The Pushback Thread
January 22, 2025 10:48 AM Subscribe
In the beginning, I thought Biden was going to do a second term. When doubt crept in, I began to sink into despair at an-all-but-unthinkable Trumpian future. But before I ever needed to really grapple with that possibility, Harris popped up. For a little while, I dreamt of a modern American presidency. Ugly doubt crept back in when her numbers started to stall. Early in the evening on election night, it was clear that Harris was a goner — and my mood sank in tandem. Ever a compulsive news reader, after Trump won I found far too much of it distressing, even maddening. Then I stumbled across an article on the democratic governors organizing to resist. For the first time in days, my mood lifted.
Since then, I’ve found myself intuitively seeking out signs of life from the opposition — cities, states, nonprofits, advocacy groups, some neverTrumpers and even, occasionally, some Trumpers, anyone who has limits they will fight for.
It strikes me that others might find it hopeful to see regular aggregated news about the opposition. Doom, anger and incivility is catchy. As a community, we can’t afford to bring one another down. Maybe one way to help each other hold steady is to post a regular pushback thread. Maybe even non-political types would like it.
Anyway, this pushback thread is intended to provide links to opposition of all kinds (lawsuits, activism, major public pressure, dissent within the Republican Party, etc.) against the Trump administration. It is by no means comprehensive. Please feel free to comment on the links — and add some of your own.
IN THE NEWS
Birthright Citizenship
OPPOSITION WITH A TRACK RECORD
CalMatters.org
Resistance state: Tracking California’s lawsuits against the new Trump administration
Administration Lawsuit Tracker: 266 Center Suits Filed Against the Trump Administration
Since then, I’ve found myself intuitively seeking out signs of life from the opposition — cities, states, nonprofits, advocacy groups, some neverTrumpers and even, occasionally, some Trumpers, anyone who has limits they will fight for.
It strikes me that others might find it hopeful to see regular aggregated news about the opposition. Doom, anger and incivility is catchy. As a community, we can’t afford to bring one another down. Maybe one way to help each other hold steady is to post a regular pushback thread. Maybe even non-political types would like it.
Anyway, this pushback thread is intended to provide links to opposition of all kinds (lawsuits, activism, major public pressure, dissent within the Republican Party, etc.) against the Trump administration. It is by no means comprehensive. Please feel free to comment on the links — and add some of your own.
IN THE NEWS
Birthright Citizenship
- Presidents are powerful, but they are not kings: Dem AGs contest Trump’s birthright citizenship order
- Immigrants’ Rights Advocates Sue Trump Administration Over Birthright Citizenship Executive Order
OPPOSITION WITH A TRACK RECORD
CalMatters.org
Resistance state: Tracking California’s lawsuits against the new Trump administration
California sued the Trump administration 123 times between 2017 and 2021, according to Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office. It spent about $10 million a year in doing so. A majority of the lawsuits dealt with environment rules, immigration and health care. Legal and policy experts expect those same issues to take center stage during Trump 2.0. That’s why Bonta’s team started to prepare legal briefs months ahead of the election, it’s why Gov. Gavin Newsom called for a special legislative session to “Trump-proof” California, and it’s why state Democrats have agreed to allocate $50 million to fight Trump in court — a move that state Republicans denounced as a “slush fund” for “hypothetical fights.”The Center for Biological Diversity
Trump lost more than two-thirds of the lawsuits filed against his rules in his first term. His win rate of 31% was lower than that of the three administrations prior, according to an analysis by the Institute of Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law.
Administration Lawsuit Tracker: 266 Center Suits Filed Against the Trump Administration
The Center for Biological Diversity resisted the Trump administration in every way possible — especially in the courts. From the moment Trump took office to his very last day, our lawyers worked feverishly to oppose every attempt his administration made to worsen climate change, kill wildlife, endanger public health, and destroy public lands. And it worked. The Center filed 266 suits against the Trump administration from its inception to its last day. We've won 9 out of every 10 resolved cases.Democracy Forward
Trump loses 93% of cases in court. We know, because we sue Trump and win. "We must use our current crisis as a catalyst for change. Our work ensures that the people and communities who make up the fabric of democracy are heard, that harmful and anti-democratic movements do not go unchallenged, and that we build in this moment for a bold and vibrant democracy that works for all people."
This is wonderful, and thank you for it. But I just need to take a moment to complain about something in the Reuters article:
Among other things, Trump - who won a decisive victory over Democrat Kamala Harris in last week's election - has pledged to use federal law enforcement to investigate his political foes, launch the largest deportation effort in American history and purge colleges and universities of diversity programs.
Why does the media keep doing this? The only thing "decisive" about his victory is that he (apparently) received more actual votes than she did, which is more than you can say for his last victory. But why not just call it a "narrow victory"? That's both more accurate, and it doesn't fall into Trump's talking point about having some kind of mandate.
OK, complaining over. Thanks again for compiling some hopeful links!
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 10:57 AM on January 22 [80 favorites]
Among other things, Trump - who won a decisive victory over Democrat Kamala Harris in last week's election - has pledged to use federal law enforcement to investigate his political foes, launch the largest deportation effort in American history and purge colleges and universities of diversity programs.
Why does the media keep doing this? The only thing "decisive" about his victory is that he (apparently) received more actual votes than she did, which is more than you can say for his last victory. But why not just call it a "narrow victory"? That's both more accurate, and it doesn't fall into Trump's talking point about having some kind of mandate.
OK, complaining over. Thanks again for compiling some hopeful links!
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 10:57 AM on January 22 [80 favorites]
It's because practically speaking, all victories are decisive victories in American politics. They decide who's going to be running things for at least the next two years. It's not like the narrowness of the vote margin determines how much of a mandate the winner has to pursue their own partisan agenda or how many concessions they need to make to opponents. Only Democrats believe in that fiction.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 11:08 AM on January 22 [7 favorites]
posted by RonButNotStupid at 11:08 AM on January 22 [7 favorites]
Only Democrats believe in that fiction.
As it turns out: Suddenly, Trump Allies Quietly Admit He May Not Have a Huge “Mandate”
posted by Violet Blue at 11:16 AM on January 22 [20 favorites]
As it turns out: Suddenly, Trump Allies Quietly Admit He May Not Have a Huge “Mandate”
posted by Violet Blue at 11:16 AM on January 22 [20 favorites]
"Why does the media keep doing this?"
Because they're a stupid echo chamber. Because the last two presidential elections were fiascos in their own way this one must be called decisive, as if calling it narrow conveys uncertainty or a flaw in the system.
posted by mygraycatbongo at 11:18 AM on January 22 [8 favorites]
Because they're a stupid echo chamber. Because the last two presidential elections were fiascos in their own way this one must be called decisive, as if calling it narrow conveys uncertainty or a flaw in the system.
posted by mygraycatbongo at 11:18 AM on January 22 [8 favorites]
The only thing "decisive" about his victory
*And* that the Republicans now control both houses of Congress. That's the decisive part, not the margin of victory.
posted by Galvanic at 11:40 AM on January 22 [23 favorites]
*And* that the Republicans now control both houses of Congress. That's the decisive part, not the margin of victory.
posted by Galvanic at 11:40 AM on January 22 [23 favorites]
I might add because this is the pushback post, by historically small margins.
posted by bluesky43 at 11:43 AM on January 22 [7 favorites]
posted by bluesky43 at 11:43 AM on January 22 [7 favorites]
Thanks, I had the same experience you describe leading up to the election, and I need something like this right now.
posted by Rykey at 11:43 AM on January 22 [7 favorites]
posted by Rykey at 11:43 AM on January 22 [7 favorites]
I'm a nurse, and multiple people I know (or am simply online acquaintances with) have sent me ready-to-go pdfs explaining my rights as a healthcare worker and how not to comply with ICE or the police wanting to come after my patients. I don't have something to link to for it right at the moment but I was heartened by how quickly & professionally these items were produced, and apparently they are prevalent enough that friends who are not in health care have come across them and passed them on.
I am looking for a simple one-pager to print and hang in the break rooms at work.
posted by Emmy Rae at 11:51 AM on January 22 [34 favorites]
I am looking for a simple one-pager to print and hang in the break rooms at work.
posted by Emmy Rae at 11:51 AM on January 22 [34 favorites]
I'm on a mailing list from the national Indivisible organization that I find helpful.
I honestly don't want to know, anymore, about all the outrageous things I can't do anything about. I appreciate news that comes with a call to action. I've called my senators about not confirming some terrible nominees, my senators and my house rep about opposing the "Laken Riley Act" which would allow Trump to imprison immigrants indefinitely without trial, and contacted my governor about refusing to comply with the unconstitutional executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship.
Other than that, get all the news I need from WTF Just Happened Today (I mostly just read the "today in one sentence" summaries at the beginning of the email newsletter -- though it's really five or six sentences spliced together with semi-colons), and the analysis I need from The Weekly Sift. Which, importantly, is just once a week.
I have monthly automatic donations set up to the DCCC and to the International Rescue Committee. I'll keep calling and contacting my elected officials as prompted by Indivisible. I will write postcards for special elections from time to time with Postcards to Voters. I'll try to attend some marches and protests. I will refuse to cooperate if I am asked to do something that I think is immoral. I will be open and honest about my opposition to this administration, in my real life and online.
I think all of that is sustainable. And I can do it all without doomscrolling. I will continue to pay for my local newspaper because local news is important. But I'm unsubscribing from the Washington Post and the New York Times. I'm unfollowing the people in my social media feeds who just post rage bait about politics all the time. I am resisting the urge to share rage bait that doesn't come with a call to action, myself. And I am not watching TV news at all anymore because UGH.
It's going to be a long four years. The outrage is burning me out faster than the effort. And the effort is more important.
posted by OnceUponATime at 11:53 AM on January 22 [48 favorites]
I honestly don't want to know, anymore, about all the outrageous things I can't do anything about. I appreciate news that comes with a call to action. I've called my senators about not confirming some terrible nominees, my senators and my house rep about opposing the "Laken Riley Act" which would allow Trump to imprison immigrants indefinitely without trial, and contacted my governor about refusing to comply with the unconstitutional executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship.
Other than that, get all the news I need from WTF Just Happened Today (I mostly just read the "today in one sentence" summaries at the beginning of the email newsletter -- though it's really five or six sentences spliced together with semi-colons), and the analysis I need from The Weekly Sift. Which, importantly, is just once a week.
I have monthly automatic donations set up to the DCCC and to the International Rescue Committee. I'll keep calling and contacting my elected officials as prompted by Indivisible. I will write postcards for special elections from time to time with Postcards to Voters. I'll try to attend some marches and protests. I will refuse to cooperate if I am asked to do something that I think is immoral. I will be open and honest about my opposition to this administration, in my real life and online.
I think all of that is sustainable. And I can do it all without doomscrolling. I will continue to pay for my local newspaper because local news is important. But I'm unsubscribing from the Washington Post and the New York Times. I'm unfollowing the people in my social media feeds who just post rage bait about politics all the time. I am resisting the urge to share rage bait that doesn't come with a call to action, myself. And I am not watching TV news at all anymore because UGH.
It's going to be a long four years. The outrage is burning me out faster than the effort. And the effort is more important.
posted by OnceUponATime at 11:53 AM on January 22 [48 favorites]
For those of us who believe resistance to fascism has a better chance outside the aegis of the Democratic Party, many major labor unions are gearing up for more actions, culminating in a general strike in 2028.
posted by Jon_Evil at 11:58 AM on January 22 [29 favorites]
posted by Jon_Evil at 11:58 AM on January 22 [29 favorites]
a general strike in 2 years.
ok
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 12:23 PM on January 22 [8 favorites]
ok
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 12:23 PM on January 22 [8 favorites]
I am looking for a simple one-pager to print and hang in the break rooms at work.
Emmy Rae, The Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network has a series of flyers in various languages that may be useful.
posted by xedrik at 12:38 PM on January 22 [6 favorites]
Emmy Rae, The Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network has a series of flyers in various languages that may be useful.
posted by xedrik at 12:38 PM on January 22 [6 favorites]
re: "decisive" or whatever, my feelings about the outcome don't hinge on "how large the margin," but rather "what changed and in what direction," alongside "based on what we know of Democratic strategy, is there any hope of arresting these directional shifts?"
In liberal echo chambers I don't care much about the every-four-years ritual of declaring this or that voting bloc dead to them, or this or that voting bloc being especially heroic and important. We've been doing that since at least 2004, or at least it's easier to see in the Web Age, because the discourse isn't being filtered through Walter Cronkite and the op/ed page. But the many blocs these two parties are trying to organize into coalitions represent a spectrum of safe bets, contested space, and ceded territory. I personally may not care at all about who's in the ceded territory, or pay slightly less attention to who's in the contested space, but it's a leadership and strategy problem when you start losing portions of the previously safe bets, even when the majorities in those blocs remain friendly.
My worry is that Democratic leaders will do the same thing they did in 2016: Hammer the idea that "this is not normal," and take any positive signs in the mid-terms as validation that Trump is an ephemeral fact they can ride out, as opposed to a sign of something deeper and more profound shifting under their feet. It makes sense that they would: They've been The Nicer Neoliberal Party for 30 years now. There's a very wealthy consultant class that would prefer to keep running the same playbooks. I personally think dealignment is a thing and we're seeing it, because I also think political orders are a thing, and we're in the twilight of the neoliberal one. I'd argue this is the second major shift in political orders in the past fifty years that Democrats didn't have the initiative on. The upcoming DNC leadership decision is going to be interesting and important.
posted by A forgotten .plan file at 12:55 PM on January 22 [16 favorites]
In liberal echo chambers I don't care much about the every-four-years ritual of declaring this or that voting bloc dead to them, or this or that voting bloc being especially heroic and important. We've been doing that since at least 2004, or at least it's easier to see in the Web Age, because the discourse isn't being filtered through Walter Cronkite and the op/ed page. But the many blocs these two parties are trying to organize into coalitions represent a spectrum of safe bets, contested space, and ceded territory. I personally may not care at all about who's in the ceded territory, or pay slightly less attention to who's in the contested space, but it's a leadership and strategy problem when you start losing portions of the previously safe bets, even when the majorities in those blocs remain friendly.
My worry is that Democratic leaders will do the same thing they did in 2016: Hammer the idea that "this is not normal," and take any positive signs in the mid-terms as validation that Trump is an ephemeral fact they can ride out, as opposed to a sign of something deeper and more profound shifting under their feet. It makes sense that they would: They've been The Nicer Neoliberal Party for 30 years now. There's a very wealthy consultant class that would prefer to keep running the same playbooks. I personally think dealignment is a thing and we're seeing it, because I also think political orders are a thing, and we're in the twilight of the neoliberal one. I'd argue this is the second major shift in political orders in the past fifty years that Democrats didn't have the initiative on. The upcoming DNC leadership decision is going to be interesting and important.
posted by A forgotten .plan file at 12:55 PM on January 22 [16 favorites]
May of 2028 is in 3 years, and this call is coming from one of the largest industrial unions in the country, the UAW, which has taken historic action in the last 2 years. If you're in a union and you think it's just impossible, then by all means voice your misgivings. But if you're not, then consider keeping them to yourself and funneling more money and effort into the Democratic party like the other dead enders.
posted by jy4m at 1:00 PM on January 22 [19 favorites]
posted by jy4m at 1:00 PM on January 22 [19 favorites]
a general strike in 2 years.
ok
Comments like this really exhaust me.
1. It's in 3 years
2. If you read the link, the discussion is about labor unions aligning their contract dates to get One Big Labor Deadline looming to allow for maximum worker coordination
3. The UAW president is one of the most known and outspoken labor leaders out there right now and just made major gains with his organization
If you have substantive arguments, make them. But just dropping in to shit on an idea that people are organizing towards is unhelpful.
posted by Emmy Rae at 1:02 PM on January 22 [100 favorites]
ok
Comments like this really exhaust me.
