#I have never agreed with donald trump once

[fwitoley]

GUYS

i don’t think anyone’s done this and I NEED SOMEONE TO DO THIS

ELECTION OF 1800 BUT IT’S TRUMP, KAMALA, AND RFK—

[songmingisthighs]

Pitiful, You're Pitiful

<< prev | fic m.list | next >>

ch. vi

group : ateez

pairing : aged up!wooyoung × aged up!reader

genre : angst, mature

word count : 2.8 k

warning : argument, mentions of cheating, negative depiction of wooyoung, mentions of loss, calling an adulteress an assortment of names, idk what else tbh lmk if there is anything else I should add

a/n : I FINALLY UPDATED !!!!! this chapter might be slightly shorter compared to the others but trust me when I say it's very much intentional because I just want to focus this chapter on this one specific interaction. some sort of catalyst or like break from the obliteration of pyp!woo's image ig lmaooooo BUT YAY I DIDN'T FORGET TO POST PYP THIS MONTH !!!!

buy me coffee ?

After the fiasco that was your unveiling of a VERY important information about a staff of the academy, Wooyoung was immediately pulled in to get his side of the story. And of course, unfortunately, you. Luckily, you didn't get chastised by anyone because you were CLEARLY the victim in this situation. Heck, the HR team even reached out to apologize to you for the inconvenience you experienced due to their staff's "misconduct" because you're one of the founders's wives. It was an interesting way of saying that their staff is a cheating whore without any redeeming value but you'll take what you can get out of them and the situation. Which also includes his own friend group contacting you every now and then to make sure that you are okay and some (Yunho, Mingi, and Jongho) even going as far as swearing to denounce their familial relations with Wooyoung which was sweet.

Speaking of Wooyoung, he had been shoved into the heap of horseshit that he had piled on himself. You honestly have never seen him so down because he was "suggested" to take an extra two weeks of break to "settle down from the issue" which was really code for HR still having to clean up his mess because Harin decided to not go quietly. From what you heard from a reliable source (Jongho over pastry and coffee after he ditched his vocal classes to gossip), Harin came back the day after she officially got fired and made a ruckus. Literally, she went crazy and made a mess of the lobby; throwing chairs and tables around, scattering pamphlets, breaking vases, and screaming random weird things like how the company is a misogynist for firing a woman for something that was beyond her control. Safe to say, because Harin refused to move to a quieter spot, Hongjoong had to step in and reiterate all the mistakes she had made including but not limited to her having an affair with a married man who was her boss. Hongjoong had even told her that while there was another party involved, another party that acknowledged the mistakes that he had made and agreed to accept whatever disciplinary actions were required, it was also her choice to partake in such behavior. Long story short, a student uploaded the whole thing on YouTube and as of today, there were 15 different TikTok remixes ranging from EDM, screamo, and even a Donald Trump edit. Without Jongho pointing it out, you could imagine that Harin's career in South Korea was over, not because of the cheating, but because of her disorderly conduct.

You found yourself spending time rather peacefully in recent times which was surprising since your house seems to always be in a state of chaos. For once, Wooyoung didn't try to make you talk to him or about him. In fact, he had the decency to be very considerate of you and your feelings, particularly about being in the same room as him. It made you feel slightly bad to be honest because although you both were going through something, he was in the middle of being the butt of the joke and jab by everyone at the company. It was sad and pathetic but also very much deserved. Sure you sometimes found his isolation to be sad, pathetic, and downright pitiful, but then you remember what he did and you remembered how he put himself in that position without even considering the repercussions.

The same could be said about Dayoung. Well, only in the sense of her isolation seemingly from the rest of the world. Your outgoing, extroverted daughter seemed to spend a good chunk of time locking herself inside her room after school. Usually, you would have to turn into a negotiator three times a week just to get your daughter to come home right on her curfew. This time around, you had a worse time trying to get her out, even making her run some errands just so she could get some fresh air. It wasn't until a while later that Wooyoung clued in on why Dayoung was acting like that. The way you went off on Wooyoung for breaking the news in such a manner without you present or even consulting you. You did try to understand that maybe he just... slipped or that he was so emotional that it just slipped out but the point stood that he waited until you were trying to piece things together to finally tell you. Yet another secret he kept from you. Considering the frequency of things he said but hid away from you, you had to think if this was some sort of behavioural pattern that he hadn't exhibited even if you both had been married for quite a long time. Maybe he had became a master a suppressing it and all it took was you forcing the truth out of him to make said behavior to come back to the surface.

On the other hand, Woohyun was turning into a more mature and responsible version of himself. the day you both came home from confronting the slut, Woohyun became so very helpful towards you. The first thing he did was took your bag and brought it over to the kitchen table before he dashed to the bathroom to wash his hands, cleaning himself up before you had to tell him to. Then he made himself very available for you by making sure that he spent almost every single waking or available moments with you. When you;re in the kitchen doing the dishes or cooking, he would be on the counter or the dining table doing his homework. Sometimes he would even try to do chores like one time he tried to help you bringing his sister's laundry basket from the second floor and he ended up scattering everything down the stairs. Woohyun was upset and worried that you would be mad but instead, you laughed it up and helped him clean up before teaching him how to carry items that are heavier than him down. Although you couldn't find it in yourself to bring it up in case you ended up accidentally telling him yourself, you had a feeling that Woohyun was trying to distract you from the reality of what was going on with your husband in his own way. One of the things that solidified your assumption was the fact that Woohyun had limited contact with his dad significantly. The two of them used to spend time together playing games or pulling pranks on one another and even on you or Dayoung but he had suddenly refuse to spend elective time with Wooyoung no matter how much Wooyoung tried to negotiate with him with everything that he got. Despite that, Woohyun dudb't lose respect for his dad.

"Mom?"

You almost dropped the plate you were washing when you heard a voice come up from the doorway. It was surprising to see Dayoung standing there, timid like a deer because she was always happy, lively, and rambunctious, even straight-up disrespectful to you, your space, and your boundaries. But never this. She had been so... quiet for a week and it would've made you freak out had it not been for Wooyoung letting you know that Dayoung knew. That was all he said, she knew. You did not know what had gotten over you to not deck Wooyoung right then and there but he should absolutely consider himself a lucky bastard.

The sight of your own daughter standing there made you feel... anxious. You probably (most likely) should not be afraid of a bitty teenager, but how can you not? It's not like you thought that she was going to attack you or worse, ask you to give Wooyoung a sponge bath. But you just never saw your daughter this... Muted. It was as if she had stepped into an old TV where there was nothing but black and white. You silently wished that Woohyun had not gone to the zoo with his playdate friends because he would be a great buffer. Or witness for whatever that was bound to happen.

"D-do you need help with the dishes?" She asked, stepping closer to you slowly. At first, you were surprised, not exactly expecting that the first thing she would say was an offer to help you with a chore. But, you welcomed her with a smile and nodded, stepping to the side so she could come next to you and start wiping down the washed dishes.

There were no words exhchanged between the two of you for the first five minutes or so but it wasn't awkward. It was the first time that the silence was peaceful when it was just the two of you. Usually, the silence would always only come from Dayoung and it was because she was mad at you for something. Not at you and Wooyoung, just you. You were always the receiver of her animosity even when she was mad at her dad for whatever insignificant reason there could be, but this time was different.

"Mom..." she called you suddenly but what came next surprised you instead, "I'm sorry," she started, not looking at you which was unfortunate because you were staring at her with a very priceless dumbfounded expression. "I- I- what?" "I'm sorry for... This, my part in... Whatever's going on with you and dad. I'm really sorry for making you take care of him. Had I known, I wouldn't have made you take him in," she confessed and you could see that she was starting to tear up. Your heart broke and you really wanted to pull her in and give her the biggest hug that you could muster just to show your support for her but you knew that it would just make yourself feel better for accomplishing something and not actually help her feel better. So you took a step closer to her and breathed out a sigh of relief when she didn't push you away. "I'm really, really, REALLY sorry mom. He's the worst husband ever," she sniffed which made you chuckle as you blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall, "Well, I would say that Emperor Peter, Catherine the Great's husband is a far worse husband than your father."

Your attempt at making light of the situation was met with Dayoung squinting her eyes at you. "Mom, I'm serious. I've heard about my friend's dad cheating but not like this. Not in your situation, and not with someone dumb enough to think she can substitute a hand wrap for martial arts with boob tapes," she scoffed, annoyed. You sighed and shrugged, "Well, people are complicated, sweetie. I... I'm not mad, annoyed, or angry that you wanted me to take care of your dad because, in retrospect, it WAS the absolute right thing to do. I mean, your dad was injured and he's facing such a hard time at work. It would be absolutely wrong to just toss him to someone else. Who would we even toss him to? His friend? His parents?" "His whore, mom. We could've tossed him out and have his whore handle him."

The very second the words left Dayoung's mouth, your eyes widened and your neck snapped in her direction to see her frowning, staring up at you. "He's a cheating bastard and we have the right to not even be in contact with him anymore," she curtly stated. "Jung Dayoung," you started shakily. Dayoung simply shook her head to cut you off, "No, mom, oh my God, you need to stop being a doormat." "Dayoung!" you exclaimed, surprised that she was able to say such a thing and perhaps slightly offended. "It's true! God, mom, how long have you known that he has a side piece who's as dumb as a bag of rocks? How long have you held everything in and just let him walk all over you? He fucking CHEATED on you mom! When you were so down in the dumps to the point that you couldn't even take care of yourself properly! You used Woohyun and I as a distraction, shoving all the attention and care to what, fill in the void over the loss of my would've-been sibling? And where was he? He was with some other woman because he is the worst of the worst and I will never forgive him for what he did to our family!"

Maybe it was the volume of her voice or the massive weight of her words but you felt your blood boiling and before you even realized it, you had shoved a plate into the sink and you were huffing, "Jung Dayoung that's enough, you should not talk about your father that way." "Why? Why shouldn't I, mom? My God, this is the first time in like, maybe ever that I'm standing up for you, this is me protecting you and yet you're still trying to make excuses for that pathetic son of a bitch who betrayed his family!?" "He did not betray our family, okay? He betrayed me, Dayoung!"

Just like it was the first time Dayoung defended you, you had experienced your first time screaming at her and to say that she was scared was an understatement. Dayoung shut her mouth and stared at you with sadness in her eyes because she had yet to comprehend why you were still trying to stand up for your cheating husband.

"Your dad did nothing to our family, sweetie. He did this to me," you sighed, closing your eyes and exhaling shakily as you used both of your hands to hold onto the counter to stabilize yourself. "Sure, he might have altered the dynamic and whatever else in our family but he... What he did was nothing against our family but it was just against me. At least, that's what I think. I don't think I have it in me to find out exactly why he did what he did because I'm weak, Dayoung. I'm a coward like that." you turned to her and shed a tear, breaking Dayoung's heart as she realized just how strong you were all this time.

