#while trumps is more 'well he Says hes doing this and historically has Not done it but in fact made it worse. hes telling the truth!'

[mx-paint]

trump could say word for word that he wants all non white people to be fired at and people would Still say that he's 'for everyone'

[angrybell]

He’s so appalled he’s done…. Absolutely nothing.

Jews get harassed and attacked at rallies. Biden does nothing.

Jews get harassed and attacked on campus. Biden does nothing.

Jews get harassed and attacked at their synagogue. Biden sends a tweet.

Why is the majority of my community supporting this man and this party? He’s never been a real friend. He hates Jews when they defend themselves. He likes us as victim, but not enough to do anything tangible.

Has Garland been ordered to prosecute s1985 cases, treating these pro “Palestinian” thugs like the KKK as they should be? No.

He wants to import more of them.

He wants to reward their terror by supporting an independent “Palestine”. The only people who will profit from this are the terrorists who want formal recognition because it affords them more protections for when they launch their next 10/7 style attack.

So why are we supporting this man? He’s not good for us.

Oh that’s right.. Trump. Did Trump permit pogroms? Did Trump undercut Israel trying to destroy a terrorist organization?

No. He did worse. He said mean things.

Don’t tell me that Biden did things better than Trump. Most of Biden’s successes are continuations to Trump’s policies. Most of the failures are Biden’s personal or party initiatives.

Do you not see the absolute insanity?

I get that many in the community are unable to override three or more generations of indoctrination that American Jewish protection can only come from the Democrats. It makes absolutely no sense historically when you consider that the Democrats were the ones who

Was the party of the KKK.

Strictly enforced the immigration quotas against the Jews before and during

Did not criticize Hitler for his treatment of the Jews and other minorities by the Nazis

Obama embraced and provided funds to nations, most notably Iran, who had committed or orchestrated acts of terror against Jews in Israel and around the world. He then tried to make it possible for them to construct nuclear weapons through a deal that perversely was sold as a deal to prevent Iran from making nuclear weapons.

Have continually elected openly antisemitic members to Congress for the past decade.

Biden has tried to prevent Israel from rescuing American and Israeli Jews held by Hamas by establishing a “red line” when it comes to Rafah.

Our allegiance to the Democrats is a poisonous inheritance of our ancestors. Back in Eastern Europe, the socialists were the only ones not likely to participate in the pogroms while the Russian and Austrian-Hungarian Empires existed. And because of that, Jews were attracted to that. Yes, there are some aspects of their program that agrees with Jewish culture, but many of those same areas can also be found with conservative movements as well.

What worked, badly, for the Jewish community at the start of the 29th century does not work for us anymore. Remaining wed to the Democrats is like an abused spouse saying “they really will change this time.”

They’re not. They’ve promised to get worse.

So, are we going to vote for our own destruction? Or are we going to use our power and votes to support someone, or just as importantly to support someone?

I get that if you’ve gotten this far you’ve at least thought of something along these lines but then you get to the other option: Trump. He’s been more vilified than any politician in American politics in the last half century. He’s got a lot of faults. So maybe you’re not ready to vote for him.

Fine. At least don’t vote for Biden. And, if you live in one of the districts, don’t vote for members of the “The Squad”. Don’t donate to the Democrats or groups that are simply going to give it to Biden.

Otherwise, you’re saying you’re fine with where this heading. Another 4 years of Democrat rule is not going to fix the problems we’re experiencing. It’s going to make them worse.

[ghostowlattic]

"No Food has entered"

Oh my, why would food do such a thing? How could food do it anyhow? Strange.

It would seem kind of important, unless this is pure propaganda, to add that our country's current admin. and Israel are the ones blocking food and aid. to purposely starve 400,000 + people. And to mention also that Biden/Harris/Blinken personally signed off on attacking aid trucks and ambulances.

Aid trucks and ambulances.

It's absurdist, agonizing really, reading western headlines as they constantly try to twist reality daily. When you watch the events yourself or see them live streamed online, only to see headlines moments later which purposely misinform, it becomes even more clear how much the western media keeps people in a manipulated bubble. Which was clear anyhow but it sure does become more apparent when you really see it in action working overtime.

I'm sad and somewhat surprised to watch the 'left', Dems mostly, of the USA be so quiet. People who seemed good at picking apart those police shooting articles saying, 'a police officer was holding a gun today when 3 of the bullets inside it killed a teen'. You know, where it's obvious they write anything to distort responsibility or even blame the victim? Now headline after headline is the same about our actions in the world and there is so much---silence!? Is the manipulation just working really well, or people are ignoring it for the election? Why does the Democrat's morality always seems to stop at the border? I certainly can't expect much humanity from Republicans.

I was always deeply hurt learning about the holocaust. I was a rather weird kid who studied all of those things very early on, including Cambodia, Pol Pot, Vietnam, more recent world history in general than my classes ever approached. Call me crazy but, I thought the lesson was that we could never let that happen again to anyone. To PEOPLE. To ANYONE.

Now it feels like we could be shoving people into gas chambers, we're already starving them and burning them alive, and it's like hey, isn't this great we just can't let this happen to Jewish people again? I'm like what the living fuck, this isn't what I signed up for. No one should be treated this way, nobody.

How can people here defend women's rights -- then be quiet about your nation helping to starve half a million women and children to death? No conflict there?

Is this what Trump did to us, is this our national soul now even for those who oppose him? Saying nothing while burning people alive in hospital beds!?

Trump is obviously a walking piece of living excrement and certainly isn't better in any regard, but anyone able to stay silent or not criticize your own nation and party as 100 thousand people are murdered in your name, as entire populations are being purposely starved, if it's just because they think it might spoil the election and it's 'not the time', how are they possibly a better human than he is?

Harris has now fully committed herself to this horror sadly, she said there was not single mistake made, and that she would have done NOTHING differently this year. Nothing. She added she will put NO RESTRICTIONS on Israel. Affirming she far right of Richard Nixon of all people, who you can see on historic videos warning people why we should never ever write Israel a blank check or they will bomb everyone in the region. It's truly weird to listen to Dick fucking Nixon explain why you need peace and love in the world more than the current Democrat running in 2024, things are probably a bit out of hand.

So what would be much for Americans? Democrats for that matter, it's not like I can expect Republicans to grow a heart if they ever had any, but everyone else? Because it's feeling like there is no limit. Officially it's over 41,000 but we know the number is more likely over 100k.

There are now over one million people displaced in a week. Is that not too much??

Then there is Aaron Bushnell, a 25 yo US serviceman who set himself aflame this year, burned himself alive saying it doesn't even compare to what Palestinians are going through, and notice how few Americans seem to give a shit or notice? Democrats seemed awfully offended by Trumps treatment of the military and yet our own soldiers set themselves on FIRE? Killing themselves in protest and, nothing?

400,000 in Gaza with no food since October 1. Are we going to just sit and wait for them to starve? This isn't a natural disaster. Civilians, women, children killed in mass numbers and this is still the good side of the country? How can anyone discuss something as important as abortion and women's rights while starving and bombing women and children in great numbers and not find that a bit...conflicting?

It was so soulless to see this morning, after watching the IDF burn people alive as it happened this week -- that Sky News had the gal to use those VERY images, those of burning people alive in hospital beds, with a story instead about Iran's missile attack, that killed no one, from a week earlier. Knowing people will likely conclude the terrible things they are seeing were not done by the IDF and the West, but Iran. Over and over straight up propaganda.

History will remember this. And since those involved are having such a 'great' time live streaming their own atrocities on social media, it's making it the most documented genocide in history and will be watched in detail for generations to come. It's insane to watch people openly discuss they want genocide and be very honest about it, to live stream theirselves killing people and to see them play in children's clothes after murdering them and just look at how passive Americans are. As the news is full of strange headlines like the one above..where FOOD magically keeps itself out of places with no reason or logic, starvation, bombings, displaced people, by....this mysterious nobody! Manipulation... the loss of active verbs will astound you.

I mean, I really do not have love for Nazis and bigots, I dislike seeing any sort of hate and fascism in fury. So, how could I not find it equally unnerving to see a huge group of American Israeli supporters this week carrying flags with stars of David, singing the melody of Hey Jude to 'No more Gaza', and laughing and chanting for the death of 2 million human beings? How is this morally different? Are people really so absurd that if the very same forms of hatred return but it's a diff symbol or reversed it's just unnoticed? Defended even? Are people really just led by some weird guilt so the holocaust was a get-one-free holocaust card for one specific group of people, instead of lesson to defend human life and dignity for everyone???

It makes me wonder, what was our entire culture about? Movies, art, lessons, all the supposed morals and novels from war and fiction and our own history? What was all these decades of artists, shows, film makers, going on and on about humanist topics worth? Streaming years worth of documentaries online about humanity, history, society - only to sit as it happens all over again? How can American liberals watch Republicans lie and say crazy things like immigrants will eat your pets, and laugh at it, and say damn we're not that stupid - but then Israel tells the world Palestinians and Syrians and Lebanese and pretty much every Arab in the world sleeps with a missile under their bed and you're like shit well here's billions of dollars and weapons go end them all? How can you not recognize the same techniques or just really so equally racist? What was the point of culture and movies or documentaries, even Star Wars -- any of these moralistic stories, if you all just sit here and let it happen again without saying a word? Does it have to come dressed in the same attire for you to recognize it?

I don't use FB a ton lately but I will post this here. I don't even try to share overly or get too personal online but with this, I feel it's not good for my soul to not say something more. Fuck Trump forever and I hope he loses or better yet dissolves into a pile of goo, but how can anyone else actually sit at ease or stay silent when this this current admin is fully supporting this and signing off to attack aid workers? If fascism is bad...isn't fkn' genocide?? Are you really ok if its not inside America?? Really? Even good ole American dad Tim Walz says he supports this mass death, so there's your cuddly football coach for you.

I cannot in good faith back my government's actions or those supporting this. This is beyond atrocious and I only can wish people can find their true hearts.

I get that human beings just aren't there yet, we are pretty much just mostly hairless apes fresh off the plains. I try not to be very misanthropic because I don't expect too much from people in the first place. I think there is an endless amount of love and beauty in people.

Still I'm disheartened by my own people on the 'good' side mostly. And with, ignorant celebs like Bill Maher are obviously assholes, most know that I guess, but still. Watching him and other libs saying gay people would be thrown off of a roof by Palestinians, just weeks after I literally watched Israelis blindfold Palestinians and throw them off of a building to their deaths, one after the other, feels like the most demonic gaslighting. Is there some throwing people off of buildings morality system I'm unaware of, or is that generally like, a terrible thing to do? And if being homophobic is a reason for genocide, then what of many of my Texan neighbors, Trump supporters, and the entire USA or half the planet? And I know this is crazy but, I wouldn't want to burn them alive or use white phosphorous on them or starve entire Republican cities to death either. Go figure?

I have friends in Israel and all over that I care for much, I want peace and safety for as many in this world as can be. But there is no way I can defend this, or any apartheid system for that matter.

There is nothing anyone can do that justifies this being done to anyone. Not terrorism, nothing. If you think 'terrorism' justifies collective death punishment and starvation maybe it's time to reconsider if you have a soul.

At very least perhaps we can like, not starve half a million people this month and fight for their dignity. Even just more people saying anything at all.

DIGNITY, something all humans deserve.

Wishing everyone truly a beautiful week and life, and hoping for much better for everyone.

[honouredsnakeprincess]

Well, friendos, you probably didn't expect three notes in the course of an evening, even if the first was kind of nothing! Season 3 Episode 1 has given me a fair few things to say, though!

First, the pettiness and minutiae:

I like the new yorker fellow. Didn't quite catch his name, but I like his accent (is that a new york accent? don't rightly know).

This might be another 'seeing 3d models where none actually existed' incident, but I couldn't help but notice that ECorp was marked as "Evil Corp" when Mr Robot was going through that power plant search engine, which is something it isn't changed to when Elliot isn't present. I don't recall if Mr Robot does this too, but if he doesn't (and part of me suspects he does not) then Elliot might be more aware of things than immediately apparent.

It really seems like the calm relationship between Elliot and Mr Robot has gone away. :( That's pretty sad, I was happy they were getting on better for a while there, but I guess that wasn't set to last given how much of the show's core drama relies on that conflict.

Angela seems to have been largely stripped of her dynamism and pluckiness. Previously she has been a very active character, moving from one plan to the next and constantly adapting, but that seems to have ceased following the surrealism. We'll see where this goes.

