it's not making anyone safer. it's killing US citizens, injuring them, throwing them in jail. "conservatives" have been cheerleading this for a year.
and they'll be fine if he pretends the 'emergency' isn't something he created, for ratings, and sends in the military.
Trump just said: "With that being said, you can't have guns. You can't walk in with guns. You just can't. You can't walk in with guns. You can't do that. But it's just a very unfortunate incident."
and Republicans are going to be fine with that. oh sure, some will grumble while they figure out a way to explain it away, but none of them are going to actually do anything meaningful.
"There's An Emergency!" is getting a lot of work done for TrumpCo right now. if the funding is cut, Trump will declare an emergency of some kind and pull funding from whichever program will hurt Dems the most.
>I remember him saying that Trump was ‘the most consequential president in our lifetime’
i've been thinking the same thing.
if you disregard the direction of the things he's done and only focus on their magnitude, it's hard to say he hasn't changed far more than anyone since FDR. the problem is that all he's done is negative.
also, re Tacitus the blogger - he's a reason a few of us are here. back in the mists, his blog was a place where people could try to seriously discuss things (the Iraq invasion being the primary thing). and a lot of the early ObWi crowd were also Tacitus regulars. there was even interlinking. some of us followed those regulars from Tacitus to ObWi. for a while, Travino seemed like one of the sane Republicans. he grew out of it.
>What kind of people are they trying to appeal to?
the same kind of insecure oafs who think mocking people who aren't just like them improves their lives, who think rolling coal is a good response to people who are just trying to ride a bike, who think life-size decals of a tied-up Biden make their trucks cool, who think mor gunz is mor tuff, who think a C-list celebrity game-show host and twice-divorced incest-curious NYC real-estate hustler is a good man simply because he makes a good show out of hating Democrats: the Republican base.
Before the conference, his [Kash Patel] staff says he’s unhappy because he doesn’t like meetings in office settings. What he wants is social events. He wants Premier soccer games. He wants to go jet skiing. He’d like a helicopter tour. Everyone who heard about this was like: Hold on. Is he really going to ask the MI5 director to go jet skiing instead of meeting? The schedule is set, and every Five Eyes partner is doing this. They can’t just say that he’s not participating and instead he wants to go to a Premier soccer game. This is a job, guys.
...
On that trip, the heads of intelligence for the Five Eyes went to Windsor Castle and met with the king. There was a photo taken of all the Five Eyes people, some of whom are nondisclosed, meaning their affiliation with the British intelligence service isn’t public. The Brits forwarded that picture as a keepsake for the individuals. They prefaced it with, This isn’t to be shared. But Kash has decided he wants to post it on social media. They have people trying to negotiate with the Brits about whether that’s possible. They’re fighting with the director’s office, like: You cannot post this. Do not do that. And they’re arguing, He wants a picture out.
“The powerful have their power. But we have something too: the capacity to stop pretending, to name realities, to build our strength at home, and to act together.”
seems like this is not too far from the original meaning of "woke", and the related "overstand" from black American culture.
you're alert and aware of the situation. you're not hiding from the truths that make it what it is. that gives you some power to change things.
i think the US will recover from Trump pretty well. he's exposing a lot of cracks in the foundation, sure. but we've discovered and fixed a lot of such cracks before.
it's shocking how fragile all of this is: that a single dimwitted blowhard like Trump could knock it all down. and that nobody in the US has both the power and the inclination to rein him in.
but when I came back they were letting Ukrainians in but not Asian people, black or brown people waiting on the other side of the border who had traveled to Tijuana trying to come into San Diego and seek asylum or seek refuge.
... because Biden made it easier for Ukrainians to get in - because Russia was and is bombing them - right?
indeed. i have the same problem with podcasts. i really want to have more of them to listen to, but i'm stuck with only three* because every other one i've tried has a speaker who can't get to the point.
and podcasts / YT channels with more than one person are just torture - it seems like most of them are only there to make stupid jokes with each other.
i need a certain level of information density: not too low (most podcasts / channels) and not too high (i need to be able to follow it while devoting some attention to driving).
*
The History Of The English Language
Strong Songs
Sound Opinions - even though it's two people, they have the ability to stick to the topic and not make it all about their cute nervous joking
normally apolitical YT science guy, Hank Green, has some thoughts about how certain peoples' reaction to Good's shooting says something about their relationship to truth.
speaking of mind reading... more from the guy over at NRO who brought us "To hell with Minnesota":
Unlike the rest of the internet’s commentators, I am not so gifted a reader of souls as to draw conclusions from a 30-second encounter.
a glimmer of hope!
What I see instead is a “scissors statement” event: A moment almost purpose-designed to divide viewers by their partisan priors rather than their analytical instincts. And I have mine: My sympathy instinctively tends toward the ICE officer, dealing with yet another vacant-eyed, internet-primed activist blocking traffic, unaware of what a fraught situation she is interfering with.
alas.