"Then why, mom? Why are you still letting him off?" Dayoung asked, her voice cracking. You tearily chuckled and shrugged, "Who said that I am? I'm doing this, ALL of this, not because I want to. I did it, because for the longest time, that was what we have agreed on in our marriage. He deal with the monetary stuff and I deal with the family stuff. As much as it hurts, no matter if I like it or not, he is still my family because his behavior be damned, he... He gave me you and your brother and that is something I would never regret. For that, I will always be thankful to him and that is also why you should still respect your father. You can be mad at him, you can be hurt by what he did, but your respect should be non-negotiable not because he deserved it, but because your dad an I taught you better than that. He truly loves you, Dayoung. He might not love me anymore but you and Woohyun are the apples of his eyes, you are his stars in the dark night sky, and you are the best thing he had and would ever achieve. Do you understand me?"

Dayoung groaned and dropped her head on your shoulder as she wrapped her arms around your waist. "Damn it mom, why do you have to make it hard for me to unleash my wrath on him?" You couldn't help but chuckle and return her hug, "Sorry sweetie, part of my job is to make sure you grow up to be a decent human being and sometimes I have to make or say things you don't like," you chuckled, making Dayoung roll her eyes but nudge her hips with yours.

As you spend a heartwarming moment with your daughter, you can't help but let your mind slip and travel somewhere else. You couldn't help but think about how you and Dayoung would probably not have experienced such a changing moment in your life. So as much as you hate it, there was a silver lining in this whole shenanigan.

Beyond the heartwarming scene in the kitchen, alone in the dark and cold emptiness of the living room, Wooyoung stood with his back to the wall. Having come down when he heard the commotion, Wooyoung initially thought he might have to step in to get Dayoung off your back. But when he heard you yell back at Dayoung, he stopped in his tracks and debated If he should stay or leave until his interest was piqued and he ended up listening in on the conversation which left him feeling broken down. Despite the gnawing pain that made him feel like he couldn't breathe, he knew he deserved that and more. He should not complain and instead, he should just accept the harsh truth. Not just the facts that you laid out to Dayoung, but also the truth that your action further proved that he was truly the devil in this equation. And perhaps he doesn't deserve to be forgiven.

network :

@cultofdionysusnet @sandsofire @kflixnet @pirateeznet

taglist :

@atinyreads @strawberry-yeo @soobiverse @vixensss @smally97 @maidens-world @yunhoswrldddd @imcoenffl @nescaffei @miaatiny @showmehoseok @tmingi @wlv-asteria @sunwoosbaby @hyukssunflower @remi-young @roguesthetic

@staytiny816 @dearinsaniiity @scentednerdenemy

permalist :

@kodzukein @phenomenalgirl9 @skzatzloveismonsterous @memorymonster @surveilenceysystem @dreamlesswonder86 @maddiebabyxoxo @imababywolf @do-you-actually-care @marievllr-abg @ilsedingsx @wasteitonserendipity @bbymatz @noonaishere @honeyhwaaa @ateezourstars @yoonjunshi @yoongiigolden @camillelafaye @charreddonuts @kpopnightingale @starryunho @atinct @mirror-juliet @hyuckilstan @jayb17

[deadpresidents]

On the cliffs of Normandy, in a small holding area, the President of the United States was looking out at the English Channel. It was only six weeks ago, on the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, and President Biden had just finished his remarks at the American cemetery atop Omaha Beach. Guests had been congratulating him on the speech, but he didn't want to talk about himself. The moment was not about him; it was about the men who had fought and died there. "Today feels so large," he told me. "This may sound strange -- and I don't mean it to -- but when I was out there, I felt the honor of it, the sanctity of it. To speak for the American people, to speak over those graves, it's a profound thing." He turned from the view over the beaches and gestured back toward the war dead. "You want to do right by them, by the country."

Mr. Biden has spent a lifetime trying to do right by the nation, and he did so in the most epic of ways when he chose to end his campaign for re-election. His decision is one of the most remarkable acts of leadership in our history, an act of self-sacrifice that places him in the company of George Washington who also stepped away from the presidency. To put something ahead of one's immediate desires -- to give, rather than to try to take -- is perhaps the most difficult thing for any human being to do. And Mr. Biden has done just that.

To be clear: Mr. Biden is my friend, and it has been a privilege to help him when I can. Not because I am a Democrat -- I belong to neither party and have voted for both Democrats and Republicans -- but because I believe him to be a defender of the Constitution and a public servant of honor and of grace at a time when extreme forces threaten the nation. I do not agree with everything he has done or wanted to do in terms of policy. But I know him to be a good man, a patriot and a president who has met challenges all too similar to those Abraham Lincoln faced. Here is the story I believe history will tell of Joe Biden. With American democracy in an hour of maximum danger in Donald Trump's presidency, Mr. Biden stepped in the breach. He staved off an authoritarian threat at home, rallied the world against autocrats abroad, laid the foundations for decades of prosperity, managed the end of a once-in-a-century pandemic, successfully legislated on vital issues of climate and infrastructure and has conducted a presidency worthy of the greatest of his predecessors. History and fate brought him to the pinnacle in a late season in his life, and in the end, he respected fate -- and he respected the American people.

It is, of course, an incredibly difficult moment. Highs and lows, victories and defeats, joy and pain: It has been ever thus for Mr. Biden. In the distant autumn of 1972, he experienced the most exhilarating of hours -- election to the United States Senate at the age of 29. He was no scion; he earned it. The darkness fell: His wife and daughter were killed in an automobile accident that seriously injured his two sons, Beau and Hunter. But he endured, found purpose in the pain, became deeper, wiser, more empathetic. Through the decades, two presidential campaigns imploded, and in 2015 his son Beau, a lawyer and wonderfully promising young political figure, died of brain cancer after serving in Iraq.

Such tragedy would have broken many lesser men. Mr. Biden, however, never gave up, never gave in, never surrendered the hope that a fallen, frail and fallible world could be made better, stronger and more whole if people could summon just enough goodness and enough courage to build rather than tear down. Character, as the Greeks first taught us, is destiny, and Mr. Biden's character is both a mirror and a maker of his nation's. Like Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, he is optimistic, resilient and kind, a steward of American greatness, a love of the great game of politics and, at heart, a hopeless romantic about the country that has given him so much.

Nothing bears out this point as well as his decision to let history happen in the 2024 election. Not matter how much people say that this was inevitable after the debate in Atlanta last month, there was nothing foreordained about an American President ending his political career for the sake of his country and his party. By surrendering the possibility of enduring in the seat of ultimate power, Mr. Biden has taught us a landmark lesson in patriotism, humility and wisdom.

Now the question comes to the rest of us. What will we the people do? We face the most significant of choices. Mr. Roosevelt framed the war whose dead Mr. Biden commemorated at Normandy in June as a battle between democracy and dictatorship. It is not too much to say that we, too, have what Mr. Roosevelt called a "rendezvous with destiny" at home and abroad. Mr. Biden has put country above self, the Constitution above personal ambition, the future of democracy above temporal gain. It is up to us to follow his lead.

-- "Joe Biden, My Friend and an American Hero" by Jon Meacham, New York Times, July 22, 2024.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

MMFA Staff:

On February 18, President Donald Trump pushed multiple false claims about the war in Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s involvement in it, falsely suggesting that Ukraine started the war and that Zelensky is a “dictator without elections.” Both claims echo Russian propaganda about the war. Many right-wing media figures praised Trump's comments, with some commentators even following in his footsteps to target Zelensky. Others denounced Trump's remarks as “music to the ears of Vladimir Putin.”

In the last week, Donald Trump has pushed falsehoods about Ukraine, to the delight of leading Russian political figures

During February 18 remarks at Mar-a-Lago, Trump falsely accused Ukraine of starting the war with Russia, drawing praise from Russian officials. “You never should have started it,” he told reporters, addressing Ukraine’s leaders, before claiming Ukraine “could have made a deal.” Trump was dismissing concerns from Ukrainian authorities — including Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky — that they had been excluded from peace talks in Saudi Arabia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised Trump’s comments about Ukraine and NATO, remarking in a speech to Russian lawmakers, “This is already a signal that he understands our position.” [New York Times, 2/19/25; The Guardian; 2/18/25; NBC; 2/18/25]  

Russia started the war by launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 after annexing Crimea in 2014. The invasion was widely condemned by world leaders and Russian President Vladimir Putin was later accused of war crimes in Ukraine by the International Criminal Court, which issued a warrant for his arrest. [New York Times, 2/19/25]  

Trump later called Zelensky a “dictator without elections” in a Truth Social post doubling down on his false statements, echoing Kremlin propaganda. “Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Trump threatened in a post that repeatedly attacked the Ukrainian leader. Russian President Vladimir Putin has alleged that Zelensky’s presidency is “illegitimate” due to the suspended election, and Trump appears to be repeating Moscow’s narrative. [Twitter/X, 2/19/25; BBC, 2/19/25]

Zelensky was elected to a five year term in 2019, and Ukraine’s 2024 election was suspended due to martial law triggered by Russia’s 2022 invasion. Zelensky has promised that an election will be held once the war ends, as holding an election in an active war zone would be difficult, if not impossible according to some experts. [BBC, 2/19/25]

Trump has also demanded $500 billion of Ukrainian rare earth minerals in exchange for U.S. support in the war. During a Fox News interview, Trump claimed that Ukraine “essentially agreed to do that.” When presented with a proposal for the U.S. to own half of Ukraine’s rare minerals during a meeting in Kyiv, Zelensky declined to sign the document. [Politico, 2/11/25; NBC, 2/14/25]

Russian political figure Dmitry Medvedev: “If you'd told me just three months ago that these were the words of the US president, I would have laughed out loud. @realDonaldTrump is 200 percent right.” [Twitter/X, 2/19/25]

Right-wing media split over Trump pushing pro-Kremlin propaganda.

[mariacallous]

Sharing this because of interest and not because of agreement

Chris Murphy, the junior senator from Connecticut, hardly exudes the energy on the stump of the leading populist progressives in his party, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He is preternaturally calm, and, when he says that his “hair is on fire” about the Trump Administration’s destruction of public norms and the rule of law, it is not initially convincing. And yet, in recent months, Murphy has tirelessly argued—on television, on TikTok, on The New Yorker Radio Hour—that unless the Democratic Party broadens its coalition with a primarily populist economic message and takes risks to oppose the destruction of democratic institutions, it will fail to mobilize popular support, continue to lose elections, and squander (as in Hungary, Turkey, and beyond) democracy itself.

Murphy, who is fifty-one, was a wunderkind, winning election to the House at thirty-three and to the Senate before his fortieth birthday. He argues not only that Donald Trump and the MAGA movement are threatening myriad institutions and making them bow to executive power but that the midterm elections of 2026 might be rendered undemocratic through the erosion of the infrastructure necessary for opposition to exist. And Trump, or a member of his family, may well be in position to take the White House two years later. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Senator, I wonder if we could try to define the crisis that we’re in. I’m of the opinion that the Trump Administration is intent on creating an American-style authoritarian situation. Do you agree with me?

