Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025
In Prince Edward Island, the second Monday of February is known as “Islander Day”.
There’s a phenomenon where someone writes an essay about this or that but someone else wants to discuss something that has not yet made it to the front page.
This is unfair to everybody involved. It’s unfair to the guy who wrote the original essay because, presumably, he wants to talk about his original essay. It’s unfair to the guy who wants to talk about his link because it looks like he’s trying to change the subject. It’s unfair to the people who go to the comments to read up on the thoughts of the commentariat for the original essay and now we’re talking about some other guy’s links.
So!
The intention is to have a new one of these every week. If you want to talk about a link, post it here! Or, heck, use it as an open thread.
And, if it rolls off, we’ll make a new one. With a preamble just like this one.
Today in it is totally not a cult:
1. Representative Claudia Tenney (NY-24) proposes turning Trump’s birthday into a Federal Holiday.
2. Rep. Luna introduces legislation to carve Trump into Mt. Rushmore
3. House Republicans want to impeach judges that ruled against Trump
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/16/impeachment-judges-republicans-trumpReport
Four NYC deputy mayors are expected to resign rather than collaborate with Trump and Adams: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/nyregion/adams-deputy-mayors-resign-trump-immigration.html?smtyp=cur&smid=bsky-nytimesReport
The GOP wants to ban mRNA vaccines: https://www.yahoo.com/news/bill-ban-mrna-vaccines-passes-140200324.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACYLVIW00ldqm6UCPi6x0bA7pJPelrx6iePXdC-ZN30G7gQ7wC3svob-8w2UsUyI-nptiG0JHe0W3wykEBUILSX-kxQXPN20PcwNtHOVK2lm32jlGka_UEH8VBrlwrqwSiYyrQgdH4JkZoZ-kmHO5FGuQkOls6wli1DPTQUqEsQH
ETA: Never mind this is Montana only but still dumbReport
Most state legislatures have some really dumb bills introduced every session. This one is more interesting than many because it actually passed a committee vote. Also too, it banned mRNA for vaccines against infectious diseases, but allowed the tech for use against cancer or to correct gene-based problems.Report
Homan wants the DOJ about making a video advising undocumented residents about their rights: https://www.newsweek.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-investigation-illegal-migrant-video-tom-homan-2031045Report
“These health burdens have continued to increase alongside the increased prescription of medication. For example, in the case of Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, over 3.4 million children are now on medication for the disorder — up from 3.2 million children in 2019-2020 — and the number of children being diagnosed with the condition continues to rise.
This poses a dire threat to the American people and our way of life.”
The language of Eugenics right out in the open.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/establishing-the-presidents-make-america-healthy-again-commission/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1SErud5Tu3NGb7PN1P1SH1bMWrNaqo2aoPvvnNc5WiS2IrAhpLXHlp9bw_aem_jn2B0kbC060F0yDuQBLLfAReport
The opioid addiction scandal was mostly doctors prescribing badly.
Presumably that’s a thing in other situations.Report
Elon replied to DJT’s Napoleon-quoting tweet today with 14 flag emojis, at 14:14 ET.
What a weirdly specific flag count and timestamp. I’m sure it’s just because he’s allegedly on the spectrum and feels a special affinity for the number 14. In a strange coincidence, the gear in the DOGE logo also has that many teeth. My heart goes out to him.Report
Oh, I forgot to mention that like his Sieg Heil, he did it twice.
He does it twice, so that while the ignorant don’t catch it or make excuses for it, the white nationalists, sometimes colloquially known as “nahtzees”, that he’s dogwhistling can be sure that the first signal was no accident.
Ha ha! What a crazy overexcited big “theater kid” he is!
https://x.com/kendallybrown/status/1891541628394824059Report
1) Yes, it’s pretty obvious at this point.
But more importantly,
2) Dude, are you on Twitter?Report
In reverse order,
2) Nope. Weirdly at times now I kinda wish I was only because stuff like this is hard for me to double-check to make sure it’s not misinformation/disinformation/taken out of context; but still, I was never on Twitter to start with and no WAY am I getting on that sinking dumpster-fire now.
and 1) It was obvious before, but someone here who shall remain nameless kept making odd excuses for the Sieg Heils; and as I love that person like a brother, I intend to keep hammering relentlessly upon this particular nail until they also say, “yes, it’s pretty obvious at this point”, because I don’t want my brother to keep on looking like a dang fool.Report
Re: Twitter, I plan to go down with the ship. I’ve tried a couple of the replacements, and find them either to be either very boring (Mastadon) or almost entirely populated by the sorts of people I went out of my way to avoid on Twitter (BlueSky). Since I see almost none of the far right stuff on Twitter, at least for now, it remains mostly bearable, though I did block literally hundreds of people talking about a certain conflict in a certain part of the world (including some people here).
Speaking of the far right stuff, Musk’s attraction to it was apparent pretty much as soon as he bought Twitter, when he started interacting with those people openly over there. For example, he has repeatedly agreed with and amplified “Great Replacement” views.
I assume the use of dog whistles is really just trolling, because he’s already shown us who he is, and everyone acting as though his flirting with the far right on Twitter, or hanging out with AfD in Germany, etc., doesn’t mean he’s like them is either kidding themselves or doesn’t really care if he’s like them.
Or such people are at this point just so reflexively contrarian about anything said by anyone to the left of the median House Republican that they’ve lost all sense of perspective and gravity.Report
As dog-whistles go, that’s one that is outside even my range of hearing.
The screenshot that I saw had it at 1:14, though… which I understand is 13:14.
Different time zones, I guess.Report
Yeah, it’s timezone stuff. His initial reply was at 14:14 ET (he’s in DC), but of course that would display in the local timezone of the screenshotter.
I think if I were posting multiple flags, I would post eleven, one flag louder than ten.Report
Was Twitter originally made to allow for fifteen flags on a line? I saw a screenshot showing that fifteen flags had a new line created so you had one row of 14 and then one row of 1.
This may go all the way back to Jack.Report
What could possibly go wrong?
https://x.com/RepTimBurchett/status/1889719640923762971Report
If only the Democrats had a spine – or a brain.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-party-that-refuses-to-take-shots-loses/?Report
OH SO YOU’RE SAYING THAT DEMOCRATS ARE THE ONLY PARTY WITH AGENCYReport
If anything, what the Democrats have shown in this moment is that agency is something they lack completely. They are not agents, they are large blobs of jelly in expensive clothing.Report
I wonder if Mitch McConnell is for hire.Report
Turtles at least have some agency.Report
Cowabunga.Report
Ironically, I feel that McConnells’ strategy for Obama would be way more useful if used by us against Trump.Report
Management all over the world is requiring a return to the office.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/us-russia-talks-ukraine-europe-invasion-rcna192544Report
https://united24media.com/latest-news/us-russia-peace-plan-allegedly-suggests-three-stages-ceasefire-elections-and-final-agreement-5992
Speaking of “peace” “deals”, the stabbing in the back from Trump to Ukraine continues. The three stage “process” includes snap elections which will presumably be used to try and get a Kremlin and Putin friendly Puppet government in charge of things.Report
The only way we can protect Democracy is to make sure that we don’t have elections.Report
Or we let countries decide when to have elections and make when a war is ongoing is not the best time?Report
What does “letting countries decide when to have elections” look like?
