I agree with you, Roy, that ceding the "frame" e.g. the language that we use to describe reality, isn't a trifle but a huge skid down the slippery slope (which we're halfway down already).
One of the things I've taken note of is Trump and the Right's almost plaintive assertions, like "there is no trans anymore" and "there is no Woke anymore." Like they can sign a few EO's and magick people and ideas out of existence. It's why Kendrick Lamar's halftime performance at the Superbowl annoyed them so much: they knew he was sending messages and signaling in way their antenna couldn't pick up, they just knew it was WOKE (too many Black people) and therefore bad.
As has been noted multiple times, what these people really want is cultural relevancy, and they are trying to acquire it through political means. Deep down they know they will never be cool, so they will always remain aggrieved and dissatisfied, and there will always be a new target they'll take aim at. We need to fight them every step of the way.
As a nerd of long standing I am not sure this is correct. Few of the Repubs think of themselves as nerds. They are far more likely to identify with the crappy frat boys in that movie than with the nerds
The fact we the real reality people can quibble over our own use of words and such deserves honorable mention. It's a pun, said the king. Roy may have the name but he'll have to fight me for the title of Mensch King. As stands I often feel like the tallest midget in these matters.
I have been torn about Lamar. When he first got big I took a listen and was impressed, then I ignored him (like hip hop generally), but under the assumption that he was doing the genre proud.
News of the protracted feud with Drake has driven me further away. Now, that sort of thing is part of hip hop, whether I like it or not. But I don't like vendettas, even in art, and so I made a point of not listening. The feud *must* be ugly and petty, and my mind is polluted enough.
I haven't seen the Superbowl performance. I'm told by credible voices that it's good, important, and bigger than the feud. What is this indifferent white man to do?
Yeah, I think it's true that Kendrick Lamar's work isn't, and probably shouldn't be, for everyone. I'm certainly not his target audience either. But the giveaway for me was the hostility his performance generated on the Right, how they uniformly described him as untalented and bad. It's perfectly fine to say an artist and his work isn't for you, but Lamar has 20 plus Grammys and a Pulitzer prize. No rational person can say he's bad at what he does, or rather you can only say that if you discount the musical form he works in as worthless, which was what was happening here.
So, among other things, I've been a working musician since the 70's, and was a subscriber to Keyboard magazine (RIP) since its beginnings as Contemporary Keyboard. They covered every genre that used a keyboard, and were big promoters of synths and samplers. When they started covering rap artists and producers who used kseyboards, they were deluged with angry letters from middle-aged musicians denouncing that noise, cRAP, they called it, with the same language their parents used against the Beatles, word for word. It wasn't about the music.
The Lamar/Drake "beef" as the kids call it, is a major component of OG rap. As far as this indifferent old white man can tell, this beef is a big deal in fandom, a return of a classic form long ignored in rap and hip-hop. The content of the beef seems irrelevant compared to the quality of the put-downs, and according to fans Lamar scored a KO.
My favorite story to tell when this comes up is a 90's B movie called Hollywood Homicide, starrting Harrison Ford as a Hollywood detective investigating the murder of a famous rapper. The detective is a huge Motown fan, and is thrilled to meet the rapper's aunt, played by Gladys Knight, a Motown star back in the day. At the end of the movie, Ford confesses to Gladys with all the anguish only Ford can muster, "this music, I just don't get it.". Gladys says "honey, you're not supposed to get it".
"Trying to get cultural relevancy by political means" is exactly right, and those 8 words alone tell you why it's doomed. Practically all of their cultural productions (and I can't think of an exception) start *out* political, like a mirror image of Soviet realism. To them, the function of art is to be propaganda.
Let's not draw the line at culture, the entire project is that the whole world should be completely different than it is, and the only reason it's not EXACTLY the way they want it is that they're being conspired against. Because it can't possibly be that the things they want are totally impractical and hugely unpopular (and yes, right-wingers aren't the only ones who fall into this delusion.)
This is why their comedy always fails; they're approaching it from a political position and trying to bolt the comedy on. They're not trying to be funny FIRST.
Also (as I've said here before), they're hostile to self-knowledge and think it's a snowflake's self-indulgence. So while good comedians are concerned with the truth (either about society, or about themselves), right-wing comedians just trot out stereotypes concerning liberals, and then make fun of them. They get laughs from audiences who are happy to have their shallow pre-conceptions affirmed.
I looked at the video of the performance a couple of times even a version with subtitles and don't much get the diss business, but hell, I thought the music and performance was dynamite and you could tell it was 8 miles beyond WOKE and back 7 days a week. I think the haters, along with other hates, just hate music and culture they don't understand, like really, really, hate It, and look, they've got millions of idiots who all feel just like them, including Calilgula, who also announced that he despises a lily white performer who was civic minded enough to have donated quite a few millions to many disaster relief funds last year, so their petty, baby, feelings, must be right, and their hatred must be good..
I don't understand Chinese, I just never made the effort. The things we don't understand, it's not their fault. Some people will never understand this.
"...something that the other guys who are writing about the same thing have missed."
You know what I don't see despite looking at too much, although there might be a degree of willful blindness going on: sober discussion of how this all plays out, you know, gaming the future. Some loose pieces:
• I don't see Trump ceding power this side of death. My it means running in 2028 and letting our institutions for constitutional compliance on him (not something I'd bet on) or run for VP with some front man letting call all the shots (like Putin did before he changed the law). Of course, there's likely to be enough red states to 21st amendment the 22nd IYKWIM in a second assuming both houses of congress have R majorities.
• Past/prologue, you know there's no way were Dems to get control would they be able (not to mention inclined) to undo all the shit with which Trump and the Party of Trump will be leaving us and the world. I mean, these are the guys who haven't even been able to get excited over the Roberts court over the course of twenty years. Meanwhile, the 2026 congressional races will be repeats of 2022 and 24. To quote Fake Tubby, NOT GOOD!!!
So what's the *realistic* endgame? Again, I don't see much discussion and a lot of what I see is the now-ancient assumption that DNC Democrats will get the shit done because, I dunno, they say they will. Me, I'm so old that I remember how 2021-22 wasn't a golden age...
So that's what I wanna see but aren't seeing.
INSTANT EDIT
Forgot to note that besides being amazed how people (seem?) are hardwired to be stupid -- believers instead of thinkers -- there's also a hardwiring for hope. How good or not that is, I dunno. (Of course, being me I tend to think it's not good but I'm not sure.)
Gaming things out is impossible, but I can give you a framework. All you have to do is remember what British PM Harold Macmillan said when he was asked about the most difficult part of governing. “Events, dear boy, events,” he replied.
Events are going to continue to happen, and Trump is going to be dealing with them with a bunch of now-understaffed federal agencies, each led by its very own Heckovajob Brownie. The result is going to be a perpetual disaster for the next four years, one self-inflicted crisis after another.
"The result is going to be a perpetual disaster for the next four years, one self-inflicted crisis after another." Does the fact that that is what passes for optimism tells us all we need to know about hope these days? Well, probably not "all," but too much, for sure.
I'm skeptical of obvious disasters, the US economy and the federal government have a habit of bumping along, like someone once said of GM's cars: "They'll run badly longer than any other car will run at all."
That said, there's an enormous amount of well-justified discontent in any country, even when the government is firing on all cylinders. It's the permanent feature that got Trump elected in 2016 and again in 2024 and defeated in 2020.