I do. Long ago, the Republican Party decided that they cared more about power than they did democracy. That’s what January 6th was all about—regardless of who won the election, they wanted to make sure that their person was in charge. They believe, and have long believed, that the Democratic Party progressives are an existential threat to the country, and thus any means justifies the end—which is making sure that a Democrat never again wins a national election. So, this seems pretty purposeful and transparent—this decision to rig the rules of democracy so that you still hold elections, but the minority party, the opposition party, is rendered just weak enough, and the rules are tilted toward the majority party just enough, so that Donald Trump and Republicans and the Trump family rule forever. And, of course, this is not an unfamiliar system. This is Hungary, this is Turkey, this is Serbia. There are plenty of countries, all around the world, that hold elections—it’s just that one party continues to win. And that is, I think, the very concrete, very transparent plan that Trump and his White House are implementing right now.

Why do your Republican colleagues put up with this? Do they fess up to it when you talk to them in private?

They do not fess up to the plan behind closed doors. They are living in a self-created delusion. Most of them will tell you that it’s not as bad as you think. Yes, Donald Trump is acting in a way that previous Presidents have not, but we will still have a free and fair election; what he’s doing is not enough to topple essential democratic norms.

They are, of course, also deeply scared of him. They have worked very hard to become United States senators. You’ve sacrificed a lot to get to this point, and you don’t want to stop being a United States senator once you’ve gotten here. And for Republicans, the only thing that keeps you a United States senator is staying on Donald Trump’s good side.

I have to ask you why. Is the job so great—is being called “senator” by young staffers so great—if you have to give up and cede your principles?

Of course not. Of course not. And maybe this interacts with the third thing Republicans will tell you, which is, “Hey, listen, I’m trying to make this better.” Republicans in the mold of John Thune—and I’m not saying that he personally has said this to me, but people in his mold will say, “Well, if I cross Donald Trump, I’ll get replaced by somebody infinitely worse. And I can try to work behind the scenes to make this better.”

So, what’s the difference at this point?

Well, I’m telling you how they rationalize it. I’m not defending it. Of course, it is all treachery to lie down with Donald Trump, who is actively trying to destroy our democracy.

And then the majority of Republicans in Congress are fully on board with the idea that the rules should be rigged so that Democrats never rule again. There is just an exhaustion with democracy among a lot of Republicans.

This has only been going on for a couple of months—the Administration began January 20th, and it’s quite different from the first term. How bad is this, and where is it going, in your estimation?

I mean, it can be true that some of the orthodoxy of the left put us in the position of being unelectable. It is also true that the bureaucracy inside the federal government, the state governments, and local governments has become so big and cumbersome as to make it impossible to get things done in this country. But that is not mutually exclusive with the belief that we have months—not a year—before our democracy is rendered so damaged that it can’t be repaired.

I do think that over the last four years, those surrounding Donald Trump put together a pretty thoughtful plan to destroy democracy and the rule of law, and you are seeing it being implemented. Just in the last week—and you and others have covered this well—the assault has been trained on academia, institutions of higher education, and the legal community, the biggest law firms in this country. In democracy after democracy, those two institutions—higher education and the legal profession—are, in many ways, the foundation that undergirds the rule of law. Those are the places where people think about the rule of law, protect it, warn when it is being undermined. The legal profession is the place where people contest efforts to try to destroy the rule of law. And so it is not coincidental that Trump is trying to force both higher education and the legal profession to capitulate to him, and to commit, often through very explicit bilateral agreements—for the most important institutions—to essentially quelling protest.

And, of course, what the Administration is doing by taking on these very high-profile institutions is sending a warning to other law firms and to other colleges: if you take us on—if you file lawsuits against the Administration, if you support Democrats, if you allow for campus-wide protests against our priorities—you’ll be next. And so what will happen here—what inevitably happens in every democracy in which this tactic is tried—is that the Administration won’t have to go after every institution or every firm, because most of them will just decide in advance to stay out of the way. When students are filing a petition for a massive protest against a Trump Administration policy, they may just find it much harder to be able to exercise free speech on campus.

This is how democracy dies. Everybody just gets scared. You make a few examples, and everyone else just decides to comply.

That brings us to the real crux of our conversation today—the Democratic Party. What is the Democratic Party going to do about it? Every indicator that I see, in terms of public-opinion polls, shows widespread dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party. What are the Democrats going to do in a concerted way in the Senate and the House?

First, I do think there is a vast overestimation of the power that Democrats have. We are in the minority in the House and the Senate. We don’t have the Presidency. There are some people out there who think we should just be able to stop this. And the fact of the matter is that we don’t have an army, and thus we are relying on public mobilization and the courts.

Second, I do think that there’s an element out there that doesn’t actually want to have the really hard conversation about why we lost. I mean, people knew who this guy was. He said he was going to be a dictator on Day One. He told you he was going to pardon the January 6th protesters. He still won.

People thought he was fooling around.

Nah. I mean, that might be true, but I don’t know that that’s the whole story. I think we’re a pretty broken brand right now, and some of the people on the left don’t want to go through that hard rewrite of what the Democratic Party stands for.

What’s at the core of the brokenness, if we can be specific?

Well, we have become the status-quo party, and so we have reverted to defending democracy instead of explaining how we are going to break it down and reform it. We have not been a pugilistically populist party, where we name the people who have power and we build very easy-to-understand solutions about how to transfer power to people who don’t have it. And then we’re a pretty judgmental party, filled with a dozen litmus tests. We don’t let you in unless you agree with us on everything, kind of—from gender rights to reproductive rights to gun control to climate.

We’ve got to be a party that invites people in as long as they agree with us on the basic economic message, and build our party with a little bit more acceptance of people who have diverging views on social and cultural issues.

How would that conversation and that process come about, among the Democrats?

Well, I think first is making the decision that economics is the tentpole. And populist economics. That means that you are going to have a party that, frankly, sounds a little bit more like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. You are talking about billionaires and corporate power. You are proposing really easy-to-understand ideas on how to shift that power—whether it be a cap on rent increases, or a massive increase in the minimum wage, or the regulation of every single drug price, not just the ten highest-priced drugs. And then it is just making that decision to go out and ask people to come into the coalition who might not be with us on issues that I care about, like guns, and to nominate candidates that signal that the Party is a big tent—people who are populist economically, but may not line up with us on all the social and cultural stuff.

Can you explain the split we’re seeing between Democratic senior leadership and more junior members of the Party?

I don’t know that it really breaks down along generational lines, but I can explain what the basic argument is right now. Is this a normal moment, where you can just keep on punching Donald Trump, and pushing down his approval ratings, and eventually win the 2026 election, and set up a potential win in 2028? Or is there a pretty good chance that we’re not going to have a free election in 2026?

You believe that’s a possibility?

A hundred per cent. Every single day, I think the chances are growing that we will not have a free and fair election in 2026.

What does that look like?

It may not even be that the mechanics of the election are rigged. I’m not suggesting that there will be election officials out there stuffing ballots. What I’m talking about is that the opposition—the infrastructure necessary for an opposition to win—will have been destroyed. No lawyers will represent us. They will take down ActBlue, which is our primary means of raising small-dollar contributions. They will threaten activists with violence, so no one will show up to our rallies and to our door-knock events. This is what happens in lots of democracies around the world; the opposition is just kept so weak that they can’t win. That’s what I worry about being the landscape as we approach 2026. And, if you believe that, then everything you do right now has to be in service of stopping that kind of weakening or destruction of democracy.

So, to me, the essential difference in the Party right now is that some people think that that has a very low likelihood, and so we should just engage in normal politics—try to become more popular than Republicans. And people like me believe that it won’t matter if we’re more popular than them, because the rules won’t allow us to run a fair election; and so everything we are doing right now, both inside the Capitol and outside the Capitol, should be geared toward trying to make Republicans stop this assault on the rule of law and democratic norms.

Do you think it’s possible that Donald Trump wants to stay in office past 2028? How would he do it?

I think it’s absolutely possible. People very close to him are saying that it’s already a foregone conclusion. If he breaks the Supreme Court and breaks the Constitution and pays no consequence for it, we could ultimately be living in a situation in which the President just declares that he will stay in office. He could also hand power to a relative—maybe Donald Trump doesn’t run, but a Trump family member runs and the Trump family just stays in power. I think all of those things are possible.

The Democrats ran, in no small measure, on the preservation of democracy, and that failed. Why do you have any confidence that the public would mobilize for democracy in the future, if not now?

The public was not convinced by our argument, in 2024, because we were shilling for the existing version of democracy—which is deeply corrupt, which does not work. When I got into politics twenty-five years ago, something like campaign-finance reform, government reform, democracy reform, was a top-three issue for Democrats. It was something we talked about every single day. Somewhere along the line that stopped; somewhere along the line we stopped talking about reforming democracy. So it became easy for voters to just believe that we were all corrupt, and that neither Republicans nor Democrats were actually sincere in fixing what was wrong with democracy.

Trump is giving us this opportunity—because this is the most corrupt White House in the history of the country—to run on an anti-corruption message. But we will only win if we actually run an anti-corruption platform. And so, for me, the two things that matter most are populist economics and government reform. If Democrats run on cleaning up Washington with real, actual plans—to, for instance, get private money completely out of politics; to pass the STOCK Act, to make sure that not a single person inside government can use insider information to trade to benefit them financially—and we run on populist economics, I think that’s a winner, and it’s a way for people to stand up and support democracy, but only a reformed version of democracy.

You mentioned corruption, and we now have a situation where members of the Trump family earn tremendous fees from foreign governments. Seems to me that that’s a colossal form of corruption, and it’s not something we don’t know about. It’s published all the time, and then it falls into a black hole. Why?

Trump has been so public about his corruption that it ends up being normalized. If it were so corrupt, why would you do it in public? It must not be corrupt if you’re doing it in public. We’re used to corruption being done in secret. We’re used to there being a sort of shamefulness about it. And so it is interesting that his boasting of his corruption ends in people believing that he might not be corrupt.

I’m just shocked that the Trump meme coin isn’t, like, the only thing that we’re talking about. It’s probably the most massive corruption scandal in the history of the country. You literally have an—I guess—legal, open channel for private donations to the President and his family in exchange for favors. And we just think that it’s part of Trump’s right to do business in the White House. It’s gross. It’s disgusting. It’s deeply immoral. And the fact that we didn’t talk about that every hour of every day, once he released that coin, was kind of a signal to the country that we weren’t going to take the corruption seriously.

Senator Murphy, is Chuck Schumer the right leader for the Democratic Party in the Senate for this moment?

He can be. Listen, it’s not easy to be leader of this party. There are diverse views inside the caucus, and the whole caucus has to make up their mind that we are going to start fighting, that we are not just going to do business as usual. The State of the Union was an interesting moment. We could have engaged in an extraordinary act of protest: we could have chosen, as a party, to not go; to decide that we were not going to legitimize this President, this level of corruption, and the amount of lying in the State of the Union speech, by not showing up.

Did that conversation take place among the caucus?

I mean—it was judged, I think, too extraordinary and too risky a tactic.

Were you for it?

I chose not to go, and I certainly made the case that we should at least consider not going as an option.

