April 13, 1919 Socialist, pacifist, and labor leader Eugene V. Debs was imprisoned for opposing U.S. entry into World War I. While in prison, he received nearly one million votes for President in the 1920 election (as he had in 1912). All aspects of Debs from the Eugene Debs Foundation
April 13, 1919 In Amritsar, holiest city of the Sikh religion (in India’s Punjab province), British and Gurkha troops fired without warning and killed at least 379 and wounded another 1200 Sikhs meeting in a park known as Jallianwala Bagh to celebrate their new year’s festival of Baisakhi Mela.In the previous three days, two key Sikh leaders had been deported, Mohandas Ghandi had been barred from entering the Punjab, and a general strike and demonstration had been met with deadly fire from British troops, sparking violent reaction. Background of the Amritsar massacre
April 5, 1910 Emil Seidel was elected mayor of Milwaukee and became the first socialist mayor of a major city in the United States. During his administration the first public works department was established, the first fire and police commissions were organized, and a city park system came into being. In 1912, the Socialist Party nominated Emil Seidel as their vice presidential candidate to run with Eugene Debs. Emil Seidel Read more about Emil Seidel Milwaukee’s Socialist Era
April 5, 1930 Mohandas Gandhi and his followers reached the end of their 400 km (240 mile) march to the Indian Ocean coast at Dandi. He had left his ashram with 78 satyagrahis (“soldiers” of peaceful resistance), but the procession grew over the 23 days of traveling on foot until it stretched more than 3 km (2 miles). When they arrived at the seaside, Gandhi made salt by allowing seawater to evaporate. This simple task was an act of civil disobedience because the British Raj, the governing colonial authority, had made salt-making a monopoly and a crime for others; additionally, there was a tax on salt, a necessary element of the Indian diet. Gandhi picking up salt. Gandhi had chosen this issue to demonstrate how British control affected all Indians, regardless of ethnicity, religion or caste. The nature of this “crime” allowed him to resist that power without violence. And the British were faced with potentially arresting millions who might now be willing to flout the Salt Laws. He had written to Lord Irwin, the Viceroy of India, a month earlier: “Dear Friend, I cannot intentionally hurt anything that lives, much less fellow human beings, even though they may do the greatest wrong to me and mine. Whilst, therefore, I hold the British rule to be a curse, I do not intend to harm to a single Englishman or to any legitimate interest he may have in India . . . .” Read Gandhi’s letter
April 5, 1972 The Harrisburg Seven case ended in mistrial after 11 weeks.The Seven were charged with plotting to kidnap Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, among other alleged crimes. The defense attorney, recent former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, asked by the presiding judge to call his first witness said, “Your Honor, the defendants shall always seek peace. They continue to proclaim their innocence. Elizabeth McAllister and Philip Berrigan, two of the Harrisburg Seven The defense rests.” Only Philip Berrigan and Sister Elizabeth McAllister were declared guilty—of smuggling letters in and out of prison. They later married, co-founding Baltimore’s Jonah House. Visit Jonah House
April 5, 1977 Demonstrations and sit-ins began at regional offices of the U.S. Department of Health, Education & Welfare (HEW, now Department of Health & Human Services) urging HEW Secretary Joseph Califano to implement an extension of civil rights that included the disabled. Since non-discrimination protection had been part of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the department had failed to agree to regulations (under Section 504) that would give the law practical effect in the lives of those it intended to protect. Discrimination on the basis of disability was to be illegal in any program which received federal funds. At all the offices the demonstrators left at the end of the working day, except two: Washington, DC and the San Francisco regional headquarters. Though negotiations were continuing between the Carter administration and the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities, those in San Francisco, led by Judith Heumann, held their ground until Califano signed the Sec. 504 regulations on April 28. It had been the longest sit-in of a federal office in history. Judith Heumann, Advisor for Disability and Development. sign from the campaign Short film about the sit-in (“Recalling an invigorating act of civil disobedience”) How Section 504 became law and how its supporters prevailed
April 5, 1982 Dublin, Ireland, declared itself a nuclear-free zone by vote of its City Council.
