As we should well know by now, hope (at least on the national level) is not my brand -- more so hope that excludes a realistic plan for making it all a reality.
So gonna go tl;dr and just point out that not giving a fuck about what the majority of the nation's people want or need -- the good of the nation -- has been shared between the two parties for decades.
So most people aren't down with Trump's implementation of long term GOP goals...
I presume that not being down thing extends to Tuesday's announcement by Fake Tubby that he wants the US to do its own war criming in Gaza.
Really, I dunno, some focusing an what can be done instead of on wishing for what's not going to happen and that we can't make happen. (That said, plan for the day is that go hypocritical and the Mrs and I do the anti-Prop 2025 rally at NYC's City Hall Park. I'm sure DINO Adams told his po-pos to treat us with sufficient disrespect so as to impress his godfather...)
Sorry, but years in leftist-activist circles have made me extremely suspicious of calls to "focus". In my experience it's always someone saying "Why doesn't everyone stop doing what they're doing and do what I'm doing instead?"
A.R. Moxon has some words on these calls to focus:
"I notice all too often those of us aligned with anti-fascism and anti-billionairism believe that anyone focusing on anything other than what we ourselves are focusing on is getting distracted. I frequently feel that way. But it strikes me that what might be a distraction from my own chosen mission might, for another person, be the mission, and that what might fail in one place might succeed in another. I think its possible that worrying about others being distracted might itself be the ultimate distraction. I think it's possible that a diversity of antifascist methods and focus may uncover a diverse web of opposition that fascism, opposed to all human diversity, simply cannot wrap its head around, and will therefore have trouble countering, with its monomaniacal focus on brutality and corruption as the only solutions to all problems.
So work your lane and let others work theirs. Allow the diversity of method and focus. Even if what some are working on does turn out to be less effective than what others are working on, it will all still be opposition to fascism and billionaires, and it will still be better than what we have today."
But I’m also seeing a shit ton of delusion re the possibilities of the DNC Democrats doing anything in the universe of what needs to be done. And, you know, by definition, that’s per se a waste of energies. So much energy focused on approximately nothing but the same old empty talk that depresses voter engagement which in turn brought us here.
OTOH, we’re about to leave for one of the anti-Prop 2025, which past/prologue…
Where does criticizing the Democrats fall on the "waste of time" scale? Seems to me if criticizing the Democrats actually made them better, by now the Democrats would be the most perfect political party that ever existed.
The new head of the DNC, based on his emails I've gotten (I gave $50 to Senator Professor Warren. Once. And they'll never let me forget it) seems focused on the party infrastructure and organization. And technically, that's his job. But people screaming for Democrats to START BREAKING WINDOWS don't care about that. They wany Somebody Else to Do Something I can see on TV NOW. And when they do, its No, Not Like That. The problem is, Trump has more guns and soldiers and he has no reason to not use them as needed. You might as well have asked the kids at Kent State to make a frontal assualt on the National Guard. This is going to be long and ugly, and John Q. Public is going to get his hands dirty, like it or not, before we see daylight. We haven't even started yet.
Even Democrats should have known ahead of time they'd be in this bind. Republicans have the trifecta, they're a minority party, the things they like to focus on, writing and passing bills, are a no-go for now, but that was clear the day after the election.
Yeah, I get irritated by this DEMOCRATS DO SOMETHING stuff because I don't have much patience for people who don't have much patience. But still, you'd think the Dems might come up with some kind of symbolic happy horseshit just to appease these people, to at least LOOK like they're an opposition party.
Eh, whatever. Democrats havin' their shit together has never been an essential prerequisite for stopping bad stuff or accomplishing good stuff. We could ask Howard Zinn about that, if he weren't dead.
Darren is just mad because his feelings aren't coddled. We have a government made up of men who carry guns because they're too p**** to take a punch and won't get a vaccine because they're afraid to take a shot.
Thanks for the clear-eyed even tempered perspective. You do that very well .
Well, look at the reaction they had to one of the brethren getting a milkshake in the face. For manly warriors for truth, they're awfully concerned about image. (c.f. Scheißenführer trying to spin the idea of ethnically cleansing Gaza and turning it into Magaland as "not hostile". Fucking whiny ass titty babies.)
Roy, I do appreciate your words of quasi-encouragement, and I think that perhaps as many as 30% of the people who voted for Trump don't agree with him on all of this. BUT for me the important question is do they DISAGREE with him enough to act? As long as the Olive Garden remains open to seat them on Friday night and Netflix will still stream movies for their entertainment, will they be motivated to do anything? After the 2016 election the sci-fi writer John Scalzi wrote a piece called "The Cinemax Theory of Racism" and I'm not sure that doesn't to at least some extent still apply.
I'll also add that for me, the long shadow cast across all the individual transgressions of the past 2-3 weeks is the thought "this is not the way a political party behaves when it is expecting to ever face the electorate again."
This resonates with my trepidatiostomy that if/when the "Gimme Back My Money!" movement (discussed below) succeeds, mosta or alla the restored thousandaires will go back to their big screens and revegetate...I got mine; I do not know anyone in Mississippi. Ergo, back to the show...
This is exactly what the smarter bits of the never-Trump movement feared. Trump will not face the electorate again unless his party has complete control over the voting process. Even dictators want the fig leaf of "winning" an election. As it is there's a good argument Trump,"won" thanks to extensive voter supression.
This is all intensely personal for me -- I'm an administrator at one non-profit and on the board of directors of another. So the very real possibility exists that within weeks or months or at most a year hundreds of thousands of people in the greater Philly area will lose much-needed services, and I will lose a job.
