Hate to go off brand and offer hope but my theory of the week is all the Democratic wins, all the way down to the Georgia PSC isn't just voters pissed off at the shutdown but also being repelled by Trump and his party. And that a shit ton of voters regretted switching to Trump last November or stayed home and didn't vote as the case may be.
As for Mamdani:
“And we won because we insisted that no longer would politics be something that is done to us. Now it is something that we do.”--the mayor-elect, may any active god protect him from Trump and his po-po pigs.
As for Douthat, McSweeney's went all on-brand nailing it:
That said, of course I continue to have zero faith in the American voter, the basis for which is proven most recently by a compare and contrast of the last two election cycles.
The sunniness is obviously(?) contingent on next year’s election. But while grasping that 2024 offered an existential crisis was beyond their perception, the fear of Trump and his party is not. And that fear is not based on elite media reporting but on socializing and social media. And better: Donny can’t turn down his spew and acts scaring the little people. And come on, the 60 Minutes wet kiss couldn’t help. Crazy talk by itself didn’t hurt much in the past but even crazier talk with nonstop insane actions is another level.
That said, I’m still staying on brand with a complete lack of trust in the American voter. But yes, this week gives some credible hope for next year.
One of my favorite lines from the McSweeney's story. "It’s not [Mamdani's] victory; it’s about his horrible opponent. Even the consultants we hired weren’t enough to fix such a flawed candidate. And the solution is obvious: We need more expensive consultants."
Alt. soberization: the money will continue to flow from all the wrong places – these minor setbacks are just the cost of backing So Many Candidates, but the Rule of Money states 'Our money will go to a few losers but Our Winners Will Rule Again!'
Give us a decent candidate that people actually like, and we're more than a match for the billionaires on the money thing. Those $10 and $20 donations add up quick.
ETA: Mamdani actually had to suspend fundraising twice, once in the primary and once in the general election, because he had hit the limit.
Damn! The Great EnSloshment Continues! Mamdani spending on his campaign like a drunken sailor, when he could be feeding the poor, housing the homel – oh, wait a minute...
There was a story in the Guardian about Mamdani's campaign that described an early test-run in those large apartment building complexes where some of New York's working class is still allowed to reside. Canvassers came back shocked, as soon as they mentioned the rent freeze idea, the people at the door started handing them cash.
One thing you can count on is the average American voter will exact their vengance on anyone who makes them uncomfortable. Right now that's the Republican party, and they're just getting warmed up. The holiday season is going to be something to behold.
I hear you and agree. Except I wonder whether 2025 was just that or whether there's a deep repulsion of the Party of Trump which explains that what we had was a sort of tsunami--a very, very broad rejection of all things Republican that would have been huge if higher offices were on the ballots instead of a handful.
I think 2026 will be a fight as it were between the forces of Trump/Republican repulsion against Democratic failing to deliver. That is, will the former generate a lot of D votes and wins or will the latter send voters back to voting R.
So we got maybe a foretaste Tuesday. Or not. Was something big and different start?
Our own bias says "average people" (whoever they are) should be repulsed, deeply, by the acts and language of the Trump administration. My cynical study of American humanity says they will be repulsed (generally) if they pay attention to politics. Getting them to do THAT is the hard part. The MAGA Jihad against the federal bureaucracy and safety net is doing the heavy lifting on that job. Sinking that ocean liner is taking its time, but we're just starting to see the waves lapping on the Promenade Deck. The longer the shutdown lasts, the more Americans are going to be forced to pay attention to politics, and your Average American really, REALLY hates that. I think that's what we saw last Tue.
The core tenet of MAGA is my feelings matter more than your reality. Trump's whole career has been to use money and the courts to make reality go away when it bothers him. My core tenet is reality bats last, and at a minimum it always gets a hit. Trump is playing his game at a level he never has before, his tricks will work for a while, he may even walk away with money in his pocket like always, but a collapse of the American economy is not as simple or limited as a casino going bankrupt. He may not pay it, but there will be Hell to pay. My bet is Trump walks (or dies), his minions pay Hell, and the Republican party burn their MAGA hats and get off scott-free, again. And the Average American goes back to sleep.
The irony or whatever is that Trump and his Mini Me’s spew sooo much insanity that it’s reached the low informed, news avoiding voters. As we know, my theory is that there was a shit ton of buyer’s remorse showing on Tuesday. And Donny being Donny, doubling down on the insanity can be expected which, you know, isn’t electorally smart.
As for MAGAts, as we know, I say they’re all clinically insane. The exact DSM-5 may vary, but one definition or another fits each and every one of them.
