#gop betrayed america

[shadowdemon-gd]

Happy Fourth of July to America. And a big fuck you to Lauren Boebert, Ron DeSantis, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Supreme Court, and the rest of you traitors. If you support Donald Trump, the Confederate flag, or the Nazi flag, you lost the right to say you love America

[liberalsarecool]

Republicans have betrayed America. Again.

No progress can be made by the House. They take their orders from Trump to protect Trump.

Border security is political theatre for House Republicans. All talk, no action.

Democracy is a threat to GOP fascists. Rather than legislate/debate their policies, Republicans are abdicating control to obstructionist Trump.

Vote for Democrats. End GOP inaction.

[biot08]

I remember a common enough thought exercise when I was in school, was what would I do, in America, if Nazis took over like they did in Germany.

Who would stand where? What would we do? Of course none of us would tolerate the situation. We would all speak out, we would all fight.

The question seems to be being asked right now.

The answer is pretty simple, it turns out.

Vote. Meaningfully. It's not enough to not vote for Trump or the Republicans who back him. Vote for the greatest chance for victory.

Blue, all the way down the ticket. It's not progressives versus authoritarianism. It's about realising that too many tried to 'send a message' already in 2016, and we know how that turned out. We know the rules of the system. They are not unchangeable, but if you want them to change, you need to preserve democracy.

This time, we vote Kamala/Walz. In a landslide. Even if you are in a 'safe' district. Even if you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that your state will go full blue at the electoral college level. Make the American people's voice obvious. Drown out the man who wants to be Hitler. Make it -obvious- that this is a losing political strategy.

Trump did a lot of damage in 2016. That was with an unprepared GOP. This time, they are prepared, and they are ready. If they take power this time, they may not ever give it back without the use of violence. And that violence will absolutely be disproportionate, mostly against people you care about.

There is no scenario here where a third party candidate wins. And there is no scenario where the system, resilient enough to survive a civil war, can be accelerated into collapsing for your glorious revolution or whatever it is some people seem to be hoping will happen if Trump wins.

We got this. The Electoral College is absolute garbage, but we got Biden in 2020 despite the January 6th attempted coup and other extremely hostile actions from people who were supposed to uphold the system and instead tried to betray it. They will be trying again.

But if we get out the vote, we get out the numbers, we can make victory inevitable and obvious to anyone and everyone who is watching, and drown them out.

We can establish a foundation with which to build the progressive future we really want.

We can move the window to the left. We can make sure laws get passed to enshrine queer rights. We can make sure immigrants are protected and get to live lives with dignity. We can improve our lives, and the lives of those we care about!

But we need foundation, first.

Blue, at every federal level. Give America a president and a congress that is actually interested in governing.

[ritchiepage2001newaccount]

WHY UNIVERSAL BACKGROUND CHECKS ARE JUST AS UNLIKELY AS EVER, UNFORTUNATELY

I'm a leftist (Libertarian-Socialist), who votes progressive, because I live under an "elected" government, and I had thought I had purged the MSNBC/CNN Nation from my friends list, but apparently not, as my timeline is just chock-full of media-driven hysteria over current events, so here's a primer:

"Liberals" who think their arguments are clever or relevant to the Second Amendment are exhausting.

They are not the left; they are just one half of the good cop/bad cop act of the corporate owned fire-hose of bullshit that is the corporate media, and corporate America's governing criminal cartel/duopoly.

Both cults "I like simple and ineffectual 'solutions', because they make me feel like I'm doing something, and I'm just stinky with fear."

There are over a hundred million legal gun owners, who some want to punish for somebody else's crime.

Well, there are some things to consider.

We've been a heavily armed country since 1621, and yet the epidemic of daily mass-shootings didn't begin until 20 April 1999 (Columbine), at a time when gun ownership was at an all-time low, and five years after Clinton's assault-weapons ban, so maybe guns aren't the variable.

Worth noting: One of the first things the "Pilgrims" did when they betrayed the Native Americans, was disarm "King Phillip" and his men.

Maybe, just maybe, dead school-children are the price of the neoliberalism practiced under the "Washington Consensus" of BOTH right-wing authoritarian parties since the 1980's? When your country offers you no prospects, and you become terrified of the future, what then? Fear can make unstable people do desperate things. Add to that a culture of celebrity, and what could possibly go wrong?

