#i'm not saying it's like. to blame for whatever the election results are

[eisthenameofme]

"well maybe the democrats should have been more appealing to leftists if they wanted leftists to vote for them-" i don't know how to explain to you that you, as a leftist, should know that a candidate who is openly a wannabe fascist dictator is still the worse option

[imagitory]

I've never been more heartbroken in my life.

I was gobsmacked in 2016, don't get me wrong. I was devastated and frightened and shaken beyond words. I even had to go behind a wall and collect myself at one point that horrible November 9th, 2016, after colliding with a man wearing a red MAGA hat at work. A good chunk of us at work talked amongst ourselves about it, offering each other comfort.

But this? This is different. I could imagine dumb people making excuses for voting for Trump in 2016 -- saying that they thought a businessman would be good for the economy, saying that they wanted someone who wasn't a "Washington insider" like Hilary Clinton. Sure, it was stupid, but people can be stupid. Quite frankly, a lot of people are stupid, in this country and otherwise.

But now? Anyone who voted for Trump now has voted for a man who not only rounded up immigrants and put them in concentration camps separated from their families; bungled the response to COVID-19 so badly that the American death toll easily surpassed every other country on Earth; has poisoned the Supreme Court to the extent that they overturned years of precedence with Roe V. Wade and has basically given Trump cart-blanche to do whatever he wants while he's president; was the first president in history to refuse to concede on election day; was impeached for crimes in office not once but TWICE; was instrumental to and passionately supportive of the full-on attempted coup at the U.S. capitol on January 6, 2021 that could've very easily resulted in the deaths of his own Vice President and multiple members of Congress; has spoken glowingly of despots like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un and even said he will be "a dictator on day one" if elected again; has both used slogans originally used by modern American Neo-Nazis ("America First") and purportedly told one of his ex-subordinates that he wanted generals like Adolf Hitler's...but also has by the day proven more and more just how mentally inept, vindictive, and mean-spirited he truly is.

And unlike in his previous races, Trump is ahead in the popular vote too. We can't just blame this on the electoral college being antiquated and gerrymandered AF like in the Trump-Clinton or Bush-Gore elections. Even if all of the third-party voters in this country had grown a bloody brain cell and voted for Harris so as to show solidarity against Trump and his form of American fascism, it still somehow wouldn't be enough. We could potentially blame this on lower voter turn-out -- according to what I'm seeing so far, even with all the votes not counted in this race yet, it looks like there were far less votes cast this election than in the last one, though likely still more than the 2016 race. But even so, I don't think that's the only problem. I truly think there were just a lot of people who turned out en-masse to vote for Trump. And all I can think in regards to those people is...

This is beyond stupidity or even selfishness. This is cruelty. This is large swaths of people deciding that they want fellow American citizens to suffer -- because in their minds, if those people suffer, that'll somehow make them happy. This is a large chunk of America saying, "yeah, you know all that crap about 'liberty and justice for all'? Screw that, I want a 'strong man' to bully people different from me for my own amusement." And -- perhaps -- there's also an element of feeling like their vote doesn't really have any consequences for them, so why should they care if the man they voted for is a god-awful person? It's not like that man will hurt them.

I had hoped. I had hoped, seeing the outpouring of support from liberals, independents, and conservatives for Harris/Walz. I'd hoped, seeing how many ex-Trump appointees were standing up against him, how much people were shouting their disdain for Project 2025 from the rooftops, and how many women were protesting in the face of Roe V. Wade being overturned. I truly had started to hope that America would prove we'd grown beyond our country's own original sin -- how our United States preached freedom for all while still being built on the backs of slaves and refusing to grant a vote to over half their population -- by electing a smart, successful, charismatic woman of color who sees our country as great in potential and wants us to pursue that potential as our first female president, rather than backtracking all the slow progress we've made over the last 200+ years.

But now...my hope has faded. My heart is in pieces and the world is so dark. I hardly know how I'll function at work tomorrow, even if I know somehow, I have to try. We'll all have to stand somehow. Somehow, someway...we'll have to find the strength. We'll have to stand, and we'll have to keep moving forward, even when it feels like we're a Little Mermaid walking on knives.

We'll have to stand.

[mariacallous]

I LOVED this article. Leslie Gray Streeter expresses it perfectly.

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/opinion/column/kamala-harris-no-press-interviews-OPD4MAXYKRB4XJHB2TFB6ZJX6Q/

Since becoming the presumptive Democratic candidate for president, Vice President Kamala Harris has done myriad public appearances and given speeches but has not, as of this writing, talked to journalists outside a brief session on the tarmac before a flight.

I’m a journalist and have been for more than half my life. And you know what? I don’t blame her one bit.

Because of her refusal to sit for an interview with any print or broadcast media, Harris has been the target of a lot of indignant insistence that she change her mind — that she’s not giving the American public answers they deserve. Critics say she’s subverting an expected system that all other elected officials have gone through. They say she’s hiding behind a wall of hype and “irrational exuberance” that is proof she lacks the toughness to hold the office she seeks.

Be ever so real, y’all. You know that quote, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”? It would be insane to subject yourself to unfettered questions by an industry that doesn’t seem to know how to handle interviews with true journalistic integrity and practices. Why beat your head against a wall you know is made of brick and disinformation?

Harris has seen a media landscape that arguably legitimized soon-to-be-President Donald Trump as a normal candidate when he was sowing seeds of unrest, writing about him agreeing to accept the 2016 election results, “if I win,” and then denying those results in 2020 with not an nth of the absolute pushback and condemnation it deserved. She saw, as we all did, major outlets referring to obvious racist attacks by the current Republican nominee and others as “racially tinged” and to blatant bloody lies as “falsehoods” and “misstatements.”

The vice president recently approached the press gaggle with a deliberately direct “Whatcha got?” That is the same thing my late daddy used to ask me point-blank when I’d been calling and calling and he knew I wanted something. The reporters had been clamoring for this. And their response? A bunch of requests for a response to crazy stuff Trump said about her.

This is the same industry that initially wrote presidential fanfic pondering replacement candidates that weren’t Harris. Then, when President Joe Biden stepped down from the race and named her as his chosen successor, they compiled panels ruminating on Trump’s assertions about her racial identity. Fox News has gone on the attack about her every day, but she’s being called a coward for not agreeing to a debate on that network in front of an arena of opposing fans.

Yeah, no. She is not, as we say in my culture, Boo Boo the Fool, nor is she, as she’s stated, falling for the okey-doke. Would you rush to sit down to withstand more of that foolishness? I would not. Despite the protestations of several writers from traditional media absolutely aghast at her avoidance of them, the truth is that Kamala Harris doesn’t need them.

Just as Trump has flocked to friendly outlets like Fox and a live conversation on X with app owner Elon Musk (or what Harris’ team referred to as “whatever that was”), Harris has done speeches at a rally in North Carolina and last week in Prince George’s County, and she has her savvy and very online comms team to get her message out. It’s smart, because most outlets have proven they don’t know how to approach her.

The vice president has expressed interest in setting something up, but I wouldn’t be shocked if she sidesteps your Dana Bashes and Kristen Welkers and does something inventive. If I were her, I’d talk to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, who has himself been critical of media colleagues, including his own network.

Maybe she should completely pivot and do something fun like “Hot Ones,” where she can answer policy questions while eating spicy wings. Talk to Teen Vogue. Do podcasts. Hang out with “The Real Housewives of Potomac.” I know these sound like lightweight options, but are any of these suggestions less weighty than Harris’ opponent, who bleats lies and racism on his own app, or his approved media partners who go on about Harris’ laugh, dating history and heritage? It’s all a circus. I say make your own big top.

And if madam vice president decides to talk to the traditional media, be it the New York Times or CNN, I think she should only do so with interviewers who have proven themselves to have cultural competency about race, gender, historically Black colleges and universities, the Divine 9 Greek system, step parenting and being a baddie in the 1990s. I’m not saying it has to be a friendly person like Trump seeks, but it does have to be someone who respects Harris enough as a candidate to do research and not spend the whole time asking gotcha questions about her opponent’s lies. Heck, I’ll do it! I know this is a long shot, but at least I know what okey-doke means.

I am excited for Harris’ future media choices because they are sure to be unprecedented, just like her candidacy. And it’s going to be on her terms. Everyone gets to set theirs, after all.

[ahiddenpath]

Life Talk

Discussing how I'm dealing with Things beneath the cut.

I doubt I'll be able to say anything about the US election results that you haven't seen a million times before. I wasn't sure if I should bother commenting. I'm not sure where I am in the processing stages, so... Forgive me if my tone is weird. I definitely feel weird.

First thing's first; I've anticipated this outcome since people started blaming Biden for inflation. That's a typical thing in American politics; whoever is in charge currently is blamed for everything, which often causes the presidency to swap from D to R and back, regardless of where problems began. Of course, if voters really were worried about the economy, well... The Trump tariffs are a laughably, horrifically bad solution. But... I don't think the average American voter understands tariffs. So like. Whelp. There's a very real reason why Rs want to gut public education. Well, there are several, but yeah, a less educated populace is easier to fleece.

Obviously there are a million other horrible things going on here; if I tried to get into them all, I would never finish this post. But I can't say I'm experiencing shock or betrayal. I knew many Americans hate women, POC, the queer community, and others more than they care about their own self interests. Although most, I think, are simply not educated enough to understand that their self interests are at risk, and many others were sucked into the far right cult stuff years ago. Rs always scream about the liberal media, but so much American media (and social media!) is owned by the right, or is at least paid off by them. I'm wondering, as education continues to fail, especially given the next administration, will Americans have any hope of thinking beyond whatever Facebook posts and news in the pocket of (or in fear of) the right tells them?

We're in a bad way, but this didn't happen on the day of the election. We've been living in this environment for years, now. Are things about to get worse? Yes, of course. I think it's an important time to remember who your friends and loved ones are, to lean on them and check in on them, to do stupid fun stuff with them. And I think it's time to step away from the doom scrolling and inventing horrible what-if scenarios. Obviously this is a scary time; I'm not trying to diminish that. But spiraling causes pain now, PLUS more pain later if the bad thing comes to pass.