...
The wife, realizing that arrest might be imminent, shouted, “Drive, baby, drive!” at Good as Good hit the accelerator. Maybe they thought they would simply make their escape after having had their activist fun. I have no idea what the officer thought, having only his cellphone footage to go by, though I do not think that using the word “bitch” after such an instantaneous and fatal shooting means anything other than his adrenaline was up.
But there I go, attempting to read minds.
but... ok. 2nd chance!
And that is decidedly above my pay grade. I do know this much: There currently exists a vast swath of people on the activist left who either implicitly or explicitly deny the legal authority of ICE to exist and do what it does — out of ignorance, or, more often, simply because they believe it to be “unrighteous.”"
so... mind reading is bad, except when it's a hippy ?
I don’t know. It’s crazy and exhausting. I’m becoming increasingly disgusted by human nature. I was starting think we were in the early stages of turning away from this bullsh*t, but that’s been put to rest.
"But it is not helpful if the goal is to solve a problem, or change a behavior which some of the group is engaging in."
as far as i can see, all there are are masked thugs doing thuggish things with the full backing of a gang of thuggish morons, who were elected by drooling wannabe thugs.
the good apples should try to show off all the good stuff they're doing.
Trump's abilities as a professional troll are incomparable.
with respect to all here, i find it completely baffling that anyone in the world thinks anything beyond "what a fucking attention-seeking clown" over this Greenland stuff.
>Or is it just a performance to bolster the belief that it is in the minds of the willing?
Poe's Law means it's impossible to know. but, NRO is fully committed to She Had It Coming.
It's her fault, so there. https://www.nationalreview.com/2026/01/the-minnesota-tragedy/
Tragic but justified: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/a-tragedy-but-a-justified-use-of-force/
She belonged to a group that wants to interfere with ICE, ZOMG! https://www.nationalreview.com/news/minnesota-ice-watch-group-renee-good-belonged-to-trained-activists-to-interfere-with-agents-block-vehicles/
Democrats are insurrectionist! https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/blue-state-and-city-democrats-walk-an-insurrectionary-fine-line/
"To hell with Minnesota" ! https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/to-hell-with-minnesota/
1) law enforcement (or some kind) does something abhorrent
2) people get angry about #1, Democrats benefit
3) somebody does something abhorrent in response
4) the conversation changes to #3, Republicans benefit
through an Overton lens, Trump's increasingly-insane inanity will make any Bush-style Republican very attractive in 2028. a white man who isn't a psychotic narcissist will be soberly declared, by once-again-endorsement-friendly editorials everywhere, to be the kind of stable genius we all need. the press will wet themselves in bliss at the idea of the GOP returning to a normal balance.
the Dem base will have picked someone who promises to litigate all the Trump era scandals that the press is currently ignoring. the country will not be interested.
GOP by 15%.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Moral insanity”
ICE is broken.
it's not making anyone safer. it's killing US citizens, injuring them, throwing them in jail. "conservatives" have been cheerleading this for a year.
and they'll be fine if he pretends the 'emergency' isn't something he created, for ratings, and sends in the military.
Trump just said: "With that being said, you can't have guns. You can't walk in with guns. You just can't. You can't walk in with guns. You can't do that. But it's just a very unfortunate incident."
and Republicans are going to be fine with that. oh sure, some will grumble while they figure out a way to explain it away, but none of them are going to actually do anything meaningful.
Republicans are killing this country.
"
"There's An Emergency!" is getting a lot of work done for TrumpCo right now. if the funding is cut, Trump will declare an emergency of some kind and pull funding from whichever program will hurt Dems the most.
"
>I remember him saying that Trump was ‘the most consequential president in our lifetime’
i've been thinking the same thing.
if you disregard the direction of the things he's done and only focus on their magnitude, it's hard to say he hasn't changed far more than anyone since FDR. the problem is that all he's done is negative.
also, re Tacitus the blogger - he's a reason a few of us are here. back in the mists, his blog was a place where people could try to seriously discuss things (the Iraq invasion being the primary thing). and a lot of the early ObWi crowd were also Tacitus regulars. there was even interlinking. some of us followed those regulars from Tacitus to ObWi. for a while, Travino seemed like one of the sane Republicans. he grew out of it.
On “Rememory”
>What kind of people are they trying to appeal to?
the same kind of insecure oafs who think mocking people who aren't just like them improves their lives, who think rolling coal is a good response to people who are just trying to ride a bike, who think life-size decals of a tied-up Biden make their trucks cool, who think mor gunz is mor tuff, who think a C-list celebrity game-show host and twice-divorced incest-curious NYC real-estate hustler is a good man simply because he makes a good show out of hating Democrats: the Republican base.
On “Moral insanity”
this is just insane.
https://www.eschatonblog.com/2026/01/the-best-guy-in-trump-adminsitration.html
"
the whole admin is just aspiring grifters in the service of narcissistic sociopaths.
thanks, Republicans.