Asking the people in power whether they want one?Report
As opposed to whom? Trump and Putin?Report
As opposed to “letting them happen as scheduled”.
But I understand that that train has left the station.Report
So that’s not an alternative.Report
Maybe the people who took it off the table shouldn’t be in charge of deciding whether it’s time to have elections yet.
I mean… if you’ve already cancelled an election, is there ever going to be a good time to have one after that? Ever?Report
If I recall correctly, Ukraine’s constitution calls for the suspension of elections in a time of emergency, which is clearly the case there. Nothing untoward has happened.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/11/17/ukraine-elections-war-russia-zelensky/Report
Also, how exactly do you hold elections when a chunk of the country is occupied by a foreign army? I fthey hold and election and Zelensky wins again, Putin (and his proxies) will either A) Claim it doesn’t count because not everyone got to vote or B) Claim that this amounts to Ukraine disclaiming the occupied territory since they weren’t counted in the vote totals.Report
So whom?Report
Who/Whom.Report
You tell us.Report
It means that Russia and the US don’t get to ram snap elections down Ukraine’s throat in a “peace accord” that is being negotiated without Ukraine’s being present.Report
Speaking of more local corruption.
The Adams’ situation has gotten to the point where Gov. Hochul is holding an emergency meeting today. The proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back appears to be the sudden resignation of 4 Deputy Mayors and the head of the NYC council calling for him to resign. These are Adams’ own allies and staffers, not his opposition.
Josh Marshall correctly pointed out that the corrupt plea bargain deal gives Trump dominion over NYC effectively.’
We shall see if Hochul is willing to use a never enacted power which lets her remove the mayor from office.
FWIW, I think it is generally good to be cautious about using this power but this is an emergency/break glass situationReport
I think that Hochul needs to break this glass and get Adams out of power immediately.
It’s okay to set a precedent if it’s important enough.
Will she be the one to appoint a new mayor?Report
No. The NYC Charter lays out the line of succession. First in line is the Public Advocate, then the City Comptroller.Report
Jumaane Williams… oooh! He’s a Democratic Socialist!
Yeah, Hochul needs to get rid of Adams *YESTERDAY*.Report
The DOJ is now arguing that Elon Musk does not run DOGE or work for them at all, and is merely a special advisor to the President: https://abcnews.go.com/US/white-house-claims-elon-musk-doesnt-run-doge/story?id=118913206
The lawyers did not bother to specify who _does_ run it, which one would assume that government lawyers would do almost automatically when presented with ‘lawsuit that targets targets a governmental agency and names the head of the agency but names the wrong person as the head’. It is utterly surreal not to say ‘X is not in charge, Y is, here is the documentation’ as a response to that. It is blatant deliberate stalling to try to force the opposing side to file a motion demanding to know who is is in charge, a thing that they should not have to do and the judge isn’t going to put up with them having to do…who runs governmental agencies is not secret and doesn’t need to be requested in court. If I was the judge this filing was given to, I’d say ‘Well, you have ten minutes to tell me who is in charge or I’m issuing an temporary restraining for the entire agency to stop what they are doing until someone is officially in charge.’
Anyway, lawyers doing things that will make judges very angry aside: Not only is this obvious nonsense, as both Trump and Elon have presented themselves in charge of DOGE many time, but it really feels like this means the entire DOGE scam is unraveling and Elon is trying to get out from under it.
Sadly, because Elon is a complete and total moron (Seriously, this cannot be stressed enough) and has admitted repeatedly he has access to restricted information that DOGE has accessed, making him not part of DOGE actually makes the situation for him worse, not better.
The lawyers trying to stop DOGE just claimed he wasn’t in charge because the specific lawsuit pointed out that Elon had not been confirmed by the Senate, so decided to retcon him into a mere Presidential advisor, which might, in theory, make that lawsuit a little weaker, while making everything else so much stupider because this claim can be used in _other_ court filings about how DOGE should not be accessing things it is accessing, because now they can prove people outside DOGE have access to it!
Hell, it doesn’t even actually help this lawsuit! This lawsuit is about how DOGE is out of control and operating outside Federal Regulations without Congressional Authorization or Senate Confirmation, and lawyers saying ‘The person who has been claiming to run it is not actually running it, and we’re not going to say who is, and in fact might not be sure’ does not, uh, disprove that premise.Report
This is a blatant lie.Report
New polls! We got 538 and we got RCP.Report
And what do you take away from these polls?Report
Oh, the usual. “This just goes to prove that you can’t trust polls.”Report
Can JB troll Democrats/Liberals with selectively presented information? Not only can he, he is compelled to do so.
There is a bunch of stuff going on: Musk is currently taking a lot of fire for Trump, the proverbial sh@t has not hit the fan for most Americans, and there is a weird split in favorability and approval.
But this os still low by first 100 days status historicallyReport
Selectively presented information? I posted links to the two biggest polling aggregators out there without adding additional commentary hoping to spin what you, the reader, would see with your own eyes when you went to these sites to look at the numbers for yourself.
“But this os still low by first 100 days status historically”
Would you have preferred if I, instead, had said “Here are the new polls but this os still low by first 100 days status historically”?
Would that have made it feel less selectively presented for you?Report
You present the polls without context in a cheery matter. It sure has hell looks like it is coming from an amoral vacuum to me. I report, you decide.
Do you have any opinions on your own for what is happening and whether the actions are good or bad?Report
coming from an amoral vacuum
How is this not the opposite of selectively presented?
Do you have any opinions on your own for what is happening and whether the actions are good or bad?
Oh, yeah. I’ve got plenty.Report
saul you’re literally doing the thing where you make up a guy in your head and get mad at himReport
Also, counter evidence: https://www.nj.com/politics/2025/02/major-trouble-for-donald-trump-in-new-polling-is-chaos-catching-up-to-him.htmlReport
This just goes to prove that you can’t trust polls.Report
One thing is for certain: if this country is well and truly cooked, then it’s us who put it in the oven and left it there.Report
There’s a quotation attributed to Genghis Khan: “I am the punishment of God…If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.”
The legendary Emperor Yu successfully controlled a massive flood and, by doing so, demonstrated that he held the mandate of heaven.
One of the odd things about the whole “mandate of heaven” thing is that stuff like “flood control” was, mostly, somewhat manageable. Like, you could spend money and effort on dams and maintenance and floodwalls and so on and so forth. And, for the most part, if you weren’t in a particularly floody year, it didn’t matter if your local managers skimmed a little off the top and didn’t do all of the maintenance required. Why bother having managers whose job it was to manage the managers in dryish years? Or manager manager managers?
