The Facebook question.

I’ve mentioned one of my “retirement” gigs here. I am on the social-media team for a local nonprofit, which I won’t name because they didn’t ask to have an online loudmouth in the group. I respect that. It’s enjoyable work and pays enough to make it worth my time. It won’t last forever, anyway, and that’s fine.

But as such, I am more or less required to have a Facebook account. I can use the nonprofit’s login for every other major platform — Xitter, Threads, Instagram — but because the Facebook presence is a “business” page, I can only access it from my own personal account. And Facebook is the 900-pound gorilla, still, of social media, where the vast majority of users who pay attention to us dwell.

Many of the people I used to follow with pleasure are leaving Facebook these days. Who can blame them? Of all the tech bros, Mark Zuckerberg’s grovel to Trump has been the most cringey. And the platform has deteriorated, sharply, in recent years. Not as bad as Xitter’s Nazification, true, but it’s just hot garbage now, for the most part. I think I might have mentioned a month or so, I was served a post about Secretariat, the mid-’70s Triple Crown winner, probably because I once clicked on a video of him winning the 1973 Belmont. The post included an AI picture, ostensibly of that very horse, only the markings were wrong, the jockey’s silks were wrong and — this part was hilarious — he was running the wrong way on the track. Then yesterday I was served another one, an AI rewrite of a famous anecdote about the first time Ron Turcotte (his jockey) saw Secretariat as a two-year-old. The illustration, also AI, was a horse with palomino paint markings, as different from Secretariat as George Clooney is from Donald Trump; the prompt was probably something like “beautiful horse.”

Who needs this shit? Not me.

But. There are still pockets of the platform, nearly all local, that I need to access to keep up with things happening around here. This, too, is increasingly like watching a sluice of bullshit fly by, with an occasional well-wrapped sandwich coming through. My community’s newspaper is terrible and used as a cudgel by its wealthy owner, so I don’t subscribe. The bullshit posts — Did I just hear gunshots? (18 hours ago) Does anyone know if a particular store is open? (12 hours ago) I’m mad the garbage collectors left my can tipped over!!! (3 days ago) — sometimes have a worthwhile Marketplace item tucked in there, or, even more rarely, news of interest.

And also, Facebook is probably the only place where a fair number of people who read what I have to say disagree with me. In other words, it’s still a target-rich environment for needling assholes.

Lately I’ve been reading about how we can resist the current catastrophe. I’ve been through my back-turning phase, and it’s over; my new resolution is simply to stop 2 a.m. doomscrolling. But not paying attention is a sucker’s game, in the end. We must pay attention. We just have to. And my skill is that I’m a writer, and a fairly good one. While I know that the aforementioned assholes may not even follow me — I certainly unfollowed many of them years ago — I also know we have to feel less alone these days, that we have fellow travelers out in the ether.

I stepped away from Facebook around New Year’s Day. I still comment here and there, but I haven’t made a new post, in writing, since then. I have changed my “cover” photo twice, to images that make clear how I feel about All This Shit, and the reaction to it makes me wonder if dropping the platform entirely (which, again, I can’t do with this job) isn’t the wrong strategy. Meet people where they are, in other words, and for now they’re still on Facebook.

If you’ve read this far, I’d be interested in opinions.

Jesus, what a week, which is to say, another fucking week. Here’s a treat, though, speaking of keeping up the good fight: A hilarious piece by Roy Edroso on the new, Trumpified Kennedy Center. It made me laugh and I hope it does the same for you. Happy Valentine’s Day.

Posted at 2:00 am in Media |
 

52 responses to “The Facebook question.”

  1. David C said on February 14, 2025 at 6:33 am

    I’m barely on Facebook. Mostly because the only web presence of many small local businesses is there. I have maybe 30 “friends”. I’m pretty selective. I even turned down my sister’s friend request. Not because my sister is nuts, but because a good chunk of our family is. I feel better suspecting they’re nuts than to see plain evidence of just how nuts. Facebook is putting up lots of MAHA momfluencer bullshit for me to see. I suspect we all get the same stuff. Photos from the 60s and look at all those skinny, healthy people. I don’t imagine 20-something momfluencers don’t take kindly to being told that I was alive during the 60s and I know damn well that people ate garbage. I don’t know the responses. I post, block, and run. Chicken of me, I know. It’s better for my blood pressure though.