I've seen some interesting posts with actionable ideas. Get a passport ASAP, look into moving (to blue states, out of climate change buffer areas, or internationally if you can, although obviously that is not easy nor readily available), think about if your industry will be impacted by tariffs and sweeping federal government layoffs, get sterilized if you know you don't want kids, get that medical appointment you've been pushing off. Actionable stuff is productive! Spiraling isn't. Although uhhh, that's easier said than done. I'm just trying to push myself in a better direction, here.

As for me, here are some fractured snippets of how I've been feeling:

-Mourning. Shit, I'm 35. Trump will be in office until I'm 39. My child bearing window is closing. Are we not having a family bc of orange oompah loompah and his country and world destroying policies?

-I'm aware that I will be buffered from some things, purely because of how I look, where I live, etc. And the fact that I'm married to a safe man who adores me affords some protection. I feel weird about it, but must acknowledge it, so I don't get uhh. Disconnected from people who are more vulnerable than me. I think that Democratic politicians who mean well, but don't experience what so many Democrat constituents go through/suffer with for various reasons, becoming so... Out of touch and unrelatable... Um, I think that played a role in getting us here. It's difficult for these politicians to organize or affect change when their life experience is... Just overall safer by default. And this applies to people who aren't politicians, too, just on a less official level.

Those of us who are comparatively safer for various reasons need to hear people who are less safe and acknowledge that some things impact us differently, and we need to prioritize what the most vulnerable need.

-On the day before the election, I started Googling how to become a witch and books on witchcraft. I did it with a wry grin, because I'm aware that magic/witchcraft/New Age stuff/tarot/crystals/mysticism/etc surge in popularity during times of political and economic strife. Meaning that they are SUPER FUCKING POPULAR right now, and have been for a while. You might know that I'm a Seeker (tarot practitioner), but I'm also a scientist. I'm... not the most spiritual person.

But, like, FUCK IT. Time to become a witch. Time to creep into the wild woods and make a hut and live with the bears. TIME TO CURSE SOME MF-ers!

I told my reasonable friend. Here is our conversation:

Hidden: So I'm googling witch books.

Friend: No. We don't turn to magic in the face of tragedy. We drink hot cocoa.

Hidden: FINE I GUESS (hrmph!!!!)

I told another friend the same:

Friend: How are you holding up?

Hidden: Googling how to become a witch. So... yeah.

Friend: How... how DO you become a witch?

Hidden: IDK, that's why I'm googling it.

Sigh. I might still buy that book on the history of witchcraft and paganism. What, it's history! xD

-Otherwise, I've been weirdly fortunate that work has been so demanding. I've been learning more about in silico analysis lately (using huge protein databases to predict how developable a new antibody based drug might be, which residues to change, and how immunogenic your antibody might be). I'm learning and doing so much that I come home exhausted, but like. Maybe that's the lack of sleep on Tuesday night talking.

-I've been leaning into the animal of myself these last few days. The soft, squishy, vulnerable meat of me. Sleep and work and food and relying on my partner bond with my husband. Listening to his heartbeat, feeling the low rumble of his voice when we cuddle, letting skin on skin release safe and happy hormones.

-I think I need to get off reddit and its eternal doom. Like, permanently. Tumblr and Insta are the only other social media I use, but Tumblr is all digimon and Insta is all cats and dolls. I'm hoping the political posts that aren't primarily actionable die down on Tumblr soon, so I don't need to spend less time here, but obviously people need to post what they are going to post. If I'm here less, this is likely why.

Most of all, do what you can to beat back despair. I don't really have comforting words, except that you're not alone. Other people DO think and feel the way you do now. Let's all try to be there for each other, distract one another, and maybe have some hugs and hot drinks. Or like... start a coven, idk.

You are loved. Ask for help if you need to, offer it if you can.

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

Bad Takes

So a number of you on here probably know who Asmongold is. And for the most part even when he is off the mark I can understand where he is coming from. Except for on 2 points that I will not concede.

The first is a bit from this video early on that happens in the first 3 min of the vid. Feel free to watch it but I'm going to go on a tangent. Here's the video however for reference.

Asmon here says that "If you threaten someone you should get a ban 100%" And my stance is that NO you should not. And I can articulate why easily.

If you receive a threat, you report it to the police. In the recent case of the guy saying, "Would you like to be r***d", yeah he was being an obnoxious shit. But she muted him earlier on in the game and was talking MAD shit prior to her video. Several people also confirmed that she unmuted him for content and to try to go viral. Which she did. And she baited the entire thing. And I might hear you say, "That's not an excuse" and you are correct. It's not. But if you have a threat levied against you, and you are REALLY that bothered by it, no matter how BS it is, then go through the legal applications of the law.

Now why do I say no to a ban? Simple reason? Theft isn't ok. Now I'm not going to get to specifics because people will argues the semantics but if a game bans you, or you get console banned, a company has effectively deprived you of a product that YOU purchased in a legal manner. IE: If they take away your ability to play the game at all that IS THEFT! I will not be convinced otherwise. And if we open up that avenue as that "Allowed option" more companies can exploit that. What's the extreme version?

Imagine that you buy this fridge.

When you purchase it, you unknowingly (by purchasing it) "sign" a TOS that says that this fridge can be taken back at any time if the company feels you do not "Stand for their values". For a person like Asmon, that might not mean much, because he's loaded. But for the rest of you, You can't just go out and buy a new fridge on the fly. But that's the logical result of this line of thinking. You OWNING NOTHING. Fun fact. People will argue that "Well it's in the TOS" yeah I'm aware. But I also know that the legal system is FUCKED and that when software cases have been ruled on often it's in favor of the consumers. Even against Apple. Who are known to have tried to put people in jail for jailbreaking their own phones.

Fact is if a person well funded actually went to court over this most TOS's for games would be overruled by a judge as illegal and not legally binding. What's more, terms like "Purchase" and "Buy" imply ownership after the transfer of the funds takes place. These companies in fact SELL games for PURCHASE. Not for lease. The only issue we have faced with this not having precedent put to it is because these companies have A LOT of money and will often pay a person off just to settle the case. Because they can't afford to have it ruled on the merits. I will stand by the fact that if you get banned from a game, no matter what the reason why, it is theft.

Having said that, I will say that I can ultimatum. I'm pro, "Mute the people you don't like or block them". And contrary to what the lady said in the video it's not victim blaming. Reality is a harsh and cruel place. You will NEVER sanitize it enough for the Puritan cult on either side of the isle. EVER. Should the world be an unsafe place? Not a question I can answer because I live in reality. And short of living in the injustice universe at the moral whims of a tyrant dictator in the form of Superman and Wonderwoman, the world will NEVER be "Safe". Whatever that means to whoever you ask.

The next clip is this one. Around the 7:30 mark.

More or less it's a short statement of, " the outcome of this election won't affect you".

Eggs are insanely up in costs

Gas is only down a LITTLE bit because Biden is selling off ALL of our reserves to try to win over voters

Biden has imported over 400,000 illegals from countries that do not care about us and have lost track of a LARGE number of terrorists that the found had crossed the border

Rent has skyrocketed since Biden took office

Biden has only managed to RAISE inflation because he can't actually get it down do to insane ECO policies that are based on BUNK "science".

People are living paycheck to paycheck more now than the years under trump

We are facing actual fears of WWIII

Biden, the day this "verdict" was announced approved Ukrainians to use US firearms in their fight against Russia. A fight they have been losing, all the while we burn money sending it to them.

So this bullshit of, "This election won't affect you" is a crock of shit. Normally Asmon is good about keeping his takes grounded because he started out from relatively humble beginnings. But this trial was a fucking sham. Every single trial has been a sham. And every single step of the way everything has been unprecedented. Up to and including the instructions to the jury that stated, "It doesn't matter what crime you think he is guilty of so long as you think he is. With a veiled threat from the prosecution, and a trial by a judge whose daughter is funding democrats off the trails meaning it was a conflict of interest, and the instructions to say, "It does not have to be unanimous so long as you think he's guilty of something".

If this was happening to literally anyone else, ESPECIALLY a non-white democrat, the media would be demanding action by the national guard and antifa to burn down the courthouse because of this GRIEVOUS abuse of the law.

Fact is we are poorer as a country than we have been in decades. Our money is losing it's worth by the day, and Asmon is to blinded by his wealth to understand what the stakes are. Which makes me honestly pretty sad.

His other points in the videos are off and on but those are the two I wanted to cover the most.

[tartrazeen]

I'm a bit angry with the way some Americans are demanding people go vote. Just gonna break the strike for a second here, but also gonna hide this under a readmore. Venting.

I'm seeing a lot of angry, outraged posts furious that any American would even consider not voting. "Do it or you've surrendered. Show up or you've handed it to Trump. The next four years are going to be so much worse unless you vote."

And it's like

Putting aside any rebuttals to deconstruct that lesser of two evils mindset...

... that is a lot of shit coming from a country that had the majority vote for Democrats across MULTIPLE elections, despite the endless voter suppression laws, when America has yet to do away with the thing preventing that majority vote from mattering.

The sheer rage at people not wanting to waste their time doing the same thing over and over, never being able to trust the results, could've been spent focusing on those representatives that were so painstakingly elected to demand the electoral colleges be abolished, or a federal action to enshrine voting rights, or something. Instead, it's spent being inexplicably confounded that the sunk cost fallacy is not a persuasive argument.

I'm not saying 'don't vote'. Definitely vote! But holy shit, does everyone posting this stuff think that's all you need to do? That's the easy part! Voting is practically insignificant next to the lobbying, campaigns, and targeted pressure you need to put on officials to enact anything. You've had the Democrats in charge for a few years - where's the action? Oh, some rule got in the away? Okay, what's the plan to change the rule? Oh, you can't change it? Then why the fuck does it matter who you vote for? Forget whether or not you should vote - if you do vote, how does get anything done if everyone's hands are just immediately tied anyway? Why are you wasting so much time rolling a boulder up this hill when you could eliminate the hill?

But the real kicker? If voting is so important, why isn't fixing it the number one thing on Biden's platform? Could it be that endless calls for voter turnout is not the most efficient strategy, and that even he realizes there are easier ways to get around it? Could it be that everyone screaming for votes is playing checkers while the House and Senate are playing Money-in-Swing-State Chess?

Whatever. Rant over. I hope Trump doesn't win but I'm not blaming a single regular person if it's another "tee hee the electoral colleges" situation. There's no organization to these people blindly insisting voting will 'for sure pay off this time'. If there was, there'd be a path to voting presented, not just a tantrum.

