#no I'm not a fan of the Biden administration

[beatrice-otter]

I really like John Scalzi's analysis of the whole wtfery of this. (I'm not a great fan of his books, I think he's really overrated as a novelist, but his political commentary and commentary on the SF/F world is interesting.)

I think he has a good point about how while the initial panic about his bad performance at the debate was genuine (and if he'd done better, he'd never have withdrawn), but also that once there was panic, he decided how to manage things to maximize Harris' chances at both getting the nomination and winning the election.

Consider that the announcement was made on the Sunday after the Republican National Convention, and after the Sunday morning political talk shows were put to bed, i.e., after the GOP political capital was spent slagging Biden, and when professional spinners would be caught flat-footed by the announcement. Biden’s news was quickly followed by his endorsement of Kamala Harris, which in turn was followed by a flood of endorsements for Harris across the Democratic political firmament, effectively slamming the door on any serious challenge to Harris at the upcoming Democratic National Convention. If you think something like that just happens spontaneously, well, one, bless your heart, and two, you’re wrong. This was a work, a rope-a-dope, and a strategy to energize the Democratic base and to toss what little momentum the GOP had coming out of their convention down a deep, dark hole. And it worked! Harris raised an huge amount of money for her campaign in its first day — $49 million at least, and I’ve heard up to $70 million — and the GOP messaging was in disarray, limited largely to Trump whining on Truth Social, Stephen Miller freaking out on Fox News, and Mike Johnson trying to suggest that the Democrats can’t do that, it isn’t fair. Which is just what the Democrats wanted out of this. ... The current iteration of the GOP has been mask-off racist and sexist for some time, and Donald Trump sets the tone for the party on this score. Be expecting the whole array of nonsense from them, from dog whistles to flat out racist and sexist shit, said out loud, and also all over the former Twitter by Trump’s pet fascists and/or Russian bots. I guarantee you it will be nothing Kamala Harris has not heard before, but you might see a couple of new ones. The GOP outsourced their policy making to The Heritage Foundation with its Project 2025, which is already deeply unpopular, probably because it’s terrible for anyone who is not already a billionaire cryptofascist with a cross fetish. The GOP can’t go after Harris on policy grounds, and Trump doesn’t do policy anyway. So expect endless variations of she’s an uppity black woman for the next several months. ... Also, Biden has manifestly changed the narrative around both himself and his presidency. I didn’t want him to stop running for re-election, but choosing to do so allows for a “country over self” positioning that’s a hugely effective contrast to Trump’s “I’m running to avoid prison and to get revenge” narrative. It also allows a fresh reframing of the Biden administration’s achievements and accomplishments, and positions Harris to say she will continue them. Biden can lean into the whole “Grandpa Joe” thing now, and have it seen as a positive rather than a negative. ... To put it another way, after eight years, we know what the hard cap is on Trump’s support. We don’t know what the cap is yet for Harris’ support. History does suggest that cap is higher than Trump’s.

[arizonaconservativegal]

Do you hate the left because of wokeness and/or government ineffieciency? What can you say against the Biden Administration? Why should anyone listen to you?

I don't hate the left. I disagree with the left on most things. There's a very big difference.

Very much not a fan of government ineffectiveness and inefficiency. Spent four years working inside the system and saw firsthand how much it screws over the people it's supposed to help. I have a very hard time seeing how I'm supposed to support a system like that. 'Wokeness' is just annoying for the most part, except where it contributes to the ineffectiveness and inefficiency.

Biden's admin has been largely ineffective or downright damaging on pretty much everything I care about and has made us a joke on the world stage and they think they can distract us with shiny meaningless things like flying the lgbt flag outside the White House. Not sure what that accomplished but I wasn't distracted.

Listen to me for the same reason you'd listen to anyone with an opinion that isn't yours - to understand what the other side is thinking, to spot and fix the pitfalls in your own ideas before they become a downfall, and to understand yourself better. I read and listen to things I disagree with all the time. I've completely changed my mind a few times because of it and I've shifted my thinking a lot of times. Even if I eventually reach the same conclusion I had at the start, it's good to come at the problem from a different angle and consider new information and work it through my core beliefs to see if my conclusion holds up. It's like one of those math problems you can solve multiple ways to check yourself - if I get a different answer, I probably need to check again.

And if you do agree with me, well, I guess listen for the occasional bit of insider knowledge or just pure entertainment. Or don't. I don't really care that much. I just would like it if you stopped saying stupid shit that makes the rest of look like fools.

[chaethewriter]

VERY IMPORTANT

Hi everyone, I'm sure most of you are aware of the Willow project. If not.

Our planet will be in terrible danger, which includes us. We are already suffering from immense climate change. If this project continues, we can't undo anything. I know all of my followers are Avatar fans. "The dying world" that is described will be our planet. We all wish for a Pandora, for a mother nature that looks as beautiful as Pandora. We already have one and we need to try what we can, to save Earth. Please sign these petitions and any of the petitions you come across to stop the willow project. <3

[anamericangirl]

How can you be pro Trump when he rolled over for the COVID crap? Millions of jobs lost, businesses shuttered, and people now living with heart problems because he didn't stand up to the narrative. Florida was all but taking refugees of people who wanted to work and didn't want to take experimental medicine to do so.

DeSantis saved the Florida economy, way of life, and the health of its citizens.

I've spoken more than once about how much I don't like how Trump handled covid. I don't like that he pushed the vaccine or fast tracked it to try and get it out before his term ended.

But covid rolled around near the end of Trump's term. Even though I'm not a fan of the choices he did make during that time, he's not really responsible for how the whole thing played out.

He had nothing to do with the mandates or the lockdowns or any of that. That was state governors and the Biden administration that did the really bad things.

Trump is the best president there has been during my lifetime. Record low unemployment, a big tax break, low gas prices, no wars, etc. The fact that he pushed the vaccine (which, while was a sucky thing to do is not near as bad mandating it) isn't enough of a fuck up to make me do a 180 on him.

I think DeSantis handled covid really well and he's done some other good things. I'd be fine with DeSantis for president, but I'm voting for Trump because I know he is a good president.

[qqueenofhades]

Was trump really able to do that much? One of the criticisms I keep seeing is that Trump actually did things (even if people disagreed with said things) while apparently Biden's hands are tied for every issue? And I kinda feel like that's intentionally misleading? iirc Trump issued a ton of executive orders, and the bills he pushed through happened because he had majorities. Why are people expecting Biden to be able to do the same when he doesn't have that

The thing is! Trump didn't actually do that much!

Yes, he issued some awful executive orders (most of which were repealed by Biden on Day 1) and got the compliant Republican Congress to approve giant tax breaks for the rich and other traditional GOP economic thievery, but aside from that, his legislative successes were very limited. They didn't even manage to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which they really wanted to do.

By FAR Trump's biggest impact, and the one that will continue to screw us for decades in the future, is that he got to fill three Supreme Court seats with hard-right neocons, helped by Mitch McConnell's brazen cheating. Which a lot of Democrats were warning about before the election, and which Hillary Clinton herself was ALSO warning about: that SCOTUS was in a vulnerable position with many elderly or retiring justices, and the next president would reshape it for the next generation. But too many Online Leftists went Wah Wah BernieorBust, too many ordinary Americans bought into bog-standard misogyny and decades of Republican smears against HRC, and here we are.

Likewise: anyone who bitches about "Biden Not Doing Anything" has not read a single actual news source, or made any effort to educate themselves on what he has actually accomplished, in an extremely adverse legislative climate and with Manchin and Sinema reliably on hand to torpedo his agenda in the Senate. Biden has actual PAGES of accomplishments made through the legislative process, which are harder to undo than just repealing executive orders. I'm not a fan of him, say, approving the Willow project and I hope the administration hears about it, but that doesn't take away from the fact that yet again, a Democratic president was called on to fix the absolute stinking shitshow left by the Republican incumbent, and not only did that, but made some huge generational (and long-overdue) systemic reforms, even in a difficult political climate, because he worked through the system and made sure they stuck. What a thought.

[talkingpointsusa]

Trump Ally Laura Loomer spins baseless conspiracy theories about Tim Walz having ties to ISIS

Laura Loomer is a person who sucks. She's essentially a self-described "proud Islamophobe" and white nationalist whose whole schtick is calling everybody she doesn't like ISIS. She believes that the Democrats can control the weather and has a bizarre obsession with Kamala Harris’ race.