I disagree that its the spew that has reached our average American. I think its the acts that are chipping away, the layoffs, tariffs, Trans Menance (when its their relative or friend whose genitals are being inspected), fucking ICE being thugs while the Guard and cops stand around, its all adding up, slowly. People in Chicago, Portland, NYC, LA are noticing the rhetoric has no connection to reality, but that's as close as the rhetoric matters, I think. Flight delays and cancellations are gonna get their attention.
I find the insanity defense a little too glib, but arguing that just gets in the weeds of definition and intent, like arguing Trump isn't "stupid" just a waste of time. Call them insane if you want, but for me it just gives them an out. They know what they're doing, all of them.
I remember a decade or so ago when I was more high-minded, when I sniffed at folks who reveled in the defeat of their political opponents and considered them cruel. Well, those days are dead, dawg. Thanks to the rise of Trumpism I have become what I beheld and I now enjoy licking the salty tears of Cope and Seethe MAGAs as much as the next Lib.
So since Roy saw fit on Monday to remind us that Rod Dreher exists, I peeked in on him again after the election and of course he put his own unique spin on Cope and Seethe, as he's obsessed with the disastrous meaning behind the two premier cities of the English speaking world -- London and New York -- now both having Muslim mayors, and the evil portent of Mamdani being elected on the same day Dick Cheney died.
Yeah, Tubby dancin' around with a sword and touchin' the glowing globe, but it's Tubby, so they all pretend it never happened. Back to that SCAAARY MOOSLIM who's drivin' my cab!
"I didn’t — and still don’t — like bike lanes, and I’m not big on open-air plazas that just push automobile congestion into tighter spaces of Midtown."
Is there any form of transportation this nitwit DOES countenance?
I didn't keep track. But recently I simply totted up my weekly distance as an average and multiplied by 50 (assuming roughly 2 weeks' worth of not riding each year), and multiplied that by 55 years of riding that amount.
That works! I do know people who kept log books, documenting every ride. I couldn't be bothered. And lately, there's the "If it isn't on Strava, it didn't happen" crowd. I couldn't possibly care less about whether they approve of my ride or not. I assure you, the rides happened.
I used to zero my cyclometer on NYD to see how far I went in a year - there was a time when I rode every day, rain or shine. And during that time I did have a few 10K years. Now? Don't care.
Yesterday I was riding through the intersection at John Nolen Drive, there's one of those ghost bikes people put up to mark where a cyclist was killed, I imagine by an inattentive driver running a red light while texting, and a snippet of verse came into my head which I will now share with you:
I always stop (or at least slow down) a moment for the ghost bikes. (there are LOTS of them in DC).
The one that still boggles me is set in a field off a quiet highway in Iowa, a rural area where I've never seen another cyclist...just a ghost bike, deep the green summer grain, under a big blue sky...
A story that still horrifies me happened outside Madison, quiet country road, early in the morning, a construction worker driving to work fell asleep at the wheel, drifted across the center line, and took out a cyclist going in the opposite direction. What I imagine is peacefully riding along, seeing the truck in the distance, then suddenly it's headed right at you and no time to get out of the way.
Here's what should have happened 15 years or so ago. They should have gone to Trump and said "Mr. Trump, You refer to yourself in third person much too often to be let near any kind of real power. If you try, Dick Cheney will shoot you in the face and then make you apologize for getting in his way. You don't want that. Sorry"
" Trump mad!"
"Indeed"
For the past 10 years or so, I've done some crop insurance adjustment. Simple geometry with some algebra thrown in. I've also investigated on pesticide overspray, contamination cases. It's interesting, the pay is good. Seems to take forever to get a check. A few months ago, some insurance guys I know asked me to do some home inspections. Mostly just taking the photos of new customers houses. It's interesting too- pays decent (again, slow) Mostly, I ride around the back roads of three counties taking pictures for my Substack page.
On Monday, I had 5 houses to do in Springfield. They had been bought by one of the big landlords in town. I don't usually like those sorts of work orders. Poor people getting charged out the ass for crappy places to live , treating the places the way you'd expect.
All 5 houses had been bought from the Haitians we ran out of town. The homes had been nicely remodeled and kept neat. The sidewalks were edged and the flowerbeds were full of ornamentals, all nicely mulched. In every back yard was a thoughtfully laid out garden. I could picture the previous owners, looking at the fine homes they had made for their families after the hard trip from Haiti, feeling proud. Thinking about America, being grateful and feeling love.
I hope those people are alright.
Soon. Pillbillies will move in and by next spring the places will be the usual shithole.
Step brother? Why, that suggests a non-traditional family! The great man deplores divorce! And I quote "it's easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear."
