Open Mic for the week of 11/4/2024

Jaybird

Jaybird is Birdmojo on Xbox Live and Jaybirdmojo on Playstation's network. He's been playing consoles since the Atari 2600 and it was Zork that taught him how to touch-type. If you've got a song for Wednesday, a commercial for Saturday, a recommendation for Tuesday, an essay for Monday, or, heck, just a handful a questions, fire off an email to AskJaybird-at-gmail.com

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51 Responses

  1. Philip H
    Ignored
    says:

    Stochastic political terrorism continues before election day, enabled by social media companies who are obeying in advance:

    Two days before Halloween, a Pennsylvania postal worker was delivering a box of mailed-in ballots to the Northampton County Courthouse. A man filming with his phone began asking questions and followed the postal worker into the building.

    The man doing filming was told that the man with the box of ballots was a postal worker.

    “I dunno, apparently he’s with the post office, but that looks very suspect,” said the man filming, zooming in on what he said was “an obscene amount of ballots.”

    The video then zoomed in for a closeup of the postal worker’s face. As of Nov. 2, it had nearly six million views.

    The day after posting the video of the Pennsylvania postal worker, its creator wrote on X that if the subject of his video did turn out to be just a public servant doing his job, “I’ll take this down and issue a correcting statement. We are after the truth, whatever that may be.” As of Nov. 2, the video remains online.

    https://www.npr.org/2024/11/02/nx-s1-5174151/election-2024-voter-fraud-harassment-influencers-elon-musk-xReport

    • pillsy in reply to Philip H
      Ignored
      says:

      When you remember that, in addition to any potential political benefits you gain from terrorizing political adversaries and civil servants who stand in the way of your partisan projects, this also draws a ton of clicks and engagement from people who are more stable than the violent maniacs without actually being stable in an absolute sense.

      It really is of a piece with FanDuel and gacha games and social media and “mental health” apps, pulling us into obsessive and easily monetized loops, with any other impact being a happy (or not-so-happy) accident.Report

    • Brandon Berg in reply to Philip H
      Ignored
      says:

      I see you’ve learned your lines. Good job!Report

  2. Philip H
    Ignored
    says:

    This man doesn’t deserve to go back – he cares not one witt about the Constitution or Rule of law:

    At a rally in the must-win battleground state, the former president told supporters that he “shouldn’t have left” office after losing the 2020 election; described Democrats as “demonic”; complained about a new poll that shows him no longer leading in Iowa, a state he twice carried; and said he wouldn’t mind if a gunman aiming at him also shot through “the fake news.”

    Trump spent much of his speech pushing unfounded claims of cheating by Democrats in the 2024 election and sowing doubts about its integrity as polls show him and Vice President Kamala Harris deadlocked nationally. He ranted about alleged election interference this year and lamented his departure from office after losing to Joe Biden four years ago.

    “I shouldn’t have left. I mean, honestly, because we did so, we did so well,” Trump said during his rally in Lititz as he claimed the US-Mexico border was more secure under his administration.

    It was a rare public admission of regret over participating in the peaceful transfer of power after he incited his supporters to violently storm the US Capitol as he tried to subvert the results of the 2020 election that he lost but refused to concede — something Trump is currently facing federal charges over.

    https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/03/politics/trump-dark-closing-message/index.htmlReport

  3. Philip H
    Ignored
    says:

    Anyone know where TFG gets his Enemies from inside rhetoric? John Birch knows . . .

    https://www.npr.org/2024/11/03/nx-s1-5176529/john-birch-society-movement-conspiracy-politicsReport

  4. LeeEsq
    Ignored
    says:

    It is getting lost in the run-up to the election but the Epstein tapes reveal some rather monstrous things:

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/listen-to-the-jeffrey-epstein-tapes-i-was-donald-trumps-closest-friend/Report

  5. Philip H
    Ignored
    says:

    The threats and the doxxing have already started:

    That’s the situation some federal employees find themselves in today, after the far-right nonprofit American Accountability Foundation released a “DHS Bureaucrat Watch List” to “target” and remove so-called “subversive bureaucrats” from government. American Accountability Foundation is funded by the Heritage Foundation and the Conservative Partnership Institute.

