Your Place Is In The Resistance

Cheap Snark Open Thread: Being Mean to MAGAt Morons

by Anne Laurie| February 12, 20201:18 am| 46 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Immigration, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Right to Vote, Your Place Is In The Resistance

I actually love the idea of a mandatory citizenship test for everyone. Birth rights are dumb. It’s not an achievement to be born and nobody should be rewarded for it.
I also find it hilarious that Republicans think this will play to THEIR advantage. https://t.co/PDhvKKPzKj

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 4, 2020

Citizenship tests, @benshapiro? Citizenship tests for everyone? Bring them the fuck on, Benny boy! The GOP will have zero seats in the Senate. None! Fucking Montana will be stone cold blue as the only people with voting rights will be university students.
Bring. Them. On!

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 5, 2020

I try not to encourage being mean to people (yeah, you should read me when the filters are *off*), but when people waltz into someone else’s online conversation attempting to ‘slay’ them, well — don’t start none, won’t *be* none, fellas. Since Ben Shapiro is well-compensated for being a professional Guy Who Never Learns, only fitting he lead this clown parade…

It’s like they live in their own reality. The US Constitution is completely invalid there, save for the 2nd Amendment, and facts are literally anything they like them to be.
It’s not even a cult. It’s an asylum. https://t.co/295bS4rSm1

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 5, 2020

The bio says “American through and through.”
I mean, not enough to read the Constitution, but definitely enough to show immigrants what’s what.
Sad, sad dumbasses. https://t.co/3T7PfwTSB2

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 5, 2020

English is hard, too. https://t.co/2g8wDXjIug

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 5, 2020

And now I have to explain to them that Mitt won’t need to face the voters until 2024… It’s almost like being born here doesn’t ACTUALLY make you a real American or something. https://t.co/X76T5oX45j

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 5, 2020

A supporter of Trump is telling me that my party is perfectly illustrated by bashing people who disagree with me on the internet.
Someone, please, check 5th Avenue for a body of a shooting victim named “Irony.” https://t.co/fiIA8qE7lG

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 5, 2020

When you are a Trump cultist, reading the US Constitution is extremely hard. Reading newspaper articles is no easier. Hell, even reading the entire headline of the very article you try to shame me with is too damn exhausting. pic.twitter.com/Q57VUbtpSK

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 6, 2020

Cheap Snark Open Thread: Being Mean to MAGAt MoronsPost + Comments (46)

Open Thread: Due Respect for Senator Romney

by Anne Laurie| February 5, 20206:31 pm| 227 Comments

This post is in: Impeachment Inquiry, Open Threads, Your Place Is In The Resistance

George Romney would have been proud

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 5, 2020

This, right here. It hasn’t changed how I feel about Mitt Romney, and if he still lived in Massachusetts I might not be able to bring myself to say this, but he did the right thing by voting to impeach Trump.

And if that’s because he finally got to behave in a way that would make his old man proud… well, I’ve never heard a harsh word about George Romney from the Michiganders who lived through his governorship there. Which among others would include my Spousal Unit, along with political professional Dana Houle.

Props to Romney. And props to Mormons, many of whom have demonstrated integrity in rejecting Trumpism. But I have to wonder if part of the psychology at play is thinking about what would have happened if instread of the eventually impeached Nixon his dad had been the 1968 nominee

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 5, 2020

Also worth noting one’s father was born in a refugee camp, the other’s father was born in a Mormon colony in Mexico and fled during the Mexican Revolution, losing their home and most of the property.

Romney & Amash don’t come from the same tribal background of 95% of DC Repubs https://t.co/HjN2qxbrKu

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 5, 2020

And he’s just made himself all the right enemies…

So you’re saying that @SenatorRomney prioritized his oath of office and fidelity to the Constitution over partisan considerations. https://t.co/mF4U4eMtj6

— Robert Schlesinger (@rschles) February 5, 2020

Look, this is the absolute lowest of bars, but this Romney vote is probably the most politically courageous thing a Republican has done since Trump has been elected. Again, the lowest of bars, but it's definitely something given how badly he's about to be pilloried.

