af, but they know to a penny what their costs are, what the market will pay for what they produce, what they pay in taxes, and how much their government subsidies add up to. You'd think they'd be realistic enough to have known before the election that Trump is a con artist who lies as often as he breathes. But they kidded themselves that he was a businessman like they are and wouldn't do anything obviously stupid or harmful.

Thanks for nothing, Iowa farmers. The lies Trump told you were nothing compared to the lies you told yourselves.

If we ever get a Dem back in the White House, the first thing they need to do is invite Soros in to run his own efficiency department and fly around on Air Force One. The power of heads exploding would power the country for generations.

Don't give him a chainsaw though.

Can't he just use his space lasers?

Soros is also like 121 years old so not sure if that can happen

If he dies, I'm not sure who'd going to sign my monthly checks.

xp - more just noting that it's darkly funny to watch Elon openly do all the stuff the right screamed about Soros supposedly doing

Alfred, I think his son has already taken the reins, so your payments should be safe - as long as you're only buying woke negronis

lol stocks tried to rally but now sinking like a rock minutes before closing thus insuring they won't be mentioned in tonight's address

I have a really bleak feeling about this address tonight.

yeah definitely not tuning in to that crap but it can't be anything good

wokegronis

I predict the Democrats will wave little Ukrainian flags

lol I see no need to inflict an hour-plus of DJT on myself, I'll let the internet sort out the highlights/lowlights.

Oh yeah, you couldn't pay me enough to watch that.

AOC on bluesky:

Already hearing that Republican members have been showing up to the House floor trying to take up the Dem side seats for the joint address

SOTU seats are not assigned. There are general seating areas for each body (House, Senate, SCOTUS,etc) but there are honored seats for each party’s leadership and they’re even trying to squat those.

If it doesn’t sort out, be aware you may see applause on both sides of the aisle but they may be GOP

bunch of losers

they know they're fucked

speaking of losers

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3ljldrx6f5427

I wish the entire Democratic side would skip the thing. But I think a more realistic goal/prediction is that someone will be able to shout something that will drive the asshole into a frothing rage and derail the whole event. In fact, my bet is that this will be the first address of its type to include the president screaming obscenities at Congress. Any network that carries this thing without a delay is foolish.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has like a 80% approval rating

yeah it is dismaying that there seems to be no unified party response here, but maybe someone will step up to disrupt

hmm

President Donald Trump on Tuesday abruptly walked back his directive to federal agencies to fire thousands of probationary employees, a stunning reversal that comes days after a federal judge ruled that the president’s ongoing mass firings of federal workers are probably illegal.

In a new memo delivered to the heads of all federal agencies, the Office of Personnel Management ― the human resources agency of the federal government ― says it doesn’t actually have to comply with its previous instructions to fire all probationary employees, or people who have generally held their jobs for a year or less. Instead, per this memo, federal agencies have until Sept. 13 to come up with their own plans for reducing staff.

?!

link?

is the bromance coming to an end?

top story on HuffPost

https://fedscoop.com/nsf-says-its-reinstating-fired-probationary-employees/

lol stick your heads in the fucking sand asswipes

Republicans advised to avoid in-person town halls after confrontations over layoffs go viral
The chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee advised Republicans in a closed-door meeting that there were other ways to reach constituents.

I am all for whatever deserved payback Canada wants to send our way, but the video of the coffee shop changing their menu from "Americano" to "Canadiano" has some real freedom fries energy.

They are taking Neil Young back

I'm back to referring to this dominion as Canadia.

Mark Warner, what a cockfarmer

re: his craven bootlicking on Fox

don't worry, the Dems that are attending are going to wear pink

https://www.thecut.com/article/democrats-wearing-pink-to-protest-trumps-speech-to-congress.html?utm_medium=s1&utm_campaign=nym&utm_source=bluesky

gahhhh

Can the Dems just stop with this shit?

“It is important to have a strong, determined, and dignified Democratic presence in the chamber,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a “Dear Colleague” letter sent to representatives on Monday

Out dignifying the craven morons across the aisle isn't doing a fucking thing for anyone. So tired of this.

Hakeem Jeffries is worse than I thought he would be in this role

he needs to be pied, he's been beyond awful

Yeah, he's been so maddening and not at all up to the task.

As Biggie Smalls once said, "UPS is hiring."

In other words, once you get past the bluster, ass kissing and flat out bullshit, already planning to walk this back because they've realized how fucking dumb it all is:

"Both the Mexicans and the Canadians were on the phone with me all day today trying to show that they’ll do better, and the president’s listening, because you know he’s very, very fair and very reasonable,” Lutnick said Tuesday in an interview with Fox Business. “So I think he’s going to work something out with them — it’s not going to be a pause, none of that pause stuff, but I think he’s going to figure out:"

Oh, cool!

had great banter with a local barista a fee months ago, where we started joking about calling them “America… No!”s and etc. A slightly yupped out couple with a stroller then didn’t shut the door on their way out— it was below 30 fahrenheit outside— and he said “oh i see it’s National Raised in a Barn Awareness Day.” this is at the local coffee shop chain that only plays grindcore and serves vegan food. i love that barista

lol I hadn't seen the batshit wording used on his Truth post about campus protesting until now, just an absolute idiot.

"illegal protests"

"thank you for your attention on this matter"

Inviting fired feds seems a decent move

https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/local/virginia/trump-state-of-the-union-bobby-scott-fired-army-veteran-joint-address-va-layoff-doge-cuts/291-0e9c49c4-ec99-4006-a080-d9efaf04fac2

Oh Elissa Slotkin will do the rebuttal tonight, that’ll show’em!

Handmaid's Tale did the rebuttal to Biden's last SOTU, who is the Dems equivalent?

Oh Elissa Slotkin will do the rebuttal tonight, that’ll show’em!

AOC will be on Instagram Live and I guarantee she will have double or triple Slotkin's audience.

Slotkin who voted for all the cabinet nominees and didn't bother to show up to vote no on the trans sports ban?

She’s a rising star, the masses can’t get enough of former CIA employees!

there are 34 centrist undecided voters who are getting uncomfortable with what trump is doing but want more information, and they trust the cia for information. these 34 voters will be ours tonight

Well…the State of the DisUnion will begin shortly. I’m gonna be in attendance. 😒 DO NOT WATCH! pic.twitter.com/R4KEolh7E3

— Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (@RepJasmine) March 5, 2025

party’s in good hands

i'm fine with Slotkin in that role--she sucks, but doing an "answer" speech to a stupid speech is a thankless job.

Could've done without her lionizing Reagan.

yeah but she totally sucks i am not surprised

i think it's good and shows the average dem like that is not up to the challenge

Tom Nichols is whatever, but this was good re Slotkin: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/03/democrats-trump-address-congress/681914/?gift=3TSuj_SE0edJhbWWGv9b3k18JVGVAWyJDWe3YMKFzbc

decided that there is no point in looking to congressional dems for the kind of symbolic resistance that people want. they need to use whatever power they can to get concessions from the administration within what remains of our constitutional order, but the real resistance will have to come from outside of the chamber (this includes primaries for the more useless members, of course)

this is going to be much easier for me than scrutinizing every dumb mark warner media hit or wondering if wearing pink or holding up signs will make an impact

the real resistance will have to come from outside of the chamber (this includes primaries for the more useless members, of course)

otm

But when Trump referred to Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts as “Pocahontas,” they could have left en bloc…

He’s still doing this? Christ, what an asshole.

And yes, they should have.

Just saw the video clip of Trump thanking the Supreme Court justices who gave him immunity and stuff

“Thank you again. Thank you again. I won’t forget.”

The Supreme Court on Wednesday backed a federal judge's power to order the Trump administration to pay $2 billion to U.S. Agency for International Development contractors but did not require immediate payment.

In doing so, the court on a 5-4 vote rejected an emergency application filed by the Justice Department after U.S. District Judge Amir Ali issued a series of rulings demanding the government unfreeze funds that President Donald Trump put on hold with an executive order...

Four conservative justices dissented from the denial of the application, with Justice Samuel Alito writing that Ali did not have "unchecked power to compel the government to pay out ... 2 billion taxpayer dollars."

"I am stunned," Alito added.

The other dissenters were Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

Alito stunned that a district court judge would enforce a signed contract to pay money that was based on Congressionally approved funding

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-rejects-trump-administrations-bid-avoid-paying-usaid-con-rcna194230

The $2 Billion is for work already performed

this makes me think they are completely fine with Trump unilaterally canceling contracts if the work hasn't been completed yet

dem rep sylvester turner passed away last night. he represents houston so the dems will fill his seat, but that's one less vote in the chamber until that happens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgttPt_1IG0

x-post -Yep, the 4 dissenters here seem to be fine with that longtime Trump approach, although Alito tried to disguise that in his dissent. Alito wrote that respondents "raise serious concerns about nonpayment for completed work," But the relief ordered is , quite simply, too extreme a response."

Lina Hidalgo should run for Turner's seat

(saying this as someone who doesn't live in Houston but remember Hidalgo seeming cool back in 2020. but she is a judge, not a legislator, and maybe there is a better candidate.)

70 year old Turner, the Houston, Texas dem rep was battling bone cancer in 2022

I didn't even realize he had been elected to Congress (he was mayor of Houston in 2022) -- he served all of two months.

He basically took over Sheila Jackson Lee's campaign momentum after she died last summer. Her daughter served in the interim.

Hidalgo actually would be a terrific pick, either as an appointee now, or running in '26. Our DINO mayor has made it hard for her to really get anything more done in her current position as county judge. She's weathered enough bullshit in the past six years that DC shouldn't be too much of a challenge.

