…in case anyone thought I was making it up about there being sympathy out there if you happen to hail from the states & find yourself someplace else…it’s not the only one but here’s edinburgh
As someone from a long line of Scots, this touches me so deeply.Crowds have gathered outside the US consulate in Edinburgh to protest the murder of Alex Pretti by ICE.Tapadh leibh to all the protesters who stand with the majority of Americans who are horrified by what is happening. 🏴
…although…there’s a…different alignment when you stop talking about individuals who’d have a reasonable expectation for sympathy from other people who can see what’s being done to them is no kind of ok…see…exhibit #umpty-whatever for “how tariffs actually impact trade balances”
India and EU conclude free trade agreement that reduces tariffs in many sectors
…both things are true…so…over a disturbingly fashionable 6/7 years…93% of the trade value between those two will wind up being 0% tariff stuff…&…let’s just say that india…is bigger than greenland…&…buys more stuff…from…*checks notes* the biggest trading bloc the US deals with…so…anyway
The US has officially exited the Paris Agreement — for the second time. It's not the only global climate treaty President Donald Trump is withdrawing from. Here's what to know.
…some places…don’t want to make backtracking on the not-enough progress that’s been made in any direction that hasn’t made the biggest problems humanity faces worse…& if you wanted an example of what the diametric opposite to that looked like…their path “onward”…it’d look like the dotard-ed remix of america…so…isolationism can be…defensive, I guess you could call it…for some places…but…when you’ve been the largest international actor in military, economic & cultural terms to the point that it’s the superpower making you the pre-eminent superpower the world has ever seen…well
And they don’t exist in our Universe.
Our universe has a guy who takes ketamine and then gets on the social network that he purchased to talk about how the Nazis were actually socialists because it’s right there in the name! While DMing women about producing more fetuses with penises.
One interesting thing in "Batman should spend his money better" circle jerks is assumptions there would… "Exist" a Bruce Wayne with money, even calling the existence of supervillains in-text "justifications." But Batman having money is the same: In-text explanation for how he affords superheroing
…&…I’d buy that some of these people are so unfeeling…& have so little use for that part of their anatomy that doesn’t further deaden any associated nerve-endings or synapses…that they could maybe do that & not feel the pain
I think this is accurate, Vance is a slimy toad who believes in nothing but he's got enough animal cunning to understand that he wants Stephen Miller nowhere near him as he tries to assume the mad king's throne
Millers fall probably comes after It Happens or at the point the rest of the scheming viziers band together to oust him.
Once it happens? He’s Beria levels of toast.
…&…bannon…stone…manafort…musk…being shunned where once you were lauded is not the same as getting discarded past the point of being able to make shit worse while making less headlines…but…fuck…if you can’t take a win when they give you one…what are we even doing?
it took longer than expected but this did eventually get to Trump re: Elon! it has the added benefit of being even more true for Miller than it was for Musk
…there’s always been more shadows than president…& even as this or that one advances or retreats up & down their internal pecking order…there’s barely enough difference to make a difference to what they’re *trying* to do…but…when you think about who you’re dealing with…all iago & ego & not an othello in the mix…important as it is to counter their ability to actually make america over in their rancid image…making them look like an embarrassing enough liability to look like if you throw them under the bus maybe it bumps that onto a line that won’t run your sagging orange ass over like something your health secretary might scrape off the pavement to take home for dinner…can really put a crimp in your crotch-rot command structure?
Trump is nothing if not ready to sacrifice anyone and anything in order to save his own ass and the single most important thing that could happen right now is someone convincing him that the biggest driver of his unpopularity is not just Bovino and Noem but Stephen Miller personally
…those motherfuckers got run through the catholic-pedophile-play so fast that they went back to work someplace that wasn’t in minneapolis…or as I understand it even minnesota…the very next day…which…for the record…is some kind of record…& not the good kind
Because it worked for a year when the victims weren’t a white man.
…because THAT’S NOT HOW ANY OF THAT IS MEANT TO WORK YOU KNOW WE KNOW YOU KNOW THAT MEANS YOU KNOW THOSE FUCKS ARE AS CRIMINALLY GUILTY AS THEY ARE MORALLY SUNK WITHOUT A FUCKING TRACE
Trump trying to distance himself from the Trump administration
…but…you know how that works when you keep the filthy laundry *in* the church…&…the only difference is the faith they cleave to
U.S. Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino claimed the true victims of yesterday’s shooting were federal agents. He confirmed that the agents who killed Pretti yesterday remain on the streets today, though they have been reassigned elsewhere.
