Ta, Denny. Each of us has only one vote. Beyond that, there is SO much more we can do. Have you talked to neighbors, friends, colleagues, coworkers about why you're voting a straight Democratic ticket up and down ballot? Have you checked your voter registration and know it's current? Do you know where your polling site is? If it's been shuttered and the new one is far, do you have a plan to get there? If the answer to all of the above is yes, can you help others who are not as well off? Offer to pick up minimum wage workers without cars from their homes, take them to vote WHILE you wait, then drive them to work OR pick them up from work, take them to vote, then drive them home. Same thing for students who THOUGHT they could vote on campus (looking at you, TX) but no longer can. Yes, it's a plan for a personal Souls to the Polls. Do you live in a state requiring state photo ID to vote? Offer a "loan" (a gift, but making it a loan allows face-saving) to help obtain documents, or a drive to the DMV, or both. If you're flush, donate to your chosen candidate(s).
I *love* M's suggestion: Arrive with Five. Do you have other/more thoughts on this? Please post them in a reply; I can't think of everything. Finally: unless you live in a state that votes entirely by mail, bring your ballot to a secure dropbox in an official location. Do NOT trust USPS with your ballot (and as the daughter of a deceased postal worker, it pains me to say this). All ballots are supposed to be handled as first class (not bulk) mail, but the ratfuckers are working overtime to make sure this midterm will not be free and fair. Mount up!! When we vote, we WIN!!
I of course agree with the spirit of this screed, but disagree with the words that seem to suggest that the government is alienated from its people.
Governments and political parties are manifestations of the will of the people. Even if we disagree with them. Even if they are captured by fascists, following legal elections. We take great risks with our Liberty when we figure that oh a simple prohibition will solve our problem.
What the author here suggests is a technical solution where an adaptive one is needed. The efficacy of technical solutions is best summed up by the wisdom in the phrase "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic."
The nodes in a system can be altered or rearranged, and the outcome will be the same.
The only solutions that work are adaptive solutions. The typical example is coronary artery bypass graft surgery. That is a technical solution for heart disease. But once you get the bypasses, you, technically, don't have heart disease anymore.
But if you still smoke, eat poorly, are sedentary, etc., etc., you'll soon have heart disease again.
So the adaptive solution is to change your very nature. To become the active, healthy, eating, less depressive person that's necessary to survive heart disease and a coronary bypass operation. Operation. You'll solve the problem and its cause, but you will adapt yourself and become in many ways a different person.
This is change. Change causes loss. You just want to make sure when you design change that you lose the bad stuff and gain the good stuff, or at least more of one than the other.
Outlawing a political party. Is just a technical solution. It is prohibition. This may come as a surprise, but American experience with prohibition has not been a successful one.
Prohibitions create desire for the forbidden. Encourage disrespect for the law. And excite the entrepreneurial spirit of criminals.
If alcohol and drug prohibition where abject failures in American history, I think, and they are, something as as simple and technical as the prohibition of a political party can easily be understood as equally well thought out.
On top of that, there is the precious issue of our Liberty. The whole point of having an open liberal democratic constitutional society is that within the confines of respecting each other's inalienable rights, we are to be, and this may come as a shock, free.
I am not defending fascists. But I am saying that there is no more basic human right, aside from the right to choose one's own family, as there is to associate with another person. If it's not a criminal Enterprise, our government, in the larger society it represents, cannot tell us with whom we can associate and with whom we cannot. This is foundational stuff. Foundational stuff. This is the purpose of our politics. Our job every generation's job is to preserve the basic concepts of universal individual freedom. Read what Eleanor Roosevelt wrote into the declaration of human Rights at the United Nations.
It's the fascists who ban political parties. Don't be a fascist.
If the current corporate arrangement of a political party has committed actual crimes, engaged in conspiracy, for example, then it is the duty of course of the criminal Justice system to enforce the law, up to and including dissolution under the law of any organization that is violated that law and for which the law includes a provision for the dissolution.
But the purpose of that is not to eliminate political parties. It is to eliminate criminal organizations, with the view that wants the criminal element is removed, the people within it who are not criminals have a inalienable right to associate with people of their choosing, and not the governments, and not their neighbors.
I made no such slippery slope argument. You're right to point out that the slippery slope is often a fallacy. This idea that well. You do a little bit and more must of course follow.
I've argued that there is no tolerance for violations of basic universal human rights. It's a well understood and not fallacious argument that the restriction of freedom on any part of a society means that no part of that society is free. Read your Martin Luther King Jr.