Well, I know better than to try to argue you out of your doubts, nevertheless: In many countries (Hungary and Russia, for example) there's a central elections office in the capitol under the control of the Prime Minister. Plus, in most parliamentary systems the ruling party does have some flexibility in choosing when elections are ("Oh, no, we're not CANCELLING the elections, we're merely DELAYING them!")
Obviously, neither of these things are true in our case. Which is why the "Trump=Orban" or "Trump=Putin" comparisons set my teeth on edge.
Dunno what I said to trigger this response. Don't understand how Hungary or Russie flow from anything I said.
IMO we're headed to a state where Fake Tubby in 2028 can say that he doesn't feel that the time isn't right for a POTUS election for whatever BS reason and no one will do anything about it. Dunno about odds but with him, his party and bare shadow of an opposition party, it's absolutely possible.
And regrettably, there's no great comparison between what we have and a parliamentary system.
And for the record, there is no basis of comparison of Fake Tubby with Putin. Putin is fairly smart and Trump is an animal, at best a fucking moron.
No. Re 2028, I’m talking solely presidential elections.
Anyone with any familiarity with Trump knew if restored to office he’d be much, much worse with vindication being his primary goal and grifting right behind that. And that he would do anything and everything to be restored to office.
And look what happened.
I’ll be beyond shocked if he lets the 22nd amendment be a bar to running. And past prologue, there’s a majority on the Roberts court that has had as much respect for the constitution as POTUS.
Time will tell. But can’t fight a battle without knowing the battle lines and stuff.
Realistic endgame. To what's happening now? I dunno, but whatever it is, it ain't gonna be realistic.
So, my Savvy Liberal take is America won't notice what is happeneing to their country until they get punched in the face. Their reaction is gonna depend on who Republicans can blame. A terrorist attack was a Godsend for W, saved his presidency, so another one would do the same for Trump, give him a gilt-edged excuse/crisis to suspend elections. Republicans can only hope it happens before they tank the economy. Of course, Trump's "respknse" will alienate the rest of the world and make that economic crash happen anyway. That would be the punch in the face that wakes up most of the country.
Well, define meaningful. The DNC and party in general are clearly being dragged kicking and screaming toward a more radical position than they want to hold publicly, which I find weird. Most Democrats simply want to see their position verified on TV (just say shit is fucked up and bullshit), which costs the politicians nothing as far as I can tell. There's no constituency for moderation anywhere but the editors of our great metropolitan dailies, and they largely ignore Democratic politicians anyway when they're not condemning them.
What happens when Trump is out of power is one EPIC power struggle over the Republican party. The foundation of Trump's power is his absolute ownership of a significant plurality of the Republican base. That doesn't just get handed off, otherwise GHWB would have served 2 terms before handing the job off to his kid. While its clear the party understands he owns their base, they seem to not understand how, that being Not A Politician, ignoring political "realities" like 3rd rails is key to why they love him. When politicians try to copy him at the national level they wind up being Ron DeSantis. Someone will come out on top. FSM knows who.
State of the nation? Fuck if I know. All I know for sure is that the loons and idealogues know this is their Moment, and they are going for it. Every conservative wet dream of dismantling the New Deal is going to get shoved to the SC to bust a cap in its ass, Heritage and Musk are going to try to cripple what they can't eliminate, and the SC gets to answer the question "do you really, really want a Unitary Executive above the law and the Constitution? You understand that puts you out of a job, right?"
Too little too late doesn’t excite. The fealty to special interest ties DNC Democrats’ hands big time.
As for when Trump dies I mean cedes power, the questions are the scope of the mess and how much gets cleaned up. Of the mess he’ll leave only a little will be of any issue to the Republicans.
About the mess, oh God. What the Republican party doesn't blame on Democrats they'll blame on Trump and Musk. This has been the never-Trumper's plan all along, to be the guy in the hot dog costume saying we're all trying to find the guy that drove the Weinermobile into the crowd (I've only ever seen the meme, so I don't know the context). Unless the Democratic party becomes severely radicalized it will be Reconstruction 2.0, with America united once again! The only chance I see is a grassroots movement to elect young Democrats to Congress who understand the need for systemic reform everywhere, starting with Congress.
Problem is, it's not *just* Scheißführer that's the problem. It's the toxic influence of money on politics PLUS the atomized culture as a result of "rugged individualist" combined with elimination of third spaces PLUS the long tradition of conspiracy thinking PLUS American Exceptionalism™ all in one noxious package. This is going to need a major restructuring of culture before we're safe.
Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. We're being punched in the mouth daily, though a majority of Americans have no idea that what is going on is an extremely destructive sort-of coup that will eventually punch every one of them in the mouth. Imagine their suprise.
In the political world, what's next is the courts. That's what they system has left to offer. The Republican party has completely neutered the Legislative branch in asserting the supremacy the Constitution gives them, that leaves the Judicial. Of course this is not the romantic La Resistance people with their hair on fire want somebody else to organize, but its what the system's got.
Beyond that. nobody knows. The Democratic party, given its current makeup, is about to deluge us with more requests for money to elect Democrats in 2026 than anyone can imagine. They may be smart enough to back that up with demonstrations of just how urgent the problem is if they fire every consultant who worked on the Harris campaign and start throwing their bodies onto the levers of the machinery to make it stop (h/t Mario Savio) in Congress. I'm not real hopeful about that as a strategy they would execute.
In the end, its a Republic if We The People can keep it. This stops if/when a majority of Americans get mad as hell and decide not to take it anymore. Not before. And that will get ugly. SecDef Otis the Drunk was hired because he will order soldiers to open fire on protestors. Will they?
Anything is possible when chaos is normal. That essentially is the plan of guys like Bannon and the billionaires like Theil and Andreessen. Watch it all burn and rule over the rabble left in the rubble with their private army and/or compliant administration. I didn't say it was a good plan.
I think its an open question if the Roberts court is ready to vote themselves out of a job. Protecting Trump is one thing, but delegating their power to decide what is Constitutional to Trump is another, and that's what the current Constitutional crisis is going to come to before the Court. Even if they craft another shitty "this only applies this one time" opinion they are weakening their authority big time. We shall see. Anything is possible.
Source: The American Historical Review, APRIL 2019, Vol. 124, No. 2 (APRIL 2019), pp. 550-
568. I accessed it via jstor's allegedly* secure archive.
*'Cause who knows?
I imagine that one thing Lone Skum is doing is deleting via his apps whatever content the apps decide is inappropriate to keep in ANY digital docs in govt databases and archives. And in the place of the deletions, inserting the REAL version.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all white men are created supreme".
I tried to pronounce that but my tongue got all tangled up halfway through and I had to reach in my mouth to untangle it and so far that's not working.
You're in big trouble Mister. Big trouble.
I didn't think I could hate anything more than Donald Trump. Turns out, that was just a warm up for how much I hate Elon Musk.
I remember going down to the bad end of town after school every day, waiting for the Alphabet Man and his fix full of words that were pronounced like they were spelled.
Noam here: it’s easy! Just say “totalitarian” abut instead of saying “ism” say “ing!” Easy splitpeasy! It’s like, you know how people pronounce “realtor” like “real-it-er,” putting a virtual syllable in there? I was trying to demonstrate to someone how to pronounce it correctly (in my view, anyway) but the person I was talking to couldn’t get it. So I proposed this: Say “real” then “turd”. Real turd! Like some real estate agents I know!