April 5, 1985 Columbia University students occupied Hamilton Hall to demand divestment by the university of its assets invested in companies doing business with South Africa. The selling off was intended to pressure the racially separatist government to eliminate its racially separatist policy of apartheid.
April 5, 1989 Solidarity (Solidarnosc in Polish) became the first independent labor union given legal status in Poland. It started out as a strike committee among shipyard workers advocating democratic reforms during the summer of 1980 in Gdansk (FKA Danzig). A very high percentage of the Polish workers, a broad representation of the political and social opposition to the communist military regime, became members despite the union’s having been declared illegal in October of 1982. Solidarity’s legacy
April 5, 1992 The March for Women’s Lives, in support of women’s reproductive rights and equality, drew several hundred thousand people to Washington, D.C. There were students representing 600 college campuses. Part of the huge turnout taking part in the March for Women’s Lives
One of the largest protests ever in the nation’s capital, the pro-choice rally occurred as the U.S. Supreme Court was about to consider the constitutionality of a Pennsylvania law that limited access to abortions.Many abortion-rights advocates feared that the high court, with its conservative majority, might find the Pennsylvania law constitutional, or even overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that made abortion legal. Read more about this march
April 5, 1996 54 were arrested in a Good Friday protest at Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratory in California.
Republican lawmakers in the Sunshine State are advancing a suite of bills making it easier for employers to exploit society’s most vulnerable.
Snippet (there’s much more, also about other subjects, on this page -A):
Make labor law feudal again. The Florida legislature is rapidly advancing a suite of bills allowing employers to underpay subminimum-wage workers — including children. One measure proposes undoing key child labor restrictions, like rules regulating maximum hours per week, banning overnight shifts, and guaranteeing teens get meal breaks. Another bill would permit employers to misclassify full-time workers as interns and apprentices to circumvent the state’s new minimum wage law. Both bills are part of the business lobby’s long war to decimate labor rights in the state; proponents are citing ongoing labor market disruptions caused in part by the Trump administration’s mass deportation program.
Florida didn’t want this. In 2020, a supermajority of Floridians voted to pass a ballot initiative to raise the state’s minimum wage from $8.56 to $15 an hour by 2026. But business interests have tried to stop that law from ever fully going into effect. Last year, the legislature passed a carve-out for minor league baseball players, and this year, the business community is coming back with a more sweeping overhaul. The new bill exempts interns, apprentices, and work-study programs from the new wage standards, despite the fact that a minimum wage is supposed to raise the floor for the lowest-paid segments of the labor force.
Internships forever. Critics of the legislation point out that the bill text does not define any criteria for what differentiates an employee from an intern or apprentice. Without clear guardrails, employers could use this exemption to underpay just about any entry-level position that requires some training. All they’d need to do is require the employee to sign a form waiving their right to the state minimum wage.
Thanks, Florida Man. In a committee hearing earlier this month, the bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Ryan Chamberlin (R-Belleview), acknowledged that retailers like Target may exploit these loopholes as written. “It’s certainly not intended for Target to be able to do that,” he said in response to a Democratic lawmaker’s concerns, without denying that it’s a possibility. Meanwhile, critics argue that the legislation is patently unconstitutional and suspect that it’s meant to push for a ruling from the state’s high court, which is stacked with loyalists of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who has opposed the minimum-wage law. With a favorable ruling, business groups could weaken the law and undermine a guaranteed state minimum wage. (snip)
Donald Trump continues to bully one of the America’s longest allies.
Donald Trump just made the rationale for his tariff “Liberation Day” crystal clear: revenge.
In a post on Truth Social late Tuesday, the president said that the tariffs were his administration’s “fight” against Democrats’ “wild and flagrant push to not penalize Canada for the sale, into our Country, of large amounts of Fentanyl, by Tariffing the value of this horrible and deadly drug in order to make it more costly to distribute and buy.”
Approximately 0.2 percent of American fentanyl seizures occur at the Canadian border, according to federal statistics.
