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So it turns out that for much of my academic career I focused on the question of how conservatives rationalize "loving the Constitution" and "backing the blue" while endorsing the anti-government militia and, more recently, the Jan 6th insurrectionists. QAnon and the Proud Boys stand on similar grounds.

My focus was on the political right, so I am NOT arguing leftists aren't inconsistent hypocrites; I'm just discussing right wingers because that's what I focused on.

Elevator pitch version? Conservatives and radicals have a picture in their heads of the "real" Constitution and the "real" legitimate powers of government that -- to turn a phrase -- trumps the *actual* Constitution and the legitimate *actual* powers of government. Since they know the "real" Constitution and powers of government, they are free to reject abuses of them (as they define abuse). The 14th amendment is illegitimate because it isn't the "real" Constitution. So birthright citizenship is unconstitutional. And the officers at the Capitol on January 6th needed to be gotten out of the way to protect the "real" Constitution.

Admittedly, it was a long elevator ride. But I think I'm pretty much right.

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The 18 blue states, along with the District of Columbia and city of San Francisco, contend that Trump’s order steamrolls the Constitution.

A coalition of 18 Democratic-led states, along with the District of Columbia and the city of San Francisco, sued Tuesday to block President Donald Trump’s attack on the long-established principle of birthright citizenship.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, is the second major legal challenge to Trump’s attempt to stop the country’s automatic recognition of citizenship for the U.S.-born children of non-citizens. Immigrant rights advocates filed a separate lawsuit in the U.S. District of New Hampshire Monday night.

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Also, anyone with a brain already knew this. Nevertheless, it's important to repeat all of this everywhere and remind everyone that everything Trump says is a lie. Everything Trump does is a scam. Everything Trump participates in is fraud. The evidence is overwhelming. Call it all out again and again and again.

Making prices skyrocket is Trump's plan. Tariffs will do the same thing.

An economy rocked by skyrocketing prices will be easy pickins for the billionaire class to swoop in and buy from desperate sellers. Private equity, too.

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Healthcare would be a right if politicians in the United States gave a fuck about you and didn't have to listen to insurance CEOs tell them what to do. Citizens United and PACs were just a money grab for political influencers. It is all corruption; we just make it legal.

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Cold-blooded and true. They don't mind the racism; they stay for the misogyny.

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For Trump

baha

‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏

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Welcome to the shitshow....

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Remember this term: legacy media.

This is media like it used to be. This is old, archaic and tired. Legacy media is out. Let it go. It's just rich people propaganda now because it failed to maintain it's own stated standards for journalism. It's now just a corporate machine full of cowards and sycophants. Let's move on.

Parker Molloy at The Present Age:

This week, we watched as the world's richest man appeared to give a Nazi salute at Trump's post-inauguration rally. Twice. Then we watched as mainstream media outlets bent over backwards to avoid saying what we all saw. The New York Times went with "Elon Musk Ignites Online Speculation Over the Meaning of a Hand Gesture." The Washington Post opted for "Elon Musk gives exuberant speech at inauguration." Some local TV stations, as Marisa Kabas noted at The Handbasket, even cut their footage right before the first and most obvious salute. Meanwhile, as Tim Dickinson reported at Rolling Stone, neo-Nazis and white nationalists weren't shy about what they saw. Blood Tribe leader Christopher Pohlhaus shared the clip with SS lightning bolts, writing "I don't care if this was a mistake. I'm going to enjoy the tears over it." The Proud Boys Ohio chapter posted it with "Hail Trump!" White Lives Matter celebrated with references to "The White Flame." So why are mainstream outlets so reluctant to state the obvious? The answer lies in our broken defamation laws and the way wealthy individuals can weaponize them against critics. This is a legitimate free speech crisis.

