I've never seen such a disconnect between Dem elected/staff/consultants and actual Dem voters. The latter understand what's going on. The former are awash in right-wing brainrot, hence @schatz.bsky.social blaming COVID mitigation and BLM marches for the GOP's wanton destruction of public health.
![@EsotericCD It was in this moment that many of us hanging on to a thin sliver of trust in our institutions irrevocably lost faith in them. One of the most poisonous blows to public trust in living memory - worse than the effect of the Iraq War in many ways. RFK Jr is a direct result of this. Quote Steve Guest @SteveGuest · Aug 31 Politico 5 years ago: [screenshot of article falsely claiming public health officials lied about COVID measures then abandoned them for BLM protests] Views](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ddvus7otnqtlh7fdooxm6qat/bafkreihsypwydo5rcis7mc54cwct6h33l5co477nvh7g7hs7na2fz4jl3q@jpeg)
Choose your fighter:
Murphy is the only reasonable choice. Warren and Sanders are great but they're too old.
Warren is 72. Sanders is 83. Murphy is 53. The difference between 53 & 72 is not as wide as the difference between 72 and 83, especially for women, who generally live much longer & are healthier than men. Also, Warren is one of the few women consistently fighting & mentoring others.
I love Warren, she would be my second choice. But I think Dem voters want the torch passed to the next generation and it should start with leadership.
I’m with you on the younger generation taking up the torch. Unfortunately, a lot of the younger candidates are corporate “Abundance” (aka New Reaganomics) Democrats, especially in CA, AZ, WA, & TX where they come out of tech & finance. Warren has been encouraging young women in MA to take her place.
Yeah that's a concern, but I don't believe Chris Murphy has that problem.
Conservatives making things up then getting mad about it
These disappointing Democrats love to take a far right frame and run with it. Covid protocols saved lives. Vaccines saved millions of lives. We don't need these cowards in this moment.
Exactly, anti-vaxxers, including RFK Jr, have been peddling their FUD smut for decades. educators have been dealing with the death cult for the entire millennium.
Real bummer to see that from Brian who I held in high esteem until fairly recently.
Also, I extremely doubt that Sean trende has never voted for Trump
You’re a fucking racist what do you care.
Similarly, seeing the relative lack of accidents in the center of town after they installed traffic lights made me lose faith in traffic laws. Mad Max is the direct result of that overreach.
What radicalized me was sitting in a Vegas hotel room, the 3rd week in feb, watching them disembark the cruise ship in Japan. They were full hazmat gear. Im wondering why am I @ convention. I ended up w covid & have never been the same. But 45 told us it was safe then, HE knew it was deadly.
We had no access to testing yet. The ambulance driver that came for me said, "unless your arm is falling off your body I wouldnt recommend you go to the hospital" he had over 22 hr waits in parking lot for his patients to get in. Said I was stable enough to endure at home I'll never forgive Rs.
Truly a brainrot. The same MAGA People who are tearing CDC apart bc it issued non-mandatory recom to wear masks & social distance... are now completely supporting the same govt deploying military troops with long guns to do "policing." No logic, just whatever nonsense serves their political ends.
Radicalization works both ways. Covid did nothing to make me think better of Republican government or of the decency of the average Republican voter. The anti-leadership came from the top. It should have black pilled everyone against GOP government for generations.
Brian schatz is too stupid to know that esoteric dipshit is not a good faith actor
government overreach is when you don't arrest local business owners
I think were about to see a lot of centrist own up to actually being conservatives and switching parties.
That would be fine because we could at least then reorient the party; what's really going to happen is Democrats are going to get a majority and govern like they're Republicans. It's gonna be 52 Sinemas.
We should burn it down instead of let that happen.
That is what makes me afraid. Why can we see the situation so clearly and most of them cannot?
It explains the complicity of the democrats
All that really needs to be said is mandates were a mistake, because it takes away people's choices to make their own health care decisions, which is what RFK is doing now.
No. That’s terrible framing. By making the decision to refuse masking and vaccines these people were putting everyone else around them at risk of disease. No one should have the right to do that. A little inconvenience for a far greater good. That’s how community is defined.
Covid is still here, mandates aren't.
I’m not understanding you.
COVID is still circulating and people are currently able to refuse masking and vaccines, do you think they should be forced to now?
Dem leaders really do not have to hand it to these people. There was all sorts of caution expressed about how to gather publicly at these outdoor events.
Science was pretty clear by that point that interior spaces were much more dangerous than outdoor. Another thing that people tend to forget is that during outdoor protests for BLM, many PoC were saying that it was dangerous for PoC to wear masks because of existing stereotypes re crime.
Especially when schools that were closed and bars that were open, was done under Trump.
Brian Schatz is no longer a reliable Democrat in good standing, IMHO. Not just because of this, but because he voted "yes" on 3 of Trump's cabinet nominees, and has taken many positions critical or questioning of Democratic policies and positions.
Every day another formerly progressive Democrat says, "What if Naziism is good when done lightly? 🤔"
Schatz also happily uses nazi backed social media
Believing Covid was the tipping point leading to the great politicization is not being honest with yourself. The Dems have been this way since Obama was elected. It’s just with the advent of social media, it’s louder.
www.lawcommentary.com/articles/sup...
People were asked to look out for one another and no one was willing to do it and everyone threw a giant tantrum. That’s the lesson of COVID.
A lot of people where I live were willing to do it though! For a couple years at least. Exhaustion and confusion set in.
My partner and I made it five years without catching COVID, because we use masks/gloves/sanitizers constantly so my crap immune system doesn’t kill me. I haven’t left home for anything but doc appts in over 5 years. It’s disheartening knowing who does & doesn’t care about others.
That's correct. I was not expecting that pervasive level of selfishness in the face of a deadly pandemic.
People were willing to do it, but it was hard and people needed support Then two administrations running took away the supports while telling people that they didn’t need to do it
Literally fucking this. My daughter was undergoing chemo and her oncologist didn’t know if covid would kill her, meanwhile people were losing their fucking minds cause they couldn’t go to Disneyland or get drunk at bar trivia night.
I am so sorry. Our daughter was a toddler at the start. Navigating everything was traumatizing enough, without cancer to deal with too.
Thank you. It was a nightmare, but seeing how willing everyone was to let her die so that their lives could go back to normal was something I’ll never forgive or forget.
Do they not remember what happened AT ALL?
You have to wonder, is it disconnect, or is it attempted narrative manipulation. Because it is becoming increasingly obvious that to many Dems, the Trump regime in power is preferable to the left in power.
Right. Dem politicians as whole, will never get it. Have no faith in them. We are on own own people!
JFC this is disappointing for so many reasons. A) bars/schools very different B) HI had like the best COVID response/outcomes C) it was right and appropriate to be conservative in HI because we have less than 250 ICU beds in the whole damn state 1000’s of miles from any other help
This is such a bad and out of left field take I honestly wonder if Shatz is criticizing HI public health because Gov. Josh Green is getting more national attention. And ugh, focusing on a future hypothetical rival (like that political future even exists) instead of MEETING THE FUCKING MOMENT?!?
Hawaii bars were closed for a year. www.khon2.com/coronavirus/...
Schatz is an idiot.
jfc this is obnoxious to see. as someone who was deep into marches that summer, it’s insulting that this take ignores that when we marched we a) were outdoors, b) masked up, and c) knew there was risk and chose to risk our bodies for a just cause!