Knowing that the governor of Texas is going to delay this special election as long as he possibly can, we need the Dem governor of NY to set the special election to replace Stefanik for the exact same date, so the Repubs don't get an unfair 1-seat edge for who know how long

Naked corruption, but nobody cares anymore

Donald Trump is reportedly inviting guests to meet and dine with him at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, for a fee of millions of dollars.

Business leaders can secure a one-on-one meeting with the president at Mar-a-Lago for the price of $5m, sources told Wired. At what is called a candlelight dinner held as recently as this past Saturday, prospective guests of the Florida estate were asked to spend $1m to reserve a seat, according to an invitation obtained by Wired.

“You are invited to a candlelight dinner featuring special guest President Donald J. Trump,” the invitation reportedly reads. “Additional details provided upon RSVP. RSVPs will be accommodated on a first come, first serve basis. Space is very limited. $1,000,000 per person.”

I miss being surprised

the kind of corruption that would have toppled a previous president barely warrants a shrug anymore

you don't understand. he is already rich, so he couldn't possibly want more money.

he's not even taking a salary!

He can’t be bought

*checks notes*

Correction, he can be bought

And you can keep buying him over and over! Like ice cream.

I am all for whatever deserved payback Canada wants to send our way, but the video of the coffee shop changing their menu from "Americano" to "Canadiano" has some real freedom fries energy.

― better than ezra collective soul asylum (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, March 4, 2025 1:30 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

the subtle difference is that freedom fries thing was not in response to France calling for USA annexation.

Thanks for explaining the obvious, I never would have caught that without your invaluable help.

you're welcome. we Canadians love helping our neighbours.

The African Development Foundation (budget ~$40 million) is putting up a fight and denying DOGE + Pete Marocco — the State Dept official dismantling USAID — access to their building

https://bsky.app/profile/jeisinger.bsky.social/post/3ljnigt3t5k2n

good

party’s in good hands

― brony james (k3vin k.), Wednesday, March 5, 2025 2:55 AM (thirteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

jesus christ

are we though the looking glass here people?
https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:luyspucx7l6vzr4slq3lmt2f/bafkreiaijx3smwddtwjsshqb4lsvvcl6wswfmlkcox56e35cpyflqgrtte@jpeg

saying the quiet part loud, and saying the unspeakably touching-the-third-rail horrifying part at ear-splitting volume

btw fuck the Babylon Bee

So the babylon bee and elon are inviting the hitler comparisons now? Very cool.

Maybe they’re saying we should deal with Elon and Musk the way the allies dealt with Hitler.

Is this a good place to complain that 90% of cnn.com is now pay walled? Not that they are my most trusted source but at least they update throughout the day and the url is short enough to type without thinking. This isn’t going to help our poorly informed populace

Suns must have some weird time dilation effect going on here, they went from fun scrappy team to legitimate contenders to making the Finals to firing the coach to making desperation moves to outright sucking in like half the time it takes most teams. they did the whole Bucks 2016-2026 run in like 4 years

that's one of those secret Alt Parks codes right?

<3

Eighty one
Six
One hundred thirty three

ONETHREAD

The king of the Netherlands announced yesterday that he will invite the NATO leaders to dinner in his residential palace during their summit this June. It is obvious pandering to Trump, the news already emphasized that it would appeal to his impression with royalty/grand receptions & charm him.

It may be a minor revolting act but extra horrifying for me as I live about half a mile away from the palace and am already disgusted by the mere thought of the beast being in such close proximity. Can't even flee as it'll be in the middle of the week and my daughter will have a normal schoolday that day (school's even closer to the palace).
Apologies for this relatively minor complaining when there's so many actually suffering because of his evil and many of you have to bear him as the president of your country & his terror has direct effect on you, but still I needed to vent for a moment and thought this was the best place to do so.

Guys.
Guys.
I've figured it out.
The Dems have to start taking speed.
Hell, even switching from decaf would be a start.

#dosethedems

No JRE equivalent hawking the smart drugs Dems need to stay competitive in the marketplace of, uh... whatever replaced ideas.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-plans-revoke-legal-status-ukrainians-who-fled-us-sources-say-2025-03-06/

Grrrrr

Disgusting.

I guess what's esp disgusting is they were working on that well before the Zelenskyy meeting. Also everything else in the article is vile

They're also revoking status from people from Cuba, Haiti, and Venezuela, whose national problems the US arguably bears a lot more responsibility for than Ukraine's by some definitions.

Wait I thought Cubans were our special exception to the “immigrants are disgusting” rule?

It depends on how Lil Marco does

The Cuban Adjustment Act ain't goin' nowhere

They're also revoking status from people from Cuba, Haiti, and Venezuela, whose national problems the US arguably bears a lot more responsibility for than Ukraine's by some definitions.

Al Green censured thanks in part to 10 Democrats, what the fuck is wrong with these people

Profile in courage:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a pioneer for LGBTQ+ rights who decades ago upset leaders in his own party when he defied state law and issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples, suggested Democrats were in the wrong in allowing transgender athletes to participate in female college and youth sports.

“I think it’s an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness — it’s deeply unfair,” Newsom said in his debut podcast episode of “This is Gavin Newsom.” “I am not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you.”

Newsom’s comments on the issue roiling political debates nationwide came in a conversation with influential MAGA-world figure Charlie Kirk, the campus culture warrior who leads the organization Turning Point USA and is a close ally of President Donald Trump and his son, Donald Trump Jr.

Newsom also agreed that the most politically destructive attack ads from Trump’s campaign featured Kamala Harris’ support for providing taxpayer-funded gender transition-related medical care for detained immigrants and federal prisoners.

“She didn’t even react to it, which was even more devastating,” Newsom said, suggesting upward of 90 percent of Americans disagreed with Harris’ position. “Then you had the video [of Harris] as a validator. Brutal,” Newsom added. “It was a great ad.”

Kirk challenged Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential hopeful, to speak out against AB Hernandez, a transgender high school track star from California whose triple jump event in the women’s competition is drawing fierce backlash from the right. Newsom said he has four children of his own — including two daughters — and noted that both he and his wife participated in college-level sports, she in soccer and he in baseball.

“I revere sports, so the issue of fairness is completely legit,” Newsom said. “And I saw that — the last couple years, boy did I [see] how you guys were able to weaponize that issue at another level.”

Kirk challenged Newsom over his use of the word “weaponize,” and Newsom replaced it with “highlight.”

for the record, in case anyone here lives in a district:

Ami Bera (CA)
Ed Case (HI)
Jim Costa (CA)
Laura Gillen (NY)
Jim Himes (CT)
Chrissy Houlahan (PA)
Marcy Kaptur (OH)
Jared Moskowitz (FL)
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA)
Tom Suozzi (NY)

xp arghhhhgrrrr

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Tom Suozzi aren't surprises.

Fuckin' Newsom.

I'm generally in favor of progressive voices going on right-wing media, but ONLY to fight with them. Not to tell Charlie Kirk that you agree with him actually. Jesus.

Al Green censured thanks in part to 10 Democrats, what the fuck is wrong with these people

fuck Newsom forever, he is a shapeshifter and a snake

Newsom’s comments on the issue roiling political debates nationwide came in a conversation with influential MAGA-world figure Charlie Kirk,

a conversation with the guy in charge of indoctrinating children into rightwing christian nationalism, excellent

but charlie kirk wears a suit and tie and doesn’t use bad words, so his fascism is respectable

In a brief, unsigned order issued on Wednesday, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the Trump administration’s request to stay a lower court ruling that blocked the president from dismissing Hampton Dellinger.

"This order gives effect to the removal of appellee from his position as Special Counsel of the US Office of Special Counsel," the court’s order said, adding that the Trump administration had met the "stringent requirements for a stay pending appeal."

The court said after greenlighting the dismissal on a temporary basis, it would expedite its review of the case.

I didn't even post the rather stunning last graf:

Newsom compared his position on trans athletes to conservatives who oppose same-sex marriage on principle — saying he values that Kirk and others are not abandoning their opposition now that gay marriages are both legally and socially acceptable by a majority of Americans.

When actress Selena Gomez posted an Instagram video in January in which she cried about the Trump administration’s deportations of children, the viral clip threatened to stoke nationwide unease over the policy’s human impact.

But the White House digital strategy team had a plan. They dispatched videographers to interview the mothers of children killed by undocumented immigrants. They put President Donald Trump’s face on a Valentine’s Day card reading: “Roses are red, violets are blue, come here illegally and we’ll deport you.”

And they mimicked a style of video popular for its meditative soundscapes, known as ASMR, with a presentation that featured the rattling handcuff chains of a deportation flight. Gomez deleted her video shortly after posting, without specifying why. The Trump team’s video has been viewed more than 100 million times.

ok

I keep getting fundraising emails from Kamala Harris... like, every day

is that really who they want as the face of the party? Is she still party leadership?

just a gut check real quick from some of the more reasonable ilxors:

do you still think there’s going to be an election in 2028? do you still think democrats will probably win back some seats in 2026, because that’s how it’s generally worked in the mid-terms in the previous era?

After U.S. Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger had been briefly reinstated he argued that he had "reasonable grounds" to believe that federal agencies had violated federal statute in terminating six employees who were still on probationary status.

I don’t understand why people won’t acknowledge it’s unfair to everyone.

Newsom compared his position on trans athletes to conservatives who oppose same-sex marriage on principle — saying he values that Kirk and others are not abandoning their opposition now that gay marriages are both legally and socially acceptable by a majority of Americans.

