#Republicans work to hurt average Americans

[scottguy]

The American people are NOT crying out for overpriced insulin. Republicans are just sucking up to their big pharma donors.

Republicans think that enough of their voters are brainwashed enough to still believe that right-wing politicians give a single damn about average Americans.

Prove them wrong and vote blue.

A party should EARN your vote by passing laws that help you, not that HURT you!

GQP - Wrong side of every issue

[chamerionwrites]

President Biden issued an executive order on Tuesday that prevents migrants from seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border when crossings surge, a dramatic election-year move to ease pressure on the immigration system and address a major concern among voters.

The measure is the most restrictive border policy instituted by Mr. Biden, or any other modern Democrat, and echoes an effort in 2018 by President Donald J. Trump to cut off migration that was blocked in federal court.

In remarks at the White House, Mr. Biden said he was forced to take executive action because Republicans had blocked bipartisan legislation that had some of the most significant border security restrictions Congress had considered in years.

“We must face a simple truth,” said the president, who was joined by a group of lawmakers and mayors from border communities. “To protect America as a land that welcomes immigrants, we must first secure the border and secure it now.”

Aware that the policy raised uncomfortable comparisons, Mr. Biden took pains to distinguish his actions from those of Mr. Trump. “We continue to work closely with our Mexican neighbors instead of attacking them,” Mr. Biden said. He said he would never refer to immigrants as “poisoning the blood” of the country, as Mr. Trump has done.

Still, the move shows how drastically the politics of immigration have shifted to the right in the United States. Polls suggest there is support in both parties for border measures once denounced by Democrats and championed by Mr. Trump as the number of people crossing into the country has reached record levels in recent years.

The restrictions kick in once the seven-day average for illegal crossings hits 2,500 per day. Daily totals already exceed that number, which means that Mr. Biden’s executive order could go into effect right away — allowing border officers to return migrants across the border into Mexico or to their home countries within hours or days.

Typically, migrants who cross illegally and claim asylum are released into the United States to wait for court appearances, where they can plead their cases. But a huge backlog means those cases can take years to come up.

The new system is designed to deter those illegal crossings.

The border would reopen to asylum seekers only when the number of crossings falls significantly. The figure would have to stay below a daily average of 1,500 for seven days in a row. The border would reopen to migrants two weeks after that.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it planned to challenge the executive action in court.

“The administration has left us little choice but to sue,” said Lee Gelernt, a lawyer at the A.C.L.U, which led the charge against the Trump administration’s attempt to block asylum in 2018 and resulted in the policy being stopped by federal courts. “It was unlawful under Trump and is no less illegal now.”

There would be limited exceptions to the restrictions announced Tuesday, including for minors who cross the border alone, victims of human trafficking and those who use a Customs and Border Protection app to schedule an appointment with a border officer to request asylum.

But for the most part, the order suspends longtime guarantees that give anyone who steps onto U.S. soil the right to seek a safe haven.

The executive action mirrors the legislation that Republicans blocked in February, saying it was not strong enough. Many of them, egged on by Mr. Trump, were loath to give Mr. Biden a legislative victory in an election year.

“Donald Trump begged them to vote ‘no’ because he was worried that more border enforcement would hurt him politically,” Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, said in a statement on Tuesday. He added: “The American people want bipartisan solutions to border security — not cynical politics.”

Immigration advocates and some progressive Democrats have expressed concern that Mr. Biden was abandoning his promise to rebuild the asylum system.

“By reviving Trump’s asylum ban, President Biden has undermined American values and abandoned our nation’s obligations to provide people fleeing persecution, violence, and authoritarianism with an opportunity to seek refuge in the U.S.,” said Senator Alex Padilla, Democrat of California.

Tuesday’s decision is a stark turnaround for Mr. Biden, who came into office attacking Mr. Trump for his efforts to restrict asylum. During a 2019 debate, Mr. Biden, then a candidate running against Mr. Trump for the first time, excoriated his rival’s policies.

“This is the first president in the history of the United States of America that anybody seeking asylum has to do it in another country,” Mr. Biden said at the time.

[centrally-unplanned]

To narrow in on the limits of campaigning, lets take the classic Yglesias axe to grind:

Republican elites were profoundly divided on the wisdom of renominating Trump and obviously plenty of them think it was a mistake. But the decision has been made, and now they either vocally support that call or they stay politely quiet. When Trump feints to the center, those who favor the move loudly amplify it and exaggerate the extent of Trump's moderation, those who don't stay politely quiet and hope for the best. The Dem coalition, by contrast, is tchetchy and every constituent element feels that everything is up for constant renegotiation on a day-to-day basis — everyone's priority is on standing within the coalition not on doing the work to win.

In practice, what is being described here is that Republican organizations have fallen in line. Politicians are campaigning for Trump, activist groups are saying to vote, the media is full court press in his favor. They actively silence and push away from problems, focus on strengths, campaign on the ground, etc. This is effective for mobilizing voters and persuading sympathetic-but-undecideds. I agree with that.

The critique is that the democrats haven't done that, right? In practice, it means politicians aren't campaigning on the ground, media isn't shutting up about his issues, activists are sniping their own coalition instead of getting out the vote, and so on. And that is hurting Biden.

Or is it? It is to some degree, this critique is correct at some margin. If Biden could have a unified party going full-throttle, his polls numbers would be higher by X%. And some actors should switch behavior due to that. But I don't think, realistically, X is at all that high? Because the political parties in the US are just very, very different.

How would "dem media falling in line" look? What media?? The New York Times is not a dem establishment! Its incredibly liberal-left leaning, but its committed to neutrality as a core of its brand (and dissident snootiness as the other core of its brand). If it abandoned that its readers would *leave*, they have other options. And so on down the chain - a lot of the "dem voters" actively want balanced coverage and dissent. If I read a news source never criticizing Biden I would quit it, no way, this news isn't good.

And so on down the chain again, activist groups "driving out the voter?" What does that mean? I don't listen to activist groups, that is fucking cringe. Yeah, sure, they can drive some vote, but most of their affiliated members are loose, they don't listen that much to them. To the extent that they do not reflect the desires of their members, they will fall apart. Is Nancy Pelosi not supporting Biden? She does! Most dem politicians do. You just don't care, you can make up your own mind.

Dem voters are more of a looser coalition, they are on average better educated/smarter and more independently minded, and they live in places of increased social atomization & independence. They just cannot be mobilized the way republican voters can. Sometimes, you can really "animal spirits" it? Do the 2008 Obama, be a charismatic vessel for their hopes and dreams. But that is not a controllable phenomenon, and very hard for incumbents to pull off. Its not a switch Biden can flip.

So saying "Biden needs to do this to campaign better" on this topic is a bit of a chicken and egg thing, like yeah I too would like to fix the inherent inequality in the American voting public! Hopelessly unbudgeable, no, but the margins here are probably smaller than the wonk strategist types want to admit. You could never, in any world, have gotten the "Israel/Palestine left bloc" to "fall in line". That is a fundamental misunderstanding of the American body politic.

[scottguy]

Democrats got together to write a law to stop oil company gas price gouging. Republicans boycotted the meeting! They didn't even bother to attend.

They had a CHANCE to FIX the problem.

Republicans love to complain and imply they can do a better job but those are just lies. When they get the chance, like above, and like on the border, they don't do a damn thing.

Why?

So, they can keep whining and blaming.

Also, Republicans are deep in the pockets of big oil. They don't give a damn about average Americans.

They vote against average Americans to get giant campaign donations and use the money for TV ads to smear their opponents and lie about what a great job they're doing.

Don't believe it.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 5, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Sep 06, 2024

The U.S. government continues to tighten the screws against Russian malign activity. This morning the Department of Justice announced an indictment charging Dimitri Simes for violating U.S. sanctions against Russia. Simes allegedly worked for a sanctioned Russian television station and laundered the money from his work. Simes advised Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. 

A second indictment charged Simes’s wife, Anastasia, with sanctions violations and money laundering through the purchase of fine art. 

The Justice Department also issued a grand jury’s superseding indictment against six Russian computer hackers. Five were officers in Russia's military intelligence agency; one is a civilian. The six are charged with hacking into and leaking information from, as well as destroying, Ukrainian computer systems. The hackers also attacked systems in European countries that support Ukraine and in the U.S.

The State Department has offered a $10 million reward for information on the defendants’ locations or their malicious cyberactivity.

The fallout from yesterday’s revelation that six powerful right-wing media figures were on the Russian payroll continues. One of the right-wing commenters referred to in yesterday’s indictment, Tim Pool, has pushed the idea that the U.S. is in a civil war, interviewed Trump on his podcast in May, and has been fervently against American aid to Ukraine. Today, he posted: “Upon reflection I now understand that Ukraine is our Greatest ally[.] As the breadbasket of Europe and a peace loving people we cannot allow the Fascist Russians to continue their crimes against humanity[.] We must redouble our efforts and provide and additional $200b at once[.]”

By this evening, though, he was making a joke of the news that his paycheck had come from Russia.

Notably, Trump posted on his social media site a rant that tied his own 2016 campaign to yesterday’s indictments, although the indictment itself did not do so. He accused “Comrade Kamala Harris and her Department of Justice” of “resurrecting the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, and trying to say that Russia is trying to help me, which is absolutely FALSE.”