NBC News reporter Kat Tenbarge explained on Bluesky: "It's difficult to overstate just how much professional journalists have been trained to fear defamation lawsuits and how much it has impacted the ability to tell the truth." She's right. And there's recent precedent for this fear when it comes to Musk specifically. Remember what happened to Media Matters? As Andy Craig points out, they "simply shared screenshots of major corporate ads running next to literally Hitler stuff and he sued them into mass layoffs and got two states to open criminal investigations of them." The chilling effect was immediate. Craig notes that coverage of similar issues "kind of petered out" afterward—"not because it got any harder to find examples to report." This is what journalist Mike Masnick calls a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) lawsuit. These suits aren't necessarily meant to win in court; they're meant to silence critics through the sheer cost and hassle of defending against them. That's why Masnick and others have been "calling for anti-SLAPP laws (both federal and state) for years and years."

Mainstream media publications and even the ADL are beating the bush by avoiding calling out Elon Musk’s Nazi salutes, all because they are afraid of being sued. White supremacists and Neo-Nazis saw the salute for what it was: a validation of their wicked viewpoints.

See Also:

The Advocate: Journalist calls out people for being 'fine' with Elon Musk's Nazi salute but not pronouns

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We all would like that.

“I am a strong person. But every once in a while I would like someone to hold my hand and tell me things are going to be OK.”

— Unknown

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Give to the ACLU, if you give to anyone.

Reuters, via The Guardian:

A swath of Democratic-led states and civil rights groups have filed the first lawsuits challenging executive orders Donald Trump signed after taking office, including one that seeks to roll back birthright citizenship in the US. A coalition of 22 Democratic-led states along with the District of Columbia and the city of San Francisco filed a lawsuit in federal court in Boston on Tuesday arguing the Republican president’s effort to end birthright citizenship is a flagrant violation of the US constitution.

That lawsuit followed a pair of similar cases filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, immigrant organizations and an expectant mother in the hours after Trump signed the executive order, marking the first major litigation challenging parts of his agenda since he took office. “State attorneys general have been preparing for illegal actions like this one, and today’s immediate lawsuit sends a clear message to the Trump administration that we will stand up for our residents and their basic constitutional rights,” the New Jersey attorney general, Matthew Platkin, said in a statement. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The lawsuits, which were all filed in federal courts in Boston or Concord, New Hampshire, take aim at a central piece of Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown, an order directing federal agencies not to recognize US citizenship for children born in the United States to mothers who are in the country illegally or are present temporarily, such as visa holders, and whose fathers are not citizens or lawful permanent residents.

More lawsuits by Democratic-led states and advocacy groups challenging other aspects of Trump’s agenda are expected, with cases already on file challenging the Elon Musk-led, ill-defined “department of government efficiency” and an order the Republican signed weakening job protections for civil servants. Any rulings from judges in Massachusetts and New Hampshire would be reviewed by the Boston-based 1st US circuit court of appeals, whose five active federal judges are all appointees of Democratic presidents, a rarity nationally. The complaints cite the US supreme court’s 1898 ruling in United States v Wong Kim Ark, a decision holding that children born in the United States to non-citizen parents are entitled to US citizenship. If allowed to stand, Trump’s order would mean more than 150,000 children born annually in the United States would be denied for the first time the right to citizenship, according to the office of the Massachusetts attorney general, Andrea Joy Campbell.

22 Democratic AGs, DC, and the city of San Francisco, CA sue over 47’s tyrannical and unconstitutional executive order ending birthright citizenship.

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Welp, we’re 24 hours and 41 minutes in and it appears Russia and Ukraine are still at war.

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Your actions reflect your values.

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Hating people at scale...

Trump just rescinded an Executive Order issued by President Biden to lower prescription drug costs for people in Medicare and Medicaid.

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Can you do some more body language descriptions? For different emotions like Worry, sadness, love, etc!! Ty🩷🩷

Body Language Descriptions

-> feel free to edit and adjust pronouns as you see fit.

Worry

She wrung her hands together, her fingers twisting nervously as she struggled to keep her thoughts in check.