Anyways, the main thing I want to talk is politics. Boo! The scary communist is going to be mildly critical of 2017-era American liberalism!

This show really is a product of its time, and I kind of adore it for that! I regard it almost as a work of fantastical historical fiction, even though I was obviously very much alive in 2017. Still, I think sometime in my coverage of late season 1, I expressed some hesitancy towards how the show portrayed revolutionary activity; obviously the actions of a small cadre of individuals will not be sufficient to usher in a revolution, and merely disrupting large financial institutions is unlikely to actually have a substantial destabilizing effect on capital-at-large. I think I expressed some hope that the show would grapple with this.

It seems to have sort of done so, but in a way I'm not sure I agree with entirely? The 5/9 attack did not meaningfully damage capitalism, or even destroy Evil Corp, it just caused what seems to be a depression and some infrastructural failure, and enabled economic meddling by the Scary Chinese. Mostly, it just made the lives of individual people kind of shittier by disrupting financial services and depriving them of their savings, mortgages, etc. The richest characters we meet in season 2 are largely unaffected in their personal holdings and comforts.

In this episode, Elliot decides to take the blames for every stress and strain caused by these events onto his own shoulders in a montage cutting between clips of Donald Trump, Angela Merkel (I think? Might've been her British counterpart, I've a bad habit of failing to differentiate between German Bundeskanzlers and British Prime Ministers and I don't care enough to check at this point), the construction of border walls, and scenes of abject poverty, and this speaks to a view of politics I don't specifically think is sound.

Certainly, economic instability is something that is latched onto by reactionary elements in government, but I think to contextualize this properly we have to situate Mr Robot as a historical text~! I am not a historian of 21st century Americana, nor do I much want to be, but I think I have the broad strokes down.

The Occupy Wall Street movement, from which this show takes a lot of its first season's politics, was fundamentally not a consciously proletarian movement. It was overwhelmingly white office workers, who tend to hold themselves apart from the wider proletariat (even when they ultimately share most of their interests with said class) by virtue of being "management", and lacked a strong political programme. Ultimately, these were liberals protesting against a liberal system that had mistreated them specifically, they were not protesting against the general predations of capital.

Many of the same people who were strongly supportive of the Occupy movement during its height were shocked and appalled when Donald Trump ran for public office, and even more upset when he won the Presidency despite projections that his opponent would easily best him. This was not inherently an unreasonable reaction, the man's a fucking reactionary and there isn't much to like about him or his policy!

The great difficulty is that many of these liberals took to exceptionalizing Trump as a far more significant figure than he actually was, likely due to his almost complete abandonment of euphemism and modesty when going about the horrid business of American governance. Border fascism had long been a bipartisan position (as we can see by recent criticisms of Trump during the 2024 elections not being for calling to build a wall, but for failing to deliver on said promise), but under Trump this took the form of loudly and belligerently calling to "build a wall and make the Mexicans pay for it". Similarly, travel restrictions on muslim-majority countries and on people with arabic-sounding names were not new by the time of the Trump administration, but calling such measures a "muslim ban" certainly was!

Essentially, Trump and his broader wave of reactionary politicians, while certainly a step in a rightward direction generally, were more significant in the respect that they raised the volume of what were already mainstream right-wing or bipartisan political beliefs! Courting white nationalists was not new; courting white nationalists as blatantly as this was new and outrageous!

This was scary! This was apocalyptic! Had fascism finally come to roost in its ancestral homeland? The astute commentators noted that in some respects it had lived in America for decades at that point, and still some elements of fascist politics had yet to arrive. At the end of the day, Trump was only a little bit outside of the norm in terms of actual policy, the horrors of "trumpism" were much the same horrors his immediate predecessors had carried out, and would be carried out by his successor in the presidency as well. Still, this shakeup in discourse if not in policy created a certain millenarian feeling in American and broader "Western" politics, a sense of doom that had long been impending but which now affected the specific type of white, "not rich but comfortable" liberal office-workers who had driven the Occupy movement.

So here is Mr Robot, which has spent two seasons criticizing corporate America, and whose viewpoint character must now absolve everyone from Adam Smith to money to the corporate structure and on and on of their guilt in the deterioration of conditions, in order to place the blame squarely on his own shoulders, and resolve that the current crisis must come to an end, and everything must return to some kind of status quo.

Mr Robot does not want to return to the status quo, for his part, but now he is in the company of a woman who has literally been brainwashed, a murderer/former corporate executive, a shady hacker circle with no ethical standing, and subversive foreign elements from China. I don't think he is meant to be right here!

I don't know where this is going, but the more I think about it the more apprehensive I get, frankly. I could be entirely wrong about this, too, and I'm still enjoying the show quite a lot, so I will keep watching in the future.

Angela's monologue at the end of the episode also had a certain millenarian quality to it, even more literally with talk of the birth of a new world and it being ended by the return of light to the city. I wanted to work this in somehow to my commentary on historical and political context, but I forgot how I was going to do that. Good song, too.

[sage-nebula]

Trump was the one to declare Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv, spitting in the faces of Palestinians who viewed Jerusalem as Palestine's capital. In his own words:

"But today, we finally acknowledge the obvious: that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. This is nothing more, or less, than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. It’s something that has to be done."

Trump also stated during a speech in Iowa that if he is reelected, he will not permit any Palestinian refugees to enter the United States:

"We aren’t bringing in anyone from Gaza. [. . .] If you empathize with radical Islamic terrorists and extremists, you’re disqualified. If you want to abolish the state of Israel, you’re disqualified."

Trump also called pro-Palestine demonstrations in the U.S. "pro-Jihadist rallies," but I can't find a direct quote for that, only claims that he said it.

The point is, Trump made it clear in the run up to (and during) his first presidency that he is Islamophobic and racist. He hates Muslims and anyone from Muslim-dominant countries. He has also made it abundantly clear through policy he enacted while in office and his words in this very campaign that he is staunchly pro-Israel and will not only happily let Palestinians die, but will probably drone strike Gaza and the West Bank himself to help Israel out. He'll end the "conflict" in a decisive victory for Israel.

Now you may say, "Well I'm not voting for him, I'm voting third party!" The problem is, that IS a vote for him, and here's why:

In the past handful of decades at least, Republicans have been very, very good at voting along their party line regardless of the candidate. No matter how much they quibble in the primaries, they show up at the general to vote for their guy and make sure he gets the electoral votes he needs. This is how they've won so many Congress seats, how Republicans have gotten the presidency at all. Because even when a candidate bows out of the race, they will vote for the one who beat them, because they believe the overall party goals (e.g. repealing Roe v. Wade, which they did) are more important.

So Republicans are never, ever going to vote for a third party candidate. Never. But Democrats?

The U.S. political left DELIGHTS in eating itself alive from the inside out. We are EXCELLENT at in-fighting and dividing. This is how things like George W. Bush's 2000 electoral win and Trump's 2016 electoral win happen. Because the Republicans will never break ranks, but the Democrats? Well, we care about the small details rather than the big picture, so we do. Which means that WE'RE the ones who vote third party. So it ends up being that OUR votes are split, and NEITHER the Democratic candidate nor the third party candidate has enough votes to beat the Republican candidate, and so the Republican candidate wins.

And THAT is why your third party vote is, in the end, a vote for Trump.

"But what if ALL the Dems just voted third party—"

And what if Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk decided to distribute their wealth out to the poor people who actually need it. That won't happen. Most registered Democrats are not on social media (and especially not tumblr) so they won't read this plan. They also have historical precedence to believe it won't work. They also might genuinely feel that Biden's pros outweigh his cons. They also might have never heard of the third party candidate you suggest, so on and so forth.

Look. The two party system sucks. The electoral college ABSOLUTELY sucks and should be abolished. But it's what we have to work with right now and that won't change between now and November. So if you care about queer people (especially trans people), and people of color, and women, and Palestinians, and refugees, and everyone who would be harmed by Project 2025 . . . you won't hand this election to Trump.

"Biden is funding a literal genocide!"

Yeah - and so will Trump. Like, if you don't vote for Biden, Trump will win, and he will continue to send aid to Israel - in fact, he will likely send MORE aid to Israel. That's the reality of the world we live in.

And, to be honest, any US president will support Israel. Because the USA is Israel's ally. That's how foreign policy works.

So who do you prefer?

Biden, who has helped lgbtq rights, reproductive rights, infrastructure, the environment, lowered medication costs, supported unions, and done MANY good, progressive things,

Or Trump, who we already know is awful. Who we already know will destroy any human rights Biden managed to gain. Who will not help the environment. Who will not help trans people, or immigrants, or women.

Because those are your two choices. And if you think they're the same, you are dangerous to all marginalized people.

[starsunfirelight]

Thoughts about the election.

First off all, let me tell you that I am not surprised. It took an incredible amount of my effort to vote for Kamala, because she reminded me so much of my mother. And Trump, now that I see it, reminds me of my father. Maybe of me, back when I was idealistic and starry eyed and had no clue what I was being subjected to. Anyways, I feel like I might be one of the few people on this planet earth uniquely qualified to tell you what’s going on. So let me do that.

But first, a quick disclaimer

My dad's the one who told me to vote for Kamala in the first place. He told me trump was being dumb and racist, while I was being a dumb idiot 😭 So the comparisons aren't quite exact.

Like yeah obviously Trump does this. Trump isn't a good person? Bruh that's like saying the sky is blue. Sure, the sky might be closer to cyan, and Trump might do a tiny bit of good, but really? Really? hopefully you get my point here

But also, look at Kamala.

CAP Action

@CAPAction

Kamala Harris: "As a prosecutor I never asked a victim or a witness, are you a Republican or a Democrat? The only thing I ever asked to them, are you okay?" That's leadership. #Debate2024

In my mind, Joe Biden would never say that. And yet...

He shows his kindness and camaraderie through his actions.

Actions speak loader than words.

So you're saying all politicians are evil?? Yeah, we knew that, duh

I mean, not necessarily, but like even if so, there are MUCH better politicians out there. That's what I'm trying to tell you.

Like Kamala if she spoke her heart and didn't just listen to her team. Maybe then. She's got a good heart and is reasonable about things. Just not like this.

(I kinda make the assumption that Kamala is evil but actually it might be her team's fault... :O like Trump! he's just dumb, it's his team that's evil! but he's also racist too... eh different issue)

Kamala = foiled by money

Trump = foiled by being out of touch/dumb/emotions/just not being a good person, though I believe he could be (that's dangerous, kids 😭) (don't be like 'I can fix him' if you trying to do that is going to get you killed 😭) (plus not everyone wants to be fixed, and saying that you're going to 'fix' them is actually really messed up)

So here's the rest of the post.

Harris = animal farm

Trump = 1984 (we kind already lived that way before trump was elected, and maybe this is a break from that?)

Which dystopia do YOU wanna live in? (:

That’s the election for you.

Well, in actuality, things are not quite that simple. (Trump could be animal farm too, or something worse, or something different, but you knew that, right?) With Harris, things would have stayed mostly the same, and maybe incrementally got better. Over a really long period of time. But Americans wanted real change. They wanted it now. (America is famously impatient, as you know with how they treated climate change and the whole "do it now and push off the consequences for later" thing). They were tired of not being able to understand complicated things, and were tired of “oh, you don’t understand it? That just means I’m better than you, stupid.” or “you don’t understand it? That means you’re racist.” and if they weren’t before, then they were more inclined to be now. It’s polarization, radicalization, on both sides. Us vs them. Yea disney has been trying to be inclusive, like they have been in the past, but now they are doing it because they are an evil corporate hegemony and want the most clicks. Or it's an obligation, which ties back to... more clicks. Sure, some people care, but representation is best done because you’re not fussed about it-- that’s your friend, and that’s all there is to it. There should be no “incentive” or it feels unfair and high key ingenuine (almost like a racist parody, which would actually be more inclusive in that case)* and offensive. People get to be in power just because of their race, and even if there is a historical reason, I don’t care the movie is bad. It’s an excuse to be the bully with everyone feeling like a socially ostracized villain for saying anything at all. That’s why people hate Kamala. They knew she wasn’t for the people and this was just an ego trip for herself and she was acting so smug because she thought people had no choice but to vote for her. Well tough luck.

