#none of them voters stay WINNING

[sprites4ever]

Since I'm A Solution-Oriented Person, Instead Of Crying, Here's What I'll I Advise Every American And Everyone Else, Who Wants To Hear It

GET TOGETHER AND STAY TOGETHER

The Right and Fascists thrive on division of their opposition. Don't preocuppy yourself with infighting.

You never wanted politics to be a fight, but they've made it one. So remember who your enemies are, and what people can achieve when they have a common threat.

If you're in a red state and are fearing for the life and well-being of you and/or people you know, GET OUT NOW. You have a month until inauguration, so, if you can't leave the country, move to a blue state.

While it is, of course, no guarantee for safety against the MAGA cult, the comparatively limited power of the US federal government over citizens and state governments should buy you some time to prepare for a Trump Nazi Regime and/or WWIII or a second US Civil War.

DON'T DENY THE ELECTION RESULT

I know it's comfortable to think that most Americans wouldn't be so insane to re-elect Trump, but that's not true. The race was pretty much 50/50 and winning over the battleground states put Trump over the edge. There's also the fact that, while a ~65% voter turnout is pretty good for a democratic country, that still means that half of eligible American voters did not vote. So, whatever their ideals are, they did not participate in the choice that impacts them, every other American and, due to the US' status, the rest of the world.

Remember, Hitler too was democratically elected. None of the reasons with which Hitler and Trump convinced voters are real things, but still, those voters believed them and made their choice. May they shamefully rot in the worst pages of future history books, but they made their choice.

This is the inherent risk of democracy: That people can always choose to ruin it.

I'M NOT GOING TO MINCE WORDS:

CORRECTION: I previously claimed that the voter turnout was ~50%, when, in reality, it was around 65%. This is strong for a genuine democracy (fake democracies can obviously force people to vote at gunpoint, or just make up voter statistics), but this still means that a third of the country did not vote and that Trump was elected by a third of the country, not even 50% of the population. By that logic, any election with a voter turnout below 100% would not represent the genuine majority, but you get my point. The reality is that both a lot of American non-voters and Trump voters live in rural areas where the rest of the world, outside their community, might as well not exist. So, of course, they can, for example, take Trump's word on the LGBTQ+ community, because they know so little about the world that they can be told anything and also won't vote responsibly, as, if, for example, there's no LGBTQ+ person in their community, they have no way of knowing what these people, their issues and the threats they face actually are like. A lot of voters also don't care about politics and just vote for the guy everyone else is voting for, or the guy who's face they like better. (I'm not making this up, people from multiple countries have legitimately stated that they vote based on politician hotness.) It's strange, because this type of rural unknowingness is usually typical for countries that are undeveloped and autocratic, so one wouldn't expect it from the richest country where the elections define so much. I guess it's the US' federal system and libertarian economy that have led to this extreme compartmentalization of society, where communities are essentially as different from each other as Stone Age-villages.

WITH TRUMP RE-ELECTED, DEPENDING ON HIS CHOICES, THERE WILL BE WORLD WAR III OR A SECOND AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

I'm not paranoid for saying this, as former US Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Mark Milley, who served two years under Trump and Biden, has stated in an interview with The Atlantic that he and others had to stop Trump from launching nuclear missiles at North Korea multiple times in 2018.

ON A POTENTIAL WORLD WAR III

WWIII means a nuclear holocaust, meaning hundreds of millions of deaths around the entire world within half an hour of the war turning nuclear and billions of deaths in the years following, no way around it.

Cities and areas near government and military instalations in nuclear-armed countries (USA, russia, China, Israel, Iran, India, Pakistan, North Korea, United Kingdom and France) will be most affected, but that doesn't mean those will be the only places to be nuked or affected.

Decades of many nations' strategists' deliberations during the Cold War, the period of tension between the US-led NATO and Soviet russian-led Warsaw Pact after the end of WWII in 1945, which in and for itself ended with the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1991, came to the same conclusion - If another World War occurs, it will be nuclear and it will be global. It can't even really be called a war, as the world's nuclear powers have had the capacity to annihilate each other's militaries and economies within half an hour ever since 1950.

Since then, WWIII hasn't happened due to powerful people being aware of this and due to multiple courageous individuals who chose right in close calls. For example, President Kennedy maintained a cool head during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, during which, for the uninitiated, NATO and the USSR got extremely close to a nuclear war, as they both deployed nuclear missiles right at each others' doorsteps. In that crisis, too, Soviet Naval Officer Vasili Arkhipov prevented his submarine from launching nuclear weapons at the US when the submarine lost contact with Moscow and other officers thought a nuclear war had started and Moscow had been destroyed. In 1983, when the Soviet Politburo had become so paranoid that they believed their own propaganda about an impending attack by NATO, their nuclear forces were on such high alert that a malfunctioning Soviet spy satellite sending a false alarm about an American nuclear launch nearly caused them to launch in what they thought would be retaliation. At that time, the Soviet Command Officer Stanislav Petrov however figured that the computer at his base, which displayed the warning and which had been installed just the day before, was malfunctioning and chose not to relay the alarm to the rest of Soviet command.

Now, much misinformation has been spread around atomic energy and nuclear weapons. Here's the reality about nukes:

Almost all of the aforementioned nuclear powers have the capacity to launch a nuke at any target in the world within minutes, as nuclear missiles, especially Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) can reach insane hypersonic speeds, faster than anything that could shoot them down before the nuclear warheads start the detonation sequence.

While we're talking about the US, the aforementioned decades of deliberation have concluded that is impossible for any country to fire a nuke without it soon turning into a war between all nuclear powers with their nukes. Nukes are just too destructive for decision-makers to not panic in that event.

The currently existing nukes are spread as follows:

USA: ~5500 nuclear warheads total, how many of those are ready-to-launch is classified, launch means are silo-launched Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles with Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicle (MIRV) warheads (meaning one missile can drop nukes on multiple targets), Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBMs), Short-Range Ballistic Missiles (SRBMs), Ground-, Air- and Sea-launched Cruise Missiles, Air-dropped bombs, Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) with MIRV warheads

russia: ~6000 nuclear warheads total, readiness same as above, launch means are silo- and truck-launched ICBMs with MIRV warheads, IRBMs, SRBMs, Ground-, Air- and Sea-launched Cruise Missiles, Air-dropped bombs, SLBMs with MIRV warheads

China: ~250 nuclear warheads total, readiness same as above, launch means are ICBMs, cruise missiles and SLBMs

Israel: ~100 nuclear warheads total, readiness same as above, launch means are cruise missiles and SLBMs

India: ~100 nuclear warheads total, readiness same as above, launch means are ICBMs, cruise missiles and SLBMs

Pakistan: ~100 nuclear warheads total, readiness same as above, launch means unknown

United Kingdom: ~200 nuclear warheads total, readiness same as above, launch means are cruise missiles and SLBMs

France: ~100 nuclear warheads total, readiness same as above, launch means are cruise missiles and SLBMs

Iran: Does officially not have nuclear weapons, can factually assemble some nuclear warheads within weeks, launch means unknown

North Korea: Official number of nuclear warheads classified, most likely ~30, readiness unknown, launch means are ICBMs, IRBMs, SRBMs and cruise missiles

Nukes cause unrivaled destruction over tens of kilometers with their explosion, emit a flash of Gamma radiation in the moment of their explosion, cause massive shockwaves and fires, can blind people with the brightness of the flash of Gamma radiation and cause long-lasting contamination with dangerous radiation via fallout.

Gamma radiation caused by the initial nuclear fission of a nuke last extremely short. This radiation is quickly lethal, but so fast that is gone within milliseconds. Anyone too close to the source will, however, be hit by so much of said radiation, that they will get extreme Accute Radiation Syndrome (ARS), also known as radiation poisoning, and die within hours, as Gamma radiation is so strong that, in high enough concentration, it passes through the human body and rips out the electrons from the atoms which cellular tissue is made of, degrading them to Ions. (Hence the term 'Ionizing Radiation')

Ions, unlike atoms, are way less stable, meaning that cellular tissue that has been ionized can't uphold itself and falls apart.

The other type of ionizing radiation from nuclear bombs, Neutron radiation, works the same way, but lasts much longer than Gamma radiation. Unlike Gamma radiation, it sticks to most materials, causing them to give off Neutron radiation for years. This is the radiation hazard that comes from fallout. Fallout is the soot kicked up by the explosion, which originates from everything it pulverized. The immense heat causes it to first be carried upwards, forming the characteristic mushroom cloud, before the air cools and allows the now irradiated soot to fall out (hence the name) and back onto the ground. It is affected by wind and weather.

To avoid both types of radiation, the first factor is distance. Any amount of radiation still consists of individual particles that race through the cosmos, so the further away you are from the source, the less likely for its rays to hit you, as they travel in a straight line.

