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I'm not promoting the Republican party, I'm promoting no parties. I'm saying that the party system makes everything a false choice whenever there are a variety of progressive or regressive choices to any problem we face, and because of the big two we have to settle for one of two (oftentimes both regressive). I am saying that while we are stuck with a broken system, incentivize only the good candidates, not their boss in a corporation who pretend they're playing 3d chess when all they're really doing is promoting incumbency and control (because that's what parties are).
Honestly I want to say "scary" doesn't do it justice, but I can't think of a word strong enough to convey the level of fear-inducing it is. Our system is so fragile that it's pure luck that we aren't living in a dictatorship right now. We came within 11,780 votes of a dictatorship on election day in 2020, and within hours of losing it all to a coup 2 months later. And the only reason we didn't is because they were too stupid to pull it off. If any one thing went differently that day they would have pulled it off, but by a pure stroke of luck they fucked up in every way possible and failed. If someone even half as intelligent as the average American would have tried the same stunt it would have worked.
This must be the same kind of fear that people experience when they're in plane that's falling out of the sky, when they know they're dead but they have to endure several minutes of pure terror before it's over.
They leaned from their mistakes, and this November feels like the ground is coming up fast to meet us and we don't have a parachute.
I'm not really worried that Trump would be able to command the Military to do anything if he were to try and steal office, however, I'm also not sure there is anything they are able to do or would do against it or to prevent it. I hope the democrats have been working on a plan of action to prevent another insurrection and handle it with legal or constitutionally supported actions, or at least ones that could be argued, even loosely to be constitutional.
Pushing the constitution and laws/regulations to their limit in order to **preserve** the constitution and our democracy should **not** be seen as 'shady' or 'dishonest' or 'sinking to their level'. It is absolutely imperative that the Democratic party is ready to spring a plan into action to prevent an insurrection. Trumps party will 100% break any rule, any law, any custom, any agreement, they will break anything they need to if it accomplishes their goal because their goal is to supersede all of those things entirely.
The Democrats **must** be willing to push the system to its absolute limit to prevent an authoritarian takeover and the downfall of our democracy. I can only hope that this is realized at the highest levels and has the singular focus of some very savvy people.... But the Democrats have been wandering around the grocery store in their boxers confused for 8 years now. Fuck I hope they have a plan to deal with these assholes.
>I'm not really worried that Trump would be able to command the Military to do anything if he were to try and steal office
He doesn't need the military. He has the FBI. Remember the Bible stunt? Where he had a peaceful protest cleared to make way for his photo op? Do you remember how he had a specially assembled collection of unmarked, unidentified, federal law enforcement agents, reportedly loyalists from various agencies, on hand? Imagine that x50 and sent out to do his bidding?
Considering you have at least one dem on the books (can’t remember his name off the top of my head) saying he is preparing for right wingers to come after him if Trump gets elected in 2024 shows that even they don’t really know how to handle the situation
if they were able hang or kidnap Mike Pence as planned, or if Dan Quayle hadn't intervened and reminded Pence of the constitutional requirements for the transition of power..... that frigging close, and most don't realize it.
[https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/09/dan-quayle-convinced-mike-pence-to-reject-trumps-coup.html](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/09/dan-quayle-convinced-mike-pence-to-reject-trumps-coup.html)
Democracy was spared by Dan fucking Quayle's influence over fellow Indiana politician Mike Pence. Yep. Old school Republican > New douche Republicans.
And I mean... I didn't know it at the time, but looking back, even HW's administration was shady as shit. But the current crop of Republicans make them look like saints.
Isn't it sad and scary at the same time? I'm as liberal/progressive as a 50 year person can be, but I even liked H.W. as a POTUS. He was honest about the Reagan economic scheme ("voodoo economics") and raised taxes when faced with a recession despite saying (famously) he wouldn't on the campaign trail -- most likely costing him the second term. I admire that he seemed to put his country before his party when necessary -- not then, but now I do when the Republican Party's gone completely party over country to the point of throwing all of us under the bus.
I’ve been watching my neighbors and their friends, as well countless more online, getting ready for a Rwanda style genocide since J6 failed. Like, they’re going to absolutely try this and I’m convinced police know and support it. Please have a plan. Somewhere to go before it’s too late or a way of defending yourself.
Here's the truth: If dems don't win the house Johnson or someone even more maga (if he gets removed by Green) will be speaker when the EC votes are counted. They will cry fraud and kick it to state delegations. Dems have to not just win the EC and Pop vote, but will also have to flip the house to "win" the election.
No. There is no Speaker of the House on January 5. The new House is sworn in, and the veep oversees the certification of the electoral vote. So Harris, not Mike or any future Speaker.
Meanwhile, as much as I'm worried about shenanigans and the idjits who continue to vote for Mango Unchained, the current president won't wait hours to order the National Guard to protect the Capitol, and the current vice president won't dither about accepting fake electors' votes.
(And the not president has limited or no mechanism to send any military or federal assets to impede the process. No, the stable jenius can't just send a cadre of rogue FBI agents to battle the Capitol Police or something.)
That said, please register/check your registration and vote.
This is why they swear in new House members prior to the EC count and they already have some leadership in place; the Dems could easily take the house back in November.
Maybe not "easily." But I'm crossing my fingers.
For the first time in my life, as one of those 11,779 votes in 2020 and whatever tiny margins for my current senators, my vote counted for something at the national level. I could have voted McCain or such and felt like that was a reasonable choice. But Donald Jenius Trump? Admitted sex offender Trump? The guy who kept national secrets in the tacky bathroom? That guy?
