Personally I am so sick of people calling peaceful protests, “riots,” kidnapping of people by armed masked individuals without warrants and without any semblance of due process, putting them into unmarked SUV’s and transporting them to unknown locations while denied access to counsel, and real fear on the part of anyone who is brown skinned or is married to a person with darker skin, just beyond my ability to even cope.
But cope we must. We must keep working at our jobs, working at our health issues, caring for those we love, and pushing back by refusing to accept that our friends, neighbors and folks we shop with at the grocery store, tremble in fear when they leave their homes to buy food. It is disgusting, it makes me ashamed to go out freely myself as it is now a privilege of people who are white, citizens, and can freely like, go to Costco. You know, I am exhausted thinking about seeing a beautiful family at Costco with 2 darling little babies, all 4 members of the family were obvious immigrants from some South American country,mor Mexico, and while complimenting them on their beautiful children, instantly thinking OMG I hope they are all going to be OK. It’s like seeing a tsunami coming at them and not being able to do anything.
This administration has destroyed the simple pleasures of life for all of us, by making us fearful of these unnamed, masked thugs who are armed and enabled to violate all of our rights including the right to due process before being deprived of fundamental rights. We have already lost any semblance of trust in the government. It is they who have sent these thugs into our communities, schools, courts, hospitals and streets. They are ripping workers who pick crops, from their work and families. They are taking essential workers from offices, schools, hospitals, and care facilities.
I notice we are not hearing about illegal gang terrorists being apprehended. Instead, they are taking grandmas, parents, and anyone who looks like they come from Mexico.
Just had to vent. Sorry. I am cooking some lasagna because I figure it is a privilege I should enjoy. I honestly pray for all of us especially the most vulnerable among us.
I echo all of this, rage at what this country is and helplessness and guilt and goddammit it all to hell. I thought the same thing about a little boy I saw at a protest. I mentioned him in a newspaper column but did not say he was dark-skinned and as enamored as I was at a protester
I know right? Heck he IS Jesus. “As you have done it unto the least of these, so you have done it unto me.” When we serve a person being persecuted we are directly serving God.
I'll just make my comment a suggestion for any and all: come out and run for office - any office. Join those of us who have done so and experience what it is actually like to try to effect change. Find out what it feels like when there is no good answer to a problem but you have to choose a course of action. Try to find a way to move along the best path when you do not have the votes - and how difficult it can be when you do have the votes. And be ready for the public which will stand and publicly flay you if you are not the picture of decorum every single moment you hold office.
I have been in my seat for almost eight years now. If my party decides they would like me to run again, I will do so, solely because I care deeply about the work I've tried to do, even though it's by far one of the hardest things I've ever done.
Well you can’t have a bad message when you have no message. I can’t say I’ve given a lot of thought to messengering lately but I have been thinking about how, his evilness aside for a moment, Trump is just really bad at being president and maybe therein lies a message. More and more people are agreeing that his unpredictably, disinhibition, distractability, even his meanness is a bad thing not some clever feint for his deal making ability. And more and more are agreeing on that even if they might disagree on policy.
Much to my surprise the NYT posted this comment in response to Maureen Dowd’s latest column, “Who’s the Mad King Now”.
“Trump is drowning. He lacks the intellectual capacity, emotional maturity and mental acuity to meet the situation in which he finds himself. Because of his narcissism and fatalism, he does not care who he takes down with him”.
MAGAS and Dems alike turned Biden’s shaky gait and verbal gaffes into political leverage. Maybe Trump’s time has come.
A year ago I was howling that comparison was what was relevant in assessing Biden’s senescence. Nope, that was too complicated, I guess: there wasn’t enough hunger for it to affect news coverage. The Trump team was justified in taking that massive risk to press denigration of Biden.
What’s still more complicated and time-consuming than comparison is using the substance and consequences of policy to assess a politician or regime. :(
The humans grind mills with ferocious rapidity and no discernment to speak of.
You put your finger on a key problem with the current state of legacy journalism: bothsidesism. Yes, responsible journalists should be fair, but that doesn’t entail the old “he said/she said” approach to reporting. In today’s media landscape saturated with all sorts of social-media bullshit (which you note), giving equal copy inches or air time to “both sides” is falling prey to the logical fallacy of false equivalence. Not every comment is evidence-based or even true, so not all comments are worth reporting.
Indeed, whenever possible, a journalist should call out lies with credible evidence. Case in point: Trump’s current distraction in which he’s asking for an “investigation” of the 2020 election. Any journalist who reports this story should: 1) emphatically debunk the claim (again) of the “stolen election,” and 2) note how it is indeed a distraction from current negative stories involving Trump (such as his handling of the Iran crisis).
