Mr. Trump’s voters are granted a level of care and coddling that defies credulity and that is afforded to no other voting bloc. Many of them believe the most ludicrous things: babies being aborted after birth and children going to school as one gender and returning home surgically altered as another gender even though these things simply do not happen. Time and again, we hear the wild lies these voters believe and we act as if they are sharing the same reality as ours, as if they are making informed decisions about legitimate issues. We act as if they get to dictate the terms of political engagement on a foundation of fevered mendacity.
We must refuse to participate in a mass delusion. We must refuse to accept that the ignorance on display is a congenital condition rather than a choice. All of us should refuse to pretend that any of this is normal and that these voters are just woefully misunderstood and that if only the Democrats addressed their economic anxiety, they might vote differently. While they are numerous, that does not make them right.
These are adults, so let us treat them like adults. Let us acknowledge that they want to believe nonsense and conjecture. They want to believe anything that affirms their worldview. They want to celebrate a leader who allows them to nurture their basest beliefs about others. The biggest challenge of our lifetime will be figuring out how to combat the American willingness to embrace flagrant misinformation and bigotry.
Saturday, November 30, 2024
On Trump's Insane Voters
Monday, November 25, 2024
Inequality Will Explode in Trump’s Second Term
Trump’s win represents the long triumph of a bipartisan embrace of oligarchy over our politics — and the ultra-rich are about to get even richer.
Thursday, November 14, 2024
Trump's Insane Clown Cabinet
Pedophile freak Matt Gaetz for AG.
Loonball RFK Jr for HHS Secretary.
FoxNews host Pete Hegseth as head of the Defense Dept.
Russian asset Tulsi Gabbard for DNI.
Puppy killer Kristi Noem for DHS Secretary
A wild bunch of deranged assholes just like Trump.
Trump's cabinet is a 'grab bag' of 'freaks' — and that could save democracy: legal expert
NYT: Trump's Reckless Choices for Leadership
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/13/republicans-matt-gaetz-trump-attorney-general
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-expected-select-rfk-jr-lead-hhs-politico-reports-2024-11-14/
Pete Hegseth is a far right Christian nationalist
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-trump-cabinet-comes-into-view
Trump Nominates Insane Anti-Vaxxer RFK Jr. for HHS secretary
What a bunch of fucking assholes
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-expected-select-rfk-jr-lead-hhs-politico-reports-2024-11-14/
https://x.com/JacobRubashkin/status/1857160447151255587
When RFK was running for president he said he would stop research on drug development and infectious diseases for eight years.
America's Biggest Asshole Donald Trump Elected 47th President --
I thought I lived in a country where a candidate for public office could never be elected who was (or did) ALL of the following:
-- a convicted felon
-- indicted in multiple states and out on bail
-- long time friends with America's most notorious pedophile and sex trafficker
-- an adjudicated rapist
-- credibly accused of sexual assault against dozens of women
-- praised Hitler and wanted to have Hitler's generals
-- repeatedly disrespected US troops and veterans
-- unable to get most of the people who had previously worked for him to endorse him
-- was described as a fascist by 2 high level Generals who worked for him
-- tried to overthrow a national election and incited an attack on the US Capitol
-- lied about the severity of and mishandled a massive pandemic leading to the unnecessary deaths of 100,000s of Americans
-- openly admired and praised all of the world's current most brutal genocidal dictators
-- a repeated purveyor of blatant racist rhetoric
-- vowed to use military force to go after his domestic enemies
-- vowed to weaponize the justice system against his political opponents
-- used vile insulting language to describe his political opponents
-- America's most documented and prolific liar
-- used his previous time in office to personally enrich himself
-- used the power of his previous time as president to pardon his cronies who had committed crimes for him
-- corruptly sold pardons
-- refused to release his medical records despite showing signs of cognitive impairment and severe delusion
-- denied the reality of climate change, the most pressing crisis facing the world
-- kept his taxes and personal finances opaque, likely covering up foreign payments
-- groomed by Russian intelligence
-- a long history of immorality and extra-marital affairs
-- no clear understanding of government programs and policy
— no clear understanding of US or world history
-- was easily and obviously manipulated by flattery
-- promoted extreme conspiracy theories and cultivated a cult-like following
-- sold scam products throughout his life including while running for president
-- turned the Republican party into a family-run nepotistic enterprise
-- said the US constitution should be "terminated" after he lost the 2020 presidential election
-- vowed to be a dictator on day 1 of being president.
But I guess I was wrong.
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Apparently, Nothing Matters
Charlie Sykes: “Whatever the final margin, the American people have returned this blatantly, dangerously unfit man to power. In the end, nothing mattered. Not the sexual assaults, the frauds, the lies, or the felonies. Not the raw bigotry of his campaign; not the insults, nor the threats. In the most graphic terms imaginable, the American people were warned of the danger. His previously loyal vice president refused to endorse him; his top general called him a ‘total fascist’; some of his closes aides and cabinet members described in detail his erratic character and his indifference to the Constitution.”