1. It's in 3 years
2. If you read the link, the discussion is about labor unions aligning their contract dates to get One Big Labor Deadline looming to allow for maximum worker coordination
3. The UAW president is one of the most known and outspoken labor leaders out there right now and just made major gains with his organization
If you have substantive arguments, make them. But just dropping in to shit on an idea that people are organizing towards is unhelpful.
posted by Emmy Rae at 1:02 PM on January 22 [100 favorites]
I'm starting to get SMS fundraising texts again.
I just got one a few minutes ago from a group called "Defeat Extremists" which points out that there are 3 special elections this spring and winning all three would flip the House. I don't know how realistic it may be, but special elections are weird and I think it's a noble effort.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 1:12 PM on January 22 [11 favorites]
I just got one a few minutes ago from a group called "Defeat Extremists" which points out that there are 3 special elections this spring and winning all three would flip the House. I don't know how realistic it may be, but special elections are weird and I think it's a noble effort.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 1:12 PM on January 22 [11 favorites]
there are 3 special elections this spring and winning all three would flip the House.
That would be fucking hilarious and I think for that reason alone we should all do what we can to make it happen
posted by rhymedirective at 1:16 PM on January 22 [30 favorites]
That would be fucking hilarious and I think for that reason alone we should all do what we can to make it happen
posted by rhymedirective at 1:16 PM on January 22 [30 favorites]
But if you're not, then consider keeping them to yourself
Well that's not an attitude that's gonna win hearts and minds, now is it?
My frustration,[whether it's 2 or 3 years, doesn't matter ] is hey we tried slooooow rolling indicting and trying DJT, so sloooooow rolling more action, doesn't really instill me with positive feelings.
Anyway I don't donate money to Democrats, because all they do is ask for more money 2 weeks later.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 1:24 PM on January 22 [12 favorites]
Well that's not an attitude that's gonna win hearts and minds, now is it?
My frustration,[whether it's 2 or 3 years, doesn't matter ] is hey we tried slooooow rolling indicting and trying DJT, so sloooooow rolling more action, doesn't really instill me with positive feelings.
Anyway I don't donate money to Democrats, because all they do is ask for more money 2 weeks later.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 1:24 PM on January 22 [12 favorites]
Apparently our Republican governor here in Vermont joined the governor's group, but don't tell Trump.
posted by MtDewd at 1:25 PM on January 22 [6 favorites]
posted by MtDewd at 1:25 PM on January 22 [6 favorites]
I joined a union this year, and I was a member of a different one in a different field on two separate occasions.
I have been enormously disappointed with the complete lack of communications skills in all three cases, which I gather is because management is determined by membership at the local level — regardless of whether folks have the right skills or not. When I talk to friends in other unions (third and fourth fields), they tell me the same story.
I'm talking about basic information about how the union works, and how and why it's charging you the fees its charging. All of that needs to be communicated clearly and persuasively: These are the benefits in one easy-to-find place, and you are paying a small price to access greater negotiating power, etc. But, no, it took me four tries to get information on how to pay my dues with the latest union, and several emails to get information on protections from its predecessor.
Don't get me wrong, at base, I'm very pro-union. Shawn Fain is impressive, and so is Sarah Nelson. But my personal experience, which seems to be the norm among many union locals, is that the loss of union power is in many ways their own fault. Just like the politicos need to understand the economy is everything because if people can't earn a proper living they won't care about much else, the unions need to understand that their ability to expand is heavily linked to persuasive messaging on how folks are getting good value for their money.
posted by Violet Blue at 1:26 PM on January 22 [9 favorites]
I have been enormously disappointed with the complete lack of communications skills in all three cases, which I gather is because management is determined by membership at the local level — regardless of whether folks have the right skills or not. When I talk to friends in other unions (third and fourth fields), they tell me the same story.
I'm talking about basic information about how the union works, and how and why it's charging you the fees its charging. All of that needs to be communicated clearly and persuasively: These are the benefits in one easy-to-find place, and you are paying a small price to access greater negotiating power, etc. But, no, it took me four tries to get information on how to pay my dues with the latest union, and several emails to get information on protections from its predecessor.
Don't get me wrong, at base, I'm very pro-union. Shawn Fain is impressive, and so is Sarah Nelson. But my personal experience, which seems to be the norm among many union locals, is that the loss of union power is in many ways their own fault. Just like the politicos need to understand the economy is everything because if people can't earn a proper living they won't care about much else, the unions need to understand that their ability to expand is heavily linked to persuasive messaging on how folks are getting good value for their money.
posted by Violet Blue at 1:26 PM on January 22 [9 favorites]
Apparently our Republican governor here in Vermont joined the governor's group, but don't tell Trump.
Now this is positive news.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 1:27 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Now this is positive news.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 1:27 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
SMS fundraising texts ... from a group called "Defeat Extremists"
Due diligence is required to make sure this is not an activism-washing faux group. That would be a very useful, profitable and easy to implement Republican strategy.
Their only identity is a P.O box number. Any ideas on how to verify?
I'm trying here, folks! [forced optimist face]
posted by CynicalKnight at 1:27 PM on January 22 [5 favorites]
Due diligence is required to make sure this is not an activism-washing faux group. That would be a very useful, profitable and easy to implement Republican strategy.
Their only identity is a P.O box number. Any ideas on how to verify?
I'm trying here, folks! [forced optimist face]
posted by CynicalKnight at 1:27 PM on January 22 [5 favorites]
Due diligence is required to make sure this is not an activism-washing faux group.
The text came with an ActBlue donation URL, so hopefully it's legit? I don't think this particular group matters so much as the special elections themselves. There's sure to be a flurry of fundraising by many different groups once candidates are selected and the races shape up.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 1:30 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
The text came with an ActBlue donation URL, so hopefully it's legit? I don't think this particular group matters so much as the special elections themselves. There's sure to be a flurry of fundraising by many different groups once candidates are selected and the races shape up.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 1:30 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
They have an entry at OpenSecrets: Defeat Extremists
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 1:35 PM on January 22 [6 favorites]
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 1:35 PM on January 22 [6 favorites]
Similar to what xedrik posted
Red Cards / Tarjetas Rojas
All people in the United States, regardless of immigration status, have certain rights and protections under the U.S. Constitution. The ILRC’s Red Cards help people assert their rights and defend themselves in many situations, such as when ICE agents go to a home.
posted by stevil at 1:37 PM on January 22 [10 favorites]
Red Cards / Tarjetas Rojas
All people in the United States, regardless of immigration status, have certain rights and protections under the U.S. Constitution. The ILRC’s Red Cards help people assert their rights and defend themselves in many situations, such as when ICE agents go to a home.
posted by stevil at 1:37 PM on January 22 [10 favorites]
From my small California community: State, local agencies prepare for Trump administration
posted by stevil at 1:39 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
posted by stevil at 1:39 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
The organization behind the Women's March is sponsoring a Digital Defenders training series on mis-and disinformation. I attended the first one in the series and it was just fantastic; people who study this topic and have helped with policies are sharing their guidance for us to protect ourselves and to be activists.
posted by stevil at 1:43 PM on January 22 [8 favorites]
posted by stevil at 1:43 PM on January 22 [8 favorites]
Indivisible hosts very informative/practical/hopeful calls every Thursday called Bracing for Impact. You can see that and all their calls (including their anti-disinformation program) here.
posted by stevil at 1:44 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
posted by stevil at 1:44 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
As far as I can tell there are only two special elections this spring and if Dems win both (very unlikely, both districts are deeply deeply Republican) the Republican party will still have the House, 218-217.
It would be absolutely delightful if Democrats won a majority in the House within the next couple of months, but I honestly think it's more likely to happen through party switches than these particular special elections.
posted by potrzebie at 2:10 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
It would be absolutely delightful if Democrats won a majority in the House within the next couple of months, but I honestly think it's more likely to happen through party switches than these particular special elections.
posted by potrzebie at 2:10 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
I think Elise Stefanik is likely to be the third.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 2:12 PM on January 22 [4 favorites]
posted by RonButNotStupid at 2:12 PM on January 22 [4 favorites]
Violet Blue> the loss of union power is in many ways their own fault
Imho this sounds unfair.
First, both Republicans and Democrats have systematically dismantled all tools that workers could use for class struggle, which includes both weakening unions and removing tarifs and trade restrictions.
Second, it's historically abnormal to have ultra-user-friendly systems. You've describe perfectly normal organizational failures, not ideal, but easily low priority. Linux being dramatically less user-friendly than Mac OS, says mostly that Mac OS could spend criminally large amounts of money on UX, not that Linux failed. CPAs exists because a criminally complex financial system requires insane an tax system. etc. Your unions look disorganized because they face diverse threats like outsourcing, cheap imports, etc, while lacking the fancy project management of your employer.
posted by jeffburdges at 2:13 PM on January 22 [18 favorites]
Imho this sounds unfair.
First, both Republicans and Democrats have systematically dismantled all tools that workers could use for class struggle, which includes both weakening unions and removing tarifs and trade restrictions.
Second, it's historically abnormal to have ultra-user-friendly systems. You've describe perfectly normal organizational failures, not ideal, but easily low priority. Linux being dramatically less user-friendly than Mac OS, says mostly that Mac OS could spend criminally large amounts of money on UX, not that Linux failed. CPAs exists because a criminally complex financial system requires insane an tax system. etc. Your unions look disorganized because they face diverse threats like outsourcing, cheap imports, etc, while lacking the fancy project management of your employer.
posted by jeffburdges at 2:13 PM on January 22 [18 favorites]
the loss of union power is in many ways their own fault
My observation is that, like so many other organisations that are established to try and make things better in their specific area, unions have morphed from organisations with the sole aim of protecting workers to organisations with the primary goal of protecting their own existence. That is, they now exist for the primary reason of continuing to exist.
posted by dg at 2:26 PM on January 22 [7 favorites]
My observation is that, like so many other organisations that are established to try and make things better in their specific area, unions have morphed from organisations with the sole aim of protecting workers to organisations with the primary goal of protecting their own existence. That is, they now exist for the primary reason of continuing to exist.
posted by dg at 2:26 PM on January 22 [7 favorites]
Fancy project management ultra-user-friendly systems have nothing to do with it,
I'm saying unions need to be able to persuasively explain why they matter, what benefits they offer, and why unions are good value for their money. They need to make people want to join. What I often see instead is folks not joining if they have any choice about it.
Since everything seems to be organized local to local, I'm sure some of them are effective. But from what I've seen — and I've probably seen a greater variety of locals than most — they mostly aren't.
posted by Violet Blue at 2:30 PM on January 22 [8 favorites]
I'm saying unions need to be able to persuasively explain why they matter, what benefits they offer, and why unions are good value for their money. They need to make people want to join. What I often see instead is folks not joining if they have any choice about it.
Since everything seems to be organized local to local, I'm sure some of them are effective. But from what I've seen — and I've probably seen a greater variety of locals than most — they mostly aren't.
posted by Violet Blue at 2:30 PM on January 22 [8 favorites]
the sole aim of protecting workers to organisations with the primary goal of protecting their own existence. That is, they now exist for the primary reason of continuing to exist.
I've seen a lot of instances of that too. There are rare exceptions among the highly educated: graduate students, museum workers, tech workers but they are largely anomalies.
posted by Violet Blue at 2:32 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
I've seen a lot of instances of that too. There are rare exceptions among the highly educated: graduate students, museum workers, tech workers but they are largely anomalies.
posted by Violet Blue at 2:32 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Unions were one of the main avenues of resistance against Nazis in occupied countries (and the connections from former/outlawed unions in Germany itself formed the basis for a number of resistance networks). But sure, use the thread that is attempting to focus on positive steps that can be taken to just complain about your personal experiences rather than post resources to help people who might end up elected to local union leadership become better communicators, or at least request links to such resources from others.
Unions are made of people. Most people are poor communicators and have no training in community or workplace organizing. Large umbrella unions have trainings that local leadership can attend… if they are able to take the time off, and their local membership agrees to spend their funds on that. In those trainings, one learns however that growing a union is an initially-slow process of building relationships, trust, and class consciousness. Communication is an important part of building relationships, but not the marketing style unidirectional communication you seem to be wanting.
posted by eviemath at 3:07 PM on January 22 [29 favorites]
Unions are made of people. Most people are poor communicators and have no training in community or workplace organizing. Large umbrella unions have trainings that local leadership can attend… if they are able to take the time off, and their local membership agrees to spend their funds on that. In those trainings, one learns however that growing a union is an initially-slow process of building relationships, trust, and class consciousness. Communication is an important part of building relationships, but not the marketing style unidirectional communication you seem to be wanting.
posted by eviemath at 3:07 PM on January 22 [29 favorites]
... democratic governors organizing to resist ...
I noticed the democratic governor from The Land of Steady Habbits aka The Nutmeg State is not yet participating.
I must work to correct this.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 3:15 PM on January 22 [4 favorites]
I noticed the democratic governor from The Land of Steady Habbits aka The Nutmeg State is not yet participating.
I must work to correct this.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 3:15 PM on January 22 [4 favorites]
"use the thread that is attempting to focus on positive steps that can be taken"
Actually, this thread, as stated above, was intended to focus on opposition-oriented things that were happening, but it was agnostic toward steps per se.
"the marketing style unidirectional communication you seem to be wanting."
There's nothing particularly marketing style to explaining why people should spend money on dues, especially in an era where the democrats just lost the presidency because they kept insisting the economy was good for all and yet in every survey people said it was not. To pretend that sort of thing doesn't matter is to lose your audience — and that's what's happened to both the democrats and the unions. Maybe there's a lesson in that.
posted by Violet Blue at 3:16 PM on January 22 [6 favorites]
Actually, this thread, as stated above, was intended to focus on opposition-oriented things that were happening, but it was agnostic toward steps per se.
"the marketing style unidirectional communication you seem to be wanting."
There's nothing particularly marketing style to explaining why people should spend money on dues, especially in an era where the democrats just lost the presidency because they kept insisting the economy was good for all and yet in every survey people said it was not. To pretend that sort of thing doesn't matter is to lose your audience — and that's what's happened to both the democrats and the unions. Maybe there's a lesson in that.
posted by Violet Blue at 3:16 PM on January 22 [6 favorites]
What I often see instead is folks not joining if they have any choice about it.
Because propaganda is a powerful thing. The same efforts that have people on medicaid/Medicare voting for TFG. Or parents of special needs kids. Or, well examples abound.
My workplace is unionized but we work with non union people doing the same job and even if you only look at compensation our package is better is basically every way even after taking out dues. You can confirm this just by talking to the non union guy next to you. And that leaves aside non tangible non benefits. Yet I hear at least once a week how much better the non union side is and how they resent paying dues. It's crazy.
Which isn't to say every union is perfect or better than non union. But even where a non union place is at least equal its often obvious that even that is a union busting measure where just the threat of union action increases wages.
posted by Mitheral at 3:31 PM on January 22 [11 favorites]
Because propaganda is a powerful thing. The same efforts that have people on medicaid/Medicare voting for TFG. Or parents of special needs kids. Or, well examples abound.
My workplace is unionized but we work with non union people doing the same job and even if you only look at compensation our package is better is basically every way even after taking out dues. You can confirm this just by talking to the non union guy next to you. And that leaves aside non tangible non benefits. Yet I hear at least once a week how much better the non union side is and how they resent paying dues. It's crazy.
Which isn't to say every union is perfect or better than non union. But even where a non union place is at least equal its often obvious that even that is a union busting measure where just the threat of union action increases wages.
posted by Mitheral at 3:31 PM on January 22 [11 favorites]
Because propaganda is a powerful thing.