This past weekend in NYC I saw graffiti that read "Fewer Chuck Schumers, More Luigi Mangiones" and I was shocked at my immediate gut-level agreement. I've always been on the left wing of the Democratic Party and critical of their wishy-washiness, but I've always supported the law.
All I'm saying is I hope SOMEBODY in power has a plan for when the courts apply the brakes to Trump's agenda and he simply ignores them, or for when he suspends elections and declares martial law. I really fear the darkest of days ahead.
You and me both, because when John Q. Public finally catches on to what's going on, its really Anything Can Happen Day. Unless the Democratic party is as clueless as leftists think they are, they are walking through that problem now, and realizing they're going to have to improvise. They arrest Musk, Trump sends Seal Team 6 to get him out. Now what? The FBI and capitol police roust the script kiddies, the Secratary of Defense orders a platoon to escort them back in. Now what? You want it darker? Wait until Democrats push back.
Sorry, boss – skin color does not trump gender. No way does his racism supercede his sexism. I mean, unless tomorrow's post is an "Oh Yeah, and Also Too This", I think you've missed it.
Not just the fact that he said it. But said in a sing-song instead of the usual blast. That he seemed to aim for the old show biz hypnosis routine was a tell.
Hello from 12 hours from now, which is what you get from halfway around the world (it’s really weird in the morning here, which is tomorrow to you). Let me say from the future, racism is a trait of humankind which is seen everywhere. But civilized people find a way to dial it back to mere prejudice, which can be controlled, personally and culturally. Amerika was moving closer and closer to majority racial prejudice with a hardcore minority of racists. Those racists are now in control and are also male supremacists and revanchists. India is, also, with an additional religious intolerance thanks to PM Modi. Life here is crap for a majority of the population and doesn’t seem about to get better. If India is any indication of the way Amerika is headed, life will be crap for most MAGAs, but if history holds, they won’t care as long as Blacks and browns have it worse. Anyway, is it true Trump and company are now universally recognized as fascists? That would be good news indeed, which I didn’t hear about here in the future. Now I can call them Nazis without hesitation.
It's not even universally recognized that We Have A Problem. To paraphrase, everybody thinks things are fine until they get punched in the face. And so far, only a handful of low-level governmemt employees have been punched in the face, and the entire staff of the CIA have been threatened with a punch in the face. Nothing gets universally recognized until John Q. Public gets punched in the face.
The private showing of the initial cut was ... not well received. The producers have indicated the director will be "making changes" before distribution, based on audience feedback (burning down the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood was taken as a point of reference).
“It’s a remake of Out of the Past, only at the end order is restored, all the romantic interests are resolved happily, and everybody joins the teens on the beach, dancing to surf music while the credits roll.”
"... the situation may become as clear to them as it is to us. "
Meh. Sad to say that waaay too many White folks are just fine with government-sponsored racism. And you'd be profoundly depressed by the number of otherwise liberal people who are really disturbed that there maybe might perhaps be someone who was born male but is competing in women's sports. So much of what the Musk/Trump presidency is doing ain't no big deal to them.
But you know what WILL get their attention and make things crystal-clear to them? When Grandma and Grandpa have to sell their house for pennies to Blackstone and move in with their adult children because Musk's minions have completely fucked up the Social Security payment system. And things will become even more in focus when families start getting saddled with the medical expenses of their elderly relatives because Dr. Oz is just going to rewrite Medicare to force all recipients onto private insurance--private insurance that demands unaffordable premiums but provides no coverage for anything beyond aspirin and exercise.
Not to mention that, by that time, all private hospitals will be owned by the Church...so forced birthing will be the one other covered mandatory care.
Absolutely. When food prices double and we have to take in Mom and Dad, and the grown kids as well. Also wondering if -- dog forbid -- Wall Street can save us. The Masters of Our Fate will not tolerate the Market tanking. Will they?
They'll happily sit by as the market craters. They collect their fees. They'll make piles of money shorting the shit out of everything. And when the Dow is back below 1,000, they get in line for the bailout money and walk away with hundreds of million each in performance bonuses, retention bonuses, and "just being you!" bonuses.
As for all the rest of us and our pittances tied up in 401(k) and IRA setups? Well, too bad, so sad! Better hope your kids have room. Or start following the appliance delivery truck around so you can get the refrigerator boxes before anyone else does.
Well, nobody's going to have to worry about refrigerator boxes, because all homeless people will be sent to prison after all the folks now in prison get shipped to El Salvador.
"And you'd be profoundly depressed by the number of otherwise liberal people who are really disturbed that there maybe might perhaps be someone who was born male but is competing in women's sports."
I know and it's depressing. This essay is about what most of them would say after saying that -- some variant of "not that I'm saying we should [some insane overreaction]" -- and how they would react to seeing the insane overreaction happen.
I mean let's not confuse your average sorta-prejudiced feller with Bari Weiss. He doesn't deserve that!
Dunno about that example. I’ve read up fairly well on the controversy and really don’t see how believing that someone born in a man’s body shouldn’t be eligible to play women’s sports is illiberal. One could just as easily argue that believing it’s okay is conservative. But I think realistically it is a scientific and a moral argument. Men are naturally bigger, stronger, faster. Believing otherwise would put you in RFK Jr. territory. Believing it’s unfair to make girls and women compete against people who are biologically male strikes me as a feminist position more than a conservative one. I think so much of the Left taking the position that it’s okay and that anyone who thinks differently is a bigot is mostly a knee jerk reaction because we don’t want to be on the same side as the evil cretins. But the thing is, in my experience, 100 percent of the regular people I know who are generally liberal but don’t follow politics think it’s insanely wrong. So even if you disagree with just about everyone outside of our more enlightened cocoon, politically it’s not a hill worth dying on.