Edit: For real - people are saying they can't vote, and you're just berating them? Okay, why you don't you do something that helps them vote? Oh, that's too hard? You just wanna have fun being angry that "they aren't working hard enough" and therefore "deserve everything they let happen"? Okay. Nice pre-deflection to avoid putting some actual effort in.

[princesscolumbia]

So I'm once again seeing so-called "conservative" content on my dash...

...and I'm just not having it.

There's a LOT that goes into my worldview and the way it was formed and the nuances and philosophy that formed who I was growing up and who I am now, but, to use the broadest of all possible strokes, it boils down to this:

Whatever side Nazis take is the side I will go out of my way to end!

Everyone who just stood up (and has a Nazi armband in their back pocket, safely out of sight so you think we'll give you pass to vomit the shit you let clot your corrupted, rotting cranial cavity), SIT THE FUCK DOWN AND SHUT UP!

And yes, we have Nazis. Turns out they didn't all get the bullet after killing all the queers, Jews, and whatever people of color they could get their hands on (SHUT UP! Fuck your Holocaust denial! You don't get a FUCKING VOTE if you try to PISS ON THE GRAVES OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE!), some of them just hid because they knew what would happen to them if they opened their mouths and tried that shit again!

But here we are a few generations later and it seems the Nazis forgot how hard we stomped down on them eventually.

I was an American Conservative once, too. I learned from all the right places and right people about how modern conservatism was a good thing and the right thing and we had to "stop the libs" in order to keep our country from turning into a new Soviet state or something.

And in some ways, I haven't changed my mind, but that's for another post, because the opinions I still have from then are STILL THE OPPOSITE OF THE SIDE NAZIS ARE ON!

Even up to the start of the pandemic, I was still staunchly conservative, pushing back against what I saw as liberal pushes to subvert our country and make things worse for everyone.

Then: "...oh, uh...that's a Nazi. Saying the same things I'm saying. That's okay, 'cause the conservatives in leadership positions will surely repudi...ate...them... They're agreeing with them."

"Well, that's okay, I'm sure my fellow conserv...I'm surrounded by Nazis, aren't I?"

Myth after conservative lie after "evangelical christian" talking point were knocked over like pins in a bowling alley. Things that I had been told over and over were just facts of life were having the masks ripped off and exposed for being the greedy old rich white man trying to fuck over the "punk kids," usually largely people of color and queer folk.

Am I mixing metaphors a little? Yeah, probably, but I'm fucking MAD AS FUCK that these FUCKERS ARE GOING TO BE A THING EITHER I OR MY DAUGHTER HAS TO DEAL WITH!

Why do I hate Nazis so much? Well, in no particular order:

They KILL PEOPLE FOR BEING DIFFERENT FROM THEM

They burn books that contain opinions that they don't like

They KILL PEOPLE FOR BEING QUEER

They don't actually produce anything, they just consume and conquer and play a shell game with their economy (whatever the size) and when the music's about to stop they hold the band at gunpoint and keep things going until it eventually collapses, then they blame someone else. (Usually, the Jews, and if that doesn't work they blame the queers)

They KILL PEOPLE BECAUSE OF THE MELANIN CONTENT OF THEIR SKIN

They concoct psuedoscience to support their beliefs, resulting in intellectual stagnation that, if passed down to their children, becomes entrenched

They KILL PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY DON'T LIKE THE LOOK ON SOMEONE'S FACE

Oh, and in case I may have glossed over this part:

I HATE NAZIS BECAUSE THEY KILL PEOPLE JUST BECAUSE!

Scratch a Nazi and you'll find a school bully. Plant a school bully and in 10-20 years you'll have a fresh-from-the-plantation Nazi. (word choice was deliberate, because you can't corrupt a child to view their fellow human beings as sub-human without showing them how to treat them as sub-human)

And I think we all know what Steve Rogers did with Nazis.

Did you question the results of the 2020 election? I mean, there were a bunch of people saying some really bad things about election tampering and the like.

...and they all turned out to be white supremacists and Nazis. All their "evidence" was smoke and mirrors and if you questioned the Nazi rhetoric you were a dirty [N-word] or [K-word] or [F-word] or [T-word] and probably voted for Biden!

Did you think the Jan. 6th Insurection was a grassroots movement and it was just a bunch of people trying to take their country back? Yeah, and I'm sure a bunch of them thought so too...but even more of the insurrectionists turned out to be white supremacists and Nazis. And look at that, they were being FUCKING ORCHESTRATED by Republicans who wanted to seize power from duly elected officials. And supported by Nazis.

We're at the point in history where they're not even trying to hide what they're doing, or if they are trying, they're failing. ("Project 2025," anyone?) The same people who are saying the quiet part out loud now (how they think Jews should be put to death and blacks should be enslaved and brown people need to be mass deported regardless of nation of birth and all queer folk should be rounded up and shot, etc.) are the same people who believe that Trump should have king-level powers and immunity and cheered on the passage of laws that restrict medical care for women and children (with the goal of extending that restriction to adults that fall into the category of "people we don't like") and the same people who cheer for Putin as he spins lies out of whole cloth to invade Ukraine and the same people who declared the vaccines were going to kill you or plant trackers in your body and the same people who said respiratory masks were the government trying to police your actions and the same people who said that the rioters carrying tiki torches and calling for racial segregation were "just good American boys who don't mean any harm" and the same people who...

...I think you get the point.

The Nazis were in our midst the whole time, they just weren't waving a flag or wearing an armband.

I've been burned. I've been burned badly. I've had my trust in the conservative movement gutted, my faith in America shaken, and my previous worldview shattered. You'd better believe I'm hyper-aware when it comes to dog whistles, false flags, and code-speak. And remember, I used to be one, so I know the conservative playbook.

I may not be able to actually kill a Nazi, but get 'em banned on social media? Get 'em blocked on chat apps? End their influence before it starts wherever I can? You bet your ass I'm going to take whatever action I can to end the threat before it becomes my daughter's problem.

Because my daughter is growing up well aware that one mom is queer and the other mom Gets Looks™️ and is culturally guilty of being queer by association. My kiddo is well aware the world she's going to inherit is a place that could be very, very bad.

And my daugher is neurodivergent.

Which means she has a hardwired sense of fairness and justice.

Which means she's going to step up in the bravest and most noble way possible, and I want to make sure when she finds that hill to die on that her mom has done the hard work before her and she's not actually gonna die on that hill.

'cause she hates Nazis as much as I do.

And that means it's bad news for Nazis, because my hatred of Nazis pales in comparison to how much I love and want to protect my daughter.

So if you're a Nazi, just remember, I'm with The Captain.

No, not that one, this one:

And remember, if you're standing with the Nazis? Even if you say you're "not a Nazi," it's awfully hard to tell, what with the red, white, and black flag you're standing under.

[29pageshomestuckeveryday]

Homestuck, page 2,567

Kanaya: Reply to memo.

Author commentary:

"IT TURNS OUT YOU CAN'T ALTER THE OUTCOME OF DECISIONS MADE BY MORONS, NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU YELL AT THEM.” Not to get overly political down here in the laugh gutter. This just sounds like the tagline for the result of the 2016 U.S. election.

When Current Karkat actually starts arguing with Current Karkat, not only did he not notice he was doing it, I think it's safe to say that even we didn't notice he was doing it. A lot of arguments he has with other versions of himself are hard to differentiate, because it's always gray text, and it's always yelling. It blurs together. Much later, he "solves" this problem by switching to red for a bit, during one of his more pathetic conversational loops of self-hate. A little further down he starts wondering what they did wrong in the session. Which, as I was saying earlier, is not really anything, and he kind of almost has that epiphany here. But then loses that epiphany once he discovers the humans, decides to hate them with a refreshed sense of rage, and starts blaming all the wrong things again for their failure, including himself. It's almost like he gains clarity in his rage gaps. When one fog of rage subsides, he starts seeing things clearly, but that all goes away the moment he enters a new fog of rage. Regardless, we're getting close to the end of Hivebent now, and you can kind of start sensing this wildly fractured, manic narrative start to gather itself and point itself back in the direction of where we left off. The new hate-hobby Karkat discovers, of course, we know to be the humans.

This is also the first time in Hivebent when we spend any real time tuning into a part that takes place on the meteor they end up stranded on after whatever catastrophe causes them to flee there. For all the zipping up and down the timeline we do, we never actually go that far until now. Again, it's about starting to gather up and organize all these loose threads and direct them back into something we recognize as connecting to the main narrative line. Even when certain stories or arcs are really chaotic and wildly out of order, I think most of us have good intuitions when it comes to picking up on when a story is making moves in preparation for the approach to its own endgame material. This memo starts feeling like that turning point. You've also got Kanaya weighing in, playing the role of a sort of wise, sympathetic ear to a down-and-out protagonist. You know That Moment in the movie. We all do. We're all experts. Homestuck knows you're a media expert and uses that assumption to its "advantage" all the time. The only time it backfires is when it turns out you're nowhere near the expert I thought you were. You know those moments when you see me shaking my head in grave disappointment? That's why I'm doing that, FYI.

Karkat suggests Aradia isn't a great Maid of Time. I dunno about that. She time traveled to make a thousand doomed robotic copies of herself to help defeat a crazy-strong Black King. Seems pretty good to me. He's probably remarking more on her mental stability than her competence. Of course what's really going on here, story-wise, is that he's foreshadowing her violent freakout in the End-of-Hivebent animation coming up soon.

Karkat mentions here an "invisible riddler." This is an idea that comes up from time to time throughout the story. Recall the "unseen riddler" in the narration during John's early animation, when he's listening to the wind in his neighborhood. It conjures the idea of a hidden Loki-like figure somewhere, whose pranks have nihilistic designs, an intangible force of mischief that robs its targets of a meaningful or dignified existence. In John's case, the nihilistic rumination about this figure seems to focus on the shapeless and uncertain direction of his life. Karkat's remark here focuses on the futility and self-fulfillment of one's own foolishness, passively allowed to play itself out by this prankster figure, who he links to "Father Time" as well. There is no one true god of Paradox Space, but to whatever extent there is, it's probably this riddler figure, which is why it's left in doubt as to whether he even exists at all. He's never discussed without also referencing his invisibility, or dubious reality. A much less cagey explanation is, it's probably best interpreted as the forces of mischief and authorial cruelty or callousness toward the subjects within this fiction, which are laced into the entire narrative and relate closely to the quality of "authorial scorn" that was mentioned earlier in some of the Vriska meta. When galvanized through more extreme figures like Caliborn, these forces become less passively nihilistic and prankstery, and more actively hostile and destructive.