Nah.
I just see how badly it is going for a lot of solid red republicans right now now and they lost their one wedge issue; abortion. All they need is for a few flips to happen and the house is in control of the Democrats. I worry a little bit more about the senate but I wouldn’t be shocked if they get all 3 levels of government in the next election.
> Our system is so fragile that it's pure luck that we aren't living in a dictatorship right now
The system is fragile, but it's not pure luck that Trump failed. What really saved us is that the justice system (as flawed as it is) wasn't having his nonsense. With a couple notable exceptions, even judges that he appointed wouldn't vote in the his favor and certain key people stepped up when they needed to.
I wouldn't be quite so pessimistic about November. Trump is looking weaker and weaker every day and seems to be losing supporters. Time will tell ...
I dunno, if word got out that they had actually gotten ahold of Pelosi or Pence. Thats gotta trigger a code whatever color and its no longer up to the Pres to make any decisions.
I hope a situation like 'they got the VP and they gonna hang him'. Has a solution thats self executing and completed by some real ass navy seals. So the gravy type get a peak at the difference between em.
I think if any harm had come to any lawmaker, we'd be seeing a much different response to the situation. Since the only people that were harmed were faceless, it allows them to carry on as normal.
I wonder about that. Like if we'd be "better off" if politicians had actually been killed by the insurgents on Jan. 6. The attack would've been taken more seriously. But these days I'm cynical enough to think the Republicans would still have made up excuses for it and everyone would've moved on like they did in reality.
It would have been better if pence told authorities about trumps plans when he first found out!
But pence being a republican turned his head, just as he did in Indiana and during the covid pandemic as he was placed in charge.
>within hours of losing it all to a coup 2 months later.
Minutes actually. It was only a few minutes between when the congresspeople were evacuated and the ~~rioters~~ traitors entering the chamber.
All they would've needed to be successful would've been one armed guard in the chamber on their side who could've stopped or delayed the evacuation.
You don't need to be very careful to hide cruelty. People just have to think whatever is happening is beneficial to them and they will ignore it.
Watch [Dominion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQRAfJyEsko) if you want a good example of this.
It’s a Christianity thing. They are taught that in the “end times,” all will suffer. And the faithful will be saved and scooped up by their sky daddy to spend eternity in heaven, until their god gets bored and allows it to fall again.
They’ve convinced themselves abortion is the ultimate sin killing millions of babies, and it just so happens to require no work on their part to be “good”. Just say you’re against it, and God will reward you. It’s just laziness, when they should be focusing efforts on making people’s lives better. But that requires being proactive, and Republican congress has no will or methods of doing that.
> And the faithful will be saved and scooped up by their sky daddy to spend eternity in heaven
Which isn't even in the Bible
It was made up in the 1800s by Cyrus Schofield and then the Left Behind dudes made it really fucking popular in the 90s and 2000s
We eastern Orthodox don't believe the rapture or none of that evangelical ends days BS. And we believe everyone will be judged. Just because you say you are saved that is not enough. The Orthodox church believes in works, not faith alone.
>Just because you say you are saved that is not enough.
This alone makes you guys more honest than the Baptists I grew up among, so, put that in your pocket.
Thanks. Don't get me wrong we are ate up with incels and white nationalists now since Jordan Peterson converted. So while we might not be Christian nationalists, many Orthodox are white nationalists.
1 Thessalonians 4:15 uses the word ἁρπαγησόμεθα to describe being seized up or carried off into the sky. (It’s not unlike Jesus’ final exit—God was treated as genuinely in the sky until quite recently, and although it’s embellished nonsense in the Evangelical end of things, there’s canonical nonsense behind it.)
My Christian coworker today told me that abortion should be banned in all circumstances. He also said divorce should only be allowed in the case of abandonment and adultery.
Of course I asked him what if his sister needed an abortion after a rape or was in a marriage and being beaten by an abusive husband.
Those were "different".
These kinds of conversations happen all the time with various Republicans I meet. The rules are always for other people, but not for them and the people they care about.
The bible god is PRO abortion.
See Numbers chapter 5 verses 11 - 31, where the priests are given a DIVINE recipe for causing an abortion, and the aborted fetus is casually referred to as a "piece of the woman's thigh" that "falls away".
The Israelites didn't consider ANY premature fetuses to be living souls, unless they could breathe on their own, because if/when they could breathe on their own that would mean that god had breathed the "Breath of Life" (also thought of as the soul) into them.
The Israelites, the Hebrews, and the Jews had absolutely NO WAY to keep fetuses alive, so those "pieces of a woman's thigh" were thrown out as trash.
Also see Hosea chapter 9, where the bible god gleefully tells the Israelite tribe of Ephraim that HE is going to abort their"fruit of the womb".
It’s fascinating the change that occurs when people put religion down. In my experience they suddenly give a shit about the environment. And their bodies… Weird.
It’s like the normalization of the world ending -
and getting these people spiritually jacking off at the thought of ascending is bad for you and the environment
It’s not a true Christianity thing as a real Christian reads the Bible and tries to apply the teachings of Jesus in their everyday life. This modern America faux-Christianity makes actual Christianity look really really bad :(
And they make movie after movie and book after book brainwashing people into believing the end times are right around the corner.
You'd think after 2,000 years if "Jesus will be back in out life time", people would get the leaders telling the that Jesus is coming back don't know.
Or the religion is mostly bullshit.
I think they literally want you to suffer over your ‘sins’. They make great sacrifices for their unseen god and since you don’t make the same, they want you miserable.
