#the Republican party in a nutshell

[beauty-funny-trippy]

If any other person in history had incited a violent insurrection against the United States, they'd have been labeled a traitor, thrown in prison, and have absolutely no chance of a political career. But when Trump does it, Republicans make him their candidate for president.

Somewhere along the line, Republican politicians took a hard right turn, straight into insanity —found Republican voters already there waiting for them— and decided that batshit crazy is now their brand.

[so-what-then]

"I'd rATher 1 GEnoCide" 🤪

[tomorrowusa]

Don't think that patiently explaining the legalities and details of the Trump indictment will change the minds of the MAGA crowd about it. Those folks, like Trump, simply don't believe in the rule of law.

There may be some Republicans who secretly believe the charges have merit but are scared shitless of what may happen if they say so in public.

A reasonably healthy party might give its indicted leader some benefit of the doubt, while calling for judgment to be withheld before he has his day in court. But Republicans correctly understand that their party will consider Trump an innocent martyr regardless. The sickness of the Republican Party as it is presently constituted is that there is no conceivable set of facts that would permit it to acknowledge Trump’s guilt. What has brought the party to this point is the convergence of its decades-long descent into paranoia with its idiosyncratic embrace of a career criminal.

Yep, the GOP has been drifting in this direction for a long time. Trump's emergence finally nudged them into being a full-blown paranoid cult.

The Republican Party’s internal culture has been shaped by what Richard Hofstadter famously described as “the paranoid style” in American politics. Hofstadter specifically attributed this description to the conservative movement, which, at the time, was a marginalized faction on the far right but has since completely taken control of the party and imposed its warped mentality on half of America. To its adherents, every incremental expansion of the welfare state is incipient communism, each new expansion of social liberalism the final death blow to family and church. Lurking behind these endless defeats, they discern a vast plot by shadowy elites. In recent years, the Republican Party’s long rightward march on policy has ground to a halt, and it has instead radicalized on a different dimension: ruthlessness. Attributing their political travails to weakness, Republicans converged on the belief that their only chance to pull back from the precipice of final defeat is to discard their scruples. A willingness to do or say anything to win was the essence of Trump’s appeal, an amorality some Republicans embraced gleefully and others reluctantly. Trump, by dint of his obsessive consumption of right-wing media, grasped where the party was going more quickly than its leaders did. This aspect of Trump’s rise was historically necessary. All Trump did was to hasten it along.

This is Trump's legal philosophy (if you want to call it that) in a nutshell...

Trump was not raised in a traditional conservative milieu. He came into a seedy, corrupt world in which politicians could be bought off and laws were suggestions. He worked with mobsters and absorbed their view of law enforcement: People who follow the law are suckers, and the worst thing in the world is a rat.

Trump is basically a petty mobster. That explains why he hates the FBI.

It is the interplay of the two forces, the paranoia of the right and the seamy criminality of the right’s current champion, that has brought the party to this point. Trump’s endlessly repeated “witch hunt” meme blends together the mobster’s hatred of the FBI with the conservative’s fear of the bureaucrat. His loyalists have been trained to either deny any evidence of misconduct by their side or rationalize it as a necessary countermeasure against their enemies. The concept of “crime” has been redefined in the conservative mind to mean activities by Democrats. They insist upon Trump’s innocence because they believe a Republican, axiomatically, cannot be a criminal.

That Manichean view fits in well with the radical Christian fundamentalist tendency in the GOP. Though instead of Jesus Christ, the credo of Republicans is to accept Donald Trump as their personal Lord and Savior. By that reasoning, Donald Trump is incapable of wrongdoing.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Colin Wright

Published: Nov 16, 2024

In August 2021, I sat in my bed reflecting on the shifting political landscape in America. I had always considered myself part of the Left but found myself increasingly alienated and baffled by the positions many self-proclaimed progressives were adopting. Instead of championing free speech, they disparaged it as a threat to democracy and minorities. Rather than valuing character and merit over skin color, they promoted racist “equity” initiatives that prioritize race over the individual. And instead of upholding science and truth, they embraced absurd pseudoscience about the biology of sex for political purposes.

Ronald Reagan’s famous quote, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me,” resonated deeply with me. This sentiment seemed pervasive among those criticizing what was being called the “regressive left,” now often termed “wokeness.” I thought there must be a way to visually represent this feeling of political estrangement from the Left. I opened PowerPoint and started experimenting.

