This is sweet and a bit cheesy, which is honestly exactly what is needed. https://t.co/0HlhpExcsd
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) January 12, 2021
On January 20th, we will celebrate the work of democracy as we watch a new President and barrier-breaking Vice President make an oath of office. The next day, on January 21st, we will join them in making a commitment to do our part to heal and rebuild America. We envision a nation that is anti-racist, equitable, and sustainable. Each of us has a role in that labor, and we will only succeed if we lead with love.
January 21st will be a day of virtual conversations, artistic expressions, music performances, teach-ins, vigils and around-the-table family ceremonies. Some events will focus on grief and healing; others on justice and reckoning, others on joy and rising. All of them will have one thing in common: the expression of a “people’s oath” that recommits us to our core values and to one another…
What do you mean by ‘love’?
Love without limit. Not civility. Not a rush to forgiveness. Not healing without accountability. This is love that anchors nonviolent social movements for justice. The People’s Inauguration brings to life the “revolutionary love” proclaimed by the visionary writer and activist Valarie Kaur…
***********
Which doesn’t mean we can’t hold every one of these liars, socipaths, and grifters to account, of course…
I don’t want to unite with those responsible for the insurrection at our nation’s Capitol. I want us to unite in holding them accountable.
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) January 12, 2021
destroying faith in american democracy in service of a man you *knew* to have lost is a mortal sin. others can be in the forgiveness business, that’s fine. not really my jam.
— Normie Transition Team (@CalmSporting) January 13, 2021
It was Antifa but it was no big deal but it was patriots fighting for their country but everyone condemns what happened but if you punish Trump they might do it again but it's censorship to prevent them but what we need to do now is just heal and move on.
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) January 13, 2021
Opinion | The phony GOP calls for ‘unity’ deserve nothing but contempt – The Washington Post https://t.co/46gPAXlnPw
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) January 11, 2021
Abraham Lincoln, Cooper Union Speech, 1860 pic.twitter.com/RyQQXJDazJ
— Paul Musgrave (@profmusgrave) January 12, 2021
it’s more than ironic that the tough hardass politically incorrect republicans want to reason with and appease the monster and talk about its feelings while the soft participation trophy democrats just say fuck you
— kilgore trout, brad r’s brother (@KT_So_It_Goes) January 12, 2021
On The Road – 🐾BillinGlendaleCA – Snow Day
japa21
I haven’t decided which is a stronger emotion for me right now. Anger or hope.
Baud
Abraham Lincoln was cool.
mali muso
@japa21: porque no los dos? Also, happy to see you doing well and posting.
I wonder when I will have another work day in which I can actually focus? Today is not going to be that day.
debbie
Really, Karen? You literally shit inside the Capitol and now plea for unity? In the midst of a Constitutional crisis, Gym, you now whine about having to wear a mask?
Betty Cracker
NBC News:
Excellent choice for that role, IMO. She’ll have a lot of rebuilding to do.
Betty Cracker
@mali muso: Right? My productivity is in the shitter these days.
Baud
@mali muso:
I have the same problem.
Raven
The daughter of the woman who got punched in the face outs her!
debbie
@mali muso:
Although it is good to be working remotely because I’d lose my mind and rip faces off co-workers who weren’t as angry as me or who were defending these assholes.
Raven
debbie
@Raven:
Good. The MAGAt was the first to make physical contact; she deserved it.
Baud
@Raven:
That quote should be a rotating tag.
Betty Cracker
@Raven: I saw that on Twitter! The daughter says the mom was “brainwashed” by the MAGA cult. A lot of people were. I hope at least some of them can regain their senses and examine what made them susceptible to the con.
satby
@Baud: nope. My sons had to find other ways to insult men than by calling them the slang for a female body part. Our bodies are not insults.
JPL
@Baud: CNN calls it the P word.
Baud
@satby:
Well, my body is an insult, but I take your point.
mrmoshpotato
@japa21:
Hopefully bashing the Russthuglicans with their own bones in anger?
raven
@debbie: Fuckin right. The sister dotted her eye!