Vice President Harris is not in charge of the Department of Justice.

By tying yesterday’s indictments to his campaign’s involvement with Russian operatives in 2016, Trump might have been trying to suggest the story was old news, but it does highlight the parallels between Russia and right-wing operatives trying to get him reelected. Along with his colleague Donie O’Sullivan, Jake Tapper put it like this on CNN: “Today, the U.S. government is trying to peel back more layers of what officials say are massive and complex efforts underway to influence your vote in the upcoming election. One part of these alleged plots: replacing your average 2016 Russian social media bots with actual conservative Americans, right-wing influencers with a combined millions of followers, influencers promoted by Elon Musk, some visited by Republican politicians such as former president Trump.” 

Then Trump fell back on the old trope that his opponents are communists, posting on his social media platform: “We are fighting true COMMUNISM in this Country. We have to save our Elections, our System of Justice, our Constitution, and our FREEDOM, but that can only be done after we win BIG on November 5th, and proceed to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.” 

Economists for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. say that a Trump win in November would hurt the U.S. economy, while a Harris win—if she also gets Democratic control of the House and the Senate—would make it grow. 

Trump’s 2024 campaign is not at all about reality; it’s about a worldview. When asked at an event at the New York Economic Club “what specific piece of legislation will you advance” to make child care affordable, the 78-year-old Trump answered:

“Well I would do that. And we’re sitting down. You know I was somebody. We had Senator Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue. It’s a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, that because—look, child care is child care. It’s—couldn’t, you know, it’s something you have to have it—in this country you have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to—but they’ll get used to it very quickly—and it’s not going to stop them from doing business with us, but they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including child care, that it’s going to take care. We’re going to have—I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country, because I have to stay with child care. I want to stay with child care, but those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I’m talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just told you about. We’re going to be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it’s, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in. We’re going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people, and then we’ll worry about the rest of the world. Let’s help other people, but we’re going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. It’s about Make America Great Again, we have to do it because right now we’re a failing nation, so we’ll take care of it.” 

There is no specific legislation here, or even a grasp of the specific nature of the problem of paying for child care. What there is, apparently, is an argument that high tariffs will solve all of the nation’s problems. In the New York event, Trump called again for slashing taxes on the wealthy and insisted that new, high tariffs of 20% on all imports, and as much as 60% on Chinese imports, will end federal deficits and bring trillions of dollars into the country, although he is wrong about how tariffs work. 

Trump insists that tariffs are taxes on foreign countries, but they are not. They are essentially taxes on imported products, and they are paid by consumers. Trump’s running mate, Ohio senator J.D. Vance, recently tried to claim that economists disagree about whether consumers bear the cost of tariffs, but as Michael Hiltzik explained in the Los Angeles Times yesterday, economists agree on this.

When he was in office, Trump launched a trade war in 2018 by putting tariffs of up to 25% on $50 billion worth of Chinese products. The next year he added another set of 10% tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, and the next year he did it again, this time on an additional $112 worth of Chinese products. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation calculates that this amounted to an $80 billion tax a year on American consumers, costing the average household about $300 a year and costing the U.S. about 142,000 jobs.

There are reasons to use tariffs. They can be used to protect a new industry from cheaper foreign products until the new industry can compete, or to stop foreign countries from flooding a country with cheap products that destroy a domestic industry. When he took office, Biden kept those of Trump’s tariffs that protected certain industries.

Trump’s insistence that tariffs will solve everything is not about economics, it’s about pushing a worldview from the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century, one embodied by the 1890 McKinley Tariff. “If you look at McKinley,” Trump told right-wing media host Mark Levin on Sunday, “he was a great president. He made the country rich.” In fact, McKinley (R-OH) pushed through the tariff named for him while he was in the House of Representatives from his position as a spokesperson for wealthy industrialists. They insisted that high tariffs were imperative to the survival of the country, that such tariffs were good for workers because they protected wages, and that anyone who disagreed was a socialist. But in an era without business regulation, industrialists actually kept wages low and used the tariffs to protect high prices that they passed on to consumers. 

In the late 1880s, the American people demanded a lower tariff, but when Republicans in Congress went to “revise” it, they made it higher. In May 1890, in a chaotic congressional session with members shouting amendments, yelling objections, and talking over each other, Republicans passed the McKinley Tariff without any Democratic votes. They cheered and clapped at their victory. “You may rejoice now,” a Democrat yelled across the aisle, “but next November you’ll mourn.” 

Democrats were right. In the November 1890 midterm elections, angry voters repudiated the Republican Party. They gave the Democrats a two-to-one majority in the House—McKinley himself lost his seat. Republicans managed to keep the Senate by four seats, but three of those seats were held by senators who had voted against the McKinley Tariff, and the fourth turned out to have been stolen.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[uboat53]

In the wake of Kanye West (or Ye) expressing admiration for Adolf Hitler and multiple figures and institutions on the right having to rapidly cut ties with him I think it's time we examine the way racism and antisemitism have infiltrated the right-wing of our country and the Republican Party in particular. Consider this a LONT RANT (TM).

BACKGROUND

In case you missed it, Kanye West went on Infowars recently and expressed his open admiration for Adolf Hitler. However, this is really only the far end of a journey that has seen him express opinions about Jewish control of business, entertainment, and politics, wear symbols associated with white supremacy like a shirt that said "white lives matter", and express other dog-whistle opinions that match those expressed by other figures on the political right.

That same period has also seen major figures and institutions on the political right and in the Republican Party embrace West including pundit Tucker Carlson, former President Donald Trump, and even the Republican side of the US House Judiciary Committee.

SPEAKING IN CODE

So here's the question, if you believe that a cabal of "globalists" are scheming with George Soros to take over the world, overthrow American democracy, and implement some kind of tyranny, is that racist?

Well, on the face of it, you might be tempted to say "no", but the answer is, in the vast majority of cases, actually "yes". Here's how that actually works.

"Globalist" may sound race-neutral, but it's not. It's meant to sound like a term that refers to people who want to put the interests of other nations ahead of or at least equal to that of the United States, but its history is far darker than that. It actually refers to an ancient conspiracy theory known as "blood libel". In this conspiracy theory there is a world-wide cabal of Jews who are enacting rituals that include blood sacrifice around the world in order to bring about the downfall of... well, it varies, but it's certainly not portrayed as a good thing.

One of the key giveaways here is the use of George Soros, a Jewish Holocaust survivor as the personification of this idea. Why George Soros and not any other wealthy liberal? The decision is not by accident.

All of this is what is known as a "dog-whistle", which refers to a racist statement that is meant to be heard as such by other racists but not by the average listener. Dog whistles in recent American history have included "state's rights", "welfare queens", and "international bankers". And you don't need to take my word for it, here's former Republican strategist Lee Atwater discussing the strategy that allowed Nixon to win the South in the 1968 election, the first time a Republican had ever managed to do so:

"You start out in 1954 saying 'Nigger, nigger, nigger.' By 1968, you can't say 'nigger' - that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like 'forced busing', 'state's rights', and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now, you're talking about cutting taxes. And all those things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites... But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me - because obviously sitting around saying saying 'we want to cut this' is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than 'nigger, nigger'."

Source

Words like "globalist" and "George Soros" and even "new world order" are the new dog whistles.

REDEFINING RACISM

One of the key things that the modern right and much of the Republican Party has done of late is to basically deny the existence of dog whistling despite it being a well known and well documented phenomenon. Basically, in their formulation, racism can only be racism if a person EXPLICITLY says something that cannot be denied as racism.

It's no longer enough if a person only uses words that could, technically, mean other things or advocates for policies that would harm the interests of minorities; in this Republican world the only people who are racists are the ones who explicitly tell you that they are racists.

In this world, someone can use coded words which are known and documented to be used by racists, can support policies that are known to disproportionately and negatively impact minorities, and even pal around with people who ARE acknowledged to be out and out racists and still not be considered racists themselves. The list of people who fit this criteria include Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), former President Donald Trump, popular pundit Tucker Carlson, popular entertainer Alex Jones, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to name a few. You'll also note that these aren't fringe figures, many of them hold significant power both within the party and within the nation.

WHAT THIS MEANS

Well, it's fairly straightforward. It means that the Republican Party is full of people who may or may not be racist, they just haven't said the magic words yet to be branded as such by the party. Kanye West did not become racist the moment he spoke of his admiration for Hitler, he was a racist already, but it was only once those magic words were spoken that he was actually acknowledged as such.

What this means is that you have a lot of people who share language with racists, who share policy ideas with racists, who even share dinner tables, conversations, and ideas with racists, and who may themselves someday be "revealed" as racists if they say the right words are making policy and laws that affect the entire country. The Republican Party has decided that the risk of allowing racists to make policy is acceptable in order to not have to address questions of racism that are even the slightest bit difficult, only acknowledging racism in the most obvious and impossible to deny cases.

CONCLUSION

After having used coded language for decades to gain the support of people with racist ideas and intentions, the Republican Party and the right side of American politics as a whole have decided to refuse to acknowledge it. In doing so, it has empowered racists to take key positions within the party and impact national policymaking as long as they avoid saying a narrow and specific set of words.