As I doodled, my thoughts and feelings begin to take visual shape. The illustration depicted the political ground shifting beneath my feet, with the Left becoming increasingly extreme and pulling the political “center” to the left. This made my views appear to shift rightward, even though my views had not changed at all. It was an illusion of sorts, and it perfectly captured my feelings. On August 6, 2021, I tweeted it with the caption, “My political journey in a nutshell.”

It went “viral” by normal Twitter standards, amassing a couple thousand retweets. I posted it several more times over the next few months. Then, on April 28, 2022, while I was out for a walk, I checked my Twitter notifications and was shocked by what I saw:

Elon Musk, the most-followed account on Twitter, had shared my meme. It exploded in popularity, amassing hundreds of thousands of retweets and over a million likes. The comments were overwhelmingly positive, with the majority conveying how perfectly it summed up their own feelings and experiences. And the commentary didn’t stay on Twitter. That day at the gym, I saw my meme featured on the news. The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro discussed it on his show. CNN’s Michael Smerconish ran a lengthy segment about it and encouraged viewers to create their own stick figure political political spectrum drawings. It was everywhere.

I even appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight to discuss the meme. Conversely, left-wing pundits expressed their disapproval through angry tweets and op-eds attempting to debunk it. The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent called it a “silly chart” that has been “brutally debunked.” His colleague Philip Bump described it as “simply wrong” and an “obvious exaggeration.” NBC News published an article calling it a “very bad meme” that “shows how out of touch he is with political reality.”

This confusion, whether genuine or performative, from the left prompted me to write an explanation of what I believe the meme depicts and my reasons for creating it. I sent it to the Wall Street Journal, and they published it. The heart of my essay is as follows:

I created the cartoon to help sort out my feelings of increasing political alienation from the left. I’m a lifelong Democrat. I turned 18 in 2003 and have never voted for a Republican. But over the past decade, and especially the past five years, I’ve watched my party distance itself from the values and principles I hold dear. People on the left once viewed free speech as sacrosanct and championed speaking truth to power. Now they disparage open expression as a danger to democracy and minorities. The aspiration of judging individuals by the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin has given way to identity politics and “equity” initiatives that prioritize group interests over individual rights. Women’s rights, previously understood as relating to their oppression on the basis of sex, is now viewed by the left through the lens of gender identity, which gives priority to men who declare themselves to be women. Today’s progressive can’t even tell you what a woman is. The right may be inconsistent in its support of free speech, individual rights and women’s rights, but the left is consistent in its opposition to all three.

I concluded my essay with a warning—one that the Democrats should have taken seriously but evidently did not.

I hope many on the left will resist the urge to debunk or dismiss my cartoon and instead use it as an opportunity to understand why so many people feel it describes their experience. Something has happened over the past decade to make many liberals feel politically homeless, and a lack of curiosity about why is a recipe for not only political failure but social strife.

Needless to say, Democrats did not heed my warning, and their incuriousness about the reasons behind the meme’s virality led to the “political failure” I predicted, with Donald Trump securing a landslide victory for the Republicans, running on the exact issues I outlined in my article.

Yesterday, Financial Times columnist John Burn-Murdoch reported on data from the US General Social Survey, which indicated that although my “graphic was mocked at the time…recent events”—i.e., the election—“suggest it may have a grain of truth to it.” Far from containing just a “grain of truth,” the data seem to fully corroborate my meme in granular detail.

Burn-Murdoch notes, “The data shows Democrats taking a sharp turn leftward on social issues over the past decade. This has distanced them from the median voter, just as Wright’s cartoon depicted...This suggests that Trump’s election radicalised the left, not the right."

[ Source: John Burn-Murdoch ]

If the similarities between the above graphs and my political meme are not immediately obvious, below is the figure reoriented and superimposed on my meme to match the years. In fact, it appears that the only inaccuracy in my meme stems from my underestimating the left’s ideological extremism!

Burn-Murdoch concludes: “Whether or not progressives are ready to accept it, the evidence all points in one direction. America’s moderate voters have not deserted the Democrats; the party has pushed them away.”

Democrats: I told you so; but you refused to listen. And instead of facing reality, many of you are now fleeing to Bluesky to ratchet the seals on your echo chamber a few notches tighter. Do you truly believe that will assist you in understanding the average American voter?

It won’t.