But Trump’s aggressive rhetoric and high levies on Canada have practically shattered the two neighbors’ long-standing allyship. On Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that his country’s cozy relationship with the U.S. had come to an end, and that Canada would wean itself off American products and services “at speeds we haven’t seen in generations.”
Trump singled out four Republican senators in particular who have pushed back against his tariffs. “They are playing with the lives of the American people, and right into the hands of the Radical Left Democrats and Drug Cartels,” he said, referring to Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Rand Paul.
“The Senate Bill is just a ploy of the Dems to show and expose the weakness of certain Republicans, namely these four, in that it is not going anywhere because the House will never approve it and I, as your President, will never sign it,” Trump said. “Why are they allowing Fentanyl to pour into our Country unchecked, and without penalty. What is wrong with them, other than suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly known as TDS?”
Trump and his allies have frequently accused anyone that critiques their work of being mentally ill, effectively undermining the legitimacy of critical thought in the groupthink of his already sycophantic base.
“Who can want this to happen to our beautiful families, and why? To the people of the Great States of Kentucky, Alaska, and Maine, please contact these Senators and get them to FINALLY adhere to Republican Values and Ideals,” Trump said. “They have been extremely difficult to deal with and unbelievably disloyal to hardworking Majority Leader John Thune, and the Republican Party itself. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
(I find it rich that Trump thinks those Senators have not adhered to Republican values and ideals, especially McConnell and Collins. Paul is in a world of his own, most decidedly a Libertarian world. Sheesh. -A.)
When I went to Peace buttons Monday night, their site was down, or something, so no P&J 4/1 morning. However, keep scrolling; it’ll be after 4/2! -A
April 2, 1917 Jeannette Rankin, a Republican from Montana, took her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. The first woman ever elected to Congress, she became the only member to vote against U.S. entry into both world wars. Rankin lost her seat in the next election but was re-elected twenty years later when she opposed entry into World War II. She again served just one term. Though American women weren’t guaranteed the right to vote for three more years with passage of the 19th amendment, women in Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Washington had full voting rights even before statehood. Rankin was instrumental in passing laws that made married women citizens in their own right. Jeannette Rankin biography
April 2, 1966 One hundred thousand Vietnamese demonstrated in DaNang against both the U.S. and their South Vietnamese governments. Civil unrest spread also to Hue and the capital, Saigon.
April 2, 1970 Massachusetts, in the midst of the Vietnam war, enacted a law which exempted its citizens from having to fight in an undeclared war. The U.S. Congress had never formally declared war on North Vietnam as required by Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.
April 1, 1841 Brook Farm, perhaps history’s most well-known utopian community, was founded by George and Sophia Ripley near West Roxbury, Massachusetts. Its primary appeal was to young Bostonians who were uncomfortable with the materialism of American life, and the community was a refuge for dozens of transcendentalists, including authors Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Following four days of demonstrations against the Military Services Act that devolved into rioting in Quebec City, Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden sent in troops from Ontario to stop the violence. Orders from the soldiers were read only in English to the mostly Francophone demonstrators, and when the they didn’t disperse, the troops fired, killing four and wounding 70. [see March 28, 1918] A memorial in Quebec to those who died protesting conscription into World War I More about Brook Farm
April 1, 1932 500 schoolchildren, in the depth of the Depression, paraded through Chicago’s downtown section to the Board of Education offices, demanding that the school system provide them with food.
April 1, 1955 The African National Congress had called on parents to withdraw their children by this day from South African schools in resistance to the Bantu Education Act. That 1953 law transferred education of the Bantu (blacks) from religious missions to state-controlled schools. Mission education, argued then-Minister of Bantu Education Dr. H.F. Verwoerd, not only tended to create “false expectations” amongst the natives, but was also in direct conflict with South Africa’s racially separatist apartheid policies. Whites, who were in complete control of government and society, comprised only 14% of South Africa’s population. Verwoerd presented to Parliament: “When I have control of native education, I will reform it so that natives will be taught from childhood to realize that equality with Europeans is not for them. There is no place for him (the black child) in European society above the level of certain forms of labour…What is the use of teaching a Bantu child mathematics when it cannot use it in practice?”
