One of Trump's own judges said he can't use the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans to El Salvador Gulags: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/us/texas-judge-trump-alien-enemies-act.html
"Sitting in front of a packed auditorium in Dubai, a founder of the Trump family cryptocurrency business made a brief but monumental announcement on Thursday. A fund backed by Abu Dhabi, he said, would be making a $2 billion business deal using the Trump firm’s digital coins.
That transaction would be a major contribution by a foreign government to President Trump’s private venture — one that stands to generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the Trump family. And it is a public and vivid illustration of the ethical conflicts swirling around Mr. Trump’s crypto firm, which has blurred the boundary between business and government."
Governor Whitmer decided to commit political suicide yesterday: https://apnews.com/article/whitmer-trump-hug-michigan-fd8652c2a515ed356be16d16e875d0ae
From time to time, Democratic politicians will need to appear at things with Trump but you don't have to hug the man or appear at his rallies. He is underwater in Michigan and even more so nationally. Yeah she is term-limited but this is not going to help any hopes she had for the 2028 nomination for President. And I get that some Democrats think galaxy-brained bipartisanship is a thing but I think that is massively misreading the room.
The charitable reading is that she reversed her numbers. 22 million Americans popping pills from the street would still be very high though. Apparently she doubled down on the lie in front of Congress. I think these kind of lies serve two purposes:
1. They actually work on the most credulous of Trump supporters. Sorry for being uncharitable but think older ladies from small or smallish towns who think Bismark, North Dakota is a big city and have tastes which we would describe as kitsch.
2. They are meant to troll the libz because we are required to spend time correcting it. See quote above.
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.” - Jean-Paul Sartre
The trolling and outrageous lies are the point.
Yesterday and Today:
1. Pam Bondi said Trump and Co took 22 million Fentanyl pills off the street and saved 119 million lives.
2. Trump went on ABC and apparently said something about Garcia having MS-13 tattooed on his fist.
3. Miller, a ghoul's ghoul if there ever was one, put up signs on the White House lawn about deported "violent criminals"
To the extent these are not meant to troll the libz, they are designed for the most "sweet" and credulous small-town Grandma who decorates her house in kitsch like Thomas Kinkade and Precious Moment stuff.
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.” -Jean Paul Sartre.
It is amazing how many people refuse to learn that a lot of what Trump and Co do is nothing but bad-faith trolling
There seems to be a complete collapse for NDP but Conservatives are doing better than expected and the Liberals lost a lot of youth voters because of housing (it is amazing how this issue tears center-left parties apart). Liberals will likely have a minority government again but perhaps without enough confidence and supply.
1. There is evidence that a lot of working class moms and maybe middle-class moms would rather stay at home than be a dual-income household;
2. There is also some evidence that the biggest non-politician advocates for subsidized daycare are In This House Moms aka liberals with college educations and careers, not jobs.
Hence, subsidized day care becomes welfare for people who are generally comfortable but not can pay 30K a year for pre-school comfortable. Or they can afford it and will even though the subsidy still helps.
Plus this is where dreaded means-testing comes in.
"Also late last week: The director of the Port of Los Angeles warned that in two weeks the number of inbound containers being processed at the busiest facility in America will drop by 35 percent. “Essentially all shipments out of China for major retailers and manufacturers have ceased,” he reported. “And cargo coming out of Southeast Asia locations is much softer than normal.”
You can see this wave of declines coming by watching container ship departures from Asia, which are moving toward pandemic levels.
This week only 17 vessels with 85,486 20-foot-equivalents (TEUs) of goods are scheduled to dock in LA, down 28.6 percent from last week. Next week, that number will drop to 16 vessels with 74,925 TEUs.
We are seeing this story repeated in Seattle and Long Beach.
What that means:
Jobs for dockworkers are in jeopardy.
Significantly less work for truckers.
Massive supply-chain disruptions for domestic industries.
Shortages of goods for consumers.
Higher prices.
If you are an elected Democrat spending a single second talking about “wokeness” instead of this state of affairs . . ."