In the aggregate "men are naturally bigger, stronger, faster" sure. But individuals and teams are not the aggregate. There were policies in place for dealing with that aggregate issue, but if you don't understand the government horning in is nothing but an excuse to push that ICK button as hard as they can on an infinitesmal minority scapegoat for the pleasure of their base, you understand nothing. This has nothing to do with sports or "fairness".
A) several years of estrogen probably would change the body sufficiently to adjust for "male vs female"
B) making it a matter of muscle mass or height or whatever forgets the collective meltdown over penii supposedly on display in changing rooms, which is the alternate crime against humanity trans women are apparently guilty of
C) sports, an endeavor classically committed to "fairness" to the point teams never win or lose and everyone gets participation trophies, you know, sports
Or we don't want to be bigots. 100% of the people I know don't give it even a first thought. Do you/they know anything about what happens to the body in gender reassignment surgery?
Nope, and don't really want to know. Point is, I think that's something about which reasonable people can disagree and believing one way or another doesn't make anyone a bigot. It's a toxic political issue that seriously harms the Democratic Party and calling nearly all people bigots is insanely bad politics. The world if literally fucking burning and this is the hill the Democrats choose to die on.
Nope, it's bigotry. Because choosing one particular group of (small, statistically insignificant) people to eliminate from public life and/or public service opens the door to eliminating other groups. And Republicans--who after all are the only ones pushing this ban--saying "reasonable people can disagree" are being disingenuous. It's a solution looking for a problem.
“hey- that’s my money!” was, coincidentally, one of the main messages of the crowd at the Treasury last night (along with They Can't Do That!, which, obviously they can an already did).
We were there for an hour or so, right next to the Guardian photographer whose shot graced the article this morning. What he saw is what we were watching, plus the furtive figures glancing down at us from the windows on the upper left. Figures whose appearance led immediately to many upraised middle digits from the crowd, even tho it was not determined which side those figures might be on.
Adding here that I've already received 2 endzone dance/hair on fire begging texts from pols who attended the Leisurely at the Treasury last evening. Because it costs DOZENS of pennies to walk to the front of the building and stand in front of a microphone.
I wish people would "Hey That's My Money" to some of the other stuff -- dismantling of govt websites and agencies that provide information. We paid for that data, and now we can't access it!
This. This is why they want to destroy the IRS. So President L. Ron Musth can put the country's money directly into his pocket. They won't stop collecting taxes; they'll just be a different, "redirected" (skim) kind.
It’s always so early here when your column hits my email, so too much brain fog most mornings to say something halfway lucid, even after strong coffee, but I’ll try this as a variant on your last hopeful sentence.
Instead of shocking mild bigots out of their prejudices, which I kinda doubt, maybe events will motivate closeted non-racists, the ones who stay silent under the mostly white suburban peer pressure that mocks cringy notions of social justice, to finally stop giving a fuck and maybe stepping up when push comes to shove.
They told us it was about the price of eggs, and to some of that mutt’s voters, it was the price of eggs. So I feel that’s going to chisel some of the coalition off. I’m just glad the Cult’s object of veneration is so old and feeble. The sanewashers can edit him on tv to make him look coherent, but the truth is evident.
Well, yeah, they SAID it was about the price of eggs, that's what they told the pollsters when they called, but mostly because everybody else was sayin' "price of eggs" so that's what popped out under the pressure of pollster-questioning. TBH, they don't really like eggs all that much.
Nobody wants to say "Price of potato chips" when they're asked, right? So you desperately search your mind (the pollster is WAITING) for some kind of healthy-sounding food, and you're no kale-muncher so "eggs" is as healthy as it gets.
Yeah. Not gonna lie; I'm a little irritated (and also quite bored) with people doing the "lol eggs" things, as if that was an actual concern as opposed to just an excuse for magats to be their worst selves.
I got to unbolt a bit: called my worthless congresscritters: Tillis' mailboxes full; young lady answering for Budd bored: lady answering for Chas Edwards a bit better..
Have to be offline rest of the day and tomorrow and I'm happy about it..
Thanks Roy....
Machiavelli said in "il Discoursi" that republics had to be reestablished periodically, say every hundred or so, because accreted power centers would be inevitably corrupt.
It's going to take all the luck in the world to beat this corrupt wave...
We called EH Norton's office today and got answers from a staffer to our questions for the "representative" that the missus (who knows better than anyone) called possibly the worst responses she's ever encountered. She also said Norton would respond by email when she got back to the office. I got that email tonight and it is actually worse than the staffer's response.
I've been arguing that Trump is a fascist, and now it should be clear. Whether people recognize it depends on a few things. Understanding the subtleties probably isn't one of them.
Ordinary people have cartoonish notions about authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. (If we wanted, we could assay how this came about.) Therefore they misconstrue freedoms. Some think they have rights that are actually revocable privileges; the despot has not chosen to take them. Others mistake the rule of law in a democracy, however imperfect, for tyranny. As I've said before, a relatively secure life affords people luxuries of thought.
People who experience significant freedoms in their day-to-day lives are less likely to label their governments as authoritarian or even fascist. Here we must include ugly freedoms like open bigotry, exploitation of out-groups, or strongman behavior on the world stage. A liberal state that attempts to suppress these is in hot water so long as at least a sizeable minority holds ugly views.
Nothing short of complete totalitarianism will convince *everyone* that they live under such a thing. Their remaining scope of action, lack of empathy and imagination, and the ratio of carrots to sticks will keep them in the dark.
Every dictator has some base of public support, and for those people, dictatorship is experienced as more freedom, not less. Freedom to commit crimes with impunity, to do the harm to vulnerable people that you've always wanted but were always restrained from doing.
