If you find yourself thinking "but R's said this, and D's said this, and it's not clear that the media will side with-" stop, just stop. You're already forty steps ahead of the normal person. All they'll think is "huh, the government is shut down, wonder why the republicans did that"

Not only are they not taking yes, but in a world where people at least want a show of bipartisanship, if not the real thing, Trump is actively telling Democrats to go to hell. Doesn't come off well!

I will say, this is Schumer's and Jeffries' shutdown plan working I thought it made no sense because the demand was so minimal and easy to meet but in the case where Trump and the GOP refused to take yes for an answer, the Democratic message is both popular and easy to repeat in a single sentence

I honestly think Hegseth's & Trump's little performance getting met with stone silence from the military brass the other day has rattled them all. They know they don't have popular support within the military itself, and their power is more transient than they're comfortable with.

The Department of Education changing everyone's OOF to blame Democrats for the shut down is giving huge "this is awesome and we think this is going to go great for us" energy.

The unwillingness of political reporters to lean their head out the window to tell if it's raining has never been more damning.

willing to bet a week's salary that IF all of this goes down in the next few days and IF there is an emergency case against it that works its way to SCOTUS (high probabilities, both!), they are going to shadow docket this bullshit into existence, regardless of how outrageous this really is.

aaaaAAAHAHAHAHAhahahahaha ... I told a friend just a few days ago that they are 100% gonna tell Congress that the Venezuelans they blew up were unlawful combatants, and that's exactly what they're doing. lololol. they are clearly TERRIFIED of this shit getting pegged as illegal somehow.

at my old job we saw at least a half dozen young men in our office who either lost their apartments or their cars after getting into app-based sports betting, and the speed with which it strikes *that deep* into their lives would shock you. we're talking just a couple weeks worth of bets doing this!

We looked back on the "backlash" against American Eagle ads featuring Sydney Sweeney and her "great jeans." Right-wing media declared that liberals were outraged and thought the ads were racist -- even the White House joined in. If you thought that story reeked, you'll want to see what we found.

people asserting that the CEO of this website literally has no soul/consciousness/inner life because they disagree with a moderation decision are *insane* and do not represent me as a transgender woman who uses this site

the nuclear block makes it nearly impossible for guys like him to actually derail discourse at will they way they could on Twitter. I'd like to see him banned too but it makes it much less pressing.

I think Singal deserves to be banned *but* caving to the mob when he has not actually done any new bad acts on this site (afaik) probably doesn’t set the best precedent. Ultimately you have to move on when a site makes a moderation decision you don’t agree with, that’s what the block button is for

like, they probably should ban him, but it is not in fact evidence that the GasCo on 44th st. (not its real name/location) hates trans people and in fact would love to see us all murdered and the owner/operator has no soul or internal life that they didn't! that just isn't true! it's not a thing!

He's lashing out hoping that they do what he wants. He's trolling basically and it's all pretend. It's phony bluster. His entire existence is phony bluster. Behind the scenes he's not happy. Behind the scenes we have mike johnson admitting he's insane on video lol. That's what's REALLY happening.

I give 'the people' a lot of shit but this is a reminder that the Holy Stove can impart deep, lasting lessons

Didn't really take long for young men to figure out they're the ones on the menu, huh

there actually is a faction of "woke" who think woke [we used to call this social justice, or whatever, I'm just calling it woke, sue me] should be about making sure all of the levers of society that implicitly discriminate against minorities are flipped against different, Actually Bad minorities

additional read i'm not totally sure on: the Bluesky team might be "posting through it" specifically to present people with a target they can throw their virtual tomatoes at i figure they know at least as well as i do how this stuff works

My read: people deeply believe that sharing a platform with "bad people" makes them a "bad person" by association, and they can only feel good about themselves on a platform that bans everyone they personally believe is a "bad person", e.g. Singal They yearn for benevolent dictatorship

Feds: Molon labe

This implies *at best* that ~40% of Trump’s 2024 supporters can’t get behind the idea that democrats are at fault for this. These are disaster numbers for republicans.

feminism looks like women building missiles and drones trans rights looks like trans bank executives immigration justice means immigrants being in charge of call centers and not just working at them

KAMALA HARRIS IN 2024: What you’re going to hear tonight is a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025 that Trump plans to implement. TRUMP IN 2024: I have nothing to do with Project 2025. TRUMP IN 2025: I’m meeting today with the architect of Project 2025 to implement it.