MGP is currently drawing ire because she voted for the SAVE Act. I fully get she will be to my right on guns but there is no reason to vote for Trump's voter suppression bill
There is no reason why Trump and Co. should not be opposed on all fronts. Attack him on the economy, attack him on authoritarianism, attack him on immigration, etc
This is not rocket science. I don't understand why some politicians refuse to get this
What is wrong with what AOC and Sanders are doing? Trump really is trying to do an authoritarian take over of the United States the actions of DODG/Miller/Noem/Vought are deeply disturbing.
Last week, ICE deported several U.S. citizens to Honduras because they were under 18 and ICE would not give their mother anytime to make alternative arrangements. I have read several stories of children (some U.S. citizens/some not) being deported while undergoing treatment for cancer because their parents were undocumented.
Frankly, I deeply abhor anyone who thinks the immigration stuff is a distraction/trap. Trump's polling on it has changed and is now underwater. And I think the zeal of their xenophobia goes against Truth, Justice, and the American Way to borrow from Superman.
This is vileness that can and should be stood up against.
But my sense of Slotkin is that she really seethes and resents at having to do this and she decides to blame the Democrats who are calling attention to the issue and that is wrong.
I fully accept that Slotkin is going to need to be to my right and that MGP is going to be to my right on gun control for WA-5.
This does not mean MGP needs to vote for the SAVE act or Slotkin has to spend the time seething at Sanders/AOC in public.
Slotkin really seems to hate that AOC and Sanders are out there holding large rallies about Trump's assault on democracy like it makes her job more difficult somehow.
The big issue for me is not whether they are a moderate/centerist or liberal/progressive but whether they are fighters or shrinking violet. Schumer's general policy preferences are fine. His big issue is that he is a deer in headlights and can't bring himself to realize what the current situation is and he seems really pathetic when he goes on the Sunday shows and says "We sent the President a strongly-worded lecture."
Slotkin is also to my right but she seems really upset that she has to defend democracy, due process, and civil liberty instead of being able to present narrowly-casted and tested to death "mom and pop kitchen sink" issues.
Conor Lamb is perfectly willing to be a fighter even though he is a moderate. Newsom is a much better governor than he gets credit for but he is simply wrong on a profound level when he doesn't want to talk about Garcia and Trump's evil immigration crackdown.
Pritzker is correct when he notes that Trump and the Republicans need to be challenged on everything, all the time.
And frankly, Manchin is a moralistic sourpuss who will twist his face like he sucked a thousand lemons at the idea that a Senator can be on the floor and not where a tie but will preen from his yacht and Maserati about how giving poor parents money is horrible because the parents will spend it on drugs, not their kids. He and to a lesser extent people like Slotkin are why we can never seem to do good things, bold things like ten dollar a day pre-school/day care like our neighbors up north. Slotkin probably is not a moral sourpuss like Manchin but she is timid and afraid to do anything that has not been tested to death.
I started commenting on this site when I was in my 20s I think. I am 44. I am middle-aged. I have a good job, a mortgage, a car payment, a family. Yet when I hear the Democratic Party talk about helping American families, I feel like they are not talking to people like me even though I vote for them. I have no idea who they are talking too. When Schumer talks about his Bailey's, I think his mind is still stuck in the mid to late 1990s and the Bailey's are in their 40s but were born in the 1950s, not the 1970s and 80s.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/28/2025”
One of Trump's own judges said he can't use the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans to El Salvador Gulags: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/us/texas-judge-trump-alien-enemies-act.html
On “US Department of Education Announces that it is Restarting Loan Collection”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/us/politics/trump-cryptocurrency-usd1-dubai-conference-announcement.html
"Sitting in front of a packed auditorium in Dubai, a founder of the Trump family cryptocurrency business made a brief but monumental announcement on Thursday. A fund backed by Abu Dhabi, he said, would be making a $2 billion business deal using the Trump firm’s digital coins.