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, March 6, 2025 12:26 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I agree. This was an especially insane take.

do you still think there’s going to be an election in 2028? do you still think democrats will probably win back some seats in 2026, because that’s how it’s generally worked in the mid-terms in the previous era?

― z_tbd, Thursday, March 6, 2025

Yes and yes.

We have to deal with this excrement one piece of shit at a time. I'm not losing sleep over what might happen when what is happening is dire. His popularity's already in decline and in about a year we'll see what this deracinated quasi-republic looks like after DOGE has had its way. I'm not yet uhhh encouraged by the Dem response or what the hell I'm supposed to be defending but the popular anger might be enough to sustain a vaporous platform.

excellent! honestly, i want to hear that, thank you xp

I agree w/Alfred fwiw

Billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk stepped up his congressional outreach Wednesday, vowing to improve communication with Republicans as they face constituent anger over the U.S. DOGE Service.

Though many Republican lawmakers support Musk’s mission, some have in recent weeks complained about a lack of communication about DOGE plans.

Musk told a group of Republican senators in a closed-door lunch that he wanted to set up a direct line for them when they have questions, allowing them to get a near-instant response to their concerns, senators said. Some senators were given Musk’s phone number during Wednesday’s meeting, and the entrepreneur said he would “create a system where members of Congress can call some central group” to get problematic cuts reversed quickly, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said.

Hours later, Musk told members of the House Oversight DOGE Subcommittee that he would set up a similar line of communication for them to reach his team, according to Rep. Eric Burlison (Missouri).

“We have been operating so far just through Marjorie and her connections with Elon, with the Trump administration,” Burlison said, referring to subcommittee chair and close Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia).

Musk also urged Congress to codify the cuts his group is making unilaterally, telling lawmakers that he realized that the cuts are not permanent if they are not made into law.

“He said unless Congress takes action on this, none of it is permanent,” Sen. Josh Hawley (Missouri) said.

i’m sorry….HE said that, or a U.S. senator said that? because it’s in the fucking consitution jfc

there will be elections. but expect Republican attempts to making voting even harder for demographics they don't like to accelerate and expand.

to make

I think there will be a midterm election in 2026 and the Dems will win back the House, but every Republican who loses a seat will claim election fraud and the Justice Department will start a bunch of sham investigations.

there probably will be a massive blue wave in 2026 but I think they have to pull their heads out of their asses and DO SOMETHING because I think their response to everything over the last 6 weeks is actively demotivating people to support the Democrat party at all

The last two posts otm

Yeah, agreed. I do think there's going to be an awful lot of fuckery around the elections, but I have some confidence in the sturdiness of the electoral system — it helps a lot that elections are administered at the state level, which limits Trump's direct ability to interfere. (I still think we need more federal/national election standards, but this is a case where decentralized authority is overall a good thing imo.)

And I think even these Dems are capable of flipping a few seats. But they need to be starting now.

I think there's a decent chance there won't be elections in 2026, there will at least be quite a battle over it. I think the Trump admin is attempting to break things as much as possible until people are rioting in the streets. This will give them a pretext to call for martial law, jail political opponents, and put elections on hold for unspecified lengths of time.

Nah, I don't think so. As tipsy said, elections are state-run and even MAGA choads at the state level haven't appreciated federal interference.

the wanton cruelty is breathtaking

WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter said, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation.

Also, if you believe it, Moodles, with all due respect, I wouldn't post it on a public forum. People need hope, a reason to organize, not croakings of doom.

WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter said, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation.

― Andy the Grasshopper,

we posted this already -- get your miseries in line!

here’s a thought: SHOULD people be supporting the democratic party* at all? unless they make massive changes? they need to cede power to the left, or the left needs to claim it. there is a clear as daylight vacuum of leadership, inspiration and vision right now among the centrist/neo-liberal wing of the party that has been running the show my entire life. but there is NOT a lack of ideas, leadership, inspiration and vision among the left, or, if people reading this don’t think that’s the right word, fine, but at least among local, community-minded people dedicated to protecting and expanding basic human rights.

*in its current, completely uninspiring, pathetic defeated form. keep in mind that the Democratic party of of 1924 and 1936 had the same name, but there was a sea shift in what they represented after a major global event made clear that the former party was completely irrelevant

xxp

Eh, I disagree, they are trying to steer us to some very dark places. They may very well fail, but that's the reality we are currently looking at.

the stuff i hear on this board making baseless predictions about how people are _definitely_ going to be pissed about what trump is doing, sometime soon, for sure, is absolutely maddening. get out of the boiling water!!!!!!!!!!

Saying states will not accept it isn't much different from saying Congress will not stand for their power being stripped away by an unelected billionaire. The reality is, they are more than happy to relinquish that power. They just shrug and say it's out if their hands.

xpost to self ^^that’s not going to go over well, i know, lol

i’m just saying, the old model of trying to convince people that biden/harris really represent the best of who we can and should be a country is dead, and if it’s not dead, i hope it fucking dies. there is no shortage of ACTUAL leaders. people need to be gathering around people that inspire them right now, not figuring out how to collaborate with fascists on podcast episodes in order to reach more joe rogan fans.

the stuff i hear on this board making baseless predictions about how people are _definitely_ going to be pissed about what trump is doing, sometime soon, for sure, is absolutely maddening. get out of the boiling water!!!!!!!!!!

― z_tbd,

I'm not sure what you want me to post? We're already seeing the polls. I'll repeat: people will start to see paycheck effects in the next nine months. Usually economic discontent triggers midterm power switching.

I support the Democratic Party because in my county we have no other option. I'll work to ensure we get the leftiest candidates possible with no ties to the sclerotic leadership.

xxxpost What do you think would happen if the Republicans got rid of elections? Doesn't really seem to be in their interests, particularly since their charismatic leader is like 80 years old.

Elon Musk is not even close to 80

Elon is and will always be 69

Elon is going to run for Congress in '26?

I don't exactly "support the Democratic Party," I view it as the only viable available vehicle for any kind of progressive politics, certainly in the near-to-medium term and probably well beyond that. I have no loyalty to it for its own sake, it's just what we have.

To the (great) extent to which it continues to fall short of pursuing the kinds of policies I want to see, that is the extent to which it is up to progressive organizations and individuals to keep up pressure on it and to shape a political narrative and landscape where progressive ideas can be more successful.

btw

https://bsky.app/profile/murshedz.bsky.social/post/3ljq3ime5js2v

I think the big problem with the party right now is less about where it stands ideologically and more about its capacity to be a strong, effective opposition party.

I'm not convinced a lot of them think there's a reason to oppose most of this.

i think most of them (talking Congressfolks here) are scared and don't know how to lead

they also don't have a lot of power which is why we are seeing stronger responses from governors

like, Mark Warner didn't sign up for this shit, that much is clear

i think most of them (talking Congressfolks here) are scared and don't know how to lead

OTM

it's entirely possible they are being threatened in ways that are not visible to us as well

daughter tied up in a Brooklyn basement

Just feels like the simple explanation is that most Dem politicians and the party leadership distrusts/hates progressive policy.

^^

and their consultants

i dunno i think if they're being threatened we'd hear about it

they have specifically mentioned getting death threats! cf Gillibrand

Like if you put them on a baseball field and a massive hailstorm hit, 90% of Democratic politicians would instinctively break for the Republican dugout.

threatened like Trump's empty threats? sure

threatened like this?

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/judges-face-rise-threats-musk-blasts-them-over-rulings-2025-03-05/#:~:text=Another%20person%20familiar%20with%20the,a%20target's%20address%20is%20known.

sure but like that doesn't seem that unusual for a legislator or governor (or hell even a judge sometimes).

i don't think the threats are the reason for the lack of action

would stand to believe they're scared of the way Trump is ripping the wires out w/no respect for the country, that seems scarier than anything

Just feels like the simple explanation is that most Dem politicians and the party leadership distrusts/hates progressive policy.

Is it more comforting to think that they hate what you want, or that they're cowardly and useless? Personally I lean toward assuming incompetence rather than malice. If they were genuinely malicious, they'd be Republicans. They're just losers too scared (and personally comfortable) to pull their heads out of their asses and do the work necessary to help people.

why not both?

There have been various threats of investigations/prosecutions of members of congress. It's hard to imagine any of those going anywhere, but I could imagine more of this type of talk happening behind the scenes. There's also this sense that if you suck up to Trump and Musk enough, they'll wave their wand and undo any of the bad stuff that might hit your particular state.

Has there been a single instance yet of Trump waving his magic wand and undoing something simply because somebody sucked up to him?

the J6 pardons?

they put massive tariffs in place and then a day later said the auto industry was exempted

Who did the sucking up in those cases that wasn't already in his pocket?

can we not use "Trump" and "wave his magic wand" in a sentence

Fair ban, along w/ "Trump" and "wriggling"

More like magic mushroom, many people are saying.

Has there been a single instance yet of Trump waving his magic wand and undoing something simply because somebody sucked up to him?

― henry s, Thursday, March 6, 2025 1:55 PM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Trumpocrats For Trump! The guy on the left is me. The guy on the right is Trump. pic.twitter.com/RHj4N0zQXT

— Rod Blagojevich (@realBlagojevich) June 27, 2024

anyone remember that one time Eric Adams promised to enforce the Trump immigration crackdown in exchange for having his prosecution dropped?

"sucked up to him" = $$$$ and yes there are plenty of instances as folks are documenting here

just catching up on the day here and am i to understand that media-anointed Dem leader Gavin Newsom debuted a new podcast in his own name and had CHARLIE KIRK AS HIS INAUGURAL GUEST??? wtaf

good morning!

