Who was to blame for our loss in 2024? Was it Biden? The people around Biden? Harris? The people running the Harris campaign? Our policy in Israel? People who voted for Trump because of Gaza? White people? Minorities?
Us going too far left? Us being too far center?
Maybe it was goblins? Space aliens? The alignment of the fucking stars?
Guess what? I don’t give a flying fuck and I am so tired of people wasting their breath discussing and debating and talking about this. If I read one more article on if and when and why Biden should have dropped out earlier/not at all I am going to scream.
Um, you guys? We are fighting fascists here. Do you think you could focus?
Because — spoiler alert — We can actually beat these assholes. We can reverse a lot of the damage that they have done (and will still do). We can beat them in court. We can beat them at the ballot boxes. We can use our voices to push legislatures to do the right thing. We can save this beautiful, flawed, and essential democracy.
But we need to actually focus.
I don’t give a flying fuck why we lost. And don’t tell me it will help us to beat them in future elections because we already are beating them in those elections. Read the fucking news (or see below).
So the answer to who is to blame? It doesn’t fucking matter. That is the answer.
I also don’t give a fuck about interparty politics in the DNC.
I don’t give a fuck about anything other than beating fascists.
I don’t give a fuck about whose strategy of fighting fascists is best. I’m so done with people berating one another for doing this “wrong.” Are you working to fight fascists? Awesome. Keep at it. If not, get the fuck to it. Your grandchildren are going to be so ashamed of you if you aren’t doing anything. Honestly, I’m ashamed of you. All the people around you who are actually doing stuff are ashamed of you. They aren’t telling you, but they are thinking it. So get the fuck with it. Fascism. Remember?
And most of you ARE doing things to fight fascism and do you know what that makes you? A fucking hero. A goddamn fucking hero. Thank you. And I mean that from the bottom of my salty heart. Let’s keep at it!!!
Do you need some cheering up before you get to work?
Perfect. I have some cheer for you (and I promise to be less salty next week)
*********
EDIT: added for all those hating on this in the comments: Please remember that the that fucking lunatic, asshole, fascist moron got less than 50% of the vote.
And last year, every incumbent party in every developed democracy lost elections — the first time that’s happened since measuring began in 1905!
And we lost by the SMALLEST margin in any of those countries!
And he had the smallest margin of victory since Richard Nixon!
And you can spend all your time trying to figure out that tiny loss, but you will likely be WRONG as people were in 2008 and 2012 and 2016. And meanwhile, you have wasted your time on BULLSHIT when we have fascists to fight. So, get focused.
End rant
****************
This team of fascists are fucking idiots
U.S. Downgraded by Moody’s as Trump Pushes Costly Tax Cuts
The credit rating of the United States received a potentially costly downgrade on Friday, as the ratings firm Moody’s determined that the government’s rising debt levels stood to grow further if Republicans enact a package of new tax cuts.
The downgrade, to one notch below the highest triple-A rating, amounted to a repudiation of Washington, where President Trump only hours earlier had pushed his party to adopt a legislative package that might add trillions of dollars to the nation’s fiscal imbalance.
The new rating decrease could send ripple effects throughout the economy if it prompts investors to demand higher payments on bonds, which in turn could raise consumers’ borrowing costs.
Why a GOP plan to repeal abortion rights could explode in their faces
Republicans in the Missouri Senate invoked the legislature's "nuclear option" to place a measure on the ballot that would repeal an amendment voters adopted last year enshrining the right to an abortion in the state constitution.
Opponents, however, are likely to file legal challenges to the new amendment, while Democratic lawmakers have warned that the GOP's decision to ram its measure through will wreak havoc on future legislative business.
Whatever unfolds, though, Republicans could ultimately find themselves in the worst of all possible worlds, with the well poisoned in the legislature and their repeal rejected by voters—if the courts don't reject it first.
Elon Musk Thought He Could Break History. Instead It Broke Him.
The partnership between the president and the richest man in the world is coming to an end. There is one clear loser in the breakup of this affair, and it is Elon Musk.