Despite the fact that this person is clearly extremely fringe and has a belief system not that far out of step with the Neo-Nazi movement, she also has a scary amount of influence on the right having scored interviews with prominent GOP politicians and celebrities like Kari Lake, J,D. Vance, and Nancy Mace. As a result I think it is worth talking about who Loomer is, what she’s all about, and how pretty much everything she says is bullshit. Unfortunately for my sanity, that process involves me watching Laura Loomer. Oh well, lets see what deranged thing she's lying about this time.

TW: Loomer's whole "thing" is basically being an Islamophobe and that carries on in this episode. If you're not comfortable with that, I don't blame you, I'm not either which is why I'm debunking and countering this bullshit while also showing how close it truly is to the modern Republican Party.

21:25, Laura Loomer: "Good evening and welcome to episode 65 of Loomer Unleashed, I'm your host Laura Loomer. If you had any doubts that a Kamala Harris presidency would be anything but a total disaster for the United States of America than the past few days ought to set you free. Yesterday, stock markets all around the world posted one of their worst days ever as investors fear that America is headed for a recession."

On Monday the stock market plummeted after the release of a weaker than expected jobs report coupled with the Federal Reserves decision last week not to lower interest rates, a decision that has been panned by multiple economists who are now suggesting that the Fed make an emergency rate-cut. The current chair of the Federal Reserve is a man by the name of Jerome Powell who was appointed by the Trump Administration. So, while Trump and his sycophants want you to believe that the chaos on Monday was a Kamala crash it was more of a Donald drop.

This crash had nothing to do with Kamala Harris but that didn't stop key figures on the right like Donald Trump, Charlie Kirk, and now Laura Loomer from blaming the crash on the vice-president. In Loomer's case this is particularly embarrassing since she posted this episode on August 6th...the day that the stock market rebounded and investors started to regain some of their losses. Oops, bad timing there.

22:12, Laura Loomer: "Lets make one thing perfectly clear, even though Joe Biden is currently 'the president' (her quotes not mine) we all know that he has not really been in control of the government and the decision making if that couldn't be more obvious to all of you."

No proof, just vibes. Isn't it interesting how far-right media never offers up any concrete evidence outside of "Well, I saw this thing through my distorted worldview and here's the vibe I got!"

But she did put forward that absolutely ridiculous statement with a purpose. Here's where she's going with that line of thinking - this is really dumb and gets contradicted by her multiple times over the course of this episode.

22:30, Laura Loomer: "That means that for the past few years Kamala Harris has already been, in a large part, running our nation. That means that all of the problems over the past four years can be hung around her neck."

I love how they basically have to make fan-fiction up because they don't really have anything on Harris and Walz and got blindsided by Harris deciding to run in the first place. It's been absolutely hilarious to watch.

"Wait guys! Ignore everything that I've been saying for the past four years, Kamala Harris was actually the president this whole time which means all that stuff we made up about Biden actually applies to her! Yeah...that's it."

23:38, Laura Loomer: "Even though the market had been doing quite well prior and has now recovered slightly, just a little, well Monday's disaster is a sign of volatility. And what exactly does this volatility indicate? It indicates uncertainty, massive uncertainty, a lack of confidence, and underlying problems."

Interesting way to try and reconcile that. "Oh yeah, the stock market was doing really well before Monday and has recovered now but uh....the Democrats are still responsible for this." It's almost like there's something that caused such a sudden reaction on the market that Laura isn't telling her audience.

In case you're wondering, she never brings up the Fed or the jobs report in this episode because why would she? It goes against her bizarre narrative that Kamala Harris, who isn't even the president yet, was somehow responsible for a global stock market downturn.

25:12, Laura Loomer: "If this is how Harris's economy has been while she's VP imagine how much worse its going to be when she has full control of the reigns as president, god forbid."

Wait, isn't Harris already the president? You know, back during that long since passed wistful period of three minutes ago when Biden had dementia and Kamala was secretly running the country.

There's a certain level of turning your brain off required to uncritically consume shows like Charlie Kirk and Laura Loomer. If you pay attention to them you'll start to notice that these guys contradict themselves constantly. They have a spread of talking points and they just say shit for two hours without actually thinking about what they're saying beyond "This thing can piss off my audience at this exact moment". If you don't notice these direct contradiction when watching this kind of media, you aren't paying attention.

25:50, Laura Loomer: "The same is true of the immigration crisis which has been at all time lows when President Trump left office partly as a result of COVID."

During the pandemic, undocumented immigrants crossing the border dropped significantly because, well there was a pandemic. However, in the last four months of the Trump presidency encounters at the Southern Border were 14.7% higher than the first month he was in office. This pandemic number was also not an all time low, that would be in April 2017 shortly after Trump took office and before another large spike.

The notion that the Biden-Administration has some sort of "shadowy open border policy" is a total myth that's deeply rooted in white nationalism, as we'll see later on in this post when Loomer starts peddling white nationalism. As a matter of fact, the Biden Administration has increased spending on the border from Donald Trump's $20.9 billion to $23.5 billion. Unfortunately, this also means that many of the human rights abuses at the border that were carried out in the Trump years also carried on during the Biden years which is policy that I obviously don't support.

When people like Laura Loomer talk about "the open boarder" they are essentially admitting that they don't want anybody coming in whether illegally or legally. That is because these people want a white nation, something which Loomer has literally admitted out loud in the past. It's a very thinly disguised dog whistle that you see on every spectrum of the right-wing media ecosystem, from more fringe outlets like Laura Loomer and Infowars all the way to more "mainstream" ones like Daily Wire and FOX News.

26:19, Laura Loomer: "Once here, the Biden/Harris Administration has resorting to simply letting these invaders go free or worse, they have been shipping them to small towns across the country."

Fear-mongering against "the other" is a hallmark of fascist propaganda and it's no exception here. This is all just great replacement theory shit that has nothing backing it up. Notice how nobody ever shows a picture or video of these Biden Harris vehicles shipping migrants to small towns.

This isn't just about migrants at the Southern Border, it's about legal immigration too. The Laura Loomers of the world don't want any immigration unless the people immigrating are white and even then only white heterosexual Christians. Don't believe me? Here's Loomer going on a bigoted tirade against Somali immigrants in Minnesota.

26:30, Laura Loomer: "In fact, Minnesota the state where Kamala's VP pick Tim Walz is governor is a perfect example of how this invader resettlement has gone terribly wrong. A lot of people refer to Minnesota as Little Mogadishu, a little spin-off off of Somalia because of the massive population of Somali Muslims who refuse to assimilate in Minnesota."

What she's essentially saying is that Islamic communities that consist of Somali-American's who are here legally, some even second generation immigrants as the Somali immigration into Minnesota began during the beginning of the Somali Civil War in the 1990's that led to thousands of refugees leaving Somalia and immigrating to the United States, are still invaders. This is because in Loomer's eyes anybody who isn't white is inherently an "invader". It's naked racism in its purest form.

You would think that this kind of rhetoric is fringe on the right but one of the reasons that I'm covering Loomer here is that it really isn't. Touch this up a little, put a bit of a mask on it, and it could easily be the opening monologue on something like The Matt Walsh Show or The Charlie Kirk Show.

And you know what? Mainstream Republicans have embraced Loomer despite this clear white-nationalist rhetoric. Before he was vice-president, J.D. Vance appeared on Loomers show to raise campaign funds. Loomer was a white nationalist and extremist back then too, nothings changed. Donald Trump himself has also embraced Loomer, referring to her as "great Laura Loomer" in a speech and Loomer has rode with Trump aboard his private jet in the past. Donald Trump Jr has also floated Loomer for a spot in the Trump administration if Trump gets elected for a second term. So, when I show you this next quote about Somali Muslims let it be known that this is what the Trump Administration explicitly endorses through their continued association and praise of Loomer.

26:55, Laura Loomer: "There, these people leech off the system, they breed like rabbits, they disrupt the natural communities and they commit violent crimes without contributing anything of value to our society."

I hope J.D. Vance and Donald Trump are proud of what they're endorsing when they associate with this woman. Don't get it twisted, this talk of breeding wouldn't be out of place in a Neo-Nazi pamphlet and it's being peddled by a key ally of the current person that the GOP is running for president. This is not fringe anymore, it's what the GOP explicitly endorses and that should be scary as fuck to you!