Here’s a final warning: If you do not fully reject woke ideology and return to common sense, you will continue to lose—and you will deserve to lose.

--

2024 Update:

This is how you end up with far-left intersectional nutjobs cheering on far-right Islamist nutjobs.

[pilvimarja]

Why do people hate Miles Teller? I am not trying to be cheeky! I really have no clue! I never heard about him being hated. Has it to do with shipping or are they jealous because of his wife?

I don't think it has anything to do with any shipping or fandom related things, and I don't think most people even know who his wife is because she's not a celebrity. Based on my personal observations, there's a handful of "key reasons" that tend to come up time and again when people say they hate Miles Teller.

The first one and the origin of the "Miles Teller is an asshole" rep seems to be the infamous interview he gave to Esquire magazine in 2015. You can find the whole interview and the reactions to it just by googling it. I get the feeling that Miles and the interviewer weren't on the same wavelength, Miles' sense of humor rubbed her the wrong way, they clashed from the moment the interview started, and both of them ended up looking like jerks.

There's also been some reports that Miles (allegedly) was difficult on the set of F4 and War Dogs, but in hindsight, knowing what we know about the nightmare production of F4 and its problematic director who barely has a career anymore, and Jonah Hill who was Miles' co-star in War Dogs, it's probably safe to assume that Miles at the very least wasn't the only asshole on those sets and maybe had a reason to bitch.

The third big reason seems to be the assumption that Miles and his wife are Trump-loving Republicans. I think his wife's parents are Republican, but the only time I've heard Miles himself bring up his own political views is when he mentioned attending Robert De Niro's (who, as far as I know, is a vocal Trump critic and a Democrat) election night party in 2016. So we can probably assume that he and his wife don't support the Orange One even if some people in their families do.

The fourth and the most recent reason is the assumption that Miles didn't care about Covid and caused the entire production of The Offer to shut down because he (allegedly) refused to get vaccinated. As far as I know, the production was actually shut down and Miles did get Covid, but he also gave a statement where he said that both he and his wife had been vaccinated "for some time" when that happened. So I guess you either believe him or the anonymous "inside source" who claims he's anti-va**. And I'm not defending him, but I was vaccinated three times, always wore a mask and did several tests, and I still managed to get Covid twice, so you can get it even if you're careful.

So that's my nutshell take on his negative rep. I think most people don't care to find out what he's actually like and which things about him are true, which is valid. I don't go around doing deep dives into celebs who I have no interest in. And I admit that I myself spent years under the impression that Miles Teller is an asshole because I had only seen unflattering headlines about him on Oh No They Didn't and various other gossip blogs. But I don't think Miles himself cares enough to make an attempt to fix his reputation. It's been almost nine years since that Esquire interview, but the fallout from it is most likely permanent.

[meandmybigmouth]

The Republican party in a nutshell!.

[ileftherbackhome]

i feel like we should stop going "democrats and republicans are the same party" because like no, that's really not how politics work. just because parties have the same stance on a couple of issues (like foreign policy) doesn't mean they are the exact same party.

idk why y'all think parties must be the complete opposite of one another on every issue possible but that's like 2 party thinking in a nutshell. if you want multiple parties to vote for, some of them are going to overlap in their opinions on some policies.

[originalleftist]

Let me summarize the Republican Party in a nutshell: It is a party for people who want to own people.

Think that's unfair? Hyperbole? Paranoid?

Republicans have variously:

-Supported child marriage.

-Opposed contraception (nearly all, as shown just today).

-Opposed abortion (effectively all).

-Believed a woman getting an abortion should be punished more harshly than r*pe.

-Wanted to get rid of no fault divorce.

-Some (like the Holocaust-denying candidate for governor in North Carolina) even are talking about ending voting rights for women (he also wants Black people to pay reparations to white people for slavery).

-Supported child labour (widespread).

-Opposed raising/having the minimum wage.

-Wanted to role back the civil rights movement (effectively all).

-Sympathized with the Confederacy (nearly all now, to varying degrees).

What do all these have in common? A desire for power over others, to reduce people to property, or nostalgia for when one more easily could. Whether that's putting Black people back in chains, making women the sexual property of their husbands, or forcing children too young to consent to work long hours in dangerous jobs, and also give birth.

It is a party for people (particularly wealthy white men) who want to own people. That is its core ethos, in so far as it has one beyond mindless hate of the Other, and fealty to the 34 count convicted felon.

