Ballroom blitz: American politics April 2026

On we go.

He's lost Alex Jones: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/alex-jones-trump-health-dementia-b2949803.html

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones tore into his one-time political hero, President Trump, yesterday, claiming that the commander-in-chief was in “free fall.”

... On Tuesday’s episode of The Alex Jones Show, the host took aim at Trump’s health, comparing the president’s current state to his late grandfather’s decline due to dementia.

I watched some of his weirdass speech last night, he sounds like he's 150 years old

idk why jd vance hasnt killed him yet

Because then JD can only run for one more term. If he waits until just past the halfway point of the term to kill him (or have some Peter Thiel lethal nanobot do it), then Vance could theoretically be president for nearly 10 years. This has been my personal pet conspiracy theory since day 1, and I'm sticking to it until proven otherwise.

oh ok that makes sense i didnt know that rule

if JD Vance ran for President he'd probably lose all 50 states

yeah but jd vance doesnt know that

I believe that too. But hear me out, in my conspiracy theory, they make it look like an assassination by trans-antifa-Muslim-Mexican drug cartels, declare emergency martial law because the U.S. is under terrorist attack, deploy the military in every major city, and arrest anyone caught celebrating Trump's death on social media or otherwise. Hegseth would have to be on board with this obviously, but of course he would be. The social media/tech oligarchs all cooperate and shut down dissent. The Democratic Party is declared a terrorist organization and barred from participating in elections. And off we go.

There are some weaknesses to this plan! But if I were Peter Thiel, I don't know why I wouldn't try it. The upside is you get control of the country. The downside is you go into exile somewhere and let Vance and Hegseth take the fall.

speaking of JD, did you all already see this on Tressie McMillan Cottom's bluesky?

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:fjiupdolgwv45olxgrqgfhjk/bafkreiggnzigq2niw7f7uj422ahe6bmys3crfid7cp4o2owye77s74dnre

He's the Pat Boone of confessional right-wing memoirs.

I know you’re just describing a tinfoil-hat conspiracy theory but it would be hard to deploy the military all over the US when they are dying in Iran

that's what ICE is for

Yes, like I said, some weaknesses.

But you have to remember, Thiel is running around giving weirdo lectures about the coming of the Antichrist.

the way aliens and UFOs keep coming up, I'm starting to wonder if they're working on the dumbest possible version of the Watchmen ploy

Oh yeah Stephen Miller is obviously part of the plot too, right. He oversees ICE and the massive gulag of detention centers (that they are in real life currently building).

arrest anyone caught celebrating Trump's death on social media or otherwise

would be hard to arrest everyone

You start with the big social media accounts, don't bother with anyone under 10k followers at first.

i dont think a big speech crack down is the way to go better to frame the security measures as a defense against foreign enemies

the whole ICE at the polls thing seems incredibly naive. the explosion on social media of photos and video of masked thugs with machine guns at polling stations... they want to turn voting from a tedious chore into a thrilling act of rebellion against Trump? great strategy guys.

xp Well I'm just blueskying, you know. We can get Sam Altman to run some scenarios for us.

lol

And yeah in real world USA the enthusiasm of the average person for having armed thugs popping up at airports and polling places and Home Depot and Target was vastly overestimated by Miller and Noem.

no one is saying theyre the smartest

I think the overall threat of ICE at polls is exaggerated, but I could see some US citizens, who are nonetheless at risk of being Kavanaugh-detained by ICE, being intimidated away. maybe not enough to do affect any elections, but also not something to just shrug at.

I feel like in the win-lose dynamic of American Politics, the less conspicuous corrosion and degradation of daily life gets overlooked at times

like ICE-at-polls sucks real real bad even if it doesn't "work"

voters should carry ice-picks with them to vote in case there's any trouble

I guess I'm going to continue to be baffled by how sanguine so many otherwise smart people are choosing to be about the rapid descent of US into fascism

elections are already not free and fair ... any pressure that's exerted will not be felt evenly everywhere, but small margins can produce big results in our system.

feel like most people are not too sanguine about it

threat is exaggerated, maybe won't affect elections

?

It could definitely have an intimidating effect. But a big challenge is the current nature of voting, where so much of it is done early and/or by mail. Which I think is one reason why there's enthusiasm on the right for clamping down on those, trying to force everything into Election Day voting where you have maximum chance for intimidation at scale. The problem they're having with that even in red states, though, is that Republicans vote early just as much as Democrats, and nearly as much by mail (used to be more by mail until Trump made a big thing of it). There was a proposal here in Tennessee the other year to cut back on early voting, and most of the Republican legislators didn't want anything to do with it because their voters like early voting.

maybe won't affect elections

I just don't like making predictions / claiming certainty about future events is extremely tiresome poster behaviour imho

which equally applies to "there's nothing to worry about" tbc

I mean the carnival of horrors won't leave town until the GOP are no longer controlling Congress so given awful shit like ICE agents skulking around polling locations is a fait accompli, it's worth noting that for as many vulnerable people who it keeps away from the polls it's got a very good chance of driving a lot more people to them. these are after all the same geniuses who woke up and decided to start a war with Iran before lunchtime.

hell even if they kept the polls whites-only Trump
and the Republicans are underwater now with them and gas prices aren’t getting cheaper (the only thing white people care about)

They also care about the price of eggs!

I get that winning is important but to Cattedrale's point, it is kinda wild to posit "if they kept the polls whites-only" as an obstacle that can be overcome

Shelby Talcott @ShelbyTalcott

News: The president has informed Pam Bondi that her time as AG is nearing an end, multiple sources tell me.

Formal announcement hasn’t yet come aka all the normal caveats that he could change his mind apply; he’s been speaking with advisors on a possible replacement in recent days (as others have reported this week) and Bondi is aware of that as well.

x.com/ShelbyTalcott/status/2039710898621669569

The military just walked back (sort of) "ICE will be at Marine Corps graduations," saying it was all a misunderstanding. DO invite your abuela.

Which of course may itself be exactly what you would say if you wanted to deport the relatives of Marines.

But at least it shows some dim glimmer of awareness of public opinion?

wonder if this administration has a history of saying they're not gonna do things and then doing them anyway

If Trump really wanted a slam dunk, he would send ICE - the best of the best, true heroes - to Iran to seize their uranium and secure the oil.

News: The president has informed Pam Bondi that her time as AG is nearing an end, multiple sources tell me.

Must have been tough on him, you know he hates to have to fire somebody

So surprised that his first high-profile firings are both women.

psh, probably DEI hires

Do they get their old faces back or

oof

outside of pure misogyny, what is the reason for firing Pam Bondi? Do they think Lee Zeldin will be able to bring even more vindictive prosecutions?

Will he be able to hold back the Epstein files even more?

I think it's more that she broke the cardinal rule of "never make Trump look bad"

e.g. Noem, Bovino, etc

to Trump they're all disposable. you appoint them, they do what they're told until their reputation is soiled, then they are discarded and you get a new one from the box.

yeah i think that's it

Do they think Lee Zeldin will be able to bring even more vindictive prosecutions?

Will he be able to hold back the Epstein files even more?

― whimsical skeedaddler (Moodles), Thursday, April 2, 2026 12:15 PM (thirty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

these are the reasons ive seen

sorry there’s no scanning in my neurons that did not scan that further above as led zeppelin

was zeldin hired to lead the EPA because he knows a thing or two about the environment? Or are all the lackeys interchangeable?

No and yes

only time i see any expertise at all in his agency appointments is when the person has a company trying to expropriate public assets for personal profits. that makes them potential payoffs for trump. the only other thing that matters is loyalty. payoffs and loyalty. build oligarchy.

Ignorance of the department you're heading is table stakes. MAGA prefers active hostility.

Marco Rubio. is simultaneously Secretary of State and Archivist of the US (so Trump cam steal more secrets)

This appointment’s going to go down like a

Bondi out; new AG is not Lee Zeldin, but Todd Blanche (Trump's personal lawyer).

great golfer, that one

Harriet Miers II: With Malicious Intent

And then there's just bizarre shit like Frank Bisignano serving as both commissioner of the Social Security Administration and also in a completely made-up, non-congressionally-approved role as "CEO" of the IRS, which doesn't even have a commissioner at the moment. Which sounds like it's going swell:

Inside and outside the IRS, people want to know who is really running the agency. IRS CEO Frank Bisignano says it’s the least of his worries.

Named last October to the newly invented role of IRS chief executive officer, Bisignano is instead focusing on what he calls a transformative overhaul using artificial intelligence to reduce staff workloads and taxpayer call times following a year in which the agency lost 25 percent of its workforce and billions in federal funding. But agency staff, union leaders and lawmakers say the former Wall Street executive hasn’t backed up his claims and has instead stifled contracting processes needed to make the changes while serving as an enforcer of White House mandates.

The unusual nature of his role — one that doesn’t exist in federal law — is raising questions about who’s really in charge of the agency as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent holds the title of acting IRS commissioner. Fueling the scrutiny is the fact that Bisignano also serves as commissioner of the Social Security Administration.

In an interview with POLITICO, Bisignano brushed off these concerns by invoking his time in C-suites at major financial institutions like JPMorgan Chase and Fiserv.

“I don’t spend my time at all thinking about what you’re asking me about,” he said, when asked about who’s actually running the IRS. “We operate within the lines. We operate within the lines always, and deliver for the American public. I always look at it like I’m running two large organizations, and every day has activity on both of those just like if I was running a mortgage company to restart the housing market.”

... Six people at the IRS, who were granted anonymity to avoid retribution, described a leader who has claimed credit for others’ work, sown discord and acted as Trump’s lieutenant. IRS commissioners, in roles created by Congress, are typically seen as apolitical administrators of the tax code whose terms outlast those of the presidents who appointed them.

One IRS official called Bisignano “a fake” and said the only notable recent update to the refund tool was making the service accessible through “individual online accounts,” which happened before he came to the agency. The official said Bisignano’s order for the IRS to review and justify contracts made him a “single person chokepoint for procurement” who impaired the agency’s ability to move forward on efforts like using artificial intelligence to aid with tax collection.

“Since joining in October, the only vision we’ve received is — be more of a digital agency, improve [customer service] and collect more revenue. No specifics on how. Every now and then it’ll be, ‘We should use AI,’” the official said. “I can’t point to any one thing that’s better, except we don’t have a revolving door of commissioners.” Since Jan. 20, 2025, when Biden-era Commissioner Danny Werfel stepped down, the IRS has been led by six other commissioners, only one of whom was confirmed by the Senate: former Rep. Billy Long, who lasted less than two months.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/31/frank-bisignano-irs-ceo-00848020

Todd Blanche is also the one who cut the deal with Ghislaine Maxwell.

todd blanche primetime soap opera ass name

otm

Gonna start calling him Blanche Dubois

Even though Blanche had already been deputy AG, Trump elevating his personal lawyer to U.S. attorney general is a real "l'etat c'est moi" move.

Bondi officially out

Soon you'll see her on freeway billboards: "If you've been hurt in an accident..."

Pam Bondi in a year pic.twitter.com/GfNhDVoT9s

— Polling USA (@USA_Polling) April 2, 2026

hurtling toward the Cosmos?

Even though Blanche had already been deputy AG, Trump elevating his personal lawyer to U.S. attorney general is a real "l'etat c'est moi" move.

― jaymc, Thursday, April 2, 2026 1:21 PM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

still not as good as bush nominating his to the supreme court

She'll be on a CNN show on early Saturday evenings called Bondi Ambition in no time.

with Noem's husband

does this mean the Epstein papers will officially not exist anymore, again?

Good morning!

im sure all the trump people want to cover up the epstein files but once they get around all those government lawyers telling them theyre committing felonies it prob curbs their ambition somewhat

I know the Senate is hopelessly corrupt, but I'm still a bit skeptical that Todd Blanche can get through the confirmation process

Well good thing he’s the Deputy AG so he can just be acting AG without confirmation.

Trump's background is in television; that's why so many of his appointees are acting.

xp

I guess that's probably what will happen

just gonna fire all the women

Trump polled advisers about replacing Tulsi Gabbard as intelligence chief

Exclusive: Pressure intensifies for Gabbard after president’s displeasure with Iran war testimony | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/02/trump-tulsi-gabbard-intelligence-chief

but I thought Gabbard was doing an expert job of feeding national secrets to the Russians

hegseth's telling him to ditch the chicks

he needs a cabinet of warfighters

it's what deus would have vulted

I got to say, I got a smile when going through Winchester KY today I saw that someone had taken some 20+ year old Lexus crossover and painted it primer black and on the driver side had "VETERANS AGAINST TRUMP" and on the other side it had "FUCK ICE". It had something in green on the hood but I did not get a look at it.

I was pumping gas into my Honda as it was pulling out of the gas station and my phone was in the front seat of my car.