Like SNL’s version was better than the real dry and humorless real person. I feel like I could see it in Maya’s face, “I hate you, and I don’t quite understand you, but I’ve got to grit and bear this because I want you to win this election, just like everyone around me because no diverse opinions are allowed here, right?” Like how much do you wanna bet Kamala's own team was racist, against her, and didn't want her to succeed? Just like Olivia Rodrigo (poor girl needs a better team 😭) (but also this is just my suspicion) (she also isn't standing up for herself.. that's a whole other thing, for another time). But like also Kamala is extremely unlikable. People hate humble braggers THE MOST out of everyone on planet earth. Trust me, I used to act just like that, like, to the dot. Then I spent a really long time trying to figure out "why doesn't anyone like me 🥺☹️" but now I know. It's strictly because I wasn't being myself. If you are, then at least someone is going to like you, already does, and the rest of everyone will at least respect you. Or they don't matter, because you have the back of everyone who does like you, for who you are. Just give them common decency like every human being deserves, and be willing to change your mind. Basically, you need to be able to have a sense of humor, (not copying, what actually makes you laugh), and be open about that. That's it. (if they don't like you it's ok, not everyone will and that's how you know you're a real one)

But Kamala showing up on SNL was a power move. She showed up there "hm. my team tells me people like 'me' on SNL.' " (YEAH CUZ MAYA RUDOLPH IS ACTUALLY FUNNY, RESPECTFUL, AND KIND UNLIKE YOU who just follows a script and tells everyone what they wanna hear, or what you think they wanna hear/what your team tells you to say and that's it. Like logan paul's sad excuse of an apology. Like Miranda sings. You think you can manipulate us?????? Just like Trump????? Like she was acting so much like Trump in the debate, it's crazy. I thought we agreed that acting like that.... was bad? 🤨)

But anyways. She thought "Let me go on SNL because my team tells me it's popular and then people will like me more." smh clout chaser.

She totally showed up Maya Rudolph 😭 like think about how they're going to feel 😭 maybe I'm wrong on this...

She's not cool like Obama. Arguably, Trump is. Showing up to SNL was the "plan" and not something she was excited to do out of the kindness of her heart, with the bonus it could have the benefit of getting to show people her personality. Tim Walz killed it on that front. He's a teacher. He's your dad, that you used to have years ago. He genuinely wants to connect with the youth, and help people. He used to be a teacher, and is now a governor. We get him. We trust him. He's likable. He's cool. (yeah could be biased here and not seeing the other side, but that's just the impression I get from what I've seen.)

No. She just wanted more votes. Maybe a little ego boost of "woo! people like me here!" *insert her laugh here* as a small plus. um, sorry if I'm being racist or something, but also like I said, I'm kinda biased because of me and my mother, but you don't understand just how hard it has been to convince people that my mom isn't nice even though she may appear to be. Maybe some of you do. I'm sorry. I just hope you can see my point. even if just a little :/ im sorry 😭

Having humor and being personable like Trump requires great understanding of the people, and he has far more connection to the people than she and her party ever did this election cycle. Everyone hates the teacher who takes things way too seriously, but loves the class clown, right? They were just hoping for power and control, and hoping that this “hostage situation” as the Times called it would pay off. They were trying to control us, not exactly help us. Help enough so that they still get to have control. At least Trump was honest about who he was. He does care about the people (even rich people, at least he was honest about that), even if he’s stupid, and the people could see that. He has charisma and you need that if you want to gain the respect of other world leaders. He’s too stupid to see he’s being manipulated, but I have hope that if he has someone that he trusts and is willing to listen, and share their expertise with them, we might be able to avoid some stuff. But if not, he’s like me. I see myself in him. I see my parents and like the general sentiment of the public in him too. He doesn’t understand, doesn’t trust anyone to understand, and is about to learn the hard way why everyone does things the way that they have been. But also, I’ve got this feeling that he is right about some things. Like in the debate, he accepted that he was going to lose, “why are you looking at me funny, I’m right.” (he didn’t know he was wrong), so he shifted and started talking about something he knew very well, and had evidence to back him up. He did a good thing, and he was like “y’all better not mess this up, I’m warning you now.” (I’m talking about how he dealt with Afghanistan, and even if it’s bad, it kinda worked short term?) And you could really see that leadership quality in him, and the confidence to know what he is talking about. He wasn’t there to appease the largest group of people possible. He was there to speak his honest mind. Like Bernie. We should have elected Bernie…

That’s why Kamala failed, her team carefully controlled her, when Trump’s team is genuinely helping him win and is appeasing to his emotions. It's a different type of control that lets Trump be himself, and also super confident (he doesn’t know he is wrong.) And if the people didn’t know he was wrong, his argument looks really convincing. (Cue me, super dumb, and me before I learned about the debate. I thought the whole cat thing was real because of one wildly misrepresented clip on tiktok 😭) It’s super easy to believe misinformation because of the fact that it’s so hard to combat. Especially since the social media algorithms designed by execs that care about making the most money as possible while not losing their customer base straight up designed it so people stay on the platform as long as possible, which encourages misinformation. and no room for thinking your own thoughts, because everything goes so fast and the stupid herd mentality that’s in practically EVERYTHING. It’s so bad. 

So please extend a hand out to people you disagree with, and try to maybe see where they’re coming from. When Harris said “we’re not going back”, it felt like a kid losing the ability to go to his favorite toy store, just because he threw a tantrum once. “I swear I’ll be on my best behavior, mama 🥺 😭” (what she really should have said was “working towards a better future, different from how it is now” but she didn’t because she didn’t want that/believe in that cuz she likes how it is now, even if the people hate her for it -_-)

People do want to go back.

I think that’s true, on both sides. The people want unity and kindness, and not have to be gaslighted in every direction. Gay people don’t want to be gaslighted into thinking they’re not. Straight people don’t want to be gaslighted into thinking they’re not. People don’t want to be ostracized for being true to themselves. Trans people (a reeeeeally small fraction of the population) want to be treated like normal people, and parents don’t want their clearly not trans kid to be constantly gaslighted into thinking they could be. (the case they really are trans is a case of mental illness, and trans people will tell you that they don’t wish that mental illness on anyone who isn’t truly suffering from it already.) I know you think I’m being racist here, or that doesn’t happen, but peer pressure is real, and it would probably have benefit the movement to just have representation sometimes and to not make it so public. Because people want stability, they want to see that they can be themselves without having to fit into this certain box. People can act a certain way and IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT THEY ARE TRANS. And the ones who really are and have been are, and I cannot stress this enough, an extremely small portion of the population, and have been struggling with a mental illness so bad it’s either this or basically die, at that point, in their lives. They really had to fight for it back when it wasn't cool so you know they're being serious.

People want gender equality, and not being forced to sit in a box one way or another. That used to be the case. Boys and girls could do basically anything and they wouldn't get made fun of because that was the norm (I'm talking boys with long hair and more feminine clothes, the color pink, girls in short hair and being sporty, girls can already do a lot cuz ww2 maybe? idk like this is a whole thing)

“Oh, I’m calling you she/he because labels don’t really matter to me, I’m gonna treat you the same. I see blue, I’m going to say blue. I have eyes.”

“Oh, I don’t care how you call me because I see that gender is completely made up-”

“Exactly!”

“So I can be anything I want.”

“😐…” “But, isn’t it convenient to just accept your default one, then? I mean, we’re going to treat you the same regardless. It makes the mental gymnastics so much easier, and we can accommodate you for the tiny differences that do exist when they come up. Because it’s important to not ignore reality too.”

“But I wanna ignore reality 😭 I grew up in a world where I could customize myself however I want, and I wanna do the same in real life too 😭 plus I really DO get more respect if I change “boxes” because I get called ‘trans’ for acting like myself, so much so that I caved into peer pressure, and it’s easier this way…”

“So then aren’t you keeping up gender norms, rather than defying them?”

“I mean, ”

mental gymnastics = trying to figure out just how misogynist/not misogynist I should treat you aka you're maybe being mean here or you're just confused and you're trying, bottom line just call them what they want to be called and don't be mean to people

if girl/boy then you can relate to me, I have trauma and am scared of one of them, idk could be sad like that too 😞

it's entirely possible for two people to look the same and also maybe act the same but one's a boy and the other's a girl, that's just how life works

need more representation of that very fact? could solve everything

And that’s where I’m going to cut off this conversation because I don’t know if it’s fair and it might (probably does) need more input. I’m willing to hear more people out on this, but please know this comes from me trying to learn about it as much as I can, and hopefully not out of ignorance. Please let me know if there’s something I don’t get here.

Basically we all just want to stop making it be ok to say that you are gay/trans for attention. On both, no, all sides.

Maybe what I described isn’t true for some people, but I think it is true for the vast majority (just my personal view from what I’ve seen, could be wrong though) and that’s what our parents see. They’re upset, because they love us. They don’t see a reason to change, because they love us. (I mean some people are racist and what not but I don’t think it’s fair to assume that of like half of America. You get bad stuff that way, like I said before!! :( ) Even if they are racist, it’s because of bias and personal experiences, just like how some women hate men. See? The issue is similar on both sides. (I know that sounds bad, but please hear me out here 😭) And it’s become this way because of the massive polarization, and how no one is willing to talk to each other. Like Kamala,

“I’m not gonna compromise on my morals”

Trump supporters

“I’m not gonna stand for being accused of being racist”

YOU FOOLS, YOU BOTH WANT THE SAME EXACT THING!!!!! 🤦

this leads to

Trump himself

"alright, I'll just be racist anyways since you really seem to think I am"

So you see, that’s my gripe with America right now. I kinda feel more free now because

No insurrection or something worse

Things ARE going to change, we can be sure of that. It's a lot easier to say "hey, look. that's a big scary monster, it's bad, and going to eat us. we have to do something about it NOW." rather than trying to fight an invisible monster, where you first have time to convince everyone that the monster exists in. the first place, and then convince them to do something about it NOW. People have been trying to tell us for ages, America just sees the problem now. for what it is. hopefully. this time, it's gonna happen, right? 😭 no. that's the wrong attitude. If we want change, WE have to be the ones to make it happen.

The vibe has shifted to be more open minded, almost immediately (even thought it was out of fear, yeah, see how that feels?????)

Can we go back to something that’s similar to the 90’s? Because that’s what everyone (me) wants, and our parents see it too. It might happen the same way poor people benefit by not having technology simply because they can’t afford it, so they are more creative, but also happy because they don’t have to worry about it too. like no missing out or whatever, less choice and more forced to do it

It really is that darn phone.

Young people were so tired of not getting a voice and thinking they were completely subject to what the people at the media corps wanted. 

Not anymore.

*to do a parody right, it means you really have to get to know the person, so it's actually inclusive ironically enough. also you treat them as an equal and not some tiny weak little creature that needs to be protected and deserves special privileges. people who think they deserve special privileges? there's a word for that. it's called entitlement, you know, the thing they shame trump for being.

yea I guess a lot of the things they accuse trump for doing, they are just showing a reflection of themselves :\

(could be super wrong there, and I'm sorry)

parodys are done out of love, corporate disney films these days are NOT (always).

Can’t make fun of kamala it just doesn’t hit

Memes feel forced

Trump couldn't even do it?? Like you need a defining personality trait to get made fun of for it.

It also has to be ok to make fun of them too.

So yeah. The people can feel that. And now America is going to feel it too.

(I'm really sorry for being mean 😭)

[bllsbailey]

New Poll Suggests Kamala Totally Committed Political Suicide

In the early days of Kamala Harris’s campaign, her public appearances were meticulously scripted and tightly controlled. When she finally stepped into more open interviews, she failed to seize the moment to do what was crucial. Polls have shown that voters want a different direction for the country, and despite her claiming to be the "change" candidate, she's avoiding creating distance between herself and the unpopular Biden-Harris administration.

It may cost her dearly.

According to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll, three-quarters of Americans "want her to take a new direction from President Joe Biden's, most don't think she would."

The poll, produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates with fieldwork by Ipsos, finds that the public by a broad 74%-22%, would prefer to see Harris go in a new direction as president rather than continue the policies of the Biden administration. Even most Democrats say so. But that's not what most people expect: 65% instead think Harris mainly would continue Biden's policies, vs. 33% who say she'd chart a new course. Desire for change reflects how the Biden administration continues to labor under deeply negative ratings of its economic performance. Forty-four percent of Americans say they're not as well off financially as they were when Biden took office, roughly where it's been since early 2023 and tying the most in polling since 1986. Few, 18%, say they're better off, though that's up from 13% in January.

Kamala has had plenty of opportunities to come up with an explanation for what makes her different from Joe Biden, yet she's choked every time. During an appearance on “The View,” co-host Sunny Hostin asked what Kamala would have done differently than Biden over the past four years. Her answer was stunningly tone-deaf: “There is not a thing that comes to mind.” This only reinforced her unwavering alignment with Biden’s policies.