That Kanaya has trouble imagining how Karkat could have a strong handle on the subject of romance without access to an online manual (like her access to Rose's walkthrough) says something about the way she thinks, and views skill or expertise. Here she says romance and psychology aren't her strong suits, and a couple pages ago she was expressing doubts about her role as a Space player. Some characters struggle with self-loathing issues (she's talking to one of them now), but she seems especially troubled by self-doubt issues. Maybe this is why these two resonate as friends so well. One is there to reassure him he is not loathsome, the other to reassure her she is not incompetent. We've been over Kanaya's role as a mother figure to a bunch of people, and it helps for a good mother figure to have a good son figure as a counterpoint, a son who's there to remind her, "No, you're not bad at this. Stop it with that talk."

Karkat's dissertation on magic is a pretty good summary of the ongoing tension between the realness/fakeness attribute of magic throughout the story. We get pretty flippant about magic in Homestuck, don't we? It's just a word you can use to describe certain forces, in the same way that you can use the word "luck" to evaluate certain outcomes, if you're fixated on that concept. This isn't really mind-blowing wisdom here. I'd describe it more as premise-level information, upon which the story elaborates in certain ways. Magic and luck are more like states of mind. If there is any deeper truth to sift from these semantics, it's an idea that the story keeps returning to, which is that the power of belief is the key to everything. Believing in things reduces their fakeness attribute. It's the force that shapes your reality, used to snatch personal meaning from the jaws of a cynical and nihilistic environment. Could this be why Hope is framed as the most fundamentally powerful aspect? Even the other aspects themselves are ideas like this (recall: luck=light), whose power is subject to the ebb and flow of one's belief in them. And belief itself isn't necessarily just a trick of willpower. It can be an expression of one's willingness to embrace an idea, or pursue a deeper understanding of it.

Obviously Karkat is reacting to the moment Kanaya saws off Tavros's legs, while Equius watches creepily. We saw one frame of that earlier. Yes, it's a funny beat in the conversation that calls back to that moment, but it also establishes an important hour of missing time for Karkat while he's passed out. This gap where he's asleep on the floor comes up again later in Act 5. The second part of Act 5 does a lot of what Hivebent does. Where Hivebent skips around, chaotically fitting together the greater puzzle of the troll session until we finally reach the end, A5A2 skips around a lot, fitting together the puzzle of their stay on the meteor and sorting through the mystery of exactly what happens and when. So there starts to be an accounting of many little moments like this, to use as points of reference for when certain things are happening. "Aradiabot explodes" is another such benchmark for the reader to use to track surrounding events. Interestingly (maybe), Karkat uses this idea too, by setting "Jade's dreambot explodes" as a similar benchmark to help Jade get her bearings through a nonlinear swamp of communications.

[fish-arent-real]

I wanted to vent about this so let's do it here. I am so angry about this. There's a lot of folks in the comments saying "don't blame the people, blame the Republicans". Don't worry, I AM. They actively chose this. But that doesn't detract from the fact that CHOSING not to vote in this election (and I mean chosing, this isn't including people who were unable to for whatever reason) is selfish and privileged. I don't care if you didn't like Harris, I don't care if you didn't morally agree with everything she did. She's a politician running for president, OF FUCKING COURSE she has blood on her hands too, I hate it too! But if in the face of an election that's going to decide the rate at which we decend more into fascism, you decide your moral highground comes before that??? It's telling for sure. One cantidate is aiming at dictatorship and wants to kill and destroy the lives of millions of people, while the other is someone who you don't like politically but would uphold some some of stability for this country even though she's just another shitty president in this fucking dystopia. And you look at that and think we can AFFORD for you to just go "no, i don't really like either". When it comes to fascism... deciding to not participe in this was SUPPORTING fascism. You chose to look away and not participate when there are people, probably in your lives, who deperarely voted because their lives depended on it. And you are prioritizing being uncomfortable with a candidate over the lives of real people. I'm not putting all the blame on you for the results, that would be absurd, but you HAVE see how privileged and just SELFISH it was to just step out of this election. We don't all get the option to just "not participate".

[link-lonk]

Chapter 6 is finally done!! I feel like a lot of interesting stuff happened in this chapter so I have a lot to talk about XD (I also figured out how to add read mores on mobile so this won't take up anyone's entire dashboard)

First off I was right!! For several reasons but the first being that I don't like Livia and that I didn't trust her. There was just something about her in the previous chapters, as well as in Sudachi's training, that made me dislike her so I'm glad to see that there was actually something else to her. Livia has been working independently with Kyubey to promote the violence amongst magicals girls and help spread rumors to divide the east and west. I'm interested to see how Sudachi and Yozuru are going to react when they learn about what Livia's doing, since neither of them know at the moment.

Next up is Felicia :( ! I actually really liked how they handled her finding out the truth about her wish. It was still sad but I liked how they had her doppel as a tie in to her training episode, where she doppeled and her shadow self said that she has some "terrible secret" or something. It's been awhile since I've read her training but I liked how the two fit together. I also liked how they used Asahi's unique ability to summon the spirits of Felicia's parents so she could make peace with them and their death.

I'm actually suprised with the turn the battle for the Kimochi stones has taken. Previously the Kimochi picked out certain magical girls that would be able to participate in the fight to possess them, in this chapter it's revealed that the Kimochi picked the strongest magical girls in each group to fight in hopes that the magical girls will kill each off and the Kimochi can unite together to recreate Eve. Promised Blood still wants to gather all the Kimochi stones in hopes of taking the automatic purification system, but I'm not sure if taking the system is even possible anymore, or if it will juat result in another Eve.

The tension between the East and the West is really starting to heat up now in what was probably the biggest suprise I had this chapter. Touka's father is the one who threw the rock at the mayoral candidate from the East and is now trying to steal Nayuta's father's (his brother's) work on magical girls and pass it off as his own. Also that the newly elected mayor from the West and Touka's father (and probably some other people from the West who aren't mentioned) are all working together to destroy the reputation of the East.

Oh and Ikumi died. Somehow I completely forgot about that, I have a bad feeling that a lot more magical girls are going to die from here on out. Alina and Karin vanished from Mirrors after her death and also Rabi has known where Nayuta's father was and has been in contact with him the entire time. I'm not suprised at all that Rabi knew where her father has been, it seemed pretty obvious to me given how Rabi has seemed kinda reluctant to help Nayuta located him.

The last things I'm going to touch on here are that I think some people were talking about this chapter said that Ikumi had romantic feelings for Ryo, that doesn't seem to be the case, the one line she said before she died "... you can go to the person you like..." (I don't have the translation pulled up at the moment and I don't remember the exact wording but it was extremely close to that) was being said to her Kimochi bracelet. She borrowed her Kimochi's powers to defeat the mirrors witch and she had been telling the Kimochi that her body had nothing left to give and she could feel her fading away, in that line in particular she's telling the Kimochi that it can go to whichever person it likes the most after she dies (which ends up being Juri)

The actual last thing I have to say is that Mitama's shop/house/whatever didn't burn down. The picture of her and Kanagi standing surrounded by flames is just a picture that I'm assuming is to represent how their world is going up in flames after Mitama learned that the leaders of the West have been purposefully blaming the East for things they didn't do. The scene itself happened in the Coordinator's shop where Mitama explained what she learned to Kanagi and Kanagi tried to comfort her, no actual fire was involved

[lemonbombsfjl]

Text:

A person asked the question, "Why are people so hostile towards President Donald Trump?"

Chris O'Leary:

Before you pass my answer off as “Another Liberal Snowflake” consider that

1.) I'm an independent centrist who has voted Republican way more often in my life than Democrat, and

2.) If you want to call someone who spent the entire decade of his 20’s serving in the Marine Corps a snowflake, I’d be ready to answer the question what did you do with your 20’s?

Why Liberals (And not-so liberals) are against President Trump.

A.) He lies. A LOT. Politifact rates 69% of the words he speaks as “Mostly False or worse” Only 17% of the things he says get a “Mostly True” or better rating. That is an absolutely unbelievable number. How he doesn’t speak more truth by mistake is beyond me. To put it in context, Obama’s rating was 26% mostly false or worse, and I had a problem with that. Many of Trump’s former business associates report that he has always been a compulsive liar, but now he’s the President of the United States, and that’s a problem. And this is a man who expects you to believe him when he points at other people and says “They’re lying”

B.) He’s an authoritarian populist, not a conservative. He advances regressive social policy while proposing to expand federal spending and federalist authority over states, both of which conservatives are supposed to hate.

C.) He pretends at Christianity to court the Religious Right but fails to live anything resembling a Christ-Like Life.

D.) His nationalist “America First” message effectively alienates us and removes us from our place as leaders in the international community.

E.) His ideas on “Keeping us safe” are all thinly veiled ideas to remove our freedoms, he is, after all, an authoritarian first. They also are simply bad ideas.

F.) He couldn’t pass a 3rd-grade civics exam. He doesn't’ know what he’s doing. He doesn't understand how international relations work, he doesn’t understand how federal state or local governments work, and every time someone tries to “Run it like a business” it’s a spectacular failure. See Colorado Springs’ recent history as an example. The Short, Unhappy Life of a Libertarian Paradise And that was a businessman with a MUCH better business track record than Trump. We are talking about a man who lost money owning a freaking gambling casino.

G.) He behaves unethicaly and always has. As a businessman, he constantly left in his wake unpaid contractors and invoices, litigation, broken promises, whatever he could get away with.

H.) He is damaging our relationships with our best international friends while kissing up to nations that do not have our best interests in mind. To his question “Wouldn't’ it be great to have better relations with Russia?” The answer is Yes. But it is RUSSIA who needs to earn that, who must stop doing the things that are damaging to that relationship, or we are simply weaker for it.

I.) He has never seen a shortcut he didn't like, and you can’t take shortcuts in government. “Nuclear Option, Remove the Filibuster, I’ll change the Constitution by Executive Order…Don…what happens when you remove the filibuster and the other side retakes the majority in the Senate? Suddenly want that filibuster back? What happens if you manage to change the Constitution by Executive Order and an Anti-2A President wins the next election?