But when the deluge came, that little “skimming off of the top” became a flood and an indicator that the job of overseeing things had been neglected and it went all the way to the top. And neglect meant that you had lost the mandate of heaven.
We have lost the mandate of heaven.
Our sins have been very great indeed.Report
“The people all said to Samuel, ‘Pray to the Lord your God for your servants so that we will not die, for we have added to all our other sins the evil of asking for a king.'”
1 Samuel 12:19 (NIV)Report
Sometimes you get a Solomon. Sometimes you get an Ahab.Report
Or Herod.Report
Leaving the realm of myth and religion, it strikes me as very much a case of the political struggles of Cold War and post-Cold War America “creat[ing] circumstances and relationships that made it possible for a grotesque mediocrity to play a hero’s part.” Specifically, I think this is a path we’ve been headed down since the end of WWII, with all the contradictions, both domestic and international, of the economic and political order that came out of that.Report
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.Report
Considering the animus to FDR that conservative business people held back in the day so are on to something.Report
In fairness, it’s not a particularly original idea. See, e.g., this book, which was written in ’94, when Trump was just a hotel owner, serial bankruptcy filer, and frequent tabloid fodder, who was the primary cause of the death of the USFL.Report
From Josh Marshall:
Was getting a read out a short time ago about firings at CMS (the agency that runs Medicare and Medicaid). The cuts run deep. And giving how much of the health care economy runs through these programs that’s of course worrisome. But the most telling detail is one I’ve heard from numerous other agencies. The people actually running the agency don’t actually know how many people have been fired or who they are. If you’re in charge of and responsible for running the place you really need to know that. But as in other agencies they’re having to piece that together by doing things like seeing whose emails have been turned off or just asking them. Did you get fired? You? Can someone ask Lori if she got fired? Imagine running an agency and finding out that there had been widespread terminations but not being given any details about who they are or how many there are. That’s pretty straightforward sabotage.Report
I can’t think of anything Putin or Xi would do differently if they were in charge of the U.S. instead of TruskReport
They probably would be more pro-Palestinian, for one obvious thing.Report
This might be one of the strangest things I’ve seen someone say on this site. I can see a comparison to, say, Orbán, in that it looks like Trump is trying to remake the government and to some extent universities in his ideological image, but even that comparison, which unlike comparing him to Putin or Xi (two very different rulers from each other, even) makes some sense, is pretty limited. He hasn’t yet gone after the press, or protestors in really, and even his attacks on universities (through withholding grant money) are nothing like Orbán’s yet.Report
Orabnification is happening to.
I wonder if this a difference between liberal v. leftist. I think USAID did a lot more good than bad and its destruction will lead to a lot of pain and suffering around the world.
They are basically doing a wholesale dismantling of the Federal Government which will cause a lot of pain down the road or worse.
And I don’t think this is good even if the agencies were not perfect.
Putin and Xi wanted a weakened and discredited and untrusted U.S. and Trusk’s actions are going to produce that. I don’t believe in Evil Spock American Exceptionalism where the United States is only a source of evil and malice in the world. I don’t believe in American Exceptionalism where we are only a force of unalloyed good.
But I am an internationalist and believe in soft power and America being active in world affairs.Report
I think USAID does real good, and it’s a shame that’s stuff is going away. It’s very good that its black money and propaganda functions will be gone, though I assume agencies like the CIA will pick them right up.
I have mixed feelings about the administrative state, but the way it’s being dismantled, and the speed with which it’s being dismantled, are undeniably reckless and will cause a great deal of suffering while doing damage to a myriad of institutions that are, at least for the most part, good (like universities).
I don’t think Xi sees the U.S. the way the U.S. sees China. Putin may see the U.S. the way the U.S. sees Russia, though, but if he were running things, I have no doubt that the military would be his first target, not cancer research grants or the Department of Education.Report
You can’t have a welfare state without an administrative stateReport
You can’t have mature capitalism without a welfare state.Report
Also true.
You are responding to a guy who would ban private equity and then give anyone but support staff lifetime totality bans from working in finance/banking/consulting, even if they are just right out of college and in the first hour of orientation.
I’m not a neoliberal.Report
Hungary is a unitary parliament system which makes it a lot easier to totally take over. I think Trump is going to leave a mess of smoking craters and ruins, kind of like a half-as*ed renovation job that never got passed or even completed the demolition stage.
Unlike you I wouldn’t call myself an internationalist but I am a kind of realist that sees the upside to self interested noblesse oblige and non-zero sum thinking where the opportunities present themselves.
It seems to me that the core failure is that of America’s outward looking organizations, from the aid agencies, to the spooks, to even the military itself to exercise some basic judgment and self auditing. It’s clear to me that DOGE (to say nothing of Trump himself) is completely Twitter brained. The reason this stuff is on the radar is because it’s become so easy to meme-ify the various idiotic-to-disastrous things these organizations do. Bottom line is if we want PEPFAR (and to be clear, I want PEPFAR) we need to be able to say no to DEI in Serbia or promoting gay or trans or whatever comic book characters for Peru’s department of education, and wherever else.Report
Our Federalized system might also prevent some but all damage.
As my State Senator pointed out this morning, most forests in California (and most of the United States) are federal land. Slashing jobs at Interior and National Parks is going to be very bad during the summer travel and wildfire seasons.
What is happening at the DOJ and FBI is not good.
What is happening at HHS/NIH is not good.
But I still find it strange that DEI gets such strong reactions. Yes, there is some silliness in the language used at corporate training workshops but it is clear that Trump’s crusade against DEIA is more about reasserting white supremacy. Hence he found one group that deserves political asylum, white South Africans.* They are going at this with manic energy. They are defending alliances with far right fascist parties and going to the mats when someone is revealed as a Holocaust denier or having attended actual white supremacist rallies.
Or as I saw it, Musk’s code warriors are like meth addicts ripping through the walls and copper wiring looking for the WOKE machine so they can figure out why women won’t f**k them,
But if someone’s response to all the chaos and damage being caused now is still to go “but DEI.” I have to think it will be 2024’s but her emails…Report
I don’t think any of is likely to turn out well. I’ve never voted for Trump or any Republican for president. If I have to cop to anything it’s voting for Larry Hogan twice for governor in a context where Democrats would hold legislative super majorities.
Here is what I’d offer as food for thought from someone who still votes D but probably has some big disagreements on a handful of cultural issues.
1. I think the ability to do the kinds of really good things the government can do rests in large part on the government being, on balance, effective and responsible. Not perfect mind you, because nothing is perfect. But it does need to operate from an understanding that it’s going to have to work really hard, and be really good, to get credit, and that a relatively small amount of idiocy is going to be weighed (at times grossly) disproportionately against it.
2. I think the Democratic party and the progressive permanent bureaucracy, and its auxillaries in education, corporate HR, and influential NGO spaces, desperately want to be able to discriminate against my sons based on race and sex. Your own comments here at times suggest you’d be comfortable with that too. I don’t think any progeny of mine ought to be given unfair advantage (as if my glorious genes aren’t enough- kidding) but I’m never going to be on board with a system like that. Neither are a lot of people, including, increasingly, the people who are nominally supposed to benefit from it.