If most of them aren't yet openly calling for the return of chattel slavery or stripping citizenship from women and officially returning them to the status of property of their husbands, don't be fooled. They're just smart or cautious enough not to say that out loud yet. Nearly every single one of them either actively desires to reach that end point, or will meekly fall in line with those who do, just like they've fallen in lie with every other low.

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

So shit like this, shows me how inept people that vote blue are. You all think, "Well this thing is called "x" so it must be so". It's literally this meme in a nutshell:

Then there was the, "Inflation Reduction Act" which itself did almost nothing to reduce inflation and the only projected loss of inflation would be by a % and only by 2027. Trump was a New York Democrat. And he explained why he didn't run as one several times. And the reasoning was because the Dems would not have let him win. The same way they didn't let Bernie win. And policy wise, Trump and Bernie were not super far off. It's why when Bernie got gutted during the primaries, a lot of Bernie voters went Trump.

And just because Trump doesn't align with the new socialists doesn't mean he's not still a Dem at heart. Just means the modern Dem party keeps moving further and further left. Which if you want tyranny then keep voting for them. You'll get it soon enough. Oh and the prospect that I am "Only critical of Dems" and I "Promote Reps" is fucking stupid. I'm far less critical of Reps because I KNOW they are mostly stupid. But I will let the right criticize their own, and when Reps do something I'm very much slighted by I talk about it. Like when I complain about Abbott. And the only Reps that I promote are more libertarian party members while only being republican in name. And that's both Rand Paul and Ron Paul. Also Tulsi is a Dem I like. But I guess she's not Commie enough for your tastes. Because she's anti war and the modern dem party is extremely pro war.

Fact is. I only like Trump in so far as he protected our borders, pushed the Abraham Accords, and did his best with LYING generals at his side to pull us out of wars and bring our troops home. Of which I am ALL for because I'm a prior. Get my brothers and sisters out of these pointless wars. And out of these dangerous war torn countries that never stop fighting. Trump is a crass man who's self important to a fault. I'd never deny that. He has done some not great things in his past. But did he fly to Epstein's island dozens of times? Not according to flight logs. Bill Clinton on the other hand took several trips to said island. Bill Gates took several trips to his properties and I believe the island once or twice.

If you are going to come at me saying, "TRUMP'S RUNNING AS A REPUBLICAN SO HE"S NEVER BEEN A DEMOCRAT!", Well sorry just proves you can't parse words. Just because you don't see him as one doesn't mean he isn't one. He's not currently threatening to ban abortion. Most Reps would be. He's not threatening to ban Gay Marriage. Some Reps would be. Hence you miss the point. IE: You miss the forest for the trees. Reps are voting for Trump because the economy was good under him and he didn't want communism or socialism. And if you believe that there was no election meddling going on, you clearly didn't read Time Magazines, "The shadow campaign to save the election". In which they outline a number of things they did behind the scenes to make sure Trump could not win.

Many of which would be LEGALLY considered election meddling. Like IDK. Hiding the Biden laptop under "Misinformation". Which is funny because most modern "Misinformation" as reported by Dems and Mainstream Media just means, "4-6 months until proven true". Like the machines that DID flip votes. But the "Fact check" websites will tell you, "Well yes it did happen but we caught it and fixed it". Ok.......so it happened, meaning it could have happened to other machines, and no investigation was allowed to happen on those machines beyond, "Here you can look at it physically sitting on a pallet in shrink wrap and that's it". Yeah that's "Investigating" surely.

Yeah, if that had happened to Dems you'd still be shrieking to this day about a stolen election. But because you won, any and all funny business is reasonable and fine and shouldn't be investigated. Which tells me you don't care about fair elections you care about power. Because if you did care about fair elections, you'd have voted against policy changes that were against constitutional law. But unlike me (not a rep) you don't have morals. So long as you win and wield power like a weapon you don't care how you get there. And if that's the Democrat party I want nothing to do with it ever. Real things happened in 2020 that never got investigated. You don't give a fuck. Trumps voted blue most of his life. But in no true scotsman fashion, he's "Not a Democrat because he's not aligned with my idea of modern Dems". Spare me.

All communists should be purged. You aren't people so much as I'm concerned. You're a cancer on this earth. And modern Dems are basically Communists. Certainly not all. But far too many.

Oh and "Our enemies are trying to get Reps elected. Oh so Reps like Bernie Sander and Jill Stein?