He fell from grace as effortlessly as he rose. Like a dime-store Icarus, he took too many chances, never understood the risks and flew too close to the sun. Wrapped in the halo of his social-media superstardom, he was blinded to the reality of his circumstances until it was too late.
Mr. Musk has already inked several lucrative federal contracts and could get far more, but he leaves Washington with his reputation as a genius jack-of-all-trades — a reputation he relied on to boost his company’s stock prices and win investors for his ambitious adventures — severely damaged. Once likened to the Marvel superhero Tony Stark, he is becoming increasingly unpopular. Many formerly proud owners of his Tesla electric cars are trading them in or pasting apologies on their bumpers. Sales have plummeted.
Fittingly, his reign was effectively brought to an end on April Fools’ Day, when the $20 million he donated to elect a Trump-backed Republican to an open State Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin backfired, propelling more Democrats than Republicans to the polls. It was no longer possible to overlook the reality that the richest man in the world had become a political liability. The day after the Wisconsin debacle, Politico reported that the president had “told his inner circle” that Mr. Musk would be “stepping back in the coming weeks from his current role.” In mid-April, Mr. Trump signaled his dwindling regard for Mr. Musk by replacing his choice for I.R.S. acting commissioner with the candidate favored by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The lesson to be learned here is that there is no room in the American system of government for an unelected co-president. While elections often yield results we do not expect or desire, we have long proved to be better off with a government composed of elected officials and senior appointments that have gone through the constitutionally mandated confirmation process. Mr. Musk thought he could be an exception. And that was his undoing.
‘Morally wrong and politically suicidal’: House GOP Medicaid cuts face bipartisan pushback
Prominent members of both parties, both in and beyond Washington, are sounding the alarm about House Republicans’ plan to cut Medicaid health care for millions of low-income Americans.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., slammed “corporatist Republicans” and the “party’s Wall Street wing” for centering their efforts towards passing President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” budget bill on “slashing health insurance for the working poor.”
“That argument is both morally wrong and politically suicidal,” Hawley wrote in a New York Times op-ed this week. “If Congress cuts funding for Medicaid benefits, Missouri workers and their children will lose their health care. And hospitals will close. It’s that simple. And that pattern will be replicated in states across the country.”
On CNN on Wednesday, Hawley said he would not support the House Republican bill, adding uncertainty to its already rocky path to passage by Republicans' 53-seat Senate majority.
Hawley noted that over 70 million Americans, roughly 20% of the country, rely on Medicaid, including more than one million Missourans.
We Are Winning Elections
Democrat ousts incumbent Republican in Omaha mayoral race
Douglas County, Neb., Treasurer John Ewing Jr. (D) ousted Republican Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert in the latest victory for Democrats during President Trump’s second term, according to a Decision Desk HQ projection.
Ewing, who is also a former deputy chief of police for Omaha, will become the city’s first Black mayor. He denied Stothert a chance at an unprecedented fourth consecutive term in office in an election that was officially nonpartisan but featured a Democrat and a Republican facing off.
The city hasn’t had a Democratic mayor since 2013, when Stothert beat Democratic incumbent Jim Suttle to become Omaha’s first female mayor.
Dems lead on the generic ballot by 6 points, 47%-41%
There is a reason why battleground House Republicans are so worried right now, and why Dems keep overperforming in election after election across the country - We The People are seriously unhappy with what Trump and his allies are doing to the country, and want something better.
Carville Tells Everyone to Get Over the ‘Angst’ as Dems Are Winning Elections
Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville says there is no point feeling “angst” about the party’s current polling numbers because they are still winning elections.
“We’re winning elections left and right,” Carville said. “We just won an election in Omaha and beat a 12-year incumbent. We were winning elections in Senate districts and House districts that Trump carried in Iowa by about 20 [points]. We were winning the elections. We won in Wisconsin by 10.”
Are Republicans having trouble recruiting Senate candidates in the Trump era?
The seat up for election in Georgia -- held by incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is running for reelection -- has received close attention from Republicans, who hope they can flip what is widely viewed as a vulnerable seat.
But Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who had been seen as a major contender for the seat, took himself out of contention, saying he would not run for the seat.
In New Hampshire, Republicans faced a similar situation when the popular former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican who had been mulling a run for Senate for the seat being vacated by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. D-N.H., said in early April that he had decided not to run.
"I think it's a problem. I think that Trump has put a damper on that for the party in general. … Trump demands absolute loyalty and nothing else matters but fealty to him. And that makes people who want to talk about issues and things that their particular state or constituents care about -- [it] makes it very difficult," said ABC News contributor Barbara Comstock, a Republican who formerly represented Virginia in the House.
We are strong.
Trump appointees tried to get to work at the Library of Congress. Staff members at the library refused — and called the Capitol Police.
Two Trump administration DOJ officials who claimed to be assigned to the Library of Congress in acting leadership roles were turned away from its offices this morning, three sources familiar told NBC News. [Nieves and Perkins] arrived at 9 a.m. at the U.S. Copyright Office in the Madison Building and presented an email saying they were given the new roles, but the two were not allowed into the offices and left. The two had also presented a letter saying that Todd Blanche, the current deputy attorney general, was being appointed to also be the acting librarian of Congress. The two left after speaking with library staff and security.
In case this isn’t obvious, standoffs like these are not at all common. The New York Times reported that when Nieves and Perkins showed up, staff members at the library “balked and called the U.S. Capitol Police as well as their general counsel, Meg Williams, who told the two officials that they were not allowed access to the Copyright Office and asked them to leave.”
Immigration Crackdowns Are Booming. So Is the Digital Resistance Fighting Them.
At first, shortly after Donald Trump’s inauguration, these efforts took a local, focused approach: community advocates in the Long Island town of Islip crafting a live map of verified Immigration and Customs Enforcement sightings in Suffolk County, and developer Joanna Benavidez setting up a limited-access app to track ICE appearances in the frequently raided immigrant town of El Cajon, California. From there, the website People Over Papers began tracking ICE arrests in Washington state, using a volunteer team of moderators to review anonymous reports. Its digital map, hosted on the virtual canvas platform Padlet, now takes a nationwide view. There’s also ResistMap, a network from the Turn Left PAC that solicits ICE agent–sighting reports via a form, displays verified sightings on a map, and allows users to opt in for text alerts. As for smartphones, there’s SignalSafe, a mapping app that collects anonymous, crowdsourced ICE agent alerts and accompanies them with submitted photos, videos, and text notes. The Mexican government has even launched an app, ConsulApp Contigo, that allows Mexican Americans to quickly notify their home country’s consulate if they get in any trouble with ICE, then be connected to legal help or get a message out to their family and friends.
It’s a heartening groundswell of effort, but these quickly assembled creations have their limits.
That’s why another platform, called ICEBlock, is hoping to bypass those issues through ample security and automation. Joshua Aaron, a longtime software engineer and former bassist for the famed Napster-era power-pop band the Rosenbergs, is single-handedly coding and funding the app, symbolized on Apple’s App Store with an illustrated logo featuring a melting ice cube. It’s an atypical program in many ways: It’s available for download only on the iPhone, it does not require a formal account or cost any money, it purports to collect no user information, and it offers no pixelated ads.
New York Law Firm That Struck Deal With Trump Is Losing Lawyers
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft struck a deal with President Trump last month intended to secure the future of New York’s oldest law firm. Instead the pact is backfiring, adding to an exodus of lawyers that has placed the firm on uncertain footing.
Cadwalader already was facing troubles, including imminent attorney departures, before its April 11 deal with the White House in which it avoided a punitive executive order by pledging at least $100 million of pro bono work to support the president’s priorities. The agreement now is pushing more lawyers to leave, people familiar with the matter said, spurred by anger that the firm capitulated to Trump instead of fighting back against an administration campaign that many in the industry believe to be unconstitutional.
