#Giant Trump Tweet

[mariacallous]

lol philadelphia inquirer bodying nyt

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/editorials/first-presidential-debate-joe-biden-donald-trump-withdraw-20240629.html

President Joe Biden’s debate performance was a disaster. His disjointed responses and dazed look sparked calls for him to drop out of the presidential race.

But lost in the hand wringing was Donald Trump’s usual bombastic litany of lies, hyperbole, bigotry, ignorance, and fear mongering. His performance demonstrated once again that he is a danger to democracy and unfit for office.

In fact, the debate about the debate is misplaced. The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump.

Trump, 78, has been on the political stage for eight years marked by chaos, corruption, and incivility. Why go back to that?

To build himself up, Trump constantly tears the country down. There is no shining city on the hill. It’s just mourning in America.

Throughout the debate, Trump repeatedly said we are a “failing” country. He called the United States a “third world nation.” He said, “we’re living in hell” and “very close to World War III.”

“People are dying all over the place,” Trump said, later adding “we’re literally an uncivilized country now.”

Trump told more than 30 lies during the debate to go with the more than 30,000 mistruths told during his four years as president. He dodged the CNN moderators’ questions, took no responsibility for his actions, and blamed others, mainly Biden, for everything that is wrong in the world.

Trump’s response to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection he fueled was farcical. He said a “relatively small number of people” went to the Capitol and many were “ushered in by the police.”

After scheming to overturn the 2020 election, Trump refused to say if he would accept the results of the 2024 election. Unless, of course, he wins.

The debate served as a reminder of what another four years of Trump would look like. More lies, grievance, narcissism, and hate. Supporters say they like Trump because he says whatever he thinks. But he mainly spews raw sewage.

Trump attacks the military. He denigrates the Justice Department and judges. He belittles the FBI and the CIA. He picks fights with allies and cozies up to dictators.

Trump is an unserious carnival barker running for the most serious job in the world. During his last term, Trump served himself and not the American people.

Trump spent chunks of time watching TV, tweeting, and hanging out at his country clubs. Over his four-year term, Trump played roughly 261 rounds of golf.

As president, Trump didn’t read the daily intelligence briefs. He continued to use his personal cell phone, allowing Chinese spies to listen to his calls. During one Oval Office meeting, Trump shared highly classified intelligence with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador.

Trump’s term did plenty of damage and had few accomplishments. The much-hyped wall didn’t get built. Infrastructure week was a recurring joke. Giant tax cuts made the rich richer, while fueling massive deficits for others to pay for years. His support for coal, oil drilling and withdrawal from the Paris Agreement worsened the growing impact of climate change.

Trump stacked the judiciary with extreme judges consisting mainly of white males, including a number who the American Bar Association rated as not qualified. A record number of cabinet officials were fired or left the office. The West Wing was in constant chaos and infighting.

Many Trump appointees exited under a cloud of corruption, grifting and ethical scandals. Trump’s children made millions off the White House. His dilettante son-in-law got $2 billion from the Saudi government for his fledgling investment firm even though he never managed money before.

Trump’s mismanagement of the pandemic resulted in tens of thousands of needless deaths. He boasts about stacking the Supreme Court with extreme right-wingers who are stripping away individual rights, upending legal precedents, and making the country less safe. If elected, Trump may add to the court’s conservative majority.

Of course, there were the unprecedented two impeachments. Now, Trump is a convicted felon who is staring at three more criminal indictments. He is running for president to stay out of prison.

If anything, Trump doesn’t deserve to be on the presidential debate stage. Why even give him a platform?

Trump allegedly stole classified information and tried to overturn an election. His plans for a second term are worse than the last one. We cannot be serious about letting such a crooked clown back in the White House.

Yes, Biden had a horrible night. He’s 81 and not as sharp as he used to be. But Biden on his worst day remains lightyears better than Trump on his best.

Biden must show that he is up to the job. This much is clear: He has a substantive record of real accomplishments, fighting the pandemic, combating climate change, investing in infrastructure, and supporting working families and the most vulnerable.

Biden has surrounded himself with experienced people who take public service seriously. He has passed major bipartisan legislation despite a dysfunctional Republican House majority.

Biden believes in the best of America. He has rebuilt relationships with allies around the world and stood up to foes like Russia and China.

There was only one person at the debate who does not deserve to be running for president. The sooner Trump exits the stage, the better off the country will be.

[qqueenofhades]

One of my biggest annoyances is leftists and communists beinging up Biden’s tweets during the 2020 campaign of things he said he would do, and being like “see?? he didn’t deliver on anything and this is why you shouldn’t vote for the Dems again” Like, for all the understanding they seem to have of communist or marxist or whatever theory, the idea that the President is not a king and can’t do whatever he wants without Congress’s approval is lost on them?? He still believes in those things but if Congress won’t pass the legislation what is he supposed to do? EOs won’t solve all our problems.

Yeah. Not even to mention, the claim that "Biden hasn't done/delivered anything!!!" is a big fat lie, as people keep pointing out the things he has done, with a razor-thin House majority (until 2022) and two "Democratic" senators who torpedoed everything and one of whom has now literally left the party (Manchin and Sinema). So while Online Leftists obviously don't understand the difference between "achieving all of his campaign goals" and "achieving some," for the last frikkin time, Biden has done a lot of good things in very bad circumstances!!!!!! Using "he didn't do everything!!!!" as an excuse to not vote and so enable the open and unrepentant fascists is the stupidest fucking thing I have ever heard!!!!

