"The Onion takes over Infowars" is not an Onion spoof

Mark Sumner, Daily Kos staff emeritus, wrote about why one must be very careful when reading someone’s ideas on what Democrats need to do to win the next election. A big sign is they say Harris should have said something she clearly already said or complain about a policy position that Harris definitely did not put forward.

They're engaging in convenient strawman arguments that attack non-existent Democratic campaigns. Those arguments are defined by accepting nothing but Republican talking points. And the prescriptions for how to "fix" the Democratic Party all seem to come down to the same thing: Surrender.

Then Sumner looked at a nine point plan put out by Matthew Yglesias. I saw that name and thought isn’t he highly conservative? So I didn’t read those proposals carefully and skipped over much of Sumner’s point-by-point rebuttal (yes, Yglesias is conservative) and went to the summary.

To bring Yglesias' list into plain English, here's his plan for Democrats Cut taxes for billionaires Drill, baby, drill Protesters are perverts All lives matter Trans people are perverts Experts don't know more than you. Racist, sexist, and abusive language is cool Build the wall. build the camps, deport them all The government exists to help corporations and billionaires This platform may be slightly familiar to you. It's the Republican platform. It also happens to be the platform that Yglesias and others in the why-can't-Democrats-be-more-like-Republicans? faction have been pushing for eternity. What's most astounding is that some people seem to be taking this seriously.

Some of those are media people who hold up such plans as a way for Democrats to “fix things.”

Their arguments are worse than surrender; they're collaboration. These are people who have hankered for nothing so much as the downfall of the Democratic Party and progressive values. They see this moment as an opportunity to sell disheartened Democrats on the benefits of hate, disdain, and ignorance. Anyone who buys their arguments might as well pop on that MAGA hat and unfurl a Confederate flag. And a Democratic Party that followed their advice would only be the Republican Party in a donkey suit.

This story has been getting a lot of play in the media. The version I’m working from is by Oliver Willis of Kos. Alex Jones and his Infowars website and media show was an early and the most prominent voice in conservative conspiracy theories. He made up many of his claims. He funded his operations partly through selling dietary supplements (in the US supplements are not regulated). One of his big stories a decade ago was that the Sandy Hook school shooting didn’t really happen. The families of the murdered children sued Jones. The trial took a good long time. When the verdict was handed down the families were awarded nearly a billion dollars, a judgment large enough that Jones was ordered to liquidate his assets to pay it. The Infowars name and assets were bought by ... The Onion, the site known for its satirical take on the news. This news is so weird one could accuse The Onion of making it up. But it really happened. The group Everytown for Gun Safety helped seal the deal and vowed to support the site through advertising and the Sandy Hook families heartily agree with the deal. The Onion gains a new platform and that source of hurtful information has been stopped. A pundit roundup by Greg Dworking for Kos has several reactions on how bad Matt Gaetz will be as Attorney General. I’ll let you read those (or not) and turn to the memes and cartoons posted in the comments. One posted by exlrrp is from Mehdi Hasan, which looks to be from Bluesky rather than X. Hasan wrote:

The party that is obsessed with child sex offenders, & is close to a cult that claims child sex offenders run the government, just nominated a guy once investigated for allegedly sex-trafficking a 17 year old girl to be in charge of the country’s legal system. Beyond parody.

Some look at “child sex offenders” and think drag queens. They don’t run the government, though we would be in a better place if they did. Others look at that phrase and see Jeffrey Epstein’s clients. Many of them do run the government. Another one posted by exlrrp shows Putin toasting with a glass of champagne and says, “Thank you Republicans! I couldn’t have screwed your nation without you!” David Hayward, the naked pastor, posted a cartoon with a standard format: “How it started” shows people gathered around Jesus as he teaches. “How it’s going” shows people outside a church bowing to an American flag. Collins Dictionary has released its word of the year with several other worthy mentions. The top word is brat, a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude. It was created by Charli XCX and made famous when it was applied to Harris. Some of the other top words this year: Brainrot: an inability to think clearly caused by excessive consumption of low-quality online content. Looksmaxxing: attempting to maximize the attractiveness of one’s physical appearance. Rawdogging: the act of undertaking an activity without preparation, support, or equipment. Romantasy: a literary genre that combines romantic fiction with fantasy. Supermajority: (it is a word of the year only now?) Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos quoted late night commentary. A sample:

