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This is not the biggest deal as concerns sanctions. But how the rapist replies will indicate several things. Most important is who gives up some of the strength of their position before even bargaining?
A bad negotiator, for one, or a lapdog eager to please its master, for another.
It’s not so much a matter of flights, as it may be of obtaining spare parts and maintenance for their airliners, also maybe new aircraft.
So, what will the felon regime give up to please Mad Vlad?
MarkedMan
Some small success from my attending the local Tesla protest yesterday. After I left I got in touch with the local paper, who were unaware. They were able to get a story together and put it up.
Kristina Stierholz
Longtime lurker, rare commenter here. I just found Kingdaddy as a new poster, so went to check in on what he’s written. Found the interesting thread from just after the election – which I recommend as a look back in time. It shows how we were (and are) unprepared for the radical changes Trump & Co. are bringing. There was hope that bureaucracy would do its job and slow their roll. Grief was the underlying theme, which always resonates with me.
I kept a diary for the first six months or so of the pandemic, once I struggled to keep pace with all the changes. I was grieving from losing my husband months earlier. Now Adam Przeworski (apparently a respected political scientist, according to the interwebs) is keeping a diary of these days, and for similar reasons. His posts are difficult to find on substack – here’s the first week, and here’s the second week. That he feels the need to record it reminds me very much of the early days of the pandemic. Not good.
I appreciate this community and the troll management and the excellent commentary. Happy Sunday all.
There is an excellent piece in the NYTimes that helps to crystallize thoughts I’ve had after recent travels to other countries that handle immigration much differently. This could be a path out of the woods if we make it to another reasonably fair election.
The piece is worth reading in full but here’s a good tldr; quote that gets to the heart of it (bold emphasis added by me):
“That the era of low immigration was also the era of progressive triumph is no coincidence. The tightness of the labor market in big cities helped Black workers who were part of the Great Migration get jobs they were previously denied. Immigrant families who were already in the country likewise had an easier time climbing the economic ladder. Perhaps most important, immigration receded as a political issue, which shifted the political debate toward economic issues more favorable to the left — as has happened in Denmark over the past decade. The United States felt more like a cohesive nation to many voters, with higher levels of social trust and national pride, and politicians were able to enact higher taxes on the rich and new benefits like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Over the past half-century, the story has flipped. Immigration has surged, and the United States has entered an individualist, conservative epoch. Tax rates have fallen. Working-class incomes have stagnated. Economic inequality has soared. Around the world, there is not one clear counterexample — of a country that has accepted large numbers of newcomers while marginalizing the far right and reducing inequality.“
When you take away immigrants as a target to blame for worsening standards of living, becomes much easier to talk about sharing the wealth with those that already constitute the society. Much harder for the 1% to justify their position.
I think the piece does gloss over how hard blacks had to fight for better standards and the unique legacy of racism in the us, but there’s a lot to contemplate in the piece. I think it also gives a permission structure for progressives to start thinking differently about the topic:
LongtimeListener
There is an excellent piece in the NYTimes that helps to crystallize thoughts I’ve had after recent travels to other countries that handle immigration much differently. This could be a path out of the woods if we make it to another reasonably fair election.
The piece is worth reading in full but here’s a good tldr; quote that gets to the heart of it (bold emphasis added by me):
“That the era of low immigration was also the era of progressive triumph is no coincidence. The tightness of the labor market in big cities helped Black workers who were part of the Great Migration get jobs they were previously denied. Immigrant families who were already in the country likewise had an easier time climbing the economic ladder. Perhaps most important, immigration receded as a political issue, which shifted the political debate toward economic issues more favorable to the left — as has happened in Denmark over the past decade. The United States felt more like a cohesive nation to many voters, with higher levels of social trust and national pride, and politicians were able to enact higher taxes on the rich and new benefits like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Over the past half-century, the story has flipped. Immigration has surged, and the United States has entered an individualist, conservative epoch. Tax rates have fallen. Working-class incomes have stagnated. Economic inequality has soared. Around the world, there is not one clear counterexample — of a country that has accepted large numbers of newcomers while marginalizing the far right and reducing inequality.“
When you take away immigrants as a target to blame for worsening standards of living, becomes much easier to talk about sharing the wealth with those that already constitute the society. Much harder for the 1% to justify their position.
I think the piece does gloss over how hard blacks had to fight for better standards and the unique legacy of racism in the us, but there’s a lot to contemplate in the piece. I think it also gives a permission structure for progressives to start thinking differently about the topic.
(Apologies btw for the double post. I just noticed and fixed it…I think)
Kingdaddy
@Kristina Stierholz: Thanks for joining the conversation here. Thanks also for the pointer to Adam Przeworski‘s Substack. Powerful insights, well-written, and the diary format is terrific for documenting the major events of each day and the thoughts they inspired.