Could be as simple as deciding you are ok with using "Gulf of America" instead of "Gulf of Mexico" in your news articles.

There are endless ways in which this is currently playing out, it seems pretty perverse to deny it. Why wouldn't some Dem politicians think they might be able to get their goodies back if they toe the line?

xxp

Trump has told now cabinet secretaries they are in charge of personnel and hiring/firing decisions, and not Musk.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/06/trump-cabinet-musk-025093

xp yes changing names, normalizing fascists, THAT is the kind of shit that most explains the dem fecklessness, to me. more so than incompetence OR fear, it's lack of conviction, total if you can't beat 'em join 'em attitude. they are falling all over themselves trying to jump out of what they see as a sinking ship, cozy up to the winning team, choose your metaphor.

Has there been a single instance yet of Trump waving his magic wand and undoing something simply because somebody sucked up to him?

― henry s, Thursday, March 6, 2025 1:55 PM (eleven minutes ago)

Here in SF there was Ross Ulbricht who was sentenced for life (2x 40y) for his role as creating/operating the Silk Road site who was pardoned immediately by Trump on his 2nd day in office. Ulbricht is said to possess the keys to over $5.35B in btc.

I think a lot of the actions taken to suddenly shut down jobs, funding, create tariffs, etc, is meant to give Trump the ability to decide who gets their stuff based on who is considered to be in his favor at any given moment.

Trump certainly grants personal favors like freedom in exchange for public groveling, but I can't see him, say, calling off the ICE dogs no matter which governor/senator/congressperson does the sucking up.

We don't want to go back to the days when disgruntled office seekers showed up at the White House, or...

I'm not sure what you want me to post? We're already seeing the polls. I'll repeat: people will start to see paycheck effects in the next nine months. Usually economic discontent triggers midterm power switching.

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)]

definitely didn’t mean to call anyone out here, sorry. you’re repeating something i didn’t see the first time. thread moves fast! but i am genuinely happy that you’re feeling that way and you feel confident about it, and i very much hope you’re right

I wish I could be so optimistic, my sense is they are ok with the anger and sinking ratings because they think they can make that stuff irrelevant through sheer force. In no way should we assume they are right or that it isn't worth fighting, but I think that theory will absolutely be tested in the coming months.

I think the earlier they do this wreckage, the more they can try to distance it from the mid-terms. They're hoping the new normal will set in and people will just vote on immigrant caravans and women's swimming again.

it depends on how much gets wrecked

if people start missing their social security checks? fuck it, the R's are toast

I think there's a decent chance there won't be elections in 2026, there will at least be quite a battle over it. I think the Trump admin is attempting to break things as much as possible until people are rioting in the streets. This will give them a pretext to call for martial law, jail political opponents, and put elections on hold for unspecified lengths of time.

how will he do that though when elections are run by states

IDK but I bet you dollars to doughnuts he tries.

he'll definitely try but if there's one consistency with Trump and Musk it's that they suck at doing everything

He can't cancel elections, it's legally impossible and also congressional Republicans WANT elections. It's where their power and money comes from.

Even Russia has elections. I don't think canceled elections is the thing to worry about, it's the circumstances and mechanics of those elections.

yeah, better have three form of ID and a DNA test on hand

I could easily see Greg Abbott working with the Trump admin to fatally undermine elections in blue districts in Texas. That alone would be enough to keep the House.

i don't think any of us really know what's going to happen in a few years. one thing i saw this week--biden gave a great state of the union last year and he was out a few months later. the economy is tanking and people hate repubs more than ever before.

the part about biden i'm including here b/c everything feels fluid in a way it hasn't in my lifetime

yeah, better have three form of ID and a DNA test on hand

― Andy the Grasshopper, Thursday, March 6, 2025 3:13 PM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

more engaged and informed voters (and therefore the ones more likely to know the requirements) have been voting dem lately

I think the earlier they do this wreckage, the more they can try to distance it from the mid-terms. They're hoping the new normal will set in and people will just vote on immigrant caravans and women's swimming again.

― Iza Duffus Hardy (President Keyes), Thursday, 6 March 2025 14:49 (thirty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

didn’t work so well for biden. inflation of 2021-22 had come back down to 2% by 2024 but people were still mad as ever. and cost-push inflation from tariffs is arguably worse than demand-push inflation, because it raises prices and kills jobs; biden at least had low unemployment. the costs of the immigration crackdown will take a while to materialize, too, probably contributing to inflation and lower job growth in a year or two

the big question is how strong is trump’s ideological commitment to tariffs. if he really believes it’s short term pain for long term gain and doesn’t let up, he will do serious damage to the economy

Yeah, it is definitely unknown, the kinds of things I'm talking about are clearly a worst case scenario. I just look at it like Trump has been in office a month and a half and the wreckage that's already happened has been massive, and the worst has not even hit people yet, so why are we confident Dems will have the opportunity to sweep into Congress (that has been effectively neutered already) 20 months from now?

xxxp

I do think Rs will be more hated than ever when things start going to shit and there are no more Clintons or Bidens to blame, that said this sort of fatalism I'm seeing from most liberals is concerning, like how motivated are people gonna be to vote for politicians who won't do shit to stop rapidly encroaching fascism besides holding up little signs at the SoTU? your opponents offered nothing but hate and fraud and YOU LOST TO THEM, I'm not donating any more money or time to these losers

fingers cross there is a wave of primaries

trump is apparently "not looking at the stock market" but if there is a stock sell-off, then he blames "globalists"

Reuters has a story today about how financial institutions the world over are looking for alternatives to U.S. markets.. what was once reliable and even predictable has gone haywire, so they're looking to European markets, China etc. The dollar has already started losing ground against the euro

Even Russia has elections. I don't think canceled elections is the thing to worry about, it's the circumstances and mechanics of those elections.

^^

yes. there will always be elections. there are also elections for local judges. you know how, no matter how good or bad the judge is*, the incumbent gets voted in because everyone knows that no one knows what’s going on and the public’s input is both uninformed and barely considered or necessary

*yes, i know that you know about a time when some especially excruciatingly corrupt judge actually lost an election. i’m talking about the other 99.999999999% of judge elections

a court defeat, hopefully many more to come

A federal court ruled that Donald Trump’s abrupt firing of a former senior official at the top US labor watchdog was illegal, and ordered that she be reinstated.

Gwynne Wilcox was the first member of the National Labor Relations Board to be removed by a US president since the board’s inception in 1935.

Apparently Musk and Abbott are gloating over on X about a fired Texas employee who got fired for refusing to remove the pronouns from their signature. It's all just cruelty and evil all the way down.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/657404/less-half-sympathetic-toward-israelis.aspx

Sympathy for Israel is down to 21% with Democrats (notably the steepest drop appears to come shortly after Trump gets re-elected but it was down to mid-30s anyway) - will the Democratic resistance finally break from Israel?

lol no

seen on bsky

"One reason I don't think DOGE is going well is that the businessmen at the airport club are all talking about how stupid it is (instead of just bragging and being horny like usual)"

trump is apparently "not looking at the stock market"

Uh-huh. He's also become totally uninterested in golf, and is now a vegan.

there are some clips of him going around today and uhhh he's sounding mighty senile lately

Apparently Musk and Abbott are gloating over on X about a fired Texas employee who got fired for refusing to remove the pronouns from their signature. It's all just cruelty and evil all the way down.

I hope they sue. I just don’t see how that kind of order is not a first amendment violation, it’s just absurd.

JUST IN: The head of the US African Development Foundation is suing Peter Marocco and DOGE — and he is describing in detail the standoff in which he blocked DOGE from entering the agency's offices.

(link will download pdf)

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278118/gov.uscourts.dcd.278118.1.0.pdf

uhhh he's sounding mighty senile lately

that's a very real thing that I don't think is being paid enough to... they were happy to label Biden a senile old fart but what have they traded him in for?

The DOGE kiddiez put together a big list of hundreds of federal properties to sell off... but oops! One of them was a CIA black site in Northern Virginia!

these fucking guys

https://wapo.st/4haz23l

Musk seeking access to child support database

Wonder why he would be interested in child support records, hmmm

they read "black site" and thought "dei"

Morbid lol.

omg

not really the point but some fascinating framing in that Gallup link:

Eight months later, on Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing over 1,000 Israelis and taking nearly 250 as hostages. Democrats’ sympathy for the Palestinian people had dipped six points by the following February. One year later, as a humanitarian crisis persists in Gaza, Democrats’ sympathy for the Palestinians is up 16 points, marking the first time it has reached the majority level.

xxpost Department Of “Godammit Elon!”

just drive this ketamine-powered efficiency vehicle straight into a wall at 200 mph weee i love it

also wtf ugh jfc etc

Good essay by Peter Shamshiri on the problem with popularism:

The Republican Party and its vast media apparatus are engaged in a campaign to reframe the most fundamental debates about American society: the role of women and minorities in public life, the continued existence of the New Deal state, the contours of the right to vote. If all Democrats do is attempt to match public opinion, they’ll be forever operating within a Republican frame, stuck watching the polls while Republicans move them.

I think a large part of this is messaging and conviction. The interviews with those people that voted Trump AND AOC, and didn't see any contradiction. Which issues are you going to chase after those voters with. None of them really mentioned issues at all! What they saw was what they perceived to be fighters. If you say tariffs are good, ok lets go, if you say they're bad, ok lets go. You seem like you mean it thats good enough for me, the other guy is asking me whether I want tariffs or not, whats he asking me for isn't he supposed to know

they read "black site" and thought "dei"

you joke but I'm sure I read this morning that a webpage about the Enola Gay was scrubbed from the gov portal bcz "gay"

Musk & his team of computer geniuses have figured out ctrl f & the computer finds the dei for them.

