"The other side has the cowards. That’s not the side to bet."
Were I interested in going on brand, I'd note that those people are entrenched in power and it will be very, very difficult to vote them out. And, of course, the replacements oh please I can't go on.
Anyway.
"[H]e’ll have an actual fight on his tiny hands."
No doubt "a fight" but one with how much effect and what successes.
I'd expand on that but today's like Hold Back Thursday or something. But I will justify that cynicism on the concept that if one can't have realistic, achievable goals, that kind of adds to the problem instead of resolving. Hope's fine -- essential -- but not when it leads to delusion or Hegseth-levels of intoxication* from overdoing the hopium. (*Without proof, I assume to dispute his claim to sobriety; suffering from dry drunk syndrome is an alternative. Besides, in either case, he's insane. Not a defense, just shooting for clarity and avoiding gratuitous insults when reality's bad enough.)
Still trying to understand what problem is caused by my excessively high levels of hope. Of course hope can lead to disappointment later, but life is full of disappointments, and disappointment is nothing to be afraid of.
Correct, that there’s hope and then there’s hope. Hope in the impossible happening or the highly unlikely happening but then with minimal benefit, I dunno, seems like wasted energy.
But yeah, your judge race is in a weird space. There’s a basis for hope or even confidence in your position and I know what the Elon money dump did in my district gifting with the vile Mike Lawler.
My overall point is that if one’s going to be hopeful one needs to weigh whether there’s any rational basis underlying it or whether energies are better directed elsewhere.
I hope the Democrats win ALL the special elections and take back the House! Why not? My money I keep in-state, but hope? Spread that shit around, t's a limitless resource, I've even heard it springs eternal.
Winning all three would be better than what we have.
Between the national party’s tendencies, Donny’s disregard for anything rebuffing whatever he wants to do and the Roberts court’s prioritizing GOP party goals, dunno that that it would be a panacea exactly. Not even sure how much it would matter.
Meanwhile, my POV has been watching right wing-fueled national decline for four or five decades so sure, hope springs eternal, but not sure that it has done any good on the macro level.
But this is all YMMV stuff. I’m hardwired for misanthropy which society just reinforces more and more on a daily basis. Clearly, you’re different. And I’m not judging you. I just think hope should be leavened with reality. Otherwise maybe trouble, maybe just wasted energy, maybe something that should be done doesn’t get done. Emphasis there on maybe.
I see one of your kids trying to get your attention…
There's a lot of ruin in a ball club, as someone once said. The right-wing slide has so far been well-managed by them. The voters on the bottom have been kept in a spinning rage to distract them from their circumstances, and the better-off have not been inconvienenced. Until now. We are barreling toward the "all at once" part of that famous description of the process of bankruptcy. The Gang That Couldn't Steal Straight are tearing out the copper wire and plumbing. People are gonna notice. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of their lives.
But the discussion of how we get power back given the headwinds and what to do if we ever do is all kind of lacking. As to the former, a huge problem is gerrymandering which means getting control of state leges about which there seems to be minimal concern or interest. The Dems still aren't interested in contesting all races. Meanwhile, the DCCC was not too interested in getting a House majority in 2022. Or 2024. Or apparently 2026. They're more interested in candidates that bring in money and if they contest all seats no biggie. (Altho' I just got an email from the congress-thing from my adjacent district asking for $$$ for the 2026 cycle.)
There was a long WaPo story about what's happening to Social Security. Getting a person to talk to you on the phone went from its normal level of "difficult" to "damn near impossible." They're now requiring people to come in person for many things while also closing local offices. Just imagine a long, LONG line of some VERY pissed-off seniors and you get the picture.
And WHY? The money saved is insignificant, if they were cold, calculating sons-of-bitches, still none of this would make any sense. The only explanation I can see is that they really have drunk their own Kool-Aide. Elon really does believe there is TRILLIONS in fraud, Social Security really is a Ponzi scheme, and some day soon the American people will thank him. It's insane.
And sure, we all tend to look for the rational explanation, for the plan, this is all to destroy it so they can privatize it, for example. And that may be true, but it may also be just a thing we do out of habit. At this point I'm inclined to think it's just another form of sanewashing.
Somewhere else in PA a Dem was just elected mayor somewhere Trump won by 15 points. (There’s a way to discuss issues in a non-partisan way of course.)
One of the things I struggle to keep in mind is that shitty as the party is, getting more Democrats elected no matter what is essential. I have no doubt that when I next vote I’m not going to be struggling to dope out who to vote for and certainly not to stress over the concept of no Republicans.
But, you know, the rank shiftiness and worse of the Party of Clinton makes it hard when it should be easy.
The national Democrats since it got co-opted by the Democratic Leadership Counsel (first president: Bill Clinton).
Its thesis was fundraising would get a boost from the party being Republican-friendly policy-wise and thereby get the big bucks from GOP special interests. Obviously, that would -- and has -- restricted the party's ability to act like the Democrats of old while holding themselves out as the party of old. Restrictions extend to being unable to lay out that the GOP's been an existential threat of the nation since long before Clinton. Or to deal with the Roberts court appropriately. Or to be cool with the House D caucus engaging in insider trading. And getting the ACA instead of M4A because public/private partnerships are awesome despite the fact that they're awful in the long term. Or relying on Roe instead of passing any statutes (to the contrary blocking approximately no abortion restricting legislations subsequent to the decision). I can go on but you get the idea.
Essential, but absolutely not sufficient. My fear is less that Democrats will never, ever claw back some amount of de jure power, but that when they do, they will do absolutely NOTHING to punish the malefactors here, who will then regain power in a few more years and start fascism again, the interval a meaningless speed bump. We need our Democrats to be a HELL of a lot better than we've got now if we're actually going to get out of this.