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  2. Jeff Gill said on February 14, 2025 at 8:31 am

    I’ve been shocked over the last ten years by how much of my “work” ends up getting done in Facebook Messaging. Pastoral, community org, archaeology . . . probably a function of the ages of the people involved. 20-somethings are communicating through telepathy as best as I can tell. Like Nancy I have one I’m in contact with fairly often, but the generational norm is to avoid most of the platforms I know (email most of all, voicemail not even, texting up to a point but even that? Dunno.) while people in their sixties are perhaps spending too much time in Facebook group comment threads. I scroll enough to keep up, and walk away uneasy.

    But if I lost FB Messenger, it would really handicap me. Something will displace it, but I’m not sure what it will be. I should ask AI “what comes next for communications?”

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  3. Jeff Gill said on February 14, 2025 at 8:35 am

    So I asked (ChatGPT) and got this:

    The future of interpersonal communication is evolving beyond Facebook Messaging in several key directions, driven by technology, privacy concerns, and shifting user behaviors. Here are some potential next steps:

    1. Decentralized & Private Messaging
    End-to-end encrypted platforms (Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp) continue to grow.
    Decentralized networks like Matrix or Nostr reduce reliance on big tech.
    Peer-to-peer (P2P) messaging eliminates centralized control (e.g., Briar).

    2. AI-Powered Communication
    AI chat companions that assist in conversations (e.g., summarizing, auto-replies).
    Real-time translation making global communication seamless.
    Smart voice assistants integrated into messaging for more hands-free interaction.

    3. Spatial & Immersive Communication
    VR/AR-based communication (Meta Horizon Worlds, Apple Vision Pro) for a more interactive social experience.
    Holographic projections could replace video calls.
    Digital avatars with real-time facial expressions and body language.

    4. Unified Communication Hubs
    Merging messaging, social media, email, and calls into one seamless platform.
    Apps like Beeper and Microsoft Teams already aggregate multiple communication channels.

    5. Context-Aware Messaging
    AI that predicts the best communication channel based on urgency and context.
    Location-based smart messaging (e.g., auto-notifications when arriving somewhere).

    6. Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI)
    Direct thought-based messaging (Neuralink, OpenBCI) eliminating the need for typing or speaking.
    Gesture-based communication for accessibility and ease.

    7. Web3 & Blockchain-Powered Social Networks
    Messaging on blockchain to prevent censorship and ensure privacy (e.g., Status, Lens Protocol).
    Crypto-powered social interactions with token-based engagement.

    The trend is moving toward more private, AI-enhanced, immersive, and decentralized communication methods. What aspects of this evolution interest you the most?

    [I did not reply. Chipper, cordial question though!]

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  4. David C said on February 14, 2025 at 9:12 am

    I’ll pass on brain computer interfaces. A. Nobody’s going to implant electrodes in my head. B. Who wants their thoughts transcribed? I sure don’t.

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  5. FDChief said on February 14, 2025 at 9:26 am

    My issues w ZuckWorld is the sheer volume of spam. I’ve got IRL friends who are still there, but to keep up with them means scrolling past that endless stream of crap. It’s tiring.

    Sadly, the alternatives are unsatisfactory in other ways, mostly because they most closely resemble email; to see what your friends are doing you have to scroll to and open every post. Plus the decentralized nature of post-FB; who’s on Bluesky, who’s on Instagram, etc, etc…

    At least I’ve been selective about “friends” so I don’t get pissed off about MAGAt bullshit in my inbox everyday.

    And, speaking of that, my modest suggestion is that every interview with every Republican begin with:
    “You (or “your Republican Congressional colleagues”) plan to cut 880 billion from Medicaid which will effectively end the program which millions of your fellow Americans rely on for their health insurance. What’s your suggestion for these people after you kill their health care?”

    I’d be curious if any of them will reply with Auric Goldfinger’s “I expect you to die.” At least it’d be refreshingly honest.

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  6. Icarus said on February 14, 2025 at 10:05 am

    TL/DR: Facebook went to trash when it stopped requiring people to describe what they are doing in the following format:

    Icarus is _____________

    My FB friends list consists, more or less, of:

    **People I care about or used to care about
    **People from various groups like runners or High School or College
    **People who somehow entertain me
    ** Virtual friends that I’ve never met or only met once (our hostess for one)

    these groups sometimes overlap but not necessarily always.