Later, on “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert, Kamala faced a similar question about how a Harris administration would differ from Biden’s. Her response fell flat: “Well, I mean, I’m obviously not Joe Biden,” she said, offering no clear vision or policy distinctions. Instead, she defaulted to familiar rhetoric about her love for the country and its people, avoiding any real substance.

Kamala's surrogates can't even make a case that Kamala would be substantively different from Joe Biden.

Mitch Landrieu, the co-chair of the Harris-Walz campaign, appeared on CNN Thursday morning to discuss hurricane response and was given an opportunity to do what Kamala couldn't: explain what makes Kamala different from Joe Biden. 

He had no answer, either.

"Mayor, I do want to shift completely to campaign mode for a second, if I can, while I have you, because you are one of the national chairs of the Harris campaign, and you were one of the national chairs of the Biden campaign," host John Berman began. "To that end, Vice President Harris has been asked repeatedly how she's different than President Biden. And some people think she's been tripped up by answering that. How do you think she is different than President Biden?"

"Well, first of all, whatever the difference is between them, it's not nearly as vast as the difference between her and Donald Trump," Landrieu replied. This was a terrible answer, and it got worse.

"She's obviously a woman. She is a woman of color, and she is of a new generation."

Kamala's a woman of color? Who knew?

"So, she is not Joe Biden, as much as they want to try to make her Joe Biden," he later added.

He then connected her to Biden administration policies. 

"But she was and is part of the Biden administration and part of all the historic gains that were made, from the American Rescue Plan to the bipartisan infrastructure law, to the CHIPS Act, bringing back manufacturing. But she has continued to work really, really hard on demonstrating that she wants to continue the fight to lower the costs for everyday Americans," he said.

In short, neither Kamala nor her surrogates can explain how she's different from Joe Biden. They should have come up with a good answer for this question months ago. In an election where voters want change, this failure to communicate how and why she's different will ultimately cost her.

[sybbi]

i think people want to replace biden because they dont see any chance of him winning against trump anymore and most people have lost faith. another candidate would restore optimism and bring in more voters

Would it?

Here's my issue: what candidate should replace Biden? I ask that question and everyone seems to have a different answer. That, for me, is more dangerous than Biden stumbling over his words a little. It is too fucking late for us to go running around looking like chickens with our heads cut off while the Republicans present a strong, increasingly unified front behind Trump.

Harris, some people say. Well ffs, Harris is already on the ticket. If you're one of those people who's afraid Joe Biden can't run things or won't live through his full term or WHATEVER, SHE IS ALREADY GUARANTEED TO REPLACE HIM. And I see no reason to switch him out wholesale when, again, there needs to be a show of a unified front. That's part of what kills me in all this - you have to have faith to inspire it in others. To fight against a unified front, you have to show unity and strength in your own cause, but instead the left-leaners are doing what they have almost always historically done: fracturing over internal perceptions and differences instead of saying "The biggest threat right now is not us, it's them."

I saw, on that giant lame-ass post by Wheaton, that he was saying we needed a candidate that can force the American people to see what kind of danger we're in. And frankly that is horseshit. The American people, I believe, largely know the stakes here. And Biden has, repeatedly, made grim and coherent speeches about the threat our democracy currently faces. The only thing that has distracted the American public recently FROM the grim threat to our democracy is this aforementioned public pants shitting that, for some reason, has gained more traction than the fact that Trump will be in effect a fucking king if he is allowed in the Oval Office again.

If the Democrats and anti-Trumpers had ANY sense they would be fucking HAMMERING on that. They would be reemphasizing all of Trumps unpopular policies, his instability, his cozy relationship with foreign leaders who act antithetical to American values and ideals, his corruption, his EVERYTHING. Because again, THIS IS A REFERENDUM ON TRUMPISM, FIRST AND FOREMOST. But no. Once again, the left is letting perfect be the enemy of good.

How much faith do you think you can drum up for Harris, who has been torn apart by the left and the media separately, or any other random replacement this late in the game, that you couldn't manage for Biden with an actual concerted fucking effort? The logic of "we need a new candidate that can draw in voters" is so flawed because there is NO candidate that is not going to be torn to shreds by a certain crowd, that will not have doubt placed on them about something, who won't be scrutinized for a story under a magnifying glass. If you give in here, why the fuck wouldn't you give in when the next guy or girl gets torn up for something innocuous, something not reflective of their actual public service? What the fuck are you going to stand for if, every time people show an ounce of criticism about ANYTHING your side does, your solution is to throw the baby out with the bathwater? Meanwhile the MAGAts continue to fortify themselves, casting themselves as strong leaders, as we run around directionless and grasping.

All this is doing, in my view, is giving in to panic and inviting more confusion and panic which can have an even more demoralizing effect on more offline voters. Because where did the loss of faith come from? A bad debate that many voters didn't even watch, because most have probably already made up their mind? Once again, everyone already knows these two candidates. They know Biden is old. They know he's tripped over words before. And they know Trump, too. Biden wasn't elected the first time because he was the perfect candidate. He was the anti-Trump vote. And I agree that just being Not Trump shouldn't be good enough for a candidate. But Biden had managed to return the country to some semblance of normalcy, and despite far right politicians and interest groups throwing up obstruction after obstruction, he has still managed to help many and has done what was within his power to undo the harms brought on by the first Trump presidency.

All this to say, once again, that there WAS a time to talk about replacing Biden. IT IS PAST. I will eat my fucking words if the DNC doesn't nominate him and simultaneously mald over what I think would probably be one of the stupidest decisions they could make. But whatever. It's out of my hands.

[winderlylandchime]

And we are on 3x09 1/2: ‘ITS JUSTIN AND BRIAN!! LOOK AT THEM BACK IN THEIR ELEMENT DANCING IN THE CLUB! I missed them being slutty on the dance floor. Every episode should start this way’ Ben says the most historic reunification since Germany ‘FUCK YEAH BENJAMIN! NEVER HAVE YOU BEEN MORE RIGHT THAN IN THIS MOMENT…maybe there’s still some faith for you’ ‘finally Justin is back to how he was! I missed him in the club being free and slutty. He acted all high and mighty before. BUT NOT ANYMORE’ and then immediately stockwell pops up ‘for fucks sake, theres no escaping this trump wannabe, is there? BRIAN, why would you do this to me?! This is the type of commercial that would pop up to convince you to stop smoking and fail miserably. (Stockwell invites Brian to hottub) *starts singing* two dudes, sitting in a hot tub 5 feet apart cause they’re not gay. Except one of them definitely is and the other one has a secret crush on Brian’ ‘wait, why cant Mel work while pregnant? Isn’t maternity leave at the end? That’s fucked up. Girl fuck ‘em and go to work’ Brian is now in a hot tub with Stockwell and he said something about getting used to it but once youre inside it feels good ‘That “yeah” from Brian was him trying very hard to not make a gay joke, no one can convince me otherw- HE LIKES HIM? Brian, you’re better than this. OOO SOMETHING HE NEVER TOLD ANYONE? IM CALLING IT! HES GAY..oh he’s just afraid, well that was anticlimactic. Now what would Brian’s doubts be? Love? Life? That peanut car? His future with Justin?’ And we are at Justin showing Mikey the rage cover ‘OH ITS A BLOWJOB COVER?! Yeah! Speak on it Blondie! it hurts my soul to agree that Mike was right (justin says brian will never say he loves him) HE WILL! I am working on it! I know i said that the last season will end that way but unfortunately you fucked up my plans so i will make it up to you this season! Ha, blowjob on a comic cover. i fuck with it, hey, did i ever tell you about the time I accidentally told a store employee that i am looking for that machine for blowjobs instead of blow dries because i forgot what it was called? It got a little awkward’ ‘why does Mike keep staring at Justin and Brian? Dude, you have your own boyfriend. Imagine being called out for being a prude by Ben of all fucking people. I MISSED THEM BEING MESSY TOGETHER-wait why is the cop here? Why are they shutting this do-? FUCKING TRUMP WANNABE, look what you did Bri Bri (The cop spots Brian at woodys) oh he’s also got a crush on Bri Bri. I see we all have a crush on Brian.’ Debbie is now calling out Brian at the diner ‘oh Bri Bri, it hurts me to unfortunately have to agree with Ben and Debbie. Look what you’ve done, you have me agreeing with Mike AND Ben in the same episode! Brian HE IS NOT STIRRING SHIT UP! shit he wants out of this town..SHIT HE WANTS TO GO TO NEW YOR- YES PLEASE TAKE JUSTIN WITH YOU! Finally michael speaks some facts! Here i go again agreeing with him’ And now the Carl/protest scene is on ‘EXACTLY CARL! NO NEED TO CALL PEOPLE NAMES! Oh she’s mad at carl, damn i kinda feel bad, i think this trump dude is above his pay grade..Lindsay you aren’t being really reasonable to Mel right now. Actually neither of you are reasonable. Youre both annoying me and they wanna bring another kid into it?’ And here comes the scene where Brian gets fired ‘Brian for fucks sake stop working with this pig! SHIT HES GETTING FIRED?! HELL YEAH! Oh fuck, its because hes gay?! FUCK YOU but also Bri Bri you should’ve seen this coming, you’re smart, why are you acting dumb now? Oh so that guy wasn’t checking out Brian at the bar. Well that’s disappointing. Now THAT is a good rule Brian. I like it. Now go home and do some business transaction with a certain blondie to celebrate you not working with this fucker anymore’

Every episode should start with them dancing and being slutty!

Your brother is working on Brian saying I love you to Justin! He’s so invested. I’m so sorry he’s not going to get his wish for a long time .

I’m loving how much he hates Stockwell and how torn he is about Brian working for him.

They’re both annoying and they want to bring another kid into this? My thoughts exactly.

[reasoningdaily]

President Joe Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address, recently televised to the American public as established under Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution— the annual presentation of measures for Congress to consider—came during a time of division, strife, and crisis, placing many concerned with “the time and what must be done,” into a valley of decision beyond the rhetoric of partisan politics and the ideological struggle between liberals and conservatives.

“We are the only country that has emerged from every crisis stronger than when we entered it,” President Biden said from the Speaker of the House dais before the joint session of Congress, members of the judicial branch, and his cabinet officials. “That is what we are doing again. Two years ago, our economy was reeling,” he said. “As I stand here tonight, we have created a record 12 million new jobs, more jobs created in two years than any president has ever created in four years.”

Referring to recovery from the economic impact of the COVID 19 lockdowns, the civil unrest that came at the end of the tumultuous presidency of Donald J. Trump, and what the president called threats to democracy not seen in the country since the Civil War, Mr. Biden said his administration proved the cynics and the naysayers wrong two years into his own presidency and said he defined the country with one word: “Possibilities.”

“Yes, we disagreed plenty,” the president continued. “And yes, there were times when Democrats had to go it alone. But time and again, Democrats and Republicans came together. Came together to defend a stronger and safer Europe,” he said. “Came together to pass a once-in-a-generation infrastructure law, building bridges to connect our nation and people,” while proclaiming a myriad of other projects, programs, and social agendas.

Advertisement

The African American Mayors Association (AAMA), lauded President Biden’s speech, and said they shared his optimism about America’s future and “wholeheartedly believe that the state of our union is made stronger by his leadership.” Their news release added: “President Biden took office with the promise to rebuild the backbone of the country and unite and restore the soul of the nation.

These goals remain equally important today. As the only organization dedicated to representing more than 500 Black mayors across the United States, including the four largest cities in the country, AAMA knows that President Biden’s got our back and we’ve got his,” the AAMA statement read in part.

“Tonight, President Biden spoke directly to the American people by outlining his administration’s historic progress over the past two years. From tackling unprecedented crises, rebuilding the economy, and delivering results for working families, the President’s leadership has helped steer our nation in the right direction. We are grateful for the strong support President Biden and his administration has shown to mayors across the country and look forward to a continued partnership where we can focus on the core values of getting people back to work, ensuring our communities are safe, and improving the standard of living in people’s everyday lives,” said AAMA President and Little Rock Mayor, Frank Scott, Jr.

“His tagline (was) ‘finish the job,’” Dr. Leon said after President Biden’s speech. “Well, Joe, finish the job on Medicare, finish the job on Medicaid, finish the job on free college, finish the job on the $800 billion you were supposed to send to HBCUs. He made a lot of calls for things, did not offer legislation for them, and again, he knew the buttons to push, but when it comes to him following through on the things that he advocates for, he doesn’t get them done,” he said.

