This reminds me of Igor - the engineer who had a cube next me when we both worked at - well, I can't say the name guess - just say it was a company in Texas that made instruments. He grew up in St Petersberg - he like to show me photos of the palaces. Then he fled the crumbling USSR and found himself in Midland. Midland, TX. Now he is in Dalals. We lived through the Shrub years as a mutual support group. He felt that Amerticans were too dum to be trusted to vote wisely. He felt that a group - an insider group - a Duma, if you will - was ever the best way. He was profoundly cynical about politicians and politcal processes. I realized after a while - listenint to him - that an absolutist regime has to has a despirited and hopeless citizenry.
Anyway, he shared these views with me, a gay man who had just seen marriage made equal in this country. A big deal for me. Something that only a few years perviously me and all my gay friends did not think was possible to acchieve. That has been a guiding light for me, in a way, to not succumb to nihilism.
Speaking of bad faith, here's a graf from Thomas Fuller's "analysis" in the NYT about the protest:
In Oxford, Miss., Cass Rutledge, a first-year law student at the University of Mississippi, walked through the No Kings protest and around the town square on Saturday and questioned why people thought Mr. Trump was acting like a king.
Turns out old Cass isn't just some random dude, as Tom would have you believe:
Here's my email to him:
"Hi Tom,
Will you be updating your story to let the readers know that your “random skeptic”, Cass Rutledge, just happens to be the President of the Ole Miss College Republicans? That seems like a pertinent piece of information that you must have just “accidentally” overlooked.
The motherfucker added the phrase, "and chairman of the Ole Miss College Republicans", but didn't bother to alert readers to the change to the article. Fucking piece of shit.
Iran is not Iraq nor Afghanistan. This will turn into a monumental disaster. A quagmire with NO off ramp. Don and Pete are treating it like a video game
Only 5% undecided this far away from November is telling.
And here's some info I haven't seen asked in polls before...
𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘃𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗼?
He’s doing a good job - 56%
He is a Democrat - 22%
𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙫𝙤𝙩𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙂𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙮?
She is a Republican - 50%
I agree with her policies - 21%
So I guess not really that off-topic. A poll that shows that Democratic voters want competent leaders, and Republican voters only care that they're voting for a Republican.
Fetterman should have resigned after the stroke It really changed him This is not uncommon. If you know anyone who has suffered serious head trauma, you know what I mean
It is unfortunate how many college admins fell for T’s bad faith BS, but they are nowhere near to dictating “what college students can and can’t learn, and what they can and cannot say” on the vast majority of college campuses. Sucks to be in Texas, but you are making the classic mistake of equating the Ivy League (and really just Harvard) with all of US academia.
The GOP knows that the midterms will be a bloodbath. Their losses will be historic. Their goal their only hope, now is to create enough havoc to call for a "National Emergency" and "postpone" them Drive consumer prices through the ceiling and become embroiled in a ridiculous conflict which results in Antiwar protests becoming increasingly violent, sounds like a plan.
A ground invasion of Iran will become a 21st century Gallipoli. Churchill let British troops like lambs to the slaughter. Don and Pete will do the same with our troops. How can we stop it?
Authoritarian/conservative art in America has always been garish and loud, like it’s trying too hard to impress. Right-wing TV shows have artwork that looks like someone vomited patriotism. The same goes for wealthy evangelical organizations and their religious art. Even Republican campaign signs and bumper stickers have huge sans-serif letters in all caps like they’re screaming at you. A mentality that views subtlety in artistic expression as effeminate emotional weakness, or it assumes that a message in the expression is either praising or attacking, whether the target is America or Christianity or white people. Ask Bruce Springsteen what it’s like to have those listeners miss his point.
"Why shouldn't I defend my generation from the ingratitude of history? They gave up social position, career, the comfortable advancement which was their inheritance - because in the Tsar's autocracy there was no place for them that could be filled by sensitive human beings. But the tone of dissent has altered. It's harsh, jaundiced...a monastic order that excommunicates men for enjoying their dinner, and pictures and music. The gaiety has gone out of opposition."