And this is only one report. Several others actually claim that Hillary was in fact aided by Russia herself. Sadly the MSM doesn't care about it and buries it because it's damaging to their narrative of "Trump is Super Hitler". Get over yourselves. Your party is currently flooding the US with illegals and putting US citizens on the back burner.

[never-was-has-been]

“Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder… And that is war, in a nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles… To turn your back on the corrupt Republican Party and the corrupt Democratic Party—the gold-dust lackeys of the ruling class—counts for something. It counts still more...to join a minority party that has an ideal, that stands for a principle, and fights for a cause.” ~ Eugene V. Debs speech December 25th 1921 ~ (born November 5, 1855 – died October 20, 1926)

[nihilo-sensei]

This post is most of the things wrong with liberalism in a nutshell. Trump can and will end what’s left of America’s horseshit imitation of democracy whether he wins or not if people don’t start taking the threat of his movement seriously. Like, actually seriously instead just as a campaigning tool for the Democratic Party (which, by the way, is currently trying to appeal to Trump’s base by running on a platform of being better at anti-immigration policymaking than the Republicans).

Actual leftists can see another procedural coup plot-by-non-certification forming and the liberal establishment, who uses the threat of fascism as a recruiting and fundraising tool, is deliberately over-focusing on voting to the exclusion of all over organizing. By doctrine, liberals generally reject all political action outside of The Process and, at the end of the day, are nationalists who believe in American exceptionalism and that full-blown fascism can’t really happen here because they don’t understand how fascism works. You can’t just vote it away, the fascists will just overturn the election and the Republican Party, which controls the Supreme Court, and is positioned to do just that after Trump likely loses.

“Vote Biden, we have to defeat Trump!” Okay, then what? Do you have any plan for when SCOTUS takes away your hard-earned election victory with the stroke of a pen? Will you still wag your fingers in disapproval at disruptive protests then? Will you still roll your eyes and proclaim the naïveté of people seeking to defund, abolish, or even just stand against the institution of the police (the original fascist paramilitary), most of whom are eagerly awaiting The Word from Trump to round up the undesirables and the rest of whom will simply carry out whatever orders they’re given? Will you still say that people who resist arrest should’ve just waited for their day in court?

If you think you’re under the threat of fascism (which you are), start acting like it. Stop thinking like the machinery of the American political system will protect you. It won’t. It’s not supposed to and if you don’t believe that, ask an indigenous person how the system has always treated them.

anyway. i think most people left of mainstream US liberal are uh. insufficiently scared of Trump. this has become a cringe take over the years but i think electing him again has a really terrifying set of tail outcomes that are unlikely but possible

[emptymanuscript]

MAGA Concepts Of Losing Your Healthcare

I really feel like this is pretty much everything in a nutshell about why it’s ALWAYS imortant. Why EVERY single election is the election you HAVE to show up for. Why EVERY debate and conversation is critical.

Because these misconceptions are the work of years and decades and lifetimes.

Trump is a kind of grand culmination, not something entirely out of left field. He is drawing on work that has fundamentally been going on since 1960. This kind of way of thinking about things is the result of a lot of money and a lot of hard work and a lot of intentional shifting of not only how we talk about our world but how we THINK about our world.

On the one hand I am murderously furious at EVERYONE who voted for ANYONE on the right this election for whatever reason they justified it. On the other hand, I am also very aware that the reasoning that let them justify it has been intentionally and energetically cultivated for longer than most of the people who voted this year have been alive.

I’m not exaggerating about 1960. Everything I find keeps leading me back to that election cycle between Kennedy and Nixon. A huge chunk of the current forces running our politics seems to have originated there. As far as I can tell, the modern Right Wing / Republican Party / MAGA movement started in the reaction to what was happening in that election. While there were older inputs, that was the coalescence into a singular force. 

Of particular note is the Presidential Debate of September 26th 1960. As far as I can tell from what I have been able to find on the subject, the grand unified idea of ideologogic news, was born that night. Because Roger Ailes, later the impresario of Fox News, was at the debate. While Ailes forceful opinion of Television and its effect on Nixon (and through Nixon onto the rest of the Right) is often attributed to a quote from 1968, Ailes was already a campaign consultant by that time. His opinions were already in play. His forcing the issue with Nixon of Television’s importance to influencing the electorate, which got him the later consultant position (and after that an “unofficial” position in the Nixon Administration as “Adviser to the President for communications”) actually came at the end of of the September 26th, 1960 Televised debate when I’m not sure Ailes was even old enough to drink. He cornered Nixon after the debate, before Nixon was even aware of how badly it had gone for him, and went to town on him about how Television was the future and Nixon better get on board. When Nixon saw the reviews from the debate, Ailes prescience lodged firmly in his mind, and Ailes ticket upward was punched.