His abuse of language skeeves me. I will never again hear the word "beautiful" without shuddering. "Like never before seen" is frequently used for both self-aggrandizing AND self-pity! He is the very worst kind of used car salesman from the old days. Reading his words is a lot less painful than hearing his voice, though.
I will never find it not hilarious that the same people who hate "woke" will nevertheless talk about people "waking up" or the "awakening". Apparently there's something about the "o" that enrages them.
Oh yeah. I don't listen to his moans and bloviations anymore, except for brief clips on Bluesky if I'm looking for context on something he's reported to have blurred. Transcripts are frustrating enough, but listening to a habitual liar tell lies is just sad.
Only 3 weeks in, but so far I've succeeded in not hearing his voice, even once, and I've even succeeded in not hearing imitations of his voice, because I cut out all the late-nite comedy shows.
I keep thinking (I know, I know)that some on the left will start yelling "Stalinist Political Correctness " forbidding certain words, and deconstruct "Woke".
Although I am glad the courts keep ruling against him, I've yet to see anybody answer that question: Just how do they plan to enforce their rulings? It's not very promising when just yesterday we were forced to watch a ketamine addled Musk suggest that the judicial branch should be ignored as his son wiped a booger on the resolute desk.
Short answer, nothing. Longer answer, courts rule against them, Congress asserts their constitutional authority, maybe that will embarrass them into following the law, but seriously, nothing. There are no checks and balances. All law enforcement and military reports to the Executive branch. Contrary to everything we were ever taught to believe about our government, it really just comes down to who holds the gun.
It always comes down to that, from third-world shitholes on up. Or down, depending on your perspective. In a way, it almost doesn't matter how the courts (and ultimately, The Supreme Court) rules. Enforcement has always relied on the elites believing a stable country was in their own best interests. Enough of them don't believe that anymore.
He needs people to implement his orders, the court orders are directed at those people. Trump himself probably won't be held in contempt of court, but his agency heads could be.
Trump can't be held in contempt. His Supreme Court declared he has absolute immunity (when they say so). But that qualifier requires Trump to aquiese, which he will never do. So we're back to the Court "enforcing" their order. I wish I could see the look on Robert's face when he finally realizes what he's done.
If you have a free article to read from The New Yorker, read that one. Doesn’t matter if they hold anyone in contempt if the Justice Department doesn’t do anything about it. And if a lower court rules against them. The matter will just die there if they don’t even bother to appeal it.
I read that and immediately thought of Gary Larson. His cartoon with alla the brownshirts on the street, yelling "Heil!" "Heil!" "Heil!" and the translation to dog saying "Bark!" "Bark!" "Bark!"
"And its criminality can be couched as firmness, dynamism, action"
"Believe! Obey! Fight!" was the slogan of Mussolini's Fascism. Note that "Think!" is conspicuously missing.
It's not a perfect democracy--Kendrick Lamar among others reminds us of that--but it's the only one we have, and it's worth the fighting for, because we can't all leave.
I just learned that some Canadian friends, who otherwise would have made at least two trips this year, have decided that they will not be visiting the U.S. for the foreseeable future. *sigh*
Thereby ADDING to the trade imbalance. 'Cause alla us 'Mer'cans gonna be hightailin' it north at every opportunity! Switchin' out 'Mer'can dollars for that MonopolyCanada money!
Them Canadians are both freakishly stupid by not acquiescing, and also fiendishly clever for forcing us to buy their critically important stuff!
And I just had the shocking realization that one of OUR Great Lakes is named after a CANADIAN province! Can you believe it? This must be corrected immediately.
There's a whole rabbit hole of "action for action's sake" involved in classic Fascism that I don't have time to point out at the moment. It was a thing in the 1920s - Accomplishing Epic Things rather than sitting around reading books and debating.
Yes, there's an element of theater to many of these EO's, and you and I are not the audience for it. Does it matter to the intended audience if many of them are overturned within days? Not at all. They won't hear about the reversals, and all have the attention span of goldfish.
EO Reversed By Federal Judge = page 27 among the truss ads
(I think it's an unexplored area how much Trumpov relies on old-fashioned hardcopy newspaper headlines to advance himself; he's been doing it all his life)
One of the earlier rulings about Elon Musk and Treasury was basically "Look but don't touch", and I notice in my google news all the headlines used phrases like "Judge blocks" or "Judge prohibits" except for Fox News, which used "Judge permits" because, you know, the glass is half full! That ruling has since been superseded by another one, "No, don't even look", I'm assuming Fox didn't report that one at all.
So yeah, I don't think his idiot supporters know anything about his losses in court. Like with his attempt to overturn the election results, he lost 60 cases in a row, it had no effect on them. Never, even for a moment, did they think, "Hey, maybe he doesn't really have such a solid case after all?"
Even the comics can’t make this shit funny anymore. John Stewart, Seth Meyer, they can’t even touch how godawful they are. John Oliver does, but his comedy is a velvet glove delivering vicious blow after blow of truth to their lies, and he’s a whole different animal. We could certainly use a Lenny Bruce, but no comedian is willing to risk jail for art, no matter how “transgressive” they think they are. I think of Oliver because of what you’ve been saying about truth and intelligence. He’s different because he challenges people’s intellect, and his bullshit detection is divine, and he reaches people because of that in ways the others don’t. He’s not taken in by lies or lies couched in Orwellian language. He’s willing to make the leap to the unthinkable because he’s constantly investigating it, and seeing it for himself. People like that. Certainly, his appearance this week on The Daily Show got an audience reception so fervent it must have embarrassed Stewart by comparison. Maybe he’s showing us a better way to challenge these creeps. Like you say, it’s important to say out loud that they’re nuts, and he’s not afraid to do it.
Re: the New (liquid) World Order (applemap version):
I went to the site, clicked on the incorrect name of the Gulf of Mexico, then clicked 'report an issue', 'name is wrong', entered correct name, and then under 'something else' wrote "You people are pathetic."
I see now that my response is still under (likely WAY under) review...
Odd, but while my phone displays the emperor’s new nomenclature, the “Maps” application on both my Macs still shows that body of water as “Gulf of Mexico.” Maybe it’s true what they say about the platform not getting much attention in Cupertino anymore.
I saw a pic today with a horizontal line drawn through the Gulf and two labels: below the line, "Golfo de Mexico"; above the line, "Golfo del Gringo Loco."
See, that there, that right there, is the thing: you'd expect His Magasty would be all over that there golfo thing. Golf! OFFSHORE!!! Better than condos in Gaza!!!!!!
Here's an interesting (to me) nugget of compare & contrast. When Reagan restored dignity to the white house, those ungrateful media types had to put their neckties back on. None of this jeans and t-shirt foolishness for the camera crews. Respect will be demanded and proffered.
Fast forward to the Donnie and Elon show from yesterday.
The President sits still while aging boy genius in black on black ensemble - long coat, t-shirt and gimme hat, freestyles around like...a little dipshit. And little dipshit brings his kid to a discussion of this important historical moment.
IIRC, he has to keep said kid with him or he will lose custody to the mother. She is supposed to have custody, but Elon thinks he has to indoctrinate the boy correctly
In addition to what Billcinsd said above, I suspect Musk brings the kid along as a way of signalling that he's just a regular guy. Either that, or to use as a human shield.