"Hi, I like posting on a social network that's owned by a guy who gave a nazi salutes and whose AI praised Hitler. Anyway, here's why activist dems are bad...mazel tov!" - Sen. Brian Schatz (D)
The Democrats have proven themselves to be clueless, useless and incompetent for decades. They’ve been busy vying for and cashing in from corporate bribes while the extreme right wing took over everything. And now we are paying the heavy price.
Not only do we have 2 look @ the voting records & community service we now must demand financial records. There is a rot we have 2 remove from the party.
Until I see evidence to the contrary I'm of the strong opinion that it's 1 congressional Party vs The American People.
Schatz leaving BlueSky to go back to Twitter because he’d rather engage with users there tells you everything you need to know.
It has to be a beltway bubble thing. It’s the only explanation I can come up with 🤔
Two things can be true at once: The GOP and their propagandists, with few exceptions, poisoned the well against damn near ANY form of mitigation. Dem controlled areas implemented some insane policies such as masking toddlers that radicalized some people.
What's the quickest way to just wash these guys out of their "jobs" and find some real people?
I was in Hawaii for the first two months of COVID. Bars and restaurants were one of the first businesses to close, at the same time as schools.
I think that it's true that some of the current republican party exists as a reaction to COVID restrictions, but that doesn't mean those restrictions were wrong Similarly, a child screaming that you aren't his real dad may genuinely feel that, yet they still need to clean their room
"liberal-coded" man, fuck these people
Also really important to pretend the border was wide open and that people had valid concerns there.
Schatz seems to forget that Trump was in office when COVID lockdowns began and that the mismanagement was entirely due to the GOP catering to horse dewormer-peddling anti-vaxers
Well, tbf, Trump’s preference for magical thinking and personal gain in a moment of national emergency played a big role in that manifold death-assuring debacle of leadership- largely cheered-on by the grifters he’s placed in charge of National Health Policy now.
And churches were open. The entire premise is wrong! From soup to nuts!
The average person and pundit (and apparently US Senator) being totally unable to correctly answer “who was POTUS in 2020?” explains a disturbingly large amount of our current situation.
Average person and pundit: "Trump provided PPP and stimulus. Biden oversaw lockdowns and BLM protests."
Trump promised PPE to Pritzker, then sent regular surgical masks from our strategic supply. Pritzker had to organize with other blue Midwestern states for secret shipments b/c Trump's fed would commandeer our pur based supplies. Trump tried to kill blue cities/states. That's fact.
I deleted and edited the original post. I thought it was clear from context I was speaking as the "average person and pundit" but the many angry responses showed I was not actually clear enough so here y'all go.
Dem electeds just ceding the premise to Trump and MAGA on issue after issue…. “well yes crime is a huge problem but…” “well yes immigration is a huge problem but….” “well of course COVID mitigation was a disaster but….” total loser shit.
Once upon a time Democrats would say, "I welcome their hatred."
Dem electeds have been ceding premises to Republicans since Ronald Reagan. Government is too big. Taxes are too high. Etc., etc.
Bill Clinton’s response to his own policies measurably increasing average worker pay for the first time in a quarter-century: “I increased your taxes too much. Sorry.”
Bill Clinton era seems when Dems really threw in the towel to become GOP lite
I agree. Every Republican president from Reagan onward has pushed the country to the right, but neither Clinton nor Obama pushed it back. Biden tried, but it was too little, too late.
Deals with Reagan … struggling to deal with Reagan’s popularity
I agree with this. Clinton was the best we could hope for,… …in 1992. That the Democrats didn’t leverage Obama’s popularity into smashing the Reagan consensus in the 2000s was their single greatest political failing.
Astroturfed Tea Party and media embrace of it was a huge factor, but I agree Obama disappointed
He seemed reluctant to push too hard. But he also has a much more conservative Democratic Party to deal with. The way they all ran like scalded dogs from the ACA in 2010 was political suicide.
Obama wasn't interested in doing it. To wit: www.commondreams.org/news/2008/01...
I really question whether he was the "best we could hope for", considering he almost certainly would have lost if Perot wasn't splitting the GOP vote.
The “Perot split the Republican Vote” claim isn’t supported by the data: split-ticket.org/2023/04/01/e...
And the reason the Dems played with taxes was that they accepted the Republican rhetoric about the debt. As did Obama's response to the financial crisis.
It was happening a bit before Ronald Reagan, unfortunately. It is popular to see Bill Clinton as the start of this because Bill Clinton was always a dirtbag, but the uncomfortable truth is that it was President Jimmy Carter who pushed Congress to slash New Deal programs and initiated deregulation.
It probably really started happening after the 1972 Nixon landslide. It took Reagan, though, to bring together the Nixon dirty tricksters, the (then-would-be) oligarchs, the John Birchers, the evangelicals and the Confederacy.
yeah, the fall of McGovern really is the moment that the Democratic Party decided to turn its back on the left. crazy that the decisive moment happened so long ago! you’re right, what crystallized that shift was the rise of the New Democrats
"We've deported more..."
Defense is never too big! The giant void on the balance sheet none of them can otherwise fix
Bill Clinton is the personification of that premise ceding.
Just like this ish from congresswoman Pingree. There’s no evidence that “Crime” happened outside her apartment door. Crime is not a DC thing. bsky.app/profile/ping...
"well yes, trans sports thing bad"
Is the solution to just say none of these things matter and there are no problems? I agree Dems should not cede every issue but there are clear issues that pretending they don’t exist cause more harm than taking control of the narrative and asserting Dem policies to fix them.
You should not, under any circumstances, concede that crime is up when in reality it is down.
Completely agree. But denying any issues (how I interpreted the previous post) does not help. Issues should be acknowledged and discussed especially in circumstances when policies that are being enacted are addressing those issues or alternatively how this admin is making them worse.
It was never about denying that things exist, but about sticking to the facts. Crime is not on the rise, immigration is not a huge problem, so there's no reason to take emergency measures like they're doing. Stick to facts. If you want to e.g. lower crime (as one does), find out what actually works.
I agree w/ you that this admin has fabricated the problems to take emergency action and we should stick to facts But my initial comment was that in areas where there is discussion/concern addressing and conceding at times (if true) can be positive if coupled w/ policy compared to denying any issues
Eeyore-ass Opposition Party
Me, a Dem voter, “immigration is good and I want more.”
Republicans have figured out winning and as Obama said, "winning has consequences". If Democrats want to win again, they're going to have to get out in front of issues and not always play from behind. It really doesn't matter how "correct" you are about an issue if you have no power.
Legit the most helpful money Harris could have spent would have helpful explainers on how a calendar works.
Or a Constitutional Amendment moving elections to January.
💯 THIS
YES AND THIS IS TOTALLY BIZARRE!!!!
This.
Or that he lied when he had COVID and then gave it to Christie and his own staff and could have spread it to Biden. He lied either about testing before he went on that debate stage or he lied that it was negative.
And seems to have been against masking because it messed up his makeup
1. Why were the only senators who took this seriously in January 2020the ones who did insider trading on it? 2. Why, THE ONE TIME shutting down the border was actually justified, did president Tough On Border do nothing?