-Alexander Herzen in Tom Stoppard's trilogy of plays, "The Coast of Utopia."
And frankly, in the Herzen spirit, I'm delighted to see roving bands of protesters in inflatable frog costumes.
The rise of the Trump regime should come as no surprise. We let it happen, safe in the misconception that "it can't happen here"
Over the past 30 years, the "Right, the Conservatives" whatever you want to call them have appropriated everything that is symbolically American. The Flag, Patriotism, Sense of Duty etc all the way down to Mom, Apple Pie and Baseball. Meanwhile their opposition was painted with a broad brush of negativity. Everything evil and despicable belonged to "The Left". Lazy ne'er do wells who seek only to have a good time on the dime of the "Good, Patriotic folk of the Right. We are godless communists, who hate America, we want to burn flags and take away all the guns, We are atheists who hate Christianity and hedonists who promote sexual deviance and despise any form of temperance,
We have allowed ourselves to be shoved into a hole which will take some effort to climb out of.
Older than that. Jefferson Davis used it to further the cause of the Confederacy and Hitler to promote the Nazi Party. It's a tried and true tactic! Never fails
Not all let it happen. We did what we could do in voting, protesting, staying engaged and watched it slip away piece by piece. Millions couldn't be bothered and turned their backs on their civic responsibilities for more cars, vacations, the right house, schools, etc.
Only when they feel the pain of the losses did they wake up and see the trail of destruction they refuse to accept any responsibility in. Roe is a good example. We handed them everything we fought for and they turned their noses up at us because we're old.
We mistakenly thought we had fixed it in the 60s and 70s Then along came Reagan and that sneaky ass Tea Party led by good ol "Newtie" and things started to unravel Trump saw what was happening and jumped on it with both feet.
It was fixed we had laws that fixed it. We have always been a work in progress and adjusted where needed. Raygun gave the right solid targets with welfare queens and small govt. Rs have always bloated govt to their advantage and lied to get what they want. They only talk about the budget and deficit when Ds are in power.
The never ending Rs break it Ds are demanded to fix it then to blame Ds for it regardless. Murcs law. Racism and all its forms still stands.
It's the result of the monied class slowly but patiently eroding the foundations of representational government. Getting judges elected so they can further their aims, making corporations into 'people' so dark money can get spread around. Buying up and concentrating the mass media and controlling the messaging so outrageous acts are normalized. The one political aim they stick to is 'no taxes' and they ensure that budgets and legislation prioritize that over all.
And yes, demonizing the 'left' ... here in Canada the name 'Liberal' is a centre of the road political party that hasn't taken on the baggage that the right has larded onto it.
A peaceful protest every few months does not a revolution make.
There needs to be SEVERE CONSEQUENCES to those who are trying to take our rights away. We didn't punish Dubya or Cheney, or Trump THE FIRST TIME. IMO, that's what all this special election and midterms are - a false sense of confidence we can get out of this without it getting bloody.
Trump literally posed sending ICE into airports as a threat. Media that didn’t communicate the point certainly weren’t serving the people.
This reminds me of Igor - the engineer who had a cube next me when we both worked at - well, I can't say the name guess - just say it was a company in Texas that made instruments. He grew up in St Petersberg - he like to show me photos of the palaces. Then he fled the crumbling USSR and found himself in Midland. Midland, TX. Now he is in Dalals. We lived through the Shrub years as a mutual support group. He felt that Amerticans were too dum to be trusted to vote wisely. He felt that a group - an insider group - a Duma, if you will - was ever the best way. He was profoundly cynical about politicians and politcal processes. I realized after a while - listenint to him - that an absolutist regime has to has a despirited and hopeless citizenry.
Anyway, he shared these views with me, a gay man who had just seen marriage made equal in this country. A big deal for me. Something that only a few years perviously me and all my gay friends did not think was possible to acchieve. That has been a guiding light for me, in a way, to not succumb to nihilism.
Well, he wouldn’t stress this, but there is an importance
I'll say it again. Nearly half of America though this a better idea than having a woman who doesn't pass the "one drop rule" as POTUS.