It'd be funny if that kid turned out to feel the same way about him as his daughter Vivian.
Absurdly absurd is right. When a congresswoman from Florida in charge of Exposing Secret Government Secrets wants to call the members of the Warren Commission to testify, and an actual congressman from Georgia submits an actual bill in congress to authorize the president to buy Greenland and rename it Red White and Blueland, we're in an insane comic comic book written by someone who never learned the meaning of "over the top". The Trump/Musk insanity would just be laughable if it weren't for all the suffering it will cause.
"...we're in an insane comic comic book written by someone who never learned the meaning of "over the top" Yes, that's what I, like half the quantum physicists, half believe, – only it's not a comic book, it's a computer simulation and we are actually living in it. No other theory I've read comes close to fitting the facts.
Well, fhat's our host's point. Forcing you to deal with absurdity as if it were a legitimate point in an argument means you lose the argument before it starts. Trust me, at some feral Trump level, they understand this. RESPECT MUH AUTHORITY!
Despite my cynical nature I have that human tendency toward hope too, but it struggles to survive when I try to game out how this all goes, and can’t see any exit from this hell short of the military brass (if any is left after his purges) deciding they’ve had enough of Trump/Musk/Vance/Vought, and acknowledging that the constitutional order is irreparably broken, taking them down. And *then* what happens?
Exactly right, about perversion of language, and that it's perpetrated by the unfathomably Weird. Anyone with the slightest capacity for noticing bullshit can see this. But, there's that question of how much of the public notices anything at all. What there is of honest news reporting is something that has to be sought out (ergo, it doesn't have much reach).
There's that thing of learning about reality when it comes for you. My sister's been checking in a lot at Fed worker reddit feeds. https://www.reddit.com/r/fednews/ Plenty of employees are former military, and they're people who normally would be focused on just doing their jobs. But now they're confronted by the insane chaos inserted into their workplaces. I mean, folks are seriously asking each other if having an out-of-office message on when the RESIGN email came--"did that put me on the list?!" Lots of posts on language being used in the mass purge effort: https://www.reddit.com/r/fednews/comments/1ie3hvg/babe_get_in_here_opm_dropped_a_new_fork_in_the/
That's sure to nauseate anyone with a conscience. For everyone already paying attention, we've known all along these are freaks. The only surprise is how fast they've outpaced Hitler (a couple of weeks vs 53 days!) The questions are, how much of the country is noticing and when will it slow the roll?
Whatever variations in the influence of nature/nurture led to each being formed, a fellow psychopath recognized the usefulness of both. That guy gets to delegate all the work to Vought and Miller, as well as have the psychopathic Afrikaaner running everything else from the Oval Office.
Bravo, Boss. The doublespeak is part of the normalization of insanity, and has been Drumph's go-to play for years. I think once enough people's oxen get gored (farmer's losing money over the USAID drop, medical research grants stalled, which here locally has tarhit Arkansas Children's Hospital - there's an oppo ad waiting to happen - and the general bullshittery of killing OSHA and dropping HHS web pages) I think they'll be some buyer's remorse. Plus I'm waiting for Elon to start messing with the Pentagon - Ask Joe McCarthy how that shit works out.
It hasn't had time to screw over enough people, but they are getting there really quick, especially once kids start dropping dead or being mangled in chicken plants. Stay tuned.
". . .especially once kids start dropping dead or being mangled in chicken plants."
Circle to circle--the last time stuff like this happened we got a book (The Jungle, which was required reading in my high school, being ten-twelve miles as the crow flies from the Union Stockyards) and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which Elonism is currently trying to kill.
Government gets in the way of their plan to steal everything that isn't nailed down (and carry a claw hammer for the rest).
Told me boyo yesterday we should send copies of The Jungle to every Republican congresscritter (heck, Dems as well). Impressive to have that taught in high school - how many people puked? Not light reading, not in the least. This is all about getting grifters a completely free hand, you know, Trump's kinda people. We'll see how this Libertarian bullshit works out. Libertarians are people that do not understand systems - that little thing called Civilization harelips their widdle bwains. Nope, going back to red in tooth and claw, dog eat dog, get the lynching started entitlement for the most evil members of society.
I keep saying America won't notice until they get punched in the face. Right now all the DOGE show is theoretical to them, as long as the checks keep coming and the local store stays open. Dead/mangled kids will radicalize that family, but no chicken at the supermarket will be a REAL problem.
I agree with you, Roy, that ceding the "frame" e.g. the language that we use to describe reality, isn't a trifle but a huge skid down the slippery slope (which we're halfway down already).
One of the things I've taken note of is Trump and the Right's almost plaintive assertions, like "there is no trans anymore" and "there is no Woke anymore." Like they can sign a few EO's and magick people and ideas out of existence. It's why Kendrick Lamar's halftime performance at the Superbowl annoyed them so much: they knew he was sending messages and signaling in way their antenna couldn't pick up, they just knew it was WOKE (too many Black people) and therefore bad.
As has been noted multiple times, what these people really want is cultural relevancy, and they are trying to acquire it through political means. Deep down they know they will never be cool, so they will always remain aggrieved and dissatisfied, and there will always be a new target they'll take aim at. We need to fight them every step of the way.
Revenge of the Nerds, writ large.
As a nerd of long standing I am not sure this is correct. Few of the Repubs think of themselves as nerds. They are far more likely to identify with the crappy frat boys in that movie than with the nerds
True.
The fact we the real reality people can quibble over our own use of words and such deserves honorable mention. It's a pun, said the king. Roy may have the name but he'll have to fight me for the title of Mensch King. As stands I often feel like the tallest midget in these matters.
I have been torn about Lamar. When he first got big I took a listen and was impressed, then I ignored him (like hip hop generally), but under the assumption that he was doing the genre proud.
News of the protracted feud with Drake has driven me further away. Now, that sort of thing is part of hip hop, whether I like it or not. But I don't like vendettas, even in art, and so I made a point of not listening. The feud *must* be ugly and petty, and my mind is polluted enough.
I haven't seen the Superbowl performance. I'm told by credible voices that it's good, important, and bigger than the feud. What is this indifferent white man to do?
Yeah, I think it's true that Kendrick Lamar's work isn't, and probably shouldn't be, for everyone. I'm certainly not his target audience either. But the giveaway for me was the hostility his performance generated on the Right, how they uniformly described him as untalented and bad. It's perfectly fine to say an artist and his work isn't for you, but Lamar has 20 plus Grammys and a Pulitzer prize. No rational person can say he's bad at what he does, or rather you can only say that if you discount the musical form he works in as worthless, which was what was happening here.
"Lamar has 20 plus Grammys and a Pulitzer prize"
I DEMAND TO SEE THE VOTING MACHINES
Literal laugh out loud.
So, among other things, I've been a working musician since the 70's, and was a subscriber to Keyboard magazine (RIP) since its beginnings as Contemporary Keyboard. They covered every genre that used a keyboard, and were big promoters of synths and samplers. When they started covering rap artists and producers who used kseyboards, they were deluged with angry letters from middle-aged musicians denouncing that noise, cRAP, they called it, with the same language their parents used against the Beatles, word for word. It wasn't about the music.