Never read his shitty book, but as a writer, he's somewhat not-good, eh? Just look at "shift spouses", was he trying for alliteration? Did using "change" twice make the sentence sound a little dull? That's because it IS dull. "...like they change their underwear" is the tiredest of tired similes and the laziest of lazy similes. The writing, don't do more of it, OK JD?
Jesus, now this is gonna bother me all day. You're talking about how modern times are different from the olden days, right? So maybe you could come up with a simile related to modern times? Change spouses like they change cell phone providers? Pick a spouse like you're scrolling through your Netflix queue? Fuck, I don't know, nobody's payin' me to write this shit, but people been changin' their underwear since there's been underwear, right? The whole thing falls flat, just STOP WRITING STUFF JD.
Oh, please stop. Can we save some of these for later when I'm more depressed? What are you, one of those kids who eats ALL of their Halloween candy on Oct. 31?
Somebody (Terry Carrillo) has had me contemplating the civic mind for a couple of weeks now, you know, pondering what's goin' on in that sweet noggin of that old gal, US of A. ( think my fetish here is: "What would the Frankfort School on acid think?" but i may be wrong. Hard to tell.)
So I'm feeling her Mamdani mood (writ large across the common sod of this great land) myself, and tried to avoid those other fine folks you mention (the ones we're curtly asking in our getting exasperated Samuel L. Jackson voice(s): "Let us have this.") But they all certainly show that the old gal still got that vivid imagination and that panoramic view.
And i get the sense that she's picked up her gait, and is moving at a brisker pace toward her current destination.
(And we're working in the circus, now, babe. And we gotta have a lot of acts. Mamdani is just the magician. We're all a part of the show.)
i think brother man can de-nut the trumpy problems as they arise, but the day job is brutal.
he's gotta feed the monkeys daily, turn the billionaires upside down and shake out the loot, tell a buncha fuckheads to go to hell (& have them look forward to the trip) and at least a half dozen other tricks. plus "institute teh reforms." it oughta be fun to watch.
Questions remain! They remain! Concerning questions! Damn it, I still have 500 words to wreak!
Thanks for this. I wondered how Dough Hat was going to spin this unambiguous victory which we must not, nay, shall not, revel in when there is important organization that needs to be done! Yes, Democrats, this carrot-peeler gesture (index finger rubbing over other index finger) is for you. Shame! Shame I say!
And we dare not rest on our laurels when there are centrists to woo! And the first question is about our Post Trump Slump. Stand up straight! Stop slouching! Reagan never slouched!
"My friends back home, you better make this work because this is the best chance you’ve had since LaGuardia." A great line, because, yes, this can be not just bread and roses but the return of the Little Flower too.
This is how propaganda works, these micro-aggressions building to the open pre-hate-crime labeling we see in the Texas politicians' posts. As I have mentioned before, I work with prisoners of the American nightmare, who are addicted to overreacting to women like AOC and call the Democrats (e.g., Harris and Walz) "Bolsheviks" and "Maoists" in the same sentence.
These are fearful aging white guys who never really earned their place in the world. With their health, they also see their viability slipping away. They are the ones who criminalize poverty and think they are exempt from the war on working people. They "retired" at some point when they got laid off or fired from a job and returned to work "because they were bored."
Which is not true. They need to work, either for the benefits or the money to support the lifestyle, mostly an illusion, of upper middle class affluence. They are not the inner circle of the totalitarian movement they support, the same way they still root for their college football teams. They believe ICE is doing good work and don't believe the illegalities or that "real Americans" are getting caught up.
Propaganda and advertising works. Not just on them, but on me, and on you. We all miss things. The illusion of hindsight in this moment is what we need to fight against. It is not inevitable that the good guys will message as effectively as Mamdani. The stupid Democratic leadership is still a formidable stumbling block on the road to a New Deal and better life for all.
I do gotta give Congressman Brendan Gill points for honesty: Blaming Mamdani's victory on "mass *legal* immigration" says it plain: Forget all that horseshit we sold you a year ago about going after the "illegals", it's ALL immigrants we hate.
Also, about that one word, "mass" in front of "immigration" that is doing so much heavy lifting in makin' it all sound so SCAAAARY. We're a nation of nearly 350 million people. EVERYTHING we do is "mass." It's kinda what America is known for the world over, ain't it? Burgers by the billions, luxo-barge cars by the millions. What do you want, boutique, artisanal immigration? Oh, wait, you do.
No no no, because that's how the invasion happens, one person at a time, carrying nothing but the clothes on their back! And next thing you know something something overthrowing the government! (EDIT: obviously I mean in a *bad way*, of course)
M'thinks the shortage is across the wide Atlantic (or Pacific & Indian, your choice), along about the south end of Africa. Were we to send a curated lot of white folk o'er there, we could even out the pallette, if'n ya catch my drift...