“Since the election, internet searches for ‘how to move abroad’ are up by more than one-thousand percent. … Additionally, U.S. searches for ‘move to Canada’ increased by 1,270 percent, making this a perfect time to debut my new reality show: Who Wants to Marry a Mountie?” —Stephen Colbert

He knows that his picks are too extreme for confirmation

The voters chose the nasty guy a second time less than ten days ago. Already I see I won’t be able to keep up with the news. I won’t keep up with what I see as the bits of news worth writing about. For example, in contrast to eight years ago the nasty guy is being quick about announcing his picks for various administration positions and for his cabinet. Alarming, but not surprising, that all the names mentioned so far are horrible people. I don’t have the time to list them all. I will mention a few – which means they’re the most alarming. Lisa Needham of Daily Kos reported the nasty guy will probably have no difficulty getting his choices for the 1,200 positions that need Senate confirmation. The Senate is in Republican hands and it appears the filibuster for confirmations has already been eliminated (or was never there). And if the Senate balks, there is the Federal Vacancy Reform Act that allows for “acting” cabinet members. These are supposedly limited to 210 days, But last time the nasty guy switched people around and the Department of Homeland Security had three acting secretaries, so no official head for 440 days. An advantage of the “acting” secretary is they’re more easily fired if they aren’t sufficiently loyal. Or, like last time, he could leave positions vacant, grinding agencies to a halt.

But that’s exactly what conservatives want. They hate agencies because agencies have a nasty habit of creating regulations on things like limiting pollution or trying to make things better for trans kids. Gutting the administrative state means Trump will never have to deal with pesky experts again. Instead, we could experience conspiracy theorist and all-around weirdo Robert F. Kennedy Jr. running the FDA. If Trump wants it that way, it’s likely impossible to stop him, even if Republican senators came together to block someone who thinks wi-fi causes cancer, Trump can just go around them. It’s definitely time to expect the absolute worst.

Emily Singer of Kos reported, prior to the Senate voting a new Majority Leader...

“Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner,” Trump wrote in a post on X. “Sometimes the votes can take two years, or more. This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again. We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY!” ... So the fact that Trump is demanding the Senate allow recess appointments is a likely sign that he knows that his picks are so extreme that even a GOP Senate wouldn't confirm them. ... The three Senate Republicans running to replace Mitch McConnell as leader all quickly came out to say they support Trump’s demand to make recess appointments—a bad sign for anyone hoping that the Senate would serve as a backstop to Trump’s dictatorial impulses.

With Congress becoming nearly a year-round body there may not be a recess to allow making a recess appointment. Needham reported that various government institutions are trying to protect themselves from the nasty guy’s efforts. The military is one she focused on. How will they be called on to deport millions of immigrants? Will they be housing deportees at military bases? Will they be called on to stop domestic protests? How are the generals and grunts to figure out which orders are legal and which are illegal – they are required to disobey illegal orders but face harsh consequences of they disobey a legal one. But, how to tell? Walter Einenkel of Kos reported:

A disturbing report from The Wall Street Journal says that Donald Trump’s transition team is drafting an executive order to create a military review body that could allow his administration to remove three- and four-star officers more easily. Purportedly, this “warrior board” would consist of retired senior military personnel. The Journal, whose reporters have seen a draft of this order, says it allows the removal of officers “lacking in requisite leadership qualities” as quickly as 30 days from their review and could force them to retire. The speculation that this board would be a way for Trump to create a military that is loyal to him above all else is not far-fetched.

