This is a problem however because they need to be where these people are because it’s going to get harder and harder to deal with this the longer it goes on. The time element is what is getting me.
Did stuff in the US Senate for a bunch of years. Fight the fucking fascists. Signal: @SenateGabe.33
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This is a problem however because they need to be where these people are because it’s going to get harder and harder to deal with this the longer it goes on. The time element is what is getting me.
The chicken has to be way better than it is for me to actually think it’s worth dining at. Like it’s fine.
I almost feel bad for them at this point. These are so clearly not the people they should be and I’m guessing a bunch of them know it but can’t bring themselves to openly admit they need help. Very upsetting.
As usual they are also having the same problem is they aren’t making clear demands either. They want to restore Medicaid? End pocket recessions? That’s it? What about the masked Gestapo army? Not worth talking about?
The fact they seem to believe a government shutdown is good for the fascists in charge of the government is what I do not understand. Maybe if your imagination is pea sized.
Lots of tidbits here. This party does not have what it takes.
I used to think Bernie's team was super insular because they were being cool and understood that DC is a cesspool. But now I mostly think its to protect everyone from figuring out just how much of an appeaser their boss is.
I can't get over how much weakness radiates from these people. I'm sure they think its super bold to call for Kennedy to step down but they should have not fast tracked him in the first place? And does this mean they thought he was fine before?
"In his place, President Trump must listen to doctors and scientists and nominate a health secretary and a C.D.C. director who will protect the health and well-being of the American people." We all know Trump is an antivaxxer too right?
Seriously why does Bernie always feel compelled to hand it to the fascists. He was very vocal he was really into Trump's border talk to even though it very obviously was a pretext for ethnic cleansing.
"Mr. Kennedy and the rest of the Trump administration tell us, over and over, that they want to Make America Healthy Again. That’s a great slogan. I agree with it" Ugh dude. What?
Well it requires his sycophant cabinet to want to remove him and then it requires even higher majorities in the House and Senate to remove him than impeachment/removal. So...
Dem criticism is likely why prominent Dems are fighting. Early this year, Dems were trying to work with Trump (e.g. Whitmer) and voting to confirm his nominees (including Noem and Rubio). Fetterman was overtly courting MAGA.
I do not want to walk through a tiled disco ball room to go to bed.
This looks like something that would be fun to see once or twice and then would be so annoying to deal with every other time.
Oh he does it publicly too? Great stuff.
Def.
Yeah I think that's right. And I think problems are complicated and solutions come from often strange places.
Back to the socialist thing. I guess I'm a socialist? Rings more true than being a capitalist. But it's not exactly my primary identity. If a politician was asking me for advice on a specific problem I would not necessarily tell them the socialist answer. To the extent there is one anyway.
Yeah I would make that illegal for sure hah. At least to the extent one can. It's not that my beliefs are centrist, they very much are not.
I think it is absurdly obvious that something very dramatic needs to happen to get the US on a better track, and it would be insane to think that can happen without some large systemic change. But just changing in itself doesn't make me think it will improve, even if on paper the system is better.
For me, systems are always imperfect. When we were a more serious "democracy" we had tons of authoritarianism. Just depends on who you were talking to. It was still better to be a democracy than not.
And I don't think it is required that someone who is a business owner has to act in a way that is bad for people in a decently well run society. Systems are powerful but they aren't everything.
A few people have asked me if I'm a socialist and I always need to pause and think about it. I think there are times where a capitalist structure has created a lot of things that have benefited people.
As people can probably tell, I'm not much of a revolutionary in the sense that I rarely believe that overthrowing systems wholesale do too much. A lot of how good a system is has to do with the people and the culture within them.
Oh they can be real. But a lot of people would not want to see that reality. I do wish with Schumer they would show him be an asshole more, which he is, just pointed in the correct directions.
Some of them though do truly have atrocious comms instincts and they need people to tell them firmly "no, do not do this". Overall I think everyone in the office needs to be engaged and working towards the same stuff.
A lot more of them are doing this lately. I will say with my former boss, once she got more actively engaged with her own presence, it really did change things dramatically. We were often competing with each other for writing the most engaging content. Changed the approval process dramatically too.
And that goes for a lot of members too. A lot of these members in the right environments would probably be perfectly fine. No system will ever succeed if it relies on extraordinary people everywhere always. But the environment is crap and so they are crap.
There are tons of people out there who absolutely 100% have the skills to do this really really well. But if they are treated like disposable cattle in an assembly line, there is no way they can put their own skills to good use.
But I do think the members need a lot of say in their own messaging. I think that is an extremely reasonable thing they should want. That comes from building good relationships over time and valuing people who can help.
They DEF need to actually value it like a discipline and not a pure engineering "Oh I looked at a graph and it told me to write xyz to win the rubes" equation. That's step one.
Yes look ultimately if it is actually is a democracy in any form whatsoever, the people who put the leaders there bear some responsibility for their behavior.
Instead Schatz has decided that the best approach is to hide in the comfort of posting on a website controlled and manipulated by a literal nazi.
