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Tim F

You are here: Home / Archives for Tim F

Tim was the first person invited by John Cole to join him as a writer at Balloon Juice. That was way back in 2005!

John Cole, call your office

by Tim F|  December 1, 20162:50 pm| 98 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

Josh Marshall was indispensable reading when George Bush tried to privatize Social Security in 2005, and I think he has it right this year as well. Republicans will not take a wrecking ball to Medicare and Obamacare without Democratic support. This has nothing to do with the filibuster or reconciliation. Mitch McConnell will ditch the filibuster five milliseconds after it gets in the way of something Republicans really want to do. But as much as Republicans really, really, REALLY want to garrot the New Deal and burn its corpse in a ditch they simply cannot message their way around the wreckage that would cause to their core voting constituencies. Even if you could find a majority in the House willing to sit in gasoline and light a match, plenty of Senators know the score. But Paul Ryan can’t do anything to taxes unless he accepts a huge deficit hike or cuts something meaningful, which means either defense (ha) or the safety net.

All of this makes wavering Democrats more valuable to the GOP than the last parachute on a burning plane. That is a lot more reassuring today than eleven years ago – districts represented by blue dogs have Republican leadership now. The liberal Senator with his finger on the zeitgeist is not Joe Lieberman but Bernie Sanders. It will be a hard sell for someone – especially Donald Trump – to lure today’s Democrats into betraying what you could fairly describe as the granite core foundation of the modern Democratic party.

Republicans are already feeling some heat over this. That means you have a chance to make a difference here. Pick up the phone and turn it up some more. They have all the majorities so they have no cover left for crazy political statements. Every vote will count. I guarantee that calls about this particular issue will get noted with an exclamation point.

You can count on most Democrats to defend the party’s core principles, but I would keep a special eye on any Democrat who shows the slightest sign of selling out. For me that list has to start with Joe Manchin. Look, WV went for Trump by thirty points. Manchin would be crazy not to give Republican ideas at least a very polite listen. Before the election he let it slip that he could well defect if the Senate came down to a 50-50 split. I would recommend that anyone living in West by god Virginia pick up the phone early and often until Senator Manchin releases a firm and unambiguous statement against molesting or privatizing our social safety net in any way whatsoever.

Find your Senators here.
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John Cole, call your officePost + Comments (98)

Reader photos – November 22, 2016

by Tim F|  November 22, 201611:00 am| 16 Comments

This post is in: Photo Blogging

Here are some more great photos taken by readers of the blog. This one took a while because my blogging time is really curtailed right now, but I hope to do two or three of these a week. I thought this time we would go with a couple of critters. Photographers, feel welcome to talk about gear or technique in the comments.

Hoary Marmot

Hoary marmot (William Qually)

IMG_1405.JPG

A rainy and froggy day (Auntie Beak)

If you want to participate, email me a link to a couple of your favorite pics on a photo site like Flickr (do not send the image itself please) and I will put them up in open threads. Send a short caption if you want and let me know how you want to be identified. If your computer cannot read our email links at top right, my email is (remove the zeroes): portus0jackson0ii at yahoo dot com. There was a good discussion about sharing photos anonymously in our last photo thread.

***Update***

Looks like I got today’s date wrong. That’s what I get for writing this at 6 am to steal some time before the 3 year old wakes up. If this keeps up I might have to reactivate the old coffee habit…

Reader photos – November 22, 2016Post + Comments (16)

Bumper sticker wisdom

by Tim F|  November 16, 20165:05 pm| 313 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

In an earlier thread someone suggested that I should make a bumper sticker of that quote from King. That does does not sound like a bad idea at all. Here is a draft of what I have in mind.

king2

I would appreciate the opinion of any readers with graphic design experience. If people like it and nobody thinks there are copyright restrictions to using the image or quote, I can try to add it to the Balloon Juice store.

Bumper sticker wisdomPost + Comments (313)

Re-inaugurating our reader photo series

by Tim F|  November 16, 201610:32 am| 34 Comments

This post is in: Photo Blogging

Here are a couple great pics sent in by readers in response to my request a week ago.

darwins_window_4976

A view of Kicker Rock through Darwin’s Window, on San Cristobal Island, Galapagos, by valued commenter Albatrossity.

d98135_4c6ed2178e454ea59489c7a4bb327e87

From the North America series, by Steve Jenks.

If you want to participate, email me a link to a couple of your favorite pics on a photo site like Flickr (do not send the image itself please) and I will put them up in open threads. Send a short caption if you want and let me know how you want to be identified. If your computer cannot read our email links at top right, my email is (remove the zeroes): portus0jackson0ii at yahoo dot com.

Re-inaugurating our reader photo seriesPost + Comments (34)

Get some sleep

by Tim F|  November 15, 20165:34 pm| 170 Comments

This post is in: Don't Mourn, Organize

The last week has been hard on everyone. I have two ideas that help with that. The first is to get involved in resisting this bullshit. I already put some ideas up, some of which people might have misunderstood. I don’t want you to go hug a Trump voter. Join whatever group you want. Join something. Look for a chance to link up with likeminded groups to defend American values in solidarity. If you are going to those protests, try to make some contacts to build a network. Strengthen your existing networks. The only thing I would add to this general good life advice is to apply some strategic message discipline. Having Steve fucking Bannon work in the White House should horrify my conservative neighbor down the street just as much as my own family. At the same time my neighbor’s reaction will different if I tell him you are horrible and stupid because you voted for this, versus this is NOT you and I know you did NOT vote for this, and I hope you will agree with me that this guy and the behavior he represents is not acceptable in the America we both believe in. Don’t go looking for Trump supporters, but if you can’t avoid it or you meet a reporter or something consider a little message discipline. A little media/communications savvy makes the difference between shouting and tangible progress. This is activism 101, and it basically describes our policy for dealing with restive muslim populations as well (don’t make your problem bigger than it needs to be).