One thing not really reported with the USAID firings is how most of the staff was female. Be interesting to see some stats on that

Oh yeah there’s definitely a movement afoot to drive women and minorities out of the workforce or back to their “traditional” occupations (remember “black jobs”).

in resistance news--

For some reason, the March for Science is today Friday near the Lincoln Memorial in DC, and in other parts of the US and not on a non-workday of Saturday.

Well there are some more folks with free time on weekdays, sadly

I think it might also be a walkout, specifically? So it would need to be a work day.

From the Times: They chose to protest on a Friday when the U.S. Senate is in session, because they have a clearly defined target audience: American policymakers.

I think a large part of this is messaging and conviction. The interviews with those people that voted Trump AND AOC, and didn't see any contradiction. Which issues are you going to chase after those voters with. None of them really mentioned issues at all! What they saw was what they perceived to be fighters.

Agree with this, and I'll add that it's also about commanding attention. People like AOC in part because they see her talking directly at them on Instagram.

People like AOC and Trump because they don't like politicians like Schumer or Jeffries.

Two anti-trans bills were defeated in the Montana state house yesterday. One was a particularly ugly drag show ban, and the other would have removed trans children from their parents' care. 13 Republicans crossed over and voted against the first one, and 29 Republicans voted against the second one, a frankly stunning result.

Incredible. A ray of hope in a bleak landscape. I saw video of Rep Zephyr rising to speak on the "indecent exposure" bill last week and she said she has had to rise to speak against an absolutely INSANE number of anti-trans bills and hadn't slept in like 3 days??? I may mis-remember the details but the exhaustion was clear.

My representative voted for both, unfortunately. I wrote her an email I'm sure will go unanswered, although I tried to speak in a language she'd understand.

Representative Sharp:

I live in your district, and I am writing to say that I am very disappointed that you voted for HB675 and HB754. This type of legislation benefits no one, and would only serve to hurt the people of Montana. I am glad that so many other Republicans understood this.

The conservatism I grew up with involved minding one's own business, and helping others to the best of one's ability when asked. I would never tell any of my neighbors how to live their lives, and the government shouldn't be doing that either.

The interviews with those people that voted Trump AND AOC, and didn't see any contradiction.

Anti-system voters. So many people having been failed from birth by America, being the norm defender party is going to be a non-starter for these people.

those have to be extremely low-information voters, I mean their vote supports utterly contradicting policies.

(I'm saying "low information" instead of "dumb" but that's what I actually mean)

If the policy is annoying Nancy Pelosi, then there's no contradiction.

sad little man

Radical DeSantis plan for Doge-style cuts in Florida opposed by own party

Radical plans by Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, to overhaul the state’s financial machinery have hit turbulent waters, with party leaders pushing back on his Doge-style efficiency taskforce, and economists dismissing a proposal to abolish property taxes as essentially unworkable.

I'd missed this one — an executive order directing the Justice Department, the DNI, the OMB and the EEOC to investigate one law firm Trump is mad at because they represented the Clinton campaign in 2016 (and paid for the Fusion GPS report) and the Biden campaign in 2020.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/addressing-risks-from-perkins-coie-llp/

Bonkers.

Trump canceled $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia University for "failure to protect Jewish students from harassment".

Anti-system voters

aka Rufus T. Firefly voters

Yes Virginia, they really are that fucking stupid:

The Department of Defense is planning to remove content related to the historic aircraft, the Enola Gay, as part of Donald Trump's crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

The Defense Department has created a database, obtained by The Associated Press, of more than 26,000 images and posts that have been marked for deletion across all branches of the military. Anonymous U.S. officials told the outlet that the purge could potentially effect over 100,000 pieces of content not just on websites, but social media as well.

The restored Enola Gay, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress airplane used to drop the first atomic bomb in combat 06 August 1945 on Hiroshima, Japan, is seen on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, the Smithsonian's new addition to the National Air and Space Museum, 25 March, 2006 in Chantilly, Virginia. The building opened in December, 2003, and provides enough space for the Smithsonian to display the thousands of aviation and space artifacts that cannot be exhibited on the National Mall. The two sites together showcase the largest collection of aviation and space artifacts in the world.

Several photos were seemingly flagged for removal only because their file included the word ”gay,” including the World War II aircraft, which dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Photos of an Army Corps of Engineers project are also slated for removal because one of the engineers had the last name "Gay," as well as a photo of Army Corps biologists because it contained data about fish, including their gender.

And no, that's not The Onion.

source: https://www.advocate.com/politics/defense-department-enola-gay-dei#rebelltitem2

what's the opposite of 'meritocracy'?

'mediocracy'?

Gift link about yesterday's Cabinet/Musk meeting: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/us/politics/trump-musk-doge-power.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2E4.1hvZ.twi5YvlKBbqN&smid=url-share

Trump eventually made clear that Cabinet officials do get to run their own departments, but it's still just crazy to have Musk in there arguing with and insulting them, and then bragging about how much his companies are worth.

Reinforces the theory that they outed the CIA black site because DEI. These morons are literally just Ctrl+Fing databases for words that trigger them.

That’s why Marvin added the “e”

most people use kakistocracy to describe the modern GOP, the opposite of a meritocracy pretty much

most people?

fire this guy

US economy facing potential slowdown amid ‘heightened uncertainty’, says Fed chair

Federal Reserve head Jerome Powell said it was in no rush to cut interest rate as government overhauls key policies

The US economy faces a potential slowdown in consumer spending amid “heightened uncertainty about the economic outlook” among businesses, the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, said on Friday.

Though Powell said the economy “continues to be in a good place”, he added: “It remains to be seen how these developments might affect future spending and investment.”

seen on FB: "Wait until he hears about a whole orchestra full of Trans people from Siberia"

i know nothing matters and all but if any of this shit is true, he should be unanimously impeached immediately. christ
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/world/canada/trump-trudeau-canada-51st-state.html

like obv we are way past impeachment as an actual possibility, but come the fuck on. every day he does something that makes nixon look like boss baby

Yeah, I read that earlier.

He told Mr. Trudeau that he did not believe that the treaty that demarcates the border between the two countries was valid and that he wants to revise the boundary. He offered no further explanation.

it's silliness that can be ignored, but it does speak to his mental acuity that he even goes there

it's silliness that can be ignored, but it does speak to his mental acuity that he even goes there

I think it's a version of 'Okay dad, sounds good... you ready for your diet coke?' Just let him babble for babble's sake and help him find the remote

That's where we are as a nation

trudeau seems to be taking it seriously

'We want more NORTH DAKOTA!!' wft is he even talking about

he's going to Gulf of Tonkin' Lake Superior

seen on FB: "Wait until he hears about a whole orchestra full of Trans people from Siberia"

remember when Biden was forced to drop out of the race because of shit like this

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3ljsiyge6m22m

This article is the most detailed document I've seen about exactly how DOGE officials are going about dismantling federal agencies.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elon-musk-doge-african-development-foundation_n_67cb6408e4b056d451323cc3

There’s a meme going around tiktok of people making videos talking about “it” eg “What are you going to do the day after it happens? Or will you be too hung over?” or “A white person has to do it. Cmon yall”

and the comments are all like “this is crazy how it is so obvious what ‘it’ is”

And it is

Yes this is in the US politics thread for a reason

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUHnazM8-Xg

i don’t know what ‘it’ is, but i’m also the guy who literally joined the pen15 club because i didn’t understand what was going on until it was in permanent marker on my hand

Assuming this means the day he receives eternal salvation

I don’t know why anyone’s in a hurry to usher in President Vance tbh

https://truthout.org/articles/what-would-it-look-like-if-librarians-ran-the-government-instead-of-these-fools/

I thought the It was about Musk. Seems like that would be more effective overall. There’s no one waiting in the wings to take over Elon’s empire afaict.

if the senate democrats demanded musk to fuck off in exchange for keeping the government, everyone would stand behind them

but they won't

*keeping the government ^open

Sending that article to my brother, who is the president of the Brooklyn library workers union.

<3

I don’t know why anyone’s in a hurry to usher in President Vance tbh

I assume not even jokingly that Thiel has at least contemplated some kind of contingency if Trump’s still alive in a couple of years.

I thought the techbros have lined up Vance because they will eventually resort to 25th Amendment shenanigans and get him installed.

My aunt, who is a librarian in deepest red Ohio, is going to love that article. Thanks.

A prominent Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s student encampment movement was arrested on Saturday night by federal immigration authorities who claimed they were acting on a state department order to revoke his green card, according to his attorney.

Mahmoud Khalil was at his university-owned apartment, blocks from the private Ivy League university’s main campus in New York when several Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents entered the building and took him into custody, his attorney, Amy Greer, told the Associated Press.

One of the agents told Greer by phone that they were executing a state department order to revoke Khalil’s student visa. Informed by the attorney that Khalil, who graduated last December, was in the United States as a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said they were revoking that too, according to the lawyer.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/09/ice-arrests-palestinian-activist-columbia-protests

So basically anyone with a green card — about 13 million people — is on notice that public opposition to anything this administration does will lead to expulsion. (I have no idea if that's "legal" under the terms of green cards, not that that appears to matter anymore.)

And apparently not even his lawyer can find out where they’ve taken him.

chilling shit

This is really very disturbing

I’m horrified!

ianal but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some very vague language about green card holders having an obligation not to “undermine America’s foreign policy” or something, which relies completely on the government of the day to interpret as leniently or as draconian as they like

this is the inflection point, LFG. seeing this all over bsky.

