#i used to think liberals were the good guys and republicans are the bad guys

[starsburnout]

this is going to sound harsh but hear me out: y'all have got to stop begging/demanding/guilt tripping people into voting for biden just so trump doesn't become president again. Y'ALL DID THIS SHIT THE FIRST TIME AND IT WASN'T FUCKING HELPFUL. IT STILL ISN'T.

it's just blowing my mind that y'all have somehow forgotten or ignored or dismissed the fact that president joseph biden is actively participating in a genocide against palestine. AND YOU ALL THINK IT'S A GOOD IDEA TO DEMAND PEOPLE TO FUCKING VOTE FOR HIM?

i really need y'all to wake up. democracy isn't dying because it's already dead. if it was ever alive to begin with. i'm not going to vote for a man who cares more about power and money than he does about palestinian men, women and children. your hatred for trump should not come before your compassion for others.

[qqueenofhades]

Am I crazy for thinking DeSantis is overextending on the cartoonish conservative evil in preparation for his presidential run? I feel like he might have drunk his own kool-aid as far as thinking “things that make you popular on Fox News also make you electable across the US”.

Book bans are not popular. They’re being shot down all over the US even in deep red areas. Taking away the liquor licenses of national chain hotels because they hosted a drag show seems like a good way to make big businesses wary of you, thus putting rifts in the evangelical/big business base of the GOP. People keep forgetting that Trump was a cipher when he ran. He had no record politically so both sides could think he’ll be the worst or the best, but there was no pinning him down. A lot of liberals entertained the possibility that Trump as a former democrat might not be so bad and he definitely caught the wave of people who wanted to try ANYTHING new rather than another Clinton.

Point is, even if DeSantis plays the Trump playbook but in a way more palatable to establishment GOP, that to me seems like a losing strategy rather than a winning one. Trump does not suffer competition and won’t endorse him. DeSantis lacks the decades of buildup of celebrity image and cult of personality. He’s got a an extremist GOP political record with lots of bold moves in a culture war that has NOT been fully litigated yet at the polls and might be less popular than the GOP realizes. I think the GOP is desperate to make him their guy since he’s a governor of a valuable state and he’s “reasonable” unlike Trump but at this point, is it possible they’re overestimating his appeal entirely and he’ll completely crash and burn when actually tested? Here’s hoping, but I’d love your thoughts.

Welp. Honestly, the media's relentless push to crown DeSantis "a more moderate version of Trump" is completely and demonstrably bullshit, since he is already a full-blown fascist and the only reason they think he's moderate is because he went to Harvard and can sometimes speak in complete sentences. Except every other one of those words is "woke," which the GOP can't define as literally anything apart from "something I don't like," and yeah.

The thing about DeSantis is that he's managed to curate an extremely hermetic personal bubble in Florida. He's staffed the state government with toadies and only gives interviews to hand-picked fawning conservative outlets. We're already seeing stories come out (and it's been noted before) that when you take him out of his personal comfort zone and make him answer actual questions from non-Fox reporters, he really struggles. He isn't smart or clever or original. He's just a dyed-in-the-wool white supremacist Christofascist who is willing to be "bold" (read: wildly extreme) and that makes him popular with the establishment GOP, who loved all of Trump's cruel policies but didn't like his personal demeanor. They think they can sell DeSantis to the suburban Republicans who really don't want to vote for Democrats (too liberal! Too brown! Too woke!) but were turned off by Trump's vulgar and criminal antics, and unfortunately, because white Republicans are the worst people in the world, they're probably right.

The problem for the GOP (hahahahhahahahahahaha thoughts and prayers motherfuckers!!!!!) is that Trump's base is still fanatically attached to his nasty orange backside and won't vote for DeSantis under any circumstances, as long as Trump is a factor in the race, because they think "respectability" is a dirty word and Trump's total derangement is what they like about him. He is their personal power fantasy and the living embodiment of their worst and most racist/sexist/xenophobic fantasies, and any hint of becoming acceptable to The Establishment would make them mad. So you've got the establishment GOP who wants to get back into power and thinks DeSantis is more likely to get them there, vs. the TrumpCult who will only ever vote for Trump, even as the establishment GOP is increasingly turning on him and treating him as the electoral liability that he is. (Don't forget the big Dominion lawsuit going on at Fox, which brutally exposed their hypocrisy for EVERYONE, even their own viewers, to see. Welp.)

And yes: America as a whole is not a nakedly fascist, deranged, extreme-right-wing white-supremacist Handmaid's Tale theocracy, despite the best efforts of a despicable minority. The GOP has not won one single meaningful election or federal office since Trump himself sneaked into the presidency thanks to the Electoral College in 2016 (barely squeaking out the House in 2022 and then watching Kevin McCarthy lose fifteen speakership elections in a row doesn't count). A recent poll showed that almost 60% of Americans thought "woke" was a good thing, meaning awareness of social and historical injustices rather than political correctness gone mad. The Democrats have continued to vastly overperform in special and state-level elections alike, including the much-hyped "Red Wave" in the 2022 midterms that turned out to be a Big Lol. Even this year, local Democrats are winning by bigger margins than Biden carried their districts. As I say, the reason Republicans try so hard to suppress, outlaw, and discredit the vote is because their policies/candidates will never win in any fair and legitimate election. They just won't. The only way they can bully their way into power is through fraud, fear, and lies. Of course, they're helped at every stage by the American media and its addiction to the "Both Sides Bad/Horse Race!!!" narrative, but even in this climate, Democrats are still winning.

Anyway: DeSantis is an empty suit who can reliably parrot fascist talking points and use his personal fiefdom of Florida to put them into action, but that doesn't translate to any kind of viable national candidate, especially since he implodes the instant you take him out of that bubble. I don't want to make anyone too overconfident or insist that it will clearly be fine, because the 2024 presidential election will be just as consequential as 2020 and there are way too many people in this country willing to vote for white supremacist fascism Because Gas Prices, but the overall sociocultural and political trends are not moving in DeSantis' direction and we need to work our asses off to make sure it stays that way.

[random-thought-depository]

Just gonna do this like a band-aid: quick and rough so it's over with fast: Trump won.

Looks like Republicans are likely to control the next Congress too.

After having slept terribly last night because of election anxiety, I feel weirdly calmer now. At least now I know the outcome, we lost, they won, I know what to expect, and I can plan from there.

The smart guess was always that this was basically a coin toss, but in the last few days before the election it looked like things were looking up and I'd allowed myself cautious optimism. That made the disappointment of last night sharper.

The results really do look humiliating for Democrats, looks like Trump won the popular vote, though I guess that might change as all the votes get counted (not that this would concretely help us much).

In retrospect I think the fact that Harris's path to the top of the ticket was "do poorly in 2020 primaries, get picked as VP because Biden thought she was someone he could work with, become the obvious successor when Biden dropped out" might have been a huge red flag. Of Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris, Biden had the most competitive primary, and I think one practical lesson for the Democrats from this might be the importance of having their candidate be selected by a really competitive primary. You should stress-test your Presidential candidates to verify that they're actually good at winning national elections before you put them at the top of the ticket!

I'm not super-optimistic about the "this big tent establishment-led don't spook the centrists triangulation approach isn't working, it got us an underwhelming victory with a once-in-a-century wind at our backs in 2020 and now this, the Dems should have been much less dismissive of the uncommitted movement and taken a much harder line on Israel, should have full-throatedly advocated for left-liberal economic policies instead of trying to get the country to swallow them on the down-low like trying to get a dog to swallow a pill by wrapping it in meat, should have aggressively attacked conservative institutional advantages by doing stuff like court-packing, etc., not just cause that's a morally superior set of positions but cause it'd be a better political strategy" take being anything but wishful thinking, but, I dunno, at this point part of me is thinking, yeah, maybe we might as well try that radical high-risk high-reward strategy next time cause the present approach clearly isn't working well. Then again, even if that would work I'm not optimistic about the Dems actually trying it instead of defaulting to their usual reflex of deciding they lost because they got too left-wing and moving right to chase the center-right vote. I dunno, I think we've basically just found ourselves living in the bad timeline again.

I really wouldn't want to be in Gaza, but I extra wouldn't want to be there after January 2025. I expect Trump will give Netanyahu a free hand to kill and kill and kill.

Oh, a rancid cherry on top: Trump is really old and if he dies or becomes incapacitated in office we'll get ... President J.D. Vance. Eeeeww. Shudder. That guy is such a creep. At least he's spectacularly uncharismatic so he'd be likely to lose in 2028 if he's the incumbent then and we still have competitive elections by then (at this point that cannot be taken for granted).

*Sigh.*

I fear we're in for a rough four years.

[rockinlibrarian]

Your husband sucks and you should leave him. Politics are personal and there will come a time when his violent beliefs get turned against you. Really, by actively supporting causes meant to specifically disenfranchise you, he already has. You are not above this.