Kathleen
@Betty Cracker: I know. I’m getting new high priority project at work today and need to engage work task brain at eleventy. My productivity has been minimal and I don’t like that.
Patricia Kayden
Just now.
Cameron
@Raven: And we know how that went, don’t we?
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I wonder if there’s a way to reach out to still normal people who are adjacent to MAGAs. Help them fight the brainwashing.
japa21
@mrmoshpotato: I like that.
Kathleen
@debbie: Yes! I also work at home now so don’t have to deal with MAGAT mojo.
Baud
mrmoshpotato
@Raven: Wonder if her mom will be charged with anything.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: No. No Trump trash in the rotating tags.
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
Baud
As a reminder, both Cruz and Hawley went to Ivy League schools and clerked on the Supreme Court.
debbie
@Baud:
Has there been any action taken toward censuring them and others like them in Congress?
Punchy
@Baud: that after 2 impeachments, a pandemic response that was as bad as they get, and all the lies, stealing, etc….more than a third of the country is still all “hells yeah, Trump!” is a terrible sign going forward.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
I guess the rest of this Soviet shitpile’s bastard presidency was just fucking awesome!
Suck an ass’s ass, POLITICO!
mrmoshpotato
@OzarkHillbilly:
Late. You tired? 😁
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
CNN is writing fanfic for this last week of these atrocious four years!
Betty Cracker
Did anyone see Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) hysterical, hyperbolic and just plain weird statement to defend his (nonexistent) honor and (shitty) reputation, apparently in response to a bill to censure him? The statement included an account of his clean driving record. He should STFU and hope censure is the worst consequence he faces. He ought to be expelled.
p.a.
Bill Russell: Wilt hit my fist with his face…
Apocryphal? Too early to check🥴
Baud
@Punchy:
Trump, mostly by chance, also enjoyed a good economy, and a lot of his supporters saw their 401(k)’s improve. We already know from the election that 46% prefer Trump despite anything.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker:
LOL What?
satby
@Baud: The election was before a lot (±12%) saw the logical conclusion of whipping up people with a frenzy of lies and conspiracy theories.
OzarkHillbilly
Arizona Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar implicated by activist in Capitol insurrection
mrmoshpotato
One of my buddies about the Wisconsin at Michigan basketball game last night:
This game was like watching someone drive over a badger with a bus, then backing up over the badger, before getting out of the bus, beating the shit out of the badger’s corpse with a baseball bat before desecrating its corpse and using its intestines in a satanic ritual to bring the badger back to life, only to run the badger over with the bus again.
JML
Racist trash fire neo-fascist leaving police union job early
Can’t come soon enough. Anyone wanna bet that Bob Kroll had a Parler account and some bad things might be contained in there for the reason he’s leaving 4 months early?
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: Another one that will make the Greenwald fans’ heads explode.
mrmoshpotato
@JML: I still want to know why they required SSNs.
Baud
Question relating to a recent LGM post I saw: Has Jacobin magazine always been trash, or were they once decent and went downhill? I remember years ago they got a pretty good write up in Vox.
Betty Cracker
@mrmoshpotato: For real. Here it is.
Betty Cracker
Does anyone know who the impeachment managers are?
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/12/politics/pelosi-letter-naming-impeachment-managers/index.html
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I’ve never been a regular reader, but my impression as an occasional browser is that it was kind of interesting before it became a Bernie fanfic publication.
Immanentize
@Raven: She fucked around and found out.
sab
Jeez!! My old accounting firm wants me back for tax season. I quit in March last year because they didn’t mask. Or rather, they said they did but they cheated so much it didn’t count.
I could use the money, but my family really needs me to be alive for a while. (I hope they want me alive longer, but the short term needs part is the current issue.) So I get to stew about this choice today. First world, upper middle class problems, I know.
Back before Covid I loved these guys. This is actually a decision for me, and a tough one.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Thanks! Glad Raskin has a leading role. There was an article in The Atlantic the other day where he was interviewed about his experience during the insurrection. I was meaning to do a post on it. His daughter and son-in-law were there in the chamber, and Raskin could not take them with him when the members were evacuated. He asked his chief of staff to guard them with her life, and she did! She holed up in his office with the Raskin family members behind a desk, standing guard in the dark at the locked door with a fire poker as seditionists occasionally pounded on the door but did not break it down, fortunately. Just surreal.