April 1, 1983 Tens of thousands in the United Kingdom formed a “peace chain” 22.5 kilometers (14 miles) long to express their opposition to nuclear weapons. The chain started at the American airbase at Greenham Common, passed the Aldermaston nuclear research center, and ended at the ordnance factory in Burghfield. At the same time 15,000 people took part in the first of a series of anti-nuclear marches in West Germany. They were protesting the siting of American cruise missiles on West German territory. Contemporaneous coverage of the Peace Chain
April 1, 1985 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered an end to the dumping of sludge off the New Jersey coast into the Atlantic Ocean. 21st century sludge
Donald Trump wants to become a dictator, and he’s saying the quiet parts out loud.
Trump is already turning this nation into an authoritarian state. He’s deporting people for protesting, he’s cutting funds to universities that have allowed protests, he’s claiming certain language and ideology is improper and illegal, he’s ignoring the courts, he’s cleansing government and history of DEI, he’s installed an oligarch to override Congress, and he’s even concerned that animals at the National Zoo might be too woke. Now, he’s openly talking about serving a third term.
Right after the election last November, Trump mused about serving a third term, saying he was only joking. Now, he’s openly talking about finding “methods” to serve a third term, and this time, he’s not joking.
There’s only one thing standing in the way of Trump serving a third term, and it’s this little thing I like to call the United States Constitution. The 22nd Amendment says, “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”
That seems pretty clear, right? But wait, Republicans and people sick of democracy and want to give fascism a chance say it’s not. They point to the word “elected” in the 22nd. They believe that as long as Trump can re-enter office without an election, then he’s in. Their theory is that JD Vance can become the Republican nominee in 2028, install Trump as his running mate, win the election (after destroying the nation with MAGA fascism the previous four years), resign the presidency, and Trump will become president for a third time.
So far, this nation has had only one president who was not elected as president or even Vice President. Who was that? I’ll give the answer in the notes.
But wait. The 12th Amendment says, “No person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”
Trump is NOT eligible to run for a third term. After his J6 insurrection, he shouldn’t have been eligible for a second. What’s scary is that nobody may try to stop him.
In France, Marine Le Pen is ineligible to hold political office after being convicted of embezzlement, but here in America, Donald Trump is talking about serving a third term even after a coup attempt. As Harry in Resident Alien would say, “This is some bullshit.”
The GOP has already caved into Trump. Corporate America has bent a knee to Trump, and now they’re throwing money at him. Universities are giving in to his demands. Even Chuck Schumer has adopted the philosophy that the best way to stop Trump is to give him everything he wants. We also know the voters are too stupid, too racist, and don’t care enough about this country to stop him.
You would think the courts are the firewall against Dictator Trump, but SCOTUS, with a 6-3 fucknut majority (with two open to bribes), has already ruled that Trump is immune to everything except syphilis and severe acne.
Nothing stopped Trump from violating the Emoluments Clause. Nothing stopped Trump from using the White House and Washington Monument during the 2020 convention. The Senate refused to convict him in both impeachments. The courts refused to prosecute him. Nothing is stopping him from grifting during his second term (sic). Nothing has stopped him from allowing DOGE to work as an unelected fourth branch. Nothing stopped him from being bribed by Elon for $277 million. So, excuse me if I’m a little nervous about him serving a third term. Do I have to repeat that the voters can’t be trusted anymore?
Trump says a lot of people want him to serve a third term, but none of those people are probably among the 56 percent polled to say Trump is doing a shitty job as president (sic). So maybe Trump, even under JD on the ticket, won’t be popular enough to win in 2028.
But wait.
Trump might believe he doesn’t have to win to serve a third term because, as we learned from history, he’ll just claim he won and make another coup attempt and then pardon everyone who participated in the coup.
So, excuse me for not trusting the safeguards in our republic and for being nervous. Do we have to wait for Trump to start his third term for us to become a banana republic, or are we already there?
Which president was never elected? Gerald Ford was never elected as president or vice president.
Creative note: I wasn’t sure if the quote on the sippy cup was genuine, so I Googled it.