He has talked about his admiration for Hitler’s generals. On Tuesday Oliver Willis of Kos reported there are signs Elon Musk is trying to assert control over the Republican Party. He reportedly spent $200 million to support the nasty guy in the election. Part of that was through his use of X to support his guy through lies, conspiracy theories, and attacks. Then Musk announced his pick for Senate Majority Leader before the nasty guy did, who chose the same candidate. Thankfully, that candidate lost (which is not a way of saying the guy who got the job will be any good for the country). There are also stories of Musk exerting influence, though the stories may have originated from Musk. Also on Tuesday an Associated Press article posted on Kos reported:

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday said Elon Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency" — which is not, despite the name, a government agency. The acronym “DOGE” is a nod to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, dogecoin. Trump said in a statement that Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer the White House “advice and guidance” and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.” He added that the move would shock government systems.

The Department of Government Efficiency doesn’t exist, at least not yet. So how does Musk and the rest fit in with the Administration? Likely they’ll be an outside think tank issuing pronouncements on how government departments should be funded and which are terminated. Or... Willis suggests that Musk has been put in charge of a blue-ribbon commission, a long Washington tradition of creating a panel to address a problem and that issues a report months or years later when it can be ignored.

There are already signs from within Trump world that Trump wants to get rid of his growing Musk problem. Politico is now reporting that insiders close to Trump believe Musk has “become almost a comical distraction,” citing his habit of “hanging around Mar-a-Lago” and sitting in on high level meetings and giving feedback nobody asked him for.

The nasty guy has traditionally given his big donors access to power. So Musk is only the latest to step up to the trough. This announcement of Musk’s new fake department fits in the nasty guy’s love of a good show to make a grand proclamation that turns out to be nonsense. This one appears to put Musk in his place. But did he get the message? Einenkel reported Musk is changing the terms of service for X. The new terms say if users want to sue the company they must do so in one of two Texas courts stocked with nasty guy appointees. In response to that and to the general awful quality of the site journalists and news organizations are pulling out. The Guardian has said it will no longer post on X, though users may share articles there. Journalist Don Lemon, who is in the midst of a lawsuit against Musk for alleged breach of contract, is also leaving. Singer reported:

On Wednesday, Donald Trump appointed Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general. The Florida Republican, accused of child sex trafficking, is a Trump loyalist who has made it his mission to protect Trump at all costs. He would be the country’s top law enforcement official. ... Gaetz’s nomination is completely out of left field.

Gaetz had been under the investigation by the FBI for years of alleged child sex trafficking. They declined to file charges. He’s also being investigated by the House Ethics Commission – more on this in a moment. Gaetz was instrumental in getting Kevin McCarthy removed as House Speaker. He is well known for stirring up big trouble for the House, apparently for the sake of stirring up trouble.

Hill newspaper reporter Emily Brooks reported that there was an “audible gasp” in the room where House Republicans are meeting to nominate their leadership slate for 2025 when Gaetz’s nomination was announced. It’s despicable nominations like Gaetz’s that make it clear why Trump wants to shred the rules and bypass the Senate to simply install his picks in key administration roles.

Yeah, a smarmy guy under investigation nominated to be the top law enforcement official. Einenkel had more to say about Congress’ views on the nomination of Gaetz. Some members say they will absolutely not vote for him. Other say he’s the nasty guy’s pick and we must support the nasty guy, showing how completely they’ve sold themselves. And Sen. Susan Collins is “shocked.” One hopes that is higher than “concerned.” She was “concerned” about the nomination of accused sexual predator Brett Kavanaugh’s to the Supreme Court and voted for him anyway – and got a sizable campaign donation haul. Singer reported that just hours after Gaetz was nominated for AG he resigned from Congress. He didn’t wait to be confirmed for the new job. There wouldn’t be a reason for the hasty exit, would there? Yeah, there is. The House Ethics Committee was set to release its report on Gaetz in two days. It is described as “highly critical.” But with Gaetz no longer a member of the House the Ethics Committee no longer has jurisdiction over him and the investigation is closed. Democrats are saying there’s a difference between losing jurisdiction and thus no longer able to issue punishment and being able to issue the report. Democrats want that report issued anyway. I’ve since heard that Republicans in the Senate also want to see that report before they take up Gaetz’ nomination.

