Actually, he’s down to 1.5 but who’s counting?
"what digby sez..."
Month: November 2024
Many of you have probably already heard this story. It’s apparently a huge viral social media sensation that’s been out there for 8 years. I had never heard it. (Where have I been?)
Wanda Dench, aka “Thanksgiving Grandma,” and her unlikely friend, Jamal Hinton, have simple words of advice for Americans this year — Spend the holiday with family.
The Arizona residents have shared Thanksgiving together every year since a Nov. 2016 text meant for Dench’s grandson was instead received by a then 17-year-old Hinton.
Their friendship has become as much a staple of the holiday as cranberry sauce and football, and their life journeys have in some ways become emblematic of the country’s course. The 67-year-old Dench lost her husband early in the pandemic and is now in between cancer treatments.
“You really never know when (will be) the last time you have a dinner with someone, or be able to talk to someone,” Hinton said in an interview with The Arizona Republic while recalling a recent conversation with Dench. “I’d always suggest seeing your loved ones.”
Their serendipitous encounter, enshrined in a viral post Hinton dropped on Twitter, now X, has since become part of national lore. Hinton told Dench the number she reached was no longer her grandson’s but his. She dutifully obliged his cheeky request for a dinner plate and invited him over for Thanksgiving dinner with her family.
The tradition the two have made of meeting yearly for Thanksgiving has spurred a Wikipedia page and netted a Netflix deal.
Talking with The Republic, Dench found herself counting what Thanksgiving they were on, her voice lifting in surprise as she said, “Oh, ninth year.”
Hinton and Dench have theorized their initial Thanksgiving meetup served as a balm on a country reeling from a divisive election. The subsequent distress from the 2016 election still troubles Dench.
“Boy, did I see and hear so many stories of families so divided over it, which is so sad to me,” Dench said.
It’s a nice story. I hope all of you are having a nice Thanksgiving as well.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
On a train!
All for a dollar. I’m going to hold my breath until it runs blue if Donald Trump doesn’t make prices go down to that. That’s how it works, right?
Here’s another one from the Plaza Hotel in 1899:
Thos numbers on there are for cents not dollars. Lol.
Like a slow-motion train wreck, only purple
Take the day off, pilgrim
Heather Cox Richardson provides a thumbnail sketch of how today became a national holiday. You can read that in full here. This Thanksgiving, Europeans can have the day off. I’d like to spend a little time with the Wampanoag, the People of the First Light.
Historian David Silverman introduced them inThe Atlantic thusly in 2019:
In the familiar American account of the first Thanksgiving, in 1621, the Pilgrims who settled in Plymouth were pious English refugees, one of many boatloads of Europeans who fled the tyranny of the Old World to become a liberty-loving people in the New World. The Indians whom they encountered (rarely identified by tribe) overcame their caution and proved to be friendly (a term requiring no explanation). Their chief, Massasoit, was a magnanimous host who took pity on the bedraggled strangers, taught them how to plant corn and where to fish, and thereby helped them survive their first harsh winters in America. Like Pocahontas and Sacagawea, two of the other famous Indians in American lore, Massassoit’s people helped the colonizers and then moved offstage.
Contrary to the Thanksgiving myth, though, friendliness does not account for the alliance the Wampanoag tribe made with the nascent Plymouth settlement. The Wampanoags had an internal politics all their own; its dynamics had been shaped by many years of tense interaction with Europeans, and by deadly plagues that ravaged the tribe’s home region as the pace of English exploration accelerated. Chief Massassoit—whom historians today generally refer to as the sachem Ousamequin—faced stiff opposition from his own people as he tried to manage the English newcomers and looked for ways to survive the forces of colonization already tearing at the Wampanoags.
The pesky English immigrants did not take the Wampanoags’ jobs but they did swiftly move them “offstage.” But not before a lot of bitter politics and plague.