Maybe I should put a note on that post linking to answers. I appreciate that people are worried. We're all worried. But you're misunderstanding what I'm trying to say, and honestly I'm kind of sad for everyone who has such strict black and white views about people that they've cut off so many potential connections. The ironic thing is that that's exactly what the GOP has been trying to do in their campaigns lately-- trying to Other entire groups of people. Illegal immigrants (and even just immigrants). Trans people. People who live in those Crime-infested Cities (ie non-white people). But you know they do that already. That's why you hate them.

You can't allow yourself to be like that, even in opposition to them. The GOP party is an authoritarian nightmare right now, and yes, voting for them is dangerous, for some groups more than others, but for all of us in the long run. But it wasn't always this way-- and I'm not even talking about how the parties switched which was the liberal one and which was the conservative one in the mid 20th century. I'm not saying there weren't always horrible people IN the Republican party (but it's not like there haven't been horrible people in the Democratic party either-- heck, Trump himself used to be a Democrat), but they weren't so BLANTANTLY TRUMPETING the awfulness, so lots of, yes, GOOD people were and are Republicans.

NO, HEAR ME OUT.

My grandma, several of my aunts and cousins-- kindest people you'll ever meet-- they firmly believe(d) (my grandma's long gone now) that abortion is murder. They're fierce Pro-Lifers. Now, they'd never bomb a Planned Parenthood clinic or even harrass people going to one-- and in before you say "Yeah, but they're on their SIDE so they EFFECTIVELY support those actions" -- I KNOW THAT, and I also know that criminalizing abortion just gets MORE people killed and offering AID to struggling mothers through progressive programs actually prevents way MORE abortions so it's BETTER to have progressives in office if you REALLY want to stop it-- but that's not my point! My point is these women in my family are so passionate about stopping what they believe is wanton slaughter of the innocents that they've fully bought into the propaganda that paints organizations like Planned Parenthood as heartless murderers, that people who say "I don't think abortion should be illegal" are condoning murder, and it paints their political views. They so believe that they're SAVING lives that they frankly don't BELIEVE that anyone on their side about abortion could be responsible for SO MUCH MORE DEATH through the REST of the party's platform.

(This is the one that gets me-- we're Catholic, right? You gathered that with my fiercely Pro-Life family members? The official Catholic Pro-Life stance is NOT just anti-abortion, not even just anti-abortion and anti-birth control-- it's ALSO anti- death penalty and pro- protecting the environment! Do you EVER see the supposedly "Pro-Life" politicians fighting for THOSE last two issues???? OF COURSE YOU DON'T, because it's all political propaganda serving the politicians themselves! But that doesn't erase the GENUINE feelings of Stopping the Slaughter that these devotedly Pro-Life women I know have!)

Propaganda is designed to take advantage of people's emotions. It's designed to make people support bad things by convincing them that the things are good instead. Take, for example, a political ad I heard the other day that really riled me up. It was trying to get people NOT to vote for the other guy (it was a state representative race I think? Not for my county) by saying "He signed a bill allowing BIOLOGICAL MEN to compete in girls' sports and even SHARE A LOCKER ROOM with OUR GIRLS!" I actually yelled at the radio, "Did you SERIOUSLY just SAY THAT? Right there on the RADIO?" The thing is, I'm on Tumblr all the time, I KNOW how offensively that statement warps the concept of letting trans girls play girls' sports, but someone who DOESN'T actually know any trans people or follow trans rights matters is not going to see through these carefully chosen words so easily-- the use of "men" vs. "girls," as if all the kids involved weren't the same age; the use of "OUR" girls, positing these so-called "biological men" as outside forces endangering OUR FAMILIES, never mind that those "biological men" are all someone else's "our girls." But if you don't know the truth, it really sounds like you're protecting your loved ones by embracing what is actually anti-trans rhetoric.

No one is immune to propaganda, as the meme says. If you don't have experiences to challenge it, if you don't make a point of recognizing its techniques, you'll fall for it, and a lot of good people have fallen for it. That's just one example. There's hundreds, thousands of instances on all sides of politics and even in matters that aren't considered political-- advertising in general really. The one that suckered my husband in is "socialism=Communism=Fascism." We grew up during the Cold War, and he loved/loves the action movies of the time, in which the Bad Guys were basically always The Communists. A steady diet of all that and now you cannot convince him that there's a difference between a progressive government-run assistance program and Stalin-- so much that he's now, despite his wife and two kids' insistence otherwise, certain that the current Democratic party, because it supports government aid programs, is a bigger threat to freedom than the party embracing the guy who outright promises to punish all his political enemies and holds up dictators as his role models. Because SOCIALISM IS COMMUNISM IS ANTI-AMERICAN.

That's where he's messed up. Yeah. I am not for one second saying his belief is valid. I am not for one millisecond saying his votes or anyone else's votes for those fascists won't have very dangerous consequences. And I'm not happy about it! But that still doesn't turn him into a stereotypical wife-beating gay-bashing neo-Nazi ("you just haven't had the chance to see him that way! You just wait!" I've known him 25 years. I've seen him grieving, drunk, furious, overjoyed, giddy, you name it. You don't even know what his name is).

The reason I insist on replying, and on even reblogging that initial post in the first place, is I want us all to be real clear on who the enemy is here. We're in a scary place in this country with people being pitted against each other. If the tyrants win the election we're all in deep trouble. But if they don't, they're going to rile up their party into thinking they've been wronged somehow, they're going to encourage violence, and some people will act on it; and here's where we get to my point: MOST conservatives, who've been sucked into the party for one seemingly justified reason or another, ARE NOT GOING TO BE THAT WAY. You honestly think my sweet-tempered aunt is going to storm the Capitol with a pipe bomb because she believes abortion is murder? Even my husband the gun nut disapproved of the January 6th debacle.

But if WE, the ones who already know how badly their support of the current GOP sucks, refuse to love these moderate Republicans anyway, insist that they're no better than the worst of their party, turn them away, make them our enemies? Where are they going to turn? Right, to the extremists, who will say "We told you so, we were RIGHT to hate those Lefties, see? JOIN US IN OUR QUEST FOR VENGEANCE!"

Yes, they are already supporting awful proposals with awful consequences. But how will they ever see the error of their ways if their only friends are the ones who will encourage them to be so much worse?

The enemy is not the average conservative. The enemy is the "news" organizations, the billionaires with agendas, the power-hungry politicians, who have brainwashed the average conservative into believing electing a megalomanic idiot is actually a good idea. If you are actually in an abusive situation with a gung-ho conservative then by all means GET OUT. But chances are there are many more conservatives who just need to see that there's a better way, and who's going to show them that way but you?

[head-post]

Musk’s interview with Trump: All about EU, Ukraine, Biden and Harris

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk spoke with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on social network X on Monday as part of the platform’s Spaces feature, where users host live streams.

The interview, scheduled for 8 p.m. US time and expected by hundreds of thousands of users around the world, ran into major overlaps and started 40 minutes late. Musk said X was subjected to a “massive DDOS attack,” which he said caused the broadcast to be delayed.

Musk did not mention his differences with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer over the UK riots and free speech, but did raise the issue of an open letter published by EU domestic boss Thierry Breton asking him not to spread misinformation during an interview with the former president.

Mr. Trump responded by saying the EU was “bad” at trading with the US and criticised NATO for not spending enough on defence. Mr. Trump said:

That’s probably why they notified you. They don’t treat our country very well.

Musk asked Mr Trump about his views on the EU’s attempts to censor and impose censorship even on Americans from other countries.

The Republican candidate did not answer the question directly, starting to speculate about the US trade deficit with the EU. He added that, “they (the EU) enjoy a huge advantage over the United States on trade” and “they (the EU) are not as tough as China, but they are bad.”

Trump also touched on EU aid to Ukraine and compared it to US spending. He said:

I say, why aren’t you going to equalize? Why aren’t they paying what we’re paying? Why is the United States paying disproportionately more to defend Europe than Europe? That doesn’t make sense. That’s unfair, and that is an appropriate thing to address.

During the two-hour conversation, the Tesla boss and the Republican presidential candidate declared their mutual admiration and echoed shared political views on immigration and the economy.

Trump took the opportunity to lash out at President Joe Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, whom he blamed for the rise in illegal immigration. He also said:

She is a San Francisco liberal who destroyed San Francisco, and then as attorney-general, she destroyed California.

“She’s going to be worse than him,” he added, referencing President Joe Biden, saying the country needed to prevent anything happening under “stupid people like Biden”.

At the start of his speech at a campaign rally, Trump spoke about the assassination attempt on him last month, promising to return to the town of Butler, Pennsylvania, where a bullet struck him in the ear. He said:

The doctors later told me that the ear is a very bloody place if it’s hit. If I hadn’t turned my head, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now – no matter how much I like you.

Mr. Trump boasted of his good relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, while Mr. Musk questioned whether Ms. Harris was tough enough to stand up to foreign leaders. He said:

There are some very tough personalities out there. And if they don’t think the American president is tough, they’re going to do what they want to do.

Earlier, Mr. Trump’s X account posted a series of tweets for the first time in almost a year.

