When virtues become vices

by liberal japonicus I earlier noted Vance’s defenestration of his wife re: her religion, so when this article about how MAGA is none too pleased about Vivek Ramaswamy running for Ohio governor came up, it prompted a few thoughts. From the article: Ramaswamy posted a message on X soon after Trump’s endorsement, writing: Thank you, … Read more

Still I Rise

by liberal japonicus via Maya Angelou re: this You may write me down in historyWith your bitter, twisted lies,You may trod me in the very dirtBut still, like dust, I’ll rise. Does my sassiness upset you?Why are you beset with gloom?’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wellsPumping in my living room. Just like moons … Read more

Politics thread

by GftNC One of my problems with the new settings, particularly since we now have a much greater frequency and number of threads (added to the short, if original size, list of Recent Comments), is that the list of Recent Posts is so short. It’s got harder to go back and check what is the … Read more

The South shall writhe again

by liberal japonicus This New York Times panel, consisting of Jamelle Bouie, David French and Tressie McMillan Cotton, is like catnip to a cat for me. On the assumption that not everyone wants to listen to it, I’ll pull out soundbites that really hit with me. Cottem had an earlier column that is referenced in … Read more

What’s up, doxx?

by liberal japonicus In the comments, there was some discussion of doxxing, which seems like a very mutable term, so a post about it might be interesting. The term ‘dox’ comes from the 90’s hacker culture. It was originally ‘to drop docs on’, and because the hacker culture generally operated on a basis of anonymity, … Read more

The Mother-in-law defense

by liberal japonicus Probably need a thread about the shutdown and all those inside baseball-y things, though I’ll be damned if I can think of anything to say. The college coach, Rick Pitino described his defense as the ‘Mother-in-law defense’, which was a full-court press that he said was based on ‘constant harassment’, and that … Read more

Let’s start calling a thug a thug

guestpost by wonkie I’ve been thinking. There’s a lot of discussion on Bluesky of the “Dems don’t fight” type. The Democratic party is at a low point in opinion polling, probably because of the image of Dems as not fighters. There’s a feeling that the times demand a different sort of rhetoric from Democrats. I’ve … Read more

Citizenship

by liberal japonicus This short Japanese article has a lot to discuss and a translation is below On the 17th, the Japan Restoration Party compiled recommendations on foreign policy. A “total volume regulation” has been proposed, which will set a cap on the proportion of foreigners in Japan’s entire population and limit the acceptance of … Read more

Ezra Coates DESTROYS Ta-Nehisi Klein!!!

by liberal japonicus I posted about Ezra Klein’s piece entitled Charlie Kirk was practicing politics the right way and Coates’ reply. Well, Klein had Coates on his podcast. I’ll write more about it in the comments, (and thanks to GftNC in the comments, here is a gift link, thank you!) but you are welcome to … Read more