Another factor that goes completely unexamined, is the way Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill emptied our state hospitals onto our streets, and onto families ill-equipped to deal with the sometimes violent mentally ill.

Thank God, the "solution" is so simple…

Also, 84% of NRA members support universal background checks. The problem is, every time a bill comes up for a vote, Democrats add poison pill amendments guaranteeing defeat in the legislature (and the courts), and then they proceed to tell the TV cameras that "once again the GOP and the gun lobby have voted down background checks and defied the will of the people", or some such nonsense.

If you want to watch Dems sabotage universal background checks (while Republicans roll their eyes and face-palm) in real time, go here:

P.S. You can probably guess which one of these three groups I belong to (Hint: It's the one that's growing and actually decides elections):

LaborPartyNow!!!

P S The line, "You don't need 30 rounds to shoot a deer!" is not clever.

The Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting tools, toys for hobbyists (target shooting), or even weapons for self-defense.

It's about ARMS!!!

It's about the individual citizen's right to arms, so they'll be prepared to join a militia, not the other way around. ‘Well regulated’ at that time, simply meant, ‘efficient.’ In other words, in order for a muster to be efficient, civilians needed to be already armed.

So the "collective rights" argument has a couple of problems that make it quite unhinged from history and reality.

1) As I've mentioned above, Americans have always been relatively heavily armed. How did that happen in a collective rights paradigm?

2) Contrary to what you were probably taught in school, by the time of the Confederate artillery barrage on Fort Sumter, the war over slavery had already been going on for over six years, and was fought entirely by independent volunteer militia's. Fort Sumter was just the beginning of official involvement by government troops. How did that happen in a collective rights paradigm?

3) In what universe do government forces need to have their right to arms protected?

4) Since when do National Guard members keep National Guard arms (Hint: they're kept at the armory, and have been since colonial times)?

5) Obviously, "Liberals" are stupid.

Again: #LaborPartyNow!!!

P P S That was ENTIRELY the point of the first fruits of dissent, the 10 Amendments we've come to call the BILL OF RIGHTS (which have become a beacon to aspiring democrats all over the world), to protect INDIVIDUALS from the government they had just created. #TrueStory

[meandmybigmouth]

SO, APPARENTLY WHEN ASKED TO BETRAY NOT ONLY THE WOMEN AND YOUNG GIRLS IN THEIR LIVES, THE MEN OF MAGA ARE WILLING TO DO IT TO ALL THE WOMEN AND YOUNG GIRLS OF AMERICA AS THEY STAND UP TO PROTECT THE WORST ASSHOLE THE GOP COULD NAME AS THEIR POTUS CANDIDATE?

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Walter Einenkel at Daily Kos:

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke with alleged conman and former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon on his “War Room” show Monday. The interview was what anthropologists might call … bananas.  Greene, who is hopping mad about everything, always, is almost incoherently angry that over the weekend, Congress finally passed long-delayed foreign aid funding for our allies in Ukraine. Greene characterized sending aid to Ukraine as throwing good money after bad. “It doesn't guarantee a Ukrainian victory because everyone knows they're going to lose eventually. It just is a matter of when," she whined. Bannon and Greene then spent the rest of the interview accusing House Speaker Mike Johnson and his Republican supporters of not being MAGA enough. Greene seems to talk only with people who agree with her.

[I've not seen people this angry since November of 2020. I mean, they are off the charts, off the charts, angry ...They're angry on a whole 'nother level. And here's what really worries me. They're done with the Republican Party. They are absolutely done with Republican leadership. Like Mike Johnson, who totally sold us out to the Democrats, would join the “uniparty” faster than anyone we've ever seen in history, and literally made a night and day change in a matter of months, betrayed everyone, betrayed the entire Republican Party, betrayed Republican voters, betrayed the Republican conference. And voters are so angry this time that I'm really worried. I am really worried. They're so angry. They're not going to give us the majority back in 2025.]

Bannon says that there are no longer two major political parties, identifiable as Democrats and Republicans. Instead, it is a war between the “populist nationalists” and “globalist elite.” Greene fears Johnson’s leadership is going to lose the GOP control of Congress.

Far-right pro-Kremlin troll Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is leading the charge to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) from his job over securing funding for Ukraine.