He glanced over his shoulder, his gaze darting anxiously around the room.

She pulled at her sleeve, the movement repetitive and absentminded as her mind raced.

He bit the inside of his cheek, a habit that betrayed his inner turmoil.

They hugged their arms tightly across their chest, as if trying to hold themselves together.

She paced the room, her steps quick and uneven as she tried to shake off the nagging sense of dread.

Sadness

She wiped at her eyes, even though no tears had fallen yet.

He let his shoulders sag, his whole body slumping as if the weight of the world rested on him.

She clutched her scarf tightly, her fingers gripping the fabric like it was the only thing grounding her.

He kept his head low, staring at the ground as if afraid to meet anyone’s eyes.

They let out a shaky exhale, the sound heavy with unspoken grief.

She blinked rapidly, trying to hold back the tears threatening to spill.

Love

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her smile soft and shy as she met his gaze.

He brushed her hand lightly, the touch lingering just a moment longer than necessary.

They leaned closer, their knees nearly touching, as if drawn together by an invisible force.

She tilted her head slightly, her expression tender and full of quiet affection.

He laughed easily, the sound warm and unguarded, his gaze never leaving her face.

She reached out to fix his collar, her fingers lingering as she adjusted it carefully.

Guilt

He avoided her eyes, his gaze fixed firmly on the floor.

She rubbed her temples, her hands trembling.

He shifted his weight from foot to foot, unable to stay still.

She clasped her hands tightly behind her back, her knuckles white as she fought to remain composed.

They bit their lower lip, their jaw tightening.

He fidgeted with the edge of his sleeve, his movements jerky and hesitant.

Fear

She took a step back, her breath quickening as her eyes darted to the nearest exit.

He clenched the fabric of his shirt over his chest, as if trying to steady his pounding heart.

She froze in place, her body stiff and her movements tentative, like a deer caught in headlights.

He swallowed hard, his throat bobbing visibly as he fought to calm himself.

They pressed their back against the wall, their hands splayed out.

She whispered under her breath, her words shaky and barely audible.

Jealousy

He crossed his arms over his chest, his jaw tightening as his gaze followed her every move.

She tapped her foot impatiently, the rhythm sharp and irritated as she forced a smile.

He clenched his fists at his sides, the tension in his knuckles betraying his calm demeanor.

She cast a sideways glance, her lips pressed into a thin line.

They shifted in their seat, their shoulders stiff.

He ran his fingers through his hair, his movements brisk and frustrated as he fought to contain his thoughts.

Relief

She exhaled deeply, her shoulders dropping as the tension melted away.

He ran a hand down his face, his smile faint but unmistakably genuine.

She laughed shakily, her hand pressed to her chest as if trying to steady her racing heart.

He slumped against the nearest chair, his legs suddenly too weak to hold him up.

They let their head fall back, their eyes closing as a soft, contented sigh escaped their lips.

She smiled faintly, her fingers tracing idle patterns on the surface of the table as the weight lifted from her mind.

Embarrassment

She tugged at the collar of her shirt, her cheeks flushing as she avoided everyone’s gaze.

He rubbed the back of his neck, his lips twitching into an awkward, forced smile.

She bit her lip, her hands fluttering nervously.

He let out a strained laugh, scratching the side of his head.

They hid their face in their hands, peeking out between their fingers with a sheepish grin.

She stumbled over her words, her fingers twisting the hem of her shirt as her cheeks burned bright red.

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“Panama hasn’t broken any promises, and it hasn’t violated the treaty. American ships aren’t being overcharged, and they aren’t being treated unfairly. China doesn’t control or operate the canal. Panama does. Every grievance Trump lodges against Panama is completely made up. He wraps his territorial revisonism in anti-China rhetoric, but at its core it is just mindless expansionism for its own sake.”

— Trump’s Second Term: An Empire, Not a Republic

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He likely didn’t mean typing on a screen owned by billionaires, ksy?