Heroes

[Jasmine]

Companies hiring who they want and serving (or denying service to) who they want is fine if that place is in a societal vacuum, with no links to any governing body. That situation is rare if it could exist at all. But if our society, "the people" hold expectations or standards of ourselves, we rely to some degree on our elected government to enforce those standards. So if most of us don't want or support racial/gender discrimination, and the government passes a law against it, then the law should be enforced across the board. Irony: guy with a federal small business loan to start his business wants the damgummint out of his business.

Most people would agree that people building in a public area should be required to build according to standards and not just put up tar paper shacks. Same thing as non-discrimination requirements.

I just disagree. Let the market decide.

If Mike McWhitey owns a diner and wants to serve only white peeps, that should be his right. Would his diner survive with that kind of discriminatory policy? I’m going to guess no. Let each private business owner make their own choices - free from government intrusion - and let him succeed or fail on his own merit.

[GoCubsGo]

I just disagree. Let the market decide.

If Mike McWhitey owns a diner and wants to serve only white peeps, that should be his right. Would his diner survive with that kind of discriminatory policy? I’m going to guess no. Let each private business owner make their own choices - free from government intrusion - and let him succeed or fail on his own merit.

What happens when "the market" decides to protest his business and stage demonstrations (legally) in front of his restaurant and Mark calls the cops to remove them....and the other part of "the market " decides it needs to support and protect Mark?

Chaos theory tells us that things will mostly not go smoothly and markets may or may not balance. There are times where government is a necessity and does have rolls.

[O Really]

An in addition to rolls it sometimes serves doughnuts to govt cops.

[Vrede too]

I just disagree. Let the market decide.

If Mike McWhitey owns a diner and wants to serve only white peeps, that should be his right. Would his diner survive with that kind of discriminatory policy? I’m going to guess no. Let each private business owner make their own choices - free from government intrusion - and let him succeed or fail on his own merit.

You may be the most extreme and ridiculous libertarian I ever met. It's a hateful, discriminatory, bigoted, White supremacist Jasmine Crow America that you desire. Tough, we may nibble at their edges at times but we will never cancel the CRA and 14A. Deal with it.

[Jasmine]

I just disagree. Let the market decide.

If Mike McWhitey owns a diner and wants to serve only white peeps, that should be his right. Would his diner survive with that kind of discriminatory policy? I’m going to guess no. Let each private business owner make their own choices - free from government intrusion - and let him succeed or fail on his own merit.

What happens when "the market" decides to protest his business and stage demonstrations (legally) in front of his restaurant and Mark calls the cops to remove them....and the other part of "the market " decides it needs to support and protect Mark?

Chaos theory tells us that things will mostly not go smoothly and markets may or may not balance. There are times where government is a necessity and does have rolls.

Both sides can protest their hearts out. It’s their right. But if things ever escalate to violence, then they face consequences.

Freedom doesn’t mean things will always go smoothly.

[O Really]

No offense, but I don't think you've quite thought this position through.

[Vrede too]

No offense, but I don't think you've quite thought this position through.

Libertarians never do. It's all about the dogma, not the real world.

[Jasmine]

No offense, but I don't think you've quite thought this position through.

No offense taken!

[O Really]

Good article here from somebody who actually knows how DEI initiatives work:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trumps- ... user%2Fabc

[GoCubsGo]

Good article here from somebody who actually knows how DEI initiatives work:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trumps- ... user%2Fabc

Good article.

[Vrede too]

Good article here from somebody who actually knows how DEI initiatives work:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trumps- ... user%2Fabc

Good article.

Y'all are only saying so because she repeats what the three of us have collectively been posting.

[GoCubsGo]

Good article here from somebody who actually knows how DEI initiatives work:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trumps- ... user%2Fabc

Good article.

Y'all are only saying so because she repeats what the three of us have collectively been posting.

Yeah, but she actually researched it.

[Vrede too]

I wasn't expecting an internal hero this soon.

He Isn’t Who Anyone Would Have Imagined as a Credible Foe to Trump and Musk’s Assault on America. Yet Here He Is.

... Everybody, say hello to Brian Driscoll.

Driscoll is the acting director of the FBI, and last week the New York Times minted him an “improbable symbol of quiet resistance” in the new Trump administration. Emphasis on the improbable—in what sounds like a particularly slapstick detail out of an old Hollywood screenplay, Driscoll is said to have landed in the top spot accidentally, after the White House listed his name in the wrong spot online and declined to correct it.

MAGA competence.