If you are a more moderate Trump supporter, you know someone who maybe catches FOX News from time to time and is concerned about the economy and whatnot, first of all welcome to the blog! I actively welcome you to read my back catalogue and see how the stuff you've been consuming is total bunk consisting of half-baked lies. But second of all, your candidate endorses this! Take a look at this stuff, compare it to what Nazi's say on a regular basis, look at your candidate embracing this person, and ask yourself; is this the kind of thing that I support?

27:47, Laura Loomer: "Governor Walz has been in office since 2019. While BLM ran rampant in his state burning entire sections of Minneapolis to the ground following the overdose death of career criminal thug George Floyd, Walz didn't just sit idly by, he actively encouraged it."

As we saw when mainstream right-wing commentators like Matt Walsh and Tucker Carlson, more proof that these guys are all peddling the same rhetoric by the way, pushed this exact same lie about George Floyd, it's complete bullshit.

The autopsy report released by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner, while it did show that Floyd hand fentanyl in his system, ruled that Floyd died from “cardiopulmonary arrest from law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression."

We literally saw Floyd get murdered on camera and there are mountains of testimonies from the Chauvin trial showing that it was absolutely Chauvin's fault that Floyd was killed. Not that it matters when you're a racist who's overly concerned with breeding that's also actively using racist dog-whistles like calling a black man a "thug".

29:04, Laura Loomer: "This guy is clearly a loony left-wing radical dressed up as an old white grandpa. He wants you to think that he's your typical old-white grandpa and he's very dangerous. He's basically a less senile and more radical Joe Biden."

While it is definitely important to point out how extreme Loomer is, it's also important to point out that she's also a complete dumbass.

Ah yes, famous left-wing radical *checks notes* Joe Biden. We've lived through four years of the Democrats and none of the stuff that Loomer said would happen happened. She's just somebody who's good at drumming up fear and rage in racists without providing actual evidence.

29:47, Laura Loomer: "He certainly isn't going to be driving anybody to go vote. Really, lets just think about this for a second. What young voter or minority is looking at Tim Walz, an old white man, and is saying 'yes, that's our guy. I'm in. He's going to represent me.'"

The polls say that voters like Tim Walz more the J.D. Vance but I guess if you want to live in fantasyland go right ahead.

30:16, Laura Loomer: "And so, as the election approaches President Trump needs to be asking himself 'How would a Kamala Harris presidency be any different from the past four years?' She's been running the White House already."

Kamala Harris: She's more extreme than Biden and will turn America into a communist hellhole....also she's been running the White House already and if she wins it'll just be more of the same. None of this makes any sense, even internally.

Laura does an ad that's basically her playing clips of Alex Jones praising her and some clips of her dumb attention starved PR stunt bullshit like running around in a stereotypical "Mexican" outfit to protest immigration. You know, for someone who is pretending to be a journalist that has this breaking proof that the Democrats have ties to ISIS, Laura is really just stretching to waste time here. She comes back, talks more about the stock market, and contradicts herself again.

33:52, Laura Loomer: "We can look at some of these posts, him calling this crash yesterday the Kamala crash and that's what exactly everybody needs to be referring to it as because this is exactly what we're going to see if Kamala Harris gets into the White House for another four years and she is just as much involved with our policies in this country as he is."

Is Kamala the president right now or isn't she? Make up your mind Laura!

The thing with Laura Loomer's show is that half of it is just the "Riffing About Trump's Truth Social Posts and Twitter Show". She continues down this route of riffing on Trump's Truth Social posts and I decided to open up the stopwatch app on my phone and time it.

Laura's Truth Social commentary clocks in at around a minute and fifty five seconds give or take the few seconds it took me to open up her Rumble page after I hit go on the stopwatch. It's just two whole minutes of reading tweets and "The Kamala crash, Trump called it the Kamala crash!" with absolutely no substance to it.

So, she goes on to talk about the guy from Pakistan who got arrested for plotting to assassinate key government officials and honestly covering this wasn't a smart move on her part at all. I'll explain why in a minute but lets hear her out.

40:46, Laura Loomer: "And just today actually, we saw how grave the national security issue is when the DOJ announced that a Pakistani national has been arrested and charged for plotting to assassinate president Trump."

This story is about a Pakistani man named Asif Merchant with alleged ties to Iran who was arrested last month for plotting to carry out the assassinations of key government figures including potentially Donald Trump. Court documents actually did not specify who this guy was planning to assassinate however a threat on Trump's life from Iran due to the killing of Qassem Soleimani in 2020 led to many people speculating that the person that this guy had in mind was Trump.

First of all, we just don't know a lot about this story. While it is likely that Merchant might have had Trump on his list and many sources have backed that claim up, those same sources are saying that this guy had targets from both sides of the political aisle in mind. There's a lot of unknown here and its all very messy meaning that it's Loomers responsibility as somebody calling herself a journalist to be really careful about what she says while covering this. In that respect she absolutely failed.

Second of all, the fact that Merchant was arrested and charged blows everything that Loomer was saying earlier out of the water. I thought that the Biden Administration was just letting criminals run rampant and not charging anybody. Guess that's no longer something that's happening. I also thought that the Democrats wanted to kill Trump. Dumbasses like Laura Loomer have been speculating that the Democrats intentionally let the Trump shooting in Butler PA happen for weeks. But I guess the evil Biden DOJ that I've been hearing about for months now just arrested and convicted this guy that may have been planning to assassinate Trump, thus foiling their evil plot, for....reasons I guess.

Laura Loomer absolutely should not have covered this story. I get that it's low-hanging fruit in MAGA-world right now but its very existence messes up this narrative that MAGA media has been pushing for what feels like centuries now about Biden just letting people run rampant and the Democrats allowing the Trump assassination attempt to happen.

So, Loomer finds out that Merchant contacted a confidential informant for the FBI and of course gets the story completely wrong. What actually happened was that Merchant landed in the states and contacted a person who he felt would help him carry out his plans. After Merchant contacted this guy, his contact immediately called law enforcement and became a confidential informant for the FBI that helped the authorities eventually bring Merchant in.

The way that Loomer seems to interpret this part of the story is "Oh, the FBI contacted Merchant and was giving him his marching orders" which doesn't even make any sense with the facts that Loomer presented! If the FBI wanted this guy to kill Trump and was giving him his marching orders, why would they then arrest and charge this guy for doing what they wanted him to do in the first place? It makes absolutely zero sense whatsoever.

42:15, Laura Loomer: "Ok, so the FBI was in touch with Iranian hitmen to kill President Trump. Don't tell me for one second to that this attack that we saw in Butler Pennsylvania, probably, what are they going to say? 'Oh, this was just a mentally disturbed kid'. When's it gonna come out that he was also talking to confidential informants in the FBI."

This is just complete nonsense that is completely devoid from reality. This is somebody who calls themself an "investigative journalist" messing up basic details about this big news story to push a political agenda. It's embarrassing behavior and anybody calling themself a "journalist" who acts like this should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.

42:38, Laura Loomer: "So, you see how dangerous our intelligence agencies are because they intentionally lead people to these positions. They allow this guy to travel to New York where he was planning on killing president Trump and we just saw that somebody got very close. We know that this Thomas Matthew Crooks individual, they're not saying that there's ties between this guy and Thomas Matthew Crooks but Thomas Matthew Crooks had overseas encrypted bank accounts."

They also arrested him after getting the appropriate evidence needed to convict. This conspiracy theory makes zero sense in the real world.

Thomas Matthew Crooks didn't have overseas bank accounts. That claim was spread by an Instagram post made after the assassination attempt and nobody provided evidence to back this claim up. The FBI has came out and stated that Crooks didn't have overseas bank accounts and until somebody provides actual evidence proving them wrong I'm inclined to believe them.

As any regular listener of Knowledge Fight (hello, fellow wonks) will tell you, guys like Laura Loomer and Alex Jones mainly get their "news" from shitheads on Twitter and Instagram without actually looking into it and this is an excellent example of that.

