i feel like some random kidney cell still kidneying in the body of a thing that just blew its own head off.
from #ThomasFrank https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/09/opinion/democrats-trump-elites-centrism.html
(the piece is badly titled.)
Text: Liberals had nine years to decipher Mr. Trump's appeal - and they failed. The Democrats are a party of college graduates, as the whole world understands by now, of Ph.D.s and genius-grant winners and the best consultants money can buy. Mr. Trump is a con man straight out of Mark Twain; he will say anything, promise anything, do nothing. But his movement baffled the party of education and innovation. Their most brilliant minds couldn't figure him out.
“How Harris Lost the Working Class” by @davidsirota https://jacobin.com/2024/11/harris-trump-election-democrats-workers
during the 1920s and 1930s, “fascist” was a descriptive term, referring to particular political movements and politicians.
by the 1960s, those movements and politicians were so fringe, so widely considered beyond acceptability, the term became a mere epithet.
in the 2020s, it is descriptive again.
liberal elites are constrained by manners — which they understand as scruples — from fully adopting, endorsing, or even tolerating certain cultural signifiers perceived as working class.
right-wing elites have no such scruples, so are able to adopt any cultural signifiers that help them win power.
( a response to @jbouie https://bsky.app/profile/jamellebouie.net/post/3lakezrwdj72w )
"How Baltimore Locals Beat A Right-Wing Media Tycoon" #MarcieJones https://www.wonkette.com/p/how-baltimore-locals-beat-a-right
you really didn’t have to remind me.
Screenshot of e-mail summary, from Starbucks Rewards, “Your Stars are expiring soon”
it isn’t “sad” this makes me feel.
Screenshot of e-mail from the “Harris Fight Fund” beginning with “Steve, it is okay to feel sad and disappointed about the outcome of the presidential election. But, as I said on Wednesday, we can’t ever give up.” and ending “If you've saved payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately” followed by gigantic buttons to donate $127, $191, etc
people act like i’m not resisting because all i do is sit on the couch and watch tv and eat junk food.
what they don’t notice is i’m eating Cheetos.
to salve the wound, Trump / Elon can console Zelensky that while, sure, there will be territorial concessions and no NATO membership, there won’t really be much of a NATO anyway so that’s not giving up all that much, is it?
to salve the wound, Trump / Elon can console Zelensky that while, sure, there will be territorial concessions and no NATO membership, there won’t really be much of a NATO anyway so that’s not giving up all that much, is it?
[new draft post] It's the parasocials, stupid https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2024/11/08/its-the-parasocials-stupid/index.html
from “Exit Right” by Gabriel Winant https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/exit-right/
Text: The accountability of the Democrats to antagonistic constituencies produces both rhetorical incoherence— what does this party stand for?—and programmatic self-cancellation. Champions of the domestic rule of law and the rules-based international order, they engaged in a spectacular series of violations of domestic and international law. Promising a new New Deal, they admonished voters to be grateful for how well they were already doing economically. Each step taken by the party's policymakers in pursuit of one goal imposes a limit in another direction. It is by this dynamic that a decade of (appropriate) anti-Trump hysteria led first to the adoption of parts of Trump's program by the Democrats, and then finally his reinstallation as president at new heights of public opinion favorability. Nothing better than the real thing.
@falcennial (oh, i think the general point is right on and well-deserved, scorn on! but thanks!)
@falcennial i’d join your mockery, except i’m about to publish such a take even though i was sure that Kamala would win… 🤷♂️
terrible circumstances, but this is a wonderful observation by Martha Derthick, via @adamgurri https://www.liberalcurrents.com/a-practical-program-for-resisting-a-trump-second-term/
![Text:
As political scientist Martha Derthick put it:
> Congress loves action—it thrives on policy proclamations and goal setting—but it hates bureaucracy and taxes, which are the instruments of action. Overwhelmingly, it has resolved this dilemma by turning over the bulk of administration to the state governments or any organizational instrumentality it can lay its hands on whose employees are not counted on the federal payroll. [1]](media_attachments/files/113/447/696/021/032/071/original/5355aaa7e82f9e2c.jpeg)
Text: As political scientist Martha Derthick put it: > Congress loves action—it thrives on policy proclamations and goal setting—but it hates bureaucracy and taxes, which are the instruments of action. Overwhelmingly, it has resolved this dilemma by turning over the bulk of administration to the state governments or any organizational instrumentality it can lay its hands on whose employees are not counted on the federal payroll. [1]
touting a record stock market as an indicator of Biden’s great economy seems kind of dumb now, doesn’t it?
management of the US dollar is now in the hands of… the people who’ve been buying a ton of bitcoin in a bet on the imminent death of the US dollar.
the resolution to the debate about “deliverism” is it only works if what gets delivered is substantial, material results prior to the election.
if what’s delivered is just the legislation, maybe some change that will eventually bear fruit but takes time, opponents gin up cynicism and fear no problem.
if you are blaming “we” or “the electorate” or “the American people”, you are not doing anything useful.