See Also:

MMFA: Marjorie Taylor Greene is on a right-wing media tour promoting her efforts to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson

From the 04.22.2024 edition of Real America's Voice's War Room:

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Jesse Duquette

* * * *

The GOP plays “hide the ball” with its 2024 platform

July 9, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

Trump knows that if the 2024 election is decided on the issues, he will lose. That is why the Republican Party platform previewed today attempts to distance the GOP from its real agenda. The fact that Trump is playing “hide the ball” with the American electorate is a sign of fear and concern. If the GOP believed its platform would propel Trump to re-election, it would not engage in deceit and sleight of hand.

To be clear, the official Republican platform is horrific, as described below. But the real Republican platform is known as Project 2025—a document that describes a fascist vision for America. But the GOP Platform whitewashes that vision.

For example, the GOP Platform mentions the word “abortion” only once to say that the decision has been returned to the states. Project 2025 references “abortion” 922 times to describe how access to abortion will be denied at the national level through congressional legislation and how access will be restricted in every program possible—from emergency medical treatment to foreign aid to healthcare in the military. (Click the link above, search the PDF for the word “abortion” to confirm the results for yourself.)

But the same is true of other issues. Project 2025 promises to “dismantle the administrative state,” gut the civil service, strip the EPA of its ability to protect the environment, actively discriminate against LGBTQ people (including by excluding transgender people from the military), promote the role of “faith-based” organizations in delivering government services, and more.

Heather Cox Richardson described Trump's recent attempt to distance himself from the toxic Project 2025 in her Letters from An American, dated July 5, 2024. First, HCR notes that Steve Bannon and other Trump allies describe Project 2025 as “institutionalizing Trumpism.” HCR then notes

His social media feed tried to distance the former president from Project 2025. “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it,” the post read. Despite this disavowal of any knowledge of the project, it continued: “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

Any reasonable reading of Trump's statement above suggests that he understands Project 2025 will be a millstone around his neck that will sink his prospects. The reactionaries behind Project 2025 understand the same thing. One of the co-founders of Project 2025, Paul Dans, canceled an interview with NBC to be taped on Monday. No explanation was provided for the cancellation.

Trump's attempt to soften the GOP platform should fool no one. See generally Talking Points Memo, Trump Team Tries Harder And Harder To Hide What They Will Actually Do During Trump 2.0.

Trump's “hide the ball” routine is not escaping the notice of the ultra-right evangelical Christians who have served as the backbone of Trump's solid core of support.

As noted by NBC News,

Social conservatives pushed to retain the platform’s old language promoting an abortion ban and opposing same-sex marriage, but they lost as the politics surrounding both have changed over the years. . . . “It is fair to say that over 1,000 pastors have emailed, texted and called me about their disappointment over where they saw the platform going,” said Chad Connelly, a former chair of the South Carolina GOP who said he was blocked from the platform committee over "being labeled 'too pro-life.'" “The words I am hearing are shocked, betrayed, trampled, depressed, deflated,” he said. “Most pastors I know don’t want Biden and will still probably vote for Trump, but this hurts the energy needed for those folks to do the things it takes to help elect a president.”

Still, the GOP platform presents a fascist, white nationalist, xenophobic view of America. Relevant points include:

1. Seal The Border, And Stop The Migrant Invasion 2. Carry Out The Largest Deportation Operation In American History 9. End The Weaponization Of Government Against The American People 10. Stop The Migrant Crime Epidemic, Demolish The Foreign Drug Cartels, Crush Gang Violence, And Lock Up Violent Offenders 15. Cancel The Electric Vehicle Mandate And Cut Costly And Burdensome Regulations 16. Cut Federal Funding For Any School Pushing Critical Race Theory, Radical Gender Ideology, And Other Inappropriate Racial, Sexual, Or Political Content On Our Children 18. Deport Pro-Hamas Radicals And Make Our College Campuses Safe And Patriotic Again 19. Secure Our Elections, Including Same Day Voting, Voter Identification, Paper Ballots, And Proof Of Citizenship.

There is more to discuss in the days to come. However, the above points align with Project 2025—although they are sanitized to conceal the essential connection between Project 2025 and the Republican Platform. It is up to Democrats to spread the alarm. A good place to start is with Center for American Progress, Project 2025: The Plan To Seize Power by Gutting America’s System of Checks and Balances.

+

The Supreme Court

Meanwhile, the biggest threat to democracy, the Supreme Court, has glided under the radar in the uproar over Biden’s debate performance. But Professor Laurence Tribe and Judge Michael Luttig continue to sound the alarm.