Kristine
@sab: Will they let you work from home and Zoom any meetings?
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Believe it or not, I actually do like reading different points of view. But I’m finding it increasingly hard to locate different points of view that are credible. I gave up on conservative publications a long time ago because they will just lie to you or repeat talking points that have no substance. The left side is still better, but they tend to be wordier, so in that sense they waste more of my time. It’s frustrating.
Thanks.
Spanky
@sab: Demand to work remotely or no deal.
Seriously, you’re the one with the bargaining power here.
sab
@Baud: Vox often says stupid stuff. I saw an article last year where a black writer from NYC was surprised to find black people in the Midwest. ( Chicago? Kansas City? Cleveland? Detroit?) They pulled it fast, but they did publish it.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Roskin’s story over the last week could be a movie. Incredible.
Geminid
@Baud: I wouldn’t necessarily call Jerkobin Magazine trash. But they put out a lot of turgid neo-Marxist gobbledygook that is hard to read. They climb down off the ivory tower sometimes to more directly undermine Democrats. This summer Jerkobin had an article about Stacey Abrams, explaining to credulous readers how Abrams is not what she is cracked up to be. The author picked a few nits in her record as a Georgia legislator, but his main gripe was that even when she voted right, Abrams would justify her position on pragmatic grounds.
Immanentize
@Baud: That list is fire! 🔥🔥🔥
Baud
@Geminid:
Thanks. The LGM post was actually about a Jacobin tweet relating to be insurrection. It was, for lack of a better word, offensive.
Bruuuuce
I know the House is busy with impeachment, but I really hope that when they get down to business, they expel The Dumbest Man In Congress (Louie Gohmert) for his explicit call for violence before the insurrection.
Gin & Tonic
Reading reports that almost 5 months after his attempted murder by poison, Alexei Navalny is planning to return to Russia. Seems to me that politicians in the US who talk about “hard choices” and “strength” aren’t worthy to scrape the mud off his shoes.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
He didn’t mean it that way!
Princess
I know the discourse of “brainwashing” is popular in the United States because it seems to exculpate people, but I don’t like it. These were people who lived in their own homes, went to work, and had their own social circles. They chose who to listen to and what they would assent to. They made bad moral choices which led to more bad moral choices. They weren’t “brainwashed” in any meaningful sense of the term. They are fully culpable for the thoughts they think and the actions they pursued.
TS (the original)
@Betty Cracker:
I am reading too many things at the minute that have me doubting my reality – that statement was insanity by any other name
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I wonder if the Intercept improved after Greenwald flounced? I haven’t really looked at it since then.
satby
@sab: they may have gotten a lot more mask compliant than they were in March, when it was all new. It may be worth checking out before dismissing going back.
Edit: or yeah, remote work is an option maybe.
Immanentize
Oh, but, it’s just a week!
Jeffery
@Kathleen: A few saw what happened at the Capitol building and were appalled. For a lot of them this was the natural correct outcome. Cults are hard to leave when the echo machine inside the cult reinforces the mythology.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: my favorite part is where he goes out of his way to call MLK a patriot! Brooks would have had him arrested for wearing a suit back then.
Makes me angry — back to japa’s comment — anger over hope, for sure right now.
Betty Cracker
@Princess: Good point, but maybe there’s another way to look at it — brainwashing implies an intentional effort from above to indoctrinate people and get them to believe cray-cray shit. I don’t think the brainwashed necessarily lose their agency; as you say, they made bad choices. But if you put it all on the individuals, that could be construed as an exculpation of the people who designed a web of lies for their own purposes. In this case, the individuals who swallowed the lies and the liars at the top are jointly to blame, IMO.
sab
@Kristine: Flip phone so I can’t zoom. I quit because they wanted in person meetings with a dozen people in a tiny conference room to discuss how to deal with the pandemic.
And then the cheating on masks thing.