For non-New Yorkers, and just to show what a brilliant politician Mamdani is, Kensington and Midwood are adjacent neighborhoods right smack in the middle of Brooklyn with about as diverse a population as one could imagine. Middle Eastern, Bangladeshi, Indian immigrants with all of their stores and cultures intermingle with orthodox Jews, African-Americans, Latinos, Russians, Ukraines, you name it. And like so many New York neighborhoods, walk a block or two in either direction from a street lined with multi-million dollar homes and you're in a sea of apartment buildings, kosher delis, and Halal meat markets. I grew up in Flatbush near Brooklyn College (the next neighborhood over from Midwood -- the borders have never been official), went to Midwood High School, and my orthodox dentist is still in Kensington.
Needless to say, I voted for the Muslim commie terrorist. Just to be safe, I'm trying to grow a beard and my wife has just ordered a burqa from the Target on Flatbush.
Hate to go off brand and offer hope but my theory of the week is all the Democratic wins, all the way down to the Georgia PSC isn't just voters pissed off at the shutdown but also being repelled by Trump and his party. And that a shit ton of voters regretted switching to Trump last November or stayed home and didn't vote as the case may be.
As for Mamdani:
“And we won because we insisted that no longer would politics be something that is done to us. Now it is something that we do.”--the mayor-elect, may any active god protect him from Trump and his po-po pigs.
As for Douthat, McSweeney's went all on-brand nailing it:
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/yeah-he-won-but-he-was-up-against-a-deeply-flawed-candidate
That said, of course I continue to have zero faith in the American voter, the basis for which is proven most recently by a compare and contrast of the last two election cycles.
Down-ballot results like these seem to confirm your analysis: https://popular.info/p/six-election-results-that-didnt-make
I will take your own relatively sunny post as another good sign.
I don't even care if it's cherry-picking, gimme dem cherries!
The sunniness is obviously(?) contingent on next year’s election. But while grasping that 2024 offered an existential crisis was beyond their perception, the fear of Trump and his party is not. And that fear is not based on elite media reporting but on socializing and social media. And better: Donny can’t turn down his spew and acts scaring the little people. And come on, the 60 Minutes wet kiss couldn’t help. Crazy talk by itself didn’t hurt much in the past but even crazier talk with nonstop insane actions is another level.
That said, I’m still staying on brand with a complete lack of trust in the American voter. But yes, this week gives some credible hope for next year.
Keep your somber side up
One of my favorite lines from the McSweeney's story. "It’s not [Mamdani's] victory; it’s about his horrible opponent. Even the consultants we hired weren’t enough to fix such a flawed candidate. And the solution is obvious: We need more expensive consultants."
I anticipate a sober, reasoned analysis from Steve B on this point, something about "Gentlemen", and "Phony baloney jobs"...
Alt. soberization: the money will continue to flow from all the wrong places – these minor setbacks are just the cost of backing So Many Candidates, but the Rule of Money states 'Our money will go to a few losers but Our Winners Will Rule Again!'
Give us a decent candidate that people actually like, and we're more than a match for the billionaires on the money thing. Those $10 and $20 donations add up quick.
ETA: Mamdani actually had to suspend fundraising twice, once in the primary and once in the general election, because he had hit the limit.
Damn! The Great EnSloshment Continues! Mamdani spending on his campaign like a drunken sailor, when he could be feeding the poor, housing the homel – oh, wait a minute...
And the Ensloshment is a real thing. Were we simply to redirect it we'd be the happiest, healthiest, most put-together nation ever!
There was a story in the Guardian about Mamdani's campaign that described an early test-run in those large apartment building complexes where some of New York's working class is still allowed to reside. Canvassers came back shocked, as soon as they mentioned the rent freeze idea, the people at the door started handing them cash.
Ha-RRUMPH!
Consultants 🤮
One thing you can count on is the average American voter will exact their vengance on anyone who makes them uncomfortable. Right now that's the Republican party, and they're just getting warmed up. The holiday season is going to be something to behold.
I hear you and agree. Except I wonder whether 2025 was just that or whether there's a deep repulsion of the Party of Trump which explains that what we had was a sort of tsunami--a very, very broad rejection of all things Republican that would have been huge if higher offices were on the ballots instead of a handful.
I think 2026 will be a fight as it were between the forces of Trump/Republican repulsion against Democratic failing to deliver. That is, will the former generate a lot of D votes and wins or will the latter send voters back to voting R.
