History nerd researching LGBTQ rights in Oregon. Movie obsessive, sci-fi geek. Future cat dad. (he/him) No Constitution, No Union!
376 followers 49 following 1,749 posts
view profile on Bluesky
People should definitely listen to him, but there's also a limit to what people can and should be expected to do. If the Texas NG is being sent to violate Illinois's sovereignty and occupy it, Pritzker needs to call up the Illinois NG to blockade and stop them.
starmer is doing all the anti-immigrant and anti-trans "popularism" stuff the centrists are demanding US dems do and this is the predictable result:
I watched Fargo for the first time a few weeks ago, and I understood what was happening. It's obvious. I don't think the dude watched the movie.
@tinakotek.bsky.social Please do this for Oregon!
While leaving his encampment, one homeless person was heard to remark, "Yeah, this sucks, but have you seen Gavin's social media posts? Ha ha, great stuff, I bet it really gets Trump's goat, that's what's important."
Them: “Cities are all rotting hellscapes!” Cities:
If we can survive the Trump and Kennedy death cult, we have to rebuild everything and it will take decades. We need to be very clear about this. What is happening is pure destruction, and much death will follow. You cannot simply bounce back. This is going to be with us a long, long time.
The CDC and NIH collected, organized, directed, and funded, and prioritized health and disease research, programs, and responses. Those things are incredibly difficult to do naturally without a central body that organizes. It does not get built overnight. It is not simply reestablished.
Kennedy's killer cuts cannot be simply reversed. Everything will need to be rebuilt and goodwill re-earned. There will be those who say it will survive through state, local, and university efforts, but that misses the point of the CDC and NIH.
The CDC, NIH, as well as other agency decimated by this feckless murder machine of an administration can't be brought back with re-hirings and re-funding. These institutions were built and improved over decades. The CDC didn't just manifest into existence overnight. It was built over decades.
I think what a lot of people might miss about Kennedy's destruction of American health is just how long term it will all be. There will be the immediate and short-term direct deaths from Kennedy's eugenicist malfeasance, but there will also be death that continues well past his tenure.
someone should put together a "kennedy death count" for everyone who dies of a preventable disease and just plaster it everywhere www.statnews.com/2025/08/28/c...
Governors and state legislatures have to act to stop this, right? They need to order their National Guards and police to protect the people and stop this, right? Right?
Chris Kluwe on Gavin Newsom and his treatment of the trans community: www.thehandbasket.co/p/chris-kluw...
What people think they 80s were like versus what the 80s was actually like.
yo this guy is cooking
New rule. A parent may only propose removing a book from the school library only after reading it in its entirety and delivering a book report to the librarian. Until then no discussion shall be entered into.
Next week it'll be September. So far no sign of Republicans standing up to Trump in any meaningful way.
You are right. I was being somewhat disingenuous. The VFX crew does amazing work. I should have said that I often feel like I'm watching a fancy cartoon. Also, as someone else mentioned, so much VFX would be unnecessary if they just shot on location. It's overkill.
It's easy for Cameron to throw VFX artists under the bus because they aren't paying him. And it reveals his true character as a human being. If someone where to say the same thing to him about directors, he'd murder that person. Just a trash human being.
What were the costs for the entire second season of Andor, with its mix of practical on-location shooting, real sets, and CGI, compared to Avatar or an MCU movie? Is it really that much? How much of the bloated cost of movies is producers and actors demanding tens of millions?
Sure, it costs Cameron a lot for VFX because his Avatar movies are 95% VFX! But that is also true for a lot of other movies. MCU films are almost entirely VFX, and they don't look good. They eschew practical FX and real-world shooting in favor of green screen.
He's not wrong about ballooning costs, but how much of that cost is the studios and the sheer number of big-budget films that are made these days, coupled with the expectation that each film make a billion dollars? Cameron is just throwing VFX artists under the bus.