Chuck Schumer’s argument about voting the way he did on the continuing resolution was that, if you shut down the government, it gives the Trump Administration carte blanche, for a potentially boundless period of time, to do whatever they like in terms of shutting down agencies—not that they’re not doing it to a great degree now, but that it would be open season. The opposing point of view—let them do it, let them own it—seemed to Schumer a gamble that one couldn’t take.

He has a compelling argument. It does feel odd for Democrats to protest Republicans shutting down the government by shutting down the government. And it is also true that the President would have extraordinary powers during a shutdown.

I came to a different conclusion. I thought that the public would actually blame Republicans for the shutdown of the government, because they saw them shutting down the government. But it is true that voting no on the continuing resolution would’ve been a big risk for Democrats. Not showing up for the State of the Union would’ve been a big risk for Democrats. Both could have backfired.

But we need to be engaged in risk-tolerant behavior right now. Because ultimately, the only way to save the democracy is for there to be a national public mobilization—of not thousands, not tens of thousands, but hundreds of thousands of people—when the five-alarm fire happens. If the public doesn’t see us taking risks—tactical risks, daily risks—then they are not going to take what will be a risk on their part, standing up to a repressive regime where it’s clear that the government is willing to make you pay a personal price if you exercise your voice.

This is in line with what you said to Jon Stewart recently. You said, “I don’t think you can ask the people of this country to do these exceptional things that are going to be necessary to save our democracy if we are not willing to take risks”—meaning yourselves. What kind of risks should you and your colleagues be taking right now going forward?

In the Senate, the minority has power—you cannot proceed to any legislation without the consent of the minority. Now, we have regularly been providing the votes to the Republican majority to move forward legislation that they care about, including the continuing resolution. We could choose not to do that. We could say to Republicans: Unless you work with us on some targeted measures to prevent the destruction of our democracy, we are not going to continue to pretend like it’s business as usual. We could make that decision as a party. Now, that would mean that occasionally Democrats would need to vote no on legislation that, on the merits, they may support. But, if you think that democracy is the No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 story, then you have to act like it, and you need to show that you’re willing to take a political risk, like voting against an otherwise popular bill in order to increase and create leverage to try to save the democracy.

You mentioned the possibility of public involvement, public demonstrations, people out on the street. What would bring them there?

Well, there aren’t daily political rallies happening in the country. But anytime you set one up now, you’re seeing not thousands of people, but tens of thousands of people attending. You saw what happened with Bernie and A.O.C. over the weekend.

I think they reached thirty thousand at one of the rallies.

And Senator [Richard] Blumenthal, my colleague in Connecticut, was telling me that he went to this tiny, last-minute Tesla protest at a dealership in Milford, Connecticut, and there were six hundred people who essentially shut down Route 1 in Connecticut. People are ready to mobilize. We just haven’t been organized enough to give them those opportunities. And this speaks to the actual need of the Democratic Party right now. We have to be better when it comes to our tactics inside Washington, but we actually have to build a political infrastructure that can plug people in. And that’s what we’ve been really terrible at doing over the years. The Republicans have a permanent political infrastructure—mobilizing, legal, messaging, intellectual. The Democrats have a very thin permanent infrastructure.

So how do you go about winning back voters who don’t agree with you on some of what you say are orthodoxies, without ceding ground on things that you believe in?

I think about a really transparent ask of people, which is to say: we want you to work with us because you believe the minimum wage should be ten dollars higher. You believe that corporate power has become so consolidated as to become an evil. And we’re willing to hear you out, we’re willing to listen to you about your concerns, about how far our party has moved on guns or climate or cultural and social issues. To just have a little bit less judgment when it comes to the non-economic issues. I think that that builds a bigger coalition.

I get that. But, if you read Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” or “Why We Can’t Wait,” he is addressing centrist, or center-left, clergy and activists who are always counselling him: You have to wait a little longer. It’s not time yet. And I think a lot of people, a lot of groups—and the most obvious one that Trump took advantage of in his ads were trans people—want their rights, want respect, and they want to be able to exist in the world as easily as you and me. Are we asking them to wait?

No. Listen, we’re trying to win power so we can protect those people. We just aren’t going to be able to protect them if—

If we mention them.

No. If we don’t build coalitions that allow us to win elections. Listen, one of my colleagues, [Georgia Senator] Jon Ossoff, gave a great speech over the weekend. He talked, in the meat of his speech, about the trans community, as I do, and said, “Listen, don’t let the right blame your problems on trans kids or on immigrants. Your problems are created by a fundamental corruption inside government. Your problems are created by a government that prioritizes the billionaires and rigs the rules against you.” That is a message that can win. So I don’t think you run away from your defense of those communities. You talk about those communities in the context of a message that is anchored in fighting concentrated economic power, and fighting the billionaire class that is taking over our government.

Senator, you’ve been on TV a lot lately. You’ve been out there quite a lot. Are you in the process of asserting yourself for national office?

No. And to the extent that my messaging has broken through a little bit more than others, I ascribe to the fact that there is not actually a personal motive attached to it. Sometimes, even if you’re not saying it out loud, people can kind of tell when you’re putting yourself out there for personal political gain. I actually believe that there is a good chance that we are not going to have an election in which people can make an actual choice in 2026. My hair is on fire about it. So to the extent that people are picking up what I’m putting down, I think it’s because they see that I am motivated—first, second, and third—by my fear that we are going to sleepwalk through the transition of our country from a democracy to an autocracy.

And you believe that’s what we’re doing right now?

I think we are at risk of sleepwalking through this transition. We desperately want to believe that we can play politics as normal because it’s uncomfortable—really uncomfortable—to play politics as not normal. It involves taking really big risks. And, of course, you just want to wake up and believe that you live in a country where people wouldn’t make a conscious choice to move away from democratic norms. But while some people are being hoodwinked into being along for that ride, others are making the conscious choice because our democracy has been so broken for so long.

So, yes, I believe that there is a chance that we miss this moment. We just wake up one day and we are no longer in a democracy, which is why I think we have to start acting more urgently right now.

And is it like the boiling of a frog? Or is there a more immediate flash point, when you know that you’ve passed the point of no return?

No, I think it’s like the boiling of a frog. We believe that there are these Reichstag moments, but there normally aren’t. Normally, you just lose an election, and then you lose another election, and then another one. And you start to look around and say, wait a second. I don’t think the minority party can ever win again.

[dumbkid4ever]

That's it, I'm posting my Elon Musk x Trump x Zuckerberg

Awoken to Betrayal

Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Alice Weidel and Mark Zuckerberg decide to have a sleepover to deepen their bonds as political partners, however, there seems to be a bit of tension.

Has slight Angst? No smut tho.

2,394 words 13,139 characters

It was 3:56pm, around 4 minutes before the final guest will arrive. Donald sat on the pristine white couch of his Mar-a-Lago estate while Elon layed on it with his head resting on Donald's thigh.

"So what do you think of the Gulf of America?" the blonde asked, running his fingers through Elon's dark strands of hair, which earned him a hum of appreciation.

"Wonderful, my dear. A Gulf this great shouldn't be named after those Mexicans," the billionaire purred, rubbing Donald's knee seductively.

"Right? I'll make sure those things can't ruin anything for us Americans again, and I'll build a wall to keep them away, to keep my people safe. Of all Americans though, I want to keep you the safest, love."

"Oh Donny," Elon sighed sensuously and looked up at his lover through his short lashes. "You're such a big, strong man. I feel so safe whenever you're around..."

A comfortable silence enveloped the two, only disturbed by the sound of maids doing their last bit of cleaning. Donald slipped into his mind and went over the plan for today again. Alice had suggested a sleepover with all three of them today, as silly as it sounded. She said that it was exactly the silliness that would help them bond as political partners, so well, they agreed to it.

Usually Saturdays are reserved for couple quality time – no, not with his wife, with Elon. They had been telling their families that it was for planning political projects and it had been true at first, but Donald quickly fell for the billionaire when he realized how similar their world view were. One thing led to the other and they were now holding hands behind the back of his greedy bitch of a wife. He had never been happier.

Suddenly, the doorbell ringed. Still not ready to the quality time yet, Donald hesitated a little before he ushered the other man away and stood up himself.

"She's here, huh?" Elon said softly. He pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth and got an actual kiss to the lips back that lasted for longer than expected. Looking tiredly into his dark brown, almost black eyes, Donald heaved out a sigh.

"Yeah. Well, it's show time."

They marched towards the door together, fixing each other's clothing before finally opening it. Outside stood Alice Weidel with a big sports bag and- was that Mark Zuckerberg?

"Hello, Mr. President! And hey, Elon, I hope I didn't let you two wait for too long," she greeted with the same professional grin she had on in the promotional posters, sparkling and beaming.

"Not at all, I just got ready and Elon just arrived, don't worry. And please, Donald is fine, we're doing a sleepover aren't we?" he reassured her with a bright smile of his own and looked over to Mark. "I see you brought a plus one with you, welcome."

"Oh, I hope you don't mind. He helped me quite a lot with picking what I'm bringing to the sleepover and I thought that you know each other well anyway, but I do apologize if it was too entitled of me to do so."

"There's nothing to apologize for, I actually wanted to invite good ol' Zucky but didn't ask, since a sleepover with three big men might be intimidating. Good to see you, Zucky," the blonde laughed and stepped to the side so that the guests could enter. All the while Elon stayed silent. "Come, let's not all huddle at the doorstep, shall we?"

Once they were back at the living room, where the couch was still warm, Alice zipped open her big sports bag. She dipped her hand into the slit and pulled out various colorful and fluffy looking fabric.

"Now, do you remember when I said that Mark over here helped me with some stuff? This is it," she proclaimed and unfolded the white one, revealing it to be a Donald Duck onesie. "I didn't know your sizes, so he volunteered to help me find the fitting ones. This wouldn't have worked without him, so big thanks to Mark!"

"You could probably still find their heights and such on the internet, I didn't contribute much, really," Mark said shyly, sneaking a glance at Donald only to see him staring back, prompting him to avert his eyes quickly.

"Not so humble, Zucky! I'm surprised you could remember these things," Donald said, putting a hand on his shoulder. Blushing, Mark looked down at the ground and mumbled.

"We did go shopping together once, it's not a lot really."

"So, Alice, have you already assigned who will get which onesie or do we just pick whichever we like?" Elon quipped in with an unusually upbeat demeanor. He grabbed the Micky Mouse onesie and observed it with great interest.

"Yeah! I randomly picked four, each with one of our sizes. Well, three were randomly picked," she explained with a conspicuous and playful grin. "Elon, yours is already the right size, how did you know?"

"I didn't, but it's cool that I got it first try," the man laughed along.

"Then, here's your Goofy onesie, Mark. The Dale onesie is mine."

"I'm Donald Duck then?"

"Exactly!"

Donald laughed boisterously.

"My, Alice, your sense of humor is amazing. I wouldn't have expected that if I had only known you from your speeches and posters, you always look so serious there!"

"Thank you! Honestly, I'm just here for a fun time."