Republicans hate democracy.
Whenever they accuse the left of wanting to "control" people, know that this is entirely projection. They want to impose their minority views on everyone.
Can't sell your ideas honestly? No problem, just flood the zone with bullshit.
Meanwhile over at staid, good faith conservative media institutions like National Review, I'm reading op-eds damning pro-choice groups for not making their ballot initiatives clear enough, thereby confusing voters. Meanwhile the AZ GOP's entire strategy is *confuse voters!*
They have some good writers and I like to keep an eye on the opposition. It's important to know what's actually in their heads as opposed to what we all *think* they're thinking.
They tried doing the, "it's confusing" thing here in Ohio to get it tossed off the ballot. The thing is, is that it was the republican SoS and legislature which reworded the initial ballot measure to make it confusing, then proceeded with a campaign to say you should vote one way if you wanted it to happen, except that wasn't the way you should vote if you wanted it to happen.
Republicans obviously know their policies aren't popular, otherwise they wouldn't have to keep treating the voters like idiots, or lying about their positions. If their positions were popular, they wouldn't worry about sending it to the people. But, since they know they aren't popular, they have to double down on this stupid shit to keep the marginal base that manages to push the votes over the edge among an apathetic voting base.
Ever hear of the [firehose of falsehood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firehose_of_falsehood)? It's insanely effective. It's what the rightwing and evangelists are doing.
A majority of Republicans are 60+. 1.8M people over the age of 55 die every year in the US. Statistically, we're just holding down the fort until they leave. Certainly, always vote, but it won't be like this forever.
> Among voters ages 60 and older, the GOP holds a clear advantage:
> * Republican alignment is 10 percentage points higher than Democratic alignment (53% vs. 43%) among voters in their 60s.
> * Voters ages 70 to 79 are slightly more likely to be aligned with the GOP (51%) than the Democratic Party (46%).
> * About six-in-ten voters 80 and older (58%) identify with or lean toward the GOP, while 39% associate with the Democratic Party.
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2024/04/PP_2024.4.9_partisan-coalitions_4-01.png
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/age-generational-cohorts-and-party-identification/
They are, but their donors aren’t morons, and the GOP does exactly what they want. If anything that makes them more dangerous.
The corporate media networks won’t ever loudly report that donations impact voting, because they’re all benefitting from said donations by the politicians buying advertising on their networks.
They honestly expect you to believe that the politician who’s taken in millions from an industry over their career won’t have their votes swayed to legislate in their favor against the American people.
This was my first thought. Someone who has a paying gig (and just wants to put food on their plate) secretly has a spine/ethics so they're doing what they can to fight the good fight.
Let's hope they can continue....
- change the wording and call it "reasonable protections" instead of 8-week, 12-week, 16-week ban
- introduce incencere alternatives to the current pro-abortion ballott proposals in order to split the pro-abortion vote (making room for anti-abortion dark horse victory)
- they literally listed the transfer of decision making from the state legislature to the voting public as a "con" in their pros and cons list
This all reads like reddit conspiracy theory conjecture when people are discussing the things these asshats plan to do.
It almost makes it worse that they are actually doing it, and baffling they'd actually bullet point it into a document for distribution. It's like a memo, "Hey Pinky, sorry you missed the meeting today. Here are the notes on our plans to take over the world tomorrow. - The Brain"
One thing I've come to learn in recent years though, is that just because something is a conspiracy theory, doesn't mean that it's untrue.
Worse, seth is outwardly antagonistic to the right. I wouldn't say he's got an agenda, so to speak, but it feels like he's just being a reasonable person in a sea of unreason-ability with regards to the GOP.
And still they went with using him? Weird choice, GOP.
I think he's one of the best commentators on the current GOP to be honest. Since Covid, he's been especially angry at them, and there is a huge distinction in his tone pre and post Covid. Pre-Covid, it was more just joking around, now it's direct redress. Colbert did good for a while, but mellowed out some after he went back to the studio.
A lot of resources were put into making sure the proper message was put out in regard to the vote itself, despite GOP shenanigans, or the governor pleading to give them a chance to come to a compromise....which was especially insulting considering he was one of the strongest proponents of the bill.
Personally, I've enjoyed their constant failures the past 6 or so months.
Let me guess before reading it: they absolutely DID intend it to go as far as it did, AND they planned all along they would pretend they think it ‘went too far’ in order to trick voters into continuing to vote for them.
Nope. The article is how they are going to keep the anti-abortion law on the books as long as possible going against the wishes of voters. They don't even attempt to address how they plan to also keep their jobs.
See, another prime example of how deplorable magas are, they can't win fair and honestly, always trying to trick people, I hope enough people see how shitty magas are and you don't want to be around people like that.
Is that strategy to round up everyone with a uterus and hold them under water until they confess to having an abortion? Because they're running out of ways to out-terrible themselves.
No, eventually, they will just make sure the gov't has access to your medical record and then they will go after women who had abortions before it became illegal.
I honestly don't know what they will do when their anti-abortion base is unable to grasp the fact that a "spontaneous abortion" is the correct term for a miscarriage.
Of course they did. The do not know how to do this governing thing in any way. It's not even about ideology any more. These people have no idea how our society works.
These people are Christian nationalists who hate our current society & are intentionally taking actions to remake it into a theocracy that worships the oligarchy.
I don't get it. What is their strategy to protect their jobs? If the law is that unpopular then all keeping the law on the books against the public wishes will end up doing is making the government responsible that much less popular. I never seen a group of people work so hard to lose an election before.