They’re scared. “Could be in the thousands” is an enormous walk back from Vought’s threats.

“Could be thousands” means “might be hundreds” and neither is Vought’s threats of demolishing double digit percentages of federal employees.

For the record Bade still hasn’t presented an argument for saying the Dems are responsible for the shutdown she just said it and then responded to the backlash to her saying it Peak tell me you cut your teeth in RW media without telling me

the longer this goes without there being an actual trap the more likely this scenario is

if we are really lucky we are going to get terrible You Fools Fell Into My Trap messaging from the WH and also have there not be an actual trap

Punchbowl is literally a GOP leadership mouthpiece. Useful if you want to know what GOP leadership is thinking, completely worthless if you want to know what's actually happening.

I mean the thing is Thune & the rest of Congress LITERALLY control what Vought does since they are the sole branch with budgetary powers. OMB which Vought heads, merely dispenses the money Congress tells them to dispense.

A lot of political talk online only makes sense if you assume that people honestly believe there's a "Make Everything Better" button that Congress is wilfully refusing to push.

400 year history of American racists accepting worse outcomes for themselves in order to visit what they believe to be even greater harm against marginalized people? I’m afraid I’ll have to let that bet ride.

"Of course I voted for the rainbow fascist Kkkopmala Holocaust, but the Democrat party should have done more to actually earn votes" sounds an awful lot like "I didn't actually vote for Harris, in fact, and I really want more people to give me absolution for what I did."

I also think the 2024 election makes a lot more sense if a lot of voters honestly believed that if they sat out the election, the election would go to "No President" and both sides would have to run someone new.

I’m going to say something that’s an offshoot of this, because this website loves getting mad at The News™️. A lot of you, and a lot of power users, do not know the difference between reporting, analysis, and editorials. Most of the outrage bait is opinion/editorial/“analysis” not reporting.

If you are following the story of The Pentagon's new policy, nicknamed, "you must check with us before you dream of doing any journalism," you may enjoy this update from @status.news

The problem of access journalism is that you tend to become whatever access you have.

right now I think the filibuster is load bearing for allowing (misinformed/foolish, imo, but sincere) voters in red states to believe that certain more extreme things will be stopped *by* the filibuster and thus it's "okay" to vote for someone with certain views

all this is true but it's ALSO worth noting that, while I absolutely agree they would do a lot of harm almost immediately, the Republicans know that this will come with enormous cost for them too because then they own the entire thing and I think it makes even safe seats endangered for them

And again: might be worth it when we have Dem governance again but let’s be clear eyed about the trade offs. Because I absolutely worry a lot of accounts who loudly champion this now will shamelessly switch to “why won’t useless Dems stop this bad stuff???” immediately after

“What would they pass that they haven’t already?” - I mean as an absolute basic starting point, before we get to stuff like abortion restrictions, I would point to the stuff that filibuster rules stopped them from passing this year, including a shit ton of stuff targeting immigrants & trans people

“Actually the filibuster isn’t an impediment to republicans who don’t have legislative stuff they want to pass anyway” has been a comfort myth for a while

One almost gets the sense that Republicans are more worried about what Vought will do than Democrats.

Thinking about old military ads. "Be all you can be", etc. They sold an idea you could do something honorable, learn, improve, serve your country. Not saying it was accurate, but it was an ideal. Thinking about the quality of recruits that will join when the appeal is "Kill ppl & break things"

like, Hasan Piker getting taken offline will be a true-to-god bonanza for online progressive politics because he is the singular source for SO MUCH of the most toxic groupthink that infects the Very Online Left.

there's absolutely not a single doubt in my mind that he is eventually going to say something that WILL get him rightfully de-platformed & demonetized on a permanent basis, and it's going to be one of the best days ever for the online progressive media environment we currently exist in.

OOOH, I remember this one! and believe it or not, he's had a lot of takes about sexual violence that are even worse than this. he's basically endorsed mass rape by soldiers / fighters as a weapon of war many many MANY times.

Fuck this guy. NO rape is ok. Not to poor kids at a community college or rich daughters at an elite college. If he thinks he’s being clever, he’s not. He’s still being a rape apologist but justifying it for rich daughters.