Trump threaded the needle of trusting the science enough to prevent rhe worst outcomes of a world without the vaccine/major opening without vaccine but enough to poison the discussion of science for decades ti come.
Hard to forget Trump suggesting we all drink bleach www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-u...
My university was fully remote for a year because Ron DeSantis wouldn’t let us open back up
@schatz.bsky.social seriously, Brian, could you please get your head screwed on straight and talk to people who actually know what they're talking about like Dr. Caballero or @gregggonsalves.bsky.social instead of morons like Esoteric Jeff?
He won’t hear you, he stopped posting here much when he got roundly criticized for sticking with Schumer in March. Predictably being on X instead now has him agreeing with people like the RCP guy whose company he apparently prefers to people on bluesky.
Can we all just reflect that the most successful thing Trump did was Operation Warp speed? Bannon, for years, worked to undermine the legitimacy of 1/ Covid itself, 2/ masking, 3/ vaccines —& platformed anti-vaxxers like Malone, (former) feminist author, now conspiracy theorist, Naomi Wolff.
I didn't know bars were "liberal-coded institutions."
Its the ratios of IPA handles to shitty domestic ditchwater lagers
The Dems made them wear masks because children, people in poor health & a pandemic was raging where millions were dying. Oh boo-hoo. I can't ever trust government again. Then Dems made sure a vaccine was available so we wouldn't get Covid. How dare they try to save lives. Propaganda.
And this is why I just unsubscribed from a bunch of email lists that ask for donations that go to ActBlue. Donations are spent on expensive political consultants who keep moving the DNC to the right. They won't get a dime from me until they jettison these consultant hacks.
Also they're using some of the most left/progressive names in the party to solicit donations that then go to this expensive, pointless, court-the-moderates bullshit that moves the Overton window to the right. AOC. David Hogg. It's maddening.
Trump, in 2019, begins the press conference by suggesting he’s “just asking a question” if you’re “totally into that world” That world was Ivermectin, ultra violet light, disinfectant injections. He also suggests going out into the sun: light and heat as cure. youtu.be/lFKQGGf1iiI?...
Dem leadership needs to be fired. They have led us into the abyss. We face the possibility of civil war, domestic terror and other violence both from the ruling party and from the regular people who resist. The Democrats brought us to this. They have failed on every level and can't be trusted.
Everyone needs to vote in the primaries! Just replace any of them that are this out of touch.
Schatz is having his brain cooked by nazis on Twitter. He needs to detox before it's too late. I'm serious.
Respectfully, Schatz did no such thing. He is commenting on the shambolic response of a *myriad* of health agencies during Covid and how this inculcated a reflexive loss of confidence in government agencies. If anything, he is intimating a more effective CDC is warranted.
Accepting that only Dems have agency and the Right are fragile unaccountable babies. Him indulging that right-wing hack Sean T is a good faith actor and not a Trump supporter is also not great.
Next plague we should let them gather in their masses & catch whatever & die. No big deal they are gagging to meet their maker let them go 🤷♀️
But if they bring a minor with them, they go to jail.
it’s the disconnect between those who know MAGA from organic, real interactions and those who learn about MAGA via Op-Ed’s, pundits, focus groups, and (worst of all) Senatorial colleagues.
The Covid vaccine that saved millions of lives is worse than the Iraq War in terms of destroying public trust because the right successfully engendered deep paranoia about it in order to keep the pandemic going and hurt Biden. They killed Americans to hurt him. This is our fault?
Shit. Up 'til now, Brian seemed relatively immune from Consultant Cancer.
You haven’t been paying enough attention on his covid commentary from the past half decade
This is our trouble. Instead of purposely installing consultants, LISTEN and speak with Voters. Personally withdrew activism, donations and messaging until our party changes, starting with leadership. Freeing up space for young progressives to take the lead.
you do not in fact have to hand it to Sean at RCP
Dems lost a close election driven largely by an anti-incumbent bias that affected elections worldwide. To read this as a mandate for mask-off fascism is to make the same damn mistake that Republicans are making right now. Americans hate the fascism.
Uh, Politico? Our own Senate Dems falling for it, geez. What a bunch of horseshit.
Schatz is proving himself to be just another sucker who would rather be the Washington Generals than risk winning a game…
He's not a "sucker", he's a fascist
Schatz seems like he's a moderate Dem and is using things to make him look better than he is. Remember the last thing he made the news for on standing to Trump? He voted for that budget bill anyway.... he's more useless than Schumer and Jeffries.
The explosion of medical disinformation was the measure of the GOP's panic over donold's dual failures, 1) to develop a domestic test and 2) trusting Xi to contain COVID. The bullshit machine had to be cranked in overdrive to cover for donold face planting
Yes. This. AND 3) Biden’s *successful* rollout of the vaccine in 2021 meant the vaccine itself had to be demonized. Tucker Carlson and Fox News started on this in spring 2021.
Trying to figure out if there's a difference between the standards and operating conditions to run a place where adults can go to buy a drink, and a place where every child in the state is taught and supervised for 40 hours a week
People would see weddings and birthday parties going on, which turned into super spreader events and often times people fucking died, and full grown adults would say WELL THEN WHY CANT MY KID GO TO SCHOOL!?
Exactly. That an adult could have decided *voluntarily* to go to a bar for a drink doesn’t mean our kids, teachers, and staff—many of whom live with high-risk family members—should have been *forced* to accept prolonged risk of exposure, especially before vaccines or N95 masks were widely available.
Can’t help but wonder whether a bar could eg let 2-3 people in at a time for 10 minutes each in a way that a 25-student classroom can’t stagger attendance while providing every student with the appropriate number of minutes of instruction per day
They needed to make alcohol easily available during covid in part because people are addicted to it and they can die without it. But this whole narrative is very strange. The first thing you SHOULD do in dealing with a deadly virus is close schools. I’m sorry but that is a wise course of action.
Yes, and also it’s possible to continue providing alcohol in ways that are SIGNIFICANTLY safer than literally any possible way to keep schools open and classrooms full Especially if you’re insistent on not taking even the single smallest step to clean the air inside those full classrooms
That’s another thing that just guts me. Some schools around the country used the time and money to put in the preventative HVAC. It made a huge difference when the kids went back. So much could have been done! If not for the finger-pointing nut cases.
My building did that. Made such a difference when we came back in the fall.
You can buy booze in grocery stores in most of the country. It's absurd that my SiL had to teach middle schoolers on Zoom while I could go out to have a beer, even if it was outdoor seating only.
Almost as if there is a public health difference between spacex seating outdoors vs crowded seating indoors.
No, what’s absurd is that you clearly don’t believe your sister in law’s health was worth trying to preserve instead of forcing her to encounter 150 potentially infectious students a day, five days a week
There were measures that could have been implemented to mitigate risk (like improved HVAC to facilitate better air circulation), which would have made childhood education (which is way more essential than bars) less risky, that weren't. She agrees with me there.
I am with you on the fact that bars should not have been open for in person events; I know that a decent number of bars here actually were able to do carry out with proof of age and ID, and we did a very slow reopening process based on % positivity.
One of my sisters is a teacher, a single mom and covid fucked up her health big time—she has to work and support a whole family on her own STILL. Now she has uncontrolled high blood pressure and diabetes —she got immediately after covid. Yes, she lives in a red state. NO TIME OFF WITH COVID.
And then a lot of bars set up tables outside and stuff to create a little distance! Which, again, not gonna work for schools.