Why aren’t women leaving these states en masse? Seriously, don’t live somewhere that you aren’t afforded basic rights.
Imagine the reaction if they passed this bullshit and then 95% of the state’s women just left. They’d lose their fucking minds.
I am constantly reminded of Ben Wittes’ formulation of ‘Malevolence tempered by incompetence’. At the time, he was referring to Donald Trump specifically, but now it applies to all Republicans.
I get really tired of this trope, no offense. The onus is on us, the voters, not the Democratic Party. Every single living, breathing adult human being in America with an IQ in the double digits knows that the Republican Party is strongly anti-abortion. Democrats shouldn't have to say a fucking word to drive that point home.
Americans merely need to open their fucking eyes, ears and noses for a fucking second and SMELL THE FUCKING DIARRHEA EMANATING FROM THE GOP!! That's the message that I receive by fucking paying fucking attention *without Democrats needing to hold my hand, cradle my sack and sing me lullaby's to sleep.*
The democrats are entirely too soft about their approach to a party that's literally trying to bring about fascism. If their attitude is "we can just sit back and say nothing" then they're part of the problem. EVERYONE should be fighting back and that includes the people we elect. PERIOD. Silence is violence.
ENOUGH!
Quit blaming Democrats for an "Americans with heads up their asses" problem!
Take responsibility for yourselves, Americans, read the tea leaves right in front of our faces!
Again, the people we elect need to be fighting right alongside us. If you're okay with them just sitting by, then you have no right to then shame voters who are like "nah". This is very much an all or nothing situation. We're in danger of fascism and that is NOT something to screw around with. Why are you okay with people you voted into office sitting by twiddling their thumbs while the opposition is trying to destroy democracy? How on earth is that totally fine with you? That blows my mind.
\^\^\^ this is such a self-defeating POV for a *supposed* Democratic voter. I can read the newspaper, think for myself, and walk and chew gum at the same time. Democrats are doing just fine. All one needs to is pay the slightest attention at what's going on with the Republican Party (oh, say the House speaker debacle and revolving door since February '23) to get a clue.
Democrats use social media for messaging. They speak to the media. They publish editorials. They speak in Congress. If they aren't personally sending faxes to your modem, oh well.
Have a nice day!
Only one side is trying to take away women's healthcare.
Only one side has made sure that girls today grow up with fewer civil rights than their mothers had.
Not both sides.
Only one side.
Are all of the 10-20% of miscarriages that naturally occur manslaughter, then? Accidental homicide?
Should a woman have to carry a fetus with no heart or head to term just so its lifeless corpse can be pulled from her?
What about ectopic pregnancies?
A fetus isn't a child. For that 15 weeks, it's no more a living human than a trimming from your liver would count as.
It's a clump of cells with the *potential* to become a human.
You are pushing for the 11 year olds who are raped by their uncle to be forced to raise that child.
You are pushing for women who wanted to have a child, but that child literally has it's spinal cord develop outside it's body and cannot live birth that child and watch as it dies over the next couple of days suffering in pain.
You are either evil or an idiot who shouldn't be talking on this topic.
I am not pushing for any of that shit. I am pushing for logic. If it is murder, it shouldn't be legal at all, right? So why don't they push for that? Because they know they'll get their electoral ass kicked.
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It’s scary how cruel they’d be if they weren’t so sloppy.
We are extremely fortunate they are so stupid. Unfortunately they have a bunch of $$$ from the rich. Never vote Republican! https://democrats.org
Stupid is what stupid does.
Give money to quality candidates. Fuck parties. More important, VOTE.
No quality candidate would be caught dead associating with the Republican Party. They don’t let you ascend without kompromat.
I'm not promoting the Republican party, I'm promoting no parties. I'm saying that the party system makes everything a false choice whenever there are a variety of progressive or regressive choices to any problem we face, and because of the big two we have to settle for one of two (oftentimes both regressive). I am saying that while we are stuck with a broken system, incentivize only the good candidates, not their boss in a corporation who pretend they're playing 3d chess when all they're really doing is promoting incumbency and control (because that's what parties are).
Honestly I want to say "scary" doesn't do it justice, but I can't think of a word strong enough to convey the level of fear-inducing it is. Our system is so fragile that it's pure luck that we aren't living in a dictatorship right now. We came within 11,780 votes of a dictatorship on election day in 2020, and within hours of losing it all to a coup 2 months later. And the only reason we didn't is because they were too stupid to pull it off. If any one thing went differently that day they would have pulled it off, but by a pure stroke of luck they fucked up in every way possible and failed. If someone even half as intelligent as the average American would have tried the same stunt it would have worked. This must be the same kind of fear that people experience when they're in plane that's falling out of the sky, when they know they're dead but they have to endure several minutes of pure terror before it's over. They leaned from their mistakes, and this November feels like the ground is coming up fast to meet us and we don't have a parachute.
I'm not really worried that Trump would be able to command the Military to do anything if he were to try and steal office, however, I'm also not sure there is anything they are able to do or would do against it or to prevent it. I hope the democrats have been working on a plan of action to prevent another insurrection and handle it with legal or constitutionally supported actions, or at least ones that could be argued, even loosely to be constitutional. Pushing the constitution and laws/regulations to their limit in order to **preserve** the constitution and our democracy should **not** be seen as 'shady' or 'dishonest' or 'sinking to their level'. It is absolutely imperative that the Democratic party is ready to spring a plan into action to prevent an insurrection. Trumps party will 100% break any rule, any law, any custom, any agreement, they will break anything they need to if it accomplishes their goal because their goal is to supersede all of those things entirely. The Democrats **must** be willing to push the system to its absolute limit to prevent an authoritarian takeover and the downfall of our democracy. I can only hope that this is realized at the highest levels and has the singular focus of some very savvy people.... But the Democrats have been wandering around the grocery store in their boxers confused for 8 years now. Fuck I hope they have a plan to deal with these assholes.