    Facebook experience keeps changing and is different on computers versus iPhones versus iPads. I hate Stories and a browser extension called F.B. Purity removes that and blocks ads and has a few other bells and whistles I find useful.

    Unfortunately, it doesn’t work on Tablet/Phones.

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  7. Mark P said on February 14, 2025 at 10:39 am

    I look at Facebook some, but I seldom “use” it. There is a neighborhood group that I check for stuff like trees down on our road into town, or missing dogs. But nothing else. As far as I can tell, they’re all MAGAt, which is no surprise since my county went 70 percent for the orange lardass.

    And speaking of the end of the world as we know it, I saw him and little Caesar in the Oval Office on one of the late night shows. I think someone here mentioned that lardass looked old, tired, and generally disinterested. His interaction with little X was hilarious.

    And speaking of little Caesar, they will also come after Medicare and Social Security. They may exclude current recipients, but everyone else will get a few dollars to chase lousy or nonexistent health insurance, and a small disbursement to last them until their early death.

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  8. Deborah said on February 14, 2025 at 11:46 am

    One time I asked my rightwing sister about Republicans wanting to cut medicare, which she and her husband are on, and have been for a decade. Her response was that of course they wouldn’t cut it off for people who are already on it, they’d be cutting it for those not on it yet. In other words the leopards won’t eat my face.

    I never looked back after I quit Facebook, but I do miss Instagram, I won’t be going back to either of them, or Threads. I only miss Amazon once in a blue moon when I think I need some insignificant thing, then I find it somewhere else, or I do without it and promptly forget about ever thinking I wanted it. I have not missed Whole Foods since the first few weeks or so without it. In Santa Fe we belong to a food coop now and can find everything either there or Trader Joes mostly. We joined Costco recently but when we’re in NM the closest one is 60 miles away. I really only got the membership there so I can get hearing aids. Costco is so cavernous it’s almost scary.

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  9. SusanG said on February 14, 2025 at 11:52 am

    I’m not a fan of boycotts-too self righteous and too much work.

    I’m using this year to assess and redirect my consumer/consumption habits. The Washington Post subscription runs out in Dec., no renewal. Amazon, buy as little as possible, no renewal in Oct. Don’t do business with Elon. I made mistakes in my life, but I recognize Twitter and cocaine are problems I don’t need.

    FB is tricky. Never wanted to join in the first place, FB reminded me of “the Weekly Reader,” pablum crap we had to read in grade school. It’s only gotten worse and is cluttered and useless. I’m listing “old school” and sending cards or letters to old friends and those who live far away. I’m using Marketplace to declutter and I’ve canceled Instagram. I’ll stay while I whittle away at whatever need I have for it.

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  10. jcburns said on February 14, 2025 at 12:05 pm

    I never joined Facebook—not a boycott, just wasn’t interested. Still am not interested. Phew.

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  11. tajalli said on February 14, 2025 at 12:05 pm

    I’ve probably mentioned my FaceBook work-around here before, but whatever.

    When the “sponsored” “ads” really ramped up a few years ago and shamelessly clogged up my feed, I simply made an HTML document with columns of direct links to friends’ pages, groups I like, personages I’d like to follow arranged by topic/type. This site is on an HTML doc I’ve designated as my browser’s start page

    These links take me directly to the FB page, et voilá, no more rubbish. I still follow friends and some pages or groups so I receive a notification when they post or create a reel. The rest I don’t even bother to follow, just hit the link when the spirit moves me – rather than being led around by the nose by some AI crap app. There is a bit of upkeep up front, but so much simpler from then on.

    These HTML links pages are also handy for gathering resources in one spot for a specific project rather than relying on the overloaded bookmark system within some browser. I can take them to the library or work computer on a thumb drive.

    Of course, this is for a desktop or lap top system. I don’t use a phone for my primary internet, not enough visual real estate.

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  12. Julie Robinson said on February 14, 2025 at 12:25 pm

    That sounds like a lot of work, tajalli, but if it works for you, that’s great.

    Jeff G’s summation of the next generation sounds about right. Son doesn’t take calls or messages, considers email dead, but uses FB messenger and occasionally IG messenger. Daughter will still take calls and texts, mostly because that’s how parishioners communicate.