So we got maybe a foretaste Tuesday. Or not. Was something big and different start?
Our own bias says "average people" (whoever they are) should be repulsed, deeply, by the acts and language of the Trump administration. My cynical study of American humanity says they will be repulsed (generally) if they pay attention to politics. Getting them to do THAT is the hard part. The MAGA Jihad against the federal bureaucracy and safety net is doing the heavy lifting on that job. Sinking that ocean liner is taking its time, but we're just starting to see the waves lapping on the Promenade Deck. The longer the shutdown lasts, the more Americans are going to be forced to pay attention to politics, and your Average American really, REALLY hates that. I think that's what we saw last Tue.
The core tenet of MAGA is my feelings matter more than your reality. Trump's whole career has been to use money and the courts to make reality go away when it bothers him. My core tenet is reality bats last, and at a minimum it always gets a hit. Trump is playing his game at a level he never has before, his tricks will work for a while, he may even walk away with money in his pocket like always, but a collapse of the American economy is not as simple or limited as a casino going bankrupt. He may not pay it, but there will be Hell to pay. My bet is Trump walks (or dies), his minions pay Hell, and the Republican party burn their MAGA hats and get off scott-free, again. And the Average American goes back to sleep.
The irony or whatever is that Trump and his Mini Me’s spew sooo much insanity that it’s reached the low informed, news avoiding voters. As we know, my theory is that there was a shit ton of buyer’s remorse showing on Tuesday. And Donny being Donny, doubling down on the insanity can be expected which, you know, isn’t electorally smart.
As for MAGAts, as we know, I say they’re all clinically insane. The exact DSM-5 may vary, but one definition or another fits each and every one of them.
I disagree that its the spew that has reached our average American. I think its the acts that are chipping away, the layoffs, tariffs, Trans Menance (when its their relative or friend whose genitals are being inspected), fucking ICE being thugs while the Guard and cops stand around, its all adding up, slowly. People in Chicago, Portland, NYC, LA are noticing the rhetoric has no connection to reality, but that's as close as the rhetoric matters, I think. Flight delays and cancellations are gonna get their attention.
I find the insanity defense a little too glib, but arguing that just gets in the weeds of definition and intent, like arguing Trump isn't "stupid" just a waste of time. Call them insane if you want, but for me it just gives them an out. They know what they're doing, all of them.
You inventoried my spew. I’m commingling because who knows what triggers what in who.
And the MAGA insanity is descriptive, in no way a defense because it’s pretty much all a matter of choice. There is no defense for any MAGAts.
I remember a decade or so ago when I was more high-minded, when I sniffed at folks who reveled in the defeat of their political opponents and considered them cruel. Well, those days are dead, dawg. Thanks to the rise of Trumpism I have become what I beheld and I now enjoy licking the salty tears of Cope and Seethe MAGAs as much as the next Lib.
So since Roy saw fit on Monday to remind us that Rod Dreher exists, I peeked in on him again after the election and of course he put his own unique spin on Cope and Seethe, as he's obsessed with the disastrous meaning behind the two premier cities of the English speaking world -- London and New York -- now both having Muslim mayors, and the evil portent of Mamdani being elected on the same day Dick Cheney died.
Oh Rod, never change!
I was pretty high a decade ago!
Is Rod out of the closet yet?
I'm suprised at all the Muslim hate - One thing you can count on - the First Family using every chance they get to blow some mideastern potentate.
Yeah, Tubby dancin' around with a sword and touchin' the glowing globe, but it's Tubby, so they all pretend it never happened. Back to that SCAAARY MOOSLIM who's drivin' my cab!
Yeah, but those are Muslims With Oil Money.
MILF: Muslims I'd Like to Freeload off of
"...Mamdani being elected on the same day Dick Cheney died"
And good old boys were drinking Brooklyn Lager and eatin' schawarma.
"I didn’t — and still don’t — like bike lanes, and I’m not big on open-air plazas that just push automobile congestion into tighter spaces of Midtown."
Is there any form of transportation this nitwit DOES countenance?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Race_(1976_video_game)
YMMV, but to me the hatred of cyclists is the absolute most fundamental tenet of assholery.
Deep in their hearts they know their cholesterol sodden bodies will last about 30 foot on a bicycle.
My mileage is kilometerage now, and at ~400,000k I've found little reason to disagree...
Damn, that's some serious distance under your wheels, even if you are measuring in Communist Units.
And look, with all that cycling, you ended up right back where you are!
Forget the Singularity – I embody the Circularity!
That's a lotof distances, either way you choose to measure it. I kinda lost track of my mileage, as I never added it year to year.
