Jan 20, 2025

A Question


Why is his left hand not on the bible?

I don't know that it makes any difference in any real sense, but generally, your left hand goes on the bible - or the Baghavad Gita - or Mad Magazine - or whatever the fuck you think might impart a little sense of gravitas to the occasion, or convey to onlookers that you actually mean what you're saying.

C'mon - WTF, Donny boy?

And a purple tie? Purple - as in what - royalty?

You think this isn't going to be one fucked up ride?

We have 651 days until the Mid-Term Elections. 651 days to slug it out with a soon-to-be entrenched administration, that I think is absolutely bent on hot-wiring this thing so they can drive us over the cliff into a full blown plutocracy.

Today's Driftglass


Ode The The Low Information Voter

Because I know you are so very very busy
That you have no time to know anything at all
I will keep this brief.

I know you are far too busy driving Chinese toys and 
Cigarettes and
Pressboard furniture across the continent 
To pay attention to anything
Except double-clutching and yellow lines, and
The radio,
Which is playing Hannity and Rogan and Savage and Levin and Beck and 
Shapiro and
Kirk and 
Savage and
Prager and 
Larson, and, of course,
The game, and
Maybe you have just enough time to stop off in that Ohio diner and 
Tell to the New York Times foreign correspondents 
Permanently stationed there
About the caravans of illegals and
The price of eggs and 
Shoplifting in San Diego and yet
You are also a single mother
Raising nine kids and
Working nine jobs who
Has no time to think about anything except
Making correct change and getting the order right, and
Who is up and who is out on the Masked Singer, and
Can you believe the bullshit judging on Dancing the the Stars, and
Dropping in on focus groups to explain about how tariffs work, and
The illegals making houses so expensive, and
Why Kamala Harris cannot be trusted,
(Did you know that she slept her way to the top, and
Her father is a communist!) and
You remember hearing something about January sixth or
Maybe it was the seventh, whatever, 
You're not exactly sure what, but
Strangely you are also 24 and a dude and have no girlfriend,
Which is fine, really, fine, because you are just crazy busy all the time
With...stuff like Call of Duty and GTO and Diablo 4, and
Your shitty job where customers ask the stupidest questions, and
Bitch about everything like you're Mr. CVS, and
How come fucking Joe Biden will pay off those rich college fuckers bills, but
Won't make weed legal in your state, and
Someday you're going to be making real money with MMA
Because you practice your moves in your garage, but
It's hard to relax when everything is so fucked up, like, uh, like,
Y'know the price of stuff and crime and shit, and 
What we need is a badass MMA guy to kick some ass because,
Respect, gotta have respect,
Chicks go for that like magnets, and
You remember hearing on Twitter something about 
COVID being a scam, and somehow 
You're also a retired couple, living well, but 
You hear all these things,
On the news, and
It's all so bad,
So, so bad,
Never been so bad,
Sure you're doing ok, but out there, just over the horizon,
The country is in ruins, and
Unemployment has never been higher, and 
DEI caused the California wildfires, and 
What's going on on college campuses which is just shameful, and
Inflation is out of control, and 
Crime gangs run the Blue cities, and,
The government is giving all our money to moochers and foreign wars, and
Everyone knows Biden was being controlled by you-know-who, and
Do your own research because everything is out of control, and 
It's never been this bad before
Ever.

Hey, Elmo

High as a fuckin' kite.


Ketamine is a hell of a drug.

[image or embed]

— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) January 20, 2025 at 11:07 AM

I Tried

I didn't try all that hard you understand - but I tried to watch the inauguration. I did - I tried - kinda.

What I managed to hear of Trump's speech was the same old bullshit.

"I'm gonna do this, and it's gonna be great."
"I'm gonna do that, and it's gonna be great."
"I'm gonna make them do this and that, and it's all gonna be great."

Blah blah fucking blah.

Jan 19, 2025

Spelling It Out


Cruelty is the point,
the whole point,
and nothing but the point.

And once they're done with "them",
they'll be coming for you.

Today's Quote


I knew him better than even his family did, because I bore witness to the real man - in strip clubs, shady business meetings, and in the unguarded moments when he revealed who he really was: a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist.
--Michael Cohen

Jan 18, 2025

Remember This


The last paragraph from Jack Smith's report:
"The Department's view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government's proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind. Indeed, but for Mr. Trump's election and imminent return to the Presidency, the Office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial."

A Resolution


I'll work hard to stay hopeful
that Americans will someday
hang their heads in shame
as they realize
they've defended evil,
and ridiculed heroism. 

What To Do

  1. Don't help Trump in any way - zero zip zilch nada
  2. Make Trump responsible for every bad thing that happens - anywhere in the world.


Shove the Presidency Down Trump’s Throat

Liberals spent the president-elect’s first term trying and failing to kick him out of office. This time out, they need to turn the White House into a prison.