    I joined FB to keep in touch with absent friends, which has become more important since we moved, but percentage of posts from friends is down to maybe 20% with the rest being junk. It’s a quandary.

    IG is just used for following theater news and theater people. I rarely post because I don’t understand what to post.

    The rest of the socials are an unexplored mystery.

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  13. Sherri said on February 14, 2025 at 12:52 pm

    I’m still on FB for the only reason I joined it in the first place: that’s where the powerlifting community is. There are several powerlifting FB groups I’m in, and it’s still useful for communication and discussion in those groups. There are a few other groups I’ve found useful. The main feed is mostly garbage.

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  14. Jeff Gill said on February 14, 2025 at 12:55 pm

    For what it’s worth, I continued the ChatGPT conversation a bit; unnerving it was indeed.

    https://chatgpt.com/share/67af82dc-a244-8008-9e5e-c26ec34025b2

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  15. alex said on February 14, 2025 at 12:58 pm

    Anymore, what I value on Facebook is Groups. I follow numerous of these based on my hobbies and interests. They’re well policed by administrators who don’t put up with trolls or people who can’t play well with others. Just like NN.C, some of these are great communities for sharing ideas and information, even though they’re narrowly tailored to their subjects.

    I did quit one community group, however, because it became infested with MAGAts and the admins were too cowardly to enforce their own rules.

    So far, Bluesky seems to have attracted a lot of people but I don’t get much interaction out of anything that I post and I’m overwhelmed by the amount of reading that’s being recommended there as I already receive way too many Substack newsletters in my e-mail inbox and still have four online newspaper subscriptions, a Slate Plus membership and the New Yorker online. It’s such a fricking deluge and I find it so overwhelming that all I do is skim and don’t really enjoy it.

    Reddit is another rabbit hole I’ve fallen into recently. It can be a decent resource if you’ve got cooking or car repair questions, that sort of thing, but it’s too often a big cesspool of hare-brained twits giving their two cents’ worth in response to inane hypotheticals.

    The problem with the Information Age is TMI.

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  16. Bitter Scribe said on February 14, 2025 at 1:11 pm

    I was in exactly Nancy’s situation—had an account only because I needed one for work. One of my neighbors got a little pissed at me because I didn’t accept her friend request, and I had to explain to her that I never even looked at my page. As soon as I no longer needed my account, I canceled it, and have not missed it for a second.

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  17. Mark P said on February 14, 2025 at 1:29 pm

    We are pretty much stuck with Starlink. We do not have any other reasonable internet access options here. Using a cell service might work, but I’m not sure we have a strong enough signal to stream. I think we can be pretty sure that there will be no initiatives to supply internet to underserved communities as long as Musk is running the country.

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  18. Deborah said on February 14, 2025 at 2:04 pm

    I’m not boycotting, I just don’t want asshole billionaires in my life if I can help it, they couldn’t care less about me and what I’m doing, I’m a micro microscopic blip on their screen, if that. I know there are a lot of asshole billionaires I still have in my life, like Home Depot, I absolutely can not quit them, we call them my home away from home. When I’m working on a project around the condo I sometimes go there 3 times in a day.

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  19. Sherri said on February 14, 2025 at 4:16 pm

    Billionaires are a policy failure, a problem that won’t be solved by boycott unfortunately. The policy problem won’t be solved anytime soon, either, in the current political environment, if ever. The billionaire problem is the natural consequence of Reaganism and embracing Milton Friedman economics.

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  20. Bruce Fields said on February 14, 2025 at 4:25 pm

    For what it’s worth, fairly aggressive use of the “hide post” button helps a lot.

    Like, I get that it’s advertising-supported, so I’ll tolerate inoffensive ads, but any other random clickbait–like, anything that says “suggested for you…” on it–I kill whenever I see it, and then I find Facebook gives up on showing it to me–at least for a month or two.

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  21. Sherri said on February 14, 2025 at 4:27 pm

    I’m starting to see more specifics about federal monies that have been frozen, and most of them come from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s signature pieces of legislation. The Trump administration just wants to undo those, whether it makes sense or not.