A key partner in the firm’s litigation group is in late-stage talks to join a boutique firm and several other litigators are planning an exit, the people said. J.B. Howard, who is counsel at the firm and a former Maryland deputy attorney general, is also leaving and sent a letter to firm leadership protesting its capitulation, people familiar with his departure said.
Maine Governor Secures School Lunch Victory in Fight With Trump Over Trans Athletes
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agreed to unfreeze over $2 million for school lunch programs and other nutrition funding in Maine last week, the result of a settlement with the state which Maine Gov. Janet Mills heralded as a “victory” in her ongoing war with the Trump administration over transgender-inclusive school sports.
The courts are doing well
The Supreme Court keeps a temporary block on using the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans.
The Trump administration will not be allowed to deport a group of Venezuelan detainees accused of being members of a violent gang under a rarely invoked wartime law while the matter is litigated in the courts, the Supreme Court said on Friday.
The justices sent the case back to a federal appeals court, directing it to examine claims by the migrants that they could not be legally deported under the Alien Enemies Act, the centuries-old wartime law invoked by the Trump administration.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote a dissent, arguing that the justices had no authority to hear the dispute at this stage. He was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas.
The ruling deals a sharp blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to deploy the wartime law to pursue swift, sweeping deportations of Venezuelan migrants accused of being members of the gang, Tren de Aragua.
The first federal court hearing on Trump’s tariffs did not go so well for Trump
A federal court held the very first hearing on President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging, so-called Liberation Day tariffs on Tuesday, offering the earliest window into whether those tariffs — and potentially all of the shifting tariffs Trump has imposed since he retook office — will be struck down. The case is V.O.S. Selections v. Trump.
It is unclear how the three-judge panel that heard the case will rule, but it appears somewhat more likely than not that they will rule that the tariffs are unlawful. All three of the judges, who sit on the US Court of International Trade, appeared troubled by the Trump administration’s claim that the judiciary may not review the legality of the tariffs at all. But Jeffrey Schwab, the lawyer representing several small businesses challenging the tariffs, also faced an array of skeptical questions.
Supreme Court broadens standard for unreasonable force claims against police
The Supreme Court on Thursday made it easier to bring unreasonable force claims against police, ruling unanimously that courts should examine the circumstances beyond the split seconds when an officer fears for their safety in deciding whether they can be tried for unreasonable force.
Judge Orders Georgetown Academic Released From Immigration Detention
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the immediate release of Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University who was arrested in March, after two months of detention in an immigration facility in Texas.
People are standing up to him
From Vatican City to Canada, Trump increasingly represents everything people of goodwill oppose.
Last week, following the death of Pope Francis, Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost was named pope by his peers at the Vatican. He took the name Pope Leo XIV — widely seen as a reference to Pope Leo XIII, a pontiff remembered for his reforming spirit and for his encyclical on the rights of workers.
The new Pope Leo also shares Francis’s commitment to the rights of migrants. Like Francis, he has criticized the Trump administration in general and JD Vance in particular for their cruel anti-immigration policies.
In short, the new pope, like the old pope, does not support MAGA’s christofascist nationalism. MAGA, confronted with the fact that they do not control everything or everyone, responded in their usual fashion — by wailing and gnashing their teeth.
It doesn’t seem like an accident that the Vatican has chosen a pope who embodies and extols a very different vision of Christianity than the one currently prevailing at the White House.
The recent Canadian national election is the first, and clearest, example of the anti-Trump backlash.
The right-wing Liberal party in Australia looked set to take advantage of anti-incumbent sentiment and cruise to victory until (and you may have heard this before) Trump got elected, started throwing tantrums, and — ta da! Labor leader Anthony Albanese won a second term as prime minister, while Liberal leader Peter Dutton couldn’t even hold his own seat.
Kennedy Center Employees Move to Unionize as Trump Takeover Heats Up
Workers at the Kennedy Center are refusing to stand idly by as President Donald Trump conducts a hostile takeover of the storied arts institution.
Following months of controversial layoffs and leadership upheaval, more than 90 staffers at the celebrated venue announced Thursday that they would be moving to unionize.