JML
@mrmoshpotato: no idea why they thought collecting SSNs (and not encrypting their data) was a good idea, but they sure made it easier for law enforcement to link people to their Parler accounts.
Getting rid of Bob Kroll, even if it was already coming is such a relief in MN. He’s the worst, he consistently got a media platform to spray around inflammatory and racist crap, and is the single biggest obstacle in trying to do anything regarding police reform.
sab
@Spanky: I agree.
NotMax
So begins the denouement of Operation Death Star.
Stay on target.
Chetan Murthy
@sab: One presumes they could provide you with a Chromebook (cheep) for Zoom meetings? I also would not do in-person work unless I were compelled by economic need. Too damn dangerous.
RandomMonster
@Betty Cracker: Technical question. Is expulsion an option? Does the legislature vote on it, and what kind of majority is needed?
Immanentize
@sab: Why not just take this very kind comment, turn it into a letter to the principles of the firm and ask for their solution to your very real conflict — love of the job versus love and safety of your family. See what they say?
satby
@sab: You can zoom on any platform practically, so if you have a tablet or pc you could use that. But even some of the rednecks at the farmers market starting wearing masks as the pandemic has gone on, grudgingly but still putting them on. So it may not be the same as last March.
A lot of people have had to make the same calculation: whether they can survive without the income or whether they should work and just do all they can to limit exposure.
H.E.Wolf
Their choice of name lends itself to the former theory.
Immanentize
@RandomMonster:
Expulsion is an option. Each chamber has their own rules, but I do think it is some kind of super majority in the Senate. Don’t know about the House.
gene108
@Betty Cracker:
My two favorite parts in his “defense” are:
and the preceding paragraph:
Interesting how he implicates the White House in the planning of the incitement, as well as admits white supremacists are big fans of his.
Geminid
@sab: A customer of mine works as a consultant and writes books about “corporate transformation.” He’s in his early 70s but still active. We were talking about the effects of the pandemic, and he said that brick and mortar headquarters would decline. One reason is that executives realize that the in-person meetings they used to have were inefficient, and wasted a lot of time in preparation and meeting.
Ken
I’m blanking on which Shakespeare play has the scene where a ruler is given a list of enemies that will be killed. Richard III, perhaps; or Julius Caesar?
Anyway, perhaps some Republicans found out their names were on such a list. I’ve heard that Pence was one of the ones the insurrectionists were hunting.
Bruuuuce
@Immanentize:
That’s Wikipedia, but the text is in there and this is a clear, concise explanation.
sab
@satby: Remote is the only way I would work.
My stepson got Covid from an idiot coworker who went to a babyshower. Infected her whole workforce. He nearly infected his inlaws at Thanksgiving, and he did infect his fiance who nearly infected her preschool autistic clients and their parents and her parents. The only thing that stopped the spread was his company is insanely protective of its workforce and tests all the time.
RandomMonster
@Immanentize: If all of the accused are not allowed to vote on their own expulsions, maybe we would have a super-majority!
Ken
A lot of financial services use the SSN as part of authentication; also the birth date, which is on the driver’s license that Parler also required. I’m not saying Parler had long-range plans to drain people’s bank accounts and 401Ks, but the information they were collecting would have made that easier.
Soprano2
For me, it’s hope that things start to get better for everyone on January 20th, and incandescent rage at what happened at the Capitol last Wednesday. Right now rage is stronger, but hope is gaining as the days go by.
Chetan Murthy
@Ken: From what I read, Parler allowed posters to (somehow) monetize retweets of their posts. Ostensibly in order to be able to report to the IRS these earnings, Parler required this information. At least, that’s what I read. Obvs. I am dubious of the honesty of Parler’s stated intention, even while I believe that that *is* what they stated.
Chetan Murthy
@japa21: Incandescent fucking rage. Woodchippers and running chainsaws figure prominently in my rage-filled daydreams. These miserable excuses for Americans. Jesus.
Betty Cracker
@RandomMonster: Great question. I don’t know.
Searcher
… was Booth referencing the Cooper Union speech in his assassination?
Soprano2
Some people think Parler was just a big FBI operation. LOL
sab
@Chetan Murthy: I am just low key always simmering anger that is chipper on the surface. Seems more useful long term.