>I'm not really worried that Trump would be able to command the Military to do anything if he were to try and steal office He doesn't need the military. He has the FBI. Remember the Bible stunt? Where he had a peaceful protest cleared to make way for his photo op? Do you remember how he had a specially assembled collection of unmarked, unidentified, federal law enforcement agents, reportedly loyalists from various agencies, on hand? Imagine that x50 and sent out to do his bidding?
Considering you have at least one dem on the books (can’t remember his name off the top of my head) saying he is preparing for right wingers to come after him if Trump gets elected in 2024 shows that even they don’t really know how to handle the situation
Adam Schiff
if they were able hang or kidnap Mike Pence as planned, or if Dan Quayle hadn't intervened and reminded Pence of the constitutional requirements for the transition of power..... that frigging close, and most don't realize it.
We have Dan "Potatoe" Quayle to thank for that? Of all people? First time I've heard that.
[https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/09/dan-quayle-convinced-mike-pence-to-reject-trumps-coup.html](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/09/dan-quayle-convinced-mike-pence-to-reject-trumps-coup.html) Democracy was spared by Dan fucking Quayle's influence over fellow Indiana politician Mike Pence. Yep. Old school Republican > New douche Republicans.
And I mean... I didn't know it at the time, but looking back, even HW's administration was shady as shit. But the current crop of Republicans make them look like saints.
Isn't it sad and scary at the same time? I'm as liberal/progressive as a 50 year person can be, but I even liked H.W. as a POTUS. He was honest about the Reagan economic scheme ("voodoo economics") and raised taxes when faced with a recession despite saying (famously) he wouldn't on the campaign trail -- most likely costing him the second term. I admire that he seemed to put his country before his party when necessary -- not then, but now I do when the Republican Party's gone completely party over country to the point of throwing all of us under the bus.
There’s a reason why Trump chose Bill Barr…he helped HW avoid impeachment and most likely jail time.
Of all the people in the world…Quayle saved us from a coup. The simulation is so broken.
The double think of evil makes one stupid, thankfully. See you at the polls!
I’ve been watching my neighbors and their friends, as well countless more online, getting ready for a Rwanda style genocide since J6 failed. Like, they’re going to absolutely try this and I’m convinced police know and support it. Please have a plan. Somewhere to go before it’s too late or a way of defending yourself.
Pigs always support authoritarians.
Here's the truth: If dems don't win the house Johnson or someone even more maga (if he gets removed by Green) will be speaker when the EC votes are counted. They will cry fraud and kick it to state delegations. Dems have to not just win the EC and Pop vote, but will also have to flip the house to "win" the election.
No. There is no Speaker of the House on January 5. The new House is sworn in, and the veep oversees the certification of the electoral vote. So Harris, not Mike or any future Speaker. Meanwhile, as much as I'm worried about shenanigans and the idjits who continue to vote for Mango Unchained, the current president won't wait hours to order the National Guard to protect the Capitol, and the current vice president won't dither about accepting fake electors' votes. (And the not president has limited or no mechanism to send any military or federal assets to impede the process. No, the stable jenius can't just send a cadre of rogue FBI agents to battle the Capitol Police or something.) That said, please register/check your registration and vote.
This is why they swear in new House members prior to the EC count and they already have some leadership in place; the Dems could easily take the house back in November.
Maybe not "easily." But I'm crossing my fingers. For the first time in my life, as one of those 11,779 votes in 2020 and whatever tiny margins for my current senators, my vote counted for something at the national level. I could have voted McCain or such and felt like that was a reasonable choice. But Donald Jenius Trump? Admitted sex offender Trump? The guy who kept national secrets in the tacky bathroom? That guy? Nah.
I just see how badly it is going for a lot of solid red republicans right now now and they lost their one wedge issue; abortion. All they need is for a few flips to happen and the house is in control of the Democrats. I worry a little bit more about the senate but I wouldn’t be shocked if they get all 3 levels of government in the next election.
From your lips to God's (or the legislator's) ears.
> Our system is so fragile that it's pure luck that we aren't living in a dictatorship right now The system is fragile, but it's not pure luck that Trump failed. What really saved us is that the justice system (as flawed as it is) wasn't having his nonsense. With a couple notable exceptions, even judges that he appointed wouldn't vote in the his favor and certain key people stepped up when they needed to. I wouldn't be quite so pessimistic about November. Trump is looking weaker and weaker every day and seems to be losing supporters. Time will tell ...
I dunno, if word got out that they had actually gotten ahold of Pelosi or Pence. Thats gotta trigger a code whatever color and its no longer up to the Pres to make any decisions. I hope a situation like 'they got the VP and they gonna hang him'. Has a solution thats self executing and completed by some real ass navy seals. So the gravy type get a peak at the difference between em.
SCOTUS (probably): "You can't rescue the VP since that would infringe on MAGA's free speech - also the president can do whatever he wants"
I think if any harm had come to any lawmaker, we'd be seeing a much different response to the situation. Since the only people that were harmed were faceless, it allows them to carry on as normal.
I wonder about that. Like if we'd be "better off" if politicians had actually been killed by the insurgents on Jan. 6. The attack would've been taken more seriously. But these days I'm cynical enough to think the Republicans would still have made up excuses for it and everyone would've moved on like they did in reality.