Bruce Springsteen Opens His Tour With Rant About ‘Treasonous’ Trump
Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band began their “Land of Hope & Dreams” tour with forceful messages about the “treasonous” Trump administration.
In Manchester, England, Springsteen summoned the “righteous power of art, of music, of rock ‘n’ roll in dangerous times.”
“In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration,” he told the crowd before performing the tour’s namesake song.
“Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring!”
“The America that l’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real, and, regardless of its faults, is a great country with a great people,” he concluded. “So we’ll survive this moment. Now, I have hope, because I believe in the truth of what the great American writer James Baldwin said. He said, “In this world there isn’t as much humanity as one would like, but there’s enough.’ Let’s pray.”
De Niro Tears Into Trump’s Kennedy Center Takeover During Speech at Cannes
Robert De Niro issued a call to action for anyone disturbed by the Kennedy Center’s right-wing makeover by Donald Trump, whom he called “America’s philistine president.”
While accepting the Palme d’Or lifetime achievement award Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival, the actor warned that artists and musicians are under threat.
“In my country, we are fighting like hell for the democracy we once took for granted, and that affects all of us,” De Niro said. “That affects all of us here because the arts are democratic. Art is inclusive. It brings people together, like tonight. Art looks for truth. Art embraces diversity.”
“It’s time for everyone who cares about liberty to organize, to protest, and when there are elections, of course, to vote. Vote. Tonight, and for the next 11 days, we show our strength and commitment by celebrating art in this glorious festival. Liberté, égalité, fraternité,” he said.
They hate each other
A glimpse into the bitter infighting consuming MAGA’s intellectual ranks.
It’s been a rough week in the world of the online intellectual right, which is currently in the midst of two separate yet related blowups — both of which illustrate how the pressures of power are cracking the elite coalition that aligned behind President Donald Trump’s return to power.
The first fight is really a struggle over who should determine the philosophical identity of MAGA, pitting a group of anti-woke writers against a wide group of illiberal or post-liberal figures.
he second fight, which revolves around Curtis Yarvin — the neo-monarchist blogger who has influenced both Vice President JD Vance and DOGE. A recent post by rationalist author Scott Alexander accused Yarvin of “selling out” — aligning himself with Trump even though he had long denounced the kind of “authoritarian populism” that Trump embodies. Yarvin defended himself with some fairly bitter attacks on Alexander, drawing in defenders and critics from the broader right-wing universe in the process.
Each of these fights is telling in their own right. The “woke right” contretemps shows just how deep the divisions go inside the Trump world — between anti-woke liberals, on the one hand, and various different forms of “postliberals” on the other. The Yarvin argument is a revealing portrait of how easy it is to get someone to compromise their own beliefs in the face of polarization and proximity to power.
The party is split—and starting to fight—over whether to primary the senators who have challenged Trump.
Trump fundamentalists are weighing up bids to oust Senate Republicans who have dared to cross the president, Axios reports.
The planned move, in states like Texas and North Carolina, could spark a MAGA civil war—but the president’s most fervent acolytes see it as a necessary risk, despite the chance of far-right challengers flopping at a general election.
Too much grift...even for MAGA Republicans?
“I love President Trump. I would take a bullet for him,” Laura Loomer tweeted. “But I have to call a spade a spade. We cannot accept a $400 million ‘gift’ from jihadists in suits.”
Not to be outdone, Erick Erickson unleashed a screed:
This is my problem with taking the plane from Qatar. It’s not that it’s a bribe. It’s not that it’s corrupt. We’ll get to Boeing here, but my objection to taking this 747-800 from Qatar is not that it’s an attempt to bribe the president. It is not it’s corrupted. It is not that it’s a violation of the emoluments clause. My problem with taking this plane from Qatar is I do not think the president of the United States of America should sit and fly on a plane purchased with the same money used to murder American citizens.