Professor Tribe has published an article in The Guardian that proposes fundamental reforms in the Supreme Court and executive branches. See US supreme court abandoned the rule of law and triggered a need for basic reform | Laurence H Tribe | The Guardian.

Professor Tribe suggests three fundamental reforms: First, an enforceable ethics code and term limits, and possibly creating several added seats “to offset the way Trump stacked the court to favor his Maga agenda as president;” second, creating a federal prosecutorial arm structurally independent of the presidency; and third, clarifications and limitations on presidential immunity and the pardon power.

As Professor Tribe notes, the process of amending the Constitution need not take long. The first step is taking control of Congress and re-electing Joe Biden (my gloss)!

Also, Professor Michael Luttig discusses the recent immunity decision with Michael Popok on the podcast Legal AF (available on Apple Podcasts). The discussion takes a deep dive into

the dangers presented by the immunity decision.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[ritchiepage2001newaccount]

They're not the only problem.

WHY UNIVERSAL BACKGROUND CHECKS ARE JUST AS UNLIKELY AS EVER, UNFORTUNATELY

I'm a leftist (Libertarian-Socialist), who votes progressive, because I live under an "elected" government, and I had thought I had purged the MSNBC/CNN Nation from my friends list, but apparently not, as my timeline is just chock-full of media-driven hysteria over current events, so here's a primer:

"Liberals" who think their arguments are clever or relevant to the Second Amendment are exhausting.

They are not the left; they are just one half of the good cop/bad cop act of the corporate owned fire-hose of bullshit that is the corporate media, and corporate America's governing criminal cartel/duopoly.

Both cults "I like simple and ineffectual 'solutions', because they make me feel like I'm doing something, and I'm just stinky with fear."

There are over a hundred million legal gun owners, who some want to punish for somebody else's crime.

Well, there are some things to consider.

We've been a heavily armed country since 1621, and yet the epidemic of daily mass-shootings didn't begin until 20 April 1999 (Columbine), at a time when gun ownership was at an all-time low, and five years after Clinton's assault-weapons ban, so maybe guns aren't the variable.

Worth noting: One of the first things the "Pilgrims" did when they betrayed the Native Americans, was disarm "King Phillip" and his men.

Maybe, just maybe, dead school-children are the price of the neoliberalism practiced under the "Washington Consensus" of BOTH right-wing authoritarian parties since the 1980's? When your country offers you no prospects, and you become terrified of the future, what then? Fear can make unstable people do desperate things. Add to that a culture of celebrity, and what could possibly go wrong?

Another factor that goes completely unexamined, is the way Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill emptied our state hospitals onto our streets, and onto families ill-equipped to deal with the sometimes violent mentally ill.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/04/opinion/us-mental-health-community-centers.html

Thank God, the "solution" is so simple…

Also, 84% of NRA members support universal background checks. The problem is, every time a bill comes up for a vote, Democrats add poison pill amendments guaranteeing defeat in the legislature (and the courts), and then they proceed to tell the TV cameras that "once again the GOP and the gun lobby have voted down background checks and defied the will of the people", or some such nonsense.

If you want to watch Dems sabotage universal background checks (while Republicans roll their eyes and face-palm) in real time, go here:

P.S. You can probably guess which one of these three groups I belong to (Hint: It's the one that's growing and actually decides elections):

LaborPartyNow!!!

P S The line, "You don't need 30 rounds to shoot a deer!" is not clever.

The Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting tools, toys for hobbyists (target shooting), or even weapons for self-defense.

It's about ARMS!!!

It's about the individual citizen's right to arms, so they'll be prepared to join a militia, not the other way around. ‘Well regulated’ at that time, simply meant, ‘efficient.’ In other words, in order for a muster to be efficient, civilians needed to be already armed.

So the "collective rights" argument has a couple of problems that make it quite unhinged from history and reality.

1) As I've mentioned above, Americans have always been relatively heavily armed. How did that happen in a collective rights paradigm?

2) Contrary to what you were probably taught in school, by the time of the Confederate artillery barrage on Fort Sumter, the war over slavery had already been going on for over six years, and was fought entirely by independent volunteer militia's. Fort Sumter was just the beginning of official involvement by government troops. How did that happen in a collective rights paradigm?

3) In what universe do government forces need to have their right to arms protected?

4) Since when do National Guard members keep National Guard arms (Hint: they're kept at the armory, and have been since colonial times)?