Jen
As a transplant to New England, I am frequently reminded that the sense of humor here is just a little bit different (and mirrors mine/what I find amusing). Two protest signs seen in Vermont: “JD Vance puts his cast iron skillet in the dishwasher” and “JD Vance skis in jeans” made me giggle.
Musk is pushing for the U.S. to quit the U.N. and NATO.
Jay L Gischer
Meanwhile Musk is apparently bragging about “deleting” an entire tech department (a really good one) for no other reason than they are queer-friendly. This is so blatantly illegal it makes my head spin. Wrong in so many ways. It makes the government less effective, too.
The only thing it wins on is “I don’t have to be nice to those faggots” – which has been a primary motivator for the right. EVEN THOUGH, it has no impact on them, they have some kind of issue tolerating the presence of them.
Lucysfootball
@Jay L Gischer: If the group was specifically targeted because of sexual orientation, how is that legal? I wonder whether some enterprising lawyer could file a wrongful termination lawsuit.
Matt Bernius
@Jay L Gischer:
I’m working on an article about this very topic–just in the process of doing some research and collecting accounts from people that I know who were impacted by this really stupid decision.
In the meantime, I urge everyone to read the collective message 18F (this agency) staffers have shared with the public.
As a participant in that discussion back then it was interesting to see what my reaction was then. A lot of it was hopeful projection. (A lot of it still is.) I refuse to believe that one bad actor as President can destroy the whole thing. Especially an idiot like Trump.
He’s too stupid to be effective. (I hope.)
I clearly underestimated DOGE and Musk’s influence. I clearly misunderstood how extra-judicial they would go that fast.
I still believe in decency and resilience. In judiciary, in governance, in public support. In just day-to-day stuff.
This is an emergency, but this, too, will pass. We will not always be burdened by a Trump Presidency, but we (hopefully) will learn a lot from it. The clock is ticking on their power. It’s four years.
de stijl
I think more needs to be said about how Andrew Tate ended up in Florida.
This, to me, seems like it should be a bigger deal.
Why? How? What is the nature of his status in the US? Are there conditions on his freedom of movement?
Why would anyone try to negotiate the freedom of a degenerate rapist like Tate? It’s boggling, yet it’s indicative.
Why? How did it happen?
Jax
@de stijl: Long-term, what Trump and Musk are doing right now is going to be a lot more than 4 years. He let Musk into the internal databases. The Treasury. Social Security. All of it. Musk, the richest man in the world, owns all of the data now.
We’re never going to be able to hire these people back, or regain these worldwide allies. Why would they trust the US government after this? We are compromised.
There is no way, even if a Dem wins in 4 years, that we are going to be able to fix this quickly. What Musk has already been able to steal, he can blackmail a future US government with if he doesn’t like their policies. The FAA, well, whoops, guess you don’t get your internet cuz it’s on Starlink now. Just like he’s doing to Ukraine.
We can’t even throw him in jail. He’ll just leave the country with all of our sensitive data on every branch of the government. I mean, we’re fucked. Trump will die soon, most likely of natural causes due to age, but Musk? He’s gonna be a problem for a long, long time.
I, for one, easily imagine a better America after Trump. He is gonna step on his dick so hard. He can’t help but. It’s baked in.
He’s an idiot. Remember when R’s thought GWB was king boss and alpha stud? He was an idiot, too. Yeah, when the Iraq and Afghanistan thing fizzled into a nothing that happened quite recently, but nobody talks about that anymore? We went to war for no reason and blatantly just made up the justification. To make us feel better.
Everybody’s all up in arms, but Bush2 just made up a war that killed several hundred thousand civilians.
It’s okay, they’re foreign and brown! Speak Arabic.
Trump, so far, is an idiot and a moron. Bush is arguably a war criminal. And an idiot.
It is not like this has not happened before in our lifetime. We have experience of an unqualified idiot as President who chose a war.
The Bush fiasco is, so far, worse than the Trump disaster.
@de stijl: I am not as hopeful as you (but maybe not quite as despairing as @Jax). People and systems are resilient, but the last 10+ years have been hard and some of that capital has already been spent. Somehow no one has managed to convey to voters the value our government employees provide – beautiful natural spaces, clean air and water, trusted food sources, safe streets and skies, etc. You know it when you’ve been someplace where those don’t exist. But if you don’t know, you don’t know.
Don’t give up on resilience. On systems. On people.
If you think people don’t give a shit, you’re not paying attention. Most people aren’t assholes. A major subset are actually good. Decent. Neutral. You just notice the bad people more. They’re noisy af. But, they aren’t the majority.