I know for sure I would not mess with that dude, because if a guy is driving around Kentucky with a car like that he is pretty much screaming FU and say somethin' about it.

I counted about 20 former vets at last Saturday's rally.

I think they're probably current vets?

I just realized: "former" vet is redundant.

can't overstate how different this feels to the start of the Iraq war. I rememeber the local paper printing an American flag as an insert the day after 9/11 and I feel like half the houses I delivered papers to put them in their windows, even a year later most of them were still up. you had all those "Terrorist Hunting Permit" bumper stickers and "Support the Troops" lawn signs and the "boot in your ass" country song...I actually remember a David Cross comedy album from *2004* making waves because he had the gall to question the war and this country's patriotism, even years after 9/11 it was still taboo to do that sort of thing

I just don't like making predictions / claiming certainty about future events is extremely tiresome poster behaviour imho

This drives me crazy. Like ppl on the Iran thread insisting that certain things are inevitabilities at this juncture, and then it turns out they are relying on information from one of those Twitter accounts with posts always prefaced by “BREAKING:” but devoid of any sourcing whatsoever

xp - My basic feeling in the days immediately after 9/11 was that the nation was suffering from a traumatic brain injury that would never entirely heal.

“We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future,” Mr. Trump wrote.

I guess it will be a "much needed" job for her, anyway.

filling a much needed void

xp - My basic feeling in the days immediately after 9/11 was that the nation was suffering from a traumatic brain injury that would never entirely heal.

I felt this way and I was 16 years old— couldn’t understand why everyone was acting like a flag-humping moron all of a sudden. Just all critical thinking skills out the window.

Good thread title

arrest anyone caught celebrating Trump's death on social media or otherwise

would be hard to arrest everyone

― lag∞n, Thursday, April 2, 2026 9:19 AM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Exactly

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:f555b6htecdxjoyiwsakxwew/bafkreiffep5wd3nk24x67i4zw5l3dyxthlmxgl7cc6zvbo326gaoyfznji

in awe of how dumb this guy is

Kegsbreath

I realize he's only been in this position a year but I think he genuinely might be the biggest psycho to ever head up a government agency

RFK would like a word

the nation was suffering from a traumatic brain injury that would never entirely heal

yes: "We were attacked by a bunch of Saudis with close ties to the royal family! So let's exact revenge against Iraq and some Afghan mountain tribes! Let's DO THIS!"

(they really don't have any guns at military installations? Glad you're broadcasting that to the world)

the one thing that really sticks in my memory about the Afghanistan war was hearing stories from *multiple* people about encountering locals who asked them "so uh, where you boys from? Russia?"

But Gabbard has also quickly racked up a list of perceived transgressions, current and former officials said.

As early as last June, Trump became irritated by a video Gabbard recorded warning about the horrors of nuclear war after a visit to Hiroshima. Trump felt the video would scare people and that she should not speak in unnecessarily graphic terms.

Just thinkin bout how when the constitution mandated civilian control of the military, the thinking was that the reasonable civilian overseeing the armed forces would be a check on hotheaded military officers. The framers probably didn't foresee a secretary of defense who was more bloodthirsty and unhinged than the generals.

the constitution sucks

I don’t think civilian control of the military is in the Constitution, there’s hardly any mention of a military as such and the framers never envisioned a standing army. they thought it led to tyranny (they were right)

Sorry, just mean the historical principle

the constitution sucks

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, April 2, 2026 11:45 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

https://i.imgflip.com/aoa5w2.jpg

I'm rather enamored of most of the Bill of Rights. Too bad that so many of the good parts get so little traction.

Mr. Hegseth also fired Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., the Army’s top chaplain, an official said. - NY Times

This sentence is way down multiple paragraphs in the NY Times article on Hegseth firing a general and removing Black and female officers from a promotion list. No explanation is provided but Green is Black.

Days before Easter...

Time for some more spring cleaning?

April 2 (Reuters) - There are discussions about ​FBI Director Kash ‌Patel, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll ​and Labor ​Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer leaving ⁠the Trump ​administration, the ​Atlantic reported on Thursday, citing people familiar ​with White ​House plans.

The timing is ‌uncertain ⁠and President Donald Trump has not yet ​made ​up ⁠his mind, the Atlantic ​reported.

https://www.reuters.com/world/exit-trump-officials-including-fbi-director-patel-under-discussion-atlantic-2026-04-03/

based on when weve gotten these trump thinking about firing articles in the past they should all be out of work by tomorrow afternoon

Double haters supporting Democrats by 31 points

Americans’ views of both the Democratic and Republican parties remain deeply negative, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. And in an election year that may turn on which party voters see as the lesser of two evils, the Democrats hold an early advantage.

About one-quarter of the public holds a negative view of both parties – so-called double haters. Voters in that group prefer the Democrats in the upcoming midterms by 31 points.

true americans

Today in "please, please, please do it": Jeanine Pirro wants to be Attorney General.

Other countries selling off US government bonds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izq542VdD8s

Pam Bondi’s portrait already taken down at Justice Department

Just a day after her firing, the former attorney general’s pictures have been taken down — and discarded in a trash bin.

https://www.ms.now/news/pam-bondis-portrait-already-taken-down-at-justice-department

https://www.ms.now/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Unknown_946441.jpeg

You actually do love to see it

her staff did that

lol throwing it in the trash taking a picture and sending it to a reporter

mustve felt good

Performative Bondi Dumping

Junk Bondis

Bondi Voyage

Pamela's Ashes

Wham bam thank you Pam

Bondi, Lame Bondi

Bondi ambition

I used that one yesterday!

then i'll stop the small talk
then i'll stop the games
i'll show them that the plans
i've made aren't wrong
what's wrong?

Bondi Beached

Bondi - Parallel Lies

or X Offender

Is she the first evil Pam? Trying to think of any other villains named Pam.

Depends on your take on The Office

Or

https://images.radio-canada.ca/q_auto,w_1200/v1/ici-info/16x9/coffy-pam-grier.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/bOX3TvS.jpeg

Get the honorable Pam Grier out of this wretched company

In total, the DOJ quietly closed more than 23,000 criminal cases in the first six months of President Donald Trump’s administration, abandoning hundreds of investigations into terrorism, white-collar crime, drugs and other offenses as it shifted resources to pursue immigration cases, according to an analysis by ProPublica.

From Pro Publica

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doj-immigration-bondi-declinations-criminal-investigations

I see that Todd Blanche is also the “acting” Librarian of Congress—these weirdos keep doing weird double duty

Just realized how fucked up it would be to end up with President Vance calling the shots this month.

I wonder what Vance would do about the war his boss started if Vance was in charge, because Vance is chummy with the anti-semitic groyper teen wing of the party, but at the same time fully owned by the South African Silicon Valley cabal

I am really nervous about what would happen if Vance takes over. It's true that he is deeply unlikable, but it seems to me that Trump's incompetence and incoherence is acting as a kind of buffer to prevent a full-on technofascist crackdown. I really worry about what could happen if Thiel et al. take power

oh it would be a disaster domestically absolutely, but I don’t think Vance and the SV fascists are any smarter than Trump, maybe just less voluble

i was just speculating in the context of the Iran war where Vance on one side has the anti-Israel antisemitic young Republicans wanting to cut off Israel and Silicon Valley on the other side of him who see Israel as an outpost of whiteness against dark hordes

Since they love permanent war and total surveillance and manage to come out of every disaster capitalism contraction twice as rich as they went in, I suspect Vance’s allegiance would remain with the Little Saint James set.

JD is willing to go out in public and do or say and defend literally *anything* that these lunatics do, like some kind of humiliation ritual for the for the forces of global capital. “Look at what big bowls of shit I’m capable of eating in front of God and everyone, guys! Please let me in the club. Please make it so my great grandchildren won’t have to ever work or pay taxes or die in the water wars lol!”. Incel groypers just can’t provide that level of security.

vance presidency def seems worth concern, the one saving grace with him is he has absolutely no juice hes operating at a huge swag deficit and maga is really low energy right now, its tough to do a fascism without the rabble riled up, if you look at the whole ice situation its actually antifascists who have the juice, however being in control of the government certainly isnt nothing, so in conclusion worthy of concern but prob hard to execute anything too major, also who knows what vance really wants he such a lil scheming toady he might be harboring ambitions we have no idea about

He has no inherent base of his own, beyond I guess Peter Thiel and Erika Kirk. Recent CNN poll has him at 37 percent approval, about the same as Trump. And let's say Trump vamooses tomorrow, all Vance inherits is a historically unpopular presidency in the middle of a whole bunch of super unpopular activities and programs. Not a position of strength in any way. (Hence my conspiracy theory up top, which might be his only chance at any kind of lasting power — just go full gloves-off, suspend the Constitution in the wake of Trump's death, declare and enforce a national emergency, etc. Which of course would also be vastly unpopular and difficult to sustain. But maybe not more difficult than clawing his way to winning an election.)

I think the problem with that scenario is people like the idea of Trump winning, because of who Trump is. He’s kind of a perfect avatar for the movement and he is I’ll grudgingly admit someone who draws people in because he has a way with the crowd. Vance is a blinking, bearded butterball turkey.

go full gloves-off, suspend the Constitution in the wake of Trump's death, declare and enforce a national emergency, etc.

Once the coup collapses they'd risk being subjected to the the first trials for treason in a couple of centuries. Theil & his SV cronies don't need to risk it. They're already in clover.

I think Vance would be a small improvement, for all the reasons stated above, plus he's not suffering from dementia, which means his cabinet wouldn't be able to successfully withhold the details of the growing list of failures and clusterfucks. I believe a big reason this war in Iran is continuing to escalate is that Trump has zero concept of how bad and dangerous it is, and how much worse it will get.

There's also the psychological aspect. Trump is legitimately wired differently than most people, long experience has taught him he can do whatever he wants and he never/rarely sees any consequences for it. That's an unusual psychological profile, and one you can't fake if you don't feel it. I don't know what Vance's psychology is, really — seems like he has some issues! — but it's definitely not that. Trump sells his fictions to his base by just saying them and never backing down, projecting endless confidence. Vance can't do that. He comes off as whiny. "You guys said you weren't going to be fact-checking." He did manage to get elected to the Senate, with a ton of Thiel money behind him, but he has zero charisma and his political skills are pretty underdeveloped.

I for one am so fucking tired of endlessly musing on these sociopathic fascist fucks’ psychological profiles. Who gives a fuck, they deserve to be unalived

Well yeah. But unless/until, we are all subject to their externalized pathologies.

Right, it's less about trying to understand them and more about trying to discern where we are headed in the immediate future based on how these lunatics behave under pressure

theyre such headcases you gotta psychoanalyze them

Also worth pointing out that a lot of the choices Trump's made over the past year are not tethered to any real policy. They tend to be driven much more by his deranged instincts, so you can't really think about any of this through the lens of "strategy". It's all just psychological bullshit that just happens to be massively consequential for the US and the world.

I just don’t think that musing on what a bunch of sociopaths are going to do next is worth my time anymore. I don’t think it’s possible to predict what they’re going to do, and so posting for the millionth time about an insane fascist narcissist’s psych profile just seems totally tedious to me.

By all means, do something else then

Waffle House Employees Didn't See FEMA Official Who Says He Teleported to Georgia Location

The president, with an Easter Sunday with a Truth social message to Iran at 8:03 a.m.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!”

“Open the F—n’ Strait, you crazy b—--ds, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!” “Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP”

not singling you out curmudgeon, but we maybe need a way to not post the same thing on three different threads

I understand your concern but I am more concerned about the war criminal actions being threatened and that he would say them that way, than I am about ilx policy regarding different people posting on multiple threads about his actions

but what can we do about it except bitch on a thread?

As one of the offenders my excuse is that I only look at this thread every now and then

Two C-130 aircraft that were part of the mission to rescue the second F-15 crew member became stuck at a location inside Iran during the operation, a U.S. official told ABC News.

U.S. forces deliberately destroyed the disabled aircraft so they would not fall into Iranian hands. As a result, additional replacement aircraft had to be flown into Iran to take the airman and the rescue teams out of the country, the official said. - ABC News

Maybe I'm one of the numbed humanoids. I dont give a shit what he posts anymore. My OMIGOD LOOK WHAT HE SAID meter broke sometime in 2017.

A bare plurality of our fellow citizens voted for this sleaze. I do what I can locally and will do likewise for the midterm elections. I just can't give his garbage any mental occupancy.

It seems like we are headed down the path of dangerous escalation over the next week. Maybe they'll keep kicking the can down the road, but I'm personally very worried we are on the brink of some very scary times.

As I said on Bluesky this morning, we need to stop wishing for the Republican Party to "come to its senses" and start wishing for one brave Secret Service agent to do the right thing.