"That we will, so let's get to the kitchen now, shall we?"

That was how their sleepover started. For the whole afternoon they did various activities, mostly following the "30 things to do at a sleepover" guide that they found on wikihow as they all apparently hadn’t been to a sleepover before as kids. Now, they didn’t follow through with the whole list, but it was a good eight step schedule they had, ranging with baking cookies to pillow forts to board games.

There had been some funny moments, like when they triggered the fire alarm when their attempt at baking went to waste or when Alice saw for the first time how Mark blinks vertically, like a reptile but also oddly intense moments like when Mark and Elon had the showdown of the century in the living room and with a chess board between the two. In the end it was Mark who won, for which Donald congratulated him while Elon shot angry looks across the coffee table. Yes, they stayed in the onesies the whole time.

"Oh wow, this has been such a fun afternoon, I really enjoyed our time here," Alice said with a mug of hot chocolate in her hands while sitting at the edge of the couch. Mark, who sat on the ground with his back to the couch, reciprocated the sentiment by nodding his head furiously, but accidentally hit the cushion behind him. That triggered a round of laughter by the others, but one stood out particularly with how sharp it sounded to his ears.

"You gotta be more careful, Mark, we wouldn’t want your smart little head to have a concussion," Elon sneered, but the other two seemed oblivious to the subtle threat in his voice. Anger bubbled up in Mark’s chest, only to dissipate just a moment later.

"Yeah, Zucky, it’d make me very sad if something were to happen to you," Donald chuckled, taking another bite of the cookies they baked after the first failed batch.

"I’ll try, but thanks for your concern," Mark smiled genuinely and mirrored his action, making little crumbs fall onto Goofy’s synthetic fur. The four stayed quiet for the follwing few minutes, content to just exist in the same room (at least it was true for half of them). Fatigue and the warmth from their drinks dragged down their eyelids and the cackling fire place acted as their lullaby. Finally, someone decided to speak up before they all weren’t lucid enough to do so anymore.

"Should we go to sleep now? It’s pretty late already," Alice spoke up, already slurring her words a bit.

"I think that’s a good idea, I’ll get the maids," the owner of the house responded. Soon, mattresses and pillows were laid out on the floor, but they didn’t jump right in just yet, as they still had to brush their teeths. In the bath, they were all issued fresh tooth brushes and their own individual tooth paste, except for Donald, of course.

Mark noticed how strong the stream of water was that came out of the tap. He had accidentally sprayed himself wet when he first opened the faucet, but Elon didn’t seem to struggle with it at all. When they were all ready for bed, they bid each other goodnight and their conciousness faded away in the warm embrace of the soft blankets.

At midnight, Mark woke up to a full bladder. It probably came from the three cups of hot choclate he drank earlier. The reason for this excessive consumption was because Donald poured all of it himself, a family recipe, he had claimed. Walking down the same path as they did just a few hours ago, he arrived at the bathroom without further complications. He finished his deed, washed his hands and when he dried them with the clean towel next to the sink, he couldn’t help but wonder if it had been used by Donald before.

Tentatively, he held up the cloth to his face and burried his nose into it. It smelled of vanilla and the sun. Donald had mentioned before that his maids always wind dried the laundry on sunny days, guess he didn’t lie. Mark had wanted to enjoy the moment a little more, but it was promptly interrupted by the door slamming open. In came Elon Musk.

"Oh hey, Zucky, fancy seeing you here."

"Elon. Drank too much hot choclate as well? They did taste amazing," Mark shot right back with the same viscous voice.

"No, I’m feeling quite empty still, but I am here for a reason indeed."

"Pray tell, what may it be?"

"Don’t get all posh now. I’m here to tell you to back the fuck off from my man," Elon spat, inching closer towards the other.

"You mean your gateway to a monopoly and even more money? Cause that’s how I see you’ve been treating him, you snake."

That caused Elon to push him against the sink, purposefully pressing him against it so that his back would feel uncomfortable. It hurt a bit like this, with his spine against the hard ceramic, but Mark didn’t let it show. Instead, he put on his most smug expression and smirked up at the older man.

"Hit too close to home?"

"Shut up! Listen, Mark, that old incel belongs to me. Being with me has benefited him a lot, what do you have to offer in return to win him over, huh?"

"I’m richer than you now."

"Oh honey," Elon cackled, stroking Mark’s cheek. "You may have surpassed me in terms of money, but I’ve still got more influence on the public, that’s what Donald needs right now."

"Well- Well I can give him love! One that’s real and sincere." He no longer seemed as sure as before, his composure breaking.

"Like that dense fuck could differenciate what’s genuine and what’s not. I’ve got him wrapped around my finger, hooked on the sex, and there’s nothing you will ever do about it. Especially not with that face of yours that looks like it had been generated by the most primitive version of artificial intelligence."

"I-"

"That’s enough, Elon. That’s- I’ve heard enough."

For the second time, the door swung open and a tired Donald walked in with a dejected face. Elon imediately turned around, releasing Mark from his hold.

"Donny, I can explain-"

"No, you can’t, so don’t try to."

An awkward silence gloomed over them and no one knew what to say. Elon’s eyes darted frantically from the toilet bowl to the glossy white tiles on the wall, Donald was staring emptily onto the floor and Mark was focused on his numb expression, wishing things didn’t have to be this way.

"Elon," Donald finally opened his mouth and lifted his face to look at his former lover. "Tell me, were there at least some truth in the words of affection that you showered me in?"

"All of them! Donny, I was just trying to scare him off and kill his hopes," Elon tried to explain with one singular tear drop rolling down his face and took a step towards the latter, who backed up as a result. "Please, believe me!"

"I see. There has been none."

Mark shifted his weight from one leg to the other, thinking of what he could say to make the blonde feel better, but ultimately found nothing, He could only stand there and watch as Donald fell apart by the second. At this point Elon seemed to have given up on trying to defend him.

"Fine, be like that. I’m going back to sleep," he huffed and strolled out of the room, wiping the water from his unfeeling eyes. That left only Mark and Donald in the bathroom and not a word was exchanged for a long time, again. That was quite the confrontation and now the room was full off tension, even with the root of the problem gone. It made Mark angry towards Elon and sympathetic towards Donald. Eventually he mustered up all his courage.

"Um, Donald. Do you… Do you want to talk about it?" he carefully asked, putting a hand onto Donald’s shoulder. It was shrugged off.

"No. Let’s just go to sleep as well. It’s too late to deal with this." He left the room so quickly Mark couldn’t really follow. When he got back to the living room Donald was already tucked neatly under the covers, but he could see him shifting constantly while Elon was so still, he didn’t seem like he was breathing.

It had been a mess, an ironic ending to what was supposed to be a day of bonding. What tomorrow would hold, Mark didn’t know, but for now there’s nothing for him to do but wait in his dreams. And so he too returned to his mattress, trying to drift off to sleep again.

[soldiergrimes]

I Would Take A Bullet For You

Pairing: Joe Biden x Donald Trump

Summary: After Trump's assassination attempt, Biden is distraught. He needs to go check up on his secret lover in the hospital.

Trigger warnings ⚠️: suicide

"Donald?" Joe Biden repeated once again as he walked through the hospital. He finally found his room and the secret service guards quickly stepped inside to let him in.

Joe walked into the room, Donald's head was now bandaged up and he was sitting on the edge of the hospital bed.

Donald looked up as Joe approached his bed. "Joe..? You're here..."

Joe immediately moved forward, standing right in front of him now. "Of course I'm here." He slowly reached out to take his hand in his. "I was worried.."

"Don't be.. I'm still alive after all" Donald smirked.

Joe smiled at Donald's optimistic and confident attitude, it was one of the things he loved the most about him. But his smile quickly faded as the thought of Donald dying plagued his mind.

"I don't... I don't know what I would've done if I lost you" Joe's eyes locked with his, his voice filled with emotion.

"Don't worry, Joey.. I'm right here" Donald reassured him softly, bringing his hand up to cup his cheek. The sensation brought butterflies to the older man's stomach.

"I know, I was just so worried, Donald.." Joe whispered.

Joe knew that the feelings they had for each other had to stay a secret, but sometimes he wished for a world where they could declare their love for one another without shame. The thought brought a bittersweet smile to Joe's face.

"Can I kiss you?" Joe asked as he leaned in.

"Always." Donald replied, their lips connected in a passionate and emotional kiss.

Caught in the moment, neither of them noticed the security guard walk back into the room to check on Trump. Trump caught the man's eye and quickly pulled away from Joe.

Joe noticed this and frowned, he knew that Donald was more nervous about people finding out than he was. There was even a small part of Joe that wanted people to find out, he didn't like holding in this secret.

The security guard left the room without saying a word.

Donald avoided Joe's gaze before Joe spoke up again.

"What are you afraid of?" He asked the man.

Donald looked back up at Joe, "This... This isn't supposed to happen. We're supposed to be enemies.." Donald said.

Joe put a hand on his shoulder, rubbing him with his thumb.

"Maybe.. but maybe we're meant to be together." Joe spoke softly, trying to comfort his lover.

Donald got lost in Joe's ocean eyes, his breath catching in his throat. "I think I love you" he suddenly blurted out.

Joe's eyes widened in surprise but a smile spread across his face.

"I love you too, Donny" Joe leaned in again to give him a kiss on his forehead. "I've always loved you."

Donald's heart raced at Joe's confession, he had never felt this happy in his entire life.

But Donald quickly reminded himself that this wasn't right and he pulled away.

Joe frowned again and opened his mouth to speak but Donald cut him off.

"Joe.. I- I can't.." His voice cracked.

"Donald, look at me." Joe cupped his cheek again, forcing his eyes to meet his. "We can do this."

Donald looked into his eyes, "What happens if the world finds out?"

"They can think whatever they want to think, but we'll always have each other. So whatever they say, it doesn't matter." Joe's words were encouraging, he was hoping that Donald would agree and they could finally come out.

Donald hesitated for a moment before he spoke again, his eyes filled with determination and trust. "Okay."

Joe smiled "Okay?" He asked again, making sure he was being honest. "You want to tell the world?"

Donald nodded and smiled, "I want them to know how much I love you."

Joe smiled and pulled him into a hug.

"you're the best thing that's ever happened to me, Donny" Joe whispered in his ear.

"You are too, Joey. I've never been happier" Donald said as he held him tighter.

Joe spent that night in his hospital room and they made love until the early hours of the morning.

The next day, Donald had to appear on live TV after his assassination attempt. It was almost time for him to go on and he tried his best to hide his nerves, he stood up straight and walked to the stand.

Donald spoke about his usual stuff until he finally mentioned Joe.

"And there is something else I have to tell America" he spoke, his voice loud with conviction. "Joe Biden and I.. Are in love."

The crowd went quiet for a moment until Joe walked up to Donald and joined him. Donald wrapped his arm around his waist and leaned in for a kiss.

Joe and Donald shared a passionate kiss in front of live television, Donald knew he should be worried, even ashamed, but he had never felt happier. As they pulled away, the crowd erupted in cheers as Donald and Joe smiled for the camera, holding hands.