The most recent entry in the “good advice for Democrats” canon comes from occasional TNR contributor and Bulwark writer Jonathan V. Last, who wrote, “The job of the Democratic party comes in two parts. First: Do not help Republicans. Not in any way. Second: Make Donald Trump own every bad outcome that happens, anywhere in the world.” True enough. The only problem here is the lack of an organized Democratic Party to actually serve as an aggressive opposition party. We could use one of those!

Nevertheless, there is a lesson here for liberals that we should perhaps heed while Democrats in Washington debate how supine they want to get for the incoming administration. During Trump’s first term, much of the mainstream left organized itself around the idea that “this was not normal” and that surely our over-regarded system of norms would save us from Trump. And so deep investments were made in various quick fixes—an impeachment effort and the Mueller investigation chief among them—that seemed to offer the hope of prematurely canceling the Trump presidency, without much regard for how difficult it is to actually oust a president (or for the decades of evidence suggesting that our justice system routinely fails to hold the rich and powerful to account, more broadly).

A second Trump era offers the opportunity for a change of course—a second reckoning of sorts. I think that Last is on to something when he suggests that Trump’s opposition should force him to “own every bad outcome that happens, anywhere in the world.” I’d actually take this a step further. Rather than exert so much energy trying to thrust Trump out of the presidency, liberals would be well served to spend their time thrusting the presidency upon Donald Trump. Instead of searching for illusory quick fixes for the existence of the Trump administration, start demanding the Trump administration fix everything quickly.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the sample size of one Trump presidency and his four years out of power, it’s that Trump is a bog-standard rich white guy whom the justice system is largely incapable of bringing to heel. He has powerful friends (oligarchs, Supreme Court justices), deep pockets, and a well-tempered ability to joust in the media. By now we’ve watched ol’ Donny “wriggle out of this one” on multiple occasions; he seems to thrive if you put him at the center of something he can deem to be a witch hunt—even when those hunters bag their quarry, as prosecutors did in his hush-money case.

But Trump has historically faltered when he’s been forced to contend with the actual pressure of the presidency and its myriad responsibilities (see also: the Covid-19 pandemic) because his ideas are bad and he doesn’t have a deep and abiding interest in public service to really make a sustained effort to confront, let alone solve, the biggest problems we face.

President Barack Obama found the presidency to be an exhaustingly taxing job, so much so that he famously went to somewhat mind-blowing lengths to limit the nonpresidential decisions he had to make in order to stay keen enough to handle the toughest of the choices on his plate. Trump, by contrast, mostly showed up late to work and watched cable news all day. Had the coronavirus not emerged as a global threat, he might have made it through his first term having not felt the pressure of the job at all. In his second term, it should be the task of liberals to force Trump to swallow a daily spoonful of the very real job stress that Obama struggled so mightily to endure.

To get there, liberals need to get into the business of identifying the problems that real Americans face (which honestly, is something they could stand to relearn how to do) and more forcefully blame Trump for those problems’ continued existence. They need to raise a hue and cry over everything under the sun that’s broken, dysfunctional, or trending in the wrong direction; pile line items on Trump’s to-do list, wake him up early and keep him up late. Every day, get in front of cable news cameras and reporters’ notepads with a new problem for Trump to solve and fresh complaints about the work not done.

What pitfalls lie ahead? It looks like there will be rough economic headwinds in the form of a potential housing crisis and a labor shortage, for starters; another potential public health crisis looms in the form of bird flu (and probably his own Health and Human Services secretary). There is a real possibility of a market-slaying tech-bubble burst on the medium-term horizon as well. There will also be pitfalls that arise from Trump’s own policies, beginning with the fact that his mass deportation scheme will likely torch the domestic economy. Beyond that, there will be the typical crises of American life—economic predators, polluters, corporate scofflaws, and public health concerns—that Trump has either shown no interest in helping abate or has personally empowered via the decisions of his plutocratic-minded Supreme Court appointments. Democrats should already be planning to hang all the foreseeable albatrosses around his neck, and gaming out how they’ll swiftly nail Trump to the wall for the crises that catch him by surprise.

For certain, Democrats can be grateful if he actually makes good on any of his “I alone can fix it” promises. (Or rather, they can take credit for having goaded Trump to get off his ass and do his job.) But as I’ve suggested before, in advice that Last echoes above, Trump should truly be left to solve these problems on his own. He’s claimed a mandate and congressional majorities, so let him (and his fellow Republicans) figure it out, with Democratic votes on offer only if massive policy concessions supporting Democratic Party interests are included.

Not for the first time will I point out that none of what I’m suggesting Democrats do is outside the norm of typical American politics. I’m merely suggesting that Democrats compete on the same political playing field that Republicans already occupy, instead of waiting for some more favorable terrain to reveal itself. (Which, by the way, it won’t.) Democrats need to have an aggressive and coordinated media strategy involving all of their members, surfacing derogatory information about Republicans, enumerating the problems they’ve failed to address, and filling the news hole with fresh complaints. They need to show real backbone and take pride in their refusal to participate in enacting the GOP’s policies.