The second factor is cover. Like everything else, ionizing rays can get through certain things and can't get through others. Gamma rays get through everything with a lower density than multiple centimeters of lead and Neutron rays get through anything with a lower density than multiple meters of concrete. So, being underground or in the center of extremely thick buildings, as well as having resources necessary for survival, is key to surviving radiation after a nuke explodes.

The third factor is time. The human body can withstand different levels of radiation for different amounts of time. The easiest way to figure out how long you can stay exposed to how much, is with a dosimeter.

SO, YES, I AM TELLING YOU TO START DOOMSDAY PREPPING

The essentials, of which you should amass a stock that will last you multiple years in a secure location:

Non-perishable canned food

ABSURD amounts of drinking water

Distilled water for hygiene

Nonperishable Grain-based food

Long-lasting milk

Dried fruit and nuts

Eggs

Flour

Sugar

Honey

Salt

Black pepper (hurts like hell, but can be used as a coagulant to stop wounds from bleeding)

Paper towels

Trash bags

Hygiene gloves

Breathing masks

As much replacement clothing, especially outdoors and warm clothing, as you can get

Water treatment tools

Camping cooking equipment

Easily useable heat sources

Tools (Wrench, File, Screwdriver, Crowbar, Fire extinguisher, Knives, Compass, Hammer, Shovel, Pickaxe)

Physical maps

Hand crank-powered radio

Many spare batteries

Many spare rechargeable batteries

Battery charger

Means of power generation (hand crank, solar)

Flashlight

Radio phone

Backpacks

All the medicines you need

Bandages

Hygiene products

Antibiotics

Medicines against cold

Medicines against diarrhea

Disinfectant

Pastes against insect bites

Pastes against sunburn

Soap

Dosimeter

Geiger counter

Hazardous enviroments clothing

Helmets

Gloves

Cups

Buckets

Canisters for water

History books

Important works

A laptop

A smartphone

A camera (don't need it if you have a smartphone)

Print out important documents on put them in a folder

Analog data storage

Physical data storage (hard drives, flash drives, CDs, SD cards)

Devices to read data storage

Means for self-defense

Emergency plans with people you know

Similarly, a second American Civil War would also need Americans to prepare, in order to survive.

IF YOU LIVE ANYWHERE THAT'S NOT THE US, YOU WILL BE AFFECTED, TOO

Don't think the US are far enough away. Of course, the aforementioned nuclear war would affect you, but a second American Civil War and just Trump being re-elected will, too.

Even without WWIII or a second American Civil War, it's pretty clear that:

In Europe, this will invigorate the similar far-Right movements to bring about similar destructive changes as those Trump wants.

Trump will most likely abandon Ukraine like Afghanistan, meaning russia taking it over and attacking Western European countries afterward. Trump is completely on Putin's side and will also destroy NATO, meaning all of the US' allies, including those in Europe, will be abandoned. I live in Germany, which is seeing a rise in popularity by the far-Right AfD party, and which does not have the military means to defend itself against russian expansionism without the US.

With russia's war against Ukraine, China will feel invigorated to annex Taiwan, and just like with Ukraine, nationalist and authoritarian Trump will not do anything to stop it.

South Korea could be abandoned in the face of North Korea.

Trump will continue to support Israel in the Western Right's extremely hypocritical manner, most likely ordering more US military action in the Middle East.

ULTIMATELY, GIVE THEM THE FIGHT THEY WANT

I know that we liberals, progressives, people who don't care about politics and just want to build their own life and even former conservatives who deemed far-Righters like Trump too radical, never wanted a fight. We never wanted to fight for our values in Western society, against the values of those who demonize us. We were always ready to coexist with them, if only each side kept to themselves with living out its values and didn't impair the other.

But the far-Right fascists and religious zealots, with their leaders who don't mean a word of what they say and say anything they want to get power, have made this a fight. By electing a US President who promised to destroy democracy, eliminate women's and LGBTQ+ rights, oppress non-white ethnicities, censor media, give churches and capitalists unprecedented power and abandon all allied nations, the far-Right has declared war on everyone and everything that's true, moral or even just acceptable. Let's remember that they hate diversity, and that we are from many more groups and walks of life than them. Let's use this to our advantage and show to the fascists what happens when you give different people a common enemy.

[adhdasfuck]

Russian PsyOps

I recently became aware that a certain user might be Another Russian Operative trying to sway people into not voting or voting third party, this one even said to vote for a non-Trump republican candidate (imagine being any progressive person at all and advocating progressive voters vote for a conservative, that'll show em, NOT).

So I looked into the third party candidate this person endorses:

Jasmin Sherman

I went through a few of the pages on Jasmine's website and have concluded that they're totally fucking full of shit.

They want to keep the death penalty and offer the options of morphine overdose and FIRING SQUAD as the federal standard to make it "more efficient" instead of simply abolishing it like a true progressive, since there are so many cases of innocent people receiving this draconian punishment.

They also want to GET RID OF SSI. They want to replace it with UBI, but congress WOULD NOT pass UBI, and running on any platform that abolishes SSI for any reason at all is a huge FUCK NO! I'm on SSI and shit is hard enough already. What SSI needs is greater support from the government, for the asset limit to be changed drastically or gotten rid of, and for people who are on SSI to not feel like they CAN'T GET MARRIED OR THEY'LL LOSE THEIR BENEFITS. What we don't need is for SSI to be gotten rid of because "it's inefficient and ineffective" are you fucking KIDDING ME?

Also because their platform of UBI was mentioned on their page about abolishing SSI, I looked at their page for UBI and it's completely out of reach. They are advocating for us to implement a system NOT A SINGLE OTHER COUNTRY HAS PASSED. NONE OF THEM. There isn't a snowball's chance in hell that this would get out of the senate alive. They can't even pass the bills to expand SSI and increase the amount of money we receive a month to be higher than 30% of the fucking poverty line.

This is a much more minor problem but they have Minnesota misspelled as "Minisota" on the UBI page, which is such a small problem, but something that should have been noticed very quickly because the graph it is in is supposed to show legitimate data to uphold their UBI proposal.

In short: This person is not progressive, this person is paying lip service while acting as an obvious Spoiler (a spoiler is a third party candidate who pulls votes from one of the other major parties, this is how Bush won the first time). And Russian PsyOps are back on this website trying to encourage genuinely progressive people who don't know any better to vote for someone who Will Not Win because it "feels better" than voting for a democrat.

Sorry it has to be this way, but take it from me, someone who is from Minnesota, with the highest voter turnout in the country, and also some of the most progressive policies. If you want a third party candidate to win, you START LOCAL, and build the presence of the party up from there. That's how we got an Independent for Governor in the late 90s and early 2000s. And you should participate in your local elections both in years like this and for the midterms! You have to Stay Involved for it to get better.

Conservatives worked for decades using that "frog in a pot that slowly heats up til it boils" method of introducing their fascism. We have have a great opportunity here to vote in progressive candidates who can help us push the needle back towards sanity and caring about people. It's going to take SUSTAINED EFFORT. We have to shout at our candidates to do the right thing, but the other side won't even listen, so this is the side we have to choose. Palestinians have LITERALLY SAID Harris is the better option here.

So go out and vote. Not just this election but every election. You CAN make change, it is going to be slow, but that time will pass anyways, so why not start working for a better future?

[marshmallowprotection]

Saeran and Saeyoung were on edge ever since the day began, and you knew there was nothing you could say to put their hearts back into a place of peace. They lived their lives in terror because of the politician who wanted nothing more than to end their lives what he considered to be the worst crime of all: Existing as a means to keep him from securing his legacy as the Prime Minister once more.

Their very existence went against Saejoong Choi's desire to be the Family Man who took care of his people as he took care of his family at home. The people saw him as someone who loved everyone with the same force he regarded his family, but in truth, the people hadn't the slightest idea who he was and what he was capable of.

He had never been a family. It was all an illusion of smoke and mirrors made to make him look more appealing than he was. He knew that he had to present himself a certain way to win over the voters, and what he did to secure that vote was less than savory. To maintain his air of falsehoods, he paid off people, both within the government and other places, to make sure his hands stayed clean with anyone who did the dirty work would look horrible if they were caught.

Saejoong Choi was willing to do anything and everything to keep his power close.

Worst of all, Saeyoung discovered that Saejoong had paid off plenty of members of his agency to take care of his dirty work, too. The only reason he was none the wiser to his illegitimate son's identity was all based on a pure stroke of luck. If his former boss had told him to act, he would've had no choice, and the idea of being told to destroy the livelihood of an innocent person to keep his father's powers in check?

It wasn't hard to guess how that would've made him feel. Even with all the evidence sitting in his back pocket, Saeyoung couldn't do that much with it. If he waved his hand and played his cards too early, that would mean his father would not only be able to locate him, but have a means to find anyone close to him, too. You knew how hard he had to fight the urge to strike first in favor of protecting his family. He had to make hard, difficult decisions all the time.