Here, briefly, is how the remaining Wampanoags of Noepe introduce their own story:
The last great North American glacier began its retreat some 10,000 years ago, leaving behind the accumulation of boulders, sand, and clay that is now known as Martha’s Vineyard. There, it is said, a benevolent being named Moshup roamed the land. One day, Moshup was making his way across the mainland to the headlands of the Aquinnah Cliffs. Weary from his journey, Moshup dragged his foot heavily, leaving a deep track in the mud. At first, only a silver thread of water trickled in the track. But gradually, the ocean’s force of wind and tides broadened and deepened the opening, creating an island named Noepe. The Wampanoag were the first people of Noepe.
The ancestors of Wampanoag people have lived for at least 10,000 years at Aquinnah (Gay Head) and throughout the island of Noepe (Martha’s Vineyard), pursuing a traditional economy based on fishing and agriculture. The Aquinnah Wampanoag share the belief that the giant Moshup created Noepe and the neighboring islands, taught our people how to fish and to catch whales, and still presides over our destinies. Our beliefs and a hundred million years of history are imprinted in the colorful clay cliffs of Aquinnah.
For over ten thousand years the Wampanoag have inhabited the island of Noepe. When the first Europeans dropped anchor off our shores in the 1500s – just before the Pilgrims – we numbered three thousand or more. To this day we still occupy our aboriginal land of Aquinnah and count 901 members, about 300 of whom live on the Island.
The Wampanoag Nation once included all of Southeastern Massachusetts and Eastern Rhode Island, encompassing over 67 distinct tribal communities. The Wampanoag people have undergone a very difficult history after assisting pilgrims in the early 1600s. With the European settlers came much adversity for our tribe – disease that virtually wiped out whole villages, systems of government that bore little resemblance to our tribal practices and values, missionaries intent on converting us to Christianity, and private models of land use and ownership that conflicted with our tribe’s own communal practices and values. The vast majority of these tribal communities were killed in battles initiated by colonists to secure land. Today, only six visible tribal communities remain. Mashpee and Aquinnah have maintained physical and cultural presence on their ancestral homelands. Linking these tribal communities through preservation efforts is essential for survival of the many cultural arts and traditions at risk of being lost.
Nevertheless, they persisted.
Three years ago, the Mashpee Wampanoag secured “substantial control of roughly 320 acres around Cape Cod.” Donald Trump’s administration ordered the land first placed in trust by the Obama administration removed from that protection, the Washington Post reported. A federal judge blocked the move. Joe Biden’s Department of the Interior led by Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary, withdrew the government’s appeal held over from the Trump administration.
Hundreds of years later, may we, the pilgrims’ ancestors, also persist. It’s looking to be a rough winter. Perhaps not as rough as those of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency. Yet amidst a devastating civil war, he declared the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving.
Richardson concludes:
In 1861, Americans went to war to keep a cabal from taking control of the government and turning it into an oligarchy. The fight against that rebellion seemed at first to be too much for the nation to survive. But Americans rallied and threw their hearts into the cause on the battlefields even as they continued to work on the home front for a government that defended democracy and equality before the law.
And in 1865, at least, they won.
May we as well and, like the Wampanoag, survive what’s coming.
Happy Thanksgiving.
I just saw a great video from my old friend Cliff Schechter on his new YouTube channel, Cliff’s Edge.
Is It Time to Start FIGHTING Dirty Against Donald Trump?
After I watched it, I liked, subscribed and joined the channel as a paying member. I’d like folks to do the same. Then I called Cliff to talk about it.
I’ve known Cliff for years and we talked about “fighting” on camera on RW media, and the opportunity for a lefty billionaire to buy a media outlet like CNBC and MSNBC. I hope it happens. If it DOES happen, we need to understand the fear of funders on the left to fighting back and what to do about it.
One thing that I’ve seen is that people who consider themselves journalists in the mainstream media don’t see “fighting back” as their job. That’s the job of activists. That’s the job of Democrats. Many see their role as reporting the facts. (Or “documenting the atrocities” as Atrios would say.)