No punishment, in a sense practically no accountability. Like we just lived through under Biden.
Minimal addressing of the harm and destruction done by Trump.
But before then, got the headwinds of gerrymandering hurting the odds of getting a strong House majority, one that doesn't have to compromise with DINOs. Also, the Democrats need to contest every seat. They've still no interest in that.
The DSCC is being run by Gillibrand who's now running scared as fuck, going from some sort of liberal to just another submissive POS.
These guys, in their quest for candidates that bring in the revenues to the party at the cost of harming the nation ignore the reality that when races are between Republicans and DINOs/alt-Republicans, voters tend to go for the real thing -- or worse, like all the way back in November 2024 depress Democratic voter turn out or otherwise repel their own voters.
I lay on the ground prostrated and partially corrected.
Of course hope is let's say the initial spark. But I believe that, specially with the opposition party we have, it has to be balanced with some respect for reality and some perspective on what's realistically achievable and all that.
IMO, there's way too much hope-fueled assumptions out there about the near and mid-term futures than I think healthy and beneficial.
Also IMO I believe energies are focused on some national opposition party getting power and undoing all the stuff being fucked up by Trump when maaaayybbee some energies should be directed to the local level and to services helping people getting screwed by the current administration.
I mean, past a point hope is effectively little better than a drug and to potentially lead to delusion.
"... has to be balanced with some respect for reality and some perspective on what's realistically achievable and all that."
Remember that guy who ran against Marjorie Taylor Greene? Seemed like a nice guy, raised about $60 million, lost by about 40 points. I threw a little hope his way, I didn't throw any money his way. Hope all you want, but hold on to your wallet.
Hope is the thing with feathers, you know, like a pigeon, as Mickey Mantle said to Yogi Berra once. It's not rational, in other words, being human and all.
Gotta be careful quoting an early promoter of concentration camps. Snark aside, context/timing matters. Ca 1940, that quote made a lot of sense and was the thing to say to his people. By 1945 it was kind of irrelevant.
What's the hope now? Replacing the Party of Trump with what Harris was pushing at the end of the campaign, an alt-Republican party, something so Republican friendly that nearly everything Trump does will end up sticking? (I suppose tariffs would be the exception.)
Yeah, sure, that would be an improvement, clearly. Can hope for better, no reason to expect better.
In 1945 Churchill's party got voted out as the UK people realized he would be a terrible peace time leader despite being a good war time leader. Sadly people aren't that smart these days
Reality has a large component based on what you make of it. People like James Carville try to use their version of reality to change policy more to their liking. I mean we still don't know why 4 million-ish 2020 Dem voters didn't show up, but Jimmy boy is out there telling Dems to dump some disfavored groups. That is reality trying to destroy progressive ideas and make the Dems even more centrist
That David Shor thing that was buzzy last week had two alleged big points based on an insanely huge number of polls -- 40+m people polled IRC.
First takeaway was if one was a shithead, one voted R, if one had any awareness, one voted D. I paraphrase, of course.
The other takeaway was, like, amorphous: some minorities ran away from voting D to voting R.
For that, his polling had no explanation. So I'm sticking with what I believed before the reporting the polling dropped: a huge, not at all unreasonable lack of faith in the a corporate, literally Republican-friendly party to save us. (As we know, that was Harris' final message of the campaign.) As I keep ranting, running as any sort of DINO has something of diminishing returns. It works except when it doesn't. And in the case of November, it failed historically. Over thirty years of refusing to be an opposition party took its toll. And now there's polling (of questionable quality IMO) that the D brand is pretty toxic.
"Honey, I messed up at work again" Waltz Texts Wife, Editorial Board of National Geographic." The Onion remains unmatched, lol.
Waltz and Hegseth would be gone yesterday in any other Administration. Of course, Hegseth wouldn't have his job in the first place in any other Administration. In Trumpworld, the Venn diagram of hatefulness and incompetence is a circle.
And yes, we need to support (and donate to if financially possible) the elected Democrats who are showing they have a spine, and support the primary challengers of those Democrats who have shown they'd rather run for cover. As Roy points out, in America everything is about money and when establishment Dems' plea for donations is consistently met with "lol, no" maybe some of them will rediscover their spines as well. I can dream.
The Trump promise in this administration: “If you were corrupt and stupid enough for me to bring you in, you’re corrupt and stupid enough to stay for four years.”
Last go-round, Tubby made the mistake of hiring assholes he didn't really know, some of whom had a semblance of relevant experience, and it was a revolving door of "I never really liked that guy, he begged me for the job." This time he's got stone-cold sycophants, and he's never going to let them go. To own the libs.
Owning the libs is just a front for hoovering up alla the moola. The Groupchat Heard Round The World was NOT a mistake in judgement – it was delivery of a product to the kindsa nationstate/crimelords who will pay for it.
That is my theory, based on way more circumstantial evidence than necessary...
Myself I’m wondering if it wasn’t a hit from inside the building, said building in this case being that one with five sides. We already saw it happen a few days back when someone there leaked news of Elmo’s upcoming briefing on DoD’s top secret plans to defend Taiwan if China invades. That caused the meeting, which I’m sure horrified top brass, to be scrubbed. Now a week later we get whiskyleaks. Just makes me wonder.
One thing I noticed about Waltz when he was first spewing the lies "it never happened, and if it did Goldberg is a sleazeball journalist who managed to hack the chat" on Fox was the panic behind his eyes. If he wants to stay on, he's going to need to have his sense of shame fully excised. Or start boozing like Hegseth.