Ultimately, Trump wants Gaetz as his attorney general to carry out his agenda of punishing his perceived enemies, and releasing the ethics report into Gaetz’s conduct would jeopardize that nomination. However, one glimmer of hope for the decent people who want to see Gaetz fail is that Gaetz's fellow Republican lawmakers absolutely hate him. Ohio GOP Rep. Max Miller said on Wednesday that Gaetz is "literally worse than gum on the bottom of my shoe," adding that Gaetz is "a complete weirdo."

John VandeHei and Mike Allen of Axios explain more about the nasty guy and Gaetz. Here’s a bit of their article.

Get used to this. It's your future foretold: On some topics, Trump wants to seem reasonable. On others — like anything related to his suspicion of a hostile "deep state" — he demands his own personal, controllable wrecking ball. Gaetz, 42, is a wrecking ball, head to toe. Oh, and arguably the most despised one among elected Republicans. But Trump doesn't care, advisers say. ... Republicans hope Gaetz is simply a sacrificial sucker, put up to be rejected so Trump can smuggle through a controversial but more acceptable alternative. Perhaps. But Gaetz is a Trump favorite and Mar-a-Lago regular. Trump has assurances from Senate Republican leaders that he can use a controversial workaround, recess appointments, to smuggle in unpopular picks, at least for a few years.

In the comments of a pundit roundup on Kos exlrrp posted a meme and a cartoon. The meme shows a scene from the end of the movie The Planet of the Apes (it came out in the early 1970s) in which the main character encounters the Statue of Liberty half-buried on a beach. The added words say, “Well, at least now we have the backstory...” The cartoon by Sipress shows a woman talking to a man, saying, “My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane.” Further down Marlene Robertson posted the word for the day:

kakistocracy, noun, a state or country run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.

I suggested getting a passport now in case you need to flee later. Madisonian of the Kos community included a link for details, though added five important reminders. 1. Apply now. Don’t wait. The process can take months and applications from nervous fellow citizens will produce a processing logjam. 2. Take a money order for the exact amount. 3. You will need a valid ID and a certified copy of your birth certificate. Take the required photos in the required format or take extra cash for a photo service fee. 4. Check whether you need an appointment or can just walk in. 5. Verify all your documents are in order and all the forms are filled out correctly. I’ll add one more. When I last renewed the place that handled it (I’m pretty sure it was a post office) was allowed to collect a processing fee. Take cash for that too.

Women are choosing to remain single

A few years ago I heard about cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and his sister pianist Isata. They were big news in classical music. I soon learned they had five siblings also highly gifted in music. I’ve since seen a video of Isata performing and watched a livestream of Sheku playing with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. A couple years ago I heard about the book House of Music, Raising the Kanneh-Masons written by their mother Kadiatu. Since it was published in Britain the word was I had to get it through something like Amazon-UK. Since I avoid Amazon I thought getting the book might have to wait until I visited Britain. But a few months ago I checked Barnes and Noble and found they had it for sale. So I bought. And now I’ve finished reading it. The mother spent hear early years in Sierra Leone, the daughter of local man and a Welsh woman. She was and part of a large extended family. Her father died and her mother brought her and her siblings to England and Wales to be with her parents. The grandparents were supportive of mixed-race children, the rest of England – not so much. She recounts some of the racism she experienced and the effect it had on her. She married Stuart, whose family lives in Antigua. Both are reasonably proficient in music. And their seven children are all prodigies. Isata, the oldest, wrote and performed a piano concerto by the age of twelve. Sheku won a prestigious young talent competition at sixteen and was invited to play at Harry and Meghan’s wedding. The mother wrote about recognizing her childrens’ talent and then doing all the family could to nurture and train it properly. The family was not rich and paying for all those lessons, including weekly train trips from Nottingham to London, and keeping the children supplied with good quality instruments that matched their size and talent was difficult. They were amazed with how generous people could be with time and resources. Music became a secret language between the siblings. They practiced together and offered each other suggestions on how to improve. They seemed to mind-read what the others were about to do. They were also quite talented at improvising – one could start a tune and others would add harmony and suggest new melodic ideas the others would take up. When Isata and Sheku are not in front of an orchestra they play duets or add brother Braimah and his violin for a trio. By 2019 the older ones were getting so many concert dates Mom couldn’t attend them all. The book ends with their experience with the COVID shutdown and seven creative people stuck in one house. I quite enjoyed the book. Of course, I quite enjoy classical music. Since the nasty guy won the election the 4B movement from Korea is trending in the US, as tonyahky of the Daily Kos community discussed. The movement is in response to the...