J.) He behaves and has always behaved as an unabashed racist. Yes, I’ve seen your favorite meme that claims he was never accused of racism before the Democrats…Absolutely false. Donald Trump’s long history of racism, from the 1970s to 2019 See the Central Park 5, the lawsuits and fines resulting from his refusal to lease to black tenants, the 1992 lost appeal trying to overturn penalties for removing black dealers from tables, his remarks to the house native American affairs subcommittee in 1993. The man sees and treats racial groups of people as monoliths.

K.) He is systematically steamrolling regulations specifically designed to keep a disaster like the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis from happening again.

L.) He speaks and acts like a demagogue. He sees the Legislative and Judicial branches of government as inconveniences, blows up at criticism no matter how deserved and actively tries to countermand constitutional processes, not to mention attempts to blackmail and coerce people who are saying negative things about him

M.) His choices for top positions, with the exception of Gen. Mattis, who is a gem, have been horrendous. A secretary of Education without a resume that would get her hired as a small town grammar school principal, A secretary of Energy who didn't know the Department of Energy was responsible for nuclear reserves, an EPA head whose biggest accomplishments to date had been suing the EPA on multiple occasions, an FCC head who while working for Verizon actively lobbied to kill net neutrality, and an Attorney General who thinks pot is “nearly as bad as heroin” and asked Congress for permission to go after legal pot businesses in states where it is legal. (There goes that great Republican States rights rally cry again, right? *Crickets*) An Interim AG after Firing his First AG who’s appointment is probably unconstitutional.

N.) He denies scientific fact. Ever notice that the only people you hear denying climate change are politicians and lobbyists? 99% of actual scientists studying the issue agree that it’s real, man-made and caused by greenhouse gasses. Ever notice that every big disaster movie starts with a bunch of politicians in a room ignoring a scientist's warning?

0.) He does not have the temperament to lead this nation. He is Thin Skinned, childish, and a bully, never mind misogynistic, boorish, rude, and incapable of civil discourse.

P.) He still does not understand that the words he speaks, or tweets, are the official position of 1/3 of the US government, and so does not govern his words. He still thinks when he speaks it’s good ol’ Donald Trump. It’s not. It’s the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. You have probably spread a meme or two around talking about how no president’s every word has ever been dissected before…YES, THEY ALWAYS HAVE. It’s just that every other president in our lifetime has understood the importance of his words and took great care to govern his speech. Trump blurts out whatever comes to his mind then complains when people talk about what a dumb thing that was to say.

Q.) He’s unqualified. If you owned a small business and were looking for someone to manage it, and an unnamed resume came across your desk and you saw 6 bankruptcies, showing a man who had failed to make money running CASINOS, would you hire him? He is a very poor businessman. This is a man it has been estimated would have been worth $10 BILLION more if he’d just taken what his father had given him, invested it in Index Funds and left it alone.

R.) He is President. But he refuses to take a leadership position and understand that he is everyone’s President. Conservatives complain about liberals chanting “Not my President” while Trump himself behaves as if no one but his supporters matter.

S.) He’s a blatant hypocrite. He spent 8 years bitching Obama out for his family trips, or golfing, or any time he took for himself, and what does he do? He was already on his 20th golf outing in APRIL of his 1st year in office. He constantly rants about respect for the military, yet can’t be bothered to attend the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day because of a little rain. (And that excuse about Marine One not being able to fly in the rain is HILARIOUS.)

T.) He’s a misogynist. It's not really ok in this day and age to be a misogynist, but it’s not a huge deal if you’re a private citizen. It’s a pretty big deal if you hate half the people you’re elected to lead. The disdain for women seeps out of his …whatever…. and he just can’t hide it.

U.) Face it. In any other election “Grab Em’ By the Pussy” would have been the end of that candidate’s chances. Back in the 90’s I used to marvel about how Teflon Bill Clinton was. I no longer do. The fact that he managed to slip by on that is as much a statement about how much people hate Hillary Clinton as it is about what is wrong with politics in this country right now.

V.) He has one response to a differing opinion. Attack. A good leader listens to criticism, to different points of view, is capable of self-reflection, tries to guide people to his point of view, and when necessary stands his ground and defends his convictions. Any of that sound like Trump? His default is not to Lead, its’ to attack. Scorched Earth. The Jim Acosta reaction is a good example. There was no defense of his convictions when Acosta was asking him repeated questions about his rhetoric on the caravan. His response was to attack Acosta.

W.) He takes credit for everything positive while deflecting blame for everything negative. Look at him with the Stock Market. He’s been bragging about it since day one, and to give credit where credit is due, speculation on coming deregulation early in his presidency did fuel some rapid growth, but to pretend that it’s all him, that we’re not in the 9th year of the longest bull market in history and THEN, when the standard market volatility that deregulation inevitably brings about starts to show up? Yeah. Look at yesterday. Hey! Stock Markets losing because the Democrats won! Do I need to bring out the Stock market chart for the last 10 Years again?

X.) He emboldens the worst among us. Counter-protesters are slammed into by a car while countering actual Nazi rally, and the response is there’s fault on “Both Sides” The media is at fault for a nut job sending them and Donald’s favorite targets pipe bombs. The truth is not all Republicans, not all Trump Supporters are racist, fascist lunatics. Many are just taken in by the bombastic personality and are living in an information bubble made worse by the fact that they unfollow anyone and ignore any source of information that makes them feel uncomfortable. People on the left do that too. The Biggest problem the right has right now is that the worst of the Right is the loudest and the most in your face, and the actual right, especially the Freaking PRESIDENT needs to be standing up and saying No. Those are not our values.

Y.) He seems to think the Constitution of The United States, the document that IS who we are, the document he took an oath to support and defend is some sort of inconvenience. He demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of Constitution, from believing he can alter the 14th through executive order, to thinking The free exercise clause in the first amendment somehow supersedes the establishment clause (not that he really understands either) or that the free exercise clause only applies to Christians. Or his attacks on freedom of expression and the press. He repeatedly makes it clear that if he’s read them, he does not understand Articles 1–3, and that’s something he really should have before he took the job, because they’re not going away.

Z.) I’ll use Z for something I do blame him for, but the rest of us have to carry the blame too. Polarization. This country is more politically polarized than I can remember in my lifetime. Some of you who are a few years older than I may remember how it was in the late 60’s when construction workers in New York were being applauded for beating up hippies, I think it’s pretty close to that right now, but that was before my time. And he is the cause of much of the current level polarization, but also the result. It didn't’ start with Trump. We’ve been going down this road I think since the eruption of the Tea Party in the early years of the Obama Administration. I do hope the tide turns before it gets much worse because the thing that scares me more than anything is what if that keeps going the way it has been? "

*snagged from a friends wall:

[professorkwb2]

Misunderstandings 

The older I get the more I realize that that some people will buy into an ideology they don't completely understand therefore creating some sort of bias in the end. As if there aren't any risk to what they buy into whether that be a movement, political ideology , or even a concept.

For example I really do think especially now people misunderstand the term and usage of "Free Speech". Free Speech does indicate that you can whatever you want without fear of punishment from the government . However, it does not indicate that you can say whatever you want without criticism ,or consequences from the person or party you're addressing at the time. Freedoms have risks attached to them. So, the best thing you can do is to asses the risks of those freedoms you have access to . By then you should have a more conscious perspective on the limits of those freedoms.

There's a quote from Voltaire that goes "even though I don't like what you said I will give my life to defend your right to say it." I don't think people understand that "Freedom of Speech" also has limits. I.E. you can't use Freedom of Speech as an excuse to incite violence or an insurrection of any kind. They even teach this in schools too . But, for one reason or another some people can't grasp this fact. I've even had to explain this some of my International friends that even America has its limits when it comes to freedoms. It's not that simple there are many factors that go into the law.

Since I mentioned politics I'll only say this once. There's a huge difference between a Political party and a Political Ideology. I still can't believe people mix that up. A good example is America's 2 reigning Parties the Democrats and the Republicans. Those are political parties that have their own complex spectrum. Now, if you were to say "Conservative" ,"Liberal, and " Progressive" those are Political Ideologies.

Now let's define these 3 terms. A Conservative is someone who wants to stick to the more traditional aspects of life. Generally speaking conservatives mainly the religious type of people who believe that people should live a more simple life.Conservatives believe in Private ownership, Free enterprises and often hold socially traditional Ideas .I.E Work hard, Start a family , and Go to church." They are not very open to change because they fear that traditional lifestyle that they've upheld for so long will disappear .

A Liberal is the exact opposite of a conservative . Liberals are open to change because they have registered the simple fact that the world and society is going to change whether we like it or not. As a result, they support more progressive policies that include everyone , they strongly believe in individual rights , civil liberties, democracy and free enterprise.

Last but not least Progressives, they're on the liberal side of the political spectrum. However, the difference is they mainly favor and advocate social reform and for new ideas to be implanted in society as well as government.

This is all in the context of the United States. Politics aside.......

There is one other topic that needs to be addressed is the generation gap. I'm already aware that the older generation does not completely understand my generation at all. However, blaming the current generation for the mistakes and actions of the previous one has got to stop. It's not my fault that y'all got comfortable with the circumstances at the time, and did not continue the fight and pressure elected officials to do what you needed them to do. As a consequence for those choices you are now facing those problems today.

Now, it's up to the current generation to fix those problems. It's easier said than done. Due to the fact some people still don't understand that using methods that worked 50 years ago, will not work in modern setting. First understand what you're working with , then adapt ,change ,or even invent new ways to execute the task effectively. That's not laziness it efficiency. They always say "work smarter not harder" but when we work smarter you call it being lazy.

My generation is willing to talk about hard topics like mental health, trauma etc. It's not easy and it's not supposed to make you feel comfortable. Why people even try to hide or bury this deep inside themselves is beyond me. Hiding things like depression, trauma , or any semblance of emotion has serious consequences . But, depending on the culture you're from the reaction and conversation will vary.

It's time to look forward and resolve the issues we have now so that they don't become a serious problem in the future. But, in order for that to work we need some sort of middle ground. Eventually two opposing parties have meet each other halfway. The question remains, When you do meet half way are you ready to confront the very problems that plague your mind and society with someone who doesn't perceive it the same way you do ? Are you willing to hear another perspective that could possibly make sense? Most importantly are you ready to hear logical sense and illogical nonsense that drives other to believe in sometimes very ludaocris ideas? Are you prepared for anything to happen to avoid a misunderstanding ?