The Harris campaign responded to the interview with a statement saying the following:

Donald Trump’s extremism and his dangerous “Project 2025” programme is a feature, not a glitch in his campaign, which was on full display for those who were unlucky enough to listen today during everything on Channel X. Trump’s entire campaign serves people like Elon Musk and himself – narcissistic rich people who will sell out the middle class and fail to deliver live in 2024.

Donald Trump said President Biden is “close to vegetable stage.” He noted during the interview:

I looked at him today on the beach, and I said, Why would anybody allow him? The guy could barely walk. Why would anybody allow him?

The call, which Mr. Musk described as a “conversation” rather than an interview, started late: people entering the online space were first greeted by music or silence rather than a conversation between the two men. Mr. Musk blamed the attack on X’s system for impeding access, writing, “Looks like X is under massive DDoS attack. Working on disabling it.”

He appeared to blame the Democrats for the attack on X. When one X user wrote: “Democrats are fighting to “save” democracy from two powerful disrupters!”, Mr. Musk replied, “Yes.”

A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is an attempt to disrupt a server or network by overwhelming it with a flood of Internet traffic.

Read more HERE

[kazashiniwielder]

Okay I don’t usually do politics but can I please emphasize that some of your everyday activities don’t equal your political party?

So I have a Ford Thunderbird, V8 engine. Why? Because when I was 18 it was $200 when I bought it and the car has never given me any major mechanical issues in the decade I had it. Last night while being out with friends, the one asked me how I can dare to be supporting liberal policies when I am clearly republican for driving a car like that.

I brought us the fact I live and work on a farm, I am thirty minutes from the nearest gas station, let alone anything that could potentially support an electric car (which I won’t get into my personal views on) on having such a vehicle is not only impractical but impossible. Not to mention I don’t have the money to buy such a car. I got the Thunderbird BECAUSE it was only $200! (A friend of my dad’s had to get rid of it due to the birth of a baby. They just couldn’t afford to maintain two cars anymore).

So the one guy at the table said I was being a hypocrite by supporting liberal policies when I couldn’t afford to financially back them up. So I switched up topics. I brought up the whole caping medication and asked why that was bad in their opinion. The same guy told me that it is the right of someone to determine the cost of their product and it’s unfair for the government to regulate it. I reminded him that many of these medications like insulin are required for people to continue to live and asked if it was fair for a company to put a price on your loved ones continued life span (as someone that had three type two diabetics in my family and have had two cousins, one grandmother, and an uncle who all died of cancer and lack of medical support for their conditions because my family couldn’t afford it and insurance wouldn’t cover it). His response: that isn’t his problem because none of his family members have these conditions and he’s not okay with paying for other people to survive.

I don’t really think our friendship is going to survive this election, and I am sorry about losing him but at the same time I also am trying to understand why people think like this. Because he isn’t the only one. I have stated a few times that while I have been critical of Biden, he had done many good things. When some of my coworkers told me that is bullshit, I had brought up many of the policies and acts that were signed into law during Biden’s administration. And every time they have said the same thing. Those policies don’t affect them so they don’t care.

And I don’t understand his logic because he is an illegal immigrate to the US who managed to become a legal citizen after being in the country for over two decades illegally. And his family is still working on their citizenship. When I reminded him of that he said that’s different because they aren’t dangerous like all the criminals that are illegally entering the country and due to that they will be protected under Trump. And he genuinely believes that. He genuinely believes that the Trump administration won’t come for his family who have no legal standing to be in the United States. Genuinely believes that his daughter, who has been fearing the same thing as I have been, is just over reacting about the very real threat that is waiting when they eventually return to the United States (we work for an American company in another country).

He genuinely believes that the stance of voting by mail is a horrible practice until I reminded him that if that were the case his vote WILL NOT count because we are overseas and will have to mail in our ballots!

And this is just my personal experience but many of these people are genuinely not afraid of these policies unless they see how they affect them and I don’t know how to explain that!!!!!

[seluvian]

So, we really need to be using our critical thinking skills here. Joe Biden claims he's been secretly working behind the scenes to get peace and a longer/permanent ceasefire in Gaza. That's what he said. And immediately I'm seeing an outpouring of appreciation, other liberals writing essays about how he's really just not good at marketing himself or talking about what he's doing, that's all.

Why do you believe him? Think about it for a moment. What has he actually done to show you that his claim is honest?

We know he has a PR team whose job it is to market him and talk about what he's doing. In the face of millions of people protesting nationwide and globally, he didn't take that opportunity to reassure the public he's here for peace. In fact, he doubled down. He called the Palestinian numbers false. He said Israel has a right to defend itself against a threat that barely exists, and certainly not as presented by Israeli media. He tried to win himself the right to send more weapons and money to Israel to fund and arm their death squads without having to run it by Congress or admit it to the public. He did that twice.

Why do you believe him? Does the evidence of his behavior match his words?

Staffers walked out in protest over the refusal to call for a ceasefire. Multiple staff and a few politicians resigned. Those who resigned spoke on how Joe Biden wouldn't entertain even the mention of ceasefire, that the mood in those rooms was hostile to people who were standing up for Palestinian lives. These people spoke on the fact that it was very clear speaking for Palestine was a move that would end a career of a staff or low level politician. At higher levels, we saw Rashida Tlaib get censured for talking about what Israel was and is doing. Only her. Is it a coincidence that she's Palestinian?

Why do you believe Joe Biden just because he said he wants a ceasefire? If he's telling the truth, why are so many politicians and staffers saying things that contradict that? If he's telling the truth, why does his behavior contradict that?

He's not immune to agenda just because he's blue. If we can't hold our leaders to the same standards as we do republican leaders, if we refuse to turn the same critical eye on our guy that we do on their guy, we are not sticking to our principles. If it's bad and evil when a republican does it, it must also follow that it's bad and evil when Joe Biden does it too. Because I think...I think the point is that these things are bad when anyone at all does them. And we need to demand better of our leaders, not give them the thumbs up because they gave us a wink and a crossed-fingers promise.

[that-bluesybitch]

Okay, I want to tell a story about my ex and why it is important to give young conservatives a chance. I know that that intro doesn't sound promising but hear me out please.

Last year I was dating this guy (was then engaged for a week, but that is not important) and he was very conservative. He voted for trump in the 2020 election, was only ever going to go green if someone put a gun to his head, hated muslums and did not believe in black lives matter or anything of the sort including crt. ( Also anti-abortion).

We had an argument over him liking Donald Trump because the reality of it was that where my ex was financially, Trump didn't actually benefit him whatsoever. This led to an argument over why Trump was problematic over all.

I sat down with him and actually showed him facts and evidence and after looking over it he apologized and recinded his previous statements to the contrary. And this made me wonder why he ever thought Trump was good in the first place. So ofcourse I asked him and he told me that he was told by his teachers (He went to a Catholic school) and his parents (both republicans) that Trump was the good guy and liberals were bad. He had never been given any evidence of their statements, but if he did not agree he would get punished beause growing up, what the conservative adults said was required to be taken as truth and it made me realize something.

He never had a chance to not belive stupid shit until college. He was forced to belive incorrect statements that had been shoved down his throat by adults who used their power over him in a negative way.

I also want to tell you all about the issues he had with math class. See, he was required to take and pass a math class in college as a gened course, as was I. Before we dated, he had taken 3 because he failed them all, along with having to retake an accounting course because he failed that too.

He told me how much he hated math and science, and whenever it came up in everyday life, he would desperately try to avoid being the person having to do the work that involved said math.

I offered to take a math course with him, so that I could be there to help. When we took the course I noticed he actually was not bad at math at all. He was just not used to some of the work that comes with it and had not been exposed to the thinking and methods that come with doing mathmatics.

In highschool, many of his classes were religion classes and revolved only around the bible, he was given very little chance to understand math or science and when he had trouble his teachers had called him stupid.

The fact of the matter was that he was not stupid at all. He just needed a chance to be smart, to get good at math.

It was the same with his political opinions, he needed a chance to see evidence and think for himself. He was completly capable of thinking for himself but was never given a chance. This is because along with not respecting women, gays and blacks (amoung others) republicans don't respect their children. They do not even want children, they want obediant slaves for them to beat on or push around. If those children get out of line, they are forced to go through public and private beratement.

I tell you all this so that you know and understand something. Adults who are republicans, have no excuse. But if you meet a child who is just spitting out their conservative parents' opinions, please be the person who shows them the right way in a kind manner. They have been disrespected all their lives and have never been given a chance to use their brain, nor taught how to.

I hate what republicans are doing to others, but what they are doing to their children is just as bad. They are harming their minds and their future's just so they can feel as if they are important and in charge.

[oatmealaddiction]

I am so sorry to come careening into your asks like this, but that post you reblogged where OP directly conflates conservatism with nazi germany is driving me insane. it’s like, has it occurred to people that painting a whole community as remorselessly evil perhaps has some drawbacks? maybe that history can also tell us about other times having no empathy for ‘the enemy’ has worked out well for all involved?

like. I get that conservatives have done violence and significant harm to our communities. those things are unforgivable. at the same time you cannot simply write off like half of the US for having bad politics. fight against them, fight against fasc alt right shit, just don’t say there’s something innately wrong with those shitheads that is beyond changing. that’s such eugenics bullshit.