    According to the group, the “watch list” identifies “radical leftists” who are working in or with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), particularly on immigration issues. The conservative group claims these civil servants cannot be trusted to secure the border.

    “We created DHSWatchlist.com to shine a light on the swamp’s darkest corners. No longer will these radicals be able to hide in anonymity,” said American Accountability Foundation president Thomas Jones, a former Republican senate staffer. Jones said he created the site to expose “long-standing and deep bias” on immigration policy.

    The site posts the name of the civil servant, picture, salary, employment history, and even if they have credit card debt. Some employees are cited because they donated as little as $10 to Democratic campaigns. Others are cited because they made a social media support in support of diversity, equity, accessibility, inclusion topics or Democrats.

    https://www.fedmanager.com/news/federal-groups-dhs-respond-after-group-targets-employees-on-watch-listReport

  6. Jaybird
    Ignored
    says:

    We need Kagan and Sotomayor to retire RIGHT FREAKING NOW.Report

  7. Jaybird
    Ignored
    says:

    Jonathan Pie had a great post-mortem after Clinton lost that I agreed with 80%.

    He’s got another entertaining one now that I agree with 30%.

    Report

  8. Jaybird
    Ignored
    says:

    If you put this in a movie, people would snort and call it “heavy-handed”.

    Report

  9. Jaybird
    Ignored
    says:

    In gaming news, Alyssa Mercante is no longer the Senior Editor at Kotaku.Report

  10. Jaybird
    Ignored
    says:

    Huh. Kristallnacht is trending on twitter… welp, let’s see what Donald Trump did now…

    Oh, wait. It’s not about Trump? It’s about Jews being attacked in Amsterdam?Report

  11. Philip H
    Ignored
    says:

    This is the disgusting world my daughters now live in:

    White supremacist Nicholas Fuentes wrote “Your body, my choice. Forever,” on X on November 5, a misogynist rallying cry that has spread like wildfire among young men online. He proliferated the idea in a video, saying, “Hey bitch, we control your bodies. Guess what? Guys win again, men win again, and yes, we control your bodies,” as part of a gleeful anti-woman rant. An X user with more than 100,000 followers wrote, “women threatening sex strikes like LMAO as if you have a say,” and mocked E. Jean Carroll, who Trump sexually abused in the 1990s. And Andrew Tate, a manosphere influencer and self-proclaimed misogynist, has, as expected, been on a tear on X following Trump’s election.

    https://www.teenvogue.com/story/emboldened-by-a-trump-win-misogyny-is-exploding-onlineReport

  12. Jaybird
    Ignored
    says:

    Gili Cohen reports:

    SCOOP: Qatar has conveyed to Hamas representatives on its soil – You’re no longer welcomed here. More details on this major change – tonight at @kann_news

    Report

  13. Jaybird
    Ignored
    says:

    BREAKING: 64% of Native Americans voted for Trump.

    Apparently, they’re not fans of Undocumented Visitors.Report

  14. Jaybird
    Ignored
    says:

    Speaking of conspiracy theories:

    Report

    • Hoosegow Flask in reply to Jaybird
      Ignored
      says:

      Here is something both Nancy and Bernie could say instead of pointing fingers:

      “We made a mistake in following conventional wisdom and not challenging an incumbent President in the primary. Our bad.”Report

      • Jaybird in reply to Hoosegow Flask
        Ignored
        says:

        Well, as I said at the time, the choice was “Biden or What’s-In-The-Box” and Biden was pretty much guaranteed to lose (or so I thought) and, as such, I thought that What’s-In-The-Box was the best play.