Now at the end of the day I vote based on the fact that I think the greater evil is, for example, to (pretend to but not actually) balance the federal budget on the backs of health insurance that mainly helps poor women and children. And thats to say nothing of putting ignorant yahoos in charge. It’s like trying to solve a problem by giving a monkey a hand grenade. However as long as the Democrats and progressive bureaucracies are steeped in this stuff it will be asking for many, many people ro swallow a bitter and bordering on poisonous pill.Report
Your sons – and mine – still live in a world where they are statistically more likely to gain advantage then my white daughters or my black nieces and nephews. It’s like the tech bro rage about feminizing corporations which are 90% Helen’s by men. Frankly until the situation for my daughters and nieces and nephew gets to the place our sons enjoy you can take you sanctimonious rage and go sit in the corner.Report
Heh, sanctimonious rage? The tone was intended as constructive and friendly.
Anyway accusing anyone of sanctimony is pretty rich coming from a guy who down below is speaking approvingly about the Pope just because of a single point you agree with, as if you actually care what the Holy See says about anything generally.
Also not sure what you mean by ‘gain advantage.’ Maybe you’ll be more specific. But the reality is that women now outnumber men in college by about 10%, and are outpacing them on virtually every educational achievement metric. Plenty of high earning, high prestige professions like medicine and law (my profession) are close to female dominated and based on pipeline will be even moreso over the next generation or two. I don’t have any problem with this in principle. So rest assured, all the opportunity is there for them, and there’s no need for these official anf quasi official discrimination games.Report
I was actually being sarcastic about the bishops since a good many of them have made gay out of telling g the pope quite publicly why he is wrong.Report
Typo or Freudian slip?Report
TypoReport
I heard that they’re so autistic that they’re practically ace.Report
Anyone for whom DEI is a top 25 issue is either not a serious person, or very serious indeed, and pushing an agenda that they dare not openly advocate in polite company.Report
Pope Francis has pneumonia in both of his lungs, the Vatican reports.
They say “you always follow a fat pope with a thin one.”
We’ll see what thin looks like, I guess.Report
and he’s only got one lung…
My gut says he’ll recover … not getting the ‘there’s nothing to worry about here…. oops he died’ vibe we usually get. But, he is 88 with only one lung… so you never know.Report
I’m following the hearing about the EOs barring trans people from the military live on Blue Sky, they are going _exceptionally_ poorly for the government.
Things like the judge asking ‘Can you explain how pronoun usage harms military preparedness’, and she tore into them when they could not answer. And asking if the EO saying that an entire group of people are ‘dishonest, undisciplined, and lack integrity’ is ‘expressing animus’, a thing that is pretty important to the suit, and that the government lawyer was unwilling to confirm (Because it would be disastrous for the case) or deny (Because, you know, pesky legal ethics.) that.Report
New app just dropped. Personal security professionals. The dev calls it “Uber with guns“.
Minimum booking time is five hours but, sometimes, you need security very very badly.
Now you can just book it from your phone! Currently limited to NYC and LA but I can easily imagine other cities having a handful of potential clients that have a need for temporary private security.Report
Oh, boy, this won’t end up with someone in prison. /sReport
All paths lead to someone in prison, just a question of how much excitement we have along the way.Report
If I hadn’t read all those William Gibson and Neal Stephenson books, this would be a shocking development.Report
It’s the kind of obvious evolution of “Defund the Police”, when you think about it.Report
“Defund the Police,” Libertarian Edition.Report
Vibes? Papers? Essays?Report
More of the Seasteading, but instead its fortified neighborhoods, type.Report
*shrug* I’ve been pointing out all along that “okay I’ll hire my OWN cops” is a valid response to “if you didn’t pay taxes there wouldn’t be any cops”.
And “there’s more poor people than rich people, so the rich people better watch out” yeah but there’s more bullets than poor people, and bullets are cheaper than welfare.Report
U(zi)berReport
Maybe Luigi is an investor and was just drumming up business.Report
NYT has more details.
https://nypost.com/2025/02/15/us-news/new-app-offers-personal-bodyguards-and-private-motorcades-on-demand-in-nyc/
Apparently you can specify your security details style of attire. Options include ‘business tactical.’Report
Autocorrect fail. Obviously I meant NYP but know better than go edit a comment with a link.Report
Would like to request a whimsical renaissance guard. Swiss if possible. Blue, gold with an accent of orange.Report
I was going to make a joke about trying to fit a halberd in an SUV but according to Wikipedia sig sauer firearms would be a fully authentic representation.Report
You know what all the Mercs say: Halberds for show, Sig Sauer for dough.Report
I’m pretty sure hiring Swiss mercenaries is against international law, except for The Pope.Report
I think it’s time we stop outlawing the Pike Square… we have countermeasures.Report
It is all about Halibut AvenueReport
Some guy on social media priced it out and the cheapest ride he could get was a grand.Report
Yea, it is definitely not for everyone. Which is maybe good or maybe just also consistent with the dystopian implications of such a business.Report
Given the level of fearmongering that goes on in this country these days, I’ll bet a lot more people think they need it than people who actually need it.
I’ll likely never sign up and I’m writing this as a resident of Chicago, where I’m shot and killed at least once or twice daily. 😉Report
Something to ponder – by firing all the probationary Feds using lies about performance one creates the veneer of “cause” to the terminations. And guess what type of firing prevents you from getting unemployment benefits?Report
Whatever this means: Trump signed more executive orders including one that “reestablishes the long-standing norm that only the president or the attorney general can speak for the United States when stating an opinion as to what the law is,” Scharf said.
https://abc7.com/post/trump-will-sign-new-executive-orders/15927230/Report
WTF does that even mean? It goes without saying that, in legal proceedings, the position of the United States on what the law is or should be is presented by DOJ, under the direction of the AG and, ultimately, the President. Outside of legal proceedings, nobody speaks for the United States in any way that matters. If a rogue AUSA does something stupid in court, he or she can be fired. If the United States Attorney for the Western District of East Bumf**k mouths off at a bar association dinner, he or she can be slapped down. Is this EO a solution in search of a problem?Report
From out here in the cheap seats it looks like an attempt to codify ignoring the courts.Report
That was my thought. For example, the President can say that Massachusetts v. EPA was wrongly decided, that carbon dioxide isn’t a pollutant under the Clean Air Act, so the EPA can’t regulate carbon dioxide.Report
It wouldn’t surprise me if that was what’s behind this, but a President has always been able to say what he damn pleases and can make what he says the “position of the United States.” The “position of the United States,” however, is merely that, a “position.”* It isn’t law, and isn’t a license to disregard what is law.