Oh, he'll probably get rid of some of them, just because he likes humiliating his underlings, but if he does, he'll make it a point to appoint someone as bad or worse to replace them, so neither here nor there.
Tesla has shareholders (Musk, at 12+%, doesn’t have a controlling interest). Those shareholders just saw 50% of their shares’ worth go bye-bye. Some of them are grumbling. Let us now pray for the board of directors to fire Musk.
I shall form a prayer circle and host a prayer breakfast, as well as sprinkling prayer emojis liberally (see what I did there?) throughout my social media posts.
And that BoD has been getting a nice helping hand from Dems in Connecticut, who're working to change the law so that Musk can get that ridiculous payout.
Yes, signs of life..Ossoff has apparently decided to run as a Real Democrat and not Republican Lite..and Rep. Crockett is a goddess!
And, because it's personal to me, the Trans Moral Panic had been looking like a place where the Centrist Moderates could decide, "oh, this confusing bunch is a MAGA Hate Object, that we could safely sell out for electoral gains..." Good to see some spine.
Maine appears to have developed a system for permitting trans girl athletes: the trans kid would apply for a waiver if they wanted to play, a Maine Parent Assoc. Committee (coaches, school counselors, parents ) meet them to see if there might be problems (such as size, etc), and perhaps most enlightened, ask kids on the team if they were ok with the new kid.
Between 2013-2023, a total of 52 applications and waivers were granted statewide.
That S.Hitler and the MAGAts have ginned up fear of little girls is unsurprising at this point.
Notice that no one is screaming about testosterone and steroid fueled trans boys who are coming into men sports and destroying it because they were very few and you don't notice there anyway. It's the Democrats who tell me to shut up about Trans and LGBTQ right generally, and blame that for Harris' loss that can bite my hairy bum.
Might be a useful starting point for when storming town hall becomes a major Thing.
Note: I hear that now some Reps are hosting Unpublic meetings – that is, only documented republicans are allowed in. Apparently, they are totally on board the "Pepperss! Pepperss Pleasse!" regime tactic even if it applies to themselves. Clearly, that sort of human will only feel truly free/safe when their rep charges them a LOT of money for the opportunity to ask empty questions and receive equally vacant answers.
Yep, Bubble Boy Derrick Van Orden being a prime example. "They crashed my party!" he said, of mere citizens who wanted to ask their Congressman some questions. Because for Derrick, EVERYTHING'S a party.
The "creep in the restroom" is Republicans. Oliver Willis has been saying "Republicans want to look at your kids' genitals" for years now, and it's finally here.
the Trans Moral Panic had been looking like a place where the Centrist Moderates could decide, "oh, this confusing bunch is a MAGA Hate Object, that we could safely sell out for electoral gains..."
As you seem well aware, many of the CM, who are the heirs to the moderates in King's Letter from the Birmingham Jail, have already jettisoned trans people from their circle of protection
Maybe it's the car salesmen hair: maybe it's the Kelly Gullifoyle past: but i couldn't feel good at CA Newsom before the "no trans girls in sports" (and other feints to the right)..he looks like a good governor only in contrast to awful GOPer ones.
Fetterman, well, has shown himself to be something of a mook.
The tiny numbers of trans kids in sports renders most of the fear and hyperventilation around it moot: the very few cases should be cases by case.
But fearful imaginings fed by confusion of sex with sexually, and gender with gender expression and vast misinformation...
I hd a guy tell me they should forbid trans girls in sports because one might cost his daughter an entirely hypothetical college sports scholarship.
"Bring us the Lord's justice, but not just now..."
I hd a guy tell me they should forbid trans girls in sports because one might cost his daughter an entirely hypothetical college sports scholarship.
Yeah, if you're daughter is good enough for a college sports scholarship at one school, there are likely many other schools willing to offer her a scholarship
Really, we either beat these guys or sink into much more comprehensive and brutally violent authoritarian rule, like a much bigger and more violent than Pinochet era Chile. Leaving aside the [minor ?!] issue of personal freedom, either we beat them or the US becomes a pariah nation that cannot be trusted, vast swathes of our population newly impoverished, GDP falling like a stone, life expectancies dropping fast, maternal mortality skyrocketing, literal starvation and widespread death due to disease that would be prevented or treated in sane nation. Either we beat them or we will live in a regime that no one trusts, where violence rules and local warlords establish their fiefdoms [South Burlington VT ruled by a cabal of car dealers]...and I’ll stop because just writing this is giving me a panic attack].
Either we beat them or things will get unimaginably worse. So I tend to seek and ingest the hopium. Any you can rationally send our way, Roy, will be appreciated.
Bolsonaro's going to jail. And Duterte is going to the Hague. You can beat fascism through elections, sometimes. Believing you can isn't foolish or naive, there's evidence right in front of us that shows it can be done.
Yep, the more money you got, the more vulnerable you feel, the more cowardly you get. The greatest courage always comes from those who got nothin' left to lose.
Not being American, I generally try (maybe not always successfully) to avoid commenting on American politics here. I like you guys, and hell, my best friend/musical collaborator is American! But, collectively, JFC what a bunch of proud-for-no-discernable-reason assholes Americans have become. Less healthy, less educated, less democratic, less FREE than every other major democracy, "America" still thinks it's the best. Just typing the previous words has made it dangerous for me to enter your country.
