“I can hear those champagne bottle corks popping in Moscow — like it’s Christmas every fucking day": US Politics, February 2024

I'd say we are already seeing side benefits from the verdict.

Wall Street definitely about to move to Plano, any day now.

We don't need your Stock Exchange...we've got the Rock Exchange! (Fireworks explode, laser light show of penis going into a hot dog bun)

Are you in or near Kenosha? Can't remember. Big primary there today, right?

nah, Sheboygan...90 minutes away

Wow, my wife's family is from Sheboygan. Nice town.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWu677TkXOc

Apparently the You Can’t Cancel America Tour meme is fake.

I think the tour is just called the Rock the Country Festival Tour, with just a few dates in smaller southern cities.

I love Sheboygan, as fun to say out loud as it is to visit.

if fake, fine.

But have they considered Four Seasons Landscaping?

https://cf.geekdo-images.com/UpkK7w2wJTJYGxApuMAhdQ__imagepage/img/fR6gfGgpTtQz8j8lU0d4iK_CHtQ=/fit-in/900x600/filters:no_upscale():strip_icc()/pic579229.jpg

I dunno, Sheboygan looks kinda scary

The Alabama Supreme Court coming for IVF is going to make things worse in with consequences they can’t see, but that’s kinda expected by now.

Degrading society and harming otherwise innocent people without tangible benefit to anyone is always justified if it is in service to your 'moral principles and values'.

I timidly hope kingfish is right... in that completely insane extremism may result in a backlash that reestablishes something a little closer to humane sanity.

That said, humane sanity is in short supply lately. I would very much like it to return.

Not, personally, a big fan of the Trotskyite position (roughly, "the worse things get the better they get"). But I don't know how to fix Alabama and it is very much not my job to do so.

My hope is that folks who are in difficulty get the help they need. It is clearly not going to come from Judge Holy.

You remember a sane time? I don't. Was it between the Chatterley ban and the Beatles' first LP?

Times are always shitty. The best we can do is to do good or at least suffer no evil.

I keep telling people that. For some reason, they keep telling me I'm an asshole.

I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that things have gotten noticeably more insane since 2016, doesn't mean everything was great before, just that the shittiness has accelerated.

Sure. But I've never known some level of insanity from the GOP.

Racism and xenophobia run through US history like a mighty river of revolting sludge.

So surprising for a country founded on slavery and genocide.

Everything's gotten worse since the polarizing Obama Presidency

Why did he have to divide us?

Thanks, Obummer

"Mistaking sawdust for cocaine sounds more like a storyline from one of the 1980s Police Academy comedies than what should be expected in a high-profile prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice."https://t.co/elMKzpA3Xs pic.twitter.com/HJo9GPw8Kx

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) February 20, 2024

Alfred, jimbeaux, Moodles, and Aimless are, of course, right: history is generally a nightmare. There was never a time where happiness was universal. But things seem pretty bleak right now. Both of those assertions can be true.

Apart from domestic political polarization, I might note that my grandfathers came of military age at a time when the United States was suddenly and dangerously at war. And then my father came of military age at a time when the United States was suddenly and dangerously at war. I came of military age at a time when the United States was suddenly and dangerously at war. My brother came of military age at a time when the United States was (SHOCKA) suddenly and dangerously at war.

And now I am sitting next to my son, who is 12 years old and eating too many Girl Scout cookies. What will his fate be? Let me guess. A polarized nation and, one presumes, war and/or natural and/or climate disasters.

sheesh, I'm just a frickin ray of sunshine today. Sorry

Are you in or near Kenosha? Can't remember. Big primary there today, right?

fwiw I live in Kenosha and yes, the mayoral primary here is today. Big field vying to replace the mayor of 24 years.

things seem pretty bleak right now

I think part of what feels "worse" right now is that for a long chunk of the 20th century in the U.S., you could plausibly argue that as bad and grim as things were, they were "getting better" in measurable ways. The economic and living conditions of most Americans improved a lot through the second third of the century, and as terrible as the fights were around civil rights, there were real and demonstrable gains. But obviously the economic improvements plateaued and began to lose ground, and now thanks to SCOTUS etc the same is happening to civil rights. (The only part of the Bill of Rights that's been substantially expanded in recent years is the 2nd Amendment, yay).

So it's not just that things are bad and grim, it's that they're getting worse in many respects. Gets harder to keep talking about long arcs bending toward justice because that's not their current trajectory. It's possible to imagine many things continuing to get worse in many ways, augmented by looming climate catastrophes. I don't blame anyone for any amount of despair, it's not a super optimistic time.

But things have gotten better before, and they can again. That's all we can work toward.

one of my most Eeyore-y friends began freaking out 5 minutes after SCOTUS affirmed same-sex marriages, thinking this would provoke a humongous backlash years down the line. He was wrong to focus on that at the time, but it does feel like any time real progressive gains happen in this country, you have to look up and start running from the sudden avalanche not long after.

thinking this would provoke a humongous backlash

they aren't called reactionaries for nuthin'

Good post tipsy

Every GOP primary ad I see is awful but there’s one where the narrator tries to say China like Trump that I hate more than anything on Earth.

^^I learned there's something called 'Liberal Dark Money' and it has something to do with Beto, *who's not even running*

I’m sorry, that’s Liberal Dork Money

His Mom says he's cool...

The fact that CNN will occasionally use profanity on air when quoting Biden pleases me.

Lee: We’re told that the thrust of the President’s direction was to significantly ramp up the campaign's efforts to highlight the crazy shit that Trump says in public. pic.twitter.com/kwK6yntM3y

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 20, 2024

Moscow
this is the real motherfuckin deal yall
I’m feeling those champagne bottle corks

Good lyrics.

I keep hearing this thread title to the tune of Folsom Prison Blues.

i keep hearing it to "born on the bayou"

Shower the people you hate with Trump

Never thought about either, but yeah, now I've got "Folsom Prison Blues" stuck in my head.

lol, m bison, for me it's consistently the "I can hear the bullfrog callin' me" part of "Green River."

…I’m so loathsome I could cry

https://www.al.com/news/2024/02/uab-pauses-in-vitro-fertilization-due-to-fear-of-prosecution-officials-say.html

Was it between the Chatterley ban and the Beatles' first LP?

I see you working Alfred, respect

By those atlanta judges' ruling, every load you drop in the shower is a little murder

Every sperm is sacred

i can see an idea for a protest here but idk that it'll work

but what else can I expect from a Supreme Court that twice had Roy Moore on its bench

getting danger close to the Bill Hicks bit about entire civilizations crusting and flaking in his pubic hair becoming case law