Feel like we have passed “on the brink” tbh.

yeah

Obviously lots of bad things already happening, but this could ratchet up dramatically.

im sure behind the scenes things are normal tho

Do they still do that easter egg hunt at the White House?

at the end they teach toddlers how to wring necks of chickens

I wondered about that too (the Easter egg hunt).

Looks like it’s set for…tomorrow morning?

Maybe I'm one of the numbed humanoids. I dont give a shit what he posts anymore. My OMIGOD LOOK WHAT HE SAID meter broke sometime in 2017.

A bare plurality of our fellow citizens voted for this sleaze. I do what I can locally and will do likewise for the midterm elections. I just can't give his garbage any mental occupancy.

the proper response to any of his tweets is a quick jerk-off motion and move on

he’s an impotent little boy having a tantwum

And the thing is, if it’s him composing it.

Meanwhile on NBC Sunday talk show, VA Dem Senator Tim Kaine defends his philosophy behind his votes for Trump nominees (he voted for Noem and others)

WELKER: You've voted yes on some of Trump's nominees. Are you open to voting yes on President Trump's pick to become the next attorney general?

KAINE: I never start off as an automatic no. If you're elected president, I think that should carry a mandate to put in an executive team. If somebody is not qualified or has lack of character, I'll vote no, but I never start off as a no.

Fuck Tim Kaine

Welker should have done a follow-up and asked if Noem's prior corruption and fraud issues and dog-killing that he should have known about made her qualified and showed her character

Dems and the media still never learning

100%. every interview he gets going forward should bring curmudgeon’s q

I’d go in assuming a considerable lack of character is one of the traits Trump seeks out

he should nominate Kaine for something then

If somebody is not qualified or has lack of character, I'll vote no, but I never start off as a no.

he voted for plenty of fucking non qualified people! why wasn't he called on that?

“If somebody is not qualified or has lack of character, I'll vote no, but I never start off as a no. After that’s it’s just y’know, pay me.”

more like dim kaint

wow so open minded, his brains fell right out

Measles Weasels gonna lay low for awhile

US health officials appear to be shying away from voicing negative views of vaccines in public as November’s midterm elections loom and key polling indicates anti-vaccine views are a liability.

Turns out the strongest anti-vaxxers aren't around to vote this year.

Have we talked about how California Democrats appear in danger of handing the state to a Republican governor because there are too many of them in the race?

https://calmatters.org/commentary/2026/04/california-governor-race-chicken-game/

Upon sober consideration of what is best for California, and to stop this divisive intraparty bickering, I have concluded that the best course of action is for Democrats to coalesce around a single candidate, me.

KAINE: I never start off as an automatic no. If you're elected president, I think that should carry a mandate to put in an executive team. If somebody is not qualified or has lack of character, I'll vote no, but I never start off as a no.

god what a piece of shit

yea that is genuinely a baffling quote when the President himself is not qualified, has no character whatsoever, and is clearly only picking people based on how sycophantic they are and how willing they are to commit crimes on his behalf. starting to make sense how they lost to this guy

its their job

i’m fine with believing “i don’t start at no,” but on the record he’s either a fucking dangerous idiot , or working intentionally for the admin. either way he should be put down.

alright let’s not get carried away Kaine is just (hopefully) the generation of the “I look forward to working with my esteemed colleagues across the aisle to find bipartisan solutions for the 21st Century” kind of centrist Dem that is completely irrelevant now

The guy they actually need to learn from is Mitch McConnell. His determination from the start to block any- and everything Obama tried to do — to treat the administration as essentially a hostile power occupying the White House — was indecorous and perhaps violated the Senate's self-image as a place of reasoned debate, but it was hugely successful. Including stealing a Supreme Court seat. Dems don't have a majority right now, but neither did McConnell when he started that strategy.

But at a minimum that would mean ditching Schumer, and more seriously it would mean embracing a whole new identity for the party that its corporate centrists can't abide.

yep McConnell really laid bare that the two-party system is really just a glorified Prisoner's Dilemma meaning the side willing to fight dirty is going to win out in the end. hate to say it but I do credit Newsom for actually going through with the gerrymandering plan to give themselves 5 more seats as a direct response to the GOP doing that in Texas. that's what they need to do. everyone knows if the Democrats lost the popular vote but won the EC it would be gone the moment the GOP retakes power.

Hamilton Nolan on point again today: https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/unions-or-david-duke

One bitter lesson to be learned from the past five years is that it is a strategic mistake to allow demands for material change to be soaked up by the soft sponge of corporate and political promises. Every movement for racial and economic equality in American history has sparked a vicious backlash. We know it will come. We must build a stronger backstop against it than “Chuck Schumer and Roger Goodell’s personal commitment to justice.” So where can we direct our efforts, if not at politicians and corporate PR offices?

Try this: union contracts. Union contracts. Organize a union, and get a contract. In that contract, put all of the nice promises that the company is mouthing about DEI. Once they are in the contract, they are no longer promises.

otm

Kaine was the only Democratic senator who boycotted Netanyahu’s speech to Congress iirc. I wouldn’t necessarily call him worse than the other current Washington Dems just because he has Senate brain.

any idea why there's an egg hunt *today* rather than yesterday?
Assuming that Trump was at Mar-a-Lagoo and couldn't be bothered coming back in time for Easter

he was dead but now he is risen

he was very proud that they're using real, affordable eggs but kids want chocolate, not hard boiled eggs

real american children hunger for raw home grown eggs

some of the kids did ok but trump totally won the easter egg hunt, kicked everyone's ass in the tournament, found all the eggs so quickly

everybody was saying that he actually found the eggs faster than anyone ever had, ever

also, RFK Junior examining the kids’ mitochondria

The city released the video after the New York Times, which obtained a copy earlier, reported that the footage raised questions about why it took weeks for the federal government’s case against the two men to collapse. The Times reported that federal investigators had access to the video within hours of the Jan. 14 shooting, but did not watch it until nearly three weeks after they had charged the two men.

https://apnews.com/article/minneapolis-immigration-crackdown-shooting-1d0b01179d08af071ae986f969a45aca

not sure I understand this threat, and I'm not sure Markwayne does either

Markwayne Mullin says he's considering pulling US customs agents from airports in sanctuary cities

Homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin told Fox News he’s thinking about withdrawing customs agents from international airports located in sanctuary cities because he doesn’t think sanctuary city policies are legal.

“I believe sanctuary cities is not lawful,” Mullin told Fox News’s Brett Baier. “I don’t think they’re able to do that.”

Lol so you’re just gonna … not check the bags of people coming through New York, LA and Chicago? Ok Chief.

I think that would preclude those airports from receiving international flights. But they'd sue and ask for immediate injunction relief pending trial.

i didn’t go through any customs process at all coming into Charlotte a couple of weeks ago. i did a whole thing where i downloaded an app and testified to all kinds of things, hoping that might speed up the process, given the TSA nonsense, but in the end nobody asked for anything, no forms, no questions, i just walked out

did they look at your passport, did they have american customs at yr departure

no customs anywhere, first time i’ve ever seen that. passport control has now turned into “stand in front of a camera” and you don’t actually show your physical passport

thats crazy

recently came back from abroad, the process was just to walk past creepy biometric things, i did and said nothing, didn't interact with anyone. there was one TSA guy tending to a different group but i think they're letting the scanners do all the menial work for now

no customs form, no declaration, no 'where did you stay/what did you get up to?'. it was very weird

Just FYI it’s not TSA but CBP who do the customs. When I came back from Spain two weeks ago I filled out my info on the CBP app beforehand —there was a brief couple questions from a CBP guy but that was it.

ah theyre too busy kidnapping people to do their jobs

Neither CPB or ICE seem too invested in the C part of their names.

they're more interested in making their own customs, their own traditions, like murdering people in concentration camps

they’re getting their own section of the Folklife Festival this year

Senator Warnock following Dem pr rule that voters can’t handle more than 1 concept at a time and especially not foreign affairs, tweeted this morning:

Don’t let the President distract you from his mission of funneling wealth from the bottom to the top.

Saw that on Bluesky. When a lot of people are feeling incredibly anxious about Trump seemingly threatening nuclear annihilation, probably not a great idea to tell them their feelings are wrong.

warnock has been a weak disappointment but I guess we should be happy he's a Dem in GA

And why is he so confident that it's a distraction anyway? The war itself is proof that Trump does not always chicken out!

"distraction" is really hollow as a political concept, and being lectured by politicians about where to spend my attention currency or w/e is nauseating

OTMFM

like if we pay laser-focused attention to his mission of funneling wealth from the bottom to the top is that going to stop it?

Right, what am I supposed to do with that?

All the social media posts of democratic politicians over the last ten years imploring voters not to “get distracted” or how “someone should do something about this obviously very bad thing!!!!” could be compiled into a great coffee table book. Might provide a few rueful chuckles before having to burn it for heat or maybe boiled into a mush after all the rats are dead

When a lot of people are feeling incredibly anxious about Trump seemingly threatening nuclear annihilation

People think this? I figured he was just over hyping his threat to destroy Iran's power plants.

are you fucking kidding me

People think this? I figured he was just over hyping his threat to destroy Iran's power plants.

Based on what, exactly?

No, you guys really think he's going to use a nuke?

The war itself is proof that Trump does not always chicken out!

This war was a calculated surprise attack. In Trump's fantasy it would be a master stroke, decapitating the leadership and incapacitating military resistance in one sweeping gesture, after which the Iranian people who had been out protesting in large numbers just a couple of months ago would rise and seize power, leading to triumphal photos of jubilant Iranians dancing and waving Iran and US flags. There was no reason to chicken out of that scenario.

Now that reality has hit, he's desperately flailing to get out with any kind of "win" he can claim, so he can go back to intimidating Congressional Republicans and basking in his imaginary popularity. La dolce vita!

xp I think it's more of a possibility now than it has ever been in my lifetime, so... yeah?

okay

atomic bulletin scientists update clock of death to 11:59.999999 pm

see you guys in the afterlife then

i'm guessing he's going to go so far as getting the "codes" and whatever shit happens when a u.s. president decided to almost use a nuclear weapon. for nothing else, so that he can tell his horrible maralago guests all about the time civilization was on the brink and it was him, the most important and consequential person, who had "the nuclear codes" in his hand, he'll talk about the "football" they carry it in, he'll make jokes, he'll say he was almost going to do it, later he'll say he should have done it

not everyone has to spiral

oh i forgot, what's the bright side of this one?

No, you guys really think he's going to use a nuke?

I think the odds that he'll use a nuclear weapon are slim, but it's a non-zero possibility, as they say. There's also a chance he'll do Dresden-style bombing raids on Iranian cities. Or send in ground troops. The man is completely insane, and utterly unconstrained. At this point almost anything is possible.

he is insane but i don't think he's going to use nukes. but he did say he's going to destroy a civilization, which is bad enough without getting into speculation re nukes

i'm more interested in the chances (are they non-zero?) of him being removed from office

it seems like we're closer to _that_ than at any time up til now, as well

agreed!

I agree that this puts nukes "on the table" and that people responding to that with fear and anxiety are fully justified.

But this exchange is hardening my opinion that the means (a nuclear strike) are somewhat less important here than the ends (he is explicitly, unambiguously threatening genocide)

(he is explicitly, unambiguously threatening genocide)

^^^^^

On January 27, 2026, the Doomsday Clock was set at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest the Clock has ever been to midnight in its history.

You know, I've always considered the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to be a bunch of cranks! It's not like the sundowning president of the United States is threatening to destroy a civilization with the aid of a delusional theocratic fascist death cult! Please, everybody, get a grip

typed and then untyped something a bit ago bringing up the bipartisan handwaving about the genocide in gaza. the effect, on a mass, psychological level, of knowing that your national representatives know there's a genocide and that they're not going to do anything about. and then, knowing that trump is murdering people (150+) in the atlantic/pacific around the gulf and central america, and there are no repercussions for him, won't be any. the violence and inhumanity is normalized, and the non-reaction (non-effective, at least) by supposed civic leaders is normalized. flash forward a year or two and trump is hyping up a primetime tv event where he decides whether or not to okay a genocide in the cradle of civilization, and the most common adopted language to retort is just TACO

fukken... TACO

But this exchange is hardening my opinion that the means (a nuclear strike) are somewhat less important here than the ends (he is explicitly, unambiguously threatening genocide)

― obvious old hat (rob), Tuesday, April 7, 2026 12:42 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm. I just don't want, when Trump doesn't use a nuke but instead kills thousands of civilians by more conventional means, for people to be relieved.

it also makes his earlier announced war crimes (to target energy/civilian infrastructures) seem more moderate

I promise not to be relieved until he keels over

I guess what I would say is it's classic Art of the Deal for him to run his mouth and then dial it back. He has a clear pattern of using hyperbole and bullying to achieve his goals. However I think it's still important to take what he says seriously and hold him accountable. I think rolling your eyes and saying "Yeah, more Trump bluster" just kind of normalizes it in a way I'm not comfortable with

<3 Moodles

there's also his strange fantasies (lies) that he's talking on the side to the 'sane, rational' elements of the Iranian leadership, and *those* guys are totally ready to make an amazing 'deal'

vance is in budapest today

JD Vance has railed against the EU, accusing it of blatantly interfering in Hungary’s upcoming elections, even as the US vice-president said he had travelled to Budapest to “help” Viktor Orbán win Sunday’s vote.