This gets better when you know that Mayes was literally a Republican until 2019.And not just as a private citizen. She held statewide office as a Republican for 7 years.
Long way to go yet but I think it's worth pointing out that the entire rightwing media ecosystem went all in on the idea that Americans, or at least enough of us, would accept the idea that the government should be able to murder people in the street and they failed utterly
…it’s…hard to say “it’s better today than yesterday” when it still looks like tomorrow might be a problem that’s still getting worse in as many of the same ways as you can keep track of
teachers have better opsec than SecDef. think about that
…it might be worth noting that what we’re looking at is the “all of it” that people are doing & have done
[…&…I looked at what a lot of people trying to get a look at that sort of thing from the inside seemed to look like from the outside over the weekend & it’s why in the end I didn’t go ham with references & quotes & things-you-can-find-or-figure-out-if-you-go-look…because…a lot of it is already non-trivial levels of needing to be not-fucking-about…&…*some* “this is how you do it” is needed…because other people in other places are going to need to know…but…knowing your neighbors is the thing without which none of it works…& you might have the theory down six ways from sunday to be able to be the hero but it won’t do you much good if you don’t know how to get people to show up to the community space you don’t know how to reserve…so…do you really need to know what hoops you’d need to jump through to wind up with some species of shortwave squawking at you to go play human battleships for a cargo of children headed home from school…or could you have got all that from someone who could have told you for the asking*]
…doing something…that makes it get worse slower…& if people
two major mainstream news outlets lurched sharply rightward over the past year (CBS and WaPo), and both failed for the basic reason that the only business the new leadership understood was one where they generated literal nonsense to please barely literate billionaires
"my spanish and roman ancestors would never tolerate the presence of numidians and aethopians in their cities" -the world's most historically literate conservative
…the rout won’t be in the abstract at some point…& when people say “we are going to win” or “we are winning”…seems to me that’s what they mean…in the “don’t take your foot off the gas” sense?
Honored that in his last days of fame and fortune at CBP the disgraced Gregory Bovino chose to attack, among others, me.
Quick, before she deletes that one too (although other sources already said Bovino is reassigned)
…that…is not nothing…squint at it just right & that might look like team #rapemurderlawisforotherpeople…getting a light kerb-stomping
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents border patrol officers at the National Border Patrol Council, calls on Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller to resign or be fired
…&…there’s no particular reason anyone ever ought to take any particular notice of what I say or think about much of anything…with the possible caveat that sometimes I don’t suck at suggesting things other people (often long dead) said that I’m not alone in thinking might be worth casting an eye over…so…maybe don’t take my word for it…but…I…would…keep that shit up?
And that’s not even incorrect! Mr President sir, your most wet, serpent-like vizier has wrecked your approve/disapprove numbers on the only issue where they were actually positive. He is trying to wreck your legacy sir! Think of the Ballroom
…so…you know…maybe a shade early to pop the champagne…but…be happy about how unhappy some seriously fucked up fuckwits are feeling…& if you feel like in any sense you did that…feel fucking good about yourself…because people who wish bad things on innocent people are bad people that bad things should happen to & when things happen to those people that *they* think are bad…that is an objective good…thank you for coming to my TED talk & I’m very sorry this isn’t the end already
MAGA has been trying to meme its way to consolidated authoritarianism, relying on images, bluster, and voluntary compliance to make up for the Trump regime’s insufficient capacity.They’re not done, things will probably get worse, but one of MAGA’s main tools just faltered. Yeah, that matters.
You can’t tell me we have a functioning economic system when the richest man in human history is one of the most profoundly stupid people in human history
He is functionally illiterate in his native tongue (by choice) and he would fail 4th grade social studies but I am supposed to believe he contributes meaningfully to multiple Fortune 500 companies? Lmao. He pays people to play video games for him. He’s a stupid loser and he should know that.