Ailes actually wrote up the prototype plan for Fox News while in the Nixon Administration. He even tried to launch it as a network (which failed miserably) many years before Rupert Murdoch gave him control of Fox to birth the empire it has become.

The 1960 election also created the reorganization into the current united relationship between Hierarchicalism, Law & Order Politics, Voter Suppression, Conservatism, (Evangelical) Christianity™, Plutocracy, Kleptocracy, Big Money, Racism, Sexism, and the Republican Party. Starting with Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who was so personally offended and horrified by JFK’s election and intentions, even though they were in the same political party at the time, he started a charge that lead all those formerly disparate factions that were spread all over the political landscape into a singular voting block in the GOP. His switch from Democrat to eventual Republican - which was essentially unheard of at the time, you did NOT change political parties back then - established the migration path into what has become the MAGA movement. Of particular use was Thurmond’s (and his successors’) genius at money gathering and strategic spending for long term gains.

Last I checked (it has been a while - but I sincerely doubt things have changed by too much) Republican think tanks, whose job it is just to figure out policies and talking points and catch phrases and unified messaging, out number other political think tanks around 10 to 1. That is absolutely due to strategic spending from the right to defeat what they saw as the political trend that JFK represented. They wanted to murder it in the crib and take the power that society would not willingly give them if they really understood all the angles - because JFK was actually the way the general public wanted to go. And so they created a meme army with a huge foundation and gave it our army’s type of funding to make that happen. And it has been working ever since. Most of all our lives, to change people’s minds to think the right (incidentally the political Right) way that would make it happen.

So, yes, her ignorance was cultivated. It is still being cultivated. EVERYONE is vulnerable to brainwashing or whatever you want to call it.

I’m still not sure that is a valid excuse.

[thatstormygeek]

Republicans in North Carolina are quickly running from Robinson, but that political action is grounded in a desire for continued power and profit, not a moral or ethical concern. They knew who he was. They heard what he said, they heard the same rumors I’ve heard, and it was fine as long as the true rot was not on display.

This [projection] is the Right Wing ethos in a nutshell. The present GOP offers an impressive and undeniable example of these concepts. This is how a Donald Trump, a convicted felon and lifelong criminal, takes to the podium and warns about “criminal hordes” invading the country and carrying out unthinkable plots and crimes. How so many preachers, political figures, and public servants who traffic in QAnon/child-trafficking conspiracy theories are eventually caught up scandals and investigations into their own exploitative crimes. And how a party that has prided itself on standing for “law and order” and respect for national security and law enforcement stands behind a violent attempt to overthrow the government that was carried out by insurrectionists attacking police and doesn’t bat an eye when their standard-bearer is caught hording highly confidential state secrets. Prevalent political analysis is upsettingly shallow. We are presented a rotating cast of characters and shifting story lines that are so convoluted and confusing that oftentimes the only thing we’re left to do is throw up our hands and wonder how much worse things will get. Meanwhile, what plays out is understandable and even predictable. Psychological understanding of Right Wing politics and the inner-workings of authoritarianism is prevalent, but the results and findings are relegated to a handful of academics. It does not pay to dig deeper into these things because to understand what is happening, why it is happening, and what things are at play would mean a deeper reckoning with a system that functions according to such dysfunctions not only continuing but amassing power and wealth.

[freshfocusnews]

On July 10, 2024, the SAVE ACT, Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, cleared the House Chamber with a 221-198 vote. Only 5 Democrats voted with the 216 Republicans, which in my opinion, should have been a bipartisan vote clearing the House Chamber with a unanimous vote.

Before we move on to discuss more precise topics of what the SAVE ACT aims to do and how it closes loopholes in the current process, I wanted to take a few moments to acknowledge the 5 Democratic Congress members, that went against their own party and voted to restore fair and secure elections by requiring proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections, so the American people can trust the election system with the known issues and problems that have been occurring and reported on a regular basis leading up to quite arguably the most important election of our lifetimes.