That transaction would be a major contribution by a foreign government to President Trump’s private venture — one that stands to generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the Trump family. And it is a public and vivid illustration of the ethical conflicts swirling around Mr. Trump’s crypto firm, which has blurred the boundary between business and government."
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/28/2025”
Governor Whitmer decided to commit political suicide yesterday: https://apnews.com/article/whitmer-trump-hug-michigan-fd8652c2a515ed356be16d16e875d0ae
From time to time, Democratic politicians will need to appear at things with Trump but you don't have to hug the man or appear at his rallies. He is underwater in Michigan and even more so nationally. Yeah she is term-limited but this is not going to help any hopes she had for the 2028 nomination for President. And I get that some Democrats think galaxy-brained bipartisanship is a thing but I think that is massively misreading the room.
"
I unfortunately have to admit that their ability to lie with impunity is awe inspiring (in the original bad sense of the word)
"
"I assume you’re inquiring in good faith"
Why?
"
The charitable reading is that she reversed her numbers. 22 million Americans popping pills from the street would still be very high though. Apparently she doubled down on the lie in front of Congress. I think these kind of lies serve two purposes:
1. They actually work on the most credulous of Trump supporters. Sorry for being uncharitable but think older ladies from small or smallish towns who think Bismark, North Dakota is a big city and have tastes which we would describe as kitsch.
2. They are meant to troll the libz because we are required to spend time correcting it. See quote above.
"
1. No.
2. They get filed a lot and most go nowhere because it is more of an airing of grievances than actual misconduct.
3. Never
"
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.” - Jean-Paul Sartre
The trolling and outrageous lies are the point.
Yesterday and Today:
1. Pam Bondi said Trump and Co took 22 million Fentanyl pills off the street and saved 119 million lives.
2. Trump went on ABC and apparently said something about Garcia having MS-13 tattooed on his fist.
3. Miller, a ghoul's ghoul if there ever was one, put up signs on the White House lawn about deported "violent criminals"
To the extent these are not meant to troll the libz, they are designed for the most "sweet" and credulous small-town Grandma who decorates her house in kitsch like Thomas Kinkade and Precious Moment stuff.
"
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.” -Jean Paul Sartre.
It is amazing how many people refuse to learn that a lot of what Trump and Co do is nothing but bad-faith trolling
"
"America First Legal"
The name tells you everything you need to know about this bad-faith right-wing organization. \
But if you stopped at that, you wouldn't be able to do your JAQing so....
"
There seems to be a complete collapse for NDP but Conservatives are doing better than expected and the Liberals lost a lot of youth voters because of housing (it is amazing how this issue tears center-left parties apart). Liberals will likely have a minority government again but perhaps without enough confidence and supply.
"
If Canada can do it, so can we.
"
FWIW, JVL was also mainly going against Slotkin for lurching to the right on wokeness
"
I knew my editing was off. I mainly highlighted this to discuss the upcoming tariff disaster.
"
I think the theory is this:
1. There is evidence that a lot of working class moms and maybe middle-class moms would rather stay at home than be a dual-income household;
2. There is also some evidence that the biggest non-politician advocates for subsidized daycare are In This House Moms aka liberals with college educations and careers, not jobs.
Hence, subsidized day care becomes welfare for people who are generally comfortable but not can pay 30K a year for pre-school comfortable. Or they can afford it and will even though the subsidy still helps.
Plus this is where dreaded means-testing comes in.
"
Miller is being especially cruel and quadrupling down: https://www.rawstory.com/karoline-leavitt-2671858560/
"
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/dear-democrats-stfu-about-woke-ports-empty-los-angeles-seattle
"Also late last week: The director of the Port of Los Angeles warned that in two weeks the number of inbound containers being processed at the busiest facility in America will drop by 35 percent. “Essentially all shipments out of China for major retailers and manufacturers have ceased,” he reported. “And cargo coming out of Southeast Asia locations is much softer than normal.”
You can see this wave of declines coming by watching container ship departures from Asia, which are moving toward pandemic levels.