I figured this out in five seconds and I'm just some university student with a blog. I don't run a massive produced show and hobnob with key government figures, I'm just a guy with a laptop sitting at a desk in my home debunking bullshit. Yeah, I'm majoring in journalism but you don't just magically gain the ability to verify stuff the day you step into a journalism lecture, Google is a thing that exists and it's a really easy tool for journalists to use! The minute that people like Laura Loomer start calling themselves "journalists" becomes the minute that they become responsible to vet the stuff they're saying and whether or not it's accurate. Loomer has failed her audience and on a broader level her basic duties as a journalist.

So, Laura decides that Tim Walz has ties to ISIS because at this point we're openly playing make em' ups. What's her proof of this absolutely damning claim?

45:16, Laura Loomer: "So, Tim Walz of course is the governor of Minnesota and that's who Kamala Harris decided to pick today as her vice-presidential pick. He is openly tied to Ilhan Omar, Keith Ellison, a lot of these very dangerous radical Muslim politicians."

Surprise surprise, it's just more disgusting bigotry. Naturally, Loomer sees two Islamic progressive politicians and thinks "They must be tied to ISIS" without having any evidence tying them to ISIS. There used to be a word for that, I remember that it started with an R and ended with ACISM. Not that this critique matters much when it comes to Laura who doesn't try to deny her racism but it's still absolutely worth pointing out just so that it's on the record.

45:32, Laura Loomer: "But probably the most radical situation of all is the fact that Tim Walz advocated for an ISIS affiliated Islamic centre called the Dar-Al Farooq Islamic Centre which I have personally visited by the way in Minnesota."

There is absolutely no proof that the Dar-Al Farooq Centre is tied to ISIS and what Loomer is doing here is disgusting for a bunch of reasons.

The thing that got the ball rolling about this mosque being "ISIS affiliated" is an incident in 2016 where three youths who attended this mosque tried to flee the country and join ISIS. While this was obviously an extremely bad thing and it's a good thing that these kids got caught, there's no proof that mosque leadership knew about this nor is there proof that anybody else at the mosque knew about what these kids were planning. However, that didn't stop far-right media from starting a targeted smear campaign against this mosque. Congregants reported far-right social media figures showing up to the mosque and filming their children.

This eventually reached its apex when in 2017 three white males traveled eight hours from their home state in Illinois in order to plant a pipe bomb inside the Dar-Al Farooq Centre, thankfully nobody was hurt in the attack. According to the bomber his motive was to scare Muslim's into leaving the US and that he heard that Dar-Al Farooq was "training ISIS members". Now, look at the fact that Laura Loomer is pushing the exact same kind of rhetoric that nearly got innocent people killed....yeah. I cannot stress this enough, fuck! this! shit!

There's absolutely zero reason for Loomer to not know that far-right disinformation like her show played a huge part in children being harassed and actual terrorism and yet here she is spreading this crap about this mosque anyway despite everything that it's caused. It's easy to laugh at how dumb these people are and how they have no idea what they're talking about but I cannot stress this enough, this shit has the potential to get people killed.

On that happy note, Laura starts interviewing a man named John Guandolo and I really don't care. For those who don't know, John Guandolo is a former FBI Agent who runs the SPLC registered extremist group "Understanding The Threat". Guandolo left the FBI in 2008 while he was being investigated by the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility over having an affair with a confidential source and soliciting $75,000 dollars for an "anti-terrorism group" that he was working on creating at the time. Real cool and trustworthy guy. John's "coolness" only continued after he left the FBI and formed Understanding the Threat which basically runs bizarre "counterterrorism training" sessions for law enforcement officials and civilians alike that are basically just seminars devoted to islamophobic conspiracy theories. Guandolo also has a long track record of assaulting people and then promptly getting has ass sued. In 2023, Understanding the Threat shut down in part because John kept doing dumb shit that got his ass sued (although the exact details of why they shut down are kind of murky at best).

Essentially, he's one of these ex-military/FBI "counterterrorism" grifters that were a dime a dozen after 9/11, he's cut from the same cloth as guys like Jack Idema. I don't have enough time to go into all the specific nuances of how much of a loser John Guandolo is but suffice it to say this guy really fucking sucks. We're not going to look at too much of his interview because it's just boring and dumb islamophobic conspiracy theories but there is some stuff in there that we should talk about.

50:03, Laura Loomer: "I was just explaining prior to you coming on that we spent a lot of time together in Minnesota doing counter-terrorism and also investigating on the ground with other counter-Jihad experts. People like Ilhan Omar, Keith Ellison and their radical networks which includes Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and also ISIS."

"And by on the ground doing counterterrorism I mean us running around doing dumb stuff on the internet."

Neither of these guys have presented evidence to back up what they're saying outside of "we don't like Muslims". I couldn't find what kind of "counter-terrorism" these guys were up to in 2018 but given Loomers past track record I'm sure it was just running around being a public nuisance and acting like an absolute drain on society in front of mosques.

50:43, Laura Loomer: "Obviously it's all factual and you can confirm it."

This show is just Islamophobic LARPing at this point.

51:32, John Guandolo: "Number one, Dar-Al Farooq is an -- and it's not a secret. That's a jihadi mosque. The leadership of the mosque, those are jihadi's running it. And you mentioned something a moment ago that I think is important to put a real fine point on for your audience, Shayk Idris at Dar Al-Farooq is the chairman of the Islamic University of Minnesota, the first of its kind in America, and its built to teach sharia to a wide variety of folks but its really to train people that are looking to be scholars and the way it fits into the broader Jihadi movement in the United States is the Brotherhood is very interested in raising up Jihadi's here that are American's so they needed to build the Islamic university here and they chose Minnesota."

The Islamic University of Minnesota is basically the Muslim equivalent of a bible college. They aren't "training Jihadi's" and if they were the FBI would be all over them in eleven seconds. This is just conspiracy theory nonsense from two people who have built their careers around pushing islamophobia and like I said before, this shits dangerous and could very easily lead to violence in the real world.

53:14, John Guandolo: "That entire culture there is in bed with and I mean protecting and defending the Jihadi's in the Twin Cities and it's why when my team came through prior to the 2016 election and I wrote that article, it was entitled 'In This War: The Twin Cities and Minnesota' and I still believe today more than I did then it will take literal military intervention to liberate Minneapolis/St Paul."

Not much to say other than this guys calling for the military to come in and kill civilians because they're immigrants. I hate these two so much. By the way, as stated previously in my last post on the Walz nomination, crime has been down in Minneapolis recently.

The entire interview is like this so we don't have to spend a lot of time on it. Just two bigots lying to each other and potentially inciting violence. We have one last quote, here's Loomer saying that the Democrats want to form an "Islamic Caliphate". Never heard that one before except for when Obama was elected, or during Hillary's campaign, or....

01:39:36, Laura Loomer: "We are literally in the middle of an Islamo-fascist communist takeover of the Western world and the United States of America. Make no mistake, you see these videos right now in the United Kingdom where people are setting fire to cars, they're raping women, they're stabbing people, they're attacking white people in the streets. We're gonna have Muslim gains like that here in the United States of America. We already do, in cities like Dearborn, Michigan and Minneapolis, Minnesota and New York City. We've seen these pro-Hamas riots where we have these people waving Hamas and Hezbollah flags. So I'll tell you right now, if Kamala Harris gets elected as president of the United States, we are, we are going to have an Islamic caliphate in this country."

She said about the UK during a period where the UK is dealing with extremist anti-immigrant rioters setting fire to buildings but that's honestly a topic for its own post. This is just a bizarre slew of Islamophobic talking points that make zero sense, a fitting way to end a post full of Islamophobic talking points that make zero sense.

Conclusion:

That was a particularly gross thing to watch. The thing that freaks me out about Laura Loomer is the fact that this woman has influence. In a reasonable society folks like Laura Loomer and John Guandolo would be guys yelling on street corners with little to no influence but instead here they are spreading hate to a massive audience full of people that unquestionably believe it. The only thing you can really do is call it what it is: hateful bullshit.

Quite frankly, there's very little separating stuff like this and some of the more "mainstream" organizations on the right like The Daily Wire. Just ask Matt Walsh who's very concerned about the white birth-rate or Michael Knowles who believes in the Great Replacement Theory. The difference between them and Laura Loomer is that Loomer doesn't really try to hide her naked bigotry whereas FOX and the Daily Wire try to couch it in double speak and dog-whistles.