Kanye West is not the first, nor will not be the last conservative "revealed" to the movement to have been racist all along long after everyone else had realized it; the Republican and conservative policy of not acknowledging any of the known indicators of racism has left it in a position where racists can easily infiltrate the movement and the party to positions of high influence where they can then propagate racist policies and ideas across the nation at large.

Not all Republicans are racist (I maintain that I know several of them who are not and such blanket assertions often miss nuance in any case) but the party has a racism problem. The only way forward is for it to remove the blinders that prevent it from even acknowledging the existence of racism until it is far too late and to start the painful process of clearing out all of the members, including powerful members, that it has allowed in its ranks.

I'm pretty confident this won't happen, so we're probably going to see this happen again and again for quite some time. For better or for worse the Republican Party has decided to be a haven for racists for the foreseeable future, it's time that the country at large acknowledged it even if the party won't.

[newstfionline]

Friday, May 26, 2023

Expect big crowds for the summer travel season—and big prices, too (AP) The unofficial start of the summer travel season is here. The number of people going through U.S. airports hit pandemic-era highs last weekend, and those records are almost certain to be broken over the Memorial Day holiday. AAA predicts that 37 million Americans will drive at least 50 miles (80 kilometers) from home this weekend, an increase of more than 2 million from Memorial Day last year. With more travel comes more expense. The average rate for a U.S. hotel room last week was $157 a night, up from $150 in the same week last year, according to hotel data provider STR. And the average daily rate for other short-term rentals such as Airbnb and Vrbo rose to $316 last month, up 1.4% from a year ago, according to AirDNA, which tracks the industry.

DeSantis Declares (1440) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) made his long-anticipated jump into the 2024 presidential race yesterday, making the announcement in a livestreamed conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk. DeSantis has positioned his campaign as focused on conservative populism with an emphasis on effective governing and joins a field of seven other candidates seeking the Republican nomination.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI calls for AI regulation, warning of ‘existential risk’ (Washington Post) The leaders of OpenAI, the creator of viral chatbot ChatGPT, are calling for the regulation of “superintelligence” and artificial intelligence systems, suggesting an equivalent to the world’s nuclear watchdog would help reduce the “existential risk” posed by the technology. In a statement published on the company website this week, co-founders Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever, as well as CEO Sam Altman, argued that an international regulator would eventually become necessary to “inspect systems, require audits, test for compliance with safety standards, (and) place restrictions on degrees of deployment and levels of security.” They made a comparison with nuclear energy as another example of a technology with the “possibility of existential risk,” raising the need for an authority similar in nature to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the world’s nuclear watchdog. The OpenAI team wrote, “In terms of both potential upsides and downsides, superintelligence will be more powerful than other technologies humanity has had to contend with in the past. We can have a dramatically more prosperous future; but we have to manage risk to get there.”

Fuel shortages slam Cuba’s countryside (AP) Rosa López, a 59-year-old housewife, lit a charcoal stove to boil sweet potatoes and prepare scrambled eggs for her grandchildren. The gas cylinders she normally uses to cook her meals have not been available for almost two months in Mariel, a port town west of Havana. Not far from there, on the highway to Pinar del Río and under a scorching sun, Ramón Victores spent one week waiting in line at a gas station, hoping to fuel up the 1952 red Chevrolet he uses for work, moving produce from one town to another. Cuba’s most recent fuel shortage has crippled an already fragile economy, but it is hitting rural villages particularly hard, with residents resorting to coal fires to cook their food, scrambling to find transport to take them to work and spending days—and nights—at the gas station waiting to fuel up. With food and medications already in short supply amid an economy that was severely hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic, the end of the country’s two-currency system and a tightening of U.S. sanctions, the lack of fuel and cooking gas is perceived by many Cubans in the island’s countryside as the last straw.

As Protesters Die, a Nation’s Security Forces Face Little Scrutiny (NYT) In the adobe house she built with her husband in a small village in Peru, Antonia Huillca pulled out a stack of documents that once represented a glimmer of hope. They were part of an investigation into the death of her husband, Quintino Cereceda, who left one morning in 2016 to join a protest against a new copper mine and never returned. Ms. Huillca can’t read, but she can identify a photo of her husband’s body, a bullet wound to his forehead; the question-and-answer format in which police officers describe firing live ammunition as protesters threw rocks; the logo of the mining company sending convoys of trucks over unpaved roads, sparking protests among villagers fed up with the dust. But today, the investigation has gone cold. “All these years and no justice,” Ms. Huillca, a 51-year-old Quechua farmer, said. “It’s as if we don’t exist.” For years, scores of similar cases in Peru have met a familiar fate: Investigations into the killing of unarmed civilians at protests where security forces were deployed, most of them in poor Indigenous and rural areas, are opened when they attract headlines, only to be closed quietly later, with officials often citing a lack of evidence. Now, the unusually high death toll during antigovernment demonstrations after the removal of the country’s president last year has put accusations of abuse by security officials in the global spotlight, raising questions about why so many previous killings remain unsolved.

Immigration to Britain reaches record high in 2022 (AP) The number of people moving to Britain reached a record high of more than 600,000 in 2022, government figures showed Thursday. The statistics office said the record level was due to a “series of unprecedented world events throughout 2022 and the lifting of restrictions following the coronavirus pandemic.” As well as people coming to Britain to work, the figure includes tens of thousands of international students and almost 200,000 people who have arrived under special programs for people fleeing war in Ukraine and China’s clampdown in Hong Kong. The high figure will renew debate about Britain’s departure from the European Union, which was motivated in part by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people from across Europe in the years before the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Europe Faces a Food Shock (WSJ) Fresh out of an energy crisis, Europeans are facing a food-price explosion that is changing diets and forcing consumers across the region to tighten their belts—literally. This is happening even though inflation as a whole is falling thanks to lower energy prices. New data on Wednesday showed inflation in the U.K. fell sharply in April as energy prices cooled, following a similar pattern around Europe and in the U.S. But food prices were 19.3% higher than a year earlier. The continued surge in food prices has caught central bankers off guard and pressured governments to come to the rescue.

Prigozhin’s warning (Washington Post) Fresh off his claim of victory in capturing the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, Russian mercenary boss Yevgeniy Prigozhin warned that Moscow’s brutal war could plunge Russia into turmoil similar to the 1917 revolution unless its detached, wealthy elite become more directly committed to the conflict. In a lengthy interview with Konstantin Dolgov, a political operative and pro-war blogger, Prigozhin, the founder and leader of the Wagner mercenary group, also asserted that the war had backfired spectacularly by failing to “demilitarize” Ukraine, one of President Vladimir Putin’s stated aims of the invasion. He also called for totalitarian policies. “We are in a situation where we can simply lose Russia,” Prigozhin said, using an expletive to hammer his point. “We must introduce martial law. We unfortunately … must announce new waves of mobilization; we must put everyone who is capable to work on increasing the production of ammunition,” he said. “Russia needs to live like North Korea for a few years, so to say, close the borders … and work hard.” Instead of demilitarization, he said, the invasion turned “Ukraine’s army into one of the most powerful in the world” and Ukrainians into “a nation known to the entire world.”

Turkish voters weigh final decision on next president (AP) Two opposing visions for Turkey’s future are on the ballot when voters return to the polls Sunday for a runoff presidential election that will decide between an increasingly authoritarian incumbent and a challenger who has pledged to restore democracy. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a populist and polarizing leader who has ruled Turkey for 20 years, is well positioned to win after falling just short of victory in the first round of balloting on May 14. He was the top finisher even as the country reels from sky-high inflation and the effects of a devastating earthquake in February. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey’s pro-secular main opposition party and a six-party alliance, has campaigned on a promise to undo Erdogan’s authoritarian tilt. The 74-year-old former bureaucrat has described the runoff as a referendum on the direction of the strategically located NATO country, which is at the crossroads of Europe and Asia and has a key say over the alliance’s expansion. “This is an existential struggle. Turkey will either be dragged into darkness or light,” Kilicdaroglu said. “This is more than an election. It has turned into a referendum.”

Beijing can’t take a joke (Foreign Policy) A Chinese comedian’s mild joke about the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) last week led to a $1.9 million fine for his entertainment company. Li Haoshi, a stand-up comedian known as “House” onstage, joked that watching his dogs chase a squirrel reminded him of the PLA slogan “Fight to win!” Beijing authorities intervened after audio was shared on social media, fining the company that represents Li and confiscating the profits of weekend shows. Li is now under investigation for insulting the PLA and causing “bad social impact.” Around the same time, China suspended the Weibo and Bilibili accounts of a popular British Malaysian comedian after he made a joke about Chinese surveillance. One of the reasons that Chinese censorship has become so petty is that years of crackdowns under Xi quashed most dissident content years ago. The authorities must now go after the inconsequential to justify their own existence.

South Korea, US troops to hold massive live-fire drills near border with North Korea (AP) The South Korean and U.S. militaries were set to begin massive live-fire drills near the border with North Korea on Thursday, despite the North’s warning that it won’t tolerate what it calls such a hostile invasion rehearsal on its doorstep. Thursday’s drills, the first of the allies’ five rounds of firing exercises until mid-June, mark 70 years since the establishment of the military alliance between Seoul and Washington. North Korea has typically reacted to such major South Korean-U.S. exercises with missile and other weapons tests. Since the start of 2022, North Korea has test-launched more than 100 missiles but none since it fired a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile in mid-April. North Korea has argued its torrid pace of tests was meant to respond to the expanded military drills between the U.S. and South Korea, but observers say the North aims to advance its weapons development then wrest greater concessions from its rivals in eventual diplomacy.