Here’s the third bullet point on the responsibilities of green card holders. Love the straight faced hypocrisy of it:

- Expected to support the democratic form of government (“support” does not include voting. Permanent residents cannot vote in federal, state, or local elections.)

I have no doubt that ICE will claim he “supports” Hamas and therefore is not fulfilling this responsibility

And presumably Columbia won’t say shit, because they just got hit with a loss of $400 million in federal funding.

They won’t say shit because they’ve been targeting Khalil themselves

Permanent residency status has always been revocable on the grounds of good moral character. Protesting the government, although a right for citizens, is of a weird area for anybody on a green card. One of the conditional bars against establishing good moral character during the statutory period is 'moral turpitude,' one of whose elements include 'crimes against the authority of government.' I think this is typically reserved for things like fraud, but it wouldn't be a stretch...

still, the way it was handled, if let go, makes it hard to see how the law protects anyone.

“your visa is canceled”

“i have a green card, not a visa”

“well then your green card is canceled and you’re coming with us”

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdeHmjLh/

“i will give no context.. it has to be all three”

One of the conditional bars against establishing good moral character during the statutory period is 'moral turpitude,'

surely I am not the only one here who immediately thought of Dog Man?

Student visas, green cards and other 'resident alien' provisions are pretty much 'at the sufferance' of the government and are ridiculously easy to revoke. it's just that there are usually compelling reasons for granting student visas and green cards and arbitrary revocations are bad policy.

this is the inflection point, LFG. seeing this all over bsky.

― sleeve, Sunday, March 9, 2025 6:26 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes. if we don't rise to this moment it will be harder later. there is a big protest in ny tomorrow.

More weekday protests this week- Department of Education one on Tuesday March 11 that afge is involved with; there are veterans protests at noon friday March 14 at capitol buildings in all 50 states and DC

Trump Administration is required by US District Court judge Ali to pay foreign aid contractors for work already completed, by 6 pm ET today Monday March 10. We shall see if they comply, or not.

If they don't, then the government will call the government and tell it to arrest itself.

Obviously not as bad as disappearing a protestor, but bleak nonetheless:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c80y3yx1jdyo

The dad of a Welsh tourist detained in a US immigration centre has urged travellers to be "very careful" about their visa requirements.

Becky Burke, 28, has spent 10 days in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing centre in Washington State and was also denied entry into Canada, over a "visa mix-up", said Paul Burke.

He said Ms Burke got free accommodation for helping host families "around the house", which he believes authorities may have suspected broke the terms of her tourist visa.

The US Department of Homeland Security has been asked to comment while the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) confirmed it was were supporting a British national.

Mr Burke told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast he could not understand why she was "locked up and she's in an orange prison jumpsuit whilst the paperwork gets sorted out".

He said what was meant to be a life-changing backpacking trip "has turned into a nightmare".

HHS is offering up to a $25K for staff to leave the dept

That's fucking taxpayer money! What if they were gonna leave anyway?

just because it was offered doesn't mean they are going to get it

^^^

The ADL is all in on detaining people who protest Israel:

ADL
ADL @ADL
We firmly believe there should be swift and severe consequences for those who provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations, incite violence in support of terrorist activities, or conceal their identities in order to harass and intimidate Jewish individuals and institutions with impunity.

We appreciate the Trump Administration's broad, bold set of efforts to counter campus antisemitism — and this action further illustrates that resolve by holding alleged perpetrators responsible for their actions.

Obviously, any deportation action or revocation of a Green Card or visa must be undertaken in alignment with required due process protections.
We also hope that this action serves as a deterrent to others who might consider breaking the law on college campuses or anywhere.

This is the only place I’m seeing this reported so far, but it wouldn’t be the first time he’s used Nazi imagery.

https://meidasnews.com/news/trump-amplifies-no-lgbtq-symbol-using-nazi-era-imagery-in-military-ad-post

RFKJr. out there doing what we knew he would (gift link): https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/health/measles-texas-kennedy-fox.html?unlocked_article_code=1.204.QVyG.MnTOt_9BTTI5&smid=url-share

In a sweeping interview, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, outlined a strategy for containing the measles outbreak in West Texas that strayed far from mainstream science, relying heavily on fringe theories about prevention and treatments.

He issued a muffled call for vaccinations in the affected community, but said the choice was a personal one. He suggested that measles vaccine injuries were more common than known, contrary to extensive research.

He asserted that natural immunity to measles, gained through infection, somehow also protected against cancer and heart disease, a claim not supported by research.

He cheered on questionable treatments like cod liver oil, and said that local doctors had achieved “almost miraculous and instantaneous” recoveries with steroids or antibiotics.

... Mr. Kennedy’s focus on unverified treatments has frustrated some doctors in Gaines County, who have been trying to explain to patients that there is no antiviral for measles and that they have little control over which patients suffer serious symptoms.

“We already are dealing with people that think measles is not a big deal,” said Dr. Leila Myrick, a family medicine doctor in Seminole, Texas, who has been caring for patients with measles for several weeks.

“Now they’re going to think they can get this miracle treatment and that they definitely don’t need to get vaccinated. It’s a 100 percent going to make it harder.”

Well, if you die of measles as a child, there's no way you're getting any cancer or heart disease as an adult.

these people are monsters

RFK Jr does his own research

The whole fetishism for "natural immunity" (from getting sick and recovering) is so crazy. Heard the same thing at the height of COVID. It's like, yes, you can get immunity that way ... but you have to get sick first! And unvaccinated illness is exactly what's dangerous.

As has been proved over and over, a nominee can lie their head off to gain conformation, then immediately reverse course without the Senate so much as murmuring about impeachment. They're fucking lap dogs.

yes, agree

Heard the same thing at the height of COVID

I've had covid at least twice, probably thrice (undiagnosed case in early 2020), so that's a bunch of hogwash

How did we get to this point so quickly wrt the widespread prevalence of anti-vaccine believers? My memory places this pretty firmly at Trump’s door. What I remember is that when Covid started really getting taken seriously, his response was along the lines of, why is this happening to me? Why do I have to deal with this and take the blame for this during MY presidency? And so he decided to dismiss it as a hoax. This seemed to go over pretty well with his audience, so he ramped it up from there. It was like a feedback loop, his supporters were getting the hoax/antivax message from him, and he was getting the message fed back to him even stronger from his supporters. On top of this were two additional factors: 1) he was ticked off that, for a time early on, Fauci was more trusted and more popular than him, and he couldn’t let that stand, and 2) he picked up on percolating popular anger about mask mandates, and he gave plenty of oxygen to that fire. Demonizing Fauci and other scientists and experts gave Fox News something to obsess over until nobody trusted the experts anymore. The vacuum created when the actual experts became thought of as crackpots allowed the actual crackpots to become accepted as experts, thus the rise of Kennedy. Is this an oversimplified summary? How many more thousands or millions of preventable deaths will he be responsible for, all because he couldn’t take responsibility for a crisis? Will history remember things this way, or will we all be so gaslit that we won’t know which way is up anymore after another decade or so of Supreme Leader Trump? Is that too many questions to end a post with?

anti-vaxxers have vacillated between the right/left threshold, I remember this being more of a Marin County lib mom thing back in the day

It fits in with the whole "don't trust the experts" "anti-elitism" of the modern right. It was always lurking in the movement I think — Pat Robertson used to sell supplements and protein shakes, snake-oil salesmen of various kinds have always been conservative camp followers. COVID was where the crossover with woo-woo alt-health influencers happened.

The leadership of both political parties used to keep that kind of stuff at bay, or at least out of legislation, but with COVID the GOP decided to just go full anti-vaxx, and they haven't looked back. Yet anyway.

I knew west coast hippies who were anti-vax as far back as 1993, for context

I think they saw an opportunity to pick up some easily brainwashed fringe Dems while keeping their supporters who would fall in line no matter what. Also an opportunity for finger-pointing, demonizing elites, and hastening the collapse of society.

I know antivax beliefs have been around for a long time on the fringes, I’m asking, what brought us to the point where they are practically mainstream?

Covid, Joe Rogan, etc.

the autism study didn't even really need to be debunked since it was such bad science to begin with, but it stuck

Covid for sure. Trump’s denialism imo accelerated it and got people, including Rogan, onto the “doing their own research” train. Maybe the timelines in my memory are suspect.

RFK Jr

Trump openly courted Anti-Vaxxers in 2016, claiming that vaccines made Barron become a computer nerd.

xxxp a lot of at least the Marin anti-vaxxers became pro-vax though, when they saw what was happening with covid

epistantophus, that is an amazing, concise summary I think - that through Trump vaccinations became politicized which resulted in all of this insanity

Once people did their own medical research they realized they knew more than researchers. It was pretty straightforward from there

so now we're defunding cancer research and NIH grants to universities, but starting a CDC study about vaccines and autism?

I can't take all of these daily hits, it's too much

RFK Jr. crackpotted his way to a seat at the crackpot table because he happened to be alive and brainwormed during this historic time for crackpots everywhere. He didn’t get us to this point, he just arrived here and found his moment.

-actual medical doctors are expensive and often don't pay much attention to you, plus the more honest they are the more they tell people exactly what they don't want to hear: there's no miracle cure, this treatment only has an X% chance of working, you have to change your lifestyle, exercise more, change your diet, stop drinking, stop smoking, etc.