As an English teacher in Japan, I now advise students to avoid studying abroad in the USA. I mean, for fuck's sake, I even advise them to avoid Canada (my homeland) if they have to change planes in the USA. Soon I may have to tell them to avoid Canada altogether as well, if Trump and his millions of lackeys have their way. (FWIW, and I'm mildly shocked at myself for even typing this: unless Trump plans to nuke Canada, any attempted invasion will likely end with the civil and economic destruction of the USA; in Canada we still honor those who fought the nazis; we still enjoy kicking American ass on the ice [and we don't cry on the ice like fucking babies when we lose.])
Anyway, love you guys, man. Just had to vent a bit, ya know?
No problemo. We Americans have always had a strong proud-for-no-discernable-reason asshole contingent, but they used to stay in their local lanes. Idaho, Northern Michigan, eastern Oregon, the Great State of Jefferson (aka Northen California), most of the South. Tubby was their Prosperity Gospel Messiah, telling them they were the Crown of Creation and they could Have It All. And lo, they believed and went forth and gave him the keys to the car and all their money and told him to make them Great. And he laughed and drove away. At some point they will begin to suspect he aint coming back.
"And lo, they believed and went forth and gave him the keys to the car and all their money and told him to make them Great. And he laughed and drove away."
This is exactly what "Bob" would do, but, then again, Schitzenführer ain't stopping the Xists from killing us all.
"I'm just going down to the store to pick up some eggs as $0.99 a dozen, I'll be right back" is what any alcoholic husband would say on his way to the tavern.
I am kinda hoping when things start to fall apart (should be around November, at the rate we're going) New York will secede to become a new province of Canada.
The Columbia Capitulation (worst Robert Ludlum novel EVAR) was a real gut-punch, especially if you work at a college or university. But where did we get this idea that universities were bastions of free speech? Not from university administrators, certainly, but from the Berkely free speech movement and protests at other campuses (like Madison!) where students endured beatings by cops while their university's petty bureaucrats looked on with approval. So, for a limited time only, some space was won for free expression. Now the administrators revert to form.
I don't know the history well enough, but there's probably a book or two on how universities went along with the McCarthy-era blacklist, most likely with some enthusiasm.
If you're putting together a list of those we should never rely on, it's now at University administrators, billionaires who own social media platforms, billionaires who own newspapers, Chuck Schumer.
That’s because we live in the Age of Shareholder Interest
another thing that hope is making Milton Friedman get kicked in the nuts in hell. of course much of MFs notoriety came from his idiotic PBS show. U of Chicago economics delenda est
I remember that show! One visual, this was supposed to explain socialism, was of a mannequin factory, hundreds of identical mannequins moving along an assembly line. Because that's what the socialists want, you see.
"The other side has the cowards. That’s not the side to bet."
Were I interested in going on brand, I'd note that those people are entrenched in power and it will be very, very difficult to vote them out. And, of course, the replacements oh please I can't go on.
Anyway.
"[H]e’ll have an actual fight on his tiny hands."
No doubt "a fight" but one with how much effect and what successes.
I'd expand on that but today's like Hold Back Thursday or something. But I will justify that cynicism on the concept that if one can't have realistic, achievable goals, that kind of adds to the problem instead of resolving. Hope's fine -- essential -- but not when it leads to delusion or Hegseth-levels of intoxication* from overdoing the hopium. (*Without proof, I assume to dispute his claim to sobriety; suffering from dry drunk syndrome is an alternative. Besides, in either case, he's insane. Not a defense, just shooting for clarity and avoiding gratuitous insults when reality's bad enough.)
Still trying to understand what problem is caused by my excessively high levels of hope. Of course hope can lead to disappointment later, but life is full of disappointments, and disappointment is nothing to be afraid of.
Well, I didn’t have you in mind.
Correct, that there’s hope and then there’s hope. Hope in the impossible happening or the highly unlikely happening but then with minimal benefit, I dunno, seems like wasted energy.
But yeah, your judge race is in a weird space. There’s a basis for hope or even confidence in your position and I know what the Elon money dump did in my district gifting with the vile Mike Lawler.
My overall point is that if one’s going to be hopeful one needs to weigh whether there’s any rational basis underlying it or whether energies are better directed elsewhere.
I hope the Democrats win ALL the special elections and take back the House! Why not? My money I keep in-state, but hope? Spread that shit around, t's a limitless resource, I've even heard it springs eternal.
Winning all three would be better than what we have.
Between the national party’s tendencies, Donny’s disregard for anything rebuffing whatever he wants to do and the Roberts court’s prioritizing GOP party goals, dunno that that it would be a panacea exactly. Not even sure how much it would matter.
Meanwhile, my POV has been watching right wing-fueled national decline for four or five decades so sure, hope springs eternal, but not sure that it has done any good on the macro level.
But this is all YMMV stuff. I’m hardwired for misanthropy which society just reinforces more and more on a daily basis. Clearly, you’re different. And I’m not judging you. I just think hope should be leavened with reality. Otherwise maybe trouble, maybe just wasted energy, maybe something that should be done doesn’t get done. Emphasis there on maybe.
I see one of your kids trying to get your attention…
There's a lot of ruin in a ball club, as someone once said. The right-wing slide has so far been well-managed by them. The voters on the bottom have been kept in a spinning rage to distract them from their circumstances, and the better-off have not been inconvienenced. Until now. We are barreling toward the "all at once" part of that famous description of the process of bankruptcy. The Gang That Couldn't Steal Straight are tearing out the copper wire and plumbing. People are gonna notice. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of their lives.
True enough.
