Ralf W
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raflw.bsky.social
Ralf W
@raflw.bsky.social
The press, 2026: Everything Biden did was imputed to reflect how old and feeble he was. NOTHING Trump does is imputed to reflect his abhorrent personal character.

Peripatetic. Infuriated.
Hanger-on at Balloon Juice.
MSP / CO / WI
Pinned
They do this *all the time*. NYT finds whichever mealy-mouthed way they can to distance Trump from the things Trump explicitly does.

Everything Biden did was imputed to reflect how old and feeble he was. NOTHING Trump does is imputed to reflect his abhorrent personal charachter.
I absolutely hate paragraphs like this. Seems to whom? What facts are being advanced here in the nations leading newspaper? This voiceless opinioning is shoddy, and gives cover to the deeply improper tactic the WH uses frequently.
Stick to reporting, dang it.
Honestly, this joy in being cruel is a harbinger of worse to come.
After a 16-year-old complained his zip-ties were too tight at a an ICE/FBI raid in southwest Idaho, an officer laughed and tightened them, the ACLU alleges in a new lawsuit.

He still has scars, months later.
In southwest Idaho FBI raid, officials zip-tiped teens and used aggressive force, lawsuit alleges • Idaho Capital Sun
A lawsuit by ACLU of Idaho alleges law enforcement used aggressive tactics and unjustly detained hundreds of people, including children.
idahocapitalsun.com
February 12, 2026 at 3:36 AM
They can't manage the people they already have. Filthy conditions. Inadequate food. Refusing medical care.

We're not far from the brink, and that's before the massive warehouses open.
February 12, 2026 at 3:33 AM
I'm sure Pam Bondi is illegally surveiling her congressional emails despite separation of powers and, yeah, good luck getting a judicial warrant.
February 12, 2026 at 3:32 AM
Yeah, at dinner last night with a group, one guy was stressing about his score and his need to go looking for an apartment.
February 12, 2026 at 3:29 AM
Kids should absolutely be aware of it.
Because 'it' isn't about sex. Like, c'mon Will and Grace hit national TV in 1998!
Kids who are gay or lesbian, or have two moms or two dads, or a gay uncle or whatever can absolutely, 100% handle hearing "I'm a gay athlete."
Now, if YOU can't handle it, log off
February 12, 2026 at 3:22 AM
Suggesting that the closet is perhaps still more active for men than women in sports? The perceived (or real) costs for male athletes to come out may actually be higher, thats annissue worth considering.
That's how it reads to me.
February 12, 2026 at 3:17 AM
We got a Yamaha electric at Costco about six years ago. No longer sold there, but they probably get resold used sometimes? Good key action for an electric. Pretty sure it sold in the $600 range new?
February 12, 2026 at 3:02 AM
Mike Johnson has made me revisit my long-held belief in Universalism (ie: there is no hell).
乁⁠[⁠ᓀ⁠˵⁠▾⁠˵⁠ᓂ⁠]⁠ㄏ
February 12, 2026 at 2:54 AM
dogsled

(Drafts wasn't quite what we needed, developers!)
February 12, 2026 at 2:51 AM
We have winter activities, too! May not be everyone's cuppa tea, but there's ice fishing, XC and downhill skiing, snowshoeing, dodsled rides up north, a chance at aurora borealis, and the all-time favorite game: "What happened to my car during the snow emergency?"!
February 12, 2026 at 2:48 AM
Fucking Cuellar. Not that his vote was the pivot point, but still.
February 11, 2026 at 11:50 PM
My thoughts as well!
February 11, 2026 at 11:48 PM
Folks: call your senators!
Which future will we choose?

The Senate votes any day on H.J. Res. 140. This is a critical moment for the BWCA.

When we show up together, it matters.

Join us Feb 25 at the MN Capitol. Rally at 1:30PM!
Be part of the crowd lawmakers cannot ignore.

Tell your senators to vote NO.
Details in bio.
February 11, 2026 at 11:14 PM
<- TCU '87
Which I say for no reason other than I rarely get to talk or think about Tarrant Co anymore, living 1000 miles further north along I-35 now
February 11, 2026 at 11:11 PM
Duffy stayed mum like a good foot soldier?
February 11, 2026 at 11:07 PM
Wasn't the Dem outspent like 10:1 in Tarrant Co. a couple weeks ago? In that stunning flip.
February 11, 2026 at 11:06 PM
After the national employment revisions announced this week, health care was basically the only sector that had sustained job growth in 2025.

But we're barrelling into 2026 with a really terrible "Hold my beer".
February 11, 2026 at 11:02 PM
As soon as I see someone refer to a large group of people as NPCs, I think "Oh here's someone who is capable of mass war crimes or atrocities."
February 11, 2026 at 10:58 PM
OMG me as well. Multiple emails and phone calls.

Endless unilateral disarmament.
February 11, 2026 at 10:50 PM
I will not be degrading myself, as angry as I am, by stooping to their level of inhumanity.
February 11, 2026 at 10:48 PM
Also, when Bob says these people need to be put on trial, this is part of why. They are recklessly endangering human life.
Many, many times per day.
(The whole thread is crucially important)
I had a pregnant client who was experiencing abdominal cramping for three days and was deprived of medical care. When we interceded, she was punished.

A first grader snatched two days after surgery denied wound care.

A client who developed a large painful cyst but was ignored.

25/
February 11, 2026 at 10:46 PM
Admittedly I'm not in the legal profession, but if lawyers are doing this over and over like these AUSAs, shouldn't Bar Associations be holding emergency revocation processes?

What is the law if faithless people can engage in such hollow behavior?
Yet asst. U.S. attorneys—AUSA used to be an esteemed title—continue to make this frivolous argument over and over in bald-faced arguments in case after case. They’ve been told no many thousands of times. They admit (remarkably) in their filings that they know their arguments are meritless.

15/
February 11, 2026 at 10:43 PM
I certainly think mass processing power unleashed for the surveillance state (but for profit, a la Ring) is all too true!
February 11, 2026 at 10:34 PM
Here is what Democratic pollsters and consultants just do not hear.

This dear man is in his early 70s, and retired seven years ago from a long and storied career at Minnesota Public Radio. Where he was moderate, careful, ethical and thorough.

And he's THIS ANGRY.
Get on the clue bus @democrats.org
February 11, 2026 at 10:31 PM
She has the chain of events exactly backwards.

People want the court brought under control. Promise that *to get elected*, and then DO IT.
February 11, 2026 at 10:23 PM