22 responses to “Against science and human decency”

1. 

   X

   02/09/2025

   A real problem with the Democrats is that they’re spinless and don’t believe in anything. Another problem that might have slipped notice is that their job is to debate legislation, when what we need is someone who can rally the country and hold off the enemies of democracy. Completely different job description.

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   1. 

      Doug Holland

      02/10/2025

      OK, I guess. I see the distinction. They’re elected as bureaucrats and their job is to talk to the other bureaucrats. Most members of Congress have no experience speaking at rallies or actually rousing the rabble for anything other than VOTE FOR ME. What’s needed is a whole different skillset. I don’t know who can be that ‘leader’ but I don’t see him or her yet, and the time is NOW.

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2. 

   johnthebasket

   02/09/2025

   Let’s sort this out someday. The jobs of the Democrats in congress (that’s the House of Representatives and the Senate) is to debate and vote on how money should be used in support of policy. Same job as the Republicans. When a Democrat is President, his/her job is to suggest legislation to the Congress and to implement policy through the Executive Branch. The last person who was convicted in court of cheating was a Democrat, and he no longer works in the Senate Office Building.

   Politics is a labor intensive business. You wear shoes out walking from door to door and wear your voice out making calls. Sometimes you persuade them, sometimes you don’t. Maybe current Democratic Congressional and Party leadership isn’t very good. Maybe it particularly sucks at the precinct level. Whatcha gonna do about it? Cause it ain’t “them”. It’s “us”.

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   1. 

      Doug Holland

      02/10/2025

      Whatcha gonna do about it? That’s the question, mate. Elections aren’t the answer, apparently. We’ve seen what Dems offer, and it’s wholly inadequate. It’s vapors. Elections — if they’re allowed, an increasingly large if — are a year and a half away. It’ll be game over by then, except it’s not a game.

      And the old ‘it ain’t them, it’s us’ is a fine line from a civics textbook, but the constitution and the law don’t matter any more, and civics is moot. It’s as pertinent as explaining how to replace the capacitor on a crystal radio set.

      Reply
3. 

   johnthebasket

   02/10/2025

   How’s pissing and moaning working? The Trump gang seems unimpressed, and even solicits more. Based on dozens of cases in Georgia, several in Pennsylvania, and a few in Wisconsin, it seems clear that the cadre disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of long-time Democratic voters. Two (count ’em, 2) voters in Georgia have had their voting rights restored, and dozens more cases are pending. In two years, when cases in ten states of voter disenfranchisement have been adjudicated, it will be clear that the right wing of the Republican party successfully stole what was going to be a very close election (it’s the only kind of election that can be stolen). I’ve played my part in party caucuses and vote counting, (even as a Republican in 1980, in an attempt to keep the nomination out of the hands of Ronald Reagan), and it’s a pain in the ass trying to organize people politically when you know you’re going to fail way more than you succeed.

   But I think that’s what needs to be done. We need to leave our houses and apartments and join the candidate selection process. Somebody should have been watching the Trump campaign more closely. It could have been me and it could have been you. Or we can just write blogs about how fucked up things are (and they unquestionably are). Representative democracy is not just a spectator sport, and participatory democracy is a pain in the ass, but it’s the only ass we have. When I showed up at the Republican precinct caucus to vote for John Anderson in 1980, I was the youngest person in the room by ten years. Now I’d be the oldest. It didn’t work then, but it did work for Jimmy Carter four years earlier. One precinct at a time, one Congressional District at a time, one state at a time. And it’s scarier but more fulfilling than sitting back in a rocker pointing fingers.

   John

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   1. 

      Doug Holland

      02/11/2025

      Hey, I did the John Anderson thing in 1980 too. What did our enthusiasm and work get us? Ronald Reagan.

      Pissing and moaning works no better but no worse than voting and getting involved in the process. It’s a waste of time when the process is, basically, phony. Today I’ll march, and tonight I’ll come back here to piss and moan some more, but that’s as involved as I’m willing to get.

      Reply
4. 

   granville

   02/10/2025

   Here’s the 76 year old lead Democrat on the House Ways & Means Committee throwing down the gauntlet except he has a medical crisis halfway through and freezes. Sadly the message carries a bit less weight now.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv3lO4aUHjM

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   1. 

      johnthebasket

      02/10/2025

      Yet another reason younger people need to get involved in the electoral/political process. If the message here is that we should do nothing because old guys are in charge, good luck.

      jtb

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      1. 

         johnthebasket

         02/10/2025

         Oh, we should just give up then. Point taken.

         jtb

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         1. 

            granville

            02/10/2025

            I think you’re passionate about this but one thing I notice is that you’ve sometimes given me and others motives we don’t actually have. Maybe a little grace isn’t warranted or even expected but it’s nice to see it sometimes.