[viaalterego]

tw- graphic and disturbing descriptions violence. you have been warned

this was not how Techno imagined his Friday night going. finding his brothers halfway through the window, hands and faces stained with blood.

there was no shouting. no talking even. just silent acceptance as the two walked passed Techno and straight to the bedrooms. probably to get changed, Technos mind supplied. while the room was dark and their clothes were black, Techno didn't doubt that there were stains left behind form their activities.

Techno had always known something was going on. surprisingly, i stated with Tommy.

it wasn't that Tommy never lied. no no no. it was that Tommy was a terrible liar. his tells were easy to figure out if you looked long enough. he might as well had "GUILTY" written in bright red on his forehead whenever was trying to hide what he had done. he'd pick at his nailbeds til they bled, he'd look anywhere but your eyes, the way he constantly was shifting from foot to foot as if he was looking for a way to escape.

at first, Techno was suspicious. so far everything seemed fine with Tommy. his grades were alright. he hadn't gotten into any fights. he had sassed a teacher to the point he was sent to the office. so why was he so easily spooked whenever he saw him or Wilbur?

his answer? "um- some kid at my school- he, uh. he's dead. Passed away on Tuesday i guess."

murdered was more like it. found in an alley a few blocks away from the school. the lady who owned the doughnut shop found him when she threw out the trash.

Techno felt sick. He didnt question it afterwards. he comforted his brother and went on with his life. thankful that it wasn't Tommy.

he was still jittery though as the weeks went on. techno couldnt blame him. his classmate was stabbed 27 times and dumped behind a dumpster. and worst part? he wasnt the only one.

more reports showed up. more kids. all around Tommys age. from Tommys school. four kids in total, if you included the first one.

then it was a teacher.

thats when Tommy broke down. Wilbur called the school and Tommy stayed at home. in bed all day. Techno was never good with emotions, sent Wilbur to console his brother. Techno waited behind the closed door, listening to his brother's fearful sobs. Praying to whatever god may be out there that his brother. their Tommy wouldn't be next.

there werent any more reports for the next month.

then two. then three.

Then Wilbur was next.

now wilbur... he wasnt just good at lying, per se. he knew how to distract. misdirect a conversation. but most of all, it was his knowledge. studying whoever he considered the enemy an knowing what to say and how to say the very thing that makes his opponent stumble and stutter. it came in handy with high school politics, or predicting election results.

wilbur was crafty. so when Techno ask about what he and Tommy talked about that night. "why dont you ask him?" was his response, knowing full well that his brother used him as a scapegoat.

the next murder occurred. another teacher. different school. then another. a custodian. same school as the first. and a third. some lady on the school board. same district for both schools.

when he asked about what he thought about strange Tommy's behavior after the deaths. "grief is hard, whether you knew them or not. I'm sure there was some philosophy about death, isn't their Techno? i wouldnt know. do you? you are the one who studied literature-"

it was never a straight answer,

not even when specific pieces of clothing went missing. when mysterious stains that Tommy claimed to be ketchup couldnt come out of Tommys t-shirts. or the sudden appearance of a black duffle bag hidden in the back of Wilburs closet

Regardless, Techno knew his brothers well enough that they would come to him in case of any problems.

at least, the thought he did.

so thats where he finds himself now, on what was supposed to be a normal Friday night. mind reeling, as had he walked over to the couch and sat down. all the pieces snapping into place forming a picture Techno could ignore.

he could thinking about one thing...

"now what?"

Techno looked up.

Tommy was in the doorway. his face and hands clean from earlier (the was still something though... it was still underneath his fingernails) his hair is still a little damp from showering and is becoming a golden poof on his head.

he looked... fine. as if he hadn't killed God knows who tonight (thought he'd probably find out in the morning news though) Tommy looked completely unphased. refreshed even.

how had Tommy been living like this for the past seven months?

Technos eyes lingered on his brother. distantly he could hear the shower turning on, probably Wil washing up. but as he staired in to his brothers eyes. the ones that once held guilt, fear and shame. the ones that were now free from all that...

"what now, Techno"

-\0~0/-

okay... im stopping here.

i never intended on writing a full-on snippet but oh well. i had fun with tho. too much really.

its almost midnight... aughhh and i told myself id go to bed early tonight. bruhhhh.

credit to Sircantus for the prompt

Au where crimeboys are serial killers and Techno is their older sibling who finds out and has a choice to make: turn them in (lose them) or join them (lose yourself)

[chrismaverickdotcom]

I'm a not so good guy...

I’m a teacher… and I think I’m pretty damn good at it. I know for a fact that at least a few of my former students read my blog, and I bet they’d say I’m pretty damn good too. But I wasn’t always a teacher. I’ve had a lot of other jobs. I’ve designed computer software. I’ve been a photographer. I’ve written comic books. I’ve worked in retail. I’ve worked in a restaurant. I worked at a TV station. I was a paperboy. Hell, I was even a professional wrestler for a little bit there. That’s a lot of jobs, and I’m not even Jamaican.

One job I’ve never had was being in the military. And it’s not that I couldn’t have been. I totally could have. I was a poor black kid in high school in the 90s. Military recruiters love poor black kids. So I was totally offered a chance to be all I could be and see the world or whatever the fuck the slogan was back then. I turned it down. I was offered a ROTC scholarship. Turned that down too. A recruiter from the Air Force Academy came to my school to try and get me to come there too. Once again, I said no. See, I just wasn’t interested in being a soldier. It didn’t excite me then. It doesn’t excite me now. And in all the years since, I have never regretted that decision. See, when I think of the idea of “risking your life to fight for the rights and safety of others.” My next thought is something along the lines of “well, that doesn’t sound like something I’d want to do.”

I have no particular ill-will against the military. I had a lot of friends who did enlist. Good for them. Good for cops too. These people provide a very important role to society. I am thankful that there are people out there willing to fulfill it.

I’m not that guy. Honestly…. I’m just not that good a person.

And see, this is important. In fact it’s very important. This is something that everyone who is ever one of my students, and ESPECIALLY everyone who is ever the parent of any one of my students needs to understand.

See, every time there’s a school shooting, the national conversation predictably turns to the question of gun control and school safety… and this becomes predictably political. You have a lot of politicians on the left saying “this is why we need gun control” and then the right retorts with “have some respect. This is not the time, these families are going through tragedy. Now is not the time for your political agenda.” (As a side note, whatever it is that ultimately kills me, I want the record to show that anyone who loves my has my permission… and in fact my INSISTENCE… that you immediately start petitioning Congress to ban whatever killed me. If I am crushed to death in a freak accident by two tons of cotton balls, I want a fucking bill trying to take down the cotton ball cartel on the floor of the House by the end of the week).

Anyway, nothing ever comes of these talks because it’s apparently never the time to talk about gun control, So regular everyday people start passing around memes. Some of them are really stupid. I had the pleasure refuting the ridiculousness of one that my wife’s cousin, William, posted earlier today, which pointed out that there were only 374 “rifle deaths” in 2016 and there were 478,000 cigarette deaths. Actually the meme cited a bunch of stuff that was “more deadly than rifles.” Including “fists.” Of course, it was bullshit… which was pretty easy to prove if you spent like 5 minutes reading the sources that the meme claimed to be citing… or if you gave it 10 seconds worth of intelligent thought on your own. But whatever… as I’ve said many times before all facts are alternative, some are more alternative than others. But whatever… the nice thing about dumb memes is that they’re pretty easy to refute and I can go make fun of people by being smart and this amuses me… because I’m just not that good a person. I’m a petty little man and I kind of delight at being smarter than other people and sometimes take pleasure in their misfortune.

Every time one of these big mass shootings comes around and kills white people (killing brown people is much smaller news) we get a different take on it. In the past we’ve blamed video games. We’ve blamed movies. We’ve blamed mental health. We’ve blamed bump stocks. But this particular go round, led by the “genius intellect” of the B-movie super villain that we’ve elected President we’re actually trying to have a serious discussion about whether or not the problem would be better if we armed teachers. Arming teachers… you know… like me.

Now, I want to point out that this isn’t the first time this has come up from this administration. During her actual senate confirmation hearing the current Secretary of Education actually floated the need for armed teachers in order to defend students from possible bear attacks. She wasn’t joking. This was a serious concern of hers. Of course, then on her first day at work she also tweeted she couldn’t do anything because she was unable to find the pencils. So that’s the bar of intelligence we’re working with here. But now, the US President has piled on… and because he’s said it a couple times (and then in a brilliant tweet storm today, denied that he said it and then went on to reiterate it over the course of half a dozen tweets) it’s become news. And something that people are having to have a serious conversation about.

So let me make this clear. This is a dumb idea.

Earlier today, the Broward County sheriff’s department released a statement that apparently there was an armed deputy on duty at Stoneman Douglas high school during the shooting. He was a trained law enforcement official. He knew that there was a shooting going on. And he opted to do… nothing. He made a decision that there was gunfire happening in a building and even though he had a gun, the smartest thing for him to do… was not enter that building. Basically he was faced with the option of protecting his own life or the lives of others… a position that no one forced him into… he volunteered for that career. He swore and oath to serve and protect. But in the heat of the moment, when faced with the reality of the situation… he chose himself over others.

I get it…

My wife, Stephanie, linked to this story earlier. And of course, a right wing friend of hers, Jeffrey, immediately tried to refute it by saying “a single person lacking the courage to act does not mean that others in that situation may have saved lives.” I laughed at this. Jeff then tried to counter me by pointing out “Somebody took out the Texas church shooter with a gun. It happened to late to prevent the initial killings but someone did step up and we don’t know if that shooter would have attacked others. Its no guarantee but to say it won’t ever happen just doesn’t make sense.” And my friend Adam pointed out that just because it worked out once doesn’t mean it’s a particularly good idea.

I’m actually going to split the difference. It’s happened more than once. In fact, because I happened to do some research earlier to refute William’s ridiculous rifle’s are safer than fists or cigarettes meme (I bet you didn’t expect that to come back around), I just happen to know that in 2016, there were exactly 276 justifiable homicides using some type of firearm by a private citizen. Of course, from the same research I also happen to know that contrary to the meme there were 58,853 reported criminal shootings that year. So, that means 0.4% of shootings result in a justifiable defensive kill.

