someone told museum staff to cover up the plaques for fear of what would happen if they didn’t. Indeed, one of the plaques contains the words diversity, equality and inclusion.
Pfeiffer says it’s a sign of the climate of fear right now in the nation’s capital as the Trump administration targets federal agencies such as USAID and the Department of Education.
They’re an intelligence agency. They could do something about it…
Politico is owned by Axel Springer, the German Rupert Murdoch
About as right wing as you can get without being Alex Jones.
From 60 Minutes to Politico, I like how they’re all crying election interference of an election they claim they won by a landslide.
What exactly was the interference?
Your receptionist’s name is Barbra, right?
And on the receptionist.
I know you’re being rhetorical, but unfortunately the farmers affected probably wouldn’t read WaPo, anyway.
I remember talking about this with several suppliers at an industry conference last year. And about farm hands suddenly not being available.
Turns out the Trans people they’ll never meet and the abortions they’ll never have were more important than keeping the family farm.
But they’ve reported actual facts about T&M. That cannot stand!
Is the Transgender Day of Visibility also determined via the Computus?
Yet snarking and mocking people (“Ha ha. This is what you get for not voting. I hope you’re happy.”) because of Trump’s ethnic cleansing is absolute poison. I know people who lost their entire families in Israel’s war and couldn’t pull the lever for someone who in practice was promising more. I also know of incredible Palestinian rights activists - Angela Davis comes to mind among MANY others - who DID vote for Harris because they thought it was tactically smart given Trump’s total barbarism. Folks who didn’t vote for the Dems shouldn’t fault these comrades in the slightest either for what was a wrenching choice. And I’ve seen some true friends and comrades - people I guarantee you’ve heard of and deeply respect for their decades of commitment - attacked viciously for making this choice and that needs to heal as well.
But that’s not what I want to talk about. I want to talk directly to the resistance progressives attacking those who did not vote. You are saying quite loudly “This is YOUR fault and it’s what you deserve.” My God, the cruelty. First, those are not the words of someone who will be part of a movement to defend Gaza in the months ahead. It’s toxic, like blaming the victim for being beaten by a bully’s violence.
Second, did people see the below item at the end of a long story yesterday about Trump’s depopulation plans? In a casual way, it is revealed that Biden had been floating something similar to Egypt privately and was rebuffed. So now we know that the actual choice for people fighting for Palestinian liberation was an open, bombastic, terrifying plan to depopulate Gaza and a private plan to do the same thing. Now that we know this, the liberal argument completely falls apart.
These “resistance” folks truly need to figure out what side they’re on so we can build the trust and solidarity necessary for the critical battles ahead. I don’t know if can be built given the vitriol, but that’s the task.
Love to everyone the other day who went to the massive Treasury rally fronted by Dems and tried to get folks to protest Netanyahu just a block away at the White House. That’s how it’s done. That’s how you take steps to build a united front against fascism. That’s how solidarity works. But solidarity is a two way street. And attacking the people most devastated by Trump’s homicidal musings for “asking for it” is horrid and a recipe for our common ruin.
You go grrrl!
This is so myopic. The one-issue voters (or non-voters) who let Trump win ignored the fact that not only would he not make things better for Palestinians, he’d end democracy and try to oppress and wipe out everyone who isn’t a straight white cis male Christian Nationalist. They ignored it then and this Zirin person is ignoring it in his argument now. “Biden was bad too” is not an excuse.
In my opinion, for people worried about Palestinians, it was a no-win scenario- Trump is horrible but Harris also would have been bad. Sometimes that happens- sometimes you don’t get what you want, and there’s no way to avoid it. The adult thing to do in that case is not to take your ball and go home, it’s to vote strategically, for the best future you can manage, because voting is not a fucking game and there are real consequences for everyone, not just for whichever cause is most important to you personally.