*Just the other day, I was talking with a lawyer who kept saying “our position is…” I told him that may be his “position,” but if push came to shove he’d have to come up with a reason that a court would buy it, and he hadn’t given me one.Report
I think it is about further gutting agencies that are independent from the executive by statute. It could be about gutting the Federal Courts ability to decide on the Constitutionality of Executive Orders and starting the pretext for ignoring them if/when the Supreme Court rules against Trump.
Trump and Co are still very high on their own supply and today they “ended” congestion pricing in NYC while sending out a faux Time cover with Long Live the King and Trump wearing a crown.
Hochul is responding well but theatre criticism demands that people criticize Hochul’s responseReport
Pope Francis is dying and he is using his last moments to tell the U.S. Bishops than Trump and Co. are up to no good and especially calling out J.D. Vance.
LETTER OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
TO THE BISHOPS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
_________________
Dear Brothers in the Episcopate,
I am writing today to address a few words to you in these delicate moments that you are living as Pastors of the People of God who walk together in the United States of America.
1. The journey from slavery to freedom that the People of Israel traveled, as narrated in the Book of Exodus, invites us to look at the reality of our time, so clearly marked by the phenomenon of migration, as a decisive moment in history to reaffirm not only our faith in a God who is always close, incarnate, migrant and refugee, but also the infinite and transcendent dignity of every human person. [1]
2. These words with which I begin are not an artificial construct. Even a cursory examination of the Church’s social doctrine emphatically shows that Jesus Christ is the true Emmanuel (cf. Mt 1:23); he did not live apart from the difficult experience of being expelled from his own land because of an imminent risk to his life, and from the experience of having to take refuge in a society and a culture foreign to his own. The Son of God, in becoming man, also chose to live the drama of immigration. I like to recall, among other things, the words with which Pope Pius XII began his Apostolic Constitution on the Care of Migrants, which is considered the “Magna Carta” of the Church’s thinking on migration:
“The family of Nazareth in exile, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, emigrants in Egypt and refugees there to escape the wrath of an ungodly king, are the model, the example and the consolation of emigrants and pilgrims of every age and country, of all refugees of every condition who, beset by persecution or necessity, are forced to leave their homeland, beloved family and dear friends for foreign lands.” [2]
3. Likewise, Jesus Christ, loving everyone with a universal love, educates us in the permanent recognition of the dignity of every human being, without exception. In fact, when we speak of “infinite and transcendent dignity,” we wish to emphasize that the most decisive value possessed by the human person surpasses and sustains every other juridical consideration that can be made to regulate life in society. Thus, all the Christian faithful and people of good will are called upon to consider the legitimacy of norms and public policies in the light of the dignity of the person and his or her fundamental rights, not vice versa.
4. I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations. The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality. At the same time, one must recognize the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival. That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.
5. This is not a minor issue: an authentic rule of law is verified precisely in the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalized. The true common good is promoted when society and government, with creativity and strict respect for the rights of all — as I have affirmed on numerous occasions — welcomes, protects, promotes and integrates the most fragile, unprotected and vulnerable. This does not impede the development of a policy that regulates orderly and legal migration. However, this development cannot come about through the privilege of some and the sacrifice of others. What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly.
6. Christians know very well that it is only by affirming the infinite dignity of all that our own identity as persons and as communities reaches its maturity. Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups. In other words: the human person is not a mere individual, relatively expansive, with some philanthropic feelings! The human person is a subject with dignity who, through the constitutive relationship with all, especially with the poorest, can gradually mature in his identity and vocation. The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the “Good Samaritan” (cf. Lk 10:25-37), that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception. [3]
7. But worrying about personal, community or national identity, apart from these considerations, easily introduces an ideological criterion that distorts social life and imposes the will of the strongest as the criterion of truth.
8. I recognize your valuable efforts, dear brother bishops of the United States, as you work closely with migrants and refugees, proclaiming Jesus Christ and promoting fundamental human rights. God will richly reward all that you do for the protection and defense of those who are considered less valuable, less important or less human!
9. I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church, and all men and women of good will, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters. With charity and clarity we are all called to live in solidarity and fraternity, to build bridges that bring us ever closer together, to avoid walls of ignominy and to learn to give our lives as Jesus Christ gave his for the salvation of all.
10. Let us ask Our Lady of Guadalupe to protect individuals and families who live in fear or pain due to migration and/or deportation. May the “Virgen morena”, who knew how to reconcile peoples when they were at enmity, grant us all to meet again as brothers and sisters, within her embrace, and thus take a step forward in the construction of a society that is more fraternal, inclusive and respectful of the dignity of all.
Fraternally,
Francis
From the Vatican, 10 February 2025Report
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IPNda2HSC4Report
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Too bad they mostly won’t listen.Report
And shouldn’t. There are lots of reasons to oppose what he’s doing. However invoking God just makes it harder to compromise and be reasonable and we should expect the other side to do the same thing.
Further the Church is hardly an expert in ethics.Report
“Invoking God” is pretty much the job description of a religious leader. Maybe that sounds silly to those of us who don’t believe that there is a God or that the religious leader in question has some pipeline to the God being invoked, so we don’t have to take the invocation seriously. But we can’t really ask them to play by our rules.Report
It’s one thing for the Holy Father to invoke God.
It’s quite another for me to invoke the Holy Father and say “hey, look at this guy! You people agree with him, right?”Report
It’s certainly “another thing,” but what kind of thing is it? You’re pointing out that a religious leader, purporting to rely on the word of some God, has said something you agree with and hoping that what the religious leader is saying will get some traction. People who care what the religious leader has to say may find it compelling; people who don’t, won’t. And the problem is?Report
Ain’t no problem!
Do you agree with the Holy Father about whether women are eligible to become priests?Report
I don’t have an opinion about the rules of a club of which I am not a member. Orthodox Jews don’t eat pork? No skin off my nose and more bacon for me.Report
Oh, I understand that particular position! “This is what those folks think. Okay. Life’s like that sometimes.”
It’s the whole “The Holy Father thinks this… you’re Italian. You agree with the Holy Father, right?” thing.Report
Is there some sort of connection between your first and second paragraphs?
Are you under the impression that anyone whose name ends in a vowel is a member of the Catholic “club”? Or that, to the extent that you’re asking a non-member whether he happens to agree with what the club boss says on something other than club rules, some non-club-related identity is relevant? If the Pope says “X,” and X is a matter of club rules (e.g. who can be priests, what age you have to be to receive communion, whether you can eat pork), non-members are well-advised not to bother themselves about it. If X is a matter of general moral argument (abortion, capital punishment, treatment of migrants, whether you can eat meat at all), non-members can agree or disagree with the Pope just the same as they can agree or disagree with some random social media pundit.Report
non-members can agree or disagree with the Pope just the same as they can agree or disagree with some random social media pundit.
Yes! The Holy Father is just some random social media pundit.
I mean, he is a particularly prominent one and who is, occasionally, insightful and eloquent…
But, let’s face it, he’s got a *LOT* of bad advisors and sometimes he also gives less insightful and less eloquent commentary.Report
Well, that certainly clears things up.Report
“I don’t have an opinion about the rules of a club of which I am not a member.”
