Author | Lightnews

martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 22h

FWIW I will patriotically be one of them.

martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 22h

I think the seating of the 120th Congress is what is most likely to push us deep into the Cool Zone™. If they refuse to seat a Democratic majority, every decent person in DC better be ready to form a human chain around them in whatever place they need to meet in.

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martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 22h

The more ICE and DHS fuck up the more they risk negatively polarizing local law enforcement against them. There are signs of that here and there but it’s not close to what it needs to be yet.

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martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 22h

We don’t know the answers to these questions but we need to stack the deck in favor of

A) No,
B) No,
and
C) Congress

as much as possible. Protests, courts, and taking evidence are going to be a big part of that.

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martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 22h

Ultimately the main questions are:

A) will federal armed forces shoot unarmed protesters on his orders with live ammo

B) will armed forces arrest opposition leaders unprompted on his orders

and C) will the armed forces defer to Congress asserting its authority, or to the Executive branch?

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martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 22h

I think we need to win the midterms too. Not just to win some power back but to break the monopoly on legitimacy and create a permission structure for civil society and average people to stand up to these freaks.

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martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 22h

Agree. I think last Saturday’s rallies and his plummeting approvals show the tide is turning. Options will improve with time and, I hate to say, patience. But time and patience is the key here. Civil society collapsing was a major hit to opposition momentum but there are signs it’s starting to turn.

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martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 22h

Like a Democratic President would need to be in control and call off ICE/DHS practices. They’re not going to submit to a single state’s authority, or even several blue states banding together, when the other option is listening to the President and the federal government.

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martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 22h

Oh yeah, I should clarify that:
I meant a different Executive branch + President. The Executive in the United States is very powerful and the GOP-controlled Congress and SCOTUS are deferring to Trump’s authority in most matters. No one can order ICE/CBP agents except DHS and by extension the WH.

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martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 22h

Legitimacy matters, and so does “bandwagoning” (when the people with guns all side with the faction they think is going to win once conflict starts). Trump controls the WH and by extension the federal government. Congress *could* challenge his monopoly on legitimacy… but we’d need a new Congress.

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martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 23h

We lost the legitimacy advantage when Trump won again. So because of that, There’s no fast easy way to physically remove CBP/ICE unless the sitting Feds either rein them in (they won’t) or a different federal government steps in.

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martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 1d

Funnily enough, I had been posing a version of “everyone is 12” to my friend group for months, though it was clumsily worded as “the defining split of the Trump era is between people who are willing to act like adults and accept responsibility within society and those who aren’t.”

martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 1d

Someone else said it first, but the simplest explanation is a divide between people who can admit they were wrong and people who can’t.

Everyone is 12.

SwiftOnSecurity @swiftonsecurity.com · 2d

Genuinely one of the most indecipherable things I've seen in a while is the range of political alignments defending the tattoo guy. Like why is the entire horseshoe playing here

martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 1d

Someone else said it first, but the simplest explanation is a divide between people who can admit they were wrong and people who can’t.

Everyone is 12.

SwiftOnSecurity @swiftonsecurity.com · 2d

Genuinely one of the most indecipherable things I've seen in a while is the range of political alignments defending the tattoo guy. Like why is the entire horseshoe playing here

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martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 2d

Yep.

martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 2d

I am a single issue voter and that issue is I want the Republican Party in federal prison.

Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 2d

That rage you feel, as you watch the White House get leveled? That's how we beat Trump. Harness that, refine it, find ways to get other people equally enraged. Get them so mad they can't see straight. None of this kumbaya BS. White-hot, unreasoning anger, that demands the people who did this PAY.

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martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 2d

And even then, some of them can’t appreciate the good and that. Zohran is a talented politician and seems to genuinely care about NY. If you’re going to pick a hill to die on to refuse to let the other shoe drop, pick him!

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martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 2d

Like if this is some sort of op, I don’t think he’s a republican trying to help Susan Collins win reelection. I don’t think he cares about her either way. He’s just fucking with the libs because that’s edgy and funny.

Everyone is 12.

martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 2d

The most charitable explanation is that a guy with very poor judgment talked to his way into the progressive lane of a competitive primary.

The least charitable is that he actually is a right winger trying to infiltrate the Dems to cause psychological harm to our coalition.

Erdogan Gwan Delilah @socialconcarne.bsky.social · 3d

chat it doesn't look good

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martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 2d

Yeah he’s on track to hit Biden levels unpopularity.

Simon Rosenberg @simonwdc.bsky.social · 2d

Just brutal national tracks for Trump in recent days.
Approve/disapprove:
37%-61% (-24) AP-NORC
37%-60% (-23) ARG
39%-56% (-17) Econ/YouGov
42%-56% (-14) Ipsos/Reuters
fiftyplusone.news/polls/approv...

fiftyplusone.news

Reposted by martin’s basket carrier

G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 2d

new gallup data comes out showing democrats taking a lead on trust to handle the economy, just as they emerge with an edge in national party ID www.gelliottmorris.com/p/no-kings-n...

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martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 2d

I think Maine Dems watched Sara Gideon, the former speaker of the State House get pasted when they thought Collins would go down with Trump in 2020, and it had a chilling effect.

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 2d

again, the sooner Platner reads the room and bows out with some kind of grace, the sooner a plausible alternative to Mills can be stood up

rev. howard arson @theophite.bsky.social · 2d

there are seven people in this race.

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martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 2d

He’s running for gov but someone could get him to switch races and there are others already there who could win that seat. All the other decent Maine Dem politicians are not running or running for gov bc it’s easier than challenging a six-term incumbent.

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Reposted by martin’s basket carrier

Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 2d

I suppose my stance is that there’s no way we get out of this intact if we do not take necessary risks or take unnecessary risks. The Nazi skull tattoo is an unnecessary risk.

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martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 2d

Competitive primaries are good. I feel the same relief of this happening now as I did at the realization that its good that Biden’s debate happened in June and not in September.

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martin’s basket carrier @dcpianoman.bsky.social · 2d

Critical support to comrade Janet Mills (D-ME)