IMO it was as simple as: this building generates tax money, owner donates to campaigns, it stays open. Because money is more important than people.
No, it was public health, because cutting an alcoholic off cold turkey can kill them A child whose entire cohort simply spends the following school year getting assistance dealing with the trauma of a pandemic while ensuring they are caught up with the grade that was cut short doesn’t die of it
Plus bars in the 50th state were closed for a year. www.khon2.com/coronavirus/...
Bars in Hawaii are largely OUTDOOR spaces omg
Public health officials did make mistakes due to polarization. Obviously many more mistakes were made by the right based on partisan rejection of scientific authorities which are often ignored. Ultimatly the person most responsible for politizing and seeding distrust in covid reaponse was Trump.
JFC
🎯 This is the only rational response
I feel like he stayed on Twitter too long. He thinks he’s seeing popular opinion there.
“The latter understand what’s going on”.. This seems to be true of almost anything FS
Dems don't know how to take their own side in an argument. Exhibit 1,048,038.
That was the radicalizing, red pill moment for “conservatives”? Who was president then? And what groups of people elected him? On what year???
@velshi.com did a great segment this weekend, focusing on Schumer and Jeffries --- and people took him to task because apparently both of them have done *so* much behind the scenes .. Yah, my reaction, too. Thanks Ali!
It's amazing how consistently you can tell who is living in the Nazi Bar Twitter bubble based on how they talk... Democratic Senators frying their brains into smithereens on X the everything app!
Oh man Jeffy is still on his bullshit huh? For a minute he was nevertrump but more fun to keep yelling at the libs
The Democratic Party has moved decidedly to the right, leaving a lot of their voters behind. And they've done this in part because they see Republicans as friends and colleges, Israel as a valued ally, trans people as too weird, and immigrants and immigration as unworthy of defending.
Exactly. I'm infuriated with myself that it took me until 2025 to realize the Democratic party will NEVER protect us from fascism. They will always be more concerned why the murderous bullies don't like them than whether people are safe.
It's always been a battle, but in 2024 they really made it clear they weren't going to anymore, I think.
EXTREMELY clear.
Part of it is a desire to chase disenchanted Republican voters, part of it is their class interest that aligns them with conservatives, part of it is a commitment to the security state and a willingness to enforce even bad laws instead of challenging them, and part of it is just bribery.
Among other bananas aspects of what Schatz is saying here, we now know that the George Floyd protests did not increase the spread of COVID! This has been studied! The protesters were outdoors and very likely to wear masks. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
The foundational principle of all political discourse is that Republicans are never responsible for anything they do or think. They were always forced by others into doing or thinking all of it.
Huh? Schatz is pointing out dumb responses; we had the same thing in Chicago, Lightfoot let bars reopen, but kept the beaches closed. And Trende is a man of deep faith (all of it bad), & Schatz shouldn’t engage him. But saying that’s how some ppl felt (true) & it doesn’t justify RFKJr is awful why?
What I see is a vague policy complaint being used to launder the dubious analysis that blue city COVID responses drove both a significant local reorientation to Trump and the sudden embrace of RFK-style antimedicine by distant red state voters
Can you send me the links? Because if you saw all that it’s from somewhere else.
The democrats voters who understand are former dem voters.
The pandemic led to the protests, which were the natural consequence of economic and racial inequality. They were not competing crises. Dems lack that basic clarity in response to a complaint like this and then wonder why BIPoC aren’t voting these days. FFS
“Worse Than The Iraq War.” That time we were all lied to, protested en mass, had a literal Muslim registry, AND the legislature gave the president the power to declare forever war. That is a bananas fucking comparison
Maybe Schatz isn’t tuned into the same shitshow we see- Republicans are a political movement protecting fascism.
Fucking idiots.
Remember when he and @chrismurphyct.bsky.social were aligned and making videos? When did the fork in the road happen?
They post exclusively or more than bluesky on X, simply because they love X and Nazis. It's the same for all of them, No matter who they are.
What "liberal-coded institutions" is he referring to? Hospitals? Pharmacies? Grocery stores? Those were the only institutions open where I live.
Look if Republicans say that liberals made them do something, we have no choice but to believe them, because, since when do Republicans ever lie about anything?
"You guys made me take horse dewormers, because I couldn't go to church during lockdown." Yeah, I'm sure it has nothing to do with 20 years of Fox News telling people trickle down economics is real, and your personal vibes and opinions are just as important and valid as science.
No, we made them take hydroxychloroquine first by telling them it was proven ineffective at treating or preventing COVID-19, and *then* we made them take ivermectin the same way, by telling them it was ineffective at treating or preventing COVID-19.
Next we should em drinking bleach is super ineffective at preventing brainrot.
Clorox/Red Bull collab.
we know damn well that if someone came out with bleach that didn't taste or burn like bleach, they'd be drinking tons of bleach right now
And if my Republican friends are saying something that isn't true, what's the harm in humoring them?
I mean, whachagonna do? If I don't do & say what they like, they won't like me any more, so, you know, got to stay principled by abandoning principles.
And if they stop liking me, then the donor class will stop giving me money. Which I'm sure everyone agrees to be an unacceptable outcome.
Shatz and the other dude are full of shit.
and they were wearing masks outside.
The GOPs calculated messaging coupled with the Covid response is clearly connected to current GOP public health decisions. I don’t think Schatz acknowledging some of the issues with Covid response and that these (along with GOP messages) undermined trust in gov’t equals right wing brain rot.
Biden wasn’t president when BLM was marching. The majority of what they call lock down happened under trump.
📌
I’m so tired of the “we over-reacted” nonsense. We had one of the worst, under-whelming responses to the pandemic, and histories are going to record that fact for future generations all over the world. “Americans cared more about being inconvenienced than about the lives of others.”
That’s because you’re a fucking retard, Max.
I’ll vote Dem but I’m completely disillusioned at the impotence. Can’t believe Nancy Pelosi running again. Much of this mess is on her starting with blocking adding Supreme Court Justices and turning on Biden. @housedemocrats.bsky.social @senatedemocrats.bsky.social @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social
Schatz represents one of the bluest states in the Union. Why does he feel the need to pander to the right with this BS?
Because the Democrats are starting to like the feeling of authoritarianism
I wish they were only 'starting'. The Dem estab. is conservative, and has been drifting that way for, oh, about 40 years. Primary them *all* in blue states, and win districts in red states w/out their help. GOP can't be defeated w/out dumping these assholes. They are literally in the way
We really need to clean out the rot.
Because Dems think not doing that is what lost them the election.
Because he feels safe
He’s on the leadership track
Schatz is one of the biggest disappointments in the Senate. He turned out to be total quisling trash and a corrupt moral coward after initially having some social media savvy as far as Dem senators go.
I honestly didn’t expect this.
He was iffy before, but when I saw his response to the fires in Hawaii, and his refusal to listen to or meet with indigenous leaders I knew he was bad news. He found the nearest right wing business owning Native and used him to say it was fine for tourists to return much earlier than was expected.
about as disappointing as Warren’s “military occupation of DC is a distraction” bit
That’s dumb too, I don’t think she’s in the same category as he is.
I did. This is how it always goes. Same thing happened with Fetterman, would have happened with Ironstach, and is currently happening with Gavin Newsom. How many times is Lucy going to yank that football before you get it?