You just wished there was a way that Saejoong Choi could be taken out of power without risking the safety of your family.

You wished desperately that he would make a mistake and reveal his true colors to the country so the voters would know not to cast their ballots in favor of a monster. But, the world wasn't always sunshine or rainbows, and the likelihood of him winning once more was always on the horizon.

It wasn't fair to Saeyoung or Saeran.

You knew how devastating it was for them to watch their father stand in front of the country and wave his hand at the crowd, smiling with a wife and children at his side, acting as if he didn't have sons he left to rot away with a woman who didn't care for them, either. He made you feel sick to your stomach.

You didn't know how someone like him could sleep at night... but you had a conscience, Saejoong didn't.

Even without the agency, without a way to pay off a team of trained agents, all three of you understood that if Saejoong won this election and continued to remain in power, there was always a chance that he could find out who tanked the agency... and find the smallest hint to lead him your way. It wouldn't take much, Saeyoung once told you in a heap of tears as the stress got to him. He pissed off plenty of folks as an agent, and they would save their skin before his.

Saeyoung wouldn't hesitate to fight back if it came to it. That was why he'd called in a favor with Vanderwood to have him stand guard nearby while he monitored things from his desk. He couldn't stand to watch the polls on the television like you and Saeran were, but those golden eyes of his were glued to the world around you. He would be ready for any monster that came your way.

He promised it.

You understood this was the only way he could handle his anxiety. He needed to remain in control of the situation because if he let himself spiral too much, he wouldn't be able to do what he had to do. If there came a threat... at any time... he had to be ready for it. He knew that it might not happen, but Saeyoung wasn't a man who took risks.

Even if it seemed like overkill to the average person, he wouldn't hesitate to stand his ground.

You could have cut the tension in the air with a knife and still not made it all the way through. You could hear him grumbling to himself on the other side of the room, but you did not bother him. He needed to take care of himself, and you wanted to look after Saeran because he wasn’t holding up all that well. 

All you could do for Saeran was sit at his side and trace soothing circles into his back to keep his nerves at ease. It wasn't often he allowed himself to be vulnerable in the presence of his brother. It wasn't easy to be open and honest with Saeyoung about what he experienced those three years at Rika's hand. Hell, it was hard for you, too.

You had only spent a couple of months at his side as his assistant, and even what you saw left you scarred. There were plenty of things you didn't want to talk about from that time, either. The things you had to do to make sure he was safe because Rika used him against you just as she used him against you. It was better when you didn't have to think about it outside of unpacking it in therapy.

"We're going to be okay," you whispered.

His voice was muffled against the fabric of your shirt. "You don't know that."

"I can't promise that it’s going to be okay, but I know I can promise you that we’re going to be okay." After all, even if the world set itself on fire, you knew that his brother would do everything in his power to keep the two of you safe. By proxy, you hoped you could do the same for Saeyoung, too. He deserved to feel safe, too.

"It's no different than when we were kids. He didn't have the title he has now back then, but it still felt like he knew anyone and everyone he needed to know to get rid of us. It wasn't like he didn't know where we lived, he had to know where to send all of those checks, and the only reason why he didn't send someone inside was because he knew someone would make a scene and it would lead back to him. Our blood would do it. Someone would test our blood and that's the only reason why he hesitated to do it."

You pressed your lips against the top of his head. There wasn't much you could say to make him feel better about that. It was his life experience, and he had a right to say what happened to him and how it made him feel.

You didn't want him to bury his feelings down deep until he exploded, but it was all the harder to see tears in his eyes because that meant his emotions became so strong that he could no longer figure out a way to bury them. It was hard for him to be emotional, not because he learned how to suppress his feelings, but because he forgot how to feel them entirely. It was safer not to have a weakness in front of a Savior, after all.

"Saeyoung won't let anything bad happen, Saeran," you said.

Saeran scoffed a bit but didn't deny your claim.

"It's true, I won't," Saeyoung's stiff voice broke through the silence and the hum of the television as the announcer mentioned that it wouldn't be much longer until the votes were counted. "I've got an action plan for seventy choices he could make tonight, and plenty more in case he does something tomorrow morning, too."

"And if he does the seventy-first plan instead?"

"I'll do whatever I have to do, Saeran. I will protect my family with all I have." The words in his mouth were truly icy, tinged with malice, but still somehow caked in the devotion he held for his family.

"Even if there's guns at our door tonight, Saeyoung?"

"I'll keep us safe. We've suffered enough because of grown-ups who don't want us to be who we are, Saeran, and I don't intend to let them destroy us any time soon. You-know-who is going to spend the rest of her life inside of a prison because of what she did, and if I had my way... I'd make sure that man had the same, or even worse. He tries anything... and I'll unleash what I have to on every corner of the web. If he wants to find out what a happy family really is, I'll show him by destroying—"

The television let out a buzz that cut him and forced all of your eyes on the monitor. The anxiety you had been feeling all day long was at a fever pitch. Saeran's arms tightened around you. You could feel what he felt. The terror in his veins. The notification alert for breaking news flashed across the screen a few times to catch the attention of every viewer before the anchor began to speak. 

"The results are in! In a shocking turn of fate, the incumbent Prime Minister, Mr. Saejoong Choi has lost his bid for re-election! The winner of tonight's election is the challenger—"

A breath you hadn't even realized you'd been holding escaped. On the other side of the room, you heard Saeyoung shove his chair out of the way and fall to his knees, muttering prayers in the direction of his God above. Tears began to stain your sweater as Saeran wept into the comfort of your embrace, letting go of his apathy to find safety in the feeling of heart against his eardrum.

Saejoong Choi failing his bid for re-election meant the amount of power he had over your family had decreased significantly, and even though there would always be a target on your backs until the day he was caught for his crimes, knowing that he couldn't use the powers of his office to destroy you was tantamount to being free. He couldn't hurt your family to make him look better!

His kingdom of lies would begin to crash from here on out.

You would be safe.

Saeran and Saeyoung would be safe.

"We'll be okay," you whispered once more to remind him of your faith in a brighter tomorrow as Saeran let go of his inhibitions and sobbed. You weren't surprised when Saeyoung decided to join your hug a few moments later, nor were you shocked when Saeran grasped at one of his arms and held him just as close. "He can't destroy our family. Our faith in each other is stronger than his lies."

That man certainly wouldn't be the last person on the face of this planet who would do something horrible to take charge, but you had hope that no matter what vindictive person might exist in the future, kindness and love would beat out any hateful rhetoric in a landslide. Because, you had hope, and hope was the strongest weapon of them all.

Men like Saejoong Choi thrived on destroying hope, and holding onto yours was the greatest act of defiance.

Saeran and Saeyoung's dream to exist without the fear of a monster at their door was one step closer to becoming a reality, and you knew you would believe in it with all your heart, just as they did because it would serve you just as well. Because their hope was your hope, and you would not fall victim to any monsters, either... not when you had your Saeran close to your heart, and your brother-in-law by your side to remind you of that.

"We'll be okay," Saeyoung agreed.

"For once... I think so, too," Saeran whispered.

[reallystellacadente]

I Really Don't Want to Die, and Why

I need to make something ENTIRELY clear: Donald Trump needs to be defeated BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.

ANY. FUCKING. MEANS. NECESSARY.

The rest is below the cut because it's long and personal. The tl;dr, though is if you cannot abide me posting that you have to vote for the Democrat in this election, you should probably unfollow me. I'm not all that popular, so blocking is unnecessary but you do you.

That also includes his supporters on Capitol Hill, the incompetents on SCOTUS, and any and all of the Nationalist Christians (Nat C) fascists who support the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 and any other manifestos they have excreted into the public domain.

For me, that means I have to vote for the Democratic nominee for president in 2024. To not vote, or to waste my vote on a useless third party candidate, is to hand a vote to Trump. Go back and check the facts of 2016: Jill Stein voters handed him Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, where I live. Nonvoters who usually voted Democrat who stayed home because of the Email Lady also would have made a difference.

Fine. We fucked around and found out. Hundreds of thousands died. An insurrection happened literally in front of our eyes. And the figurehead behind it all has, to date, gotten away with everything.

Now the Beast is even worse. If Donald Trump gets elected, his policies will LITERALLY COST ME MY LIFE and that of my family. He will take away my healthcare (I am a recent cancer survivor), my pending disability (I cannot walk or stand for more than a few seconds and had to quit my job; this predates and is unrelated to my cancer), my EBT (haven't been able to work more than part-time for a while now, and I do like to eat food) and the pitiful partial Social Security we're living on while my disability is getting approved -- thanks to the GOP, a process that takes a minimum of 6-8 months. I will lose my income and my housing and everything.

I FUCKING DON'T LIKE THAT.