Speaking of bad faith, here's a graf from Thomas Fuller's "analysis" in the NYT about the protest:
In Oxford, Miss., Cass Rutledge, a first-year law student at the University of Mississippi, walked through the No Kings protest and around the town square on Saturday and questioned why people thought Mr. Trump was acting like a king.
Turns out old Cass isn't just some random dude, as Tom would have you believe:
Here's my email to him:
"Hi Tom,
Will you be updating your story to let the readers know that your “random skeptic”, Cass Rutledge, just happens to be the President of the Ole Miss College Republicans? That seems like a pertinent piece of information that you must have just “accidentally” overlooked.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/28/us/no-kings-trump-iran-immigration-minnesota.html"
The motherfucker added the phrase, "and chairman of the Ole Miss College Republicans", but didn't bother to alert readers to the change to the article. Fucking piece of shit.
"questioned why people thought Mr. Trump was acting like a king."
The constant constitutional violations are a bit of a clue...
How many people know what Ole Miss College Republicans are. Sounds harmless enough.
"no gerrymander can save Republicans from what’s coming: The biggest electoral wipeout of our lifetimes"
Your lips, God's ears & etc...
Iran is not Iraq nor Afghanistan. This will turn into a monumental disaster. A quagmire with NO off ramp. Don and Pete are treating it like a video game
OT: Who wants some PA poll pr0n?
𝗣𝗔 𝗥𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗼𝗿
Shapiro [D] - 58%
Garrity [R] - 36%
Undecided - 5%
Other - 1%
Only 5% undecided this far away from November is telling.
And here's some info I haven't seen asked in polls before...
𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘃𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗼?
He’s doing a good job - 56%
He is a Democrat - 22%
𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙫𝙤𝙩𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙂𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙮?
She is a Republican - 50%
I agree with her policies - 21%
So I guess not really that off-topic. A poll that shows that Democratic voters want competent leaders, and Republican voters only care that they're voting for a Republican.
LFG childhood home state! Two more years (oh God that seems like forever) before you get rid of Fetterman & replace him with a Democrat!
Fetterman should have resigned after the stroke It really changed him This is not uncommon. If you know anyone who has suffered serious head trauma, you know what I mean
It is unfortunate how many college admins fell for T’s bad faith BS, but they are nowhere near to dictating “what college students can and can’t learn, and what they can and cannot say” on the vast majority of college campuses. Sucks to be in Texas, but you are making the classic mistake of equating the Ivy League (and really just Harvard) with all of US academia.
The GOP knows that the midterms will be a bloodbath. Their losses will be historic. Their goal their only hope, now is to create enough havoc to call for a "National Emergency" and "postpone" them Drive consumer prices through the ceiling and become embroiled in a ridiculous conflict which results in Antiwar protests becoming increasingly violent, sounds like a plan.
I'm not sure the Senate Republicans are on-board with this plan, or they would have passed the SAVE act already.
Nobody sane is onboard with this plan
A ground invasion of Iran will become a 21st century Gallipoli. Churchill let British troops like lambs to the slaughter. Don and Pete will do the same with our troops. How can we stop it?
We the People are effectively that malfeasant vandal's landlord and he fucking up OUR house. This is NOT acceptable.
It's time to evict the destructive sonofabitch.
Ot longer read. Degenerate art then and now.
https://www.artnews.com/c/art-in-america/
Authoritarian/conservative art in America has always been garish and loud, like it’s trying too hard to impress. Right-wing TV shows have artwork that looks like someone vomited patriotism. The same goes for wealthy evangelical organizations and their religious art. Even Republican campaign signs and bumper stickers have huge sans-serif letters in all caps like they’re screaming at you. A mentality that views subtlety in artistic expression as effeminate emotional weakness, or it assumes that a message in the expression is either praising or attacking, whether the target is America or Christianity or white people. Ask Bruce Springsteen what it’s like to have those listeners miss his point.
Ionian is stodgy and formal. Why just the scroll? Always with the scroll.
Dorian is classy. Simple and elegant.
Corinthian just tries too hard. Kind of tacky.