What won him the admiration of the bureau’s rank-and-file has been his apparent willingness to defend them from the Justice Department, which has requested the names of all employees who investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection. Not bad for a guy who only has the job on a technicality.

Kudos to Driscoll, but this incessant J6 vengeance is sickening.

... First and foremost because, well, it seems like there’s still a decent chance this guy could get fired tomorrow! But in the meantime, FBI agents are reportedly trading memes that valorize Driscoll: “In one, he is depicted as a saint grasping the handbook for agents running investigations. In another, he glances upward, encircled by the words ‘What Would Drizz Do?’ ” ...

Good luck, Drizz!

[Vrede too]

Surprisingly, hero Brian Driscoll is still acting director of the FBI, one full month now. This will end if and when wingnut MAGAt Kash Patel is confirmed as director.


Not far from O Really:


Huntington Beach has approved the installation of a plaque that features the acronym MAGA to celebrate the public library’s 50th anniversary. (City of Huntington Beach)


Ex-NFL Player Hauled Out Of City Meeting After Railing Against ‘Nazi’ MAGA Movement
Former punter Chris Kluwe spoke out against a MAGA reference on a city plaque.

... He also posted a Google Docs link to an extended version of comments with citations for everything he said.

The city council unanimously approved the plaque at the meeting, although the design was tweaked, according to KTLA. The station notes that all seven members are conservatives.

Of course.

... Kluwe has been outspoken on civil rights and LGBTQ+ issues over the years, advocating for marriage equality and LGBTQ+ acceptance even when he was a player.

When the Minnesota Vikings released him after seven seasons in 2013, there was speculation it was due to his activism off the field rather than his performance on it.

Kluwe said speaking out was worth the risk.

“If it ends up being something that costs me that position, I think making people aware of an issue that is causing children to commit suicide is more important than kicking a leather ball,” he told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune at the time....

[Vrede too]

NEW: I just asked Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett if she had a message to Elon Musk.

What would she say to him? Here was her answer:

“Fuck off.”

love how Jasmine Crockett triggers the MAGAs

X is gonna be extra full of toxic posts this evening

I for one agree 100% with badass Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett telling Nazi Musk to fuck off. This is the perfect messaging.

Y’all have to get a shirt like mine!!

Absolutely.
BTW, the levels of incompetence on display with DOGE bros failing to even understand what they’re supposedly cutting is astoundingly wasteful, the very antithesis of efficiency.
If any of us were to make mistakes of the order of magnitude as these nincompoops we’d be fired.

We need more ready to get in the mud with the rest of us

More posts at the link.

[Vrede too]

Videos of Bernie Sanders' Large Midwest Rallies Take Off Online
Published Mar 09, 2025

... In response to Musk's efforts, Sanders announced in February he's launching a national tour to "take on the oligarchy" as the senator, like many of his counterparts, described the billionaire's recent actions with DOGE to "dismantle government agencies" as "illegal" and "unconstitutional."

"In my opinion, what Musk and those around him are aggressively striving for is not novel. It is not complicated, and it is not new. It is what ruling classes throughout history have always wanted and have always believed is theirs by right: more power, more control and more wealth," Sanders said in a video announcing the tour. "They don't want ordinary people—that's you—and democracy getting in their way."

... "Great rally in Kenosha.4,000 people came out to say: NO tax breaks for billionaires.NO cuts to Medicaid. NO oligarchy. NO authoritarianism.NO MORE billionaires buying elections," Sanders wrote on X on Friday with photos of the rally.

That post has since garnered 5.5 million views and 63,000 likes as of Sunday morning.

Posting a video of the rally in Kenosha, Faiz Shakir, a political adviser to Sanders, wrote on X on Friday "If you build it, they will come -- Kenosha edition."

That post has currently garnered 4.5 5.3M million views.



In another video posted by Jeremy Slevin, senior adviser to Sanders, the senator is seen speaking to the crowd in Kenosha about Musk....

That post has since garnered over 990,000 2M views.



On Saturday, Sanders posted a video on X showing the line to get into the rally in Altoona....

That video has since garnered over 1 1.3M million views.



... What People Are Saying

Senator Bernie Sanders in his video announcement of the tour last month: "The oligarch's nightmare is that we will not allow ourselves to be divided up by race, religion, sexual orientation or religion and will together have the courage to take them on."

... Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, posted to X on Friday: "Elon Musk and Donald Trump are trying to make you believe that they are cutting 'waste,' but they're actually reaching into your wallet to fund tax cuts for their 'rich as hell' friends. Spread the word."

