#but then he started going on about how he didn’t like biden

[cosmal]

there were people from north carolina at work today. seeing someone from the u.s this deep in australia is kinda strange.

[wilwheaton]

The beautiful town of Asheville, North Carolina, one of my favorite places in the country. Spent time there. Amazing people. Devastated. Hundreds of people killed. President Biden and Vice President Harris were down there meeting with local officials and comforting families, asking how they could help. Donald Trump at a rally just started making up stories about the Biden administration withholding aid from Republican areas and siphoning off aid to give to undocumented immigrants. Just made the stuff up. Everybody knew it wasn’t true. Even local Republicans said it was not true. Now the people of Florida are dealing with another devastating storm, and I want you to watch what happens over the next few days, just like the last time. You’re going to have leaders who try to help, and then you have a guy who will just lie about it to score political points. This has consequences, because people are afraid, and they’ve lost everything, and now they’re trying to figure out, how do I apply for help? Some of them may be discouraged from getting the help they need. the idea of intentionally trying to deceive people in their most desperate and vulnerable moments. My question is: When did that become okay? I’m not looking for applause right now. I want to ask Republicans out there, people who are conservative, who didn’t vote for me, who didn’t agree with me. I had friends who disagreed with me on every issue. When did that become okay? Why would we go along with that? If your coworkers acted like that, they wouldn’t be your coworkers very long. If you’re in business and somebody you’re doing business with just outright lies and manipulates you, you stop doing business with them. Even if you had a family member who acted like that, you might still love them, but you’d tell them you got a problem and you wouldn’t put them in charge of anything. And yet, when Donald Trump lies, cheats, or shows utter disregard for our Constitution, when he calls POWs “losers,” or fellow citizens “vermin,” people make excuses for it. They think it’s okay. They think, well, at least he’s owning the libs. He’s really sticking it to ‘em. It’s okay as long as our side wins.

President Obama asks "When Did That Become Okay?"

[davidtennantgenderenvy]

A Letter From An Ex-Conservative To Her Parents On November 6th, 2024

Mom and Dad,

     When Trump got shot this summer, I remember you saying that this was all because the Left wouldn’t stop calling him Hitler. How we needed to “turn down the temperature” and stop “inciting violence.” I don’t think you understand that when people compare Trump to Hitler, it is not, in fact, just because they do not like him, but because he uses Hitlerian rhetoric on a regular basis. Obsessing over an imagined past version of a country that never truly existed. Saying that (insert frequently dehumanized other) is “poisoning the blood of the nation.” Before Hitler began the Final Solution against Jews, what did he say he planned to do? Deport them, until he realized it was too costly. I don’t think you understand that Hitler did not start putting people in death camps the second he came to power. Trump is currently in about the same position Hitler was in in the 1930s. Is it going to take him putting undocumented people in gas chambers for you to believe me? 

     You might think that I’ve only come to my current conclusions about Trump because of the lies of “the mainstream media”, which, as I’ve said numerous times, I don’t even watch. But it’s actually been largely due to the things Trump himself has said. I understand that you don’t like Biden calling Trump’s voters “garbage”, but the language Trump uses to describe his political opponents is at least as disturbing. He’s disparaged fallen soldiers as “suckers and losers.” He’s proudly boasted about being the president who got Roe V Wade appealed, regardless of the estimated thousands of women who are dying because the medical treatments they need fall too close to the legal definition of abortion. A massive portion of his campaign advertisements are explicitly anti-trans. He thinks Palestinians should be moved off their land because it would make “great beachfront property.” He regularly speaks positively of and rubs elbows with the most disturbing members of the alt-right, such as Laura Loomer and Nick Fuentes. He’s a bully. (you voted for a bully. Remember when I was bullied?) And if Kamala’s plans are incoherent, which admittedly some of them are, Trump’s are even more so. He doesn't have a plan. America is just another failed business to him. 

     I don’t think you’re bad people. But I do think your party is bad. This is far more than just one guy. My journey has been less one of changing any of my beliefs than realizing that the Republican Party never represented those beliefs to begin with. It is the party of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, of stripping the oppressed of their means to succeed and then asking them to “pull themselves up by the bootstraps.” Your precious Reagan was a racist. There’s recorded evidence. His policies were racist. He enabled denial and misinformation about AIDS until it was too little too late and millions had died. And you proudly display his book on your shelf, right next to Rush Limbaugh and Pat fucking Buchanan. Your son is a gay man. How could you. 

     Being a conservative, whether you think so or not, is inherently about preserving the status quo, about making sure things stay the way they are, that the people who are down stay down, and crushing anyone who tries to make things better. I didn’t vote Democrat because I am one. I voted Democrat because it would be easier under one such administration to push this country in the direction of equity and liberty. Project 2025 was intended for the next conservative administration. Trump may deny involvement, but the foreword of one of the sections was written by none other than his own vice president. And with the House, Senate and Supreme Court all red now, it’s going to be easier than ever for him to pass any portions of it he likes. 

     I’m writing you this letter so that you know that if a nationwide abortion ban gets put in place, if schools and parents who support their children’s gender affirming care (which does NOT mean surgery) start getting investigated (which some already are), if Israel continues bombing Gaza until there’s nothing left, if billionaires continue to take up larger and larger percentages of the nation’s wealth, if immigrants who’ve lived and worked in this country for years start getting deported in droves because they couldn’t get the right paperwork, that it’s on you and people like you, even as you continue deny the very real damage done in Trump’s first presidency, the awful, awful people who felt empowered because of him. I tried for a while this summer to see if I could change your minds, but all it did was screw up my mental health and make me realize something truly painful: that you aren’t the people I thought you were. Not when your reaction to police shooting students the same age as your own daughter with rubber bullets because they don’t want their university to be complicit in a genocide is “well, what are they supposed to do? They’re the police.” Not when a man can say immigrants are poisoning the blood of the nation and you still vote for him. 

     It breaks my heart that you and so many people I love have been so deeply conditioned to vote against their own best interests, to think that a government that actually helps its people without actively harming others is a childish, fanciful expectation. I think I truly believed to the depths of my soul until last night that this wouldn’t happen. That we were better than this. That we wouldn’t reelect someone who objectively ran a terrible campaign, who conducts himself with boorishness and indignity, who genuinely, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, represents everything that made me scream "Fuck America" out Laura’s car window this summer. But why should I be surprised America likes fascists? My own parents certainly seem to.

     But I hope you’re happy with your lower grocery prices, I guess. Which we probably won’t be getting anyway, because that’s not actually what Trump’s policies are going to do. 

     You sold out my friends, and entire marginalized communities, for cheaper groceries. I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive you for that.