What about those who can’t flee fighting in Sudan? (AP) Mahmoud almost never leaves his small apartment in east Khartoum. Electricity has been out for most of the past month, so he swelters in the summer heat. When he does venture out to find food, he leaves his mobile phone behind because of looters in the street. Otherwise, he hunkers down in fear, worried that an artillery shell could burst into his home. Since the conflict broke out last month, more than 1.3 million people have fled their homes to escape Sudan’s fighting, going elsewhere in the country or across the borders. But Mahmoud and millions of others remain trapped in Khartoum and its sister cities of Bahri and Omdurman, unable to leave the central battleground between Sudan’s military and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary. For them, every day is a struggle to find food, get water and charge their phones when electricity is cut off. All the while, they must avoid the fighters and criminals in the streets who rob and brutalize pedestrians, loot shops and storm into homes to steal whatever of value they can find.

Paralysis Breakthrough (1440) Swiss neuroscientists have successfully utilized a brain-spine interface to enable a paralyzed man to walk using his thoughts, according to a study released yesterday. The breakthrough development expands on recent innovations using spinal implants to generate movement in patients with immobilizing spinal injuries. Gert-Jan Oskam, a Dutch 40-year-old who was paralyzed 12 years ago, received two brain implants and one on his spine, creating a so-called “digital bridge” across the injured nerves. A portable computer decodes his brain’s electrical signals and relays them to a spinal pulse generator, resulting in the perception that his lower body movements are voluntary. Combined with regular therapy, the procedure allows Oskam to walk and climb stairs with a natural gait aided by a walker, at times without the digital bridge activated. The procedure further opens the possibility for victims of paralysis to regain control of their legs, with researchers hoping to reduce the size and invasiveness of the implants.

[welcometomypov]

I hope you’re okay. I’m probably not the kind of person you talk to often in your day to day life. I’m a leftist organizer and volunteer.

I know liberals out there are like “enjoy the handmaidens tale.” And wishing ill on you and I know they’re telling republican women that they hope Trump “grabs them by the pussy.”

but I want to extend an olive branch here. As an actual leftist I hate liberals so I’m gunna look for common ground with you.

Conservative people say that some of the moral decline in America can be contributed to losing faith. I actually kind of agree to an extent. (Communists can believe in god I don’t think the average conservative has ever actually met a real card carrying communist)

But here’s the thing: they’ll cite fewer people in church as proof that America is losing faith. I’d argue that actually the main reason people stopped going to church is because more and more people started having to work on Sunday. Wages haven’t increased in nearly 45 years adjusting for inflation.

Did you know that Americans who are so poor that they live in apartments aren’t allowed to do ANY basic repairs?

In every single apartment that I have ever lived in if I even tried to patch drywall I’d lose my deposit?

In every single lease I’ve ever signed I also had to agree not to do any repairs in my own car. NOT EVEN AN OIL OR TIRE CHANGE.

(They don’t want people to improperly dispose of oil or getting hurt on their property)

the end result of this is that you get a lot of liberal city folks who can’t even change a tire. You get people that don’t know how the world works.

But here’s the thing conservatives don’t understand:

Renters and poor people who’s only exposure to the world is TV and advertising and public school are now MOST of America. During the time of the founding fathers 9/10 families were RURAL farmers or fishermen or some other necessary trade.

It is now 1/10. Completely flipped.

When a commie says “you don’t understand America you stupid conservative”

yes they are being assholes but also on a literal level you DONT understand America because America is a nation of 360 million people. If the only way to understand someone is to try and get in their shoes you will literally never be able to do that for most of America unless you could live for a thousand years.

Conservative politicians like Trump SAY they’ll fight to keep god in America. But what they really want to do is make money.

Why is it that the only party that openly defends Christian and family values is the party that cuts Bill gates taxes and lets George Soros buy all the land? Deregulation sounds great until there’s no law that says The Rothschilds can’t buy literally every home and force your children to rent until they die.

Stock market does better under republicans no doubt. But the stock market isn’t a “human quality of life” market. Technically slavery was AMAZING for stocks.

Would you rather invest in a company that literally doesn’t pay a dime in labor? A company that is sheer profit? Or would you invest in the company that’s gunna unionize?

If you’re a normal human with a conscience maybe you’d invest in the company that has less money to return on your investment.

But Jeffery Epstein proved that being successful on Wall Street doesn’t make you a good person.

I’m begging you to vote for and support candidates that want to help your family. The ones who want to give you the freedom to choose. The ones who want to put in free breakfast programs.

God himself gave humans the freedom to do terrible things.

If a politician wants to give you free healthcare like Bernie but also wants you to have the choice to have an abortion.. you have the moral guidance of god to make the decision to keep the baby.

Here’s the thing tho: yes you can make it so that nobody can ever kill an any baby ever again.

But the cost is higher teen pregnancies and premarital sex.

The cost is more people working overtime on a Sunday skipping church and beating their families in an alcoholic rampage.

The price is, like I mentioned earlier, losing the ability to buy a home and being forced to rent.

The price is more women being forced to stay with the men who raped them because the baby needs income and rapists don’t make money in jail so they get to go to work and come home to (an often underage) wife.

The price is ironically more abortions but just by taking poisonous herbs.

(There’s actually a verse in numbers in the Bible on how to induce a miscarriage if your wife cheats on you but conservatives do ignore that part of the Bible.)

The price is more meat recalls and price increases because the government won’t be able to investigate price gouging.

I guess the bottom line is that economic leftism is not bad. Being for universal healthcare is not turning your back on god.

Democrats are evil but if you pay attention there are some democrats that the party leadership hates.

These democrats actually want to fight for you. The good democrats that JFK died for are still there.

You don’t have to like Bernie and I have my problems with him but look at what he ran on in his campaign.

Banning landlords from buying up all the good houses and forcing Americans to rent them.

Free breakfast at schools.

Better subsidies for farmers.

Better drinking water.

Sure he’s a tree hugger but like. Is that really the end of the world?

Weren’t we told anytime we went out in nature not to litter?

Why not hold big companies to the same standard?

I’m not asking you to abandon your conservative values . You can still believe that illegal immigration needs to be dealt with and promote a nuclear family but please please stop voting economically conservatively. It’s genuinely going to hurt America.

Remember ELECTED democrats and republicans are both evil. The rest of republicans and democrats are just American.

Plus Trump is like definitely a rapist. Like there are so many pics of him with both Epstein and Diddy, Trump refused to release all the Epstein info while he was in office, and Jeffery mysteriously killed himself while Trump was in office. Before he could stand trial.

Like democrats are definitely pedos but I don’t think that Kamala is one of them, she’s stupid sure but at least her platform would’ve forced corporate America to pay better overtime and let more people go to church on Sunday. I promise you America is not weak enough for a cop like Kamala to destroy it.

As the first probably real leftist you have ever talked to I really really do hope you have a good night and chew over some of the stuff I said.

If you have any questions or think I’m being unfair I’d love to have a dialogue with you. But really do think about the fact that there are democrats that Obama and Clinton and Nancy Pelosi hate. Just like how I know not every conservative agrees with every little dumb thing Trump said. You can work with us. We have to.

Thank you for this!!

I actually do talk to leftist people! Not as often as I'd like considering how anxious talking to any person makes me, but I love hovering near leftist booths or tables on my Democrat campus to listen to them discuss issues with the passerbys. It's interesting to listen to anothers' perspective or to a fellow Republican's, even.

(Except for abortion booths, but only because I've been harassed by abortionists trying to make me to sign their petition and now I can't break the wall of anxiety that comes with seeing them on campus).

(There’s actually a verse in numbers in the Bible on how to induce a miscarriage if your wife cheats on you but conservatives do ignore that part of the Bible.)

There is a favorable explanation about that part of Numbers that I've heard before, but I can't remember what the explanation was. I may ask some other Catholics or my parish's priest about it.

I disagree with the notion that Trump is 'definitely' a rapist, but I concede that it's possible that he could be a rapist.

I appreciate how much thought was put into this! You've given me a ton to think over and look into. I really appreciate the neural consideration that you put into this.

I can tell supporting this economics stance means a lot to you and I want to give it real thought instead of just spewing answers and arguments off the top of my head.

Again, thank you for this!

[particularj]

Is…is the Fed Chair going to be the unexpected hero we need this time around?

Let me explain…

The Fed Chair is an early Trump appointee from 2017 — you know, when some of the people were actually somewhat competent, if conservative, subject matter experts. Powell has pointed out that the law doesn’t require him to resign if asked, and that the President lacks the power to remove or demote him — only appoint.

Why does this matter?

Resistance to Trump’s illegal actions, especially in deference to the letter of the law, will be key. Republicans, especially older ‘rule of law,’ classic conservatives may be unlikely allies at a time of unhinged MAGA bulldozing.