I agree there's a lot of propaganda out there, and employers from Bezos, to Starbucks, to even presumably left-wing media have behaved deplorably rather than allow their employees to freely unionize.
But, no, the people I know who didn't want to spend on dues weren't the victims of propaganda, they just didn't see sufficient benefit. For sure, not all unions are equally robust.
My workplace is unionized but we work with non union people doing the same job and even if you only look at compensation our package is better is basically every way even after taking out dues.
Agreed there are instances of this out there, among the largest unions I would assume.
As I said above, I am pro-union. To my mind, there's simply no other way for most workers to attain enough power to negotiate a decent deal, barring extreme regulatory action, which is all but unimaginable at this point in history. But I've been extremely disappointed with how the unions I've seen are run. It's been a little crushing, actually.
posted by Violet Blue at 3:50 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
I agree there's a lot of propaganda out there, and employers from Bezos, to Starbucks, to even presumably left-wing media have behaved deplorably rather than allow their employees to freely unionize.
But, no, the people I know who didn't want to spend on dues weren't the victims of propaganda, they just didn't see sufficient benefit. For sure, not all unions are equally robust.
My workplace is unionized but we work with non union people doing the same job and even if you only look at compensation our package is better is basically every way even after taking out dues.
Agreed there are instances of this out there, among the largest unions I would assume.
As I said above, I am pro-union. To my mind, there's simply no other way for most workers to attain enough power to negotiate a decent deal, barring extreme regulatory action, which is all but unimaginable at this point in history. But I've been extremely disappointed with how the unions I've seen are run. It's been a little crushing, actually.
posted by Violet Blue at 3:50 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
I agree with you, Violet Blue, on how they're run.
I was in the Teamsters in my old job and most of the time I was in it, they did fuckall for me personally. During my first "someone's trying to get me fired" experience, I got abandoned by one big shot union lady (who was my best friend for an hour on the phone and then I never heard from her again) and the only reason I got help from the union at all was because a casual friend I didn't know very well then turned out to be a union steward. At the end of my career they got a FABULOUS union guy who actually did a lot for me, or as much as one could do when I had become as much of a fuckup as I had in the eyes of the organization. So, that was worth it.
I can say in my current union that they are taking money out of my already-not-great paycheck for...I'm not sure what. People have a LOT of complaints that the union isn't doing enough other than getting everyone tiny raises (mine was $20), and they have made no inroads whatsoever on the mandatory hybrid rule, and there's a LOT of complaints about that. They seem well meaning but maybe don't have a lot of leverage, is my impression as a noob so far. (Oh, and my union rep got fired. Awkward.) However, given how my last job treated me, I know damn well to pay for union services in case anything awful happens to me again. The union at least is SOMETHING if they are willing to lift a finger for you, but that does depend on what people you get.
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:59 PM on January 22 [8 favorites]
I was in the Teamsters in my old job and most of the time I was in it, they did fuckall for me personally. During my first "someone's trying to get me fired" experience, I got abandoned by one big shot union lady (who was my best friend for an hour on the phone and then I never heard from her again) and the only reason I got help from the union at all was because a casual friend I didn't know very well then turned out to be a union steward. At the end of my career they got a FABULOUS union guy who actually did a lot for me, or as much as one could do when I had become as much of a fuckup as I had in the eyes of the organization. So, that was worth it.
I can say in my current union that they are taking money out of my already-not-great paycheck for...I'm not sure what. People have a LOT of complaints that the union isn't doing enough other than getting everyone tiny raises (mine was $20), and they have made no inroads whatsoever on the mandatory hybrid rule, and there's a LOT of complaints about that. They seem well meaning but maybe don't have a lot of leverage, is my impression as a noob so far. (Oh, and my union rep got fired. Awkward.) However, given how my last job treated me, I know damn well to pay for union services in case anything awful happens to me again. The union at least is SOMETHING if they are willing to lift a finger for you, but that does depend on what people you get.
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:59 PM on January 22 [8 favorites]
If you are in a union, you are the union. UAW wasn't this progressive and effective a decade ago. A reform caucus formed inside the union, with members working very hard, organizing for years to turn the union around. In 2021, the reform caucus campaigned for and achieved one member, one vote, allowing them to elect Shawn Fain in 2023.
There's a reason the most famous book on unionizing is called "No Shortcuts." Organizing is hard. Similarly, there's not one quick trick to stop fascists in electoral politics. To have qualified candidates to vote for, people need to be inspired to run, then groomed and trained and funded. Then comes the hard part.
I get that the difficulty makes it easy to throw up our hands and say, "well it sucks but there's nothing I can do." In my experience, though, the struggle, attempting to do something real, makes living through these unprecedented times more bearable. And sometimes you win and get a progressive DA in office who can challenge these laws, or flip a local school board to a majority of progressive members, or flip a city council to a majority affordable housing advocates. (Those three examples are from here in Austin.)
posted by tofu_crouton at 4:14 PM on January 22 [37 favorites]
There's a reason the most famous book on unionizing is called "No Shortcuts." Organizing is hard. Similarly, there's not one quick trick to stop fascists in electoral politics. To have qualified candidates to vote for, people need to be inspired to run, then groomed and trained and funded. Then comes the hard part.
I get that the difficulty makes it easy to throw up our hands and say, "well it sucks but there's nothing I can do." In my experience, though, the struggle, attempting to do something real, makes living through these unprecedented times more bearable. And sometimes you win and get a progressive DA in office who can challenge these laws, or flip a local school board to a majority of progressive members, or flip a city council to a majority affordable housing advocates. (Those three examples are from here in Austin.)
posted by tofu_crouton at 4:14 PM on January 22 [37 favorites]
Someone asked in AskMe about how to get involved and was disappointed to learn that their local democratic party wasn't taking volunteers or running any obvious campaigns that they could volunteer for. That's probably true in most places tbh. I would suggest looking at a local progressive candidate from the last six years and seeing what community groups endorsed them and helped them campaign. Those groups probably powered the campaign.
posted by tofu_crouton at 4:17 PM on January 22 [15 favorites]
posted by tofu_crouton at 4:17 PM on January 22 [15 favorites]
Thank you for the post, and thanks to the commenters adding more connections!
posted by Nancy_LockIsLit_Palmer at 4:43 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
posted by Nancy_LockIsLit_Palmer at 4:43 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
This isn’t like a Big Helpful thing, but someone at school baked goods for everyone who was having a hard time and it was so. amazing. Especially those of us who are personally impacted by these monstrous EOs, a lot of us aren’t doing well right now and many aren’t even eating or doing basic self-care. If you know someone in your life affected and have the capacity to bring them a casserole or help them with some laundry or winterizing, it’s still a help. His people are trying to destroy our spirits and stopping them from succeeding is still a win.
posted by corb at 5:34 PM on January 22 [16 favorites]
posted by corb at 5:34 PM on January 22 [16 favorites]
His people are trying to destroy our spirits
Also trying to keep us at each other's throats. Eyes on the ball, players!
posted by flabdablet at 6:08 PM on January 22 [6 favorites]
Also trying to keep us at each other's throats. Eyes on the ball, players!
posted by flabdablet at 6:08 PM on January 22 [6 favorites]
Wondering if some of the bad experiences people are describing above with unions may be related to the problems inherent to very large organizations more generally. (Bureaucracy, staff spread too thin, etc). I’m in a nurse in a health care union that’s local to my state only, and let me tell you, people at my work LOOOOOOVE our union. There’s a closed social media group for members that’s constantly buzzing with people comparing stories and advice. Going to a union info session is part of your new hire period, and reps are told to report any manager who doesn’t inform new employees about those sessions. Several of my co-workers commute upwards of an hour to work, and I asked one of them once if the commute made sense financially given gas costs and lost time. She told me that even with all that factored in, our employer’s pay and benefits come out miles ahead of anything closer to her home, and that’s all the union’s doing.
Anyway, need to ask my staff organizer now if they have the 2028 general strike on their radar, thanks for the heads up.
posted by I am a Sock, I am an Island at 6:19 PM on January 22 [10 favorites]
Anyway, need to ask my staff organizer now if they have the 2028 general strike on their radar, thanks for the heads up.
posted by I am a Sock, I am an Island at 6:19 PM on January 22 [10 favorites]
Investigative Derail Warning: skip if you're not interested.
Defeat Extremists: FEC
So, according to their disbursement record, they have collected just under half a mil, and gave most of it to GrassRoots Analytics.
The second biggest recipient is 535 Strategies. No website, but it has two incorporations, the latter of which is governed by Aziz Yakub, also connected to Marathon Strategies.
So, looks legit as deeply as I care to dive.
posted by CynicalKnight at 7:04 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Defeat Extremists: FEC
So, according to their disbursement record, they have collected just under half a mil, and gave most of it to GrassRoots Analytics.
The second biggest recipient is 535 Strategies. No website, but it has two incorporations, the latter of which is governed by Aziz Yakub, also connected to Marathon Strategies.
So, looks legit as deeply as I care to dive.
posted by CynicalKnight at 7:04 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
The only people who are allowed to talk shit about my union are the folk in it. We will handle the criticism ourselves thank you very much!
Grab a shovel or stop whining!
*said in a friendly and welcoming way, not a mean way*
posted by grimace636 at 7:09 PM on January 22 [4 favorites]
Grab a shovel or stop whining!
*said in a friendly and welcoming way, not a mean way*
posted by grimace636 at 7:09 PM on January 22 [4 favorites]
Donald Trump’s America will not become a tech oligarchy
Reasons not to panic about the tech-industrial complex:
Reasons not to panic about the tech-industrial complex:
- Even though Mr Trump is clearly friendlier to business than his trustbusting predecessors a century ago, his feelings towards tech do not seem to run deep. The word “technology” did not feature in his inaugural address (in contrast to “liquid gold”). Moreover, in America public opinion still matters, and could easily turn against the tech billionaires. Sections of MAGA already loathe them.
- Other measures tell a similar story. Amazon, Meta and Tesla make up 9% of business investment by America’s 1,500 largest firms. In India, Mr Ambani’s Reliance Industries accounts for 16%. The trio’s capital spending is equivalent to 0.4% of GDP, compared with nearly 1% for John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil in 1906.
- The rocket rivalry highlights the last reason for calm. Big tech is not a monolithic interest group, like the Russian oligarchs whose businesses mostly do not overlap. The technology tycoons’ interests are often in conflict. Messrs Bezos and Musk compete in space. Mr Musk and Mr Zuckerberg own rival social-media platforms. Amazon is taking a bite out of Meta’s online-advertising business. Everyone is piling into artificial intelligence.
So a bunch of organizations are about to lose federal funding, including ones who have longstanding programs that have relied on this for years. If you want to help, a skill you can learn pretty easily online nowadays is grant writing. It’s not a thing you can crash course for a few days and be good, but if you were looking to study something this is where I would put my time. There’s tons of non-federal money out there but nonprofits often don’t have the time or expertise to hunt it down and apply for it. Mine is getting on top of things by contracting with a community member who has recently started learning grant writing. If you have the interest and decent writing/research skills, you could be a big help to a local org that’s looking at loss of funding because it dared acknowledge the existence of trans people or undocumented folks.
posted by brook horse at 7:35 PM on January 22 [17 favorites]
posted by brook horse at 7:35 PM on January 22 [17 favorites]
Ezra Klein on why MAGA Is Not as United as You Think [link to transcript]
posted by Violet Blue at 7:53 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
posted by Violet Blue at 7:53 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
There's nothing particularly marketing style to explaining why people should spend money on dues
What I’m pointing out is that you are implicitly setting up “the union” as a separate entity that needs to tell people about itself and convince them to get on board with it’s pre-defined agenda. Maybe you’d feel better describing it as the lecture model of education? Whereas all of the union organizing training I’m familiar with emphasizes a process that looks more like un-schooling or other directed but ultimately student-led, discovery-based models of education, in that comparison. Some showing should ideally happen, but not a lot of telling on the part of union leadership. (I’m not saying that’s how your unions have worked. That sort of organizing can be an even harder skill to learn than marketing/lecturing style communication. I’m saying that you appear to be complaining about the wrong skills being lacking, however.)
posted by eviemath at 8:04 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
What I’m pointing out is that you are implicitly setting up “the union” as a separate entity that needs to tell people about itself and convince them to get on board with it’s pre-defined agenda. Maybe you’d feel better describing it as the lecture model of education? Whereas all of the union organizing training I’m familiar with emphasizes a process that looks more like un-schooling or other directed but ultimately student-led, discovery-based models of education, in that comparison. Some showing should ideally happen, but not a lot of telling on the part of union leadership. (I’m not saying that’s how your unions have worked. That sort of organizing can be an even harder skill to learn than marketing/lecturing style communication. I’m saying that you appear to be complaining about the wrong skills being lacking, however.)
posted by eviemath at 8:04 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Some showing should ideally happen, but not a lot of telling… That sort of organizing can be an even harder skill to learn than marketing/lecturing style communication.
Now it occurs reading your reply that the unions you're familiar with may be in radically different industries than mine and dealing with very different demographics than mine. What you're describing sounds like gentle lessons in a kind of power sharing that's informed by political ideology — as well as, or maybe also, tradition and/or experience.
I think that's fair enough, depending on the demographics of the people you're organizing.
But I'm in New York, which is one of the most union-heavy states in the U.S. — at a not very whopping 20%. (Union membership has been declining in New York for a long time.) That's why it wasn't a surprise that both Amazon's first union shop was here, as was Starbucks' as well as the United [food] Delivery Workers Association.
But those are only a kind of union worker. Some bookstores are unionized, as is a lot of theater, film, city and state workers, graduate students at several area colleges. There are multiple separate unions for writers and musicians depending on the kind of writing or music they do. In recent years, the museum workers have also unionized and, most recently, several legacy media outlets have unionized (the Conde Nast workers picketed in front of Anna Wintour's house in Greenwich Village). Alphabet also has an outlet here, and they, too, are union.
Anyway, my point is: What is persuasive to one group can leave another group cold. And although some percentage of the people I’m describing are ideological about unions, many are simply practical. So, yes, marketing or a brief how to training is probably all that’s needed. But that’s not how the unions work in my experience.
New York is an unusually corrupt state, thus the unions are also corrupt, with shocking numbers of multi-generational members and friends of friends who also get priority entrance. (The American Federation of Government Employees, which Trump is currently attempting to break, is similarly nepotistic, for that matter.)
As a result, there are a lot of old-timers with no-one — or not enough people — to answer to. And their communications/recruitment approach is sloppy and myopic, and in varying ways they discard a lot of people who would otherwise be interested or supportive
But the biggest issue I see with unions is although there have been big union gains with hospitality workers in Vegas and Hawaii over the last several years, say, and some percentage of highly educated, if grossly under-remunerated, workers have been largely self-organizing, the people who need help most are the murky middle who no one's organizing.
posted by Violet Blue at 9:19 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Now it occurs reading your reply that the unions you're familiar with may be in radically different industries than mine and dealing with very different demographics than mine. What you're describing sounds like gentle lessons in a kind of power sharing that's informed by political ideology — as well as, or maybe also, tradition and/or experience.
I think that's fair enough, depending on the demographics of the people you're organizing.
But I'm in New York, which is one of the most union-heavy states in the U.S. — at a not very whopping 20%. (Union membership has been declining in New York for a long time.) That's why it wasn't a surprise that both Amazon's first union shop was here, as was Starbucks' as well as the United [food] Delivery Workers Association.
But those are only a kind of union worker. Some bookstores are unionized, as is a lot of theater, film, city and state workers, graduate students at several area colleges. There are multiple separate unions for writers and musicians depending on the kind of writing or music they do. In recent years, the museum workers have also unionized and, most recently, several legacy media outlets have unionized (the Conde Nast workers picketed in front of Anna Wintour's house in Greenwich Village). Alphabet also has an outlet here, and they, too, are union.