-right-wing media has always been primarily about grifting, even way before Trump. some of their biggest advertisers sell remedies, supplements, and miracle medical devices. evangelicals are the same. it's all about making money. they will both happily vilify mainstream medicine because they sell the alternative. and their message is way more appealing than a real doctor's... they'll agree with your self-diagnosis (because they have something for every ailment, it doesn't matter what you come up with), they have something affordable in the short term you can take, it's an easy pill or eyedropper of liquid, and they guarantee it works.

-vaccines inherently offend human folk beliefs about the sanctity of the body. some percentage of the population are always gonna be unable to overcome the feeling that injecting something someone else made into your blood is not somehow bad and wrong. do not underestimate this. it can be overcome, but only when the alternative is pervasive and obvious (seeing friends and family die of hideous communicable diseases like polio and measles). and it still takes a lot of trust in the system that wants to vaccinate you. people used to trust doctors and the government. now pretty much everyone despises both groups to some degree, and right-wingers despise them both A LOT.

I have a good friend who greatly feared vaccines but she got them at my urging when covid appeared.

When I was a kid in the 60s everyone trusted vaccines. I had friends and parents of friends who suffered from polio in the 50s, and the whole idea of iron lungs haunted me for most of my childhood

People used to trust doctors and the government but now despise them. I think it's entirely political at this point. Nobody blames Trump, but I think he is entirely to blame

when there was a mumps outbreak at the university where i was teaching while undergoing chemotherapy in 2019, i asked on facebook, “does anyone know of any research or papers on the rise of anti-vaccine movements and fascism?” not many responses except from hippies giving their “just asking questions” schtick, all of whom were unfriended and blocked.

Booming post, 3 otm points by f. hazel, also don’t want to overlook Dan S.’s succinct summation of politicization as what accelerated our arrival here- the explicit support of a major party leader in our two party system, a president and a cult leader besides- as perhaps the puzzle piece that had been missing previously, which made everything click into place.

giving their “just asking questions” schtick

my ex was not a full-blown anti-vaxxer, but she had concerns about doing them all at once for her kid.. which I get. Feels like we didn't have much choice in the 70's, I remember getting them at school and not really having any say about it, which is probably how it should be

get over it. multiple vaccinations at one time is not a problem, even for kids

everyone is so superstitious

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2uRRDV63ns

Michelle Goldberg otm (gift link): https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/opinion/mahmoud-khalil-free-speech.html?unlocked_article_code=1.3E4.6XDG.4vVJZgUV7uvU&smid=url-share

Today, pro-Palestinian campus demonstrators are widely despised, just as leftists were during the Red Scare. I wouldn’t be surprised if Khalil’s arrest proves popular, but that won’t make it any less shameful or alarming. The nearly 13 million green card holders in the United States — not to mention foreign students and professors — have been put on notice that they need to watch what they say. “Any foreign student here, I think, has to be worried if they’ve engaged in pro-Palestine protests over the past couple of years,” said Hauss. Nor can citizens rest easy; a government this willing to disregard the First Amendment is a danger to us all.

I asked Schlanger just how freaked out we should be by Khalil’s apprehension. “I teach constitutional law,” she said. “And I’m freaking out.”

well, yeah

dammit xp

lol sorry sleeve. I hate to spoil a well, yeah.

The antivax stuff is so sad to me bc my mom was a cell biologist and geneticist (researching, among other things, the genetic markers for autism). She bought a set of really wonderful illustrated children's books that explained cells, DNA, viruses and bacteria, the immune system, and vaccination in a visual language that was vivid and understandable before I had learned my multiplication tables. And I know not everyone has that foundational knowledge I use for granted, but I'm really heartbroken at just common it is for people to reach adulthood with an understanding of microbiology that is basically, "Here there be dragons."

*I take for granted
**just how common it is

I guess what I'm saying is that vaccination is so simple, a child can understand it. But it has to be a child that isn't being constantly lied to by a bunch of loudmouth shit-for-brains idiots.

and unfortunately, you can't skip a rope or hula a hoop in 2025 USA without bumping into some loudmouth shit-for-brains idiot, probably on his way to accept a prestigious political appointment, or sign a multimillion dollar podcast deal

I know antivax beliefs have been around for a long time on the fringes, I’m asking, what brought us to the point where they are practically mainstream?

― epistantophus,

I don't think its as pronounced in the UK but at the start of covid there was a YouTube channel by someone called Dr John Campbell, a retired nurse with a calm and reassuring manner who gave updates to people on what was happening right at the very start, what to worry about and what not to worry about

At some point he went from being level headed to gradually leaning more and more into antivax and conspiratorial stuff, having posters behind him saying things like "I think...when I am allowed". He'd built up a large audience, and still has one. Why did he change, did someone give him money to reach his large audience, or did he just get audience captured - but where did this audience come from? I just checked and he's still making covid videos, and one last month got 500k views

I do think the measures to suppress covid misinformation were fraught with danger, and had severe misgivings at the time. It gave perceived legitimacy to nonsense, especially after the initial period (where people were pretty compliant for the most part)

The UK has been a hotbed for years. Andrew Wakefield is British and stirred up a huge amount of misinformation and disinformation about MMR before he was finally disbarred from the medical profession. There’s so much of it about, my sister and her idiot friends all seem to be some flavor of antivax.

In the US the wellness stuff had been bubbling up for years - Paleo, whatever that diet is that's beyond paleo, eating organice/clean/etc., exercise woo, supplements, life extension. Largely scams but on the consumer side also not completely irrational responses to the American healthcare system and quality of our food supply.

I’d agree that the cost of healthcare in the US and the lack of universal provision creates the perfect opportunity for antivaxxers and others who reach for alternative/wellness solutions to that lack, and many of the white, middle-class people in particular refuse to acknowledge that their continued good health is down to herd immunity. They don’t get that people getting vaccinated keeps them safe - or maybe they understand perfectly, and their anger when we point it out to them is a product of their intellectual dishonesty.

Rodrigo Duterte (79) arrested in Manilla by Interpol on mandate from the ICC due to his policy of using vigilantes / extrajudicial killings during his war on drugs. The Philippines had withdrawn from the ICC in 2019 during Duterte's presidency, who called them SOBs. Was often compared to Trump since their presidencies coincided.

brilliant posts, f.hazel.

Amidst a sea of very scary news, the federal kidnapping of Mahmoud Khalil really looms as one of the scariest to me. Went to the rally in Manhattan yesterday afternoon - was good to see so many numbers there. And good to see that a decent number of constitutional-law and free-speech advocacy people are out there expressing the sense of how outrageous, cruel, arbitrary and chilling this is.

As of last night, a US district court judge has ordered that Khalil not be deported, pending a hearing. His lawyers are also trying to get him relocated back to NYC on jurisdictional grounds. If they can actually move this out of the shadowy "because I said so" world of ICE thugs and into an actual courtroom, that's got to be good news. Rubio is claiming responsibility, and claiming authority via a rarely-used and super-vague, over-broad McCarthy-era provision which will potentially end up getting a constitutional challenge here. Fingers crossed, despite the stacked deck at SCOTUS.

I watched a few John Campbell videos 4-5 years ago and soon found my parents were doing the same. Didn't really notice anything amiss until he started berating the WHO while bigging up Rand Paul while also claiming not to know much about him wtf

https://neurosciencenews.com/spite-conspiracy-theories-psychology-28455/

A new study finds that spite—driven by feelings of uncertainty, threat, or disadvantage—plays a key role in conspiracy theory belief. Researchers analyzed data from 1,000 participants and found that spiteful motives strengthened the link between conspiracy thinking and the need for understanding, security, and social significance.

Rather than a conscious choice, spite emerges as a psychological response to feeling powerless, making people more receptive to rejecting expert opinions. The findings suggest that addressing misinformation requires tackling broader social and economic factors that fuel feelings of disenfranchisement.

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lk4kewat272s

have called and written my rep and one senator about Khalil. No statement from either Dem senator or my representative in one of the safest blue areas of the country. Hakeem Jeffries has apparently made some mealy-mouthed statement about how proper procedures need to be followed.

let them eat paste

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has slashed two programs that provided more than $1bn for schools and food banks to purchase food from local farms and ranchers.

About $660m of those funds were contained in the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program, which provided funds to schools and child care facilities but is now being eliminated.

I mean, right in line with the GOP practice of decades. Embryo? Must be protected at all costs. Kindergartner? "Fuck them kids".

I went to a rally this morning outside the Department of Education in DC to show support for its staff and protest against its destruction. Some fired government employees spoke, as did Dem rep Mark Tokano from Riverside, California, some folks from non-profit groups, a teacher, and a college student who gets grants and loans. A small turnout but it seemed like a fairly large number of media camera people.

Now seeing news reports that Department of Education employees are being told to leave the building by 6 tonight and to stay home tomorrow for “security “ reasons.

Another case where, when a lie allows you to do what you want to do, but the truth doesn't, tell the lie and do it.

i know there is likely no constitutional way out of this mess (barring elections, probably), but it's insane to me that democrats aren't shouting about impeachment every single day. doesn't matter if it goes nowhere, it should be part of the fucking conversation

Hamilton Nolan has it right.

Much of the ongoing confoundment with Donald Trump’s governing style comes down to what metaphor you apply to him. Is he a wannabe strongman? Sure. A fascist? Of course. An autocrat, an authoritarian, an aspiring dictator? Yes, clearly, though there is no guarantee that he knows what those words mean. Leave those terms in the textbooks. There is a much more accurate way to describe who Donald Trump is: He is a gangster. He governs like a gangster. And if you think of him not as any variety of politician but rather as a gangster—who sits atop not a political party, but a gang—his actions make perfect sense.