By resisting a potential Trump request, he is showing how we can all resist.

Trump himself cannot or would not physically force Powell out of his office - he’s not going down to that office to kick him out like a security guard. And if others that might have that task given to them - police, security, National Guard, etc. - ultimately decide they won’t do it either, because Powell has a right to be there, there’s very little Trump can actually, literally do.

This is one method of resistance - if Trump’s requests don’t have enough eager and willingness participants, little will happen. Again, Trump is but one man. Remember how pathetic that fast food dinner was for whatever championship sport team was invited to the White House, when the White House cooks weren’t around because of the government shut down?

That is how many of his demands can play out: pathetically. He can’t run the government himself.

Republicans are going to pass hurtful conservative policies, cutting taxes for the rich, rolling back environmental protections, etc. I’m not sure, with a potential Republican trifecta, there is much we can do about these.

But we can work to convince enough Republicans to keep the guardrails in place and resist in similar ways. And some might be willing to, not fully ready to capitulate to Trump fascism and destroy American democracy. Average government employees, average national guard members and troops and their leaders - who built a career dedicated to country and not Trump, average civil servants, maybe even some Republican politicians.

Our united goal is to survive and for damage control / harm reduction. We have to recognize we lost and will lose on policy for at least 2 years. I hate it, but that would be the case with any Republican administration. We have to slow down his attempt to blitz and become a dictator, through any means possible.

And he’s tired, he’s 78, he’s ailing. If he doesn’t make it two more years, I don’t think JD will have the political Teflon, power and recognition, or ability to keep the teardown of democracy going. Nobody’s taking dictatorial orders from a man who can’t even order donuts in a normal way.

[yourreddancer]

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

September 5, 2024 (Thursday)

The U.S. government continues to tighten the screws against Russian malign activity. This morning the Department of Justice announced an indictment charging Dimitri Simes for violating U.S. sanctions against Russia. Simes allegedly worked for a sanctioned Russian television station and laundered the money from his work. Simes advised Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

A second indictment charged Simes’s wife, Anastasia, with sanctions violations and money laundering through the purchase of fine art.

The Justice Department also issued a grand jury’s superseding indictment against six Russian computer hackers. Five were officers in Russia's military intelligence agency; one is a civilian. The six are charged with hacking into and leaking information from, as well as destroying, Ukrainian computer systems. The hackers also attacked systems in European countries that support Ukraine and in the U.S.

The State Department has offered a $10 million reward for information on the defendants’ locations or their malicious cyberactivity.

The fallout from yesterday’s revelation that six powerful right-wing media figures were on the Russian payroll continues. One of the right-wing commenters referred to in yesterday’s indictment, Tim Pool, has pushed the idea that the U.S. is in a civil war, interviewed Trump on his podcast in May, and has been fervently against American aid to Ukraine. Today, he posted: “Upon reflection I now understand that Ukraine is our Greatest ally[.] As the breadbasket of Europe and a peace loving people we cannot allow the Fascist Russians to continue their crimes against humanity[.] We must redouble our efforts and provide and additional $200b at once[.]”

By this evening, though, he was making a joke of the news that his paycheck had come from Russia.

Notably, Trump posted on his social media site a rant that tied his own 2016 campaign to yesterday’s indictments, although the indictment itself did not do so. He accused “Comrade Kamala Harris and her Department of Justice” of “resurrecting the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, and trying to say that Russia is trying to help me, which is absolutely FALSE.”

Vice President Harris is not in charge of the Department of Justice.

By tying yesterday’s indictments to his campaign’s involvement with Russian operatives in 2016, Trump might have been trying to suggest the story was old news, but it does highlight the parallels between Russia and right-wing operatives trying to get him reelected. Along with his colleague Donie O’Sullivan, Jake Tapper put it like this on CNN: “Today, the U.S. government is trying to peel back more layers of what officials say are massive and complex efforts underway to influence your vote in the upcoming election. One part of these alleged plots: replacing your average 2016 Russian social media bots with actual conservative Americans, right-wing influencers with a combined millions of followers, influencers promoted by Elon Musk, some visited by Republican politicians such as former president Trump.”

Then Trump fell back on the old trope that his opponents are communists, posting on his social media platform: “We are fighting true COMMUNISM in this Country. We have to save our Elections, our System of Justice, our Constitution, and our FREEDOM, but that can only be done after we win BIG on November 5th, and proceed to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”

Economists for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. say that a Trump win in November would hurt the U.S. economy, while a Harris win—if she also gets Democratic control of the House and the Senate—would make it grow.

Trump’s 2024 campaign is not at all about reality; it’s about a worldview. When asked at an event at the New York Economic Club “what specific piece of legislation will you advance” to make child care affordable, the 78-year-old Trump answered:

(WORD SALAD FOLLOWS!!!!!)

“Well I would do that. And we’re sitting down. You know I was somebody. We had Senator Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue. It’s a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, that because—look, child care is child care. It’s—couldn’t, you know, it’s something you have to have it—in this country you have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to—but they’ll get used to it very quickly—and it’s not going to stop them from doing business with us, but they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including child care, that it’s going to take care. We’re going to have—I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country, because I have to stay with child care. I want to stay with child care, but those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I’m talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just told you about. We’re going to be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it’s, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in. We’re going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people, and then we’ll worry about the rest of the world. Let’s help other people, but we’re going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. It’s about Make America Great Again, we have to do it because right now we’re a failing nation, so we’ll take care of it.”

There is no specific legislation here, or even a grasp of the specific nature of the problem of paying for child care. What there is, apparently, is an argument that high tariffs will solve all of the nation’s problems. In the New York event, Trump called again for slashing taxes on the wealthy and insisted that new, high tariffs of 20% on all imports, and as much as 60% on Chinese imports, will end federal deficits and bring trillions of dollars into the country, although he is wrong about how tariffs work.

Trump insists that tariffs are taxes on foreign countries, but they are not. They are essentially taxes on imported products, and they are paid by consumers. Trump’s running mate, Ohio senator J.D. Vance, recently tried to claim that economists disagree about whether consumers bear the cost of tariffs, but as Michael Hiltzik explained in the Los Angeles Times yesterday, economists agree on this.

When he was in office, Trump launched a trade war in 2018 by putting tariffs of up to 25% on $50 billion worth of Chinese products. The next year he added another set of 10% tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, and the next year he did it again, this time on an additional $112 worth of Chinese products. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation calculates that this amounted to an $80 billion tax a year on American consumers, costing the average household about $300 a year and costing the U.S. about 142,000 jobs.

There are reasons to use tariffs. They can be used to protect a new industry from cheaper foreign products until the new industry can compete, or to stop foreign countries from flooding a country with cheap products that destroy a domestic industry. When he took office, Biden kept those of Trump’s tariffs that protected certain industries.

Trump’s insistence that tariffs will solve everything is not about economics, it’s about pushing a worldview from the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century, one embodied by the 1890 McKinley Tariff. “If you look at McKinley,” Trump told right-wing media host Mark Levin on Sunday, “he was a great president. He made the country rich.” In fact, McKinley (R-OH) pushed through the tariff named for him while he was in the House of Representatives from his position as a spokesperson for wealthy industrialists. They insisted that high tariffs were imperative to the survival of the country, that such tariffs were good for workers because they protected wages, and that anyone who disagreed was a socialist. But in an era without business regulation, industrialists actually kept wages low and used the tariffs to protect high prices that they passed on to consumers.

In the late 1880s, the American people demanded a lower tariff, but when Republicans in Congress went to “revise” it, they made it higher. In May 1890, in a chaotic congressional session with members shouting amendments, yelling objections, and talking over each other, Republicans passed the McKinley Tariff without any Democratic votes. They cheered and clapped at their victory. “You may rejoice now,” a Democrat yelled across the aisle, “but next November you’ll mourn.”

Democrats were right. In the November 1890 midterm elections, angry voters repudiated the Republican Party. They gave the Democrats a two-to-one majority in the House—McKinley himself lost his seat. Republicans managed to keep the Senate by four seats, but three of those seats were held by senators who had voted against the McKinley Tariff, and the fourth turned out to have been stolen.

[beardedmrbean]

Conservatives on Twitter were not buying President Joe Biden’s recent speech assessing the pandemic and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as the two main issues behind the United States’ economic woes.

Around noon on Tuesday, Biden addressed the American public on the state of the economy. In addition to saying that his administration has made "extraordinary progress" with the economy, Biden blamed all economic hardship on COVID-19 and Russia.

"I want us to be crystal clear about the problem," Biden stated. "There are two leading causes of inflation we’re seeing today. The first cause of inflation is a once-in-a-century pandemic. Not only did it shut down our global economy, it threw the supply chains and the demand completely out of whack."

SEN. RICK SCOTT HITS BACK AT BIDEN'S ATTACKS: HE TOOK NO RESPONSIBILITY

He then explained the other cause. "And this year we have a second cause, Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine." He added, "We saw in March that 60% of inflation that month was due to price increases at the pump for gasoline."

In response to reporters’ question about taking any "responsibility" for inflation, Biden stated, "I think our policies help, not hurt."

Exasperated with the Biden narrative that blamed external forces for inflation, conservatives took to Twitter to mock the president’s words.