The Lamar/Drake "beef" as the kids call it, is a major component of OG rap. As far as this indifferent old white man can tell, this beef is a big deal in fandom, a return of a classic form long ignored in rap and hip-hop. The content of the beef seems irrelevant compared to the quality of the put-downs, and according to fans Lamar scored a KO.
My favorite story to tell when this comes up is a 90's B movie called Hollywood Homicide, starrting Harrison Ford as a Hollywood detective investigating the murder of a famous rapper. The detective is a huge Motown fan, and is thrilled to meet the rapper's aunt, played by Gladys Knight, a Motown star back in the day. At the end of the movie, Ford confesses to Gladys with all the anguish only Ford can muster, "this music, I just don't get it.". Gladys says "honey, you're not supposed to get it".
Word
But isn't rap most selling to suburban white HS guys these days?
That may well be one of the reasons right wingers hate it so much.
"Trying to get cultural relevancy by political means" is exactly right, and those 8 words alone tell you why it's doomed. Practically all of their cultural productions (and I can't think of an exception) start *out* political, like a mirror image of Soviet realism. To them, the function of art is to be propaganda.
Let's not draw the line at culture, the entire project is that the whole world should be completely different than it is, and the only reason it's not EXACTLY the way they want it is that they're being conspired against. Because it can't possibly be that the things they want are totally impractical and hugely unpopular (and yes, right-wingers aren't the only ones who fall into this delusion.)
'turn those machines back on!!!'
This is why their comedy always fails; they're approaching it from a political position and trying to bolt the comedy on. They're not trying to be funny FIRST.
Also (as I've said here before), they're hostile to self-knowledge and think it's a snowflake's self-indulgence. So while good comedians are concerned with the truth (either about society, or about themselves), right-wing comedians just trot out stereotypes concerning liberals, and then make fun of them. They get laughs from audiences who are happy to have their shallow pre-conceptions affirmed.
'please laugh.'
or LAST. they're not trying to be funny at all, except in a mean way, which is never funny.
Um, cultural dominance, not relevance. Like in the Good Old Days, when people knew their place.
Andy Griffith at the end of Face in the Crowd: "Ya gotta LOVE me, Clarence!"
Can't change the culture by being influential, so they'll change it by raw power. Tucker Carlson's rants about "daddy making you behave".
I looked at the video of the performance a couple of times even a version with subtitles and don't much get the diss business, but hell, I thought the music and performance was dynamite and you could tell it was 8 miles beyond WOKE and back 7 days a week. I think the haters, along with other hates, just hate music and culture they don't understand, like really, really, hate It, and look, they've got millions of idiots who all feel just like them, including Calilgula, who also announced that he despises a lily white performer who was civic minded enough to have donated quite a few millions to many disaster relief funds last year, so their petty, baby, feelings, must be right, and their hatred must be good..
I don't understand Chinese, I just never made the effort. The things we don't understand, it's not their fault. Some people will never understand this.
Maltese Falcon reference!
Ohhh... today is Serious Day. K.
"...something that the other guys who are writing about the same thing have missed."
You know what I don't see despite looking at too much, although there might be a degree of willful blindness going on: sober discussion of how this all plays out, you know, gaming the future. Some loose pieces:
• I don't see Trump ceding power this side of death. My it means running in 2028 and letting our institutions for constitutional compliance on him (not something I'd bet on) or run for VP with some front man letting call all the shots (like Putin did before he changed the law). Of course, there's likely to be enough red states to 21st amendment the 22nd IYKWIM in a second assuming both houses of congress have R majorities.
• Past/prologue, you know there's no way were Dems to get control would they be able (not to mention inclined) to undo all the shit with which Trump and the Party of Trump will be leaving us and the world. I mean, these are the guys who haven't even been able to get excited over the Roberts court over the course of twenty years. Meanwhile, the 2026 congressional races will be repeats of 2022 and 24. To quote Fake Tubby, NOT GOOD!!!
So what's the *realistic* endgame? Again, I don't see much discussion and a lot of what I see is the now-ancient assumption that DNC Democrats will get the shit done because, I dunno, they say they will. Me, I'm so old that I remember how 2021-22 wasn't a golden age...
So that's what I wanna see but aren't seeing.
INSTANT EDIT
Forgot to note that besides being amazed how people (seem?) are hardwired to be stupid -- believers instead of thinkers -- there's also a hardwiring for hope. How good or not that is, I dunno. (Of course, being me I tend to think it's not good but I'm not sure.)
Gaming things out is impossible, but I can give you a framework. All you have to do is remember what British PM Harold Macmillan said when he was asked about the most difficult part of governing. “Events, dear boy, events,” he replied.
Events are going to continue to happen, and Trump is going to be dealing with them with a bunch of now-understaffed federal agencies, each led by its very own Heckovajob Brownie. The result is going to be a perpetual disaster for the next four years, one self-inflicted crisis after another.
"The result is going to be a perpetual disaster for the next four years, one self-inflicted crisis after another." Does the fact that that is what passes for optimism tells us all we need to know about hope these days? Well, probably not "all," but too much, for sure.
And in every catastrophe, the Biggest Victim of All will be Tubby himself.
And his name was... Grievance.
That's him, to the core.
I'm skeptical of obvious disasters, the US economy and the federal government have a habit of bumping along, like someone once said of GM's cars: "They'll run badly longer than any other car will run at all."
That said, there's an enormous amount of well-justified discontent in any country, even when the government is firing on all cylinders. It's the permanent feature that got Trump elected in 2016 and again in 2024 and defeated in 2020.
Well, if you insist: The realistic endgame is that we have an election in 2026 and another in 2028.
Actually, I have doubts about 2028…
Well, I know better than to try to argue you out of your doubts, nevertheless: In many countries (Hungary and Russia, for example) there's a central elections office in the capitol under the control of the Prime Minister. Plus, in most parliamentary systems the ruling party does have some flexibility in choosing when elections are ("Oh, no, we're not CANCELLING the elections, we're merely DELAYING them!")
Obviously, neither of these things are true in our case. Which is why the "Trump=Orban" or "Trump=Putin" comparisons set my teeth on edge.
Dunno what I said to trigger this response. Don't understand how Hungary or Russie flow from anything I said.
IMO we're headed to a state where Fake Tubby in 2028 can say that he doesn't feel that the time isn't right for a POTUS election for whatever BS reason and no one will do anything about it. Dunno about odds but with him, his party and bare shadow of an opposition party, it's absolutely possible.
And regrettably, there's no great comparison between what we have and a parliamentary system.
And for the record, there is no basis of comparison of Fake Tubby with Putin. Putin is fairly smart and Trump is an animal, at best a fucking moron.
"no one will do anything about it"
So the Governors and Secretaries of State of all 50 states say, "You heard the man, no election this year!"
Or is it just the red states that follow his orders not to hold an election? I guess we could do without Montana and West Virginia.
No. Re 2028, I’m talking solely presidential elections.
Anyone with any familiarity with Trump knew if restored to office he’d be much, much worse with vindication being his primary goal and grifting right behind that. And that he would do anything and everything to be restored to office.
And look what happened.
I’ll be beyond shocked if he lets the 22nd amendment be a bar to running. And past prologue, there’s a majority on the Roberts court that has had as much respect for the constitution as POTUS.
Time will tell. But can’t fight a battle without knowing the battle lines and stuff.
Realistic endgame. To what's happening now? I dunno, but whatever it is, it ain't gonna be realistic.