I’ve written about what happens to journalists when they do report the facts, do the “both sides” bit, and talk to experts. They get threatened. Accepting death threats IS NOT part of the job! @spockosbrain
I’ve been a behind the scenes activist for almost 20 years. I’ve taught my techniques and methods to others. I see how when we win, the right adapts. I actively developed the Spocko Method to drive advertisers away from the violent rhetoric of RW talk radio. This method destroyed RW media’s easy corporate revenue stream. Brands didn’t want to associate with hosts talking about blowing people’s brains out, and sexist attacks on women. Respectable corporate customer facing ads got pulled from RW radio hosts’ shows. The RW media lost 100s of millions of dollars in revenue.
The RW media adapted and started taking money from boner pill companies & supplements. They took money from dark money fronts & RW groups who just wanted the audience and didn’t need to sell goods or services.
I don’t want to get started about how this strategy failed with Elon Musk. When you can tell Advertisers to Go. F*ck. Yourself, that’s a game changer. I worked with the groups that contacted advertisers just to tell them “Hey your brand is being tainted you might want to do something” Musk SUED THOSE GROUPS, AND THE ADVERTISERS! That is something Disney/ABC/ didn’t do when I alerted advertisers to the violent rhetoric coming from the KSFO hosts.
But just like the RW adapts, so do we. There are ways to fight back. There are people who are fighting back. And we need to support them. Financially.
One of my recent projects involves helping the people who have been harmed by the right. It involves suing those who have been harming others AND those who organized the harm. What I’m doing behind the scenes is learning WHY, when we win, we stop. I’m looking at the models of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Qui tam laws and class actions suits. I’m also looking at how these stories are covered in the media, how they are shared (or not shared) on social media. How can these stories penetrate the RW bubble? What can we do when the RW bubble REFRAMES everything so that the person DOING the harm is seen as the victim? (“Cricket shot first! Kristi Noam was defending her family from a vicious dog! Coastal elites don’t understand farm life!”)
One of the things I’m looking at is how regular people can help, without subjecting themselves to massive attacks online, in the media and on social media. Here’s the thing, there are already people who have been harmed and the bad people have gotten away with it. They PROFITED from organizing harm. People might say, that’s “Just good business” because in America making money often overrules EVERYTHING. But not always.
Some change does happen when causing and organizing harm ends up COSTING corporations and individuals money. And when reducing harm MAKES money for the people who were harmed, well, most people can get behind that.
Yes. I know the people causing harm adapt. We on the left feel better helping victims. We don’t like to be the aggressor, many want to forgive the bad people and move on. We need to understand this impulse, and prepare for it in our fights.
This is one of the reasons that the right screams “political prosecution!” when they are held accountable for crimes where they have had due process, found guilty and ordered to pay restitution. They STILL want to appeal to people’s sympathy. We are seeing this right now with Rudy Giuliani’s failure to pay what he owes to Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
Rudy goes outside the courthouse, where he’s not under oath, and lies about the case. That’s the video I’ve seen used on TV and quoted in stories. What we DON’T see are the lawyers for Freeman & Moss calling out the lies following Rudy’s press conference outside. I want to see more of Freeman & Mosses lawyers on the attack.
If we don’t hear from the victims, the focus of the story becomes RUDY as the victim, not, Rudy failing to pay the REAL victims what he owes. RUDY IS NOT THE VICTIM! He’s the bully, the aggressor and the adjudicated LOSER in this case. If I was doing PR for the lawyers I would be out front of the courthouse every SINGLE TIME Rudy whines, and point out what a LIAR he is and remind people of the HARM he caused.
We can not forget what happened to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, remind people of the 100’s of death threats they got that drove them from their homes. Tell people the story again of the big names who still haven’t been held accountable for their role in the case. We need to fight back on behalf of the people who have been harmed. And we keep fighting back after we win.
Yes, I’m on BlueSky @spocko.bsky.social also on Mastodon @spocko@mastodon.online
Cross posted to Spocko’s Brain.
Rolling Stone is reporting today that Trump and Co have revived their plans to invade Mexico. I’m not kidding:
Within Donald Trump’s government-in-waiting, there is a fresh debate over whether and how thoroughly the president-elect should follow through on his campaign promise to attack or even invade Mexico, as part of the “war” he’s pledged to wage against powerful drug cartels.