And sure… oh right wing reader… I know what you’re thinking: “But if more people had guns, there’d be more saves.” Well, it turns out at that from the same research, I also just happen to know that the 276 justifiable homicides were out of 1,980 attempts to defend oneself with a firearm. So it works about 14% of the time. Usually against someone with a similar class of weapon. And sure… better than nothing. Except… I also happen to know that there were 2,203 accidental shootings reported by registered gun owners that year. So while you are 14% likely to be able to kill an armed assailant if you have a gun… it turns out you’re 8x more likely to end up shooting some random other person during an attack or otherwise as you are to shoot a bad guy. So… to any parent who thinks this is a good idea… understand that the likelihood that I can defend your kid from an active shooter if one can happen is about 14%. And I’m 8x more likely to end up actually shooting them than I am defending them. Do you still want it? Math is fun!

And if your answer is yes… well, ok fine… I’ll take it.

See, because El Presidente also floated the great idea that hey, why don’t we give a bonus to the teachers willing to go through the training and carry a gun in the classroom. And… well, I like money.

But really.. understand who you’re asking and what you’re asking of me. I’m not a soldier. I’m not a hero. I don’t want to be. As I said at the beginning, I had that opportunity and I passed it up because I don’t want it. What I am, is a guy who reads funny books for a living. I’m the guy who gets paid to teach your kids to write. I’m the guy who gets paid to teach your kids about literature and it’s connection with feminism and sexuality and gender and race and marxism. Have you been reading this post? I’m an ultra-liberal, socialist, agnostic, feminist, pro-LGBTQ, pro-BLM, pro-union, pro-drug, pro-sex, pro-polyamory, pro-pornography, anti-religion, anti-establishment, damn-near anarchist SJW asshole. And you know… if you really want to pay ME to carry a gun around your kids… ok fine, I guess.

But understand something… I’m not going out of my way to take a bullet for your kid. I’m not going out of my way to shoot someone to protect your kid. I’m just not. Much like the deputy from Stoneman Douglas, if I see a gun, I’m probably running in the opposite direction. I’m just not that good a person. The only difference is, I’m telling you this right now upfront.

And I don’t think any of my students would expect any differently. As I said, I know for a fact that some of them read these. And they all know me very well. So, Ayana, Brooklin, Elysse and any of the other couple hundred students I’ve had the pleasure of teaching these last few years and might be reading this, I say to you… you are all wonderful, lovely, bright and intelligent people. I love and care for you all. And just to be clear, should you ever find yourself in a classroom with me again, and someone comes in with an automatic weapon, then RUN! FUCKING RUN!!! RUN AND HIDE!!! DO NOT WAIT FOR ME TO SHOOT THAT PERSON!!!

And see… because all of my students have been bright and intelligent. I’m pretty sure they know that. To their parents… I mean, don’t get me wrong… if I have a gun and I’m cornered, I’ll probably take the shot. But given the choice between trying to hunt down a guy with an assault rifle and well…. not doing that… I’m going to choose not… EVERY SINGLE TIME. Because that’s who I am. I’m a guy who’s pretty damn good at my job — reading funny books and talking about how they reflect culture — and I chose that job because I didn’t want to deal with bullets! I’m just not that good a person.

And the thing is, a lot of my friends are also teachers. I’m sure a lot of them are reading this and laughing… And honestly, most of them are far nicer and better people than I am. But I’m pretty sure you’re going to have a hard time finding a single one of us who is looking to take a bullet for your kid. Sorry.

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I’m a not so good guy… was originally published on ChrisMaverick dotcom

[evergloffpress]

Bottle of Blog No.54

The Empire Strikes Back This Is Not or Rocking the Boat For Rock’s Sake

When Disney purchased Lucasfilm George Lucas was said to have presented his ideas for a sequel trilogy which we're promptly rejected. Perhaps the powers at Disney wanted to distance themselves from the creator of the Prequel trilogy and they're less than spectacular impact. Maybe the plots went against the ideas they had in mind. Whatever the reason could they of been any worse than what Rian Johnson presented us with Star Wars Episode 8: The Last Jedi?

Rian Johnson made a name for himself with his films Brick and Looper. Enough so that he caught Disney's attention to put him in charge of Episode 8. In 2019 after directing the Last Jedi Johnson released his latest movie entitled Knives out. A who-dun-it movie turned on it's head. It was a fresh and ingenious take on the traditional tropes of a murder mystery and it worked. Sometimes taking a long-standing paradigm and turning them inside out can work in a creative field where almost everything has been done a thousand times before. Though not always. Rocking the boat just to feel it rock does not consistently work. Case in point Star Wars : The Last Jedi.

I'm just going to go straight to all my issues with this movie. For they are legion. I won't be nitpicking either....O.K, one nitpick. The phrase ”punch it” is used too many times for my taste. Think it was used at least twice. It still got irksome.

My first gripe is why was Han Solo's death completely ignored? I understand the movie pretty much starts right after episode 7 ends and they were fairly occupied so a funeral might not of been on the agenda. Could of been in the novelization for all I know but I elected not to read it. But Han's passing should of at least been on their minds some considering who decided to off him. It should of been especially on Leia's. Speaking of Leia what the holy Hoth Hell has her brother Luke Skywalker been doing all this time in self-imposed exile aside from squeezing the udders of lactating sea monsters? Also, he’s supposed to be the last Jedi. Isn't he being a tad selfish to wallow in self-pity and let the galaxy fall into the First Order’s clutches? Goes against who we thought Luke was. Even of he does blame the Jedis for allowing to Sith and the Empire to rise to power why not use the tools you have at your disposal to do what you can against them? You don’t have to go around calling your self a Jedi Knight but if you want to just edit the ”sacred” texts so than any written bureaucracy that would keep you from doing the most good is expunged. He was the last Jedi who was going to stop him? Even Yoda who popped up later knew how restrictive they were. It made no sense.

Why wouldn't the resistance high command share their plans with Poe after Leia was blown out into space and did her magic dance back to the ship?

The remanmants of the Resistance were panicking so why not reassure everyone that there was a plan and share that plan? Instead, Poe and company cook up this silly scheme that made no sense which screwed up the original secret plan by looking for a slicer on the Canto Bight More on Canto Bight in a minute. So Finn and friends figure out that they are being tracked through hyperspace by a device they cant possibly know exists and deduce that said device has to be on the Supremacy which is Supreme Leader Snoke’s ship. Also why was the tracking device on Snoke’s ship? Why didn't General Hux have it on his ship? They then formulate a plan based on a hypothesis which is flimsy at best from their perspective. Yes they were right but they had little to nothing to go on. Which brings us to Canto Bight. The pointless side trip that caused more trouble than they were already in. It's like the director wanted to have a scene take place in a space casino but had no real reason to be in a space casino. Finn and Rose go to to Canto Bight and park on the beach which apparently is illegal. A naturally they get arrested and meet a sleazy hacker in the jail who could have broken out whenever he wanted to but waited till he had an audience to do it in front of. They then hop on giant rabbit horses and ride away to the outskirts of town to freedom and an awaiting ship.

Most fans speculating on Rey’s lineage thought she might have been related to Obi-Wan or the product of a nightstand by Luke or something. Instead Kylo simply states that she is a nobody. Came from nobodies and is no one special. Rather anti-climatic considering how adept she is at using the Force. Then there is how Supreme Leader Snoke was so easily done in. Sliced in tow. Though it did lead a sweet team up between Rey and Kylo versus Snoke’s royal guards. But who was Snoke? How did he come to be? He was presented as the big bad of the sequel trilogy and he is tossed aside just rattle the narrative’s cage. No pay off from his introduction what so ever.

Finally we have the battle of Crait. It's where the Resistance managed to escape to while being chased by the First Order. The needlessly secret plan made worse by Poe and pals poorly thought out plot to save the fleet made things significantly worse. The sleazy jacket Finn and Rose brought in betrayed them and showed General Huz the fugitives’ escape plan which resulted in forty demise of most of them. Poe really really messed up. Also why was Admiral Ackbar allowed to die like he was wearing a red short on Star Trek. He should of flown that cruiser at light speed through Snoke’s ship at light speed and not Laura Dern’s character. Ackbar should of gone out a hero not a long side a random tech officer on the bridge. So they get on the surface of Craite which was a rebel base years ago. At first glance it looks like the ice planet Hoth but it turns out to be a salt planet. That doesn't stop the bad guys from pulling out the New At- At walkers. Gorilla walkers seem to be more accurate. So all of a sudden it turns out to be a reverse Empire Strikes back. At- At attack near the end. Yoda appears to Luke after he did his less than enthusiastic training routine on Rey. Like ESB the main characters go their separate ways to achieve separate goals. A faux revelation with Rey and the whole gang getting together in the end after getting their behinds handed to them. The concept of the Death Star was used again only this time as a cannon on the field of battle. Why could it not just of been just a cannon? Why income the Death Star yet again? So with that in mind what does the Resistance send against said Death Star cannon? Poorly armed and maneuverable skippers that were already falling apart. Why not just chuck xorngogs at them. None the less Finn goes right at it in some idiotic suicide run. What did he think he was going to achieve? Rose then crashes her skipper into the side of Finn’s ship in an attempt to save his life. Again she crashed her speeding metallic vehicle into His soeeding metallic vehicle on the middle of a battlefield right in front of a super laser cannon in an attempt to save his life. Then the real froaning begins when Rose implies to Finn she had feelings for him. That's right talk about your feelings while you are injured in a warzone with thousands of guns pointed right at you. Makes all the sense in the world.

The crowning WTF ingredient in this fustercluck of a film is Luke’s cop-out appearance at the Battle of Craite. He Force projects himself on to the planet from his xave island hideaway. Says good bye to Leia and distracts Kylo Ren while what's left of the Resistance escapes out the back end of the Rebel base. The strain of Luke projecting himself from so far away was too much for him and he dies. Disappearing into the ether. Metalic arm and all. That makes no sense. What of made more sense if the metallic arm would of just clanked in to the ground. So with Han dead and now Luke dead we are thoroughly cheated out of having the original cast share the screen one more time.