Like. Take the debt deal. As in other things, Biden clearly learned from Obama's mistake (which was believing that the Republicans would ever negotiate in good faith about anything, and/or would reciprocate in kind if Biden made concessions). McCarthy whined for WEEKS that Biden wasn't listening and wasn't talking to him and wasn't entertaining his ridiculous proposals (22% cuts in ALL discretionary/non-military spending, including Social Security, Medicare, etc etc, while preserving the giant Trump tax cuts for the rich.) No matter that a full one-quarter of the national debt ($7.8 trillion of $31 trillion) was racked up under Trump and the debt ceiling involves paying bills that have already been spent. No sir, those Damn Free-Spending Democrats wanted to use your money on icky things like ~social welfare!! It was mean and it was hypocritical and it was blindingly obvious, and Biden just completely ignored it. He didn't try to negotiate in good faith with that, because there was no way it would work. He just let them whine.

Then, when it came down to it, Biden went in and got a deal that preserves pretty much all of the Democrats' major legislative priorities and expansions from the last two years. The only real change is raising the work requirement age for childless adults on SNAP food assistance from 49 to 54, but this has also been accompanied by a corresponding expansion of the definition "homeless" to make more people eligible, some for the first time ever. There's not going to be any major new spending for the next two years, but that wasn't happening anyway since the GOP controls the House and wouldn't agree to anything Biden put in the budget (and plus, none of the money that has already been allocated through the American Rescue Plan and other federal assistance is getting taken away). But more importantly, it raises the debt ceiling for the next TWO years and it won't come up again until after 2024. That is HUGE: the GOP really, REALLY wanted to hold the economy hostage again prior to the next presidential election. But Biden basically went in and told McCarthy to stfu and got what he wanted. Qevin was even forced, after months of "Sleepy Joe" GOP propaganda, to call Biden "very smart and very tough" in the negotiations. Soooo.

Anyway, this is what I mean: this isn't as sexy and/or as utterly fucking useless as spouting lukewarm rebaked "Marxist" propaganda on the Twittermachine about how Biden hasn't done anything, but it's the actual nitty-gritty work of government and flat-out beating the Republicans. They got absolutely shit-all that they wanted, because Biden didn't fall for their same old, same old dirty tricks and disingenuous squealing. He went in, got the job done, and will get way less credit for it than he deserves, from anyone. Dunno about you, but I like that guy. I plan to vote for him again.

[dotthings]

Y'all. I understand Misha got some inappropriately attacking responses to his political tweets. It's okay to be upset about that. Accounts threatening Misha informing him that no one will want his signed scripts ever again. A certain BNF accusing him of not caring and then getting enraged he shared a video of his summer travels and that this makes him a hypocrite. Some salty bitter Jensen stan yelling at Misha that he's lost all their respect when they very obviously never respected him in the first place and who spitefully and callously said it would serve Misha right if Trump won.

But this stepford fandom nonsense where no one can disagree with Misha, especially when he invites and engages in political discussion, while a few Misha stans practice gaslighting and denialism about what the actual problems are with the concepts Misha's expressed, and others are shoveling toxic positivity pushing unconditional support and agreement, or are pushing doomspiral election interference false narratives that just reinforce the problem, is not it.

People are allowed to disagree with a celebrity they admire.

I examined many of the responses to Misha on IG and twitter. Outside of the few who were inappropriate, it isn't petty, it isn't hate, it isn't dance monkey dance, it's not concern trolling, and people aren't cancelling him. People are giving eloquent, informed replies in large numbers and they are making good points. I hope Misha is listening.

I'll share in a separate post what I'm thinking, but I wanted it separate from spn standom drama. And any Misha stans who give ME blowback for expressing myself are giant hypocrites. They'd be endorsing the idea that only Misha has a right to speak about politics, but his fans don't. It's okay to disagree but there's some real actual valid concerns going on.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Finally a sensible, logical, reasonable, unhysterical commentary from a prominent newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer:

The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump.

[Take THAT New York Times.....]

+

President Joe Biden’s debate performance was a disaster. His disjointed responses and dazed look sparked calls for him to drop out of the presidential race.

But lost in the hand wringing was Donald Trump’s usual bombastic litany of lies, hyperbole, bigotry, ignorance, and fear mongering. His performance demonstrated once again that he is a danger to democracy and unfit for office.

In fact, the debate about the debate is misplaced. The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump.

Trump, 78, has been on the political stage for eight years marked by chaos, corruption, and incivility. Why go back to that?

To build himself up, Trump constantly tears the country down. There is no shining city on the hill. It’s just mourning in America.

Throughout the debate, Trump repeatedly said we are a “failing” country. He called the United States a “third world nation.” He said, “we’re living in hell” and “very close to World War III.”

“People are dying all over the place,” Trump said, later adding “we’re literally an uncivilized country now.”

Trump told more than 30 lies during the debate to go with the more than 30,000 mistruths told during his four years as president. He dodged the CNN moderators’ questions, took no responsibility for his actions, and blamed others, mainly Biden, for everything that is wrong in the world.

Trump’s response to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection he fueled was farcical. He said a “relatively small number of people” went to the Capitol and many were “ushered in by the police.”

After scheming to overturn the 2020 election, Trump refused to say if he would accept the results of the 2024 election. Unless, of course, he wins.

The debate served as a reminder of what another four years of Trump would look like. More lies, grievance, narcissism, and hate. Supporters say they like Trump because he says whatever he thinks. But he mainly spews raw sewage.

Trump attacks the military. He denigrates the Justice Department and judges. He belittles the FBI and the CIA. He picks fights with allies and cozies up to dictators.

Trump is an unserious carnival barker running for the most serious job in the world. During his last term, Trump served himself and not the American people.