“He made mention of the labor issue, and last September on Labor Day, he said he wanted to be known as the greatest pro-labor president ever. And what did he do with the railway workers strike?” Dr. Leon asked. “He sided on the side of the railway companies, sacrificing the workers. There was a lot of fluffy rhetoric and as a political scientist I did not see substantive policy initiatives proposed. I heard a lot of populist rhetoric that did not have legislation tied to it.”

Regarding Mr. Biden’s position on America’s opioid crisis, Dr. Leon said the harshness with which urban addicts were handled by the criminal justice system, during the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s, as opposed to the compassion with which suburban and rural fentanyl addicts are handled by the healthcare system today, the mass incarceration of Black people, for nonviolent drug offenses, is directly linked to the 1994 Crime Bill co-sponsored by then-Senator Joe Biden (D-Del.).

“Now we have the opioid crisis impacting middle and upper middle class America and it’s made its way into the homes of White Americans, young kids who, in many cases, are taking these pills from the medicine cabinets of their parents,” adding that today opioid addiction has a White face to be handled gently while crack addiction still has a Black face to be handled harshly.

On the issue of police reform, President Biden acknowledged the parents of Tyre Nichols, a Black motorist who died in a hospital three days after enduring a savage beating by five Black police officers in Memphis, Tennessee, on January 7. Expressing compassion over their son’s death during a questionable traffic stop, the president referenced his executive order regulating the behavior of federal law enforcement personnel but did not leverage his bully pulpit to restart negotiations over the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act stalled in the Senate since 2021.

“I don’t see any real traction coming out of it now, because Republicans tend to be more pro-police and pro-blue than the Democrats, but the one line Joe Biden gave that I thought was interesting and powerful was when he said: “When a police officer pins on this badge in the morning, he deserves the right to come home in the evening,’” Dr. Leon continued. “And then he said: ‘so do the people in the community,’” adding that as minor as it was, it constituted a powerful statement from a sitting president. But at the end of the day, it remains unlikely to bring substantive change to police behavior in Black neighborhoods.

As Merciless as Ancient Nineveh?

“Though the whips and the clubs of their enemy are heard night and day upon the heads and backs of the prey (so-called Negroes), they still do not desire to depart from America,” the Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote. “Ancient Nineveh, according to her history, was full of chariots that made much noise and the prancing horses carrying the chariots in full speed that the prophets described them as ‘jumping chariots,’” he said. “So, it is in America today: her cities are filled with automobiles and the noise of them is heard every hour of the day, rattling past our doors. She is full of blood from murdered people,” he wrote of America’s hubris and violence prone culture.

“Black people must organize themselves and have what I describe as an unapologetically Black agenda, then they should coalesce with recent immigrants, veterans, women, the Hispanic community, and even poor Whites to form, in fact or by association, what the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan described as a Justice Party,” Student Min. Muhammad explained.

“We should convene town hall meetings across this country to flush out the public policies that would be fair and just toward our people and to those who have been marginalized in this society,” Student Min. Muhammad said.

 “Given the make-up of the House of Representatives and the slim margin that Mr. Biden’s party has in the Senate, and the upcoming elections in 2024, I really don’t think the opposition party is going to allow him to accomplish anything, even in a bipartisan manner,” he added. “Our destiny is not totally tied to whether they give us justice or not, our destiny is tied to our submission and obedience to Allah (God), His Christ and the Messiah. We should not fall for liberal lies, conservative cons, or moderate myths. Let us rely on Allah and make Allah sufficient for us in all our affairs and let us build a future for our children.”

[themageiboline]

...Q-Shaman? Really?

Rant-Time: Let’s talk about a certain meme-worthy character of todays events...

Today an unprecedented event occurred as Trump supporters, angered at the supposedly fraudulent election, descended on DC to partake in so-called "stop-the-steal" protests.

We've all heard of this, and many people more competent than myself have and will be continuing to cover the events of today, and the egregiously dangerous implications they might have for our democratic society.

Instead, I’m here to muse and vent about something which as relatively minor in the grand scheme of these events it may be, is also something that probably won’t really be addressed much by many outside of neopagan circles. I’m talking about Q-Shaman, or more specifically “Q-Shaman’s” tattoos.

Of course he is in the spotlight and being meme’d to high Hel as the barbarian American flag face paint wearing Braveheart wannabe that led their charge, but what concerns me are the Norse pagan tattoos he has very prominently displayed on his bare chest, in addition to the runes on his hands.

Here we can clearly see a valknut, Yggdrasil, and a Mjolnir down the left side of his chest. Now full disclosure I don’t know much about this man at the time of writing this other than what he did today and what you see here now, and that he has been dubbed Q-Shaman, either by himself or others in reference to the outlandish conspiracy of Q-Anon. I plan to rectify this in the coming days and possibly either make a follow up post or share an article exploring him in greater detail later.

But for now let’s talk about the implications here. The valknut is a symbol of Odin, and it seems to me like he’s using it as a symbol of devotion strongly implying a warrior cult mentality on his part. Assuming he’s aware of the historical context, he’s effectively saying, “strike here, I dare you” while it is also said to serve as a protective charm, only allowing the wearers death to come to pass when Odin sees it fit. If taken in a literal sense as an Odinist’s expression of devotion, it would be safe to assume he’s effectively a neo-pagan warrior cultist, who may well see the fight for Trumpism as his fighting chance to prove himself before Odin one day. Now, Odinists have become rather infamous over the years, as many are warrior cultists with fascist-adjacent if not explicitly fascist or even Neo-Nazi political beliefs. Many Odinist blots around the country are infamous for openly and brazenly displaying Nazi flags and portraits of Adolf Hitler within their lodges.

So now we have some douche canoe with three very important symbols to those of Nordic heritage and faith very prominently tattooed on his bared chest, taking part in what could only be described as some shitty, poorly thought out attempt at an insurrection fueled by right wing conspiracy, by supporters of an authoritarian right wing president that refuse to accept peaceful and democratic defeat. 

You see what this could mean for these symbols right? If we don’t watch it these symbols very dear to the hearts of many of Norwegian heritage and of Nordic faiths could very well go the way of the swastika if we let it. As it is right now valknuts are often seen automatically as racist symbols as it is, and Thor’s hammer Mjolnir seems to very quickly be following suit. The fact of the matter is we neither have the right nor the ability to stop them from using these symbols, or from believing in and using Nordic faiths as justifications for their authoritarianisms. 

What we can do, and what we must do if we’re to preserve these symbols and by extension help to protect a class of already marginalized religious minorities, is refuse to allow them to appropriate these within the public conscious as symbols entirely their own. That means we have to stand up and be vocal whenever we see people falsely equating these symbols as being inherently symbols of hate no matter the context. We have to stand up when we see voices of hate using these symbols, and make it loud and clear they do not represent us all and will not be tolerated within our communities. 

If you’re of a Nordic faith and have the emotional mental and physical energy to do so, it might mean wearing your Mjolnir out proudly in the open, ready to shoot down any accusations of hate with snappy quips, such as “ well this hammer smashes fascists” perhaps. On that note, you can buy shirts with this phrase to make this clear to all who see you if you wish. In fact I’m contemplating making a design of my own for Print-On-Demand websites, though I have no guarantees that I’ll ever get it done.

Anyways, that’s my rant for tonight. I hope it wasn’t too long winded and I certainly have no plans of making a habit of this but I just really needed to get that off my chest.

On a related note, here’s a link to an Etsy page with some very relevant stickers you might want to check out.

#NAZIPAGANSFUCKOFF #THISHAMMERSMASHESFASCISTS

[starmada4546]

Well, in the hours since posting this and it's subsequent migration to reddit, I've gotten some pretty decent responses, (And a lot of people who clearly just didn't read anything I wrote, but some good!), so I'm going to go over some of my points again for the people dozing in the back of the class.

Yes, as of writing this, over 72 million Americans voted for Trump. All of them are ignorant, shortsighted, and selfish at best, and bigoted, traitorous, and just straight up evil at worst. Without those votes, no matter how badly the democratic party screwed the pooch, Trump would not have won. I do not say this to excuse those people. All of those people should be held accountable for their behavior. However, as cynical of an assumption as it may be, one can no longer view American politics through the lens of all the voters trying to elect the candidate that's the best for everyone. Such a lens is an outdated relic of an era in which the evils of politics were done behind smiling masks, and the oppression was done behind closed doors instead of at the top of every media headline in the nation. If there is one thing that this election has made crystal clear, it is that Americans have become more concerned with their own wallets and kitchen tables than with the lives of their neighbors. The problem is that even through that framing, the Democratic party should easily sweep any logical voter, and yet they didn't. Progressivism and class consciousness is the answer to economic anxiety, and yet it was completely ignored by the democrats in this election, and the price for that is what we're seeing now, because the Democrats allowed themselves to be made into the establishment, and allowed the republicans to sell themselves as anti-establishment, regardless of the fact that both are the establishment, and neither wishes to be against the establishment, merely to mold it to their liking.

The fact of the matter is, no matter how evil Trump is, he will always have support. That is his brand. He has famously self-proclaimed that he could commit murder in broad daylight and not lose a single vote, and if there is one thing Trump has ever been correct about, it's that. The Democrats must, must count on the Alt-Right turning up to vote in force for the conservative candidate, and from the numbers they've been doing, the Democrats can't rely on the moderate vote to carry them through that. Hell, it doesn't seem like the Democrats can rely on the moderate vote at all. The DNC has no further right to drift, and yet they keep trying anyway, dropping their supporters from the left to be subsumed by the right, because deep down, they are not aligned with the left. This does not necessarily apply to every registered Democrat everywhere, but the party as a whole has historically only taken up progressive causes when they either see an opportunity to claim moral victory over conservatives. They do not truly care for progressivism, or at least they haven't for many years. They put up a black woman for president and say, "See? Our candidate is two minorities in one! Isn't this what you care about?" No! I'd love to have a black woman in the white house as much as anyone else, but the democrats have fallen so out of touch that I must believe that they genuinely think that "diverse" candidates is enough to guarantee a progressive vote. They saw Obama win two consecutive terms and chalked it up to his skin color, which is absolutely it's own form of racism, by the way. They tried to test this hypothesis in 2016 in Hilary Clinton, another historically unlikable candidate, with no real progressive policy and all her messaging being about her gender and not particularly her competence of fitness for office, while simultaneously dicking over the largest progressive movement in recent history, and they got burned. And the lesson they took from this? It wasn't making sure their candidate reflects the voters wishes, it wasn't learning to message on policy and confidence as I discussed earlier, and it certainly wasn't to not alienate progressive voters. It was "We didn't reach the moderate conservative enough. Clearly, we just didn't reach the moderate wing of the republican party like we should have. Obviously, we must have won the progressive vote, so the problem lies in the center."

It's not merely the entitlement they feel to the progressive vote, it's the fact that they can't conceive of the fact that they didn't get it. Even the moderate wing of the conservative party was never going to vote for a woman, much less a black woman. Meanwhile, there were millions of votes the democrats were counting on, and yet they didn't receive, because they didn't bother actually trying to get them! They felt entitled to the progressive vote. They felt entitled to the black vote. They felt entitled to the queer vote, the Hispanic vote, the female vote, the Arab vote, the sheer entitlement in this party is sickening. The fact of the matter is that they simply can't conceive of a world in which the white moderate does not decide who sits in the Oval Office, and fundamentally, they are against any attempt to change that, because the world in which the white moderate is the deciding vote is the world in which they keep their power. The world wherein the white moderate is the deciding vote is the world wherein they must confront none of their inner biases, because if they are not receiving the votes they feel entitled to, then they must be wrong on a fundamental level. That world is comfortable and familiar to them, it plays by the rules they expect and like, it requires no reexamination, reflection, or introspection. Any acknowledgement that progressives, or POC, or the LGBT+ community are voting blocks that could win them elections if focused on is an acknowledgement that the white moderate is only the deciding vote in the tenuous world order they have constructed, and any attempt to convince Democrats that they need to enfranchise these groups, break up gerrymandered districts, or just Actually Put Some Fucking Effort Into Anyone Else is doomed to failure because of it.