Now the only reason I pay attention to mileage is so I know when to swap chains from the one on the bike to the freshly waxed one..
I didn't keep track. But recently I simply totted up my weekly distance as an average and multiplied by 50 (assuming roughly 2 weeks' worth of not riding each year), and multiplied that by 55 years of riding that amount.
That works! I do know people who kept log books, documenting every ride. I couldn't be bothered. And lately, there's the "If it isn't on Strava, it didn't happen" crowd. I couldn't possibly care less about whether they approve of my ride or not. I assure you, the rides happened.
I used to zero my cyclometer on NYD to see how far I went in a year - there was a time when I rode every day, rain or shine. And during that time I did have a few 10K years. Now? Don't care.
Yesterday I was riding through the intersection at John Nolen Drive, there's one of those ghost bikes people put up to mark where a cyclist was killed, I imagine by an inattentive driver running a red light while texting, and a snippet of verse came into my head which I will now share with you:
Killed a cyclist with his car
Didn't notice that the light had changed
I always stop (or at least slow down) a moment for the ghost bikes. (there are LOTS of them in DC).
The one that still boggles me is set in a field off a quiet highway in Iowa, a rural area where I've never seen another cyclist...just a ghost bike, deep the green summer grain, under a big blue sky...
A story that still horrifies me happened outside Madison, quiet country road, early in the morning, a construction worker driving to work fell asleep at the wheel, drifted across the center line, and took out a cyclist going in the opposite direction. What I imagine is peacefully riding along, seeing the truck in the distance, then suddenly it's headed right at you and no time to get out of the way.
I find the attitude seems to be a Jesse Watters-type decision that nobody above the age of 14 or so should be allowed to ride a bicycle.
Especially if said person has a (whispering) vagina.
Limousines running over abuelitas on the upper East Side.
Plus, Dick Cheney is dead. What a terrific week!
Here's what should have happened 15 years or so ago. They should have gone to Trump and said "Mr. Trump, You refer to yourself in third person much too often to be let near any kind of real power. If you try, Dick Cheney will shoot you in the face and then make you apologize for getting in his way. You don't want that. Sorry"
" Trump mad!"
"Indeed"
For the past 10 years or so, I've done some crop insurance adjustment. Simple geometry with some algebra thrown in. I've also investigated on pesticide overspray, contamination cases. It's interesting, the pay is good. Seems to take forever to get a check. A few months ago, some insurance guys I know asked me to do some home inspections. Mostly just taking the photos of new customers houses. It's interesting too- pays decent (again, slow) Mostly, I ride around the back roads of three counties taking pictures for my Substack page.
On Monday, I had 5 houses to do in Springfield. They had been bought by one of the big landlords in town. I don't usually like those sorts of work orders. Poor people getting charged out the ass for crappy places to live , treating the places the way you'd expect.
All 5 houses had been bought from the Haitians we ran out of town. The homes had been nicely remodeled and kept neat. The sidewalks were edged and the flowerbeds were full of ornamentals, all nicely mulched. In every back yard was a thoughtfully laid out garden. I could picture the previous owners, looking at the fine homes they had made for their families after the hard trip from Haiti, feeling proud. Thinking about America, being grateful and feeling love.
I hope those people are alright.
Soon. Pillbillies will move in and by next spring the places will be the usual shithole.
Ain't that America?
OK. I'm with. I'm bloody well coming with you.
Back to Oofville.
Oracle: One day, a Muslim will be elected mayor of New York City.
Dick Cheney: Over my dead body!
Nice!
"Muslim communist" is an intriguing phrase. Communist. Communist!!! It's like screaming "witch!!!" in fucking medieval times.
Because "Jewish Communist" is so, like, 90 years ago. And came out of the mouths of fascists (like this does).
Just saying "______ communist" Is a red flag to me (but in a positive way--I wanna hear what this person is saying).
New Red (State) Scare
Amazing they still don't get that most young people's response to "Socialist!" is "pulls chair closer, listens attentively for the whole program."
Yeah. "Don't threaten me with a good time" seems to be the thinking of the youngs now. Good!
Nobody these days would understand "rootless cosmopolitans", other than the Derp Enlightenment.
Except in medieval times 99% of the town would not ask "what?"
The rest of the world wishes the USA would start asking "what?" Sorry, maybe I missed your point?
Crying "witch!" makes sense if most people know what a witch is. Crying "communist!" on the other hand...
What with alla the military refusing to re-enlist, pretty soon Trump be preparing to Seize the Means of Induction!
JD's brother ran for mayor of Cincinnati and got beat like a red headed stepchild riding a rented mule. That was particularly satisfying!