Ok. He had been pretty consistent up until recently, not like this
It happens when Democrats don't vet people. The DNC let's any asshole run, especially in "easy" dark blue states.
The biggest influence on Schatz was Schumer - he fell in line. Dem leadership prefers the new Schatz over the old one. Vetting is not the issue here, leadership is.
Vetting is also constant though. People change. But leadership makes the first decisions and Schumer fucking SUCKS.
They absolutely do vet their people. “Will you accept massive political contributions in exchange for helping corporations and harming the world?” If yes, you get their support. If no, they’ll bury you in shit.
This is a bit much. The guy has fallen off, but he's been holding a public office since 1998, and the red flags have mainly been in the past year. Perhaps it's possible people change over almost 30 years.
I’ve wondered if it’s a deliberate shift to the center in advance of a presidential run. I was following him closely when he was leading the effort to raise awareness of climate issues, but his moves this last year have been disqualifying.
That would make a lot of sense. My most charitable interp. is that it was *meant* as a good-faith effort to bring young (mainly white) men further left, but he woefully (and disqualify...ing...ly(?)) mishandled that as: "shift to the center and abandon those values and people." Very disappointing.
But what the fuck is this? Let's be an anti-vaxxer Covid conspiracy nut to run for President? 🤡
Are you familiar with what the word "disqualifying" means? Chill the fuck out. I'm saying the *best case scenario* is that he was an idiot about a reasonable goal, and *even in that best case scenario* I am *agreeing* with you that he's no longer acceptable.
Pretty bad if that's a conscious decision that some shyster "advisor" is probably advising on. The conventional wisdom is utter trash in the Democratic Party 🙄
Holy yikes, Batman.
If any Democrat is "shifting to the center" to run for President, that needs to be the immediate end to their political career.
progressivepunch.org/scores.htm?h...
Agreed. He was actually a pretty strong fighter for awhile. I find the shift disappointing
Fetterman has literal brain damage. He should be removed.
Oh, okay, a bot or troll farm account. No one even mentioned Fetterman. We've all been too busy AGREEING with the overall point that Schatz has made himself unacceptable, and somehow that has driven you into a blinding rage.
Now you chill out, I was responding to this:
...that's not in this branch of the thread, my dear friend. Normally your reply would be to that comment.
And you feel the need to police my shit for some reason.
Schatz has been there awhile and wasn’t like this.
Fetterman ...
Schatz is trying to protect access. Geezus. My liberal church was closed. Maryland was closed. We weren't out there cooking up whatever. The garbage pile is getting so damn high.
Wait, “liberal-coded spaces” is a protest over a man being summarily executed by the police? I’m so tired.
None of them deserve peace.
I’d like to see more media examination of whether crypto donations are moving the needle on this by smuggling a lot of right wing ideology into the room with these people via a tech money donor class that Dems have typically viewed as comparatively nonpartisan despite its recent hard-right turn.
It absolutely never fails that these reactionary centrists decide to blame the left for the radicalism of the right. It’s easier than confronting the issue head on because they’re cowards.
They're abusers. "Look what you made me do." Every one of them thinks like that.
They're opportunists.
Nothing more American than wanting to kill people in schools, I guess.
It looks like he (Schatz) blamed bars being open - COVID non-mitigation - from these screenshots anyway. Unless you are going with the other three being Democrats? Somehow?
"It is impossible to justify the government position" Is the key indicator that no, he most certainly is not blaming bars being open. He's signalling his 'reasonableness' by criticizing the COVID response, the classic centrist tack of "I will criticize my own party positions to show Im bipartisan"
meh. The only government position he described as problematic was bars being open while schools weren't. Half the screenshots here don't even have Democrats in them. Just standard GOP stuff for... reasons?
(sorry, two thirds of the screenshots)
Yeah no, feel free to ignore the "this was a red-pilling moment" and "the damage was incalculable" parts of this exchange. Context here is important.
Oh, I do. Kind of the best plan for RCP.
Wealthy, politically active folks (donors) lost their shit during COVID when their kids had to stay home. Did it hurt socially and was there some missed learning? Yes. Mostly it just inconvenienced them and they blamed the govt. They don't consider the alternative: more death.
What's so infuriating about this particular example is that Schatz knows better.
This shows why Mamdani is meeting such success in NYC: he understands the voters’ concerns instead of delivery consultant-driven “talking points”. We need many more like him.
Problem is, Dems have lost the reins. Til 15 years ago, they were nearly exclusively in charge of "left" opinions. And then Social Media, Jon Stewart, John Oliver, Bernie, and the sins of Dems as well Their response to this is not to move idea'ly, but shit like Chorus, and attacking "Socialism"
Schatz has by far been my biggest disappointment. Fetterman was always a loose cannon but I used to admire Schatz.
Same. I had no idea he was doing this crap
I don’t think he was before… he changed in the last year.
Brian Schitz
The Democratic Party needs to fire all Democratic Consultants and hire Democratic Messaging Experts! 😬 They need daily, coordinated messaging that the voters agree with instead of this craziness. @housedemocrats.bsky.social @senatedemocrats.bsky.social @kenmartin.bsky.social @democrats.org
No, they need to listen to actual voters and the people
Exactly! I said messaging experts that the voters agree with not the 1990’s old school political consultants.
Or they can just do what Mamdani does and go to talk to voters.
It’s just this post over and over … bsky.app/profile/juli...
It is fundamentally wrong to blame liberals or government for RFK Jr.’s murderous beliefs. He has been anti-vax for a really long time. MAGA hates being told what to do and hates the idea of ever having to care about the common good. Once they saw they would survive the pandemic they went nuts.
his own family denounced him
It’s unbelievable. HE was antivax and America had a problem from this before covid. The world had a (smaller) problem with this. But it didn’t become a consolidated thing until Trump and covid. WHY do people always blame anyone with fucking common sense for EXTREMISM. Extremism just happens!
Once they heard it was killing black and brown people in NYC more frequently than white they heard their prayers for a racial epidemic had come true and hit the accelerator. The nuanced fact that they were less likely to have work from home jobs was too complicated and they ran off that cliff
Florida got more PPE than requested. Blue states had to smuggle it in on secret flights or Trump would have the Feds steal it.
They literally tried to kill us and dipshits write articles trying to scold the left/dems for not being nice enough to them. Absurd.
They were nuts even when they were dying of COVID
Denying what they were dying of to their dying breath
It’s their reaction now that’s the problem
“Once they saw THEY would survive the pandemic they went nuts.”
It’s purely a class divide that’s only grown wider with the advent of social media. The politician in America is now a distinct class with its own info spheres and cultural practices that have alienated them from normal voters in a way only comparable to the richest people in the world
They genuinely think that their role is to work towards their own class interest (which aligns with the richest donors and the esoteric idiosyncrasies of their culture such as polling (from the right sources) and opinion pieces (from the right sources)) and that the role of the voter
is to regularly rubber stamp their work towards their own betterment at the voters detriment. While this has always existed in some way, it is now the defining sub cultural mindset of their world
Burn this party to the ground, imo. Salt the earth upon which it stood. Until then, we’re stuck with being led by a bunch of losers dedicated to dancing for the donor class that doesn’t have a real problem with fascism right now.