Anyway, my point is: What is persuasive to one group can leave another group cold. And although some percentage of the people I’m describing are ideological about unions, many are simply practical. So, yes, marketing or a brief how to training is probably all that’s needed. But that’s not how the unions work in my experience.
New York is an unusually corrupt state, thus the unions are also corrupt, with shocking numbers of multi-generational members and friends of friends who also get priority entrance. (The American Federation of Government Employees, which Trump is currently attempting to break, is similarly nepotistic, for that matter.)
As a result, there are a lot of old-timers with no-one — or not enough people — to answer to. And their communications/recruitment approach is sloppy and myopic, and in varying ways they discard a lot of people who would otherwise be interested or supportive
But the biggest issue I see with unions is although there have been big union gains with hospitality workers in Vegas and Hawaii over the last several years, say, and some percentage of highly educated, if grossly under-remunerated, workers have been largely self-organizing, the people who need help most are the murky middle who no one's organizing.
posted by Violet Blue at 9:19 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Maybe comments about unions would best go in their own thread.
posted by NotLost at 9:30 PM on January 22 [8 favorites]
posted by NotLost at 9:30 PM on January 22 [8 favorites]
I tried to change the subject, but then gave up.
posted by Violet Blue at 9:34 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
posted by Violet Blue at 9:34 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
This isn’t like a Big Helpful thing, but someone at school baked goods for everyone who was having a hard time and it was so. amazing.
Well that does sound like a Big Helpful thing to me.
posted by azpenguin at 9:47 PM on January 22 [4 favorites]
Well that does sound like a Big Helpful thing to me.
posted by azpenguin at 9:47 PM on January 22 [4 favorites]
My frustration,[whether it's 2 or 3 years, doesn't matter ] is hey we tried slooooow rolling indicting and trying DJT, so sloooooow rolling more action, doesn't really instill me with positive feelings.
I said "culminating in a general strike in 2028", not "do nothing until 2028". The hope is that there's gonna be organizing, unionization, and industry- and region-wide strikes in the run-up to it.
posted by Jon_Evil at 10:42 PM on January 22 [5 favorites]
I said "culminating in a general strike in 2028", not "do nothing until 2028". The hope is that there's gonna be organizing, unionization, and industry- and region-wide strikes in the run-up to it.
posted by Jon_Evil at 10:42 PM on January 22 [5 favorites]
- Bernie Sanders: I attended Trump's inauguration yesterday. Here are my thoughts.
- Garys Economics: What does Elon Musk want? (Billionaire Steve Feinberg, Master of Cerberus, Gets a New Mission for Trump)
Trump Team Has Wealth-Fund Ambitions for Small Lending Agency - "Plans discussed for the US International Development Finance Corp. include how it could use investments to deliver on Trump's ambitions for greater US influence over Greenland and Panama. Backers say the agency, which stands to get as much as $120 billion in capital of its own, will be able to trigger far larger geopolitically driven overseas commitments by some of America's most powerful institutional investors."
Sam Altman on ChatGPT's First Two Years, Elon Musk and AI Under Trump - "That's just Elon being Elon. The question was, will he abuse his political power of being co-president, or whatever he calls himself now, to mess with a business competitor? I don't think he’ll do that. I genuinely don't. May turn out to be proven wrong." (Musk Is Bashing Trump's New Stargate AI Initiative With OpenAI And Oracle—Here's Why)
Glen Weyl: Plurality: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy - "Frankly this community around here, you know in my experience, I grew up around here and maybe it's changed, does not this community around here experience it is clustered in tech communes where the people that you interact with or other technologists focus on how much smarter and more visionary and more future oriented and like more with it those people are than everybody else in the background. It is physically localized in a very specific set of geographies set up in a way that does not create the sociological conditions for inclusive development." (Hoover won.)
No, Trump can't cancel the 2028 election. But he could still weaken democracy. - "[F]ew Americans want to live in one of those hybrid regimes halfway between democracy and autocracy. There are countless definitions of democracy, but virtually all Americans agree on several core criteria: free and fair elections, checks and balances, peaceful transfers of power, free speech. While it's unlikely we'll wake up one day and find ourselves in an authoritarian state, there are several realistic actions Trump could take that would move the U.S. further away from these values." (A look at false and misleading claims Trump made at inaugural events)
Global Voter Fury Ushers in Era of the 'Authoritarian Populist' - "For now they are popular, these populists. They have struck a chord. Simple answers to complex problems. But when that doesn't work, what will the angry voter do then?"
Tax lessons for governments from Henry George - "The 19th-century political economist understood that the whole of society should benefit from outsized profits."
Doris Kearns Goodwin: 'The robber barons probably thought they were God too' - "Roosevelt ushers in the progressive era, busts the trusts, offers a square deal to every American and uses government to tame the vast power of the private combines."
Why the climate and sustainability economy will thrive in a Trump presidency - "Many Americans do not give a rat's tail about Trump's indictments — even if they are justified — or about his antidemocratic impulses or about social issues if they cannot provide for themselves or their families."
Green jobs are also disproportionately located in the states that propelled Trump to the presidency. For example, electric vehicle and battery production facilities are creating jobs in states like Georgia, Tennessee and Michigan; solar panel manufacturing in Ohio, South Carolina and Arizona; and wind turbine component production in Texas, Iowa and Colorado.
The economic benefits in those states extend beyond jobs. Wind energy royalties and solar land leases are spurring economic revivals in rural areas, while agricultural communities benefit from carbon capture and energy storage projects. Not surprisingly, climate programs draw widespread state-level and congressional Republican support in these states.
- Comic: It's America's Founding Grandfather, John Locke - "Decades after his death, the English philosopher's ideas helped shape the American republic."
- Dave Chappelle Stand-Up Monologue 2025 - SNL - "The presidency is no place for petty people. So Donald Trump, I know you watched the show."
- Trump attends prayer service, gets an earful on immigrants and LGBT youth - "I ask you to have mercy. Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger."
The upcoming DNC leadership decision is going to be interesting and important.
They're going to pick Rahm Emmanuel, an ardent Zionist and someone who believes the future of the Democratic Party lies in cozying up to Slightly Less Fascist Rich People. Don't get me wrong: I don't want them to pick an Ardent Progressive, either, but Emmanuel is... everything the APs are correct to complain about.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 5:05 AM on January 23
They're going to pick Rahm Emmanuel, an ardent Zionist and someone who believes the future of the Democratic Party lies in cozying up to Slightly Less Fascist Rich People. Don't get me wrong: I don't want them to pick an Ardent Progressive, either, but Emmanuel is... everything the APs are correct to complain about.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 5:05 AM on January 23
I really hope you're right about the green energy, kliuless. Like I said in the other thread, the "100k" jobs supposedly created from a 500 billion investment in AI is a joke compared to the already more than 100k jobs lost to a pause on all wind power development.
posted by subdee at 5:13 AM on January 23
posted by subdee at 5:13 AM on January 23
The bipolar US political system gives you a choice of a center-right party and a further-right party. That is, if you're one of the few voters who doesn't blindly vote out of allegiance, identity or habit.
The Democratic party has failed progressives. I say, ignore them for a bit. Align with those who share your values, and build your strength there, like what could happen with unions. Try to build the progressive equivalent of the Tea Party. Get strong enough, and the Democratic Party will come cap in hand to you.
posted by Artful Codger at 5:35 AM on January 23 [6 favorites]
The Democratic party has failed progressives. I say, ignore them for a bit. Align with those who share your values, and build your strength there, like what could happen with unions. Try to build the progressive equivalent of the Tea Party. Get strong enough, and the Democratic Party will come cap in hand to you.
posted by Artful Codger at 5:35 AM on January 23 [6 favorites]
Now it occurs reading your reply that the unions you're familiar with may be in radically different industries than mine and dealing with very different demographics than mine.
I am familiar with, through participation or working closely with others in the areas, unions ranging from, yes, academic (including grad and undergrad, tenured faculty, and contingent faculty) to some of the unions that have organized precarious workers in coffee shops, grocery stores, and other service industries, as well as incarcerated workers, sex workers, homeless people, and tenants unions. I’m more familiar with the regional labour council end of things for more traditional blue collar unions, but also follow albeit at a slightly farther distance organizing drives in trucking and more traditional factory settings. It’s a pretty wide range of demographics, but the organizing principles are quite consistent across most of them (except that only mildly religious/mostly secular white professionals who also grew up upper middle class often have bought into a very individualistic, competitive worldview and have fewer experiences of community, which makes organizing with them more challenging in many cases). And you’re still talking about messaging instead of organizing. I highly recommend seeking out some training workshops in either union or community organizing! And probably recommending them to other folks in your union, from what you’ve mentioned of your experience. But keep an open mind when you do because it’s really a completely different paradigm from what you are describing.
I said "culminating in a general strike in 2028", not "do nothing until 2028". The hope is that there's gonna be organizing, unionization, and industry- and region-wide strikes in the run-up to it.
Strikes (especially large scale ones) take lots of planning and preparation, both with the people involved and logistically. Which is why some group like Adbusters or the Occupy Wall Street Facebook account just setting a date and telling everyone they should never works and is kind of obnoxious. A major national union with a multi-year plan for building - and coordinating - worker power, though? That’s good to see.
posted by eviemath at 6:30 AM on January 23 [12 favorites]
I am familiar with, through participation or working closely with others in the areas, unions ranging from, yes, academic (including grad and undergrad, tenured faculty, and contingent faculty) to some of the unions that have organized precarious workers in coffee shops, grocery stores, and other service industries, as well as incarcerated workers, sex workers, homeless people, and tenants unions. I’m more familiar with the regional labour council end of things for more traditional blue collar unions, but also follow albeit at a slightly farther distance organizing drives in trucking and more traditional factory settings. It’s a pretty wide range of demographics, but the organizing principles are quite consistent across most of them (except that only mildly religious/mostly secular white professionals who also grew up upper middle class often have bought into a very individualistic, competitive worldview and have fewer experiences of community, which makes organizing with them more challenging in many cases). And you’re still talking about messaging instead of organizing. I highly recommend seeking out some training workshops in either union or community organizing! And probably recommending them to other folks in your union, from what you’ve mentioned of your experience. But keep an open mind when you do because it’s really a completely different paradigm from what you are describing.
I said "culminating in a general strike in 2028", not "do nothing until 2028". The hope is that there's gonna be organizing, unionization, and industry- and region-wide strikes in the run-up to it.
Strikes (especially large scale ones) take lots of planning and preparation, both with the people involved and logistically. Which is why some group like Adbusters or the Occupy Wall Street Facebook account just setting a date and telling everyone they should never works and is kind of obnoxious. A major national union with a multi-year plan for building - and coordinating - worker power, though? That’s good to see.
posted by eviemath at 6:30 AM on January 23 [12 favorites]
It's really not an either-or situation. We need unions AND an opposition party. We need strikes AND election wins.
posted by OnceUponATime at 6:52 AM on January 23 [2 favorites]
posted by OnceUponATime at 6:52 AM on January 23 [2 favorites]
As it turns out: Suddenly, Trump Allies Quietly Admit He May Not Have a Huge “Mandate”
The thing about absolute power is you don't need a mandate. As much as I Want To Believe that there will be sufficient resistance to blunt some parts of his reign, there isn't enough evidence at present to convince me that resistance exists. In the meantime, make sure your representatives know exactly how you feel. If they ignore you, vote them out of office.
posted by tommasz at 6:53 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
The thing about absolute power is you don't need a mandate. As much as I Want To Believe that there will be sufficient resistance to blunt some parts of his reign, there isn't enough evidence at present to convince me that resistance exists. In the meantime, make sure your representatives know exactly how you feel. If they ignore you, vote them out of office.
posted by tommasz at 6:53 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
There are countless definitions of democracy, but virtually all Americans agree on several core criteria: free and fair elections,
America is already far from a top democracy. No one besides some Americans would even put them in the top ten. EG: The Democracy Index published by the Economist Group puts the US at 29 out of 74 democracies, well into the flawed democracies category. And their rating has been consistently slipping for the last 20 years. The legal disenfranchisement of a large percentage of the population plus the absolutely bizarre twists of gerrymanders means elections are neither free nor fair and that's before considering other ratfuckery like selectively closing polling outlets or purging registrations.
posted by Mitheral at 7:20 AM on January 23 [15 favorites]
America is already far from a top democracy. No one besides some Americans would even put them in the top ten. EG: The Democracy Index published by the Economist Group puts the US at 29 out of 74 democracies, well into the flawed democracies category. And their rating has been consistently slipping for the last 20 years. The legal disenfranchisement of a large percentage of the population plus the absolutely bizarre twists of gerrymanders means elections are neither free nor fair and that's before considering other ratfuckery like selectively closing polling outlets or purging registrations.
posted by Mitheral at 7:20 AM on January 23 [15 favorites]
A major national union with a multi-year plan for building - and coordinating - worker power, though? That’s good to see.
Yes - this is the first general strike in my lifetime that seems like it might have teeth, multiple contracts all expiring at the same time? That would make it easier for average people to just be like “you know what fuck it, they’re not working. neither am I”. I know it’s a long way away but it’s a plan at least and I’m game for any plans right now that aren’t me screaming forever.
posted by corb at 7:26 AM on January 23 [8 favorites]
Yes - this is the first general strike in my lifetime that seems like it might have teeth, multiple contracts all expiring at the same time? That would make it easier for average people to just be like “you know what fuck it, they’re not working. neither am I”. I know it’s a long way away but it’s a plan at least and I’m game for any plans right now that aren’t me screaming forever.
posted by corb at 7:26 AM on January 23 [8 favorites]
Dave Chappelle Stand-Up Monologue 2025 - SNL - "The presidency is no place for petty people. So Donald Trump, I know you watched the show."
Are you kidding me? Dave Chappelle, who is so petty as to be obsessed with dissing trans people? Yeah no lessons to be learned from him.
posted by tiny frying pan at 7:55 AM on January 23 [6 favorites]
Are you kidding me? Dave Chappelle, who is so petty as to be obsessed with dissing trans people? Yeah no lessons to be learned from him.
posted by tiny frying pan at 7:55 AM on January 23 [6 favorites]
Bishop who angered Trump with call for mercy says she will not apologize
“I don’t hate the president, and I pray for him,” Budde told NPR. “I don’t feel there’s a need to apologize for a request for mercy.posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:06 AM on January 23 [33 favorites]
“I regret that it was something that has caused the kind of response that it has, in the sense that it actually confirmed the very thing that I was speaking of earlier, which is our tendency to jump to outrage and not speak to one another with respect. But no, I won’t apologize for what I said.”
The Democratic party has failed progressives.
It makes more sense the other way around because regress succeeded for the opposition. Progress is pushing a cart uphill and everyone involved must keep it from rolling back down. Anyone not defending past gains for whatever excuse is not really progressive, because they can't see that a regressive campaign is targeting them by name, not a good time to abandon the cart. When progressive failure occurs it should be blamed on lacking progressives, not repelling the imaginary ones.
posted by Brian B. at 8:10 AM on January 23 [4 favorites]
It makes more sense the other way around because regress succeeded for the opposition. Progress is pushing a cart uphill and everyone involved must keep it from rolling back down. Anyone not defending past gains for whatever excuse is not really progressive, because they can't see that a regressive campaign is targeting them by name, not a good time to abandon the cart. When progressive failure occurs it should be blamed on lacking progressives, not repelling the imaginary ones.
posted by Brian B. at 8:10 AM on January 23 [4 favorites]
The thing about absolute power is you don't need a mandate.