"This is what Joe Biden's policies have done to prices in just one part of the economy," tweeted Townhall.com editor Spencer Brown, along with an infographic of the national average gas prices.

Fox News contributor Guy Benson, tweeted, "This speech is listless and somewhat adrift. Totally predictable talking points, filled with familiar specious claims."

Shortly ahead of the speech, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, shared a Reuters article claiming that Biden will blast Republicans for having no plan to stop inflation during the speech. He captioned the post with his own assessment about how Biden is harming the economy.

"Stop…spending…MONEY!!" Cruz tweeted.

Writer Kyle Becker blasted the entirety of Biden’s address, tweeting, "Biden is lying about his ‘solutions’ for inflation and the non-existent Republican plan for a ‘middle class tax hike.’ This gaslighting won’t work because the policies won’t work."

"Joe Biden will blame anyone and anything for inflation," tweeted MRCTV’s account. 

Washington Free Beacon reporter Joe Gabriel Simonson mocked one of Biden’s proposed inflation solutions, tweeting, "I am enjoying Biden acknowledging that higher taxes -- which sucks money out of the economy -- could theoretically ease inflation. excited to see where this thought takes him."

Conservative commentator Greg Price tweeted, "Biden says that he is taking inflation ‘very seriously’ before once again blaming it on covid and Putin." 

Breitbart White House correspondent Charlie Spiering tweeted similarly, writing, "’I want every American to know I'm taking it seriously,’ says Joe Biden about inflation before blaming the pandemic and Putin for all of the problems."

In another tweet Spiering described Biden’s address as a "Very defensive speech," and added, "So far Joe Biden hasn’t offered a single new solution to inflation even though he says it's his ‘top domestic priority’ A lot of shuffling and rehashing of previous efforts."

[robertreich]

Trump’s 40 Biggest Broken Promises

Trump voters. Nearly 4 years in, here’s an updated list of Trump’s 40 biggest broken promises.

1. He said coronavirus would “go away without a vaccine.”

You bought it. But it didn’t. While other countries got the pandemic under control and avoided large numbers of fatalities, the virus has killed more than 130,000 Americans*, and that number is still climbing.

2. He said he won’t have time to play golf if elected president.

But he has made more than 250 visits to his golf clubs since he took office – a record for any president – including more trips during the pandemic than meetings with Dr. Fauci. The total financial cost to America? More than $136 million.

3. He said he would repeal the Affordable Care Act, and replace it with something “beautiful.”

It didn’t happen. Instead, 7 million Americans have lost their health insurance since he took office. He has asked the Supreme Court to strike down the law in the middle of a global pandemic with no plan to replace it.

4. He said he’d cut your taxes, and that the super-rich like him would pay more.

He did the opposite. By 2027, the richest 1 percent will have received 83 percent of the Trump tax cut and the richest 0.1 percent, 60 percent of it. But more than half of all Americans will pay more in taxes.

5. He said corporations would use their tax cuts to invest in American workers.

They didn’t. Corporations spent more of their tax savings buying back shares of their own stock than increasing workers wages.

6. He said he would boost economic growth by 4 percent a year.

Nope. The economy stalled, and unemployment has soared to the highest levels since the Great Depression. Just over half of working-age Americans are employed – the worst ratio in 70 years.  

7. He said he wouldn’t “cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.”

His latest budget includes billions in cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

8. He promised to be “the voice” of American workers.

He hasn’t. His administration has stripped workers of their rights, repealed overtime protections, rolled back workplace safety rules, and turned a blind eye to employers who steal their workers’ wages.

9. He promised that the average American family would see a $4,000 pay raise because of his tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.

But nothing trickled down. Wages for most Americans have barely kept up with inflation.    

10. He promised that anyone who wants a test for Covid will get one.

But countless Americans still can’t get a test.

11. He said hydroxychloroquine protects against coronavirus.

No way. The FDA revoked its emergency authorization due to the drug’s potentially lethal side effects.

12. He promised to eliminate the federal deficit.

He has increased the federal deficit by more than 60 percent.

13. He said he would hire “only the best people.”

He has fired a record number of his own cabinet and White House picks, and then called them “whackos,” “dumb as a rock," and  "not mentally qualified.”  6 of them have been charged with crimes.

14. He promised to bring down the price of prescription drugs and said drug companies are “getting away with murder.”

They still are. Drug prices have soared, and a company that got federal funds to develop a drug to treat coronavirus is charging $3,000 a pop.=

15. He promised to revive the struggling coal industry and bring back lost coal mining jobs.

The coal industry has continued to lose jobs as clean energy becomes cheaper. 

16. He promised to help American workers during the pandemic.

But 80% of the tax benefits in the coronavirus stimulus package have gone to millionaires and billionaires. And at least 21 million Americans have lost extra unemployment benefits, with no new stimulus check to fall back on.

17. He said he’d drain the swamp.

Instead, he’s brought into his administration more billionaires, CEOs, and Wall Street moguls than in any administration in history, and he’s filled departments and agencies with former lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who are crafting new policies for the same industries they used to work for.

18. He promised to protect Americans with pre-existing conditions.

His Justice Department is trying to repeal the entire Affordable Care Act, including protections for people with preexisting conditions.

19. He said Mexico would pay for his border wall.

The wall is estimated to cost American taxpayers an estimated $11 billion.

20. He promised to bring peace to the Middle East.

Instead, tensions have increased and his so-called “peace plan” was dead on arrival.

21. He promised to lock up Hillary Clinton for using a private email server.

He didn’t. Funny enough, Trump uses his personal cell-phone for official business, and several members of his own administration, including Jared Kushner and Ivanka, have used private email in the White House.

22. He promised to use his business experience to whip the federal government into shape.

He hasn’t. His White House is in permanent chaos. He caused the longest government shutdown in our nation’s history when he didn’t get funding for his wall.

23. He promised to end DACA.

The Supreme Court ruled that his plan to deport 700,000 young immigrants was unconstitutional, and DACA still stands.  

24. He promised “six weeks of paid maternity leave to any mother with a newborn child whose employer does not provide the benefit.”

He hasn’t delivered.

25. He promised to bring an end to Kim Jong-Un’s nuclear program.

Kim is expanding North Korea’s nuclear program.

26. He said he would distance himself from his businesses while in office.

He continues to make money from his properties and maintain his grip on his real estate empire.

27. He said he’d force companies to keep jobs in America, and that there would be consequences for companies that shipped jobs abroad.

Since he took office, companies like GE, Carrier, Ford, and Harley Davidson have continued to outsource thousands of jobs while still receiving massive tax breaks. And offshoring by federal contractors has increased.

28. He promised to end the opioid crisis.

Americans are now more likely to die from an opioid overdose than a car accident.

29. He said he’d release his tax returns.

It’s been nearly 4 years. He hasn’t released his tax returns.

30. He promised to tear up the Iran nuclear deal and renegotiate a better deal.

Negotiations have gone nowhere, and he brought us to the brink of war.

31. He promised to enact term limits for all members of Congress.

He has not even tried to enact term limits.

32. He promised that China would pay for tariffs on imported goods.

His trade war has cost U.S. consumers $34 billion a year, eliminated 300,000 American jobs, and cost American taxpayers $22 billion in subsidies for farmers hurt by the tariffs.

33. He promised to “push colleges to cut the skyrocketing cost of tuition.”

Instead, he’s made it easier for for-profit colleges to defraud students, and tuition is still rising.

34. He promised to protect American steel jobs.

The steel industry continues to lose jobs.

35. He promised tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations would spur economic growth and pay for themselves.

His tax cuts will add $2 trillion to the federal deficit.

36. After pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord, he said he’d negotiate a better deal on the environment.

He hasn’t attempted to negotiate any deal.  

37. He promised that the many women who accused him of sexual misconduct “will be sued after the election is over.”

He hasn’t sued them, presumably because he doesn’t want the truth to come out.

38. He promised to bring back all troops from Afghanistan.

He now says: "We’ll always have somebody there.”

39. He pledged to put America first.

Instead, he’s deferred to dictators and authoritarians at America’s expense, and ostracized our allies — who now laugh at us behind our back.

40. He promised to be the voice of the common people.

He’s made his rich friends richer, increased the political power of big corporations and the wealthy, and harmed working Americans.Don’t let the liar-in-chief break any more promises. Vote him out in November.