Getting back to the point, yes, the fact that 72 million Americans voted for Donald J. Trump is a disgrace, and every single one of them should be held accountable for the blood that is about to be spilled. But at the end of the day, this is a trolley problem. The Democrats had the ability to avert the trolley, and they fucked that up spectacularly. The man who tied the people to the tracks and set the trolley to run over them is a monster, but his actions are counted upon either way, and so too are Trump's. This debate isn't about the ethics of Alt-Right conservatism. If you've made it this far into this essay, I can reasonably assume you already agree with me that it holds no moral merit worth consideration. It is about the fact that the Democratic party allowed this to happen, and must be held accountable for their actions. Going along with "Vote Blue No Matter Who!" is not a strategy that works. Progressives cannot call upon the party loyalty that conservatives have, in part because progressivism requires the brainpower to analyze the issues and discover the problems, while conservatives typically wait for a strongman to point at something for them to get angry at, but mostly in truth because the Democrats have not delivered like the Republicans have.

Sure, the Republicans don't deliver on a good economy, or fixing the issues they claim to care about, but what they do deliver on is what they stake their campaigns on, and it's bigotry. Say what you will, but when a conservative votes for Trump, they can be confident that Trump will continue to be racist, sexist, and anti-LGBT while in office, and he will make policy accordingly. He will lock migrant children in cages and appoint justices to overturn Roe v. Wade and tear gas progressive protesters. Those are things he said he was going to do whether directly or euphemistically, and he delivered.

Democrats say they will pack the court, and they don't. They say they will codify abortion, and by and large they don't. They talk about a $15 an hour minimum wage, they talk about Medicare and student debt relief and while some of these things have gotten done on a state by state basis, or gained a little ground here and there, walking out of a Democratic presidency, we have the same supreme court, the same minimum wage, arguably worse medical care, and only a sliver of the required student debt relief. I understand that the Biden administration has been fighting rabid obstructionists every step of the way, but at the end of the day, Trump was fighting obstruction during his presidency as well, and yet he still damaged the country to it's core, and now he has free reign of all three branches of government. After being ignored, abused, and seeing almost none of their policy passed, how could a progressive genuinely support the democrats on any systemic level? I got in the dirt to support Harris, and I do genuinely think not voting was a morally reprehensible thing for this election, because progressives should be fighting fascism more than we should care about our honor, but I can at least say I understand.

I can't do solutions yet. Maybe eventually, but right now I'm not sure there is any form of solution. The Democrats have proven themselves historically unable to learn the lessons of failure, and the Fascists have complete control of the government. Pretty much the only solution I can think of at this point is "Hope the democrats are still around in four years, hope our elections are fair enough for them to matter, and hope that maybe, finally this lesson has sunk in, but that's a lot of maybes for a country that we can only imagine right now. There's a lot of ground to lose, and nothing to defend it.

I do want to say this, though, since somebody commented on it to me. I wasn't kidding about the gun thing. If there's any irony to be had here, gun rights will likely be protected for the foreseeable future, because the gun lobby is here to stay, apparently. After Biden's term is up, I would not expect the already limited protections Leftists have had from law enforcement to apply at all. It's unfortunate, (And I Am Definitely Not Advocating For Political Violence Do Not Mistake Me,) but the only protection we are likely to have for the future is ourselves and each other. If you can feel comfortable owning and carrying a firearm, (and there is no shame if you can't) I would highly suggest learning to do so if at all possible. Hate crimes tend not to happen when the Nazis think that their targets can defend themselves; fascists are not known for courage. Even if you never have to use it, and I hope and pray to god nobody does, the fact that they know it's a possibility may save lives in and of itself. Even if you can't do that, I highly suggest something, be it pepper spray, a taser, or a blade, especially if you are a woman. I'd expect to see an increase in physical assaults and rapes over the next couple of years, and if I can protect anyone with my advice, I feel I am obligated to.

Kamala Harris deserved to lose.

That’s a controversial statement, so let me get something out of the way right out the gate: I am not a Trump supporter. I fucking hate Trump’s racist, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, fascist guts, and I will until the day I die. I voted for Harris, I volunteered for her campaign and several other local campaigns in my area. I did everything a politically active person should do to participate in our democracy.

And yet I, and anyone who was paying attention knew how this election was going to go ahead of time, for one very simple reason. What were Kamala Harris’s policy positions? What did she actually run on? What did she say she was going to do differently? Building a million homes for working-class people who have had their salaries so undercutted by inflation and price hikes that they can no longer afford the kind of long term saving required for that? Increase child tax credits when grocery prices are so high that nobody can afford another mouth to feed? Raising taxes on billionaires? She’s the Vice President of the current administration, why are they not already being taxed? And furthermore, where is that tax money going? Clearly not Medicare for All, or Student Debt Relief, or anything that could actually constitute benefits for the average citizen.

Discussing which demographics are “responsible” for electing Trump is a fucking stupid discussion, and anyone engaging in it should feel absolutely fucking ashamed at buying into more crap that the oligarchs put up to divide us. Except for a few exceptions, the demographics were coin-flip toss ups. What happened was that Kamala Harris lost 15 million votes. Not to Trump, but to apathy. Trump got 3 million less votes than he did in 2020, and still won, because people didn’t vote for Harris. The battle was in voter turnout, like we always knew it would be, and the Democratic Party lost it. Why?

Because Kamala Harris ran, like Biden did, on being the anti-Trump. And regardless of whether or not you think that the Democrats are responsible for current woes, (and I do not,) that's not a winning strategy when the "Anti-Trump" is the one in power. Being the Anti-Trump isn't a policy position. It's not a solution to anyone's issues. It's merely a hope that people think Trump is worse, and as we've seen, regardless of whether or not it should, that does not win elections. When gas prices or grocery bills are so expensive people can barely afford to survive, saying "Well, those will be worse under Trump," is not a solution. It does not provide confidence that she has plans to fix the issues. It is a shrug of the shoulders, and a dismissal, and that's why so many people stayed home.

In 2020, when the problems could be blamed on Trump without any sort of understanding of the complex issues that caused the problems, because Trump was simply the one in power and The President's Job Is To Fix Everything, so being Anti-Trump worked. When Democrats have been in the white house for four years, and people feel like the problems still aren't fixed, they lose confidence that the democrats will fix the problem, so they don't vote.

When food prices are spiking, you don't say, "The other guy will make it worse," because that's what any candidate would say, and it's not particularly different than just purely mudslinging, and its a claim that Trump will deny vehemently, so you can't win that argument. What you need to say is "I'll subsidize agriculture," or, "I'll increase the accessibility and power of food assistance programs." Regardless of whether or not those things would actually work, what they are is some kind of solid plan to actually fix the fucking problem. It's said that people don't vote on policy, and that's true a lot of the time, or at least more than it should be, but people do vote on confidence, and having policy of any kind builds that confidence. Regardless of what you think of Trump, the man has plenty of plans to implement policy. It's terrible, awful, nation destroying policy, but that's getting into the details and the facts, and that's where the voters' eyes glaze over and they stop listening to you. The fact that Trump has plans to change the status quo and Harris does not is how she lost this election.

When the status quo is untenable, people will vote for whatever breaks it, and that wasn't Harris.

It also doesn't help that Harris has pretty much refused to significantly differentiate herself from Joe Biden, who has plenty of his own problems, and again, is the status quo. Joe Biden refused to step aside and relegate himself to being a single term president because of his personal pride, and the Democrats absolutely refused to consider not backing him until he was forced to step aside when his problematic degradation was put on full display for the entire country to see and mock. Then, instead of holding an actual primary, where voters could choose who they wanted to see on the Democratic ticket, they decided to simply coronate Kamala Harris, a historically unpopular candidate with historically low approval ratings, and force anyone who was against Trump to rally behind a candidate they didn't choose and statistically speaking don't like. Is it any wonder that her ticket hemorrhaged 15 million votes from 2020? That's before getting into her incredibly strange choices during her campaign, from again having essentially no policy positions, to picking a Tim Walz, who while being imo a good person, is from an entirely blue state and not a swing state, and has neither experience running against serious mainline GOP candidates, nor any real nationwide appeal beyond his personality, and we've already established that vibes don't turn out voters.

Kamala Harris, and on a larger scale the Democratic Party, deserved to lose this election because they have almost entirely abandoned any sense of being the progressive option. They've completely abandoned the progressive wing of their party, because who else are they going to vote for? Trump?

I don't like being the guy who says, "Harris hasn't earned the votes," because if you didn't vote, fuck you, you're nearly as culpable in this as the MAGAts, but is it any wonder why progressives are abandoning the democrats? After being ignored, fucked over time after time for nearly a decade at this point, literally screaming and begging for people to care about genocide, fascism, and the literal end of the world and getting a pat on the head and a vote sticker, what the fuck else did anyone expect? Harris cozied up with Liz Cheney and tried to court the votes of a few thousand moderate republicans, while tens of millions of progressive votes were expected, and then you're all trying to to blame them when those votes don't come? Shame, shame on you, ye moderate democrats who'd rather get into bed with the center-right than any kind of progressive, you get what you fucking deserve.

Normally, I'd laugh at establishment democrats fucking around and finding out, but this time, it's not just them finding out, it's the whole of America finding out with them. I don't really have any advice, because I'm just as shattered as anyone else. Hunker down, spend time with your loved ones, and maybe learn how to use a gun in case some neo-nazi decides to try to hate-crime you. I'm hoping that the Democrats learn their lessons from this, but honestly at this point, I'm not sure they're capable of learning, if there'll even be a democratic party to speak of come 2028. Right now, I'm gonna go stare at the election results and feel my faith in humanity crack a little bit more.

[qqueenofhades]

Okay, y'all. Time to do this one more time. Let the fact that there are so many of these posts right now reinforce the point. Many of you already know this, and I see and love you, but for anyone still ~undecided about their choice, should they be an American citizen of voting age on November 3, 2020:

Time to not be. It was time a long, long while ago, but I am going to have to say it again.

Primary season is over. The endless fine-tooth combing of candidates' policies and positions is over. We are all deeply well aware that the candidates on the Democratic ticket, being human beings and establishment politicians, are flawed. "BUT WHAT ABOUT THIS POSITION FROM 19/ 20-WHENEVER AS JUSTIFICATION FOR WHY IT'S TERRIBLE TO VOTE FOR -- "

No. Stop. Just stop. Stop threatening to hold the rest of us hostage, in the middle of a pandemic, the Great Depression, and racial inequality and protests on a scale not seen from the 1960s, because you did not get Barbie Dream Candidate. That is the behavior of terrorists and toddlers. If your supposedly enlightened morally pure ideology does not involve any action to mitigate the harm that is directly in front of you, it isn't worth a shit as an ideology actually devoted to helping people. If your approach to politics is to shout about how Pure your ideas are on twitter and tear down anyone working within a system of flawed choices to do the good that they can: you're not helping, and frankly, your constant threats to withhold your suffrage as a punishment to us aren't convincing the rest of us that we really need to listen to you or that you have anyone's best interests at heart. The Online Left TM is as much a vacuous, self-reinforcing noise chamber as the Online Right TM, and can sometimes tend to be even more dangerous.

I was saying this in 2016. A lot of us were saying this in 2016. I am just about to turn 32 years old and have been voting in federal elections for almost 15 years. For what it's worth.

This is not an ordinary election. This is not a contest between two flawed candidates who respect the system and want to work to enact their policies in the ordinary way. One is a flawed 90s era Democrat who nonetheless has already been pushed CONSIDERABLY left in his policies and platforms since the end of the primaries (and his existing platform would already make him the most left president elected, even more than Obama). The other is a fascist dictator who has openly spoken about refusing to accept the election results, his desire to abolish term limits and serve for life, and complete the pillaging of any remaining fragile American public funds for him and his cult of cronies. He does not respect the system. He does not want to do anything for anyone that is not himself. 160,000 and counting needless deaths of American citizens have already happened. Will keep happening.

This is the last time Trump has to face voters. This is the last chance the country has to repudiate his entire poisonous ideology and its marching Nazi minions. IF he steps aside, which is already far from guaranteed, he can ride off into the sunset as a vindicated two term president and probably be rehabilitated like George W. Bush was within a few years of leaving office. American political memory is very short. It will happen. Again, if he even leaves.

RBG is 87 and has cancer again. She will NOT survive another four years. Stephen Breyer is 81. Their seats could both come up in the next four years. The Supreme Court could be a right wing rubber stamp for whatever time we all have left before climate change and coronavirus kill us all.

"But if people just thought for themselves and did their homework and didn't vote the party line like sheep, we could support a third party/write in -- " Stop. Just stop. Attend a ninth grade civics class and learn about how politics work in America. Yes, the two-party system sucks. Yes, the Electoral College is a hot steaming pile of absolute bullshit. Magical unicorn fairy dust fantasies WILL NOT change that.