There is no paradox with tolerance. I'm not suggesting tolerance for fascism.
I'm suggesting that the frame of reference be put where it ought to be, which is on the actions of the people through their government. Our peace and stability and safety under the current constitutional regime relies entirely on the understanding that governmental officials can't do certain things. There that the Constitution and laws give certain offices great Powers so that they can accomplish things, but they are as has been said ogres in chains to serve the commonwealth.
In practical effect, those chains are limits on what government officials can do. And they ought to be, and it has been understood to be by every good liberal in the history of this country, short of allowing government officials to determine who Americans can associate with in non-criminal non-familial relationships.
I'm also arguing very soundly on the basis of the categorical imperative, which is not even close to a logical fallacy.
Today you get to poke out someone else's eye, in the name of ridding society of something. Will you better than watch out for sharpened sticks. Because if everyone acted as suggested, we'll all be blind.
The United States and Germany are going to continue coddling and desperately trying to pacify their insane, hate-KKKrazed, racist, sexist, far-white asshole-submorons until after Holocaust 2.0 : (
Marco Rubio should resign. Today when asked about Trump's banning of various news agencies, he defended Trump by casually commenting that "there aren't soldiers kicking down the doors" of the outlets.
I mean, if this is his baseline understanding of the First Amendment, then he has absolutely no place in government.
Calling it now: ex-hubsand once yelled at me that I was the Markwayne Mullins of the left. That means when we take over, I am in charge of rounding the MAGAs up and shipping them to the trash island in the Pacific. There will be no due process.
Meanwhile, Trump is trying to globallize fascism, posing with the Latin American strongmen, threatening the ICC, and suggesting he many "annihilate" Iran.
An almost throw-away line I once read in a book about the Roman Empire noted that the Romans so enthusiastic about bringing Caesar to power had little idea that they'd just invited in 400 years of dictatorship.
Put me on record as being in favor of dissolving the Republican Party. But only on condition that that all of its members be marched off to re-education camps where they are exposed on a daily, if not more frequent, basis to the "learning stick."
During my long and distinguished bidness career, I saw and even experienced many instances of "Plausible Deniability." A few time bosses actually said "Don't tell me!" I never extorted them by telling them, but I felt it did give me just a tiny bit of leverage. Usually enough to keep a knife out of my back. Ah, bidness. Weird how I don't miss it.
Nope. That's not true. There were head noddings (among them Danmark) in agreement with some of his shit and frequent applause. Especially with the Iran war nonsense.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr spent nearly a decade of his youth inside a Washington-area Alcoholics Anonymous offshoot that former members describe as "a cult" where teenage girls and young women were "sexually exploited," according to a Guardian investigation.
The group, known as Midtown, drew young people seeking sobriety — sometimes sent there by their own parents — into the orbit of leader Michael Quinones, who died of cancer in 2007. Former members told the Guardian that Quinones, once branded the "Epstein of AA," controlled where members lived, worked and went to school, while pressuring teenage girls and young women into "dating" and having sex with older male members. One former member said, "What happened to her amounted to sex trafficking."
"Carr joined the group in 1996, when he was about 17 years old and a senior in high school, and appears to have remained a member for about nine years, including while attending law school," according to the Guardian’s report, adding, "While it is difficult to pinpoint when exactly Carr left the group, he spoke about his sobriety journey in a recorded Midtown speech in 2005, in which he also referenced that he was in his last semester of law school."
Fourteen former members interviewed by the Guardian were emphatic that Carr "wasn't part of the abuse." One called him "never among the predators," instead describing him as protective of younger girls; another said he snuck her food when he "cared and knew I was hungry." Several characterized Carr himself as a victim of the group's manipulation — "such a fragile guy," one former girlfriend said, "desperate to have a place to belong."
An FCC spokesperson denied any wrongdoing on Carr's behalf: "He did not engage in any of the allegedly illegal conduct or abusive behavior you reference. Any suggestion that he knew of the allegedly illegal or abusive conduct you point to would be false."
The revelation adds a strange new chapter to Carr's tenure atop the FCC, where he's become known as an aggressive enforcer eager to please Trump and has drawn rebukes even from the Wall Street Journal's editorial board over his attacks on the press.