    So the story from Huntsville AL about low income people being charged for hearing by the utility even though it was supposed to be covered by federal funds was not because of the overall federal LIHEAP program, but because of additional funds for LIHEAP in the IRA that were frozen.

    Now a story about wildfire fighting in the West, and how money for hazardous fuel reductions programs (you know, raking the forest, like Trump is always saying we should do) is being frozen, but only funds from the two Biden programs.

    https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/trump-wants-states-to-clean-up-forests-to-stop-wildfires-but-his-administration-cut-off-funds/

    It’s always about punishing his enemies. What Trumpies need to remember is, you can never be loyal and servile enough to not be screwed by him.

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  22. tajalli said on February 14, 2025 at 4:54 pm

    Deborah, Ace Hardware is my go-to – whenever I’ve moved, I immediately find the local Ace and only then consider myself properly moved in.

    Julie, when I first got on the internet I found a site called Electron Paradox out of the UK and emailed with the owner. He suggested HTML, I got a SAM’s Teach Yourself HTML in 24 Hours (really 24 “1 hour” lessons that took me about a week to get through) and then created a business website hosted for free on Yahoo’s now defunct GeoCities.

    When Mindspring/Earthlink’s Favorites feature on their generic homepage failed and they’d not backed it up, I got peeved and wrote an HTML page for my lost favorites, so there was no learning curve for that, just made a doc with a title and three columns, which was easy-peasy.

    I’ve also gotten peeved with auto mechanics attempting to gaslight me because I was female, and taught myself car repair with John Muir’s How to Keep Your Volkswagon Alive … for the Complete Idiot, so this is apparently my go-to method for handling aggravating situations. Learn something new and stick it to those who want to lead people around by the nose.

    If anyone wants a template they can fill in, get my email from Nancy.

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  23. alex said on February 14, 2025 at 5:20 pm

    John Muir’s How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive … for the Complete Idiot

    I loved my Volkswagen, just not the dealership service department, so maybe I’ll reconsider owning one again. We did have an excellent independent mechanic who specialized in German cars but he retired.

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  24. Deborah said on February 14, 2025 at 5:28 pm

    Tajalli, I’ve definitely tried Ace, Lowes and Tru Value too, but Home Depot usually has what I want, even though they drive me crazy trying to find stuff in the giant warehouse type space.

    One time LB made the mistake of wearing an orange Tshirt when we went to Home Depot, we barely got in the door when a bitchy woman started screaming at her to get something off a high shelf for her.

    The Lowes in Santa Fe is pathetic, poor inventory, hardly anyone around to ask questions or find things, and just plain messy. The Lowes in Espanola a much smaller town near Abiquiu is much better, it depends on who manages it I guess.

    In Chicago there’s a smallish Ace well within walking distance of us, since we don’t have a car there, it’s our go to place. We used to have another Ace near us there, but it closed.

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  25. tajalli said on February 14, 2025 at 5:51 pm

    I wouldn’t be surprised if Drumft wanted to appoint Mrs Velma Melmac as head of the Forestry Service.

    http://whatwesee-blake.blogspot.com/2010/01/initimable-mrs-melmac.html

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  26. Dexter Friend said on February 14, 2025 at 6:06 pm

    I joined Facebook the day it dropped, at blogger/former cable political guest Craig Crawford’s discovery of Facebook.
    I can skip past the crap easily and I use Facebook for posting my thoughts on politics, accessing threads about my old home town and high school friends, Marketplace for buying stuff. It’s just easy to get my thoughts out there for my friends to like or disagree. I have X but never look, I like Instagram because my friends post there, and I am trying to feel comfortable on BlueSky.
    Drumph said Bolton and Fauci can hire their own damn security and said if Iranian actors kill any of the people Drumph pulled security from, he absolves himself from all blame.
    Jeezuss Kreist! Less than a month of 48 of this bullshit. And now the truth of the decoy “ghost flight” where the press corps was potentially sacrificed when Drumph was threatened with death from Iran: Drumph thought he was going to be shot down, so he fixed it that the press corps could die, no BFD. Trump flew on a different aircraft.

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  27. Sherri said on February 14, 2025 at 6:10 pm

    RFKjr was barely sworn in before there was an executive order issued that, among other things, is charged with examining the prevalence of and threat posed by SSRIs, anti-psychotics, mood stabilizers, stimulants, and weight-loss drugs.