5) Obviously, "Liberals" are stupid.

Again: #LaborPartyNow!!!

P P S That was ENTIRELY the point of the first fruits of dissent, the 10 Amendments we've come to call the BILL OF RIGHTS (which have become a beacon to aspiring democrats all over the world), to protect INDIVIDUALS from the government they had just created. #TrueStory

"Facts are stubborn things, so fuck your feelings." -John Adams

The republicans are the problem, get rid of all of them!

[cyarskaren52]

That’s right! Black Democrats should change their party affiliation to Independent, and let’s see how many primaries any of their white favourites win without Black people behind them, especially Black women!

I'll make this plain, Democrats. Listening to the likes of: -James Carville -Rahm Emmanuel -Bernie Sanders -Bill Maher -David Axlerod will DESTROY the party. Your base SEES you as backstabbers & betrayers. I WARNED you IN JULY after stabbing your own POTUS in the back. 1/9

Black women feel betrayed by you. They KNOW you didn't REALLY want Kamala Harris as your nominee. They saw the names you bandied about & the way you said she wouldn't be "coronated." They see how you've TURNED on her NOW. They also know you painted yourself in a corner. 2/9

Because you let the Clooneys, Pod Bros, MSNBC hosts & consultants make you panic. So you betrayed your OWN successful POTUS- but you had NO parachute. You had NO Plan B. If you hold ANOTHER primary- you RIP your party apart-so you put your VP in an untenable situation. 3/9

If she wins- FINE. If she LOSES, you get the party back the way you ALWAYS wanted: With white consultants holding ALL the power and the marginalized relegated below... where they belong. But it's not working out that way is it? Black people aren't despairing. We're done. 4/9

The folk you refused to nuke the filibuster for-your most loyal voting bloc- aren't writing checks or crying. Nah, we see an America that would rather burn itself to the GROUND than cede white supremacy. So be it! It's not just MAGA either. It's Bernie. It's Carville. 5/9

As I said in July, we saw you stab BIDEN in the back, we KNOW what you'd do TO US. Go ahead with these arguments against "identity politics" like that's what VP Harris ran on. Like it's NOT what MAGA is about in its ENTIRETY. Keep cutting off your nose to spite your face. 6/9

At the end of the day, you know what WE know: Who your most loyal voting bloc IS and has been since 1964. Let these consultants convince you the party of 1992 still exists. It doesn't. You're going to have to name a thing a thing. You want the answers? Here it is: 7/9

Figure out HOW to make racism & sexism LESS attractive. Trump just MIGHT do it, but a LOT of people are going to get hurt in the process. You're gonna have to TEACH an ignorant public how NOT to self-harm. What SHOULD have been done after the Civil War is now imperative. 8/9

Arrogance and cowardice have already caused you to cede this nation to fascism. The only advantage you have now is IT'S COMING. The GOP is going to DESTROY this country. If you want to survive to pick up the pieces, I'd suggest SHORING UP your loyal bloc, not ignoring it. 9/9

[sethshead]

Fucking dumbasses.

Trump is the Muslim ban guy. The “shit-hole countries” guy. The “poisoning the blood of America” guy. The guy who wanted to give Netanyahu free rein to turn Gaza into a parking lot. The guy who recognized the Israeli annexation of Golan and moved the US embassy to West Jerusalem. The guy who has a fucking settlement named after him. And Muslims bought into his “peacenik” shtik?! They deserve every pang of heartache they’re going to feel.

Trump will be a disaster for America, and he’ll enable Netanyahu and friends to be a continuing disaster for Israel. Nonetheless, I will enjoy my Schadenfreude here without guilt. To see people torpedo 250 years of American democracy only to be betrayed by someone they knew to be a fascist pathological liar will be the only entertainment worth watching under a Trump regime.

The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity, and now American Muslims join the party. This is why the few democracies in the Muslim world are so dysfunctional and short-lived. Time and again, voters would rather give power to strongmen who will make everyone’s lives worse than accept the compromise and process incumbent in liberal democracy. Do that enough and you won’t have democracy at all.

That said, I doubt most of those Muslim votes for Trump were inspired by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Uncommitted was exposed long ago as a GOP op. Many Muslims are small business owners and, contrary to progressive campus and activist rhetoric, traditionalist, patriarchal, and religiously conservative. The same is true of Christian Arabs. Every feature of this demographic points to it being a typical Republican hotbed. It was largely Republican until the Iraq invasion. Now it’s just returning to form, albeit with a lot of dissembling about the reason why. Petit bourgeoisie and Lumpenproletarier did as petit bourgeoisie and Lumpenproletarier do. In this case, they’ll get the outcome they deserve.