Do not vote for Kanye (who has pretty much openly admitted he is trying to play spoiler to Biden on behalf of his buddy Trump). Do not vote for godforsaken fucking Gary Johnson or Jill Stein who appear on ballots just to give sanctimonious leftists the illusion of virtue-signaling. If you want any chance of fixing the mess that 2020 has left America and the world in, you need to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The end.

Biden is a flawed old man who was our last choice, sure. He is also a distinguished public servant who has already been in the White House for eight years under Obama and thus we KNOW what to expect. He is an empathetic man who connects with people's personal tragedy and picked as his running mate a younger Black/biracial woman who directly confronted and called him out on past behavior. While the pundit class was simpering and whining about how it was Disrespectful and how could he consider her, Biden did so, and that speaks well to me of the fact that he is willing to learn, to take criticism, and not just accept it from a former Black female rival, but make her his second in command and the potential first female president of the United States.

Can you EVER picture Trump doing that? Not in eight thousand million years.

As for Kamala, we are all aware of her previous checkered history as a prosecutor (and even then, she did plenty of good things as well!). Since joining the Senate, however, she has consistently become one of its most progressive members. She is the co-sponsor of an economic aid package designed to give every American $2,000/month, backdated to March (the start of the coronavirus pandemic) and continuing at least a few months after its end. A Biden-Harris White House could make that happen. Especially if they are put into office with a Democratic House and Senate (for the love of God, Kentucky, kill Mitch McConnell with fire). That is just one example.

Harris's nomination is obviously historic. And Biden didn't choose another Biden (or another Tim Kaine, the blandest white man imaginable). He chose another Obama: a younger rising star of an immigrant background, a person of color, a former lawyer and someone who represents the diversity of the country that the white supremacists and the Cheeto in Chief have tried to paint as its worst and most degenerate evil.

A vote for Biden and Harris means getting rid not just of Trump, but Mike Pence, Vladimir Putin, Jared Kushner, Betsy Devos, the Trump crony destroying the Postal Service, the rampant coronavirus misinformation and bullshit, the destruction of Social Security and Medicare, the spread of Nazi propaganda from the President's twitter account, the likely two Supreme Court picks that would be as bad as Brett Kavanaugh or worse... on and on. Biden and Harris would be elected by progressive voters and thus answerable to them in 2022 midterms and 2024 general. They can both be, and already have been, pushed further left. They are reasonable and competent adults who have demonstrated experience and compassion. I KNOW about their flaws and past actions I don't agree with. But I'm frankly done with any more counterproductive straw man bitching about This One Bad Thing They Did and how it makes it a terribad awful choice to vote for them. Open your eyes. Look at the alternative. LOOK AT WHAT HAS ALREADY HAPPENED AND THE FACT THAT THIS IS NOT EVEN AS BAD AS IT COULD STILL GET.

Check your registration or register at vote.gov.

DO NOT LOOK AT POLLS AND DECIDE "EH BIDEN IS CLEARLY GOING TO WIN, I DON'T NEED TO VOTE." THAT IS HOW WE LOST LAST TIME.

Unseating incumbents is HARD. It is even harder when the other side has openly laid out their plan to cheat in great detail, and there is nothing really stopping them from doing it. The only thing, in fact, is massive, unfalsifiable results on an undeniable scale.

So:

Vote.

Vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Thanks a lot.

[asklittlepip]

World War 3 is coming it will be a miracle if there's no nuclear holocaust.

Well, we already had our Beer Hall Putsch (January 6th) and appeasement of a dictator (Crimea), so what was that saying about history repeating again? *sighs*

EDIT: Oh, my fucking God..

Almost all our leaders were in one place, with Trump hiding while watching TV, cackling at the chaos. It wasn’t “mere” vandalism, it was an attempt to overthrow democracy, and people died. There’s also been evidence that some of those traitors got a tour of the building beforehand, and if it wasn’t for brave (ex-)soldiers like Officer Goodman, we wouldn’t be having this discussion now at all. Plus things like how the alarms were literally ripped out of the walls in the offices of female elected officials. Also, when that had happened, the last time the VP was evacuated was during 9/11. But no, it’s normal, it’s “just” some theft. It’s not like actual historical scholars with more knowledge & experience than either of us have made this comparison... but, naw, I just pulled this outta my ass!

Also, I was not absolving Obama/Biden or anyone else of their fault in leading us to this point. I didn’t even mention them OR anyone else in my initial reply! I wrote a sentence and a fucking half! Not my fault you assumed I’m blaming Trump for their share of the blame. We’ve been letting Russia get away with shit for decades, so EVERY President in my lifetime have a hand in letting things reach this point. But I will blame him for attempting this earlier, when Donny blocked the $400 million in defenses that Congress had bipartisonly approved for personal gain; which, itself, is also a defiance of the Constitution AND IS WHAT HE WAS IMPEACHED FOR (the first time!), because the President is NOT supposed to be in charge of money!

I fucking hate this “well so and so did this, why aren’t you mentioning them?!” bullshit, because then we’ll be here all day, and they aren’t the ones with a goddamn cult literally DYING for them, like we have going on right now. I’m so fucking sorry I can’t possibly list or blame everyone who deserves it, ok? Excuse me for focusing on the guy who RIGHT NOW is sucking Putin’s dick! And he just he doubled down on it!

Both major parties are shit, most politicians are scum, but only some of them right now trying to dismantle it all in favor of themselves, and them alone. Focus, for goodness’ sake! You don’t worry about parking tickets or the guy stealing from the till when the arsonists are burning the store down! Priorities! After you put the flames out, then you can worry about the other offenders! Fuck’s sake..

Sorry, I just.. I should not HAVE to do this. I should not HAVE to explain every goddamn detail. The simple fact of the matter is, that America has made mistakes with Russia (and many other countries) for a very long time, but Individual One and family have done a LOT and ARE doing their utmost to ruin things...

FUCK!

[cheri-translates]

[CN] Season 2 Summary (Volume 4: Ch 10 - 13)

🍒 Warning: Detailed spoilers from S2 🍒

Along with the update on 3 June 2021, the CN server released a “Plot Review” which contains bullet-point summaries of S2 :>

Volume 3 Summary: here

You receive a name list of people involved in the Evol assassinations, and realise that quite a number of them were participants in the Hunter Game. After considering the significance of this list, you decide to discuss the matter with Victor

With Victor’s prompting, you do a cost-benefit analysis and find that disclosing the document brings greater benefits than disadvantages. However, doing this will make LFG a target of the true mastermind behind the assassination incidents

“After all, he isn’t the only one with a trump card.”

As expected, disclosing the list results in heated debate from various segments of society

While leaving Souvenir one day, the brake of Victor’s car fails to work because someone tampered with it

The two of you have no choice but to speed around the city. Despite it being an incredibly dangerous situation, he remains composed, successfully resolving the issue before him. It’s the first time you realise how skilled Victor is in driving 

After the incident, you track down the person who tampered with Victor’s car, and find that he has been assassinated

Likely sensing your feelings, Victor invites you to the park after work. When you head to the park as arranged, you see his figure from afar as he waits for you

You deliberately send him a text, telling him that you’re still at work. He believes it at first, but reacts soon after. He scans his surroundings, then meets your eyes amongst the crowd

“Childish.”

While taking a stroll in the park, the both of you stop before a tree. A long time ago, Victor had coursed through time and entered the future in order to prove that the future could be changed. Back then, you had engraved your wish. This time, the same words are your source of determination. Next to you, Victor smiles and changes “May everyone be safe and healthy” to “Everyone will be safe and healthy”

When he takes you to the riverside, Victor finally tells you the true reason why he asked you to meet him. He’s currently acquiring businesses related to the “Small Syringes”. He needs this information to be publicly disclosed in order to lure the forces that are lying low to the surface voluntarily. Even though you’re worried, you choose to trust his decision. You volunteer to release this news as it can drum up a large volume of public opinion

Victor looks at you, his expression proud and gentle

"Here’s to a pleasant collaboration.”

After the news is made public, the reputation of LFG suffers a drastic decline as expected

On the surface, your interactions with LFG have lessened. At the entrance of LFG, Victor walks forward amid the remarks and hostility by passers-by. You want to defend him, but reason tells you to stay where you are, and not act impulsively

As your eyes gradually redden, you receive a message from him-

“The weather is pretty nice today.”

Victor’s plan progresses steadily. What you’ve done has also allowed the reputation of Black Swan to rise

Even though the two of you are walking in different directions, you are certain that you’re standing in the turbulent undercurrents together

The director of the hospital whom you once interviewed has discovered a reason for the pathological changes in Evolvers, and has invited you over to talk about it. Unfortunately, a group of Evolver gangsters has suddenly taken the hospital hostage

The STF rushes to the scene quickly. When you hear Gavin’s voice, your heart feels much more at ease

The main plotter, Yang Ping, has held normal civilians as hostages, and requests for a series of provisions to be made for Evolvers, so that Evolvers can have more “benefits”

Struck with an idea, you remain on the scene to assist Gavin at any moment. When he sees you, Gavin understands your intentions despite being worried

The STF receives an order from the higher ups to disregard the lives of the hostages, and go straight to quashing the situation. Gavin openly defies orders, choosing to safeguard the lives of everyone as a priority, and to negotiate with the gangsters

“I’ll take responsibility for all the consequences.”

During the confrontation with Yang Ping, Gavin uncovers Yang Ping’s true motive: to force the STF into harming someone in order to shatter the balance between civilians and Evolvers

Catching Gavin’s hint, you pretend that the negotiation went sour and that Yang Ping had injured you, turning the tides in your favour. After all, you’re simply an Evolver used as a chip in the negotiation. Yang Ping’s claim of “doing things with Evolvers in mind” no longer holds any weight

Because of this, the STF agents are given an opportunity to suppress the gangsters

Everything appears to be wrapped up smoothly, but the director is suddenly shot by a sniper. Yang Ping is also shot

Late at night, you spot Gavin standing below your house, braving the rain

Gavin seems to be experiencing complex emotions. To you, perhaps he was unable to fire every bullet for justice

Sensing that Gavin isn’t simply referring to the incident at the hospital, you tell him that you believe in his judgement

“I’ll find the truth behind this incident.”

Gavin also gives you an incredibly resolute response

A few days later, Gavin seems to have made up his mind. He tells you that he’s investigating an incident called “New Year’s Day Change”, and he needs your help

You agree immediately

Gavin has already contacted a key informant: an old ex-policeman. Because the forces behind the incident are incredibly complicated, he needs you to cooperate with him in putting on an act

“Miss Nox isn’t showing due respect by dampening one’s spirits the moment she enters.”

He needs those people who have been paying close attention to this incident to have a mistaken impression that he’s still searching for the old ex-policeman. In order to protect you, he needs you to leave his side

Gavin will be the target of scrutiny, while the eyes on you will slacken. You’ll use this opportunity to become the mode of communication between Gavin and his informants, safely assisting Gavin in advancing in his investigations

As the final step of this plan, Gavin pushes you off the top of a building

He appears determined in breaking off relations, while you're hesitant and powerless. But the both of you are clear that the plan is going as smoothly as imagined

“I’m the greatest danger.”

You know that Gavin is walking down his path resolutely. And you will naturally want to become the person standing beside him, walking down the same path

Through a report done by a member of Black Swan, you discover that the pathological changes in Evolvers are related to their Evol. You also realise that Helios seems to be investigating this matter

At the same time, Savin tells you that something has happened to Kiro, and he’s in the hospital. You immediately rush over, but you’re told that Kiro doesn’t want to see anybody

Across the door, you tell Kiro that you wish to see him. After a strange silence, he speaks slowly

“Thank you. You can go back.”

Behind the door, only Kiro knows the reason why he’s behaving strangely - due to a sonic bomb, he has lost his hearing

Kiro avoids you for many days, until he organises an exclusive “live concert” for you one evening. The next day, he’s finally willing to meet you. When you see that Kiro doesn't seem to have changed much, you relax a little, despite having many doubts

But in the evening, you receive a statement from him which says he’s “retiring from public life permanently”, and he vanishes

Knowing full well just how much he loves the stage, you decide to keep the matter hidden, attempting to look for him

Unexpectedly, you bump into Helios at the Black Swan building

“The person you’re looking for isn’t here.”