None of this -- ABSOLUTELY NONE OF THIS -- means I support the genocide in Palestine. I have been fighting this fight since the mid-80s and I can get the receipts if you want. I questioned why it was OK to roll tanks onto people who threw stones at them, only to get called a terrorist.

But now, when I am doing the best I can to fight the literal war here where I live, I'm called a white supremacist? Fuck you. I mean, the person sending me messages has been blocked and won't see this, but I'm getting that out into the universe nevertheless.

If you're old enough to navigate this website, you're old enough to curate your own experience here. Unfollow me if me saying "you need to vote for the Democrat" is bothersome. I will accept that it might even be triggering and that's OK, I certainly don't want to actually trigger someone's pain. But sending me threatening messages is bullshit and you know it.

I don't stan politicians and in social media spaces where my real identity is known, and I have stated this many times. Cult of personality sucks no matter who it's about. But all things considered, the Democratic platform/policies/whatever have always been closer to what I want in the place where I live. The GOP? Never in my lifetime.

It's hard for me to reconcile these things, but I know that if Trump wins, it will be even worse for Palestine. And he'll let Putin run rampant through Ukraine, too.

I'm sorry this is what it's come down to. I hope to live long enough to see something change. But we absolutely must defeat Donald Trump.

I want to live.

[mariacallous]

The prospects of a united front preventing Donald Trump returning to power in the US looked a little bleaker this week.

Let’s be frank they weren’t great to begin with. To an outsider Joe Biden just seems to be too old to be a viable candidate. He doesn’t pas​s the first impressions test. Look at him and you do not see someone capable of serving another four years.

True, he won Michigan's Democratic presidential primary a few days ago– but he was hit by a significant protest vote from left-wing and Arab-American voters angry about his qualified support for Israel's war in Gaza.

And at this point that second cause for worry, and, frankly, panic kicks in.

The left urged registered Democrats to vote for the "none of the above" category to express their opposition to Biden's Israel policy – and about 100,000 did. Their votes represent a wider chunk of the electorate who could well stay at home or vote for minor Green or left-wing candidates and deny the Democrats key states.

In a deeply divided country with a warped electoral system that favours the Republicans, it does not take many voters abandoning the Democrats for Trump to retake power.

I wrote at the weekend about how the Trump example shows how hard it is to unite against a dictatorial threat.  People, or to be fair, many people, cannot put aside their commitments and ally with men and women they profoundly disagree with for the greater good of defending democracy.

On the one hand, they cry that Trump is a fascist and white supremacist. On the other hand, they refuse to use all available means to stop him. Mainstream liberals do not moderate their demands to win over wavering conservatives. The far left sees the Biden administration as its true enemy.

The history of the struggles against Nazism are highly relevant to the dilemmas and the dangers we face today.  

As Hitler began his rise to power at the end of the 1920s, the European far left was in the same place as a section of the modern US left.  

The threat of fascism was as nothing when set against its hatred of moderates.

 In 1928 the communist movement adopted one of the cruellest and stupidest policies in its history, which considering the history of Soviet communism was nothing more than a history of cruelty and stupidity was quite an achievement.

Partly because it helped Stalin in his internal power struggles in Russia, Moscow ordered all Europe’s communists to follow an ultra-leftist policy. They were told to denounce moderate leftists as “social fascists”, and fight them to the death.

Communism’s triumph was inevitable, the party line went. No compromise was possible with anyone who stood in history’s path. Reformists were opportunists and traitors. They were social fascists who were as bad as the Nazi gangs which were already gathering on Berlin streets.

Or perhaps they were worse….

For an argument that is still heard today held that, say what you like against them, at least fascists were honest in their way.

By contrast centre-leftists were traitors who had been “bribed by the bourgeoisie” to deceive the masses, as no less an authority than Lenin had said.

They were hypocrites who pretended to want change while watering it down. Nothing could be achieved until they were swept away.

When Stalin’s enemy, Leon Trotsky, who was hardly a moderate, warned that instructing left-wingers to fight other left-wingers was a sure way of allowing fascism to “ride over your skulls and spines like a terrific tank”, Ernst Thälmann, the leader of the German communist party, denounced him for his ‘criminal counter-revolutionary propaganda’.

The result was a disaster. The communists and socialists fought each other instead of the Nazis, making Hitler’s rise easier. Thälmann went along with Stalin’s categorisation of social democrats as “social fascists”  until actual fascists came to power in Germany. They taught him the difference by holding him in solitary confinement for 11 years at the Buchenwald concentration camp, and putting him before a firing squad in 1944 and shooting him dead.

Today there are plenty of Thälmanns who believe with absolute certainty that the discredited centrist mainstream is the enemy.

Here is a columnist on the Washington Post greeting the Michigan result

As I emphasised in my previous piece, his stance is absolutely fine in normal circumstances. US leftists are perfectly entitled to refuse to support the Democrats if Biden’s behaviour outrages them.

But surely only enormous levels of delusion prevent them acknowledging that Trump is a threat to democracy.  If he wins, the American republic may be so gerrymandered and its civil service so politicised that it will be a Herculean task to remove Trump and his successors. There are plenty on the US far right who cite the rigged democracy of Viktor Orban’s Hungary as their model and dream, after all.

The​ alternative is to build alliances and once again history is a guide,

Having seen that their previous policy of treating moderate leftists as Nazis had resulted in Hitler coming to power 1933, the geniuses running the Soviet Communist party decided on a U-turn. Henceforth communists were instructed to support “popular front” movements where everyone opposed to the fascist threat would be welcome.

Some of the most interesting US writers have reached back to the 1930s to find ways of dealing with Trump. In How Democracies Die the US academics Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt found an example in the little-known story of how fascism was stopped in Belgium in the 1930s.  

Belgium might have gone the same way as fascist Italy or Nazi Germany. In 1936 far-right outfits —the Rex Party and the Flemish nationalist party, or Vlaams Nationaal Verbond (VNV)—surged in the polls, capturing almost 20 percent of the popular vote.

They challenged the historical dominance of three establishment parties: the centre-right Catholic Party, the Socialists, and the liberals.

The leader of the Rex Party, Léon Degrelle, was a classic far-right figure.  A journalist (like Mussolini, and so many other believers in simple solutions) he would go on to become a Nazi collaborator in the Second World War.

Levitsky and Ziblatt wrote that, “the Catholic Party, in particular, faced a difficult dilemma: collaborate with their longtime rivals, the Socialists and Liberals, or forge a right-wing alliance that included the Rexists, a party with whom they shared some ideological affinity.”

 Unlike the mainstream conservative politicians of Italy and Germany, who brought Mussolini and Hitler to power, or the mainstream Republican leadership who collaborated with Trump, the Belgian Catholic leadership declared that any deals with the far right could not be contemplated.

"Catholic Party leaders heightened discipline by screening candidates for pro-Rexist sympathies and expelling those who expressed extremist views. In addition, the party leadership took a strong stance against cooperation with the far right. Externally, the Catholic Party fought Rex on its own turf. The Catholic Party adopted new propaganda and campaign tactics that targeted younger Catholics, who had formerly been part of the Rexist base. They created the Catholic Youth Front and began to run former allies against Degrelle."

Right-wing Catholics knew that they must ally with socialists and liberals they normally deplore in a popular front. And it worked. The far right was beaten.

I think popular front politics are essential. But they are not easy or even particularly principled. Go back to the 1940s and you find George Orwell was utterly repelled by communists and conservatives allying to stop Hitler

He looked back with mockery on

“The years 1935-9 were the period of anti-Fascism and the Popular Front, the heyday of the Left Book Club, when red Duchesses and ‘broadminded’ deans toured the battlefields of the Spanish war and Winston Churchill was the blue-eyed boy of the Daily Worker.”

To Orwell, the idea of covering up the crimes of communists for the sake of the greater anti-fascist good was horrific. But that was what the left of the 1930s did. And that was what the British and American governments did during the Second World War. Defeating Hitler came first. They were prepared to forget about the millions Stalin killed until the war was over.

It's a hard choice. But in the circumstances US progressives face, it is an obvious one. There is no argument against making every necessary compromise to prevent a second Trump term. You will have no right to protest, if you do not.

[archivalofsins]

Pfft, coming back online to see people commenting joyously on the downfall of a twelve year old. Really showcases how Futa should have been innocent round one the middle schooler be damned. It is kind of funny to see a bunch of supposedly mature individuals literally admit they have nothing better to do with their day but make a fictional child's story worse. Well, as long as people aren't treating real children like this, oh wait...

That's the point of social experiments, isn't it? To gage and measure how people react to certain situations, events, and specific sorts of people. Hm... well, that could be bad.

But it also isn't really surprising if she ends up guilty considering how a majority of the audience is. Whelp, it's whatever. I was feeling bad about making that video on Amane because it's basically tearing into people's reasoning on voting her guilty, but actually, I'm not anymore. Because fuck it like what do I have to lose? Credibility with people who can excuse child abuse but draw the line at texts from one's employer?