Trump does not have absolute power and conceding before the fact that he does is self-defeating.
posted by rhymedirective at 8:10 AM on January 23 [4 favorites]
Trump does not have absolute power and conceding before the fact that he does is self-defeating.
posted by rhymedirective at 8:10 AM on January 23 [4 favorites]
Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump
it's not Trump doing this shit, it's the Project 2025 (Heritage Foundation) and all the other shadowy orgs we don't even talk about much (Federalist Society, Opus Dei, etc etc).
Trump is just the wooden piece bolted onto the stem of this ship of state.
posted by torokunai2 at 8:46 AM on January 23 [7 favorites]
it's not Trump doing this shit, it's the Project 2025 (Heritage Foundation) and all the other shadowy orgs we don't even talk about much (Federalist Society, Opus Dei, etc etc).
Trump is just the wooden piece bolted onto the stem of this ship of state.
posted by torokunai2 at 8:46 AM on January 23 [7 favorites]
When progressive failure occurs it should be blamed on lacking progressives, not repelling the imaginary ones.
I would like to see this idea developed further or cited with some evidence. Pretty sure I disagree with you, but I can't tell if you're talking about messaging, political leadership, or policy. On these fronts, I think the progressive leadership and voters got the memo and did everything they could to support the centrist agenda. I see nothing to suggest they failed to deliver on that in this moment.
If you're saying there's a lack of centrists moving left or non-voters stepping up to vote Democratic and that indicates a progressive messaging failure, I think that could much more be easily put to the centrist wing of the Democratic party who pushed a "Right Centrist" acquisition strategy, and failed. The progressives are doing their part, but the centrists are the leadership of the party. They set the agenda and only seem to look Right for policies and new members.
posted by SoundInhabitant at 9:12 AM on January 23 [8 favorites]
I would like to see this idea developed further or cited with some evidence. Pretty sure I disagree with you, but I can't tell if you're talking about messaging, political leadership, or policy. On these fronts, I think the progressive leadership and voters got the memo and did everything they could to support the centrist agenda. I see nothing to suggest they failed to deliver on that in this moment.
If you're saying there's a lack of centrists moving left or non-voters stepping up to vote Democratic and that indicates a progressive messaging failure, I think that could much more be easily put to the centrist wing of the Democratic party who pushed a "Right Centrist" acquisition strategy, and failed. The progressives are doing their part, but the centrists are the leadership of the party. They set the agenda and only seem to look Right for policies and new members.
posted by SoundInhabitant at 9:12 AM on January 23 [8 favorites]
Are you kidding me? Dave Chappelle, who is so petty as to be obsessed with dissing trans people? Yeah no lessons to be learned from him.
The same Dave Chappelle who in the same monologue used the Cali fires to take a shot at gay people with an offensive joke based on old stereotypes?
Oh yeah, more of him please.
posted by archimago at 9:46 AM on January 23 [2 favorites]
The same Dave Chappelle who in the same monologue used the Cali fires to take a shot at gay people with an offensive joke based on old stereotypes?
Oh yeah, more of him please.
posted by archimago at 9:46 AM on January 23 [2 favorites]
it's not Trump doing this shit, it's the Project 2025 (Heritage Foundation) and all the other shadowy orgs we don't even talk about much (Federalist Society, Opus Dei, etc etc).
It's Trump and his class, who those organizations obviously embody - they're going to force us at gunpoint to cosplay the 20th century ad nauseum until they're made to run for their lives.
posted by reedbird_hill at 9:56 AM on January 23 [4 favorites]
It's Trump and his class, who those organizations obviously embody - they're going to force us at gunpoint to cosplay the 20th century ad nauseum until they're made to run for their lives.
posted by reedbird_hill at 9:56 AM on January 23 [4 favorites]
19th
posted by torokunai2 at 10:12 AM on January 23 [6 favorites]
posted by torokunai2 at 10:12 AM on January 23 [6 favorites]
They're going to pick Rahm Emmanuel, an ardent Zionist and someone who believes the future of the Democratic Party lies in cozying up to Slightly Less Fascist Rich People. Don't get me wrong: I don't want them to pick an Ardent Progressive, either, but Emmanuel is... everything the APs are correct to complain about.
What I've gathered from just kind of mainstream news reports on this is that Rahm is not seeking the seat and probably did a press tour about it just to feed his ego. And that Ben Wikler and Ken Martin are the current frontrunners, though some thumb-scaling from Democratic Party leaders may still be to come.
This is probably an incomplete picture but I haven't seen anything saying Rahm is even announced, and his public statements ("I don't care about the party") haven't used the kind of rhetoric you'd make if you were vying for this specific seat. (Probably just figures he'll run for President in four years womp womp.)
posted by kensington314 at 10:20 AM on January 23 [2 favorites]
What I've gathered from just kind of mainstream news reports on this is that Rahm is not seeking the seat and probably did a press tour about it just to feed his ego. And that Ben Wikler and Ken Martin are the current frontrunners, though some thumb-scaling from Democratic Party leaders may still be to come.
This is probably an incomplete picture but I haven't seen anything saying Rahm is even announced, and his public statements ("I don't care about the party") haven't used the kind of rhetoric you'd make if you were vying for this specific seat. (Probably just figures he'll run for President in four years womp womp.)
posted by kensington314 at 10:20 AM on January 23 [2 favorites]
> The Democratic party has failed progressives.
BrianB: It makes more sense the other way around because regress succeeded for the opposition. Progress is pushing a cart uphill and everyone involved must keep it from rolling back down. Anyone not defending past gains for whatever excuse is not really progressive, because they can't see that a regressive campaign is targeting them by name, not a good time to abandon the cart. When progressive failure occurs it should be blamed on lacking progressives, not repelling the imaginary ones.
Nope. Pretty sure I have it the right way around.
The US party system is broken. You can't capture or represent the full breadth of political ideas and sentiment in that ritualized Kabuki opera of a two party system. Sanders, Pelozzi and Manchin in the same party???
Expecting that unquestioning support for the Democratic Party is the best way to achieve (and hold) progressive gains in the US is hopeless. Your values and goals must be uppermost, and people must organize and build strength around those axes. Fund groups that truly represent you, not the Democratic party... til they woo your group and commit to your goals.
It seemed to work for the GOP. Well, the lunatics took over the asylum in that case, but it shows how the tail can wag the dog, no?
posted by Artful Codger at 1:14 PM on January 23 [8 favorites]
BrianB: It makes more sense the other way around because regress succeeded for the opposition. Progress is pushing a cart uphill and everyone involved must keep it from rolling back down. Anyone not defending past gains for whatever excuse is not really progressive, because they can't see that a regressive campaign is targeting them by name, not a good time to abandon the cart. When progressive failure occurs it should be blamed on lacking progressives, not repelling the imaginary ones.
Nope. Pretty sure I have it the right way around.
The US party system is broken. You can't capture or represent the full breadth of political ideas and sentiment in that ritualized Kabuki opera of a two party system. Sanders, Pelozzi and Manchin in the same party???
Expecting that unquestioning support for the Democratic Party is the best way to achieve (and hold) progressive gains in the US is hopeless. Your values and goals must be uppermost, and people must organize and build strength around those axes. Fund groups that truly represent you, not the Democratic party... til they woo your group and commit to your goals.
It seemed to work for the GOP. Well, the lunatics took over the asylum in that case, but it shows how the tail can wag the dog, no?
posted by Artful Codger at 1:14 PM on January 23 [8 favorites]
Justice Powell of Powell Memo infamy was the typical corporate con / socially liberal mainline Republican that was present in the previous century. Poppy Bush, Reagan, Romney ("I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country") (Powell was in the Roe v. Wade majority).
aka all "RINOs" now.
>tail can wag the dog
The dog grew a new head.
posted by torokunai2 at 1:59 PM on January 23 [1 favorite]
aka all "RINOs" now.
>tail can wag the dog
The dog grew a new head.
posted by torokunai2 at 1:59 PM on January 23 [1 favorite]
And so the pushback thread devolves into attacking anyone who's remotely on our side rather than the actual enemies. Good stuff.
posted by Galvanic at 4:02 PM on January 23 [10 favorites]
posted by Galvanic at 4:02 PM on January 23 [10 favorites]
I'd like to push back gently against the idea that differences of opinion and/or perspective, even when expressed in quite robust terms, must perforce constitute attacks.
The outrage is burning me out faster than the effort. And the effort is more important.
This.
It would benefit all of us, I think, to remind ourselves at least daily (a) who benefits the most from outrage-induced fatigue and (b) whose products and policies have been deliberately designed to induce as much outrage fatigue as it is possible to manufacture.
posted by flabdablet at 7:12 PM on January 23 [11 favorites]
The outrage is burning me out faster than the effort. And the effort is more important.
This.
It would benefit all of us, I think, to remind ourselves at least daily (a) who benefits the most from outrage-induced fatigue and (b) whose products and policies have been deliberately designed to induce as much outrage fatigue as it is possible to manufacture.
posted by flabdablet at 7:12 PM on January 23 [11 favorites]
The pushback is coming from inside the house:
Capitol Rioter Turns Down Trump Pardon (Novara Media, YouTube, 11m22s)
posted by flabdablet at 9:22 PM on January 23 [7 favorites]
Capitol Rioter Turns Down Trump Pardon (Novara Media, YouTube, 11m22s)
posted by flabdablet at 9:22 PM on January 23 [7 favorites]
who benefits the most from outrage-induced fatigue
How come the right never seems to experience outrage fatigue? Their outrage always appears to be much more apoplectic and frequent. Do they ever get as fatigued as we are? Are they just better at hiding that fatigue? Are they just angrier with a deeper reserve of outrage to give? Is it because their leaders are constantly stoking outage and never giving them a chance to be fatigued? Is it because they get more satisfaction when opponents capitulate to their outrage? Is it religion? Is it culture? Is it racism?
How does someone who gets extremely riled up because two women are holding hands in an advertisement for breakfast cereal still find the outrage to complain about DEI programs and government-run healthcare?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:04 AM on January 24 [8 favorites]
How come the right never seems to experience outrage fatigue? Their outrage always appears to be much more apoplectic and frequent. Do they ever get as fatigued as we are? Are they just better at hiding that fatigue? Are they just angrier with a deeper reserve of outrage to give? Is it because their leaders are constantly stoking outage and never giving them a chance to be fatigued? Is it because they get more satisfaction when opponents capitulate to their outrage? Is it religion? Is it culture? Is it racism?
How does someone who gets extremely riled up because two women are holding hands in an advertisement for breakfast cereal still find the outrage to complain about DEI programs and government-run healthcare?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:04 AM on January 24 [8 favorites]
Because they’re being fueled by a shitload of money from billionaires—right wing media, “policy institutes”, and PR firms have legions of people whose full-time job is stoking outrage and flooding social media with right-wing talking points! Meanwhile the left has to do it for free in our spare time after our shitty jobs
posted by Jon_Evil at 6:20 AM on January 24 [6 favorites]
posted by Jon_Evil at 6:20 AM on January 24 [6 favorites]
That's true, but one of the the ways we talk about outrage fatigue is on a personal level where it's assumed that individuals only have so many spoons to use on being outraged. We worry about wasting our outrage on unproductive causes and getting exhausted because there are too many things to be outraged about. There may be a ton of money on the right stoking outrage, but wouldn't the same individual limits apply?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:41 AM on January 24 [2 favorites]
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:41 AM on January 24 [2 favorites]
Their outrage isn't based in anything real to them personally. I, and others like me, experience outrage fatigue because when we put the the outrage aside, we have to protect, align, rearrange, encode, organize, stealthify, etc. in order to survive because we are feeling material harms above and beyond the outrage. They have the privilege of being performatively outraged at trans people in bathrooms because they can go home tonight and not think about any of it because it's performative and they don't really care about any of it as long as they have someone to hate.
posted by archimago at 7:09 AM on January 24 [14 favorites]
posted by archimago at 7:09 AM on January 24 [14 favorites]
I would bet that true believer pro-life evangelicals, say, get outrage fatigue but as archimago notes, most of the people we are talking about are not true believers. It's a job for them.
posted by tofu_crouton at 7:23 AM on January 24 [1 favorite]
posted by tofu_crouton at 7:23 AM on January 24 [1 favorite]
Well, It Looks Like Some “Resistance” Is Going to Be Required Again, Actually
[Slate]
Jon_Evil: [the US right are] being fueled by a shitload of money from billionaires—right wing media, “policy institutes”
... and the Democrats are receiving shitloads of money from another group of billionaires. How's that working out for progressives?
posted by Artful Codger at 7:28 AM on January 24 [1 favorite]
[Slate]
Could it happen here, it being something on the scale of a genocide, or the 30-year reign of a Pete Hegseth junta? How about, via “resistance” in whatever form it ends up taking this time, we try not to find out?
Jon_Evil: [the US right are] being fueled by a shitload of money from billionaires—right wing media, “policy institutes”
... and the Democrats are receiving shitloads of money from another group of billionaires. How's that working out for progressives?
posted by Artful Codger at 7:28 AM on January 24 [1 favorite]
Metafilter has been surprisingly lacking in posts about the terrifying dismantling of the US that’s occurring at dizzying speed. Is this all we’ve got? Debating about unions and pointing out that Dave Chappelle has some problems? How about 50 million people all calling in sick on the same day? Or buying nothing for a day ? Or throwing some fucking eggs at ICE ? The war for America isn’t going to be won by erudite web debates. We need our own vibes, and my vibe is I have infinite outrage to spend and if you point me in the right direction I will show these bastards (disclaimer:legally) what they’re fucking with.
posted by caviar2d2 at 9:11 AM on January 24 [10 favorites]
posted by caviar2d2 at 9:11 AM on January 24 [10 favorites]
Buying nothing is my thing this year.
posted by torokunai2 at 10:06 AM on January 24 [2 favorites]
posted by torokunai2 at 10:06 AM on January 24 [2 favorites]
That's what's so hard to take. The people feeling outrage when the things they are "upset" about aren't even effecting them. I don't think when Biden was elected they felt sad or worried or scared, the way we do now.
An absence of conscience or caring about fellow human beings must be freeing, if soul-less. I do not envy it.
posted by tiny frying pan at 10:27 AM on January 24 [6 favorites]
An absence of conscience or caring about fellow human beings must be freeing, if soul-less. I do not envy it.
posted by tiny frying pan at 10:27 AM on January 24 [6 favorites]
. I don't think when Biden was elected they felt sad or worried or scared, the way we do now.
And the part that really leaves me both livid and depressed is thinking about how those who were directly involved with Trump's January 6th coup attempt probably didn't feel sad or worried after Biden's election the way we do now.
Fucking hell. How did we end up here?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 1:26 PM on January 24 [3 favorites]
And the part that really leaves me both livid and depressed is thinking about how those who were directly involved with Trump's January 6th coup attempt probably didn't feel sad or worried after Biden's election the way we do now.
Fucking hell. How did we end up here?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 1:26 PM on January 24 [3 favorites]
How come the right never seems to experience outrage fatigue?
Because right-wing outrage is almost all confected, its primary function being to serve as an in-group marker. Very little of it is in response to actual harm being actually done. The raw material of right-wing outrage is inchoate grievance that the leaders of the Right (the innest of in-groups) are highly skilled at moulding and shaping and deflecting away from its actual sources i.e. them.
An absence of conscience or caring about fellow human beings must be freeing, if soul-less.
On a person-to-person level, most right-wingers care about their fellow human beings just fine. What makes a person right-wing in the first place, though, is a strong inclination to avoid acknowledging people they do not personally interact with as fully human. Any out-group member whom a right-winger does personally interact with, they either treat like shit on their shoe or reclassify as "one of the good ones".
How did we end up here?