Lauren

[technofeudalism]

this article is a very long read, but if you want to actually fight back against what is currently happening and understand what exactly is going on in the heart of the fascist movement in America, you would be wise to take the time to read it at some point.

this article constructs a terrifying narrative - one that exposes an underbelly of right-wing violence that has been simmering under the surface for years. i have never seen this kind of deep insight to these groups.

furthermore, it will help you understand why January 6th is not where this starts or ends. it is akin to Act 1 in a tragic play. it was a peek behind the curtain of what has essentially formed into an internal cold war between violent right-wing extremists and vigilante leftists who have taken up the task of infiltrating these militias because the federal authorities will not do so, as they equate all right-wing and left-wing ideologies to be inherently the same.

i will leave you with this excerpt.

Early in the meeting, Kinch laid out his vision for the Oath Keepers’ role in American life. “We have a two-edged sword,” he said. The “dull edge” was more traditional grassroots work, exemplified by efforts to combat alleged election fraud. He hoped to build their political apparatus so that in five or 10 years, conservative candidates would be seeking the Oath Keepers’ endorsement. Then there was the sharp edge: paramilitary training. “You hone all these skills because when the dull edge fails, you’ve got to be able to turn that around and be sharp.” The room smelled like donuts, one of the men had remarked. The week before, Kinch’s predecessor had been convicted of seditious conspiracy. This was their first meeting since the verdict, and I opened the recordings later with the same anticipation I feel sitting down for the Super Bowl. What would come next for the militia after this historic trial: ruin, recovery or revolt? The stature of men leading the group’s post-Jan. 6 resurrection startled me. I was expecting the ex-cops, like the one from Fresno, California, who said he stayed on with the militia because “this defines me.” Militias tend to prize law enforcement ties; during an armed operation, it could be useful to have police see you as a friend. But there was also an Ohio OB-GYN on the national board of directors — he used to work for the Cleveland Clinic, I discovered, and now led a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group. The doctor was joined at board meetings by a city prosecutor in Utah, an ex-city council member and, Williams was later told, a sergeant with an Illinois sheriff’s department. (The doctor did not respond to requests for comment. He has since left his post with the UnitedHealth subsidiary, a spokesperson for the company said.) Over six hours, the men set goals and delegated responsibilities with surprisingly little worry about the federal crackdown on militias. They discussed the scourges they were there to combat (stolen elections, drag shows, President Joe Biden) only in asides. Instead, they focused on “marketing” — “So what buzzwords can we insert in our mission statement?” one asked — and on resources that’d help local chapters rapidly expand. “I’d like to see this organization be like the McDonald’s of patriot organizations,” another added. To Williams, it felt more like a Verizon sales meeting than an insurrectionist cell. Kinch had only recently taken over and as I listened, I wondered how many followers he really had outside of that room. They hadn’t had a recruitment drive in the past year, which they resolved to change. They had $1,700 in the bank. But it didn’t seem entirely bravado. Kinch and his comrades mentioned conversations with chapters around the county. Then as they turned from their weakened national presence to their recent successes in Utah, Williams snapped to attention. “We had surveillance operations,” Kinch said, without elaboration. “We’re making progress locally on the law enforcement,” Coates added. He said that at least three of them can get “the sheriff” on the phone any time of day. Like the last time, Coates didn’t give a name, but he said something even more intriguing: “The sheriff is my tie-in to the state attorney general because he’s friends.” Williams told me he fought the urge to lob a question. (The attorney general’s office did not respond to requests for comment.) Closing out the day, Kinch summarized their plan moving forward: Keep a low profile. Focus on the unglamorous work. Rebuild their national footprint. And patiently prepare for 2024. “We still got what, two more years, till another quote unquote election?” He thanked Williams for coming and asked if they could start planning training exercises. “Absolutely, yeah, I’m excited about that.” Williams was resolved to find his way onto the national board.

[dappersappho]

I was almost 16 (like my birthday was literally two weeks away) on Election Day in 2008. Not old enough vote yet, I could only hold my breath. After the disaster that was the Bush administration, all I wanted was to see if a Democrat, any of them, could sort things out.

I was terrified that I wouldn’t see that happen because, of all people, the Democrats chose a barely known senator from Illinois, who just so happened to be a black man. Even my own friend group was saying pretty heinous and disparaging things about him. When I called them out, they would say, “Look, he’s just not experienced enough.” Or they were calling him a socialist even though they definitely didn’t know what that meant.

Even then I knew they were a product of their upbringing. In other words, their southern white parents who could vote. My mother and grandmother, both black, were the only people I knew who were openly supporting Obama. Well, them and my English teacher, who was white and a single mother. Nothing gave me hope that it would be enough.

Since Election Day is held on a Tuesday, I would’ve had school the next day and needed some sleep. But it was almost 11pm and a decision still wasn’t made. I tried to turn off the TV and go to bed, but I couldn’t. I just had to know. I had to see it for myself. I turned the TV back on. Five minutes later, Barack Obama surpassed the number of electoral votes needed to win. I looked around my room then back at the TV. This was real. I just witnessed something huge.

Suddenly, I heard my mom screaming from her bedroom across the house; I guess she couldn’t sleep and kept her eyeballs on the TV as well. I ran to her and we hugged, jumped, screamed, and cried. I don’t think we’ve ever seen each other so emotional before. She pointed to the TV, which was showing Obama’s electoral votes continue to rise, and said, “Look at this! 16! You were 16 when you saw this!”

The next 8 years were met with ups and downs. But I never turned on the news or opened social media and dreaded what I was about to see. I was open to learning new things and keeping up with what was going on. It was easy to care about others because I felt at ease with myself and my country. Was I proud to be an American? Debatable. But I wasn’t really ashamed either.

Then 2016 happened. I voted third party because I naively believed that I could make a statement in doing so (I deleted my tumblr account at the time because I kept getting into fights with people who tried to convince me it was a bad idea). That and I thought Hillary Clinton would win anyway.

I felt sick to my stomach. Once again, I couldn’t sleep, but for a different reason this time. I was almost 24, a super senior in college. A friend of mine and my roommate’s spent the night with us. They got more sleep than I did. The next day, all three of us skipped class. We spent the morning together in our dorm with cookies and hot cider. The rest of the day, we tried to avoid any place on campus that had a TV since the news would be on.

The next day, I had an afternoon class. We spent almost the entire hour discussing just how much of an epic disaster a Trump administration will be for our country. I didn’t say anything. I would’ve started screaming incoherently in the face of anyone who minimized my concerns if I did. I could feel it in my chest. At the same time, I was feeling guilty. Why didn’t I just grit my teeth and vote for Hillary? Why?! Would it have made a difference if I did?

My mind has been in the dark since, made even worse during everything that happened in 2020. Sure Joe won - I even voted for the guy - but at what costs? I still didn’t feel relieved. I felt no hope. An oncoming Biden administration felt like the storm would continue, but hey, at least it isn’t flooding anymore.