But what also bothers me is this: What we're getting is obvious enough. Or I should say obvious to we informed libs, apparently not so much to our masters and elite leaders, public and private. (Like this laugh riot: https://archive.is/2025.03.25-191627/https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/03/25/sonnenfeld-ceos-trump-tariffs-business/)
But the discussion of how we get power back given the headwinds and what to do if we ever do is all kind of lacking. As to the former, a huge problem is gerrymandering which means getting control of state leges about which there seems to be minimal concern or interest. The Dems still aren't interested in contesting all races. Meanwhile, the DCCC was not too interested in getting a House majority in 2022. Or 2024. Or apparently 2026. They're more interested in candidates that bring in money and if they contest all seats no biggie. (Altho' I just got an email from the congress-thing from my adjacent district asking for $$$ for the 2026 cycle.)
There was a long WaPo story about what's happening to Social Security. Getting a person to talk to you on the phone went from its normal level of "difficult" to "damn near impossible." They're now requiring people to come in person for many things while also closing local offices. Just imagine a long, LONG line of some VERY pissed-off seniors and you get the picture.
And WHY? The money saved is insignificant, if they were cold, calculating sons-of-bitches, still none of this would make any sense. The only explanation I can see is that they really have drunk their own Kool-Aide. Elon really does believe there is TRILLIONS in fraud, Social Security really is a Ponzi scheme, and some day soon the American people will thank him. It's insane.
And sure, we all tend to look for the rational explanation, for the plan, this is all to destroy it so they can privatize it, for example. And that may be true, but it may also be just a thing we do out of habit. At this point I'm inclined to think it's just another form of sanewashing.
This is a good omen. I've been to Lang'ster. It's ain't blue by any means. https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2025/03/special-election-pennsylvania-lancaster-allegheny-house-senate/
For sure.
Somewhere else in PA a Dem was just elected mayor somewhere Trump won by 15 points. (There’s a way to discuss issues in a non-partisan way of course.)
One of the things I struggle to keep in mind is that shitty as the party is, getting more Democrats elected no matter what is essential. I have no doubt that when I next vote I’m not going to be struggling to dope out who to vote for and certainly not to stress over the concept of no Republicans.
But, you know, the rank shiftiness and worse of the Party of Clinton makes it hard when it should be easy.
Which party is the party of Clinton? It’s never really been clear.
The corrupt one, silly.
The national Democrats since it got co-opted by the Democratic Leadership Counsel (first president: Bill Clinton).
Its thesis was fundraising would get a boost from the party being Republican-friendly policy-wise and thereby get the big bucks from GOP special interests. Obviously, that would -- and has -- restricted the party's ability to act like the Democrats of old while holding themselves out as the party of old. Restrictions extend to being unable to lay out that the GOP's been an existential threat of the nation since long before Clinton. Or to deal with the Roberts court appropriately. Or to be cool with the House D caucus engaging in insider trading. And getting the ACA instead of M4A because public/private partnerships are awesome despite the fact that they're awful in the long term. Or relying on Roe instead of passing any statutes (to the contrary blocking approximately no abortion restricting legislations subsequent to the decision). I can go on but you get the idea.
That Party of that Clinton.
Essential, but absolutely not sufficient. My fear is less that Democrats will never, ever claw back some amount of de jure power, but that when they do, they will do absolutely NOTHING to punish the malefactors here, who will then regain power in a few more years and start fascism again, the interval a meaningless speed bump. We need our Democrats to be a HELL of a lot better than we've got now if we're actually going to get out of this.
No punishment, in a sense practically no accountability. Like we just lived through under Biden.
Minimal addressing of the harm and destruction done by Trump.
But before then, got the headwinds of gerrymandering hurting the odds of getting a strong House majority, one that doesn't have to compromise with DINOs. Also, the Democrats need to contest every seat. They've still no interest in that.
The DSCC is being run by Gillibrand who's now running scared as fuck, going from some sort of liberal to just another submissive POS.
These guys, in their quest for candidates that bring in the revenues to the party at the cost of harming the nation ignore the reality that when races are between Republicans and DINOs/alt-Republicans, voters tend to go for the real thing -- or worse, like all the way back in November 2024 depress Democratic voter turn out or otherwise repel their own voters.
Except that, arguably, where there is no hope, there are no energies.
I lay on the ground prostrated and partially corrected.
Of course hope is let's say the initial spark. But I believe that, specially with the opposition party we have, it has to be balanced with some respect for reality and some perspective on what's realistically achievable and all that.
IMO, there's way too much hope-fueled assumptions out there about the near and mid-term futures than I think healthy and beneficial.
Also IMO I believe energies are focused on some national opposition party getting power and undoing all the stuff being fucked up by Trump when maaaayybbee some energies should be directed to the local level and to services helping people getting screwed by the current administration.
I mean, past a point hope is effectively little better than a drug and to potentially lead to delusion.
"... has to be balanced with some respect for reality and some perspective on what's realistically achievable and all that."
Remember that guy who ran against Marjorie Taylor Greene? Seemed like a nice guy, raised about $60 million, lost by about 40 points. I threw a little hope his way, I didn't throw any money his way. Hope all you want, but hold on to your wallet.
Yes, the wallet…
No more contributions til/if AOC primaries Chuck. Maybe, I doubt she’d need but I despise Schumer for reasons good and irrelevant that much.
Hope is the thing with feathers, you know, like a pigeon, as Mickey Mantle said to Yogi Berra once. It's not rational, in other words, being human and all.
And in the top of the fifth, hoping to catch a long drive to deep left center, Mantle got shat in the eye by a Dodger-loving pigeon...
Yogi had a good laugh about it after the game.
Willie Mays would have made that catch
[confident slap of the empty-soon-to-be-full glove]
Keep Your Eye On The Poop
Better than poop in your eye!
"I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else."-- Winston Churchill
Beats being focused on reality I guess.
