It’s so fucking strange too. It’s like they brought this new TV and they’ll be damned if they’re going to be told it doesn’t work as well as advertised. I would think we could all unite about this, and we could show the world that not even the president can evade justice. But instead they’re still selling him hard.

Republicans: {smacks Donald’s ass} “This baby here can fuck up at least 10 democracies.”

People treat political parties like sports teams, taking credit for all their victories while distancing themselves personally from every loss. WE won vs THEY blew it. I my anecdotal experience it’s especially bad on the right. Most conservative voters I know proudly say they’re a Republican but liberal voters will only say they vote Democrat, not that they are one.

The two party system was a mistake

People should have realized this when the only change to the platform is “go easier on Russia”.

You have a new Conservative party, it’s called the Dems, what you need is a new progressive party to catch up with the rest of the developed world.

It’s not half, more like about 1/3, but it’s also a little more complicated than that. Basically it’s all the fault of the first past the post voting system. Because of that, the only winning strategy is a two party system, any party beyond the main two only functions as a spoiler for one of the two. As such, a lot of different policies that aren’t really connected in any way end up mashed sort of arbitrarily into one of those two parties. Republicans due to events in the Nixon presidency ended up latching onto evangelical Christians, policies that favor the rich at the expense of the poor and middle class (usually spun as fiscally responsible), and racists (lots of overlap between evangelical Christians and racists, so that’s almost redundant). Over the years the economic policies have gotten a fresh coat of paint by way of the debunked trickle down economics theory which was used as a rallying cry to oppose any regulations such as environmental and pollution controls, or policies that favored the public at the expense of corporations because the “free market” would solve all problems. Democrats then embraced essentially the opposite of all of those positions, so wound up with socially progressive policies almost by default as reactions to the policies being pushed by the racists. This is for instance how Democrats ended up being pro-choice, as the Republicans had taken an anti-abortion stance at the urging of the extreme elements of their Christian demographic.

Ironically we’ve come full circle now with Republicans ending up with many policies by default in reaction to policies being pushed by Democrats. The Republicans of today are mostly defined not by any particular policy or goal other than their historical ones and a broad opposition to all policies pushed by Democrats. They general don’t have a stance on a policy until they hear what the Democrats position will be at which point they take up whatever the opposite of that is. This is part of how Republicans ended up as the party of the gun nut. The Democrats in the late 80s and early 90s attempted to pass some gun regulations which angered the largest gun manufacturer lobbying group, the NRA, who then spent the decades since then painting the Democrats as wanting to repeal the second amendment and disarm the American public. This in turn has led the Republicans to fully embrace removing and opposing any regulations on guns.

As the generations that grew up in a segregation era US are dying off though the Republicans are finding themselves with increasingly diminished support for their racist policies. Compounding that is that decades of free market policies and consistent push back and removal of regulations has demonstrated that the “free market will sort it out” claims are complete bullshit and just leads to things getting worse, not better, at least to anyone who has been remotely paying attention. As a result we’ve recently seen the Republicans pivot to embrace anti-diversity policies such as opposition to pro-LGBTQ policies (once again driven at least initially by their religious extremists) as well as policies designed to white-wash past racism and push a revisionist American history that paints the American civil war as primarily being motivated by disagreements about the structure of the US government rather than about opposition to ending slavery.

Forty years ago the Republicans were an even mix of racists and conservative economic policies. These days they’re mostly just the racists and a small minority of true believers in trickle down economics. Since they no longer have the numbers to win elections legitimately they’ve increasingly embraced various anti-democratic policies that allow them to retain control. Until recently, relatively “normal” tricks like gerrymandering and voter suppression in conjunction with a generally lukewarm support for Democrats (who have had their own issues of late, mostly around running profoundly milquetoast candidates) have allowed the minority of Republicans to maintain control. Now that even that no longer appears to be enough to keep them in power they’re increasingly turning to outright illegal activities like voter fraud and as we saw on the 6th, insurrection. While not every person who votes Republican takes part in or even supports such illegal activities, it’s quickly approaching the point at which they will need to confront the fact that those tactics have become a core part of their parties policies, so continued support for the party is tacit approval of such tactics. Many of them no doubt will continue to support the Republican party under a ends justifies the means stance, but hopefully the misguided ones who legitimately believe in trickle down economics can be convinced that such tactics are a bridge too far.

yes he will be first against the wall, mainly because he spoke out about them, the self purging doesn’t start until after the fascist takeover.

and yes an.6 was an attempt to depose the democratically elected government, and yes it had planning, why do you think they had the gallows put up so fast? why do you think the people who broke in were armed and had cable ties? you know, the ones literally caught on video

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This statement is trying to go for neutrality in the same way that asking a woman clutching a black eye “What did you say to him?” is just gathering information.

That is: it’s not, we see through it, and we’re tired of it.

Lol because the first thing that comes to mind when people hear “USA” is “healthy”

You choosing to continue to support that political party after all of this nonsense shows a lack of moral fibre.

Whinnying would probably contribute more to the conversation though.

a cArD cArryINg rEPubLicAn

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There hasn’t been a sincere Republican since McCain died, you’re a fascist.

Can you articulate your stand on Russia?

Please specifically explain if you are for the war in Ukraine and if you think anyone is winning.

Shush. Adults are talking.

Card carrying shockingly gullible moron.