    The heroin addict thinks I shouldn’t be taking the antidepressant that kept me from wanting to die.

    (Although, technically, I take an SNRI, which the doofuses seem to have overlooked. I didn’t do well on the SSRI I tried.)

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  28. Julie Robinson said on February 14, 2025 at 6:52 pm

    We like Ace Hardware, and that there’s one close by in the neighorhood, but of course they don’t carry the big stuff. If I remember, they’re a cooperative? The big box places all seem to have horrible owners.

    JoAnn Fabrics has declared bankruptcy for the second time and is closing about 500 of its 800 stores. Their fabric quality had gone to crap, but not as crap as Hobby Lobby, not that I would shop there anyway, but I did still go to JoAnn from time to time. Now the options will be: a place I won’t shop (HL), Michael’s, which is 25 minutes away and doesn’t carry fabic, or one quilt shop 35 minutes away.

    Like others, I have found much good in FB groups, like the mask making community in the early days of Covid. Yesterday I went to an Alzheimer’s support group and a couple of people mentioned FB support groups they have found to be valuable. I’ve already had to drop one, because it’s just people whining about incontinence issues, with graphic descriptions. No thank you, that is most certainly NOT what I came for!

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  29. Sherri said on February 14, 2025 at 7:24 pm

    So today’s firings include the Epidemic Intelligence Service and the Indian Health Service. Make America Healthy Again! There’s not going to be a bird flu epidemic, because we’re going to ignore it.

    It’s going to be fascinating to see if numbers come out from the Bureau of Labor Statistics next month, and if they do, what hijinks have been played with those numbers. So many wonderful jobs created, despite nobody having a job!

    Are you going to believe what you’re paying for eggs and gasoline, or what The Administration tells you to believe about inflation?

    I can tell that I’ve finally reached a level of acceptance with the demise of democracy because my lifting is going well again. It’s not my fault democracy has died, I did everything I could to stop it, and I will continue to do everything I can to care for those people I can and work for the restoration of democracy, but I’m done losing sleep over it. My country is gone, time to build a new one, against the odds.

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  30. Deborah said on February 14, 2025 at 7:34 pm

    Krugman has been writing about the expected lies in the “official” government statistics about jobs, inflation etc. He’s cited what happened in Argentina and how the economist figured out a way to figure out the real situation. Which it’s too bad it will come to that but it can apparently be done, which is also very sad but also encouraging that it may be possible to get the truth.

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  31. Deborah said on February 14, 2025 at 7:44 pm

    So it has come out that Musk has another kid, don’t know what number this is, but it’s 5 months old. This is just plain weird.

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  32. Deborah said on February 14, 2025 at 8:00 pm

    My fellow females, there is scuttlebutt out there now about your name being official to vote. If you married (or for whatever reason) and your name is different from your birth certificate, that may be used against you when you try to vote. You are however allowed to use a passport with your married name, although how many people actually have passports? It’s not that big of a number. https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/02/13/save-act-women-voting/

    My name has changed 3 time throughout my life and I have a passport and all documentation about the changes, so I may be OK, but I specifically made sure to save all that documentation for easy access, not many women may have that.

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  33. Suzanne said on February 14, 2025 at 8:27 pm

    This is an interesting take on the digital realm we now find ourselves in. Don’t be put off that the writer of the piece hosts a podcast called “Homebrewed Christianity” as the piece isn’t about church stuff. He equates the takeover of tech giants to colonialism and makes a good case for it.

    https://processthis.substack.com/p/the-new-colonialism-power-data-and-468

    “We are facing a paradigm shift requiring a new approach to social theory and ethics. The first step is understanding the system – recognizing that our digital lives are far from neutral territory. But understanding alone isn’t enough. We must act, both individually and collectively, to reclaim our digital commons and create technologies that serve human flourishing rather than corporate profit.”

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  34. Jeff Gill said on February 14, 2025 at 9:50 pm

    Tripp is awesome. I’ve been listening to him since 2014, met him once in 2015… which is ten years ago, OMG.