Former presidential rival Nikki Haley jumped in as well, to receive her own slow clap:
Accepting gifts from foreign nations is never a good practice. It threatens intelligence and national security…Especially when that nation supports a terrorist organization and allows those terrorist regimes to live on its soil. Regardless of how beautiful the plane may be, it opens a door and implies the President and US can be bought. If this were Biden, we would be furious.
What can you do to save democracy?
Remember, the good news happens BECAUSE we fight! So let’s do this. What can you do?
You can sign up for Chop wood, carry water. She’ll send you emails a few times a week that are inspirational, honest, and give you super easy action items so you can be involved without letting it ruin your life.
Go here → chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com
Consider joining some peaceful protests! They are making a big difference!
Here are some ideas.
-
If you can, I strongly recommend going to an in person meeting in your area. One way to find a local group is through indivisible: indivisibleproject.formstack.com/…
- Join the truth brigade! Grassroots-powered lie-stopping. Person by person; mind by opened mind
-
Election Response Center is a project hosted by Working Families Party, MoveOn Civic Action, Indivisible, and Public Citizen. They are organizing lots of events to get people fighting. Join one at this link
-
The ACLU plays a key role in filing lawsuits that often stop voter suppression. Get involved with them at this link.
-
Get involved with the Democratic party. We aren’t perfect, but they are fucking evil.
- Get involved with the States Project They are working on turning state legislatures blue
- Get involved with Swing Left. They are working on races right now!
- People For the American Way is a national progressive advocacy organization that inspires and mobilizes Americans to defend freedom, justice, and democracy from those who threaten to take them away. Get involved with them here
- Center for American Progress Action Fund is an independent, nonpartisan policy institute and advocacy organization that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action. Get involved with them here
Also, continue to find joy in your life! Don’t let that fuckface live rent free in your mind! This is your life!!!!!
Looking for something more specific?
Want to focus on the ENVIRONMENT:
Want to focus on CIVIL RIGHTS:
HUMAN RIGHTS - GENERALLY:
LGBTQ+:
WOMEN:
Huge thanks to DKos user dabug for help with this list.
Don’t let the options overwhelm you! Try to pick one thing and see if it calls to you. If it doesn’t find something else.
There are so many ways to get involved and help!
Some inspiration before I say goodbye
“Whatever happens, stay alive.
Don't die before you're dead.
Don't lose yourself, don't lose hope, don't lose direction.
Stay alive, with yourself, with every cell of your body, with every fiber of your skin.
Stay alive, learn, study, think, read, build, invent, create, speak, write, dream, design.
Stay alive, stay alive inside you, stay alive also outside, fill yourself with colors of the world, fill yourself with peace, fill yourself with hope.
Stay alive with joy.
There is only one thing you should not waste in life,
and that's life itself..."
.
At Albany Bulb with Elaine
By Alison Luterman
Side by side on a log by the bay.
Sunlight. Unleashed dogs,
prancing through surf, almost exploding
out of their skins with perfect happiness.
Dogs who don't know about fired park rangers,
or canceled health research, or tariff wars,
or the suicide hotline for veterans getting defunded,
or or or. We've listed horror upon horror
to each other for weeks now, and it does no good,
so instead I tell her how I held a two-day old baby
in my arms, inhaling him like a fresh-baked loaf of bread,
then watched as a sneeze erupted through his body
like a tiny volcano. It was the look of pure
astonishment on his face, as if he were Adam
in the garden of Eden making his debut achoo,
as if it were the first sneeze that ever blew,
that got me. She tells me how her dog
once farted so loudly he startled himself
and fell off the bed where he'd been lolling,
and then the two of us start to laugh so hard
we almost fall off our own log. And this
is our resistance for today; remembering
original innocence. And they can't
take it away from us, though they ban
our very existence, though they slash
our rights to ribbons, we will have
our mirth and our birthright gladness.
Long after every unsold Tesla
has vaporized, and earth has closed over
even the names of these temporary tyrants,
somewhere some women like us
will be sitting side by side, facing the water,
telling human stories and laughing still.
I am so proud and so lucky to be in this with all of you. ✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 💙❤️💛💚✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿
