William Lindsey :toad:

Interested in building a better world and standing in solidarity with others who share that goal.

For biographical information, please see https://toad.social/@wdlindsy/109539508828689842

"Writing is the way I fight."
~ James Cone

#solidarity #democracy #HumanRights #LGBTQ


"From encouraging his supporters to beat up protesters at his rallies, to invoking the possibility of 'Second Amendment people' attacking Hillary Clinton, to glorifying police brutality, to inciting an insurrection, to suggesting military leaders he doesn’t like should be executed, to mocking Paul Pelosi after he was assaulted by one of his supporters —"

~ Aaron Rupar

#Trump #violence
/1

https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-shooting-butler-pennsylvania


Give me a choice between two white men far advanced in years, and give me no other choice, and I might bridle, when that choice has to do with the top governing office in the land. I might pout and stamp my feet and say — rightly — that there should be more choices.
But — I don't know about you — I learned long ago that life often presents me with limited choices, and pouting and foot-stamping does nothing to change that reality.

#Biden #Trump #age #media
/1


nostr:npub1gxtz8dz7ujqcy9hrnyhrykk6xujgpukgccvhpea7evhev7xzpsdqnej9na I'm afraid those justices wouldn't know justice if it bit them in the rear end. Now if you substitute power for the empty (to them) word "justice"….


"They are legislating from the bench an entire right wing agenda that has been on the books of places like the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society for decades, nailing down the rights and privileges of millionaires and billionaires before their demographic clocks runs out"  (continued in /2)

~ Lucian K. Truscott

#SupremeCourt #Trump #Republicans #democracy
/1

https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/oooofcruunchthudaarrgghhone-blow


"The Newsmax banner is yet more evidence showing that the legal system has, to some degree, forced dishonest media outlets into acknowledging basic truths. Without the lawsuits filed by companies such as Smartmatic and Dominion, it is hard to see an outlet like Newsmax openly acknowledging the reality of the 2020 contest."

#Trump #MAGA #Republicans #BigLie #Newsmax
/2


"On Tuesday, as MAGA personality Corey Lewandowski interviewed Donald Trump on Newsmax, the right-wing channel put a notable disclaimer on-screen. 'NEWSMAX ACCEPTS THE 2020 ELECTION RESULTS AS LEGAL AND FINAL,' a banner read as the two chatted on the phone. Of course, Newsmax has faced a downpour of litigation stemming from its promotion of 2020 election lies."

~ Oliver Darcy

#Trump #MAGA #Republicans #BigLie #Newsmax
/1


Kevin Necessary's cartoon commmentary on the Republican hysteria about thinking of the children vis-a-vis Pride flags

#Republicans #children #guns #violence #revenge #retribution #bullying #Pride

https://www.gocomics.com/kevin-necessary-editorial-cartoons/2024/06/12

https://files.toad.social/media_attachments/files/112/626/482/934/560/128/original/392e1773908bfc9c.jpeg


"Today was an important day to be paying attention. In many ways, we seem to be going backward. Only our votes can ultimately change that."

~ Joyce Vance

#Republicans #Trump #contraception #AileenCannon

https://joycevance.substack.com/p/going-retrograde


#Alito #SupremeCourt #insurrection #ethics #corruption

https://open.substack.com/pub/joycevance/p/instructing-a-jury


nostr:npub1fau7sk3gwp5lgdp9kp0m2jjduv3x3rqzaq79a0vcjulj67nrx55qkqyvd8 And under Trump – who is inevitably bolstered by those attacking and downplaying Biden's achievements in righting the economy – things would be better?


nostr:npub13xrgpdya4drxlln86xnnf3f45cnh8ddt8wszv6vtat9mup9l5xhswqevnd Where you see blackmail and fear, I see abject, craven obeisance to a cult leader.


nostr:npub1gdtz633m0f2p6j4gzkeaszt7ghk99d4t8l5rg87lwvc0n6ueeews7zfd90 Yes, I doubt seriously that there will be movement in the direction Reich calls for. I still think it's important to on the record calling for that movement.


nostr:npub1t7udgg8wrtykgfguv25ywwqjrj6hld3jhhdhv24xj2rnwdtdpwssa8zdhu We – our behavior and "thinking" today – surely do prove that the notion of automatic progress over the course of history is bunkum, don't we?


nostr:npub1kmks7r9kd2mnwrg2c678ewsgpkh78gacjntsjkd33kvz6jqfy83qugmtuy Yes, I agree. This is well-noted and well-stated. I share your concern and fear.


nostr:npub1r4j89f6d2wey3ras4hlk65h86z9fj6yxpn2vqjgf4q68xayrae7q8qd8j0 Yes, I actually read David Roberts to be making that same point – and you make it well.


nostr:npub12eg9kdu59jtrmhenqappnd8fucg85krxku6kkzg84vqskt00x6aqwhvl7s Well-stated. You're right!


"By the age of 14, he had survived the Holocaust; by 44, he was an Israeli diplomat; now, at the age of 94, Theodor Meron recommended the International Criminal Court seek arrest warrants of Israeli and Hamas leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity."

~ Andrew Silverstein

#Israel #Netanyahu #Hamas #WarCrimes

https://forward.com/news/615961/theodor-meron-international-criminal-court-amal-clooney-netanyahu-khan/


"To watch the party of Ronald Reagan embracing isolationism and following Trump in truckling to the Butcher of Ukraine, Putin, is bewildering. Mind-bending, also, is that, despite Trump’s fire hose of lies, 71 percent of Republicans describe him as 'honest and trustworthy.'”

 #Trump #morality #values #Republicans #WhiteChristianNationalism
/3


"Call it anomie or call it airsickness—we find ourselves in a land of confusion. Trump pays off a porn star and yet is hailed as a champion of Christian values. He mocks prisoners of war and calls dead soldiers 'suckers,' and his MAGA base is thrilled by his patriotism."

~ Charlie Sykes

#Trump #morality #values #Republicans #WhiteChristianNationalism
/1

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2024/05/the-trumpian-vertigo-of-american-politics/678473/


"Something future historians will struggle to explain is that, in the 21st century, all of human knowledge became instantly available to anyone in the world, and the primary effect was to make everyone dumber.”

~ David Roberts as quoted by Margaret Sullivan

#disinformation #politics #LowInformationVoters #Trump #Internet

https://margaretsullivan.substack.com/p/the-odds-the-stakes-and-the-scariest


“More than two weeks have passed since Donald Trump told an interviewer that he would reveal whether he supports banning the use and distribution of drugs used in medication abortions 'over the next week or two.' But the major cable and broadcast newscasts and most influential newspapers seem to have moved on.”

~ Matt Geertz

#Trump #abortion #media

https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/silence-major-news-outlets-helps-trump-conceal-his-position-medication-abortion


Noting that Trump and Netanyahu are cut from the same strongman authoritarian cloth, Robert Reich says,

"If Trump continues to badmouth witnesses and jurors, Merchan should jail him. If Netanyahu orders an invasion of Rafah, Biden should cut off all military aid to Israel.

It’s time to stop coddling these authoritarians."

#Trump #Netanyahu #Bibi #authoritarianism #strongman

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/standing-up-to-trump-and-bibi


"Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) cited one of the most prominent historical antisemitic narratives as her reason for not approving legislation aimed at combating antisemitism on Wednesday. Greene posted on the site formerly known as Twitter to explain her thinking."

~ Hunter Walker

#MarjorieTaylorGreene #antisemitism #WhiteChristianNationalism
/1

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/mtg-cites-antisemitic-conspiracy-theory-jews-handed-over-jesus-to-be-killed


"The New York Times reported there are at least nine court officers and additional Secret Service agents in the courtroom today, a much larger security presence than normal.

Outside the court, a local park has been turned into a stage by Trump supporters."

~ Dan Rather

#Trump #trial #crime

https://steady.substack.com/p/things-we-never-thought-wed-see


"There’s no better issue than abortion to remind us what America under a second MAGA Administration would become. …

Roe’s fall has laid bare the America that Trump and the MAGA Right want, and how catastrophic a second Trump presidency would be for America."

~ Melissa Ryan

#Trump #Republicans #abortion #fascism #women #ReproductiveRights

https://www.altrightdelete.news/p/fascist-hellscape


Jemar Tisby provides valuable backstory to Trump's blasphemous peddling of a Christian nationalist bible combining American political texts and the biblical text. The idea for this blasphemous project started several years ago with a man named Hugh Kirkpatrick of Elite Source Pro.

#Trump #bible #ChristianNationalism #blasphemy #grift
/1

https://jemartisby.substack.com/p/three-years-ago-we-stopped-harper


"Of all the negative reactions to my writing, 99.99% of the racist comments come from white men. Aside from their inability to resist the urge to explain Black culture to me, these individuals rarely argue the facts. Bigotry and racism are such an essential component of their identity, that they don't even notice the backwardness of their point of view."

~ Marlon Weems

#WhiteMen

https://thejourneyman.substack.com/p/the-king-of-all-blacks


As Jason Sattler notes, with the IVF debacle, Republicans are trying to lie re: what their "life begins at conception" mantra really means. But supporters like Lila Rose won't let them lie: shey says,

“Politicians cannot call themselves ‘pro-life,’ affirm the truth that human life begins at the moment of fertilization, and then enact laws that allow the callous killing of these preborn children simply because they were created through IVF."

#Republicans #ProLife #IVF

https://thecause.substack.com/p/they-dont-want-want-my-daughter-to


"Trump wants everyone to believe that Jews=Israel, but this is an extraordinarily dangerous idea. It’s not an accident that it’s exactly what today is being used to justify antisemitism directed against Jews. …

Trump himself seems to believe that if he says this often enough, eventually Jews will start moving toward the GOP."

~ Paul Waldman

#Trump #Jews #Israel #antisemitism #Republicans
/1

https://paulwaldman.substack.com/p/dual-loyalty-used-to-be-a-slur-now


If you want a glimpse of the "pro-life" white Christian dystopia Republicans collaborating with white Christian nationalists are preparing for all of us, look at Kentucky: as Paige Oamek and Rohan Montgomery report,

"The state is making it easier to kill homeless people on private property—and that’s just one part of one of the most draconian crime bills in recent history."

#Kentucky #homeless
/1

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/kentucky-crime-bill/


nostr:npub14dwk8rfl9l439p6mmpmy4rtld9f0w7yspjeeszlgg6gc5t9y8g9sueqwrc Yes, he has a cunning sense of how to reach people in their most primitive and primal places and to urge the ugly id to manifest itself. He's a walking exercise in that himself.


nostr:npub13qtw0rxjednnpk0mndr3wc68vcde8e6lhmn7kfv6fwxxs5gv7fmsx8v8gs You'd be right about the Federalist Society, with ample assistant from the Claremont Institute.


nostr:npub1raxfgh2pcgaark46lrpdfefa285fesps4zzglddul7tus0f0xysq288p4w 😀


nostr:npub1r4j89f6d2wey3ras4hlk65h86z9fj6yxpn2vqjgf4q68xayrae7q8qd8j0 Indeed. Oppression and repression only make many of us stronger on the inside, where it counts.


nostr:npub1s88wwvlvl3xlxn7yh2mgv6jhj5xtejke87erkkgnzussr5p8yuzspnlw9d 😀 I have to admit, they do me, too, especially after one ran away with me as a teen and knocked my head on a low-lying branch of a tree.


nostr:npub12z3d3v69dfwtc2uwhp0a02fk0t50mzltycratdhm7v6u6mvdtrysygmfft I thought it was great, too. I'm glad to learn more about Matthew Sheffield, whose work I've followed, without knowing much of his life story.


nostr:npub1cczzlxa6d8jkd8xl8v5lhgyjhtzhjs7p5644hrtvdh45znj5avhsxu7l0l 😀


nostr:npub19hp9rdd6a9fpcyr4mu536te30sr6pdswvw3wlqust8c200fyuhpsj4craq You'd be right in adding that phrase. And, yes, someone who's available to any buyer poses a serious security risk for the US, and, really, for the whole globe.


Republican voters who formerly voted for Trump tell why they will never, ever vote for Trump again.

Republican Voters Against Trump (RVAT) invites you to share your own story, if you're a Republican who formerly voted for Trump: https://rvat.org/add-your-voice/

#Trump #Republicans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahBKWQssQ5o&t=16s


Jim Swift on how Republican hitman Robert Hur screwed President Biden over inhis special council report.

In short, Hur lied about what Biden said in his interview with Biden.

#Biden #Hur #age #lies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71W8TkSAcvY


nostr:npub1tuk54lutrz8uvhd5nar4qdayzy7m4ztryw5dztq0tltncaaj2xgqj307wx I love that observation.


nostr:npub1fmle47fsxm6v68vwj4vckpvwmqf9da5j7ykhy3mwlkgefzqxfacqedcddl Indeed.


nostr:npub1s88wwvlvl3xlxn7yh2mgv6jhj5xtejke87erkkgnzussr5p8yuzspnlw9d If wishes were horses, we'd all ride, wouldn't we?


nostr:npub10cms20lv32u62lx7w8v0uwk6qtwwlthff0mtw0usx9m8x3wra5sqc036ex Holding onto justified rage and using it to spur ourselves to constructive action: that seems good to me.


nostr:npub1nwzgj3fzfswf6w77swry45x8334ajxqseq6f5r9srsuc56x6fj4suwppp9 Yes — I suspect it's not really accuracy of depictions of Biden but instant vilification of Biden that energizes them.


nostr:npub1c6aewuwpfm59exj45t5ahdr7z2dkn8zxqtesq5fza4fw5t27aa3quh4fdh Yes, chaos is his game, chaos deployed to enable him to escape the law and cement power. Steve Bannon's playbook, which is central to his strategies, makes that very clear.


nostr:npub1m9agwuf02x9we36eh2kzmzsgshg0t394rtn256nh0f85w9fgg4rsg6025m So it seems to me, too.


nostr:npub1hufrg2g8x7yrxv0hlkjes2dv7qpcqg4y6v0tadfvqyuav45ercqsct252d I agree. Behind Trump and his rise to power stand economic elites who are ultimately responsible for what's happening and pulling the strings.


nostr:npub1hufrg2g8x7yrxv0hlkjes2dv7qpcqg4y6v0tadfvqyuav45ercqsct252d Yes, indeed.


nostr:npub1383k9kcwt0lf8lv0l3fazalus8cky635l8282qacn64wr6rlvedqe7frpr Thank you for highlighting this. I agree that it's very important.


nostr:npub1dwvxa053xq23l8kzpx79mqjf3ku3k6cerlyl84v3rycc6w2cd43qz67uls Thank you! This is perfect.


nostr:npub1ahmpls8x6nxlwr8p0ryyy5q0spw9ysrmtvt66wqlcz2s5vsr99lqxxryzr Sorry, I don't play games here.


"If he gets the chance, Donald Trump will cut Social Security and Medicare. I am confident of this not only because Trump has repeatedly said as much1 and not only because he repeatedly tried to do so when he was president but because a desire to cut Social Security and Medicare has long been central to the Republican cause."

~ Jamison Foser

#Trump #Republicans #SocialSecurity #Medicare
/1

https://www.findinggravity.net/p/work-at-the-mill-until-you-die


"These same activists are hard at work to criminalize homosexuality, to take away all women’s rights, and to prohibit atheism or non-Christian religion. They literally do want Christo-fascism."

#Trump #WhiteChristianNationalism #theocracy #democracy
/6


"These viewpoints are dangerous and the only way to deal with them is to politically disempower them. They will never compromise because they believe they are enacting God’s will. A lot of people thought that abortion rights were a settled controversy after Roe v. Wade but the far right never accepted it."

#Trump #WhiteChristianNationalism #theocracy #democracy
/5


"Once the internet became completely pervasive within society, low-information religious fundamentalists finally became aware that their side had totally and completely lost all scientific and historical arguments."

#Trump #WhiteChristianNationalism #theocracy #democracy
/2


Matthew Sheffield, who was raised in a fundamentalist Mormon family and was once a right-wing Republican activist, explains why it's futile to try to reason with Trump's white Christian nationalist base, whose aim is to dominate and force us to dance to its theocratic tune, not to reason or to accept pluralistic democracy:

#Trump #WhiteChristianNationalism #theocracy #democracy
/1

https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/big-questions-matthew-sheffield-trump


"So Hur said that Biden couldn't remember when his son died within several years and that was proof that his memory was shot but now the transcript has been released and it turns out Biden immediately recalled the MONTH and DAY."

~ Judd Legum

#Biden #Republicans #Hur #age #ageism

https://substack.com/@popularinformation/note/c-51485577?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=2xjx0


nostr:npub194nfl9qgu2ctsn2c739a3yuhxvqrzxdt9apd0kd906aqha4pgpfqyzlkvs I had not known. Shame on him.


nostr:npub1d68n00clatuxw7dghfszkuv639x90ftplmnev2q7axdlkapumqpsrw826h Sam Harris' description of Trump certainly does have aplomb.


nostr:npub1cvuz6d6pe7ddfkems37qpzqxqd67srgm68wtn49hqeqts6vxg2dq3yp7qm A good point.


nostr:npub1nwzgj3fzfswf6w77swry45x8334ajxqseq6f5r9srsuc56x6fj4suwppp9 I suspect that his made-up stutter as he was speaking directly of Biden was understood by the crowd as a mockery of Biden — and that's why they howled with laughter.


nostr:npub1zyz56mg46vfhxxv3rvkj8tj77zh3adrmzun6e60g77mm7pfgk2jsjwg23w Yes, he's giving them permission to be who they are, so that the problem is not just Trump: it's lots of Americans who see their face in the mirror when they look at him.


nostr:npub1uglf38as3syyjpu67f6eaakhgvxpxhz8ekqstw3294ny7xwf8m5q2hwx5l Well-stated. I agree.


nostr:npub1fpz7xf0dfyr3fw03mz32kv8f6x05u5keqtc0fn3tu6advhuwuy8qr2tx5g Yes — I think perhaps Maya Angelou first said it.


nostr:npub1vd3xxveym093na4xx303tr0l7yrqdxyya28wcv9ne7fu4vm6x0fsjycn5z Well-noted. I very much agree. No adults in the room, in those crowds.


nostr:npub1s7ekf2mmuf7sm5stlaz4desgu6l2a4jp849yqar4eejsfg9xn3ls687amd Yes, I agree.


nostr:npub1rrl36qag5656qhl90lkxlsreqjv0l9yugflm29q5tckqy4c8sjdqstvzm7 Precisely.


nostr:npub10cms20lv32u62lx7w8v0uwk6qtwwlthff0mtw0usx9m8x3wra5sqc036ex I find the proposition of cutting social welfare programs appalling, too.


nostr:npub1a3trstvfnpvs39c87vzrxasw8hyt3pv5hmpfylmlenk90ruyd6cq7spgxl Indeed.


nostr:npub152esxjerx5qc8kqsm8rrmvlfamuh3n6e0q57t9jjhqzx4gx4s0uqlwj2uk Yes, you're right about that.


Mark Sumner on the RNC's night of the long knives:

"Trump’s team officially took over the RNC on Monday, and within hours, the knives came out as the organization fired around 60 existing staff members. As The Guardian reports, this was done to bring the RNC 'under the wing of the Trump 2024 presidential campaign.' As both leadership and contractors were sent packing, one Guardian source described the situation as an 'absolute bloodbath.'”

#Trump #RNC

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/3/12/2228989/-The-RNC-s-night-of-the-long-knives


Yet:

"The Society for American Civic Renewal asks prospective members to discuss 'Christian nationalism' when interviewing them for admission, and defines itself in a mission statement obtained by TPM as believing in a form of Christianity 'not blurred by modernist philosophies.'”

We walk like ducks, quack like ducks, are feathered and fly like ducks. But please do not call us ducks.

 #ChristianNationalism
/2


Josh Kovensky reports,

"A men-only, Christian-only, right-wing secret society with the aim of installing certain kinds of Christians in a future U.S. government does not want to be called Christian nationalist."

#ChristianNationalism
/1

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/experts-place-new-secret-society-squarely-in-the-christian-nationalist-revival


"Republican politicians and sympathetic media outlets are claiming that America is in the midst of a violent "crime wave," driven in part by undocumented immigrants. New data, however, demonstrates that there was not a spike in violent crime in 2023. Instead, across America, rates of violent crime are dropping precipitously — and the decline is especially pronounced in border states."

~ Judd Legum and Tesnim Zekeria

#migrants #crime #Republicans

https://popular.info/p/new-data-explodes-myth-of-crime-wave


This is a shocker: who would ever have imagined? PRRI's polling finds that support for LGBTQ human beings and rights declined from 2022 to 2023.

It declined just as Republicans placed LGBTQ people in their sights and bombarded the nation with anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and initiatives.

Who'd have thought it? Relentlessly target a vulnerable minority community, and it becomes more vulnerable.

#PRRI #LGBTQ #Republicans

https://www.prri.org/research/views-on-lgbtq-rights-in-all-50-states/


And then there's this, a reminder that the problem is not just Trump: the problem is many of us in the US who revel in rage and cruelty and love being told by Trump and many of our churches that the rage and cruelty are righteous and justified. Let this mentality capture more sectors of a society, and it will have a very bleak future, indeed.

#Trump #CrueltyIsthePoint
/2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG1hc77W7tw


"a plan that would explain why Trump urged Republicans to kill the national security supplemental bill even when it included a strong border component that favored Republican positions.

It appears as though Trump is deliberately undermining the national security of the United States."

#Trump #Putin #Ukraine #NationalSecurity
/2


"Trump loyalists have been obstructing aid to Ukraine since President Joe Biden asked for it in October 2023. Their insistence that they would not address the national security needs of the U.S. in Ukraine until they were addressed at the border now sure looks like a smokescreen to help Russian president Vladimir Putin take Ukraine," (continued in /2)

~ Heather Cox Richardson

#Trump #Putin #Ukraine #NationalSecurity
/1

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-11-2024-monday


"But if someone helped him out, then Americans have a right to know who the all-but-certain Republican nominee for president owes $91.63 million worth of favors."

#Trump #crime #EJeanCarroll #SexualAssault #defamation #LawandOrder #bond #media
/2


"The responsibility falls on the press to ask Trump and the campaign at every turn, until we get an answer, how the bond was obtained. If Trump did it with his own assets, he should be more than willing to bolster his financial reputation by saying so. If he’s unwilling to share details, that should raise red flags."

~ Joyce Vance

#Trump #crime #EJeanCarroll #SexualAssault #defamation #bond #media
/1

https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-week-ahead-924


A big reason voters claim to be unaware of Trump's promise to begin functioning as a dictator on day 1 of his presidency is that the corporate media have normalized Trump. While focusing laser intensity on the made-up "problem" of Biden's age, they let Trump say one dangerous thing after another and give him a pass. They have allowed him and the Republicans to whitewash his previous time in the White House. New York Times leads the way.

#Trump #MediaFail #NewYorkTimes

https://newrepublic.com/article/179548/poll-voters-trump-dictator-threats


"What Christian Nationalism means by the phrase 'Christian nation,' is a nation dictated by neo-evangelical Christianity, tied to a fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible, which should drive the formation of laws, is deeply entrenched in patriarchy, and is largely white. This vision of a 'Christian Nation' not only excludes other religions and nonreligious people from having an equal voice in our country, but many other Christians as well."

~ Benjamin Cremer

/2

https://benjamin-cremer.ck.page/posts/how-should-we-talk-about-christian-nationalism


"The Christian Nationalists’ God is petty, insecure, cruel, authoritarian. Their God, like their favored presidential candidate, demands above all else obedience and loyalty. Their God sees only a few as 'elect': Mike Johnson and his ilk, straight men, blastocysts and frozen embryos. All the others He casts out. Their God is not inclusive; their Paradise, a fascist state."

~ GregOlear

#WhiteChristianNationalism #autocracy #theocracy #cruelty
/1

https://gregolear.substack.com/p/sunday-pages-paradise-lost-d85


"With Trump unvanquished, and hook-or-crook desperate to return to office, it’s essential that the public not forget his disastrous presidency or the danger he poses to freedom in the U.S. and around the world. And to the extent voters have forgotten they need to be reminded."

~ Brian Beutler

#Biden #Trump #SOTU
/1

https://www.offmessage.net/p/first-part-biden-sotu-important?r=2scyl&utm_medium=email


“Bending the knee to Trump is a break with core human values like empathy and decency – and democracy. It’s an expression of approval for lying, cheating, stealing, and attempted insurrection.

This is not simply expressing a preference between the two political parties. This is a far-reaching moral and political choice.”

~ Dan Froomkin

#Trump #Republicans #morality

https://presswatchers.org/2024/03/every-new-trump-endorsement-is-a-story-of-profound-moral-collapse/


"Mitch McConnell, a deeply malevolent bigot who hates democracy and cares only about the consolidation of money and power, announced today that he will step down as leader of the Senate Republican caucus after this November’s elections. …

But Mitch McConnell has never been the problem. A problem, sure. But the problem?"

~ Jamison Foser

#Republicans #Trump #McConnell
/1

https://www.findinggravity.net/p/mitch-mcconnell-was-never-the-problem


" If the Republican party and its far-right allies around the world are doing everything possible to assist Putin in destroying Ukraine, it is because they understand that Putin's defeat in Ukraine would likely destabilize his regime further and create the conditions for change."

~ Ruth Ben-Ghiat

#Putin #Trump #Navalny #Republicans
/1

https://lucid.substack.com/p/a-thieving-little-man-in-his-bunker


"E. Jean Carroll has endured almost five years of hell at the hands of this soulless monster. Even if she never collects a cent from the worthless bum, she has shown the world who he is, what he did, and how he behaves when a woman stands up to him. There should be some sort of civil award for truth-telling and courage for E. Jean Carroll. She certainly deserves it."

~ Lucian K. Truscott

#Trump #EJeanCarroll #defamation #SoulessMonster #crime #LawandOrder

https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/ka-ching-183-m-65-m-833-million-verdict


"In the face of this tsunami of bullshit, the American legal system has not proven - yet - up to the challenge laid down by the seditionists and their leader. Jack Smith, the DOJ’s independent prosecutor into Trump’s sedition, is currently hamstrung, as is the judge presiding over his case against Trump. The Supreme Court, with its majority Trump-appointed/ Trump-aligned judges will eventually decide whether Trump’s claim of immunity…."

#Trump #insurrection #Jan6 #LawandOrder #Republicans
/3


"[Milei's] victory [in Argentina] is an international marker, of sorts, for America’s billionaires and largest corporations who share Milei’s desire to end liberal democracy and the so-called 'welfare state' both in Argentina and around the world."

~ Thom Hartmann

#Milei #libertarianism #Argentina #capitalism #RightWing #Republicans

https://hartmannreport.com/p/what-argentinas-new-grand-experiment


"We can arm our people, but we can't house our people. We can load them up like a heavy-weapons platoon, but we can't arrange a one-room efficiency for the winter. We can hand them an AR-15 and say, 'Go with god,' but we can't protect them, and we can't protect our fellow citizens against well-armed madmen. 'Shelter in place' has no chance against 'open carry.'"

#Maine #MassShooting #guns #OpenCarry #violence #AmericanExceptionalism #homeless
/2


Charles Pierce comments on a report by Jenna Russell in New York Times about the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. Ellis interviewed two homeless men who told her they had moved into the Lewiston park to be near the police station, after new of the shooting broke. They had nowhere to go and thought that might be the safest place.

Pierce writes,

#Maine #MassShooting #guns #OpenCarry #violence #AmericanExceptionalism #homeless
/1

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a45654569/unhoused-men-lewiston-maine-shooting/


nostr:npub1scqmrkwlz5feqca2a26qpdxt747rxuad8u3h6kkktt79pvy8g3kqumjjta Yes, it appears they did just that.


nostr:npub1m8guzyehjtfnd52fc25z2m4wt2q8qefyfemx478tu7cl7yzet0zsvw0nnt Yes. And that makes their outsized influence on the US political process — and through the US political process, the entire globe — all the more troubling. Especially when the Supreme Court bends over backwards to assure that their minority control is cemented into place.


nostr:npub194khzmemaq7qkljzhh9cgpg2k34cc2rtrhm43d05rag4xyvdd7jquyj5sk Yes, it seems to me our justice definitely works much "better" for men like Trump and Bannon than for ordinary citizens, particularly those who belong to minority communities.


nostr:npub1gzjqxeepqnw8ynt8ksn92kcng4nzhv9lwfdquuak34udvc5h9p7sv5r7pt That's a generous reading of the media's treatment of Trump. Mine is more focused on how economic elites ultimately drive the Trump train and own and, to a great extent, control the media.


nostr:npub18m7aufqwve0360mu68yuky9cgem6t5vdzmahjw76yd37yq6mz2pskr6crj I think a lot of us would agree that he belongs on a sex offender registry.


nostr:npub1fahg5avxsar2ens4dg2fjqg8h2zcv40j28sjwqsz7cqgaxhh9meqt5ya3h Yes, so it seem to many of us.


nostr:npub1pcnzse50d8m9rhf9fj0lsfw3mfck64zezqnpd7nsl0ygx3yz27wsx7zf7l nostr:npub147pt4jrpsjvh7nsh9azc07usqzd89qxsyptq000ylqjehcfznlwqzjlnth Yes, he's always struck me in just that way.


nostr:npub180d8r7djdr4y9mypytzss2lgtr62584q42g5wwgc3xyym855k63q09yqvk Especially when it's done in the dark and under the table.


nostr:npub1dvqm66yjpu5rsvncxzs03wtn9jflnjr93yzhktrrxdm30qlm253qpvuxak So it often seems. The opposition Jimmy Carter experienced in his time as president seems to me to validate that judgment.


nostr:npub12f3yy6jsz083fw4ul5pdvfyqqhcydu9ax5dk5er5lhr2fpsdg27svdad49 Obviously.


nostr:npub194khzmemaq7qkljzhh9cgpg2k34cc2rtrhm43d05rag4xyvdd7jquyj5sk I don't know the answer to that question, but would note that our justice system is much more attuned to the "needs" of wealthy white men than of other citizens — and it's that way because other wealthy white men tend to stand behind it and pull its strings.


nostr:npub13gxnt0gcnktwdfz9u3pqyq4xensmuh5ayp8tlufn5gh7tjdh7c9stt6qf8 Yes, it's the core teaching of major world religions, a point Karen Armstrong has made repeatedly in writing about this topic and how fostering practical compassion is the center of the religious systems of the world.


nostr:npub14hvdjny6ekl95mv5zq43yru6acdpn2yzsmg0yuz2kw2cl35sj56qm7rqkm Yes, absolutely.


nostr:npub16ydwyqlj3th8mmql37l7gfeh8sprp7vvkql2e8tlwg8e747a44rs2kmu6a So the validity of core values depends on the media and tens of millions supporting them? Poor vapid values, if that's the case.


nostr:npub1du6wdmjup4w48jg73hqmwqqs5qyaajkqy9vz558rwsjguevj2plsrd50a9 😀 I'm not sure making judgments in good taste has ever been the strong suit of the Huckabee family.


nostr:npub1y9xexjjkhf64y6gpjdx0yhfr9460sz03zu0zqdmw2xcmjasxk7hqm55z9f I agree. To call a special legislative session to circumvent FOIA requirements?!


nostr:npub186urxm80vm2dh5uu2y08pclfhn93h6um9nl2fmflzdjj0nekxx2szjdr63 I read him with interest because he strikes me as someone actually trying to get stories right and to think carefully about information. Sorry he left Mastodon.


nostr:npub1jppcsq73ezvldj33yxhs8nlddd7utzmu62yyq5cwjxzyysqpxcqqu5euxz 😀


nostr:npub12wdjf4jcegavk4lxjed9utzw77quuq5zvwrvrt4llltn8xwxexhs9snxnx nostr:npub1wl670t4kkenw7wdy5lya2rh6qmexw6rj7uzt6m8eey2n0alh89mqr25hu7 Yes, couldn't agree more, though I personally never have seen the charm of Huckabee. The national media loved for a long time to pretend that he was a "good" Republican until he made it impossible for them to carry on that pretense. People watching him and his family in Arkansas have long known that they'll do anything for money and power — Christian values be damned.


nostr:npub1fxmqftqvyw4ndxghsax5zgtquvm6cujym5urwqpu7an96km3nyns07guxz You'll have to help me understand your allusion. It's probably obvious, but I'm not grasping it.


nostr:npub1fpz7xf0dfyr3fw03mz32kv8f6x05u5keqtc0fn3tu6advhuwuy8qr2tx5g I agree.


nostr:npub150av9pygll6tfrj9e3xyd9kqn3p63g2zh0tx7d0kql7ctmj4n2nssl7r6l Thanks for noting that. Paul Farhi notes that CNN talked about this in panel discussions over the next few days — which is different, of course, from reporting it as major headline news at the time it happened.


nostr:npub19x0vumzxzyjzq0d4xyr59l2gd098qzpky4d4f54a58hdl279hnhs9e9ve7 nostr:npub1tz5yqc7rpxnjmr7jz4msrhz9euh0k82z3c99kg0rgyfnpj8uf6xscdw99u I don't think it can lead to anything bad for Sanders in a state solidly controlled by Republicans — as is also the case in Texas. That's my point in speaking about how this kind of one-party total control, especially backed up by fake religious claims, inevitably leads to corruption.


nostr:npub1yq6fen8cm3m7lusjm2ulyjz30kd5ymz3mv0cq5mc0c0957lml9psvn3w8k Yes, a question to ask here is how church membership or involvement in a church is measured.


nostr:npub13z6yn3tllpnqz243sun29thxn6f49fawy6n33azvn7zxdzf2q86q7xp8ce I think they already have succeeded to a great extent. And as they've done so, Christians who know that what the GOP is selling as Christianity is distorted and dangerous bear a lot of responsibility for not speaking out — though the question is how to do so when over half of white US Christians voted twice for Donald Trump.


nostr:npub19det76duhykfkxztuwfm8unvfyr2hvfkmzgtfhdvalln0em98nusmrynwy Yes — Matt seems to me solely about Matt.


nostr:npub1k6av0paujp3d20v2uetszes3a5gff5rld4rmhjes22rc99hjmjxqjyj8jw Points well-taken.


nostr:npub1eant8hq76py95ctmw7pnts2hj8kzlnujf8s2acvqdkhsfj9glsasjeml6h Indeed, not. The fundamental principle to be considered here: which should count more, life or property?


nostr:npub17wlhn4upgq7qygrznv5cd8v8d9ledvnxyqn3gcage3cuxcx5xrnsx24thj An excellent observation.


nostr:npub1px9prtjuza0vmqe57uy7hkhu8j8fl3kjygn9vcfq3ffjkcjc2tws4uv9r5 Astonishing, isn't it — that they ever even tried representing themselves in that way?


nostr:npub16kvvffgn36flynkzv43yath7samfqpcgaacjhlk5wlqm32dz85ssywr053 I think it's beyond a shadow of a doubt true that the ideal of liberty and justice for all enshrined in foundational American documents has long been belied by the actual practice of the US in dealing with minority groups.


nostr:npub1rus8jvy5sulkqw7pdyw3swtk0v6nfahtutgdn4zyr2xvu8jg9zdspd5x44 Perhaps — but I think it's also significant to point out that, in contrast to Republicans, who have almost uniformly iined up behind Trump after indictment following indictment, Democrats on the whole want Menendez to resign.


nostr:npub1k9qecpkl6vwxjhtelyxhkuejfld0zey9d7tru0cljk9allusr55sk3j0yn Yes — but I think it's also significant to point out that, in contrast to Republicans, who have almost uniformly iined up behind Trump after indictment following indictment, Democrats on the whole want Menendez to resign.


nostr:npub1v6jzr2ma688tcwmrcw8dkr9dsfu6s58ja49tgsrjfg8pdcgn39fs58azzl Same for me. I grow weary of dealing with it.


nostr:npub1l926dp3723cu4yw33my2qpgtelyf00pr9306qz6q9kt6mrrap7zqmj5g4w Yes. Well-stated. That sounds exactly right to me.


nostr:npub1xu3dc7pa3ztqkes6xppescu6kj97k8ggmyddpqu586uul6q9zspq5xdyu6 And the big revelation is that they cheered, isn't it? Many of us in this country right now are slavering to hurt and hate targeted groups, and Trump and the Republicans know how to channel that hate the will to hurt.


nostr:npub1eway0rc339w03mn6ynwev2004rypz9v57aehnqp8z7pq2drnqs6qwvyv7k Your science teacher is asking a good critical question!


As Cliff Schecter notes, Jamie Raskin reminds us that "you cannot understand anything Republicans do in this country, in the House, without understanding what Vladimir Putin wants. They're tied together. They're on a leash. He's walking them around like the little puppies they are."

#Republicans #Putin

https://youtu.be/s35e1nRRM38?si=mmlbZCTeDSokYtk-


"McCarthy thought he could harness forces of disruption. Instead they devoured him.

As far back as 2009, the future House speaker tried to channel the anti-politician, tea-party wave building into a political force, but the movement crushed him."

~ Paul Kane

Destroying is what destroyers do. Unleash those energies, and there's no controlling them.

#McCarthy #Republicans #PoliticsofDestruction #chaos #ChaosAgents

https://wapo.st/46m7V0K


"It has been clear for some years that what is broken in American politics is the Republican Party."

~ Norman Ornstein

#Republicans #PoliticsofDestruction #chaos #ChaosAgents

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/10/06/republican-leaders-mccarthy-expert-roundup-00120170


Charles Pierce writes — and he's right —"Let he who hasn't divulged state secrets to a cardboard magnate throw the first stone."

Except his grammar's incorrect: "he" is the object of the transitive verb "let," not the subject of the clause of which "who" is the subject. It's "Let him who hasn't, etc."

I can just hear Ms. Ida Cook in my 9th-grade English class saying, "Now, class, would you really say 'Let he throw the ball? Let's diagram!'"

#Trump #NationalSecurity

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a45468787/nuclear-submarine-trump-secret/


"Donald is, I believe, for political reasons, trying to provoke one of the judges in his criminal or this civil case to send him to jail, so that he can rally his supporters and say, 'See, the system is rigged. They’re out to get me. I didn’t do anything wrong, but they’re going to shut me up.'”

~ David Cay Johnston

#Trump #crime #criminal #fraud #theater

https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/6/donald_trump_civil_fraud_trial_new


"Does false equivalence infect the framing of our political moment in ways that grossly distort the truth? Sadly, yes. And the damage to our nation on this last score might be as significant as on the others listed before it."

~ Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner

#Trump #Republicans #MediaFail #BothSidesism #FalseEquivalence
/2

https://steady.substack.com/p/its-not-congress-or-washington


"KEVIN MCCARTHY IS THE LATEST but doubtless not the last Republican to find out that when you’re Donald Trump, they let you do it—and when you’re not, they don’t. So many deals, so many pledges, so many lies and reversals, so much hypocrisy and selling out. So much disregard for principle, truth, and consequences.

And for what?"

~ Jill Lawrence

#McCarthy #Trump #Republicans

https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/kevin-mccarthy-no-donald-trump-budget


Then, as Sykes points out, Trump told a cheering crowd of California Republicans that, if elected president again, he's have shoplifters shot — and the media shrugged their shoulders.

#Trump #crime #violence #threats #retribution #MediaFail
/3


“'I had expected every website and all the cable news shows to lead with a story about Trump demanding the execution of the highest military officer in the country,' the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg told the Wapo. 'If Barack Obama or George W. Bush had done so, I’m sure [the news media] would have been all over it.'”

#Trump #crime #violence #threats #retribution #MediaFail
/2


"Consider: Over the last several days, Donald Trump has called for the execution of one of the nation’s top generals, threatened prosecutors, mocked the hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi’s elderly husband, and endorsed more extra-judicial killings.

For the most part, the media shrugged."

~ Charlie Sykes

#Trump #crime #violence #threats #retribution #MediaFail

https://morningshots.thebulwark.com/p/the-media-mutes-trumps-crazy


"Trump opened his mouth, and these words came out when he was asked about immigrants coming across the southern border: 'It’s poisoning the blood of our country.'

'Poisoning the blood of our country,' is a construct that Adolph Hitler used to describe Jews, homosexuals, and other citizens of Germany he said should be 'exterminated' like insects."

~ Lucian K. Truscott

#Trump #hitler #Nazis

https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/donald-trumps-word-is-good-when-it


As Jonathan V. Last says, with polls showing decisively that Democratic voters are not rallying to Menendez as he faces serious charges, some of us may want to reconsider that both sides stuff. It’s ONLY on the Republican side that rallying to criminals takes place.

https://open.substack.com/pub/thetriad/p/breaking-democratic-voters-dont-rally

#Menendez #Trump #Democrats #Republicans #BothSidesism


"So it was no surprise that the one concession Congressional Republicans refused to budge on during last week’s shutdown fiasco was regarding aid to Ukraine. Indeed, one could make a compelling argument that the entire point of the shutdown was to achieve that objective.

The more MAGA the member of Congress, the more adamant the opposition to funding Ukraine."

#Ukraine #Russia #Republicans #Putin #Trump
/3


"Trump refused to send promised and Congressionally approved aid to Ukraine unless 'you…do us a favor, though,' resulting in his first impeachment. The single change made in the Republican party platform in 2016 involved—you guessed it—Ukraine."

#Ukraine #Russia #Republicans #Putin #Trump
/2


"With Republicans in Washington, it always comes back to Ukraine.

Ukraine is what Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan were talking about in 2015 when McCarthy said that he thought Putin paid Trump. Ukraine is where Paul Manafort workshopped his campaign fuckery. Ukraine is where Trump dispatched his attack dog, Rudy Giuliani, to manufacture dirt on Joe Biden."

~ Greg Olear

#Ukraine #Russia #Republicans #Putin #Trump
/1

https://gregolear.substack.com/p/washington-and-kherson-a-tale-of


"The actions of the oil companies and petrostates are one thing. But so far, the actions of governments across the rich world have failed to match their words on net zero. Even now, as scientists admit that they are stunned by the latest data, there is no guarantee that greenhouse gases will stop rising by 2025, as experts believe they must if there is to be any chance of limiting temperature rises to 1.5C.

~ The Guardian

#ClimateCrisis #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/05/the-guardian-view-on-the-hottest-september-the-climate-must-be-prioritised


"CNN and MSNBC talked about it in panel discussions over the next few days. The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, NPR and PBS never reported it. The New York Times wrote about it four days later and played the story on page 14 of its print edition."

#Trump #violence #threats #retribution #MediaFail #CNN #MSNBC #WashingtonPost #NewYorkTimes #PBS #NPR #WallStreetJournal
/2


"Last week, the Republican Party’s leading presidential candidate proposed executing suspected shoplifters. ...

Trump’s advocacy of extrajudicial killings was widely covered by newspapers and TV stations in California but generally ignored by the national press. No mainstream TV channels aired or quoted his speech live later that night.

~ Paul Farhi

#Trump #violence #threats #retribution #MediaFail
/1

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2023/10/05/trump-violent-shoplifters-milley-media/?_pml=1


"No matter how Trump’s lawyers try to dress up their argument, at bottom, it is that a president is above the law. And that’s not how our criminal justice system is meant to work."

~ Joyce Vance

#Trump #crime #LawandOrder #authoritarianism
/2

https://joycevance.substack.com/p/not-a-quiet-thursday


"Trump’s lawyers are trying to get the indictments against him for trying to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election thrown out, arguing that a president has absolute immunity from prosecution for criminal as well as civil prosecutions. If this argument succeeded, it would mean that a president was above the law and could do anything they wanted without fear of prosecution."

~ Heather Cox Richardson

#Trump #crime #LawandOrder #authoritarianism
/1

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-5-2023


nostr:npub19cv4u75rkj0hhqle79x577dzx6plwcmq0qmdnpeyre6mu28sgvfqsx8c2z I see no reason to discount his report, which is based on sound empirical evidence, that people are leaving churches in large numbers. I would think not a few of those leaving feel profound alienation, and I think his point about the need of church members to try to understand that anger and alienation is a good one. I don’t find it in the least delusional.


As Joan McCarter reports, poll after poll is finding that Americans are fed up and then some with the glaring, filthy corruption of Supreme Court justices like Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito (and I'd throw in John Roberts, too). If you thought confidence in the court could go any lower, then think again: polls show it plummeting to historic new low levels.

#SupremeCourt #corruption #ethics

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/5/2197622/-Supreme-Court-approval-ratings-in-the-tank-as-Americans-demand-reform


Josh Marshall tells you everything you ever wanted to know — and then some — about Arkansas' "Podiumgate" story. Sarah Huckabee Sanders! Money! Secrecy! Circumvention of FOIA requessts! Lies!

And corruption galore! The kind of corruption that can only be conjured up nowadays in a state totally controlled by Republicans, especially bible-belt ones. The kind of corruption the US hasn't seen since the gilded age.

#Arkansas #PodiumGate #SarahHuckabeeSanders

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/lets-talk-about-podiumgate


"A man tried this week to attack Democratic Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, twice in one day, first with a handgun and then with an assault rifle after posting bail, a state spokesperson said Thursday."

~ Tori Otten

#Wisconsin #guns #threats #attack #violence
/3

https://newrepublic.com/post/176009/wisconsin-governor-tony-evers-armed-gunman-political-violence


"In 2020, an ABC News study found that since 2015, there were at least 41 criminal cases invoking Trump as inspiration for a violent act or threat of violence. No comparable cases could be found for Trump’s predecessors, Barack Obama and George W. Bush (each of whom served twice as long in office)."

#Trump #violence #threats #retribution #democracy
/2


"Threats against public officials have a long history in the United States. But the data reveals something new: a concentration of threats that began to spike in 2017, corresponding with a general increase in polarization following the 2016 presidential election."

~ Pete Simi and Seamus Hughes

#Trump #violence #threats #retribution #democracy
/1

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-slow-burn-threatening-our-democracy


“'Stampede' may be an exaggerated word for the exodus out of the church in America, but no one can escape the reality. A date has been attached: 2070, the projected date when there will be more non-Christians than Christians in our nation. …

I want to take seriously the spirituality of those outside the church and outside the category of religious faith and belief."

~ Stephen Shoemaker

#churches #nones #dechurching

https://baptistnews.com/article/the-stampede-out-of-the-church-and-the-people-of-god-and-christ-outside-its-walls/


"The thrust of these stories should be that the current state of American politics is such that he isn’t being roundly condemned by his party even as he threatens core American values like the rule of law and freedom of the press.

Imagine if journalists saw someone like Trump enjoying public support in any other country. They wouldn’t just write about what that person said, nor would they ignore it. They’d want to figure out: What is happening to that country?"

#Trump #media #Republicans
/2


"Journalists cannot  ignore him.

But when he says something that illustrates his continued descent into fascist rhetoric, the real news is not so much the particular thing he said, it’s that he said it and that Republican leaders and Republicans generally still aren’t renouncing him."

~ Dan Froomkin

#Trump #media #Republicans
/1

https://presswatchers.org/2023/10/to-amplify-trump-or-not-to-amplify-theres-actually-a-good-answer/


"We have only to look at authoritarianism past and present to see the future of the GOP. When far-right extremists gain power, they gradually push out anyone who cannot fully embrace their nihilistic and destructive vision of politics. That is where Gaetz, Trump, and Bannon want to take us. McCarthy has been useful on this journey, but in the year of the 'final battle' to wreck democracy, as Trump calls it, it's time for someone more ruthless and resolute."

#Republicans #Gaetz #Bannon
/3


"McCarthy enabled that radicalization by denying the 2020 election results, seeking to obstruct the investigation into the Jan. 6 coup attempt, and then apparently blaming Democrats for the destruction. 'What they did to this institution, what they did to this building, was so wrong,' he declared the other day."

#Republicans #McCarthy #Trump #PoliticsofDestruction #ChaosAgents #BigLie #Jan6 #insurrection
/2


"When you yoke yourself to an extremist, justifying his threats, his corruption, and even his attempt to overthrow the government, you can't be too surprised when the violent and lawless energies unleashed by that extremist take on momentum. That is what has happened with the GOP, which is in the midst of a spiral of radicalization."

~ Ruth Ben-Ghiat

#Republicans #McCarthy #Trump #PoliticsofDestruction #ChaosAgents
/1

https://lucid.substack.com/p/mccarthy-and-the-gops-spiral-of-radicalization


nostr:npub104t8z48ehjtmnh5mvy5vy7et8sdvsumng6m3zyn232lvy2hgce2qjka9kf Absolutely projecting. And employing well-worn Republican tools of race-baiting to stir hate and to distract.


nostr:npub13gxnt0gcnktwdfz9u3pqyq4xensmuh5ayp8tlufn5gh7tjdh7c9stt6qf8 Surely doesn't take a Ph.D. in theology to know that is the summation of religious belief in the major world religions, does it?


nostr:npub1fxmqftqvyw4ndxghsax5zgtquvm6cujym5urwqpu7an96km3nyns07guxz Yes, for sure.


nostr:npub1sputche4cu5h4h7pgmgx7rlnx7u0twtvwzqnqzaqgw90v0dcp0uspclesw Well-stated. That's it in a nutshell.


nostr:npub1dvqm66yjpu5rsvncxzs03wtn9jflnjr93yzhktrrxdm30qlm253qpvuxak Yes, and this from a party that has long claimed to have cornered the market on "moral" "values" and "civility."


nostr:npub15l4u8w8u3jcdewc7j8dq62spe8elsd3twn9j4jjlu5gx604fgdqq6z27es For decades now, the Republican party has succeeded in getting people to do just that, and the big question is why so many people are willing to cut off their noses to spite their faces. A large part of the answer is that racism is a powerful addictive drug, and the Republican party has long used it to distract its largely white base from the fact that they're being robbed and immiserated as they vote to satisfy their racist (and xenophobic) animosities.


nostr:npub147pt4jrpsjvh7nsh9azc07usqzd89qxsyptq000ylqjehcfznlwqzjlnth Gaetz catapults into national awareness again with quite a sordid backstory, doesn't he?


"In a refreshing turn of events, House Republicans are putting on such a dazzling display of self-immolation that many mainstream media outlets have been forced to accurately portray the level of pandemonium these so-called lawmakers have unleashed on the institution they supposedly govern and the country they purportedly serve."

~ Kerry Eleveld

Republicans #McCarthy #Gaetz #chaos #ChaosAgents #PoliticsofDisruption #PoliticsofDistraction #PoliticsofDestruction

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/5/2197424/-Republicans-suck-so-bad-some-mainstream-media-outlets-are-even-getting-McCarthy-s-ouster-right


"Ireland’s prime minister has said he is 'concerned' to see the UK 'disengaging from the world', and accused it of turning inwards by leaving the EU, slashing international aid and now considering abandoning a human rights treaty."

~ Lisa O'Carroll

#Brexit #EU #isolationism #nationalism #RightWing

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/05/it-is-concerning-to-watch-uk-disengage-from-world-says-irish-pm-leo-varadkar


"Global temperatures soared to a new record in September by a huge margin, stunning scientists and leading one to describe it as 'absolutely gobsmackingly bananas'.

The hottest September on record follows the hottest August and hottest July, with the latter being the hottest month ever recorded."

~ Damian Carrington

#ClimateCrisis #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #heat

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/05/gobsmackingly-bananas-scientists-stunned-by-planets-record-september-heat


"The Gaetz phenomenon is indicative of a much larger trend within the Republican Party and within the House: the use of emergency measures — the heaviest available political artillery — to thwart majority rule, disrupt democratic institutions and oust political opponents."

~ Jonathan Allen

Put lethal weapons into the hands of malicious children in adult bodies: what could possibly go wrong?

#Republicans #chaos #ChaosAgents #PoliticsofDestruction #Gaetz #McCarthy

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/gop-armed-bazooka-caucus-go-wrong-rcna118654


"Today, people in the South and Midwest, regions largely controlled by Republican state legislators, have increasingly higher chances of dying prematurely compared with those in the more Democratic Northeast and West, according to The Post’s analysis of death rates."

#healthcare #Republicans #LifeExpectancy
/2


Lauren Weber,  Dan Diamond, and Dan Keating look at three contiguous counties, one in Ohio, one in Pennsylvania, one in New York, to figure out why some areas of the US have higher rates of early death than others do.

Their conclusion: "Red-state politics are shaving years off American lives," because Republican-controlled areas cut much-needed public health initiatives.

#healthcare #Republicans #LifeExpectancy
/1

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2023/republican-politics-south-midwest-life-expectancy/


Journalist James Fallows agreed that this understanding 'is so deeply engrained in mainstream coverage and "framing" of DC that it doesn’t need to be said out loud.'”

#Republicans #Democrats #MediaFail #BothSideism #PoliticsofDestruction #McCarthy
/2


"Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo commented: 'The idea that D[emocrat]s should have bailed out McCarthy is a codicil of the larger logic of DC punditry in which R[epublican] bad behavior/destruction is assumed, a baseline like weather, and D[emocrat]s managing the consequences of that behavior is a given.'"

~ Heather Cox Richardson

#Republicans #Democrats #MediaFail #BothSideism #PoliticsofDestruction #McCarthy
/1

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-4-2023


"Who is our Marjorie Taylor Greene?  Who among Democrats has sat in the House chamber during a State of the Union speech by a president of the other party and shouted 'Liar! at the top of her lungs?  Which Democrat put up a campaign ad featuring the candidate shooting feral hogs with an AR-15 from the open door of a helicopter."

~ Lucian K. Truscott

#Republicans #MarjorieTaylorGreene #CrueltyIsthePoint #PoliticsofDestruction
/1

https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/house-republicans-just-put-their


As Roger Sollenberger reports, though Gaetz pretends to be sustained by small donors, recent video shows what he's really doing behind the scenes, as he meets select groups of big right-wing donors to court their financial support.

#Republicans #Gaetz #cruelty #CrueltyIsthePoint #SuperRich #EconomicElites
/2

https://www.thedailybeast.com/matt-gaetz-says-hes-fueled-by-small-dollars-a-leaked-video-shows-him-courting-gop-megadonors


Jonathan Weller reminds us of why Gaetz and his fellow jackals do what they do. They want to depict themselves as noble freedom fighters, but they're fighting to put more money into the hands of their super-rich donors and to take vital support away from the needy at the bottom of society.

Noble is the last thing these jackals are.

#Republicans #Gaetz #cruelty #CrueltyIsthePoint #SuperRich #EconomicElites
/1

https://jonathanweiler.substack.com/p/a-cruel-and-pointless-exercise


"For weeks, Mr. Bannon has been strategizing with Mr. Gaetz on the bid to take down Mr. McCarthy, offering himself up as a sounding board as Mr. Gaetz plotted his moves.

'KABOOM,' Mr. Bannon texted a reporter on Monday night, minutes after Mr. Gaetz filed his long-dangled motion to oust the speaker."

#Bannon #Republicans #Gaetz
#chaos #ChaosAgents #PoliticsofDestruction
/2


The éminence grise is still there, still scheming and stiring it behind the scenes:

"Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida, the instigator of the rebellion, and Nancy Mace of South Carolina, one of seven other Republican defectors, huddled with Mr. Bannon for a morning meeting ahead of a joint appearance on his 'War Room' podcast."

~ Annie Karni

#Bannon #Republicans #Gaetz
#chaos #ChaosAgents #PoliticsofDestruction
/1

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/04/us/politics/bannon-republicans-gaetz-mace.html


nostr:npub1383k9kcwt0lf8lv0l3fazalus8cky635l8282qacn64wr6rlvedqe7frpr Yes, that's all they can possibly do.


nostr:npub1383k9kcwt0lf8lv0l3fazalus8cky635l8282qacn64wr6rlvedqe7frpr I ask that, too. I can only think that legal officials fear giving him a reason to platform himself as a victim and martyr.


nostr:npub163f7ggag7ep4kf0y0wvtk5fhgernfwtt2rhhkpu2qt0cts3hla0qvj6m66 nostr:npub1sq2ddhep5yctk99xpfhhlygnz5rhtp52hpnxx46qcz9v75fgrmzqrapt6q 😀


nostr:npub1xhxkxssrr28s9alqq30hms9ukrd42xqxhcvrkd4g7qay5t90gmlsacektx Yes, absolutely.


nostr:npub154xnz7xlpu08a63un8pmzusvm0yx42lvczmlh9v0eexheg926fasueusd7 Never fear. In my 73 years, I have cast only one Republican vote ever, as an expression of gratitude to a candidate who made a generous donation to the HBCU at which I was an administrator. I lived to regret that vote when he signed a petition to place an initiative on the ballot to outlaw adoption by same-sex couples.


nostr:npub1fxmqftqvyw4ndxghsax5zgtquvm6cujym5urwqpu7an96km3nyns07guxz Thanks for explaining the context in which you found his ideas relevant. Yes, I can see why his reading of the gospels would be interesting in that context.


"Donald Trump on Wednesday launched fresh vitriol against the judge and prosecuting attorney in his New York business fraud trial, carefully skirting a gag order imposed on him just a day prior."

~ Tori Otten

As long as Republicans and his followers in the public see him get away with this kind of behavior, they'll emulate it and expect no reprisals or legal consequences. Because why not?

#Trump #Republicans #crime #LawandOrder #violence #threats #retribution

https://newrepublic.com/post/175971/trump-gag-order-attack-new-york-judge-attorney-general


"If there’s one thing to say about Kevin McCarthy’s ouster as speaker of the House by a 216–210 vote, it’s this: This week’s chaos was inevitable from the moment he made untenable concessions to the far-right members of his caucus to loosely grab hold of the gavel in the first place. If there’s a second thing to say about it, it’s that he had it coming."

#McCarthy #Trump #Republicans #chaos #ChaosAgents

https://newrepublic.com/article/175954/kevin-mccarthy-speaker-expelled-vote-got-deserved


As Last notes, when Republicans do it, the media are like,

"Hell’s bells Martha, this is unfortunate. Going to be a lot of chaos. But, you know, that’s how Republicans are. Oh well."

As he concludes,

"And this asymmetry is creating a danger for democracy."

Democrats #Republicans #MediaFail #BothSidesism
/2


Jonathan V. Last takes readers on an imaginative journey re: how media would have reacted if Democrats had done what Republicans in Congress did yesterday:

We'd have article after article about the dangerous extremism of the "far-left" of the Democratic party who are "totally out of touch with mainstream voters."

But when the Republicans do it, it's the following from the media:

#Democrats #Republicans #media #BothSidesism
/1

https://thetriad.thebulwark.com/p/imagine-if-democrats-had-done-it


"My book is a warning about what political scientists call democratic 'backsliding' or 'deconsolidation,' especially where that democratic erosion is aided and abetted by Christians who are abandoning pro-democratic Christian traditions that are centuries old."

#democracy #Christians #autocracy #authoritarianism
/2


David Gushee explains why he wrote his new book Defending Democracy from Its Christian Enemies, which was published today:

"[M]any Christians in the United States and elsewhere today are demonstrating an attraction to a dangerous authoritarian and reactionary politics that poses a grave threat to free and open democracy."

#democracy #Christians #autocracy #authoritarianism
/1

https://baptistnews.com/article/my-argument-in-defending-democracy-from-its-christian-enemies/


Didn't. Lift. A. Finger.

Didn't lift a finger to help the man who sold his very soul, his integrity and reputation, to serve the agenda of the morally filthy reprobate who pulls the strings for the party that has willingly enslaved itself to him, to their great woe.

This ever idolaters….

#McCarthy #Trump #Republicans

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/4/2197288/-Trump-didn-t-lift-a-finger-to-help-Kevin-McCarthy


"It's the Democrats' fault" is the entirely predictable, utterly lame, and lamentably immature response of McCarthy and Republican leaders to the fragmentation of their party — which they themselves have created by courting what used to be called their loony fringe but is now their center.

They're bullies, and bullies are unformed adolescents in hulking mature bodies. Bullies are people who have not grown up enough to take responsibility.

#McCarthy #Republicans

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/morning-observations-and-questions


nostr:npub15eafd0t9w6vew6yac25205mtfhp5hq0jhs7ka7h86cyx7ssjkepqf8cxnl Perfect — Shelley is the perfect gloss here.


nostr:npub18wzl5k80avq7maq5yxjcksky3xn4wv94xg68ppfh2qlqshrfqkmsxtqglm nostr:npub193r25vefpddsdcvkeycd7j2u0yf2tdas4a3xfckqfhfcyy2d2wsswpey05 Thanks for clarifying. Sorry I didn't understand. A very good response to that article.


nostr:npub10d3j3lndnaupt7jxaema5gh6eyws5hgg4eu7a9hlf9ntast5czfs6kdux8 And I daresay that young woman's name will never be on Belmont Abbey's wall of fame, along with McHenry's….


nostr:npub16a8qjdq20csua6dlv6pewvd9ps8g29j39qkvj0rudrg0ldk0yqkq3p4zj7 nostr:npub1pufwcx6gzddc0ww6sjtpz9qttcgj2gh3z3tyfech6p3qsxuxn9pstzraj3 I find the term "centrist" a red flag, too.


nostr:npub1gmrk8jw5msutfzsynagzxvyvawemdszt26z6te9xfyzaa22wpg4s2mcuw9 nostr:npub1pufwcx6gzddc0ww6sjtpz9qttcgj2gh3z3tyfech6p3qsxuxn9pstzraj3 Well-noted. I agree.


nostr:npub14a8rtz73znr44lsn4vxzn4pw7vzgxjsduuqmrkw78qfgfuhrszmsfp98jg nostr:npub1pufwcx6gzddc0ww6sjtpz9qttcgj2gh3z3tyfech6p3qsxuxn9pstzraj3 For the likes of Crow, Thiel, Friess, Langone, and quite a few others of their ilk, I'd say.


nostr:npub1hxmxcz7g407qkew4233pf7cu7k4eu4lguc0rapj6hkrckwxlleaq5pyfxa nostr:npub1pufwcx6gzddc0ww6sjtpz9qttcgj2gh3z3tyfech6p3qsxuxn9pstzraj3 Perhaps the kind of intelligence that allows one to reach the top of economic structures is a very cunning and unscrupulous kind.


nostr:npub1asa7zhxq92arr7z3dqywvsh0ur24a9k6qmkg2zcthe0wshyu9pvsren9sr nostr:npub1pufwcx6gzddc0ww6sjtpz9qttcgj2gh3z3tyfech6p3qsxuxn9pstzraj3 I think that might be a well-founded assumption.


nostr:npub1ul2rqgks0j495pn4sspp3l5jy00dffcr0azhnf8nmn5qsuv5j9fqeq3war I agree! So many folks in the media want to place the blame for Trump's rise to power solely on the backs of working-class people. But he wouldn't have such robust support without the robust support of top echelons of the economic structures.


nostr:npub1lgmezr02rtw7hq70amz5y6uw0mdaxhulw3r882j8g7c5wur3750sm9npu0 nostr:npub1pufwcx6gzddc0ww6sjtpz9qttcgj2gh3z3tyfech6p3qsxuxn9pstzraj3 Thanks for noting that. You're right.


nostr:npub1xhxkxssrr28s9alqq30hms9ukrd42xqxhcvrkd4g7qay5t90gmlsacektx No, such a shock, isn't it?! 😀


nostr:npub1scqmrkwlz5feqca2a26qpdxt747rxuad8u3h6kkktt79pvy8g3kqumjjta Yep.


nostr:npub1383k9kcwt0lf8lv0l3fazalus8cky635l8282qacn64wr6rlvedqe7frpr They definitely do not own this country. They seem intent on acting as if they do — the right-wing clique controlling the court, that is — and the fact that they're on that bench for life and seem untouchable even by ethics codes or commissions emboldens them, it seems.


nostr:npub1383k9kcwt0lf8lv0l3fazalus8cky635l8282qacn64wr6rlvedqe7frpr It was a pretty horrifying experience — burned into my memory. Had either of us stumbled as we jumped over that creek….


nostr:npub172vd3drjay5g8sk6d6kx7pj2s3ltl8yx583m3cz0wrvwql93vljs7udkj3 Yes, he is.


nostr:npub1dswq3fpelw7mj0yxdkgzry36c77gncgh570pf6h508pcprh2970q87lq7h And even in the major news outlets, the ones that set the tone for all the rest, the framing often diverts attention from the reality of what's going on.


nostr:npub18wzl5k80avq7maq5yxjcksky3xn4wv94xg68ppfh2qlqshrfqkmsxtqglm nostr:npub193r25vefpddsdcvkeycd7j2u0yf2tdas4a3xfckqfhfcyy2d2wsswpey05 I suspect Dean Obeidallah would agree with you.


nostr:npub17x0lk7laafz9gls8aydau08uf0j57tgxj9rzt6r5yt8sw5muh7lqe29mu2 Sadly, the US political system is less pliable.


nostr:npub1kjd2wgkcw52y72dtln6dek4k5hls8dh0yufpdpu8eh0lezwj59nss4wccu Yes. You're right.


nostr:npub1xeu5xaxfv96a2j7zd2yqys8ssancvx7h45295j0cq7nc80q3snkqdrcxe3 Precisely.


"Somebody actually drew a picture of Donald Trump sitting next to Jesus in court the other day. Yeah, I wish that were a joke, too. Nothing will shake these people of their obsession, of their fear of waking up every morning and needing a strong man to tell them what to do."

~ Cliff Schecter

#Trump #crime #criminal #FakeReligion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo27-3JudS0&t=10s


nostr:npub1g80cek0539j5awn0pctr9acsce6e7zm9nerqdentqajgdznjun5qyc8spd Yes, I think sadism is a driving force, and even more, I think what drives their urge to chaos is the belief that when the rubble settles, they'll be on top, the autocratic rulers to whom we look to repair things.


nostr:npub1j5ghna8w8xpu5m0f93vd4enpz8vdmwhhnqfvm2eqltwjqvh4gwqq4mh654 Absolutely.


nostr:npub19glfe7sglaywwsy79pmtcpv70ux3ha7063fxj2tz62r5dq0z2l6swrmrne Perfomative bluster is a great name for it.


nostr:npub15eafd0t9w6vew6yac25205mtfhp5hq0jhs7ka7h86cyx7ssjkepqf8cxnl Sort of akin to being Caesar memorialized in marble after his ignominious end, isn't it?


"Twice in the past two weeks, Donald Trump has suggested violent consequences for those who dare to cross him. ...

[T]he rest of us – reasonable citizens and the reality-based press – ought to understand what this violent rhetoric really means. And what it may help to accomplish.

The goal is to throw out American democracy and move to something none of us should want."

~ Margaret Sullivan

#Trump #violence #threats #retribution #democracy #autocracy #authoritarianism

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/04/trump-escalating-violent-rhetoric-autocratic-playbook


nostr:npub1wdww2es5c4r4fhkxw8r4l428qx8ugr45ekzxfssl608z2fs35fzsp2y5te It would take adult character to admit fault, and that kind of character they just do not have, do they?


nostr:npub1p0ycaundq55puyhhtqrpxgfrrqw8nfxzpuvxw68ffu95amfsxakq6yrz7w Absolutely — Benedictine values, indeed.


Worth noting: Patrick McHenry's alma mater, Belmont Abbey College, is so proud of what they produced in him that they've placed McHenry on their Wall of Fame, honoring "commitment to excellence and virtue reflects their lifelong witness to the philosophy and ideals of Belmont Abbey College."

So proud.

#PatrickMcHenry #BelmontAbbey #CatholicValues #BenedictineValues #CrueltyIsthePoint

https://files.toad.social/media_attachments/files/111/177/265/584/812/340/original/287f7ce89c621b5c.png

https://files.toad.social/media_attachments/files/111/177/266/051/181/736/original/ad6294f1f3ea470f.png


"Lashing out, exacting 'revenge' for perceived slights, framing the world in a binary friend v. foe way is the quickest way to reestablish internally something that vaguely looks like unity. It’s also a flex for a new albeit temporary leader like McHenry.

There’s also an element of bullying rolling downhill, with the bullied and abused taking out their frustrations and acting out their damaged psyches by bullying and abusing others."

#Republicans #McCarthy #McHenry #CrueltyIsthePoint
/2


"McCarthy’s lashing out at Dems after his own party dumped him, McHenry inflicting pain on former Dem leaders, and inane analysis egged on by Republicans, is sooo symptomatic of the current GOP.

Cruelty remains its most vital currency, the thing that unites them despite all their other divisions."

~ David Kurtz

#Republicans #McCarthy #McHenry #CrueltyIsthePoint
/1

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/kevin-mccarthy-ouster-speaker-gop-systemic


As Audrey Dutton reports, since banning abortion, Idaho has dismantled support systems for pregnancies and births. She writes,

"Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, the state’s GOP-led Legislature has disbanded a maternal mortality committee, failed to expand postpartum Medicaid coverage and turned down federal grants for child care."

#Idaho #abortion #women #MaternalCare #pregnancy #Medicaid #CrueltyIsthePoint #ProLife

https://www.propublica.org/article/idaho-banned-abortion-support-pregnancies-families


"For the first time in the nation’s history, a sitting speaker of the House has been ousted; and Kevin McCarthy now has the historic distinction of having the shortest tenure with the gavel since the guy who died of tuberculosis in 1876.

McCarthy, who so desperately wanted that title and the portrait — and who made one surrender after another to get them — will now be remembered merely as an asterisk, if even that."

#McCarthy #Republicans #CultureWars #ClownShow #PoliticsofDistraction
/2


"We wake up today to a Republican Party in disarray, bitterly divided, at war with itself, and seemingly shocked that nurturing and appeasing its lunatic fringe could end this badly.

If only they had been warned."

~ Charlie Sykes

#McCarthy #Republicans #CultureWars #ClownShow #PoliticsofDistraction #PoliticsofDestruction
/1

https://morningshots.thebulwark.com/p/the-fall-of-kevin-mccarthy


"Trump’s MAGA caucus demonstrated today, for anyone who still has doubts, that they lack any interest in governing. They are the party of Trump and of Steve Bannon, interested in burning down the house. But for what? For fun? For pleasure? Certainly not for the American people."

#Republicans #McCarthy #Trump #Bannon #PoliticsofDestruction #chaos #ChaosAgents
/2


"It was a day for sad firsts, further evidence of the damage Donald Trump has done and continues to do to our country. Today was the first time a (thankfully former) American president behaved in such an outrageous manner as a defendant in a civil lawsuit that a judge entered a gag order against him. And it was the first time a Speaker of the House was removed by a motion to vacate."

~ Joyce Vance nostr:npub1sq2ddhep5yctk99xpfhhlygnz5rhtp52hpnxx46qcz9v75fgrmzqrapt6q

#Republicans #McCarthy #Trump

https://joycevance.substack.com/p/losing-and-gagging


"It is the nature of nihilistic, burn-it-to-the-ground extremists to destroy everything around them, including the very party that once carried them to victory. …

One thing is clear, however: It was Trump, acting behind the scenes by pressing extremists to hold the line against the budget, who is in large part to blame for the destruction of the House GOP caucus."

~ Jay Kuo

#Republicans #McCarthy #Trump #ClownShow #ChaosAgents #chaos

https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/ousted


"McCarthy is, personally, an incompetent doofus. But his incompetence, and his doofusness, are also structural. The GOP these days — led by Trump, cocooned in right-wing media disinformation — elevates only the irresponsible and the ineffectual. McCarthy is done. But one thing seems certain; as bad as McCarthy was, the next GOP House speaker is likely to be worse."

~ Noah Berlatsky

#Republicans #McCarthy #ClownShow #CultureWars #PoliticsofDistraction

https://www.publicnotice.co/p/kevin-mccarthy-matt-gaetz-feud-freedom-caucus


PRRI has just published new poll results re: what Americans think about climate change. It finds that 61% think climate change is human-caused.

83% of Democrats and 64% of independents affirm this. But only 28% of Republicans think climate change is human-caused.

Only 31% of white evangelicals think climate-change is human-caused, in contraast to majorities of almost all other major religions.

#ClimateChange #religion #evangelicals #Republicans

https://www.prri.org/research/the-faith-factor-in-climate-change-how-religion-impacts-american-attitudes-on-climate-and-environmental-policy/


"The six conservative justices on the court aren’t threatening to abolish Congress or seize control of the White House, of course. But their rulings in a handful of upcoming cases this term could subordinate the two elected branches of government to the judiciary for the benefit of wealthy Americans and corporate special interests—and to the detriment of everyone else."

~ Matt Ford

#SupremeCourt #democracy
/1

https://newrepublic.com/article/175899/supreme-court-watch-chevron-deference


"The top prosecutors in each of the four criminal cases against Trump now require round-the-clock protection—as the New York Times recently reported.  This is something you would expect to read about in a case with a terrorist leader or mafia boss, but instead it involves the leading 2024 GOP presidential candidate."

~ Dean Obeidallah

#Trump #crime #criminal #LawandOrder #threats #violence #retribution

https://deanobeidallah.substack.com/p/after-two-days-of-trumps-ny-trial


They're absolutely consumed with a politics of petty personal grievance, sucking all the air out of the room, like surly adolescents, not mature adults. And they want the whole nation following suit. This from the party that used to pretend it owned gravitas and civility in some kind of unique way —  the party of "values" and "morality" and respect for religion. It was always a sham, and we're seeing just how much of a sham it is right now.

#Republicans #McCarthy #Congress
/2


"McCarthy granted the Freedom Caucus a (still undisclosed) set of concessions during his effort to become speaker back in January, and one of those concessions was to lower the threshold for a motion to vacate to just one member. This creates a huge opening to disrupt congressional businesses over grudges, whether they be political or personal."

~ Joe Perticone

#Republicans #McCarthy #Congress
/1

https://presspass.thebulwark.com/p/kevin-mccarthy-is-out


It was one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen, and made more horrifying by the fact that we had to jump over that snake pit to get to my friend's house. Snakes eating their own, writhing around together in the slime: this reminds me so much of the Congressional Republicans and McCarthy.

#SupremeCourt #democracy
/2


The Congressional Republicans and McCarthy remind me of a scene from my early adolescence. I was walking with a friend to his house from school. We took a back path through a wooded area in the middle of town. In the woods, we had to jump over a small creek.

As we prepared for that jump, we looked down, and in the water was a hollow full of writhing snakes, cottonmouths. They were twined around each other, mouths agape, and were eating one of their own.

#Republicans #McCarthy #Congress
/1


nostr:npub1k9qecpkl6vwxjhtelyxhkuejfld0zey9d7tru0cljk9allusr55sk3j0yn Yes, his foundational significance — as an epicenter of corruption and chaos — should not ever be forgotten, should it?


nostr:npub1qalpmlajv8rsmqsclmgmvs36fr2snmcvyqjksnq5k8w8qjl73m8sv9kdvr Yes, they were all over. They were also especially concentrated in Indiana in what historian Linda Gordon calls the "second coming" of the KKK.


nostr:npub1p9629tnhej2snl7877sc2euu62d7g68skavxz0qgdgasg9ffnqxqkjlqs8 Thank you so much. Hugs to you, too!


nostr:npub1wv2dkhg2d3vccch45ahqnvggcek6q6dkr4ynrcemvsaw976xr9gsh2yxsz Indeed.


nostr:npub1dgz0tmzsjvfglqegt69d0t89jtc3gv2ggq0m0h4dx44lzmgt0tzqdc4q3g I suspect Trump has some significant reasons for trying to draw negative attention to California and link California to support for trans folks.


nostr:npub1ljl4q50p2hqu7dg2su3frhnwz058drqs8xga6n3h2zj4fnve2gyqjcd8c8 Where you see an unambiguous story of "wreckage," I see something much more ambiguous and complex, a story that includes Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, both attesting to their Catholic faith as the source of their progressive commitments. I personally think the tired old anti-Catholicism that used to prevail in a lot of cultures is not very satisfactory as a way to explain things.


nostr:npub1e7d6w2zp5gcpnm6432g2uq599lztztn8ccmgqk0n4t7tk5sytzxsh0skfm Yes. That's the exact word for them.


nostr:npub1dswq3fpelw7mj0yxdkgzry36c77gncgh570pf6h508pcprh2970q87lq7h When I clicked to read, it came up for me without a paywall. I find that some outlets to which I don't subscribe — and do not intend ever to subscribe: see, New York Times — I can read by logging into my public library's website and clicking on a link that allows me to read with my library card.


nostr:npub1krl8slwgz3muya7fgvckffg8j6ej8ue3dgqeruwx5dp7q96v4ckspacq5t Thanks for pointing that out. Yes, when I googled to learn more about Michael Anton after reading this article, I saw the Hillsdale connection with him, too, and thought that was noteworthy.


nostr:npub19det76duhykfkxztuwfm8unvfyr2hvfkmzgtfhdvalln0em98nusmrynwy That's the bully's playbook. I see bullies as people stuck in early adolescence, who know only how to taunt and try to turn everything upside down, so that black becomes white and good becomes bad — and the hostility they're acting out becomes the pretend-hostility of those they're bullying.


nostr:npub1yg4r2ajycwertzt3c99nj3g3gxrnxdyxd64a3fzuuudn7prtaa5sdvsrwy Yes, they've rallied around the bloody Russian dictator in a remarkable and shocking way.


nostr:npub13gxnt0gcnktwdfz9u3pqyq4xensmuh5ayp8tlufn5gh7tjdh7c9stt6qf8 A good focus to have, seems to me. When I lose sight of those as my goals, I suffer and those around me do, too.


nostr:npub1wuahk8t9fs90flss59num2aysa47qa2rz4rlwn9pxssd7ekz0pgsfzerh5 I think the word "attack" when it comes to these kinds of much-needed conversations is a huge mistake. Conversations about the role or necessity of religion or belief in God are very necessary. When they become dogmatic attacks mirroring the hard dogmatism of some religionists, those of us turned off by dogmatism will close our ears to the attacks. We'd rather see respect and careful listening flourish around us — not more attacks.


nostr:npub1ex328w5w0hjweznw8t6f9epk5w5xy4ak6kzyc7y93lfjtelxuymsk9c58j That line caught my eye, too. Isn't it the very definition of Orwellian?


nostr:npub160pt0jm828yqgtduyzs2y9zp30vpxkx3drjxzl98ekfhu6kq4zxqqxwp4t Or perhaps if they learned to cover him in a more honest way, a point Marcy Wheeler has made as she notes that the coverage of his attacks on the courts allows him to conceal what the trial is all about — fraud and more fraud.

https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/10/02/why-reality-tv-star-donald-trump-is-more-trusted-than-most-news-outlets/


"Yet in three very different cases this coming year, the court may arrogate that power for itself, taking it away from our elected lawmakers, a politically accountable president, and possibly even juries of ordinary Americans. In other words, all three cases set up the possibility of a power grab by the country’s highest court."

In short, the unelected, for-life right-wing Supremes want to turn thermselves into untouchable right-wing legislators.

#SupremeCourt #democracy
/2


"All of the court’s highest-profile cases involve debates over where the power to address pressing societal problems ought to be located in our constitutional order. The traditional answer — and indeed, the American ideal — has been to vest that power as close to the people as possible, in elected officials who are responsive to us for the simple reason that we can throw them out of office."

~ Aaron Tang

#SupremeCourt #democracy
/1

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/10/02/the-coming-supreme-court-power-grab-00119228


Marcy Wheeler says Trump's going to lose his NY trial, and she knows that because the judge has already ruled against him! But despite that fact — despite reality — he will still play his reality TV role "to create a reality in which he will have correctly predicted a loss that was baked in last week." And his gullible followers will flock right after him, claiming that he has prophetic insights and the media lie to us.

#Trump #fraud #crime #RealityTV

https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/10/02/why-reality-tv-star-donald-trump-is-more-trusted-than-most-news-outlets/


Martin Gelin reports on how things have changed in Sweden — for the worse — following Trump's rise to power in the US. Trump has given the country's "resentful reactionaries a playbook to copy." As a result, now "political discourse is aggressive, focused on the culture wars, and seems stuck in a constant mode of outrage." There is a recrudescence of open prejudice against LGBTQ people, feminists, climate activists, and others.

#Trump #Sweden #CultureWars

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/03/sweden-us-culture-wars-politics-donald-trump


"● AP: Trump turns his fraud trial into a campaign stop as he seeks to capitalize on his legal woes

● Politico: As Trump goes on trial for business fraud, he treats courthouse like campaign stop"

#Trump #crime #LawandOrder #intimidation #violence #threats #retribution #MediaFail
/3


"When you try to apply the tired old campaign and election tropes to cover rising authoritarianism, attacks on the legitimacy of the courts and other democratic institutions, and the use of mass media to stoke anger and resentment in service of your own business, legal and political ends, you get badly framed stories like these:"

#Trump #crime #LawandOrder #intimidation #violence #threats #retribution #MediaFail
/2


“'I will take electrocution every single time,' he said, slurring his words. 'Do we agree? I will take electrocution.'”

As Ella Sherman says, Trump's bizarre rant in Iowa on Sunday about violent death makes him "probably the only U.S. president ever even to have a preferred method of violent death."

#Trump #MentalHealth #violence

https://newrepublic.com/post/175892/donald-trump-rant-violent-death


"Because that outcome is more or less preordained, Democrats are best off letting the dysfunction play itself out in the Republican side of the chamber, and stand ready to step in to vote for bipartisan bills, not GOP Speakers, to actually benefit the country."

#Democrats #Republicans #Congress #dysfunction #McCarthy #Gaetz
/2


"We already know how this story in the House ends, no matter who the Speaker is. The GOP will arrive back at political equilibrium and pass the budget that the Senate already approved, or they will cause havoc until the voters force them to do so."

~ Jay Kuo

#Democrats #Republicans #Congress #dysfunction #McCarthy #Gaetz
/1

https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/a-motion-to-vacate-the-chair


"'A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because "it doesn’t look good for me." A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are "losers" and wouldn’t visit their graves in France."

#Trump #JohnKelly #military
/2


"John Kelly, the longest-serving White House chief of staff for Donald Trump, offered his harshest criticism yet of the former president in an exclusive statement to CNN. ...

'A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all "suckers" because "there is nothing in it for them.'"

#Trump #JohnKelly #military
/1

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/02/politics/john-kelly-donald-trump-us-service-members-veterans


"Facts and history were not effective in swaying Republican focus group attendees, who ''discount all information they are presented with,' Ipsos concluded."

Facts? History? Information? Who cares about any of that? We're Republicans!

#Republicans #Ukraine #Russia #disinformation #AntiIntellectualism
/2


"For the most part, you can’t argue your way to changing their minds.

"Modern Republican voters are deeply distrustful of ‘elites’, media and politicians, the [focus group study of GOP voters] said. The information environment they live in, where disinformation about the war in Ukraine abounds, further muddies the waters. "

~ Tim Mak

#Republicans #Ukraine #Russia #disinformation #AntiIntellectualism
/1

https://counteroffensive.substack.com/p/how-to-talk-to-your-republican-uncle


"In the last week alone, Trump called for the execution of a witness in the J6 criminal proceeding (General Milley), called special counsel Jack Smith deranged, said Judge Engoron was deranged and should be disbarred, and said that someone should 'go after' the NY Attorney General. Each of those statements violates the conditions of his release in the DC and Florida federal trials and the Georgia state trial."

#Trump #crime #LawandOrder #violence #intimidation #threats #retribution
/2


"Trump's statements in the New York courthouse in Manhattan on Monday violated several terms of his conditions of release by intimidating 'officers of the court.' The violation was material, intentional, and dangerous."

~ Robert B. Hubbell

#Trump #crime #LawandOrder #violence #intimidation #threats #retribution
/1

https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/house-democrats-are-in-a-position


Big funders of No Labels include  Peter Thiel, Foster Friess, Home Depot founder Ken Langone, and Clarence Thomas's sugar daddy Harlan Crow. All Trump supporters….

Judd Legum asks,

"Is No Labels a thinly disguised effort by Wall Street and Trump supporters to deny Biden a second term?"

#NoLabels #DarkMoney #WallStreet
/2


Who's funding the "non-partisan" front group No Labels whose objective is to siphon off Democratic votes and put Trump back into the White House? As Judd Legum reports, the group fights to keep its donors secret.

But internal documents obtained by Daily Beast show "prominent executives from Fortune 500 companies and leading financial-services firms have contributed to No Labels…."

#NoLabels #DarkMoney #WallStreet
/1

https://popular.info/p/no-labels-makes-its-choice


"Though on the surface this discussion might seem esoteric, experts who track extremism in the US say that due to their influence on the Republican party, the rightwing intellectuals who espouse these ideas about the attractions of autocracy present a profound threat to American democracy.

Their calls for a “red Caesar” are now only growing louder …."

#democracy #authoritarianism #Caesarism #ClaremontInstitute #Republicans
/2


"For the last three years, parts of the American right have advocated a theory called Caesarism as an authoritarian solution to the claimed collapse of the US republic in conference rooms, podcasts and the house organs of the extreme right, especially those associated with the Claremont Institute thinktank."

~ Jason Wilson

#democracy #authoritarianism #Caesarism #ClaremontInstitute #Republicans
/1

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/01/red-caesar-authoritarianism-republicans-extreme-right?CMP=share_btn_tw


"The witch hunt/victimhood rhetoric is part of the authoritarian playbook and was/is used by the following corrupt leaders: Mussolini, Hitler, Berlusconi, Erdogan. If extended to the whole country being victimized, add Putin, Xi, and more.”