The best we can do is resist as best we can now, and fix it after, later. That is the only option beyond open revolution and absolute chaos. Resistence, yes, but Trump was duly elected.
Our two party system has degenerated into an adult parent and a crazy drug-addled uncle. Every four years, maybe eight, we swap who owns the purse strings. That is a bad system to run a government on. I think a big part of the problem is that we have put too much power into the Presidency.
Cool song I suspect you might like – Jennifer Save Me. By Golden Smog.
Comments
21 responses to “Sunday’s Forum”
So, the Mad Vlad regime is asking the American fascist regime to lift the air travel and overflight ban put in place when the war on Ukraine started.
This is not the biggest deal as concerns sanctions. But how the rapist replies will indicate several things. Most important is who gives up some of the strength of their position before even bargaining?
A bad negotiator, for one, or a lapdog eager to please its master, for another.
It’s not so much a matter of flights, as it may be of obtaining spare parts and maintenance for their airliners, also maybe new aircraft.
So, what will the felon regime give up to please Mad Vlad?
Some small success from my attending the local Tesla protest yesterday. After I left I got in touch with the local paper, who were unaware. They were able to get a story together and put it up.
Longtime lurker, rare commenter here. I just found Kingdaddy as a new poster, so went to check in on what he’s written. Found the interesting thread from just after the election – which I recommend as a look back in time. It shows how we were (and are) unprepared for the radical changes Trump & Co. are bringing. There was hope that bureaucracy would do its job and slow their roll. Grief was the underlying theme, which always resonates with me.
I kept a diary for the first six months or so of the pandemic, once I struggled to keep pace with all the changes. I was grieving from losing my husband months earlier. Now Adam Przeworski (apparently a respected political scientist, according to the interwebs) is keeping a diary of these days, and for similar reasons. His posts are difficult to find on substack – here’s the first week, and here’s the second week. That he feels the need to record it reminds me very much of the early days of the pandemic. Not good.
I appreciate this community and the troll management and the excellent commentary. Happy Sunday all.
@MarkedMan:
Link, so we can read it?
There is an excellent piece in the NYTimes that helps to crystallize thoughts I’ve had after recent travels to other countries that handle immigration much differently. This could be a path out of the woods if we make it to another reasonably fair election.
The piece is worth reading in full but here’s a good tldr; quote that gets to the heart of it (bold emphasis added by me):
When you take away immigrants as a target to blame for worsening standards of living, becomes much easier to talk about sharing the wealth with those that already constitute the society. Much harder for the 1% to justify their position.
I think the piece does gloss over how hard blacks had to fight for better standards and the unique legacy of racism in the us, but there’s a lot to contemplate in the piece. I think it also gives a permission structure for progressives to start thinking differently about the topic:
There is an excellent piece in the NYTimes that helps to crystallize thoughts I’ve had after recent travels to other countries that handle immigration much differently. This could be a path out of the woods if we make it to another reasonably fair election.
In an Age of Right-Wing Populism, Why Are Denmark’s Liberals Winning?
The piece is worth reading in full but here’s a good tldr; quote that gets to the heart of it (bold emphasis added by me):
When you take away immigrants as a target to blame for worsening standards of living, becomes much easier to talk about sharing the wealth with those that already constitute the society. Much harder for the 1% to justify their position.
I think the piece does gloss over how hard blacks had to fight for better standards and the unique legacy of racism in the us, but there’s a lot to contemplate in the piece. I think it also gives a permission structure for progressives to start thinking differently about the topic.
(Apologies btw for the double post. I just noticed and fixed it…I think)
@Kristina Stierholz: Thanks for joining the conversation here. Thanks also for the pointer to Adam Przeworski‘s Substack. Powerful insights, well-written, and the diary format is terrific for documenting the major events of each day and the thoughts they inspired.
As a transplant to New England, I am frequently reminded that the sense of humor here is just a little bit different (and mirrors mine/what I find amusing). Two protest signs seen in Vermont: “JD Vance puts his cast iron skillet in the dishwasher” and “JD Vance skis in jeans” made me giggle.
@Kristina Stierholz: Welcome, and thank you for the links!
Musk is pushing for the U.S. to quit the U.N. and NATO.
Meanwhile Musk is apparently bragging about “deleting” an entire tech department (a really good one) for no other reason than they are queer-friendly. This is so blatantly illegal it makes my head spin. Wrong in so many ways. It makes the government less effective, too.
The only thing it wins on is “I don’t have to be nice to those faggots” – which has been a primary motivator for the right. EVEN THOUGH, it has no impact on them, they have some kind of issue tolerating the presence of them.