Speaking to reporters shortly after landing in Budapest on Tuesday, Vance’s tone was combative as he alleged that the EU was responsible for “one of the worst examples of foreign election interference” he had ever seen.

“The bureaucrats in Brussels have tried to destroy the economy of Hungary,” he said. Gesturing to Orbán, he added: “They have tried to make Hungary less energy-independent. They have tried to drive up costs for Hungarian consumers. And they’ve done it all because they hate this guy.”

Vance, however, made no effort to conceal the reason he had arrived in the country five days before a heated election in which Orbán is facing the possibility of being ousted after 16 years in power. “Of course, I want to help, as much as I possibly can, the prime minister as he faces this election season,” said Vance.

Heh I'm not sure Orban really wants this kind of 'help'

The bedrock reality here is that Trump is trapped in a war he cannot win and now he is faced with a set of choices, none of which allow him to escape the trap he put himself in. Because the trap is inescapable he will choose the option that lets him spin it out for as long as possible before the trap closes on him, because a lifetime of experience has taught him that buying time and looking for an opening to wriggle through is the key to getting out of traps.

In my mind this means he will follow through on destroying civilian infrastructure via air bombardment. Many more Iranians will die. The Strait will remain closed to all ships that Iran chooses to blockade. He and his clueless compliant lackeys will drag us deeper into the war. How deep we go is still an open question. It seems certain this will destroy large numbers of human lives, destroy cities, cost astronomic amounts of money, and add to the world's misery.

Z asked what's the bright side of this? Nothing I can see. The best outcome that doesn't feel to me like pure wishful thinking is that Trump is removed from office and that would probably take a year or more. We're all so fucked.

The Strait will remain closed to all ships that Iran chooses to blockade

and herein lies the rub... Iran is freely letting ships pass as long as they don't fly the flag of a nation who's attacking them, or supporting attacks on them. Theoretically, if we stopped bombing them, they would eventually allow all ships to pass, though I think they're gonna start taxing everyone for that privilege

H.Res.939 - Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States for high crimes and misdemeanors.

At this point it may be rearranging deck chairs on a sinking ship, but....

via lawyersgunsmoney, i think this nyt link should work

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/us/politics/trump-iran-war.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ZFA.Xuhf.YN20IgLG-NoO&smid=url-share

warning, this is maggie haberman and jonathan swan, based on reporting from their upcoming book.

it details the meeting between netanyahu and the trump admin on feb 11, when netanyahu made the case for war. hegseth was all in, of course.

here was the brave opposition:

Within the cabinet, Mr. Hegseth was the biggest proponent of a military campaign against Iran.

Mr. Rubio indicated to colleagues that he was much more ambivalent. He did not believe the Iranians would agree to a negotiated deal, but his preference was to continue a campaign of maximum pressure rather than start a full-scale war. Mr. Rubio, however, did not try to talk Mr. Trump out of the operation, and after the war began he delivered the administration’s justification with full conviction…

The vice president thought a regime-change war with Iran would be a disaster. His preference was for no strikes at all. But knowing that Mr. Trump was likely to intervene in some fashion, he tried to steer toward more limited action. Later, when it seemed certain that the president was set on a large-scale campaign, Mr. Vance argued that he should do so with overwhelming force, in the hope of achieving his objectives quickly.

the article also talks about how netanyahu sold them all on the idea that kurds in iraq would probably come to iran to help iranian dissidents overthrow the government (...as the u.s. and israel bombed the shit out of the country), and that iran's leadership would be so weakened by the initial assault that they would be unable to close the strait of hormuz.

so surprised that a team of yes men who failed upward their entire lives said yes sir!

Without significant shifts among republicans in Congress to intervene decisively against Trump's war of choice, the bombing will continue. The widespread belief among US politicians in the ability of American air power to compel other nations into obedience to our wishes is too strong for them to abandon it, no matter how long Iran holds out.

Yeah, I know, given the source, but it tracks:

Tucker Carlson, the commentator who had emerged as another prominent skeptic of intervention on the right, had come to the Oval Office several times over the previous year to warn Mr. Trump that a war with Iran would destroy his presidency. A couple weeks before the war began, Mr. Trump, who had known Mr. Carlson for years, tried to reassure him over the phone. “I know you’re worried about it, but it’s going to be OK,” the president said. Mr. Carlson asked how he knew. “Because it always is,” Mr. Trump replied.

i think aimless is spot on fwiw, esp in that he thinks time is always on his side. but it isnt here.

trump thinks that is, obv

China making major strides in wind power as the US government spends billions making sure that the US has no role in the industry:

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

we'll bomb their evil windmills next

when will he will deliver his magnificent announcement of his merciful act of not doing it with new conditions is my optimistic question.

he'll strike a deal with Iran's shadow government, the pro-American wing, the reasonable ones all saying 'Sir, we've never encountered a man like you, you are a true deal broker'

…and the insiders betting Polymarket win again.

https://newrepublic.com/post/208535/white-house-accidentally-easter-lunch-trump-speech

The White House mistakenly uploaded Donald Trump’s remarks at an Easter lunch, which was supposed to be closed to the press, to YouTube Wednesday, before realizing its error and making the link private.

In the speech, which Business Insider’s Bryan Metzger uploaded to X in full, Trump fantasizes about being a king, admits there’s no money left for health care or childcare because of the war he started, and daydreams about seizing all of Iran’s oil.

“We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of daycare. You got to let a state take care of daycare, and they should pay for it too. They should pay. They’ll have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up,” Trump said. “It’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing: military protection.

“I can’t get a ballroom approved. It’s pretty amazing, right?” Trump also said in the speech. “If I was a king, we’d be doing a lot more. I’m doing a lot, but I could be doing a lot more if I was a king.”

Trump went on to lament that it’s “unfortunate” that Americans don’t have the “patience” to take Iran’s oil.

“We could just take their oil. But, you know, I’m not sure that the people in our country have the patience to do that, which is unfortunate. You know, they want to see it end. If we stayed there, I, you know, I’d prefer just to take the oil. We could do it so easily. I would prefer that, but people in the country sort of say, ‘Just win, you’re winning so big. Just win, come home,’” Trump said in the speech.

Trump also mentioned his address to the country to take place later that evening, saying to the audience, “Tonight I’m making a little speech at 9 o’clock and basically I’m gonna tell everybody how great I am.”

The whole speech seems to be an insight into what Trump actually thinks but isn’t willing to say to the broader public. But the American people deserve to know what the president thinks about them and their needs, even if it’s not very much.

https://stoptrumpswars.org

https://stoptrumpswars.org/april-8-action-listings

I should say I don't know anything about that^

maybe one to bookmark if you're mad the Americans aren't protesting: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-04-07/teen-who-attended-la-no-kings-rally-shot-blinded-by-dhs-agent-attorney-says

“This is the third person who’s lost an eye, maybe the fourth by a [Department of Homeland Security agent].” DeSimone said. “Two were in Orange County. I’m not representing those people but my former partners are. I see it as a really rampant problem across the board.”

DeSimone’s law firm has represented at least 15 people who were allegedly injured by Homeland Security agents during protests since last June, including a guitar player whose finger was shattered and a 79-year-old car wash owner who was slammed to the ground and experienced a brain bleed.

Illing interviewed Kalle Lasn adbuster/occupy founder, who made a case that no kings is delusionary distraction. i am always interested to see just where and why the line between useful/useless falls for activist types. which sounds like derogation but is not at all intended that way by me.

I went and read what Lasn had to say and ... he's not wrong on the diagnosis, but let's say his action plan needs some work.

First we must answer the question we never answered 14 years ago: “What Is Our One Demand?” We’ll keep thrashing around in the weeds until we figure that out.

This won’t be easy. It’s going to take some serious soul-searching. We’ll have to hunker down . . . congregate in thousands of little groups around the country and brainstorm our hearts out. Zero in on a new grand narrative, a radical set of big ideas — metamemes — ideas so profound and fundamental that a sane and sustainable future is unthinkable without them.

And then, we’ll have to come up with a whole new paradigm of protest.

The hundreds of one-off protests that have flared up around the country since Trump got elected are just quick reactive jabs, born of frustration. We’re just gushing out anger at the guy. When will we wake up and realize that traditional one-offs like No Kings don’t add up to a hill of beans. To start winning again, we have to pick up the pace, the rhythm, the tempo of our resistance. And, most importantly, face this fact: Words without deep personal commitment behind them have the shelf life of lettuce. To pull out of this death spiral we must, each of us, change the way we live.

For centuries we’ve followed the same routine — the playbook of the industrial revolution: we’ve worked weekdays, partied on Saturday, rested (sometimes) on Sunday. Toiling, and then escaping from the week’s toil. Five-sevenths of our lives spent punching a clock. That leaves no time for growth, for transformation, for dreaming.

So we steal some. One day a week. Friday. We just take Friday back. Make it ours. Repurpose it. Rededicate it to the service of the wild human spirit and a sustainable future. Turn it into a new kind of 21st century holiday: A global day of action.

From now on, think of Friday as a call to personal revolution.

Instead of working, we start the day by staring into the mirror, building resistance in the circuitry of the heart. And then, armed with our metamemes, we hit the streets to sow inspired anarchic bliss.

We turn our cities into carnivals, our universities into hotbeds of revolutionary fervor, our supermarkets into staging grounds, our financial districts into fiery zones of contention. We churn everything up!

Some of us will write poems and shoot them into cyberspace. Others will wander around détourning ads, posting ultimatums and manifestos on lampposts, singing in Starbucks, taking our dogs into Cartier stores, strolling into Safeway and folding a banana. Each of us, each in our own sweet way, will find our mojo . . . dedicate our Fridays to winning the planetary endgame — match the dark insanity of the present moment with a crazy exuberance that is ultimately full of light and hope.

Oh yeah, baby. It’s time to be reborn.

that last bit sounds like some Guy Debord shit

Well Lasn's 84, he's very much of that generation. I respect the impulse, I'm just not sure he's gonna find a lot of takers.

People his age write stuff like this but they have no idea how expensive it is to live now. When he was my age, people could afford rent on 1 or 2- bedroom apartments on the Lower East Side while working part time. Delusional boomer nonsense.

Well we won't get the revolution with that attitude!

Delusional boomer nonsense.

I agree it's delusional nonsense, but could you just drop the generational tag, please? It has no relevance to anything. Many, if not most, of the people who talked this way back in the brief hippie love-in era were war babies who were influenced by leaders who were Depression babies. btw, Lasn was born in 1942.

Delusional boomer nonsense incoming:

It pains me to read people outright dismissing such a modest proposal! I do think he's spot on that we're not getting out of this without a major paradigm shift, which in any case is going to come one way or another because the course we're on is not sustainable. I'd rather be working to get ahead of the inevitable tumbling down, to lean into it with joy and ingenuity as opposed to having to react and work double time to pick up the pieces!

To pull out of this death spiral we must, each of us, change the way we live.

This part in particular, I think, is true. None of us can be truly free until we're free to speak our minds without fear of reprisals from employers and unless we're free to crowd the streets on a dime in order make our voices heard. To do this takes work and planning! Escaping from the grip of the capitalist grind is exhausting, but it can be done, slowly but surely. It involves, for me, certain kinds of sacrifices, but it also opens up new possibilities for joy and interrelation.

As precarity pushes many of us out of the running of the rat race and into the margins, we can and should seek out new communal arrangements, not just out of ideological conviction but from necessity. We can take the reality of underemployment, stagnant wages, housing crisis, etc., and use it as an opportunity to design and nurture new ways of getting our needs met that fall outside of traditional wage labor. What does real solidarity with our homeless neighbors look like? What does free groceries for everybody in the neighborhood look like? None of it has to be a radical new invention. Here in Minneapolis we've already seen the possibilities in the face of disastrous fascist crackdowns. We can use these crises, which are not going away, as a springboard to reinvent how we live our lives.

And also like, I'm just not going to fucking accept a situation where I can't express myself politically, and joyfully vibe with my neighbors against fascism because housing is too expensive! Seriously fuck that! That's letting them win imo

I think it all sounds great! But it's not really a modest proposal if you're talking about "thousands of little groups around the country" brainstorming their hearts out. It's the gap between the idea and the execution that's the challenge. It just sounds sort of disconnected from people's actual lives. But if Lasn wants to start doing it wherever he is and build from there, go for it.

Point taken, Aimless.