Now, at almost 32 and bound to witness a historical election once more, I see a light again. We’re not out of the woods yet. Even if Kamala wins, we won’t be. But, just like I did 16 years ago, I feel hope. I’m once again able to believe that things will get better. I’m scared of being optimistic, but I can’t help it. I need this. I need to believe we’re closer to a leader who can and will do right by us, who will listen to us, and represent us in the best way. If it’s not Kamala, she sure as hell will be one giant step in the right direction.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Anne Lutz Fernandez at The UnPopulist:

Kamala Harris’ entry into the 2024 presidential race has thrown Donald Trump for a loop. For a brief period after Biden stepped aside, Trump seemed to be in a daze: either focusing too much on the person who had just taken himself out of electoral play, or criticizing Harris in less incendiary ways than is typical for him. In the first five days after Biden’s withdrawal announcement—in which Biden exhorted the party to consolidate behind Harris—Trump mentioned Biden and Harris more or less the same number of times on his Truth Social account, the closest thing we have to a live feed of the unadulterated Trumpian id. And when he did mention Harris, it was in reference to immigration and the border, or to tie her to “Bidenomics.” It took Trump a week and a half after Biden had already dropped out to start going, well … full Trump and attacking Harris’ racial identity.

Keeping Out Kamala

The transition from attacking Biden’s policies to Harris’ identity should have been easy for Trump. After all, a major through line of his politics, going all the way back to his avid promotion of the “birther” conspiracy theory alleging that Barack Obama was actually born in another country, has been about who belongs where. Moving from a rival whose characteristics overlap with his own—he and Biden are both are old, white men—to facing a mixed-race, multi-ethnic woman should’ve put Trump in his element. The MAGA movement, after all, is predicated on vilifying identities outside of its racial, ethnic, and cultural ideal. 

[Trump’s support stems from his ability to tap into an “ethno-nationalist” tradition of American identity in his campaign rhetoric. This tradition … is based on a set of criteria (including being white, Christian, native-born, and English-speaking) to define who is a “real” American, and who is not. Trump uses this vision of American identity to garner support from white Americans by campaigning on the idea that he will defend them from the threat posed by people who are not perceived as real Americans—particularly the ostensible threat posed by undocumented migrants.]

Given that Trump couldn’t take on Biden’s identity markers since they both shared them, Trump’s tack was to accuse Biden of allowing entry to “hordes” and “caravans�� of foreigners with different identity markers who would not just take American jobs and votes but change American culture and country in their image. This was an obvious line of attack against Harris, too, since Biden had tasked her with some border duties, and Trump didn’t waste any time linking her to the border situation. But it was surprising how long it took Trump to really let loose on Harris’ identity. Finally, at the convention for the National Association of Black Journalists at the end of July, Trump insinuated that Harris is a shape-shifter, an ever-migrating other—once Asian, now Black, next Who-Knows-What. His running mate JD Vance—who has bi-racial children of his own—followed up, claiming “phony” Harris “grew up in Canada” and that she is “a fundamentally fake person.” At a Pennsylvania rally last week, Trump offered his patented nativist fear-mongering—falsely claiming that we have no idea where she “came from.” There is nothing subtle here: Harris is multiracial, so not a “real” American. Moreover, she is a “DEI candidate” who is using her racial identity to make a bid for America’s top job, the kind of advantage that apparently a “real” American like Trump would never seek, never mind that he has made his whiteness his core appeal to voters. She doesn’t belong in the White House as president of the United States but he, a white guy, does.

Harris’ intersectionality presents the Trump/Vance campaign a quiver of identity-based arrows to pierce her qualifications. Vance, who brings to the campaign a finer articulation of Trump’s grabbling misogyny, has previously suggested that women like Harris are ineligible for political power because they’ve failed to fulfill their Woman Job of reproducing and therefore have less of a stake in the future of the country. In other words, childless women aren’t “real” Americans, at least not “real” enough to serve in any position of power.

Trump’s Ever-Shrinking “Real America”

The problem for the GOP is that with these various lines of attack they keep expanding its criteria of who does not count as a “real” American beyond even its crude and crabbed ethnonationalism. Immigrants are inherently unAmerican. But, also, naturalized Americans, children of immigrants, people of color, anyone who has lived abroad, people from the coasts, and childless women can’t be true Americans worthy of holding office—showing that, despite its populist pretensions, Trump’s MAGA movement does not seek to represent a majority.

[...]

MAGA Is A Social Vision Predicated On Exclusion

These attacks do more than insult a growing list of voting groups though. They offer a window into the GOP’s proffered fantasy, namely, that if people would just stay in their place—refugees and immigrants in their home countries, women in their homes, people of color in menial jobs while rich, white men hold powerful political positions and set the rules for everyone—“real” Americans would feel that the country was great again. But this is not a vision that has widespread appeal outside the MAGAverse.

While the exuberant Democratic National Convention was going on last week, Trump—who actually incited a coup—upped his rhetoric, describing Harris’ legal, official, smooth, and peaceful Democratic Party nomination as a “vicious, violent overthrow.” Harris, in Trump’s eyes, is not a political candidate who has earned her position as his rival. By virtue not of process but of her many-faceted identity, she is an infiltrator, imposter, thief. Fearful of losing the election, Trump is presenting to his followers a Harris who is an existential threat to the natural and national order. “Anti-Trump Burnout: The Resistance Says It’s Exhausted,” announced a New York Times headline from February that hasn’t worn well. The response to the Harris/Walz ticket that has Trump so spooked shows that the people were indeed exhausted—but not from resisting Trump. They were exhausted from his constant fear-mongering and threats, his endless efforts to exclude and otherize, and, above all, his ever-growing list of Americans who don’t belong. However, now that they are being led by two figures who also apparently don’t belong, they suddenly feel that they do—and that’s a perfect cure for exhaustion.

Anne Lutz Fernandez writes in The UnPopulist on how MAGA is shrinking the definition of “real American.” “Real American” in their world is someone who supports the Trump cult.

[uirukii]

Harris could have chosen to win but she simply chose to lose. It's not hard to beat Trump, it's comically easy, actually. You can convince yourself that it wasn't her choice to lose, but the fact of the matter is that she deliberately lost voters in key swing states. Trump's vote amounts remained mostly the same. Harris lost 10-15 million votes from Biden. Black women voted for her in less amounts than they did Biden or Hillary.

Had she not done genocide, she would've won. No matter how much you try and convince yourself otherwise. Now you have Trump. You can learn from this or just give up and die i guess.

This will be the last time I address you, because I worry for your immaturity and obvious chronic online addiction that has you repeating far-right talking points, Zionist misinformation and overall anti-democratic propaganda.

Both Israel, Trump and Russia relied on people like you and of course, Trump’s base to win. If you went on right-wing media, they celebrated folks like you because they knew your base was a key to their victory. They worked hard to tie Harris to Biden so all you saw was a Biden doppelganger, ready to move your own hatred of Biden onto her, just like they did.