So, my Savvy Liberal take is America won't notice what is happeneing to their country until they get punched in the face. Their reaction is gonna depend on who Republicans can blame. A terrorist attack was a Godsend for W, saved his presidency, so another one would do the same for Trump, give him a gilt-edged excuse/crisis to suspend elections. Republicans can only hope it happens before they tank the economy. Of course, Trump's "respknse" will alienate the rest of the world and make that economic crash happen anyway. That would be the punch in the face that wakes up most of the country.
I expect more people to get a clearer idea, maybe sooner rather than later.
But the two questions now:
Will the DNC Democrats act in any meaningful way?
If not, what happens once Trump’s out of power (preferably by death)?
What will the state of the nation be then?
It comes down to hopes fine and normal and stuff but what can be realistically hoped for? And how would we get from here to there?
Well, define meaningful. The DNC and party in general are clearly being dragged kicking and screaming toward a more radical position than they want to hold publicly, which I find weird. Most Democrats simply want to see their position verified on TV (just say shit is fucked up and bullshit), which costs the politicians nothing as far as I can tell. There's no constituency for moderation anywhere but the editors of our great metropolitan dailies, and they largely ignore Democratic politicians anyway when they're not condemning them.
What happens when Trump is out of power is one EPIC power struggle over the Republican party. The foundation of Trump's power is his absolute ownership of a significant plurality of the Republican base. That doesn't just get handed off, otherwise GHWB would have served 2 terms before handing the job off to his kid. While its clear the party understands he owns their base, they seem to not understand how, that being Not A Politician, ignoring political "realities" like 3rd rails is key to why they love him. When politicians try to copy him at the national level they wind up being Ron DeSantis. Someone will come out on top. FSM knows who.
State of the nation? Fuck if I know. All I know for sure is that the loons and idealogues know this is their Moment, and they are going for it. Every conservative wet dream of dismantling the New Deal is going to get shoved to the SC to bust a cap in its ass, Heritage and Musk are going to try to cripple what they can't eliminate, and the SC gets to answer the question "do you really, really want a Unitary Executive above the law and the Constitution? You understand that puts you out of a job, right?"
Too little too late doesn’t excite. The fealty to special interest ties DNC Democrats’ hands big time.
As for when Trump dies I mean cedes power, the questions are the scope of the mess and how much gets cleaned up. Of the mess he’ll leave only a little will be of any issue to the Republicans.
That said, I respect your hopefulness.
And I your cynicism.
About the mess, oh God. What the Republican party doesn't blame on Democrats they'll blame on Trump and Musk. This has been the never-Trumper's plan all along, to be the guy in the hot dog costume saying we're all trying to find the guy that drove the Weinermobile into the crowd (I've only ever seen the meme, so I don't know the context). Unless the Democratic party becomes severely radicalized it will be Reconstruction 2.0, with America united once again! The only chance I see is a grassroots movement to elect young Democrats to Congress who understand the need for systemic reform everywhere, starting with Congress.
Problem is, it's not *just* Scheißführer that's the problem. It's the toxic influence of money on politics PLUS the atomized culture as a result of "rugged individualist" combined with elimination of third spaces PLUS the long tradition of conspiracy thinking PLUS American Exceptionalism™ all in one noxious package. This is going to need a major restructuring of culture before we're safe.
Pretty much agreed.
But my initial point was that the subject of What next isn’t even being discussed.
Without a plan, all we have is very limited defense.
Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. We're being punched in the mouth daily, though a majority of Americans have no idea that what is going on is an extremely destructive sort-of coup that will eventually punch every one of them in the mouth. Imagine their suprise.
In the political world, what's next is the courts. That's what they system has left to offer. The Republican party has completely neutered the Legislative branch in asserting the supremacy the Constitution gives them, that leaves the Judicial. Of course this is not the romantic La Resistance people with their hair on fire want somebody else to organize, but its what the system's got.
Beyond that. nobody knows. The Democratic party, given its current makeup, is about to deluge us with more requests for money to elect Democrats in 2026 than anyone can imagine. They may be smart enough to back that up with demonstrations of just how urgent the problem is if they fire every consultant who worked on the Harris campaign and start throwing their bodies onto the levers of the machinery to make it stop (h/t Mario Savio) in Congress. I'm not real hopeful about that as a strategy they would execute.
In the end, its a Republic if We The People can keep it. This stops if/when a majority of Americans get mad as hell and decide not to take it anymore. Not before. And that will get ugly. SecDef Otis the Drunk was hired because he will order soldiers to open fire on protestors. Will they?
There’s courts and then there’s the Roberts court which tends to be less a court than a lawless junta when inclined.
And between the obvious stupidity of voters attacks on the power of the vote, I don’t find anything to trust there.
Part of gaming this shit out is to ascertain what’s possible.
Anything is possible when chaos is normal. That essentially is the plan of guys like Bannon and the billionaires like Theil and Andreessen. Watch it all burn and rule over the rabble left in the rubble with their private army and/or compliant administration. I didn't say it was a good plan.
I think its an open question if the Roberts court is ready to vote themselves out of a job. Protecting Trump is one thing, but delegating their power to decide what is Constitutional to Trump is another, and that's what the current Constitutional crisis is going to come to before the Court. Even if they craft another shitty "this only applies this one time" opinion they are weakening their authority big time. We shall see. Anything is possible.
Yeah, going to be interesting to watch how the GOP supermajority deals with the recent Biden-screwing decisions.
Who knows, maybe the Democrats, after twenty years will realize that the Roberts junta’s a huge problem. Maybe.
Meanwhile, this commitment to business as usual:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/democrats-progressive-groups
See "Peering Down The Memory Hole" by Tiffert
Source: The American Historical Review, APRIL 2019, Vol. 124, No. 2 (APRIL 2019), pp. 550-
568. I accessed it via jstor's allegedly* secure archive.
*'Cause who knows?
I imagine that one thing Lone Skum is doing is deleting via his apps whatever content the apps decide is inappropriate to keep in ANY digital docs in govt databases and archives. And in the place of the deletions, inserting the REAL version.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all white men are created supreme".
Hold onto your hard copies, is all I'm sayin'...
"totalitarianing"
I tried to pronounce that but my tongue got all tangled up halfway through and I had to reach in my mouth to untangle it and so far that's not working.
You're in big trouble Mister. Big trouble.
I didn't think I could hate anything more than Donald Trump. Turns out, that was just a warm up for how much I hate Elon Musk.
If we can all pronounce "Totalitarianism", why do I find "totalitarianing" so difficult? Answer me that one, Mr. Chomsky!
“It’s because of phonics.”
All too easy to get hooked on those.
I remember going down to the bad end of town after school every day, waiting for the Alphabet Man and his fix full of words that were pronounced like they were spelled.
Your mouth ain't pretty enough?
Noam here: it’s easy! Just say “totalitarian” abut instead of saying “ism” say “ing!” Easy splitpeasy! It’s like, you know how people pronounce “realtor” like “real-it-er,” putting a virtual syllable in there? I was trying to demonstrate to someone how to pronounce it correctly (in my view, anyway) but the person I was talking to couldn’t get it. So I proposed this: Say “real” then “turd”. Real turd! Like some real estate agents I know!
Who does General Electric call when they want to site a new power plant? A nu-cu-lar real-i-tor.