Also, schools were open, they were just “working from home”
So we’re churches. Online & distanced services were still being held. The entire argument that churches or conservative spaces were singled out is a purely bad faith argument or merely delusional, one of those two.
What does Schatz not get about fascist and religious anti-intellectualism? Is he so ignorant of history and agenda of the far right in this country since the 60s. It has always been reactionary.
The civil rights era pissed them off. Counter culture ditto public education unions gay marriage Equal protection under the law offends them Then we elected a black man to be Pres...twice.
This seems everywhere all of the sudden for no reason, almost as if the right is looking for another distraction.
We're careening towards Labour UK in the US. The conservatives have fucked their turn at ruling so badly that a bunch of unworthy mediocrities owned by crypto are going to be ushered into office and govern like it's the 80's again, as if that's what their voters want
You know, the first 50 to 100 times conservatives insisted they radicalized because the left made them, I thought they had a point But now, I'm starting to suspect that they're doing in bad faith
I was radicalized to the left by how fucking unhinged & bigoted the right is. They literally want me & my whole family dead so, ya know, it’s survival to oppose them at this point.
Yeah i got sick of that BS in 2004.
the first 500 times in 2013
A bit weird that they don't want to hear what bill kristol is telling them
Comrade bill being better than whole ass dem senators is so crazy to me
Schatz hasn't posted on this site in 2 months--for a guy who used to be aggressively online--he seems to be afraid to respond to good faith criticism of his actions (such as rolling over to let Trump pass his bill). Instead, just posts on the site where replies are from catturd fan boys.
In what universe were ‘liberal-coded institutions’ opening while churches were closing during COVID???
Just will leave this here (the revisionism by @schatz.bsky.social is so awful):
That is not something I remember? But I do remember we needed to close the schools if we didn’t want everyone to get covid.
in the U.S., multiple public health people wrote op-ed after op-ed in major newspapers making this argument. They also made the same argument on social media, tv interviews etc. We 'needed' to close the schools because local and state governments wouldn't close other facilities.
It made sense to close schools. Covid spread through schools. We had no vaccines. People talk like over a million people didn’t die and millions more weren’t disabled. Or like we had all this knowledge in advance. Or it wouldn’t have had a big effect on society if we’d ignored it. My kids are OK?
And a lot of schools could not even stay open because too many of the teachers and support staff were sick.
Yes, exactly. What good would it serve ‘the public’ to make all workers desperately ill? Everything closes. Even if they recover, we’ve then got HUGE waves of illness to deal with, insufficient hospital beds, a shortage of care. Medical workers getting PTSD from watching so many people die.
Dem electeds stop trying to show bipartisan understanding by lending credibility to reactionary fever dreams. The infection & mortality gaps between red states & blue states are undeniable (minus the initial surge in blue cities), and those gaps got significantly worse once vaccines were available.
It is as if Senate Minority Leader Schumer & House Minority Leader Jeffries enjoy their roles in the minority so much they are doing everything in their powers to ensure that continues in the next Congress.
Dem leadership isn't powerless to change things; their pockets are full, and they have a vested interest in keeping the status quo. They also benefit because the other party draws the ire. To change anything would not be in their interest.
How else can they keep fundraising against the threat of the GOP?
Have you seen the video Chuck just posted of himself happily eating yogurt at the state fair? True tone-deaf leadership right there.
No. Plain?
Some Chobani special flavor? Of course, it's a corporate brand. www.facebook.com/senschumer/v...
Where is he blaming BLM marches?
Wild thought here I know but maybe their refusal to get off Nazi Twitter is contributing to the brain rot.
it definitely contributes to and accelerates the brainrot, but they were already like this before elon twitter. placating conservative imaginary grievances and working within the confines of their donor's rules has been the party's m.o. for my whole life
What’s maddening is it’s all warped retroactive thinking. At the time most people understood we were doing our best with the information we had, but the post-lockdown discussion has propagandized our actual memories.
Exactly. People were dying all over the place. Nurses were wearing garbage bags to protect themselves. Morgues were overflowing. They did the best they could with info they had to save lives. This discussion infuriates me.
Same. Collective insanity fueled by a media that is incapable of serving its duty.
jfc... it's like a NY Times pitchbot parody: "Why Democrats are responsible for Trump using RFK, Jr. to destroy America's public health system. Why couldn't they just let millions die to save America?"
It seems like Dem messaging on this needs to be more KISS & focused: “RFK Jr.’s attack on CDC shows he’s trying to take away your healthcare. He’s trying to tell you what vaccines you and your family can get. He’s not a dr, but he’s trying to tell your dr what to do.” 1/x
Simpler than that: RFK Jr is a charlatan who wants to kill your kids. Then make more ads like the one with the baby coughing to death and JLo in it so parents are good and scared.
Yes, exactly!
High info voters who understand value of CDC & public health & complexities of COVID response aren’t the people to reach right now. They already get it. Bringing up the past unfortunately gives MAGA ammunition to diffuse focus from the true urgency of what this means *right now* to people. 2/x
I think the more people hear things like, “Do you want to get COVID vaccine to help protect your loved one who has cancer? Well, too bad, RFK Jr. says you can’t do that now.” We know MAGA are hypocrites on health/body autonomy; they’ve proven that re: abortion. But non-MAGA public wants choice. 3/x
Co-opting what MAGA tried to do during COVID on choice. Plus pointing out public health is about protecting whole public so why isn’t admin monitoring for XYZ diseases anymore? Point out all that has been cut & ask people if they are OK w/ensuring food safety themselves. Etc. End
People were getting extremely sick and dying. NYC brought in refrigerator trucks for extra morgue space. We were not mad about schools closing. We didn’t know what the virus would do and didn’t want to risk children dying.
I remember the very early stories of the school principals and teachers dying. Closing schools seemed necessary at that point.
Right?! Closing schools didn’t make me mad Reopening them before there was a pediatric vaccine did Removing mask and test requirements without other mitigations did (and does) Refusing to add the vaccine to the required list did and does
Slightly disagree. I thought they were concerned that children would be more likely to spread Covid from school to parents and teachers and grandparents. They had so many parents staying home from work that it was pretty likely that parents could be available for child care. Smart? Who can say?
It was both. We were doing what we believed was the right move for children and adults at the time. And for the *most part* we did. Keeping schools partially closed an additional year here in Cali was probably a mistake. But a) it still likely saved lives and b) Cali isn’t swinging red!
It sucked but it saved lots of lives.
Yep
The senator is usually great. This, however, is a horrible accounting of events. Attempts to protect us from a terrible death deserve no apologies and suggesting otherwise is unwise.
Worth noting that “Sean T at RCP” is Sean Trende, Senior Elections Analyst at RealClearPolitics More than a few prominent politicians consider this disinfo peddler to be credible.
“The damage done by this is incalculable.” — Sean Trende, RealClearPolitics The actual incalculable damage would have been to keep the schools open, you disinfo-peddling simpleton.
Anyone who knows anything about alcoholism and addiction understands why bars stayed open. Schatz should know better & this is glib nonsense
I don’t know, obvs, but I do think there’s something to this—it’s not about party politics, more about just complete loss of trust in the healthcare establishment across many different constituencies. BLM had 0 to do w it but the baby formula shortage & AAP’s response sure contributed
I’m still mad people couldn’t understand that congregating OUTSIDE was safer. If they lost faith it’s because they wanted to
He and Fetterman need to be the first to go. I am done.