rampant sexism, abuse, and exploitation of women in that country. The term 4B stands for the four Korean words bihon, bichulsan, biyeonae and bisekseu, or the four “no’s” --no marriage, no childbearing, no dating or sex with men.

It’s not new as more women are choosing to remain single or staying single after divorce.

Only 38% of single women vs 61% of single men are interested in dating at all. And the reason more women want to remain single is because of the toxic behavior of large numbers of men, especially on dating apps.

Those numbers look quite unbalanced. In the US high levels of women experience rape or severe physical violence. Add to that women are less likely to have access to an abortion or be treated as a criminal if they do and add the possibility of birth control made illegal. And many women want to get their tubes tied (and do it soon while it is still legal).

Unfortunately, most white men in this country voted Republican, showing they have little to no respect for the women of this country at all, along with 53% of white women (who show they have no respect for themselves.) In a country like this, 4B may represent the only way many single women will be able to live their lives with any measure of peace, safety, health, or freedom.

Morgan Stephens of Kos also looked at the movement

And why are American women taking action? Because in Tuesday’s election, a majority of Gen Z men, or "podcast bros," cast their votes for Trump—a man whose handpicked conservative Supreme Court majority stacked the deck against women’s rights and overturned Roe v. Wade. The president-elect is also a textbook misogynist who used sexist language in the weeks leading up to the election when he said he’d “protect” women “whether they like it or not.” He is a serial adulterer who was also found liable for sexual abuse and has been accused of assault by dozens of others—and American women have had enough. With mounting solidarity, they are banding together (with some even shaving their heads in protest so as not to appeal to the male gaze) to adopt the 4B strategy: no more children, no more marriages, no more dating men until women’s rights are restored. Late on Election Day, when it was clear Trump had won his latest bid for president, 26-year-old white nationalist Nick Fuentes posted a short and infuriating statement on X: “Your body, my choice. Forever.” Fuentes, who dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, later went on his show “America First” and said to his 113,000 followers, “Hey bitch! We control your bodies. Guess what? Guys win again, okay? Men win again.”

In South Korea government leaders have noted a drop in the birth rate. They’re panicking over the 4B movement. The solution is simple: Give women the same rights and respect as men. While I applaud women asserting their power, there is a downside. I’ve mentioned the term incel, which stands for “involuntary celibate” – a man who women find so obnoxious they won’t date or sleep with him. Incels have been linked to mass violence. Many feel emboldened with the nasty guy’s election. Will women refusing to date all men increase the number and violence of incels? For that, perhaps we as a society should start dealing with the “loneliness epidemic” as Surgeon General Vivek Murthy wrote about in 2017. Lonely men are more easily radicalized. The threat of incel violence should not be a reason for women to stop their campaign for rights. The description of the 4B movement got me thinking of the play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, first performed in 411 BC. I have not seen a performance. Wikipedia describes the play with:

Lysistrata persuades the women of the warring cities to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace.