What are they gonna do vote her guilty harder? They're already doing that. The only person keeping me respectful is me and I don't have to respect people who can't respect that everyone regardless of age or religion has and deserves rights. Literally if she's guilty, whatever happens as a result of that ceases to be my fault.

Like that's all on the people who pushed for that. So, either way I win because if she's voted guilty and it gets worse anyhow I can just say I fucking told you so. And they'll never be able to prove what would have happened if she was innocent, so there's no rebuttle to that. They're just gonna stay wrong. Either way, I get something I want. None of the evidence is on these people's side it is going to get worse if she's guilty.

So no, we are not in this together, actually. I am not responsible for these people's choice, and I will take no onus of the consequences that occur from them. I will just laugh at them because they're gonna get what they want, but it's not gonna do what they think it will. It's gonna be so fucking funny when the only people guilty this round are minors.

A seventeen, sixteen, and twelve year old.

Put those prisoners at the kiddy table- Told they're asses to sit down. Really said fuck them kids. It's even funnier because it's like there are minors in this audience voting this way with no awareness of the precedent it sets. Like I don't know I'm an adult so this doesn't concern me truly. My rights are secure, but man sucks to be a minor. Lucky I grew out of that.

Everyone near my age is innocent, and it's gonna stay that way. But ya'll keep teaching those kids a lesson have at it. Fuck it; maybe there won't be any kids next round and it will be all adults. They're going to learn this lesson one way or another, I suppose.

Luckily, a majority of the voters seem to be adults with jobs or college aged. Huh, that definitely couldn't have anything to do with well anything.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal Constitution

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 24, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JAN 25, 2024

The dust is beginning to settle after last night’s New Hampshire primary. Former president Donald Trump won the Republican primary with 54.3% of the vote, netting him 12 delegates to the Republican National Convention. Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley came in second with 43.3% of the vote, garnering her 9 delegates. Other candidates together took 2.3%, but none of them won any delegates.

There has been a lot of noise today about whether the New Hampshire results spell good news for Trump or bad news. While the result keeps him in the front spot for the Republican nomination, I fall into the category of observers who see bad news: more than 45% of Republican primary voters—those most fervent about the party—chose someone other than Trump. 

As David French pointed out in the New York Times today, Trump is running as a virtual incumbent, and any incumbent facing a challenger who can command 43% of the party faithful is in trouble. President Gerald Ford discovered this equation in 1976 when he faced Ronald Reagan’s insurgency; President George H. W. Bush discovered it in 1992 when he faced a similar challenge from right-wing commentator Patrick Buchanan. While both Ford and Bush went on to win the Republican nomination, they lost the general election. 

More important than opinions or history to indicate what the primary indicated, though, is Trump’s apparent anger about Haley’s showing. Politico’s Playbook noted that he “rage-posted” about Haley’s speech after her strong finish with posts that lasted far into the night. Ron Filipkowski noted that at 2:19 this morning he was still at it, posting: “NIKKI CAME IN LAST, NOT SECOND!”

In addition to attacking her from the podium, Trump appeared to threaten her when he warned her about “very dishonest people” she would have to fight. He said she was not going to win, “but if she did, she would “be under investigation…in fifteen minutes and I could tell you five reasons why already. Not big reasons, a little stuff that she doesn’t want to talk about, but she will be under investigation within minutes, and so would Ron have been, but he decided to get out.”

The tactics Trump might have been suggesting became clear this afternoon, when the chair of the Arizona Republican Party, Jeff DeWit, resigned after a recording that appeared to show him trying to bribe Arizona Senate candidate and fervent Trump supporter Kari Lake to stay out of the Senate race was leaked to the press. The tape itself was clearly contrived to show Lake as if she were in a campaign ad, defending Trump and America, but it includes DeWit’s pleas for her to stand aside for two years, presumably while the Arizona party regroups with less extremist candidates, and his request that she name her price. 

This sordid story reflects a problem in the state Republican parties as MAGA supporters have tried to take over from the party establishment. In Arizona, challenging the 2020 presidential election—remember the “Cyber Ninjas” who audited the Maricopa County vote?—ran the finances of the Arizona party into the ground. Lake has continued to insist, without evidence, that the election was stolen, and she and other MAGA activists have called for purging the party of all but the Trump faithful. The recording positions Lake as a Trump loyalist fighting against party operatives.

In his resignation letter, DeWit claimed the recording had been “taken out of context” and said he had been “set up.” He noted that Lake has “a disturbing tendency to exploit private interactions for personal gain,” calling out “her habit of secretly recording personal and private conversations. This is obviously a concern given how much interaction she has with high profile people including President Trump,” he added. “I believe she orchestrated this entire situation to have control over the state party,” he wrote.

DeWit said he had “received an ultimatum from Lake’s team: resign today or face the release of a new, more damaging recording. I am truly unsure of its contents,” he wrote, “but considering our numerous past open conversations as friends, I have decided not to take the risk. I am resigning as Lake requested.”

It seems clear the Trump team is eager to consolidate power behind him no matter what it takes, especially in the face of what appears to be his weakness. Rising authoritarians depend on the idea they are invincible, so being perceived as vulnerable—or as a loser—hits them much harder than it does a normal political candidate. 

Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel—who was recorded on November 17, 2020, pressuring two Republican officials in Michigan not to certify Joe Biden’s electors in a county he won by 68% and promising the officials to “get you attorneys”—has urged Haley to drop out of the race. Traditionally, party chairs stay neutral in primary contests. Tonight, Trump posted a threat to donors: “Nikki ‘Birdbrain’ Haley is very bad for the Republican Party and, indeed, our Country…. Anybody that makes a ‘Contribution’ to Birdbrain, from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp. We don’t want them and will not accept them.” 

For her part, Haley has vowed to stay in the contest. While observers point out that there is very little chance she could actually overtake Trump, it’s also true that either Trump’s obvious mental lapses or his legal troubles could knock him out of the race, in which case she would be the most viable candidate standing.

Curiously, what happened to Trump in New Hampshire was what, before the election, pundits suggested could and maybe should happen to President Joe Biden: a challenger would show that he was weak going into the 2024 election. 

Instead, despite dirty-trickster robocalls in a fake Biden voice telling Democratic voters not to show up vote for Biden, he appears to be on track to win 65% of the vote as a write-in candidate—he wasn’t on the ballot—while Representative Dean Phillips and self-help author Marianne Williamson, who were on the ballot, together appear to have garnered just under 25%.. 

On Monday, Miranda Nazzaro of The Hill reported that the creator of ChatGPT banned a super PAC backing Phillips for misusing AI for political purposes. Billionaire Bill Ackman, who has been in the news lately for his fight against diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, attacks on former Harvard president Claudine Gay, and threats to media outlets that pointed out plagiarism in his wife’s doctoral dissertation, donated $1 million to Phillips’s super PAC.  

There was other good news for the Biden camp today, too. Sign-ups for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, have surged by 80% under Biden, with a record 21 million people enrolling this year. Trump has promised to get rid of the program, saying that “Obamacare Sucks!!!” and that he will replace it with something better, but neither now nor in his four years in office did he produce a plan. 

Biden also received the enthusiastic endorsement today of the United Auto Workers union, whose president, Shawn Fain, had made it clear that any president must earn that endorsement. Biden stood with the union in its negotiations last year with the big three automakers, not only behind the scenes but also in public when he became the first president to join a picket line. “[Trump] went to a nonunion plant, invited by the boss, and trashed our union,” Fain said, “And, here is what Joe Biden did during our stand up strike. He heard the call. And he stood up and he showed up.” “Donald Trump stands against everything we stand for as a society,” Fain told the crowd.

More news dropped today about the damage MAGA Republicans are doing to the United States. A report published today in JAMA Internal Medicine estimates that in the 14 states that outlawed abortion after the Supreme Court’s June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, 64,565 women became pregnant after being raped, “but few (if any) obtained in-state abortions legally.”  

Finally, Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan of Punchbowl News confirmed this evening that although MAGA Republicans have insisted the border is such a crisis that no aid to Ukraine can pass until it is addressed, Trump is preventing congressional action on the border because he wants to run on the issue of immigration. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told a closed meeting of Senate Republicans that “the nominee” wants to run his campaign on immigration, adding, “We don’t want to do anything to undermine him.” “We’re in a quandary,” McConnell said. 

Jennifer Bendery and Igor Bobic of HuffPost reported that Trump today reached out to Republican senators to kill the bipartisan border deal being finalized, “because he doesn’t want Biden to have a victory,” one source said. “The rational Republicans want the deal because they want Ukraine and Israel and an actual border solution,” Bendery and Bobic quote the source as saying. “But the others are afraid of Trump, or they’re the chaos caucus who never wants to pass anything.”