Four score and seven years before the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln's forefathers brought forth on that continent a new nation, subsuming Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that land-owning white men shall not perish from the Earth.
posted by flabdablet at 1:45 PM on January 24 [11 favorites]
Because right-wing outrage is almost all confected, its primary function being to serve as an in-group marker. Very little of it is in response to actual harm being actually done. The raw material of right-wing outrage is inchoate grievance that the leaders of the Right (the innest of in-groups) are highly skilled at moulding and shaping and deflecting away from its actual sources i.e. them.
An absence of conscience or caring about fellow human beings must be freeing, if soul-less.
On a person-to-person level, most right-wingers care about their fellow human beings just fine. What makes a person right-wing in the first place, though, is a strong inclination to avoid acknowledging people they do not personally interact with as fully human. Any out-group member whom a right-winger does personally interact with, they either treat like shit on their shoe or reclassify as "one of the good ones".
How did we end up here?
Four score and seven years before the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln's forefathers brought forth on that continent a new nation, subsuming Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that land-owning white men shall not perish from the Earth.
posted by flabdablet at 1:45 PM on January 24 [11 favorites]
Trump raises prescription drug costs by as much as 4200%
I suppose DIY pharmaceuticals shall become really popular. lol
posted by jeffburdges at 2:40 PM on January 24 [1 favorite]
I suppose DIY pharmaceuticals shall become really popular. lol
posted by jeffburdges at 2:40 PM on January 24 [1 favorite]
I'd like to push back gently against the idea that differences of opinion and/or perspective, even when expressed in quite robust terms, must perforce constitute attacks.
You can push back against whatever you like but the idea that a “robust” circular firing squad is okay is just kind of meh.
Also, the “we’re going to get them in 2028” is the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.
posted by Galvanic at 4:14 PM on January 24 [1 favorite]
You can push back against whatever you like but the idea that a “robust” circular firing squad is okay is just kind of meh.
Also, the “we’re going to get them in 2028” is the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.
posted by Galvanic at 4:14 PM on January 24 [1 favorite]
Well, I guess that's me properly shot then.
Weird. I don't feel dead.
posted by flabdablet at 4:49 PM on January 24 [2 favorites]
Weird. I don't feel dead.
posted by flabdablet at 4:49 PM on January 24 [2 favorites]
Just for the record, this thread was for identifying and discussing "signs of life from the opposition..." with the explicit aim of feeling a little hopeful, as explained in the opening paragraph. As many of the links showed, a lot of the current resistance is taking legal form in response to policy-oriented (legal) actions on Trump's part.
Unfortunately, that purpose went awry with the union discussion, which swerved the thread — and some of that was my fault. Kliuless's linkful post helpfully moved the subject away from unions, but not necessarily back to the topic at hand, and the thread fell apart soon thereafter.
I realize that threads falter and derail regularly on Metafilter. Nonetheless, there have been explicit requests on the Gray asking folks not to doom and gloom. This kind of thing is not helpful right now, and maybe especially in posts that intend to bring folks up a little — not down.
posted by Violet Blue at 5:23 PM on January 24 [2 favorites]
Unfortunately, that purpose went awry with the union discussion, which swerved the thread — and some of that was my fault. Kliuless's linkful post helpfully moved the subject away from unions, but not necessarily back to the topic at hand, and the thread fell apart soon thereafter.
I realize that threads falter and derail regularly on Metafilter. Nonetheless, there have been explicit requests on the Gray asking folks not to doom and gloom. This kind of thing is not helpful right now, and maybe especially in posts that intend to bring folks up a little — not down.
- "Could it happen here, it being something on the scale of a genocide...?"
- "Metafilter has been surprisingly lacking in posts about the terrifying dismantling of the US that’s occurring at dizzying speed."
- "Trump raises prescription drug costs by as much as 4200%"
posted by Violet Blue at 5:23 PM on January 24 [2 favorites]
r/immigration looks busy : Born in East LA becoming a documentary, 1300 arrested so far in ICE raids, tax treaties, detect ICE agents
posted by jeffburdges at 6:29 PM on January 24
posted by jeffburdges at 6:29 PM on January 24
The progressives are doing their part, but the centrists are the leadership of the party. They set the agenda and only seem to look Right for policies and new members.
They must target actual people who also vote. Most Democrats would jump at the chance to return to the highest tax rate on the wealthy, but they also know to offer health care first or it goes to defense, to use one example. Their strategic priorities don't make them centrists. Most Republicans are willing to establish a Christian monarchy, but know better than to preach it to their opposition and ruin their chances. Their silence doesn't make them centrists. "Centrist" is only a metaphor for lack of commitment, not an actual platform. The problem is that politics requires self-awareness, or why one should vote at all, which once defined liberalism. Unfortunately, most don't discover how vulnerable they are until they lose a job or their health. The ruling party now demands service to their cultural authority, where a reason to live is assumed for them. Fear of individual expression reveals their childhood indoctrination, smug with certainty of absolute truth. Totalitarianism is their goal in order to avoid the agony of voting. They have least fear of any purity or thought police. The other party should offer a mentally healthy alternative.
posted by Brian B. at 7:17 PM on January 24
They must target actual people who also vote. Most Democrats would jump at the chance to return to the highest tax rate on the wealthy, but they also know to offer health care first or it goes to defense, to use one example. Their strategic priorities don't make them centrists. Most Republicans are willing to establish a Christian monarchy, but know better than to preach it to their opposition and ruin their chances. Their silence doesn't make them centrists. "Centrist" is only a metaphor for lack of commitment, not an actual platform. The problem is that politics requires self-awareness, or why one should vote at all, which once defined liberalism. Unfortunately, most don't discover how vulnerable they are until they lose a job or their health. The ruling party now demands service to their cultural authority, where a reason to live is assumed for them. Fear of individual expression reveals their childhood indoctrination, smug with certainty of absolute truth. Totalitarianism is their goal in order to avoid the agony of voting. They have least fear of any purity or thought police. The other party should offer a mentally healthy alternative.
posted by Brian B. at 7:17 PM on January 24
Back to the original theme:
Local governments across U.S. signal they won't aid Trump migrant crackdown (NPR)
posted by hydropsyche at 3:40 AM on January 25 [6 favorites]
Local governments across U.S. signal they won't aid Trump migrant crackdown (NPR)
posted by hydropsyche at 3:40 AM on January 25 [6 favorites]
I refuse to vote for any candidate of any party who doesn't have, at the very top of their agenda, repealing Citizens United.
posted by JohnFromGR at 4:12 AM on January 25 [2 favorites]
posted by JohnFromGR at 4:12 AM on January 25 [2 favorites]
"Shock and Awe": ICE Raids Begin as Judge Halts Unconstitutional Birthright Citizenship Order (Democracy Now!, YouTube, 17m54s)
posted by flabdablet at 4:29 AM on January 25
posted by flabdablet at 4:29 AM on January 25
Now that Hegseth has been confirmed, here is a past article about this White Nationalist, Dominionist who now has position of command and authority over the US military and is second only to that of the president.
Deus Vult
posted by adamvasco at 5:47 AM on January 25 [3 favorites]
Deus Vult
posted by adamvasco at 5:47 AM on January 25 [3 favorites]
They must target actual people who also vote. Most Democrats would jump at the chance to return to the highest tax rate on the wealthy, but they also know to offer health care first or it goes to defense, to use one example. Their strategic priorities don't make them centrists. Most Republicans are willing to establish a Christian monarchy, but know better than to preach it to their opposition and ruin their chances. Their silence doesn't make them centrists. "Centrist" is only a metaphor for lack of commitment, not an actual platform.
The Democrats have won three of the last seven presidential elections. Two of those three were after a mass casualty event exacerbated by a Republican (Katrina, etc and covid) while the economy burned as exacerbated by a Republican (credit crisis and covid). The only election the Democrats have won that was on anything like neutral footing was against one of the fakest looking rich people to have run for the office who was also The Wrong Type Of Christian (Romney).
So I really do not believe that Democrats are actually targeting people who would vote. Their record, un-assisted by generation defining disasters, is a single win in 25 years. The core assumptions of who would actually vote and show up as opposed to those who would be turned off and stay home need to be deeply examined by people who are not actually in the party and who have no stake in the current gormless mess of the organization's leadership.
I'm also struggling to think of things the Democratic party unabashedly stands for, aside from "we'll be less bad" and "isn't it great if we all make more money". What are the ideals, policies, groups, or philosophies that the Democrats exhibit positive loyalty towards? The things that aren't just in a platform but that they are out on the trail talking about and then actually follow through on.
posted by Slackermagee at 5:59 AM on January 25 [7 favorites]
The Democrats have won three of the last seven presidential elections. Two of those three were after a mass casualty event exacerbated by a Republican (Katrina, etc and covid) while the economy burned as exacerbated by a Republican (credit crisis and covid). The only election the Democrats have won that was on anything like neutral footing was against one of the fakest looking rich people to have run for the office who was also The Wrong Type Of Christian (Romney).
So I really do not believe that Democrats are actually targeting people who would vote. Their record, un-assisted by generation defining disasters, is a single win in 25 years. The core assumptions of who would actually vote and show up as opposed to those who would be turned off and stay home need to be deeply examined by people who are not actually in the party and who have no stake in the current gormless mess of the organization's leadership.
I'm also struggling to think of things the Democratic party unabashedly stands for, aside from "we'll be less bad" and "isn't it great if we all make more money". What are the ideals, policies, groups, or philosophies that the Democrats exhibit positive loyalty towards? The things that aren't just in a platform but that they are out on the trail talking about and then actually follow through on.
posted by Slackermagee at 5:59 AM on January 25 [7 favorites]
In “signs of life from the opposition”, at least one of the IGs fired has informed the White House that he does not feel himself legally sufficiently fired, indicating he may plan to stay to fight.
posted by corb at 8:42 AM on January 25 [9 favorites]
posted by corb at 8:42 AM on January 25 [9 favorites]
Inspectors general are tasked with ridding the government of waste, fraud and abuse, one of Trump’s stated goals. But he has remained long suspicious of federal government officials who he blames with stymieing action during his first term in office.Gee, it's almost as if he knows his army of rubes and marks would never have voted him in if he'd stated his actual goals.
posted by flabdablet at 9:28 AM on January 25 [2 favorites]
Mexico refuses US military flight deporting migrants
All those deportation still happen, but flashy no military photo-op, maybe the civilian channel brings other costs or checks too.
ACLU: Yes, the U.S. Wrongfully Deports Its Own Citizens
posted by jeffburdges at 9:34 AM on January 25 [3 favorites]
All those deportation still happen, but flashy no military photo-op, maybe the civilian channel brings other costs or checks too.
ACLU: Yes, the U.S. Wrongfully Deports Its Own Citizens
posted by jeffburdges at 9:34 AM on January 25 [3 favorites]
Internet Spams Trump's 'DEI Truth' Tip Line With Porn, 'Simpsons' Jokes
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:44 AM on January 25 [6 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:44 AM on January 25 [6 favorites]
Slackermagee, we're getting into Texas Sharpshooter territory. We agree that existing voters should be targeted, maybe disagree that they are aren't. But drawing circles around the hits and misses for a target is problematic, because voting is steady or increasing, and favoring conservatives. The prevailing dismissal is that this is somehow Democrats fault and even assuming that, it suggests to stop being centrist. I contend that they don't really go centrist at all, and that could explain everything. But not their fault either, because it requires savvy voters who should known the downplay towards the middle, meaning the emphasis on something they can vote for, not surrendering others, which shouldn't need to preach to the choir about (especially during a regressive, or anti-progressive campaign from the opposition, which they should respond to regardless of what Democrats say). I think that non-committal is always a centrism, especially if raised to be hostile to Democrats, which can only fix itself, not the Democrats.
posted by Brian B. at 11:12 AM on January 25
posted by Brian B. at 11:12 AM on January 25
I don't think discussing the context of the democrat's wins and why those aren't evidence of running good campaigns is the sharpshooter fallacy. I think it's like, the exact opposite?
posted by Slackermagee at 12:29 PM on January 25 [2 favorites]
posted by Slackermagee at 12:29 PM on January 25 [2 favorites]
I don't think discussing the context of the democrat's wins and why those aren't evidence of running good campaigns is the sharpshooter fallacy. I think it's like, the exact opposite?
Two shooters, limited subsets. We don't know if the Democrats achieved full potential or not. It has misplaced concreteness too, typically assuming Republicans vote that way because Democrats flubbed their message in one specific direction. Also, two women ran and lost, indicating an entrenched bias considering historic context. Romney not Christian enough makes sense, but when cosmic forces can only give a Democrat win, it says more about the body politic. If Democrats went full communistic in tone they likely wouldn't crack double digits, though conservative strategists would like that, and Democrats avoid sounding that way, which implies they agree on something in their data.
posted by Brian B. at 12:40 PM on January 25 [1 favorite]
Two shooters, limited subsets. We don't know if the Democrats achieved full potential or not. It has misplaced concreteness too, typically assuming Republicans vote that way because Democrats flubbed their message in one specific direction. Also, two women ran and lost, indicating an entrenched bias considering historic context. Romney not Christian enough makes sense, but when cosmic forces can only give a Democrat win, it says more about the body politic. If Democrats went full communistic in tone they likely wouldn't crack double digits, though conservative strategists would like that, and Democrats avoid sounding that way, which implies they agree on something in their data.
posted by Brian B. at 12:40 PM on January 25 [1 favorite]
>but when cosmic forces can only give a Democrat win, it says more about the body politic
qft. Pursuing the crowd that 'doesn't feel it' is a mug's game. In 1932, 2008, 2020 even the most apathetic types got the penny drop. '48, '60, '64, '76, '92, '96 Democrats managed to select & run the better candidate of the 2 (or 3...) that were in the general.
posted by torokunai2 at 12:51 PM on January 25 [1 favorite]
qft. Pursuing the crowd that 'doesn't feel it' is a mug's game. In 1932, 2008, 2020 even the most apathetic types got the penny drop. '48, '60, '64, '76, '92, '96 Democrats managed to select & run the better candidate of the 2 (or 3...) that were in the general.
posted by torokunai2 at 12:51 PM on January 25 [1 favorite]
I'm also struggling to think of things the Democratic party unabashedly stands for, aside from "we'll be less bad" and "isn't it great if we all make more money". What are the ideals, policies, groups, or philosophies that the Democrats exhibit positive loyalty towards?
I've reluctantly come to think of the Dems and GOP as a kind of national scale good cop / bad cop routine: the good cop still represents status quo authority, and is going to do everything he can to protect and reinforce it, but he'll use the free coffee, a soft, reasonable voice and persuasion to try to get you to go along, versus a pistol whipping or "he hung himself in his cell".
posted by reedbird_hill at 1:00 PM on January 25 [7 favorites]
I've reluctantly come to think of the Dems and GOP as a kind of national scale good cop / bad cop routine: the good cop still represents status quo authority, and is going to do everything he can to protect and reinforce it, but he'll use the free coffee, a soft, reasonable voice and persuasion to try to get you to go along, versus a pistol whipping or "he hung himself in his cell".
posted by reedbird_hill at 1:00 PM on January 25 [7 favorites]
The Democrats have won three of the last seven presidential elections. Two of those three were after a mass casualty event exacerbated by a Republican (Katrina, etc and covid) while the economy burned as exacerbated by a Republican (credit crisis and covi
That was an impressively terrible historical analysis. You include Bush 2004 without mentioning 9/11 while making an argument about mass casualty events? That’s pathetic.
posted by Galvanic at 2:21 PM on January 25 [3 favorites]
That was an impressively terrible historical analysis. You include Bush 2004 without mentioning 9/11 while making an argument about mass casualty events? That’s pathetic.
posted by Galvanic at 2:21 PM on January 25 [3 favorites]
Newark mayor condemns warrantless ICE raid that 'terrorized' and detains U.S. citizens
Also "pushback" works infinitely better when supported by authorities, so one direction should be figuring out what protest actions earn support from local officials like this. Among these, I'd think U.S. citizens could turnning up when they hear about raids, get themselves detained by ICE, and generally gum up the works maybe?
posted by jeffburdges at 2:31 PM on January 25 [5 favorites]
Also "pushback" works infinitely better when supported by authorities, so one direction should be figuring out what protest actions earn support from local officials like this. Among these, I'd think U.S. citizens could turnning up when they hear about raids, get themselves detained by ICE, and generally gum up the works maybe?
posted by jeffburdges at 2:31 PM on January 25 [5 favorites]
Internet Spams Trump's 'DEI Truth' Tip Line With Porn, 'Simpsons' Jokes
Now there is a use case for botnets and generative "AI" that I think we could all get behind.