[meandmybigmouth]

YOU VOTED FOR THIS AMERICA!

Watch As GOP Senators Fist Bump After Blocking Veterans Healthcare Bill

BETRAYED YOUR OWN FAMILY MEMBERS AND THE CHILDREN OF FRIENDS?

[ritchiepage2001newaccount]

WHY UNIVERSAL BACKGROUND CHECKS ARE JUST AS UNLIKELY AS EVER, UNFORTUNATELY

I'm a leftist (Libertarian-Socialist), who votes progressive, because I live under an "elected" government, and I had thought I had purged the MSNBC/CNN Nation from my friends list, but apparently not, as my timeline is just chock-full of media-driven hysteria over current events, so here's a primer:

"Liberals" who think their arguments are clever or relevant to the Second Amendment are exhausting.

They are not the left; they are just one half of the good cop/bad cop act of the corporate owned fire-hose of bullshit that is the corporate media, and corporate America's governing criminal cartel/duopoly.

Both cults "I like simple and ineffectual 'solutions', because they make me feel like I'm doing something, and I'm just stinky with fear."

There are over a hundred million legal gun owners, who some want to punish for somebody else's crime.

Well, there are some things to consider.

We've been a heavily armed country since 1621, and yet the epidemic of daily mass-shootings didn't begin until 20 April 1999 (Columbine), at a time when gun ownership was at an all-time low, and five years after Clinton's assault-weapons ban, so maybe guns aren't the variable.

Worth noting: One of the first things the "Pilgrims" did when they betrayed the Native Americans, was disarm "King Phillip" and his men.

Maybe, just maybe, dead school-children are the price of the neoliberalism practiced under the "Washington Consensus" of BOTH right-wing authoritarian parties since the 1980's? When your country offers you no prospects, and you become terrified of the future, what then? Fear can make unstable people do desperate things. Add to that a culture of celebrity, and what could possibly go wrong?

Another factor that goes completely unexamined, is the way Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill emptied our state hospitals onto our streets, and onto families ill-equipped to deal with the sometimes violent mentally ill.

Thank God, the "solution" is so simple…

Also, 84% of NRA members support universal background checks. The problem is, every time a bill comes up for a vote, Democrats add poison pill amendments guaranteeing defeat in the legislature (and the courts), and then they proceed to tell the TV cameras that "once again the GOP and the gun lobby have voted down background checks and defied the will of the people", or some such nonsense.

If you want to watch Dems sabotage universal background checks (while Republicans roll their eyes and face-palm) in real time, go here:

P.S. You can probably guess which one of these three groups I belong to (Hint: It's the one that's growing and actually decides elections):

POST.NEWS MODERATORS FORBID LINKS TO GALLUP.COM BECAUSE THEY ARE TERRIFIED OF REALITY

LaborPartyNow!!!

P S The line, "You don't need 30 rounds to shoot a deer!" is not clever.

The Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting tools, toys for hobbyists (target shooting), or even weapons for self-defense.

It's about ARMS!!!

It's about the individual citizen's right to arms, so they'll be prepared to join a militia, not the other way around. ‘Well regulated’ at that time, simply meant, ‘efficient.’ In other words, in order for a muster to be efficient, civilians needed to be already armed.

So the "collective rights" argument has a couple of problems that make it quite unhinged from history and reality.

1) As I've mentioned above, Americans have always been relatively heavily armed. How did that happen in a collective rights paradigm?

2) Contrary to what you were probably taught in school, by the time of the Confederate artillery barrage on Fort Sumter, the war over slavery had already been going on for over six years, and was fought entirely by independent volunteer militia's. Fort Sumter was just the beginning of official involvement by government troops. How did that happen in a collective rights paradigm?

3) In what universe do government forces need to have their right to arms protected?

4) Since when do National Guard members keep National Guard arms (Hint: they're kept at the armory, and have been since colonial times)?

5) Obviously, "Liberals" are stupid.

Again: #LaborPartyNow!!!