I agree we need a paradigm shift, but in order for that to happen, we have to ask ourselves what we’re willing to give up, and when so many people already have so little, that can sound very fucking unreasonable.

and also, the insane amount of resources being wasted on military etc far outweigh what any of us could contribute by sharing what we have. it's so infuriating.

in conclusion, my comrades, we must seize the means of production

Yes, agreed. We need to do more to build networks of solidarity and care. It’s true.

But to ask working people who don’t know what Cartier is, who can’t afford a dog, who can’t read or write above the level of an 8th grader, who can’t afford Starbucks— to ask people to “find their mojo” and live in some kind of “joyful resistance” is straight up toxic. People at the bottom already KNOW what resistance and community looks like, and getting lectured by some dude about it is not going to win them over.

Another part of this, speaking of people at the bottom and resistance and community, is that the left needs to find allies in faith communities. These latter groups are doing much of the on the ground work, filling the yawning gaps left by the destruction of yhe social safety net, and it would be good for more leftists to shake hands and work with faith groups in their communities

Meanwhile:

The U.S. has agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran proposed by Pakistan, President Trump said Tuesday night.

https://www.axios.com/2026/04/07/iran-2-week-ceasfire-trump-pakistan

xp table hugely OTM

Some of the people on the front lines of ICE resistance in the SF Bay Area last fall were local priests and religious leaders.

when so many people already have so little, that can sound very fucking unreasonable

Agree to this, but I was just reading a cheerful tome by Solzhenitsyn called The Gulag Archipelago and there's a moving section where the zeks all go on a hunger strike.. and these guys were already barely alive to begin with. But the unflappable solidarity of the strike seemed to put a fear into the camp administration, who ended up really trying to coerce everyone to eat by the end of it
That's an extreme case obv but I think people can by moved to overcome personal difficulties when they see others doing the same.. witness the 70s grape boycott which actually did have an effect

For sure, but there’s some framing there: “we should all starve together” is not a winning slogan

In Sacramento there used to be a mural that read “In scarcity we bare the teeth,” from a poem of the same name. Here is the rest of it:

In Scarcity, We Bare the Teeth
selling them off one by one
appetites in search of the highest price no longer able to smile at or chew on what it means to live the good life.

This is what people are doing, in terms of metaphor, and part of the problem is going to be getting people to recognize that struggle and scarcity are not noble in and of themselves— they only become so when struggling throughout scarcity with others.

tipsy will know about these guys. they have got churches in knoxville not only to form the backbone of a political program in the venn diagram overlap of congregation concerns, scripture, and political levers to pull locally, but to actually contribute their OWN FUNDS to making it happen!

https://justiceknox.org/

a model for others to look to imo.

think globally act locally iirc

Yeah they have actually gotten a lot of things done, and the most impressive thing imo is that they’ve sustained it. They’ve been going for probably close to a decade now, and they show up over and over.

that is very cool

They bring a lot of people too! A core part of it is a big annual meeting they have to set priorities for the next year, and they get like 800-1,000 people (from about 10 different congregations).

not sure which counties are reporting exactly but the liberal Wisconsin SC justice has a huge lead right now, 61/39 with over half reporting

lol they just called it too only 56% is in

got a text from graham platner today

i visited maine once in the late 1970s

On Wisconsin

Act 10 must fall

lol I just checked and the best spin Fox News can put on things is "Trump Makes Major Announcement About Iran Ahead of Deadline." That's the most administration-friendly framing they could find.

If you are about to climb down from your stated objectives in a war, I guess maybe it's less damaging to your reputation as commander in chief to back down from an extreme position almost nobody wanted you to follow through on.

But he got exactly what he was asking for before he made the threat—a ceasefire and the strait reopened, with new negotiations.

Before the war he already had the strait opened and new negotiations, how can they spin this as a win

They blew up a bunch of stuff, that’s how.

The real win will be somehow getting one of Jared's companies a cut of the strait tolls. Trump loves the idea of tolling the strait, but it's a lot easier for Iran to do it. So he can just get a piece. It's not as good as taking the oil, but less work.

"Mandatory annual contribution to the Board of Peace"

how can they spin this as a win

Well they killed some Iranian leaders, including the Supreme Leader. They bombed the hell out of a bunch of places, including a school full of children and various military installations. They'll proudly claim to have annihilated certain Iranian military capabilities that they already claimed to have annihilated earlier, before starting this war. They will glue all these bits and bobs together into claims of a great victory.

But in order for this great victory to materialize, the negotiations with Iran must reach a successful conclusion, where success amounts to the complete disengagement of the USA from active bombardment of Iran. Also, oil must fall to about 125% of its pre-war price. What Israel does from there forward won't be claimed as being any of our business (except for selling them arms).

I hope the Iranians hold our feet to the fire just enough that they humiliate us and they get reparations for the war, but not enough so that we go back to bombing them.

Are we sure MAGA is paying close enough attention to any of this to make fine-grained distinctions about daddy's glorious victory?

Maybe its wishful thinking given the fact that the man has been given the widest latitude of any American in history but I think Trump might've actually really overplayed his hand on this one. Its pretty clear now the plan was never to actually nuke Iran...Trump has to know that'll set off a shitstorm that even he can't control, and if nothing else will totally crater the global economy. I know he doesn't actually give a shit about Americans but he's the money guy, he genuinely hates the fact that gas prices are spiralling out of control, because he knows that's something his idiot voters actually do care about. I mean come on, everyone knows "two weeks" is Trumpspeak for "never". Governments don't talk like that, they say "14 days". The problem is he's fucking crazy and people thought he'd actually do it. They know because he went to war with Iran in the first place. They know because they see him on TV. He's talking to second graders about Biden's fucking autopen.

Personally I don't think scaring the fuck out of the entire planet is something people actually want more of. It finally got some Congressmen to call for the 25th amendment. People say Trump is always gonna have that 40% who won't leave him but I think the Iran shit is busting him through the floor fast. His voters are horrible people who genuinely don't care if he fucks kids but they know this war can only make the world a much worse place. This administration is not even bothering to sell this and his voters aren't buying it because they can't figure out what they're buying. My Dad, who voted Trump 3 times and believes some genuinely insane shit, is now saying he needs to be removed. There was a story about one of those Trump merch stores which recently closed because literally nobody is going in there since the Iran war started. I also don't think pulling out now is going to bring those people back. There is not a single way we are better off now than we were before. Also he's been talking about regime change nonstop. He'll just fuck with another country.

Now I dunno if any of this is gonna make a difference, obviously Republicans do not give a shit that Trump is evil incarnate, but they might care if his approval dips to like 28%. No amount of election fuckery is gonna bridge that gap. And midterms are really not that far away. Granted I know admitting Trump is insane now when you supported him all along makes you look bad but continuing to support him after "An entire civilization will die tonight" might be even worse. I don't think too many people were actually certain nukes would be used and that WW3 was about to begin but they sure as hell didn't think the chance was zero. These people might be starting to believe that he is actually insane.

In other news - a year ago when Susan Crawford won the SC seat in Wisconsin it was considered a pretty strong rebuke of Trumpism because she won by 10 points in a state that Trump took in 2024. Well it looks like Chris Taylor is going to win by nearly 20 points. Also in Waukesha County, about as red a place as you'll find in Wisconsin, all the right wing candidates for school board lost. But by all means guys keep riding this train I'm sure he'll pull out of this tailspin any moment

Ron Johnson next please.

Oh I guess he might not run for reelection anyway.

Everyone in America is looking at their gas prices nearly doubling in a month’s time - on top of all the other shit he’s pulled, good luck coming back from that.

thanks all for the thoughts re: Lasn etc

Frogs, do you have any people close to you that are Trumpers? I really do think you overestimate them.

Judge Taylor’s 20-point triumph reshaped Wisconsin’s election night map. All across the state, counties that had voted for Mr. Trump by wide margins turned blue on Tuesday.

Perhaps most worrisome for Republicans was the erosion of their votes in Waukesha County, for generations the party’s largest source of votes and a place where, as recently as 2012, Mitt Romney won 67 percent of the vote.

Judge Lazar was on track for just 54 percent — four points less even than the conservative Supreme Court candidate took a year ago when he was trounced statewide. The math in Wisconsin is simple: Given Democratic strength in Milwaukee and Madison, a Republican candidate must deliver a big margin in Waukesha and other vote-rich conservative suburbs to have any shot at winning statewide.

Democrats have been organizing in the county for years, hoping to flip some key seats in the State Legislature there this fall in their effort to win control of the State Assembly and Senate for the first time since 2010.

And in the mayoral race in the City of Waukesha, Alicia Halvensleben, a Democrat on the city’s Common Council, defeated State Representative Scott Allen, a Republican, giving Democrats a triumph in the longtime G.O.P. stronghold.

It is a good-ish morning.

The Dem candidate in the special election for MTG's seat lost by 14 points. The same guy lost by 29 points two years ago, so that's progress I guess.

Nice, pretty soon we can all get back to brunch

Join me this Saturday?

It's Brunch time in America

Frogs, do you have any people close to you that are Trumpers? I really do think you overestimate them.

― Cow_Art, Wednesday, April 8, 2026 5:46 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

A few. I can't say I really know what's going on in their empty heads but one impression I'm getting is that the conspiracy base really does not stand for foreign military adventures the way the neocon one did, they distrust all the military shit out of principle (maybe the one good thing about them!) and genuinely feel betrayed that Trump has gotten himself into this

Obviously Trump still has a massive cult of personality along with arguably the most powerful propaganda machine known to man, but at this point it seems obvious that a lot of cracks are beginning to show. The GOP has gotten trounced in every single election between Nov 2024 and now and we really don't yet know where the floor is. Again, losing by 10 in 2025 was pretty significant given that Trump won the state, so what does it say that they're now losing by 20? As someone who lives in Wisconsin I cannot believe some of these counties that have flipped blue. I don't think you can deny something is happening here.

The propaganda machine is certainly trying its damnedest to hide what's happening on the ground.

Lizz Winstead: "We get it Temu Schopenhauers: Doing anything is useless, enthusiasm is futile and finding fault in all of it excuses you from actually taking to the streets and organizing community actions — you know, THE THING YOU ALWAYS BITCH THAT PEOPLE SHOULD DO AND ARE FINALLY DOING."

What’s Cooler Than Nihilistic Hot Takes About ‘No Kings’? Just About Anything.

referring to FOX News and other mainstream outlets, sure. but the podcasts and Twitter accounts a lot of these people are really listening to aren't buying it. also the fact that gas prices skyrocketed the moment this happened and pretty much all consumer products are about to follow is kinda hard to hide. I genuinely do not see how any of this can be spun as a victory, can't even use the "we were misled" line like they did in Iraq when they never bothered to sell this war in the first place

Man, all of the negative consequences you’re bringing up will be blamed on the Iranians and the loyalists will lap it up. “Goddamn those (racist thing), look at the cost of gas! I don’t know why we didn’t nuke those sons of bitches!”

But yes, it’s good that he’s such a dumbfuck that he’s losing support.

xp frogbs what county do in Wisconsin do you live in? my uncle might be your state senator!

Taking our marching orders from rich liberals now, are we

To pretend that there aren’t salient and worthwhile criticisms of the No Kings rallies is absurd

yes, and to pretend they are meaningless is equally absurd

lads, we've been through this already.

Let's compromise and have a few kings.

as a treat

I wasn’t the one who posted some shit from a bad liberal comedian

I will push back on that kind of nonsense any time i see it

Lizz does a ton of local action and has for years here in Mpls, and has raised a lot of money locally for a lot of causes

xp it's a good article, sorry dude. so tired of high horse garbage.

Man, all of the negative consequences you’re bringing up will be blamed on the Iranians and the loyalists will lap it up. “Goddamn those (racist thing), look at the cost of gas! I don’t know why we didn’t nuke those sons of bitches!”

maybe if they'd actually made an effort to sell this war and convince their base that something had to be done about the Iranian regime. as is it they just launched a surprise war in the Middle East overnight against the one country that can actually fight back and the only people who knew about it were Polymarket traders. they haven't come up with a single justification and even MAGA isn't buying it, because Trump and Hegseth have no clue what they're actually selling. every step of the way it's been the Iranians who looked like the sane, rational actors. their demands don't seem unreasonable at all - "stop bombing us and pay us for everything you destroyed"

xp frogbs what county do in Wisconsin do you live in? my uncle might be your state senator!

Sheboygan...I sure hope your uncle is now Devin LaMahieu

uh....not*

Nope - another terrible republican!

Bhaskar Sunkara on the Dem establishment's self-defeating attacks on Hasan Piker:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/08/why-do-elite-democrats-fear-hasan-piker

After 2024, Democrats conducted an anguished post-mortem about why young men were abandoning the party. Pundits filled columns wondering where the party’s Joe Rogan was – someone with cultural reach who could talk to disaffected men on their own terms. As Ryan Zickgraf pointed out, they got one. And the party’s first instinct was to try to cancel him.

