DL Open Thread: Friday, November 4, 2022
Everything Falls Apart.
I think we’re there. I have never been as pessimistic about our future as I am now. And I’m a pessimist at heart: We’re all gonna die, right? The Big Lie has taken hold, aided and abetted by the Democrats and the media. You know, the ones who ‘soul-search’ after each election, then revert to horse-race coverage rather than covering the demise of democracy.
This is taking hold across much of the world. Check out the extreme coalition that has returned Netanyahu to power:
The coalition that Likud leader Bibi Netanyahu is riding back into power is the Israeli equivalent of the nightmare U.S. cabinet I imagined above. Only it is real — a rowdy alliance of ultra-Orthodox leaders and ultranationalist politicians, including some outright racist, anti-Arab Jewish extremists once deemed completely outside the norms and boundaries of Israeli politics. As it is virtually impossible for Netanyahu to build a majority coalition without the support of these extremists, some of them are almost certain to be cabinet ministers in the next Israeli government.
Netanyahu has been propelled into power by bedfellows who: see Israeli Arab citizens as a fifth column who can’t be trusted; have vowed to take political control over judicial appointments; believe that Jewish settlements must be expanded so there is not an inch left anywhere in the West Bank for a Palestinian state; want to enact judicial changes that could freeze Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial; and express contempt for Israel’s long and strong embrace of L.G.B.T.Q. rights.
It’s happening here–state by state. With a Supreme Court handpicked to ensure they won’t do anything about it. Take, for example, Wisconsin:
If Wisconsin Democrats lose several low-budget state legislative contests here on Tuesday — which appears increasingly likely because of new and even more gerrymandered political maps — it may not matter who wins the $114 million tossup contest for governor between Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, and Tim Michels, a Republican. Those northern seats would put Republicans in reach of veto-proof supermajorities that would render a Democratic governor functionally irrelevant.
Even though Wisconsin remains a 50-50 state in statewide elections, Democrats would be on the verge of obsolescence.
They’re already obsolete in Florida, thanks to the anti-democratic actions of DeSantis and the legislature.
You’ve got Rethugs running on the Big Lie. Some will get elected to positions that will allow them to destroy democratic norms.
Both the Democratic Party and the media have failed (or chosen not to) make this existential threat to democracy and fair elections the centerpiece of all this campaign.
We’re seeing the Big Lie repeated in other countries as well. Does anybody really think that Bolsonaro will just fade away?:
Bolsonaro, a former army captain, has cultivated strong ties to the military since his 2018 election, winning over the political sympathies of some of the top brass.
Like many politically conservative Brazilians, he has often waxed nostalgic for the 1964-1985 military dictatorship. Lula, by contrast, was jailed in the 1970s for protesting against the military government.
I’d mention Trump favorite Georgia Meloni of Italy, but the government seems to change there every month or so. Why is she a Trump favorite?:
“I can’t define myself as Italian, as Christian, mother, woman — no!” Meloni says in the clip, from a 2019 speech. “I must be citizen x, gender x, parent 1, parent 2.”
The clip, liked more than 200,000 times, went viral among Trump-aligned Republicans. And the reviews were fawning.
“So beautifully said,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
“Spectacular,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.).
“A model for Nov 8th candidates here,” said Steve Cortes, a former Trump campaign adviser.
Can anyone talk me down? Will someone please talk me down?
If everything falls apart, it looks more likely that Twitter will go down with it. Elon Musk is such a tool. Read. Enjoy. We won’t even charge you eight bucks. The Twitter human carnage has begun:
Mass layoffs have begun at Twitter, where reports suggest upward of 50% of the social media site’s jobs ― roughly 3,700 ― could be eliminated.
Employees received a message Thursday evening notifying them that layoffs were beginning, according to The New York Times. They were told not to come to the office on Friday.
Meanwhile, how pathetic is this?:
Author Stephen King summed it up succinctly in an exchange with Musk himself this week.
“$20 a month to keep my blue check?” King tweeted Monday to his 6.9 million followers. “Fuck that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.”
“We need to pay the bills somehow!” Musk responded. “Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?”
This could be the long-running schadenfreude we need to take our minds of the fact that everything is falling apart.
RIP George Booth. One of the greatest cartoon creators in the history of the New Yorker. Really liked this piece about what makes his work so funny. I’d be remiss if I didn’t close with this iconic canine:
https://twitter.com/doc_nad/status/888219269263224833/photo/1
What do you want to talk about?
“Can anyone talk me down?”
This election appears to be in the hands of relatively disengaged Dem voters who don’t really respond to polling, and who typically only turn out when Trump or Obama are on the ballot. I guess there is a chance that they will show up in spite of the Democratic Party’s ongoing efforts to bore them to sleep and keep them on the sidelines.
That slim hope is the only thing keeping me afloat right now. Is that helpful?
No. But thanks for trying.
The great thing about the repubs is they dont get irony or hypocrisy:
“I can’t define myself as Italian, as Christian, mother, woman — no!” Meloni says in the clip, from a 2019 speech. “I must be citizen x, gender x, parent 1, parent 2.”
This is exactly what everyone wants, to be able to freely say who they are and what they believe in. If a LBGQT person were to say, I’m an Italian, Atheist, queer, partner…” the repubs would go nuts, but if you say you are a straight, christian, etc they are all in favor.
For the current situation in Delaware, your above paragraph clipping on the dire position of Democrats in Wisconsin, it looks like this….
“If Delaware Republicans lose several low-budget state legislative contests here on Tuesday — which appears increasingly likely because of new and even more crazy liberals, and their union and special interest lackeys — it may not matter who ever wins the future contests for Governor, Attorney General, Treasurer, or Auditor. Those northern seats put Democrats in an endless cycle of veto-proof supermajorities that renders every Republican, or anyone in opposition, functionally irrelevant.
And even though this blog may hate the current top Democrats in Delaware, and Republicans are on the verge of perpetual obsolescence, you happily watch, as our state burns to the ground.
Ha. As if there is some equivalency between a GOP supermajority that wants to enshrine the parental rights of rapists, and a Dem supermajority that wants everyone to have healthcare.
Delaware Rethugs have done that to themselves. No extreme gerrymanders or Big Lie perpetuation needed.
See the difference? Doesn’t matter. Your comments are the antithesis of your handle.
But nobody is trying to restrict the Republican vote. Democrats took over state government despite the fact that before Covid Delaware’s voting laws were among the strictest, if not the strictest, in the nation.
In Southern states Democrats complain about cutting back the length of the early voting period. Delaware never had one. They complain about same-day registration. Delaware never had it. And so on. Yet the state GOP isn’t eager to loosen them, so they’re not blaming it on restricting access to the ballot, either. Only you are.
And as feckless, corrupt and stupid as many Delaware Democrats may be, none has stated that Republicans will never win another election.
Also, too, what is the evidence that we “happily watch as our state burns to the ground?”
It’s not as if Republicans are offering actual solutions, just the same old tax cuts, blah blah blah. Please. The Democrats in this state are playing out what used to be a bipartisan exercise in fellating corporate America. If the less extreme elements of the GOP want back in that game, there’s an easy way to do it: Show up to vote in primaries so the loonies don’t win. They don’t do it, and the GOP won’t make a comeback until they do.
The difference is that Delaware Republicans did it to themselves — nominating morons, supporting traitors, zooming to the extreme right, cheering on conspiracists, and rejecting actual open-minded, sober moderates.
great analogy! Here’s your star for being a critical thinker!
(What an imbecile!)
C’mon man.