I knew that I wouldn’t be getting meaningful progress on issues important to me no matter which way I voted, yet I still did my part and voted for Harris because I’m not a goddamn self-absorbed monster who is willing to let the world burn because I didn’t get my way on those issues. People who didn’t turn out to fight Trump did exactly that, sacrificing everything including the very cause they claim to care about, all because they couldn’t deal with not getting instant gratification from either candidate. Yes, the Democrats aren’t progressive enough, yes, Biden’s administration was supporting genocide, yes, our system is broken and corrupt, yes, some of us have been voting for decades and seeing things slowly decay instead of getting better, even when we win. NONE OF THAT EXCUSES LETTING A FUCKING NAZI BECOME DICTATOR! Despite all Zirin’s hand-wringing, this was NOT a hard decision to make, and they fucked it up. They have the blood of far more than just Palestinians on their hands now.
But my issue isn’t whether the rest of us should call them out for that behavior. Personally, I don’t care whether or not people choose to go online and scold them. My issue is that forgiving them, trying to build a united front with them, is dangerous. These people fucked up so badly, on an issue where the choice was so blindingly obvious, that I cannot see myself ever trusting them. They’re either too stupid or too unprincipled to be reliable, trustworthy allies.
There was a Reddit thread where conservatives were asking people on the left, “Is there anything Trump could do to win your support?”, and the answer was almost always no, because even if he completely reversed his position on everything, the damage he’s already done cannot be forgiven. I personally am of the opinion that some crimes or mistakes have such grave consequences and do such horrible damage that the people who commit them should not be given a second chance- that what they did showed us who they truly are, and it can never be unseen. In my opinion, failing to vote against Trump during his second campaign is one of those.
I cannot forgive these people not because I feel malice towards them (although I admittedly do), but because I could not EVER feel safe around them or trust them enough to work together. They are absolutely the sort of people who will turn Nazi the moment the pressure is on, and I have no desire to intermingle with people who will betray us and sell us out- as far as I’m concerned, it’s not speculation that they will do this, they’ve already done it by letting Trump coast right into the White House, and they’d do it again.
This is why the moment I heard Trump had won the popular vote was the death of hope for me- not just because of the horrors that we were now guaranteed to face, but because of the realization that the majority of Americans, not just the MAGA, are complete write-offs and I’d have to be facing those horrors alone, with almost no allies I could trust or depend on.
accusing the body of “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting the US and Israel.
ICC to Trump:
i bought some and i am surreptitiously sticking them in the breakfast menus of the diners i frequent.
i will be making a rare appearance at the local Waffle House to try to get one pointing at the current surcharge on each egg in your breakfast.
i am not a fan of WH, but i will suffer an overly-greased ham, eggs and browns (burnt) with super greasy toast and godawful drip coffee to be passive-aggressive in this matter. i consider the partial aortic clog to be “taking one for the team”. wish me luck.
But do you have to face them alone? And how much would that help?
I don’t know what your circumstances are, of course, but Zirin (a longstanding, respected voice on the US left, such as it is) isn’t simply “hand wringing” about whether someone who say, lost their family to bombs, which were supplied and cheered on by Biden, should be blamed for putting Tromp in office by not being able to vote for Harris (who, you’ll likely recall, didn’t allow a single Palestinian voice to speak at the Democratic convention, and didn’t show much of any convincing signs of fighting for anything better for Palestinians than a slower version of the kind of genocidal land grab that Tromp may just be more speaking more bluntly and openly about).
Zirin is instead out there protesting the current horrors, and his point is that in the struggle ahead, opposition to Tromp, Musk, etc. needs to be large, and relatively united. He’s focused on what to do going forward, and thus is arguing against the kind of weakening division on the left over who did or didn’t vote for Harris that some are still clinging to.
Zirin is protesting with all sorts of currently outraged people, and I for one am glad that he and others aren’t turning some away because they didn’t vote for Harris, or even for that matter because they voted for Tromp but not for these horrors.
I’m not trying to convince you, though. I understand that your mileage varies.