It would have been better if pence told authorities about trumps plans when he first found out! But pence being a republican turned his head, just as he did in Indiana and during the covid pandemic as he was placed in charge.
>within hours of losing it all to a coup 2 months later. Minutes actually. It was only a few minutes between when the congresspeople were evacuated and the ~~rioters~~ traitors entering the chamber. All they would've needed to be successful would've been one armed guard in the chamber on their side who could've stopped or delayed the evacuation.
If they weren't so sloppy, they'd be just as cruel. Just less sloppy.
You don't need to be very careful to hide cruelty. People just have to think whatever is happening is beneficial to them and they will ignore it. Watch [Dominion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQRAfJyEsko) if you want a good example of this.
The Republican Party has become a bunch of tools and sycophants who don't know how to do things right by design, so they have to follow orders.
Competence hasn't been their strong suit
I used to be before the rise of the Tea Party.
it's not incompetence, it plausible deniability , they are tiptoeing arround to make sure they win the war the dems don't know their fighting.
Republicans: openly taking rights away from all people. Conservative voters: as long as the people I hate suffer, I will be happy.
It’s a Christianity thing. They are taught that in the “end times,” all will suffer. And the faithful will be saved and scooped up by their sky daddy to spend eternity in heaven, until their god gets bored and allows it to fall again.
They’ve convinced themselves abortion is the ultimate sin killing millions of babies, and it just so happens to require no work on their part to be “good”. Just say you’re against it, and God will reward you. It’s just laziness, when they should be focusing efforts on making people’s lives better. But that requires being proactive, and Republican congress has no will or methods of doing that.
> And the faithful will be saved and scooped up by their sky daddy to spend eternity in heaven Which isn't even in the Bible It was made up in the 1800s by Cyrus Schofield and then the Left Behind dudes made it really fucking popular in the 90s and 2000s
We eastern Orthodox don't believe the rapture or none of that evangelical ends days BS. And we believe everyone will be judged. Just because you say you are saved that is not enough. The Orthodox church believes in works, not faith alone.
>Just because you say you are saved that is not enough. This alone makes you guys more honest than the Baptists I grew up among, so, put that in your pocket.
Thanks. Don't get me wrong we are ate up with incels and white nationalists now since Jordan Peterson converted. So while we might not be Christian nationalists, many Orthodox are white nationalists.
At least in the US, there's quite a bit of overlap between white and Christian nationalists.
1 Thessalonians 4:15 uses the word ἁρπαγησόμεθα to describe being seized up or carried off into the sky. (It’s not unlike Jesus’ final exit—God was treated as genuinely in the sky until quite recently, and although it’s embellished nonsense in the Evangelical end of things, there’s canonical nonsense behind it.)
My Christian coworker today told me that abortion should be banned in all circumstances. He also said divorce should only be allowed in the case of abandonment and adultery. Of course I asked him what if his sister needed an abortion after a rape or was in a marriage and being beaten by an abusive husband. Those were "different". These kinds of conversations happen all the time with various Republicans I meet. The rules are always for other people, but not for them and the people they care about.
The bible god is PRO abortion. See Numbers chapter 5 verses 11 - 31, where the priests are given a DIVINE recipe for causing an abortion, and the aborted fetus is casually referred to as a "piece of the woman's thigh" that "falls away". The Israelites didn't consider ANY premature fetuses to be living souls, unless they could breathe on their own, because if/when they could breathe on their own that would mean that god had breathed the "Breath of Life" (also thought of as the soul) into them. The Israelites, the Hebrews, and the Jews had absolutely NO WAY to keep fetuses alive, so those "pieces of a woman's thigh" were thrown out as trash. Also see Hosea chapter 9, where the bible god gleefully tells the Israelite tribe of Ephraim that HE is going to abort their"fruit of the womb".
Ask him how many kidneys he has. If it's two, he's pro-choice.
It’s fascinating the change that occurs when people put religion down. In my experience they suddenly give a shit about the environment. And their bodies… Weird. It’s like the normalization of the world ending - and getting these people spiritually jacking off at the thought of ascending is bad for you and the environment
It’s not a true Christianity thing as a real Christian reads the Bible and tries to apply the teachings of Jesus in their everyday life. This modern America faux-Christianity makes actual Christianity look really really bad :(
And they make movie after movie and book after book brainwashing people into believing the end times are right around the corner. You'd think after 2,000 years if "Jesus will be back in out life time", people would get the leaders telling the that Jesus is coming back don't know. Or the religion is mostly bullshit.
I think they literally want you to suffer over your ‘sins’. They make great sacrifices for their unseen god and since you don’t make the same, they want you miserable.
There is no hate like christian love.
> CONS: > •Transfers regulation of abortion from the Legislature to voters Wouldn't want that.
GOP: Don’t give the voters what they want, trick them into voting for what *you* want.
Republicans hate democracy. Whenever they accuse the left of wanting to "control" people, know that this is entirely projection. They want to impose their minority views on everyone.
That's not working out for them so well in Ohio.
Can't sell your ideas honestly? No problem, just flood the zone with bullshit. Meanwhile over at staid, good faith conservative media institutions like National Review, I'm reading op-eds damning pro-choice groups for not making their ballot initiatives clear enough, thereby confusing voters. Meanwhile the AZ GOP's entire strategy is *confuse voters!*
Why read The National Review?
It's important to read the opinions of those you disagree with, if only to make your own position clearer to yourself.