His abuse of language skeeves me. I will never again hear the word "beautiful" without shuddering. "Like never before seen" is frequently used for both self-aggrandizing AND self-pity! He is the very worst kind of used car salesman from the old days. Reading his words is a lot less painful than hearing his voice, though.
You can't call a woman beautiful anymore!
It takes a beautiful woman to call them out!
Because Of Woke
So many things Bonwit's won't let you do in their changing rooms any more because of Woke, it's sad, really.
I Woke this morning and I'm not afraid to admit it - I'm glad I Woke I don't care who knows!
I will never find it not hilarious that the same people who hate "woke" will nevertheless talk about people "waking up" or the "awakening". Apparently there's something about the "o" that enrages them.
Oh yeah. I don't listen to his moans and bloviations anymore, except for brief clips on Bluesky if I'm looking for context on something he's reported to have blurred. Transcripts are frustrating enough, but listening to a habitual liar tell lies is just sad.
I let Substackers be my filter
On Mary Trump’s YouTube channel, she always distorts his voice because she can’t stand to hear it either.
Only 3 weeks in, but so far I've succeeded in not hearing his voice, even once, and I've even succeeded in not hearing imitations of his voice, because I cut out all the late-nite comedy shows.
He said some bullshit today.
Yesterday too!
"unbelievable" which literally means "don't believe this"
"incredible" which literally means "not credible."
I'd call these "tells", except what do they tell, that he's lying? He's ALWAYS lying.
Language matters!
A word cloud might be a fascinating (horrifying?) way to analyze his stunted, gaudy vocabulary.
I's like to send his word cloud to the Oort cloud.
The only way I can stand to hear Tubby’s voice is if Sarah Cooper is pantomiming it.
I keep thinking (I know, I know)that some on the left will start yelling "Stalinist Political Correctness " forbidding certain words, and deconstruct "Woke".
Surely there's a First Amendment case here...
Case, schmase. Doesn't matter how the SC rules, we do what we want!
How many divisions does the Supreme Court have?
Although I am glad the courts keep ruling against him, I've yet to see anybody answer that question: Just how do they plan to enforce their rulings? It's not very promising when just yesterday we were forced to watch a ketamine addled Musk suggest that the judicial branch should be ignored as his son wiped a booger on the resolute desk.
Here's somebody answering the question: https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/what-happens-if-trump-defies-the-courts
Short answer, nothing. Longer answer, courts rule against them, Congress asserts their constitutional authority, maybe that will embarrass them into following the law, but seriously, nothing. There are no checks and balances. All law enforcement and military reports to the Executive branch. Contrary to everything we were ever taught to believe about our government, it really just comes down to who holds the gun.
It always comes down to that, from third-world shitholes on up. Or down, depending on your perspective. In a way, it almost doesn't matter how the courts (and ultimately, The Supreme Court) rules. Enforcement has always relied on the elites believing a stable country was in their own best interests. Enough of them don't believe that anymore.
At this point we should probably check which court slap-downs have been complied with, and which have not.
He needs people to implement his orders, the court orders are directed at those people. Trump himself probably won't be held in contempt of court, but his agency heads could be.
Trump can't be held in contempt. His Supreme Court declared he has absolute immunity (when they say so). But that qualifier requires Trump to aquiese, which he will never do. So we're back to the Court "enforcing" their order. I wish I could see the look on Robert's face when he finally realizes what he's done.
Yes, that's true. Does that extend to agency heads? I don't know.
If you have a free article to read from The New Yorker, read that one. Doesn’t matter if they hold anyone in contempt if the Justice Department doesn’t do anything about it. And if a lower court rules against them. The matter will just die there if they don’t even bother to appeal it.
Thanks, I'll look at it.
Bull the bailiff goes to arrest those in contempt of court
at least 2 and sometimes 3
Every day I am reminding of Erik Larson's In The Garden of Beasts. Not in a good way.
I read that and immediately thought of Gary Larson. His cartoon with alla the brownshirts on the street, yelling "Heil!" "Heil!" "Heil!" and the translation to dog saying "Bark!" "Bark!" "Bark!"
"And its criminality can be couched as firmness, dynamism, action"
"Believe! Obey! Fight!" was the slogan of Mussolini's Fascism. Note that "Think!" is conspicuously missing.
It's not a perfect democracy--Kendrick Lamar among others reminds us of that--but it's the only one we have, and it's worth the fighting for, because we can't all leave.
I just learned that some Canadian friends, who otherwise would have made at least two trips this year, have decided that they will not be visiting the U.S. for the foreseeable future. *sigh*
Thereby ADDING to the trade imbalance. 'Cause alla us 'Mer'cans gonna be hightailin' it north at every opportunity! Switchin' out 'Mer'can dollars for that MonopolyCanada money!
Them Canadians are both freakishly stupid by not acquiescing, and also fiendishly clever for forcing us to buy their critically important stuff!
GIMME MY WEAPONS-GRADE POUTINE!!!
And I just had the shocking realization that one of OUR Great Lakes is named after a CANADIAN province! Can you believe it? This must be corrected immediately.
JB Pritzker has a hilarious video announcing he's renaming Lake Michigan to Lake Illinois. "A Great Lake deserves to be named after a Great State!"
There's a whole rabbit hole of "action for action's sake" involved in classic Fascism that I don't have time to point out at the moment. It was a thing in the 1920s - Accomplishing Epic Things rather than sitting around reading books and debating.
Yes, there's an element of theater to many of these EO's, and you and I are not the audience for it. Does it matter to the intended audience if many of them are overturned within days? Not at all. They won't hear about the reversals, and all have the attention span of goldfish.
EO Issued = Headlines! Front page news!
EO Reversed By Federal Judge = page 27 among the truss ads
(I think it's an unexplored area how much Trumpov relies on old-fashioned hardcopy newspaper headlines to advance himself; he's been doing it all his life)
One of the earlier rulings about Elon Musk and Treasury was basically "Look but don't touch", and I notice in my google news all the headlines used phrases like "Judge blocks" or "Judge prohibits" except for Fox News, which used "Judge permits" because, you know, the glass is half full! That ruling has since been superseded by another one, "No, don't even look", I'm assuming Fox didn't report that one at all.
So yeah, I don't think his idiot supporters know anything about his losses in court. Like with his attempt to overturn the election results, he lost 60 cases in a row, it had no effect on them. Never, even for a moment, did they think, "Hey, maybe he doesn't really have such a solid case after all?"
Even the comics can’t make this shit funny anymore. John Stewart, Seth Meyer, they can’t even touch how godawful they are. John Oliver does, but his comedy is a velvet glove delivering vicious blow after blow of truth to their lies, and he’s a whole different animal. We could certainly use a Lenny Bruce, but no comedian is willing to risk jail for art, no matter how “transgressive” they think they are. I think of Oliver because of what you’ve been saying about truth and intelligence. He’s different because he challenges people’s intellect, and his bullshit detection is divine, and he reaches people because of that in ways the others don’t. He’s not taken in by lies or lies couched in Orwellian language. He’s willing to make the leap to the unthinkable because he’s constantly investigating it, and seeing it for himself. People like that. Certainly, his appearance this week on The Daily Show got an audience reception so fervent it must have embarrassed Stewart by comparison. Maybe he’s showing us a better way to challenge these creeps. Like you say, it’s important to say out loud that they’re nuts, and he’s not afraid to do it.
I haven't paid attention to Oliver in a while. I don't mean that as criticism. Maybe I should.