On the bright side, it says a lot about Tim Walz' record that they have so little to go with that they have to just up and make shit up about him. While there's very little you can do to win over extremists, Walz' record can do a lot to win over moderates and watching people like Laura Loomer flail around trying to find new ways to smear him gives me some hope for the election.

Original Video:

“EP65: SUMMER of JIHAD: Kamala’s vp Pick EXPOSED for ISIS Ties!” Rumble, 6 Aug. 2024

Sources Cited:

Dorn, Sara. ““Kamala Crash”: Trump Tries to Pin Stock Market Downturn on Harris.” Forbes, 6 Aug. 2024.

Picciotto, Rebecca. “Trump Quiet on Markets after Stock Rebound Robs Him of “Kamala Crash” Attack Line.” CNBC, CNBC, 6 Aug. 2024.

Farley, Robert. “Trump’s Misleading Chart on Illegal Immigration.” FactCheck.org, 4 Apr. 2024

Miller, Todd. “Biden’s Supposed “Open-Border Policy” Does Not Exist.” Www.thenation.com, 22 Nov. 2023

Smith, Allan, et al. “Trump’s Embrace of Far-Right Activist Laura Loomer Worries His Allies.” Nbcnews.com, NBC News, 14 Jan. 2024.

Hananoki, Eric. “Laura Loomer Helped JD Vance Raise Funds While He Appeared on Her Show.” Media Matters for America, 29 July 2024.

TUCKER, ERIC. “Pakistani Man with Ties to Iran Charged in Plot to Carry out Political Assassinations.” AP News, AP News, 6 Aug. 2024.

Thrush, Glenn. “Justice Dept. Charges Pakistani Man in Alleged Plot to Kill U.S. Leaders.” The New York Times, 6 Aug. 2024.

“Understanding the Threat.” Southern Poverty Law Center

Montemayor, Stephen, and Stephen Montemayor. “3 Illinois Men Charged in Bloomington Mosque Bombing.” Startribune.com, 14 Mar. 2018.

Riham Feshir. “Twin Cities Mosque on Edge after Opponents Start Pointing the Cameras at Children.” MPR News, MPR News, 4 Oct. 2019.

[female-buckets]

last administration went 1-14 on championship visits. including the south carolina debacle. the golden state warriors didn’t sweat having their invitation “withdrawn”. the white house visit is an afterthought for teams who win a championship at any level. mens football have individual players who decline to go. entire teams have declined/not been invited. sad to see people bashing a woman deciding to support women in sports

I'm a Storm fan. I know all about the politics of Trump white house visits. I get it.

It's completely unprecedented to invite a runner-up to the white house.

Jill Biden is breaking sports traditions and making the Iowa/LSU culture war worse. No one asked her to do that. She's exactly like all the other weirdos who treat the Iowa players like delicate little flowers. It's insulting to Iowa's dignity. And it's undermining LSU's victory.

[thepolyamorouspolymath]

1. Let's not forget that he actually funded drugs coming into the country aimed at minorities and is responsible for things like crack being 10x longer sentencing than coke bc Crack was used by black people and coke was used by yuppies.

2. My children there was a market crash in 1987 that created the Wall St kill switch bc it dropped so much so fast they built a program so it can only drop by so much then the whole system locks to prevent panic trading.

3. He made Nixon look like an environmentalist.

4. Ok, so you know how much we all bitched about the government ignoring Covid bc people were dying? OK, but like Covid has a 2% mortality rate and AIDS had 100%. And even Trump did start a program pretty immediately to just pour all the goddamn money into a vaccine (yeah, I'm not say it worked well, but fuck even the goddamn Nazi tried something and was willing to SAY THE FUCKING WORD!)

5. Honestly it was so bad before in terms of actual care I'm not sure it got worse, except it was harder to afford and you were penalized more for it.

6. RONALD REAGAN INTERVATIONAL AIRPORT IS THE MOST OFFENSIVE FUCKING NAME IN THE HISTORY OF LABOR RELATIONS. He was a fucking strike breaker, using the power of the government to force people to go to work (Biden did strike break the railroads for national interest BUT HIS ADMINISTRATION PARTNERED WITH THE UNIONS TO MEDIATE A NEW CONTRACT FOR RAIL WORKERS THAT THE UNIONS EVEN PRAISED.) Reagan forced people to work against their will while threatening Communism as the big bad, an irony Satan himself could have thought of.

Honestly the other details I'm not as up on but let's not forget high points like the Star Wars program a billions of dollars defense program THAT NEVER WORKED EVEN ONCE AND HE WOULD NOT LET DIE or Laffer Economics that said as if it was an economic law (which has to be proven by data and math) that if you raise taxes, people will cheat on their taxes so revenues will actually go down. Bro that ain't econ, that's Thomas Hobbes in philosophy across the hall. His own VP referred to it as voodoo economics bc it has just as much relation to a scientific finding as voodoo. At least 2 years of his presidency he was deep into dementia and his wife was making choice with her astrologer (instead of stepping down and giving the boring but competent and qualified VP the reins -- not a fan of HW but he was rational.)

Literally the only good Reagan ever managed was working with Tip O'Neill as Speaker in an effort to actually govern.

Also the Nixon tapes have calls from Reagan being blatantly fucking racist.

And he was a terrible actor.

And his wife tried to provoke an international incident with a nuclear power bc Gorbachev's wfe wore red to a function and red was "her" color -- lady it's a fucking primary color there's only 3 of them ffs!

Just... I can't overstate the bad decisions at every turn.

And Reagan was incredibly dangerous bc he was charming. He was appealing if you didn't know he was a fucking monster. Trump is boorish. W was a fucking moron. But Reagan could sell people on shit.

the funny thing is that i don't think younger people - and i mean those under the age of 40 - really have a grasp on how many of today's issues can be tied back to a disastrous reagan policy:

war on drugs: reagan's aggressive escalation of the war on drugs was a catastrophic policy, primarily targeting minority communities and fueling mass incarceration. the crusade against drugs was more about controlling the Black, Latino and Native communities than addressing the actual problems of drug abuse, leading to a legacy of broken families and systemic racism within the criminal justice system.

deregulation and economic policies: reaganomics was an absolute disaster for the working class. reagan's policies of aggressive tax cuts for the rich, deregulation, and slashing social programs were nothing less than class warfare, deepening income inequality and entrenching corporate greed. these types of policies were a clear message that reagan's america was only for the wealthy elite and a loud "fuck you" to working americans.

environmental policies: despite his reputation being whitewashed thanks to the recovery of the ozone layer, reagan's environmental record was an unmitigated disaster. his administration gutted critical environmental protections and institutions like the EPA, turning a blind eye to pollution and corporate exploitation of natural resources. this blatant disregard for the planet was a clear sign of prioritizing short-term corporate profits over the future of the environment.

AIDS crisis: reagan's gross neglect of the aids crisis was nothing short of criminal and this doesn't even begin to touch on his wife's involvement. his administration's indifference to the plight of the lgbtq+ community during this devastating epidemic revealed a deep-seated bigotry and a complete failure of moral leadership.

mental health: reagan's dismantling of mental health institutions under the guise of 'reform' led directly to a surge in homelessness and a lack of support for those with mental health issues. his policies were cruel and inhumane and showed a personality-defining callous disregard for the most vulnerable in society.

labor and unions: reagan's attack on labor unions, exemplified by his handling of the patco strike, was a blatant assault on workers' rights. his actions emboldened corporations to suppress union activities, leading to a significant erosion of workers' power and rights in the workplace. he was colloquially known as "Ronnie the Union Buster Reagan"

foreign policy and military interventions: reagan's foreign policy, particularly in latin america, was imperialist and ruthless. his administration's support for dictatorships and right-wing death squads under the guise of fighting "communism" showed a complete disregard for human rights and self-determination of other nations.

public health: yes, reagan's agricultural policies actually facilitated the rise of high fructose corn syrup, once again prioritizing corporate profits over public health. this shift in the food industry has had lasting negative impacts on health, contributing to the obesity epidemic and other health issues.

privatization: reagan's push for privatization was a systematic dismantling of public services, transferring wealth and power to private corporations and further eroding the public's access to essential services.

education policies: his approach to education was more of an attack on public education than anything else, gutting funding and promoting policies that undermined equal access to quality education. this was, again, part of a broader agenda to maintain a status quo where the privileged remain in power.

this is just what i could come up with in a relatively short time and i did not even live under this man's presidency. the level at which ronald reagan has broken the united states truly can't be overstated.