There's a good book called "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil" by Hannah Arendt. Arendt was a Jewish woman who fled Germany and the book was about the trial of Adolf Eichmann, an SS Officer who oversaw the deportation of many Jewish people to Auschwitz. What Arendt found after studying Eichmann was that at the end of the day, in spite of everything, he was just a normal guy. There was nothing off in his psychology, he wasn't mentally unwell, and by all accounts he was a regular citizen who had 'enthusiastically' upheld the system that the Nazi's put in place. Eichmann harbored zero guilt for any of his actions up until his execution, and argued throughout the trial that he bore no personal responsibility for what he'd done. I don't think it's inaccurate to compare conservatism to fascism these days given how many alt-right members are chomping at the bit to install an authoritarian in office, but if all you're going to say is that Republicans got the "Nazi" gene, you've got a misunderstanding about what makes people evil and how they justify evil to themselves. It's not that conservatives are born without the capacity to feel for others or that because they were born bad they became conservative and because you were born good you became liberal. When evil is systematized by those in power and held up as a status quo, doing depraved evil shit becomes ordinary and normal. For example, plenty of Americans still think it's normal and justifiable to enact the death penalty because it's been systematized as part of our criminal justice system. It's the status quo, so therefore it must be upheld no matter how immoral it is.

Frankly, I'm not going to sit here and try to defend conservative beliefs at a time when the Supreme Court is out here just chipping away at everyone's civil rights and white supremacists are breaking into the capital. I don't particularly feel bad writing off the people who continue to vote for and empower fascists. How do you empathize with someone who thinks you're a child predator or that you shouldn't have bodily autonomy? How do you keep your heart open to people advocating that teachers be shot for using someone's correct pronouns? Personally I think galvanizing more liberals into using their vote strategically and engaging in political action will have faster positive action than trying to win over the group who's dictated by bigotry. That said, it's important to understand that these views have been baked into America before the Pilgrims even got here. These ideas didn't pop up over night because an evil person invented them, they've been present for thousands and thousands of years. The conservative party acts the way they do because transphobia and misogyny and racism are normal aspects of American culture that have been systematized into our government and our society, Conservatives believe that because those things are normal, therefore they are just. So I take issue with the idea that there's something inherent in their brains or psychology that turned them evil, and that liberals are immune to this problem. Liberals will uphold the status quo too, albeit with different lingo. Plenty of liberals engage in True Crime podcasts where they celebrate when the police infringe on civil liberties in order to catch a serial killer. "No ethical consumption under capitalism" is often used as a blanket excuse to ignore unfair labor practices. The Queer community loves to accuse it's own of toxicity and predation just as much as the conservatives do. During the Heard v. Depp defamation trial, tons of liberals rejoiced at the way the legal system was used to silence a DV survivor and were happy to support suing a woman for talking about abuse. A lot of the time the people saying things like this, do not think of themselves as doing anything wrong. Evil is boring, and it's normal, and oftentimes those who act immorally do so without a single ping of their conscious. Thinking that conservatives were born with abusive personalities is the exact thinking people had about Nazi's in the wake of World War II. Americans assumed that there was something fundamentally sick and broken in the Nazi psychology, when in actuality it wasn't that different from the institutionalized segregation and systematized eugenics America itself had going on at the time. Being a Nazi was super normal in Nazi Germany just like being a racist was super normal in America. If you tell yourself that there's something fundamentally abnormal and inhuman in the actions of your enemies, you miss the wider picture of the systems they're part of. Worse, you're telling yourself that you could never be like that, that you could never do what they did, rather than examine the ways you're already complicit in abusive systems. Bigotry and abuse and apathy towards injustice are all human traits, and buddy we're all human.

tl,dr: Conservative politics aren't evil people politics, they're ubiquitous and we probably all hold them to some extent. So do your due diligence.

[wearespecialuniqueandimportant]

Winx Club SUCKS. The Series Is A Male Fantasy About Being Strong And Powerfull Man That Woman Love Unconditionally. The Creators Have Sexist Views Torwards Woman And Created This Trash To Reinforce Them. Now Now Now. This Is All Coming Out Of Love. You See You Could Say I... Like. Winx Club. Anyways The Re Set Is Sexist And Agephobic Like The Series Always Was. Characters Like Feragonda Are Terrible And The Winx Are Young Forever Because The Series Thinks Old People Have No Value. Meanwhile We Get Sexist Ass Degrading Dialogue From The Males And Story Role For The Woman. To Analyse Each Character Each Male Has To Have Power Over Them. To Analyse Each Narrative You Must Lower Yourself To Praise And Praise The Guys. To Ooh All Over Them Like The... "Girls". Showcase They're "Young" Forever. But This Isn't Being Young. This Is The Creators Bigoted Mindset About Being Young. As The Series Was Made By Males To Fantasize About... Whatever Sexism. Whatever Their Interests Things They Hide Like This Behind. The Character Sexualization Done All Wrong As Result Uncomfortable. Season 6 Is A Good Season Btw. The Season Is About Bloom. There's New Content For Her Character. As Result There's Alot Of Bloom Stuff Like Her Sister And Parents. Diasbro Even The New Villain That Is Related To Her. The Worst Seasons Of Winx Club Are 1-3. Extremely Overrated... 5. Fucking Boring And Agony LOL. And 7 A Filler Nothing But. Meanwhile Season 8 Is The Best Season. Seasons 4 And 6 Nearby. That's A Fact. The Fans Are Just Sexist Agephobic Paraphobic Sanist Garbage And Hate Narcissist Despite Being Narcissist The Typical Characterization. I Don't Think You Can Truly Fix This. Remember Who Made Them Why And For What. The Winx All Have The Same Motivation They're The Same Character 6 Times. I Just Watched The First Movie That Was Meh. Old Winx Is Overrated And Shit. I Prefer The Loser Specialists Of Seasons 6-8 Over The Dude Fantasy Garbage They Used To Be. Feragonda And Old People Have Always Been Useless And Shit. Especially The Woman Have Just The Most Degrading Story While The Man Don't Really. Like The Old Specialists The Man Were Always Inoffensive To The Disgusting Sexist Males Into This. That Then Weaponize This Against Modern Feminist Art. Or Just Fate The Winx Saga A Show That Was Different. But Quite The Same. The Series Is Hated Now Just Because The Males Are Losers That's All. Meanwhile They Cry The Story Isn't Gritty Anymore Only To Lose Their Hairs About Fate Because The Story Wasn't "Girly" Anymore. Sexist Garbage What They Mean. After That They Cry NEW THINGS BAD!!!! And MODERN FEMALE CHARACTERS ARE GARBAGE AND ASSASINATE FEMININITY!!!! Despite The Winx Always Being Sexist Standards That Have Unnecessarry Outfits That Show Too Much Their Bodies Sexist Beauty Standards That Look Too Little.

The Fate Hate Is Because They're Scared Of Woman And Minorities Progressive Change And Feel Attached To These Consepts. If You Want To Be A True Woman Than A Less Brainer You Must Reject Seasons 1-3 And Face The Series Was Always Ass Otherwise You're A Republican Like Every Single Winx Club Fan.

"Girl Things"/"Girl Power" Always Came From Sexist Males Sexist Mindsets Torwards Woman. Winx Is Conservative At Best With Barbielike Liberal Capitalist Elements. That Is Troubling Heroes For Woman Stay In School And "Young" Forever. While In Real Life Those That Look "Young" And "Pretty" Celebrities Are Shunned And Get Accused Of Drugs.

The Series Is Focused On Anti Feminist Messages Like Aesthetics And Never Actually Deviates. Meanwhile Fate Is Just A Different Kind Of This. Baffling Noone Cares About This. Old Good Am I Right. Only To WAHH About Fate. This Is DEGRADING. ANYONE THAT SEES THIS AS ANYTHING ELSE IS A FUCKING SEXIST.

Things Like Age Are Irrelevant. There Are Many Many Bigoted Discrimination Tactics Used To Manipulate Feminist Opinions. "THAT'S JUST IN YOUR HEAD!!!!" Aka You're Just Crazy Another Form Of "THAT'S JUST FICTION" Like That Seals The Deal. Sanism Aswell As Abusive Gasslight Nothing Else. Directly Aimed As Feminist Like We're... Crazy...? That Being Something Empowering Than Dehumanizing Aswell. There's Other Things Too But Everything Is Just Bigoted Nonsense. In The End You're Just An Anti Feminist Conservative That Doesn't Truly Accept Progressive Ideology And Oppressed Groups. Human Domestication Guide Has Worse Characters Characters That Have No Anything. They're Like If Bloom Never Left Home. Instead Existed To Be Sky's Maidpet On Drugs So She Can't Object. They Can't Preach Better Here. Or Idk Anything Disney. Everything Is Capitalism That Is That Simple. To Be Bigoted Is To Still Be Plugged Under Fascism. Anyways... Character Time?