[diavolaangelica]

Trump is a blight on U.S politics... all his rallies are centered around fear mongering and deflecting attention away from talking about policy. The reason he is doing it, is because if he tells the American citizens his real agenda, he will lose votes. They have been moving in the shadows planning this shit for a long time now. He stacked the Supreme court, appointed MAGA prone judges in different circuits around the U.S, and as a result, many things are changing that will negatively affect how our governing bodies and agencies are run. We need to get back to a working 2 party system. Traditional Republicans knew how to work with the other side of the isle on bipartisan deals that benefited the American people. These MAGA republicans in the senate and congress do nothing but waste taxpayer dollars, and are so counterproductive. So when people say why didn't Joe Biden do this or that during his presidency, it's not for lack of trying.. it's because all those Trump loyalists would rather block something good, in order to make Biden look bad; and call him a failure. Like Biden's student loan forgiveness program, it was ruled unconstitutional by a Trump appointed judge, therefore blocked. Things that would benefit us are not their priority. Their priority is fluffing Donald Trump's massive ego, soothing his hurt feelings, and trying to save him from facing the legal consequences of his criminal behavior. The man is an incoherent mess, he can't even string a simple thought process together. He's stuck on attacking Haitian migrants that are LEGALLY there in Springfield Ohio, on a debunked claim, or screaming about Aurora Colorado and the Venezuelans.. also false claims; and he still hasn't gotten over the fact that he lost his mind on a live debate, because of a "crowd size" reality check. He says he won "by a lot", and the "audience" cheered.. there was no audience. The man is insane, and he doesn't want to BE president. He wants the title, perks, the get out of jail free card, and to collect all the money he can to enrich himself and his family. He'd sell us for a corn chip, if it benefited him. He is lazy, and doesn't have the mental capacity to make the right decisions for the average working American citizens that are the backbone of this country. It's all about him and his wealthy friends. "Friends"... it's just business, people probably tolerate him, because they are already salivating with the taste those huge tax breaks in their mouths if he wins.

after claiming in the recent presidential debate that he has nothing to do with project 2025, footage from trump’s keynote speech at the Heritage Foundation in 2022 proves the opposite: that project 2025 is “critical” and has “laid the groundwork” for what he plans to do if re-elected

project 2025 is very real and if you don’t think he’s going to use it or that it won’t impact you in any way, you are wrong

read it, get informed, and go vote

[technogenic-mess]

Since a lot of you on this website have liberal brain fungus, I repeat: Democrats have had fifty years to codify Roe v. Wade in actual legislation, but never did so because they don't care.

I'm going to break this down for you using the smallest words I can manage so that maybe some of you will understand what leftists are trying to tell you.

The Democratic Party has come to realize that the the Republican Party hurting the American people results in people and businesses pouring money into the DNC by the barrel.

They know that none of you will ever actually hold them accountable because you, the average liberal, have been conditioned from birth to view voting as the only acceptable form of political action. You'll donate to their PACs and "vote blue no matter who" because it's a two party system and they're the only other game in town.

As a leftist, let me point out that the idea that you must work peacefully within the system to effect change just isn't true. Even the Democrats themselves don't play by that rule: they're happily supporting the militarization of the police and allowing killer cops to murder people without consequence.

The people in power are playing with a stacked deck, and you are not a better person because you insist on playing by the rules. There is no virtue in suffering, and moral victories are meaningless when widespread oppression follows in their wake.

It's time for you liberals and progressives to wake up and realize that the Democratic Party isn't the cavalry. They're not going to ride over the hill and save you from the fascist hordes at the last moment. They're going to do what they always do: profit from your misery.

[mariacallous]

Editor's Note: This is Part 2 of a series which will take an in depth look at election deniers in the 2022 midterms in an effort to assess their likelihood of success, their plans if elected, and their impact on election administration and democracy.

As has been reported in these pages and in other publications around the country, there are many candidates on the November ballot who think the 2020 election was fraudulent (so-called, “election deniers”). A substantial portion of them seem poised to win. So, what will their victories mean for elections in 2024 and beyond? To better understand this question, we have looked at as many campaign proposals as we could find, beginning with candidates for secretary of state, governor and attorney general because these offices hold the most power and responsibility over elections. This piece will attempt to describe the agenda(s) of those who are running as election deniers with respect to how elections are run in the United States and to assess the impact on democratic elections should they succeed.

The Covid Election

One of the central roots of the election denier movement lies in the COVID-19 pandemic. The explosion of the pandemic occurred in 2020—an election year before vaccines were available. In the first eight-months of the year (when most decisions about the fall elections were being made) over 138,000 Americans had died of COVID. In the fall of 2020, as those decisions were being implemented, cases and deaths began a precipitous rise. On the eve of Election Day 2020 alone there were 447 deaths reported, pushing the total since the first death in late February to 231,353.[1] On Election Day the seven-day average for hospitalizations was 45,690 and climbing. After a summer where the pandemic seemed to be slowing, colder weather in the fall brought a spike in the pandemic, one that would crest in the winter of 2020 and into 2021 with enormous numbers of hospitalizations and deaths.

In the face of panic and uncertainty during the first year of the pandemic, election officials and voters in every state had to decide how to handle the upcoming election.

Source: MIT Election Data Science lab, Voting by Mail and Absentee voting. March 16, 2021

The changes in voting in the 2020 election had two contradictory effects. On the one hand, voters loved the convenience and the fact that in a time when any foray into the public was dangerous to their health, they could vote from home or drop off a ballot from their car. Turnout in the 2020 election—in the midst of a pandemic—exceeded all expectations. On the other hand, the changes convinced President Trump that the availability of mail-in and absentee ballots would lead to enormous fraud and provided part of the basis on which Trump would declare the election fraudulent. This was new in American elections. Never before had these types of voting been an issue, but well before Election Day, and against the advice of some of his campaign aides, Trump started a campaign against mail-in voting in all its forms, tweeting: “Republicans should fight very hard when it comes to statewide mail-in voting. Democrats are clamoring for it …Tremendous potential for voter fraud, and for whatever reason, doesn’t work out well for Republicans.” [2]

It should be noted that despite the false claims that mail-in voting hurts Republicans and that voter fraud would damage the GOP, 213 Republicans won U.S. House seats, 20 of the 33 Senate seats up on Election Day, and eight of the 11 governors’ races.

Having politicized how people voted, it was no surprise when, on Election Day, Republicans tended to turn out to vote in-person and Democrats tended to vote early or absentee. This is what Trump and his campaign anticipated—creating what has come to be known as the “red mirage.” Since a large number of Republicans turned out in-person, and those votes are often counted first, the earliest returns in a number of states tended to show Trump in the lead. And yet, as the night and following days demonstrated, once the absentee ballots arrived and were counted, the tally changed as well. On November 7, 2020, most national news outlets called the election for Biden.

The Election Deniers’ platform

The election denier movement includes three broad election administration agendas:

Changing how votes are cast,

Changing how votes are counted,

Changing control of election results.

As a threshold matter, it should be noted that many election deniers also support policies which are efforts to suppress the vote, such as creating requirements that voters be removed from the voting lists and demanding stringent voter identification. In Arizona, a House bill would require routine investigation of the citizenship status of suspected non-citizens. Others call for steps that would remove voters from the rolls.

Many of these voter suppression efforts have been described and fought about for many years. In this essay we will focus our survey on the more recent plans of election deniers when it comes to voting, counting votes and certifying winners.

Changing how votes are cast

Given the enormous decline in in-person Election Day voting during the pandemic, election deniers have turned their attention to abolishing or limiting absentee and early voting. No widespread fraud has been proven in any state that used either vote-by-mail, no-excuse absentee voting, or early voting. But a variety of off-the-wall theories about voting by mail have gained traction in the election-denial movement—suggesting that the actual motivation for these theories is to inflame supporter suspicion, to denigrate and disadvantage election opponents and their voters, and to advantage preferred candidates irrespective of actual vote outcomes.

In the days after the election, Trump, who voted absentee himself, spread unsubstantiated theories about the election. He alleged that there were more absentee ballots cast in Pennsylvania than had been requested and that a “suitcase” in Georgia had been wheeled into a Georgia counting facility stuffed with fraudulent ballots. In Arizona, Republicans would later examine ballots for bamboo fibers—based on speculation that 40,000 ballots had been flown into Maricopa County (Phoenix—an area that went for Biden) from China.

Thus, almost every election denier wants to do something about voting by mail. Currently, eight states (California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington) allow the conduct of their elections to be entirely by mail.[3] Oregon was the first state to move to all mail voting in 2000. They have thus used this system for decades and the amount of fraud discovered over the years is trivial and would not have changed any election results. Furthermore, voters in these states are accustomed to, and like, their mail-in ballot systems, and they are mostly states which have few election deniers likely to win elections.

There are 13 secretary of state candidates running on the Republican ticket this fall. We reviewed the platforms of each candidate focusing on their website and on their campaign Facebook pages to try and ascertain their agenda if elected. Eleven candidates want to limit absentee and/or early voting.[4] The two exceptions are candidates in deep blue states, Vermont and Connecticut. In deep blue Vermont, the election-denier candidate merely calls for “reviewing” the state’s vote-by-mail system for fraud. In Connecticut, the election-denier candidate wants to promote curbside voting—where an election official can bring a ballot to someone’s car if they are unable or afraid to enter the polling place.

There are a variety of agendas among the candidates who would roll back vote-by-mail and early voting. A favorite target of these candidates is “no-excuse” absentee balloting. Prior to the pandemic, many states required the voter to provide an excuse in order to receive an absentee ballot. In some states, the excuse had to be proof of travel out of state. In others, an absentee ballot also had to be witnessed and notarized. Federal law requires that states make exceptions for military on deployment but, prior to 2020, outside that military exception, absentee balloting had not been a universally available process. Then came the pandemic and in 2020 nearly all states offered no-excuse absentee balloting.[5]

Today’s election deniers have focused on proposals they claim will make the absentee ballot process more secure in spite of a dearth of any proven fraud in 2020. Many want to ban “no-excuse” absentee balloting and restrict early voting, a reversal of the trend that happened in the summer of 2020. The movement would also like to ban mass mailings of absentee ballots—which are, by definition, “no-excuse” ballots.