Case in point: Federal Bureau of Prisons is now moving trans women back into men's prisons (under the impetus of a federal anti-prison-rape law, prison administrators were required to assess the risk of rape for individual prisoners and assign them accordingly, the result was that our federal prisons ended up being somewhat more enlightened on LGBTQ issues than our general society).
In the move, some guards took the opportunity to clearly show their glee that this is happening, making the move with extra brutality and contempt. For years, they had to hold back on their view that trans women were just men who were fakin' it, and that must have felt like oppression to them. Now they're FREE to be just as brutal as they've always wanted to be.
Many Americans openly gloat and joke about male-on-male prison rape.* They view it as punishment above and beyond whatever the system metes out. For them, the transfer of trans prisoners is absolutely about rape.
When Harris drew heat for that video of her talking about surgeries for trans prisoners, I immediately thought of this stuff. Combined the fact that outside medical care is cruelly rationed by profiteers. Our citizens don't even want non-trans prisoners to get root canals. They want them to get raped.
*I understand that's not the only kind, but Average Joe only thinks about male-on-male.
Also, don't know if anyone else saw this, but the US Supreme Court (yes, THAT Supreme Court) ruled that a Hawaii suit against the oil industry for climate-change-related damages can move forward:
Trans prisoners is one of the Mad-libs issues. She wants (Spins wheel)...Transgender surgery for (spins wheel) illegal alien (spins wheel) prisoners! Reminds me of (spin) condoms for (spin) Gaza!
You spelt 'condos' incorrectly, but Trump doesn't know what, so you're off the hook.
The beauty of Condos for Gaza is: no permits.
The beauties of Condos for Gaza are: no permits and no codes.
The beauties of Condos for Gaza include: no permits, no codes and no unions.
The beauties of Condos for Gaza include, among other things: no permits, no codes, no unions and one of the world's largest armies keeping a watchful eye over the beach communities.
$50 million dollars worth of condoms for Gaza. Or maybe it was $100 million. Ah, hell, let's just round up to half a billion. In my gut, I feel that's right.
Some days before Tubby started ranting about condoms, the puke funnel had been using "condoms!" in the jihad against USAID. That's when I saw a medical researcher or public health type translate this as a reading of the term "prophylaxis," for funding of medical aid like vaccinations. Like willing "justice" or "equity" to be work of the devil, civilization can be brought down by carefully chosen misreadings of words that have meanings.
Reminder that the Russian Orthodox Church wanted to ban Dr. Ehrlich's treatment for syphilis, on the grounds that it was god's will that people who get syphilis should suffer, then die.
Didn't even get past the title this time. Ahhh, yes, I pull out my hardbound copy of the Necronomicon.... (And yes, I really have one, sitting on an end table in the living room. I am, after all, The Librarian)
As we should well know by now, hope (at least on the national level) is not my brand -- more so hope that excludes a realistic plan for making it all a reality.
So gonna go tl;dr and just point out that not giving a fuck about what the majority of the nation's people want or need -- the good of the nation -- has been shared between the two parties for decades.
So most people aren't down with Trump's implementation of long term GOP goals...
I presume that not being down thing extends to Tuesday's announcement by Fake Tubby that he wants the US to do its own war criming in Gaza.
Really, I dunno, some focusing an what can be done instead of on wishing for what's not going to happen and that we can't make happen. (That said, plan for the day is that go hypocritical and the Mrs and I do the anti-Prop 2025 rally at NYC's City Hall Park. I'm sure DINO Adams told his po-pos to treat us with sufficient disrespect so as to impress his godfather...)
I mean, please, focus?
Sorry, but years in leftist-activist circles have made me extremely suspicious of calls to "focus". In my experience it's always someone saying "Why doesn't everyone stop doing what they're doing and do what I'm doing instead?"
Understood.
Still in this case I think it’s beyond justified but ok.
A.R. Moxon has some words on these calls to focus:
"I notice all too often those of us aligned with anti-fascism and anti-billionairism believe that anyone focusing on anything other than what we ourselves are focusing on is getting distracted. I frequently feel that way. But it strikes me that what might be a distraction from my own chosen mission might, for another person, be the mission, and that what might fail in one place might succeed in another. I think its possible that worrying about others being distracted might itself be the ultimate distraction. I think it's possible that a diversity of antifascist methods and focus may uncover a diverse web of opposition that fascism, opposed to all human diversity, simply cannot wrap its head around, and will therefore have trouble countering, with its monomaniacal focus on brutality and corruption as the only solutions to all problems.
So work your lane and let others work theirs. Allow the diversity of method and focus. Even if what some are working on does turn out to be less effective than what others are working on, it will all still be opposition to fascism and billionaires, and it will still be better than what we have today."
https://www.the-reframe.com/its/
Agreed, as a rule.
But I’m also seeing a shit ton of delusion re the possibilities of the DNC Democrats doing anything in the universe of what needs to be done. And, you know, by definition, that’s per se a waste of energies. So much energy focused on approximately nothing but the same old empty talk that depresses voter engagement which in turn brought us here.
OTOH, we’re about to leave for one of the anti-Prop 2025, which past/prologue…
Where does criticizing the Democrats fall on the "waste of time" scale? Seems to me if criticizing the Democrats actually made them better, by now the Democrats would be the most perfect political party that ever existed.