“They’re having a little crisis in their conference right now,”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[kineticpenguin]

My mom watches a lot of MSNBC, and I can't help but notice it's heavy on Trump coverage. Well, the word "coverage" is doing some heavy lifting there: there isn't a whole lot of Trump news, so a lot of it is just having talking heads on to discuss and speculate on all things Trump, up to and including how bad it'd be if he got re-elected.

I get why liberals, especially boomer libs, tend to be all "vote blue no matter who." They're terrified of Trump and bingeing MSNBC is their version of doomscrolling. People talk about January 6th but Trump has been these people's bogeyman since November 8th 2016, oozing right past norms like an orange T-1000.

"Wait, he can just do that?"

But I honestly think the best case scenario for the Democrats would be Trump getting the nomination. He doesn't have Bannon to do his campaign strategizing for him, and his ability to campaign much at all might be curtailed by however his court battles shake out. Anyone who's ever worked for him with a shred of competence has either gone to jail as a result, had a complete falling out with him, and/or has published tell-all books about their time under him. His cult following is weird and loyal, but it's worth remembering that the dude has never won the popular vote, and he doesn't have the sort of strategists around who know where and how to game the election to finagle him an electoral college win like he did in 2016.

The second-best thing to a Trump nomination that could happen to the Biden campaign would be Biden finally going into the light, letting Harris coast in on the sympathy vote. I'd be more concerned about the B team.

Everyone likes to joke about the current band of losers in the Republican debates, "vying for which one of them won't be President." But just as none of them seem able to wrestle the Republican base out of Trump's grasp, none of them scare the normal people the way Trump does. Biden squandering political capital to be Bibi's Best Buddy would cost him a lot more against these guys. Scared voters "vote blue no matter who." Disgruntled and apathetic voters stay home.

The Lincoln Project/NeverTrumper types would happily go for a "normal" Republican like Christie. Their issues with Trump (and Trump wannabes like Desantis and Ramaswamy) are all about style, not substance. They'll happily back any Heritage Foundation stooge that knows how to act. This also means people with administration experience, subject matter expertise, y'know, competence, will go back to working to put these guys in office.

Also, frankly, Trump is a 77 year old man with a hot dog addiction. There's a nonzero chance he could just kick the bucket, forcing his legion of dipshits to settle down and fall in line behind just about any of these guys.

[shiningdesignersreflections]

Chapter 4: Unexpected Incident

Narrated by Qing Yumo.

Narrator: None of us can believe it.

Narrator: Xitong didn't win. Neither did I.

Narrator: Not a single critic predicted the result correctly.

Narrator: I pick up the newspaper and read the name of the winner out loud.

Qing Yumo: Chi Xiaoyu...? Who's Chi Xiaoyu?

Colleague B: You... you okay?

Qing Yumo: Chi Xiaoyu? Who's that? I've never heard of this name.

Colleague A: Oh, no, she's shocked...

Colleague B: Ahem... Chi Xiaoyu is a student from the design academy.

Qing Yumo: A student? What did her design look like?

Colleague B: You know, the T-shirt and skirt. See? Here's a photo.

Narrator: The corner of my eye twitches as I stare at my colleague's screen.

Qing Yumo: No way...

Qing Yumo: How did this happen?

Colleague B: Read the article. Perhaps we forgot the most important factor since the very beginning...

Content: As an organizer of this event, we did a large-scale survey on voters who selected this design. The reason they chose it was...

Content: Because the other outfits looked too heavy for the hot weather.

Content: In Cloudcrest, the temperature outdoors is often above 35 degrees Celsius in summer. All the other outfits had long sleeves and looked hot.

Content: Other reasons include: "It's easy to move in," "the designer's cute," "I dislike the other choices," etc.

Content: As you can see, our voters care less about outfit style and more about comfort.

Narrator: I take a deep breath after finishing the article.

Narrator: Stay calm...

Narrator: I can't get mad... I must keep my composure...

Narrator: That's right. I'm not mad. Not mad at all...

Narrator: Still...

Qing Yumo: What ridiculous reason is that???

Narrator: It's the first time the ladies in the office are seeing me fly off the handle like this. They all look petrified.

Colleague A: Uh, the Director just came by to ask if you're alright... and if you'd like to take the day off.

Narrator: I take deep breaths in an attempt to calm myself down, then flash them a reassuring smile.

Qing Yumo: I. Don't. Need. That. Thanks.

Narrator: According to what they tell me afterward, my "reassuring" smile was actually the creepiest sight they'd ever seen.

Narrator: Be very honest with me. If you were to vote, what would you choose?

Choose either "Pick the prettiest" or "Pick the coolest..."

If "prettiest," ...

You: The most beautiful outfit, of course.

Narrator: That's comforting. There's still hope in this world.

If "coolest," ...

You: I'd probably choose the one that looks the least hot, too...

Narrator: I guess this world isn't what I thought it to be.

--

Narrator: Still, I bet Xitong is raging over the results, too.

Narrator: Tomorrow, she'll probably publish an article to rip the voters apart.

Narrator: Surprisingly enough, Xitong didn't even write a new article. She must be too crushed to even react.

Narrator: I heard that, after what happened, she decided to hold a weekly seminar in the museum, perhaps to educate the public.

Narrator: Anyway, the outfit theme is finally settled.

Narrator: The summer festival begins. The setting I designed looks utterly ethereal and romantic, transforming the city into a wonderland.

Narrator: But everywhere on the streets are girls in T-shirts and skirts.

Narrator: I can no longer find it in myself to get mad after seeing so many of them.

Narrator: We've almost finished all the tea in the office. I head out to buy some more and run into Xitong there.

Jiang Xitong: Oh, it's you. You're getting jade dew? That's way too fragrant for me.

Qing Yumo: And you? That old-fashioned ink-pin tea again?

Narrator: We exchange looks and heave a sigh at the exact same moment.

Jiang Xitong: I guess your design isn't that bad after all.

Qing Yumo: I could say the same to you.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

[tomorrowusa]

« Americans increasingly use polls to vent, not to vote. During the 20th century, when Americans were in a better mood about the state of the country, presidents generally had high approval ratings and broad support during their time in office. Since 2003, the national mood has grown unbelievably sour, and since 2005, sitting presidents have had underwater approval ratings during about 77 percent of their terms.

[ … ]

The median voter rule still applies. The median voter rule says parties win when they stay close to the center of the electorate. It’s one of the most boring rules in all of politics, and sometimes people on the left and the right pretend they can ignore it, but they usually end up paying a price.

The Democrats’ strong showing in elections across the country this week proves how powerful the median voter rule is, especially when it comes to the abortion issue.

[ … ]

Dull but effective government can win, and circus politics is failing. The Trumpian G.O.P. has built its political strategy around culture war theatrics — be they anti-trans or anti-woke. That culture war strategy may get you hits on right-wing media, but it has flopped for Ron DeSantis, flopped for Vivek Ramaswamy, and it flopped Tuesday night on the ballot. Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, did so well in Kentucky in part because he stayed close to the practicalities, focusing on boring old governance issues like jobs, health care costs and investment in infrastructure. He also demonstrated a Christian faith that was the opposite of Christian nationalism.

[ … ]

Remember that none of us know what the political climate will be like a year from now. Neither you nor I have any clue how some set of swing voters in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are going to see things in 12 months, or what events will intervene in the meantime. Nobody does. »

— New York Times columnist and PBS political commentator David Brooks explaining in his NYT column last week why Democrats need to "chill" about recent polls.

Democrats are sometimes too overreactive for their own good. People who are excessively nervous tend to make more mistakes.

If you have a healthy concern about next year (as opposed to paranoid worry), there are several things you can do.

First and foremost: Volunteer to register voters. Start by asking like-minded people you know if they are registered. Help them with the process. And always remind friends that they need to register whenever they change their address. ALWAYS. Do things like having voter registration tables set up outside high school graduation ceremonies. Go to where the people are.

Shoot down any talk you hear of third party or independent saviors. Not counting faithless electors, the last third party presidential candidate to score any electoral votes was segregationist George Wallace in 1968. H. Ross Perot got almost 19% of the popular vote in 1992 but got zero electoral votes. If just 539 people in Florida who voted for spoiler Ralph Nader had instead voted for Democrat Al Gore, Gore would have been president a lot of horrible things that happened under George W. Bush (like bad SCOTUS appointments) would not have happened. And if the votes cast in 2016 for bad folk singer Jill Stein in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan had gone for Hillary Clinton instead, Trump never would have been president and Roe v. Wade would still be in effect. Electoral votes are all that matter in presidential elections.

Quit fussing over Biden's age. You rarely hear Republicans doing the same about Trump who was born in 1946. Biden can sign his name on bills or veto them – there's nothing wrong with his arm and he doesn't need to use a Sharpie. He has made excellent appointments to the federal judiciary. And some of the most far ranging progressive legislation enacted since the mid 1960s happened on Biden's watch. Being younger doesn't necessarily make somebody a good president; 38-year-old Vivek Ramaswamy would be atrocious. If you really want somebody young, remember that in 2028 people born in 1993 will be eligible to be president. It will be worth the wait if Trump is in the Big House instead of the White House by then.