I live in Hawaii. Schatz will be reelected he actually responds to constituents and does regular phone and in person town halls.
Why is he so stupid? Do people like it there?
That should be the bare minimum.
I understood Natives were still pissed about his response to the fires. Has he made peace with them? Or do transplant Hawaiians not care?
Unfortunate because he sucks on a national level
Always have to remember Congress is not elected nationally hence politics are local
He is a fucking United States senator we are not talking about a rep with a district of maybe 50k.
His decisions impact everyone. Hawaii can do better and so can the country.
He’s not particularly loved here either, he just kowtows to the hospitality and military industries which control basically all the funds here.
That’s weird, I live in HI too and when we knew he was going to be a yes on the CR my friends, family and I all called nonstop and he wouldn’t even let his staff answer calls for the 48 hours surrounding the vote and went totally MIA. He’ll be reelected, but not bc he’s accessible. He’s a coward.
There were very good reasons for voting for the CR at that time.
Also, Politico is a fucking right wing hack job of a magazine. Its owner is all you need to know about Politico.
For the trillionth time, the entire Democratic Party needs to burn to the ground. Top to bottom, no one is spared. That’s the only way to get rid of this institutional rot.
A lot of this is just downwind from the fact that the CDC and public health institutions actually did a good job with COVID and America pundits and many libs and lefties on our side basically bitched about it and decided that those institutions should die. What can he do?
What's RCP? Republican Clown Posse?
guy who wrote that he thinks that “Scalia’s seat” *must* go to a conservative: covid policy is what made me an idiot
Awash in right wing money more likely
Mamdani’s win and the subsequent panic by the epistemically-closed, consultant-and-focus-group loving, neoLiberal corporate Dems (and the gerontocratic “leadership”) demonstrates this better than anything. Mamdani won BY 13%, and these clowns wanted to disown it.
If democratic electeds spent a third of the time trying to understand their own voters that they spend trying to understand republicans voters, the world would be a demonstrably better place.
@schatz.bsky.social is a total wolf in sheep’s clothing. He sold his soul to Schumer to get a leadership position while throwing actual Dems under the bus (see his yes vote on the CR which allowed MAGA to pass their horrific budget). He is absolute trash now.
The hypocritical that pissed me off personally was Newsom et al continuing with fundraising dinners while the rest of us were still being told to stay home, mask up and maintain 6' even outside etc. I guess if you stretch things that's a "liberal-coded" event but... nah
Honestly, Brian Schatz is dumb as hell, just a rock with a mouth
lol imagine this mark as dem senate leader
People that went crazy during the lockdown, were plenty crazy, racist, and fascist to begin with. Americans were not the people we thought them to be. We never seem to be able to come to grips with this yet. We live amongst some truly bad people who do not care about other fullstop.
What are “liberal-coded”institutions? Bars???
Remember the drive through strip club? Too bad no church innovated drive through communion
"Hello, my daughter Al-Ma is very sick and her life depends on your support right now. Please don’t ignore this, share the post and donate immediately. Every second of delay could cost her life."
I don’t remember that, no. Lord knows what I missed.
Wtaf??? What is wrong with them? Good god
These incoherent conspiracy theories there are just wild. I am shocked they're being exposed by someone with functional literacy.
There's awfully good money to be made in starting off as a Progressive or Democrat and then "seeing the light." Just saying.
Yep. Stone cold losers when it comes to something simple like messaging. For ex: I see a Kristi Noem commercial every 2 hrs it seems like bragging about Trump's fascist takeover. I dont recall seeing ANY from the Dems about Bidens successful infrastructure actions.
Democrats have always put faith in the belief that the American people, when they see how good programs improve their lives, will respond favorably. But this current environment consists of Rs taking credit for the good things the Ds did & blaming the Ds for stuff the Ds didn't do.
It is worth noticing that the people who died from COVID in their hundreds of thousands appear not to have influenced @schatz.bsky.social’s thinking or that of his correspondents. The Trump administration’s response as the virus spread in 2020 was the most serious failure of basic governance….
….in America’s modern history. State and local governments were left on their own, as the administration focused on getting Trump on television. By great good fortune research on coronaviruses that had started decades earlier made possible rapid development of an effective vaccine —….
….which Trump’s administration made no plans to distribute. Nor did it push back against charges from Americans influenced by Trump’s own promotion of quack COVID cures that Pfizer/Moderna vaccines were unsafe. That the death toll from this failure made so little impact politically is a wonder.
I don't know what's wrong with Rep. Schatz lately but he continually "Schatz" the bed & I don't like his recent right wing veering
Hes listening to Dem consultants is my bet.
"Dem consultants" who are working for the opposition probably
I don’t understand how short people’s memories are and how they think there was any playbook for this global pandemic. Did everything go right? No. But we learn from it in case it ever happens again. We need to stop blaming local, state, federal gov’t when they were just trying to save lives.
There was a pandemic playbook that the Obama administration left behind for Donald and his minions and they threw it in the garbage.
Schatz's response of "I'm glad we're having a respectful discussion" gives the game away. He, and people like him, value comity with these people more than actual good policy or just outcomes. The worst sin to these folks is to be rude to people who think Dems cannot legitimately govern.
Um, Black people have faced a lot worse in this country than being asked to stay home during a plague and yet somehow the vast majority have never been "red-pilled" or radicalized. Y'all are exhausting.
Right on
there was definitely a strain of voter who was furious that the marches were allowed to happen but they couldn't go shopping at Costco without a mask. one person I remember yelling about it was tom nichols.
Ugh
A poor argument anyway on its own terms (comparatively) - in the UK the anti lock down people were marching a lot too
it was ridiculous on its face. maddening to explain to them
"Allowed to happen" meaning weren't met with the full force of the state (and the ensuing rights violations and lawsuits that brutality would produce). They were massive, justified PROTESTS. They were not acceding to what people in power felt was reasonable.
I agree — but they were like 'wE caN't gO to ConCERts bUt thEY cAn PrOtesT' it was crazy work. also trying to explain to them that most of the protesters were outside and wearing masks actually didn't create superspreader events like the Sturgis rallies... impossible.
Importantly, they were never going to those protests whether they were well-ventilated and everyone was masked or not. Which says everything about who they regard as part of their public.
they only have regard for themselves. truly depressing
omg apparently he's on a blocklist I follow but I just went private to see and he's STILL DOING IT
(excuse me for yelling) THEY WE'RE GOING TO DO ALL OF THIS REGARDLESS OF WHAT ANYONE DID OR DIDN'T DO WE SHOULDN'T HAVE VOTED THEM INTO OFFICE THIS WAS THEIR PLAN ALL ALONG.
Fact is Trump fucked up the COVID response on his watch so bad that it empowered this sub-class of anti-vaxxers to mythical status. To hear a senator buying into this bs is disturbing.
To me, these are described as “Corporate Dems.” They cater to corporate and donor interests while leaving the voters behind. If I criticize a Dem, this is why. They have lost sight of everything. They spend our small dollar donations on consultants. I want to be able to donate directly without DNC.
You can - just directly donate to the campaign of the candidate you like. Steer clear of PACs- all the PAC money goes to consultants.
When I try that, it goes to ActBlue. Isn’t that just another DNC account? The spam after I do that is relentless. If there is another way I’d be thrilled to know.