The new head of the DNC, based on his emails I've gotten (I gave $50 to Senator Professor Warren. Once. And they'll never let me forget it) seems focused on the party infrastructure and organization. And technically, that's his job. But people screaming for Democrats to START BREAKING WINDOWS don't care about that. They wany Somebody Else to Do Something I can see on TV NOW. And when they do, its No, Not Like That. The problem is, Trump has more guns and soldiers and he has no reason to not use them as needed. You might as well have asked the kids at Kent State to make a frontal assualt on the National Guard. This is going to be long and ugly, and John Q. Public is going to get his hands dirty, like it or not, before we see daylight. We haven't even started yet.
Slight change in the messaging stuff, nothing like what’s needed is coming.
The DNC already made clear no needed change is coming for 2026. And the chair’s job is to talk but not act.
Even Democrats should have known ahead of time they'd be in this bind. Republicans have the trifecta, they're a minority party, the things they like to focus on, writing and passing bills, are a no-go for now, but that was clear the day after the election.
Yeah, I get irritated by this DEMOCRATS DO SOMETHING stuff because I don't have much patience for people who don't have much patience. But still, you'd think the Dems might come up with some kind of symbolic happy horseshit just to appease these people, to at least LOOK like they're an opposition party.
Eh, whatever. Democrats havin' their shit together has never been an essential prerequisite for stopping bad stuff or accomplishing good stuff. We could ask Howard Zinn about that, if he weren't dead.
Darren is just mad because his feelings aren't coddled. We have a government made up of men who carry guns because they're too p**** to take a punch and won't get a vaccine because they're afraid to take a shot.
Thanks for the clear-eyed even tempered perspective. You do that very well .
Well, look at the reaction they had to one of the brethren getting a milkshake in the face. For manly warriors for truth, they're awfully concerned about image. (c.f. Scheißenführer trying to spin the idea of ethnically cleansing Gaza and turning it into Magaland as "not hostile". Fucking whiny ass titty babies.)
Nice touch with the Lovecraft reference in a column about racism, Roy. Oh, and the 2019 film is a fun ride if you didn’t catch it.
"Color Out of Space mixes tart B-movie pulp with visually alluring Lovecraftian horror and a dash of gonzo Nicolas Cage"...!
Roy, I do appreciate your words of quasi-encouragement, and I think that perhaps as many as 30% of the people who voted for Trump don't agree with him on all of this. BUT for me the important question is do they DISAGREE with him enough to act? As long as the Olive Garden remains open to seat them on Friday night and Netflix will still stream movies for their entertainment, will they be motivated to do anything? After the 2016 election the sci-fi writer John Scalzi wrote a piece called "The Cinemax Theory of Racism" and I'm not sure that doesn't to at least some extent still apply.
I'll also add that for me, the long shadow cast across all the individual transgressions of the past 2-3 weeks is the thought "this is not the way a political party behaves when it is expecting to ever face the electorate again."
This resonates with my trepidatiostomy that if/when the "Gimme Back My Money!" movement (discussed below) succeeds, mosta or alla the restored thousandaires will go back to their big screens and revegetate...I got mine; I do not know anyone in Mississippi. Ergo, back to the show...
"trepidatiostomy" Is this some kind of Joycean wordplay I'm missing, or is it an absolutely insane autocorrect?
Absolutely insane? Must be – I wrote it myself!
This is exactly what the smarter bits of the never-Trump movement feared. Trump will not face the electorate again unless his party has complete control over the voting process. Even dictators want the fig leaf of "winning" an election. As it is there's a good argument Trump,"won" thanks to extensive voter supression.
This is all intensely personal for me -- I'm an administrator at one non-profit and on the board of directors of another. So the very real possibility exists that within weeks or months or at most a year hundreds of thousands of people in the greater Philly area will lose much-needed services, and I will lose a job.
This past weekend in NYC I saw graffiti that read "Fewer Chuck Schumers, More Luigi Mangiones" and I was shocked at my immediate gut-level agreement. I've always been on the left wing of the Democratic Party and critical of their wishy-washiness, but I've always supported the law.
All I'm saying is I hope SOMEBODY in power has a plan for when the courts apply the brakes to Trump's agenda and he simply ignores them, or for when he suspends elections and declares martial law. I really fear the darkest of days ahead.
You and me both, because when John Q. Public finally catches on to what's going on, its really Anything Can Happen Day. Unless the Democratic party is as clueless as leftists think they are, they are walking through that problem now, and realizing they're going to have to improvise. They arrest Musk, Trump sends Seal Team 6 to get him out. Now what? The FBI and capitol police roust the script kiddies, the Secratary of Defense orders a platoon to escort them back in. Now what? You want it darker? Wait until Democrats push back.
I knew where you were going from the get, but...
Sorry, boss – skin color does not trump gender. No way does his racism supercede his sexism. I mean, unless tomorrow's post is an "Oh Yeah, and Also Too This", I think you've missed it.
Co-equal branches of WhiteMaleGrievance.com
We all must pay for what E. Jean Carroll hath wrought. Poor Tubbs.
Lyz Lenz describes the new administration and its flunkies and hangers-on as Revenge of the Ex-Husbands. On steroids.
I just found her podcast, and boy, does it resonate.
I'll call it "this one's for the ladiez."
Is that a direct Queens Man quote? Reads like it...
He promised to take care of us. I guess that we should have taken that as a threat.
Not just the fact that he said it. But said in a sing-song instead of the usual blast. That he seemed to aim for the old show biz hypnosis routine was a tell.
It has served him...well.*
*Done.
Always, lol. No bigger control freak than the White Knight.
To "protect" us against our will.
Our silly brains can't handle decision.
his fucking "magnificent people" bullshit in his presser with Bibi, like either of them gives a flying shit about anyone in Gaza
Misogynoir (term coined by Moya Bailey) would like a word. Because you saw it in the last election.