Trump spent chunks of time watching TV, tweeting, and hanging out at his country clubs. Over his four-year term, Trump played roughly 261 rounds of golf.

As president, Trump didn’t read the daily intelligence briefs. He continued to use his personal cell phone, allowing Chinese spies to listen to his calls. During one Oval Office meeting, Trump shared highly classified intelligence with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador.

Trump’s term did plenty of damage and had few accomplishments. The much-hyped wall didn’t get built. Infrastructure week was a recurring joke. Giant tax cuts made the rich richer, while fueling massive deficits for others to pay for years. His support for coal, oil drilling and withdrawal from the Paris Agreement worsened the growing impact of climate change.

Trump stacked the judiciary with extreme judges consisting mainly of white males, including a number who the American Bar Association rated as not qualified. A record number of cabinet officials were fired or left the office. The West Wing was in constant chaos and infighting.

Many Trump appointees exited under a cloud of corruption, grifting and ethical scandals. Trump’s children made millions off the White House. His dilettante son-in-law got $2 billion from the Saudi government for his fledgling investment firm even though he never managed money before.

Trump’s mismanagement of the pandemic resulted in tens of thousands of needless deaths. He boasts about stacking the Supreme Court with extreme right-wingers who are stripping away individual rights, upending legal precedents, and making the country less safe. If elected, Trump may add to the court’s conservative majority.

Of course, there were the unprecedented two impeachments. Now, Trump is a convicted felon who is staring at three more criminal indictments. He is running for president to stay out of prison.

If anything, Trump doesn’t deserve to be on the presidential debate stage. Why even give him a platform?

Trump allegedly stole classified information and tried to overturn an election. His plans for a second term are worse than the last one. We cannot be serious about letting such a crooked clown back in the White House.

If anything, Trump doesn’t deserve to be on the presidential debate stage. Why even give him a platform?

Yes, Biden had a horrible night. He’s 81 and not as sharp as he used to be. But Biden on his worst day remains lightyears better than Trump on his best.

Biden must show that he is up to the job. This much is clear: He has a substantive record of real accomplishments, fighting the pandemic, combating climate change, investing in infrastructure, and supporting working families and the most vulnerable.

Biden has surrounded himself with experienced people who take public service seriously. He has passed major bipartisan legislation despite a dysfunctional Republican House majority.

Biden believes in the best of America. He has rebuilt relationships with allies around the world and stood up to foes like Russia and China.

There was only one person at the debate who does not deserve to be running for president. The sooner Trump exits the stage, the better off the country will be.

[scope-dogg]

I’ve got to say Trump’s Truth Social posts aren’t on the level of his classic tweets. There was this very specific charm to the catty remarks he used to make in his own particular style. Now he’s posting in all-caps in a giant run-on paragraph like someone’s schizophrenic boomer uncle talking about immigrants or some shit like that. The UK’s politics are a circus but even I pity Americans being forced to choose between this and Biden

[gobslob]

People want to make billionaires angry so bad like it actually means anything.

Constantly see stuff like "this'll make Elon so mad if he sees this tweet" "getting my tattoo removed would make JKR so mad" "Trump HATES this giant baby blimp"

Like no. I promise you they don't give a fuck and their giant stack of money really softens the blow.

Instead of trying to make billionaires piss themselves why not focus on something more productive like guillotine construction

[temporalbystander]

Goddamnit TA!

Okay. No. Nobody can defend this man anymore. The blog immaturityofthomasastruc just did a large post on him criticising those who prefered the movie over the show and then ranting about toxic fandoms. He's a giant man baby, I know that, and I don't want you to have to scroll through the entire post just to get to my opinion. I take issue with one thing he said in particular though.

He went on about the difference between a movie and a series, fair point, the difference between writing for tv and writing fanfiction, again fair point, but then said nobody has the right to think they could do it better because a) they haven't worked in television and b) if they could they'd have been asked to work on Miraculous. Oh right. And you have to be french in order to write a decent Miraculous story, completely disregarding how inaccurate his portrayal of Paris is.

Not only is he saying he's immune to criticism because we "just don't know what's going on", not to mention the whole show is targeted at 5-8 year olds which seriously makes me question the rationale for Chat Blanc, but he's being a complete and total hypocrite. This is a man who says he could write better superhero stories, that his show is better then Pokemon and all of Pixar, and has more original powers then marvel.

I swear if I had twitter I'd screenshot those tweets send them to him and ask "so, what makes you qualified to criticise marvel and Pixar? Surely they'd have asked you to work for them since you're so qualified." God...

I've never thought I could be so disgusted by one man's social media, at least Trump just seemed stupid, this guy is just beyond arrogant and it's not helping the show. If he has such a problem the dude should stop interacting with fans. Or better yet, we need to stop interacting with him.

[beardedmrbean]

Critics of Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., were outraged after reading Elon Musk and journalist Matt Taibbi’s latest "Twitter Files" entry alleging that Schiff lobbied Twitter to suspend journalists from the platform.

Published Tuesday, the latest round of the Twitter Files – internal documents revealing how Twitter engaged in censorship and promoted disinformation in tandem with government agencies for the past few years – revealed that Schiff’s office asked Twitter to remove journalist Paul Sperry and others from the site. 

Taibbi, who published the Twitter Files post-by-post to Twitter at the behest of Musk, provided documentation showing that "the office for Democrat and House Intel Committee chief Adam Schiff" asked "Twitter to ban journalist Paul Sperry."