@Jay L Gischer: If the group was specifically targeted because of sexual orientation, how is that legal? I wonder whether some enterprising lawyer could file a wrongful termination lawsuit.
@Jay L Gischer:
I’m working on an article about this very topic–just in the process of doing some research and collecting accounts from people that I know who were impacted by this really stupid decision.
In the meantime, I urge everyone to read the collective message 18F (this agency) staffers have shared with the public.
https://18f.org/
@Jay L Gischer:
Two places you’ll routinely hear this these days: the White House and every gay bar.
@Kristina Stierholz:
As a participant in that discussion back then it was interesting to see what my reaction was then. A lot of it was hopeful projection. (A lot of it still is.) I refuse to believe that one bad actor as President can destroy the whole thing. Especially an idiot like Trump.
He’s too stupid to be effective. (I hope.)
I clearly underestimated DOGE and Musk’s influence. I clearly misunderstood how extra-judicial they would go that fast.
I still believe in decency and resilience. In judiciary, in governance, in public support. In just day-to-day stuff.
This is an emergency, but this, too, will pass. We will not always be burdened by a Trump Presidency, but we (hopefully) will learn a lot from it. The clock is ticking on their power. It’s four years.
I think more needs to be said about how Andrew Tate ended up in Florida.
This, to me, seems like it should be a bigger deal.
Why? How? What is the nature of his status in the US? Are there conditions on his freedom of movement?
Why would anyone try to negotiate the freedom of a degenerate rapist like Tate? It’s boggling, yet it’s indicative.
Why? How did it happen?
@de stijl: Long-term, what Trump and Musk are doing right now is going to be a lot more than 4 years. He let Musk into the internal databases. The Treasury. Social Security. All of it. Musk, the richest man in the world, owns all of the data now.
We’re never going to be able to hire these people back, or regain these worldwide allies. Why would they trust the US government after this? We are compromised.
There is no way, even if a Dem wins in 4 years, that we are going to be able to fix this quickly. What Musk has already been able to steal, he can blackmail a future US government with if he doesn’t like their policies. The FAA, well, whoops, guess you don’t get your internet cuz it’s on Starlink now. Just like he’s doing to Ukraine.
We can’t even throw him in jail. He’ll just leave the country with all of our sensitive data on every branch of the government. I mean, we’re fucked. Trump will die soon, most likely of natural causes due to age, but Musk? He’s gonna be a problem for a long, long time.
@Jax:
So what should we do? Give up?
I, for one, easily imagine a better America after Trump. He is gonna step on his dick so hard. He can’t help but. It’s baked in.
He’s an idiot. Remember when R’s thought GWB was king boss and alpha stud? He was an idiot, too. Yeah, when the Iraq and Afghanistan thing fizzled into a nothing that happened quite recently, but nobody talks about that anymore? We went to war for no reason and blatantly just made up the justification. To make us feel better.
Everybody’s all up in arms, but Bush2 just made up a war that killed several hundred thousand civilians.
It’s okay, they’re foreign and brown! Speak Arabic.
Trump, so far, is an idiot and a moron. Bush is arguably a war criminal. And an idiot.
It is not like this has not happened before in our lifetime. We have experience of an unqualified idiot as President who chose a war.
The Bush fiasco is, so far, worse than the Trump disaster.
It could get worse. Easily.
I hope we won’t.
@Jax:
Don’t give up.
@de stijl: I am not as hopeful as you (but maybe not quite as despairing as @Jax). People and systems are resilient, but the last 10+ years have been hard and some of that capital has already been spent. Somehow no one has managed to convey to voters the value our government employees provide – beautiful natural spaces, clean air and water, trusted food sources, safe streets and skies, etc. You know it when you’ve been someplace where those don’t exist. But if you don’t know, you don’t know.
@Kristina Stierholz:
Don’t give up on resilience. On systems. On people.
If you think people don’t give a shit, you’re not paying attention. Most people aren’t assholes. A major subset are actually good. Decent. Neutral. You just notice the bad people more. They’re noisy af. But, they aren’t the majority.
Most people are okay. More are good than bad.
Else we’d wink out evolutionarily.
@Jax:
The best we can do is resist as best we can now, and fix it after, later. That is the only option beyond open revolution and absolute chaos. Resistence, yes, but Trump was duly elected.
Our two party system has degenerated into an adult parent and a crazy drug-addled uncle. Every four years, maybe eight, we swap who owns the purse strings. That is a bad system to run a government on. I think a big part of the problem is that we have put too much power into the Presidency.
Cool song I suspect you might like – Jennifer Save Me. By Golden Smog.