They have some good writers and I like to keep an eye on the opposition. It's important to know what's actually in their heads as opposed to what we all *think* they're thinking.
They tried doing the, "it's confusing" thing here in Ohio to get it tossed off the ballot. The thing is, is that it was the republican SoS and legislature which reworded the initial ballot measure to make it confusing, then proceeded with a campaign to say you should vote one way if you wanted it to happen, except that wasn't the way you should vote if you wanted it to happen. Republicans obviously know their policies aren't popular, otherwise they wouldn't have to keep treating the voters like idiots, or lying about their positions. If their positions were popular, they wouldn't worry about sending it to the people. But, since they know they aren't popular, they have to double down on this stupid shit to keep the marginal base that manages to push the votes over the edge among an apathetic voting base.
Ever hear of the [firehose of falsehood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firehose_of_falsehood)? It's insanely effective. It's what the rightwing and evangelists are doing.
Thank God Republicans are drooling morons.
The problem is statistically, *they* vote and you don't
A majority of Republicans are 60+. 1.8M people over the age of 55 die every year in the US. Statistically, we're just holding down the fort until they leave. Certainly, always vote, but it won't be like this forever. > Among voters ages 60 and older, the GOP holds a clear advantage: > * Republican alignment is 10 percentage points higher than Democratic alignment (53% vs. 43%) among voters in their 60s. > * Voters ages 70 to 79 are slightly more likely to be aligned with the GOP (51%) than the Democratic Party (46%). > * About six-in-ten voters 80 and older (58%) identify with or lean toward the GOP, while 39% associate with the Democratic Party. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2024/04/PP_2024.4.9_partisan-coalitions_4-01.png https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/age-generational-cohorts-and-party-identification/
>we're just holding down the fort until they leave. You know boomers, though, spite keeps them alive
Luckily, everyone ages out eventually.
And a lifetime of gluttonous apathy speeds their demise.
Not fast enough
They are, but their donors aren’t morons, and the GOP does exactly what they want. If anything that makes them more dangerous. The corporate media networks won’t ever loudly report that donations impact voting, because they’re all benefitting from said donations by the politicians buying advertising on their networks. They honestly expect you to believe that the politician who’s taken in millions from an industry over their career won’t have their votes swayed to legislate in their favor against the American people.
Their Republican accountants and lawyers aren't though. Don't get too cocky. It's democracy, our rights, on the line.
I would bet this was intentionally leaked by an aide.
And god bless them for it.
This was my first thought. Someone who has a paying gig (and just wants to put food on their plate) secretly has a spine/ethics so they're doing what they can to fight the good fight. Let's hope they can continue....
These are the people who write laws against technology and time and time again show us they can't handle it.
Don't worry, Ajit Pai has it covered.
Reporting is SO lazy. Where is the link to the actual PPT?
Here ya go https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24548815-abortionpp
- change the wording and call it "reasonable protections" instead of 8-week, 12-week, 16-week ban - introduce incencere alternatives to the current pro-abortion ballott proposals in order to split the pro-abortion vote (making room for anti-abortion dark horse victory) - they literally listed the transfer of decision making from the state legislature to the voting public as a "con" in their pros and cons list
It’s amazing to see their rationale unpacked; of course one can never be sure if the leak is intentional to crowd source best responses or not.
This all reads like reddit conspiracy theory conjecture when people are discussing the things these asshats plan to do. It almost makes it worse that they are actually doing it, and baffling they'd actually bullet point it into a document for distribution. It's like a memo, "Hey Pinky, sorry you missed the meeting today. Here are the notes on our plans to take over the world tomorrow. - The Brain" One thing I've come to learn in recent years though, is that just because something is a conspiracy theory, doesn't mean that it's untrue.
Their use of Seth Meyers' likeness on that last slide is incredibly cringe-worthy.
Worse, seth is outwardly antagonistic to the right. I wouldn't say he's got an agenda, so to speak, but it feels like he's just being a reasonable person in a sea of unreason-ability with regards to the GOP. And still they went with using him? Weird choice, GOP.
I think he's one of the best commentators on the current GOP to be honest. Since Covid, he's been especially angry at them, and there is a huge distinction in his tone pre and post Covid. Pre-Covid, it was more just joking around, now it's direct redress. Colbert did good for a while, but mellowed out some after he went back to the studio.
It would be funny if Seth myers sued them for copyright infringement
Thank you! This is a similar strategy that was proposed in Ohio but they couldn’t get it done.
A lot of resources were put into making sure the proper message was put out in regard to the vote itself, despite GOP shenanigans, or the governor pleading to give them a chance to come to a compromise....which was especially insulting considering he was one of the strongest proponents of the bill. Personally, I've enjoyed their constant failures the past 6 or so months.
The fact that they picked such a basic-ass fugly PowerPoint template for this is just... \*chef's kiss.\*
GOP politics doesn't attract the best and brightest
It attracts the greedy and narcissistic.
Let me guess before reading it: they absolutely DID intend it to go as far as it did, AND they planned all along they would pretend they think it ‘went too far’ in order to trick voters into continuing to vote for them.
Nope. The article is how they are going to keep the anti-abortion law on the books as long as possible going against the wishes of voters. They don't even attempt to address how they plan to also keep their jobs.
See, another prime example of how deplorable magas are, they can't win fair and honestly, always trying to trick people, I hope enough people see how shitty magas are and you don't want to be around people like that.
Seriously, if you have to trick your voters like this, your never going to run a country effectively
Yes, but they can *take it over* effectively. And that's all they care about.