No… ActBlue is just a transaction processing platform that takes a 4% processing fee. They might share your info with DNC though so you may get spam requests for donations from DNC but that’s a different issue.
Do you know if there is another way besides through ActBlue?
It's up to the Dem voters to send a message. This means rejecting the business as usual candidates, and running insurgent campaigns. Every problem within the Dems could be overcome if enough folks showed up for primaries and we voted the bums out there.
📌
Anyone who was paying attention knew by the time of the BLM protests that being MASKED and OUTDOORS was basically safe. WTAF.
not only that but I remember clearly people acknowledged there was a public health risk in going out, but made the individual decision to participate. "this is hypocrisy" was entirely an R talking point that did not land any hits outside their cable news addled base
Unfortunately it also landed a hit on at least one formerly progressive person I know who’s now bought into the whole right wing nonsense regime on all topics
Sure they were actually progressive or just a white liberal/moderate?
Except among "Democratic" Senators five years later, apparently
Paying attention is not their strong suit.
A lot of staffer types get it, but most that do aren't at the fairly useless prestige consultancies.
People will find a way to bend reality to fit a narrative wherever they go. I don’t get Schatz. He seemed to be following Murphy’s lead in the senate, then voted for the CR, and he’s been pretty MIA since.
I have found him consistently awful.
What strikes me is the picture of people protesting shows them masked and outdoors, both things that lower your chance of getting covid.
Every sitting democrat needs to be removed and their AIPAC bag cut off. These people represent no one. Their own voters hate them and the people they’re desperate to please hate them even more. Third party is vital at this point
Brian and Chris and Cory all have brain rot. There are others but those are the first three that came to my mind.
It's what happens when you stay on twitter
Schatz like the vast majority of democrats don’t give a fuck about voters and simply want to maintain civility with their peers and make as little noise as possible while they continue to get paid, have great healthcare, get wined and dined, and insider stock tips.
TRUMP WAS PRESIDENT IN 2020! Why is this verifiable fact completely impossible for people to comprehend?
Its incredible. As plugged in as I am, youre spot on. They live in a bubble that needs to be destroyed. Its either that or we're done as a country/democracy.
We are done as a country/democracy. That happened when we elected Trump again and his pet SCOTUS gave him carte blanche.
I guess I should say, we have exactly one chance to preserve our democratic republic: the 2026 midterms. If we can get super majorities, we can fight in the court of law. If we do not, then I don't know what happens.
“It was in this moment that many of us hanging on to a thin sliver of trust in our institutions irrevocably lost faith in them.” Okay, Jeff. Sure.
This exchange is crazy and scary.
The bit from Behar about losing faith in scientists because a few did some rationalizations about BLM protest risks during the pandemic is some ridiculous blinkeredness, considering the shit he and his have justified over the years. Schatz is getting brain poisoned in realtime on twitter.
I hope that’s not what’s happening. But man. Some of these people seem to bounce all over the place.
Oh apologies for no alt text. It's a graphic of the USA showing school openings by state as of 3/21. Only Puerto Rico had a full closure. Most of the country was always open. By this point the few that had closed were either fully open or in some transition phase.
For the future, since it seems like you dont want to forget, there is a setting you can turn on that wont let you forget alt text.
Also there was only a short time lost in spring 2020, then after summer they tried to open in fall 2020 and almost immediately *had* to close because all the teachers were sick. It’s like everyone has erased what actually happened during that time.
The memory holing of what actually happened is remarkable.
He’s been the same far right Covid talking points since 2021 lol you just weren’t paying close enough attention
been spewing the same
Covid broke so many brains.
I don’t think it was Covid lol the dem leadership in Congress has been like this since the 90s
I think Twitter is accelerating the process far more than COVID did
Also the protests were in open spaces where the risk of COVID transmission was significantly lower than in enclosed spaces, and many of the protesters were wearing face masks.
You can’t take any of this seriously when it’s been the conservative main goal to destroy faith in government and the fact they will take every opportunity to do so, there is no correct move which will make conservatives go “wow, good job, that’s exactly what I would have done”
Seriously trying to remember-- was there a time when bars were open but churches were closed?
It was complicated, which that asshole refuses to acknowledge. At first we did not know what the death rate was or who was at risk. The US government was run by crazy people. Different states tried different things. After a bunch of people died from events, different things closed.
I’m in TN. nothing was closed at the state level, only health department by health department. Also, a lot of denominational churches closed at the organizational level but the cities/states were blamed.
In-person church services were known superspreader events! A bunch of people singing hymns together when singing sprays virus particles everywhere. Churches were allowed to and did do digital services via Zoom, streaming, whatever they could think of.
Sitting in the parking lot, drive through communion.
It infuriated me because as far as I could see, churches remained open when everything else closed down.
My recollection is that this varied state by state, which was the most frustrating aspect of life during Covid in the USA. There was zero overall consistency.
If that was your biggest frustration, boy are you privileged.
What? The USA had a poorly managed and inconsistently applied response to COVID, being frustrated about that is privilege? How?
if states being inconsistent us your biggest frustrstion that implies personal attacks on your health, watching people die with no way to help, etc dont apply to you.
I moved from Massachusetts to North Carolina in the middle of March, 2020. In Boston the streets were EMPTY, only thing you could see was flashing police lights periodically. In NC, all the NC State kids were renting party buses for St Pat's. It was jarring.
you think "the most frustrating aspect of life during covid in the usa" was the inconsistent stay-at-home policies from state to state?
There were widely publicized incidents, especially toward the beginning of the pandemic, of state governments being reluctant to order bars shut and thereby speeding the spread of the virus. They were often more responsible about church services — which in fairness involve activities guaranteed….
…to accelerate the spread of an airborne virus. Federal government messaging about what should be closed and when lacked clarity at the beginning, partly because of errors at CDC involving how COVID spread but also because Trump had discarded pandemic planning and chose to wing his response.
It is against basic human nature to be able to look in the mirror and admit: I am the problem. So much easier to come up with any reasoning that places blame/fault somewhere else. 100% of the time that reason is wrong.
This senior southerner Georgia voter agrees 1000%, Max. Huge disconnect.
The fact that about 80% of the country - including, apparently, our own goddamn senators - can’t remember who was president in 2020 is really starting to freak me out.
I think there’s something to this idea I’ve had in my head that Dem electeds and the staffer class have internalized GOP propaganda about them representing ‘Real America(tm)’ and this kind of pandering is because they resent relying on voters who they don’t think count as ‘Real Americans’.
Clearly. And it's largely because they refuse to stop using a platform designed to popularize white supremacist ideology and other right-wing propaganda.
That’s an exacerbating factor right now but imo this has been a problem Democrats have had since well before Elon bought Twitter.
there are too many Takes
many, maybe most people get their politics and their reality socially, so *again* if, like Brian Schatz (or Chris Murphy) you spend 11 hours a day on X, and the owner of X is pushing right wing nuttiery, well then what will start to leak into your social monkey brain?
Whelp.
💯! we want someone to fight these fuckers
I saw a lot of people (rightly) calling him out on this on here, glanced at the replies on X. There, he’s gotten very little pushback from our side on it.
That’s why he left BlueSky to go back to X. Rumour has it, he was whining about being called out on here.
They do this on everything. They cede ground. There is no need to.