TWITTER FILES: REP. ADAM SCHIFF'S OFFICE REQUESTED TECH GIANT TO SUSPEND ACCOUNTS

The document Taibbi shared featured correspondence between the "House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee" – Schiff’s office – and Twitter, which included a request to "Suspend the many accounts, including @GregRubini and @paulsperry, which repeatedly promoted false QAnon conspiracies and harassed [REDACTED]."

As Taibbi’s documentation indicated however, Twitter was reluctant to fulfill such a request, responding, "we’ll review the accounts again but I believe [REDACTED] mentioned only one qualified for suspension."

In response to Schiff’s office demanding Twitter remove "any and all content" as well as "quotes, retweets, and reactions to that content" concerning its staff members, Twitter flat-out refused.

A Twitter staffer responded, "no, this isn’t feasible/we don’t do this."

Sperry, an author and New York Post columnist, was later suspended from Twitter for unrelated reasons, telling conservative commentator Glenn Beck in August 2022 it was due to tweets of his about the FBI’s raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.

However, Sperry was reinstated to Twitter this week and immediately responded to the latest Twitter Files revelations. He claimed that the real reason Schiff sought his suspension was because, at the time, Sperry was reporting on the whistleblower who exposed the phone call to Ukraine that prompted Trump’s first impeachment. 

On Tuesday evening, Sperry wrote, "Around the same time Adam Schiff's office was lobbying Twitter to have me banned, Schiff's chief of staff Patrick Boland was making threats to my employer http://RealClearInvestigations.com about my stories exposing Schiff's impeachment whistleblower & his ties to Schiff's staffer."

In another tweet, Sperry linked to his 2019 article, and captioned it, saying, "Here's the real reason House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff secretly lobbied Twitter to have me banned -- he was angry I outed his anonymous impeachment ‘whistleblower.’"

TWITTER FILES PART 11 SHOWS HOW ‘PR CRISIS’ FOLLOWING 2016 ELECTION ALLOWED COMPANY TO EMBRACE INTEL COMMUNITY

Conservatives were appalled at Schiff’s apparent attempts to silence Sperry on Twitter, and used the platform to rip into the lawmaker. 

UFC champion Jake Shields felt as though Schiff should get a taste of his own medicine, tweeting, "I would like to request Elon Musk remove Adam Schiff from twitter."

Breitbart News Pentagon correspondent Kristina Wong summed up the shocking censorship story, tweeting, "Then-Intel Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s office wanted Twitter to shut down one of the most effective journalists pushing back on his phony Russia collusion narrative. How very anti-freedom of the press this is."

The Spectator contributing editor Stephen L. Miller commented sarcastically, "Adam Schiff just using his 1A rights."

Journalist Adam Housley wrote, "This is disturbing. I don’t care what political party you follow…this cannot be accepted. @AdamSchiff needs to answer."

RealClearInvestigations senior writer Mark Hemingway tweeted, "Of course, Sperry's real crime was doing vital reporting exposing the mistruths about Russia collusion, a subject Schiff lied about for years."

Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton asked if this constituted "Another reason to expel Schiff from Congress?"

Conservative actor Randy Quaid quipped, "Schiff is a piece of Schiff!"

Conservative pundit and lawyer Will Chamberlain offered a solution, tweeting, "Adam Schiff should be expelled from Congress."

Author Jim Hanson remarked, "The only surprising thing here Is they didn't just wipe everyone out. The sickening thing is @RepAdamSchiff abused his office and oath to the Constitution with this malfeasance."

[samueldays]

An interesting look at some edge cases of hint-hint censorship.

The rules that courts apply in First Amendment jawboning cases vary considerably from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and from case to case. This is largely a consequence of the fact that the Supreme Court’s two most important cases regarding government coercion of private parties employ markedly different approaches to the question of when government efforts to encourage or pressure private parties into doing, or not doing, something implicate the First Amendment.

TLDR: If the government nudges a private actor to remove material, when does "it's a private company" stop applying?

When then-senator and presidential candidate Kamala Harris tweeted to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey that it was “[t]ime to do something about” an incendiary Trump tweet, or when Sen. Richard Blumenthal threatened to “break up [the] tech giants because they’ve misused their bigness and power” by allowing “the President [to] use [the] microphone [of social media] to spread vicious falsehoods and ... overturn the will of the voters,” were they attempting to persuade or intimidate the platforms into removing Trump’s speech?

[xtruss]

Narcissists Elon Musk and Donald Trump

No one comes close to Musk and Trump for sheer in-your-facedness, brazen assertion of power and bullying in order to dominate and force others to submit.

— Robert Reich | November 8, 2022

Friends,

I intended to write today about tomorrow’s election, but every time I began I got sidetracked by two people not on any ballot but who are setting the tenor for much of what we see and hear these days.

Last Friday, Elon Musk fired half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees, including teams devoted to combating election misinformation — and did it so haphazardly and arbitrarily that most had no idea they were fired until their email accounts were shut off.

This was after he fired Twitter’s executives “with cause” to avoid paying them the golden parachutes they’re owed. And after he taunted Twitter and the law firm it worked with in its lawsuit against him, suggesting he would sue all of them.

And after posting an article suggesting Paul Pelosi had been drunk and in a fight with a male prostitute.

It’s been a long ten days since Musk bought Twitter.

But this has been his MO all along.

When the British diver Vernon Unsworth rejected his help rescuing youth football players trapped in a cave in Thailand, Musk described him as “pedo guy.” When the Securities and Exchange Commission went after Musk, he tweeted that the “E” in the SEC stands for “Elon’s.” (You can guess what the “S” and “C” stand for.)

During the pandemic, when public health authorities refused him permission to reopen his Tesla factory, he did it anyway. After several mainstream news outlets called him out for his plans to launch a website ranking journalists’ credibility, Musk linked to what he described as an “excellent” analysis published by the NXIVM cult.