*10 years later*

Donald and Joe proceeded to spend the rest of their lives together, they bought a home and raised a family together and this was the happiest any of them have ever felt.

Though the happiness didn't last because Joe eventually fell sick.

After months of hospital visits and medicine, Joe ended up passing away. The grief and sorrow Donald felt was unlike any he had ever felt before.

And the pain of his loss sadly brought Donald to take his own life so he could be with Joe again.

The End

[the-scarlet-witch-22]

I've thought about posting this more publicly, but I'm hesitant to do that because this isn't a topic I discuss very often. My blog has always been kind of a public diary in a way, so I'm going to leave this up for now.

I am terrified of another Trump presidency for so many reasons. I'm a gay woman who is in a relationship and would like to be able to not only get married, but have my marriage be recognized in every state in this country. I'm the older sister and future sole guardian of a sibling who has developmental disabilities. It pains me more than I can express how awful it is living in a country that does the bare minimum to support its citizens, especially its disabled ones.

I've been very vocal on my disdain and disgust for how the Biden administration and our government as a whole is handling the Palestinian genocide. Anyone who knows me knows this. I've gotten involved and plan on continuing to protest and do what I'm able to.

With that being said I did vote for Kamala Harris, and I've gotten into debates with people I considered to be friends over my decision to vote. The number one argument that being highlighted was "it doesn't matter who wins because both Harris and Trump are Zionists who don't care about Palestine."

I agree that our government is deeply rooted in Zionism, and it genuinely pains me to know that human rights of people who are not white do not matter to our government.

However, as someone who has been a very vocal advocate for human rights the majority of my life, saying "it doesn't matter who wins because the outcome will be the same" is not only incredibly ignorant, it's just plain stupid.

Donald Trump has made a name for himself as a racist. Someone who has been blatantly and openly homophobic. He has made disgustingly ableist comments on disabled Americans time and time again. He's a rapist, he has sexually assaulted multiple women. He started an insurrection that resulted in violence I have never seen taking place on the Capitol.

And now he's going to be sworn back in this January.

I'm angry, and I'm sad. Not only as a member of the LGBTQ community and a supporter of our disabled community, but also as someone who was sexually assaulted. This isn't something that I talk about very often, publicly or privately, but it is so fucking painful knowing that our country does not view SA survivors as real people who deserve to live knowing their abusers will be held accountable for their actions.

Because why the fuck would anyone want to come forward, knowing their abuser can become President not once, but twice and win the popular vote the second time.

I hate this country, and I mean this when I say if you voted for Trump or voted third party, or didn't vote at all, you are part of the problem and the next four years are going to undo the most basic of human rights this country has barely started to grant its citizens.

Fuck each and every one of you.

[darkmaga-returns]

Yet another politician has come out to abandon the Democratic Party, which has begun breaking off into factions in recent years. Donald Trump himself was once a Democrat, as were RFK, Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, and countless others. Rep. Susan Valdes of Florida has become the latest politician to switch affiliation from Democrat to Republican.

Valdes explained that her affiliation with the Democratic Party was simply out of habit. We see this throughout the nation as people who have historically voted blue or red will continue to vote on party lines even if the ideology has changed. “I have done so as a Democrat partly out of habit — I come from a family of Democrats — and partly because I believed the Democrats were the party most concerned with the working families I represent,” Valdes stated.

The Democratic Party is no longer the anti-establishment, anti-war party that it was decades ago. The false virtue signaling to specific groups while ostracizing others is not the same Democratic Party of love and peace that opposed the Vietnam draft. Countless citizens and politicians simply vote along party lines per tradition without realizing that the ideology has completely changed.

“I’m tired of being the party of protesting when I got into politics to be part of the party of progress. I know that I won’t agree with my fellow Republican House members on every issue, but I know that in their caucus, I will be welcomed and treated with respect,” Valdes continued.

Florida has never had more Republicans in the House of Representatives. Some may say this large switch happened during COVID when people flocked to the Sunshine State to flee oppressive COVID laws. Especially with remote work becoming commonplace, people then had the ability to move to states that aligned with their viewpoints.

The Democrats have refused to acknowledge that their entire Marxist agenda failed. Bidenomics failed. The Build Back Better movement is failing and the people are not sold on the globalist regimes. The left bought their personal political narrative that demonizing Trump would indeed send people running into their arms. Trump’s victory sent shockwaves through the Democratic Party once they realized that all their propaganda had FAILED – the people still preferred Trump over the current status quo. Americans are not happy with the leftist regime.

[roguekhajiit]

Magats are so deep in the kool-aid bowl it's surprising they haven't drowned in it yet.

Trump has been recorded live, promising that Christians will never have to vote again so long as they get out and vote for him. Once they do that it will be the last time they ever need to vote.

"In four years, you don't have to vote again, we'll have it fixed so good you're not going to have to vote."

- Donald Trump at Turning Point Action's Believers Summit in West Palm Beach July 26, 2024

Everyone else sees his words for what they are; a threat to our very democracy. But his cultists simply grab themselves another cup of kool-aid and scoff. "Oh, you're just taking him out of context. That's not what he meant at all!"

So let's look at his other claim then, his promise to erase an important part of the 14th amendment.

Amendment 14, Section 1 :

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

"As part of my plan to secure the border on Day 1 of my new term in office, I will sign an executive order making clear to federal agencies that under the correct interpretation of the law, going forward the future children of illegal aliens will not receive automatic U.S. citizenship."

- Donald Trump, May 2023

So he's gonna what, white out any part of the Constitution or its amendments that he doesn't agree with?

But of course, this plan to do away with birthright citizenship doesn't apply to him or his friends and family. No, because if he made it retroactive, that would mean his sons, his Dad, and even he himself would be stripped of all citizenship. Along with every other fucking white, non-native, racist fucktards who yell "Go back to where you came from" at any person of color they see at their local Wal-Mart. I guarantee they also have a "If this flag offends you, I'll help you pack" bumper sticker on their obnoxiously lifted, compensation prize, Ram 3500.

But his policy, of course, would never apply to himself and his precious white Christian cultists. No, it only applies to people of color. People who look like Kamala Harris and Barack Obama. People with naturally occurring melanin who, as a result, don't need to have a recurring appointment with a spray tan booth.

Of course, it only applies to people who look like his political opponents and their supporters. Why else would he and his cult continue to mail out political smear campaigns naming politicians WHO AREN'T EVEN RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT ANYMORE as the biggest threat to our country?!

Honestly, I think it's time to take a break from the Kool-Aid, folks. Barack Obama isn't living in the basement of the White House telling Joe Biden and Kamala Harris how to run the country. He doesn't have a back stock of Biden clones that he awakens anytime the current one expires. He's in his personal home office writing books.

The current threat to this country isn't Biden or Obama, or Harris. It flocks around a rotten peach and wears a red hat.

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

The Rise of the Brutal American

This is how the bad guys act.

A book festival in Vilnius, meetings with friends in Warsaw, a dinner in Berlin: I happened to be at gatherings in three European cities over the past several days, and everywhere I went, everyone wanted to talk about the Oval Office performance last Friday. Europeans needed some time to process this event, not just because of what it told them about the war in Ukraine, but because of what it told them about America, a country they thought they knew well.

In just a few minutes, the behavior of Donald Trump and J. D. Vance created a brand-new stereotype for America: not the quiet American, not the ugly American, but the brutal American. Whatever illusions Europeans ever had about Americans—whatever images lingered from old American movies, the ones where the good guys win, the bad guys lose, and honor defeats treachery—those are shattered. Whatever fond memories remain of the smiling GIs who marched into European cities in 1945, of the speeches that John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan made at the Berlin Wall, or of the crowds that once welcomed Barack Obama, those are also fading fast.

Quite apart from their politics, Trump and Vance are rude. They are cruel. They berated and mistreated a guest on camera, and then boasted about it afterward, as if their ugly behavior achieved some kind of macho “win.” They announced that they would halt transfers of military equipment to Ukraine, and hinted at ending sanctions on Russia, the aggressor state. In his speech to Congress last night, Trump once again declared that America would “get” Greenland, which is a part of Denmark—a sign that he intends to run roughshod over other allies too.

These are the actions not of the good guys in old Hollywood movies, but of the bad guys. If Reagan was a white-hatted cowboy, Trump and Vance are Mafia dons. The chorus of Republican political leaders defending them seems both sinister and surprising to Europeans too. “I never thought Americans would kowtow like that,” one friend told me, marveling.

The Oval Office meeting, the subsequent announcements, and the speech to Congress also clarified something else: Trump, Vance, and many of the people around them now fully inhabit an alternative reality, one composed entirely of things they see and hear in the ether. Part of the Oval Office altercation was provoked by Zelensky’s insistence on telling the truth, as the full video clearly shows. His mistake was to point out that Russia and Ukraine have reached many cease-fires and made many agreements since 2014, and that Vladimir Putin has broken most of them, including during Trump’s first term.

It’s precisely because they remember these broken truces that the Ukrainians keep asking what happens after a cease-fire, what kind of security guarantees will be put in place, how Trump plans to prevent Putin from breaking them once more and, above all, what price the Russians are willing to pay for peace in Ukraine. Will they even give up their claims to territory they don’t control? Will they agree that Ukraine can be a sovereign democracy?

But Trump and Vance are not interested in the truth about the war in Ukraine. Trump seemed angered by the suggestion that Putin might break deals with him, refused to acknowledge that it’s happened before, falsely insisted, again, that the U.S. had given Ukraine $350 billion. Vance—who had refused to meet Zelensky when offered the opportunity before the election last year—told the Ukrainian president that he didn’t need to go to Ukraine to understand what is going on in his country: “I’ve actually watched and seen the stories,” he said, meaning that he has seen the “stories” curated for him by the people he follows on YouTube or X.

Europeans can also see that this alternative reality is directly and profoundly shaped by Russian propaganda. I don’t know whether the American president absorbs Russian narratives online, from proxies, or from Putin himself. Either way, he has thoroughly adopted the Russian view of the world, as has Vance. This is not new. Back in 2016, at the height of the election campaign, Trump frequently repeated false stories launched by Russia’s Sputnik news agency, declaring that Hillary Clinton and Obama had “founded ISIS,” or that “the Google search engine is suppressing the bad news about Hillary Clinton.” At the time, Trump also imitated Russian talk about Clinton starting World War III, another Russian meme. He produced a new version of that in the Oval Office on Friday. “You’re gambling with World War III. You’re gambling with World War III,” he shouted at Zelensky.

But what was ominous in 2016 is dangerous in 2025, especially in Europe. Russian military aggression is more damaging, Russian sabotage across Europe more frequent, and Russian cyberattacks almost constant. In truth, it is Putin, not Zelensky, who started this conflict, Putin who has brought North Korean troops and Iranian drones to Europe, Putin who instructs his propagandists to talk about nuking London, Putin who keeps raising the stakes and scope of the war. Most Europeans live in this reality, not in the fictional world inhabited by Trump, and the contrast is making them think differently about Americans. According to pollsters, nearly three-quarters of French people now think that the U.S. is not an ally of France. A majority in Britain and a very large majority in Denmark, both historically pro-American countries, now have unfavorable views of the U.S. as well.