— Centrism Fan Acct ?? (@Wilson__Valdez) February 5, 2020

this isn't a knock on romney or a diminution of his decision, which is good and right. i just don't think mitt romney gives much of a shit about what charlie kirk thinks about him, which makes him sane.

— Very Calm Sporting Enthusiast (@CalmSporting) February 5, 2020

gotta admire Romney for saving this till the moment it would absolutely ruin what had been a great news cycle for Trump too. both morally *and* politically on point. good work.

— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) February 5, 2020

Honestly, I think he's just an old man who's tired of this shit. https://t.co/An7A3xEeJY

— Starfish Annoyed With The Corn-Eating Incompetents (@IRHotTakes) February 5, 2020

No, Mitt ain't a saint. Trump's rise is in no small part due to Mitt helping raise his national profile.

But at the end of the day, he had a limit, which is frankly more than you can say for most people these days. That, if nothing else, is worth respect.

— Starfish Annoyed With The Corn-Eating Incompetents (@IRHotTakes) February 5, 2020

And he’s changed the top line in his obituary from that dinner with Trump:

History will mark that the vote to convict Donald Trump was bipartisan. The vote for acquittal had no Democrats. The narrative of the Iowa Caucus and the State of the Union suddenly seems a long time ago.

— Dan Rather (@DanRather) February 5, 2020

Take your victories where you find them!

Open Thread: Due Respect for Senator RomneyPost + Comments (227)

Amateurs Take Down Disinformation Network

by Cheryl Rofer| December 27, 201911:27 am| 45 Comments

This post is in: Information Warfare, Your Place Is In The Resistance

On Twitter, one of the people I follow and interact with is Steffan Watkins, who follows ships and airplanes. Many sites follow ships and airplanes, and Steffan follows those sites to make sense out of who and what are going where. For example, Steffan knew a government plane was on its way long before we were told that President Trump was in Afghanistan.

He has recently been debunking stories about Russian ships and submarines off the east coast of the United States. This is a perennial story and is sometimes even true! Just as American ships and submarines do, Russian ships travel in many places in international waters. What they don’t do is dock at Mar-a-Lago.

Some of those stories come from real reporters who don’t understand what’s going on and repeat a version of something that is true but trivial. Sometimes their stories are based on dodgy websites that deliver deliberate disinformation, laundered through repetition and rumor.

Steffan doggedly checks out those news stories and sets them straight. That usually means that he debunks them, but occasionally he says yes, that Russian ship is off the coast in international waters on a normal patrol. Not once has he found the more sensational stories to be supported.

That’s what he was doing a couple of weeks ago and found a website that consistently was producing junk news stories and stealing stuff from other sites. They also advertised Trump merchandise.

Another news aggregator has popped up (#LibertyFocus) stripping the by-lines and dates from the writing they steal. The public risk is, they can post completely fictional content, among the true content they stole from other news orgs.#disinformation https://t.co/OEXCuUlJTh
— Steffan Watkins (@steffanwatkins) December 1, 2019

That intrigued a couple of Israeli hackers, Noam Rotem and Ran Locar, who decided to check the website out. That link has all the detail for the more computer-savvy among us. Here’s their bottom line:

We found a network of dozens of websites operated by an affiliate marketer. Some of the websites pushed pro-Trump/anti-Clinton fake-news meant to use patriotism in order to sell unofficial Trump merch to Trump supporters. The technical aspects of the operation allowed us full visibility into not only the operators, but also the unwitting customers.

Many of the web addresses were registered by the same person, identified as Jackson Lin, through a company called Extreme Wisdom. Another company linked to some of the sites is Alabama company Click Wu LLC. They have been spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for advertising on Facebook. The pages have been taken down from Facebook.

Although Rotem and Locar say the motivation is money, it could be that or disinformation or both. It’s part of the stream of junk that flows through social media. It’s particularly encouraging that a bunch of amateurs exposed it. Now I’d like to see a bigger news operation take it up.