Taunting opponents. Stiffing people he owes. Treating employees like dung. Refusing to be bound by the law. Bullying adversaries. Demeaning critics. Craving attention. Refusing to be held accountable. Attracting millions of followers and gaining cult status. Telling lies. Making gobs of money. Impetuous. Unpredictable. Ruthless. Autocratic. Vindictive.

Remind you of anyone?

Musk is not exactly Donald Trump. They’re different generations, possess different skills, occupy different roles in the bizarre firmament of modern America. And Trump is far more dangerous to democracy — so far.

But both represent the emergence of a particularly American personality in the early years of the twenty-first century: the wildly disruptive narcissist. Both wield sledge hammers to protect their fragile egos. Both are utterly lacking in empathy. Both lie, and push baseless conspiracy theories (such as the one cooked up about Paul Pelosi).

And both are indefatigable self-promoters.

Both are billionaires but they are not motivated primarily by money. Nor are they fueled by any larger purpose, principle, or ideology. Their singular goal is to imprint their giant egos on everyone else — to exercise raw power over people. To make others grovel.

Their politics is neither conservative nor liberal. Call it megalomaniacal authoritarian. (It seems likely Musk will give Trump back the giant Twitter megaphone Trump lost when he incited the attack on the U.S. Capitol.)

But why now — why do both achieve such prominence at this particular point in history? And why are so many enthralled with them?

The answer, I think, is that a large segment of the American public projects its needs and fantasies on them. People who are “mad as hell and not going to take it any more” crave strongmen who shake up the system.

People who have been bullied their whole lives want to identify with super bullies who give the finger to the establishment, answerable to no one but their own ravenous egos.

Their arrogance and certitude attract millions of followers, fans, and cultish devotees, along with a fair number of goons and thugs, who want to vicariously feel superior.

But they are not leaders. They are bullies who demean America.

Others aspire to the same status — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who flies undocumented immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who blames wildfires on Jewish space lasers. Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who refuses to commit to the outcome of the upcoming election and also mocks Paul Pelosi. And the other infamous high-tech zillionaires, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.

Yet none comes close to Musk and Trump for sheer in-your-facedness, gleeful bombast, and the brazen assertion of power in order to dominate and force others to submit.

Beware. The last time the world gave in to megalomaniacs it did not end well. The robber barons of the Gilded Age — men like William (“the public be damned”) Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, and John D. Rockefeller — siphoned off so much of the nation’s wealth that the rest of the nation had to go deep into debt to maintain their standard of living and overall demand for the goods and services the nation produced.

When that debt bubble burst in 1929, the world got a Great Depression. And that Depression paved the way for Benito Mussolini, Josef Stalin, and Adolph Hitler, who created the worst threats to freedom and democracy the modern world had ever witnessed, and the most deaths.

We are much safer when economic and political power is widely diffused. We are better off when people like Musk and Trump cannot gain such untrammeled wealth and influence.

We all do better when fewer Americans feel so helpless and insecure that they’re drawn to reprehensible bullies who parade across the public stage as if possessing admirable qualities.

— Robert B. Reich is Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written 18 books, including his most recent, The System: Who Rigged It, and How We Fix It. Currently, his articles are published with permission from Robert Reich.

[mariacallous]

I plan on voting for Biden in November.  But it’s terrible.  A vote for him is still a vote that will not significantly improve our deepest and most troubling social problems.  He won’t give us Medicare for All or any other badly needed boosts to social programs.  He will probably continue to support policies that actively oppress BIPOC.  He will not help us.  He’s also a sexual predator.  Truly, I do not want to vote for this man.  This is not the man I wanted to vote for.  I don’t want him in office.  He is simply not good enough.  This man doesn’t represent what I want at all.

But if I don’t vote for Biden in November, I feel like I’m making it that much easier for Trump to win another election.  And I want that even less than I want a Biden presidency.  I don’t want another 4 years of what we have now.  No fucking way.  No.

I’m so conflicted.  I feel like there is blood on my hands.  I feel like I’m casting a vote for death and misery if I’m not voting for a progressive candidate with a progressive platform.  I feel like I’m committing nothing short of an atrocity no matter what I choose to do.  I don’t want to harm people, and yet, won’t I essentially be doing exactly that?  I just want to do the right thing.  I don’t want to bring harm, or perpetuate harm towards anyone.

Trump will probably win anyway.  He’s doing all he can to ensure that, and it will probably work.  The impending climate disaster will kill us all because we will clearly continue to do nothing.  Our bodies will be riddled with micro and nanoplastics.  America will become an even more of an inhospitable police state.

 Nobody will hold Biden accountable for anything if he wins, and he’ll never give us the public policies we desperately need. 

“Is this what hope feels like?  I’d forgotten,” you tweeted recently.  How?  And for what?  I see nothing but bad things to come.  I feel a deep sense of hopelessness and despair.

There are plenty of reasons to feel hopelessness and despair right now, but with regard to Joe Biden, you are wasting a whole bunch of negative emotions on a giant pile of shitty beliefs that just aren’t true.