I can’t watch Stewart any more. But Colbert is being ruthless.
Re: the New (liquid) World Order (applemap version):
I went to the site, clicked on the incorrect name of the Gulf of Mexico, then clicked 'report an issue', 'name is wrong', entered correct name, and then under 'something else' wrote "You people are pathetic."
I see now that my response is still under (likely WAY under) review...
Odd, but while my phone displays the emperor’s new nomenclature, the “Maps” application on both my Macs still shows that body of water as “Gulf of Mexico.” Maybe it’s true what they say about the platform not getting much attention in Cupertino anymore.
Let’s compromise and rename it Mare Nostrum.
I'm still for "Gulf of President Fuckknob"
Or just “Donnie”
So, strictly fingerpicking, then?
I saw a pic today with a horizontal line drawn through the Gulf and two labels: below the line, "Golfo de Mexico"; above the line, "Golfo del Gringo Loco."
See, that there, that right there, is the thing: you'd expect His Magasty would be all over that there golfo thing. Golf! OFFSHORE!!! Better than condos in Gaza!!!!!!
Here's an interesting (to me) nugget of compare & contrast. When Reagan restored dignity to the white house, those ungrateful media types had to put their neckties back on. None of this jeans and t-shirt foolishness for the camera crews. Respect will be demanded and proffered.
Fast forward to the Donnie and Elon show from yesterday.
The President sits still while aging boy genius in black on black ensemble - long coat, t-shirt and gimme hat, freestyles around like...a little dipshit. And little dipshit brings his kid to a discussion of this important historical moment.
This is normal. We dare you to say otherwise.
"AB Normal?! You Brought me an AB-Normal president??!! Oh, well, it'll hafta do...
abbie normal
IIRC, he has to keep said kid with him or he will lose custody to the mother. She is supposed to have custody, but Elon thinks he has to indoctrinate the boy correctly
In addition to what Billcinsd said above, I suspect Musk brings the kid along as a way of signalling that he's just a regular guy. Either that, or to use as a human shield.
It'd be funny if that kid turned out to feel the same way about him as his daughter Vivian.
Absurdly absurd is right. When a congresswoman from Florida in charge of Exposing Secret Government Secrets wants to call the members of the Warren Commission to testify, and an actual congressman from Georgia submits an actual bill in congress to authorize the president to buy Greenland and rename it Red White and Blueland, we're in an insane comic comic book written by someone who never learned the meaning of "over the top". The Trump/Musk insanity would just be laughable if it weren't for all the suffering it will cause.
"...we're in an insane comic comic book written by someone who never learned the meaning of "over the top" Yes, that's what I, like half the quantum physicists, half believe, – only it's not a comic book, it's a computer simulation and we are actually living in it. No other theory I've read comes close to fitting the facts.
My theory, which is mine, is that it’s likelier to be a gaming platform.
Well, fhat's our host's point. Forcing you to deal with absurdity as if it were a legitimate point in an argument means you lose the argument before it starts. Trust me, at some feral Trump level, they understand this. RESPECT MUH AUTHORITY!
"When a congresswoman from Florida in charge of Exposing Secret Government Secrets wants to call the members of the Warren Commission to testify"
Ehh, I've got a shovel.
Despite my cynical nature I have that human tendency toward hope too, but it struggles to survive when I try to game out how this all goes, and can’t see any exit from this hell short of the military brass (if any is left after his purges) deciding they’ve had enough of Trump/Musk/Vance/Vought, and acknowledging that the constitutional order is irreparably broken, taking them down. And *then* what happens?
The era of the Five Good Emperors?
Exactly right, about perversion of language, and that it's perpetrated by the unfathomably Weird. Anyone with the slightest capacity for noticing bullshit can see this. But, there's that question of how much of the public notices anything at all. What there is of honest news reporting is something that has to be sought out (ergo, it doesn't have much reach).
There's that thing of learning about reality when it comes for you. My sister's been checking in a lot at Fed worker reddit feeds. https://www.reddit.com/r/fednews/ Plenty of employees are former military, and they're people who normally would be focused on just doing their jobs. But now they're confronted by the insane chaos inserted into their workplaces. I mean, folks are seriously asking each other if having an out-of-office message on when the RESIGN email came--"did that put me on the list?!" Lots of posts on language being used in the mass purge effort: https://www.reddit.com/r/fednews/comments/1ie3hvg/babe_get_in_here_opm_dropped_a_new_fork_in_the/
Also, this kind of erasure being noted: https://www.reddit.com/r/fednews/comments/1ij66ta/posters_of_minority_scientists_have_been_taken/https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1ieo6xo/painting_over_core_values_at_the_fbi/
Roy posted one last night, about weirdest of the Weird: Russell Vought. He got his, and he'll make sure no one else can do the same. https://bsky.app/profile/tomtomorrow.bsky.social/post/3lhx5l43dkc2f
That's sure to nauseate anyone with a conscience. For everyone already paying attention, we've known all along these are freaks. The only surprise is how fast they've outpaced Hitler (a couple of weeks vs 53 days!) The questions are, how much of the country is noticing and when will it slow the roll?
Russell Vought got his because he's different: he's better than the rest of those takers, and he and his *deserve* that good stuff.
Also: Is there some factory where they make dead-eyed monsters like him and Stephen Miller?
Whatever variations in the influence of nature/nurture led to each being formed, a fellow psychopath recognized the usefulness of both. That guy gets to delegate all the work to Vought and Miller, as well as have the psychopathic Afrikaaner running everything else from the Oval Office.
Bravo, Boss. The doublespeak is part of the normalization of insanity, and has been Drumph's go-to play for years. I think once enough people's oxen get gored (farmer's losing money over the USAID drop, medical research grants stalled, which here locally has tarhit Arkansas Children's Hospital - there's an oppo ad waiting to happen - and the general bullshittery of killing OSHA and dropping HHS web pages) I think they'll be some buyer's remorse. Plus I'm waiting for Elon to start messing with the Pentagon - Ask Joe McCarthy how that shit works out.
It hasn't had time to screw over enough people, but they are getting there really quick, especially once kids start dropping dead or being mangled in chicken plants. Stay tuned.
". . .especially once kids start dropping dead or being mangled in chicken plants."
Circle to circle--the last time stuff like this happened we got a book (The Jungle, which was required reading in my high school, being ten-twelve miles as the crow flies from the Union Stockyards) and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which Elonism is currently trying to kill.
Government gets in the way of their plan to steal everything that isn't nailed down (and carry a claw hammer for the rest).
Told me boyo yesterday we should send copies of The Jungle to every Republican congresscritter (heck, Dems as well). Impressive to have that taught in high school - how many people puked? Not light reading, not in the least. This is all about getting grifters a completely free hand, you know, Trump's kinda people. We'll see how this Libertarian bullshit works out. Libertarians are people that do not understand systems - that little thing called Civilization harelips their widdle bwains. Nope, going back to red in tooth and claw, dog eat dog, get the lynching started entitlement for the most evil members of society.
Notice that, if your school was like mine, they don't tell you about all the Socialism stuff in the last third or so of The Jungle.
I keep saying America won't notice until they get punched in the face. Right now all the DOGE show is theoretical to them, as long as the checks keep coming and the local store stays open. Dead/mangled kids will radicalize that family, but no chicken at the supermarket will be a REAL problem.