For the rest of us? Be careful what you share or retweet. Know your sources.

Watergirl is doing some diagnostics. Between them and the problems currently infecting the site, I may not be able to comment. I’ll stick around for a bit.

Amateurs Take Down Disinformation NetworkPost + Comments (45)

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Think Diagonally

by Anne Laurie| December 17, 20194:45 am| 124 Comments

This post is in: Election 2020, Impeachment Inquiry, Open Threads, Your Place Is In The Resistance

This is a public service announcement 🎄 📚 🤓pic.twitter.com/vCYELqyVQa

— Waterstones (@Waterstones) December 16, 2019

Tomorrow night, America is going to show up for democracy by rallying in 500+ cities and towns across America.

Join us and tell the GOP that they can’t sweep this under the rug without a fight.

RT. Let’s do this. #DemCast https://t.co/X9RznfBBoR

— Nick Knudsen 🇺🇸 #DemCast (@DemWrite) December 17, 2019

We have flipped 435 state legislative seats and 10 state houses red to blue since 2016 and we are coming for more in 2020. https://t.co/ex5Gav334D

— Jessica Post (@JessicaPost) December 16, 2019

Good news everyone, we’re at Nixon a week before he resigned! pic.twitter.com/y3BOr0P5Tn

— Schooley (@Rschooley) December 16, 2019

(That’s Dan Scavino, Trump’s former golf caddy and reputed twitter-ghostwriter.)

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Think DiagonallyPost + Comments (124)

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Don’t Just Protest, Do It Fabulously!

by Anne Laurie| October 12, 20195:30 am| 120 Comments

This post is in: Food, Something Good Open Thread, Your Place Is In The Resistance, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

Climate protesters in Melbourne, Australia have come up with a new term:

Civil Disco-bedience

pic.twitter.com/C8Yi2oqH3g

— Joshua Potash ?? (@JoshuaPotash) October 11, 2019

From the Washington Post, “A spice company spent more money on impeachment ads on Facebook than anyone not named Trump”:

… On Wednesday, Axios published a list of the entities spending the most money on Facebook ads on both sides of the impeachment debate. They included the usual suspects of the political war roll call, including Trump himself (he was top of the list, of course, at $718,000), Democratic presidential candidates Tom Steyer and Elizabeth Warren, and both the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

But one name jumped off the screen for its sheer one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other factor: Penzeys Spices, the nation’s largest spice retailer, had dropped $92,000 from Sept. 29 to Oct. 5 on ads championing impeachment. That was more than self-funding millionaire Steyer, more than hard-charging Warren — more than anyone else other than Trump…

For many Penzeys fans, it comes as no surprise. The company has a history of unabashed liberal activism. Its founder, Bill Penzey, greeted Trump’s election with an email calling the president an “openly racist candidate.” As Helen Rosner noted in a New Yorker story last year, that set him far apart from the rest of the business-leader pack. He was “quite possibly the first to publicly call Trump’s election an ‘embrace of racism,’” she wrote. “And he was definitely the first to do so while hawking a free bottle of Quebec Seasonings with any five-dollar purchase.”…

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Saturday Morning Open Thread: Don’t Just Protest, Do It Fabulously!Post + Comments (120)

Friday Morning Open Thread: There’s Still Time!…

by Anne Laurie| August 23, 20194:53 am| 161 Comments

This post is in: Cat Blogging, Dolt 45, Election 2020, Nature & Respite, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Repubs in Disarray!, Your Place Is In The Resistance

WEBSITE CRASHES: Philadelphia animal shelter’s website crashes after excitement over 26-pound cat ‘BeeJay’ https://t.co/L0RDdikcde

— Action News on 6abc (@6abc) August 22, 2019

Nobody tell Cole about this, he’s got enough on his ~~plate~~ ottoman already. But if you’re curious, ActionNews suggests checking the shelter’s Facebook page.