        Like, I knew that there were downsides!

        Anyway, at the time, there were arguments that Biden should be the nominee and only somebody bad would argue otherwise. Dropping Biden at this point would result in the party tearing itself apart!

        Well, we had an early debate. Trump vs. Biden.

        Remember that Jemelle Bouie thought it was a tie? Hee hee. I still giggle about that. Anyway.

        We got rid of Biden. Instead of having an open primary and seeing who could handle Thunderdome (and, perhaps, the general), I was told that swapping out Harris would result in the party tearing itself apart and, besides, all of the warchest money ($80 million!) would be forfeit.

        Harris spent about a billion. Which makes 80 million somewhere around 8%.

        And here we are.

        Personally, I think that the party needs to tear itself apart. This whole “millennial” thing where the only freaking tools at their disposal are moral panics and social disapproval is not working.

        Remember in The Dawn Treader where Eustace had to scratch off his dragon scales?

        The Democratic Party needs to find Aslan.Report

    • Dark Matter in reply to Jaybird
      Ignored
      says:

      Having watched Harris campaign for a few months, I find it very hard to believe that she “would have been stronger” if she’d gone through the primary.

      Much more likely that she wouldn’t have won.Report

  15. Jaybird
    Ignored
    says:

    I held this particular story at arm’s length but now DeSantis is talking about it.

    The Daily Wire (yes, I know, very partisan media source) reported that “Internal messages obtained by The Daily Wire show a FEMA official ordered relief workers in Florida not to help houses with Trump signs”.

    This struck me as very likely to *NOT* be true or, if it was true, a bad, BUT OBVIOUS, joke. You know. “Get on out there and help people, folks. Well, not the ones with Trump signs! LOL!”

    Poor taste but, seriously, a funny joke for members of the ingroup.

    HOWEVER.

    It seems that it was actually serious. From the story:

    Photos from the system used by federal relief workers to track what homes they visit showed that relief workers followed Washington’s guidance. Several addresses were marked “not able to access property” with listed explanations such as: “Trump sign no entry per leadership,” “Per leadership no stop Trump flag,” “Trump sign,” and “Trump sign, no contact per leadership.”

    The story says that Chad Hershey, Washington’s FEMA supervisor, has said that he’s aware of the situation and they’re addressing it.

    And now DeSantis is talking about it too.Report

    • Glyph in reply to Jaybird
      Ignored
      says:

      Let me make clear: if true, this is absolutely awful and should not have happened. Like the police, FEMA’s responsibility is to get in there and help anyone who needs help.

      However: I suspect that like the police, FEMA didn’t want to get shot. The fact that the “Avoid homes advertising Trump” bullet comes right before “Practice de-escalation and preventative measures” and right after “No one goes anywhere alone” makes me think that whoever wrote this list up suspected, and IMO not without reason, that people with Trump signs on their house were possibly more prone to sitting in the shadows with their shotgun sights trained on any potential approaching “looters”.

      AGAIN: to repeat, they shouldn’t have made this assumption; or at least should not have let it guide official policy. Like the police, their job is to go into dangerous chaotic situations and help the people who need help, and that duty will entail some risk to them.

      But I suspect the directive was intended to be protective of FEMA employees, rather than punitive to Trump supporters.

      My speculation here is intended to potentially explain, but NOT excuse. Again, if true, this is absolutely terrible.Report

  16. InMD
    Ignored
    says:

    Interview is priors confirming for me but worth reading from a Democrat defying current trends:

    https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/a-wa-red-district-conqueror-wants-fellow-democrats-to-look-in-the-mirror/

    Money quote:

    I was talking to a woman who runs one of the largest labor and delivery wards. She said 40% of the babies there have at least one parent addicted to fentanyl. What is empathetic: to tell them that’s their problem, or to take border security seriously?