P P S That was ENTIRELY the point of the first fruits of dissent, the 10 Amendments we've come to call the BILL OF RIGHTS (which have become a beacon to aspiring democrats all over the world), to protect INDIVIDUALS from the government they had just created. #TrueStory

"Facts are stubborn things, so fuck your feelings." -John Adams

Something I want people to take away from the assassination attempt of Donald Trump is that it was also a mass shooting. There’s a total of 4 victims, which qualifies as a mass shooting, and since July 1st there has been 39 mass shootings in America. We are only 15 days into July and people still argue about gun violence while the number of shootings keeps going up.

[ritchiepage2001newaccount]

WHY UNIVERSAL BACKGROUND CHECKS ARE JUST AS UNLIKELY AS EVER, UNFORTUNATELY

I'm a leftist (Libertarian-Socialist), who votes progressive, because I live under an "elected" government, and I had thought I had purged the MSNBC/CNN Nation from my friends list, but apparently not, as my timeline is just chock-full of media-driven hysteria over current events, so here's a primer:

"Liberals" who think their arguments are clever or relevant to the Second Amendment are exhausting.

They are not the left; they are just one half of the good cop/bad cop act of the corporate owned fire-hose of bullshit that is the corporate media, and corporate America's governing criminal cartel/duopoly.

Both cults "I like simple and ineffectual 'solutions', because they make me feel like I'm doing something, and I'm just stinky with fear."

There are over a hundred million legal gun owners, who some want to punish for somebody else's crime.

Well, there are some things to consider.

We've been a heavily armed country since 1621, and yet the epidemic of daily mass-shootings didn't begin until 20 April 1999 (Columbine), at a time when gun ownership was at an all-time low, and five years after Clinton's assault-weapons ban, so maybe guns aren't the variable.

Worth noting: One of the first things the "Pilgrims" did when they betrayed the Native Americans, was disarm "King Phillip" and his men.

Maybe, just maybe, dead school-children are the price of the neoliberalism practiced under the "Washington Consensus" of BOTH right-wing authoritarian parties since the 1980's? When your country offers you no prospects, and you become terrified of the future, what then? Fear can make unstable people do desperate things. Add to that a culture of celebrity, and what could possibly go wrong?

Another factor that goes completely unexamined, is the way Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill emptied our state hospitals onto our streets, and onto families ill-equipped to deal with the sometimes violent mentally ill.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/04/opinion/us-mental-health-community-centers.html

Thank God, the "solution" is so simple…

Also, 84% of NRA members support universal background checks. The problem is, every time a bill comes up for a vote, Democrats add poison pill amendments guaranteeing defeat in the legislature (and the courts), and then they proceed to tell the TV cameras that "once again the GOP and the gun lobby have voted down background checks and defied the will of the people", or some such nonsense.

If you want to watch Dems sabotage universal background checks (while Republicans roll their eyes and face-palm) in real time, go here:

P.S. You can probably guess which one of these three groups I belong to (Hint: It's the one that's growing and actually decides elections):

LaborPartyNow!!!

P S The line, "You don't need 30 rounds to shoot a deer!" is not clever.

The Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting tools, toys for hobbyists (target shooting), or even weapons for self-defense.

It's about ARMS!!!

It's about the individual citizen's right to arms, so they'll be prepared to join a militia, not the other way around. ‘Well regulated’ at that time, simply meant, ‘efficient.’ In other words, in order for a muster to be efficient, civilians needed to be already armed.

So the "collective rights" argument has a couple of problems that make it quite unhinged from history and reality.

1) As I've mentioned above, Americans have always been relatively heavily armed. How did that happen in a collective rights paradigm?

2) Contrary to what you were probably taught in school, by the time of the Confederate artillery barrage on Fort Sumter, the war over slavery had already been going on for over six years, and was fought entirely by independent volunteer militia's. Fort Sumter was just the beginning of official involvement by government troops. How did that happen in a collective rights paradigm?

3) In what universe do government forces need to have their right to arms protected?

4) Since when do National Guard members keep National Guard arms (Hint: they're kept at the armory, and have been since colonial times)?

5) Obviously, "Liberals" are stupid.

Again: #LaborPartyNow!!!

P P S That was ENTIRELY the point of the first fruits of dissent, the 10 Amendments we've come to call the BILL OF RIGHTS (which have become a beacon to aspiring democrats all over the world), to protect INDIVIDUALS from the government they had just created. #TrueStory

"Facts are stubborn things, so fuck your feelings." -John Adams

[the-eternal-quest-for-balance]

GOP BETRAYS America, US House Votes To RENEW FISA, Warrantless Spying On...