Gotta be careful quoting an early promoter of concentration camps. Snark aside, context/timing matters. Ca 1940, that quote made a lot of sense and was the thing to say to his people. By 1945 it was kind of irrelevant.
What's the hope now? Replacing the Party of Trump with what Harris was pushing at the end of the campaign, an alt-Republican party, something so Republican friendly that nearly everything Trump does will end up sticking? (I suppose tariffs would be the exception.)
Yeah, sure, that would be an improvement, clearly. Can hope for better, no reason to expect better.
In 1945 Churchill's party got voted out as the UK people realized he would be a terrible peace time leader despite being a good war time leader. Sadly people aren't that smart these days
Reality has a large component based on what you make of it. People like James Carville try to use their version of reality to change policy more to their liking. I mean we still don't know why 4 million-ish 2020 Dem voters didn't show up, but Jimmy boy is out there telling Dems to dump some disfavored groups. That is reality trying to destroy progressive ideas and make the Dems even more centrist
That David Shor thing that was buzzy last week had two alleged big points based on an insanely huge number of polls -- 40+m people polled IRC.
First takeaway was if one was a shithead, one voted R, if one had any awareness, one voted D. I paraphrase, of course.
The other takeaway was, like, amorphous: some minorities ran away from voting D to voting R.
For that, his polling had no explanation. So I'm sticking with what I believed before the reporting the polling dropped: a huge, not at all unreasonable lack of faith in the a corporate, literally Republican-friendly party to save us. (As we know, that was Harris' final message of the campaign.) As I keep ranting, running as any sort of DINO has something of diminishing returns. It works except when it doesn't. And in the case of November, it failed historically. Over thirty years of refusing to be an opposition party took its toll. And now there's polling (of questionable quality IMO) that the D brand is pretty toxic.
As you know, I can go on...
Wasn't Schor's thing mainly of people that voted? I specifically asked about people that voted in 2020 for Biden but not in 2024
"Honey, I messed up at work again" Waltz Texts Wife, Editorial Board of National Geographic." The Onion remains unmatched, lol.
Waltz and Hegseth would be gone yesterday in any other Administration. Of course, Hegseth wouldn't have his job in the first place in any other Administration. In Trumpworld, the Venn diagram of hatefulness and incompetence is a circle.
And yes, we need to support (and donate to if financially possible) the elected Democrats who are showing they have a spine, and support the primary challengers of those Democrats who have shown they'd rather run for cover. As Roy points out, in America everything is about money and when establishment Dems' plea for donations is consistently met with "lol, no" maybe some of them will rediscover their spines as well. I can dream.
The Trump promise in this administration: “If you were corrupt and stupid enough for me to bring you in, you’re corrupt and stupid enough to stay for four years.”
Yeah, that may be one of the vanishingly small number of promises he actually keeps.
Firing Hegseth is what WE want, and therefore must never be done.
Of course. It's government by spite. How could it not be?
I've always said you could kill off half of 'em with one PSA: "Michelle Obama says don't drink bleach."
Then he'll be the gift that keeps on fucking up, er, um, giving.
Last go-round, Tubby made the mistake of hiring assholes he didn't really know, some of whom had a semblance of relevant experience, and it was a revolving door of "I never really liked that guy, he begged me for the job." This time he's got stone-cold sycophants, and he's never going to let them go. To own the libs.
The [scratches out “cruelty”] incompetence is the point.
Why not both?
Owning the libs is just a front for hoovering up alla the moola. The Groupchat Heard Round The World was NOT a mistake in judgement – it was delivery of a product to the kindsa nationstate/crimelords who will pay for it.
That is my theory, based on way more circumstantial evidence than necessary...
Reminds me of the Gotti tapes except the wiseguys were way more relatable
At least they were professionals.
What, professional asshole doesn't count for you? Jeez, tough crowd!
Myself I’m wondering if it wasn’t a hit from inside the building, said building in this case being that one with five sides. We already saw it happen a few days back when someone there leaked news of Elmo’s upcoming briefing on DoD’s top secret plans to defend Taiwan if China invades. That caused the meeting, which I’m sure horrified top brass, to be scrubbed. Now a week later we get whiskyleaks. Just makes me wonder.
All the marks for "whiskeyleaks."
To be clear, not mine, but thanks!
Yeah. Let's not call it "gate" for once.
I'm holding out for the Nirvana that will be GateGate. The Meme Ouroborous will consume itself and both cease to exist and contain the Universe.
Hmm.
Fair.
One thing I noticed about Waltz when he was first spewing the lies "it never happened, and if it did Goldberg is a sleazeball journalist who managed to hack the chat" on Fox was the panic behind his eyes. If he wants to stay on, he's going to need to have his sense of shame fully excised. Or start boozing like Hegseth.
Ah, the Three Dog Defense.
What with inflation and all, 4 Dog Defense is the minimum these days.
Oh, he'll probably get rid of some of them, just because he likes humiliating his underlings, but if he does, he'll make it a point to appoint someone as bad or worse to replace them, so neither here nor there.
I'm waiting for Variety: "Loose Lips Drink Fifths"
Thanks for the positive take ! It's really appreciated today.
Seconded.
Tesla has shareholders (Musk, at 12+%, doesn’t have a controlling interest). Those shareholders just saw 50% of their shares’ worth go bye-bye. Some of them are grumbling. Let us now pray for the board of directors to fire Musk.
I shall form a prayer circle and host a prayer breakfast, as well as sprinkling prayer emojis liberally (see what I did there?) throughout my social media posts.
If there's French toast, count me in.
Freedom toast. You got it.
does the batter have cinnamon
"Let us prey."
Thomas Nast lives!