His cold attitude makes you understand that Kiro has turned himself into Helios. He’s hiding from you, and also himself

To have a better understanding of his actions, you look through the clues pertaining to him. When you investigate the Hunter Game again, a stone tablet with the symbol “8″ appears multiple times

In order to carry out a concrete investigation, you return to the forest where you had once participated in the Hunter Game, and search for that stone tablet

The moment you touch it, thorns and thistles grow on the stone tablet, cutting your hand and absorbing your blood. Before you can react, the ground underneath your feet opens. Just as you’re about to fall into the abyss, Helios saves you

Despite being faced with his icy attitude, you attempt to form a partnership with him to explore this place

In the dark, rays of light fluctuate into a message that neither of you can comprehend. 19, an artificial intelligence which remains here, enables you to understand that this place is a historical ruins left behind by the previous civilisation - “Lighthouse”

19 tells the both of you that their world was once as flourishing as it is right now, but it was destroyed. They left the “Lighthouse” behind in hopes of assisting the both of you in preventing the fated destruction

You and Helios also hear about the songs from that generation. Cultures and languages may not be the same, but music can cross barriers

When one song ends, Helios sings that melody in his own way, letting it echo in this time and space

"All of you still exist.”

After leaving the Lighthouse, you tell him that you’re going to continue with the investigations, and use your own method to tell Helios that you’re willing to face him, and would like to carrying out this operation with him. You hope that this time, he can walk towards you voluntarily

After returning, you receive a call from an unknown number

“It’s me.”

In order to investigate the Hunter Game further, you once again participate in the game as a punter

You do your best to search for the stone tablet in this game, but accidentally get targeted by two players. Just as you plan to fight with them, Shaw, whom you haven’t seen in several days, appears from behind you

The both of you cooperate, settling the score with the other two

“Tch. Not even one of you can fight.”

You tell him about the “Lighthouse”. Shaw, who has been researching on the historical ruins, guesses that the venue of the Hunter Game could be deliberately designed to be near the ruins. By using large amounts of Evol energy fluctuations, it could unseal the ruins

While the discussion has signs of a positive outcome, the two of you are still embroiled in the game

Shaw’s conspicuous ranking and high-key thunder and lightning have attracted numerous opponents to him. But with your cooperation, the enemies fail in succession

The metal chain around his neck notifies him that he has advanced into the next round, but he loses consciousness in your arms due to a fever

The youth who usually hangs around Joker appears before you. You use psychological tactics to goad him into sending Shaw to the hospital. On the other hand, you’re taken away by him for breaking the rules of the game repeatedly

When Shaw regains consciousness, he’s unable to contact you. He returns to the antique store, only to see that it has been swallowed up by an abnormal black flame

“Get lost!”

In spite of the firefighters’ obstructions, Shaw makes repeated trips into the shop, “rescuing” the calligraphy and paintings

By the time the fire is extinguished, the antique shop is already half scorched, as though it’s a warning

Based on the youth’s memories, you discover that Joker has once visited the former site of the BS research centre. In order to find out why, you hurry over

You inadvertently find that there’s someone in the archive room. Just as you're feeling tense, your phone suddenly rings - at 2.03pm, an unknown number calls you

The sound exposes you. Taking out a gun, you attempt to warn the person in the building

“I surrender.”

That person turns out to be Lucien, and he's holding a floppy disk in his hand

Lucien explains what he’s doing here, and even demonstrates how you can use the data in the floppy disk

A series of numbers flash on the screen before it turns dark

Having considered that this process of reading data is highly confidential, Lucien notes how they might have been watched earlier, and that it’s better to leave

However, you suddenly feel dizzy. In the next second, you find yourself in the corridor. The door to the archive room is shut tight, and you can’t see Lucien anyway

Even though you’ve clearly set your phone to silent mode, it rings again. The screen shows that it’s 2.03pm. It’s a missed call from an unknown number

Returning to the archive room, it’s as though Lucien didn’t meet you earlier

You surmise that you’re experiencing this for the second time, and Lucien believes you without hesitation, speculating that you might have been in a time loop

Just as he says, whenever a certain amount of time passes, everything returns to 2.03pm

Unexpectedly, but as a matter of course, Lucien believes you every single time. He analyses the situation with you, helping you escape from the time loop

After a few more time loops, Lucien figures out a way to escape

“This time, let me accompany you in jumping out of this looping time.”

Time requires an object of reference. You're at the centre of the time loop circle, and the compass drawing the circle is your phone

Because this phone is special, it doesn’t vanish when you leave it with Lucien. At the same time, in order to measure time, your phone reappears in your hand

Since one object cannot exist in two places at the same time, this results in a contradiction that causes time and space to collapse

The next day, you and Lucien meet along the corridor, and agree to go on a stroll outside

Even though many things are unclear, the radiance of spring before you makes everything seem as though they are going in a beautiful direction. You can’t help but mention the promise you once made with Lucien to fly kites

“Spring may not necessarily arrive at a fixed time.”

In a teasing manner, Lucien says that he isn’t late. You also think that perhaps many things can start afresh

All of a sudden, you feel a severe pain in your chest-

“Now, spring has just begun.”

The words Lucien just said have yet to disperse

At this moment, he’s holding your collapsed form. The only colour in his monochrome world is gradually fading

Volume 5 (Ch 14 - 17): here

More S2 content: here

A detailed translation of Gavin’s part is available here!

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

This is actually kinda funny. Like really you sound like you're trying to set up a horror novel.

I remember J6. I also remember what came before it. 5/29 a day when a violent terroristic mob tore down parts of the Whitehouse fence and injured dozens-hundreds and killed in the tens, then set fire to a historic church after failing to fire bomb the Whitehouse. I also know that Trump offered *this had been backed up several times* that Trump offered national guard up to the mayor of DC. They turned out down flat. See Trump believes he won because I'm his mind, he did. It totally has nothing to do with being legally stonewalled, no able to investigate Dominion machines only behind allowed to "look at them" rather than have them checked after it was confirmed in several places the flipped votes despite claiming "we caught the big and fixed it".

Ok and we know that how? We don't. Their code is closed source. And their machines have only been tested by? You guessed it ONLY THEM. So you might say, Well if it corrected the accidental flip why do you care?!" Because, is it happened to some it could have happened to all of them. What's more, we don't know how they are programmed in the slightest. The could be programmed to in certain areas, flip votes at a certain threshold. Making it so it's 51/49. Close enough that in a city that leans blue it could be more than believable.

Then there's Time magazines "The Shadow campaign to save the election" where they brag about hiding "misinformation" except we know that's a lie. Because they claimed the Biden laptop was Russian misinformation. Turns out, FBI has known about it for a while. Even prior to it being given to journalists. This with companies like Google, Facebook etc all publicly saying, "we will make sure Trump doesn't win again". That's a blatant admittance of interference. But it gets better though. Because several States Democrats and Republicans opted to pass laws against their own constitutions and that changed voter laws. Except here's the fun part the constitution of any state and of the United States takes precedent over every other physical law. And a judge knowing this neglected their duties and said that there was no standing to overturn the laws because it was not late enough in the election process for any damages to have been found. Then after the election was over and everything was set and done with, they were told sorry it's too late for you to do anything. This was in Pennsylvania. One of the states which if it had swung left would likely have ended up making it so Trump won.

So I don't know where you get this man who wants a one-party system dictator super fascist mega Hitler Trump, is the most awful worst thing on earth who's probably going to be the next evil dictator who starts another Holocaust.

And that's how you people talk. People were screaming about death camps never happened. People were screaming about separations from families but that happened under Obama actually. And also they were saying that kids were being separated from their families but in a lot of cases we don't know that any of these kids belong to those people who came across. And we now have more proof of that under biden's regime due to sex trafficking of minors now. When you say Trump has no reason to believe that he lost, sure, you can say that. But it doesn't mean that you're right. We had instances of people who were dead voting and the media will tell you that it didn't happen in a big enough groups for it to matter it's like okay sure what if it didn't? How many places did it actually happen that we didn't find out about it? That's the real question. Similar to the issue with the Dominion machines. Software does not just glitch in a way where and/or options shift. This doesn't also mention the fact that we have several instances of different places around the United States who sued away observers who are mind you, required by law to be there and continue to count votes without them present. We also had instances where observers were forced to be in a separate room entirely rather than actually observing votes.

There were also instances of video that we have seen that shows boxes being delivered by a van, after midnight and then continuing to be counted after the fact. There was also that viral video the media tried to justify where they were pulling boxes out from under tables after observers left, and the people who were in charge there were saying oh we were just you know keeping them into the side for later. Okay. Then why did you wait until observers were gone to take them out? Sounds more like you were hiding extra votes. There were also instances of people having to be issued exception votes because they were told that they had already voted according to the voting integrity systems that were in place which were extremely few and far between at the time. So. If you combine every single one of these together even if individually it is not likely that any of these would have directly singularly affected the vote if you combine all of them together, then yes it does look like there would be enough tortious interference for Trump to have a claim that he was cheated.

And Trump didn't actually lose the majority of his cases. That is just factually wrong. Cuz you are trying to equate a case being thrown out on standing and a case being thrown out on merit. When a case is thrown out on standing the court is saying it does not believe that there are damages. And at the time that many of these cases were going on judges sided with Democrats, illegally mind you, and it did not investigate the claims that Trump made. And a few of the trials that were pushed through Trump won. It's just that because in Love Fair in certain instances you have to actually file a metric crap ton of lawsuits. And when those lawsuits are thrown out on standing that means they never get a chance to be investigated. That means that no trial actually transpires. Which in essence means that you can claim that Trump had no valid criticism whatsoever. But this cannot be backed up in any substantial way because had cases gone through and investigations actually taken place there is a high likelihood that other forms of malfeasance would have been found.

And then to go out and suggested that j6 was a planned insurrection where Trump was going to become the new dictator of the United States is by far one of the most insane takes I think I've ever seen in my life. No would most people saw about j6 was carefully curated videos of a very very tiny riot. What the media did not show for an extremely long time, including Republican media which is interesting, was the inside of the capital building where protesters and observers were being led around by police. And in some cases actually escorted around by police. So, play cemented games all you like and pretend to Trump is this mega fascist dictator that's going to attempt to conquer the world because apparently he is Skeletor. You're absolutely insane if you believe that. The legal system has been weaponized against Donald Trump, since the moment he stepped into office. This despite that the Biden admin has been found to have spied on Trump during his campaign and after. This after we found out that Hillary Clinton essentially had a staffer make a call from Trump Tower with a Russian phone to fake Russian collusion. And this after we found out that Russia did in fact interfere but in favor of Hillary Clinton. What's more, the Democrats have weaponized the entirety of the legal system against Trump extrajudicially. A current judge that is investigating Trump literally ran on the prospect of going after him. Which is actually kind of funny and interesting, considering in cases like that you would normally be dismissed for a conflict of interest. Because that is a very clear case of inability to separate yourself. And it is a clear showing of bias. They even impeached Trump after he left office which means he was no longer a sitting president. Which means he had no standing to be impeached. The amount of bald-faced lies slander and grievous overlook of stuff in posts by people here are insane to me.

So congratulations and welcome to my f****** story book. Since all of you are clearly historical novices I have swooped in to basically tell you you're all f****** morons. Or you're not morons and you're actually just liars. Try erasing history all you like but it is very clear the Democrat party seeks to destroy this country and while Trump isn't a Republican functionally he's still scares you despite the fact that he's been a New York Democrat his entire life. And the only reason he even ran as a Republican which he has stated on air several times was because he knew that there was absolutely no way the Democrats would ever let him near the office. Republicans treated him like a joke and the Democrats whenever he was running did too and yet somehow he still won. I don't know, it couldn't potentially be because our political class has been screwing us over for literally decades and it's just becoming more and more and more transparent every passing day so we decided to vote for a guy who was not a f****** politician. And then immediately one of the most beloved men in New York and even amongst celebrities became Public enemy number One because he decided to cross the uniparty. That should tell you more about the current state of our political system than it does anything about Trump.

Because never in my lifetime have I ever seen generals blatantly lie to a sitting president and then later brag about it. And do you want to know what that thing was about? It was about the amount of soldiers we had in the middle east. The generals understated the numbers by a large quantity because Trump was trying to pull us out of the Middle East. And they vastly understated numbers meaning that they committed treason against the United States by lying to a sitting president. Men and women who could be home right now rather than stranded in a f****** desert country fighting a war they shouldn't be fighting. One of several new wars Obama started after the bush era. Leftists are lying scumbags and the fact that you all think the Trump is this fascistic superhitler is all the proof anyone needs to never take you seriously ever again.