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  35. Mark P said on February 14, 2025 at 11:16 pm

    I have not really understood why I felt so little from the moment I learned that Trump had won the election. There just wasn’t much emotion about it. Every new outrage that should have set me off hasn’t. I think I finally understand. It’s like the acceptance that I understand people feel when they know death is inescapable, like falling from a great height. I knew immediately that our current world was changed for an almost inconceivable worst, and it would likely never return. I don’t know the ultimate outcome, and probably won’t live long enough to see the end, although I think I will live long enough to see the beginning of the end. My nephews, in their 40’s, will see it. I suspect their world will be very different from the world of my 40’s, thirty or so years ago.

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  36. David C said on February 15, 2025 at 6:56 am

    I learned auto repair for my Volkswagen Scirocco with Poor Richard’s Rabbit Book which was published by John Muir Publications and used the same artist and format as How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive. I still have my copy and read it from time to time just for fun.

    Mary started taking Zoloft at the start of the year and they’ve helped. Her anxiety is much better. They’re determined to chase every medical conspiracy theory right down the rabbit hole and they don’t care two shits who it hurts. I’m betting it won’t be long before they don’t require supplement makers to run the triple speed “Don’t believe anything we just said about this supplement because it’s all bullshit but take it trust us”.

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  37. alex said on February 15, 2025 at 10:01 am

    Glad I didn’t deep-six my WaPo subscription yet. Some days they do some good stories and I can gift them. How’s this for a palate cleanser: The Gay History of SNL

    https://wapo.st/4b3H2Bz

    I used to work in marketing for the independent hardware coop True Value, and I used to be very conscientious about “shopping local” when I could, but since I gave up my small condo and took on two old houses I’ve found the Big Box stores indispensable. They simply have the capacity to hold a much wider selection of merchandise. Why settle for a builder-grade boob light over your banquette when you want a dazzling pendant?

    True Value, headquartered in Chicago where I used to live, was recently bought out of bankruptcy by Do It Best, which just so happens to be headquartered in Fort Wayne where I live now.

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  38. Mark P said on February 15, 2025 at 10:14 am

    When I built my first house back in the 2000’s, Home Depot was the only game in town except for a lumber company. I frequented them so much that when I went for a month or two without buying anything there, someone in the store would ask where I had been when I finally went back. Now there is a Lowe’s on our end of town, and that’s where I get most of my home improvement stuff. I’ll probably check out the lumber company if I ever get around to constructing an out building. I have heard that lumberyards are usually cheaper, sometimes much cheaper, than the big box stores for actual lumber.

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  39. Dexter Friend said on February 15, 2025 at 11:26 am

    The late G. Carlin said his 7 heart attacks were caused in part by his hatred and railings against Nixon. Nixon was the person who wrote me: “Greeting: (not Greetings) You are hereby ordered to [ be drafted].”
    I had hated Nixon too, and got myself all worked-up screaming my hatred in public and with friends; some friends began avoiding me because of how I reacted to politics.
    I thought democracy had crashed into the mountain.
    Then I calmed down with Carter in charge, and I felt the nation had been re-born in 2008 with Obama. It felt exhilarating.
    Then we got Drumph, and even I blushed at the stream of hate that came from Carla Lee when it was official. After Joe dethroned Drumph, happiness was back. Carla Lee fought off the death from Covid19 until a few hours after Joe took the oath.
    We as a nation have been up against it many times before; our better angels prevailed.
    Rachel Maddow documented how Nazi organizations were all over the USA during the buildup to our entering the fray in Europe. We got the job done as a nation.
    Now a South African interloper who bought the Presidency lock, stock, and barrel is dismantling the government as Republican Senators stand by in support.
    These goddam Republicans are to blame for all this. They did this, they voted in this stupid sonofabitch and his program of retribution.
    What’s next? Can we as a nation rebound as always? Or as Jim sang, “…this is…THE END.”

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  40. Julie Robinson said on February 15, 2025 at 11:56 am

    This was in today’s Orlando Sentinel (gift link), co-written by our daughter and the director of an immigration services center. He’s come to our church a couple of times to tell his story and that of so many like him. He was brought here as a child without papers and is gay, so had many strikes against him. Today he is legal, married, and just announced he’s running for political office. He’s the embodiment of the American dream as it used to be known. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/02/15/commentary-mass-deportations-should-concern-leaders-of-all-faiths/?share=atoaeduoldlhfc2fssut

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  41. basset said on February 15, 2025 at 1:24 pm

    No FB for me ever, just LinkedIn and not much of that.
    At this moment, I am at the national turkey calling championship… if you want to hear a perfectly executed fly down cackle, cluck & putt, or kee kee run, this is the place.

