Elliot Blake

This idiot and his Secretary of Defense do not understand the meaning of “speak softly and carry a big stick.” Their philosophy, insofar as they have one about the defense of the nation, is “talk loud and swing a tiny dick” and the whole world knows it.

From a Bluesky post on which the author chose to disable quote-tweets (fair enough, and I wouldn't quote it if I weren't complimenting it: "Instead of saying this was good strategy, maybe senate dems should say: "the republicans were going to kill people by starving them to death, and because we aren't monsters, we decided to let this fight go. We'll keep fighting. Stop electing monsters.""

This is actually good spin, or would have been. But the fact that the Democratic cave happened without even a coordinated, agreed-upon message like this indicates the depth of the leadership void.

All he does is complain.

Murrow and Cronkite aren’t just spinning in their graves, they’re going to rise up from them soon.

And for so many of those Republicans—looking at you, Mike Johnson—to be doing this behind a veneer of religious piety, while refusing to serve those who elected them in order to prevent the release of the Epstein files to protect Trump, their true god—completely amoral and at odds with that piety.

…believe if you aren’t wealthy, you’re worthless, and for all their talk of “if you don’t have borders, you don’t have a country,” what really kills a country and tanks an economy is when people who have to work for a living—the vast majority of us!—are left behind and treated like anchors. Amoral.

Ultimately, this misery—like pretty much all misery these days—is on Trump and his party, who see blood in the water for the ACA, but have nothing but bullshit to replace it. The Republican “every man for himself, survival of the fittest” ethos is completely amoral. It’s been pretty clear they…

I keep seeing reposts of replies to this and it’s both heartbreaking and infuriating that Republicans are okay with this and that Democrats gave up without getting it fixed, solely in exchange for a promise of a vote, where they will have no leverage and no willing partners across the aisle.

It’s called a reboot, guys. Everyone understands it, especially people who have been watching Bond movies. This feels very much like an exec brain problem and not a filmmaker problem. I still know some execs over there who are sharp people, I’ll give them a call and get this sorted.

So even though Republicans did not agree to extend the health care credits, and even though voters were beginning to side with the left, Democrats - seven of them, anyway, and Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with them - folded. (Here's how every senator voted.) "Standing up to Donald Trump didn't work," Senator King said on MSNBC. "It actually gave him more power."

From the NYTimes morning newsletter: “Standing up to Donald Trump didn’t work,” Senator King said on MSNBC. “It actually gave him more power.” I will never understand this. Can’t beat him by standing up to him, so might as well bow down? Go home, Angus. Resign. You’ve failed.

Know that I’m laughing pretty hard over here.

With little public scrutiny, the Trump administration is handing out hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts to some of the country’s most profitable companies and wealthiest investors. The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service, through a series of new notices and proposed regulations, are giving breaks to giant private equity firms, crypto companies, foreign real estate investors, insurance providers and a variety of multinational corporations.

Let a single person feed their family with food stamps when they don't "deserve" the benefit and Republicans will be filled with such rage that they'll take away those benefits from millions of others.

Meanwhile the administration is doing this:

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/b...

Dorks. They’re dorks. And they’re trying desperately to define masculinity so that they’re not dorks, which is about the dorkiest thing they could do.

I assume the Predator does a badass Badlands cover.

I look at Trump and see a racist piece of crap.

It is indeed a horror show.

He’s a rube who thinks we’re all rubes.

He knows nothing and has no plan to make any of this insurance he speaks of “better” or less expensive. And who is going to be in the power position when people are “negotiating their own insurance?” Hint: it isn’t you and me.

It’d be nice to have a president who knows how a single fuckin thing works.

Catherine my good bitch you guys are the only ones who do not know where the Republicans stand

Angry Democrats call on Schumer to resign after eight vote to end shutdown Some lawmakers and progressive groups blame minority leader after eight senators defect

“Despite his no vote, the entire political world knows this is a direct result of @schumer.senate.gov’s leadership … He either blessed this surrender, or was incapable of leading his caucus to hold the line.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

RESIGN

Yeah, anyone paying attention last week when Republicans laughed off Schumer’s offer to end the shutdown in exchange for a year-long extension of ACA subsidies could see this coming. The GOP wants to kill the ACA, this is how they’re going to do it, and they’re salivating at the chance.

People are afraid of this dumb thug.

The President pardoned members of his private militia after they failed to overturn an election; they, in turn, pledge their support to him and urge him to use them to police civil society.

There’s a joke to be made here about the Orioles hobnobbing with the bourgeoisie but I got up at 5:20 this morning and I’m too tired to make it. I give this one to you, baseball Bluesky, with my compliments.

Durbin understanding that majority leader Thune might screw them over, that he can’t 100% be counted on to keep his word, makes the capitulation even worse.

They also should have just said this aloud. I agree with this post, this is the wrong move, it was the opportunity to say "Trump is hurting you so much when all we're asking for is to make your health insurance less expensive." BUT - we just couldn't stand to see people hurt anymore is

Your humble Bluesky pal Elliot in a knit tie and wearing headphones.

I almost never put on a tie, but I also almost never get to voice direct an Oscar-winning actor, and today both of those things happened.

“Anyone who helps me try to steal an election gets a pardon” is perhaps the most corrupt thing to happen in American history.

That “conservatives” have simply accepted this as the price of admission is the greatest moral and intellectual humiliation.