“Democrats burst out singing “We Shall Overcome” after Rep Al Green was censured pic.twitter.com/bCJ0SWWm7U
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 6, 2025
March 6, 2025
Congressman Al Green is censured — for yelling and waving his cane at Trump — and House Democrats respond by singing "We Shall Overcome."
"If there’s one through line in this administration so far, it’s the amassing of power. And if there’s another through line, it’s the destruction of anything that might restrain power, and that’s bureaucracy."
"Hunter Biden has asked a federal judge to drop the laptop hacking lawsuit he slapped against a former Trump White House aide — because he’s 'millions of dollars' in debt..."
"The Biden administration used so-called 'climate equity' to justify handouts of billions of dollars to their far-left friends."
"It's been very clear from the beginning that President Trump views this as a protracted stalemated conflict. And frankly, it's a proxy war..."
🚨Update: Secretary Marco Rubio stated - Ukraine conflict is a ‘PROXY WAR’ between US and Russia; Ukraine has no plan to end the war!! pic.twitter.com/n9L01s5bIh
— US Homeland Security News (@defense_civil25) March 6, 2025
March 5, 2025
Why did the WaPo Fact Checker call it "false" to say — as Trump did — "We have hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have not been showing up to work"?
This is false. Trump appears to equate teleworking with not showing up for work. But he often uses inflated numbers for how many federal workers work from home. The White House budget office reported in August that 54 percent of federal employees “worked fully on-site, as their jobs require them to be physically present during all working hours,” while just 10 percent worked only from their homes. Meanwhile the Congressional Budget Office reported in April that 22 percent of federal employees usually teleworked — compared to 25 percent of private sector employees.
There are 2 problems with this fact check.
First, the numbers Kessler gives do not undermine the assertion that there are hundreds of thousands who don't come into work. There are something like 2.1 million federal employees (if you leave out the military and the postal service). Even if we restrict ourselves to the 10% who work only from home, there are over 200,000. If you add in the people who telework most of the time, that's another 400,000+. Kessler makes it look as though his numbers are powerful, but they support Trump!
Second — and harder to notice — there's a quibble about the meaning of "not... showing up to work."
"You didn't vote for Trump, though. Did you?"
"But it is all the relentless smiling, the desperate upbeatness of this high-spec, lavish production, that jars."
About that Nebraska accent.
There is truth in the observation that tariffs and immigration hurt agriculture but FFS there is absolutely no one in the state of Nebraska who has this accent, so I suggest consulting a professional dialog coach before filming your next Tik Tok https://t.co/92deSWanCZ
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) March 5, 2025
"A Madison woman... attacked a Metro bus driver after learning the bus wasn't going to her desired location."
From "Madison woman arrested in attack on Metro bus driver that led to Asian House crash" (Channel 3000). (listing the alleged crimes as "disorderly conduct, battery to a public transit operator and second-degree recklessly endangering safety").
Bus crash near east side Woodman’s
byu/sassonblast inmadisonwi
Asked what was the "best moment" of Trump's speech, 2 of the NYT's 9 opinion writers said it was Al Green disrupting the session.
Rep. Al Green (D-TX) getting rightly removed from President Trump’s speech really illustrates the demise of the Democrat Party.
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) March 5, 2025
They are out of ideas. They can’t offer anything positive for America so they try to ruin it.
Al Green needs to be censured and hopefully expelled. pic.twitter.com/CV15kVsz9x
"The cartels are waging war in America, and it’s time for America to wage war on the cartels, which we are doing."
Five nights ago, Mexican authorities, because of our tariff policies being imposed on them, think of this, handed over to us 29 of the biggest cartel leaders in their country. That has never happened before. They want to make us happy. First time ever. But we need Mexico and Canada to do much more than they’ve done.... I have sent Congress a detailed funding request laying out exactly how we will eliminate these threats to protect our homeland and complete the largest deportation operation in American history.... Americans expect Congress to send me this funding without delay so I can sign it into law.... I’ll sign it so fast you won’t even believe it....
He said "war," but then it didn't sound like a war.
Trump also said: "The territory to the immediate south of our border is now dominated entirely by criminal cartels that murder, rape, torture and exercise total control. They have total control over a whole nation, posing a grave threat to our national security."
"The territory" — that makes it sound as though that place isn't even Mexico at all, and yet our approach is to squeeze the Mexico, the land south of the territory, with tariffs. Is it "time for America to wage war" or not? Mexico needs "to do much more," but what? I'm not asking for a real war. I'm just irritated by the disconnect between declaring This is war! and then merely asking Mexico and Canada to "do more" and Congress to fund deportations. What about the "war" being "waged" from "the territory"?
March 4, 2025
Sunrise — 6:31.
Let's talk about Trump's big speech.
"Senators Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, and Cory Booker released videos on their social media accounts simultaneously, using identical scripts..."
Listen to the chorus:
It's ludicrous. But that got our attention and made it viral. And yet, I think that what is viral is the fakeness — the rote performance — and not the substantive message. I watched the whole thing intently, but I didn't notice what they said, only the bizarre overlap.It reminded me of my favorite sequence in one of my favorite movies — "The Idea of North" (in "32 Short Films About Glenn Gould"):Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker posted identical videos—word for word—right before Trump’s speech. pic.twitter.com/1iYUuuhaEN
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 4, 2025
"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed a new framework for a partial ceasefire with Russia on Tuesday..."
WaPo reports.
I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to peace.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 4, 2025
None of us wants an endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under…
If you were running for president, what would be your policy platform?
Does the Democratic Party need to change? It can't. It won't.