First, and let me be very clear on this one, Joe Biden is not a sexual predator. He’s just not. Believe me, I would be shouting it from the rooftops if I thought he were. When Tara Reade went public, I took her allegations very seriously. I gave her extra helpings of the benefit of the doubt, but it turned out there was a mountain of evidence suggesting that Reade has always been a lying, manipulative grifter (which I didn’t want to be true), and there was another mountain of evidence suggesting that the predatory behavior alleged by Reade is simply not in Biden’s character (which I was very reluctant to trust). There was a time when I was hopeful that Reade’s accusations might even knock Biden out of the race, but I’m not the kind of person who believes a thing merely because I want it to be true. It’s fine if you want to criticize Biden for what appears to be a history of awkward or retrospectively inappropriate behavior. Hell, you can even buy into all that “Creepy Uncle Joe” bullshit, but you’re just plain wrong if you insist that Joe Biden is a sexual predator. (Obviously, the same cannot be said of Donald Trump, who is a straight-up serial rapist with a list of at least twenty-five women who have publicly and credibly accused him of sexual assault.)

As for your policy concerns, I understand your frustration. I would love to be voting for a far-left ultra-progressive firebrand of a candidate in the upcoming general election. That would feel wonderful, right up until the moment that she loses in a landslide, and I guarantee you, a far-left ultra-progressive candidate would get her ass handed to her by Trump. That’s not an outcome we can afford as a species, much less as a nation. You understand this, which is why you still plan on voting for Biden. Good. I’m really glad you’re not being a purist asshole about this. The evil garbage monsters in the GOP just love a left-wing purist who refuses to vote responsibly. Republicans are desperately praying to their imaginary white Jesus that all the Green Party crunch bars will fuck it up for the rest of us like they did back in 2016. We cannot let that happen again.

Listen, I’m not gonna try and convince you to like Joe Biden. You’re already gonna vote for him, so I’m perfectly fine if you hate his breathing guts. What I do want from you is a little maturity, some vision, and a realistic sense of scale. No one candidate will ever be the solution to our problems — not Bernie, not Liz, and certainly not Joe. At best, a candidate is a vector, a course correction, a desperately needed step in the right direction. That’s all we can expect from Biden, and he is bringing it. He’s bringing it every single day with a list of policy positions that are more progressive than any President’s in the history of the United States, and he most certainly brought it with the selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate.

Biden recognizes his place in history. He knows he is little more than a national stop-gap, a post-Trump tourniquet to stanch the bleeding. His Vice-Presidency and eventual Presidency will be a line of demarcation between two very distinct chapters of American history. This is more than just bridging the Boomer/Millennial generational divide. In the distant future (if we have one), it is my sincerest hope that Biden will be remembered as “The Last of the Old White Men,” a happy warrior who marked the end of a certain kind of Modern America and who helped usher in a new kind of Postmodern America. Those terms are clunky and loaded and absolutely will not stand the test of time, but we’re not the ones who get to name what we’re about to become. We’re the ones who have to keep doing the hard work to finally get us there, and that’s why I really need you to change your whole fucking attitude. 

This shit is going to be grueling. The fight will be brutal if not bloody, and there is absolutely no room for whiners and layabouts. You want to improve our deepest and most troubling social problems? Great. Quit moaning about doing harm with your vote and go do some actual good with your own two fucking hands. Pulling a lever in a voting booth every couple years is the bare minimum. In terms of civic duty, it is the absolute least you can do. Of course Biden won’t give us Medicare for All. Neither would Sanders or Warren. That’s not how any of this works. Presidents don’t give us shit. We do it ourselves. We demand it, loudly and with force, and over long stretches of time, with enough solidarity and sustained action, laws are enacted and policies change. 

I was around when the Clintons tried deadlifting their universal health care plan off the ground back in 1993. Maybe you remember it, maybe you weren’t even born yet, but that’s how long this shit takes. It’ll have been three fucking decades and two fucking generations of Democrats trying desperately to kick that gutbucket up Capitol Hill by the time we finally get around to some semblance of a single payer healthcare system. Thirty fucking years, my friend. That’s the kind of patience and perseverance the American experiment demands of us, so quit your fucking whining. Enough with all the pearl-clutching and hand-wringing. Take all your conflicted navel gazing bullshit and toughen the fuck up, buttercup.

You are on the right side of history. You are with the good guys. Quit your fucking bitching, and get out there and help us win.

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MSNBC’s Abrupt Cancellation of ‘The Cross Connection’ Is A Blow To Black Voters And Democracy

Removing Cross from the airwaves effectively denies Black strategists and organizers a platform to discuss the issues and concerns of Black voters ahead of the midterm elections.

Source: Leigh Vogel / Getty

Just days before the 2022 midterm election and cable news giant reportedly cut ties with popular weekend host Tiffany Cross. MSNBC’s cancellation of the “Cross Connection” is reminiscent of how the cable giant snatched the airwaves away from another veteran journalist. The current host and managing editor of WNYC’s “The Takeaway,” Professor Melissa Harris-Perry, was previously dismissed from MSNBC in a very ugly manner.

Harris-Perry tweeted she had no insight into what happened but had very high praise for Cross.

“One thing is certain–@TiffanyDCross will always have my support and solidarity. Proud of what she’s accomplished. Excited to see what she’ll do next,” Tweeted Harris-Perry.

#WheresTiffany trended early Saturday afternoon on Twitter. Using the hashtag, Alicia Garza tweeted that she was scheduled to be on “The Cross Connection” to discuss polling of Black voters.

Removing Cross from the airwaves effectively denies Black strategists and organizers a platform to discuss the issues and concerns of Black voters ahead of the midterm elections. Cross called the abrupt termination of her show “disheartening” after alleged calls for reckoning with race in media after the 2020 uprisings.

“Now is not the retreat to politics or journalism as usual,” Cross said in a statement. “It is my hope that the last two years at MSNBC have been disruptive and transformative, changing how politics are discussed and making policy more digestible.”