Yeah, the idea is old – 2400 years old. A couple cartoons in the comments of a pundit roundup for Kos. One posted by Assigned Male starts with a boy saying Fuentes’ line “Your body, my choice.” A girl argues back, ending with...

The wannabe fascist podcasters who told you that other people’s bodily autonomy was a threat you your masculinity forgot to mention how weak it makes you look.

And exlrrp included a tweet from Jack Peat, “Taliban congratulate Americans for ‘not handing the leadership of their country to a woman.’ Donald Trump signed the deal that paved the way for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, allowing the Taliban to storm to power.” In a second pundit roundup Greg Dworkin of Kos had a few good quotes. First, Steven Benen of MSNBC discussed what retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter said.

After quoting Benjamin Franklin’s admonition about democracy struggling to survive “too much ignorance,” the retired justice added, “I don’t worry about our losing republican government in the United States because I’m afraid of a foreign invasion. I don’t worry about it because I think there is going to be a coup by the military, as has happened in some of the places. What I worry about is that when problems are not addressed, people will not know who is responsible. And when the problems get bad enough ... some one person will come forward and say, ‘Give me total power and I will solve this problem.’ That is how the Roman republic fell.”

Dworkin implied that Democrats didn’t fix the real problems when they had the majority. Stephen Waldman of Politico Magazine discussed polling and suggested one area pollsters didn’t ask about – where did they get their news? Down in the comments Mr. Race Bannon proposed a new map of Canada that includes the US states that voted for Biden (though they left out Illinois, Colorado, and New Mexico). In a third pundit roundup Dworkin had some good quotes. From Andy Beshear, Democratic governor of Kentucky

Yes, there are a lot of big, important issues facing our country, but when families are struggling in these core areas, it’s hard to focus on or reach anything else. If you are staring at the cost of your child’s prescription and wondering how you are going to pay for both it and your family’s dinner, the offense of the day in Washington, D.C. or the latest crazy thing a politician said just isn’t as important.

Dworkin added:

I am reminded of Bertolt Brecht in The Threepenny Opera: Food comes first, then morals.

I’ll summarize a quote from Nicholas Grossman of Arc Digital. Authoritarians want you to quit. Do not accept this is over. Other authoritarian regimes have fallen. This situation is bigger than you. Do something you can control, like rake your neighbor’s leaves. Down in the comments, as a commentary on a meme, exlrrp wrote “The American ‘Justice system’ is broken. Couldn’t put a convicted criminal in jail.” The meme has a picture of AG Merrick Garland and quotes Tristan Snell, former New York Assistant Attorney General:

Our prosecutors completely failed us. They had 4 years to enforce the laws against Trump, and they delayed, and they hesitated, and they were too cautious, and they finally went after him – but it was too little, too late. History will judge them, if there is any history left!

It was too late because the nasty guy was able to delay various proceedings until he was back in power and could dismiss them. A meme posted by exlrrp shows women in red hats working in a garden and says

With Trump’s plan to deport millions of migrants, MAGA cult members can now realized their childhood dreams of spending summers working the fields from dawn to dusk in the scorching heat with few breaks.

And another quotes Senator Sheldon Whitehouse:

The creepy billionaires who put him there will be coming for plunder. It’s a safe bet that epic corruption will stain the Trump years. The plunder of America will be through fat contracts, special interest favors, massive tax cuts, and license to pollute for free. To pull off their plunder, they will try to break America’s democratic institutions. So the fight will not be just against the inevitable individual acts of thievery, but against the degradation of whatever American institutions might stand in the way of their plundering.

David Hayward posted a cartoon of a sinking Capitol building pulling down a church. When the church ties itself to the state the state can pull down the church. And the church can pull down the state. Dr. MacLeod Cartoons posted one that says, “It’s hard to be a political cartoonist when you can’t bear to watch the news.” In one more pundit roundup, this one from just before the election, Chitown Kev included a three minute clip of Harris appearing on Saturday Night Live with the woman who plays her on the show.