Step brother? Why, that suggests a non-traditional family! The great man deplores divorce! And I quote "it's easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear."
Manual or automatic?
Depends on the spouse, of course.
Yeah, you shouldn't shift, you should stick.
Never read his shitty book, but as a writer, he's somewhat not-good, eh? Just look at "shift spouses", was he trying for alliteration? Did using "change" twice make the sentence sound a little dull? That's because it IS dull. "...like they change their underwear" is the tiredest of tired similes and the laziest of lazy similes. The writing, don't do more of it, OK JD?
His shitty book is shitty.
It's like that quote you gave, but MORE
Jesus, now this is gonna bother me all day. You're talking about how modern times are different from the olden days, right? So maybe you could come up with a simile related to modern times? Change spouses like they change cell phone providers? Pick a spouse like you're scrolling through your Netflix queue? Fuck, I don't know, nobody's payin' me to write this shit, but people been changin' their underwear since there's been underwear, right? The whole thing falls flat, just STOP WRITING STUFF JD.
When I was a kid I kept trying to change my underwear. Didn't work. It refused to be anything but underwear.
Secret identity of Captain Underpants revealed
It has to WANT to change.
Wonder what Ron Howard thinks about unleashing that shitty book on the public as a movie...
Has anybody told Trump this?
"I tells ya, people these days shift spouses as often as they run a business into the ground."
Oh, please stop. Can we save some of these for later when I'm more depressed? What are you, one of those kids who eats ALL of their Halloween candy on Oct. 31?
The really good stuff never made it home.
Somebody (Terry Carrillo) has had me contemplating the civic mind for a couple of weeks now, you know, pondering what's goin' on in that sweet noggin of that old gal, US of A. ( think my fetish here is: "What would the Frankfort School on acid think?" but i may be wrong. Hard to tell.)
So I'm feeling her Mamdani mood (writ large across the common sod of this great land) myself, and tried to avoid those other fine folks you mention (the ones we're curtly asking in our getting exasperated Samuel L. Jackson voice(s): "Let us have this.") But they all certainly show that the old gal still got that vivid imagination and that panoramic view.
And i get the sense that she's picked up her gait, and is moving at a brisker pace toward her current destination.
(And we're working in the circus, now, babe. And we gotta have a lot of acts. Mamdani is just the magician. We're all a part of the show.)
If there's any question who the clowns are, just check the shoes.
Geller and Erickson, man — i can't imagine how dried out that grease paint is.
yeash
I know oil paint lasts about forever if you keep the cap on.
We're moving at a brisker pace
Look out here comes Mayor Whisker-Face
i think brother man can de-nut the trumpy problems as they arise, but the day job is brutal.
he's gotta feed the monkeys daily, turn the billionaires upside down and shake out the loot, tell a buncha fuckheads to go to hell (& have them look forward to the trip) and at least a half dozen other tricks. plus "institute teh reforms." it oughta be fun to watch.
*I* want to know who gets to fulfill the Mitch McConnell "we're going to make him a one-term mayor" role. Bill Ackman? Rudy?
What's left of the New York City Republican Party? The fact that their candidate was Curtis Sliwa suggests not much.
And the term is COMMUNO-FASCIST!
What do you bet “Abe Greenwald” is a 72 year old Staten Islander with a timeshare in Boca Raton?
He's what Glenn Greenwald turns into, given enough time.
What's this? GLENN is evolving!
I'd say it's more de-volving.
Glenn "Fascism For Thee, But Not For Me" Greenwald
Questions remain! They remain! Concerning questions! Damn it, I still have 500 words to wreak!
Thanks for this. I wondered how Dough Hat was going to spin this unambiguous victory which we must not, nay, shall not, revel in when there is important organization that needs to be done! Yes, Democrats, this carrot-peeler gesture (index finger rubbing over other index finger) is for you. Shame! Shame I say!
And we dare not rest on our laurels when there are centrists to woo! And the first question is about our Post Trump Slump. Stand up straight! Stop slouching! Reagan never slouched!
"My friends back home, you better make this work because this is the best chance you’ve had since LaGuardia." A great line, because, yes, this can be not just bread and roses but the return of the Little Flower too.
Damn right, Questions Remain, and when has that EVER happened before?
2 marks for carrot-peeler gesture ...
Now do spaghetti drainer.
(Makes a weird arm-shaking gesture.)
I was hoping more Jack-Lemony, but that requires a tennis racket.
Looking forward to Mamdani reading the comics to us over the electric radio.
Ooh, great idea! Do Maus first!
"Calvin and Muad Dib"
Or at least vintage Pogo.