BLOOM SUCKS. SHE'S AN ASPD NPD BPD DPD SZPD STPD CPTSD TRAUMATIZED COMMUNIST FEMINIST RADQUEER ANARCHIST THAT IS AUTISM AND AMAZING ASWELL AS HILARIOUS. SHE DIDN'T DESERVE THIS ASSASINATION. SHE'S A "BAD GIRL" THAN A STANDARD. AND SHE WILL PUNCH PEOPLE AND BREAK ALL RULES THIS NEVER CHANGING ABOUT HER AS THAT WOULD BE CAPITALIST BRAINWASHING AND WINX CLUB IS ANTICAPITALIST TEACHING EVERYONE TO RESIST THE ABUSE ALL AROUND THEM. THIS... WOKE PROPAGANDA!!!! SO AMAZING CONSERVATIVES PEE IN THEIR PANTS AND CRY!!!! "THIS IS TOO PROGRESSIVE!!!! DIAL BACK I CAN'T TAKE THIS!!!! THINK ABOUT CHILDS FEELINGS THE CHILDS THAT CAN'T GET THEIR EYES OFF THIS!!!! BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE PUSSY TO ADMIT I HIDE BEHIND MADE UP CHILDREN TOO INSECURE TO ADMIT MY OWN EMOTIONS BIGOTED AND DISGUSTING!!!! I'M SO ASHAMED 😭😭😭😭!!!!" THAT'S ANYONE THAT DARES STAND AGAINST ME. THIS IS WHAT BLOOM SHOULD'VE BEEN THE BLOOM I SAW EPISODE 1. GET ON MY LEVEL WINX CLUB I AM A WOMAN MY OPINION HAS POWER.

SHE HAS A GIRLFRIEND IN HER CONTROL. SHE'S DEPRESSED AND RELATABLE ASWELL AS DEPENDENT AND EASY TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF. BLOOM'S POWER BEING PREVENTING ANYONE ELSE FOR TOUCHING HER WONDERFULL BY BEING THE ONE SHE HAS... SO RELATABLE!!!! SO INTERESTING!!!! WHAT I WANT!!!! "WISH FULFILLMENT. FANTASY." WHAT HUMAN DOMESTICATION GUIDE COULDN'T BE. THIS CHARACTERIZATION IS AMAZING AND PROGRESSIVE. EXTREMELY RELATABLE... THAT'S LIKE MY LIFE ON THE SCREEN 😍🥵👄👄... ❤️❤️❤️❤️!!!!

THE CHARACTERS SHOULD NEVER GO TO SCHOOL HOW DEGRADING SEXIST AND AGEPHOBIC CAPITALIST PROPAGANDA INSTEAD THEY FIGHT THE AGENTS OF THE STATE AND RESIST THE GOVERNMENT FASCIST TRYING TO MIND CONTROL. THE CHARACTERS EXTREMELY DOWN TO EARTH ASWELL AS FANTASY THE PERFECT MIX AND BLEND...

HER GIRLFRIEND COULD BE EASY TO USE AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF. THAT'S WHAT'S SEXY ABOUT HAVING HER OWN HER PROTECTING HER FROM DEHUMANIZATION OMG LITERALLY MY GIRLFRIEND...

HOW YOU LIKE YOUR QUEEN NOW 👸🥰? HAHAHA!!!!

WE ARE THE BEST. WE ARE AMAZING. THAT IS AN INSULT THIS CARTOON COULDN'T BE WHAT WE WANTED 👸🥰😇. ME IS THAT EVERYTHING SHOULD BE TORWARDS!!!! MY LOVE!!!! MY AGENDA!!!! VALIDATION... COMPASSION... LOVELY 😍🥰❤️💓❤️❤️💝!!!!

THAT WAS SUFFERING!!!! MISERY!!!! I WAS SO HUMILIATED!!!!

MY WIFE HAS SAVED ME... US THAT ARE SUPERIOR AND ABOVE EVERYONE 👸🥰🥰!!!!

THAT IS WOKE TO BE ILL****!!!! MANY ILL**** THINGS ARE APPEALING AND INTERESTING!!!! IF YOU'RE ILL**** YOU'RE FASCINATING!!!! Human Domestication Guide Doesn't Support Ill**** People As The Affini Are A Second Law Routing Together Those Deemed Illegal. Those Drugs Created By Their Government. Many Other Dr*** I Bet Deemed Too Dangerous And "Masculine" To Use.

How Degrading!!!! That Couldn't Be Me They're Trying To Talk About!!!! I Have Never Done Dr*** And Never Will But You Dare 👸🥰😰😢!!!!

[bllsbailey]

Trump Appears On ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’

Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives for a campaign rally at Avflight at Cherry Capital Airport on October 25, 2024 in Traverse City, Michigan.

Former President Donald Trump appeared in a nearly three hour episode of the “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast hosted by UFC commentator Joe Rogan. 

On Friday, the 45th president appeared on Rogan’s podcast, which has 14.5 million followers on Spotify and 17.6 million subscribers on YouTube. 

Trump talked about a variety of topics, which made the interview nearly three hours long.

The former president began talking about John Bolton, who served as White House National security adviser until he was fired in 2019. He continued saying how he had been warned by businessman Phil Ruffin that Bolton was a “bad guy,” but by then, Trump had already hired him.

“And he was right. But he was good in a certain way. He’s a nut job. And every time I had to deal with a country when they saw this whack job standing behind me, they said, ‘Man, Trump’s going to go to war with us.’ He was with Bush when they went stupidly into the Middle East. They should have never done it. I used to say it as a civilian, so I always got more publicity than other people,” Trump said. “It wasn’t like I was trying,” Trump said. “In fact, I don’t know exactly why. Maybe you can tell me.” 

“I could definitely tell you,” Rogan offered. “You said a lot of wild s— and then CNN in all their brilliance by highlighting your wild s— made you much more popular. And they boost you in the polls because people were tired of someone talking in this bulls— pre-prepared politician lingo. And even if they didn’t agree with you, they at least knew whoever that guy is, that’s him. That’s really him.”

Rogan went on to say that “the rebels are Republican now.”

“The rebels are Republicans now, though, like you want to be invisible, you want to be punk rock, you want to like, buck the system? You’re a conservative now,” Rogan said. “That’s how crazy. And then the liberals are now pro-silencing criticism. They’re pro-censorship online. … [T]hey come in regulating free speech and now regulating the First Amendment. It’s bananas to watch.” 

Trump also recalled his meeting with former President Barack Obama during the presidential transition period in which he said “Obama thought we were going to go to war with North Korea.”

Rogan then recalled how Trump had called North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un “Little Rocket Man” early on in his first term.

“I said, ‘Little Rocket Man, you’re going to burn in hell.’ And it was rough,” Trump said. “I got to know him better than anybody, anybody. And I said, ‘Do you ever do anything else? Why don’t you go take it easy and relax? Go to the beach?’ You know, kiddingly, I said, ‘You’re always building nuclear power plants. Just relax. You don’t have to do it. Let’s build some condos.'”

Later on, Trump discussed his initiative to “Make America Healthy Again” to which Rogan praised him for. He also asked if he would consider having Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a part of his administration. 

“Oh, I am, but the only thing I want to be a little careful about with him is the environmental. Because, you know, he doesn’t like oil. I love oil,” Trump said. “I think just keep him out of the fire. So I’m going to keep him out of a little bit. I said focus on health. Focus. You could do whatever you want, but, I got to be a little bit careful with the liquid gold.” 

Rogan went on to reference how “there are chemicals and ingredients in our food that are illegal in other countries because they’ve been shown to be toxic.” 

“There’s pesticides and herbicides, and there’s a lot of sh– that’s been sprayed on our food that really is unnecessary,” the podcaster said. “And there’s a lot of health consequences.” Rogan added that Kennedy recently told him that “more than 70% of young men are ineligible for the military because of their health.” 

“But RFK is going to be – you know I think he’s a great guy,” Trump said. 

“But I would say that the Big Pharma wasn’t thrilled when they heard that,” Trump said. “I’ve actually always gotten along very well with him. I’ve known him a long time. He’s a different kind of a guy. He’s very smart, great guy, and he’s very sincere about this. I mean, he really is. You know, he thinks we spend a fortune on pesticides and all this stuff, and then you end up at that chart is a terrible shot.” 

Trump then went on to blast the Afghanistan withdrawal under the Biden-Harris administration. Rogan agreed, mentioning the 13 U.S. service members killed in a suicide bombing at Kabul airport and the billions of dollars worth of equipment left behind now seen in Taliban military parades.

Trump stated that President Joe Biden should have fired everyone involved in the withdrawal plan, criticizing retired Gen. Mark Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump and Biden.

He went on to say that U.S. troops should have left last from Bagram Air Base because it is “one hour away from where China makes its nuclear missiles” and should have taken all of their equipment with them. 