He knows Hitler wasn’t a leftist because he personally had Grok changed to be a Hitler apologist, and he knows the Nazis weren’t socialists because he personally had Twitter Safety stop censoring pro-Nazi content! And IMO it is even stupider to lie this badly than it is to just be ignorant
In this case I don’t think he actually believes this (he did a Nazi salute!) but I agree with you that he makes this claim because he’s stupid and thinks it’s convincing
…I’d note that it does sound like on top of all the data-tracking/harvesting shit…if you still have the tik tok app on your phone that’s going to be doing its damnedest to see to it you don’t see a bunch of the stuff I’d bet you were holding on to it for…that, after all…is kinda the point of the fucking “business model” that considers burning billions to skew a user experience to match the reality they wish was as for real as they aren’t
Funny story from history. You know who was a hard core socialist?
Joseph Goebbels.
In his personal diaries, which I’ve read, he goes OFF on Hitler’s denunciation of socialism as a ‘Jewish conspiracy’ and goes to confront Hitler.
…but…however much it might not look like it…not least if you continue to take people you ought not to at their word when that means less to them than you do…this…is consistent with what it looks like while they’re getting their asses kicked & losing…&…well…I think maybe we might not be deluding ourselves to take some heart from that part?
Thinking Russia will easily overrun Ukraine's "they/them" army because a Russian soldier did shirtless pushups in a recruitment ad is basically the same as thinking ICE would easily dominate the "weak, woke libs" of Minnesota because MAGA posts about masculinity and hype videos with hard rock.
…so…I don’t want to get carried away…figuratively…or…times being what they are…literally…but…it’s…not “really” in the sense of “equivalent potential for societal damage”…but…imagine if “democracy” was…well…magic…like…actual magic…full on fucking sorcery
…these people think that stage-magic…is magic…& as long as the audience is there to ooh & ahh at the show…they keep believing they’re wizards…& the things they do to make the illusions play that way to that audience are genuinely vile & destructive on a scale that renders this whole allusion facile…but…what minnesota continues to do…is wild fucking magic in the raw…& ultimately their whole show…even the parts of it they thought they could get to fly even if penn & teller started doing the commentary…which…in this analogy…approximately
People are starting to realize that American democracy really is under threat, and that it’s not just some hysterical exaggeration.
The thief of tens of millions of dollars in crypto from the United States' stash of seized crypto assets is allegedly the son of the owner of a company that contracts with the US Marshals to manage said seized crypto.
…literally cannot be reconciled with that existing
Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez has been a hero throughout, advocating, witnessing, speaking up, getting assaulted by ICE thugs, but still never failing to help the people he represents. Bravo @jchavezmpls.bsky.social
Some other local reps have been great too. But the higher up the chain of power you go, the more timid and less helpful they got. Possible exception: MN Atty General Keith Ellison.
Jason Chavez was on the ground when ICE made its first surprise foray into Minneapolis last June. See his quote at the end of this article at the time: dead on. Meanwhile Jacob Frey and his chief of police did their usual shrug, gosh we don’t know nothin’.minnesotareformer.com/2025/06/03/h…
I’ll say one more thing then relent: I absolutely trust + am in awe of my fellow Minnesotans. Whatever comes, they will be ready. But Frey and Walz both spoke to Trump today and think they have a cool deal. Our Senators have been just pretty useless. We have to keep hounding all four of them.
So is Britain. The almost saint like level of restraint you have all shown is incredible, the compassion you have shown in the face of so much blatant provocation is an example to us all. We have a phrase in wales, Dal dy dir…. Hold your ground. 🫡
…&…the people who in just all the senses I can think of have their feet on that ground because they live there…that’s *their* ground…but…in a bunch of those senses that aren’t about physical geography…those are *our* people…holding *our* ground…in any language…from anywhere on the face of the globe
What Minneapolis residents have done this month in terms of organizing and community response is as remarkable as anything I've ever seen
To understand Miller you need to understand that his core political strategy is “evil works.” He thinks the bad guys in history are cool because they feel strong and hurt the weak, and that’s what he wants to do. He’s roleplaying the villain and his only solution to any problem is “be more evil.”