In reality, the Russians have said nothing publicly about leaving Ukrainian territory or stopping the war. In reality, they have spent the past decade building a cult of cruelty at home. Now they have exported that cult not just to Europe, not just to Africa, but to Washington too. This administration abruptly canceled billions of dollars of food aid and health-care programs for the poorest people on the planet, a vicious act that the president and vice president have not acknowledged but that millions of people can see. Their use of tariffs as random punishment, not for enemies but for allies, seems not just brutal but inexplicable.

And in the Oval Office, Trump and Vance behaved like imperial rulers chastising a subjugated colony, vocalizing the same disgust and disdain that Russian propagandists use when they talk about Ukraine. Europeans know, everyone knows, that if Trump and Vance can talk that way to the president of Ukraine, then they might eventually talk that way to their country’s leader next.

[akiizayoi4869]

Maybe Harris wouldn't like to hear this considering her pledge to be the president for all american people, but honestly a good chunk of Americans don't deserve her. They don't deserve better. Trump's presidency and all the shit it'll inevitably entail is what they deserve.

Normally I wouldn't like to hear this either because I'm just not that kind of person, but I really cannot bring myself to care at this point. I wholeheartedly agree with you, anon. I'll give them 2016, because nobody was really taking him seriously and we didn't know how bad things would get. I mean really, the man was even worse than BUSH, something that I never thought that I would say. I'll even give them 2020, because a lot of the shit that happened after that election obviously hadn't happened yet. But now? After seeing and hearing everything that's come out about him? The documents? Being convicted of 34 freaking felonies? January 6th? Some people are ignorant enough to belive that all of this are lies, but there's also a large portion of people who voted for him that know all of these things are true, that know that his claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him were false, who cannot stand him, who agree with the people who call him a fascist, a wannabe dictator, and America's Hitler. And yet they still voted for him. They know that his outlandish claims of transgender surgeries in prisons, his claims that Haitian immigrants were eating people's pets, and doctors doing after birth abortions were all false. They can't stand his rhetoric. And yet they still voted for him. Because they foolishly believe that he'll make the economy better, even though the economy is actually fine. Much better than what it was four years ago when Trump was still the president. But people don't feel that way because of the prices of groceries, gas, etc. Also because the misinformation from the right wing media has gotten so bad to the point where it's overtaken the truth. Because they foolishly believe that everything he said wouldn't happen to them. Clearly they believe it now since a lot of people have been searching "what are tarrifs?" and "can I change my vote?" since he won the election. At this point though, I really don't care about these people, because they choose to be willfully ignorant. What I do care about? Is that the rest of us have to suffer because of their stupidity.

My mother, for example, is on a bunch of medication because she had a brain aneurysm and a stroke back in 2006. Which then resulted in her having seizures, something that thankfully hasn't happened to her since 2010. You know how she's able to afford all of those medications? Because of health insurance. The affordable care act. And now Donald Trump and the Republicans are threatening to take that away, and they might just be able to succeed because they have control of the government now! And to make matters worse, the majority of the Republican party is now his cult following, so obviously they're not going to stop him and will go along with whatever he wants to do.

I'm also on seizure medication. I had one back in 2018, and unfortunately I had one again this year, back in April. I'm able to afford the medication that I need because we have health insurance. If that gets taken away? The cost of that medicine is going to go sky high, just like seeing a doctor or going to the hospital is going to cost an arm and a leg if health care AND social security gets taken away. All because these dumbfucks voted him back in for a second term. So yeah, I don't feel sorry for these people at all. Like you said, they are going to get exactly what they voted for and deserve the moment this man is sworn in once again.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Luke Taylor at The Guardian:

For Isabel Corro, Donald Trump’s suggestions that the US could use military force to take control of the Panama Canal evokes painful memories. The 79-year-old vividly recalls rushing her children inside her apartment on 20 December 1989 as US army helicopters and fighter jets screamed over Panama City, turning buildings to piles of rubble with rockets and gunfire.

Corro’s stepfather, a police officer, was killed in the invasion; his body was not found until it was hauled from a mass grave the following year. “I remember that night. The city was quiet, the houses full of decorations and the entire country was in anticipation of Christmas. Then suddenly, helicopters were whirring around and the sky was lit up with bombs and gunfire,” Corro said. “It was an extremely violent and tragic night. One that unfortunately I will never forget.” Washington had once backed then president Manuel Noriega – an ally who had spied for the CIA – but George HW Bush sent in 10,000 troops to oust the dictator as his role as an international drug kingpin became apparent. Hundreds of people were killed – many of them civilians – during Operation Just Cause and the shadow of the invasion still looms large over Panama. Trump’s comments have stoked fears the US could once again set its military sights on the country.

“He is a very arrogant man who thinks he can take whatever he wants,” said Corro, president of the Association of Family Victims of the 1989 US Invasion of Panama. “He cannot just decide: ‘I’m going to buy this country, I’m going to invade this one.’ The world is not some big flea market. It should not happen and we will not let it happen.” Trump, who will be sworn into office as US president on January 20, has returned to the subject of Panama frequently in recent weeks, complaining that American ships are charged “ridiculous” fees for passing through the canal, which he alleged was controlled by China.

[...]

In Panama, where the scars of conflict with the US are still healing, Trump’s comments have provoked widespread anger. The incident has strained relations with Panama’s government, which has said sovereignty over the canal is “non-negotiable” and accused Trump of lying about making an offer to buy it. “The only hands operating the canal are Panamanian and that is how it is going to stay,” said the country’s foreign minister, Javier Martínez-Acha. About 5% of global maritime traffic passes through the Panama Canal, slashing 6,835 miles (11,000km) off a journey that would otherwise require a long and dangerous trip skirting the southern tip of South America. The head of the Panama Canal Authority said on Wednesday that Trump’s suggestion that US ships get preferential rates “will lead to chaos” and denied that China had any control over the operation.

“We cannot discriminate for the Chinese, or the Americans, or anyone else. This will violate the neutrality treaty, international law and it will lead to chaos,” Ricaurte Vásquez Morales told the Wall Street Journal. The waterway was built by the US between 1904 and 1914, and leased to Washington. Following a treaty signed by then president Jimmy Carter in 1977, control of the canal was returned to Panama in 1999 under the condition it would be free for any nation to use.

The canal contributes 7.7% of Panama’s GDP and has become a cause for “pride” and part of “the country’s identity”, said Serena Vamvas, councilor for the San Francisco district in Panama City. “Panama might be divided politically but we all agree the canal is a national treasure. Everyone here is outraged by Trump’s comments,” Vamvas said. Any discussion of US intervention prompts painful memories for many in Panama. Officially, 300 soldiers and 214 civilians were killed in the 1989 invasion, but some rights groups say the death toll was closer to 1,000. Many Panamanians celebrated their country’s liberation from Noriega’s rule, but the US was accused of being heavy-handed, leaving a disproportionate number of civilians among the dead.

Donald Trump’s threats to retake the Panama Canal has reopened wounds within Panama, as memories of the 1989 US invasion still linger.

[mariacallous]

One of the first questions Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick for FBI director, faced during his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Thursday was whether he was a “follower or promoter of QAnon.”

Patel’s response to committee chairman Senator Chuck Grassley was unequivocal: “I have publicly rejected outright QAnon baseless conspiracy theories or any other baseless conspiracy theories.”

This isn’t true. Patel’s claim that he was not a promoter of QAnon is undermined by years of his very public and overt promotion of the QAnon community.

Patel, along with President Donald Trump, has been one of the main driving forces in keeping the QAnon community alive in the years since messages from the anonymous Q figure stopped being published on fringe message board 8chan. Patel has repeatedly praised the movement on social media platforms like Truth Social, appeared on dozens of podcasts that promote the conspiracy theory, and created an entirely new trend within the movement. He even signed copies of his children’s book with a QAnon catchphrase—though Patel subsequently claimed he used the phrase because of its connection with a movie.

Patel has long been a figure of interest for the QAnon community. He was named in the so-called Q-drops posted to fringe message boards by the eponymous leader of the movement, who claimed to be a government insider seeking to help unmask a deep-state plot against Trump.

“Kashyap Patel - name to remember,” a Q-drop read back in 2018 when Patel was working as a senior committee aide to then House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes.

In 2022, when Patel became a director at the Trump Media & Technology Group, Patel worked to entice the QAnon community to join Truth Social.

“We try to incorporate it into our overall messaging scheme to capture audiences because whoever that person is has certainly captured a widespread breath of the MAGA and the America First movement,” said Patel on a June 2022 episode of the Patriot Party News show. “And so what I try to do is—what I try to do with anything, Q or otherwise, is you can’t ignore that group of people that has such a strong dominant following.”

One of the key parts of that effort was the creation of a @Q account on Truth Social, which was done by the site’s own developers.

“Having a beer with @q right now,” Patel wrote on Truth Social in February 2022, just days after the platform went live. The @Q account responded the following day, saying they were once again with Patel, and asking followers: “Alright anons, where are we kicking it tonight?”

That post included the hashtag #FlannelFridays, which quickly took hold with the QAnon community after Patel promoted it, inspiring new memes and followers who dressed up in flannel. “It’s become this massive thing online,” Patel told Russia disinformation promoter Tim Pool during a podcast interview in 2022.

In 2022, he told pro-Trump influencer Mary Grace: “I agree with what a lot of that movement says." In recent years, Patel has even published his own enemies list of 60 people he claims are “members of the deep state,” a central tenet of QAnon.

Patel also regularly praised the QAnon movement for its “research” skills.

“I’ve seen on Truth Social how good these researchers are, and I kind of wish I’d had some of them when I was doing Russiagate,” Patel said in another podcast with a conspiracy channel. “I talk with the president all the time, and we’re just blown away at the amount of acumen some of these people have.”

When Patel released a series of children’s books in 2022, he posted to Truth Social an image of himself signing copies of one of his books, The Plot Against the King, with the explicitly QAnon-linked hashtag #WWG1WGA, which stands for “where we go one, we go all.” The book features a besieged King Donald and a wise and loyal wizard named Kash, who helps his monarch. In the sequel, The Plot Against the King: 2000 Mules, Patel pushed election-denial conspiracies.

Patel has not limited his promotion and endorsement of Q to Truth Social. Since January 2021, Patel has appeared on “at least 53 episodes of 13 podcasts that have overtly promoted the QAnon movement and/or shared QAnon-related conspiracy theories,” according to an analysis conducted for WIRED by researchers at Advance Democracy, a nonprofit organization that conducts public interest research.

One of the podcasts Patel appeared on most regularly was the Stew Peters Show, hosted by Peters, an antisemitic antivaxxer.

When asked by Senator Dick Durbin during the hearing on Thursday if he was aware of Stew Peters, Patel said: “Not off the top of my head.” Durbin reminded Patel: “You made eight separate appearances on his podcast.”