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  42. basset said on February 15, 2025 at 1:24 pm

    No FB for me ever, just LinkedIn and not much of that.
    At this moment, I am at the national turkey calling championship… if you want to hear a perfectly executed fly down cackle, cluck & putt, or kee kee run, this is the place.

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  43. Jakash said on February 15, 2025 at 1:53 pm

    That’s a fine piece, Julie. Thanks for the gift link — which actually worked, unlike some that I click on!

    If the orange felon and Elon the Destroyer would just come out and say “We’re rich bastards and all we *really* care about is more money for people like us,” it would be obnoxious, but at least upfront. To try to justify their cruelty with references to America as a Christian nation is just so repellent and transparently ludicrous.

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  44. Deborah said on February 15, 2025 at 2:36 pm

    Julie, good for your daughter and her friend, well said.

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  45. Sherri said on February 15, 2025 at 5:29 pm

    I believe that, all appearances to the contrary, Trump does believe that he is a Christian and chosen by God. The Trump family did go to church when Donald was growing up, and where did they go? Norman Vincent Peale’s church. Yep, the original prosperity gospel huckster. Paula White, another prosperity gospel follower, is Trump’s current favorite preacher. This is not a Christianity that makes demands on you, it’s a Christianity that says you can have anything you want, and the more you get, the more it’s a sign you’re blessed by God.

    Elon believes he is God.

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  46. Sherri said on February 15, 2025 at 5:49 pm

    Every weekend since the coup started happening, Garrett Graff has written up the news of the week as if it were happening in another country and being covered that way by our newspapers. Here’s this week’s entry: https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/musk-trump-establish-new-era-of-kleptocracy-in-america

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  47. basset said on February 15, 2025 at 6:58 pm

    Woulda worn my Harris/Walz camo cap over there if I hadn’t been working. Getting out of the place alive would not have been an option, because I most likely wouldn’t have gotten all the way in.

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  48. annie said on February 15, 2025 at 9:07 pm

    “Getting out of the place alive would not have been an option, because I most likely wouldn’t have gotten all the way in.” That’s funny, Basset. Who knew turkey callers were so pro Trump.

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  49. David C said on February 16, 2025 at 5:56 am

    “Share workstations on a rotating basis”. Trump called Federal workers back to the office with no place for them to work. So, of course, it’s a shit show. I hope this is the kind of incompetence that saves us. They think life is a dick measuring contest, but the best planning usually wins. They have lots of plans, but they’re all shit with no sense of reality.

    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/15/2303989/-Where-s-my-desk-Federal-workers-ordered-back-to-offices-with-no-space-supplies-or-parking

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  50. Suzanne said on February 16, 2025 at 9:12 am

    David C, $hit show is correct. We know a young man who works for the VA processing veteran disability claims. He mostly works from home, going to the office one day a week. The head of his department got no advance warning of all of this but got the email dictum from on high that everyone was to return to the office & offering buyouts for resignation the same time as everyone else. The office they work from does not have enough parking for everyone to be there every day. After a few weeks of chaos, a higher power decided that they were all essential workers and the resignation package was scrapped. I think they are still supposed to begin in office work at some point but who knows when? And how?

    So, the devil in the White House is meeting the devil in the details and now they can have a dick measuring contest.

    The chaos also keeps out of the news the fact that sitting VP went to Europe, hung out with the Nazis, and made a speech in which he basically told Europe to screw themselves

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  51. basset said on February 16, 2025 at 11:14 am

    Annie@48, I spend a fair amount of time around the hunting/shooting world and just anecdotally I’d say this was a heavily pro Trump audience. You see some caps and shirts, one was “Jesus is my savior and Trump is my president”… even had someone run up to us yesterday with his phone out wanting to play us a Trump video he’d done.

    In my own circle, though, we just don’t talk about it… no use bringing it up, we’re not turkey hunters so we concentrate on getting Bambi into the freezer.

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  52. alex said on February 16, 2025 at 12:43 pm

    Someone sent me this to cheer me up, and it did:

    https://www.instagram.com/shannonrwatts/reel/DGGtm8ASs0b/

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