~ Ruth Ben-Ghiat cited by David Badash

#Trump #crime #criminal #fraud #LetitiaJames #Engeron  #authoritarianism #Mussolini #Hitler #Berlusconi #Erdogan #Putin #Xi
/2

https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2023/10/part-of-the-authoritarian-playbook-trumps-courthouse-rant-slammed-by-fascism-scholars/


"Had the great Maya Angelou been alive to witness Saturday’s climax of the omnishambolic dog’s breakfast of a misbegotten legislative process that took place in the U.S. House of Representatives, surely she would have said, 'When a political party tells you over and over again that they have no higher priority than serving Vladimir Putin, believe them.'”

~ David Rothkopf

#Republicans #Russia #Ukraine #Putin

https://www.thedailybeast.com/all-that-drama-and-house-republicans-only-win-was-for-the-kremlin


"● Prosecute Californians who protect minors coming to the state for gender-affirming care;
Impose a 10% tariff on almost all foreign goods, increasing prices for consumers;
● Appoint a special prosecutor to 'go after' his political opponents, beginning with Biden;
● Purge the federal civil service of anyone who questions his views."

#Republicans #Trump #cruelty #CrueltyIsthePoint #violence #transgender
/2


"One of the most stunning moments [of Trump's off-the-wall speech to the California GOP] came as Trump ranted about crime, and promised his federal law enforcement officers would be empowered to shoot shoplifters — which prompted wild cheers and chanting from the crowd that took a long time to subside:”

~ Tommy Christopher

#Republicans #Trump #cruelty #CrueltyIsthePoint #violence

Law and order for them. Not for us.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/gop-crowd-goes-nuts-cheering-as-trump-promises-he-will-order-federal-officers-to-shoot-shoplifters-on-sight-in-stunning-moment/


"The most dangerous figures Ukraine faces might not be Vladimir Putin (who some Ukrainians call their 'secret weapon' because of his strategic blunders) and his top general Valery Gerasimov but right-wing figures in American politics and the media."

~ Frank Lavin

In brief, Putin's fanboys in the Republican party are cheering for his victory, and cheering for the white "Christian" nationalist autocracy he promotes.

#Republicans #Ukraine #Russia #FoxNews
/2

https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/ukraine-needs-better-public-diplomacy


nostr:npub1qalpmlajv8rsmqsclmgmvs36fr2snmcvyqjksnq5k8w8qjl73m8sv9kdvr Yes, he's maybe the premier example, isn't he? Then, too, there are the folks in the KKK whose second coming in te 1920s was especially strong in places like Indiana, and whose strength was in churches. In my hometown of Little Rock, big ads for KKK rallies as the Klan reformed in the 1920s were signed by lists of local pastors who spoke at KKK rallies and urged people to join the Klan to save the (white) nation.


nostr:npub1ua4c3078jj7xczfvz0qx7lr70x0wjz62tks4cl6dvfjjgvsp46tqr4swyc Well-stated. Same here.


nostr:npub1p9629tnhej2snl7877sc2euu62d7g68skavxz0qgdgasg9ffnqxqkjlqs8 We can plan to be with a loved one when she/he dies, and then the death happens suddenly when we're not there. I'm sorry you had that experience. In the years my mother declined from dementia and her gerontologist finally told me I had to place her in a nursing home, I wondered if I should ever travel anywhere, in case she became critically ill with me not there. People convinced me that I could not predict what would happn to her and needed to continue my life.


nostr:npub1k7vuzljzvulgpe2d5ekzht8m7w4trfhmey3tl8tudcrvl59yxunsuue93r I've long had similar opinions, especially — as someone with educational background in the field of religious studies — of religion reporters, who are, in my experience, often dismally educated. There are stellar exceptions, but they are exceptions. What makes this all the more galling to me is the hubris of many folks who work in the field of journalism, who want to purport to be all-informed and "objective," but who consult and listen in only the most limited ways.


nostr:npub1dswq3fpelw7mj0yxdkgzry36c77gncgh570pf6h508pcprh2970q87lq7h I just read a good statement by Will Bunch commenting on how little the mainstream media reporting on the shooting in New Mexico, in which the shooter is linked in the most direct way possible to Trump by fan-club statements he posted on his social media pages. https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/trump-violent-threats-shooting-new-mexico-20231001.html


nostr:npub1w8xrflgezwythfsnvynj37gzg7hxw8jyazmru2t0hm35w7vtm7tszvd56f nostr:npub1h37z0hepzn675zvjtj50e0jv0tdurs9v57qqcftcger6nwxp0hqskrdmrd We are historically definitely loath to learn from history, and seem determined to learn from it only by repeating it.


nostr:npub16qptyvc6446hu66ahlluvymv7eu9f4q32e567d7mxqk7l5acu4wqz2u0e9 Yes, what I saw of the Pacific Northwest in the semester I spent there was eye-opening, especially vis-a-vis the role a kind of crude, overt racism plays in a lot of folks' thinking. It hardly endeared me to an area of the country that is physically very beautiful.


nostr:npub1fxmqftqvyw4ndxghsax5zgtquvm6cujym5urwqpu7an96km3nyns07guxz I think they're problematic because far too many people reading and citing them do not know that they are indeed literature, and, quite specifically, theological literature making theological points, not historical writing reporting on historical events as seen by eyewitnesses.


“The far right is on the march across Europe. I believe that home secretary Suella Braverman is cynical. She knows exactly what she’s unleashing with her comments.”

~ Ken Loach

#Suella #Braverman #migrants #FarRight
/2

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/oct/02/suella-braverman-knows-what-unleashing-ken-loach-film-old-oak


Political Meghan Garrity and sociologist Melissa J. Wilde look at the role some US religious leaders played in defending Hitler and the Nazis, and find a common denominator in those religious leaders: belief in white supremacy and a commitment to white nationalism.

#religion #USA #Nazis #Hitler #Trump

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/nazi-germany-had-admirers-among-american-religious-leaders-and-white-supremacy-fueled-their-support


"As [Trump] continues to face criminal charges in four separate cases, it’s this one, the civil case, that strikes first. And despite Trump’s blustery demeanor and his now-tired cries of witch hunt, this inevitably hits him hard. It’s the end of the myth that he’s a successful businessman."

~ Joyce Vance

#Trump #crime #criminal #fraud #LetitiaJames

https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-week-ahead-a19


"Even as the mainstream media continues to treat Trump as a politician rather than a peril, normalizing his dangerous threats, the nation’s judges and prosecutors are holding the fort — protecting the rule of law.

They — along with Saturday’s bipartisan majority vote in Congress against MAGA extremists — give me some hope that the fever of Trumpism may be starting to break."

~ Robert Reich

#Trump #media #normalization #violence #judges #LawandOrder

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/is-the-trump-fever-starting-to-break


nostr:npub1p9629tnhej2snl7877sc2euu62d7g68skavxz0qgdgasg9ffnqxqkjlqs8 Thank you. His death has really given me a shock, both because he was not so far from me in age, and because I ask myself if I did all I could to keep up with him as an eccentric and probably lonely man.


nostr:npub1h92aqf7enj5k8jeey94p0f96f74ytex0y4as3xe85a8l4zanxhtsa4400y I think quite a few polls show that it's the independent or undecided voters who end up deciding federal elections in the US at present.


nostr:npub1qzuu5wwrk38g8zmqkjsrx6gvsfjfasfjvxzmannralp73cwveedqknyevt Yes, he's probably marinating in narcissistic fantasies of retribution now.


nostr:npub13gxnt0gcnktwdfz9u3pqyq4xensmuh5ayp8tlufn5gh7tjdh7c9stt6qf8 I hope you're right. I try to hold onto that hope.


nostr:npub1w8xrflgezwythfsnvynj37gzg7hxw8jyazmru2t0hm35w7vtm7tszvd56f nostr:npub1h37z0hepzn675zvjtj50e0jv0tdurs9v57qqcftcger6nwxp0hqskrdmrd Thank you. A good point. I will never get the film Hotel Rwanda and the important, horrifying lessons it seeks to impart, out of my mind.


nostr:npub1ua4c3078jj7xczfvz0qx7lr70x0wjz62tks4cl6dvfjjgvsp46tqr4swyc If we focus on him alone, yes, that's something I suspect we all feel. But if we look at him as a cog in a bigger machine whose wilingness to take a plea bargain may open important doors, then it seems to me the bigger picture is extremely important.


nostr:npub17rcjrt9x3a555p54vue4swm5xlv5gx3mr3ugq2lxf7fkhdnpsmhqer7nw6 Definitely broken.


nostr:npub1hd2rzs04wqq4pqavyr9dnmczg80nzgwg0p73eu3y63ck3gf4ejwsz2zm0u I've definitely met those types — e.g., people who willingly give a portion of their paycheck every week to the lottery folks, because they live in faith that they'll strike it rich. They let themselves be swindled on an ongoing basis. And you're right, changing the minds of people who think this way is an uphill battle — and the Trump cult definitely shows us that.


nostr:npub1fxmqftqvyw4ndxghsax5zgtquvm6cujym5urwqpu7an96km3nyns07guxz That's right. The four canonical gospels are a case in point: written a generation or even two generations after Jesus, though many believers take them to be eyewitness reports of what he did and said. And so many accounts — the creation narratives in the book of Genesis as a case in point — are interpreted as if someone saw and recorded actual historical events, when what's being written is mythology.


nostr:npub1urv8lhsnh3d7p97d7e48sa0dnmxvm4x07g8zxsgw9cjjd9y6ezrs9fa7df Agree — she's wonderful.


nostr:npub1408ydyyv2udx7pjzafyj53f0yqr6w9tlw9qwlkm9dnyu6rmtukvqcd5409 Yes, he surely did.


nostr:npub1w6qd4huwke66fjkmct0uvnltxf2az9aeky44yrkryay9c2zxp3ksggxk7c Yes, as David Frum says, in many cases, people who discover they are conned bear down on their claim that the person who has conned them is admirable, wonderful, and has the highest of motives.


nostr:npub1c6aewuwpfm59exj45t5ahdr7z2dkn8zxqtesq5fza4fw5t27aa3quh4fdh Yes, that sounds correct to me.


nostr:npub16lrh72ynee833ah8q3vqw00vdl9q7f37mw82lstphg3f8d5zfgfse4f6pu Thank you. That's very helpful.


nostr:npub1l747g0w0983cvtmk4vs88ddr2dwc6emwx9agz7297srrzvsu9ecs6nfjfv Yep.


nostr:npub1qeh8frdsx2haf87vjh5xag438hv9m3txh5rtdssns6jhen0km6wqlre2mf You'll have to help me understand. I don't know what a local button is.


nostr:npub1nhl70v5cfj50j9wcu0kvgswqkqmehpew3vprqflz8was7p5zeh0s5sjdt0 Thank you for that helpful feedback.


nostr:npub1hz6gg7ceycxq5fkefwv6n7s2kyync896vz8ae2fgt3l0ry2raq9qypmt6u Sounds like an effective title.


nostr:npub1s9zvl40nf22hzz0dz6d88rgntage4m2gxhp545nvxhtaympzn8ysht9g85 I agree.


nostr:npub1k7vuzljzvulgpe2d5ekzht8m7w4trfhmey3tl8tudcrvl59yxunsuue93r Thank you for that insider's perspective. This outsider, it surely has long seemed that way!


nostr:npub1fxmqftqvyw4ndxghsax5zgtquvm6cujym5urwqpu7an96km3nyns07guxz Not quite sure what you mean by "the place you describe." The comments above are by Hubbell, not me. And, yes, these are persistent themes in Trump's rhetoric and, yes, this kind of cruelty is really apparent in some sectors of our society today.


nostr:npub1jlt8rsyezce4zspqkms02kamu4mtgrc4s9z7j0s5kwwn80q6qqkshz8mwt Yes, I very much agree.


nostr:npub16qptyvc6446hu66ahlluvymv7eu9f4q32e567d7mxqk7l5acu4wqz2u0e9 There's definitely a strong recrudescence of neo-Confederate ideas in the US today. One of the big shocks of the current situation is that this mentality is now richly represented in many places north of the Mason-Dixon line.


nostr:npub10d3j3lndnaupt7jxaema5gh6eyws5hgg4eu7a9hlf9ntast5czfs6kdux8 It is, isn't it?