WaPo's A.I. summarizes comments — "Many commenters criticize Democrats for supporting policies that they believe disadvantage biological women" — and singles this one out as "provocative":
Yeah, who are we as a country if we don't defend someone's right to pee next to someone of their imagined gender? Or defend a guy’s right to creep out a bunch of college girls by flouncing around in his original equipment in their locker room and then going out and stealing an NCAA swimming championship from them? /s
"US Vice President JD Vance was told to 'wind his neck in' today after branding Britain 'some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years.'"
That's the first line of an article in The Sun called "VANCE SHAME/Fury as Trump’s No2 JD Vance mocks UK for ‘not fighting a war in 30 years’ – forgetting Afghanistan & Iraq."
That calls our attention to something Vance said on Fox News: "If you want real security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine. That is a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn't fought a war in 30 or 40 years."
I don't know if that "random" refers to the UK, but apparently some people in the UK are hearing it that way. And the UK is hardly a random country. But "random" is bandied about humorously these days. In America. Do the Brits know that?
Insulting him back, the random Brit who is the source of this quote doesn't seem to know that Americans don't say "wind his neck in." The effort at an insult strikes me as funny because, not being used to the phrase, I'm forced to try to picture it concretely.
The source of the quote is a Former Veterans Minister who served in Afghanistan, and the full quote is: "Vance needs to wind his neck in. Show a bit of respect and stop making yourself look so unpleasant."
Vance looks especially unpleasant in my mental image, where he has an extremely long and thin neck attached to a fishing reel.
"I am happy to have a conversation with anybody in the administration as to the motivations and expectations that our community had when they overwhelmingly wanted me to bring this criminal action."
At a sentencing hearing in October, Judge Matthew D. Barrett scolded Ms. Peters from the bench, telling her that he was imposing a stiff penalty on her because she had repeatedly advanced false claims about Mr. Trump’s defeat, and that, in so doing, she had become a celebrity among those who denied that he lost the race.
“You are no hero. You abused your position, and you are a charlatan,” Judge Barrett said, adding, “You cannot help but lie as easy as you breathe.”
March 3, 2025
Bill Murray discovers what a podcast is.
"Designer Behind President Zelensky’s White House Outfit Defends the Choice."
A headline at Women's Wear Daily.
Who knew Zelensky had a designer?
I ran across that article looking for confirmation of something I happened to see — here — in The Washington Post: "Even after Zelensky refused a White House request to wear a suit, Trump praised his outfit, saying, 'I think he’s dressed beautifully.'"
Zelensky was asked — in advance?! — to wear a suit?! This is the first I'm seeing that.
From Women's Wear Daily: "Zelensky turned up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue wearing a three-button knitted long-sleeve polo shirt from [Elvira] Gasanova’s menswear label Damirli, as well as pants from the collection. She had made a special version for Zelensky with the emblem of a tryzub, a shield with a trident that is the coat of arms that Ukraine adopted in February 1991."
The above-linked WaPo column is "Zelensky must mend the breach with Trump — or resign/Zelensky's stubbornness has badly hurt Ukraine" by Marc A. Thiessen. Excerpt:
A staggering scene unfurled before the lenses of the entire world....
"On Friday night, in the Oval Office of the White House, a staggering scene unfurled before the lenses of the entire world, marked by brutality, a desire to humiliate, with the goal of making Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fold through threats. President Zelenskyy did not fold and I think we can show him our appreciation."
Meanwhile, at The Washington Post, "Washington now ‘largely aligns’ with Moscow’s vision, Kremlin says/Tension between the United States and Ukraine, laid bare in the Oval Office meeting of Trump and Zelensky, is seen in Moscow as a 'gift.'"
"Flow" is the only movie up for an Oscar that I've seen.
I didn't watch the Oscars, but somebody who did and knew I only cared about "Flow" gave me this minimalistic update:
Here's a Hollywood Reporter report about what I see was an upset: "Independent Movie ’Flow’ Wins Best Animated Feature in Upset/‘Inside Out 2’ and ‘The Wild Robot’ from powerhouses Disney and DreamWorks were also nominated in the category."
Things that get my "Trump's masculinity" tag.


"It feels worth noting that in this moment, Zelensky decides to call the vice President JD, not Vice President Vance."
Observes Peter Baker in this morning's episode of the NYT "Daily" podcast — "The Fallout From Zelensky and Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown" (audio and transcript at Podscribe).
We hear the recording of Zelensky, with new focus on the dismissive "JD": "What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about? What? What you, what you, what do you mean?"
Baker continues: "Perhaps history will not note this as an important moment. I noted it."
Yes, the re-listen affected me.
"I also, again, just want to recognize and honor the sex worker community."
Said Mikey Madison, quoted in "Mikey Madison wins best lead actress for 'Anora'" (NYT).
Madison also underscored the influence that sex workers had on her performance. To study her character, she read memoirs by sex workers, underlining sections of Andrea Werhun’s “Modern Whore.”... She also... took pole-dancing lessons. The role involved significant nudity and a number of intimate scenes, which Madison said was never daunting to her: “I was always comfortable, and I also think because Ani was too,” she told The Times.
I haven't used my tag "the [blank] community" in a long time, but here we have "the sex worker community."
Mikey Madison becomes the 10th woman to win an Oscar for playing a prostitute — 12th if you count Donna Reed in "From Here to Eternity" and Jo Van Fleet in "East of Eden." And Madison is the first to win an Oscar for playing a prostitute since the #MeToo movement shook Hollywood to its nonexistent core.
March 2, 2025
"All this gray — it’s so dark, it’s so gloomy, so ugly. It’s like seeing creativity and art and the colors of my community disappear right in front of my eyes."
But what's behind all this gray?