[meandmybigmouth]

WHY THEM? WHY NOT THE CORRUPT GOP FAILING US, SELLING US ALL OUT, BETRAYING AMERICA?

[arpov-blog-blog]

..."Trump blinked this morning, taking a cowardly path on a disastrous issue for him and the Rs. “Leaving it to the states” is absurd place, for he is still responsible for ending Roe, for stripping the rights and freedoms away from the women of America, for unleashing the escalating assault on reproductive freedom across the country, for sanctioning and green lighting the most extreme abortion bans in the country; and now his allies on the right are going to feel betrayed by him. It is a squirming, “I got no place else to go” position, one that confirms how much trouble MAGA is in right now.

Let’s be very clear that “leaving it to the states” is a more extreme position than a 15 week ban for it sanctions and accepts the most extreme state bans as legitimate without providing an alternative. As Trump is about to find out there is no safe place for Rs on abortion other than a full retreat and a restoration of a woman’s right to choose.

All this reinforces what a political disaster MAGA has become, how the extremism that Trump has unleashed has made his party unmanagable, unpopular, and a stone cold electoral loser. It remains today, as I like to say, the ugliest political thing we’ve ever seen, and despite his tortured efforts there isn’t any way to put lipstick on this MAGA pig. Today what we saw from Trump wasn’t leadership but cowardice and weakness, for even he has begun to realize how hard it is going to be for him to win with what he has wrought. He’s the captain of a sinking ship.

I also want to give a big shout out to the Hopium community this morning. For while we have worked hard in many elections together over the past year, our biggest and most consequential investment of time and money was in Virginia last fall. Youngkin had put the 15 week abortion ban on the ballot there, and this community understood the stakes and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and logged incredible amounts of volunteer time. On Election Day we did not just kept the state senate there, but we also flipped the Virginia Assembly - something few thought was possible. In the days that followed the Assembly Rs who lost blamed Youngkin and his 15 week ban for their defeat, and a decisive blow was delivered to that fantasy of an escape hatch for the Rs on abortion. There is little question that our big win there helped lead to Trump’s cowardly retreat today, and this ridiculous place of “leaving it to the states” which throws tens of millions of women and their families overboard and green lights the most extreme laws America has seen in generations.

18 Polls Have Biden Up/Other 2024 Election Notes - As I wrote on Saturday, what the polls show right now is Biden and the Dems gaining a bit in what is a close, competitive election. 18 recent national polls have Biden leading: (via 538):

51-49 Emerson (likely voters, new)

48-45 McLaughlin (likely voters, new)

52-48 Marquette

47-46 Data For Progress

50-48 NPR/Marist

42-40 Big Village

44-42 Morning Consult

48-45 Quinnipiac

44-43 Noble Predictive

44-43 Economist/YouGov (March 19)

47-45 FAU/Mainstreet

44-43 Morning Consult (March 11)

46-45 Public Policy Research

50-48 Ipsos/Reuters

45-44 Civiqs

47-44 Kaiser Family Foundation

51-49 Emerson

43-42 TIPP

Note that we are starting to see Biden do better and Trump do worse in polls which survey likely voters - people who are paying closer attention. This is consistent with Trump’s underperformance in the GOP primary polls, for when people had to make up their mind earlier this year and actually vote he performed worse than public polling - a more informed electorate is a worse electorate for Trump. This is a big problem for him as the entire electorate is about to become far more informed about him, his extremism, his criminality, his historical awfulness; and it suggests, as we’ve believed would happen, that as we get deeper into the general election things will get better for us (something that appears to be already happening).

A note on the battleground states. We have far less polling in the battlegrounds than nationally, and many of the polls we have are low sample, low quality polls. So let’s take it a little easy on jumping to big conclusions about the states. Yes some have Trump ahead, but there is polling from the last month with Biden ahead too:

MI - 42%-39% Bullfinch Group (new)

PA - 50%-45% Susquehanna

WI - 46%-45% Morning Consult/Bloomberg

And remember Trump was just +1 in GA in the WSJ poll, and only +3 in NC in Marist.

We should be encouraged by what we are seeing right now. We’ve gained a few points in recent weeks, Senate polling remains very solid, we have a cash/organization advantage, the economy is booming, Joe Biden is a good President and they have Trump. We have a long way to go folks but 7 months out I would much rather be us than them."