[tacticalhimbo]

grandson band via twitter || image of band lead, jordan edward benjamin, via twitter

Transcript, emphasis added by me:

Recently I was approached, along with a handful of other artists, to gauge my interest in performing at a Biden re-election rally in 2 important swing states. This was quite an opportunity for me, as I have dedicated much my career to encouraging and empowering fans to participate however they can in making their community, city, or country more reflective of them, of us- more inclusive, more just, and yes, more progressive. It also would have given me a larger platform to denounce the corrupt, hypercapitalist, misogynistic, undemocratic, climate change denying, fundamentalist religious platform that serial liar and convicted felon Donald Trump, and ultimately an entire faction of American politics too scared to challenge him, has been pushing for.

However, after the past decade spent on empty rhetoric, after consolidating power towards the center and edging out real progressive change, in the face of ongoing war machine efforts to fund and arm horrific atrocities in Gaza, coming up short on issues like student debt forgiveness, transparency around insider trading and term limits on sitting congressmen, getting money out of politics and elections, Supreme Court reform, climate change adaptation, marijuana legalization, for-profit healthcare reform, or heavier taxation on the ultra rich, I cannot in good conscience attach my music to this current administration. If Democrats were at all in touch with us and really cared about the advancing of their values and stopping Trump, Biden would step down tomorrow for someone with more energy, charisma, and conviction for how to actually make this country better for working people.

Where does that leave us? I'm scared that my silence, or active denouncing of being a democrat, helps create the conditions for a second Trump presidency, a thought that repulses me and many of the people I talk to about it. I support many policies from The Green Party, but I remember the feeling of disappointment watching Trump and his corrupt cabal sworn in, wondering as I looked around at my friends that voted third party, or didn't vote at all: are we responsible for this?

Ultimately, while I don't feel comfortable endorsing a candidate at this time, I do just want to say that our voting block-young, progressive, online, with some amount of radicalization through what we see and read on the internet- is not represented in politics proportionately to our outrage because we simply don't actually leverage our feelings at the ballot box. Our turnout rate is always lower than old, scared television watchers from the past generation. The system will largely maintain its power and expand the empire regardless of who is the "commander in chief", and so my focus is on civic engagement and participation beyond the narrow scope of President.

Our attitude towards the future in this current system will be taken seriously through our participation, by supporting grassroots, young candidates locally, and influencing change through the many candidates, referendums and measures that appear on ballots in midterms and elections. When we get closer to the election, I will be working with progressive voting guides to make it easy to decipher what is at stake in November and how to make your voice heard in ways outside of just choosing which of these geriatric, unfit, for-sale men deserve to be President.

[nonfer]

your miserable, half hearted attempts at journalism? good enough for wrapping fish with means what? guess you could wrap digital fish.

what i, and every other content provider online, have seen isn't honesty out of either trump's administration or honesty out of biden's administration.

"- two point -"

"you're just old. you're old, okay?"

images above and below are from Late Night TV Talk Show Lineups Page (interbridge.com) and (free graphics editor) gimp.

"- a sixteen year old on edibles is more reliable."

wikipedia.org/wiki/Awards_and_decorations_of_the_Public_Health_Service#Personal_awards_and_decorations

29% in U.S. Say Neither Biden nor Trump Would Be Good President (gallup.com)

[drawingconclusions]

THE TRUMP VERDICT

I'm sure you've heard by now about the guilty verdicts lodged against Trump last Thursday. And in case you haven't heard, President Biden's son Hunter is facing one of his trials this week. I wonder if there'll be wall-to-wall media coverage as there was for the cases against the former President...

But before going on, let me say the following: During a brief news clip showing a few demonstrators in the aftermath of the case, I saw a person holding a banner displaying the phrase "Trump or death". Perhaps it was their attempt at a witty slogan echoing the historically well-known saying "Give me liberty or give me death". Perhaps it was a motto generated by an AI chatbot. I have no idea. And I just heard that someone had doxxed Michael Cohen's wife and child in apparent retribution for Cohen's part in the trial. But as I wrote in my post years ago, "Has Politics Become Your Religion?", I implore everyone who chooses to demonstrate or to protest to do so peacefully. And I'm not a fan of Michael Cohen or his behavior; even during the trial, the defense proved how compulsive of a liar he is. But now people are publicly posting the private info of his wife and child? Come on, I don't need to tell you how unnecessary and cowardly that is.

I bumped into an article by the Associated Press the other day, one that quoted Fiona Hill as stating that Trump's denigration of our justice system in light of his verdict actually works to help Russia's Vladimir Putin! And I seriously thought the article was some kind of April Fool's joke! In the midst of these trials, you have all kinds of people warning that it's taboo to utter a phrase against America's legal system, and that argument to some degree employs flawed logic. I'm all for showing the proper amount of respect for authorities, but our democracy in the U.S. was founded on the principle of protecting freedom of speech, and the three branches of government (including the judicial branch) were intended to employ at least a semblance of checks and balances. Our founding fathers instituted such safeguards to prevent government overreach and abuse of its citizens. So this idea that "We the People" shouldn't be able to respectfully comment on, evaluate, or even criticize our government is absolutely ludicrous! And authoritarian or communist governments like Russia or China will always find some way to take advantage of current events in order to try present their system of government in a better light. But no matter what kind of false propaganda those countries spew forth, their citizens do not enjoy the freedoms that were enshrined in our Constitution. Just ask Russian citizens who dared to speak out against the invasion of Ukraine. Or why don't you look up how China punishes its dissidents. So I strongly disagree with those who forbid criticism of our government here in America. Such backward thinking is likely how our governing bodies have devolved into such a sorry state in the first place.

At times, it's insightful to see who responds and how they do so when a person is down on their luck, so to speak. In this case, among the individuals who cheered the verdict against Trump was Congressman Adam Schiff (who was censured by Congress for his deceptive role in the false "Russia collusion" accusations against Trump a few years ago), Senator Tim Kaine (who previously praised the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, even as disastrous as it turned out to be), and Congressman Jamie Raskin (who eagerly defends any Democrat or Democrat agenda with little regard for inherent merit). And I could go on and on, listing the character (or lack thereof) of the politicians and media figures who have applauded the charges against former President Trump. But as you can begin to see from the very brief list above, many of these individuals are highly partisan and some of them clearly have a severely misguided moral compass. Should we really be relying on their judgment for an ethical evaluation of the fairness of this verdict?

And of course, it seems whenever Trump faces potential trouble, it's intriguing how opportunists like Hillary Clinton or Asa Hutchinson somehow make their way back into the public spotlight. Whether their behavior stems from pure hatred for Trump or a desire to re-launch their own political careers, I'm not sure. But especially in light of the haphazard legal precedents set by this verdict against Trump, I wouldn't be too eager to be so visible to the public if I was in Hillary Clinton's shoes. Which brings me to my next points.

In recent days, many Democrats have echoed one of their favorite (and almost laughable) mottos in response to the Trump verdict: "No one is above the law." We hear that time and time again when indictments or investigations are brought against conservatives, and yet we see the exact opposite of this principle being applied to bona-fide criminals such as murderers, rapists, & thieves when they're continually given a free pass despite their serious crimes. As a result, repeat offenders go on to brazenly kill police officers during traffic stops and to harass, assault, or murder innocent civilians who are simply trying to live their lives in peace. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been noted for allowing such a revolving door of justice in his district, despite his claims to a blind application of the law and his more recent statement that he does so without "fear or favor".

However, as many legal experts have stated, the unusual workings of the latest Trump case have the potential to lead to a slew of reciprocal indictment & verdicts against Democrats. Thanks to the precedents set by the likes of Attorney General Letitia James, Judge Arthur Engoron, Judge Juan Merchan, and District Attorney Alvin Bragg, misdemeanors can now magically be converted into felonies, there is no such thing as a statute of limitations for a crime (or a perceived crime), judges with an actual or perceived conflict of interest won't have to excuse themselves, convicted liars/felons can be accepted as star witnesses, and change of venues to prevent a biased jury pool will most certainly be denied. You can call all this a slippery slope or the opening of Pandora's box, whatever you please. But the long and short of it means that several Democrats will likely face a litany of legal & criminals convictions in the short and long term as a result.