Hello from 12 hours from now, which is what you get from halfway around the world (it’s really weird in the morning here, which is tomorrow to you). Let me say from the future, racism is a trait of humankind which is seen everywhere. But civilized people find a way to dial it back to mere prejudice, which can be controlled, personally and culturally. Amerika was moving closer and closer to majority racial prejudice with a hardcore minority of racists. Those racists are now in control and are also male supremacists and revanchists. India is, also, with an additional religious intolerance thanks to PM Modi. Life here is crap for a majority of the population and doesn’t seem about to get better. If India is any indication of the way Amerika is headed, life will be crap for most MAGAs, but if history holds, they won’t care as long as Blacks and browns have it worse. Anyway, is it true Trump and company are now universally recognized as fascists? That would be good news indeed, which I didn’t hear about here in the future. Now I can call them Nazis without hesitation.
See, this is precisely why we need to have One Clock.
And yes. Fascism is now the standard theory. Like Friedman taken to logical conclusion –not extreme – the extreme is now MOR.
It's not even universally recognized that We Have A Problem. To paraphrase, everybody thinks things are fine until they get punched in the face. And so far, only a handful of low-level governmemt employees have been punched in the face, and the entire staff of the CIA have been threatened with a punch in the face. Nothing gets universally recognized until John Q. Public gets punched in the face.
Someone made the comment that Scheißenführer's new obsession with seizing various foreign territories is what cemented for them the "fascist" label.
I'm an early adopter, though, but there's a reason I use the original German to refer to him and his cockroach swarm.
I hate this movie and I want a remake.
The private showing of the initial cut was ... not well received. The producers have indicated the director will be "making changes" before distribution, based on audience feedback (burning down the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood was taken as a point of reference).
"OK, kids, we're doin' it! The Fascist Cavalier is now a musical!"
To strive with his last ounce of bronzer
To reach the unreachable Reich!
That's Man of La Maga
“It’s a remake of Out of the Past, only at the end order is restored, all the romantic interests are resolved happily, and everybody joins the teens on the beach, dancing to surf music while the credits roll.”
but...but...SURF NAZIS MUST DIE!!!
I want to have a... *conversation* with the scriptwriters.
"... the situation may become as clear to them as it is to us. "
Meh. Sad to say that waaay too many White folks are just fine with government-sponsored racism. And you'd be profoundly depressed by the number of otherwise liberal people who are really disturbed that there maybe might perhaps be someone who was born male but is competing in women's sports. So much of what the Musk/Trump presidency is doing ain't no big deal to them.
But you know what WILL get their attention and make things crystal-clear to them? When Grandma and Grandpa have to sell their house for pennies to Blackstone and move in with their adult children because Musk's minions have completely fucked up the Social Security payment system. And things will become even more in focus when families start getting saddled with the medical expenses of their elderly relatives because Dr. Oz is just going to rewrite Medicare to force all recipients onto private insurance--private insurance that demands unaffordable premiums but provides no coverage for anything beyond aspirin and exercise.
Not to mention that, by that time, all private hospitals will be owned by the Church...so forced birthing will be the one other covered mandatory care.
Jesus healed the sick . . . and you should have seen the fees He charged!
Absolutely. When food prices double and we have to take in Mom and Dad, and the grown kids as well. Also wondering if -- dog forbid -- Wall Street can save us. The Masters of Our Fate will not tolerate the Market tanking. Will they?
They'll happily sit by as the market craters. They collect their fees. They'll make piles of money shorting the shit out of everything. And when the Dow is back below 1,000, they get in line for the bailout money and walk away with hundreds of million each in performance bonuses, retention bonuses, and "just being you!" bonuses.
As for all the rest of us and our pittances tied up in 401(k) and IRA setups? Well, too bad, so sad! Better hope your kids have room. Or start following the appliance delivery truck around so you can get the refrigerator boxes before anyone else does.
OOhhh, YOU got a REFRIGERATOR box...! In my day, we slept sixteen to a TOASTER OVEN box! And we were grateful for the companionship!!
paradise!
If I had two dead rats, I'd give you one.
Make mine Norwegian!
"Brown or grey?" asks the rat sommelier.
Rattus Norvegicus Delicious!
While you’re shivering in your refrigerator box, I’ll be luxuriating on the terrace of my beachfront condo at Mar-a-Gaza. See ya, suckers!
The demo project ain't QUIIIIITE done, but the beachfront is OPEN FOR BIZNESSS!
And most of the beach has been swept for unexploded ordinance!
Dunno if I've mentioned it here, but I get a real kick out of the term "Bitcoin IRA"
https://bitcoinira.com/
Laugh or cry? Tough call!
My prediction come true (almost)! I think they're going to tell us we can have our Social Security, but only in the form of Trump Coin, or Doge Coin.
Either way, coin of the Realm.
Well, nobody's going to have to worry about refrigerator boxes, because all homeless people will be sent to prison after all the folks now in prison get shipped to El Salvador.
"And you'd be profoundly depressed by the number of otherwise liberal people who are really disturbed that there maybe might perhaps be someone who was born male but is competing in women's sports."
I know and it's depressing. This essay is about what most of them would say after saying that -- some variant of "not that I'm saying we should [some insane overreaction]" -- and how they would react to seeing the insane overreaction happen.
I mean let's not confuse your average sorta-prejudiced feller with Bari Weiss. He doesn't deserve that!