So the director shook things about hoping to come up with something many fans would consider worthy of Star Wars. Alas, I feel he missed the mark in trying to come up with something different yet remain familiar. Which is clearly hard to do. It seems each creator wrote their cliffhangers without taking into consideration who would pick up the threads next. Disney should have spent a little more time creating a cohesive storyline than rushing in to recoup their investment. That way the next film does not waste time explaining what didn't make sense before. This franchise was a guaranteed cash cow so they could have bided their time and let the story ferment a little more.

So much of this movie was infuriating and nonsensical. I was questioning settings, dialogue, and motivations far too many times throughout the film to enjoy whatever parts I did like. Be all that as it may I really did like the porgs. See? It's not all hate and bile but it mostly is.

Oliver Evergloff March 21st,2020

[theuberthinker]

Sometimes you just have to applaud.

A person asked the question, "Why are people so hostile towards President Donald Trump?"

Before you pass my answer off as “Another Liberal Snowflake” consider that

1.) I'm an independent centrist who has voted Republican way more often in my life than Democrat, and

2.) If you want to call someone who spent the entire decade of his 20’s serving in the Marine Corps a snowflake, I’d be ready to answer the question what did you do with your 20’s?

Why Liberals (And not-so liberals) are against President Trump.

A.) He lies. A LOT. Politifact rates 69% of the words he speaks as “Mostly False or worse” Only 17% of the things he says get a “Mostly True” or better rating. That is an absolutely unbelievable number. How he doesn’t speak more truth by mistake is beyond me. To put it in context, Obama’s rating was 26% mostly false or worse, and I had a problem with that. Many of Trump’s former business associates report that he has always been a compulsive liar, but now he’s the President of the United States, and that’s a problem. And this is a man who expects you to believe him when he points at other people and says “They’re lying”

B.) He’s an authoritarian populist, not a conservative. He advances regressive social policy while proposing to expand federal spending and federalist authority over states, both of which conservatives are supposed to hate.

C.) He pretends at Christianity to court the Religious Right but fails to live anything resembling a Christ-Like Life.

D.) His nationalist “America First” message effectively alienates us and removes us from our place as leaders in the international community.

E.) His ideas on “Keeping us safe” are all thinly veiled ideas to remove our freedoms, he is, after all, an authoritarian first. They also are simply bad ideas.

F.) He couldn’t pass a 3rd-grade civics exam. He doesn't’ know what he’s doing. He doesn't understand how international relations work, he doesn’t understand how federal state or local governments work, and every time someone tries to “Run it like a business” it’s a spectacular failure. See Colorado Springs’ recent history as an example. The Short, Unhappy Life of a Libertarian Paradise And that was a businessman with a MUCH better business track record than Trump. We are talking about a man who lost money owning a freaking gambling casino.

G.) He behaves unethically and always has. As a businessman, he constantly left in his wake unpaid contractors and invoices, litigation, broken promises, whatever he could get away with.

H.) He is damaging our relationships with our best international friends while kissing up to nations that do not have our best interests in mind. To his question “Wouldn't’ it be great to have better relations with Russia?” The answer is Yes. But it is RUSSIA who needs to earn that, who must stop doing the things that are damaging to that relationship, or we are simply weaker for it.

I.) He has never seen a shortcut he didn't like, and you can’t take shortcuts in government. “Nuclear Option, Remove the Filibuster, I’ll change the Constitution by Executive Order…Don…what happens when you remove the filibuster and the other side retakes the majority in the Senate? Suddenly want that filibuster back? What happens if you manage to change the Constitution by Executive Order and an Anti-2A President wins the next election?

J.) He behaves and has always behaved as an unabashed racist. Yes, I’ve seen your favorite meme that claims he was never accused of racism before the Democrats…Absolutely false. Donald Trump’s long history of racism, from the 1970s to 2019 See the Central Park 5, the lawsuits and fines resulting from his refusal to lease to black tenants, the 1992 lost appeal trying to overturn penalties for removing black dealers from tables, his remarks to the house native American affairs subcommittee in 1993. The man sees and treats racial groups of people as monoliths.

K.) He is systematically steamrolling regulations specifically designed to keep a disaster like the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis from happening again.

L.) He speaks and acts like a demagogue. He sees the Legislative and Judicial branches of government as inconveniences, blows up at criticism no matter how deserved and actively tries to countermand constitutional processes, not to mention attempts to blackmail and coerce people who are saying negative things about him

M.) His choices for top positions, with the exception of Gen. Mattis, who is a gem, have been horrendous. A secretary of Education without a resume that would get her hired as a small town grammar school principal, A secretary of Energy who didn't know the Department of Energy was responsible for nuclear reserves, an EPA head whose biggest accomplishments to date had been suing the EPA on multiple occasions, an FCC head who while working for Verizon actively lobbied to kill net neutrality, and an Attorney General who thinks pot is “nearly as bad as heroin” and asked Congress for permission to go after legal pot businesses in states where it is legal. (There goes that great Republican States rights rally cry again, right? *Crickets*) An Interim AG after Firing his First AG who’s appointment is probably unconstitutional.

N.) He denies scientific fact. Ever notice that the only people you hear denying climate change are politicians and lobbyists? 99% of actual scientists studying the issue agree that it’s real, man-made and caused by greenhouse gasses. Ever notice that every big disaster movie starts with a bunch of politicians in a room ignoring a scientist's warning?

0.) He does not have the temperament to lead this nation. He is Thin Skinned, childish, and a bully, never mind misogynistic, boorish, rude, and incapable of civil discourse.

P.) He still does not understand that the words he speaks, or tweets, are the official position of 1/3 of the US government, and so does not govern his words. He still thinks when he speaks it’s good ol’ Donald Trump. It’s not. It’s the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. You have probably spread a meme or two around talking about how no president’s every word has ever been dissected before…YES, THEY ALWAYS HAVE. It’s just that every other president in our lifetime has understood the importance of his words and took great care to govern his speech. Trump blurts out whatever comes to his mind then complains when people talk about what a dumb thing that was to say.

Q.) He’s unqualified. If you owned a small business and were looking for someone to manage it, and an unnamed resume came across your desk and you saw 6 bankruptcies, showing a man who had failed to make money running CASINOS, would you hire him? He is a very poor businessman. This is a man it has been estimated would have been worth $10 BILLION more if he’d just taken what his father had given him, invested it in Index Funds and left it alone.

R.) He is President. But he refuses to take a leadership position and understand that he is everyone’s President. Conservatives complain about liberals chanting “Not my President” while Trump himself behaves as if no one but his supporters matter.

S.) He’s a blatant hypocrite. He spent 8 years bitching Obama out for his family trips, or golfing, or any time he took for himself, and what does he do? He was already on his 20th golf outing in APRIL of his 1st year in office. He constantly rants about respect for the military, yet can’t be bothered to attend the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day because of a little rain. (And that excuse about Marine One not being able to fly in the rain is HILARIOUS.)

T.) He’s a misogynist. It's not really ok in this day and age to be a misogynist, but it’s not a huge deal if you’re a private citizen. It’s a pretty big deal if you hate half the people you’re elected to lead. The disdain for women seeps out of his …whatever…. and he just can’t hide it.

U.) Face it. In any other election “Grab Em’ By the Pussy” would have been the end of that candidate’s chances. Back in the 90’s I used to marvel about how Teflon Bill Clinton was. I no longer do. The fact that he managed to slip by on that is as much a statement about how much people hate Hillary Clinton as it is about what is wrong with politics in this country right now.

V.) He has one response to a differing opinion. Attack. A good leader listens to criticism, to different points of view, is capable of self-reflection, tries to guide people to his point of view, and when necessary stands his ground and defends his convictions. Any of that sound like Trump? His default is not to Lead, its’ to attack. Scorched Earth. The Jim Acosta reaction is a good example. There was no defense of his convictions when Acosta was asking him repeated questions about his rhetoric on the caravan. His response was to attack Acosta.

W.) He takes credit for everything positive while deflecting blame for everything negative. Look at him with the Stock Market. He’s been bragging about it since day one, and to give credit where credit is due, speculation on coming deregulation early in his presidency did fuel some rapid growth, but to pretend that it’s all him, that we’re not in the 9th year of the longest bull market in history and THEN, when the standard market volatility that deregulation inevitably brings about starts to show up? Yeah. Look at yesterday. Hey! Stock Markets losing because the Democrats won! Do I need to bring out the Stock market chart for the last 10 Years again?

X.) He emboldens the worst among us. Counter-protesters are slammed into by a car while countering actual Nazi rally, and the response is there’s fault on “Both Sides” The media is at fault for a nut job sending them and Donald’s favorite targets pipe bombs. The truth is not all Republicans, not all Trump Supporters are racist, fascist lunatics. Many are just taken in by the bombastic personality and are living in an information bubble made worse by the fact that they unfollow anyone and ignore any source of information that makes them feel uncomfortable. People on the left do that too. The Biggest problem the right has right now is that the worst of the Right is the loudest and the most in your face, and the actual right, especially the Freaking PRESIDENT needs to be standing up and saying No. Those are not our values.

Y.) He seems to think the Constitution of The United States, the document that IS who we are, the document he took an oath to support and defend is some sort of inconvenience. He demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of Constitution, from believing he can alter the 14th through executive order, to thinking The free exercise clause in the first amendment somehow supersedes the establishment clause (not that he really understands either) or that the free exercise clause only applies to Christians. Or his attacks on freedom of expression and the press. He repeatedly makes it clear that if he’s read them, he does not understand Articles 1–3, and that’s something he really should have before he took the job, because they’re not going away.

Z.) I’ll use Z for something I do blame him for, but the rest of us have to carry the blame too. Polarization. This country is more politically polarized than I can remember in my lifetime. Some of you who are a few years older than I may remember how it was in the late 60’s when construction workers in New York were being applauded for beating up hippies, I think it’s pretty close to that right now, but that was before my time. And he is the cause of much of the current level polarization, but also the result. It didn't’ start with Trump. We’ve been going down this road I think since the eruption of the Tea Party in the early years of the Obama Administration. I do hope the tide turns before it gets much worse because the thing that scares me more than anything is what if that keeps going the way it has been?

- Chris O’Leary

This Occupy Democrats post ended up in my news feed a little bit ago- and I had to comment on this. Chris hits the nail square on the head with one swing of the metaphorical hammer. He, to put it simply, just GETS it, and it’s a wonderful thing.