Transgender studies professor Dr. Susan Stryker tears Gavin Newsom a new one while accepting the Transgender Legacy Award from the California state legislature 🔥🔥🔥 @susanstryker.bsky.social
People on this site are weird.
You could have just said that and maybe engaged honestly and politely rather than being a nasty asshole and saying, "I see through your shit. Nice try botski." That's just me, though.
Newsom thinks he's cracked it. He thinks he's figured out how to run the Trump playbook and win. But he hasn't. Only one person can be Trump, and that's Trump. Everyone else who has tried has failed. And so will Newsom.
This is embarrassing. People see through this stupid shit. This is also the kind of stunt one does when they 1) are too scared of addressing the issues directly, and 2) are completely devoid of ideas. This is shameless, cynical preening. This is empty resistance.
Because if we aren't better than that, then we are that and we are them. And our democracy is gone. Lincoln knew this. MLK knew this. You need to know it, too.
No one is asking, or should ask, you as an individual to forgive Trump voters. That's your call. But do not allow your desire for revenge to overcome the democratic need for justice. Revenge and spite are the tools of the oppressor, the tools of Trumpist fascism. We NEED to be better than that.
And it doesn't need to be direct help. We don't need to speak to them directly. What we need to do is create a system that shows them--shows everyone--that there is a better, more prosperous, more humane, more joyous way to live. That's it.
We need to find our inner grace. We need to understand, as MLK did, that a good majority of Trump voters are also victims. If American democracy is going to survive and, more importantly, thrive, we need to include them and help them.
But if we are going to get through this and build something better from the ashes, we cannot hold onto it. We cannot use it. We don't need revenge. We need justice. Justice for those who built the system, profited from it, and used it to victimize everyone.
I understand the knee-jerk, lizard-brain reaction of taking some kind of revenge. That's natural. It makes sense. I've had that reaction, myself. We should feel it. We have every right to sit and feel and understand our anger, and the urge for revenge is part of that. Don't resist it. Feel it.
The same is true of many Trump voters. There is that core that is irredeemable, that bathes in the cruelty. There are also those who are trapped in that system and don't know it. They, too, are the victims of Trumpist fascism. And they don't need scorn. They need help.
People are complicated. They are not binary. They contain multitudes. People are also wrapped up in and bound by the systems in which they are oppressed. Were there people in the south that were incredibly racist? Yes. But, as MLK said, they too were victims of a racist system.
Can't even build death star anymore, because of ewok
It's also not new rhetoric. Same shit they've said for decades.
I love that Man in the High Castle portrayed him as a loser who is ousted, exiled, and assassinated by Nazis in Havana. The writers knew what was up.
In emulating Trump, even to make fun of him, he's walking into the same trap as other pols who tried. The biggest mistake politicians make is trying to play Trump's game. They need to take a page from Wargames:
What Newsom has done definitely gets underneath Trump's skin, but who is he trying to appeal to? I suspect it's Republicans, and it won't work. Voters already see Trump as ridiculous. What they want is someone who speaks to them and understands their needs. Newsom isn't doing that.
I think it's also valuable to compare him to Newsom, who's talked a good game but hasn't done much beyond his Trump-ribbing stunts. But how has he done it? By emulating Trump. Sure, he's making fun of him, but if that's all he's got, he ain't it.
I've been saying from the start that people better not sleep on Pritzker. There's real FDR vibes: a billionaire with honest-to-God progressive values who's willing to address the issues we face in clear terms.
Raise a glass to things that don't suck.
Look, Kevin. I know you don't like Howard Dean, but you're just going to have to live with it. We all need to come toget... [puts finger to ear] I'm sorry, what? Really? Oh boy...
Hold monthly gathering at different bars, pubs, or brew houses. Have a DJ and host. Have party and voter registration info everywhere. Have volunteers who are designated drivers. I know of at least one bar in Eugene that would wholeheartedly host such an event.
Put the party back in Democratic Party!
"Mamdani won because there was no real challenge to him. But NYC isn't the rest of the country. NYC is a distraction. Rural, midwestern, working-class Americans don't want someone on the left. They want common-sense Democrats, and that's what we will give them."