“Every plane, every screw  should have been taken out, every tent. And I said that. That’s when I realized that Milley was a dummy. I said, ‘we’re leaving, but I want to get everything out,'” Trump said. 

“‘Sir, it’s cheaper to leave it,'” Trump said Milley told him. 

“It’s cheaper to leave it?” Rogan asked. “Yeah, he said it’s cheaper to leave it,” Trump affirmed. 

“Cheaper?” Rogan asked again. “Not more dangerous?”

“He just said cheaper,” Trump said. “I said ‘I want every plane, I want every tank, I want the goggles, said night goggles. They have all this stuff that these guys now have.’ He said, ‘sir, it’s cheaper to get out and leave it.’ I said, so you think it’s cheaper to leave $150 million brand new airplane in there than it is to fly it out with a tank of jet fuel and put it in Pakistan, or just fly it directly back?” 

“‘It’s cheaper to leave it.’ I said, ‘this guy’s nuts,'” Trump added. “I’m telling you, he was so stupid. He was so unwise. He was like an unwise man. And there were a number of them.” 

Trump also said that he had spoken with the Taliban’s chief negotiator, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. 

“I had a couple of conversations with Abdul, and from the time I had those conversations, because they were shooting our soldiers, you know, with the sniper stuff,” Trump said. “They were shooting a lot with Obama, much less with me. But they were shooting them. And I said, get this guy on the phone. The press went nuts when they heard this. I had a great conversation – It was a tough conversation. 18 months later, there wasn’t one soldier that was ever shot at, and even Biden admitted it in a moment of stupidity.” 

He concluded by calling Vice President Kamala Harris a “very low IQ person,” referencing when she compared him to Adolf Hitler. 

“There’s the rhetoric is also that you’re Hitler and that in order to stop Hitler, you have to do whatever,” Rogan said. “I mean, you’re hearing this now, Kamala compared you, said you love Hitler yesterday.” 

“Kamala is a very low IQ person. She’s a very low IQ. You know, I’m for taking tests too. I think anybody that runs for president should take, they should give them a test,” Trump said.

“And it’s not an age thing,” Trump stated. “If you look back on history, 70s and 80s, your greatest, some of your greatest leaders in the world, world history, long time world history, they were in their 70s, in their 80s. But I think you should take cognitive tests. I think everybody – they say it’s unconstitutional, but I think that’s ridiculous. I think Kamala should have a test because there’s something missing. There’s something wrong with her.”

“Well, I think it’s pressure,” Rogan said. “I think the pressure and the scrutiny. You’ve been a celebrity for a long time, and you understand what this is like. But for someone who’s in her late 40s, who becomes the vice president, who runs for president, becomes a vice president, and then all of a sudden, the weight of the world is on your shoulders. And there’s all these people, a lot of people clam up.” 

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

[cksmart-world]

SMART BOMB

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysis

By Christopher Smart

July 30, 2024

PARIS: THE LAST DRAG QUEEN SUPPER — HOW DARE THEY!

Are you outraged? Well you should be. Did you see the Opening Ceremony of the Paris Olympics — OMG! There was a big thing in the lavish production and it looked like it could have been a reference to Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, “The Last Supper” of Jesus Christ and his 12 disciples. According to The New York Times, “[A] woman wearing a silver, halo-like headdress stood at the center of a long table, with drag queens posing on either side of her.” Outrageous! A mockery of Christianity! Critics weighed in: Don Jr., Spencer Cox, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Elon Musk, and that place-kicker guy from the Kansas City Chiefs all turned purple. Drag Queens! Last Supper! Blasphemy! This is almost as bad as the coronation of Kamala Harris, windmills killing whales and the Joe Biden Crime Family. Even in this age of lefty wokeness, this is... well, outrageous. OK, wait. It's not The Last Supper? What? It's actually a reference to the Greek God Dionysus? “The interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus makes us aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings,” said Paris Olympic artistic director Thomas Jolly. "We wanted to include everyone, as simple as that," he explained. “In France, we have the right to love whom we want.” Huh? How un-MAGA can you get.

NEW 4-LETTER WORD AND DOG WHISTLE: DEI

Diversity, equity, and inclusion — you gotta hand it to Republicans, when it comes to vocal weaponry they are without equal. Who would have guessed that terms, such as diversity, equity, and inclusion could be transformed into an ugly brand — DEI. Think l-i-b-e-r-a-l, as in “bleeding-heart liberal.” DEI was the term adopted broadly at universities, corporations and other organizations to signal openness to groups once excluded in a white, male majority society. The movement was thought to be enlightened and “progressive.” Of course, “progressive” has gone the way of “liberal.” DEI actually is reverse discrimination and unfair to white people who have worked hard only to see less qualified people, like Kamala Harris, rise to the top. Kamala Harris is a DEI hire, GOP faithful repeat over and over again. That is to say, she was elected district attorney in San Francisco, elected attorney general for the state of California and elected vice president of the United States only because she is a brown woman. Hey voters, in case you haven't noticed Kamala Harris isn't white. Oh yeah, and she's a “childless cat lady,” too. It's about time white men get an even break. What's this country coming to. You want cat ladies running things?

BACK ON THE WORLD COOL MAP!

Hey Wilson, congrats, we're back on the map of real places. That's right, Salt Lake City has been selected to host the 2034 Winter Olympic Games, which means that we're cool — again. Were even more cool than in 2002, the first time we hosted the Winter Games, when we demonstrated to the world that we are — in some ways — almost normal. Heady times they were. Booze flowed freely as state liquor laws were ignored for 17 days. Remember, Wilson, when you bought drinks for all those girls from the Czech Republic at the Swiss House and things got... well, never mind. People from all over the world flocked here and it was downright intoxicating (no pun intended). The sporting events were OK, too. And look at the stuff we got: the Olympic Park in Park City, the Olympic Skating Oval in Kearns and the Hoberman Arch, recently reassembled at the airport after years in a junk heap just in time for our new bid. (What a coincidence.) We deserve the Olympics because even though it's 10 years away, we're practically ready. We've got all the venues and all that's left is to crank up that good ol' Utah welcoming spirit where we put our moral standards on hold for a couple of weeks to please our guests, look good on TV and pretend to be cosmopolitan — yeah, that's it, cosmopolitan. Cool.

Post script — That's a wrap for another magical July week here at Smart Bomb where we keep track of “Kamala's Coup” so you don't have to. It's obvious to most of the GOP faithful that this whole Kamala-thing is a set-up, a conspiracy to switch candidates at the last minute in order to leave The Donald and J.D. Vance in the lurch. See, it's like this: Trump et.al. designed the campaign around battling the aging and crooked Joe Biden. But then Old Joe dropped out and Kamala waltzed in like it was a square-dance, or something. But the sleuths over at MAGA weren't fooled. It was a conspiracy, pure and simple. Sure, there was this big show after Biden's busted debate where Democrats came forward one at a time to urge him to hang it up. But that was all choreography. Those sneaky Dems had it planned all along. It was a coup and as Republicans will tell you, there is nothing worse than a coup — in most cases. Since we're talking politics, Wilson, did you hear that J.D. Vance had sex with a couch. We don't know all the details but the rumor is everywhere and he hasn't denied it. It's another example of what has happened to our social/political discourse. But then again, he who lives by the childless-cat-lady dies by sex-with-a-couch, or something like that. Et tu, J.D.

Well heck Wilson, the staff here at Smart Bomb remembers what it's like to be cool. It's time to take a break from all the noise, kick back and start practicing up to be cool again — for the Olympics, of course. So wake up the band and take us on out with one of your anthems of coolness:

Well you gassed her up Behind the wheel With your arm around your sweet one In your Oldsmobile Barrelin' down the boulevard You're looking for the heart of Saturday night And you got paid on Friday And your pockets are jinglin' And you see the lights You get all tinglin' cause you're cruisin' with a 6 And you're looking for the heart of Saturday night

Then you comb your hair Shave your face Tryin' to wipe out ev'ry trace All the other days In the week you know that this'll be the Saturday You're reachin' your peak Stoppin' on the red You're goin' on the green 'Cause tonight'll be like nothin' You've ever seen And you're barrelin' down the boulevard Lookin' for the heart of Saturday night Tell me is the crack of the poolballs, neon buzzin? Telephone's ringin'; it's your second cousin Is it the barmaid that's smilin' from the corner of her eye? Magic of the melancholy tear in your eye. Makes it kind of quiver down in the core 'Cause you're dreamin' of them Saturdays that came before And now you're stumblin' You're stumblin' onto the heart of Saturday night

(The Heart of Saturday Night — Tom Waits)

[mithliya]

I'm a Brit and watching from the sidelines in horror at the US prospect of picking between two genocide maintainers, anti migration, racist, rich men both with a past of violence to women (structurally and interpersonally) who operationally both function to maintain and expand American imperial interests.