I see this a lot on social media. Someone will post a quote they believe is genuine. I have a spider sense with fake shit on the internet. Usually, when I see something I suspect is fake on Facebook and people believe it, even liberals, I discover it’s a lie. People do this with quotes a lot, and most people don’t question it. Well, today I found a Hitler quote, but I wanted to make sure it was genuine.
I did a search, and it turned up in different forms, but that still doesn’t make it real. Proofer Laura looked it up, too. I decided to go with it because I found it on a university website, so I’m hoping they got shit together and fact-checked it for me.
Daily Cartoonist note: Last night, I saw a question posed to me four weeks ago at the Daily Cartoonist. A reader asked why he had to be a paid subscriber to comment here, and also said he would use it to post corrections to me. I would have replied there, but the comments were closed. I’m hoping he’ll see this here.
First, I don’t mind having corrections sent to me, but I don’t like them in the comments. Why not? Because it distracts from everything else. If you see a typo, please message it to me through whatever platform you prefer. You can email me at clayjonz@gmail.com. Trust me, people let me know when they see typos, and I make many. If you want to challenge me on a fact or dispute anything, I’m cool with that being posted in the comments, as it can encourage discussions.
Second, only paid subscribers can comment because they’re paid subscribers. They gotta have something for their money. That reminds me that I need to make more exclusive content for the people who financially support me.
If you can’t find the strength to take a stand, at least lie down.
Ali Davis March 31, 2025
Hello, Congressional Republicans who still care about the republic! I know you’re out there because I kept hearing how differently Trump’s cabinet confirmations would have gone if only the votes have been secret.
We have reached a crisis point. We have reached so many crisis points. We reached like three new crisis points between me starting and finishing this article.
We have flipped our foreign policy so radically that we are now the villain of the world. All decision on that end seems to have been handed over to Putin and a bunch of preening technofascists. Our economy is crashing toward a depression and the only trick the Trump Administration pony has is more insane tariffs. High-level cabinet members endangered the lives of our servicemembers by discussing classified information on the already-hacked Signal app, and that doesn’t even cover gloating over civilian deaths, adding a journalist to the group text, and further damaging our relationship with Europe. The Trump administration is trying to start wars with freaking Denmark and Canada. DENMARK AND CANADA, for chrissakes.
And the most insane thing is that this is an abridged list. There are paragraphs and paragraphs of human rights horrors that I have skipped.
This is it. You are a part of an authoritarian government, a twisted and vile parody of what we once had. Elon Musk is stripping it for parts and awarding himself lucrative contracts while Donald Trump threatens Republican judges and lobs all of our state secrets straight to Putin.
The window for stopping this is small and vanishing. The most patriotic thing you could do is stand up and impeach Donald Trump, but, whether it’s due to a fear of Trump or fear of his zealots, you’re not doing that. The second most patriotic thing you could do is resign and leave your seat open to a flip by the Democrats. But you don’t seem to be doing that either. So here it is: The third most patriotic thing you can do, your last option for saving your beloved country from falling completely into authoritarianism: Get sick.
Get terribly sick and refuse to discuss your personal health information during this challenging time. Or get just a little bit sick and keep insisting that you’ll be as right as rain in a week or two. Have a family emergency. Or just take some dearly needed personal time.
Just drop out for a while. Hole up at home or get out of the country if you need to and let some trusted Democrats know that they’ll have the majority for a while and the time and leeway to move. (BE SURE YOU KNOW WHO IS ON THE SIGNAL CHAT.)
But what if someone is blackmailing me?
No offense, but this is bigger than you. Putin wants to break the United States. And he wants to break the United States so that he can roll over Western Europe. Do you really want to go to your grave knowing that you held onto your secret at the expense of Permanent Global Fascism? For that matter, do you really think complying now will stop them from burning you with it when you become inconvenient later?
Let’s be honest: A lot of us are already kind of assuming that you’re being blackmailed. And the fact that you’ve abandonedyour principles when the stakes are so high is making people think that the thing you’re being blackmailed over is much worse than what it probably really is. If Matt Gaetz can brazen it out, what on earth must you be hiding?