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

It always baffles me how daft and stupid people that vote democrat are. Me personally? I live in Texas and I vote Independent. Unless I'm faced with a choice of a literal psychopath or an asshole I don't really like all that much. Which in the last Governor race, it was one such case. Similarly, when it comes to voting for president I feel the same. I'd sooner vote Independent or write in something then vote either side unless it was like the last 2 races. Which was literal tyrant wanna be warhawks (Clinton & Biden) or Orange man.

What's more, the ability of people that vote democrat to turn a blind eye to actual facts. Take this tweet, which for the most part is pretty tame, and then the replies, which I will address.

Now, First and foremost, I will not make the claim that Trump paid back all his loans. However, I find it suspect all of a sudden, after his run at president where he became the most villainized man in history second only HITLER (because Auth Leftists are morons that can't condemn genocidal communist dictators) that "We are investigating every grain of sand in his life to destroy this person who supposedly wronged us". Ok.....so why now all of a sudden? Oh right because now we need him out of a presidential race. Got it.

Ok so now to the replies.

Most of these can be summed up with one reply. "Banks and Lenders assess property values, and will send someone or several someone's in order to make a value judgement of an asset or property before giving out a loan.

However to answer Kit, No he has not been found Guilty. He has been pressed by a judge (Unilaterally) that RAN on burying Trump. That was what she RAN ON. No investigations. No facts to go off of. Just "Elect me and I will destroy this man and everything he has". And again only after he got into office. Prior to that he was the golden child of NY.

We call that a conflict of interest and she should be disbarred for it.

To Proud-Democrat I repeat. HE DID NOT PERSONALLY ASSESS THE PROPERTY VALUE YOU MORON! The banks and lenders 100% did.

To Rae & American Woman Same thing as above. Literally exact same thing as above.

And this is why I hate Democrat voters. And before someone goes on some tirade about "Republican Voters". Bruh. Conservatives typically HATE Republicans. They just hate Democrats more. And honestly aside from people that still get all of their news wholesale from Fox and nothing but Fox, Most Conservatives would probably sooner vote Independent with a viable candidate. And other people might go, "WELL WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER LAWS TRUMP BROKE!". Idk. Let's look at them shall we?

Accused of trying to steal the election. Except everything he did in that process was legal. He asked if there was anything that he could do. Up to and including asking his VP which electors to pick. Funny fact it is legal for a state to have different sets of electors. It happened during the Nixon years. Of which helped him win. Those rules have never been changed even now. And what's more, there WAS fraud. How much? We don't know. And we likely won't know until 10-20 years from now when the people that claim there is none will go, "OH well it's good there was fraud so Orange man stayed out of office....causing us to go to war with Russia, China, Iran, etc, etc, etc."

Accused of assaulting a woman over 20 years ago. Possibly over 40 years ago. Now let me be clear. Could this have happened? Sure. Did it? We have no idea. And 20-40 years is too long ago to have a decisive verdict on it. (Which brings me to another point which is the legality of the charges. So aside from statute of limitations, american citizens are allowed a right to a trial, by a jury of their peers. However, those peers must be impartial. NY is ANYTHING but impartial. They could bring charges of assassination through ninja skills on a foreign leader and NY would STILL CHARGE HIM just to do it.)

Quid Pro Quo. So the only evidence they had that this supposedly even happened was more or less ONE GUY. This man state that TRUMP expressly stated that he did not want a quid pro quo. HOWEVER, that man also believed Trump DID IN FACT want one, despite saying exactly to the contrary. What's more, let me remind all of you, Joe Biden, did that EXACT THING as VP to protect his financial asset of a son at a Ukrainian Energy company he had no business working at the board of. (1:30 Is the start of the segment.)

So all in all. MOST of the things Trump was accused of doing were outright false, or falsely placed on him. And it's because he was a human molotov cocktail. He didn't want any new wars. He wanted to bring more soldiers back from the Middle East. The Economy was GREAT. We were bringing jobs back to the US, and we had Remain in Mexico. Which was GREAT legislation. And it said, "If you are coming to the US for "Asylum" and you pass through another county on the way here you have to stay in THAT country until you can legally get processed.

Whereas now, DEM VOTING residents of NY are being told they are going to pay Billions to house, feed, and process illegals. When their own state is crumbling under the weight of its own corruption.

Which brings me to this point. Both sides need to talk about when there side is doing wrong. And most of the people I know that vote Rep very much DO talk about when their guys do wrong. The issue is that people that vote Dem seldom actually do. It's always, "Your side did X" and then when anyone else says, "OK but you side did Y and that's worse", We all get greeted with, "I don't care because at least he's not right wing. He could kill kids for all I care. I don't actually care what he does so long as it furthers my sides ideals".

And therein lies the issue. Democrats and their primary voters DO NOT GIVE A F*CK about morals. Because they have none. It's a very much "At all cost" mentality. And often based on LIES. Because if there is one thing Dems are great at, it's manipulation of information. The "Silver Tongued Devil" as it were. That's pretty much them. The founders of the KKK. The opposition to Civil Rights. And the Party of Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton who said they were mentored by a clansman. The parties never flipped. They just became better liars.

(This post is in no shape or form endorsement of the Republicans. Because frankly speaking that party and it's primary voter faction has its own issues. But this post isn't about them)

[softnasty]

#wipwednesday with another snippet from chapter 2 of politics au/make no plans and none can be broken. i have a week off work so i'm really hoping to finish it during it.

"Pleasure to meet you, Senator."

Jyn Erso is all smiles and firm handshakes the first time she steps into Mothma's office on Chandrila.

"Jyn Erso, my new intern." Brasso interjects, eager to introduce his new protégée.

"Ah right." Mothma's eyes stay fixated on her phone screen. "Welcome on board." She's ready to turn on her heel, Cassian can see it clear as day. There's a headache, figurative and literal, threatening to break out at the base of his skull — Senator Ackbar has just admitted to being a little reluctant to backing the Outer Rim territories outreach bill and the Alliance really can't lose any support they have at the moment.

[more under the cut]

"I really admired your campaign. There were two mistakes you made, though." Jyn says and Cassian thinks oh, shit. He isn't stupid, he knew the smiles and firm handshakes were only a smoke screen — anyone had them up in politics, some in more complex ways than others.

"Two?" And of course, that would make Mothma tick and look up from her phone.

Cassian and Brasso exchange a look. Cassian tries his best to convey Really great hiring decision, buddy and Brasso replies with a silent Fuck off, I know what I'm doing. Brasso's probably right, Cassian has never seen the man fuck up once or when he's done so, he's always recovered in an impressive fashion. Brasso's the perfect type of coworker to have, Cassian can only hope to be as trustworthy and reliable as he is.

"One, you should have made a stronger case for budget cuts to the New Republic Defense Force. You went too soft, and that cost you votes from some of the strictly anti military voters in Chandrila, especially up north. And I'm not saying you should have gone full demilitarization, but stronger, for sure. And two—"

"Oh, you really had two." Mothma says amusedly. "We did win the election though, didn't we?" She looks up, first to Brasso then to Cassian, even spares a glance for the security detail lingering in the background, as if asking for confirmation from everyone present.

"You did. But that was your second try. Easier to win when you've already failed once. And yet—"

This time, Mothma is only looking at Brasso when she speaks up.

"Good pick, Brasso, she'll fit right in. That's the kind of energy we need."

[newandcuriousswitch]

Ok, it's been over a week. So I'm going to put my thoughts here and leave them. I've been processing the election results as they came in and I want to get something off my mind about them. I'll start with what we know and work my way out to the opinion part after. If you do not wish to read this I understand, I'll put a read more box so you don't have to scroll far beyond it

1st: trump won and will be our next president. Perhaps the biggest surprise (and personally an upset) of the night.

2nd: Republicans will win the senate, while I'm disheartened, im not actually surprised to see such a result given the senate map that was up this year.

3rd: Republicans appear at this point to hold onto the majority, however if democrats win all the races they are currently ahead in, they will actually net gain 2 seats they didn't have before. Also a surprise but wasn't out of the realm of possibility.

Ok now let me explain how results went and why I feel the need to make such a statement even though I doubt almost anyone would care for my personal opinion on the matter. I still think it needs to be said.

North Carolina was a swing state. Trump won it, but so did the democratic candidate for governor. Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, all had senate races up as well. Each state (all were swing states) voted for trump as president but the democrat for senate. Here is where I personally don't understand what is happening and these differences are telling me 1 of 2 things have occurred.