DFW coffee chain offers first responder discounts to ICE agents and promptly finds out their customers like their drinks without ICE (1/2)#leopardsatemyface #Politics #News
DFW coffee chain offers first responder discounts to ICE agents and promptly finds out their customers like their drinks without ICE (2/2)#leopardsatemyface #Politics #News
…I…don’t want to be a downer…but…as @miluly mentioned recently…the folks that drilled some stuff into some folks at ages impressionable enough to only find the famous citations years or decades later…were right…because the bad news is…it’ll never be over…it’ll never not be a threat that it could happen again…but the good news is…like with all the legends with the great evil that’s been trapped for so many generations everyone thinks it’s just a story…we can & have shut it down & stuck it somewhere it starves for company or an audience…& part of how we do that plays out in pretty rooms where policy gets wrangled & vast quantities of revenue get piped hither & yon…but…a lot of the stuff that makes more of a difference where most people are concerned…most of the time…that’s what mores & norms are *for* in society…we do that…all the time…whether we want to or not…because that’s just what we call emergent properties that nothing & nobody can quell getting spawned in aggregate by life going on regardless…&…not to get all controversial this early in the morning…but…some greek guy who died so long ago he couldn’t possibly be saying anything with contemporary relevance if people are really so different these days…I dunno…might have basically been saying that when he claimed the un-examined life is not worth living…& not just disappearing up his own self-regarding ass in an introspective möbius loop
Ex-NYPD deputy commish Kaz Daughtry is joining the Homeland Security Dept., @nytimes.com reports. Last year, @propublica.org investigated the secretive police unit he helped run and found it was so aggressive that it alarmed NYPD leaders: www.propublica.org/article/eric…
…reality enforces no barrier to prevent the actuality of a thing too stupid to be true
An email to USDA staffers in November directed them to stop all research with scientists who come from “countries of concern” and to reject papers with foreign authors if they deal with “sensitive subjects” like “diversity” or “climate change.”
…that’s why we probably always had a way to mean “senseless”…even before we had the sense to see sense as even a thing…much less one we all had several of by default
Trump's America—where federal executioners are put into hiding and protected while members of Congress face prison for wanting to survey the regime's concentration camps.
…I think most even-a-little-bit-rational people can agree that in times we think of as “going well”…the state doesn’t need to police people to death or banishment to not have endless streams of them shouting from the rooftops that the world can see the state continues to eat shit & squeal for its trough to get filled again so it can keep up with its appetite
Today I’m helping out at my job from 20+ years ago, helping Greg & the DreamHaven crew ship books across the country to folks who inundated their webstore after seeing him on TV.Website is still down, but later try DreamHavenbooks.com for all your sci-fi, horror, fantasy, film, & comics needs!
…not to make it all about me…but…I don’t think you truly appreciate the sense of vindication I’m smuggling in here when I say this…SOMETIMES BUYING COMIC BOOKS IS NOT A CHILDISH ACT…ahem…sorry…just…ahh…sayin’…as the saying goes?
The regime obviously thought they’d be able to take out a few dozen scary-queer-weirdo Antifa types in black masks and then successfully cow the rest of the Coastal Elite Liberal class into terrified silence: they were not expecting “totally fearless mass nonviolent resistance by entire cities.”
It also sounds like at least some of them thought the cameras wouldn't matter because they were assuming that a couple of public executions would cause all of the resistance to run and hide.
The MAGA regime also really obviously doesn’t know what to do with the fact that each time ICE murders somebody, the people they’re trying to scare merely get more angry and more motivated to fight back.
It gives them something to do, and they think it will result in a constantly-armed, mobilized white ethnonationalist movement that continually asserts force against the multiracial coalition that relies on democratic processes.
they DEFINITELY weren't expecting a bunch of open-carrying second amendment bros to actually be out on the streets defending their neighbors. they brainwashed themselves into thinking their crew had a total lock on gun people, which, fucking lol especially in a place like Minnesota.
People with obvious MAGA affiliation will occasionally make comments like that to my face (I live in a magenta exurb of NYC on the rural side of the term) then get VERY squirrely when I ask how often they shoot and what they hunt. Fucking pussies lol
Rule 41(g) is really having a moment huh (This motion is made in relation to the Cities Church protest case. But the rule was also the subject of motions in relation to the Comey case and the search of a Washington Post reporter’s home.) storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us…
The 3d Circuit has denied rehearing en banc of the panel decision finding that Alina Habba had been unlawfully appointed as US Attorney. However, 3 of the 11 en banc judges would have granted rehearing, and one will later publish a dissent.