I agree with all of this, but I have to say that part of the responsibility also falls on us as Democratic voters for being willing to nominate and reelect, repeatedly, such incapable mediocrities.
Yes at least Schumer posts here and takes the massive L lol.
The clearest example of this is when he asked questions at the hearings with Zuckerberg. There was a lot of talk because he was young and hip or what have you that he was going to perform a lot better than the old geezers. Instead he talked about emailing in Whatsapp.
Oh and he HATED it. Folks like him used to be able to speak wherever they wanted. College graduations, wherever. Think he can do that anymore? He wants to be loved.
To be blunt, none of the senators are aware of how little they know about how to run a communications operation in government. And a bunch of us continually watch them lean on the worst people for advice on how to get better in a way that honors basic values.
Oh this is not a Schumer defense thread whatsoever lol.
Also just as an aside, this is why I have such massively low confidence in @schatz.bsky.social becoming leader and shaking things up in the way I know he thinks he will. I'm sure he just thinks he's smarter and less in the pocket of Wall Street and that's going to fix the party's problems. No way.
Just as an example, Bernie's office bugged him and Reid before him about buying a ton of high end communications equipment which they did and it was all almost exclusively used by Sanders office. In fact, it played quite a role in his rise on social media. Not what most people expect eh?
I think Chuck's staff first and foremost is terrified of displeasing Chuck Schumer or doing something that will cause him to hear they did something that draws attention to him in a way that he doesn't like. But he does also have some flexibility in things. He's down to try stuff.
It certainly does not help that the people at the top do not understand very basic things about how systems work. But they have very talented IT people at the top of the ladder who would have been easily able to talk them through it. But they don't know what they don't know.
There is a balance here. You can't listen to feedback all the time and in a place like Congress, people got their own agendas that need to be contextualized for why they push for things. But the "ignore the pleebs as much as possible" position is not working for leadership or the rank and file.
But it wasn't their idea and maybe if all these staffers suddenly knew stuff they would ask for more things heaven forbid. Such a difficult decision.
This one was so fucking stupid. I honestly couldn't believe they were putting barriers. I literally never suggested projects that they did not benefit from substantially. The wiki was going to be hosted on their own servers and administered by them for chrissakes?
For all the talk about corruption and donors and blah blah it really does matter a lot what is happening in the actual building still. And the culture is just so oppressive, so unopen to collaboration and new ideas. It's playing a huge role in whatever the fuck they are doing now.
One of my final projects that I never was able to accomplish because of how annoying Schumer's office was being was creating an internal wiki so that newbie staffers could more quickly get onboarded with all the amazing tools available in Congress for telling digital stories. Barrier after barrier.
Another example. If I wanted us to bring in a speaker to talk to the caucus, the old leadership was really easy to do this with. They would be happy that I suggested something. The new crop would pretend there were scheduling conflicts and I'd have to do massive pressure campaigns.
As opposed to me saying the same thing, but having to be even more cautious in my words, and then getting back "Thanks Gabe! Will take a look!" without any followup.
And if they are cool they will say "Thanks for telling me, I'll try to do better next time and maybe you want to come talk to our team about this issue?" Progress!
This manifests itself in different ways. For instance, let us say Schumer's office sends crap talking points. If I have a good relationship with their person sending them, I can say "Hey, these aren't very good. Are you sure you want to focus on this? Lots of folks don't like this."
That really matters because in the senate, there aren't many spaces for digital people to exchange ideas and improve. And each individual office's resources pale in comparison to Schumer's insane budget. But then those people left and new folks came in a lot more hostile to collaboration.
His current crop of leadership is particularly bad. But it wasn't always like this and that matters a lot. When I first got to the senate, they were often incompetent but they did a very good job listening to feedback. Was a LOT more give and take.
Just having worked with Schumer's office a bunch on comms reform specifically, it's a bit different than people think.
Going back to Jeffries and Schumer, they aren't doing so hot right now. They like being in charge but they aren't exactly having a great time being so hated. It's stopped them from doing a lot of the things they normally enjoy. They also could easily change this situations for themselves. But alas.
A known fact is that during Stalin's purges, the purgers would frequently enjoy borscht beforehand. There has been no evidence that borscht is enjoyed in Trump's inner circle. Therefore Trump is nothing like Stalin.
This presents a problem because the democracy coalition isn't going to develop its obvious advantages over fascists if it runs like a plantation system.
The staff capacity issue in Congress is def a serious problem. They pay and treat the workers like crap, which means the place is staffed by 22 year olds. And a lot of them aren't yet jaded by the system but they lack the understanding needed to operationalize the things they know need to happen.
It certainly would be nice if the culture of the party allowed for staffers or members to say "hey guys, I don't know about this" without being sidelined once in a while.
I tried to directly tell my own boss and the office called the Capitol police on me so 🤷♂️. Stubborn assholes lol.
Johnson can't be president or anything but I actually think he's one of the best leaders they had in awhile. He loves to play up the "aw shucks gee wiz, I'm but a bible reading southerner" shtick but he's quite the political operator.