Just tear the whole thing down and move the Presidential residence to Mar a Lardo!
"just tries too hard." so says Stormy.
"Kind of tacky." so say we all.
"Why shouldn't I defend my generation from the ingratitude of history? They gave up social position, career, the comfortable advancement which was their inheritance - because in the Tsar's autocracy there was no place for them that could be filled by sensitive human beings. But the tone of dissent has altered. It's harsh, jaundiced...a monastic order that excommunicates men for enjoying their dinner, and pictures and music. The gaiety has gone out of opposition."
-Alexander Herzen in Tom Stoppard's trilogy of plays, "The Coast of Utopia."
And frankly, in the Herzen spirit, I'm delighted to see roving bands of protesters in inflatable frog costumes.
The rise of the Trump regime should come as no surprise. We let it happen, safe in the misconception that "it can't happen here"
Over the past 30 years, the "Right, the Conservatives" whatever you want to call them have appropriated everything that is symbolically American. The Flag, Patriotism, Sense of Duty etc all the way down to Mom, Apple Pie and Baseball. Meanwhile their opposition was painted with a broad brush of negativity. Everything evil and despicable belonged to "The Left". Lazy ne'er do wells who seek only to have a good time on the dime of the "Good, Patriotic folk of the Right. We are godless communists, who hate America, we want to burn flags and take away all the guns, We are atheists who hate Christianity and hedonists who promote sexual deviance and despise any form of temperance,
We have allowed ourselves to be shoved into a hole which will take some effort to climb out of.
That warning was 90 years ago. I'm not pointing that out to diminish your point, but rather to underscore it.
Older than that. Jefferson Davis used it to further the cause of the Confederacy and Hitler to promote the Nazi Party. It's a tried and true tactic! Never fails
It's as old as time. Cain and Able comes to mind. Convince your followers who's to blame for their lot in life and you have a perfect storm.
Don't forget "God is on our Side!"
Weve got mittens, too!
Rs have weaponized everything and they took religion down the shitter.
Not all let it happen. We did what we could do in voting, protesting, staying engaged and watched it slip away piece by piece. Millions couldn't be bothered and turned their backs on their civic responsibilities for more cars, vacations, the right house, schools, etc.
Only when they feel the pain of the losses did they wake up and see the trail of destruction they refuse to accept any responsibility in. Roe is a good example. We handed them everything we fought for and they turned their noses up at us because we're old.
We mistakenly thought we had fixed it in the 60s and 70s Then along came Reagan and that sneaky ass Tea Party led by good ol "Newtie" and things started to unravel Trump saw what was happening and jumped on it with both feet.
It was fixed we had laws that fixed it. We have always been a work in progress and adjusted where needed. Raygun gave the right solid targets with welfare queens and small govt. Rs have always bloated govt to their advantage and lied to get what they want. They only talk about the budget and deficit when Ds are in power.
The never ending Rs break it Ds are demanded to fix it then to blame Ds for it regardless. Murcs law. Racism and all its forms still stands.
It's the result of the monied class slowly but patiently eroding the foundations of representational government. Getting judges elected so they can further their aims, making corporations into 'people' so dark money can get spread around. Buying up and concentrating the mass media and controlling the messaging so outrageous acts are normalized. The one political aim they stick to is 'no taxes' and they ensure that budgets and legislation prioritize that over all.
And yes, demonizing the 'left' ... here in Canada the name 'Liberal' is a centre of the road political party that hasn't taken on the baggage that the right has larded onto it.
"𝙒𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙞𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙣"
And are continuing to let it happen.
A peaceful protest every few months does not a revolution make.
There needs to be SEVERE CONSEQUENCES to those who are trying to take our rights away. We didn't punish Dubya or Cheney, or Trump THE FIRST TIME. IMO, that's what all this special election and midterms are - a false sense of confidence we can get out of this without it getting bloody.
Rules unenforced are not rules. Laws, too.
I agree. Cities should be burning by now.
“I though the blacks and antifa did that in 2020 so whats big deal about jan.6th!”
Exactly what the Right is trying to push us into.