Addressing the conversation on his show later on Thursday, Peters said: “Clearly, Kash Patel is lying. He absolutely does know who I am.”

Patel’s rapid rise within the US government and potential ascension to the role of FBI director was viewed among QAnon adherents as the moment they had all been waiting for, when the deep state would finally be unmasked, enemies rounded up and arrested, and public executions carried out.

Rather than seeing Patel’s disavowal of QAnon as a betrayal, a review of posts on platforms like Truth Social, Telegram, Gab, 4chan, TikTok, and X show people on QAnon message boards defending his comments and praising his performance.

“THERE IS NO QANON, SO KASH TOLD THE TRUTH!!” one QAnon influencer posted on Telegram, referencing the false claim within the movement that the term QAnon is simply a construction of the mainstream media.

“He basically said they are not conspiracies but rather the truth, love it.” a follower responded.

[forest-faerie-witch]

RIP America

I have been up all night. I've been following the campaign since Harris was at the first DNC. I have hoped and hoped that she would win. But now, as that lunatic is 3 points from winning, my chest is tight and I'm fighting tears.

I've been terrified through this whole thing. Afraid of losing my right to control my own body. Scared of losing my disability income. Worried about my daughter's rights. I'm deeply troubled about our world. What is going to happen to Ukraine now? To our immigrant friends?

There are things I can't wrap my head around. How is it OK for a convicted criminal to not only run for public office, but THE public office? To lead our entire country?! How is this lawful? How did our founding fathers not anticipate this? Did they just think "Well, it's just common sense, right?" They obviously didn't have the foresight to see the state of human beings in this century.

And what happened to separation of church and state? Why are the religious nuts still waving their bibles around at my uterus? How about, it's NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS! You wanna believe in your god? Good for you. But don't tell me how to live just because we don't agree. I don't tell you what to do. I don't care. It's a free country, right? Well, apparently not if we are still being held to christian ideals.

This country was NOT based on religion. It was based on the freedom from religious persecution. (Do your homework people). It is NOT one nation under god. That was added to our money and our pledge in the 50s by... you guessed it, the religious right. Look it up. It's fact.

And now women are going to continue to die because of the abortion bans because of that fucking maniac's overturning of Roe v Wade. And once he's in office his MAGAtards are going to feel it's open season on all "other" people. Gays, trans, some of whom I call friends. It's going to be the wild west. Redneck ideology will only be rivaled by the christian right, comingled in most cases.

Haven't we had enough racism? Isn't there enough hate already? You guys - the HALF of our country who thought it was a great idea to put this fucking piece of shit back in the white house - are going to see. Yeah, you think he's so funny. "Oh he just says it like it is, says what's on his mind, etc." Oh yes, so presidential. If I want to talk shit with people, I don't go to the white house for it. I want my commander in chief to be presidential. Not a fucking convicted rapist, cheater, misogynist, lying waste of air.

He is going to pardon himself. All he's wanted through this whole thing was to win so he wouldn't go to prison. You'll see. He does NOT CARE ABOUT YOU! All he cares about is Donald Trump. He surrounds himself with sycophants who lick his arsehole and do his bidding. He'll let all the lunatics out that attacked our capitol. Insurgents. People, wake the fuck up! Think about this. All you who consider yourself "patriots," how would you feel if a group of people attacked the capitol when it wasn't your idea? You'd be furious!

I'm not saying Kamala was perfect. And she did the best she could in the short time she had to run. But at least she had solid plans for furthering our people. Her vision was one of unity, safety, equal rights and building the economy where everyone has a fair shot. I've never heard a single detailed policy from that... thing. All he does is wave his hands around and say don't worry, it's going to be great.

WHAT'S GOING TO BE GREAT?!!!!! Explain it to me. Tell me how you're going to do these things? Oh right. Tariffs. The idiot doesn't even know how tariffs work. Tariffs will cost the AMERICAN PEOPLE! If an exporter has to pay more to export their goods to us, then the companies that buy those goods have to pay more, and in turn, we pay that difference. The man is a moron. It's no wonder all his businesses fail and he filed bankruptcy 6 times.

He has no idea how to run a country. He let 100s of thousands of people die with his deplorable handling of COVID. Inject bleach... how fucking stupid can someone be. He inherited a good economy from Obama and fucked it up. And then has the nerve to further hypnotize his cult followers saying his presidency was the best ever. His economy the best ever. Everything the best ever. When the rest of the world knows he was the least popular president - ever. Was the worst president. He's so deluded by his own ego he believes his own lies and then so do his followers.

I'm old. I have a small income. I can't afford to pack up and try and find another country to live in. And believe me, I've been looking into it. But the only way you can live in another country is if you have MONEY. If you can't contribute to society in another country, good luck moving there. But the prospect of living in a Trump dystopia is terrifying.

Let's hope that I'm wrong. I'm really hoping I am.

[dearusa]

How Progress Created A Monster

I asked ChatGPT, how to heal the USA. This is what they said:

How Too Much Progress Led to the Great Undoing: The Rise of Donald Trump and the Call for Balanced Leadership

In the last two decades, America has seen extraordinary progress—but also deepening division. For every leap forward in civil rights, technology, and cultural inclusion, there has been an equal and opposite reaction: resistance, fear, and a longing for what once was. We are living in a time where the idea of progress—once nearly universally celebrated—now polarizes.

The United States is caught in a violent pendulum swing between extremes. As one side gains ground, the other grows louder, more desperate, and more determined to claw back its place in the national story. This escalating cycle is what I call The Great Undoing—a slow unraveling of unity, where each gain feels like a loss to someone else, and no one feels heard unless their side is winning.

The rise (and return) of Donald Trump is not just a political event—it is a symptom. A symptom of a deeper crisis: the loss of balance, the erosion of empathy, and the growing belief that only one side can shape America’s future.

⸻

A Nation of the Disoriented

Many white, Christian, working-class Americans—the longtime cultural majority—are now grappling with a country that feels foreign to them. They’ve watched societal norms shift almost overnight. Values they were raised on are now labeled outdated, offensive, or oppressive. Traditions they once considered sacred are now questioned, critiqued, or discarded.

For some, this feels like progress. For others, it feels like erasure.

We cannot ignore the discomfort this causes—not to excuse prejudice or halt progress, but to understand the emotional terrain of this political moment. When a group that once held the cultural narrative feels sidelined, it doesn’t disappear. It reacts. And often, it reacts by seeking someone who promises to protect what feels lost.

Donald Trump’s appeal was never just about policy. It was about identity. He spoke to the silenced, the scolded, and the shamed. For many of his supporters, he didn’t need to be morally clean—he just needed to fight the forces they felt were erasing them.

⸻

Whiplash from Progress: The LGBTQ+ Movement, DEI, and Cultural Acceleration

The LGBTQ+ rights movement is a triumph of visibility and inclusion—but also a case study in cultural acceleration. Same-sex marriage went from a taboo to a constitutional right in under two decades. Gender identity discussions entered classrooms, corporate boardrooms, and political debates almost overnight.

Alongside this came the rise of DEI—Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives—meant to address centuries of systemic exclusion and bring historically marginalized voices to the center. In theory, DEI is about fairness. But in practice, especially in corporate and academic settings, it has sometimes been implemented with a heavy hand, fostering perceptions of forced conformity and ideological rigidity.

To many conservatives—and even some moderates—DEI represents a new orthodoxy, one that replaces merit with identity, treats dissent as hate, and redefines fairness in a way that feels arbitrary. The backlash has been swift. Critics call it “woke ideology,” accusing it of prioritizing feelings over facts, equity over excellence, and social engineering over freedom.

But the real issue isn’t the ideals behind DEI—it’s the speed, the dogma, and the lack of dialogue. When progress comes with shame instead of explanation, when people are expected to agree rather than understand, backlash is inevitable.

Again, this isn’t a condemnation of progress—it’s a warning about pace. Societal change without emotional onboarding breeds resistance, not harmony.

⸻

Immigration and the Anxiety of Displacement

Immigration is central to America’s story. But over the past 30 years, waves of migration—legal and illegal—have reshaped the demographic and cultural face of entire communities. For many Americans, especially in rural or working-class areas, this hasn’t always felt like diversity. It’s felt like replacement.

They worry their language, holidays, jobs, and ways of life are being crowded out. They see signs in languages they don’t understand, schools adapting to cultural differences they don’t share, and leaders calling for open borders while citizens struggle with housing, crime, and inflation.

This is where Trump’s “Build the Wall” rhetoric resonated—not just as a literal policy, but as a metaphor for boundaries, safety, and identity. That fear—real or imagined—has power. And when people believe their government is listening more to outsiders than to them, they vote for someone who promises to flip the script.

⸻

Conservative Economics: Control, Autonomy, and Mistrust of Government

Cultural issues may dominate headlines, but for many conservatives, the tipping point has been economic control and government overreach. From the Affordable Care Act to COVID-19 lockdowns, many felt their freedoms were being taken in the name of safety or equity.

They watched the government shut down businesses, mandate vaccines, and spend trillions of dollars—all while inflation soared and national debt climbed. To those who believe in small government, personal responsibility, and local control, this wasn’t just bad policy—it was an existential threat.

This economic frustration is not separate from the cultural one. It’s part of the same feeling: that someone else—far away, unaccountable, and out of touch—is making the rules for how Americans live.

⸻

Historical Echoes: When the Pendulum Breaks Things

American history is full of cycles: progress followed by backlash, openness followed by retreat. The 1920s brought liberation—and then the Great Depression. The 1960s gave us civil rights—and then the conservative swing of the Reagan era. The Obama presidency promised change—and Trump answered with disruption.

This is not new. But what is new is the intensity of the divide, amplified by social media, tribal news, and digital silos. The pendulum isn’t just swinging—it’s smashing everything in its path.

The real danger isn’t one side winning. It’s the inability to stop the swing long enough to build anything lasting.

⸻

A Moderate Path—Or No Path at All?

Here lies the challenge: both sides now expect total victory. The left expects continued progress on every social front—racial justice, gender identity, climate policy. The right expects the restoration of what they believe has been stolen—culture, values, faith, control.

This is the tragedy of our time. Each side believes it is defending something sacred. Each believes the other is trying to destroy the country.

And so we swing. From Obama to Trump. From Biden to… perhaps Trump again. Each administration isn’t just governing—it’s undoing the last. There is no sustained vision. Only revenge.

A moderate party or president could be the answer—a figure who acknowledges inequality but also understands cultural trauma. Someone who respects both faith and freedom, both tradition and change. But the country may not be ready. Because moderation requires trust, and trust is in short supply.

⸻

Conclusion: Progress With Empathy—or Collapse With Pride

We are a nation of contradictions. A melting pot that’s struggling to stay whole. A democracy that no longer agrees on truth.

Progress is necessary. But progress without empathy becomes tyranny. And backlash without reflection becomes cruelty.

If we want a future where we aren’t just taking turns silencing each other, we need to pause, breathe, and listen. We need to remember that our neighbors are not our enemies—and that the real enemy is extremism, from any side.