“How much should we invade Mexico?” says a senior Trump transition member. “That is the question.”
It is a question that would have seemed batty for the GOP elite to consider before, even during Trump’s first term. But in the four years since, many within the mainstream Republican centers of power have come around to support Trump’s idea to bomb or attack Mexico.
Trump’s Cabinet picks, including his choices for secretary of defense and secretary of state, have publicly supported the idea of potentially unleashing the U.S. military in Mexico. So has the man Trump has tapped to be his national security adviser. So has the man Trump selected as his “border czar” to lead his immigration crackdowns. So have various Trump allies in Congress and in the media.
Apparently, no decision have been made yet. Once source told the magazine. However, “if things don’t change, the president still believes it’s necessary to take some kind of military action against these killers.” Another option on the table is to just send in Special Forces to “take out” the cartels, which I’m sure will work. (It’s not like that hasn’t been tried before in South America. It didn’t exactly work.) Apparently, Trump likes this idea, no doubt because it’s like a movie he saw once.
He’s told people that he will tell Mexico that if they don’t fix this problem immediately he will send in the military. Marco Rucio the new Secreatry of state reportedly supports this plan as long as the Mexican government is involved. I’m sure they’ll be just fine with Americans essentially invating. No problema.
Meanwhile, the pending Sec Def Pete Hegseth has thoughts:
Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth, whom Trump chose to lead the Pentagon, said last year that it could be in the national interest to deploy the military against Mexican drug cartels, which he referred to as “terrorist-like organizations poisoning our population.”
“If it takes military action, that’s what it may take, eventually,” said Hegseth. “Obviously, you’re gonna have to be smart about it. Obviously, the precision strikes. But if you put the fear in the minds of the drug lords, at least as a start, [and] they can’t operate in the open with impunity, [it] changes the way they operate. You combine that with actual border security … now you’re cooking with gas and you’ve got a chance.”
What a genius.
This has been on the agenda for a while even as Trump is supposedly the “peace president” who will end all warts forever. Obviously, he is anything but. He just wants his own wars — mostly on Americans and countries he perceives as being shitholes. It’s very disappointing that this never came up during the campaign.
I wrote this a couple of years ago on this subject:
I think Trump just said he’s going to declare war on Mexico if he wins
Published by digby on January 5, 2023
As president, Donald Trump weighed bombing drug labs in Mexico after one of his leading public health officials came into the Oval Office, wearing a dress uniform, and said such facilities should be handled by putting “lead to target” to stop the flow of illicit substances across the border into the United States.
“He raised it several times, eventually asking a stunned Defense Secretary Mark Esper whether the United States could indeed bomb the labs,” according to a new book by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. White House officials said the official, Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir, an admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, often wore his dress uniform for meetings with Trump, which led him to falsely think Giroir was a member of the military.
Sadly, I wouldn’t be all that surprised if Ron DeSantis and others agree with this one, at least in the campaign. It’s very popular among the right, particularly among those who think the support for Ukraine should be switched to some kind of war with Mexico because they say we’re protecting Ukraine’s border but not our own. In honest moments they will say that we should be like Putin and invade. I’m not kidding.
This is a real thing on the right. I don’t know how widespread it is. But Trump is making it clear that he, at least, is serious about using military action against Mexico.
They’re serious.
You’re kidding…
This was obvious before the eleciton but Trump’s promise was such music to people’s ears that I guess eveyrone decided to just let his stupid demagoguery hang out there unrefuted:
U.S. oil and gas producers are unlikely to radically increase production under president-elect Donald Trump as companies remain focused on capital discipline, a senior executive at Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), opens new tab said on Tuesday.
“We’re not going to see anybody in ‘drill, baby, drill’ mode,” Liam Mallon, head of Exxon’s upstream division, told the Energy Intelligence Forum conference in London.
“A radical change (in production) is unlikely because the vast majority, if not everybody, is focused on the economics of what they’re doing,” he said.
What he means by “focused on the economics” is that there is a thing called “supply and demand” and they aren’t going to boost production to lower the price and cut into their profits. It’s ridiculous and always was.