What this episode makes painfully clear is that for too many leading Democrats, the priority is defeating progressives within their own ranks and triangulating their way back to power behind a well-heeled professional base.

yeah it's ridiculous

The Tennessee Holler
Anyone who sees Hasan get this love on campuses and instead of “hey maybe he’s onto something” thinks “he must be stopped” is maybe someone Dems shouldn’t take strategy advice from 🤷🏼

(If anyone has 🎥 of Schumer/Jeffries/Gottheimer getting this kind of love pls share)

Hasan can't be the Joe Rogan of the left because he has actually read a book

Rogan tore one in half once

Megyn Kelly, welcome to etc:

https://bsky.app/profile/carlquintanilla.bsky.social/post/3miyv4ybjfk24

Fuck her forever and ever

didn’t she (megyn kelly) say just the other day that even if trump nuked iran she’d still “vote for him” (in what election? just thought of that, but it’s weird how they’re already normalizing 3rd term trump carcass)

Kelly deserves no respect, but she can be viewed as a MAGA weathervane, and that clip is registering a drastic shift in the political wind that blew Trump into office.

the establishment war on hasan is really something, amazing these people try to pose as pragmatists who are all about winning elections

xxp I think she said she would still vote Republican, not for Trump

She was really pissed off in that clip! Steam coming out of her ears, her whatever.

that she still rode for him even after that comment shows people like her have no principles or shame

I assume she's pissed because she knows he was bluffing

Kelly deserves no respect, but she can be viewed as a MAGA weathervane, and that clip is registering a drastic shift in the political wind that blew Trump into office.

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Wednesday, April 8, 2026 7:34 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

or it can be observed that she talks out of both sides of her mouth and the clip means nothing. right wingers have been "upset" about his tone and conduct since he took office

xp - The 'why can't you act like a normal human being' comment doesn't point that direction.

right wingers have been "upset" about his tone and conduct since he took office

those were mainly establishment right-wingers coming out of the Bush/Cheney era. the MSM were constantly seeking their comments on Trump's latest ott tweets. the MAGA voter base generally lapped up his crude 'two-fisted' style.

She was really pissed off in that clip! Steam coming out of her ears, her whatever.

Does Kelly usually curse that much on her satellite radio show? I thought she was all about continuing to maintain basic cable levels of decorum even while spewing Nazi hate speech.

those were mainly establishment right-wingers coming out of the Bush/Cheney era. the MSM were constantly seeking their comments on Trump's latest ott tweets. the MAGA voter base generally lapped up his crude 'two-fisted' style.

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Wednesday, April 8, 2026 7:52 PM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Great, and which group does Kelly belong to

the second group

the weathervane group

Kelly's been on Fox News since '04, I'd call her an estalishment figure but we can disagree.

Setting that aside, there's countless examples of post-Bush-era right-wing freaks who have feigned outrage at Trump's crudeness when it suits them, only to later flip the script. The weaselly incoherence is part of the fun for them and an important part of how they signal belonging in the cult irrespective of what the facts are (or what they said yesterday, oftentimes the exact opposite).

For a case study: peek at NRO's homepage (NB: don't).

Does Kelly usually curse that much on her satellite radio show? I thought she was all about continuing to maintain basic cable levels of decorum even while spewing Nazi hate speech.

― wipes chooser (unperson), Wednesday, April 8, 2026 3:00 PM (thirty-three minutes ago)

I don't really know, but I did just read this while refreshing my memory on the 10+years-long, stormy relationship between Trump and Kelly:

Mar 16, 2026 ... Trump praised Mark Levin as a "great American patriot" after Megyn Kelly called him "Micropenis Mark."

antipope update

JD VANCE: With no disrespect to the cardinal, I don't know who Cardinal Christophe Pierre is

REPORTER: He's the ambassador to the Holy Sea and US

VANCE: Okay, I've met him before. Sorry. I just didn't remember the name. I've never seen this reporting. I'd like to talk to him.

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3miz2sr6q3c2m

lol Holy Sea

Also lol JD

he's new to this whole Catholicism thing

I mean he's written what... ONE book about it?

J.D. and the Holy Sea

The Diamond See

what is the antipope?

It's something you take after you swallow poison holy water.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipope

Antipope Consortium

dang the catholics really make up some wild shit

don't look up the immaculate conception

sometimes theres two popes whatre you gonna do you know

don't look up the immaculate conception

― obvious old hat (rob), Wednesday, April 8, 2026 3:39 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

I had that CD back in the day

some are calling it the lowest gravitas levels ever seen

JD Vance: "You know what? My wife has the right to skydive, but she doesn't jump out of an airplane because she and I have an agreement she's not gonna do that, because I don't want my wife jumping out of an airplane."

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3miz2ypzbar2a

You know what? JD doesn't want his wife jumping out a plane.

sometimes theres two popes whatre you gonna do you know

― lag∞n, Wednesday, April 8, 2026 3:40 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglin

Conclave was a documentary

well at least that explains why she hasn't jumped out of an airplane, which I would do in her shoes

inside you there are two popes

You gotta have a Good Pope and a Bad Pope, its like the Schwartz

A pope and an antipope can't be allowed to be in the same room or they'll explode. Like antipasti and pasta.

HBO did a fascinating documentary about it called The New Pope a few years back.

Vance is so weird and awkward, I’m sure he’s trying for the trump-like weird but funny, and just can’t pull
it off

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip_sG2kWs1g

I got two
Popes
One for the thugs
And one for the lord

sorry if repost but at the orban rally he tried to call trump in the middle of his speech but got sent straight to voicemail

https://bsky.app/profile/heathermoandco.bsky.social/post/3miwka73cnc2p

Bet Trump has everyone in his phone by their most insulting nickname

apparently a lot of Hungarians have no idea who Vance is

It’s always sobering to know how many Americans don’t know who Vance is

they're better off not knowing

Automatic registration for US military draft to begin in December

Eligible men will automatically be registered into the military draft pool by December as part of an effort to streamline the previous process of self-registration and save money.

The Selective Service System (SSS) — the government agency that maintains a database of men to be called up to serve in the case of a national emergency — submitted a proposed rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on March 30, according to the office’s website.

Most men between the ages of 18 and 25 are already required to register with the Selective Service, but automatic registration was mandated in December 2025 as part of the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act.

The change, which was meant to save money, “transfers responsibility for registration from individual men to SSS through integration with federal data sources,” according to the website.

The proposed rule is currently under review by the regulatory affairs office and awaiting finalization.

The U.S. has not had a draft since the Vietnam War, with military service being voluntary since 1973.

But former President Jimmy Carter in 1980 reinstated the Selective Service in the event of a “national emergency,” where the registry could be used to “provide personnel to the Department of War and alternative service for conscientious objectors, if authorized by the President and Congress.”

Many have questioned whether a U.S. military draft could take place amid the war in Iran, which is currently in a tenuous two-week ceasefire.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in March said that while a draft is “not part of the current plan right now,” President Trump “wisely keeps his options on the table.”

Trump alone cannot bring back the draft through executive action, as Congress would need to pass legislation to amend the Military Selective Service Act to authorize the president to induct personnel into the military.

Still, failure to register in the draft is considered a crime and can prevent people from receiving state-funded financial aid and employment in numerous states, cause ineligibility for many federal employment opportunities and job training under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, and can carry a fine of up to $250,000 and jail time for up to five years.

In addition, immigrants who don’t register may lose their U.S. citizenship.

Under the new rule, men will be registered automatically within 30 days of their 18th birthdays.

Women are still ineligible for the draft, even as lawmakers in the past few years have attempted to attach provisions adding women to the draft as part of the annual defense policy bill. The measures have all been stripped out before a final vote on the legislation.

haha

‪Wes Burdine‬
✧@wesburd✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
· 1h
BREAKING: Following the American threat of an “Avignon Papacy,” Robert Kennedy has begun a Diet of Worms

Janet Mills has dropped out of a Maine Democratic primary debate scheduled for Saturday. She also seems to have no ads booked at the moment.

Trump is back to posting about Greenland lol. He’s so over Iran, he doesn’t want to think about it any more.

In addition, immigrants who don’t register may lose their U.S. citizenship

I have a hard time deciphering this. People born in the U.S. aren't immigrants, so this can't refer to them. Immigrants to the U.S. aren't citizens unless they undergo naturalization, but according to this legal info website:

U.S. citizenship gained through naturalization can only be revoked in rare cases involving fraud or serious misrepresentation during the application process.

Denaturalization requires a federal court case — USCIS cannot cancel citizenship on its own without a judge’s approval.

Honest applicants have nothing to fear; if you earned your citizenship lawfully, it remains permanent and secure.

‍

haha

‪Wes Burdine‬
✧@wesburd✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
· 1h
BREAKING: Following the American threat of an “Avignon Papacy,” Robert Kennedy has begun a Diet of Worms
― Serfin' USA (sleeve), Thursday, April 9, 2026 11:00 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Best joke I have seen all year.

it's a beaut

Did nobody like him? Did everyone hate him?

This Atlantic article (yes, I know) about right-wing racist assholes lamenting the rise of even more right-wing racist assholes is ... not funny, exactly. Headline should be more like, "Saruman Says Uruk-hai are 'Going Too Far.'"

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/04/conservative-intellectual-right-influencers/686630/?gift=83kOO-_pxHChnfcCXfgpOIyB4OnYRuklNvGAtlyyjeU&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

Oh my, conservatives in 1960s shocked by even more racist than them conservatives, racist right wing crazies in 2026 White House shocked by, um, maybe not shocked by racist podcasters but concerned they're not staying on certain messages

Buckley did not denounce the Birchers -- when will that myth die?

Y'all should read Sam Tanenhaus' fantastic bio published last year.

Yeah the article gets into Buckley's knowing dance with the Birchers. His main issue was he thought they were crude and would make it harder for him to sell his more genteel version of the same stuff.

from the journalistic sleuths at people.com:

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who served as President Donald Trump’s defense attorney during his New York City criminal trial in 2024, said he would thank the president and tell him, “I love you, sir,” if Trump fired him or chose another person to serve as Pam Bondi’s permanent replacement for attorney general.

Blanche served as the Justice Department’s deputy attorney general until the president fired Bondi last week amid scrutiny of her handling of the Epstein files and prosecutions of Trump’s political foes.

The president has yet to nominate a permanent replacement, who will need to be confirmed by the Senate. Trump is reportedly considering Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin and Utah Sen. Mike Lee, among others, as he has shaken up his Cabinet in recent weeks.

“As to whether or not I want this job, I did not ask for this job. I love working for President Trump, it’s the greatest honor of a lifetime,” Blanche said at an unrelated press conference on Tuesday, April 7.

“And if President Trump chooses to keep me as acting [attorney general], that’s an honor. If he chooses to nominate me, that’s an honor,” he continued. “If he chooses to nominate somebody else and I go back to being the [deputy attorney general], that’s an honor.”

Blanche added, “If he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say ‘Thank you very much. I love you, sir.’ I don’t have any goals or aspirations beyond that.”

it is sometimes a tiny bit confusing how this tough macho administration is actually a huge pile of craven losers, bowing and scraping toadies, just absolute twerps with no dignity

wearing wrong-sized shoes

sorry just skimming through lawyersgunsmoneyblog. here's another discussion topic. impeachment.

Democrats are obviously going to win the House this fall and with GA-14 moving 25 points in the Democrats’ direction, maybe buy a good bit.

So what to do about Trump?

I know the answer–impeach his criminal ass. I support this too. Donald Trump is the worst person in American history and the crimes he’s committed are legion. There’s no legal reason not to impeach him. Investigate, impeach, and…..

We do have to answer the next question. The chances of Trump being convicted are about the same as getting rid of him through the 25th Amendment. There are two distinct options here though. The first is that Republicans hold onto the Senate. If that happens, they don’t even consider the impeachment. It gets flushed. And then what do we do?

The second is that Democrats have a slight majority. At that point, Democrats can hold the trial and do all that. Trump will not be removed from office barring Democrats winning minimum 60 seats and that’s being extremely optimistic on how much this would scare enough other Republicans for removal. And then what do we do?

These are questions we have to answer. Now, I know the answer is going to be, do it again. OK, fine. But remember something–the average American voter is a moron. This is a person who vote based on vibes. They aren’t going to pay attention. They aren’t going to care. Do it once, OK. Keep doing it and it’s entirely possible they even start sympathizing more with Trump again. This is not a reason to not keep doing it, but it’s something that is plausible and repeated impeachments are likely to have diminishing returns anyway. What about the price of eggs, or something.

We have the voters we have. We have the system we have. It’s not great!