I really hope I'm wrong, and as Angus said, we're still a long way out. We'll see what happens if and when Mamdani trounces Cuomo in NYC. My fear is that Jeffries and the other centrist-liberals will minimize his win as a fait accompli and not a true gauge of the Democratic constituency.
Everything is a distraction to them. The amount of energy they spend trying NOT to talk about anything is truly wild.
The more I hear this, and the more I see Jeffries and others in leadership use it, the more I expect 2026 to be disastrous for the party. But maybe that has to happen?
Distraction! DRINK! I'm very tired of the distraction narrative Jeffries and others keep pushing. It's not a distraction because 1) it's always been part of Trump's larger policy, and 2) people are feeling it directly. It's not a distraction to the people directly facing it.
putting aside the trans rights issues specifically (lol), I think part of what has me so frustrated with the Newsom thing is that Pritzker, Walz, and Zohran are putting on clinics for a popular, progressive politics and we’re wasting time talking about this used car salesman ass goblin.
All this "We can't do this" bullshit makes me so fucking angry. I'm tired of hearing what we can't do. I'm tired of the short-term election-cycle thinking. That's the talk of pols who care more about their own power, and consultants who only care about money. I got no time for that nonsense.
Or Dems can continue to write-off entire regions of the country because they aren't winning elections there. That's cool. But tell me why anyone should vote for Dems after they write them off. Again, you lose 100% of the games you don't play.
You do the best you can with the resources you have. Yes, it will be small at first, but then it will grow. And Dems desperately need to stop with short-term election-cycle thinking. Build the movement. Do it on the local level. Build the party there with the resources you have.
It's tiring to listen to Dems with no imagination and no willingness to try with the resources they have. I'm well aware of the inherent trade-offs, but fucking hell. This isn't a binary can or can't. The resources are there. We don't have a resource problem, we have an allocation problem.
What I'm hearing is a whole lot of can't, and that is the problem with Dems. They sit back and talk about what the party can't do, not what it should do. It's too focused on individual races and campaigns, not on building party structures and an actual movement.
I'm not talking about races. I'm talking about party structures. I'm talking about building party structures to reach voters. I'm well aware there will need to be decisions made financially. But that doesn't mean Dems can't and shouldn't try with the resources they have, especially locally.
That is definitely the key. But that movement can't be solely anti-Trump. It has to be built on providing something for people to vote FOR. It has to be centered on communities. It has to be a Democratic structure that actually helps communities with their needs. That's the movement.
DEMS: "I don't believe it."
You lose 100% of the games you don't play. Full stop. "You can't abandon the inner city." No, you can't. But that's been used as an excuse to try nothing and do nothing. Fuck that bullshit.
What about progressive and liberal voters in Omaha, Des Moines, Fargo, Cheyenne, Boise, Helena, Jackson, Birmingham, etc.? Dems have abandoned all of them.
You talk about Dem resources in inner city black communities. What about the rural black communities in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Indiana, Arkansas, etc.? Dems have left them behind.
And in return they've doubled down on the areas they win. But they aren't getting any more votes. They tapped those resources already. If the party is going to survive, it has to move out, not abandon people to the hopelessness of the GOP. Dems need to build structures everywhere.
And, yes, in some cases it will require building those structures from scratch. But that needs to be done. A big problem with Dems is that they have largely written off whole swathes of the country as lost despite those areas containing sympathetic voters.
First, no one said abandon cities and black communities. Second, what you seem to be arguing is the abandonment of rural and red-state voters. You can talk to everyone. It's not hard. It just takes some imagination and tapping into existing structures in those areas.
Feels like a good time to re-up this.
I would love an old-school barnstorming tour all over the country like they did in the 1800s. Roll through every small town, set up your speakers, and start talking. Make it a party. Unleash the fucking horde.