    People are putting their groceries on their credit card. No one is listening to anything else you say if you try to talk them out of their lived experiences with data points from some economists.Report

    • LeeEsq in reply to InMD
      Ignored
      says:

      Everybody has their own hot takes including myself and they are basically in agreement with this guy. But while Trump won the popular and electoral college vote this time, the Democratic Party did well in Congressional elections and state elections. Liberal ballot messages won. 2024 could simply be nothing more than the general anti-incumbent backlash that happened because of COVID fallout and Trump being popular in many quarters. Somebody like Nikki Haley might have caused greater loses for the Democratic Party because she doesn’t read as much as a hate figure as Trump from the libearl-left spectrum or caused Harris to win because she doesn’t have Trump’s celebrity and ability to mobilize low propensity voters.Report

      • InMD in reply to LeeEsq
        Ignored
        says:

        Yea, I still think there’s a good chance that another Republican would have won even bigger, and maybe had some coat tails. There’s still a chance the Democrats win the house and a significant chance that if they don’t the Republican majority will be even slimmer than the ultra slim majority they have now. A lot of down ballot Democrats outperformed Harris in important races.

        However…. I think it’s a real mistake to not take this opportunity for some re-invention. I assume the goal of the party isn’t to trade off the executive on razor’s edge general elections and play for narrow congressional majorities. It’s to actually get governing coalitions big enough to do things, and that can’t happen without appealing to a wider swathe of the electorate.Report

        • LeeEsq in reply to InMD
          Ignored
          says:

          I definitely think that some re-invention for the Democratic Party is needed but this is going to be very hard to pull off, especially in the way that American political parties are structured and somebody who doesn’t have Trump’s cult of personality to remake the party in their image. Latinos had made it very clear that they like the term Latinx and DEI is unpopular but there are more than a few DEI true believers that simply won’t be moved and won’t stop using that term because they are right damn it. Same with the issue of crime. More than a few ideologically committed people believe the way forward is to run every district like it is AOC’s district or Vermont until it becomes more liberal by learning to like it.Report

    • Jaybird in reply to InMD
      Ignored
      says:

      This is the part that got me:

      What were your thoughts about Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign?

      When Harris first came out, I was open to talking with her. I know she called a lot of my colleagues; she never called me. I’ve had one interaction with Harris, at her Naval Observatory Christmas party.

      I’m not super comfortable at that kind of thing. I’d had a couple of beers, and I noticed that almost all of the garlands were plastic. My district grows a hell of a lot of Christmas trees. I was strong-armed into taking a picture. I said, “Madam Vice President, we grow those where I live.” She just walked away from me. There was kind of an eye roll, maybe. My thinking was, it does matter to people where I live. It’s the respect, the cultural regard for farmers. I didn’t feel like she understood what I was trying to say.

      The number one thing that a good congressperson does is represent their district.

      If there were more democrats that had local concerns and fewer that had national concerns, they’d not find themselves in this pickle.Report

      • InMD in reply to Jaybird
        Ignored
        says:

        I don’t think anyone has to be madly in love with Joe Manchin types but its important to underatand that a really, really successful Democratic party would have a lot of those types in it.Report

  17. LeeEsq
    Ignored
    says:

    There was an anti-Semitic riot in Amsterdam that targeted Israeli soccer fans in the city for a match and local Jews:

    https://www.reuters.com/world/israels-pm-aware-very-violent-incident-against-israelis-amsterdam-his-office-2024-11-08/

    The trigger point was apparently an Israeli being respect to a Palestinian flag or something. I do not understand this. Every time you have a big anti-Jewish riot or something since the Holocaust, the majority response from the world’s Jews is “at least we have Israel and the IDF now” or “this is why we need Israel” but the Pro-Palestinian or anti-Israeli side never seems to either get this or they actively believe Jews should be in danger. Like they are making the arguments for Zionism but don’t realize this.Report

  18. Jaybird
    Ignored
    says:

    Wanna see a really good ad for a really good Democratic candidate?

    Report

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