;)
Despite this, I think there are plenty of ways their dispositions can be directed in more productive ways if the landscape itself changes. And I also think people really underestimate how just a few smart rogue forces in Congress can dramatically disrupt the culture of the place.
As for the Democrats, nothing is self executing. This particular crisis has shown even when faced with an existential threat that challenges their OWN freedom and possibly life, they will not change their own patterns.
When people tell me Vance would be worse and that’s why we don’t impeach I don’t understand them at all. After an impeachment he’s going to be worse? That makes zero sense. If Trump croaks, that’s different. But also there is zero chance any of this starts getting better as long as he is in office.
I want to be super crystal clear that I do not think by any stretch of the imagination that Trump dying will fix things. And I’m very vocal for impeachment specifically because I want him to be removed for clear reasons that make clear the behavior itself was unacceptable.
When he took down his Trump 2024 flag he had obnoxiously hung over the courtyard, it seriously felt like the Berlin Wall had fell. Fuck that guy.
People gotta stop trying to play 4-D chess and just deal with whats right in front of them. They overthink this bullshit and that is what gets them into trouble.
Also people don’t often know how things will make them feel until the very last second. Maybe I had some foresight because I had been watching through my window how my MAGA neighbor had been throwing things at the wall and yelling at the phone. Fucking awesome lmao.
There isn’t a point to this story other than to say everything doesn’t need to suck all the time and even knowing literally everything I do now there would have been zero reason to be depressed by news that Biden was going to win.
And then predictably when he won for real, most of those folks took a bunch of selfies of themselves out in the streets celebrating. Also none of them are currently in prison. Could still happen but it’s almost 5 years out.
“Does it even matter without the senate??” “He didn’t win by that much.” And I looked at them like they were nuts and said “What the fuck are you talking about? If he lost we’d all be going to prison within a year. We are upset about this?”
Here is a true story from the Hill. Right before Biden’s victory was called I hosted a zoom with all the senate digital directors to shoot the shit. Everyone was super somber even though they knew Biden was about to win.
Look I am sure that a bunch of the people in the techbro camp jumped with joy at Vance because they thought they had the fascism bottled up forever. That is what they think. And I say that's nice.
He's very obviously not that impressive and there are a lot of things beyond being a terrible person that determine if you can actually be the leader.
I just cannot understand for the life of me what planet people are on with this stuff. "Careful everyone, don't get too excited" Jesus man.
Let us say for the sake of argument that even if Trump dies Vance will turn out to be a super awesome fascist that allows the Fourth Reich to prosper for 1000 years. You think I'm going to be sad when Trump croaks??
That place has a lot of random people with guns walking around on a good day.
If DC is complaining about how insane the troop presence is you know it is bad.
They don't want some sanitized theme park, in large part that's basically what DC already was. They want destruction and collective punishment. They're are terrorizing DC, and want to do the same to other big cities, simply because it's overwhelmingly Democratic. That's the goal.
Business at DC restaurants and bars and the like has plummeted. To whatever degree crime is "down," if any, it's because people in MD and VA are literally too scared to come into DC, and those in DC are being terrified into staying home and off the streets as much as possible.
This is exactly why I stopped listening to NPR during the first term. Just couldn't stand the hosts letting the most absolutely insane lies stand with little to no challenge or correction. Have never gone back, except for listening to classical MPR and @thecurrent.org
He's younger than Donald.
Whatever would we do without elite reporters allowing their sizable but diminishing audiences to hear pure lies with an occasional friendly interjection.
"I just want to clarify something you just said. LA would not be standing if not for these federal deployments?" Great clarification thank you good reporter sir.
I honestly still don't understand why DC reporters don't report stuff like this. It tells you far more about who these people are than anything. Which I guess is why they don't do it.
Something like this. I am aware this is for a Chinese person but I believe the distinction was lost.
My one story with Guliani is secondhand but a reporter told me she was at Mar A Lago and he just randomly approached her and started doing the most racist possible impression of the Japanese prime minister.
It is plain for everyone to see that Trump doesn't care about the law. But not caring about the law doesn't mean that you get to press buttons and magical things happen.
The people in this era have been doing well at prediction are very familiar with the mechanics of government. The ones who have done terrible are the ones who look at laws and precedents and extrapolate from that.
I do not understand why the NY Times will write an article saying "Wow, this science thing is sure autocratic" and then go out of its way to tell everyone that actually things aren't so bad.
Yes, no one in science has ever compared Trump with the World War II era's leaders". Great point NY Times.
I'm not sure who mini Goebbles is. Stephen Miller? Strategic? That is not how I would describe him at all.
Virtually everyone who has come in with the belief system that they are the ones in charge of the situation are forced out in short order.
People control him in the sense that they generally study how he acts and weaponize their access to enact their own agenda. But he is still the center of the vortex and everyone's strategies, maneuverings, and negotiations revolve around his whims, moods, and wants.
I have never agreed with this and still do not.
It's very easy to portray opponents this way. And insanity isn't a clinical term. But even still, I think there is virtually zero boundary to his behavior.
It is telling to me that often his closest advisors have zero idea what he is going to do or how he is going to do it until the moment he does something. Even the people closest to him do not understand his own actions.