Elsewhere… The Repubs have already decided that Trump is gonna lose in 2020, because we all know deficits only matter when there’s a Democrat in the Oval Office:

Republican lawmakers say they’re hopeful Trump will pivot to deficit reduction in a second term. @ESCochrane https://t.co/6bn2eDPJTI pic.twitter.com/xUaPvUmlxI

— Jim Tankersley (@jimtankersley) August 21, 2019

Further proof:

GOP internal polls must be showing that the Senate likely also to be lost in 2020 https://t.co/J0Sw7gwed7

— David Frum (@davidfrum) August 22, 2019

McConnell: If Democrats eliminate the filibuster they will regret it when, because they got past our nihilistic, nullifying obstruction to pass climate change legislation, the Earth remains habitable for humans. https://t.co/Ffg3xNcM7J

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) August 22, 2019

So — while we must still do our best to Dump Trump — here’s to the success of Amy McGrath!

Mitch McConnell’s 34-year residence in Washington has been a masterclass in dismantling the institution of the Senate for partisan gain and destroying the trust that we once had in government.

To defend democracy, we need to defeat Mitch. Join my team: https://t.co/BJnihsC4KH

— Amy McGrath (@AmyMcGrathKY) August 22, 2019

Friday Morning Open Thread: <em>There’s Still Time!… </em>Post + Comments (161)

Monday Morning Open Thread: “If You Witness… “

by Anne Laurie| July 15, 20194:57 am| 131 Comments

This post is in: Civil Rights, Immigration, Open Threads, Your Place Is In The Resistance

4 steps if you witness an @ICEgov raid:
1. Do not walk away.
2. Get your phone out.
3. Record
4. Report it at 1-844-363-1423 #TrumpRaids pic.twitter.com/4y79nFV7BP

— MoveOn (@MoveOn) July 13, 2019

Now more than ever, we need everyone to know: WE HAVE RIGHTS.

Share our #KnowYourRights guides in multiple languages.

Know Your Rights. Conozca Sus Derechos. pic.twitter.com/3C4O758PoA

— ACLU (@ACLU) July 12, 2019

Klobuchar: "If you really wanted to go after security risks … why would you alert them and say you're doing this? … Because you want to make news, right? It's not about getting people who are security risks deported. It's about scaring everyone … and … changing the news." pic.twitter.com/BphgpSkOjh

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 14, 2019

USC professor Roberto Suro: "It's purely psychological." The imminent ICE raids (reportedly targeting 2,000 people) generate "a lot of fear and anxiety but not a lot of control. This has nothing to do with actual enforcement." https://t.co/seTCsjbbq3

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 13, 2019

rallies in 700 cities, if at least 500 protesters at each rally, plus much larger crowds in major cities, *conservative* estimate for this protest is 350,000 Americans in the streets last night. numbers likely closer to half a million. @CNN @NBCNews @CBS @nytimes @WAPO @USATODAY https://t.co/4sMbMYn6ah

— Charli Carpenter (@charlicarpenter) July 13, 2019

Just coming from Sunday mass. The Gospel and homily today focused on the story of the Good Samaritan. Do you think Trump or anyone in his administration is aware that this would be happening on this particular Sunday?

— Gen Michael Hayden (@GenMhayden) July 14, 2019

.@HillaryClinton makes a surprise appearance tonight at @Lights4Liberty Chappaqua Rally. #LightsforLiberty pic.twitter.com/NDhgy4dp6J

— Opal Vadhan (@OpalVadhan) July 13, 2019

Monday Morning Open Thread: “If You Witness… “Post + Comments (131)

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

This blog goes to 11…

… makes me wish i had hoarded more linguine

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Reality always wins in the end.

Mission Accomplished!

Verified, but limited!

I’m going back to the respite thread.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Women: they get shit done

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Shock troops for the Unitarian Jihad.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

I swear, each month of 2020 will have its own history degree.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Saul Alinsky is my co-pilot.

There’s some extremely good trouble headed their way.

It’s not even safe to go out and pick up 2 days worth of poop anymore.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

What fresh hell is this?

Nevertheless, she persisted.