I do not know their reasons behind why they chose to vote against their party, but either way, it gives me hope that at least there are five Democrats that consider this a non-partisan issue. There should be some shared values between party lines. Having different views on certain issues can be healthy to explore different angles and perspectives. But as far as core values, shared between all parties, there should be more of them on the important issues with morality at the root of the issue being debated. And this is just one of those examples. I wish more would have joined them on such an important issue.

Also, I should mention that the common response as to why most Democrats have voted against this bill, is that requiring proof of citizenship would somehow disenfranchise marginalized groups of voters that may have issues obtaining these types of documents. This is simply not a valid reason, which I will go into more detail later in this article. With that said, knowing that the Democrats are using an invalid reason for not wanting to secure our election process; this begs the question, why do they not want to secure our election process so that Americans can trust the results?

For those of you that want to read the actual House Bill H.R. 8281 SAVE ACT, the link is below. 👇👇👇👇👇👇

For those of you that would like a more concise summary of the 22 page document, you can go to my summary here: 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

But here is the gist of it in a nutshell.

1.) The SAVE ACT requires all states to have a process in place to check individuals that are going through the process of getting a driver's license, state ID, applying for Medicare/Medicaid services, or at any other governrnment office covered under the NVRA(National Voters Registration Act) of 1993 as a place to be able to registster to vote, to validate with acceptable documentation, outlined in those links above (👆👆👆), to prove their citizenship status before being registered to vote.

2.) The SAVE ACT also requires that states have a process to check the validity of current individuals on voter registration rolls as valid US citizens and those identified as needing further validation be notified with an official communication with instructions about what is needed to validate citizenship and informing those that have already registered and those in the process of registering of the criminal penalties for knowingly providing false information to the government. There is also a required process in this program to purge non-citizens from voter registration rolls until documentary evidence that can prove citizenship is received before being placed back onto voter rolls.

3.) There is a component of the SAVE ACT, that aims to streamline the citizenship status verification process by intergovernmental agencies and data sharing. The approved verification sources are as follows;

A.) Department of Homeland Security using Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE)

B.) Social Security Administration through the use of Social security # verification service

C.) State agencies that supply State ID cards, Drivers Licenses in which the agency confirms the citizenship status of its applicants.

D.) Other sources, including databases that have the ability to confirm citizenship status.

4.) It should also be noted that an expansion with a few amendments to the NVRA of 1993, is that each state must maintain a program called the Election Assisistance Commission, which is a program that aims to help Americans that may need assistance with the process of navigating the process of obtaining proof of citizenship for the purpose of registering to vote. Further, the SAVE ACT, does allow for a pathway for those Americans that are without documentation or proof of citizenship that involve some alternate methods and an Affidavit process that a committee may approve using a case by case basis.

So, when I mentioned earlier, the common reason that many Democrats give about disenfranchising marginalized groups from being able to vote, I simply cannot see how this is a valid reason, given the requirement of Election Assisistance Commission State Programs. That along with alternate document pathways to voter registration with the Affidavit process, I don't see this being an issue.

But here are just a few issues in the news that show the integrity of our elections are in question:

1.) 👇👇👇

2.) 👇👇👇👇👇

3.) 👇👇👇👇👇

I could go on, much further with more news stories, but there are many more. Some claim there is no problem. But there obviously is a problem, with this large loophole in the process with no oversight. I will ask the question again; why don't more of our Democratic lawmakers want to close this loophole so Americans can feel that we have a fair and secure election system?

Unfortunately, even though the SAVE ACT cleared the House, I highly doubt Chuck Schumer will even let the Senate take a vote on it. Plus, Biden has already stated he will veto the bill.

I would love to hear your thoughts!

[chargetheintruder]

I am only saying this once.

This message will likely self-destruct in 24 hours or less, simply due to its nature.

This is an open letter to any and all realists at the White House of the United States. Anyone in the Capitol who understands how deep this threat to all citizens and to all society goes.

This is the simple, PG-rated version:

"Unless Trump loses, America ends." THINK about that carefully. Think about how our corporations and how our Media have sold us out, over and over again since NIXON at minimum, to get to this point. Think about how right-wingers get EVERY softball EVERY time from the Media in these rigged little "debates". They say it's all about being entertaining, pursuing ratings while all of society falls apart. That's bullshit. They're all about taking blood money while we all DIE here at the hands of tyrants who would be proud to be called Hitler's People.