As much as you like to make fun of the Nazis, MAGA and fascists for being uninformed idiots, you have joined their ranks. You act as if Harris herself sat in Israel smashing buttons for long-range missiles. When in reality, the Vice President has absolutely no say and no power to do anything, diplomatically or within our own government. Her only job is to be a back-up in case the president dies and a tie-breaker for the Senate. You might as well call your state governor a genocidal maniac for not stopping Israel.

Where are your protests against Netanyahu? Where is your rage at AIPAC? How come you aren’t storming Israeli consulates to tell them to stop? How come you aren’t holding your Congressmen accountable? Where’s your ire against Europe and Canada, the rest of our allies that also fund this?

You show your ass with how uninformed you are with our government. The presidential seat has no bearing on whether or not we send arms to Israel. It’s not within his constitutional right as the head of the executive branch. If it was, we’d have a dictator. It falls under the purview of Congress. Only Congress can pass bills and allocate government money. Did you watch and read how conservatives in both chambers drafted, voted on and approved of the arms to Israel? Where they essentially blackmailed and withheld funding our government if we didn’t approve of more weapons to Israel? Of course not. You just ate up the Big Bad Biden nonsense that spewed from the right. Ate it up like the best feast to whatever problem you have going on in your life to focus your anger toward.

I always wondered about this. If you’re old enough, how come you didn’t care about Palestine during Trump’s or Obama’s term when they were also getting bombed? How come other genocides aren’t worth your ire such as the Yemeni, Uighers or countless ones happening in Africa?

We know why. Because this is performative. If it wasn’t, you’d have known Biden listened, changed his course and worked to try and get a cease-fire. Is still trying. If you have even an inkling of how even the world works, Biden can’t go to Israel, take over and stop them like some American anti-war takeover superhero. Like it or not, that dictator runs his country, not America. Unless Congress declares war on Israel as several groups have done so far, then the US can’t physically do anything beyond diplomatic relations.

Both Hamas and Israel have said no to peace negotiations multiple times since the war started. So what do you want Biden and the US to do? Snipe out Netanyahu in an assassination? Usurp control from Congress and take that power for himself like Hitler did so he can stop the arms, destroying a foundation of our government in the process? Bash Netanyahu over the head until he agrees to stop?

All I see from you folks on the far left and far right is a wish for more dictatorial control for the president or a belief he already has it, and a mirror image of a belief system from what I’ve witnessed both in leftist and right wing specific spaces. There is also a serious showcase of willful ignorance and lack of civic engagement on either side as well because they don’t want to critique their own beliefs and have to face the complexities of situations and events that aren’t black and white. And you’re anecdotal proof of that.

[kittypatraxd]

Here’s why.

It doesn’t matter how many women Trump raped. It doesn’t matter how many lies he tells. It doesn’t matter how many pandemics he tries to cover up the severity of. It doesn’t matter how many American citizens he threatens to execute. It doesn’t matter how many times he threatens to take away social security and food stamps. It doesn’t matter how many fundamental rights he takes away.

The key voting demographic was young men.

And Trump is a “man”, biologically speaking.

They’ll vote for Barack and they’ll vote for Biden. But they won’t vote for Hillary and they won’t vote for Kamala, because it is fundamental to the core of almost every American man that it is their mission to—at all costs—keep women from reaching that glass ceiling and shattering it to pieces.

Well, I don’t know about you, but I refuse to be kept down. I refuse to wash my hands of everything women all over the world and all through time have fought and died for. I refuse to say, “Welp, Kamala didn’t win, so I guess I’ll just give up and let myself become property of the government.”

Don’t get your panties in a bunch, MAGA losers. I’m better than you. I’m not going to go crazy and storm the Capitol to try and kill police officers and destroy government property.

But when I’m looking down the barrel of a nation-wide abortion ban, I’m not just going to sit there and take that. I don’t think you should, either.

Now, more than ever, is the time for every American woman to be brave. It’s time to start making signs. It’s time to recruit your friends and family. It’s time to “fight like hell” for our fourteenth amendment.

So when they start coming for my human rights, I know what I’M going to do. I’m going to form protests. I’m going to organize marches. I’m going to give speeches. I’m not going to adapt. I’m going to overcome.

How about you? Are you going to sit quiet in your long red dress and your white bonnet like a good little piece of property, or are you going to join me and be a thorn in Trump’s fat side until we are humans once again?

Don’t get discouraged. We lost this battle, but the government isn’t the president. The government is “We the people of the United Staes of America”, and we the people will NOT lose this war.

- Kittypatra

[meret118]

Authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat on Wednesday warned that “one of the most alarming things” in the right-wing Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” handbook is the admission that Donald Trump didn’t accomplish all he wanted to in his first administration.

“They got a slow start […] so their codeword is ‘day one,’” Ben-Ghiat told MSNBC’s Katie Phang of the think-tank’s proposal document that is widely expected to form the basis of a potential second Trump term’s policies.

. . .

“One thing that’s very important for people to realize,” she said, is that undocumented immigrants won’t be the only ones who end up being targeted.

“It’s always more people,” said Ben-Ghiat.

“They use one group to have the justification to build the repressive infrastructure like the camps, the transit camps, whatever they’re going to do,” she added. “But be assured, and this is the history of authoritarianism, many groups of people will be targeted to be in that.”

-------

If you are transgender, perform in drag, or openly queer, apply for a passport now. They will come for you.

If you're a Muslim American, you very probably need to do the same.

Did you always wonder why Jewish people and others didn't just leave once Hitler took power? (Some couldn't, and others were in denial about how bad it would get.) If he wins, we will be in a similar situation. These people are literal nazis. It can take months to get a passport. Apply now! What can it hurt? If the Democrats win, no problem. But if trump wins, you'll be ready.

[mariacallous]

Love it or hate it, you have to admit Temu had a banger year. Launched in late 2022, the Chinese-owned ecommerce site, known for selling a vast array of astonishingly affordable goods, took only two years to become a household name in the US. Over the past 12 months, it has topped download charts, surpassing other viral apps like ChatGPT and Threads, and now operates in dozens of countries around the world. Even its biggest rival, Amazon, recently introduced a Temu clone called Amazon Haul that closely resembles the original, both in terms of its logistics supply chain and user interface.

Temu is projected to earn more than $50 billion in total sales this year, according to analysts from AB Bernstein and Tech Buzz China, potentially tripling its 2023 figure. Temu’s website now gets nearly 700 million visits worldwide every month, and Apple recently revealed it was the most downloaded app of 2024 on iPhones in the US.

Temu has now fully replaced Wish, an earlier bargain online shopping site, in the cultural lexicon as the signifier of knockoffs or budget-friendly alternatives. The winner of the recent Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest in New York City, for example, calls himself “Temu-thée Chalamet.” Tens of millions of ordinary people have tried out the app, many of whom learned about it through one of Temu’s seemingly unavoidable and relentless advertising campaigns. At this point, your grandma is probably obsessed with Temu, too.