I was raised to be polite, kind and respectful with a ‘do unto others’ mentality. It served me well until 10 years ago until that fateful escalator ride. I no longer kept quiet and became an advocate for everything that the 🍊felon was against. I breathed a sigh of relief when Pres. Biden was elected. Now maybe I could go back to being my old self. No more nastiness or the need for people to listen to what I had to say.
Well folks, it’s back with a vengeance. And I won’t back down, now or ever. I’ve lost friends over this idiot but I don’t care. I’ll keep speaking up (and out). What our democracy means to me will always be more important than the people that spew lies and hate. That’s my decorum resolution. ⚔️
There are different sorts of decorum and politeness, as there are different codes. Some are about requiring submission from those society already gives little platform or power to, and the rights of the powerful to treat them abusively. Some are about establishing aristocracy and sneering at outsiders.
The kind I like and try to embrace are about maintaining an open society and striving for equity within it.
When courtesy and self-restraint are systematically abused, I don’t care if the abusers call me rude or hypocritical. I want to stop them.
I’m a droplet myself, but I can join others and try to move others to join as well. I do have a personal code of manners and dislike sneering— and, perhaps wrongly think it a poor recruitment technique— but I ‘m all about pointing out lies and bad faith and spurious framing.
About Obama et al.: I think that spending time wanting them to say “This is really bad!” is a distraction. But perhaps I fail to see useful consequences.
I wonder if people who are waiting some fire and brimstone from people like Obama are waiting for permission to be loud. Here it is, if that's you. Your permission. Be loud.
Folks keep warning me to be careful what I say and do because I’d not like being in jail. I hear them; definitely don’t want to be jailed in Florida (been there, done that). If I’m too quiet, then folks think I’m withdrawn and think I’m depressed (nevah!); however, when I’m vocal then I’m too uppity. Where is the mean? I’m perplexed. Hi ho ⚔️.
Well, I'm guess no one ever won a street fight by being polite. Not sure whether it's more effective to describe what we're hearing as "a load of steaming horseshit" (an evocative metaphor, probably well understood) or as simply a continuous stream of lies to demonize people or positions he doesn't like. The former, I think, emphasizes visceral reaction on either side. The latter MAY be a starting point for discussion about what's true and what's not. 🤔 Maybe I am deluding myself to think there is any potential for rational discussion here. 🙄 That said, I do agree Stephen Miller = 💩
Well, that’s the thing. Am I wrong to think there’s no point of continuing a conversation? I don’t mean I’m threatening violence but I have lost hope that polite discussion has a future for now.
Yep, and they are all over big old RED Texas this week, and brown-nosed Mike Johnson's Louisiana, while most of the Dems stay busy making donor calls and emails, bless their hearts. They have rendered themselves useless, IMO, and don't even seem to know it.
My thinking exactly. We were on the cusp of good things, then we ruined it, and making change doesn't even seem possible right now. It's like we were about to run a marathon, but then we got shot, and now we're just trying to survive.
I agree with your regarding the politeness. A couple of weeks ago, Capeheart said that he no longer looked to Obama and Clinton for solutions. They never experienced this environment, and to follow their path wouldn't work.
There is no escaping the fact that those in power and those who've served are fat, dumb and happy. Most of them are risk averse and wouldn't say shit if they had a mouthful. I am tired of it all!! Oh, and please NO MORE excuses for Obama, he is living in the lap of luxury and unwilling to enter the fray!!
Personally I am so sick of people calling peaceful protests, “riots,” kidnapping of people by armed masked individuals without warrants and without any semblance of due process, putting them into unmarked SUV’s and transporting them to unknown locations while denied access to counsel, and real fear on the part of anyone who is brown skinned or is married to a person with darker skin, just beyond my ability to even cope.
But cope we must. We must keep working at our jobs, working at our health issues, caring for those we love, and pushing back by refusing to accept that our friends, neighbors and folks we shop with at the grocery store, tremble in fear when they leave their homes to buy food. It is disgusting, it makes me ashamed to go out freely myself as it is now a privilege of people who are white, citizens, and can freely like, go to Costco. You know, I am exhausted thinking about seeing a beautiful family at Costco with 2 darling little babies, all 4 members of the family were obvious immigrants from some South American country,mor Mexico, and while complimenting them on their beautiful children, instantly thinking OMG I hope they are all going to be OK. It’s like seeing a tsunami coming at them and not being able to do anything.