The good news is that there is nothing better for blowing your blackmail material straight out of the news cycle than a fiery Presidential impeachment that the nation can’t stop watching. There’s no better time to get out from under someone’s thumb.
But if the Democrats are smart, they’ll remove Johnson and prosecute Vance for the Signal debacle. That means a Democratic President will be in. I’ll lose some of my own power. What about that?
More real talk: Donald Trump has screwed the Republican party’s chances for decades at a minimum. You are now the party that let the Nazis in. You are the party that closed the national parks and tried to put Grandma out on the street. You are the party that kneecapped scientific research right when it looked like there might be a cure for pancreatic cancer. You are the party that crashed the stock market, the party that made us hated by the world, the party that let Musk and Putin take the reins. You are the party that just came out as pro-measles and made room for polio. The Republican Party is going the way of the Know-Nothings. You’re going to have to scrap it and start over.
And that’s if we ever have real elections again.
The only hope of you, personally, ever coming back into power is if Trump gets impeached and you become a zealous reformer. Toss out everyone who helped Trump, Musk, Thiel and Putin, support real jail time, and legislate us back out of Citizens United. Throw the bastards out and keep on throwing or you are surely getting tossed out yourself.
You can start right now, of course. That would be ideal. But you can also start after you take a little break to let the Democrats get the ball rolling.
Can’t I just keep my head down and appease Trump until things are magically better?
No. If you have read this far instead of screaming about George Soros and fake Venezuelan gang members, you are a Republican who thoughtcrimes against Trump. He and his barrel of vipers who the nonbelievers are. You won’t make it.
Fascists always need a villain to rail against. They always have a list. It is not a question of whether you are on the list, it’s a question of how far down you are. Right now, it’s foreign students and random brown people with innocent tattoos, but Trump is going to crave new meat and fresh news stories soon. You know that he needs to ritually humiliate and cast out a Republican every so often to reassert his dominance. You’re higher up the list than you think.
And if we hit the era of No Real Elections, which is more likely every day, there is no way you are keeping your elected position. Only perfect toadying cult members will make it through, and there is no way you can tap dance fast enough to make up for the past.
Besides: Is “enthusiastic supporter of the fascist regime” the way you want your grandchildren to remember you?
If you aren’t moved by the idea of saving the democratic republic we’ve all grown fond of, think about the fact that your only path to staying in your elected office is to get Trump out of his, and your chance to do that is slipping away.
It’s time to come down with a severe but undefined and conveniently curable medical issue. Play hooky. Go AWOL. Bunk out. Chuck a sickie. But do it quickly.
If you can’t bring yourself to impeach Donald Trump, you need to get the hell out of the way so someone else can. (snip)
(There are others; it’s a thing to look at. But Republicans have actually made a Democrat-a black, woman elected Democratic US House Member-the news of the weekend. No wonder Wednesday has to be a big news day for Trump!) (Also, blue language within!)
Why Are White MAGA Weenuses So Scared Of Jasmine Crockett? Here’s Why. by Evan Hurst
This week, let’s talk about one of the heroes of the anti-Trump opposition, one of the leaders who’s actually showing up and showing people how it’s done, and terrifying the fuck out of Donald Trump and his white MAGA Nazi fascists in the process.
I’m of course talking about Jasmine Crockett, Democratic congresswoman from Texas, specifically Dallas. Have you noticed she’s the subject of right-wing manufactured outrage every week now, for some new terribly egregious offense she has committed against their delicate sensibilities?
We wonder why they don’t like her. Trying to put our finger on it.
Is it because she’s a powerful, brilliant Black woman who isn’t remotely intimidated by these white racist fascist MAGA motherfuckers, who also happens to be smarter than each and every one of them?
Well, yes, but it’s even more than that!
Why are they so mad at Jasmine Crockett?
This week, Attorney General Nazi Barbie Pam Bondi has been all over the TV, with all the gravitas of Michele in Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion declaring that she invented Post-Its, that Crockett better “tread very carefully” with calling for peaceful protests against Elon Musk and Tesla. OR ELSE.