Just imagining the truly magnificent levels of muntzlaugh that would be achieved if somebody worked out how to get Stargate to fund it is making my day.
posted by flabdablet at 4:50 PM on January 25 [1 favorite]
Now there is a use case for botnets and generative "AI" that I think we could all get behind.
Just imagining the truly magnificent levels of muntzlaugh that would be achieved if somebody worked out how to get Stargate to fund it is making my day.
posted by flabdablet at 4:50 PM on January 25 [1 favorite]
Also, I have only just now worked out where I'd seen that executive orders signing session before.
posted by flabdablet at 4:59 PM on January 25 [2 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 4:59 PM on January 25 [2 favorites]
I am reading Timothy Snyder's "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century" after learning about it on MeFi.
Here are the lessons in a capsule format.
posted by NotLost at 10:34 PM on January 25 [2 favorites]
Here are the lessons in a capsule format.
posted by NotLost at 10:34 PM on January 25 [2 favorites]
From a comment by "Alex SL" in this open thread at Crooked Timber:
The next few years will be quite frustrating on social media, as large numbers of liberal/centrist Americans greet every new outrage with some variant of “that is illegal”, “this will be struck down by the courts”, or “they can’t do that, it goes against the constitution”. I have seen one post on BlueSky purporting to explain to immigrants that they don’t have to open the door to ICE agents if they only have an administrative warrant, no matter what the agents claim.posted by non canadian guy at 11:35 PM on January 25 [11 favorites]
I am begging liberals to understand that the law and constitution are what the armed uniformed guy with the power to punch your teeth out thinks they are, especially if a judge appointed by an authoritarian strongman backs him up. (Also, when my high school history teacher told us the Weimar Republic failed because of its weak institutions, and the same could never happen in the USA because of its well-designed Checks And Balances, he lied, including to himself.) It really doesn’t matter what rights you have on paper or how well designed your institutions are if parliament, the executive, the judiciary, the police, and the press all fall in line behind the strongman. If 40% of your countrymen want the rule of law gone, the rule of law is gone. You have to accept that instead of being surprised by the obvious every new day.
I am begging liberals to understand that the law and constitution are what the armed uniformed guy with the power to punch your teeth out thinks they are
So one thing that I don’t think people who are new to this understand is that it actually *does* matter what your rights are - it matters very much that you know what your rights are even if people are going to ignore them - if for no other reason, because it will help you evaluate danger by seeing who does ignore them.
And this matters, because if you are ever in a fucked situation where authority figures have control over your life and you have to make the best of your bad choices, you want to go with the one least violating of your rights because they may also be less likely to fuck you over and/or murder you.
posted by corb at 12:26 AM on January 26 [16 favorites]
So one thing that I don’t think people who are new to this understand is that it actually *does* matter what your rights are - it matters very much that you know what your rights are even if people are going to ignore them - if for no other reason, because it will help you evaluate danger by seeing who does ignore them.
And this matters, because if you are ever in a fucked situation where authority figures have control over your life and you have to make the best of your bad choices, you want to go with the one least violating of your rights because they may also be less likely to fuck you over and/or murder you.
posted by corb at 12:26 AM on January 26 [16 favorites]
Trump fires 18 inspectors general overnight in legally murky move
I'm sorry if y'all think I'm naive or whatever, but it matters. It matters that the law that Congress passed in 2022 says that IGs can only be fired with 30 days notice to Congress with a list of substantive reasons why the IG must be removed. I'm not just going to shrug and say, "I guess the guy with the biggest gun wins." We can and should tie up every illegal action they try to take in the courts, in the media, with our physical bodies in every way we can. That's the system we have, and it is our duty to fight for it. Regardless of who has the biggest guns.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:19 AM on January 26 [13 favorites]
I'm sorry if y'all think I'm naive or whatever, but it matters. It matters that the law that Congress passed in 2022 says that IGs can only be fired with 30 days notice to Congress with a list of substantive reasons why the IG must be removed. I'm not just going to shrug and say, "I guess the guy with the biggest gun wins." We can and should tie up every illegal action they try to take in the courts, in the media, with our physical bodies in every way we can. That's the system we have, and it is our duty to fight for it. Regardless of who has the biggest guns.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:19 AM on January 26 [13 favorites]
That was an impressively terrible historical analysis. You include Bush 2004 without mentioning 9/11 while making an argument about mass casualty events? That’s pathetic.
Its been a while since 2004 but can someone remind me of how Americans broadly saw Bush after 9/11? Im pretty sure the "it was preventable" line took hold more broadly after Obama too office at the earliest.
posted by Slackermagee at 5:53 AM on January 26
Its been a while since 2004 but can someone remind me of how Americans broadly saw Bush after 9/11? Im pretty sure the "it was preventable" line took hold more broadly after Obama too office at the earliest.
posted by Slackermagee at 5:53 AM on January 26
In response to accusations that the administration failed to act on the contents of the briefing, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and General Richard Myers emphasized that the CIA's PDB did not warn the president of a specific new threat but "contained historical information based on old reporting."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bin_Ladin_Determined_To_Strike_in_US
The irony is the housing bubble they generated 2003-2007 caused 10X the economic damage to this country but everyone thinks it appeared out of nowhere. Anyhoo, if Gore had been in office the 2004 media campaign (paid and free) would have been just "THEY FAILED" and the GOP candidate would have won in a landslide [Kerry actually just needed OH's EVs to win election so it was close . . . I was more a Dean guy back then I guess].
posted by torokunai2 at 9:22 AM on January 26 [2 favorites]
HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS RESPONSE FROM FUCKING COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT GUSTAVO PETRO. (along with 50% response tariffs)
"You can try to carry out a coup with your economic strength and your arrogance, like they did with Allende. But I will die in my law, I resisted torture and I resist you....
You don't like our freedom, okay. I don't shake hands with white slavers. I shake hands with the white libertarian heirs of Lincoln and the black and white farm boys of the USA, at whose graves I cried and prayed on a battlefield...They are the United States and before them I kneel, before no one else. Overthrow me, President, and the Americas and humanity will respond..."
posted by corb at 5:57 PM on January 26 [10 favorites]
"You can try to carry out a coup with your economic strength and your arrogance, like they did with Allende. But I will die in my law, I resisted torture and I resist you....
You don't like our freedom, okay. I don't shake hands with white slavers. I shake hands with the white libertarian heirs of Lincoln and the black and white farm boys of the USA, at whose graves I cried and prayed on a battlefield...They are the United States and before them I kneel, before no one else. Overthrow me, President, and the Americas and humanity will respond..."
posted by corb at 5:57 PM on January 26 [10 favorites]
Mod note: One deleted, Don't comment just to insult fellow members; don't continue to repeat those insults. If you don't care for the discussion, there are other threads, and other sites.
posted by taz (staff) at 9:23 PM on January 26
posted by taz (staff) at 9:23 PM on January 26
Paisley Currah: "The first lawsuit challenging part of Trump's Executive Order on gender was filed yesterday. Last week, prison officials changed a trans prisoner's classification from F to M and started arranging her transfer to a men's facility." (xcancel link; courtlistener link/pdf)
posted by mittens at 5:34 AM on January 27 [3 favorites]
posted by mittens at 5:34 AM on January 27 [3 favorites]
Daily Kos reports on a recent Reddit post about "a hostile takeover" of the Office of Personnel Management, along with a link to this Reddit post.
posted by anastasiav at 1:18 PM on January 27 [2 favorites]
posted by anastasiav at 1:18 PM on January 27 [2 favorites]
(a) It’s good that those details from OPM are coming out, but (b) that was exactly the plan laid out in Project 2025. Did no one in the federal government civil service prepare for the possibility that the Trump administration would try to do exactly what they said they were going to do??!
Probably whoever posted the Reddit post is some low level flunkie who doesn’t have a lot more power than those of us who aren’t US government employees, but I at least sent letters to my representatives last November asking that they make preparations (and making some suggestions albeit based on my fairly limited knowledge of the details of the inner workings of the US government). Having to rely on people who have had their heads in the sand to be our main line of defense against the fall of our democratic institutions to fascism is, while not nearly as infuriating as the fascism itself, ire-inducing and exceedingly frustrating and disheartening. It’s not the original or root cause, but some more awareness and competence would have a measurable impact, including preventing needless deaths. And at some point, intentional ignorance or head-in-sand-ness does become collaboration.
posted by eviemath at 1:39 PM on January 27 [3 favorites]
Probably whoever posted the Reddit post is some low level flunkie who doesn’t have a lot more power than those of us who aren’t US government employees, but I at least sent letters to my representatives last November asking that they make preparations (and making some suggestions albeit based on my fairly limited knowledge of the details of the inner workings of the US government). Having to rely on people who have had their heads in the sand to be our main line of defense against the fall of our democratic institutions to fascism is, while not nearly as infuriating as the fascism itself, ire-inducing and exceedingly frustrating and disheartening. It’s not the original or root cause, but some more awareness and competence would have a measurable impact, including preventing needless deaths. And at some point, intentional ignorance or head-in-sand-ness does become collaboration.
posted by eviemath at 1:39 PM on January 27 [3 favorites]
Its been a while since 2004 but can someone remind me of how Americans broadly saw Bush after 9/11? Im pretty sure the "it was preventable" line took hold more broadly after Obama too office at the earliest.
Right from the moment after 9/11 there was a pretty strong current of “it should have been prevented.” The 9/11 Commission report came out in mid-2004 and made that case pretty strongly.
posted by Galvanic at 1:51 PM on January 27 [3 favorites]
Right from the moment after 9/11 there was a pretty strong current of “it should have been prevented.” The 9/11 Commission report came out in mid-2004 and made that case pretty strongly.
posted by Galvanic at 1:51 PM on January 27 [3 favorites]
From that Reddit post:
I don't know if any of you are familiar with the old CIA guidebook that was distributed in occupied Nazi countries on how to resist the Nazi invasion without risking yourself or your family. You can google it if you need to.
It was specifically a guide for administrators, office workers, and bureaucrats. And it is basically "malicious compliance" the field manual.
The idea was to hamper the Nazis by doing their jobs really, really well. Follow every rule, every regulation, no matter how obscure, no matter how nonsensical. Insist on meetings. Lots and lots of meetings. Never let it just be an email. They want you to report a thing? Report all the things. Every tiny little thing, in minute detail.
Allow nothing to grease the gears of bureaucracy. Allow no corners to be cut, no rules to be bent. Send anything even remotely ambiguous up the chain of command.
Tell everybody you are just trying to do a good job and be thorough. Act like you're afraid you'll lose your job if you do anything wrong, Say you're worried about being written up, and you don't want the liability if anything goes wrong.
The original document, declassified pdf on the CIA website. https://www.cia.gov/static/5c875f3ec660e092cf893f60b4a288df/SimpleSabotage.pdf
ebook from project gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26184
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:40 PM on January 27 [8 favorites]
I don't know if any of you are familiar with the old CIA guidebook that was distributed in occupied Nazi countries on how to resist the Nazi invasion without risking yourself or your family. You can google it if you need to.
It was specifically a guide for administrators, office workers, and bureaucrats. And it is basically "malicious compliance" the field manual.
The idea was to hamper the Nazis by doing their jobs really, really well. Follow every rule, every regulation, no matter how obscure, no matter how nonsensical. Insist on meetings. Lots and lots of meetings. Never let it just be an email. They want you to report a thing? Report all the things. Every tiny little thing, in minute detail.
Allow nothing to grease the gears of bureaucracy. Allow no corners to be cut, no rules to be bent. Send anything even remotely ambiguous up the chain of command.
Tell everybody you are just trying to do a good job and be thorough. Act like you're afraid you'll lose your job if you do anything wrong, Say you're worried about being written up, and you don't want the liability if anything goes wrong.
The original document, declassified pdf on the CIA website. https://www.cia.gov/static/5c875f3ec660e092cf893f60b4a288df/SimpleSabotage.pdf
ebook from project gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26184
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:40 PM on January 27 [8 favorites]
The original document, declassified pdf on the CIA website.
I'm sure the current regime is aware and familiar with this document and its contents. It should perhaps be used as an 'inspirational' document rather than a cookbook.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 2:55 PM on January 27
I'm sure the current regime is aware and familiar with this document and its contents. It should perhaps be used as an 'inspirational' document rather than a cookbook.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 2:55 PM on January 27
Keep tabs on lower-level collaboration by pro-regime media. If your local 'fearless firebrand' talk radio host starts soliciting listener intel on 'migrant' locations for the government, make it known that they are not welcome in town anymore.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 3:02 PM on January 27 [4 favorites]
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 3:02 PM on January 27 [4 favorites]
I'm sure the current regime is aware and familiar
You think the current regime reads things?
posted by Galvanic at 3:18 PM on January 27 [3 favorites]
You think the current regime reads things?
posted by Galvanic at 3:18 PM on January 27 [3 favorites]
I'm sure Bannon does, along with substantial numbers of Heritage Foundation ghouls.
posted by flabdablet at 1:17 AM on January 28 [2 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 1:17 AM on January 28 [2 favorites]
This is apocryphal and anecdotal (I learned of it from a friend posting a screenshot of a tweet), but it sure made ME happy -
Reportedly ICE tried to board a bus in Seattle to do an investigation, but the bus driver refused them entry by saying - and I quote - "gargle my balls".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:32 PM on January 28 [3 favorites]
Reportedly ICE tried to board a bus in Seattle to do an investigation, but the bus driver refused them entry by saying - and I quote - "gargle my balls".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:32 PM on January 28 [3 favorites]
ACLU: Yes, the U.S. Wrongfully Deports Its Own Citizens
ICE is chasing the Navajo right now... "go back to where you once belonged"... Siberia??
FTW I wish authoritarian dictators were better educated
posted by infini at 12:36 PM on January 28 [3 favorites]
ICE is chasing the Navajo right now... "go back to where you once belonged"... Siberia??
FTW I wish authoritarian dictators were better educated
posted by infini at 12:36 PM on January 28 [3 favorites]
And in a more serious note - Caroline Kennedy just released an open letter to the Senate explaining why her cousin RFK Jr. should not be appointed to the cabinet.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:36 PM on January 28 [3 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:36 PM on January 28 [3 favorites]
VF: RFK Jr.'s Family Doesn't Want Him to Run. Even They May Not Know His Darkest Secrets.
posted by kliuless at 10:43 PM on January 28 [2 favorites]
posted by kliuless at 10:43 PM on January 28 [2 favorites]
I struggled with how "for the win" made sense in a sentence wishing authoritarian dictators were better educated and thus have learned it can also mean "fuck the world". I assume that is the intended meaning.
posted by Nec_variat_lux_fracta_colorem at 4:07 AM on January 29 [1 favorite]
posted by Nec_variat_lux_fracta_colorem at 4:07 AM on January 29 [1 favorite]
Trump goes too far: Zeal to dismantle federal government triggers public outrage (Rachel Maddow/MSNBC, YouTube, 10m20s)
posted by flabdablet at 4:29 AM on January 29
posted by flabdablet at 4:29 AM on January 29
Good column at the always useful Ask a Manager with advice for federal employees (and, really, anyone).
posted by Galvanic at 9:43 AM on January 29 [4 favorites]
posted by Galvanic at 9:43 AM on January 29 [4 favorites]
WaPo: With Tampons and Code, Silicon Valley Workers Quietly Protest Tech’s Rightward Shift
As Mark Zuckerberg and other tech titans have embraced President Trump and muffled internal dissent at their companies, their mostly left-leaning employees have objected with subtle acts of defiance.