This administration has destroyed the simple pleasures of life for all of us, by making us fearful of these unnamed, masked thugs who are armed and enabled to violate all of our rights including the right to due process before being deprived of fundamental rights. We have already lost any semblance of trust in the government. It is they who have sent these thugs into our communities, schools, courts, hospitals and streets. They are ripping workers who pick crops, from their work and families. They are taking essential workers from offices, schools, hospitals, and care facilities.
I notice we are not hearing about illegal gang terrorists being apprehended. Instead, they are taking grandmas, parents, and anyone who looks like they come from Mexico.
Just had to vent. Sorry. I am cooking some lasagna because I figure it is a privilege I should enjoy. I honestly pray for all of us especially the most vulnerable among us.
I echo all of this, rage at what this country is and helplessness and guilt and goddammit it all to hell. I thought the same thing about a little boy I saw at a protest. I mentioned him in a newspaper column but did not say he was dark-skinned and as enamored as I was at a protester
dressed up as Jesus. My God.
I know right? Heck he IS Jesus. “As you have done it unto the least of these, so you have done it unto me.” When we serve a person being persecuted we are directly serving God.
I'll just make my comment a suggestion for any and all: come out and run for office - any office. Join those of us who have done so and experience what it is actually like to try to effect change. Find out what it feels like when there is no good answer to a problem but you have to choose a course of action. Try to find a way to move along the best path when you do not have the votes - and how difficult it can be when you do have the votes. And be ready for the public which will stand and publicly flay you if you are not the picture of decorum every single moment you hold office.
I have been in my seat for almost eight years now. If my party decides they would like me to run again, I will do so, solely because I care deeply about the work I've tried to do, even though it's by far one of the hardest things I've ever done.
I really appreciate people who are trying to serve, and I mean that.
Thanks! Often it's a very lonely road - but despite all still worth it.
My hat is off to you.
Thank you for your service.
Well you can’t have a bad message when you have no message. I can’t say I’ve given a lot of thought to messengering lately but I have been thinking about how, his evilness aside for a moment, Trump is just really bad at being president and maybe therein lies a message. More and more people are agreeing that his unpredictably, disinhibition, distractability, even his meanness is a bad thing not some clever feint for his deal making ability. And more and more are agreeing on that even if they might disagree on policy.
Much to my surprise the NYT posted this comment in response to Maureen Dowd’s latest column, “Who’s the Mad King Now”.
“Trump is drowning. He lacks the intellectual capacity, emotional maturity and mental acuity to meet the situation in which he finds himself. Because of his narcissism and fatalism, he does not care who he takes down with him”.
MAGAS and Dems alike turned Biden’s shaky gait and verbal gaffes into political leverage. Maybe Trump’s time has come.
A year ago I was howling that comparison was what was relevant in assessing Biden’s senescence. Nope, that was too complicated, I guess: there wasn’t enough hunger for it to affect news coverage. The Trump team was justified in taking that massive risk to press denigration of Biden.
What’s still more complicated and time-consuming than comparison is using the substance and consequences of policy to assess a politician or regime. :(
The humans grind mills with ferocious rapidity and no discernment to speak of.
Because we are essentially intellectually lazy?
Let’s hope. ⚔️
Your mouth to God's ears.
You put your finger on a key problem with the current state of legacy journalism: bothsidesism. Yes, responsible journalists should be fair, but that doesn’t entail the old “he said/she said” approach to reporting. In today’s media landscape saturated with all sorts of social-media bullshit (which you note), giving equal copy inches or air time to “both sides” is falling prey to the logical fallacy of false equivalence. Not every comment is evidence-based or even true, so not all comments are worth reporting.
Indeed, whenever possible, a journalist should call out lies with credible evidence. Case in point: Trump’s current distraction in which he’s asking for an “investigation” of the 2020 election. Any journalist who reports this story should: 1) emphatically debunk the claim (again) of the “stolen election,” and 2) note how it is indeed a distraction from current negative stories involving Trump (such as his handling of the Iran crisis).
True, all of that. And they should call it out without using the words “steaming pile of horse shit.” Facts matter.
I was raised to be polite, kind and respectful with a ‘do unto others’ mentality. It served me well until 10 years ago until that fateful escalator ride. I no longer kept quiet and became an advocate for everything that the 🍊felon was against. I breathed a sigh of relief when Pres. Biden was elected. Now maybe I could go back to being my old self. No more nastiness or the need for people to listen to what I had to say.