“My friends and family members who didn't know what it was in 2023 do now,” says Moira Weigel, an assistant professor at Harvard University who studies transnational online marketplaces. “Random relatives who know that I study China or ecommerce will say, ‘Oh, you must know all about Temu,’ in a way that didn’t happen a year ago.”

Weigel says that Temu has done a few things right, including identifying the correct suppliers in China, targeting appropriate customer segments, and finding an inexpensive way to ship products from one to the other. That allowed the shopping platform to defy early analyst predictions that it would quickly burn through its cash reserves and flame out.

Temu, which is owned by PDD, one of the biggest ecommerce giants in China, is moving and pivoting at a speed that its Western counterparts can’t really grasp, says Juozas Kaziukėnas, founder of the ecommerce intelligence firm Marketplace Pulse. “When you look at a company like Temu, it's going a thousand miles an hour,” he says.

Kaziukėnas believes the most important thing Temu did this year was quickly switch its focus away from shipping small packages through air cargo and start building local inventory supply chains in the US and other countries. “This year, it started with 100 percent of goods coming from China; now in the US, 50 percent of them are coming from local warehouses. For Western marketplaces, these types of changes would have taken years,” Kaziukėnas says.

Still, Temu does not have a shortage of looming challenges. In the US, the Biden administration is eager to dismantle a tariff exemption rule that critics say unfairly benefits Temu before it leaves the White House. In Europe, Temu is under formal investigation for allegedly selling illegal products and getting users addicted to its app. The company is also often criticized around the world for its negative environmental impact, labor practices, and alleged misuse of user data, including allegations from researchers in the US that the app poses a national security risk.

Whether Temu can overcome these hurdles will depend on how fast the company can adjust its supply chain and pivot away from the most troublesome aspects of how it operates—before regulators take action. “What Temu was, is, and what Temu will be in the future are perhaps different things,” Kaziukėnas says.

From $1 Deals to Dupes

Temu made its name by promoting dirt-cheap deals that are often too good to believe, like $5 purses and $2 wireless headphones. It spent millions promoting the tagline “shop like a billionaire” in a series of Super Bowl advertisements, and that’s indeed what the app used to feel like: Identical or very similar products cost only a fraction of what they did on Amazon or Walmart, and it was hard to resist the temptation of adding a dozen more things to your shopping cart when they each were less than $1.

Temu managed to pull it off because it exploited a few areas of untapped potential, says Weigel. On the buyer side, it targeted price-conscious shoppers living in a time of high inflation. On the seller side, it scouted out Chinese factories that needed to keep their production lines running, but had no idea how to enter overseas markets. To connect them, Temu figured out it could take advantage of the so-called de minimis rule to send items affordably through air cargo directly to customers’ doorsteps. The provision allows people to send packages to the US duty-free as long as the goods inside are worth less than $800.

Because this business model is based on shipping everything from China and doesn’t require much local inventory, it’s very easy to replicate in different markets. As of December 2024, Temu’s website shows that it’s available in 86 countries, while Amazon, having been in business for three decades, operates in only 22. “In recent history, like the past 10 to 15 years, the first place people were interested in selling is the US and Europe, because they're large markets, prices can be higher, and so on,” says Weigel, who traveled to China this year to interview vendors selling on Amazon and Temu. “Now, there is increasing interest among these small-to-medium-size Chinese businesses in expanding in Africa, Southeast Asia, and also Central Asia … Multiple people talk to me about how young and rapidly growing the population in Africa is.”

But that doesn’t mean Temu is totally different from Amazon. In fact, the company has begun borrowing a number of tactics from the US ecommerce giant. In March, Temu reportedly started working with local warehousing companies in the US and allowing vendors on the platform to store their own US inventory instead of shipping directly from China. This is essentially what Amazon has been doing for years with its Chinese-based marketplace sellers, a strategy that allows it to deliver orders in as little as a single day. And now, these locally shipped products account for nearly half of Temu’s sales in the US, according to The Information.

What this means is that many of the products Temu sells are no longer exempt from American import duties, significantly reducing the price advantage that Temu used to have. But the strategy allows Temu to ship physically larger items to US warehouses through ocean freight before putting them up for sale, and then, the products can be delivered faster to customers, who previously often needed to wait a week or more for their packages to arrive.

That is why consumers are increasingly buying things like couches or other furniture on Temu, and also why sometimes prices on the site end up not being much lower than on Amazon or other online retailers. “I think it's pretty clear that Temu is becoming a more expensive offering,” says Kaziukėnas. “I talked to someone at Temu months ago, and they said that they're repositioning Temu from cheap to affordable.”

Higher prices can help recoup some of the financial losses that Temu incurred in its earlier days when it was primarily focused on expansion, but it could also create an identity crisis for the platform. If it doesn’t have shocking $1 deals, then what does Temu really stand for? How can it compete with Amazon and Walmart when the other two are often perceived as more reliable, both in terms of shipping speed and product quality? “I think that’s a problem for Temu already, that it doesn't really have a strong brand to consumers,” Kaziukėnas says.

Lingerings Risks—and Rewards

The days might be numbered for the de minimis exemption. The White House announced in September that it would crack down on “abuse” of the provision, citing a sleuth of reasons ranging from intellectual property violations to fentanyl smuggling. It’s not clear yet how exactly the regulation might change—lawmakers may get rid of it completely or lower the price threshold—but a fix could be finalized before president-elect Donald Trump takes office next month.

If it happens soon, the change will no doubt make it harder for Temu to remain competitive, but it’s not going to eliminate it from the field. So much of the conversation in Washington this year has revolved around restricting de minimis to contain Temu, Kaziukėnas says, but the platform has already taken significant steps to reduce its dependence on it. Its ability to ship under de minimis and handle everything from inventory to pricing used to be the main selling points Temu used to lure Chinese suppliers, but now, it’s doing a 180 to address the risks—and the strategy seems to be working. “The regulators are still only now trying to figure out what to do. And by the time they have figured out what they actually need to do, these retailers will be something different,” Kaziukėnas says, referring to Temu and competitors like Shein that rely on de minimis.

Of course, there are other risks that the company needs to address. What TikTok is going through right now—the app could be blocked in the US as soon as next month—should serve as a cautionary tale for Temu, as the latter is already receiving similar scrutiny from lawmakers over its Chinese ownership and data protection practices.

The possibility of being blocked in the US is real for Temu, but Weigel points out that there’s less of a political urgency to act on an ecommerce platform than a social media one that has elicited concerns about things like artificial intelligence and disinformation. “​​While there is a bipartisan consensus that people are concerned with the implications of China's tech rise, the incentives to police Temu are lower than TikTok,” she says. The Chinese ecommerce vendors she has spoken to don’t seem very concerned either. “These people are very nimble and flexible. My sense was that it was a thing people were curious about, but not something they were afraid about,” Weigel says.