On “Carney’s speech”
“The powerful have their power. But we have something too: the capacity to stop pretending, to name realities, to build our strength at home, and to act together.”
seems like this is not too far from the original meaning of "woke", and the related "overstand" from black American culture.
you're alert and aware of the situation. you're not hiding from the truths that make it what it is. that gives you some power to change things.
"
i think the US will recover from Trump pretty well. he's exposing a lot of cracks in the foundation, sure. but we've discovered and fixed a lot of such cracks before.
"
it's shocking how fragile all of this is: that a single dimwitted blowhard like Trump could knock it all down. and that nobody in the US has both the power and the inclination to rein him in.
heckofajob, Framers.
On “Rememory”
ask Grok to make you a list of all the times Biden threatened to blow up NATO because one of our allies wouldn't give us part of its territory.
"
when a political party loves power more than anything, it can excuse almost anything.
"
... because Biden made it easier for Ukrainians to get in - because Russia was and is bombing them - right?
that's not racism. that's humanitarianism.
On “An interesting map”
Minnesota
On “Talarico”
indeed. i have the same problem with podcasts. i really want to have more of them to listen to, but i'm stuck with only three* because every other one i've tried has a speaker who can't get to the point.
and podcasts / YT channels with more than one person are just torture - it seems like most of them are only there to make stupid jokes with each other.
i need a certain level of information density: not too low (most podcasts / channels) and not too high (i need to be able to follow it while devoting some attention to driving).
*
The History Of The English Language
Strong Songs
Sound Opinions - even though it's two people, they have the ability to stick to the topic and not make it all about their cute nervous joking
On “An open thread”
normally apolitical YT science guy, Hank Green, has some thoughts about how certain peoples' reaction to Good's shooting says something about their relationship to truth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyStPztM7eo
"
speaking of mind reading... more from the guy over at NRO who brought us "To hell with Minnesota":
a glimmer of hope!
alas.
but... ok. 2nd chance!
so... mind reading is bad, except when it's a hippy ?
"
I don’t know. It’s crazy and exhausting. I’m becoming increasingly disgusted by human nature. I was starting think we were in the early stages of turning away from this bullsh*t, but that’s been put to rest.
i approve this message
"
"But it is not helpful if the goal is to solve a problem, or change a behavior which some of the group is engaging in."
as far as i can see, all there are are masked thugs doing thuggish things with the full backing of a gang of thuggish morons, who were elected by drooling wannabe thugs.
the good apples should try to show off all the good stuff they're doing.
"
>The Boomers are predicting some massive changes for just this year.
of course they are. without promises of Wonders, the bubble will burst.
On “2026, as f**ked up as 2025”
Trump's abilities as a professional troll are incomparable.
with respect to all here, i find it completely baffling that anyone in the world thinks anything beyond "what a fucking attention-seeking clown" over this Greenland stuff.
On “An open thread”
>Or is it just a performance to bolster the belief that it is in the minds of the willing?
Poe's Law means it's impossible to know. but, NRO is fully committed to She Had It Coming.
It's her fault, so there. https://www.nationalreview.com/2026/01/the-minnesota-tragedy/
Tragic but justified: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/a-tragedy-but-a-justified-use-of-force/
She belonged to a group that wants to interfere with ICE, ZOMG! https://www.nationalreview.com/news/minnesota-ice-watch-group-renee-good-belonged-to-trained-activists-to-interfere-with-agents-block-vehicles/
Democrats are insurrectionist! https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/blue-state-and-city-democrats-walk-an-insurrectionary-fine-line/
"To hell with Minnesota" ! https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/to-hell-with-minnesota/
"
there's a way these things work:
1) law enforcement (or some kind) does something abhorrent
2) people get angry about #1, Democrats benefit
3) somebody does something abhorrent in response
4) the conversation changes to #3, Republicans benefit
we're at step #2 right now.
"
>The killing of Renee Good is truly shocking – could this be a tipping point?
nah.
Americans' capacity for apathy is unlimited. just look at school shootings.
this will be both-sided and dissected by the clowns in the news/entertainment industry until something else comes along to distract us.
On “Moving towards Epiphany”
>Well, that and the Democratic base picked a candidate they should have known was unelectable.
did Obama promise to go after the sins the Dem base was sure Bush committed Bush's?
will a Democrat get through the primaries who says he won't spend every second chasing Trump's crimes?
"
through an Overton lens, Trump's increasingly-insane inanity will make any Bush-style Republican very attractive in 2028. a white man who isn't a psychotic narcissist will be soberly declared, by once-again-endorsement-friendly editorials everywhere, to be the kind of stable genius we all need. the press will wet themselves in bliss at the idea of the GOP returning to a normal balance.
the Dem base will have picked someone who promises to litigate all the Trump era scandals that the press is currently ignoring. the country will not be interested.
GOP by 15%.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.