It must be nice to have the privilege of not caring about politics.Report
Maybe you can explain why you think your comment makes sense. Like most of us here, I am a “member” of the body politic, and care very much about the rules of that club. I am not a member of a variety of other clubs, like the Roman Catholic Church, the Rotary Club, or the Grosse Pointe Garden Club, which have rules that I might think silly, and might even oppose, if I had to adhere to them. But since their silly rules have nothing to do with me or my interests, or those of people I care about, I don’t bother myself about them. If that’s “privilege,” it’s not a definition I know anything about. Unless minding one’s own business is “privilege.”Report
Unless minding one’s own business is “privilege.”
Yeah, I was asleep for a lot of 2017-2022 as well. About a third of it.Report
Well, that certainly clears things up.Report
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/18/world/americas/trump-migrant-deportation-panama.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
This administration that is very concerned with Christians has deported an Iranian convert to Christianity to Panama where she is trapped in a hotel room. If she has to go back to Iran, she will be killed most likely.Report
https://bsky.app/profile/ryanjreilly.com/post/3lik4sbvu4c2n
U.S. Attorney Ed Martin to launch investigation into Schumer.
Horman has asked the DOJ to investigate AOC for using her free speech rights to advise people pulled over by ICE on their rights.Report
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2025/02/all-hail-the-king
1. Trump states he is ending congestion pricing in NYC;
2. Hochul says FU, we will see you in court.
3. Trump declares himself king on social mediaReport
https://bsky.app/profile/joshuajfriedman.com/post/3likp45oxkk2n
A master class in how you respond to TrumpReport
What the heck happened? Did Hochul get abducted and replaced with a pod person? Is there some way to make sure the real one doesn’t come back?Report
I’m not sure it’s going to work. For one thing, who is the target audience? It wasn’t the people who couldn’t afford to drive! The target audience is the people that could.
Here’s the problem that I see. This isn’t a left vs. right thing. This is a populist vs. elite thing and Hochul is speaking to the elite.
I suppose that that’s better than treating it as left vs. right… I mean, it actually understands the frame. But the target audience is smaller than the people who had to make the tradeoff to take mass transit.Report
The legality of this strikes me as black and white and unambiguously outside Don’s authority. Your political analysis strikes me as debatable- yes maybe some people who made the tradeoffs and took transit instead will be delighted by this. It’s also possible that an equal number of people who enjoyed the noticeably reduced congestion will be less pleased. Could be that this’ll please more people than it displeases but, to be blunt, Don isn’t winning New Jersey or New York state even if he makes some of their upstaters happy two years away from the next election. Whereas the Dems saying “fish you, that’s illegal” strikes me as useful for their sides moral in a way that could snowball forward towards the election. I don’t think pre-emptive obedience is going to be helpful.
And that’s without touching on Trump declaring himself King. Maybe a few libertarians and righties actually would care about that. Lol I know, sorry, couldn’t help but try the joke. Snerk.Report
Oh, yes. “Eff you, that’s illegal!” is a great play.
And pulling the whole “they used federal funds for transportation, that makes it under the auspices of FedGov” should be familiar to anybody who used to argue with Libertarians.Report
Sure, and that’s an argument for the courts which, most likely, Trump will viscously lose because whatever argument one might make about federal funds being used for transportation giving them a say it’s unlikely that Trump writing ‘repeal it” on a napkin and tweeting it out is the acceptable method to throw that weight around. When it’s an unambiguously good program and a strong legal case I think the preponderance of the advantage is in fighting for it.Report
I think it has something to do with Federal Highways. You’re not allowed to charge tolls on Federal Highways.
This means that NYC can charge tolls on everything but I-95 and US Route 1.
I think.Report
Tolls are charged on federal highways all the time.Report
I’m digging into this and seeing the following:
Section 129 General Tolling Program doesn’t cover this.
Section 166 HOV/HOT Lanes doesn’t cover this.
Interstate System Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Pilot Program (ISRRPP) doesn’t seem to cover this.
Value Pricing Pilot Program (VPPP) seems to be what is covering this.
State, regional, and local government agencies may apply for tolling authority if they are allocated one of 15 slots available in the program. Each slot may include multiple projects.
Here’s what the government is saying:
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I mean, they’re not wrong to say that this is going to very quickly stop being about “congestion reduction” and start being a source of revenue that the government depends on staying at a consistent level, and whoops that level’s gone down…
(Pigouvian taxes work great until you realize that you’ve eaten all the pigs but you’re still hungry for bacon.)
That said, I think this is the kind of thing the country needs. Fuck You, Make Me in response to Trump or his butt-boy making some crazy decision. Not a Strongly-Worded Letter Of Resignation in response to some perfidy but “hell no, I ain’t doing that, and if you want to fire me you bastards are gonna need the riot squad with power tools to get me out of this office!”Report
You know what? I think I agree with that. We need to establish that each of our states is somewhat sovereign as well and should be able to tell the Fedgov “up yours”.
We can call it “Federalism-for-real-this-time”.Report
The Supremes have been hard at work on this for about 50 years.Report
Don’t project how everyone else in the county thinks about mass transit to NYC…only _25%_ of the people who live in NYC have driver’s licenses. A good chunk of the ones that do, keep their car outside the city, so even less of that 25% drive in the city. The amount of people who had to ‘make the tradeoff’ is nearly negligible, because the amount of New Yorkers who drive in and out of the city is negligible. (It’s just that the city is so populated that ‘negligible’ still results in pretty bad traffic.)
I’ve heard from plenty of people who talk about how New York is literally now driveable, you can actually operate a motor vehicle in it and get places.
Several of them are people who do deliveries in Manhattan.
Even New Jersey, when attacking the program, attacked it on the grounds that NYC keeps all the money, not their population disliked it.
Like, everyone I hear talks about this doesn’t quite understand the very unique situation of NYC WRT to cars. They absolutely do not think about mass transit in the way other people think about mass transit.Report
The stuff that I think about mass transit in NYC involves “undocumented visitors setting women on fire”.
This is one of the reasons that I think that Hochul realizes that she can’t replace Adams with a DSA goon. The second the DSA goon becomes mayor, we’ll go back to “defund” and then every single idiot with a camera becomes a citizen journalist documenting non-representative assaults on the newly depoliced subway.Report
I’m starting a new Jaybird Bingo Card. This is a contender for a square.Report
Which one? Referring to illegal immigrants as “undocumented visitors”? Bringing up “Defund the Police”? Referring to crimes caught on video as “non-representative”?Report
I think she’ll just let time take care of Adams. There’s an election in November and he’s wildly unpopular.
https://apnews.com/article/eric-adams-popularity-trump-corruption-charges-nyc-a367838a7a438c159d6d0bfb10339680Report
Like many Democratic women (or Democrats in general), I think she sees Trump as a person without any redeeming qualities.