Given that, what are Democratic strategies going forward when impeachment almost certainly fails to get rid of Scumbag Don? Now is the time to start having these conversations.

i don't like to leap to calling the average american voter a moron, but i do agree that the average american has selective amnesia, that impeachment will fail, and that in 2028 it's not hard at all for me to see the political pendulum swinging back toward republicans.

buuuuut, what do ya'll think?

some fun developments in the Charlie Kirk case, apparently Tyler Robinson's "confession" over Discord happened several hours after he was arrested, it's possible he's gonna walk lmao

imo i think in a perfect world he'd be gone but i figure impeachment would fail as well, and it just makes the GOP play the victim card. i feel like having Trump in office is terrible for everyone, but if he's not going to leave office by means that are unrelated to health or...not-legal action by an unknown party, maybe they should just wait and let him flail for two years. i just think a third failed impeachment attempt would be annoying to everyone.

The average american voter is a moron, yes. Factoring in the millions who are eligible to vote but don't, still morons. Sturgeon's Law. My heart says impeach anyway, but head less sure.

I prefer to just visualize imminent death

one impeachment is worth it to force him to testify under oath, although there is zero chance he would agree to do that and the Dems aren't capable of making the right kind of hay about that. but I say do everything you possibly can to harrass and stress him so he strokes out and dies.

dems won't have the balls to impeach jack shit

It's deeply pathetic that the US system can't impeach this guy, but I suppose there's no point in futile gestures.

I'd settle for the Dems loudly investigating...well anything: ICE, deportations, detention centres, Epstein files stuff, boat bombings, Iran, or anything in the enormous hat labelled insultingly blatant corruption. It would be p funny if they went after the ballroom

jamelle bouie put up a video yesterday suggesting impeachment and 25th Amendment stuff would fail, but suggested defunding the White House, which is something Congress can do, to neuter the guy.

I for one do not see the pendulum swinging back to the GOP in 2028, even if Trump spends the next 2.5 years doing nothing but golfing a ton of horrible shit is already in motion and likely to get worse. He can't wave a magic wand and get us back to where we were 6 weeks ago. Also I cannot imagine what sort of condition he'll be in by then if he's even alive at all. I do not think the GOP, who has turned their entire party into the cult of Trump, is going to be able to wash their hands of this the way they did with Dubya. The only way it happens is if Trump somehow gets more popular over the next few years

defunding the White House

and planting an organic garden where the ballroom was supposed to go

solar panels or gtfo ;)

Nyer has piece in which the reporter embeds with groypers… what never seems to be asked of selfsame nerds or Fuentes himself is "you want what you call non native born residents of the continental U.S. to be deported, as you pine for a 19th century/early 20th century notion of purity and innocence, and you want what is due to you and your pals but what is given to non-whites. But if we are talking about pure notion of blood and soil, native americans can claim that. You can't. Your forebears are from Europe."

Is the Groypers and other ethno-nationalist's answer "the america that we are referring to, which we wish to restore, is the one colonized and paved over beginning in the 1600s." Is that the answer? Does no one ever ask them re: this fundamental matter?

similarly, I don't understand why incels think its the woman's fault that they don't want to fuck them. It's your fault if your shit isn't tight enough that a woman doesn't want to open their legs for you, you loser shithead. Or do they believe that every woman must submit to a man's demand for sex?

They do

you cannot gotcha a groyper. it's about power, arguments to them are disposable things that are placeholders for future violence.

I for one do not see the pendulum swinging back to the GOP in 2028

this is good! i like this and i want this to happen. and the reasons you provide all make so much sense, they do.

however i have all noticed that about half this country voting for him in 2024, after he already had built up several lifetimes of reasons why it would be absolutely absurd to elect him again, including staging a very obvious coup on live television. his supporters completely had amnesia about all of it, voted him in again. i understand that 2028 is not 2024, and it's not 2020 or 2016 either. but i ALSO watched half this country completely lose their humanity during the pandemic (which many more than half the people in this country also completely forgot about) and do unspeakably cruel things to each other, cheering each other in their inhumanity. i will never count on "voters" in this country ever, ever, ever doing the right thing, ever. i will hope for it and cross my fingers, but never count on it.

They play video games. The point is to keep playing until you win, right?

Xxpost also settler colonial ideology has answers for these questions - the people who were here didn't deserve the land, the colonists earned it by their supposedly superior qualities, their superior holy status (God granted them dominion, vs. the heathens), and/or their supposed work "improving" what had supposedly lain fallow. they are intellectually bankrupt answers, but they believe them because it's all about superiority/domination deep down. you're not just going to get a stunned, blank-faced response to the gotcha.

funny to think about these keyboard warriors actually clearing a forest to plant a crop of corn which then fails and they're forced to eat pine cones

They'd chew the bark if they thought it made their dicks swell.

dems won't have the balls to impeach jack shit

I said this months ago, he’s trying to rig the midterms but he has nothing to fear from the Dems

why would he even fear impeachment? there is zero chance he actually gets removed and it lets him play the victim card which is his favorite thing to do.

agreed

stunned at this... just came out of the blue

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.) said Wednesday he again will vote against a war powers resolution to halt U.S. strikes on Iran.

“We have to stand (with) our military to allow them to accomplish the goals of Epic Fury,” he told host Sean Hannity, referring to the operation in Iran.

“I’m old enough to remember we used to root for our military, and we would all agree that Iran is the world’s leading terrorism underwriter.”

I'm almost 40 and I don't remember any of that

this fucking guy

This is who Fetterman's been for a while now.

Surely to god he gets primaried next time around. Not for two more years, sadly.

maybe he'll have another stroke

"I’m old enough to remember we used to root for our military, and we would all agree that Iran is the world’s leading terrorism underwriter.”

lmao was this during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

support our oops

John Rambo would like a word

allow them to accomplish the goals of Epic Fury

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

man the homoerotica here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ODPuZyYVtA

maybe he'll have another stroke

I hope he does. Evil fucking man.

Trump has posted a video of a woman being beaten to death on Truth Social (video is of a woman who was killed by a man that it says was a haitian immigrant).

The woman in that video was a Bangladeshi immigrant. The State Dept stopped processing any visa applications from Bangladesh earlier this year (along with 74 other nations)

Trying to get MTG back on side maybe.

Immigrant lives matter only when it's convenient to score political points.

or marry as a trophy

wait what

https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-promises-mass-pardons-to-staff-before-leaving-office-d7274d32

Wait, he's leaving office? Woo!

tbh that was my first hope, we'll see

Oh I've always assumed he'd do that. tbf Biden set the precedent with a bunch of pre-emptive pardons. Which may or may not be legal, I suppose we'll find out someday.

Presidential pardons have always been bad anyway.

yep I am in favor of abolishing them retroactively, can we convict Nixon's corpse plz?

That line about blanket pardons for anyone "within X feet of the Oval Office" is just him reveling in the fact that he owns this magic wand he can wave around like a demented Harry Potter. He absolutely loves having unlimited power to pardon federal crimes. It says nothing specific about his future intentions, but it accurately reflects his general mindset about pardons. His J6 and other pardons all confirm this mindset.

This is probably so the staff will try to keep him from dying before they get their pardons.

not gaudy enough imho

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/10/us/politics/arch-washington-trump.html

Seems like he's signaling to his staff that they should go wild with the crimes.

if they freelance too much on the crime spree they will earn bad publicity and be fired for crimes not made to Trump's specs. knowing this, their main crimes of choice will be bribe-taking and misappropriation of funds for personal use, bcz

…and he’s doing this a day after supposedly cracking down on insider trading in the White House.

You think he remembers yesterday?

You think he remembers lunch?

Every time I see picture of that arch I am reminded of the Stalin era building in Moscow that has different designs on different facades because Stalin signed off on the drawings, which contained both designs, but didn’t indicate which one he preferred and everyone was so terrified they never went back to ask him.

Swalwell accused on sexual assault by ex-staffer

“Mr President, tear down that arch.”

already getting the everyone knew posts from hill staffers and journalists about swalwell, mightve said something guys

Dante Atkins danteatkins.bsky.social‬

We all knew. Anyone who had any connections to California Hill members knew. I worked on the Hill 10 years ago as senior staff for a NorCal Congressman. We all knew. Swalwell groomed his interns and young staff over SnapChat. The fact that it took so long is an embarrassing failure all around.

https://bsky.app/profile/danteatkins.bsky.social/post/3mj6dwfvt5c2k

He's cute. I might've flirted with him.

alfred

I apologize for that remark. Sorry.

That whole, “yeah we all knew about this grooming and sexual abuse” stuff AFTER allegations become public enrages me. So you are openly admitting you didn’t raise the flag when you knew of harm? And now you want a cookie for knowing first? Fuck off.

Guess the Cali gubernatorial field is gonna get a little smaller.

bunch of replies in there all actually you need hard evidence to push a story like this, not really true but idk maybe try to get some evidence then, could always just do nothing i guess

the CA governor race is so fucked, in every way

Democrats not sending their best.

Or maybe they are and that’s the problem.

omg I cannot believe this Riley Podleski thing is real

Who is she and why is she different than the run of the mill nazi Barbie?

she's like some teenage intern who is now Assistant Press Secretary, OK I admit it I can still be shocked

The War Criminal internship is very hard to get. Congrats!

shes 26 fwiw

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ph5jdyu7ua3cezdid5jcrnis/bafkreifapeycrh6dcxrnjtrgcckgeuppaixque7cparnlhkkpwutbwr5uu

Guess I'll put this here. Adios, fascist.

BREAKING: Hungary just saw a stunning political shakeup. Opposition leader Péter Magyar says Prime Minister Viktor Orbán personally called to congratulate him on his victory, marking the imminent end to Orbán’s long grip on power.

another diplomatic triumph for JD Vance

looking forward to orban's new show on Newsmax

holy shit

Poor Rod Dreher gonna have to start paying his own rent now

Jamelle Bouie calls JD Vance "a miserable little pig-man":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KIy1DtYXqo

👀

András Tóth-Czifra minczifra.bsky.social‬

Perhaps Magyar's most important promise, and the one that certainly resonates with voters: "never again a country without consequences!"

The crowd chants: "To prison! To prison!"

https://bsky.app/profile/minczifra.bsky.social/post/3mjdbk2v7wk2r

‪Mark Chadbourn‬ chadbourn.bsky.social‬

From a contact in the audience: “He’s basically just asked all the puppets, all the supreme justices, all the heads of media, all the heads of the ministries to leave their jobs tomorrow and not wait to be fired.”

He’s announced that Hungary will join the European Prosecution Office so anyone in the country can be charged.

Magyar: “No mercy, they will need to take responsibility for all their actions.”

https://bsky.app/profile/chadbourn.bsky.social/post/3mjdbhpj6f22f

I'm impressed he's imitating the U.S. on January 2021.

cmon on

dude

That was a joke

dont be jokin around

if somebody posted the equivalent on the night of nov 7 2028 about the next american president everyone would know it was a joke, they would give a knowing eyeroll

That was a joke

I gave up on using gentle sarcasm on the internet. It doesn't convey properly. You have to be ham-fisted and as obvious as a face tattoo.

happy now

lol

interesting statement from j street the liberal zionist lobby shop, wonder if this is an attempt to get out in front of america cutting off israel totally, basically theyre suggesting that america sell but not give israel arms, follow current american law already on the books lol, and act in americas best interest diplomatically lol

The goal of this reassessment is to advance the broader American interest of a more stable and prosperous Middle East that includes both Israelis and Palestinians living in security and freedom. The best way to achieve that is through a US-Israel security relationship that treats Israel as a normal ally – not an exception that receives unquestioning, blank check support from the United States.

https://jstreetdotorg.substack.com/p/reassessing-the-us-israel-security

I rewatched One Battle After Another recently and the first time I thought Penn’s character was too goofy and this time it felt totally on the nose. What a bunch of freakazoids.

that j street set of recommendations is specially crafted to appeal to older US centrists/moderates by suggesting the comfort food of 'a return to normalcy'. it's worth noting that was a phrase originally created by Herbert Hoover. also worth noting that things never went back to 'normalcy'.

xp

he's pretty much indistinguishable from Bovino

Nah, he's Mike Flynn. Even looks like Mike FLynn.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS3LFWM9YdSeteXBYqcgippKEwWkR7oKQ7czheVja-b5xugAnlztXk_RClNZozthhHyDZyAFFgEksy9A_Z9JvB9gJmEv-M2W0zAtWus&s=10

NY Times Pitchbot‬
✧@nytpitch✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
· 2h
Pope Leo is no angel.

xp is that gold fringe around his stars is he an admiral

What's not to admire?