Then I look at my own country and we have two parties. One- creates poverty from neoliberal and right economic policies. They massage a wealth divide. They notoriously glass cliff woman and racial minority politicians, supports genocide and actively wishes to continue falsifying its imperial legacy and shirks their geopolitical role in creating immigration issues and pursuing inflammatory rhetoric that centralises hegemonic interests.

My other choice is another party who is saying this is all bad, let's get the tories out! Then use fluffy language to try to differentiate the way they aim to maintain the structures and factors that allow for all the strife we face but with no critical analysis of how we ended up in the situation. They want the same socioeconomic systems, want to also kick you in the face but with a softer boot.

I also have to play tactical voting so I'd vote green party as they align most to my economic and environmental interests and best choice for refugees, but on social issues like gender, royals, military they're still not far enough left. But England's crappy overton window this is a minority position. If I was still in my uni consistency I'd be voting green (interesting how they call it when students are home 🙃) but last election was a shit show minority seat and we've had a wanker tory MP who I badly want to vote out. This guy is bottom of the barrel, his alternate labour candidate is very much hearts and minds liberal wash but he is the only other opponent who can unseat him.

But I fucking hate Sir Keir Starmer, affectionately named Keith Starmer, Kiddy Starver, who loves racist criminal systems, won't take a firm stand on safe refugee routes and people are drowning, loves capitalism and cap doffing. I also despise the labour party and the whole British political system and its culture wars.

We all love scoffing at America but here we have the same issues, they just have a different polish.

Sorry for the blog, love your content! You make me a better feminist

the UK does operate similarly in the sense that the two parties that are typically in power are either labour or tories. but honestly i don’t think it’s AS bad in the sense that at least tories & labour do have some visible differences. meanwhile the differences between democrats & republicans at this point seem to mainly be how they present themselves, bc in practice they’re pretty much aligned on most fronts.

personally i think the UK’s system is more hopeful bc in general i do feel like there is less corruption and more fairness in the system but also i havent seen labour in power for an extremely long time (when i googled it, it seems the last time there was a labour PM was early 2010…) and UKIP grew in power + the UK seriously shot themselves in the foot with brexit + tories have been effectively making the UK worse. so perhaps that’s just naïveté on my part. but at least from what i’ve seen, the same hopeless mindset americans have doesn’t seem to persist among the brits… then again maybe the brits are seeing their govt thru rose-coloured glasses as u have stated so,, maybe that’s why.

idk much about the stuff u mentioned on labour not being particularly good tho. i know they also put in policies that were bad for working class ppl, but idk much else beyond that. also i know they’re frequently accused of being antisemitic tho i’m unsure how true that is

[ramrodd]

What is the historical context behind the Wagner mercenary group's attempted mutiny in Rostov-on-Don?

Wagner finished its job and got out to make it easy for Zelensky to declare victory.

COMMENTARY:

I believe it was theater decided upon by Putin and the Wagner guy to de-escalate the de-Nazification program because it had completed the liquidation Putin had begun to plan in 2013. He had not intended to be as public as things have turned out, but the January 6 insurgency in Washington by the Nazification of the GOP forced his hand against his existential opponents in Russia, the Nazification Oligarchs associated with Bill Browder, Merrill Lynch and Trump’s 2013 staging of the Miss Universe Pageant.

Right now, Africa is Jomini’s Fourth Wall of the battle space. The gallop towards American hegemony led by John Bolton and the Project for the New American Century neo-cons of Bush/Cheney abrogated the authorities of the Dayton Accords that included the NATO-Russia Kosovo Protocols that were poised to occupy the moral vacuum of Africa ahead of China. The continuation of the Cold War positioning of Bush/Cheney were adopted uncritically by Hillary Clinton’s Russian narrative by Obama/Biden, Trump’s unilateral surrender to the Taliban was inexplicable at the time except for reelection optics. but the subsequent exposure of Trump’s treachery and treason revealed by January 6 destablalized something in Russia that ended up with Putin massing on the border with the Ukraine with the intent of de-Nazification of the Dun Bas and putting out that nasty little war as part of the Dayton Accords.

Well, McGovern Democrats like Biden and Hillary have had their heads up their collective assholes in terms of Clausewitz since Watergate and Biden dropped the ball when Putin massed on the boarder. The object of the exercise was to flow in UN Blue Helment Peace Keepers like in Bosnia and enforce a ceasefire, with Putin and NATO just over the horizon. Clinton and the French Foreign Legion UN Blue Helment Peace Makers in Bosnia should have shared a Nobel Peace Prize for putting out a nasty little genocide, but neither liberal or conservative Boomers have any more idea what Pentagon is actually capable of doing than the Pope has of genecology.

So, the Ukraine Incursion has turned out the way it has, but the liquidation of the Nazification elements in the Dun Bas on both sides have been largely completed. Good, bad or indifferent, Wagner is a pro-Putin para-military faction opposed to the Nazification Oligarchs generally associated with America commercial Fascism and January 6 Republicans.

The hope of the Kremlin from what I can discern is that Zelensky accept victory short of the objectives of his current offensive. Zelensky is at a Pork Chop Hill moment in the conduct of his valiant defense of Ukraine. where he needs to shut down lethal military operations and submit to international arbitration. The problem is, he needs America’s enthusiastic support with the UN Peace Keepers and Biden seems to be a bit tone deaf if the combination of Trump and Tommy Tuberville as a proxy for the January 6 Republicans who are committed to impeaching Biden at a moment identical to when Gingrich and Tom DeLay produced the impeachment of Clinton for getting a blow job in the Oval Office just at the moment Clinton really needed a free hand to prevent the genocide in Bosnia before it got started.

So, that’s what I think that’s what the whole Wagner drama represents. IT is essential to understand that Trump and the Kremlin have never had any shared interests with the exception of the creation of the US Space Force, which will complete the American transition from the Military Industrial Complex of the Manhattan Project to the Aerospace-Entrepreneurial Matrix of Apollo 11 and 2001: A Space Odyssey. This whole January 6 Nazification is so 1950s Ivy League Socialism of the John Birch Society. 

[greensparty]

Movie Reviews - Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie / Master Gardener

A few weeks ago I attended the 2023 Independent Film Festival Boston and as is always the case, I sometimes don’t get to see some films they are screening because there’s too many other films or events at the same time. Kind of a good problem to have. But among those films I didn’t get to catch are two that I got to review this week. Lucky me!

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

One of the biggest stars of the 1980s was hands-down Michael J. Fox. The Canadian-raised actor came to Hollywood and completely ran with the role of Alex P. Keaton on TV’s Family Ties (NBC 1982-1989). In the Reagan 80s, young Republicans loved him and thought he was there guy, but then liberals loved Fox because it seemed like he was making fun of the GOP. In the end, everyone loved him! But through his knack for comic timing, it lead to leading man roles in movies like Teen Wolf, The Secret of My Success, and most notably as Marty McFly in the Back to the Future trilogy (one of my favorite trilogies ever)! He tried to show his range as a dramatic actor in Light of Day, Bright Lights Big City and Casualties of War, which I actually liked and was impressed by, but it seems audiences wanted Fox to do comedy. After trying movies that were hit or miss, he returned to TV with Spin City (ABC 1996-2001). It was around 1998 that Fox announced he had been living with Parkinson’s Disease since 1990. Since then he has slowed down his acting, but has shined with appearances on Curb Your Enthusiasm and Rescue Me. Now at age 61, Fox is getting the documentary treatment from Oscar-winner Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) with Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie.

movie poster

Fox tells his own story about his career and life. As with any good biopic of a Hollywood star, it intercuts various clips of his work. But it also intercuts with fly-on-the-wall moments of Fox working with his physical therapist, spending time with his family and introspective interviews. There are also some “re-enactments” interspersed. I say “re-enactments” because they are different than most re-enactments you would see on A&E or such, these are more over-the-should or from afar stand-ins for Fox heading to a set, doing a stunt or getting ready for a big event. 

Guggenheim has addressed serious topics in a lot of his docs, but even with Waiting for Superman about the education system, he interspersed clips of TV shows. He actually is very pop culture-savvy if you look at some of his films like It Might Get Loud or the U2 doc From the Sky Down, he truly loves entertainment. Here he is making a pop-culture soaked doc that is also delving deep into a man facing the realities of a debilitating disease. The fact that Fox is easily one of the most well-liked entertainers of all-time (seriously, find me anyone who has had a bad word to say about him?) makes you care for the subject that much more. But there’s also a nostalgic element as I’m thinking back to all of the great roles I remember enjoying him in as a kid and now he’s coming to grips with his health and future. It is surprising to see a director like Guggenheim delve into “re-enactments” and normally I don’t care for them, but here I actually thought it worked.