Here's the thing, Greg — free speech is still protected by the First Amendment under the Constitution.If you want folks to stop saying you're the secret police who are kidnapping and killing people, maybe stop acting like the secret police who are kidnapping and killing people.
…I…am…I dunno what the competition looks like but…outside of dipshits signing on to play goon for these fuckwits…I might be roughly as far as I can imagine from being a former spec ops warrant officer…but…eric…sweetie…it’s almost cute you think they’re playing
I love how coffee shops put out like handwarmers, coffee, and rolling papers, and the right wing media is like WHO IS FUNDING THESE ELITE PARAMILITARY QUARTERMASTERS
…codifying what’s happening in minneapolis as an insurgency is kinda like waving a big neon sign that says “I can’t see a lot with my head up my ass this way”…&…if you happen to be familiar with “playbooks” about insurgency in a modern urban environment…&…you can’t peg the residents as the “counter-insurgency”…you’re a moron…&…if you willfully can’t in a motivated sense because you’re sunk an unrecoverable amount of the costs that your ass covers when the bet is called…then that’s…your fucking fault, to boot
“In a rare moment of quiet, our crew of about a dozen asks the kitchen staff if we can use the prep-station as an equipment closet. I help organize gauze, bandages, handwarmers, mylar blankets, saline, and gadgets I don’t have the medical experience or words to describe.”
A first-person account from the Copper Hen's restaurant and ad-hoc field hospital, where volunteer medics helped tear gassed protesters as staffers ran around with cinnamon buns and coffee orders.
anyway just to reiterate, Bovino is a GS-15, which means there are probably a dozen SESs and politicals above him who need to answer for their failure to supervise him
SCOOP: Palantir Defends Work With ICE to Staff Following Killing of Alex PrettiWIRED obtained Slack conversations + an updated internal Palantir wiki defending the company's work for ICE to outraged workers. More here:www.wired.com/story/palant…
More: “I’ve read stories of folks rounded up who were seeking asylum with no order to leave the country, no criminal record, and consistently check in with authorities. Literally no reason to be rounded up. Surely we aren’t helping do that?”www.wired.com/story/palant…
One worker asked if ICE could use Palantir's products and services beyond the scope of its contracts. Akash Jain, CTO + President of Palantir USG responded:www.wired.com/story/palant…
“I grab my keys, I grab a coat, and drive over,” Knutson told me. “I barely park my car and I’m running out screaming and crying, ‘You stole a fucking flower from a dead woman. Like, are any of you human anymore?’”
One thing Elkins’s LEGACY OF VIOLENCE made clear was counterinsurgency, historically, looked a lot like what’s happening in MN. Arbitrary brutality, extra-legal behavior, etc. “Hearts and minds” was a PR campaign the Brits sold to the US during the Malayan emergency, where they hid the ugly bits.
100%. These clowns who fetishize the GWOT seem to forget how insurgencies grow. I’m pessimistic that the fed govt will respond in a manner that doesn’t embolden this — see remarks by POTUS, Miller, Bovino….
Tho I will say, in his defense, he's not the first person to be confused by how quickly the romance authors & readers can whip up finely tuned logistics out of nothing. 😂
I think @sarahjeong.bsky.social said it's because they devalue women's labor and a LOT of this Scary Logistics stuff comes from people who don't understand that basically all of the civic life they enjoy is created with the help of free labor, largely by women.
Your kid has crayons in the classroom? There's food at the church potluck? The picnic goes of without a hitch? The political event has the right people invited and the speakers told the agenda? The play in the park happens in the summer?
…again…the real magic isn’t that stuff happens by magic
Congressional Republicans gave Trump a slush fund for ICE and CBP in the "Big Beautiful Bill." Tens of billions of dollars that is still usable even during a shutdown.Democrats must make rescinding that money the price of any future govt funding, as Republicans did with IRS money from the IRA.