And this includes Democrats such as John Brennan and James Clapper who have lied to Congress with impunity.. Former FBI Director James Comey, who divulged (classified) documents to his professor friend in a rush to share them with the public. And some ambitious prosecutor will likely determine to hold Hillary Clinton accountable for the debacle at Benghazi, as well as for destroying physical evidence when she used an offsite unsecured server (reportedly located in a bathroom) to conduct official government business & messaging. And for her involvement (and the involvement of her lawyers) in paying for the Steele dossier that was central to intiation of the false "Russia collusion" accusations against Trump. (Need I go on about Clinton?..) Alejandro Mayorkas will likely be sued by families who have lost loved ones due to the fentanyl streaming across the highly porous southern border. Many members of the FBI would have to be convicted of election interference, as well as quite a few tech company CEOs and employees. And it's almost a sure thing that someone somewhere will find a way to bring charges against President Biden once he leaves office. (And all this with a jury selected from deep within GOP territory...)

Look, if you've read my previous posts on the trials of Trump you know I wasn't for this. I lamented the potential chaos that would result from using our justice system to attack, harass, and imprison political opponents. Take a look at what Putin did to his political rival Alexei Navalny. Navalny was imprisoned for years solely for challenging a dictator's reign and in the end, he breathed his last breaths in a near arctic dungeon. (Does anyone really believe that Navalny died of natural causes?...) Is that really the grotesque standard we want to follow here in America? There's so much work to be done in our country, and yet I'm concerned that we'll spend far too much time figuratively at each other's throats from now on as a result of these verdicts.

In closing, I intended to be much more frank in these posts. For years I've been warning about the highly partisan & corrupt environment that has overtaken every level of government, down from the local level up to largest federal agencies. Yet most of our representatives failed to do a single thing to address this. Instead, many weak Republicans have been handing over even more powers to the so-callled deep state (the re-authorization of the FISA powers is just one example). And it's concerning how so many of America's law enforcement agencies seem intent on circumventing the Constitution (including the 4th Amendment) in their endeavors: Agencies sidestep the need for warrants by obtaining information from data brokers, police are enthralled with installing networks of live feed video cameras across neighborhoods, which is another form of warrantless surveillance, and some in the military & DNI don't even feel the need to obtain a warrant for their surveillance activities against America's populace. There are people in government who violate the Constitution on a daily basis, and there should be severe legal, criminal, and career penalties for that. If the framework of the Constitution isn't what government workers are adhering to, then what does serve as the foundation for their actions? The answer can verge on something frightening in a democracy.

And yet there is a glimmer of hope. I just heard that Congressman Jim Jordan intends to present an appropriations bill that would severely limit the prosecutorial abuses we've seen in the past several months (these "lawfare" political tactics, as some call it). I was about to recommend even stricter penalties, but I'll hold my tongue for now. Maybe tying judicial & prosecutorial behavior to the financial aspect can be a good place to begin. Of course, there's always the chance that his appropriations bill doesn't pass, and then we're back to square one. And I'll likely be back here again to comment.

I appreciate those who have patiently waited me to finish this extremely long post today. Again, it was hastily written and there are likely a few spelling and grammatical errors, but it is what it is. I realize some of you may think I want a job from Trump or something, but I don't.

(...Hello again surveillance plane flying overhead, LOL!...) There are issues involved in these verdicts that can potentially affect everyone and can further deteriorate our democracy. Whether an individual is a Democrat or a Republican, they deserve the utmost fairness from America's legal system.

[rymurrsneckbeard]

Politics is not about likeability. Politics isn't romantic. You shouldn't love your politicians, you should always view them with some form of unease, and you should hold them accountable. Politics is not about being a fan of your elected officials. Politics is strategic, not emotional.

The US has a two-party system regarding presidential elections. That will never change unless the electoral college system goes away or is altered. Republicans will never let that happen if they're in office, because that is their only real chance to win. Democrats may only pay the idea lip service but they aren't entirely opposed to the idea - and if you vote, especially at the local/state level, you can get more left-leaning candidates into office who do want to see the EC abolished.

This coming election is not about liking Joe Biden. I would love to have better options. It would be great. But that's not the world we live in. The world we live in and the world we have to deal with is the world in which your options are Biden or Trump. Despite pushback from the GOP and SCOTUS Biden has eliminated nearly $160 billion in student loan debt. His administration has heavily curtailed the use of drone strikes on foreign adversaries. The Inflation Reduction Act is the biggest piece of legislation to curb climate change that the US has ever seen. There are a lot of other very very good things this administration has done that I'm currently spacing on as well. What I'm saying is that despite being a centrist, with a hostile House of Reps, the SLIMMEST of margins in the Senate (and even that is questionable with Sinema and Manchin being who they are), and an incredibly right wing SCOTUS, Biden's administration has actually done a lot of good things.

Palestine is obviously a huge problem for Biden, I'm aware of that, but also: Trump would be worse. Trump wants Netanyahu to get it done faster, more violently, with more bloodshed. He would be better for Netanyahu, he would be worse for Gazans.

And that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what happens in the US itself if Trump wins another term and is able to add 2-4 more justices to the Supreme Court (with Alito and Thomas both in their 70s, and Kagan/Roberts both at 69). If Biden replaces Alito and Thomas we can pull the balance of the court from 6-3 conservative to 5-4 liberal. That is a STRATEGIC vote, to suck it up and vote for Biden with the hopes of changing the makeup of the Supreme Court for probably the next 10-20 years. If Trump replaces those two justices, we are likely stuck with a conservative SCOTUS for 20+ years.

I don't give a shit if my politicians are likeable. I need them to do the least harm possible. Biden would do drastically less harm in the immediate, and a SCOTUS with Biden-appointed replacements for Alito/Thomas would do drastically less harm in the future.

I desperately need people to stop seeing politics as a dating game and realize it's a fucking strategic battlefield. The GOP/Conservatives understand this and play the game. They'll sell their souls and vote for the actual devil if it means they'll get right wing judges installed. The left is so busy battling over purity tests and likeability that we can't get shit done.

So, there's a lot of USians around who are very clearly fucking fed up with their political choices this election cycle, and planning to sit it out.

And I get it! What's the point of voting if there's no one to vote for?

The thing is, I'm Australian. In Australia, voting is compulsory. We don't get to sit out our elections, and I'll be real honest with you - we don't exactly get better choices than you lot. So how do you vote if there's no one to vote for? You find someone to vote against. And there's always someone to vote against.

Now, we have the pleasure of preferential voting in Australia - We get to rank every candidate from 1 to X, and I'll tell you, there's something so cathartic about putting the biggest bastard of the lot at the very bottom of your preferences. I understand that USians don't get that option - you get to mark one person, and that's it.

That means that you get one shot, so aim it at the biggest bastard of the lot. The candidate you most utterly detest. Put your vote in the worst possible place for them. Don't even think about who that vote's going towards, that's not the point. Remember, every vote is a vote against someone. Make sure you fuck up that someone's election day!

[40sandfabulousaf]

大家好! Pa and I returned to the little Japanese restaurant where he finished the entire sea bream, seasoned seaweed, edamame and rice by himself. This time we ordered their salmon mono nabe with veggie broth; Pa had rice, I chose udon. A dish of salmon slices was served with each hotpot filled with fresh vegetables: shiitake, enoki, oyster and golden mushrooms, cabbage and Napa cabbage, sweet corn, carrot, as well as tofu cubes. The gas stove was lit and, once the broth began to boil, we lowered the heat and cooked the salmon. After polishing off all this goodness, we added the broth to our rice/udon and finished everything. Healthy can taste so darned delicious!

Katong Laksa is one of our most famous, but a decent version is available almost everywhere. Each stall injects their special touch to the dish, whether it's a more lemak (rich, thick) broth or plumper see hum (fresh cockles). Laksa was exactly what I craved on a rainy afternoon this week. The stall I bought this from stood out for their ultra thick and large slabs of taupok (tofu puffs) and fish cakes. Their gravy wasn't too spicy, which I was grateful for, but it was lemak enough and the taupok soaked it all up. Mmm yum! I'll definitely return for their laksa and try their other dishes (if I can resist the laksa).