Well folks, it’s back with a vengeance. And I won’t back down, now or ever. I’ve lost friends over this idiot but I don’t care. I’ll keep speaking up (and out). What our democracy means to me will always be more important than the people that spew lies and hate. That’s my decorum resolution. ⚔️
That's where I've arrived, as well.
There are different sorts of decorum and politeness, as there are different codes. Some are about requiring submission from those society already gives little platform or power to, and the rights of the powerful to treat them abusively. Some are about establishing aristocracy and sneering at outsiders.
The kind I like and try to embrace are about maintaining an open society and striving for equity within it.
When courtesy and self-restraint are systematically abused, I don’t care if the abusers call me rude or hypocritical. I want to stop them.
I’m a droplet myself, but I can join others and try to move others to join as well. I do have a personal code of manners and dislike sneering— and, perhaps wrongly think it a poor recruitment technique— but I ‘m all about pointing out lies and bad faith and spurious framing.
About Obama et al.: I think that spending time wanting them to say “This is really bad!” is a distraction. But perhaps I fail to see useful consequences.
I wonder if people who are waiting some fire and brimstone from people like Obama are waiting for permission to be loud. Here it is, if that's you. Your permission. Be loud.
Folks keep warning me to be careful what I say and do because I’d not like being in jail. I hear them; definitely don’t want to be jailed in Florida (been there, done that). If I’m too quiet, then folks think I’m withdrawn and think I’m depressed (nevah!); however, when I’m vocal then I’m too uppity. Where is the mean? I’m perplexed. Hi ho ⚔️.
Come sit by me. I mean, I have hung a six-foot banner calling the president a traitor. That’s not decorous.
Oh, fiddlie-dee. Wahr wahr wahr!
Well, I'm guess no one ever won a street fight by being polite. Not sure whether it's more effective to describe what we're hearing as "a load of steaming horseshit" (an evocative metaphor, probably well understood) or as simply a continuous stream of lies to demonize people or positions he doesn't like. The former, I think, emphasizes visceral reaction on either side. The latter MAY be a starting point for discussion about what's true and what's not. 🤔 Maybe I am deluding myself to think there is any potential for rational discussion here. 🙄 That said, I do agree Stephen Miller = 💩
Well, that’s the thing. Am I wrong to think there’s no point of continuing a conversation? I don’t mean I’m threatening violence but I have lost hope that polite discussion has a future for now.
I don’t think there’s any point to talking at* people who are talking in bad faith. My policy is to say I’m stopping because of that.
* Bad faith involves not responding to what others say, but continuing recitation and, often, switching horses.
I agree.
It seems the only ones who are speaking out with any force are AOC and Sanders.
And the rest are adhering to sad, old rules. That’s how it feels from here.
No, some Dem pols are still working but not getting much coverage. Elizabeth Warren, for instance.
I guess she’s not violating rules but she’s fighting and not obeying in advance.
Yep, and they are all over big old RED Texas this week, and brown-nosed Mike Johnson's Louisiana, while most of the Dems stay busy making donor calls and emails, bless their hearts. They have rendered themselves useless, IMO, and don't even seem to know it.
Here’s something to wash Stephen Miller’s swill out of your ears.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=owxRpV7l8Dc&pp=ygUubWFuZHkgcGF0aW5raW4geW91IGhhdmUgdG8gYmUgY2FyZWZ1bGx5IHRhdWdodA%3D%3D
Oh! Lovely.
This is the correct tone ...
https://theonion.com/Letter-To-Congress/
Oh! Perfect.
Perfect; I just said the same thing in fewer words.
My thinking exactly. We were on the cusp of good things, then we ruined it, and making change doesn't even seem possible right now. It's like we were about to run a marathon, but then we got shot, and now we're just trying to survive.
It feels that way, like keeping our noses above water.
Now we are hearing booms - will the fireworks be replaced by Iranian drones?!? “War, what is it good for, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!”
This is a sad and stupid day.
Obama presentation in hartford is on YouTube
Yes. I linked to it in the post for people who didn't attend.
I agree with your regarding the politeness. A couple of weeks ago, Capeheart said that he no longer looked to Obama and Clinton for solutions. They never experienced this environment, and to follow their path wouldn't work.
I think that’s accurate.
There is no escaping the fact that those in power and those who've served are fat, dumb and happy. Most of them are risk averse and wouldn't say shit if they had a mouthful. I am tired of it all!! Oh, and please NO MORE excuses for Obama, he is living in the lap of luxury and unwilling to enter the fray!!
I guess I’m giving up on most of our political leadership. It’s on us.