Flood the zone. Anywhere and everywhere. A massive Democratic tsunami. The press can't ignore it, and after enough time they will start putting the screws to the GOP. Republicans control the narrative because they've been the loudest. Dems need to get up and take it back. Flood. The. Zone.
We don't have that now. Because the Dem establishment doesn't stand for anything. I know what they stand against, but I have no clue what they stand for. And I'm not sure they know, either.
How do we define freedom and equality? What does democracy look like to an Iowa voter? How do we get there? We need a baseline, something everyone has in common. Then we can move from there and build a movement and a better country for everyone.
Unfortunately, the Dem message has been exactly that. That's why voters don't glom onto "save democracy!" It's so nebulous and bland that it has no meaning. It's also another way of saying "we aren't the other guys." You have to reach people and speak with them.
What it takes is imagination and a willingness to listen to people. But what we have are Dems so scared of doing something wrong that they choose to do damn little, then ask people to vote for them. "Hey, we aren't the other guys" is not a winning message.
A compelling message can and should be made that links the filibuster to bad governance that hurts everyone. And DC statehood can be added as not only a remedy to bypass a cheating GOP, but also the extension of real democracy to people. Both are pieces of a message, not the message itself.
I'm not convinced by this. First, no Dem politicians would run solely on killing the filibuster and making DC a state. Second, voters are largely concerned with how pols will help them, something Trump was able to address.
What happens if Dems fail to gain a 60-seat majority that they haven't held since the 95th Congress from 1977-1978? It is unrealistic given the political geography that Dems can get a 60-seat majority. So what then? How do Dems bypass the stalemate?
Fair enough. But that doesn't answer my question. How do you envision Dems in the Senate governing when faced with a 60-vote threshold thanks to a filibuster weaponized by a minority? How do Dems overcome that weaponization? Kicking out Republicans isn't the whole answer.
You've said that ending the filibuster is wrong because the GOP will, if they get a majority again, just reverse everything. So, given that, how do Dems with a majority in 2026 and/or 2028 govern and potentially secure their goals? How do they circumvent GOP use of the filibuster to block them?
Ok. So that sounds like your answer to his question. If I'm reading you right, your argument is that there is no fighting because Dems don't hold a majority, meaning they can do nothing. But what does a possible Dem majority do post-2026? 2028? What does it look like?
boy would it be helpful if the opposition had national political leadership who would mobilize supporters instead of calling this a distraction
“I gave my life to Christ in the Cracker Barrel parking lot” sounds like the filthiest euphemism I have ever heard.
Jesus... I saw this post without reading the text and my heart sank because I thought it was bad news. Gonna take me a bit to recover from that fright.
Drawing Oregon 6-0 would be a wild map. As for CD4, it's definitely more stable for Dems with the current boundaries versus the previous. But the Cook PVI has it at D+6, up from D+4 in 2022 and 2024. GOP would have to do some real work to win it, but it might only be possible with a terrible Dem.
CD4 could be up for grabs depending. CD1, CD3, and CD6 would be fine.
Oregon has six Reps, five of which are Democratic. The one GOP district would be hard to redraw into a Dem district. But Oregon could redraw the districts so the ones that are Dem would remain Dem.
It seems to me the real difference between Newsom and Pritzker is that Newsom is reacting to Trump and running against him, whereas Pritzker seems to be more proactive and talking about policies and what Dems can do for people. I could, of course, be totally wrong. Wouldn't be the first time.
Pritzker has arguably done more than Newsom, who's only talked, unleashed his social media, filed lawsuits, and championed CA redistricting. No one has flat out resisted ICE or denied the use of their national guards. The most anyone has done is talk and file lawsuits.
On one hand, it's a fine line politically. On the other, the moment is now and we need fighters. The thing is, as Newsom and Pritzker undoubtedly understand, the only action either of them can take is on the state level. That said, neither of them have really done much.
At this point in the game, it's better to work in the background to build your strategy, team, and base. It's a marathon, not a sprint, and I see Newsom making the same mistakes as other politicians who came out strong early, only to crash and burn once the campaign began.