Eric Swalwell resigning from the House, which is exactly what you do when the allegations are false.

yeah I think there's no doubt those allegations are 100% true. it's a safe seat to resign thankfully, and as someone who disliked him, I'm glad he's not in the Gov mix anymore

"Creeps, Criminals and Crazies : the 119th Congress of the US"

Tony Gonzales also quitting. I knew about the affair with the woman who then set herself on fire, was unaware of this: "On April 6, 2026, a second former staffer of Gonzales' accused him of sending her sexually explicit messages. According to text messages published by the San Antonio Express-News, Gonzales asked the second woman for nude photos, asked "What kind of panties do you wear?", and wrote that he wanted to have sex with her and have her "squeeze my balls."

Gonzales must be the kind of guy who dives into the water by doing a cannonball.

I guess it's clear now that #metoo did almost nothing and this behavior continues

I didn't think it would about behavior; it has changed processes like this, which is a step. I read accounts about congressmen and senators chasing female staffers around desks through the early '90s and it's horrifying.

they don't think they're being abusive when they ask a 20 year old intern to squeeze their balls, it's only when someone else does it

I'm honestly surprised that Gonzales is resigning. I figured Republicans would stand behind his awful behavior.

It’s one of theirs, one of ours. The margin stays the same.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/04/14/magazine/trump-dhs-ice-officers-immigration-deportations.html

more swalwell accusations (drugging, raping a woman).

During an event at The George Washington University on Monday evening, former CNN correspondent Frank Sesno asked Pelosi if she had any knowledge of his alleged behavior.

“None whatsoever. I had none whatsoever,” she replied.

The former House leader also pushed back on suggestions from Republicans that some Democrats “turned a blind eye” to Swalwell’s behavior toward young women, saying this was “absolutely not true.”

so all these fucking assholes knew Swalwell was a POS abuser and did nothing about it. fuck them all

nothing sez how how insider you are like that you knew he was a rapist and did nothing

Burn it all down have the ouija select a coven to run everything

I didn't know much about him except that he was from around here (the East Bay) so he was kinda on my shortlist for the CA governor's race.. obviously not anymore!

he primarily made a name for himself by being really loudmouthed on Twitter and elsewhere during the first Trump term.

Also he was kinda a dick and very much a “you’re only here to be a more conservative dick and take up airtime” during the 2020 DNC primary debates

Burn it all down have the ouija select a coven to run everything

One of the benefits of sortition is that in incentivizes basic skills to be taught to everyone as everyone has a chance to being selected into doing a shift on that job.

Also, I do agree with C.L.R. James’ point that “Every cook can govern.”

https://i.ibb.co/JW7qddKz/ruler-pope.jpg

uhh, is typhus something I might have been vaccinated against in the 1970's?

typhus larry typhoid mary these diseases and their crazy naming schemes

xp Vaccines have been developed, but none are commercially available.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhus

classic result of bad drinking water systems fyi

A side note:

Typhus and Typhoid Fever are two different diseases.

There is no vaccination for Typhus. Typhus is a disease caused by a few different bacteria, including Rickettsia. It is seen in Southern California and is transmitted by infected fleas, with fever, headache muscle aches, rash. It is treatable with doxycycline

Typhoid Fever seems more dire. It is a Salmonella infection and manifests with those symptoms but also with with diarrhea, dehydration and potential GI bleeding. It is transmitted by fecal contamination of water or food. It is not endemic in the US but is seen in people who have been traveling. There apparently IS a vaccine for it. It is also treatable with antibiotics like Ciprofloxacin

ah ty I confused the two

So many plagues, so little time

This poll fascinates me b/c of how Reagan nostalgia or whatever has accelerated the Gen X brain rot:

2026 Generic Congressional Ballot

🟦 Democrats: 46%
🟥 Republicans: 44%
——
By Age (net)
• 18-22: Dem +23
• 23-29: Dem +30
• 30-34: Dem +39
• 35-44: Dem +11
• 45-64: GOP +18
• 65+: Dem +4@YalePolling | 3/9-23 | 3,429 RV pic.twitter.com/EqOfKJ98G1

— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) April 13, 2026

we need another Vietnam to thin out their ranks

not sure if that polling firm is one of the top ones, but maybe it’s cope on my part. I vaguely have heard of other polls where Gen X is pretty conservative. I wonder if it’s just the ideal age bracket to turn conservative? You’re settled, you own your house, you’re at the top of your career, the kids are teens and you don’t approve of their friends and they in turn won’t talk to you, now I gotta mow the lawn *grumble grumble*

It's not one of the top ones, no; I posted it for the Gen X info.

The Gen X thing to me is pretty clear. These are all the guys I went to high school with who grew up on shock-jock radio, when being "anti-PC" was framed as rebelliousness. They were early adopters of Rush Limbaugh and transitioned easily to Fox News, and have essentially lived inside a right-wing media bubble their entire adult lives. They were the first generation to say "libtard" and "feminazi." Even more than Boomers, who came of age inside the old Cronkite/Time/Newsweek framework, they are the true right-wing media natives. By the time you get to millennials, a lot of that stuff seemed like obvious BS being fed to them by people who sold the Iraq War etc. But a lot of Gen X, especially white Gen X dudes, will never leave that cocoon. The anti-woke era has been like mother's milk to them, it's the next iteration of what they were weaned on politically.

they also ate a lot of paint chips growing up

& hose water

See also people whose first presidential ballot was cast for Ross Perot.

Ah, paint chips and hose water, those were the days ...

Anyway, Gen X might also be peak cynicism, which could explain tendencies toward burn-it-down/fuck-this-shit politics.

Yeah. I know Gen X guys who are not MAGA or Trump supporters, but hold themselves in this kind of above-it-all position of "They all lie/it's all rigged" that is not wrong exactly but is also very superficial.

Lead paint and gas helped too.

Anyway, Gen X might also be peak cynicism, which could explain tendencies toward burn-it-down/fuck-this-shit politics.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Yeah, these guys (I'm tail end of Gen X) are peak Both Sides Suck, but I'm Gonna Vote for the Republican.

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical Roganed

And these are the guys, while there's a strain of Gen X gals who've gone from wellness hacks (and maybe the particular strain of 80s/90s body-image things) to becoming anti-vax mothers.

Probably also the last generation able to build up wealth to the point that their main interest is protecting it.

^^ this too

it's tempting to think of Gen X as Alternative Nation when it's more like Woodstock '99

https://i.ibb.co/d41JjkGX/images.jpg

LADY BRACKNELL: [Sternly.] Both, if necessary, I presume.

It was disheartening in the early days of Facebook to see all these guys I went to high school with who had rocked out to Jane's Addiction and Fishbone and Rage Against The Machine; 95% of them had turned into conservative shits.

Early manifestation was a dickhead in my freshman dorm who loved Public Enemy but would immediately say "except their politics."

so he just liked… what about them exactly?

Flavor Flav's clocks.

The antisemitism

like who did he think the “us” was in “it takes a nation of millions…”? mediocre white dudes who would grow up to be suburban chud dads with high cholesterol?

Gotta say, I put on Do the Right Thing early in the semester for film students and the opening title sequence with "Fight the Power" and Rosie Perez blew their fucking minds.

so he just liked… what about them exactly?

iirc "The big deep voice yelling and then the funny little voice on top."

And, you know, It Takes a Nation of Millions rocks, you can definitely get off on its energy alone. But also, like I said, dude was a total dickhead.

did Elvis mean shit to him

Probably more of a John Wayne fan.

I think a fair number of NWA listeners ended up becoming cops.

Some of the biggest fans of the 2015 Straight Outta Compton are Republicans of my generation.

always loved that one where they expressed their sexual attraction towards cops

I saw the best minds of my generation get stupid.

I mean outrageous

Lots of those rich fratboys at IU in the 90s were already big time rightwing a$$holes when I was in college. I can't remember which frat it was, but it is the one on the corner of Indiana Ave. across from Dunn Meadow got in a sh1tload of trouble for launching water balloons with one of those strechy bands over their house onto people gathered for a public candlelight wake when Ryan White died of AIDS.

As for turning rightwing, I know Ron Paul caught a couple of my friends from college into being kinda nutty now.

Ron Paul, Ross Perot — Gen X white guys were susceptible to cranky lil weirdos from Texas named RP.

how about we add Ralph Nader to that list and we can say crankly little weirdos with a first name beginning with R

idk i feel like Nader doesn’t deserve to be lumped in there

there was so much liberal bashing during the Clinton years - I don't think any other president and first lady have had such an industry around them, just absolute hatred so thick you could taste it... tons of books and right wing radio pundits, there were literally professional Clinton bashers that just did the rounds and talked about how vile they were. I'm sure the osmosis of that utter contempt certainly rubbed off on younger voters as well

Of course those haters were right

They didn’t hate the Clintons for the right reasons— there are plenty of great reasons to hate them

https://i.ibb.co/FLWfbwdh/what-was-the-relationship-between-reagan-and-clinton-like-v0-lv6pw8yn412f1.webp

Well, the right did highlight a lot of Clinton's sexual assault and harassment allegations, which most people nowadays don't write off the way Dems did back in the 90s. Of course all the "they're commies who protested against the Vietnam war in a foreign country" stuff was idiotic.

Lots of those rich fratboys at IU in the 90s were already big time rightwing a$$holes when I was in college.

I went to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers live twice within 12 months - the first time was spring/summer '89, a free outdoor show, and the crowd was punks and art kids and some hippies who'd show up to anything, all hanging out and partying. The second time was in 1990, in a club, and all of a sudden the crowd was full of shirtless white bros in backward Duke U caps who thought the point of the pit was to punch random strangers in the neck.

um the shit that was slung at the Clintons was totally batshit and crazy and table is right--plenty of reasons to hate them, but hilary being a demon summoner is not one of them.

Last time I checked The Clinton Chronicles is on YouTube -- a lovely way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

I'll believe she's a demon summoner until it's proven otherwise.

Right now right wingers are saying Trump is demon possessed. So at least it's bipartisan.

Remembering a late-90s office job where I went to make copies of something and left behind on the glass was a list of everyone the Clinton’s had murdered.

whereupon you photocopied that list and left a copy on everyone's desk

Mass getting hot and bothered about the Boot:

Political Polls
@PpollingNumbers

New - Which 2028 candidate excites you most (Massachusetts)

🔵 Buttigieg 23%
🔵 Newsom 17%
🔵 AOC 14%
🔵 Pritzker 7%
🔵 Shapiro 7%
🔵 Harris 7%

Suffolk #B - LV - 4/13

Buttigieg is the most recognizable after Harris.

Hilary took part in a ceremony that led to Trump being seated at the throne of power so I think she’s a demon summoning expert.

xp unfortunately ;)

Not a good sign for Harris then.

You know what else was not a good sign for Harris, flaming out early in the 2020 primary and then losing the 2024 election.

https://ibb.co/DHfTM6Jq
i can never get images this way but

Buttigieg is a no-go— I hate him for entirely different reasons than those I am about to elucidate, but truly, there is no way this country will elect an openly homosexual man as president. It’s just not going to happen— the US is much too homophobic, and has gotten *more* homophobic over the past few years!!

Hopefully we can get the Geese PR firm to boost the profile of some young progressives Dems because the current list is dire

Anyone who gets far enough to be their party's presidential candidate in the general election, but loses to the other party's candidate, almost never gets another chance at their party's nomination. See for example: HRC, Romney, McCain, Kerry, Gore, Dole. Harris won't be given a second chance.

Harris's situation was a

The loophole there is that all the the people you listed actually won a primary campaign.

I can think of one Veep who got a second chance though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXvwHdPt5ps

🔵 Buttigieg 23%
🔵 Newsom 17%

i would just like to point out i was otm when i said pete was ahead of newsom a few months ago. my hunch is that right now the u.s. is a lot less homophobic than it is misogynist. i could see him winning. will i be happy about it if he does? ambiently i guess. if he's the nominee my social feeds are going to be a miserable shit show.

I don't see him discussed much so maybe he's not running — and I'm sure he has plenty of flaws — but the guy I like best of the seemingly available Democratic roster is Pritzker. Chicagoans please correct me if this isn't true, but from the outside it seemed he handled the ICE invasion pretty well both rhetorically and on the ground (even though obviously it was mostly the city's issue to deal with). And, I dunno, people like The Bear, and they also seem to like billionaires even though they shouldn't, maybe a brawny Midwestern billionaire with a smart mouth would fly.

if pete is the nominee he is absolutely going to throw trans people under the bus (if he hasn't already, i don't exactly follow these douchebags). it will be so fun to see all my cis gay man friends be idiots about it online.

i do hope pritzker runs.

Sure, Harris's path to the nomination was without precedent and her position while running was anomalous in almost every way. This cannot erase the fact of her loss when the voters made their choice. It sucks for her, but she probably couldn't have been the nominee any other way than how it happened. In reality it was a windfall into her lap. She gave it her best shot and lost.

I don't think she should run, but I don't really care if she does because she is not going to be a factor. She ought to realize that and retire as someone who came within a few percentage points of winning the presidency rather than someone who finishes fourth in a six-way field or something.