For my simple breakfast out of compassion for the Palestinians in Gaza this week, I tried herbal flavoured kuai shu mian (instant noodles) from Taiwan, ROC. Boy did the sachets of seasoning, wine and oil give off a robust herbal fragrance! Not only did it smell divine, it was pretty tasty. Noodles were QQ and slurpable as they should be, and there was even a sprinkle of goji berries. The broth tasted as though it had been cooking with herbs for hours; I really liked it! I'm keen to try other flavours like hua diao ji (Chinese wine chicken) and ma you ji (sesame oil chicken) next time. These simple breakfasts are a reminder of what Palestinians in Gaza are going through. How do they go without meat/fish/seafood, eggs and veggies for days on end?

From time to time, I have what I call our cai fan salad. Comprising dishes from cai fan (mixed dishes and rice) stalls, it's somewhat similar to grilled veggie salads. For this cai fan salad, I selected cabbage, green beans with julienned carrots and braised fu juk, aka dried tofu skin sticks, for protein. Fu juk has an almost meaty texture and is often cooked in the same ways as meat. It is also commonly used in vegetarian dishes to mimic duck, goose or chicken. Cai fan salads are 1 of my go-to meals after my weekly simple breakfasts for nutritional balance. I prefer them to the grassy taste of raw veggies in normal salads.

Another week is almost ending. We're already into mid-May and soon, it will be June. Where did all the time go? There's a gathering this weekend which I'll share about in the next post. Delicious food and merrymaking, what's not to like? It's also a welcome break from bad things which are happening in the world. Still, I pray for a permanent ceasefire and for parties that continue to arm Israel to be severely punished. It will come. God sees everything. 下次见!

[the-river-sage]

can't say that i'm particularly a fan of the new Macklemore song that everyone seems to be clamoring about, given that he felt the need to include a couple lines with the lazy (and inaccurate) take laying the blame for the situation almost entirely at Biden's feet and also boast about the counterproductive inaction he will be taking this election by not voting for him. you don't like Biden? fine. you're upset about the situation in Palestine? absolutely justified. but can we fucking NOT with the moral grandstanding to such an extent that it actively causes more fucking problems?

whether you like it or not, come election time you have two options to help shape the direction of this country: you vote Democrat even if you (mistakenly) believe that Biden is a bad candidate, or you vote Republican and support everything that that entails. you don't vote or go third-party? congratulations, you've accomplished nothing other than to feel as if you made a statement by throwing a tantrum when there are tremendous stakes at play. frankly, get off your high horse and check your privilege, cause the difference between a 2nd Biden term and a 2nd Trump term would be massive

some of y'all really out here acting like "there's no difference" between the two candidates and i'm sick of seeing this childish, edgelord apathy. it is 2024 and if you're spending hours on Tumblr or TikTok then you have access to so much information that very clearly demonstrates how false that tired old rhetoric is. and it pisses me off, cause here's how that mentality is going to play out: half a dozen months of "Trump/Biden are the same" and/or "Biden's not worth voting for" or similar -> Trump winning the election and these people being shocked that this happened despite deliberately contributing to sabotaging Dems' chances over this single issue which they are divided on -> acting surprised at the horrific agenda that WILL be carried out under a repeat Trump administration while fully ignoring the role they played in letting it happen -> everyone loses.

and if you think i'm being heartless and just don't care about what's happening in Palestine, kindly go fuck yourself. i've been pro-Palestine since some of y'all were still shitting your diapers and sucking your thumbs. this isn't about not caring about Palestine, this is about recognizing the very real additional harm that would come about if large groups of people decide that "they'll never vote for a politician who supports genocide!" and while you're patting yourself on the back for taking that stance and collecting all the social capital and internet points you get from talking about it constantly, other folks will literally be dying at the hands of freshly enacted Republican legislation.

do not let perfect be the enemy of good. do not pride yourself on some bullshit moral purity of doing nothing wrong by avoiding actions that may not always be 100% good. please, do not be fucking stupid. recognize that politics are not a game and have significant consequences. some of y'all been talking like you really want to fuck around, and i just hope that when November comes... the rest of us aren't gonna have to find out.

[dbunicorn]

Starving children? Here's a weight watchers diet for you. Go low and stay there.

Every once in a while I get intensely irritated with mass stupidity. Humans also collectively hallucinate and white wash who they are and their histories. I'm going to repeat myself again and again. I have found little/no support among feminists, black women, particularly Marxist,Indian women on the left with cushy incomes regarding women's rights. I find most of you Ill informed about the economy and foreign affairs. The far right is no better. It's lip service and exploitation. Bullshit solidarity. As long as someone else's ass is on the line.

There is obviously nothing DELUSIONAL about this.

Your inability to have a direct conversation about anything controversial leads to this kind of assholery. A warped sense of history

You'd need a psychiatrist to believe this policy is good for Americans particularly women.

Even a casual Google search critiquing Michelle Obama portrays her as a saint. Are you shitting me?

That's quite a legacy. I won't even begin with foreign policy, your ineptitude with the Indopacific, or the economy. 8-12 years later and we're still dealing with this shit.

I'll have the grace to admit when I'm wrong. I don't expect you to have the integrity to do the same.

Misogyny from men is expected. From women, it's societal collapse.

On a personal note, I find it curious how silent everyone is at farmers protests. Goodness wed hate to piss off a rising India. We could always bribe it with space science.....ohhhhhh......ahhhhhh

Gotta add some pithy memes.

You people have the attention span of gnats

I'm not a fan of Jill Biden either. 💋

[traegorn]

Overall student loan forgiveness was blocked by the courts. He's been piecemealing it out through loopholes where ever he can (I know several people who have gotten their loans forgiven, including my wife's). If you qualify for one of the loopholes they've found, make sure you apply for forgiveness. So, he did it, the Republicans overturned it, and he's still trying to do it.

Reproductive freedom was taken away from you by the Supreme Court which has a conservative majority thanks to Trump's administration. Right now the Republicans control congress, and while Democrats have proposed bills, they've all been dead on arrival with Republican control. That's why it's important to make sure you vote as well, so we can hopefully take back congress.

Trans rights are being removed by state level governments that the President has no control over. The only way for the Federal Government to override state law is through a law passed by Congress. Congress is controlled by the Republicans right now. He didn't do anything to "stop it" because with an opposition congress, he couldn't. Biden has done a lot for Trans people, including letting them serve in the military again and expand Title IX. Trump has literally said he wants to rollback trans rights the moment he gets into power. Biden is one of the best proponents for queer people we've ever had in the oval office, publicly standing up for trans rights since he was Obama's VP.

The man's not perfect, but we shouldn't misrepresent him. I'm not a fan of what happened with the rail workers strike at all, you're right. But he's still significantly better for labor than Trump. [Edit: It's been pointed out in the replies that the rail workers situation turned out better than the media portrayed it]

Is he racist? Probably. He's an upper class white guy. I've never met one who wasn't at least somewhat racist. As for the other allegation, you may want to do some more research into that one before you continue to repeat it.

I also want to comment on "the man can't string together two sentences because his brain doesn't work anymore!" thing you said. Biden has a lifelong stutter. This is well documented. He does not exhibit the signs of dementia, but people continue to mischaracterize his stutter as this in the press to try and discredit him. Frankly, it's ableist and gross.

Biden's never been "my guy," but in a two party system it's him or Trump. There's no third option.

And far more people will survive a second Biden term.

So we vote for Biden, and then remember that this is not the end of the fight -- it's the beginning.

I know I've been posting more about politics lately, and it's caused me to lose a chunk of followers.

But I'm a queer person with a degree in political science and its an election year. I'm old friends with several of my city council members. I've been to trainings on how to run elections. I spent my college years working for nonprofits (and being the world's worst canvasser). I'm close with more than one person who works for unions, and I have family members who work for government agencies.

I think about politics in a very pragmatic "I know how the sausage is made" kind of way. We're in a vice press, and there's only one way to release the pressure.

The revolution ain't coming. There is no one to save us but us.

So yeah, I'm going to be pissed if your answer is "let them tighten the vice -- there's no way out of the vice, it doesn't matter if they loosen or tighten it."

There's a difference, and anyone telling you otherwise is likely a psyop or someone who fell for a psyop. This literally happened before, and it's happening again.

Stop falling for it.