She also called attention to the increase in political violence and the danger of speaking the truth and challenging the open resurgence of white supremacy. Many on Twitter pointed out the timing of the show’s end, given Cross was recently targeted by Fox host Tucker Carlson. Iconic civil rights attorney Sherrilyn Ifill noted that MSNBC’s action further emboldened Carlson.

Elie Mystal, justice correspondent at The Nation and a frequent contributor to “The Cross Connection,” called out the high price of “telling the truth about white people to white people.”

“Tiffany was special because she proactively centered her work and her voice in nonwhite audiences,” Mystal tweeted. It’s not that she didn’t care what white people thought. It’s that she refused to bend her voice around those forces. She was willing to pay the price to uplift nonwhite voices.

A clear example of the “Cross Connection” commitment to uplifting news and commentary that centered non-white communities can be seen in a recent interview with Tax Professor Dorothy Brown, highlighting the crisis of corporate price gouging amid record inflation.

Cross recently joined Jemele Hill in sharing a message with Black Voters Matter supporters about Democracy being on the ballot and the importance of engaging in the upcoming election.

But MSNBC’s abrupt cancellation of “The Cross Connection” also highlights the importance of a robust Black media committed to engaging with the issues impacting our communities. Building an apparatus committed to news and uplifting powerful stories challenges the status quo and provides a pathway forward for change.

SEE ALSO:  

Tiffany Cross Calls Out Mainstream Media’s Attempted Rehabilitation Of Trump Administration Officials

Herschel Walker Says He’d Put His ‘Resume’ Up Against Barack Obama’s ‘Any Time’

Tennessee Gerrymandering And Voter Suppression Make A Mess Of Multiple State Races

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T-shirts showing Trump after shooting pulled in China

Chinese e-commerce platforms have taken down t-shirts featuring an image of Donald Trump pumping his fist into the air moments after he was shot at.

The T-shirts, which went on sale within hours of the shooting, were available on popular e-commerce sites like Taobao and JD.com.

It is unclear why the listings were taken down, but the Chinese internet is heavily controlled, with content considered "sensitive" routinely taken down.

The assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally last Saturday sparked widespread discussion online, with related hashtags trending high on X-like platform Weibo.

Enterprising Chinese retailers leapt into action, with the first batch of T-shirts printed and put up for sale online less than three hours after the shooting.

A cached image on Taobao, one of China's largest e-commerce sites, shows the T-shirt priced at 39 yuan ($9; £7).

A 25-year-old Taobao retailer told South China Morning Post that she received more than 2,000 orders for the T-shirts a mere three hours after she put it up for sale.

Most were from China and the US.

Trump has been the source of online attention in China for years - for both positive and negative reasons.

The trade war he waged with Beijing during his presidency enraged the government and many Chinese people, but saw some support as well - among them a group of Chinese immigrants in the US who have been translating all of Trump's tweets via the X account @Trump_Chinese. The account, started in September 2018, has amassed more than 344,000 followers over the years.

There is also a popular online joke that plays on the Chinese translation of Trump -which is Chuan. He is often referred to as Chuan Jianguo which translates to "Trump - our nation builder" as a means of mocking what they see as his role in helping set China on the path to becoming a superpower.

Chinese entrepreneurs have been cashing in on the interest in him for years now.

Although the listings of T-shirts featuring Trump after the shooting have been pulled in China, online retailers there are still peddling a wide range of Trump merchandise including socks and mugs with his caricature, and red caps bearing his campaign slogan "Make America Great Again".

Retailers around the world have also capitalised on the assassination attempt.

Similar T-shirts have been seen available for sale on Lazada and Shopee, e-commerce platforms popular in South East Asia.

Lazada is owned by the Chinese technology giant Alibaba Group, which also owns Taobao.

Photographs online also show similar T-shirts for sale in the US. Some had captions added to them - one read "Leaders Never Die", while another said "Bullet Proof".

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MUST 👁️👁️ ⬆️ SEE tiktok‼️

God Almighty will do "what 🐳 needs MUST be done".

In unorthodox ways, God 📬 sends unfiltered messages.

🌒🌑🌘 Will the 4/8/24 solar eclipse OBSCURE the sun for 8 North American towns, ALL named Nineveh, as claimed in a video on TikTok? --YES.

Two of the eight places named Nineveh mentioned in the video -- Nineveh, Indiana, and Nineveh, Ohio -- will experience a TOTAL solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. The other six places called Nineveh listed in the video are located outside the projected 115-mile-wide path of the moon's shadow, but WILL experience a PARTIAL solar eclipse like every other town in the contiguous 🇺🇸 United States.

Don't count on full disclosure by evildoers, 👺👺 servants of the devil 🎯, who target conservatives and Christians.

Don't count on full disclosure by evildoers, 👺👺 servants of the devil 🎯, who target conservatives and Christians.

It's about losing control of "📴-icial NARRATIVES".

demo-🐀 RATS create a distraction, to steer FOCUS away FROM developments that hurt THEIR chances.

⏩ lines of communication vary WIDELY, when sent by God Almighty. There are NO limits.

Beloved John Paul Salazar went to Heaven, in Feb '24.

Our Dad Arturo wrote 📜 me on 3/19: "This afternoon, a beautiful 🦋 (rare) butterfly came flying in our backyard, went around the house, and settled on a tree for over three hours. JP loved butterflies. We believe it was HIM reassuring us, 'DON'T worry about me, I am ok in the arms of ✝️ Jesus. Isn't it comforting?

THIS type of butterfly had become on the endangered spicies, in of ALL years 1976, when your Brother was born.

It's called a giant buttertail.

JP came to 🦋 visit us."

THIS photo is 📸 the specific butterfly that hung around for hours, at our home. It's a species MORE commonly found on the East Coast.