1. In the call between Democratic Governors and Schumer/Jefferies, she apparently gave a variant of people need to FAFO in order to ensure they never vote for Trump again;
2. She takes abortion rights seriously as demonstrated by her stance in fighting against LA and TX.
3. She seems like she might be willing to do something about Adams because having Trump in control of NYC with Adams as his puppet-prefect it bad.Report
I sure as heck hope she does something about Adams.Report
Hey, remember Mayor Bass? She’s investigating why she was allowed to go on a trip. I am not making this up.
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On the one hand,
Trump is announcing himself a king and one of his foot soldiers is trying to find ways to bring charges against Democrats who criticize him or any other Republican: https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-appointed-prosecutor-kicks-operation-whirlwind-eyes-schumer-rcna192878
On the other hand, JB has an opportunity to troll Democrats and his neurons can’t resist despite more pressing issues.Report
If you could give me a list of stuff I’m allowed to talk about in the open thread, I’d appreciate it!
Lord knows, without a topics approver, I might talk about any silly thing that happens.Report
Seems she hasn’t learned the lesson of recent years that you Never Apologize For Anything.
Someone described modern existence with the media/social-media/Online power as like having a conversation with the Fae. Never apologize, because that means you agree that you did something wrong, and the people you’re dealing with have a bottomless hunger for appeasement when wronged.Report
“We are going to fire the heck out of the person who didn’t prevent me from going to Ghana” is kind of apologizing, kind of? But it’s still pretty far away.Report
Even reacting to the critics is admitting that, in some small way, they had a point.Report
And it looks like Kash Patel gets confirmed today.
If even half of the horrible predictions of what happens if he gets confirmed are in the ballpark of accurate, we’re going to learn a *LOT* about the last couple of decades.Report
Aaaaaand he just got approved.Report
Hochul is not going to remove Adams but will install guardrails. The actual removal procedure is actually much more complicated than the internet has let on of course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDapa0YSnVs&t=457s
Start watching the explainer at the 6:30 markReport
Why are you talking about the governor of New York instead of the horrific display of the Bibas children?Report
That stupid region is never going to know peace.Report
Hamas returned the bodies of the three deceased members of the Bibas family. The murder of the Bibas family, although Hamas claims they died in an Israeli air strike but Hamas lies a lot, has generally angered or served as a symbol of anger of Jews world wide. Many Jews, and these include people I know in real life, who never posted on politics or Israel have posted in outrage at the fate of the Bibas family.
When I have pointed this out to people, the response has generally been that Jews are bad for caring more about some lives than others. I find this response perplexing. Nobody thinks it is bad or unusual for Muslims to care more about the lives of their fellow Palestinian Muslims than Israeli Jews killed by Hamas even if they live in distant Indonesia but Jews are supposed to universally care rather than be concerned more about our fellow Jews. There aren’t that many of us and 45% of all Jews live in Israel but the people who defend Pan-whatever solidarity in other groups as part of revolutionary praxis think that Pan-Jewish solidarity is dual loyalty and international conspiracy. They just don’t get this when you point it out.Report
If you thought that I was going to make a “why are you talking about this instead of talking about the governor of New York” joke, you’ve got good instincts but I think that there’s more gold to be mined in discussing how even the UN (EVEN THE UN!!!) came out and issued a disapproving statement.
Hamas seems to be going out of its way to alienate freakin’ everybody right in the middle of needing a lot of allies.
If I were Egypt/Jordan, I wouldn’t want these people to show up on my doorstep either.
Maybe we can send them to Europe.Report
If Angela Merkel were still chancellor the whole thing would solve itself.Report
Check this out. Here’s what Amnesty International said:
Yes. *THAT* is what it is a reminder of.
It’s like they’re actively trying to set themselves on fire.Report
The thinking is that there were alternatives other than killing 48k people.
The problem with that line of thinking is it amounts to the idea that Israel should suck up terrorism and/or that it doesn’t have the right to defend itself. More importantly, in the context of WW2, the allies weren’t obligated to kill one of their own civilians killed every time an axis civilian was killed… and even this is ignoring we don’t know how many of those 48k were civilians.
And we’re starting to wake up to the problem I pointed out a year plus ago. Hamas wasn’t destroyed, but Israel is still more or less in charge. So Israel isn’t going to allow military bases (i.e. hospitals) to be rebuilt or allow other “dual use” materials/facilities to be sent in. Further very few want to rebuild “civilian” structures that Hamas will occupy and Israel will then destroy.
At this point Israel will focus on keeping Hamas weak, which probably means not rebuilding Gaza.Report
The dumb decisions of Palestinian leadership managed to basically kill any Israel appetite for working with the Palestinians but basically yes, people expect Israel to accept a certain amount of terrorism and Jews to accept a certain amount of anti-Semitism. They don’t say this part out loud because it sounds bad and unconvincing.Report
Hamas has released a statement!
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The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia has released a statement:
“What we saw today in Gaza is a disgrace to Islam, an act of blasphemy against Allah.”Report
An interesting analysis from Josh Barro about the real costs of DEI thought among the Dems. I think he is being a bit overwrought on it but I don’t know that I strongly disagree either.
https://www.joshbarro.com/p/democrats-need-their-own-dei-purge/commentsReport
There really isn’t any sort of DEI faction to purge from the party in any sort of official manner. The real danger is that there are large numbers of activists of different sorts and different levels of affiliation with the Democratic Party, some passionate Democratic voter and some not, whose antics can be imputed to the institutional Democratic Party by the Republicans. Telling these activists to cool it and engage in some self-censorship. They think that being ridiculous is part of the point of activism.Report
Yes I think you and he are sortof saying the same thing. It’s kind of moved into being basically just a common language and reflex for almost the whole fashionable activist set.Report
Complete with self-congratulatory conferences. The difference is that he thinks there are practical steps that can be taken to distance from the DEI apparatchiks. I am not really certain this is possible. They really don’t seem to understand when you explain why they aren’t helping and look at you like you have two heads.Report
He that judges the booty is directionally correct and, I want to say, about as extreme in his position as his side will allow. He’s calling out the excesses while still focusing on the good intentions of the people who committed them.
He’s basically saying that there’s a withdrawal but it’s not a retreat, it’s a recalibration, so on and so forth. Josh Barro, bless him, is going further and is closer to being actually correct rather than merely directionally, but Pete is preaching to the choir and Josh is preaching to the formerly undecideds and being them to become undecided again. Laying groundwork for when Trump gets to be too much again.
As for “BIPOC”, the point of BIPOC is that, along with AAPI and LatinX, you can pretty much say “everybody but white people and Jews”. Get all of your bases covered.Report
I still have a warm spot for Pete but I’m not certain how he goes forward. There’s talk about him carpetbagging into a Michigan Senate seat and that’d be something, I suppose, and that’s better than nothing. Still his mayoral backgrounds and his acceptable but not remarkable stint in the administration is a narrow base to build a national career on. I certainly wish him well.Report
He’s one of the best talkers the Dems have. He’s a McKinsey Consultant to the bone. That appeals to a great many of the elite within the Democratic party and his ability to talk to them on their level and gently explain that stuff didn’t work.