If Trump was out to Bolster The Republican Party, he would only be slashing budgets in blue states and protecting red ones. Instead he is lashing out at everything, ignoring every rule. The humiliating ritual of forcing Republican allies to come and beg him to restore cuts he has already made is the point. This process reflects the success of the system that Trump wants: All control of all things in his own hands. Rules and laws—even the ones that Republicans traditionally like!—are impediments to his own control of all decisions. Therefore rules and laws must be smashed, discarded at a whim, openly violated, ignored. Do not search for some archaic form of ideological conservatism at work here. The goal of all this is not “remaking the government in a conservative image”—it is “if you want anything, you have to ask me for it.” The rules that governed how the government works are tossed out and replaced with “Trump’s will.” That’s how mob bosses rule.

...

The government does not need to work. That is not important. What is important is that it is under his control. Gangsters do not care about “the public welfare.” That is not important. What is important is that the public acquiesces to the power of the boss. (Maybe a gangster will, you know, pass out free turkeys to the public at Thanksgiving, in order to bask in their gratitude, and then go back to extorting them the next day.) Allies do not need to be respected. That is not important. It is actually preferable if allies are disrespected and forced to demonstrate that they will happily eat shit and keep coming back, because it confirms their loyalty and submission to the boss. This is basic gangster shit. This is how America is run now.

I just had a discussion -- no raised voices! -- with a regular at our bookstore, a guy in his late '20s who sells luxury cars. When I explained how 50% tariffs on our friends doesn't uh strike me as sound fiscal policy, he says thoughtfully, "But don't you think he's utilizing this as a negotiating tactic, to bring them to the table?"

Instead of kicking him repeatedly in the face, I said, "How well did this work the first time he was president?"

"Fair."

Maybe if you don't dump buckets of shit onto the table it would be easier to get countries to come to it.

Instead of kicking him repeatedly in the face

lol <3 feeling u on this

ave called and written my rep and one senator about Khalil. No statement from either Dem senator or my representative in one of the safest blue areas of the country. Hakeem Jeffries has apparently made some mealy-mouthed statement about how proper procedures need to be followed.

― JoeStork, Tuesday, March 11, 2025 10:45 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Big surprise that most Dems are profiles in fucking cowardice: https://newrepublic.com/post/192606/14-democrats-mahmoud-khalil-letter

Also good to remember that the hounding and persecution of pro-Palestine protestors started under Biden. I know some here loathe him, but I don't really care, Steven Salaita is absolutely spot-on in his paper, "The Free Speech Exception to Palestine"

https://stevesalaita.com/the-free-speech-exception-to-palestine/

it's insane to me that democrats aren't shouting about impeachment every single day.

My congressman Al Green made a formal call for impeachment last month.

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/2025/02/06/513110/houston-congressman-al-green-to-file-articles-of-impeachment-against-president-donald-trump/

It's kind of his thing.

i bet he is tired of being alone

Love & Happiness with no Trump

My usually mediocre centrist Dem rep Adam Smith did just make a statement that managed to avoid condemning Khalil and said that while he has concerns about protests that “cross the line,” Khalil committed no crime and this is an attack on free speech. Much better than fucking Schumer.

When I explained how 50% tariffs on our friends doesn't uh strike me as sound fiscal policy, he says thoughtfully, "But don't you think he's utilizing this as a negotiating tactic, to bring them to the table?"

I hate this line so much, I just had it repeated to me by a Republican yesterday — "What I think you and a lot of the media don't understand is that these things are all just negotiating tactics ..."

As if that's such a geniusidea that most of us just can't wrap our heads around. As if every head of state in history hasn't engaged in "negotiating tactics." What's notable about Trump is how BAD he is at negotiating. He doesn't even negotiate, he just asserts lunatic things and expects it to work. He's a fucking idiot, among everything else he is, and he was a terrible businessman.

I’m thankful I haven’t encountered these “sly negotiating tactics/art of the deal” idiots in person. Thankful for me, and for them.

One big problem is that it isn't clear what is being negotiated. There is no rationale driving this beyond inflicting pain on our neighbors and ourselves.

The most entertaining route would be to ask "bring them to the table about what? What do you think needs to change in our relationship with Canada?" I guess but then you'd have to listen to an idiot try to thinking creatively on the fly.

They really don’t veer from talking points so are in freefall when they can’t repeat any of the usual old saws.

he has said what he's trying to do - force canada to submit to his will and become the 51st state. most americans are interested in that, so they just think he is talking out of his ass. but that's what he has decided he wants

CNN Update

Education Department will cut about 50% of its workforce, sources say
From CNN's Sunlen Serfaty, Kaanita Iyer, Alayna Treene and Kevin Liptak
The US Education Department will start sweeping layoffs beginning this evening, sources tell CNN, as the Trump administration continues its efforts to shrink the size of the federal government.
The department is expected to cut about 50% of its workforce with notices starting to go out this evening, three sources familiar with the plan tell CNN. The department employs around 4,400 workers.
The cuts come as President Donald Trump has been mulling over an executive order to eliminate the department altogether, which was expected to be signed last week but was never announced.
Earlier today, the department announced that its offices will be closed this evening and tomorrow for unspecified “security reasons” with employees instructed to work remotely though they are not permitted to.

force canada to submit to his will and become the 51st state

serious Napoleon complex

Apparently he uttered the phrase "Everything's computer!" while selling Teslas on the White House lawn today, and many people are finding this amusing.

most otm thing he's said

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtovFI8etOg

Oops, wrong thread.

unclear what the impact of halving the size of the education department will be but I'm sure not happy it's happening the one and only time my family will have two people eligible for and relying on Pell grants.

turns out DEI stood for Da Economy Isgrowing

— snowman (@snowmanllc) March 11, 2025

I'm retired, and my 401k value and my retirement savings are being driven directly into a ditch, and they may not recover in my lifetime. Already it may take a decade to get back to where we were in December, and I'm not even confident about that. Meanwhile tariffs will causing rampant inflation

I know you all don't have this exact issue because you're 20-30 years younger, but it is very distressing to me and to a lot of other older retired people that I know, it is a real issue

psst I'm almost 60, and my wife is older and retired. I've seen this coming since Reagan, which helps. Nobody is coming to save us, we're on our own.

Hey, I have a Roth IRA. I won't check it.

I don’t have any retirement savings. Or savings.

This Tesla commercial at the White House today, just iconic. Wish Warhol and/or Hunter S. Thompson were here to see it, though I suppose they're just as happy not to.

I have absolutely no retirement savings. I spend all my leftover money on a record label, so in the coming apocalypse I will have a storage unit full of CDs I can burn for fuel. Except that CDs don't burn. But perhaps I can break them into shards and stab people with them and take their food.

This Tesla commercial at the White House today, just iconic. Wish Warhol and/or Hunter S. Thompson were here to see it, though I suppose they're just as happy not to.

― paper plans (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, March 11, 2025 8:55 PM (forty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

kinda wonder what MAGA world thinks of all this I mean surely even they recognize how deeply pathetic this is

Thinking and realizing requires paying attention.

The MAGAnaughts who would pay the closest attention to nonsense like this are deeply committed cult members. Those who might be capable of noticing how pathetic it was probably would have immediately shifted their attention to something more interesting when they saw it wasn't addressing something they had actual feelings about, for example, like smiting their chosen enemies or promising them some pie.

The scale of corruption happening in plain sight is a little boggling. Can only imagine what's happening less visibly. And I guess people don't care? These guys are clearly looting the country, but it's kinda no big deal?

Rolling Stone has a pretty good rundown of the obvious corruption to date: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-musk-lawless-second-term-1235290095/

feel like republicans during obama at least thought they were being sneaky in burning it all down to preserve their power. it's just beyond shameless at this point and it was telephoned in to the whole country prior to last year's elections. was talking to my mom earlier and she's not even that invested but she's just stunned at the blatant disregard and self-serving being done at the top right now.

John "Just Fucking Switch Parties Already" Fetterman has announced he'll be voting for the Republican budget. From Bluesky:

The weeks of performative “resistance” from those in my party were limited to undignified antics.

Voting to shut the government down will punish millions or risk a recession.

I disagree with many points in the CR, but I will never vote to shut our government down.

argggghhhh (redacted)

A whole army of grifters:

In at least a dozen videos filmed in her OPM office, political appointee McLaurine Pinover modeled her outfit choices for the day, while directing followers from her Instagram account to a website that could earn her commissions on clothing sales.

McLaurine Pinover! Surely that's from the Lemony Snicket books.

https://bsky.app/profile/brunojnavarro.bsky.social/post/3lk5bcojm2k2g

big part of what makes this so irritating is that so much of what's going on feels like the clickbait headlines we'd get during the Obama years, the shit you'd see shared by really dumb people on social media that would make you go "come on, this obviously isn't true, if it was it would be the biggest scandal in American history". I mean that's why they're getting away with it, their voters think this is what every politician does

seriously it just rattles the brain, the economy is in free fall while grocery prices go through the roof, we're about to enact tariffs which will singlehandedly wipe out a ton of small businesses, a ton of essential government agencies are being shut down while planes crash on a near daily basis and measles outbreaks are killing kids for the first time in 20 years, also we're openly doing the Kremlin's bidding for reasons nobody can quite figure out, meanwhile the President of the United States is turning the White House into a car dealership in service of the world's richest man, how the fuck are there people who aren't absolutely livid about all this??? do you not realize a huge chunk of YOUR SALARY is funding this shit??

"It's A-OK as we're not funding DEI and Transgender!"--Your Racist Cousin

I'm pretty sure people's patience will run out pretty quickly the more they feel the pain first hand. The effects of this stuff have barely begun to hit.