DSA Vatniks

To the surprise of exactly nobody, the DSA is supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:

Rightful Losses

This is what loses elections, and rightfully so:

Delayed homeownership means delayed childbirth. It means fewer or no children. This is a catastrophe for regular people. And prattling moronically how we are in the Golden Age of the US economy sounds like a cruel joke to pretty much everybody who is not wealthy. 82% of women under 30 and 68% of men in the same age group in NYC voted for Mamdani. And yes, he’s a nepo baby fraud. But he got these young people’s support by taking these very serious issues seriously. Because nobody else is doing it.

Trump announced the other day that “grocery prices are way down.” Why, in the name of everything normal, would they be down? This is delusional and is precisely the kind of stuff that loses elections, as it well should. We mocked Biden for exactly this kind of ridiculous lying.

Instead of exercising pressure on our elected leaders to abandon the la la land of this utter fantasy, the Right is mired in whiny complaints about microaggressions and inclusivity and who said what to whom that hurt their everloving fee-fees. Lonely Matt Walsh is begging people to get their heads out of their Israel-obsessed anal cavities and start paying attention to what is happening in our country.

This is very embarrassing and very self-defeating.

The Sheinbaum Groping Incident

The President of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum was groped in the street.

She is understandably upset and is filing charges.

Sheinbaum says that all Mexican women experience unwanted groping. She is right. Strangely, however, she seems not to understand why Americans are unwilling to undergo the same humiliation at the hands of the millions of Mexican men she is trying to push out of Mexico to enrich her wealthy cronies.

Ethical Dilemma

My friend, who is woke to the point it’s been hard to talk to him because he gets so red in the face I’m afraid he’ll suffer a stroke, was denied funding because he’s a white male who invited two other white males to speak at his event.

Should I tell him why he was denied? It’s supposed to be confidential but he is a friend. On the other hand, is the enjoyment I’ll feel when telling him a sign that I shouldn’t?

The Milder Maniac

It’s come to the point where I celebrate the win of Frey, the maniacally woke guy who knelt and wept by the coffin of George Floyd.

Give it a few more years, and we will see Fateh as a milder, less scary choice for whatever maniac Democrats advance next.

Q&A about Religion

What I recommend is getting there not through the intellect but through practice. Go to church (synagogue, mosque, temple, etc) and simply do what everybody else does. Start showing up every week and following other people’s lead. It’s going to feel weird and awkward but stick with it. It’s all in the practice, ritual, and community. Religion is not about solitary striving. It allows you to be part of something that’s bigger than yourself. It gives you a respite from having to choose and decide everything for yourself. Many, many generations of people worked hard to give you the gift of a consolidated ritual where all you need to do is show up.

Religion doesn’t have a ticket to entry. You don’t need to have it all settled in your mind before starting the practice. Instead, you can simply fold yourself into the ritual that’s all there for you and enjoy the sheer restfulness of it.

As for reading, even the tiniest of parishes have a Bible study, a reading group, a prayer group. This is best done in the spirit of togetherness.

When I first started going to church, I was the mother of a small child and overwhelmed by responsibility at home and at work. I found Orthodox service to be extremely long and confusing. I knew nothing about the dogma. But the relief of being in a place where I didn’t need to decide anything because it had all been decided for me a thousand years ago was magnetic. It doesn’t matter why you go. It matters that you go.

Why NYC Voted for Mamdani

I deeply despise Mamdani, the nepo dude, but I understand why people voted for him. Cuomo is a washed up Boomer with zero energy. He brought nothing to the race except for being a Democrat who is not Mamdani. Sliwa is old and weird.

No argument was advanced to discredit Mamdani. Republicans kept harping on him being a Muslim which is ludicrous. He’s a Muslim like I’m a ballerina. He conducted his campaign in gay clubs and promised huge sums to trans people. They also kept saying he’s a Communist which means nothing to anybody outside of the Boomer crowd.

“He quoted Marx (badly) in a joking exchange on Twitter five years ago!”

I quoted Marx (correctly) last week, so what?

Life is very expensive in NYC. For young people, it’s extremely harsh. Housing prices are ruinous. Mamdani offered a fantasy of affordability. And yes, it’s a fantasy. It’s dumb. But nobody else offered anything. Mamdani brought great energy, optimism, excitement, and fun. Energy always wins. I lose energy even just listening to Cuomo for 2 minutes.

There’s a lesson here that, I’m afraid, nobody is learning.

Real Motivation

When the communist journo asked why the quasi-homeless Portland antifa member why he shot the guy in the MAGA hat, he basically said “I was worried he was going to harm one of my black friends.”

… He very literally regarded the man’s very existence as a violent threat, and not to him, but to all black people.

This was a fringe view in, say, 2008. It is now the dominant view in the Democratic Party and it’s why they shrug off an AG candidate wanting to kill the children of Republicans, why they celebrate Charlie Kirk being murdered. In their eyes you made the violent threat first by simply existing, and they’re going to save the marginalized BIPOC you’re threatening by killing you first.

https://x.com/ManDaveJobGood/status/1985882091893244279?t=V7cRiNFxpuYnZCYc4lTmPg&s=19

That’s 100% true. They are fanatical and enraged because they think they are saving imaginary black people from imaginary genocides. They’ve gotten very radicalized. If even this is not enough for our side to get it together, stop squabbling over Israel and ideally put a moratorium on the use of the word Israel for at least a year, concentrate on the economy and immigration, and work on getting out the vote, these enraged, radicalized saviors of imaginary victims will get the power back and show us what real unity and real motivation look like.

Not Improving

The economy is not improving. Is anybody noticing any improvement because I’m definitely not? We went by the grocery store today, and it was hard not to laugh at the cash register to see what $57 bought us. Some fruit, some veg, a couple of boursin cheeses, barely anything else. No meat, no fish. It’s not supposed to be this way. In Spain I fed myself for a week on €80, and I was on vacation so in “I’m going to treat myself” mode.

That’s the biggest issue. People’s lives aren’t getting easier economically. I don’t know what needs to happen to change it but whatever it is, clearly isn’t happening.

Election Results

OK, so let’s recap the results of the election. Dems win everything while Republicans bicker about who’s the biggest racistsexist.

Am I missing anything or is that about it?