This is how propaganda works, these micro-aggressions building to the open pre-hate-crime labeling we see in the Texas politicians' posts. As I have mentioned before, I work with prisoners of the American nightmare, who are addicted to overreacting to women like AOC and call the Democrats (e.g., Harris and Walz) "Bolsheviks" and "Maoists" in the same sentence.
These are fearful aging white guys who never really earned their place in the world. With their health, they also see their viability slipping away. They are the ones who criminalize poverty and think they are exempt from the war on working people. They "retired" at some point when they got laid off or fired from a job and returned to work "because they were bored."
Which is not true. They need to work, either for the benefits or the money to support the lifestyle, mostly an illusion, of upper middle class affluence. They are not the inner circle of the totalitarian movement they support, the same way they still root for their college football teams. They believe ICE is doing good work and don't believe the illegalities or that "real Americans" are getting caught up.
Propaganda and advertising works. Not just on them, but on me, and on you. We all miss things. The illusion of hindsight in this moment is what we need to fight against. It is not inevitable that the good guys will message as effectively as Mamdani. The stupid Democratic leadership is still a formidable stumbling block on the road to a New Deal and better life for all.
"The past year of trying to not only call our fellow Americans to sanity but also hold onto our own has been brutal"
A ray of light breaks through the darkness.
Ingraham non-Euclidian Angle
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/115/500/141/328/808/840/small/48c813744173f573.jpg
So if the Dem lost, would they have won?
You got it.
Every day is Opposite Day, which means every day IS NOT Opposite Day.
For that eventuality, they had prepared the chyron: "Loser Dems Lose Again, the Losers"
A chyron "By Winning, Republicans Are Losing" would get the writer not only fired but executed.
I do gotta give Congressman Brendan Gill points for honesty: Blaming Mamdani's victory on "mass *legal* immigration" says it plain: Forget all that horseshit we sold you a year ago about going after the "illegals", it's ALL immigrants we hate.
And seeing that the law and the Constitution don't matter anymore, guess who gets to decide who's legal and who's illegal.
Yes, the legal immigrants came here through the CHAIN MIGRATION.
Workers, arise! You have nothing to lose but your chain migration!
Also, about that one word, "mass" in front of "immigration" that is doing so much heavy lifting in makin' it all sound so SCAAAARY. We're a nation of nearly 350 million people. EVERYTHING we do is "mass." It's kinda what America is known for the world over, ain't it? Burgers by the billions, luxo-barge cars by the millions. What do you want, boutique, artisanal immigration? Oh, wait, you do.
No no no, because that's how the invasion happens, one person at a time, carrying nothing but the clothes on their back! And next thing you know something something overthrowing the government! (EDIT: obviously I mean in a *bad way*, of course)
I heard next year we're only going to allow 7500 or some such miniscule number of refugees in. The teeming masses, yearning to be free!
Sorry, we're suffering a worldwide shortage of white folks.
Oh, yeah, I forgot, ONLY HWITE GUYS
Might be down to just supermodels who hung out with Jeff Epstein, and those are gettin' REAL scarce.
Well, you know, they pass their “use by” date
M'thinks the shortage is across the wide Atlantic (or Pacific & Indian, your choice), along about the south end of Africa. Were we to send a curated lot of white folk o'er there, we could even out the pallette, if'n ya catch my drift...
He told us he preferred Norwegians over Nigerians or Nicaraguans in his *first* term.
Wait--questions remain? Why was I not informed?
I have been reliably informed that some things REMAIN TO BE SEEN
(throws up hands, looks around, gives up)
I'm sorry, I'm not seeing things right now, please have a seat in the waiting room and I'll see you as soon as I can.
See? You got two already!
Just throw 'em on the pile.
For non-New Yorkers, and just to show what a brilliant politician Mamdani is, Kensington and Midwood are adjacent neighborhoods right smack in the middle of Brooklyn with about as diverse a population as one could imagine. Middle Eastern, Bangladeshi, Indian immigrants with all of their stores and cultures intermingle with orthodox Jews, African-Americans, Latinos, Russians, Ukraines, you name it. And like so many New York neighborhoods, walk a block or two in either direction from a street lined with multi-million dollar homes and you're in a sea of apartment buildings, kosher delis, and Halal meat markets. I grew up in Flatbush near Brooklyn College (the next neighborhood over from Midwood -- the borders have never been official), went to Midwood High School, and my orthodox dentist is still in Kensington.
Needless to say, I voted for the Muslim commie terrorist. Just to be safe, I'm trying to grow a beard and my wife has just ordered a burqa from the Target on Flatbush.
I just wanna know what the UNorthodox dentist does...
He doesn't drain you of blood first.