Bondi has claimed that people are using “weapons of mass destruction” against Teslas, and she is just pretty sure that Jasmine Crockett is a prime instigator of all this #TeslaTakedown business. “You have this Congresswoman Crockett who is calling for attacks on Elon Musk on her birthday. ‘Let’s take him out on my birthday,’ she says. Yet she turns and says ‘Oh, I’m not calling for violence,’” she complained to serious journalist Maria Bartiromo on the Fox Business Network, where business is discussed. “Well she is an elected public official, and so she needs to tread very carefully because nothing will happen to Elon Musk, and we’re going to fight to protect all of the Tesla owners throughout this country.”
Okeydoke. Has Crockett been calling for violence against Musk, or Tesla dealerships? Of course not. Would she be mad if we laughed at a Cybertruck driving by and made jokes amongst ourselves about what a loser probably is driving it? Probably not. But no violence.
Also, any idiot knows, or can figure out — maybe even Pam Bondi! — that the Tesla protests are called #TeslaTakedown and that they’re entirely peaceful. You either have to be extremely stupid or a lying scumbag — or both, like maybe even Pam Bondi! — to believe differently.
As my former Wonkette colleague Liz Dye details ably at the Public Notice newsletter this week, Bartiromo was just one stop on Bondi’s tour of ridiculous media appearances this week trying to scare Crockett. She was on “Hannity” this week, bellyaching that Crockett must “apologize immediately, not only to all Texans, but to our country, to the American shareholders of Tesla, because she is promoting violence.” (Apparently some shit happened at a Tesla dealership in Austin. It had nothing to do with Jasmine Crockett.)
At the end of the “Hannity” clip, Bondi also faked outrage over Crockett supposedly inciting violence against beloved senator Ted Cruz when she said that for Democrats to win races in Texas, “this dude has to be knocked over the head, like hard, right? Like there is no niceties with him. Like at all. Like you go clean off on him.” In context, any fucking moron — even Pam Bondi maybe! — could tell that she was talking in the context of political races, about being willing to punch your opponents hard.
MAGA, whose leader Donald Trump has throughout his political career incited violence against racial minorities, journalists, the US Capitol and more, can spare us the fucking whiny-ass histrionics.
Of course, as Liz Dye notes, Jasmine Crockett has said repeatedly that she’s not advocating violence, like this past weekend on MSNBC, when she told Alex Witt, “Tesla’s tanking right now, and I’m okay with that,” but added that “Just in case the slow people listening try to clip this later, I just want to say that I have never promoted violence whatsoever.” She also said maybe people who have problems with political violence shouldn’t have pardoned 1,500 MAGA terrorists for their actions to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election on January 6. She was just saying!
Let’s see, what else are they mad at Jasmine Crockett about? Oh just everything.
She called Texas’s Greg Abbott “Governor Hot Wheels” at the Human Rights Campaign gala. Maybe she shouldn’t have said that. She says she wasn’t talking about his disability, but rather his “planes, trains, and automobiles he used to transfer migrants into communities led by Black mayors, deliberately stoking tension and fear among the most vulnerable.” Of course, Greg Abbott is a sadistic monster, and we’re not going to spend a lot of time worrying about the feelings of people who are obsessed with hurting trans kids and filling the Rio Grande with murder buoys to slice up migrant human beings.
Again, miss us with your fake outrage and your crocodile tears, MAGA.
OK, why are they REALLY so mad at Jasmine Crockett?
Because on top of being a Black woman who doesn’t respect them, and on top of being a Black woman who is smarter than them, she has their fuckin’ number, and she knows it, and they know it.
This week in an interview with The 19th, Crockett mocked the stupid, prurient Republican MAGA Nazi obsession with transgender kids playing sports, saying that according to Republicans, “That is the biggest issue that we’ve had. Since when? Since when? Find the little trans child that is ruining your life. I mean, I’m just like, what are we doing? Like, what are we doing?”
That’s one example.
Let’s talk about how Crockett explains the white Republican obsession with eliminating DEI. In a congressional hearing before the election, she said, “This election is the best example of why y’all are so afraid of [DEI] because then you can’t have a simple-minded, under-qualified white man. […] You’ve got to pay attention to the qualified Black woman that is on the other side.”