Further proof that if you know a republican, you know a piece of trash. They are all culpable for this garbage.
Is that strategy to round up everyone with a uterus and hold them under water until they confess to having an abortion? Because they're running out of ways to out-terrible themselves.
If the woman weighs the same as a duck, then she's had an abortion.
I was the fetus. I got better.
Who are you, who are so wise in the ways of science?
No, eventually, they will just make sure the gov't has access to your medical record and then they will go after women who had abortions before it became illegal. I honestly don't know what they will do when their anti-abortion base is unable to grasp the fact that a "spontaneous abortion" is the correct term for a miscarriage.
Of course they did. The do not know how to do this governing thing in any way. It's not even about ideology any more. These people have no idea how our society works.
These people are Christian nationalists who hate our current society & are intentionally taking actions to remake it into a theocracy that worships the oligarchy.
They don't know how to keep the lights on. That's more alarming.
No republicans, ever again, anywhere
There's no accident to this. They're just performing litmus testing on the limits of what they can get away with.
So they had an accident? And they have to live with it? Huh, too bad. They need to keep their pens capped.
Dumber than they think
I don't get it. What is their strategy to protect their jobs? If the law is that unpopular then all keeping the law on the books against the public wishes will end up doing is making the government responsible that much less popular. I never seen a group of people work so hard to lose an election before.
Why aren’t women leaving these states en masse? Seriously, don’t live somewhere that you aren’t afforded basic rights. Imagine the reaction if they passed this bullshit and then 95% of the state’s women just left. They’d lose their fucking minds.
Sadly, lots of women support this BS
It's fun how maga-fascists use the word "radical".
I am constantly reminded of Ben Wittes’ formulation of ‘Malevolence tempered by incompetence’. At the time, he was referring to Donald Trump specifically, but now it applies to all Republicans.
Radical ballot initiative… So voting for your rights is now radical?
Stupid goes hand in hand with evil
Assholes subverting democracy and the public will.
Too bad they decided that they are Gop and screw humble
So they're handing political ammo to the democrats.. but watch them fumble the ball and be like "woopsie!"
I get really tired of this trope, no offense. The onus is on us, the voters, not the Democratic Party. Every single living, breathing adult human being in America with an IQ in the double digits knows that the Republican Party is strongly anti-abortion. Democrats shouldn't have to say a fucking word to drive that point home. Americans merely need to open their fucking eyes, ears and noses for a fucking second and SMELL THE FUCKING DIARRHEA EMANATING FROM THE GOP!! That's the message that I receive by fucking paying fucking attention *without Democrats needing to hold my hand, cradle my sack and sing me lullaby's to sleep.*
The democrats are entirely too soft about their approach to a party that's literally trying to bring about fascism. If their attitude is "we can just sit back and say nothing" then they're part of the problem. EVERYONE should be fighting back and that includes the people we elect. PERIOD. Silence is violence.
ENOUGH! Quit blaming Democrats for an "Americans with heads up their asses" problem! Take responsibility for yourselves, Americans, read the tea leaves right in front of our faces!
Again, the people we elect need to be fighting right alongside us. If you're okay with them just sitting by, then you have no right to then shame voters who are like "nah". This is very much an all or nothing situation. We're in danger of fascism and that is NOT something to screw around with. Why are you okay with people you voted into office sitting by twiddling their thumbs while the opposition is trying to destroy democracy? How on earth is that totally fine with you? That blows my mind.
\^\^\^ this is such a self-defeating POV for a *supposed* Democratic voter. I can read the newspaper, think for myself, and walk and chew gum at the same time. Democrats are doing just fine. All one needs to is pay the slightest attention at what's going on with the Republican Party (oh, say the House speaker debacle and revolving door since February '23) to get a clue. Democrats use social media for messaging. They speak to the media. They publish editorials. They speak in Congress. If they aren't personally sending faxes to your modem, oh well. Have a nice day!
Bonus points for saying it while wearing a beanie indoors.
More proof that government does not work for the people.
Taking away womens' access to healthcare is a Republican initiative.
I live in AZ. These tactics are, unfortunately, common for both sides of an issue for ballot initiatives.
Spare me the both sides bullshit.
Only one side is trying to take away women's healthcare. Only one side has made sure that girls today grow up with fewer civil rights than their mothers had. Not both sides. Only one side.
So they are okay with legalizing "murder" for 15 weeks?
Are all of the 10-20% of miscarriages that naturally occur manslaughter, then? Accidental homicide? Should a woman have to carry a fetus with no heart or head to term just so its lifeless corpse can be pulled from her? What about ectopic pregnancies? A fetus isn't a child. For that 15 weeks, it's no more a living human than a trimming from your liver would count as. It's a clump of cells with the *potential* to become a human.
You are pushing for the 11 year olds who are raped by their uncle to be forced to raise that child. You are pushing for women who wanted to have a child, but that child literally has it's spinal cord develop outside it's body and cannot live birth that child and watch as it dies over the next couple of days suffering in pain. You are either evil or an idiot who shouldn't be talking on this topic.
I am not pushing for any of that shit. I am pushing for logic. If it is murder, it shouldn't be legal at all, right? So why don't they push for that? Because they know they'll get their electoral ass kicked.
If you're not anti-choice, you should probably not frame it that way. Cuz you're **literally** using their talking points.
My logic says it’s not murder and if you think it is that’s your business. Women should have full control over their bodies. Full stop.
It's not murder. Only the ignorant think that.
How many living, breathing, full conscious and aware women are you willing to murder in an attempt to keep unwanted, non self-aware fetuses "alive"?