Right now, in these heady moments prior to his second inauguration, Trump’s second term could not be going better for him. Over these last remaining loose and responsibility-free days, he’s been able to imagine himself achieving epochal accomplishments—annexing Canada or buying Greenland. Trump has been free to bask in the unknown possibilities of what’s to come. Immediately after he’s sworn in for the second time, that fantasia will fall away and he’ll be responsible for solving a planet’s worth of problems.

It’s always been something of a mystery why someone who was making it in America as an idle rich celebrity asshole abruptly changed course and decided that what he really wanted to do with his life was to become responsible for an entire nation and its problems. Howard Stern famously warned Trump prior to his first run that he “only had about 10 good years left before he starts to drool on himself,” and it was best he spend it at leisure rather than subject himself to the constant slings and arrows of being president. There’s no doubt in my mind that the version of Trump in the parallel universe where he took Stern’s advice is a lot happier. In this universe, liberals would do well to find creative ways to make Trump regret his choices.

Don't forget the promises:
  • End the war in Ukraine
  • End the war in Gaza
  • Remove the SALT cap
  • Eliminate Dept of Education
  • Reduce gas prices
  • Reduce grocery prices
  • Deport 10 million immigrants
  • End birthright citizenship
  • Pardon all Jan6 convicts
  • Release Epstein files
  • Release JFK files
  • Release 9/11 files
  • Tariffs and Trade Wars
  • Take Greenland
  • Take Panama Canal
  • Take Canada
  • End EV "mandate"

Nothing's Changed

Why do "liberals" dislike MAGA? And why have so many decided there's no use in continuing a relationship other than what's the bare minimum (if that) with their MAGA friends and family?


From Sons Of Liberty, here’s a partial list of items that the majority of anti-Trump voters say honestly express how they feel about Trump supporters:

You saw a man who owned a fraudulent University, intent on scamming poor people, and you thought "Fine."
(https://www.usatoday.com/.../trump-university.../502387002/

You saw a man who made it his standard business practice to stiff everybody he ever traded with, and you said, "Okay."
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hotel-paid-millions...

You heard him proudly brag about his own history of sexual abuse, and you said, "No problem."
https://abcnews.go.com/.../list-trumps-accusers.../story...

When he made up stories about seeing Muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center, you said, "Not an issue."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../donald-trumps.../

When you heard him brag that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and you wouldn't care, and you exclaimed, "He sure knows me."
https://www.usatoday.com/.../president-donald.../4073405002/

You heard him relate a story of an elderly guest at his country club, an 80-year old man, who fell off a stage and hit his head, and Trump reacted with:
“‘Oh my God, that’s disgusting,’ and I turned away. I couldn’t—you know, he was right in front of me, and I turned away. I didn’t want to touch him. He was bleeding all over the place. And I felt terrible, because it was a beautiful white marble floor, and now it had changed color. Became very red.” And you said, "That's cool!"

You saw him mock the disabled, and you thought it was the funniest thing ever. https://www.nbcnews.com/.../donald-trump-criticized-after...

You heard him brag that he doesn't read books, and you said, "Well, who has time?" https://www.theatlantic.com/.../americas-first.../549794/)

When the Central Park Five were exonerated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn't commit, and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, "That makes sense."
https://www.usatoday.com/.../what-trump-has.../1501321001/

You heard him tell his supporters to beat up protesters and that he would hire attorneys for them, and you thought, "Yes!"
https://www.latimes.com/.../la-na-trump-campaign-protests...

You heard him tell people at a rally to confiscate a man's coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold, and you said, "What a great guy!"
https://www.independent.co.uk/.../donald-trump-orders...

You've seen how he curries favor from a parade of neo-Nazis and white supremacists, refusing to condemn outright Nazis, and you've said, "Thumbs up!" https://www.theatlantic.com/.../why-cant-trump.../567320/

You hear him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise him and his accomplishments, and you said, "That's the way I want my President to be."
https://www.huffpost.com/.../trump-insult-foreign...

You've watched him remove expertise from all layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industries they're supposed to be regulating and you've said, "What a genius!"
https://www.politico.com/.../138-trump-policy-changes...

You've seen him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you say, "That's smart!"
https://www.usnews.com/.../how-is-donald-trump-profiting...

You've heard him say it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was in the middle of water and you've said, "That makes sense."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../the-very-big-ocean.../

You've seen him start fights with every country from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and quote, "falling in love" with the dictator of North Korea, and you've said, "That's statesmanship!"
https://www.cnn.com/.../donald-trump-dictators.../index.html

Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1500 kids, opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas, saying "they’re just animals” - and you say, “Well, OK they shouldn't be here anyway.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/.../more-5-400-children-split...

You've witnessed the myriad other manifestations of corruption, low moral character, and outright animalistic disregard for you, the working American voter, and you still show up grinning, and wearing your MAGA merch, and threatening to beat up anybody who speaks against him.
https://www.americanprogress.org/.../confronting-cost.../