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/394469
Put me down for a couple of thoughts.
The BoD that was recently seeking permission to pay EM a huge bonus/more salary. Seems like it's more sycophants than necessary
And that BoD has been getting a nice helping hand from Dems in Connecticut, who're working to change the law so that Musk can get that ridiculous payout.
Thanks, Roy. I needed that. Now I’m calling that Georgia senator and that Maine governor. I already gave Ch*ck a piece of my mind.
Brava
Go Janet. No offense to the guys, but I'd love to see some women kick Tubby in the nads, metaphorically and literally.
With those pointy shoes you gals like to wear.
I'm down with the pointy shoes, too!
https://www.fluevog.com/flueblog/sp11-tokyo_nagano/
or stiletto's, the knife healed shoe
As has been noted, SOP for Trumpov is for scandal to cover up crime. This is a two-fer: both scandal *and* crime.
And Ossoff is one of my Senators--the other is Warnock--and used to work for Jimmy Carter. There is, shall we say, precedent.
Tubby's great accomplishment has been to teach America that there is no shame in bald-faced, obvious lying.
Yes, signs of life..Ossoff has apparently decided to run as a Real Democrat and not Republican Lite..and Rep. Crockett is a goddess!
And, because it's personal to me, the Trans Moral Panic had been looking like a place where the Centrist Moderates could decide, "oh, this confusing bunch is a MAGA Hate Object, that we could safely sell out for electoral gains..." Good to see some spine.
Maine appears to have developed a system for permitting trans girl athletes: the trans kid would apply for a waiver if they wanted to play, a Maine Parent Assoc. Committee (coaches, school counselors, parents ) meet them to see if there might be problems (such as size, etc), and perhaps most enlightened, ask kids on the team if they were ok with the new kid.
Between 2013-2023, a total of 52 applications and waivers were granted statewide.
It was a good faith attempt to meet the Biden, title IX, LGBTQ regulations, and it's worked for Maine. (See https://www.pressherald.com/2025/02/21/qa-can-trump-withhold-federal-funds-do-other-states-allow-transgender-athletes-to-play-school-sports/)
That S.Hitler and the MAGAts have ginned up fear of little girls is unsurprising at this point.
Notice that no one is screaming about testosterone and steroid fueled trans boys who are coming into men sports and destroying it because they were very few and you don't notice there anyway. It's the Democrats who tell me to shut up about Trans and LGBTQ right generally, and blame that for Harris' loss that can bite my hairy bum.
A list of pertinent questions posted prior to a town hall meeting featuring two members of congress from Utah:
https://app.sli.do/event/cKUqNrLQ84rPPb3okHw62M/live/questions
Might be a useful starting point for when storming town hall becomes a major Thing.
Note: I hear that now some Reps are hosting Unpublic meetings – that is, only documented republicans are allowed in. Apparently, they are totally on board the "Pepperss! Pepperss Pleasse!" regime tactic even if it applies to themselves. Clearly, that sort of human will only feel truly free/safe when their rep charges them a LOT of money for the opportunity to ask empty questions and receive equally vacant answers.
Yep, Bubble Boy Derrick Van Orden being a prime example. "They crashed my party!" he said, of mere citizens who wanted to ask their Congressman some questions. Because for Derrick, EVERYTHING'S a party.
BUT THE BATHROOMS
Ok, the MAGA Pussy Checking squad will determine if you are women enough to use the Ladies...
And it's still a "creep in the restroom ", not a trans woman problem.
The "creep in the restroom" is Republicans. Oliver Willis has been saying "Republicans want to look at your kids' genitals" for years now, and it's finally here.
For national security reasons!
"...national security reasons!"
Which are somehow congruent with personal insecurity reasons.
Which has me wondering, if a trans lady has her bottom surgery, is it THEN okay for her to go into the women's bathroom?
Ha ha, I kid myself, of course not, because CHROMOSOMES.
Electron microscopy will slow restroom usage significantly...
Isn't the big thing birth certificate sex?
Yes, but, i think most will find having sex with documents is not quite what, say, Chuck Tingle (surely some sort of expert)might lead us to imagine.
Pounded in the Ass by my T. Rex's Birth Certificate?
"birth certificate sex"? Hey, I'm not kinkshaming, but seems like it'd promote paper cuts in sensitive areas.
(Seriously that's a popular legalist strategy.)
This is 100% on the mark: https://bsky.app/profile/evanurquhart.bsky.social/post/3ll7th4pmck2y
Oh come on, sensible people working together sensibly. It'll never work.
the Trans Moral Panic had been looking like a place where the Centrist Moderates could decide, "oh, this confusing bunch is a MAGA Hate Object, that we could safely sell out for electoral gains..."
As you seem well aware, many of the CM, who are the heirs to the moderates in King's Letter from the Birmingham Jail, have already jettisoned trans people from their circle of protection
Maybe it's the car salesmen hair: maybe it's the Kelly Gullifoyle past: but i couldn't feel good at CA Newsom before the "no trans girls in sports" (and other feints to the right)..he looks like a good governor only in contrast to awful GOPer ones.
Fetterman, well, has shown himself to be something of a mook.
The tiny numbers of trans kids in sports renders most of the fear and hyperventilation around it moot: the very few cases should be cases by case.
But fearful imaginings fed by confusion of sex with sexually, and gender with gender expression and vast misinformation...
I hd a guy tell me they should forbid trans girls in sports because one might cost his daughter an entirely hypothetical college sports scholarship.
"Bring us the Lord's justice, but not just now..."
I hd a guy tell me they should forbid trans girls in sports because one might cost his daughter an entirely hypothetical college sports scholarship.