The least likely outcome is there was outside election interference that did flip votes to trump because I have no doubt that democrats would not split their vote for trump and then the democrats elsewhere. It makes no sense that every battleground the democrats pulled through except the presidential nominee... but this is the conspiracy theory.

My real theory, what I believe truly happened here. Is that kamala Harris ran to the right of biden. In fact, with some of her speeches she flat out sounded like a republican from 2008 or 2012 to me. And as a result of that, she tried to court republican voters, making them split their ticket (almost giving up on the senate and house) which failed, but she DID succeed in alienating her progressive supporters. They saw this as a betrayal and voted accordingly. They didn't stay home, rhey went out and voted. But they either skipped the presidential vote entirely or voted for a third party candidate because she went so far to the right that there was talk of Liz Cheney being a cabinet member.

I'm not happy that trump won this election, and I don't necessarily think election interference occurred although there have been a couple red flags that it was attempted again from the FBI and other agencies. I think she went too far to the right for the progressives to accept and that burned her on election night. That's the only reason I can think that democrats didn't lose 6-8 senate seats, and could actually gain house seats if the current numbers remain true.

The democrats need to learn that progressives are powerful and without them they will lose. And that progressive policies are in fact popular as long as you show how well they work for the people. Putting Tim Walz name on the ticket did nothing because none of his policies came over to the ticket with him. They stopped that and they paid for it. Next rime around they better realize they need to run to the LEFT if they want to win or they won't get off as light as they just did

[rosinasnoot]

From the above article:

Every four years, I watch leaders from across the political spectrum tell voters that this election (always, miraculously, the one we are in) is the most important election of our lifetimes. This year is no different. In fact, this year’s rhetoric is more inflammatory than I’ve ever heard — and it’s breaking through: Nearly 8 in 10 voters believe this election presents an existential choice. One side is saying a burgeoning fascist dictator ready to jail his opponents and sic the military on civilians is a step away from the White House, while the other side is claiming the next administration is going to freely invite tens of millions of migrants into our country who will rape, rob, and murder your family — then steal your vote. Both are framing today as the 'last stand' against these future realities. There’s no doubt — none — that elections have consequences. Joe Biden and Donald Trump are not the same; Kamala Harris and Trump aren’t, either. They are two very different candidates pitching two very different visions with two very different sets of policies, and I think our country will change in notable and important ways depending on who wins this election.

At the same time, I implore you to remember that all the noise — what you see on TV, what you see on social media, what you hear from political partisans — is not always reality. Reality is the kind and decent neighbor you have who doesn’t share your views on abortion; reality is the local politician from the opposite party you respect but don’t vote for; reality is the dad, aunt, niece, or son you fight with about politics, but you love unconditionally anyway — and they love you back. We have the capacity — in fact, the obligation — to stay attached to that reality in the next few days. Because regardless of what happens, the outcome will produce some ugly, vitriolic, and rage-filled responses, and we’ll need decent people around us with level heads to lead us through them. That doesn’t mean you should water down your values or beliefs, but it does mean you can be a part of turning the temperature down rather than up. I implore you — this community — to do what you can to keep being part of the solution. And please, go vote!

I know it's scary out there for a lot of people right now. It's okay to be afraid. But also remember that there are people out there who profit off of your fear, off of your anger and attention and clicks, and they benefit from everyone who is helping to stoke this fire.

The individual people on the other side of the political divide are not your enemies. They're by and large doing the best they can with what they have. Republicans and Democrats are not monoliths and it doesn't help anyone to claim that everyone who doesn't wear your color is heartless or selfish or afraid of change or stupid or willfully ignorant or such a horrible person as to be completely irredeemable and absolutely worthy of your disdain and/or hatred. Probably some of them are, because some people in every group are awful. Some people in your group are awful too.

It's extremely unlikely that one party gets the White House, the House of Representatives, and Congress. Whoever wins will be at least a little bit deadlocked. There's fear on both sides that this election will be the end of democracy, which means that we can hope (even if we aren't prepared to trust) that our representatives will fight to protect our democracy, regardless of who wins the White House.

What I'm getting at here is this: take a deep breath. And another. If you've voted, you've done what you can. It's out of your hands for now, and maybe there will be cause to contact your representatives later but that's a future you problem. For now, just breathe. Remember how the last four years, and the four years before that, had their issues, but you're still okay. Take a second to let yourself feel like you can be okay again for these next four.

And, if you're still with me, take a second to ask yourself who benefits from your fear. Because it sure as hell isn't you.

Vote, whoever you may be voting for. And breathe. And let yourself hope for a better future than the one you dread.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Steve Brodner

* * * * *

 Trump's mugshot will become the defining image of Trump for all time. His facial expression conveys equal parts menace, anger, and defiance. There is no hint of a soul behind the eyes, only animal grievance and feral resentment at being cornered. It is astounding that a mugshot could capture the essence of evil that resides beneath the surface in Donald Trump.

          The photo is also a mugshot of MAGA extremism. It captures the hostility and meanness that animates most of the GOP’s “agenda”—including policies that demean and discriminate against Blacks, women, LGBTQ people, educators, scientists, and immigrants. Trump's mugshot will likewise become the defining image of MAGA extremism for all time. Tens of millions of MAGA adherents will celebrate and glorify the image—confirming the virulent strain of authoritarianism that has infected the MAGA base.

          The mugshot will become the equivalent of a “gang sign�� for MAGA extremists to identify fellow travelers in hate. They will display the mugshot on tee shirts, baseball caps, and beer cans with an “in your face” defiance designed to offend anyone who disagrees. And this, they believe, is how they will win the 2024 election. They couldn’t be more wrong.

          By making this gargoyle of hate the “face” of the 2024 GOP campaign, Republicans are reinforcing the suspicions and fears of tens of millions of Republicans and swing voters who are looking for a reason not to vote for Trump—or to stay home. (As they did on debate night by boycotting his Tucker Carlson interview.)  

          Against the deeply unsettling MAGA mugshot, Democrats will feature the kindly face of Joe Biden as he reaches to pet a rescue dog or hug a survivor of the Hawaii wildfires. Joe Biden may be older than some would like, but his face exhibits kindness and wisdom. We should not underestimate visceral reactions to human decency—or lack thereof—in our leaders.

          None of this means we can relent or ease up. But it should give us confidence that Democrats are on the right path as Republicans are burdened with a leader who holds them in contempt and sees them only as chumps who will donate more money every time he is indicted.

Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter

[that-gay-jedi]

Thank you @skierunner!

On the topic of voting I also want to add two things many people are unaware of. YMMV based on where you live of course.

1. To communicate that you CARE what happens but that none of the candidates represent you or are worth voting for, you can cast a vote without voting FOR anyone by intentionally spoiling your ballot. Spoiled ballots are still counted toward overall voter turnout, but are under-utilized due to the lack of public awareness that this is an option.

This is a far more effective means of showing displeasure with the electoral process than not submitting a ballot. It records an informed decision to abstain, while simply staying home on election day (assuming you haven't voted early or remotely) does not.

Where I come from, an intentional spoil is usually done by drawing a single vertical line down the middle of your ballot, but it may vary for you based on how the recording elements of your elections physically function. Basically just make sure it looks intentional and not like you meant to vote for someone but misread the instructions.

While low voter turnouts are often blamed on apathy, a higher than usual percentage of spoiled ballots shows a population who cares about what their so-called "leaders" do but feels they have no good options, either because: a) Every candidate holds an unacceptable stance on something too important to overlook b) every candidate is seen as unlikely to actually fulfill the promises contained in their platform, and/or c) elements of the how the election itself is counted and scored leave people feeling that their vote doesn't have its fair share of influence over who wins the election.

2. In Canada, at least, a politician can easily look up WHETHER you voted (the protected information that is to be kept solely between you and the actual piece of paper you mark on unless you voluntarily disclose it is WHO you voted for).

When you write, email or call to inform elected officials how their actions will affect your vote, anyone with enough staff below them or enough time on their hands can check to verify whether you voted in the last election (assuming you were eligible to do so at the time) and if you didn't, your opinion may matter far less to them than if you did.

This matters most with local politics as smaller scale elections mean each individual voter municipal politicians (such as district reps, mayoral candidates, school board etc) piss off has a greater impact on their share of the overall votes. Phone zaps and other strategies that produce a large VOLUME of communications are often directed at federal politicians.

This is another reason why, if you choose to abstain, abstaining by spoiling your ballot rather than not submitting one is important. It means that for the next four years* any time an issue arises that a politician could or should pay attention to if they don't want to lose the next election, when you write the strongly worded email or participate in the phone-a-thon you're doing so as a voting citizen. They aren't legally entitled to know you didn't vote for them, but whether you DO vote tells them whether you mean business.

* Or however long is between elections where you live

hey this isn't like me at all but is anyone paying attention to the fact that they just banned all gender affirming care for under 19s in alabama? is anyone paying attention to us at all?