But there’s something even more important – get some sleep. Trump is a chronic problem that we won’t be able to fight without rest. Like a lot of you I had a rough couple of nights last week, until I figured out something that I decided I might as well share. Stress tends to go to my stomach. I already take antacids/antigas once in a while, but this time they were not cutting it. So I tried something that sounds really dumb. I closed my eyes and counted all the things in my bedroom. Then I counted the stuff downstairs. Then I started lumping things into categories. Gradually the panicked thoughts about the end of western civilization gave way to the more important job of naming all the books on my bedstand. After a while my stomach quit turning and I have had decent sleep since. Now a couple times a day I stop and count the random stuff around me. It seems to help me keep a level head. If you think you might need something like this, try it and let me know if it helps.

Get some sleepPost + Comments (170)

Next

by Tim F|  November 12, 20162:10 pm| 251 Comments

This post is in: Don't Mourn, Organize

I had something I wanted to say, but this guy said it better.

king-600x147

Once again for emphasis: none of us are free unless all of us are free. You could call it the principle America was founded on. It took us a while to live up to the idea. It took a long while to be honest. But by the late Obama years we got pretty close. I think most 21st century Americans would be hard pressed to disagree with the point if you phrase it that way.

You know what this week looks like to me? All the specters that King banished from polite society have started coming out of the woodwork. White supremacy has always been part of the weft and weave of the American tapestry but it flew far out the Overton window even by the time Nixon met Atwater. Those spirits always hated the closet. Nobody likes hiding or feeling ashamed. Frankly we should meditate on the precipitous fall of the confederate flag after the Roof shootings in Charleston. The speed at which the flag became anathema even shocked me. Wal-Mart ejected it. South Carolina’s legislature (!) ran from it. The haters’ political support abandoned them practically overnight after Roof was arrested. The floor just fell out under them. Trump must feel like water in the desert.

If they want to attack King then maybe we should answer with King. Dust off the old SNCC playbook. Right now the protests I see look more like a haphazard cry of inchoate rage than activism. It seems counterproductive. Hillary had a point about those baskets. You want the decent half to feel embarrassed about the shitheads, not drive them together by tarring every Trump voter as a hater or a nazi. You probably recognize this as our current strategy for dealing with difficult Muslim populations. When possible you want to fight with the reasonable ones against the jihadis.

How to stand up effectively? I have two suggestions, and the first one is easy. As I said before just look out for each other. Don’t bury your grief or deny it, let it drive you to do something productive. If you have some cash Donate to the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, SPLC, the ADL, whatever. Look for a chance to make someone’s life better. Wear a safety pin as a reminder to act if you see someone else in trouble. Volunteer for a group that needs it. Maybe just spend more time with your friends, family and neighbors. Ask for help if you need it. Listen to people. Hell, this is good life advice dressed up as a master plan. Growing an activist network that can be flexible, resilient and activate fast when needed is a happy externality.

The second thing I hope to see is smarter protesting. Folks, there is a difference between making change and cathartic release. Non-horrible Trump voters like modern civilization and the general idea of equal protection. Most of them are in denial about the rottens, but that does not mean they like white supremacy or bullying. Really, I am not crazy. The civil rights protests of the 60s would have been hopeless if most Americans were violent supremacists. It turns out that if you make the decision stark enough between equality and hateful, fearful violence, most people will choose equality. I get that leaderless, distributed, bottom-up activism is the thing now but I suggest we look back to some folks who left deep footprints in American history for tips. John Lewis is still around. We could do worse than check out how he did it, and maybe just ask him.

NextPost + Comments (251)

Morning let’s get our sh*t together thread

by Tim F|  November 10, 20169:17 am| 381 Comments

This post is in: Don't Mourn, Organize, Photo Blogging

Have the east coasters had their coffee? Good, here are a couple action items to keep us busy while we wait for the shitshow to start.

* I know that a lot of you will not like this, but subscribe to some papers. Choose the Washington Post or the NY Times, and then add a local daily if you have one you can tolerate. The Times especially disgraced itself this year but we need it alive more than dead, and the Post frankly did an excellent job keeping up with Trump. The framers of the Constitution could not have been clearer when they said that our Democracy will survive only as long as we have a free press. Trump already loathes the press, he is a vindictive prick with no moral limits, and he will have the levers of the state in his hands. Do your part to help them survive.

* People have already started with the abuse and xenophobia, and it will get immeasurably worse. Terrible people will try to divide us and make us live individually in fear. Fuck that. Find a vulnerable group and find a way to support them. If you have a gay relative, go with them to their next event if they do that sort of thing. See what the local Muslim or Jewish groups are doing that you might help out with. Volunteer at a women’s shelter or hook up with BLM if they have an event in your area. If you see a case of harassment in the local media, try to find the victim and offer a little support. The 21st century is pretty nice. Let’s stand up for it.

* Finally, this seems like a great time to bring back our old photography series. Email me a link to a few of your favorite pics on a photo site like Flickr (do not send the image itself please) and I will put them up in open threads. Send a short caption if you want one. If your computer cannot read our email links at top right, my email is (remove the zeroes): portus0jackson0ii at yahoo dot com.

Here’s one that I took a while ago while walking on a foggy day.

Foggy day

Morning let’s get our sh*t together threadPost + Comments (381)

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