Amazon Web Services hosts massive surveillance systems for both ICE and DHS.Citizens Bank provides nearly $1 trillion in credit & bonds to private prison companies.AT&T has a $147 million contract to provide communications services to DHS.Know who is profiting from ICE’s cruelty.
wait, so Visa, Mastercard et. al can go after video game storefronts for six fucking months for having porn games but the moment X/Grok starts generating ACTUAL CHILD PORN they CHANGE THEIR POLICIES? dawg,
…because those people
Two weeks ago this guy announced he was providing legal help to the agent who shot Renee Good. That's how quickly the winds are shifting.
There are a lot of men out there who do not see any of the logistics happening around them and they're like "wait, where the fuck did these hand warmers come from?"Look at every kid wearing mittens, and that's your answer. From the people who have been silently keeping hands warm for centuries.
…the paradox of competence is that if you make it look easy some people thinks it comes that way
This reminds me of the time that me and some friends planned a protest against oil drilling in the Arctic. At the event one of the (older) guys said in a speech that "the girls organised all of this so easily, like they were planning a dinner party" and I was so mad because we worked SO HARD …
Anyway this is the shit that they call "unskilled labor" but it is actually really fucking hard to be able to anticipate needs and meet them before they come up.
…weird thing…if you happen to be in contemporary minneapolis &/or st paul…& you have a keen sense of the needs worth anticipating among people you can very easily imagine being you…& think about what you’d wish someone had done before you all turned up
We the people have the power. Join us tomorrow, January 26, for a virtual training on how to exercise your right to document ICE abuses in your community.RSVP using the link below. When using that link, Indivisible will know you came from us; their privacy policy applies.
…apparently that looks like you aced the exclusive course for the elite counter-insurgency spec ops program…to…uhh…someone who needed one of those to see those parts moving & clue them in on what it takes to make that happen
this is obviously loser nonsense, but it’s also fascinating. this is the sound of PANIC. “guys I’m so sorry please don’t be mad!!! I agree with you now I swear!!! please don’t primary meeeeee!!!!!”
seems like the seven Dem reps who voted for the ICE bill are gradually realizing they are cooked
You won’t find @tomsuozzi.bsky.social statement on BS. He has an acct he just prefers X. Do NOT believe his lies. He knew what he was doing. Like many, he thought he could make blueMAGA Dems happy which is his base. Or he thought. He doesn’t get to take back his vote, don’t take back your opinions.
…but
Abolish ICE says the most popular Dem in the party. The most popular politician of the moment. The guy who got 50% of the insane melting pot known as NYC to vote for him. Maybe he’s got the right instincts? Who can say
ICE murdered Renée Good in broad daylight. Less than 3 weeks later, they killed Alex Pretti, shooting him 10 times. Every day, we watch as people are ripped from their cars, their homes, their lives.We can't allow ourselves to look away from this cruelty. Abolish ICE.
Both Good and Pretti were pretty clearly killed as a result of violent brutes freaking out but they should also be understood in the context of someone the feds failed to kill living to prove them liars
The woman who survived five gunshots from a Border Patrol agent in Chicago, only to be criminally charged and then cleared, now wants a judge’s permission to share records showing how the feds respond when agents use deadly force. @chicago.suntimes.com story: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/…
…listen to the guy who won’t leave the aircraft until his borrowed costume has the right badge on the velcro part…if it makes you feel like a big boy
brass solidarity band performing “stand by me” in the streets of whittier next to alex pretti’s memorial. the crowd started chanting “the people united will never be defeated” so they incorporated it into the song. i love minneapolis
[…so…there’s a shit-load of backfilling I could…still…do to the above…& at least one specific thing I need to settle on a place-holder for that doesn’t make me want to take it again from the top…but…before I go back to that…which…unless I change my mind about…if you’re seeing this part…I think I have…or call a truce with today to go hunt the stuff that soothes the savage breast…or…whatever…which…as yet…I haven’t managed to…I…left one of these * laying about up there…so…on a similar basis…these are by way of being a digest-adjacent placeholder but they sort of skip the part where I might be talking about a broader generational spread if I tried to do it in my own terms?]
BECAUSE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ARE DEAD NOW. BECAUSE THEIR SHITTY OPINIONS GOT US HERE.
and because the people with power who didn’t agree with us, crushed us at every opportunity.because there were MANY chances to stop this, and not only did they ignore them, they actively worked against those chances
Centrists are approaching this from a "yeah, we might have been wrong, but it's not like we were right wingers."You enabled right wing policy. You enabled right wing power. And you did it while silencing everyone to your left.Atonement would be a great starting point.