To protest Mr. Zuckerberg’s actions, some Meta workers soon brought their own tampons, pads and liners to the men’s bathrooms, five people with knowledge of the effort said. A group of employees also circulated a petition to save the tampons.
“Something is deeply wrong when posting a clip or picture of an external event our execs attend violates internal policies,” one employee wrote in response.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:19 AM on January 29 [2 favorites]
As Mark Zuckerberg and other tech titans have embraced President Trump and muffled internal dissent at their companies, their mostly left-leaning employees have objected with subtle acts of defiance.
To protest Mr. Zuckerberg’s actions, some Meta workers soon brought their own tampons, pads and liners to the men’s bathrooms, five people with knowledge of the effort said. A group of employees also circulated a petition to save the tampons.
“Something is deeply wrong when posting a clip or picture of an external event our execs attend violates internal policies,” one employee wrote in response.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:19 AM on January 29 [2 favorites]
WaPo, Anne Lamott: The resistance will not be rushed.
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:14 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:14 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
I'm quite late to this thread, but it seems like a good place to mention the weekly Extra Extra posts (Substack, sorry) from Jessica Craven.
Her daily Chop Wood Carry Water posts have actions you can take - mostly calling your congresspersons - but on Sundays, she rounds up all the good news she can find, especially about legislative wins and local governments taking positive actions. I find them tremendously inspiring, and it reminds me every week that there's actually a lot of good progressive stuff going on, even in dark times, that never make it anywhere near the mainstream press headlines.
Extra Extra for Jan 26
more than THREE DOZEN items, including:
Extra Extra for Jan 19
more than 2 dozen items, including:
Thanks very much for this post, Violet Blue, and for sharing the encouraging stories you found with the rest of us here.
I, personally, really need this kind of thing, now more than ever, and I appreciate your links, and you.
posted by kristi at 12:39 PM on January 29 [5 favorites]
Her daily Chop Wood Carry Water posts have actions you can take - mostly calling your congresspersons - but on Sundays, she rounds up all the good news she can find, especially about legislative wins and local governments taking positive actions. I find them tremendously inspiring, and it reminds me every week that there's actually a lot of good progressive stuff going on, even in dark times, that never make it anywhere near the mainstream press headlines.
Extra Extra for Jan 26
more than THREE DOZEN items, including:
Public Citizen filed a lawsuit claiming that DOGE is an "advisory committee" which is meant to be “fairly balanced" and "operate transparently" but is "most definitely not." Bravo! 🪓
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced that he’s stockpiling abortion medication. 1 🪣
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up an appeal filed by Montana Republicans against their state court’s decision to strike down state laws that restricted voting rights. The Montana GOP had hoped to revive the independent state legislature doctrine, which says state courts shouldn’t second-guess lawmakers when it comes to election law. The fact that SCOTUS rejected them is a big deal.
Virginia’s Democratic-led Senate passed constitutional amendments on abortion and voting rights, as well as a resolution repealing a now-defunct ban on same-sex marriage. The Democratic-led Virginia House of Delegates passed similar legislation on all three issues earlier this month. 🪓 🪣
Here’s a statistic from the States Project I thought would make you happy: Compared to Trump’s first term, where Democrats had seven state-level trifectas (that’s majorities in the state house and senate plus the governor’s mansion), today, Democrats hold 15 trifectas as well as either a chamber or the gubernatorial seat in 12 states — governing power that represents 59% of the population, 63% of the United States GDP, 70% of all state-level spending. A big deal, and YOU helped make it happen! (P.S. Please support the States Project!) 🪓
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta has just barred Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and his allies from entering the U.S. Capitol without permission.
Mexico denied a U.S. military plane access to land Thursday, at least temporarily frustrating the Trump administration's plans to deport immigrants to the country.
The Minnesota Supreme Court handed Republicans a major defeat by striking down their illegitimate power grab. The Court ruled that a quorum in the Minnesota House of Representatives requires 68 members. The court’s ruling effectively invalidates every action Republicans took since the first day of session on January 14, 2025.
The Rev. Al Sharpton led a “buy-in” with over 100 National Action members at the Costco location in Harlem, NYC to show support for the company’s strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). 🪓
The Lancaster County Board in Nebraska just approved a permit for what could become the largest solar farm in the state, generating 304 megawatts of clean energy — and Chelsea Johnson, who Climate Cabinet helped elect last year, cast the decisive "yes" vote! Amazing! 🪓
Extra Extra for Jan 19
more than 2 dozen items, including:
New York City’s new congestion pricing measure has caused traffic in the city to drop 7.5 percent.
The Supreme Court declined to hear a case brought by the State of Utah seeking to seize public lands managed by the federal government. This is a big environmental win!
Biden has protected about 674 million acres of federal land, more than any other president in history.
New Mexico has received nearly $172.3 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation to be put towards infrastructure and connectivity projects. These projects include rail, pedestrian, vehicle and cyclist safety in several New Mexico communities.
The New Mexico Supreme Court on Jan. 9 struck down abortion restrictions in conservative cities and counties, helping to ensure that the state remains a go-to destination for people in nearby states with bans and expanding reproductive health protections ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office.
Wisconsin’s governor, Tony Evers, has created a new office dedicated to preventing gun violence — and said he plans to introduce new gun safety measures, which are largely supported by the public.
California Democrats reached a $50 million agreement to shore up state and local legal defenses against the incoming Trump administration. Half the money will go to fending off any mass deportation plan the new president might enact early in his administration.
The very first bill filed in the Colorado state Senate this year is meant to preserve ballot access through a state-level Voting Rights Act, much like some other states have lately pursued.
In another win for voters, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to take up a Republican appeal to review North Dakota's legislative map. The plaintiffs argued the state gerrymandered districts to give Native Americans excess power. A lower court rejected the claim.
The 6th Circuit upheld a lower court's ruling, leaving in place state constitutional amendments that improve voter access in Michigan.
Thanks very much for this post, Violet Blue, and for sharing the encouraging stories you found with the rest of us here.
I, personally, really need this kind of thing, now more than ever, and I appreciate your links, and you.
posted by kristi at 12:39 PM on January 29 [5 favorites]
Google reclassifies U.S. as ‘sensitive country’ alongside China, Russia after Trump’s ‘Gulf of America’ comments
posted by jeffburdges at 3:06 PM on January 29 [4 favorites]
posted by jeffburdges at 3:06 PM on January 29 [4 favorites]
This "Gulf of America" bullshit is just geopolitical manspreading. If I was Mexico, I'd want to go sit somewhere else, but the damn bus is already full.
Waiting for Lake Ontario to be renamed Lake Rochester or similar.
Watching TFG in action - it's like he's a pro wrestler executing a "popular badguy" persona campaign. People will shout and cheer for him, for a while, but it usually doesn't end well.
posted by Artful Codger at 3:57 PM on January 29 [2 favorites]
Waiting for Lake Ontario to be renamed Lake Rochester or similar.
Watching TFG in action - it's like he's a pro wrestler executing a "popular badguy" persona campaign. People will shout and cheer for him, for a while, but it usually doesn't end well.
posted by Artful Codger at 3:57 PM on January 29 [2 favorites]
it's like he's a pro wrestler executing a "popular badguy" persona campaign.
I think you're on to something.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:08 PM on January 29
I think you're on to something.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:08 PM on January 29
I unfortunately know nothing about software, but if I did I would write a Firefox plugin to put “Gulf of Mexico” on the map instead of that stupid attempt at a rename.
posted by azpenguin at 7:57 PM on January 29
posted by azpenguin at 7:57 PM on January 29
-Trump Says U.S. Will Hold Migrants at Guantánamo
-How transgender troops prepared to fight Trump's new policy
-Exclusive: USDA inspector general escorted out of her office after defying White House
-Hundreds of USAID contractors put on leave, terminated amid US freeze on global aid
-Trump administration to cancel student visas of pro-Palestinian protesters (Trump Revives Biden's Failed Proposal To Remove Palestinians From Gaza)[1,2,3]
posted by kliuless at 11:00 PM on January 29 [3 favorites]
-How transgender troops prepared to fight Trump's new policy
-Exclusive: USDA inspector general escorted out of her office after defying White House
-Hundreds of USAID contractors put on leave, terminated amid US freeze on global aid
-Trump administration to cancel student visas of pro-Palestinian protesters (Trump Revives Biden's Failed Proposal To Remove Palestinians From Gaza)[1,2,3]
posted by kliuless at 11:00 PM on January 29 [3 favorites]
Watching TFG in action - it's like he's a pro wrestler executing a "popular badguy" persona campaign.
"Presidential Kayfabe." This is an immensely clear-headed way to think of this whole... thing/Presidency/shit-show. Someone with some brains should make a "This week in Presidential Kayfabe" collation (podcast or something).
... (amusingly DJT's nominee for Secretary of Education is the ex-wife of that WWE guy)...
posted by From Bklyn at 1:23 AM on January 30 [3 favorites]
"Presidential Kayfabe." This is an immensely clear-headed way to think of this whole... thing/Presidency/shit-show. Someone with some brains should make a "This week in Presidential Kayfabe" collation (podcast or something).
... (amusingly DJT's nominee for Secretary of Education is the ex-wife of that WWE guy)...
posted by From Bklyn at 1:23 AM on January 30 [3 favorites]
"Presidential Kayfabe." This is an immensely clear-headed way to think of this whole... thing/Presidency/shit-show.
This has been journalist Josephine Riesman's beat for the last few years: Welcome to Neokayfabe
(Previously on Metafilter: How Pro Wrestling Explains Today's GOP)
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:51 AM on January 30 [5 favorites]
This has been journalist Josephine Riesman's beat for the last few years: Welcome to Neokayfabe
(Previously on Metafilter: How Pro Wrestling Explains Today's GOP)
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:51 AM on January 30 [5 favorites]
This "Gulf of America" bullshit is just geopolitical manspreading. If I was Mexico, I'd want to go sit somewhere else, but the damn bus is already full.
Everyone should get in on the action. Slice it up radially like Antarctica from a point in the centre to the land borders.
So Cuba would have there slice named the Gulf of Cuba. And Panama would have a little Gulf of Panama section. And Mexico and the US would keep their sections.
posted by Mitheral at 9:22 AM on January 30 [2 favorites]
Everyone should get in on the action. Slice it up radially like Antarctica from a point in the centre to the land borders.
So Cuba would have there slice named the Gulf of Cuba. And Panama would have a little Gulf of Panama section. And Mexico and the US would keep their sections.
posted by Mitheral at 9:22 AM on January 30 [2 favorites]
So Representative Tadano, ranking vet on the Veterans Affairs Committee, has made a formal request to the acting Secretary of Veteran Affairs, asking for a formal response to the following questions:
1. How many veterans and disabled veterans are being fired by the closure of DEIA offices?
2. Without those offices, who will manage veterans preference?
3. Under Trumps executive order, is it the position of the federal government that veterans preference no longer exists?
4. If so, provide all documentation saying so.
By law, when he makes these kinds of formal requests, they are required to respond.
Shit ought to get interesting - this is absolutely a fork. There is no good way to answer - either he has to answer that yes, veterans are getting fucked, or he has to come up with an answer that says that he's going to find ways around MAGA purity.
posted by corb at 10:07 AM on January 30 [9 favorites]
1. How many veterans and disabled veterans are being fired by the closure of DEIA offices?
2. Without those offices, who will manage veterans preference?
3. Under Trumps executive order, is it the position of the federal government that veterans preference no longer exists?
4. If so, provide all documentation saying so.
By law, when he makes these kinds of formal requests, they are required to respond.
Shit ought to get interesting - this is absolutely a fork. There is no good way to answer - either he has to answer that yes, veterans are getting fucked, or he has to come up with an answer that says that he's going to find ways around MAGA purity.
posted by corb at 10:07 AM on January 30 [9 favorites]
I'd vote call the whole thing the Gulf of Cuba, because Cuba nationalized hotels. lol
posted by jeffburdges at 3:02 PM on January 30 [1 favorite]
posted by jeffburdges at 3:02 PM on January 30 [1 favorite]
Not exactly pushback, but not exactly not...
Chicago now runs on 100% renewable energy
Democratic governors are pushing national Dems (unfortunately, unsuccessfully).
posted by tofu_crouton at 7:27 AM on January 31 [2 favorites]
Chicago now runs on 100% renewable energy
Democratic governors are pushing national Dems (unfortunately, unsuccessfully).
posted by tofu_crouton at 7:27 AM on January 31 [2 favorites]
Chicago now runs on 100% renewable energy
To be clear, that's the public buildings owned by the City, not the whole of Chicago.
posted by flabdablet at 8:49 AM on January 31 [2 favorites]
To be clear, that's the public buildings owned by the City, not the whole of Chicago.
posted by flabdablet at 8:49 AM on January 31 [2 favorites]
Latin American Leaders Are Putting Up Resistance to Trump
posted by tofu_crouton at 9:30 AM on January 31 [2 favorites]
posted by tofu_crouton at 9:30 AM on January 31 [2 favorites]
Everyone should get in on the action. Slice it up radially like Antarctica from a point in the centre to the land borders. So Cuba would have there slice named the Gulf of Cuba. And Panama would have a little Gulf of Panama section. And Mexico and the US would keep their sections.
I saw a meme which suggests naming it after the initials of only three of the bordering nations:
Cuba
United States
Mexico
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:50 AM on January 31 [2 favorites]
I saw a meme which suggests naming it after the initials of only three of the bordering nations:
Cuba
United States
Mexico
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:50 AM on January 31 [2 favorites]
An entry in both the "creative pushback" department and the "not all heroes wear capes" department:
A Missouri government tip site for submitting complaints and concerns about gender-affirming care is down after people flooded it with fanfiction, rambling anecdotes and the “Bee Movie” script.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:55 PM on January 31 [6 favorites]
A Missouri government tip site for submitting complaints and concerns about gender-affirming care is down after people flooded it with fanfiction, rambling anecdotes and the “Bee Movie” script.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:55 PM on January 31 [6 favorites]
Trump's DEI snitch email is being targeted by spammers (The Bulwark)
posted by box at 2:32 PM on January 31 [4 favorites]
posted by box at 2:32 PM on January 31 [4 favorites]
What To Do When There Is Nothing To Be Done: Understanding our reality can feel immobilizing, but it doesn't have to be. Here are strategies you can use to fight for the future you want — even when it seems there is nothing you can do. [Dave Troy | America 2.0]
How You Can Protect Democracy: 29 concrete actions you can take right now to protect democracy [Protect Democracy | About Us]
posted by mazola at 6:40 AM on February 1 [6 favorites]
How You Can Protect Democracy: 29 concrete actions you can take right now to protect democracy [Protect Democracy | About Us]
posted by mazola at 6:40 AM on February 1 [6 favorites]
Hey everyone. Indivisible put out a solid and actionable call that everyone can do. They are asking that everyone get groups together to visit their local Democratic senators office and ask them to procedurally delay and fight the confirmation of Vought, the architect of Project 2025, for OMB secretary. There’s also asks for Republican senators too. You are asked to show up in person and given realistic scripts.
posted by corb at 6:16 PM on February 2 [2 favorites]
posted by corb at 6:16 PM on February 2 [2 favorites]
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posted by RonButNotStupid at 10:56 AM on January 22 [31 favorites]