There’s no way that I could say it in a way that would get them to listen but Pete can.
The problem is that they picked up a *LOT* of bad habits over the last four years and unlearning them and learning new ones will be more painful and take more time than just waiting for Trump to implode.Report
Well yes, between Trump ineptitude and thermostatic reaction the Dems could realistically swing back quite easily without changing a lot. Personally I’d prefer that they take somewhat more agency in the matter and go for more than a mere thermostatic win.
As for Pete- I agree with your analysis, the problem is I’m not sure where in his laudable characteristics we find a mass voting constituency and he’d very badly need one if the tack he takes is one that, even gently, questions the mores and ticks of the activist/elitist left set.Report
I am sure everyone is tired of my opinion on the subject but whatever.
To me a lot of this circles back to the mission of the Democratic party. Does anyone know what it is anymore? Historically I always thought of it as stuff like protecting the commons, standing up for the rights of the little guy against larger social and economic forces, and ensuring the state acts as a check against poverty and inequality through various social democratic lite programs and entitlements.* Oh and usually an overall more sensible foreign and fiscal policy, at least over the lasf 25-30 years.
The question moving forward is whether that stuff (maybe modified for the 21st century) still matters or if it’s endlessly indulging and implementing the sensibilities of people deeply ensconsed in academic and NGO culture. I’d like to recover something like the former, but I suppose time will tell.
*Obviously there have always been tensions, inconsistencies, and hypocrisy, that just makes them a normal American political party.Report
Well I certainly am not tired of you talking about your opinion on the matter.Report
The fact that no one seems to have a sense of perspective in worrisome.
Does everyone else see what is going on in the United States right now? And we are saying “Well, Democrats have a DEI problem.”
F###ing Flying Spaghetti MonsterReport
What is the mission, or the vision or what have you?
Stop Trump for sure. But what else?Report
Stopping Trump from destroying everything built up over decades or centuries, making the United States into a baddie and international laughing stock that nobody trists, and turning America into a kleptocracy but without the colorful dictator clothing should be a good enough as mission or vision.Report
I wish it was that easy.Report
Like you stated in the other blog, going against Trump is going to require a lot of people who voted for Trump to be allowed into the resistance gracefully because we need the numbers. The problem is that there are certain things that are imputed to the Democratic Party by nutpicking that a lot of these people don’t like. DEI is one of those things. I get that hatred of DEI is overblown, although I’m less of a fan of it than you are and think that a lot left anti-Semitism and anti-Asian prejudice is present in the movement, but they aren’t exactly being helpful by keep doing the ridiculous things that drives everybody up the wall as their part in the resistance.Report
As Lee is obliquely pointing out, Saul, there’s a corollary to your “Defeating Trump is Important!” exclamation. A LOT of the DEI gestures and habits are -not- substantive positions but rather symbolic ticks and a lot of the constituencies DEI helps are not vulnerable, marginalized people who DEI helps or protects. A lot of the DEI beneficiaries (I dare to say most of them even) are wealthy academics, over credentialed consultants and fashionable wealthy capitalists using DEI’s precepts for cover, profit or prestige.
If defeating Trump is important (and I agree it emphatically is) then is not discarding the superfluous, useless or posturing fashions of DEI not a very small price to pay to advance the goal of defeating Trump?
I emphasize, before some DEI advocate rushes to hide behind the disadvantaged and marginal, that everyone agrees that a lot of DEI can be discarded without hurting the powerless, marginal or disadvantaged. Wouldn’t discarding the DEI faff not be a small price to pay to defeat Trump? It’s not like Barro is being vague here- he points to very definite material policies DEI ushered in and how they’re HATED by minorities that DEI claims to be protecting.Report
There is a cynical argument that a lot of corporate HR types got all in on DEI because it was a way to piss people off about liberalism. My brother noted in the past that DEI is the closest thing that the Left has to grift or is grift. I do believe he is correct that going on against it is missing the forest for the trees at the moment.Report
Wait.
So the HR types got in as part of a long con to discredit HR types?
This strikes me as one hell of a conspiracy.
I’m on board.Report
Not to discredit HR types but to ensure that employees hate liberalism enough to vote for the anti-union party.Report
The hair dye was a nice touch.Report
Based upon my experience, most “HR types” aren’t that smart enough to come up with that scheme. In one example, my old company subcontract out 99% of reporting requirements that HR typically does. The only thing the HR rep did was 1) was there “in case” and 2) sent out a monthly email talking about what the dept did. It was a short email. Six figures for that? This is me rolling my eyes.Report
A good HR department can have useful compliance and administrative functions (think benefit management). I think what happens in a lot of places is they assume a ‘create the culture’ kind of function and do a bunch of stuff antithetical to their actual mission, which is protect the business.Report
Yeah, “I think what happens in a lot of places is they assume a ‘create the culture’ kind of function and do a bunch of stuff antithetical to their actual mission, which is protect the business.” This.
I remember folks in my family in HR telling me “HR DOES NOT work for you. It works for the company, and protecting the company is their main job.
I was always reminded of that when HR had the annual explanation of benefits and how “we’re trying to keep costs down, but employees are going to have to take a higher percentage of the burden this year” BS….Report
Musk is apparently high as a kite at CPAC while waving around a chainsaw and Grimes is begging online for his attention because one of their three kids is in medical crisis.Report
IDF has apparently stated that the body released as Shiri Bibas is not Shiri Bibas’ body:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/feb/21/middle-east-crisis-live-updates-israel-idf-hostages-hamasReport
Assuming that the IDF is telling the truth, Hamas probably realized that the costs of giving a fake one (and the attendant circuses) are higher than the costs of giving the real one.Report
Trump is trying to end the independence of the United States Post Office for looting and election interference purposes.Report
Totally not a cult:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c1710e830726641b6d7d4c2fd0f87b6b42a2b8f8cd78f14921970320416eaace.pngReport
In today’s why Jews don’t consider the we are merely anti-Zionist rhetoric convincing, Pro-Palestinian protestors descended on a Jewish neighborhood in NYC and said things like “settlers go back home” and “we don’t want any Zionists here.”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/clashes-break-out-at-anti-israel-protest-in-brooklyn-jewish-neighborhood/Report
You can’t judge whether or not you’re a racist oppressor based on whether some of your critics calling you that are dumb.Report
Okay. We’ve got a wild ride here. People who enjoy crazy will be delighted.
William Banks is a guy in New York who protested injustice and genocide and all that crap by stealing pro-Israel signs from peoples’ yards. He got caught, got arrested, got tried, and got shipped off to the hoosegow for 8 months.
These things happen.
While in prison, he got the nickname “White Moses“.
Anyway, he escaped from prison and posted a video of escaping from prison to twitter.
Four months before his prison stay was scheduled to end.Report