…I’m pretty sure I said it a bunch of times…but…I don’t fault people for not listening *to me*…but…if that isn’t because you’re discerning enough to have no end of better people to listen to…like me…I…maybe do in fact blame you…lotta people on that side of the ledger…if you aren’t somewhere up in the section header parts…probably not so much you’d be appropriate letting that part get you salty…&…the flip-side…my sliver of that is a fucking hypodermic compared to the barbed thorn you impaled into your own side…so…frankly…I don’t feel bad about that part on my end even if it does make someone feel bad who ought to feel worse…still…you shouldn’t have to know who said the thing to know if the thing being said has merit?
It’s great when people ‘wake up’ and most people aren’t born with their eyes open.
BUT
B U T
And it’s a big ole but
When you do, there’s things on that path forward. One is repair, and that’s doing a lot of the grunt work, while forever listening.
Another is the autopsy of where and how…
you went so wrong. That’s a highly PERSONAL autopsy.
Another is to now have a new and highly SKEPTICAL position as to your positions, opinions, and thoughts.
You find trusted people to listen to, the people who were trying to wake you up for so long? They’re a good start.
A WHOLE LOT OF PEOPLE
(most of them white)
when they first wake up, act like the whole world just woke up, and they’re the first to SEE THE PROBLEM and they want to LET’S GO GO GO NOW NOW NOW DO THIS DO THAT
And it’s like, they need to be sat the fuck down.
You are not the leader.
YOU would’ve led us out in the woods off a cliff, remember?
YOU ARE THE LISTENER. Go to the old heads who you were shitty about before and sit at their goddamned feet. Set up chairs. Get coffee. Show up and shut up. Listen some more.
It’s not about you. It’s about us.
…because that you…can be any I…but if you’re doing it right…we’re *all* in the us…so…you *can’t* support the reading that mistakes it for “it’s not about you. it’s all about me.”
3 Comments
1) There are veteran libs. (even I know SALUTE.)
2) I don’t automatically trust every person that wants to sign up. I ended up being the gatekeeper for my Professional Engineers Local chapter. If you wanted to join then you could attend a meeting, but I usually watched out for self aggrandizing assholes who tried to use us turn us into some political organization funny enough it was typical Cons shitheads that tried to make us political (but not always.)
3) And if you think I’m on some neighborhood group chat that I’m going to trust TotallyNOTUndercoverPoPo who just moved into the neighborhood?
4) People can be organized. I organized and ran a local bridge building competition with help from other volunteers – got it off the groun. It’s one of the things I’m most proud of. Still running after 18 years.
5) How do you think the Afghans and VC became organized? That’s why hearts and minds is actually important, but Murrican forces in Vietnam, (but also Afghanistan and Iraqinam) treated it as a fucking joke.
The Murrican view was basically grab’em by the balls and the hearts and minds will follow. Didn’t work then. Didn’t work now.
1) There are veteran libs. (even I know SALUTE.)
2) I don’t automatically trust every person that wants to sign up. I ended up being the gatekeeper for my Professional Engineers Local chapter. If you wanted to join then you could attend a meeting, but I usually watched out for self aggrandizing assholes who tried to use us turn us into some political organization funny enough it was typical Cons shitheads that tried to make us political (but not always.)
3) And if you think I’m on some neighborhood group chat that I’m going to trust TotallyNOTUndercoverPoPo who just moved into the neighborhood?
4) People can be organized. I organized and ran a local bridge building competition with help from other volunteers – got it off the groun. It’s one of the things I’m most proud of. Still running after 18 years.
5) How do you think the Afghans and VC became organized? That’s why hearts and minds is actually important, but Murrican forces in Vietnam, (but also Afghanistan and Iraqinam) treated it as a fucking joke.
The Murrican view was basically grab’em by the balls and the hearts and minds will follow. Didn’t work then. Didn’t work now.
2027 ready for a complex amphib, airborne, naval and air operation against a paranoid prepared opponent?
Xi is smoking crack.
…the precursor mix can be all kinds of different…but the results of getting high on your own supply…are universal?