OT Wall St being silly again. They're apposed to want 'Peace' 🕊 with Iran. But PoopyDiaper47's prattling to the UN was not convincing. My guess people betting their boat payment PD47 won't do much, as oil sold off. Weird. A few wanted some tech and chips, so Nasdaq hanging tough. Gundlach peed in the AI pot. More weird. S & P, Dow and gold all down.
Uber and Lyft 📉 just waiting to say 'adios, sayonara, and arrivederci' as the future will be robo taxis, robo cubicle workers , and robo butt wipers.
Ta, Denny. Each of us has only one vote. Beyond that, there is SO much more we can do. Have you talked to neighbors, friends, colleagues, coworkers about why you're voting a straight Democratic ticket up and down ballot? Have you checked your voter registration and know it's current? Do you know where your polling site is? If it's been shuttered and the new one is far, do you have a plan to get there? If the answer to all of the above is yes, can you help others who are not as well off? Offer to pick up minimum wage workers without cars from their homes, take them to vote WHILE you wait, then drive them to work OR pick them up from work, take them to vote, then drive them home. Same thing for students who THOUGHT they could vote on campus (looking at you, TX) but no longer can. Yes, it's a plan for a personal Souls to the Polls. Do you live in a state requiring state photo ID to vote? Offer a "loan" (a gift, but making it a loan allows face-saving) to help obtain documents, or a drive to the DMV, or both. If you're flush, donate to your chosen candidate(s).
I *love* M's suggestion: Arrive with Five. Do you have other/more thoughts on this? Please post them in a reply; I can't think of everything. Finally: unless you live in a state that votes entirely by mail, bring your ballot to a secure dropbox in an official location. Do NOT trust USPS with your ballot (and as the daughter of a deceased postal worker, it pains me to say this). All ballots are supposed to be handled as first class (not bulk) mail, but the ratfuckers are working overtime to make sure this midterm will not be free and fair. Mount up!! When we vote, we WIN!!
I of course agree with the spirit of this screed, but disagree with the words that seem to suggest that the government is alienated from its people.
Governments and political parties are manifestations of the will of the people. Even if we disagree with them. Even if they are captured by fascists, following legal elections. We take great risks with our Liberty when we figure that oh a simple prohibition will solve our problem.
What the author here suggests is a technical solution where an adaptive one is needed. The efficacy of technical solutions is best summed up by the wisdom in the phrase "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic."
The nodes in a system can be altered or rearranged, and the outcome will be the same.
The only solutions that work are adaptive solutions. The typical example is coronary artery bypass graft surgery. That is a technical solution for heart disease. But once you get the bypasses, you, technically, don't have heart disease anymore.
But if you still smoke, eat poorly, are sedentary, etc., etc., you'll soon have heart disease again.
So the adaptive solution is to change your very nature. To become the active, healthy, eating, less depressive person that's necessary to survive heart disease and a coronary bypass operation. Operation. You'll solve the problem and its cause, but you will adapt yourself and become in many ways a different person.
This is change. Change causes loss. You just want to make sure when you design change that you lose the bad stuff and gain the good stuff, or at least more of one than the other.
Outlawing a political party. Is just a technical solution. It is prohibition. This may come as a surprise, but American experience with prohibition has not been a successful one.
Prohibitions create desire for the forbidden. Encourage disrespect for the law. And excite the entrepreneurial spirit of criminals.
If alcohol and drug prohibition where abject failures in American history, I think, and they are, something as as simple and technical as the prohibition of a political party can easily be understood as equally well thought out.
On top of that, there is the precious issue of our Liberty. The whole point of having an open liberal democratic constitutional society is that within the confines of respecting each other's inalienable rights, we are to be, and this may come as a shock, free.
I am not defending fascists. But I am saying that there is no more basic human right, aside from the right to choose one's own family, as there is to associate with another person. If it's not a criminal Enterprise, our government, in the larger society it represents, cannot tell us with whom we can associate and with whom we cannot. This is foundational stuff. Foundational stuff. This is the purpose of our politics. Our job every generation's job is to preserve the basic concepts of universal individual freedom. Read what Eleanor Roosevelt wrote into the declaration of human Rights at the United Nations.
It's the fascists who ban political parties. Don't be a fascist.
If the current corporate arrangement of a political party has committed actual crimes, engaged in conspiracy, for example, then it is the duty of course of the criminal Justice system to enforce the law, up to and including dissolution under the law of any organization that is violated that law and for which the law includes a provision for the dissolution.