“I am tired of the white tears. Listen, if you are competent, you are not concerned. […] I had to work 10 times as hard as they did just to get into the seat. When you look and you compare me to Marjorie Taylor Greene or me to Lauren Boebert, there is no comparison. And that is the life that we have always lived.”
“So, the only people that are crying are the mediocre white boys that have been beaten out by people that historically have had to work so much harder.”
Yep, that’s why they hate her right there.
If you are competent, you are not concerned.
You see, Jasmine Crockett understands something about this white conservative MAGA obsession with DEI that MAGA buffoons and Nazis are desperate to avoid confronting. Every time you see a white Trump-supporting man babbling about bringing back “merit,” the fantasy he’s openly masturbating to is that if only all the DEI programs go away, if only affirmative action goes away, if only they can get back to “merit” and that one MLK Jr. quote they like about “not the color of your skin but the content of your character,” THEN order will be restored and white conservative Christian men will start to naturally float to the top again, where they belong.
Jasmine Crockett knows that fantasy is some fuckin’ bullshit.
She knows that DEI doesn’t put women, LGBTQ+ people and racial minorities in jobs they’re not qualified for, but rather that it makes it less likely that extremely mediocre white Christian conservative men will get positions they’re totally not cut out for, positions they have not earned, positions they’re far too stupid to fill.
DEI is all about merit. It’s all about — for instance — making sure dumbfuck good old boy frat boys and date rapists from SEC schools who aren’t qualified to pick up Jasmine Crockett’s dry-cleaning don’t get all the high-powered jobs, when far more capable people are willing, available, and more deserving.
Jasmine Crockett knows that good DEI policies help expose the secret that white conservative men never really were impressive people in the first place. They never got where they are because they were creative or clever or had something to offer that nobody else had. They stole it, and then let themselves believe they earned it, that their talent and their bootstraps got them there.
The only people crying are the mediocre white boys.
March 31, 1492 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella ordered the expulsion from Spain before August of all Jews who refused to convert to Christianity under penalty of death.
March 31, 1776 Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, John (later to be the second U.S. president): I long to hear that you have declared an independancy—and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation. That your Sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute, but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend. Why then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the Lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity. Men of Sense in all Ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your Sex. Regard us then as Beings placed by providence under your protection and in immitation of the Supreem Being make use of that power only for our happiness.
March 31, 1968 President Lyndon Johnson announced he would not seek re-election, ordered a partial bombing halt in Vietnam, and appointed W. Averell Harriman to seek peace negotiations with North Vietnam.
March 31, 1970 The Oakland, California, Induction Center revealed that over the prior six months, half those drafted for the Vietnam War had failed to appear, and 11% of those who reported then refused induction into the U.S. Army. Later that Spring 2500 University of California-Berkeley students at once turned in their draft cards to the Oakland Center.
March 31, 1972 Protesters – singing, blowing horns and carrying banners – launched the latest leg of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s 56-mile Easter march from London to Aldermaston, Berkshire, England. The banner used in the 1960s Aldermaston marches.
March 31, 1985 Throughout Australia, 300,000 demonstrated in peace and anti-nuclear rallies.
March 31, 1991 Before dawn on Easter, five Plowshares activists boarded the USS Gettysburg, an Aegis-equipped Cruiser docked at the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. They proceeded to hammer and pour blood on covers of vertical launching systems for cruise missiles. “We witness against the American enslavement to war at the Bath Iron Works, geographically near the President’s home.” They also left an indictment charging President George H.W. Bush, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, the National Security Council and the Joint Chiefs of Staff with war crimes and violations of God’s law and international law, including the killing of thousands of Iraqis. Remembering Aegis Plowshares
March 31, 1997 Four East Timorese were arrested in Warton, England, at the British Aerospace factory where Hawk fighter jets were built for the Indonesian military, who used them in the ongoing occupation and genocide of their homeland.
March 31, 2004 Air America, intended as a liberal voice in network talk radio, made its debut on five stations.
Scottie's Playtime 