Yeah, if you're daughter is good enough for a college sports scholarship at one school, there are likely many other schools willing to offer her a scholarship
Really, we either beat these guys or sink into much more comprehensive and brutally violent authoritarian rule, like a much bigger and more violent than Pinochet era Chile. Leaving aside the [minor ?!] issue of personal freedom, either we beat them or the US becomes a pariah nation that cannot be trusted, vast swathes of our population newly impoverished, GDP falling like a stone, life expectancies dropping fast, maternal mortality skyrocketing, literal starvation and widespread death due to disease that would be prevented or treated in sane nation. Either we beat them or we will live in a regime that no one trusts, where violence rules and local warlords establish their fiefdoms [South Burlington VT ruled by a cabal of car dealers]...and I’ll stop because just writing this is giving me a panic attack].
Either we beat them or things will get unimaginably worse. So I tend to seek and ingest the hopium. Any you can rationally send our way, Roy, will be appreciated.
My kingdom [ha!] for an edit button. Take out the “than” before “Pinochet” in the first sentence.
Click on the three dots.
Thanks.
Bolsonaro's going to jail. And Duterte is going to the Hague. You can beat fascism through elections, sometimes. Believing you can isn't foolish or naive, there's evidence right in front of us that shows it can be done.
We’re so far past the point that any rational nation would trust us at all.
Yep, the more money you got, the more vulnerable you feel, the more cowardly you get. The greatest courage always comes from those who got nothin' left to lose.
At least that's what Bobby McGee said. Or Bobbie.
The McGees variously Bobbed.
Where's them pronouns when you need 'em.
Not being American, I generally try (maybe not always successfully) to avoid commenting on American politics here. I like you guys, and hell, my best friend/musical collaborator is American! But, collectively, JFC what a bunch of proud-for-no-discernable-reason assholes Americans have become. Less healthy, less educated, less democratic, less FREE than every other major democracy, "America" still thinks it's the best. Just typing the previous words has made it dangerous for me to enter your country.
As an English teacher in Japan, I now advise students to avoid studying abroad in the USA. I mean, for fuck's sake, I even advise them to avoid Canada (my homeland) if they have to change planes in the USA. Soon I may have to tell them to avoid Canada altogether as well, if Trump and his millions of lackeys have their way. (FWIW, and I'm mildly shocked at myself for even typing this: unless Trump plans to nuke Canada, any attempted invasion will likely end with the civil and economic destruction of the USA; in Canada we still honor those who fought the nazis; we still enjoy kicking American ass on the ice [and we don't cry on the ice like fucking babies when we lose.])
Anyway, love you guys, man. Just had to vent a bit, ya know?
Can't argue.
No problemo. We Americans have always had a strong proud-for-no-discernable-reason asshole contingent, but they used to stay in their local lanes. Idaho, Northern Michigan, eastern Oregon, the Great State of Jefferson (aka Northen California), most of the South. Tubby was their Prosperity Gospel Messiah, telling them they were the Crown of Creation and they could Have It All. And lo, they believed and went forth and gave him the keys to the car and all their money and told him to make them Great. And he laughed and drove away. At some point they will begin to suspect he aint coming back.
"And lo, they believed and went forth and gave him the keys to the car and all their money and told him to make them Great. And he laughed and drove away."
This is exactly what "Bob" would do, but, then again, Schitzenführer ain't stopping the Xists from killing us all.
"I'm just going down to the store to pick up some eggs as $0.99 a dozen, I'll be right back" is what any alcoholic husband would say on his way to the tavern.
Wait. You guys have alcoholic fathers that ditch their families? I detect a commonality that might prevent this impending war!
I am kinda hoping when things start to fall apart (should be around November, at the rate we're going) New York will secede to become a new province of Canada.
I think border-wise we'd require all of the New England states as well. And Greenland!
Get New York, New Hampshire and Vermont and then you can put up some hotels.
Hey we are again free to beat up the gays with little consequence or call an African-American a n****r. So we got that freedom going for us
Wave that flag, wave it wide and high"
"that he’d have a mood swing and drop-kick them out of the last respectable job any of them will ever have."
I realize this is an obvious response, but still: you call what they have "respectable jobs?"
I make more money than Calvin Coolidge! PUT TAGITHER!
The Columbia Capitulation (worst Robert Ludlum novel EVAR) was a real gut-punch, especially if you work at a college or university. But where did we get this idea that universities were bastions of free speech? Not from university administrators, certainly, but from the Berkely free speech movement and protests at other campuses (like Madison!) where students endured beatings by cops while their university's petty bureaucrats looked on with approval. So, for a limited time only, some space was won for free expression. Now the administrators revert to form.
I don't know the history well enough, but there's probably a book or two on how universities went along with the McCarthy-era blacklist, most likely with some enthusiasm.
If you're putting together a list of those we should never rely on, it's now at University administrators, billionaires who own social media platforms, billionaires who own newspapers, Chuck Schumer.
That’s because we live in the Age of Shareholder Interest
another thing that hope is making Milton Friedman get kicked in the nuts in hell. of course much of MFs notoriety came from his idiotic PBS show. U of Chicago economics delenda est
I remember that show! One visual, this was supposed to explain socialism, was of a mannequin factory, hundreds of identical mannequins moving along an assembly line. Because that's what the socialists want, you see.
"We are seeing an outbreak of courage here, and I’m told it’s contagious."
I sure hope you're right about that.
Not sure how I missed this yesterday, but it’s mandatory to drop this link anytime someone mentions Reagan and Bitburg.
https://youtu.be/P-L_5HedJbw?si=8gQMDkdwZl8Fo5n9