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie is available on Apple TV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/still-a-michael-j-fox-movie/umc.cmc.njewt06q05vqbgp6w42pqb0l/

4 out of 5 stars

Master Gardener

Paul Schrader wrote one of the greatest movies ever made with 1976′s Taxi Driver. The combination of Schrader’s writing, Martin Scorsese’s directing and a powerhouse performance from Robert De Niro made that one of my 15 Favorites of All Time. Schrader’s entire filmography of both writing and directing is about tortured and haunted men, i.e. Raging Bull, The Mosquito Coast, Affliction, and Auto Focus just to name a few. But it was his late career comeback First Reformed that truly blew everyone away, resulting in his very first Oscar nomination for screenwriting (which is astounding to me). He followed that up with The Card Counter (my #5 Movie of 2021). Now he’s back for what’s being called the third in his tortured men in a room trilogy (seems there’s been a lot more than just three, but who’s counting), with Master Gardener opening this week after numerous film festivals.

movie poster

Joel Edgerton stars as Narvel, a horticulturalist of an estate owned by wealthy dowager Norma Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver). Narvel oversees the gardening and his staff. Norma asks that he take on an apprentice, her troubled great-niece Maya (Quintessa Swindell). Things change once she begins working on the property. I’m going to try and avoid spoilers as much as I can, but Narvel has a dark past that comes to light with Maya.

This movie is going to be (hell, it already is) polarizing. Some might embrace the layered and nuanced performances, others are going to have issues with the class warfare and interpretations therein. Here is my take: in the very beginning of the film as Narvel is sitting in a room writing in his journal / narrating, and it almost felt like Schrader self-parody to see this motif again. But when the movie loses its way, stay with it - Edgarton truly is mesmerizing. There is a lot more exposition and blatant dialogue, more so than I’ve recalled in Schrader’s previous films. The three main actors are fantastic and that needs to be said. But the biggest problem I have with this movie is that it had the misfortune of following First Reformed and The Card Counter. In contrast with those two, this felt so much lesser. Schrader is a master storyteller of tortured souls, but this felt like been-there-done-that. There are definitely some inspired moments...but you have to, well, wait for this garden to grow to get there. 

For info on Master Gardener: http://www.magpictures.com/mastergardener/

2.5 out of 5 stars

[thatpunnyperson]

This one's gonna be kind of long so im putting it all under a cut, but the tl:dr is "I was a gifted kid and we had it so good without realizing it."

I was one of the gifted kids in primary school and was able to scrape by in the honors and advanced placement classes until well into high school, and I 100% DID have exactly that chip on my shoulder. I thought advanced kids were treated badly when they failed expectations and needed help, because there were enough kids with the work ethic to allow them fabulous success. The comparison between me and them showed I wasn't even in their league when it came to academics, but I felt like they were somehow getting more resources from the teachers than I was, or were getting graded differently or less harshly than I was (at no point did I think they were getting graded "easier," which tells you how big that chip on my shoulder was about "gifted kids" versus "normal kids").

Until I had to take the normal-level government class to round out my graduation requirements. (And the messed up thing is that the "normal" level was still called "college prep" and there was even a "standard prep" level below that. I was so up on my high horse from taking years and years of advanced placement classes that I hadn't even KNOWN there was a standard level.)

Anyway, this government class was supposed to teach us about how to be an informed citizen and how to participate in civic things on all levels, from local school district and city hall stuff to the state and federal levels. It was taught by one of the 40 football coaches at our school (student body was ~2000 kids) and he was a frothing-at-the-mouth conservative republican, and that seriously tainted how he taught us things.

Highlights of his behavior include:

Making us debate current political issues, but not by simply dividing the class in half. No, we had to form our own sides based on our own political beliefs, which led to several of us realizing some of our classmates didn't think we deserved certain rights

Interrupting the more liberal students when they were giving answers to subjective questions, and then soap-boxing about whatever we were talking about

Interrupting the female students a lot while they were giving answers to BOTH subjecting and objective questions. Anything from "what is the first amendment" to "where is city hall located" to "who should be allowed to own nukes"

NOT interrupting the male students AT ALL EVER, which was wild but not surprising since all the guys seemed to be conservative and republican-leaning.

The two things that made me realize the true difference between the gifted kids classes and the normal kids classes were the amount of attention the teacher gave the students and the first time the drug dog came in.

Teacher Attention

In all of my advanced classes, if I started struggling with something or if I got a few bad grades in a row, my teacher would ask to see me after class or over lunch to chat about why I was struggling and with what specifically I needed help. These chats would include anything from why i didn't like reading certain assigned books to why a math concept didn't make sense to me, and even included recommendations of tutors to see.

In my government class, when I started getting bad grades (because it's kind of hard to engage with a subject when the person teaching it doesn't respect you at all), my teacher didn't come to me and ask to talk to me about why I'm struggling. He simply reported it to the administration folks and they called my parents. Who then yelled at my about how I was failing, because "who fails government" and "who fails a non-advanced class" because my parents had never had to deal with a kid failing classes yet. They didn't know how to help because I had never needed to ask for help, both because I hadn't NEEDED it at first and then because my teachers volunteered their help without me asking.

The Drug Dog

I was literally in my final year of primary education, literally less than a few months from finishing everything and graduating, when my government class was interrupted one day and we were all told to stand outside the building while some cops and a dog went through our stuff. "Leave your backpacks unzipped and open, leave your jackets and sweatshirts at your desks, go stand outside," they told us. I turned to my friend, Val, and was like, "what is happening???" and she gave me a confused look and said, "its just the drug dog??" and I was like, "the WHAT????"

Val had been in several non-advanced classes at this point and realized that I had NEVER had this happen before. I had NEVER had class stopped so the cops could come in with a sniffer dog and search everyone's things. I had never even been searched for drugs ever at all in school. But this was commonplace for non-advanced classes, so everyone opened their backpacks and took off their sweatshirts and left their stuff behind as they went to stand outside.

I was wearing a pullover sweatshirt with no hood, but as a shirt so I was only wearing a bra underneath, so obviously I couldn't take it off. My teacher and the cops and the administrator didn't like that. They were like, "you HAVE TO take the sweatshirt off" and "you can't leave the classroom unless you leave the sweatshirt" and I pleaded with them that I was wearing it as a SHIRT and that I didn't have anything on underneath. It took the female administrator taking me into another room, closing the door, and having me literallt take my sweatshirt off to PROVE I was wearing it as a shirt, for me to be allowed to leave the building and stand with the other kids.

And when I got out there, several of my classmates were like, "what happened" and "what did they do to you" and "are you okay" and "you should have just taken the sweatshirt off" and stuff like that, with genuine concern and sympathy and understanding. When we were all let back into the classroom, there was dog saliva all over everyone's stuff, bags had clearly been rifled through, and everyone's sweatshirts had been turned inside out.

And then we went back to the lesson! As though nothing had happened! 15 minutes of our 50 minute class period had just been wasted for what felt like an illegal search of our stuff and so the cops and admin could intimidate students! I had to take my shirt off! I couldn't focus the entire rest of the day because I was legit shaken by the entire experience, but all of my classmates were so beaten down by this regular violation of their rights that they just kind of accepted the treatment and went on with their day.

To Conclude

Everything is relative and when you are deprived of context, you start festering in this microcosm of your own experiences, trying to define some kind of continuum of good vs bad, respect vs disrespect, support vs lack thereof. For gifted kids, all we knew was that we took "harder" classes and were graded "harshly" because we were expected to perform like college kids. And without the knowledge of what classes were like outside of the gifted kid world, we started defining bad grades as the result of a lack of support from our teachers or as the teacher playing favorites. We were never really held to account for our behavior because we were legit treated so well and gently without us even realizing it. We became so entitled to a high level of support and respect and legit babying at some points, that we started to consider the non-advanced classes and the students in them as dumber than us. To us, they were simply not smart enough to handle the rigor and difficulty of advanced classes; the reality was the opposite.

It's been more than a decade since I took that class and I've since gone to college and somehow managed to get an entire bachelors degree (which is mindboggling for other reasons), but I remember each day of that class as though it happened yesterday because the way my classmates and I were treated is burned into my mind. The day we had the drug dog show up was the day was stsrted telling everyone I knew about how shittily the student in non-advanced classes are treated, about how there is a completely different framework at play for gifted kids that assumes trust based on intelligence. In every advanced class I took, I started telling all of my friends about the bad treatement, I told all of my teachers, I told random classmates I'd never spoken to until then. I was like, "guys, we have it so good, we are so lucky, and it's so messed up."

Gifted kids have some of the biggest chips on their shoulders because when life is good, you try to find the catch and you start picking at the seams holding things together. And sometimes you make up things to be mad at just so you can be mad about something. From one gifted kid to all the gifted kids out there: school was hard not because the teachers were playing favorites or actually grading us harsher, but because we all had imposter syndrome and invented social hierarchies to make us feel like we fit in and weren't imposters. This is a classic demonstration of privilege: we weren't smarter than the normal kids, we just had the privilege of more support from out teachers and the privilege of not getting interrupted mid-lesson so the cops could search through our bags and let their dog slobber on our stuff. We had the double trouble of both the absence of a punishment and the presence of a reward, and it fucked up literally everyone in the school.

Like theres this idea among so many "former gifted kids" that they were Above Tha Rest and treated with a much harsher hand for it and well that simply isnt true