“But in the end, Trump was right. He could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and still win a presidential election. But, we know now that it was worse. Trump never fired a weapon on a New York City street, but he stood at the center of our politics and incited a violent mob to attack the U.S. Capitol. And it didn’t matter. And it didn’t matter that he tried to overturn a free and fair election…”
“This is the hardest part about today: realizing that our fellow Americans saw all of that; watched all of that; listened to all of that, and still said, ‘Yes, that’s what we want.’ That’s who we are.”
https://politicalwire.com/2024/11/06/apparently-nothing-matters/
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One thing for sure is that the oligarchs, the billionaires, won. They pushed Biden out via the media and by vowing to cut off funding to Dems. They made sure the media wouldn't focus on Trump's treason and his crimes. The poured huge amounts of dark money into Trump. They spread endless disinformation that confused the fuck out of the electorate. That ensured Dems would be fighting uphill the whole way. I feel bad for Kamala. She was really screwed despite doing a great job with what she had.
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Quite likely that weird assassination op was a big factor in swinging the election.
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One big thing that happened this last election was way too many liberals who were well-versed in all things Trump, had convinced themselves that Trump was too terrible, too toxic, too criminal for enough people to vote for him and convinced themselves that Harris would win. Some people I listen to were saying over and over way too confidently that Harris will definitely win or even win in a landslide. I was relatively confident that Harris would win but at the same time, held out the possibility of that creature winning.
I really didn't like people being overly confident in Harris winning because I was superstitious that it would jinx it. Possibly a lot of people let their foot off the gas in the election thinking he wasn't going to win and they didn't need to spend much effort. Personally I donated as much as I could and sent letters and made some calls. But I'm sure was there some over-confidence (despite the Harris campaign many times saying they were the underdog).
Everyone I know who follows the orange turd found it hard to believe he would be elected.
Well, now we know exactly how insane Republicans are, how badly they have been misled at best and how deranged at worst.
Still we need to get back in the game. I certainly don't feel now as freaked out as I did on Tuesday and really do want to continue to fight this conservative regime.
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I’m not gonna participate in the Democrat circular firing squad.
We got massively outspent by dark money.
Russia fucked with us again.
I understand black women feeling betrayed.
The rest of us need to pick up the slack.
The country didn’t change, we just have worse people at the top.
We know exactly who Republicans are and they have completely beclowned themselves.
There’s absolutely no way a Trump presidency ends successfully.
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I'm hoping that while the first time was a tragedy, this second time will be a farce (as opposed to a bigger tragedy). There are some reasons for optimism. Most notably it is highly likely the White House will be completely dysfunctional, with a truly mentally incompetent POTUS. The House of Representatives will be either have a very tiny GOP majority and thus will be completely dysfunctional or have Dem control and thus be able to block a huge part of the GOP agenda.
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Lawrence O'Donnell has an interesting question tonight-- who is really going to be president? Because it's clear that Trump has no interest in the job, he simply can't do the job, he can't even form a coherent statement on any policy.
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After the initial massive panic attack Tuesday subsided and I got some rest, I'm feeling so much more optimistic and ready to push back against this new evil regime. At first on Tuesday night, I just was honestly scared and felt like the future was destroyed. But I was reminded how similar this felt to 2004 which was also a shock, where the horrible GWBush was re-elected in a bit of an upset, with full Congressional control and all kinds of fears that hew would be a dictator and a Hitler and enact martial law. But he quickly frittered his power on a failed attempt to privatize Social Security and revelations about illegal wiretapping and doing torture (a war crime) in Iraq and on 9/11 suspects. And then in just two years, Dems won the House big and then 2 years later, elected Barack Obama.
While I very much would rather not have to deal with this horrible man and his gang of crooks and freaks, I feel like I know better know how to live and fight back under another Trump term. There are very real threats but I am oddly optimistic. Maybe too optimistic and I know I'm not as affected by what they could do as so many women and minorities, but still I feel like we can stop the worst from happening and get back to a much better place in not too far into the future.
All that being said, I still don't know what exactly happened to the Roe vote and the women's vote.
And I'm really pissed that trump's massive history of utter criminality was basically ignored in this campaign.
Finally, I would feel so much better about doing political work if I didn't have to spend so much fucking time deleting endless emails and texts asking for money.
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The thing that pisses me off about the MOST about this election is Trump getting away with EVERYTHING.
He got away with not just all his well-documented crimes, but also all the horrible stuff he did as president, like all the people that died unnecessarily from Covid, all the deep corruption, the corrupt pardons, the Russian collusion.
But most acutely for me is that he got away with just endless lies and truly gross insults in this campaign. He got away with horrible racism. He got away with treating Americans like suckers and losers and treating the US constitution like garbage.
His win fucking legitimized ALL the lies and racism and bigotry, so now anyone can same the same things and feel like it's OK.
No matter who is to blame for all of this, I will never not be mad about this and absolutely NEVER FORGIVE what he did to us.
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As the collective freak out continues, Harris will lose by about 2 points. Trump will get about 50.3% of the vote. Across the Rust Belt swing states Harris would have lost by less than 150K votes it seems.
So... Trump isn't some wizard or genius. It seems 3 factors determined this election.
1) Post pandemic reality where nearly every incumbent party lost.
2) Racism and misogyny that many white colleagues still refuse to acknowledge as a major factor.
3) Right-wing media domination and disinformation.
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SO MUCH Disinfo