JP was ALSO fond of whales.

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Special Counsel Jack Smith hunted information on X users who liked or retweeted posts published by former President Donald Trump, according to redacted search warrants and other documents released Monday.

According to the heavily redacted document issued to then-Twitter in January, the court ordered the social media giant to forfeit a bevy of information regarding Trump’s account, including “advertising information, including advertising IDs, ad activity, and ad topic preferences,” as well as IP addresses “used to create, login, and use the account” and privacy and account settings.

The warrant also demanded information such as Trump’s search history, direct messages, and “content of all tweets created, drafted, favorited/liked, or retweeted” by his account from October 2020 to January 2021.

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Twitter's Censure of Donald Trump: Navigating Free Speech and Democracy in the Digital Age

In today's digital world, where social media platforms significantly influence political discourse, Twitter's decision to censure former President Donald Trump brings critical questions about free speech and democracy to the forefront. This blog post explores whether Twitter's actions were an infringement of free speech principles or a necessary step within democratic values.

The Escalating Conflict Between Trump and Social Media

President Trump has openly accused Twitter of infringing on his free speech. This accusation came after Twitter fact-checked his tweet about mail balloting and later restricted the visibility of another tweet related to the Minneapolis protests. Trump's long-standing tension with Silicon Valley tech giants escalated, culminating in a complex legal battle and concerns over the future of online free expression. The situation heated up when Twitter took action against his tweet for glorifying violence, prompting Trump to vow retaliation against the platform (Phillips 2020) (Romm & Timberg 2020).

Debunking Trump's Free Speech Violation Claims

However, Trump's claims of a constitutional free speech violation by Twitter don't hold up for two primary reasons:

Twitter's Status as a Private Company: The First Amendment protects against government censorship, not actions by private entities like Twitter. As a private platform, Twitter has the right to manage its content, including tweets from the president, under its own policies. This content management autonomy is safeguarded by the First Amendment (Phillips 2020).

Platform's Right to Content Regulation: Twitter can regulate its content as it sees fit, in line with its terms of service. If dissatisfied, users, including President Trump, can migrate to other platforms (Phillips 2020).

Trump's Countermeasures and Their Implications

The issue's complexity escalated when Trump signed an executive order to increase federal oversight of social media companies' content moderation practices. This legally questionable order suggests social media companies are exceeding legal boundaries in content regulation despite laws protecting them from liability. It has been criticized for potentially inviting government interference in private businesses, raising First Amendment concerns (Phillips 2020).

Silicon Valley in the Political Crosshairs

Trump's actions, perceived as a strategy to energize his base, exploit the tech industry's vulnerabilities, such as past failures in handling disinformation and privacy issues. This strategy has led to declining public trust in the tech sector, particularly among Republicans. It frames Silicon Valley as an electoral adversary(Romm & Timberg 2020).

Case Studies from Southeast Asia

Reflecting the global impact of social media in politics, various case studies from Southeast Asia highlight its influence:

Cambodia: Prime Minister Hun Sen's strategic use of social media during elections, including deleting his Facebook account to avoid suspension and shifting to platforms like Telegram and TikTok (Fitriani & Habib 2023).

Thailand: The Move Forward Party's general election success is partly attributed to leader Pita Limjaroenrat's effective use of Instagram (Fitriani & Habib 2023).

Indonesia: Expected trends in the upcoming presidential election include using political bots and buzzers, reflecting the adaptation to a young, tech-savvy demographic (Fitriani & Habib 2023).

Malaysia: The Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) leveraged TikTok in its campaign strategy, significantly contributing to its general election success (Fitriani & Habib 2023).

Myanmar: The National Unity Government's (NUG) use of social media for public communication and awareness amidst criticisms of propaganda and misinformation (Fitriani & Habib 2023).

The Dilemma for Tech Companies

Tech companies now face the challenge of moderating content while fending off allegations of political bias. Trump's focus on alleged discrimination is part of his broader strategy to address perceived censorship, such as hosting a White House summit. The recent executive order could bring about significant changes in the digital landscape and raise questions about the government's role in regulating online speech (Romm & Timberg 2020).

Social Media's Role in Politics and Its Double-Edged Sword

Social media's importance in politics is underscored in Southeast Asia, where platforms are used extensively for political campaigns. While social media expands the reach of politicians beyond traditional media and allows for tailored messaging, it also raises issues like echo chambers, political polarization, and the spread of misinformation (Fitriani & Habib 2023).

Mitigating the Risks of Social Media in Politics

To counter these risks, educating the public about online misinformation is vital. Encouraging social media companies to actively remove false content and promote transparency in moderation policies is crucial for maintaining social media's integrity as a tool for democratic engagement (Fitriani & Habib 2023).

Conclusion

In conclusion, Twitter's censure of Donald Trump opens up a broader discussion about the responsibilities of social media platforms in public discourse. As we navigate these complex issues, the balance between protecting free speech and maintaining democratic values in the digital realm remains a topic of vital importance.

References

Fitriani, & Habib, M. (2023, August 10). Social Media and the fight for political influence in Southeast Asia. The Diplomat. https://thediplomat.com/2023/08/social-media-and-the-fight-for-political-influence-in-southeast-asia/

Phillips, A. (2020, May 29). Analysis | no, Twitter is not violating Trump’s freedom of speech. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/05/29/no-twitter-did-not-violate-trumps-freedom-speech/

Romm, T., & Timberg, C. (2020, May 29). Trump’s growing feud with Twitter fuels free-speech concerns. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/05/29/words-president-matter-trumps-growing-twitter-feud-fuels-free-speech-concerns/