There are calls for abolishing “drop-boxes” for absentee ballots, limiting the number of drop-box locations or requiring that the drop-boxes be under the physical control of an election official. [6] For instance, one candidate for Secretary of State applauded a recent court decision limiting the use of drop-boxes. There are also proposals to ban people from dropping off ballots from their cars, a popular form of voting in 2020 when many were reluctant to enter public places for fear of catching COVID.

Some candidates would like to get rid of early voting altogether; others would like to shorten the time before Election Day during which people can cast an early ballot.

Other proposals go to the absentee ballot itself, requiring identification such as date of birth, a special early voting number or the voter’s driver’s license number for the ballot to be valid. Still other proposals include making it more difficult to correct errors on ballot, limiting the extent to which people can help a voter obtain an absentee ballot, and restricting the number of absentee ballots someone can return for others—a voter assistance practice sometimes referred to as “ballot-harvesting.” Some candidates want to make such voter assistance a crime.

Election deniers have been very suspicious of the possibility of fraudulent ballots being printed and returned by mail or dumped into drop-boxes. Hence many have called for strengthening what they refer to as “chain of custody,” which usually refers to what happens once a cast ballot is in the custody of an election administration official, but election deniers also want to tighten supply chain and anti-counterfeit techniques.

Changing how votes are counted

In 2020, state election officials in 16 states, seeing the increase in voting by mail, and worried that the post office would be slow in delivering ballots, allowed ballots to be received and counted anywhere from one day to ten days after Election Day. As noted before, more Republican voters voted in person on Election Day, and more Democratic voters voted absentee. Thus, the in-person vote in 2020 was disproportionately Republican. Many election deniers now want to restrict the time period during which absentee votes can be counted—requiring any absentee votes to be received by, or even before, Election Day.

In addition to cutting off the vote count on Election Day, deniers would like to see all ballots counted by hand and some would like to ban the use of voting machines and move to an all-paper/no DRE ballot system, although that is already pretty much required by federal law. Suspicion of voting machines runs deep among election deniers—a suspicion voiced repeatedly in Trump’s famous speech on January 6. This has led some election deniers to insist that all voting machine manufacturers turn over their hardware and software to state election officials or that ballots contain UV light activated features or be watermarked. The “chain of custody” is an important part of election integrity but, once again, there is no evidence from 2020 that anything illegal happened with ballots or that the current system is insufficient in protecting integrity.

Finally, election deniers would like to expand the use of election audits and fraud investigations. Most states conduct some type of post-election audit to verify the accuracy of their machines and their counts. A post-election audit is different than a recount, and, normally, the state limits recounts to when a race is truly close, but some election deniers are calling for more audits or for “full forensic audits”, which are more comprehensive than the routine audits done in states and significantly more expensive. Since the 2020 election, such audits have taken place in multiple states but have found nothing amiss.

One consequence of the ongoing suspicion around elections is that state election offices have also been deluged with requests for public records and requests to investigate fraudulent activity. Often these requests are overwhelming state election officials.

Changing Control of Election Results

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, some election deniers would like to change who has control over the certification of election results. The certification of elections in the United States is highly decentralized and starts at the local level where individuals can refuse to certify results. This happened in Michigan in 2020 when Republican members of a bipartisan canvassing board refused to certify the election results, delaying the state’s certification. Eventually, they reversed their decision and sent the lawful and accurate certification to the Michigan State Canvassing Board. We have since seen similar conduct by [county] election boards in Pennsylvania and New Mexico, both ultimately overwritten by the courts.

Such opportunities lay at all levels of the system. Many specific election-denier proposals would focus on giving ultimate control of election certification to state legislators. Proposed legislation in Arizona would allow a majority vote of the Legislature to “revoke the secretary of state’s issuance or certification of a presidential elector’s certificate of the election.” In December of 2020, Republicans in the Pennsylvania State Legislature introduced a measure that would allow the legislators to certify the election. In Wisconsin, a similar attempt at giving the legislature control over the presidential electors failed in court.

Even more attention has been given to the presidential election process at the point it gets to Congress for the counting of the vote of the Electoral College. Members of Congress seem ready to approve clarifying amendments to the Electoral Count Act of 1887 which would remove some of the ambiguity in the law and potentially prevent another vice president from being subject to the pressure Mike Pence was under to reject Electoral College votes.

Conclusion

The election deniers’ agenda grew out of the 2020 election when changes designed to help people vote during a historic pandemic were also used by Donald Trump to create a movement based on allegations about election fraud. Much of the election deniers’ agenda, especially in the all-important secretary of state races, focuses on vote-by-mail and early voting but there are also a wide variety of other reforms dealing with the vote count itself and the certification process that will be on the table should election deniers win these races.

The effect of this agenda on the health of democracy will vary. Reducing the number of days of early voting by a small amount may not have a serious effect although, in some of the close elections that have characterized key states of late, even a few votes at the margin can be important. Getting rid of early voting altogether and making absentee ballot access dependent on more arduous rules and regulations will probably have a disproportionately negative effect on the elderly, those who are economically disadvantaged or less educated, and young voters. Securing the chain of custody of ballots is a good idea—but states have systems in place to protect ballots and, as in other areas, there is no evidence that more is needed and putting vote certification in the hands of state legislatures is a very bad idea.

Denying the results of a fair election is threatening to the electoral process and American Democracy. We will continue our evaluation of other aspects of the election-denier agenda in future essays.

[mejomonster]

Why do Republicans say freedom of X when they personally push tons of tons of policies to remove rights. Violate rights, destroy rights, control people?

I mean I know the answer. Because they don't actually believe in rights for people, they want to control and oppress others and actively harm others, they want a theocracy, a lot of them have authoritarian mindsets and follow Authoritarian leaders who use their tendency to commit to total devotion to a leader and their movement even if there's tons of contradictions in logic just cause it's scarier for an authoritarian follower to Not be supporting a leader they already invested belief in and their community in group is connected to (see the book The Authoritarians). And so it ends up a situation where i have to assume at least half if not the majority of republican people support things against their own interest (Republicans are against measures to control gas prices so hurts all people who buy gas including all Republicans, republican politicians are against healthcare improvements so they actively make yealthcare worse for all republican citizens, they're against making baby formula accessible right now so against all republican citizens with babies, they are trying to make police abuse easier and imprisoning easier which hurts all poor Republican citizens likely to face the consequences of that and have people dying due to brutality because of that, republican politicians are against minimum wage improvements which hurts all Americans including all Republicans, etc ad infinitum... the average republican household in America is harmed by republican political agendas constantly and yet they continue to support it even when to be selfish and help oneself would be to reject it, because they don't want to believe they picked a leader who's harming them and refuse to do anything but keep supporting their In Group no matter what harm thar groups agenda does to them).

I desperately intensely want all talk of religion out of American politics. It should already be out of it because we are supposed to have separation of church and state but well clearly politicians don't care. These many laws to make certain groups of people and discussion of topics illegal is such a nightmare scenario and so much of it they justify by saying Christian values. 1 those aren't Christian values and 2 those values shouldn't matter in our government. Then there's the fucking horrific push of the republican agenda right now seeming to aim specifically at 1800s or older style quality of life in America. Just absolute harm to everyone. We need to stop thinking there's some line they wouldnt cross. Taking voting rights from women away is ON their agenda, taking rights of the body from people away is ON the agenda and happening through the states, taking voting rights away from minorities has been happening a LOT and will continue to happen, making imprisoning and enslaving people easier is On their agenda and happening constantly as is the as usual ability of police to kill Americans as desired, child labor again is ON the agenda, lack of food and drug regulations to the point we have poison unsafe food is ON the agenda and has taken hits in recent years during Trump, lack of employment standards like 40 hour work weeks are ON the agenda they Want people and children working 60 hours or more, want no healthcare for anyone, want no state schooling or education so the workforce can be younger and easier to manipulate, want us to die in droves, want minorities being killed more often and enslaved more often and unable to take any measures to defend themselves, want unsafe food and water and to sell it at high prices. Want to censor what we can read and watch and talk about, want to arrest us for existing and do whatever they want to our bodies, these are all things on the fucking agenda. And all i can say is please vote cause a shit ton of how extreme your area is will depend on the city and state politicians you elect. Want clean water to drink and shower in? Pick a GOOD mayor asap, want any accountability at all for cop behavior then campaign for those reforms in your specific city, want no censorship laws on having the right to mention ur own existence or history then make sure to take care when voting for local and state politicians who make those laws. Want the right over ur own body? Desperately vote for ur state congress and governor and those state positions cause that's what will determine if someone's actively trying to let you die and many people die or make your identity a crime or the people who can try and put laws on the books to prevent future attempts of such damaging laws. I'm not kidding the mayor in my city is the only reason we have clean drinking and bathing water when other state cities have water that is unthinkable and causing rashes at Best. I'm not kidding, my governor is the only reason there's even a chance bodily rights may be passed this November instead of us going full on pre 1930s. Last cycle when our governor was republican, an entire city got screwed immensely, statewide our water and land got polluted bad, and this is in a state where usually "republican governors try to be moderate."