But the purpose of that is not to eliminate political parties. It is to eliminate criminal organizations, with the view that wants the criminal element is removed, the people within it who are not criminals have a inalienable right to associate with people of their choosing, and not the governments, and not their neighbors.
Tell me you don't understand the paradox of tolerance without telling me you don't understand the paradox of tolerance.
Or much of anything at all, outside this fallacious slippery slope/false equivalence argument you're making.
I made no such slippery slope argument. You're right to point out that the slippery slope is often a fallacy. This idea that well. You do a little bit and more must of course follow.
I've argued that there is no tolerance for violations of basic universal human rights. It's a well understood and not fallacious argument that the restriction of freedom on any part of a society means that no part of that society is free. Read your Martin Luther King Jr.
There is no paradox with tolerance. I'm not suggesting tolerance for fascism.
I'm suggesting that the frame of reference be put where it ought to be, which is on the actions of the people through their government. Our peace and stability and safety under the current constitutional regime relies entirely on the understanding that governmental officials can't do certain things. There that the Constitution and laws give certain offices great Powers so that they can accomplish things, but they are as has been said ogres in chains to serve the commonwealth.
In practical effect, those chains are limits on what government officials can do. And they ought to be, and it has been understood to be by every good liberal in the history of this country, short of allowing government officials to determine who Americans can associate with in non-criminal non-familial relationships.
I'm also arguing very soundly on the basis of the categorical imperative, which is not even close to a logical fallacy.
Today you get to poke out someone else's eye, in the name of ridding society of something. Will you better than watch out for sharpened sticks. Because if everyone acted as suggested, we'll all be blind.
I am an inveterate pacifist, and yet sometimes I consider that banhammerable tactics are the only way out.
I'm trying to make a beautiful garden in my front yard so hopefully it humanizes me and my MaGA neighbors won't kill me when they kick off.
It's ridiculous that I feel I have to think seriously about shit like this. :(
>>make a beautiful garden in my front yard<<
Is that what the young people are calling it nowadays? :D
The United States and Germany are going to continue coddling and desperately trying to pacify their insane, hate-KKKrazed, racist, sexist, far-white asshole-submorons until after Holocaust 2.0 : (
Marco Rubio should resign. Today when asked about Trump's banning of various news agencies, he defended Trump by casually commenting that "there aren't soldiers kicking down the doors" of the outlets.
I mean, if this is his baseline understanding of the First Amendment, then he has absolutely no place in government.
None of them do; they’re all bunch of fucking fascists.
"yet"
"In Soviet America the news reads you." . . .
What needs to happen at this point is (subject to repeated banhammers),
and it's not something that most people are really ready to do.
I've thought since before Trump 1 we were headed for another civil war, and nothing I've seen since has led me to change my mind.
and that's pretty much all I'm going to say about this.
Laters...
Has anyone thought about an alternative gathering place if they take Wonkette down?
*skeletor jetting out.gif*
Calling it now: ex-hubsand once yelled at me that I was the Markwayne Mullins of the left. That means when we take over, I am in charge of rounding the MAGAs up and shipping them to the trash island in the Pacific. There will be no due process.
Thanks Denny. Well written and important
Meanwhile, Trump is trying to globallize fascism, posing with the Latin American strongmen, threatening the ICC, and suggesting he many "annihilate" Iran.
A CNN World War . . .
An almost throw-away line I once read in a book about the Roman Empire noted that the Romans so enthusiastic about bringing Caesar to power had little idea that they'd just invited in 400 years of dictatorship.
Sons of the second sons
Products of genocide
Polishin' up our guns
Livin' in double-wides
Sons of the peasantry
Tellin' ourselves we're free
Sons of the pagan serfs
Salt of the fuckin' Earth
In search of a Caesar
From James McMurtry's song, "Sons of the Second Sons"
Killer salad though . . .
Caesar+'peaser=Shalmanezer
That was SUCH A FUCKING GOOD BOOK!
So many of his books are so fucking prescient right now. Especially the Shockwave Rider.
Put me on record as being in favor of dissolving the Republican Party. But only on condition that that all of its members be marched off to re-education camps where they are exposed on a daily, if not more frequent, basis to the "learning stick."
"It's Reconstruction Week, again." . . .
You can't re-educate nazi zombies; there's nothing in there.
"If the hat is red, the brain is dead."
De-program.
A Clockwork Orange style if necessary.
Sorry, no. That's like demanding that an elephant become a ballerina, something that it's physically incapable of doing.