The "good news"? Decent people have a window of opportunity, provided we can be cutthroat enough in the short term to use it. It only sounds like a contradiction to those who do not see a moral imperative in our survival as a Union, as a society, and as the first nation of this world to reject the rule of kings. Here is the plan in a nutshell:

1-- This weekend, meaning IMMEDIATELY, President Joseph Biden needs to step aside, citing his health and the 25th Amendment. Taking his place at the job will be President Pro Tempore (pronounced "pro tem", meaning "for the time being") Kamala Harris and her Vice President Pro Tempore Elizabeth Warren. Make it clear they're The Package, that they're running together for the 2024 Office, and that decent people MUST get behind them.

2-- On 7-11-2024, the Judge who recently convicted Trump has to INSIST on going through with sentencing: citing National Security risk, he tells the court that he has no choice but to sentence Donald J. Trump to four years of prison time at Riker's Island, under solitary confinement for his own protection, while the New York National Guard occupies the whole prison to keep him safe and secured there.

On the same day President Pro Tempore Harris declares a National Emergency and declares that she and her Vice President WILL use ALL Article II powers as necessary to protect the Union from a risen Nationalist threat that has "unfortunately" made ALL Republicans unfit to hold State OR Federal office under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. The Supreme Court will be "roundly thanked" for their loyalty to the Union in their recent decision that has made sitting Presidents Above Rule of Law for Official Duties . . . and then said Court will have its activity suspended indefinitely while its members are sequestered in nine separate undisclosed locations for their own safety.

3-- Then the White House HUNTS. Declaring the Republican Party a threat to National Security, and using EVERY National Guard resource but New York's to hunt down Republicans, Libertarians, Neo-Nazis and other wannabe dictators. Their choices are to either get arrested and renounce Trump IN PUBLIC ON CAMERA, or to go on trial for Treason against the United States. Yes, there will be friction as the ranks have to be purged of the disloyal first, which is why you start with National Guardsmen, and MAYBE some active military, and not the fucking police.

But the idea is simplicity itself: If Trump and his declare Day One, you declare Day MINUS One and hit them all BEFORE they think they have a chance to act. Note my word choice: it's not just Trump, it's EVERY Trump in the family and EVERY asshole out there following him, like this guy:

The threats to this Union are Legion and its teeth are many. It's not just Trump and it's not just the Proud Boys being Frat Boys on crack cocaine or QAnon being intentionally brain-dead. Lots of people in high places insist on fascism, if not out-right Naziism, for the United States, going forward. The threat is real and the response to it needs to be as real.

4-- And the idea is to simply grind the enemies of this Union to dust right up to Election Day in November. On Election Day itself, you have President Pro Tempore Harris declare the United States a One-Party Union and send out ballots reflecting that (after having the Mail-in Ballots reflecting the change as well). You vote Blue or you don't fucking vote. Harris and Warren run on the idea of being "co-Presidents" meaning they agree to switch positions every four years to maintain up to 16 years of continuity, stability and sanity without violating the Constitution as Trump and his nationalist cult would.

Harris and Warren take the White House, take the Oath of Office, and stop being Winter Queens ONLY once the threat has passed. Democrats and ONLY those are present in Congress, Bitch McConnell in particular HANGS for supporting Trump, and the ENTIRE Supreme Court gets replaced. Advanced security camera orbs go up everywhere and the sky darkens with black helicopters and drones watching EVERYTHING and EVERYONE. Every damned thing locks down so damned tight people make kazoo noises when they fart and Tupperware starts to seem sloppy by comparison.

Are you back-biting traitors at CNN not entertained? This is all your fault. Fuck your shit-show softball "debates."

But yes, there's a chance. There's a chance to save society, but those who can, have to get on it NOW. There literally is no more time.

[meandmybigmouth]

477 MILLION DOLLARS A DAY? BOY!, SOMEONE'S GOING TO CATCH HELL OVER THAT!. AND GUESS WHAT? HE DIDN'T!. AND THEN? ANOTHER STUNT!. COSTING 124 MILLION?

THIS IS REPUBLICAN SPENDING IN A NUTSHELL! AND THE LACK OF ACCOUNTABLILITY FOR IT WITH NO CONSEQUENCE AND YET THE GOP AS A PARTY BLAMES INFRATSRUCTURE AND OTHER DEMOCRATIC SPENDING AS WRECKLESS?