After all, Temu’s aggressive expansion into other markets gives them plenty of alternative places to find customers if things get really ugly between the US and China. On a recent trip to Shenzhen, Weigel says she met a woman who heads a cross-border ecommerce industry association. One of the first things she told Weigel: “We don’t necessarily make the American and the European markets our top priority.”

[schraubd]

The Day After Hamas

The New York Times reports increasing "daylight" (to use an old term) between President Biden and Netanyahu regarding what the aftermath of the Gaza campaign will look like -- specifically, regarding the role that the Palestinian Authority might have in governing Gaza once (knock on wood) Hamas is defeated.  Paul Campos thinks this is reflective of the worries regarding "the administration’s up until now very muted response to the siege of Gaza, and the gathering human rights and public health catastrophe that it represents." I'm not sure that's quite right, though it's perhaps lurking in the background. The more prominent instinct, I think, is that Biden fundamentally agrees with Israel regarding the merits and necessity of destroying Hamas, but fundamentally disagrees with Bibi regarding "the day after". The more "the day after" becomes salient in our minds and we start thinking not in terms of the war's prosecution but its aftermath, the more we're going to see latent but always-present disagreements between Bibi and Biden come to a fore. One sees this dynamic particularly in how Biden relates his response to Bibi's claim that the allies "carpet bombed Germany" -- "I said, 'Yeah, that’s why all these institutions were set up after World War II, to see to it that it didn’t happen again.'" The former point is about prosecution of the war, the latter point is about how we handled the aftermath. For Biden, destroying Hamas has to be followed by aggressive state-building efforts meant to provide a real future (economically, socially, and politically) for the Palestinian people. The allusion to the Marshall Plan after World War II is clearly part of this, and other relevant players are also insisting that any plans for rebuilding Gaza credibly commit to a realistic pathway for Palestinian statehood. For Bibi -- well, I really have no idea what Bibi's "day after" plan is. I don't think he actually wants to fully reoccupy Gaza; but he also doesn't want the PA involved; or international involvement; and certainly Hamas is out the question; so ... where are we left? He seems much more interested in what he'll say "no" to than what he can plausibly say "yes" to, because at this stage in the game reality has become Bibi's unconquerable enemy. And Biden, in turn, isn't going to have a lot of patience for Israel post-war simply refusing to let Gaza rebuild itself or have any sort of self-governance structure whatsoever just because Bibi can no longer square the circle of "no formal occupation" and "no Palestinian independence" by building a castle around Gaza and then never thinking about it again.. Even if one accepts that Israel is pot committed to destroying Hamas, that doesn't obviate but rather accentuates the need to have a serious answer to the "day after" question. Anyone remotely serious figure understands that the war in Gaza is the middle of the story, not the end, which makes it unsurprising that Bibi wants to treat it as an end and just close his eyes to what happens in the aftermath. Biden is a more serious person, and so he's actually contemplating these questions.  via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/FUY0IK1

[misfitwashere]

Donald Trump has crushed his rivals in the Iowa caucuses. Should they drop out and let him take on Biden?

From Quora:

Let’s be honest, we all knew this was going to happen and the entire country and by extension the world were bracing themselves for it. However, the biggest news were the exit polls, 2/3 say they feel Trump won the 2020 election and the Biden Presidency is illegitimate, 44% said they were MAGAS and they would vote for Trump even if he was convicted of a crime.

DeSantis and Haley are road kill at this point. They had their chances, Haley could make it a little closer, DeSantis will stay in only for the inevitable losses to come and drop out within a month, 2 at the most.

The real issue is this one:

Joy Reid accuses White Christian Iowans of wanting to have people of color 'bow down' to them

Reid argued that evangelicals support Trump because they believe 'immigrants' and 'brown people' are 'illegitimate Americans'

Ok so what is it going to be folks. Trump has a 90% probability that he is going to win the Republican nomination, what are the Democrats going to do about it. Trump owns the evangelicals, all the mocking about him not being a Christian, the anti-Christ, none of them give a damn. He is their guy, their Jesus and he can say and do anything that he wants.

The General election effectively began last night.

The Republicans have made their agenda clear. Biden stole the election, doesn’t matter that everyone knows he did not, doesn’t matter how well he has led the country, doesn’t matter that Trump inspired and led an insurrection against the USA, what matters is what they believe.

Now what do the Democrats believe. Don’t even bother trying to convince evangelicals who have their Jesus martyr victim grifting them for money. Don’t think about those MAGA hatted folks, they want Trump.

There are 40% who are now ‘independents’ in the USA, they hold the balance of power. The Iowa caucuses have very few people but they have spoken for the Republicans, they want Trump, they worship and adore Trump. Trump could shoot them all on 5th avenue and they would gladly bow down. That is the GOP today.

Democrats, start your engines. No more whinging about Biden didn’t manage to overturn the Supreme Court decision to get your student loans cut, sorry kids you will have to pay, not as much as he did get you $50 billion back but not enough for you perfect kids. Millennials ditto, your raises were only 20% this year in your nice cushy jobs. Same for you African Americans, you are complaining the loudest, we hear you, you want more but you won’t get more if you don’t get up and vote for Biden, you will get nothing as Joy Reid has pointed out, you are illegitimate Americans to Trump supporters.

Same for you Latinos, you want to ‘bow down’ to Christian evangelicals. How about you classic Liberals, you like that Christian theocracy because if Trump wins it is surely coming. Oh and you Israel supporters bitching and moaning about Biden who is the strongest Presidential supporter of Israel ever, you don’t like him? Think about what Trump will give away.

Ditto to Ukraine and European supporters, you don’t want Trump, then you better wake up. How about those transatlantic Brits, you and the Aussies who are so dependent and deep in on AUKUS and everything else Biden has done for you, time to step up and support Biden.

I could go on but on the other side, the Saudis will clearly screw around with oil to raise the price of gas to push for Trump who will give them everything. They hate it that Biden is focused on renewables and the lies of Trump on Biden and oil? Hahaha what a joke, Biden is pumping more than Saudi the most oil pumped in the history of the world.

Putin is dancing in the street, he feels he just won the war in Ukraine. Make no doubt about it, Putin wants Trump as does Xi Jin Ping and every other authoritarian including Netanyahu. You like war, you like death you like the end of democracy on a global level, vote for Trump. He will take you down with him.

Oh and yes; Lies, lies and more damn lies you can see them coming. Daily, hourly ever more outlandish than the last ones.

This is the beginning of a 10 month campaign, buckle up, it is going to be the wildest and most important one in US history. Not hyperbole, reality.

Let’s get to work and make sure Trump gets crushed right back in November, 2024.