This week only 17 vessels with 85,486 20-foot-equivalents (TEUs) of goods are scheduled to dock in LA, down 28.6 percent from last week. Next week, that number will drop to 16 vessels with 74,925 TEUs.
We are seeing this story repeated in Seattle and Long Beach.
What that means:
Jobs for dockworkers are in jeopardy.
Significantly less work for truckers.
Massive supply-chain disruptions for domestic industries.
Shortages of goods for consumers.
Higher prices.
If you are an elected Democrat spending a single second talking about “wokeness” instead of this state of affairs . . ."
"
Ah. got it! Thanks
"
MGP is currently drawing ire because she voted for the SAVE Act. I fully get she will be to my right on guns but there is no reason to vote for Trump's voter suppression bill
"
I strongly dispute that 10 dollar a day daycare is a UMC welfare issue
"
There is no reason why Trump and Co. should not be opposed on all fronts. Attack him on the economy, attack him on authoritarianism, attack him on immigration, etc
This is not rocket science. I don't understand why some politicians refuse to get this
"
What is wrong with what AOC and Sanders are doing? Trump really is trying to do an authoritarian take over of the United States the actions of DODG/Miller/Noem/Vought are deeply disturbing.
Last week, ICE deported several U.S. citizens to Honduras because they were under 18 and ICE would not give their mother anytime to make alternative arrangements. I have read several stories of children (some U.S. citizens/some not) being deported while undergoing treatment for cancer because their parents were undocumented.
Frankly, I deeply abhor anyone who thinks the immigration stuff is a distraction/trap. Trump's polling on it has changed and is now underwater. And I think the zeal of their xenophobia goes against Truth, Justice, and the American Way to borrow from Superman.
This is vileness that can and should be stood up against.
But my sense of Slotkin is that she really seethes and resents at having to do this and she decides to blame the Democrats who are calling attention to the issue and that is wrong.
"
I fully accept that Slotkin is going to need to be to my right and that MGP is going to be to my right on gun control for WA-5.
This does not mean MGP needs to vote for the SAVE act or Slotkin has to spend the time seething at Sanders/AOC in public.
Slotkin really seems to hate that AOC and Sanders are out there holding large rallies about Trump's assault on democracy like it makes her job more difficult somehow.
"
See above
"
The big issue for me is not whether they are a moderate/centerist or liberal/progressive but whether they are fighters or shrinking violet. Schumer's general policy preferences are fine. His big issue is that he is a deer in headlights and can't bring himself to realize what the current situation is and he seems really pathetic when he goes on the Sunday shows and says "We sent the President a strongly-worded lecture."
Slotkin is also to my right but she seems really upset that she has to defend democracy, due process, and civil liberty instead of being able to present narrowly-casted and tested to death "mom and pop kitchen sink" issues.
Conor Lamb is perfectly willing to be a fighter even though he is a moderate. Newsom is a much better governor than he gets credit for but he is simply wrong on a profound level when he doesn't want to talk about Garcia and Trump's evil immigration crackdown.
Pritzker is correct when he notes that Trump and the Republicans need to be challenged on everything, all the time.
And frankly, Manchin is a moralistic sourpuss who will twist his face like he sucked a thousand lemons at the idea that a Senator can be on the floor and not where a tie but will preen from his yacht and Maserati about how giving poor parents money is horrible because the parents will spend it on drugs, not their kids. He and to a lesser extent people like Slotkin are why we can never seem to do good things, bold things like ten dollar a day pre-school/day care like our neighbors up north. Slotkin probably is not a moral sourpuss like Manchin but she is timid and afraid to do anything that has not been tested to death.
I started commenting on this site when I was in my 20s I think. I am 44. I am middle-aged. I have a good job, a mortgage, a car payment, a family. Yet when I hear the Democratic Party talk about helping American families, I feel like they are not talking to people like me even though I vote for them. I have no idea who they are talking too. When Schumer talks about his Bailey's, I think his mind is still stuck in the mid to late 1990s and the Bailey's are in their 40s but were born in the 1950s, not the 1970s and 80s.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.