RoseAnn DeMoro, a longtime friend of Sanders and a former labor leader, told Politico in February: "I think he's trying to inspire a very strong resistance to the oligarchy...If the Democrats listened to Bernie, we wouldn't be in this mess. I assume he feels a deep level of disgust." ...

age 83

[Vrede too]

AOC and Bernie Sanders draw thousands of people at 'Fighting Oligarchy' rally in Denver

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., drew big crowds at a rally in Denver, Colorado, on Friday as they travel across the U.S. on their “fighting oligarchy” tour.

The tour comes amid tensions within the Democratic party following a vote by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., eight other Democrats and one independent to back a Republican crafted spending bill and avert a government shutdown last week.

The progressive lawmakers are mobilizing voters to stand up against President Donald Trump, the administration’s policies and the growing influence of billionaire Elon Musk....




Sanders said at the rally that “in the hundreds of rallies that I have done, we have never, ever had a rally as large as this.”

He later wrote on X that the large crowds tell him “that the American people will not allow Trump to move us into oligarchy and authoritarianism.”

... “This nation was built by working people and we’re not going to let a handful of billionaires run the government,” Sanders told the crowd, which erupted in applause and cheers.

Ocasio-Cortez also called out Democrats, saying that Americans "need a Democratic party that fights harder for us too."

Another article:

... Schumer is up for reelection in 2028, and Ocasio-Cortez has long been considered a possible contender for the Senate ‒ even in a possible primary challenge if Schumer decides to run again.

Yet Ocasio-Cortez's name is also mentioned as a possible Democratic contender for president in 2028. She could take the mantle as the progressive candidate from Sanders, who has said he won't run for president after doing so twice before. Ocasio-Cortez has not discussed her political plans publicly....

POTUS race and risk getting sidelined like Bernie! or a near sure bet to be the next NY Senator? POTUS AOC would be amazing!
viewtopic.php?p=210557#p210557

[Vrede too]

Someone posted about this already, but since it was a tweet I couldn't find it by searching "Booker". So, honors in this thread:

Cory Booker breaks a 68-year-old Senate record with a 25-hour speech

Sen. Cory Booker devoted all of Monday night and into Tuesday evening on the Senate floor, delivering an impassioned speech in protest of the Trump administration's policies. This effort, which also involved numerous other Democrats, set a record for the longest speech on record given in the chamber.

Booker wiped away tears and placed his hand over his heart as fellow Democrats, including House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, cheered at the end of his 25-hour and 4-minute speech. Others were seen crying and some rushed to hug the clearly exhausted and sentimental Booker after he spent more than a day at the Senate podium.

... Booker's speech officially surpassed the previous record set in 1957 by noted segregationist Strom Thurmond. Thurmond filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes to oppose the Civil Rights Act.

Booker's achievement stands in stark contrast to Thurmond's efforts to deny Black Americans equal protections under federal law.

Irony. Strom.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., an ally and friend of the New Jersey Democrat Booker, took the floor briefly during the marathon speech to commend Booker for his perseverance and to highlight the difference between Booker's advocacy for social justice and Thurmond's attempts to uphold a status quo of racial inequity.

"What you have done here today, Sen. Booker, couldn't be more different than what occurred on this floor in 1957. Strom Thurmond was standing in the way of inevitable progress towards equal political and economic rights for Black Americans," Murphy said.

"Today, you are standing in the way, not of progress, but of retreat. You are standing in the way of retreat from the rule of law."

By the evening, more than 115,000 people were watching Booker's livestream on YouTube alone.

... Booker employed another strategy at various points: permitting his fellow Democrats to ask questions, which is the only way a senator can yield without losing the floor. But it's only partial relief: The senator must remain standing while others are talking.

"I will yield for a question while retaining the floor," Booker responded each time a senator asked for his permission.

More than a dozen Democrats participated in the proceedings throughout Tuesday morning, including Murphy, Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey, Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont, Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Sens. Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Sen. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico....

Sweeps by Whack9, GoCubsGo and me.

[GoCubsGo]

That was inspirational, but I have to wonder if he wore a Depends?

[Vrede too]

That was inspirational, but I have to wonder if he wore a Depends?

Maybe, or a condom catheter with leg bag, or fta:

Media reported at the time that Thurmond sustained himself with "diced pumpernickel and bits of cooked hamburger" and sips of orange juice. His aides set up a bucket in the cloakroom so he could keep a foot on the Senate floor if he needed to relieve himself.

MSNBC says no bathroom breaks.