Henry R. Greenfield ·

Former Senior Consultant Global Digital Twin Technology at Integrated Facility Management (2019–2023)

[3verythingiknowaboutlove]

fascism

um i write to process my feelings and figured i’d share here with some thoughts and rantings on the temporary ceasefire

“Steve Witkoff, President-elect Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, has also played an instrumental role, meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend to express Trump’s interest in attaining a deal before his inauguration on Monday.” - washington post.

over fourty six thousand palestinians are dead and that never should have happened, and the united states is complicit. it will never be clear to me how a state can refuse entry of aid to starving people whose homes and hospitals and schools are rubble. how under 500 hostages can be held in the same light as 46000 deaths.

donald trump says whatever the fuck he wants to get ahead. i think it’s absolutely wild how he only stepped in to try and get israel to come to a ceasefire so it will start the DAY before his presidency begins. this is not coincidental!!! he is treating this like a game where he takes steps to win when there are 46000 dead people from this in just over a year.

i swear to GOD he will claim that his presidency ended the war. that is because he saw how many many arab americans voted (in favor of him) just by making himself look like the complete opposite of joe biden, who clearly is in favor of israel.

“If you get me elected, and you should really be doing this … we're going to set that movement [the pro-Palestine solidarity campaign] back 25 or 30 years," Trump told Jewish donors at a roundtable event in New York earlier this year. Later, he promised to bring back a version of the Muslim ban, and said that the new iteration would include "ideological screening" to weed out immigrants who sympathise with the Palestinian group Hamas.” -middle east eye.

donald. trump. does. not. care. about. you. no matter what the washington post says (who, mind you, did not endorse a political candidate this year for the first time in 36 years.)

before he is a racist, before he is an american, republican, conservative, WHATEVER, donald trump is a power hungry capitalist. he will do anything for money and he will not do anything for anything else.

do not even get me STARTED on him/elon’s whole take on immigration

i think it is incredible that we are experiencing a ceasefire, and that is the very first step towards liberation, however everyone HAS to remember that this is not and will never be donald trump’s priority, care, or doing. this is solely because people protested and boycotted and didn’t shut up about the genocide. the role of a fascist government is to prove to it’s people that their voices don’t matter. helloooo tiktok ban THE DAY BEFORE TRUMP GETS INAGURATED THIS IS NOT A COINCIDENCE 😭😭😭😭

[stephenjaymorrisblog]

How Will All This End?

Stephen Jay Morris

5/4/2024

©Scientific Morality

            Ever hear of the expression, “a self-fulfilling prophecy?” What does that mean?  You can convince yourself that something negative will happen in the future; you can convince yourself by repeating it repeatedly. Does it usually happen? Well, if you believe in a supernatural belief system, you can make something happen by chanting for it. If you believe in logic, there’s a 50-50 chance that something you predict may happen by coincidence.

            I know, I know—in the past I promised not to make any predictions. But America in the year 2024, is too juicy to pass up. Let’s just say, I’m only theorizing. Is that Kosher? OK! Let’s get to it.

            Many self-created prophets want that Nostradamus statue on their living room mantel, above the fireplace. But most predictions fall flat on their face. What is America’s number one concern as it is shoved down our collective throats? The presidential election in November 2024. Let’s see. Before the primaries, both political parties declared their candidates for president.

That didn’t happen in 1968. The Democrats had three candidates running for president. RFK, Eugene McCarthy, and Hubert Humphrey. So did the Republican Party. Nelson Rockefeller, Ronny Reagan, and Dick Nixon. (Can you believe that Dick Nixon beat Ronny Reagan?) So, this not like 1968 at all.

Second of all, will there be riots at the Democratic convention in Chicago this summer? Same as in 1968—yes. Will there be any trouble? Not really. In 1968, there were dozens of protest groups, from the Civil Rights movement to the Black Panther Party. Also, from SDS to the Yippies. The City government consisted of Blue Dog Democrats. What are Blue Dog Democrats? Right wing Democrats. Yeah, there was such a thing! After all, Rockefeller was a Liberal Republican. The Mayor, Richard J. Daley, was a Red Neck conservative, and he loved the police force and the military.  Now, in 2024, the Chicago city council are mostly left-of-center Democrats. Nothing will happen on the streets of Chicago because the Liberals will negotiate with the protest leaders. And make deals with them. Unless police provocateurs or Israeli agents start some shit. But I highly doubt it.

            So, what about the Republican Convention? In 1968, they had theirs in Miami Beach Florida. It’s funny; the Democrats had theirs at the same place in ‘72. There were riots there. Looking back, the so-called media always focused on the Democratic Convention. They loved it when the Left fought Liberals. People forget when the Republicans had a riot near their convention in ’68, Blacks rioted at Liberty City and the media blacked it out. (Pun intended.) In 1970, when White students at Kent State got shot, it was front page news. However, when Black students got shot by cops at Jackson State, that appeared on page 18 in the newspaper. So, when the GOP have their convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this year, the media will downplay any demonstrations. If you still think the media is liberal, maybe you should go to your primary care provider and get tested for early-stage dementia.

            Now, between Biden and Trump, who will win? Biden is senile and Trump is demented. A lot can happen before November. Biden could drop out of the race for an elderly illness. Or he could die of natural causes. Keep your eye on Kamala Harris. She might be our first female president. If Biden does survive, he will lose the race.

            What about Trump? He could win, but he’d be very ineffectual sitting in a prison cell. Keep your eye on his vice-presidential choice. They might be our next president if Trump wins. It cracks me up how some of his sycophant followers portray him as some type of superhero. He must wear a girdle to keep that fat belly from falling on his dick! His arteries are so clogged with junk food, he might have a massive heart attack while sitting in the prison cafeteria. Plus, he has obvious signs of dementia; just listen to how he talks. I love how supporters of both candidates deny that their candidate has any illness. If Trump survives, he will barely win. The outcome may depend on which candidate dies first.

            Now, about this talk over losing our democracy. We never had it! For decades, the Chuds have claimed that we are a Constitutional Republic. The Liberals say we are a Liberal Democracy. Who’s right? Who cares?! This two-party system will always be a two-party system. If we were a true Democracy, we would have 17 political parties—just like Israel. But no, we have this fake rivalry between left and right. “Democrats are for the working man.” No, they’re not. “The Republicans are for individualism and Jesus.” Really?

So, as for this ultimatum of either we elect Biden or we get fascism versus if you vote for Trump, you’ll be raptured and float up to heaven…Fuck off, please! Nothing is going to happen in November. Even if Trump is elected, America will survive. If Biden wins, America will survive.

It’s time for a new constitution! It’s time for a one world anarchy!

Whatever!

[taelophone]

Whitewash in this context means concealing or ignoring certain aspects of a person or history to protect their/its reputation or represent them in a better light.

He has a few retweets that he engaged with, including some that have been deleted which are questionable but I won’t hold against him as his views may have changed (or he knew that they were controversial). In April he retweeted a blogger who complained that modern-day atheists “disprove[d] god” only to end up “worshipping at the DEI shrine” and “using made-up pronouns like religious mantras."