Even dogs respond to Pavlovian conditioning. XD
"Not the 9th !!!" . . .
"I'm proud to be an American....."
Can we finally use the underground prisons Obama built under the Walmarts in Texas?
The ones where the eternal fires of Hell are burning?
Break out the digging stick.
During my long and distinguished bidness career, I saw and even experienced many instances of "Plausible Deniability." A few time bosses actually said "Don't tell me!" I never extorted them by telling them, but I felt it did give me just a tiny bit of leverage. Usually enough to keep a knife out of my back. Ah, bidness. Weird how I don't miss it.
OT: Trump is putting the UN General Assembly to sleep. If you're not watching here's a summary:
https://bsky.app/profile/thetnholler.bsky.social/post/3mw4h32tcgk2n
Did any delegation walk out on him?
I read that most of the Iranian delegation walked out after 10 minutes and the last guy stayed until the end.
Cuba walked out. I saw it. I didn't see any others. I may have missed Iran also doing it.
I couldn't find video of it but here are some pics of the empty chairs after they left. There may be video but I got tired of looking. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/most-of-irans-delegation-walks-out-of-trumps-un-speech-in-protest/
Supposedly Cuba did.
The only report I've read so far says that the audience is ignoring him. Total lack of reaction.
Nope. That's not true. There were head noddings (among them Danmark) in agreement with some of his shit and frequent applause. Especially with the Iran war nonsense.
I watched it in real time.
Cuba walked out.
They should have at least thrown their shoes at him.
Florsheims with Rubio lifts.
Worst music festival ever . . .
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr spent nearly a decade of his youth inside a Washington-area Alcoholics Anonymous offshoot that former members describe as "a cult" where teenage girls and young women were "sexually exploited," according to a Guardian investigation.
The group, known as Midtown, drew young people seeking sobriety — sometimes sent there by their own parents — into the orbit of leader Michael Quinones, who died of cancer in 2007. Former members told the Guardian that Quinones, once branded the "Epstein of AA," controlled where members lived, worked and went to school, while pressuring teenage girls and young women into "dating" and having sex with older male members. One former member said, "What happened to her amounted to sex trafficking."
"Carr joined the group in 1996, when he was about 17 years old and a senior in high school, and appears to have remained a member for about nine years, including while attending law school," according to the Guardian’s report, adding, "While it is difficult to pinpoint when exactly Carr left the group, he spoke about his sobriety journey in a recorded Midtown speech in 2005, in which he also referenced that he was in his last semester of law school."
Fourteen former members interviewed by the Guardian were emphatic that Carr "wasn't part of the abuse." One called him "never among the predators," instead describing him as protective of younger girls; another said he snuck her food when he "cared and knew I was hungry." Several characterized Carr himself as a victim of the group's manipulation — "such a fragile guy," one former girlfriend said, "desperate to have a place to belong."
An FCC spokesperson denied any wrongdoing on Carr's behalf: "He did not engage in any of the allegedly illegal conduct or abusive behavior you reference. Any suggestion that he knew of the allegedly illegal or abusive conduct you point to would be false."
The revelation adds a strange new chapter to Carr's tenure atop the FCC, where he's become known as an aggressive enforcer eager to please Trump and has drawn rebukes even from the Wall Street Journal's editorial board over his attacks on the press.
https://www.rawstory.com/brendan-carr-cult/
Bonus for whoever wrote this chyron
https://bsky.app/profile/brandyzadrozny.bsky.social/post/3mw4i7wiovk2h
Poopy Pants wants to be a peacemaker at the same time he wants to nuke Iran off the map...
He's not smart enough employ reverse psychology. His cognition really is that dissonant. His self-awareness really is that oblivious.
OT Wall St being silly again. They're apposed to want 'Peace' 🕊 with Iran. But PoopyDiaper47's prattling to the UN was not convincing. My guess people betting their boat payment PD47 won't do much, as oil sold off. Weird. A few wanted some tech and chips, so Nasdaq hanging tough. Gundlach peed in the AI pot. More weird. S & P, Dow and gold all down.
Uber and Lyft 📉 just waiting to say 'adios, sayonara, and arrivederci' as the future will be robo taxis, robo cubicle workers , and robo butt wipers.
Robo Fat End scritchers for every cat in the pot.
this is the typical froth you get at a market top.
We're there, now it's just how far the bottom is from here.
Yep. The nerd in me says it's the Double Top chart forces in play. Just need a clear event to happen and it's Good Bye Mo Fo.