We probably need to ask African Americans who have 500 years experience with dealing with this anger and sometimes hope.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone 😊😊😊
Happy Impeachment Day 👊👏👊
rikyrah
@japa21:
Not either/or
Both/and
LurkerNoLonger
@rikyrah: Good morning. Impeachment Day feels like it comes earlier every year.
Gin & Tonic
@Soprano2: Even if it wasn’t, I’ll bet the farm that AWS complied with a lawful subpoena and provided the FBI with a clone of Parler’s environment.
jonas
Reminds me of the old joke poli-sci students would crack in grad school: “Sure it works in practice. But does it work in theory?”
jonas
@Searcher: I don’t think so. From what I remember, Booth was really set off by a speech Lincoln had given shortly after the Appomattox surrender wherein he gave support to suffrage for freed slaves.
Uncle Cosmo
@Baud: When Ben Cardin decides to hang ’em up, Jamie should slide right nicely into that seat. John Sarbanes (MD-03) might primary him for the seat (which, like his current position IIRC was his late father’s) but I’d hate to lose either of them from our delegation.
narya
@sab: And you may be able to get your hands on N95 masks at this point, and goggles, for the times when you do need to be in the office. I think the supply chain isn’t as f’ked up as it once was?
Soprano2
@Gin & Tonic: I saw something on Twitter that purported to be a map of cell phones with Parler on them in the Capitol; it said the info had been shared with the FBI. It’s shocking to me how many of these people seemed to have honestly thought they were going to get away with it and not have to pay any kind of price.
Immanentize
Best cartoon today? Ever?
Woodrow/asim
I’m not the first to say this, yet: White Supremacy is a Hell of a Drug.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: My recollection is that Jacobin was a fairly decent read before 2016. As were a lot of lefty-thought blogs like Crooked Timber. Then something happened in 2016, something about a woman running for POTUS, that made them all lose their damn white-male-privileged-academic minds. Sort of a lefty MAGA effect. I haven’t been back to either since then.
Citizen Alan
@Baud: As far as I’m concerned, it has been trashed ever since they picked the damn name. It completely sums up their idiotic mentality to say “Well, the reign of terror was bad, but we shouldn’t let it overshadow all the good things robespierre did.”
Steeplejack (phone)
@sab:
Maybe their mask attitude has improved after 300,000 additional deaths since March?
WaterGirl
@Spanky: @sab:
I was going to say exactly that. Work from home or no deal. And if you would need to interact with the public in order to do the job, then the answer is ‘no’.
With as careful as you have been, why risk it now? it is entirely unlikely that these people have changed, even if they say they have.
WaterGirl
@sab: If the phone is the issue, make them supply you with one.
You are the one with the power here.
J R in WV
J R in WV
@sab:
Make it clear that the first time you see a mask on a chin, or not over a nose, you drop everything and leave that instant. ETA: Paid a week in advance because you expect them to cheat on the masking, and don’t want to have to fight for your already performed work!
They get to figure out where you were on which account after you’re gone. And don’t take anything to work outside of a pack you can pick up on your way out. Stand up, pick up your pack and your coat, walk out. Block their numbers.
Just my $0.02 of advice, worth every dollar you paid for it. They don’t deserve much respect. They know why you quit the first time, right?
J R in WV
@sab:
Perhaps this is why our African American brothers and sisters have high blood pressure and poorer health outcomes? Constant stress and fear of Jim Crow?
I hate that as much as I hate the insurrection last Jan 6th.
A Streeter
@Baud: About Jacobin: maybe 5 years ago a friend alerted me to a Jacobin feature article about the late urbanist Jane Jacobs (“Death and Life of Great American Cities” and others). It was clear that the Jacobin writer had read no more than the table of contents of DLGAC, if that, had no interest in Jacobs’s actual ideas, and wanted only to attach her name to his own anti-gentrification strawwoman.
artem1s
@Raven:
pro-life or pizza-gate radicalization?
artem1s
@sab:
go to their closest competitors and ask them if they need help during tax season. Doesn’t everyone?