Also in April he retweeted a post from a lady talking about men in society role as being innate providers and women’s role to support men. A lot of the people he follows/listens to have right leaning views (Tucker Carlson, Jordan Peterson, Musk) and the writers that he engages with are quite similar. He spoke to Gurwinder in the months before he dropped off and it was clear to him that he was anti-woke and against identity labels (he did an interview on this). It seems like he was going down a red pill rabbit hole which isn’t uncommon and very possibly very different to how he was/thought before this year.

I’ve never heard whitewash be used that way before! Ty for letting me know <3

I’m gonna be honest, I have no idea how the dates of retweets work, or when they were retweeted, so I’m gonna address this assuming it was a deleted retweet as I am barely on twitter🙂‍↕️. If you have an archive of them, or a screenshot, please show me! It’s very hard to prove anything w no evidence of it ever having existed, because at that point it becomes speculation n I don’t like entertaining things without solid evidence

second, retweeting someone who has strange takes doesn’t mean you agree with said with the person, or their takes, as long as you’re not retweeting those strange comments. It’s possible he didn’t know, didn’t agree with them and just liked this one potential take, or maybe he did know. There’s no definitive way to prove anything unless we have the post. But I did end up reading that Gurwinder article, and I wasn’t able to find anything about Luigi being anti-woke or against labels. In fact, the very man conducting this interview uses labels. He is autistic, autistic is a label.

What Gurwinder DID mention, though, is that Luigi wasn’t crazy about Biden OR trump. He planned to vote for RFK, who originally debuted as a Democratic Party, but then became independent. Its perfectly possible and strikingly common to believe in both traditionally republican and traditionally Democratic views. That is exactly how we have the political compass today. In fact, using Gurwinder as an example, it’s highly likely that they were on the same spots on the political compass, or at least similar areas w some discrepancies.

And about the woke thing, the only thing I can find on Luigi’s page about woke ideology is this retweet, in which Gurwinder uses the post rebrand meaning of woke. This has nothing to do w the argument, but I just wanna say, the term woke has been TERRIBLY terribly misconstrued over the past 3-5 years. What started out as a way in the African American community to tell black men and women to stay vigilant, and to NOT LISTEN to the government with complete trust, has been rebranded by conservatives into socialism and feminism and LGBT support “propaganda”. I’m just here to say that none of those listed things have anything to do with the woke movement, and If anything, it’d be more accurate to describe “wokeism” as similar to punk or individualism. Before I became punk, I was “woke”.

And this I’m willing to say is kind of a strange take. The original tweet doesn’t imply wokeism, it doesn’t imply anything of the sort, and I have GOTTEN the “Where are you from?” question before. It’s NOT a polite question lmfaooo😭 what it really means is “where are you REALLY from? Africa?” But because Luigi and Gurwinder are both non-black individuals, this is not something they can comment on. But I understand what they both mean when they say getting upset at the question won’t help bridge any gaps, because it won’t. I acknowledge that some people are ignorant and don’t understand that what they’re saying is such, which is exactly why I never take the question as an insult or challenge unless it’s clear they intend it to be.

now I’m not going to say he wasn’t going down a red-pill rabbit hole cuz I have no idea what his twitter page or thoughts looked like during that time period of his life, and quite frankly, I’m not him🤷🏽‍♀️. But I’m just saying, it’s a leap to assume he was a full on republican, anti-woke, anti-DEI individual. Everyone’s political and moral compass is different, and his was probably spinning during this time of his life.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jonathan V. Last at The Bulwark:

Nobody cares about media stories but the announcement over the weekend that ABC News decided to settle Donald Trump’s weak defamation suit for $15 million is a big forking deal.

(1) ABC News didn’t settle. Disney did.

I do not have inside information but a decision this consequential was almost certainly not made by Almin Karamehmedovic, the president of ABC News. It probably wasn’t made by his boss, Debra OConnell, who runs the news group for Disney Entertainment Networks. I’d bet the milk money that Bob Iger—the CEO of Disney and one of the most important corporate executives in America—made the final call on settling with Trump. Because this is a decision that affects the entire corporation’s relationship to the federal government. And while it might be against the interest of ABC News to sell out its journalists, it’s very much in the interest of the Walt Disney Company to be on good terms with a president who is open about punishing his enemies and rewarding his friends.

(2) All of corporate America is making the peace.

We talked about Trump’s tribute/protection racket last week and how Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have gotten right with Big Orange. Add Disney to the list. This is an important development because Bezos and Zuckerberg are founder/owners. They have gigantic personal stakes in their companies and thus a great deal to lose. But Iger is just a normal CEO. Which is to say: He’s a hired hand. For sure, Bob Iger is well compensated for his work, but he doesn’t “own” Disney. And if even workaday CEOs like Iger—who have much less to lose than founders—are going to accommodate themselves to Trump, then everyone is going to fall in line.

(3) The media has already capitulated.

Over at the Los Angeles Times the billionaire owner is openly putting his thumb on the scale to make the paper more hospitable to Trump. Writers and editors at the Washington Post are running for the exits as Bezos’s new Trump-friendly publisher mucks about. Time magazine named Trump “Man of the Year” and the magazine’s owner said that Trump’s election “marks a time of great promise” for America and that “we look forward to working together.”1 Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski presented themselves at Trump’s court to reset their relationship and then discovered a delicate sensibility concerning on-air criticism of Trump cabinet nominees. And now Disney has cut off ABC News at the knees and put everyone in its news division on notice that they will not be supported by corporate if they make enemies with Trump world. What is capitulation going to look like going forward? Mainstream news outlets aren’t going to start fluffing Trump. The capitulation will look more like this: (1) They’ll try to buy protection by employing Trump favorites. That’s what the LA Times did by bringing in Scott Jennings. Media companies will hope that by paying people who have access to Trump they can persuade Trump to leave them alone. (2) They’ll cut down on platforming Trump critics who are in DGAF mode. Instead, they’ll favor tame critics who stay in the realm of normal kabuki theater. (3) They’ll start leaving things unsaid.

[...]

3. Lawfare

One more thing about the asymmetry of Trump’s defamation claim against ABC News. Fox News broadcasts regularly refer to the “Biden crime family.” A guest on Newsmax called President Joe Biden—who has never been convicted of any crimes—the “head of the Biden crime family.” In May 2020 Donald Trump Jr. authored an Instagram post with a picture of Biden saying: “See you later, alligator” alongside an image of an alligator saying: “In a while, pedophile.” On September 15, 2020 Donald Trump himself insinuated that Joe Biden was a pedophile, retweeting a post with the hashtag “#PedoBiden.” Joe Biden didn’t file defamation suits against the Trumps père et fils. We have established a playing field in which the forces of MAGA can slander, libel, and defame with near impunity—what is QAnon if not an elaborate defamation case?—while simultaneously using libel law to attack legitimate critics in an attempt to chill everyone else’s speech.

Jonathan V. Last at The Bulwark wrote a home-run column on why ABC’s folding to Donald Trump is an abject act of surrender to fascism.

See Also:

The Present Age: ABC News Just Showed Trump Exactly How to Silence Journalists