            The point I actually want to express is that I’m completely disgusted that the opposition has seemingly abdicated its responsibility, and its efforts to do so thus far have wound up looking pretty ridiculous. Voting even harder so we can get Speaker Hakeem Jeffries with a 5 seat majority saying things like this:

            https://nitter.poast.org/kenklippenstein/status/1888718209034969571#m

            Or spending his time “mending fences” with people who are “pissed, watching former and current colleagues have unlimited, unchecked power, and getting richer off of this and they’re not”:

            https://archive.is/V9ja1

            … doesn’t seem like it’s going to work. AOC’s chief of staff is primarying Pelosi — he’s an advocate of a working class party, as is Faiz Shakir, who just made a symbolic run for DNC chair. There seem to be currents spinning, but it won’t involve any of these people. When the order came to return fire, they were MIA. Because this really doesn’t matter to them. That’s my lack of grace showing, but I think I have more evidence.

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            1. 

               Doug Holland

               02/11/2025

               Gotta get into my antifa t-shirt and stuff some flags in my backpack and get to the protest, so I’ll keep my replies short this morning.

               What Trump and Musk are doing doesn’t matter to the Dems in Congress, which means the Dems in Congress are part of the problem. Maybe they’re *most* of the problem. Fuck almost all of ’em.

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         2. 

            Doug Holland

            02/11/2025

            Absolutely, we should give up on the Democrats. We should’ve given up decades ago.

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      2. 

         granville

         02/10/2025

         I think they are? Gen Z is participating in elections at levels that Gen X and Millennials never did.

         When Ocasio-Cortez puts her name in for a committee and her own party slaps her down in favor of a 70+ year old man with cancer, I would question how voting harder, longer & faster is a vital solution.

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         1. 

            johnthebasket

            02/10/2025

            I was trying to infer your solution, whatever it be, and time and again it is to give up. I’m OK with that in that it’s a solution. I’m not so OK with that in that it doesn’t move the ball down the field.

            1960s and 70s Canada was a quagmire with no end in sight. “Let’s become bilingual” seemed like giving up, and also seemed just crazy. It saved Canada. I’m not suggesting a parallel. I’m conveying my reluctance to give up.

            John

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   2. 

      Doug Holland

      02/11/2025

      He has great hair, though.

      What gets me more than Rep John Larson’s freeze-up and his general decrepitude is that he’s the minority leader of the House Ways & Means Committee, been in Congress for 21 years, and the guy’s been so quiet all that time that I’d never even heard of him.

      Reply
5. 

   Sam I Am

   02/11/2025

   A lot of Americans, around 60-70%, seem completely clueless about what’s really happening. Right now, maybe 10-20% of us are ready to fight for our survival, while 25-35% are acting like modern-day enforcers, pushing forward with a fucking dark agenda. The rest, about 45-65%, are cruising along as if this is all normal politics.

   All the Democrats in Congress are in the 45-65%, except the few well-known exceptions. Why bother voting for any of them? I’m with Doug, when the best candidate is Elmer Fudd elections aren’t the answer.

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   1. 

      Doug Holland

      02/11/2025

      But we have to re-elect Congressman Fudd (D-Everywhere), because the Republicans are worse!

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6. 

   X

   02/12/2025

   If you’re expecting real resistance to the fascist takeover, don’t waste your time with the Democratic Party. Find a grassroots organization and join it. Get out in the streets. If you can’t or won’t, stay out of the way.

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   1. 

      Doug Holland

      02/12/2025

      I *have* written to my Congresscritter and Senators, but it’s perfunctory. They’re not going to answer, think about what I said, or even know what I said. At best I’m a digit in a spreadsheet labeled ‘voter engagement’.

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      1. 

         X

         02/12/2025

         We need to force our way past locked doors and into the capitol building and poop in the hall and beat up or kill a cop, since such acts have now been confirmed as acceptable behavior and simply political activism. Their side does it, why can’t we.

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         1. 

            Leon Sphinx

            02/12/2025

            If the people you’re protesting against aren’t a least a LITTLE afraid of you, it’s not a protest. It’s a parade.

            Reply
            1. 

               Doug Holland

               02/13/2025

               Always pay special attention to the guy who *suggests* breaking windows. That’s the cop talking.

               Reply

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