Dunno about that example. I’ve read up fairly well on the controversy and really don’t see how believing that someone born in a man’s body shouldn’t be eligible to play women’s sports is illiberal. One could just as easily argue that believing it’s okay is conservative. But I think realistically it is a scientific and a moral argument. Men are naturally bigger, stronger, faster. Believing otherwise would put you in RFK Jr. territory. Believing it’s unfair to make girls and women compete against people who are biologically male strikes me as a feminist position more than a conservative one. I think so much of the Left taking the position that it’s okay and that anyone who thinks differently is a bigot is mostly a knee jerk reaction because we don’t want to be on the same side as the evil cretins. But the thing is, in my experience, 100 percent of the regular people I know who are generally liberal but don’t follow politics think it’s insanely wrong. So even if you disagree with just about everyone outside of our more enlightened cocoon, politically it’s not a hill worth dying on.
In the aggregate "men are naturally bigger, stronger, faster" sure. But individuals and teams are not the aggregate. There were policies in place for dealing with that aggregate issue, but if you don't understand the government horning in is nothing but an excuse to push that ICK button as hard as they can on an infinitesmal minority scapegoat for the pleasure of their base, you understand nothing. This has nothing to do with sports or "fairness".
A) several years of estrogen probably would change the body sufficiently to adjust for "male vs female"
B) making it a matter of muscle mass or height or whatever forgets the collective meltdown over penii supposedly on display in changing rooms, which is the alternate crime against humanity trans women are apparently guilty of
C) sports, an endeavor classically committed to "fairness" to the point teams never win or lose and everyone gets participation trophies, you know, sports
Or we don't want to be bigots. 100% of the people I know don't give it even a first thought. Do you/they know anything about what happens to the body in gender reassignment surgery?
Nope, and don't really want to know. Point is, I think that's something about which reasonable people can disagree and believing one way or another doesn't make anyone a bigot. It's a toxic political issue that seriously harms the Democratic Party and calling nearly all people bigots is insanely bad politics. The world if literally fucking burning and this is the hill the Democrats choose to die on.
Nope, it's bigotry. Because choosing one particular group of (small, statistically insignificant) people to eliminate from public life and/or public service opens the door to eliminating other groups. And Republicans--who after all are the only ones pushing this ban--saying "reasonable people can disagree" are being disingenuous. It's a solution looking for a problem.
One should never doubt the power of “hey- that’s my money!” as a unifying force as Musk and his minions go after entitlement funds.
“hey- that’s my money!” was, coincidentally, one of the main messages of the crowd at the Treasury last night (along with They Can't Do That!, which, obviously they can an already did).
We were there for an hour or so, right next to the Guardian photographer whose shot graced the article this morning. What he saw is what we were watching, plus the furtive figures glancing down at us from the windows on the upper left. Figures whose appearance led immediately to many upraised middle digits from the crowd, even tho it was not determined which side those figures might be on.
Adding here that I've already received 2 endzone dance/hair on fire begging texts from pols who attended the Leisurely at the Treasury last evening. Because it costs DOZENS of pennies to walk to the front of the building and stand in front of a microphone.
I wish people would "Hey That's My Money" to some of the other stuff -- dismantling of govt websites and agencies that provide information. We paid for that data, and now we can't access it!
Yeah, tho the musketears will say "You pay for spies but you don't get to see their stuff! Get over it!"
This. This is why they want to destroy the IRS. So President L. Ron Musth can put the country's money directly into his pocket. They won't stop collecting taxes; they'll just be a different, "redirected" (skim) kind.
It’s always so early here when your column hits my email, so too much brain fog most mornings to say something halfway lucid, even after strong coffee, but I’ll try this as a variant on your last hopeful sentence.
Instead of shocking mild bigots out of their prejudices, which I kinda doubt, maybe events will motivate closeted non-racists, the ones who stay silent under the mostly white suburban peer pressure that mocks cringy notions of social justice, to finally stop giving a fuck and maybe stepping up when push comes to shove.
Those two camps are very close together. Related, you might say.
Yes. A very blurry line.
The Central Park Five embarrassed Tubby and now we all have to pay.
You're on a roll – carry on.
Fred Trump III asked Tubby to give a shit about the disabled, and now we all have to pay.
Barack Obama made ONE joke about the "tough job of having to fire Gary Busey" and now we all have to pay.
Hell Barry wore a hideous tan suit ONE TIME and now we all have to pay.
(But Roy will know precisely where we can get one of our own. That is his superpower.)
One tan suit I will never be able to afford.
They told us it was about the price of eggs, and to some of that mutt’s voters, it was the price of eggs. So I feel that’s going to chisel some of the coalition off. I’m just glad the Cult’s object of veneration is so old and feeble. The sanewashers can edit him on tv to make him look coherent, but the truth is evident.
BIDEN'S KILLING THE CHICKENZZZ!!!
PCACK!
Well, yeah, they SAID it was about the price of eggs, that's what they told the pollsters when they called, but mostly because everybody else was sayin' "price of eggs" so that's what popped out under the pressure of pollster-questioning. TBH, they don't really like eggs all that much.
Not enough cholesterol, and don't come pre-salted.
Nobody wants to say "Price of potato chips" when they're asked, right? So you desperately search your mind (the pollster is WAITING) for some kind of healthy-sounding food, and you're no kale-muncher so "eggs" is as healthy as it gets.
I am brave enough to say it: the price of beer.
Yeah. Not gonna lie; I'm a little irritated (and also quite bored) with people doing the "lol eggs" things, as if that was an actual concern as opposed to just an excuse for magats to be their worst selves.
"Hey, everybody, just say 'Price of eggs' when they call, I'll explain it later."
It’s like coordinating a pencil drop in grade school
This I immediately grokked tho I have never heard of it before. Kidz these days'd prolly all simultaneously set off their phone's alert alarms.
I got to unbolt a bit: called my worthless congresscritters: Tillis' mailboxes full; young lady answering for Budd bored: lady answering for Chas Edwards a bit better..
Have to be offline rest of the day and tomorrow and I'm happy about it..
Thanks Roy....
Machiavelli said in "il Discoursi" that republics had to be reestablished periodically, say every hundred or so, because accreted power centers would be inevitably corrupt.
It's going to take all the luck in the world to beat this corrupt wave...
We called EH Norton's office today and got answers from a staffer to our questions for the "representative" that the missus (who knows better than anyone) called possibly the worst responses she's ever encountered. She also said Norton would respond by email when she got back to the office. I got that email tonight and it is actually worse than the staffer's response.
"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." Maya Angelou
When someone shows you who they are since the early 1980s, what the fuck is wrong with you that you don't see it?
First time, 10 thousandth time...pretty soon they'll get it!
"Cain't git fooled agin!"
Trump say “Hold my non-alcoholic beer!”
"That was some weird shit"
I've been arguing that Trump is a fascist, and now it should be clear. Whether people recognize it depends on a few things. Understanding the subtleties probably isn't one of them.
Ordinary people have cartoonish notions about authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. (If we wanted, we could assay how this came about.) Therefore they misconstrue freedoms. Some think they have rights that are actually revocable privileges; the despot has not chosen to take them. Others mistake the rule of law in a democracy, however imperfect, for tyranny. As I've said before, a relatively secure life affords people luxuries of thought.
People who experience significant freedoms in their day-to-day lives are less likely to label their governments as authoritarian or even fascist. Here we must include ugly freedoms like open bigotry, exploitation of out-groups, or strongman behavior on the world stage. A liberal state that attempts to suppress these is in hot water so long as at least a sizeable minority holds ugly views.
Nothing short of complete totalitarianism will convince *everyone* that they live under such a thing. Their remaining scope of action, lack of empathy and imagination, and the ratio of carrots to sticks will keep them in the dark.
Every dictator has some base of public support, and for those people, dictatorship is experienced as more freedom, not less. Freedom to commit crimes with impunity, to do the harm to vulnerable people that you've always wanted but were always restrained from doing.
Case in point: Federal Bureau of Prisons is now moving trans women back into men's prisons (under the impetus of a federal anti-prison-rape law, prison administrators were required to assess the risk of rape for individual prisoners and assign them accordingly, the result was that our federal prisons ended up being somewhat more enlightened on LGBTQ issues than our general society).
In the move, some guards took the opportunity to clearly show their glee that this is happening, making the move with extra brutality and contempt. For years, they had to hold back on their view that trans women were just men who were fakin' it, and that must have felt like oppression to them. Now they're FREE to be just as brutal as they've always wanted to be.
An excellent example.
Many Americans openly gloat and joke about male-on-male prison rape.* They view it as punishment above and beyond whatever the system metes out. For them, the transfer of trans prisoners is absolutely about rape.
When Harris drew heat for that video of her talking about surgeries for trans prisoners, I immediately thought of this stuff. Combined the fact that outside medical care is cruelly rationed by profiteers. Our citizens don't even want non-trans prisoners to get root canals. They want them to get raped.
*I understand that's not the only kind, but Average Joe only thinks about male-on-male.
Ha ha, I was looking for the original article that I was citing above, and google serves up THIS. I'll take it!
https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-judge-blocks-trump-sending-transgender-women-mens-prisons-2025-02-05/
Also, don't know if anyone else saw this, but the US Supreme Court (yes, THAT Supreme Court) ruled that a Hawaii suit against the oil industry for climate-change-related damages can move forward:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-allows-hawaii-climate-change-lawsuit-move-forward-rcna186164
Trans prisoners is one of the Mad-libs issues. She wants (Spins wheel)...Transgender surgery for (spins wheel) illegal alien (spins wheel) prisoners! Reminds me of (spin) condoms for (spin) Gaza!
[Hands out flyer for my new band, Condoms for Gaza]
You spelt 'condos' incorrectly, but Trump doesn't know what, so you're off the hook.
The beauty of Condos for Gaza is: no permits.
The beauties of Condos for Gaza are: no permits and no codes.
The beauties of Condos for Gaza include: no permits, no codes and no unions.
The beauties of Condos for Gaza include, among other things: no permits, no codes, no unions and one of the world's largest armies keeping a watchful eye over the beach communities.
Three Days of the Condos (then he gets distracted by some other brain-fart)
$50 million dollars worth of condoms for Gaza. Or maybe it was $100 million. Ah, hell, let's just round up to half a billion. In my gut, I feel that's right.
Mikey REALLY has a thing for condoms. I assume his son knows that only too well...
Some days before Tubby started ranting about condoms, the puke funnel had been using "condoms!" in the jihad against USAID. That's when I saw a medical researcher or public health type translate this as a reading of the term "prophylaxis," for funding of medical aid like vaccinations. Like willing "justice" or "equity" to be work of the devil, civilization can be brought down by carefully chosen misreadings of words that have meanings.
Reminder that the Russian Orthodox Church wanted to ban Dr. Ehrlich's treatment for syphilis, on the grounds that it was god's will that people who get syphilis should suffer, then die.
This I heard more than occasionally back in the day among certain folks I was around more than I wanted to be. Not a Russian among 'em.
Plus they are consolidating control of information.
Your average middle class German c. 1938 thought they lived in a pretty good country, I'm sure.
Didn't even get past the title this time. Ahhh, yes, I pull out my hardbound copy of the Necronomicon.... (And yes, I really have one, sitting on an end table in the living room. I am, after all, The Librarian)
All I have is the Metrognomicon, the guide to city-dwelling gnomes.
*rimshot*