You all whinny all the time, the fuck are you talking about?

One could afford bail of course. Because we let rich criminals buy their way out of sitting in jail.

She didn’t even accidentally vote twice, she was sentenced to 8 years for the crime of completing a provisional ballot while the state figured out if she was eligible to vote or not.

Is Trump rich though?

Days in jail: 0. So far.

Feels bad man

I feel like you have a poor understanding of a lot that you talk about. So let’s just focus on the current politics and if America can heal.

This issue isn’t a east coast vs west coast thing. This is a rural vs urban issue. That’s reflected in voting in major cities vs rural areas of the same states. For that America isn’t the only place suffering from this issue. It’s why you can see fascism in general on the rise in a lot of countries. The same reason it has always worked, really. It makes life easier to blame someone/anyone else for issues. Which is the lifeblood of fascism.

It’s not that young people are leaving rural areas because they feel like there’s limited opportunity, but it’s the liberals corrupting them. It’s not that their industry is dying, but people in the cities are attacking them. It’s not that pay is poor and the work is hard so people will look for other jobs, it’s migrants/lazy workers/greedy people wanting more.

Fascism is able to latch onto these and say we’ll punish the X so that your issues go away, and once they’re gone life will be perfect. Oh X wasn’t the issue, well it’s really Y, and so on. All that’s ever needed is the correct person to stand up saying elect me and I’ll punish the X,Y,Z and it’ll make us better again, but always tends to ignore/help the real issue.

We need to increase opportunities in the rural areas, there will still be push back but it’ll help the pain of people leaving and industries dying. Need to raise working standards so immigrants aren’t abused, but also may attract other people. That way it can’t be so easy to blame them. And need to fix where wealth is leaving well nearly everyone. A poor town stays poor if most of the goods and services are imported and the people providing them don’t reinvest into the area.

All of that is still a simplification, but as I said these issues aren’t local to the US. It’s just consuming mostly US news it’s easy to miss other countries struggling with the same issues.

I mean, I don’t disagree with your sentiment but Ive some pretty big reservations. Everywhere in your essay you say America you can sub in NATO, Japan and the rest of the Five Eyes. We’re all implicit. It’s been a coalition of the willing. There’s guilt all around.

That said;

For some, Pax Americana has been a blessing. For most, actually. Billions out of poverty, the most peaceful time to have ever existed, still, today, even with anachronistic territorial war, and crimes of desperation increasing. As of now, 8/23, 86% of the world owns a smart phone. That’s 6.9 billion people.

Thats a long way. I never thought I’d see the day, honestly, where the whole world is online. I just might yet…!

But we’ve blazed quite the path, thru our atmosphere into space and just our atmosphere in general, and we’ll be dealing with that for generations to come.

And as unfortunate as it is, that’s how society has always been built. Recklessly. We strive for better as a species, I consider this a feature not a flaw, but then it makes a mess cuz we don’t know what we dont know, then some of us go big brain, figure it out, fix it or we adapt. It’s endemic. Cultural heros journey.

But yo, if America splits, there will never be peace on the North America continent ever again. America is OP because we span the distance and bridges the gap. We got a dozen deep water ports where other, major, players maybe have one. Other countries have riverS. We essentially got like, One. But it’s navigable, stretches DEEEEEEEP into almost the entire interior. And we’re resource independent.

The idiots who think we’d be better off breaking up deserve their genetics removed from the gene pool so the collective IQ isn’t drug further down by their idiocy. We’re like a giant Madagascar, who folds that hand?

At the same time, id mourn none if it fell. I think we need to federate regionally, and reduce the current fed government down to a combined armed forces and a round table or presidents, not a single one. Fucking Cascadia Unite (Canadas barely holding their shit together too, BC would totally be down).

Shit id get behind giving the cosplaytriots, err, I mean, fascists, err, I mean republi…no, fascists is more accurate. (Republicans know as much about Republicanism as they know about their bible, which is jack.fucking.shit) the south too, no need to secede! Name it Kekistan, forcibly send them all there, and let them build their wall. Fucking we should volunteer to pay for it for them, just to make sure it’s more DMZ and less Y’all Quida Convoy tail gating and shooting at sharpie hurricanes.

Wall off their Internet too, like the Mormons in heaven.

But in reality, the problems you speak of, and our inability to address them aren’t due to culture, it’s due to capitalism. Every capitalist country is teetering on the brink right now, because with nothing to keep it humble (like comparing itself to the Soviet Union) capitalism went from a more mixed economy to neoliberalism, which is the rich, generally under the legal catfish called a corporation, cannabalizing any and all value from the world.

Rage is justified. Both sides are in agreement that the upper crust needs to be cut off. Ain’t no war but the class war. #eattherich

The US is already 50 countries. The states have an incredible amount of power over their citizens. They’ve always been a confederation. States engage in trade wars with each other. California, for example, has used its massive economy to influence interstate trade and declare de facto federal laws on several occasions. We have expiration dates because of New Jersey. Some counties entire economy relies on sales to people from neighboring states where certain goods are banned. Texas, infamously, has its own electrical grid and throws a tantrum about seceding every few decades. Utah is one pair of magic underwear away from being a theocracy.

The states have factions and inter state pacts. The thing you’re missing is that constantly fighting with each other is what keeps them together. The US was never and will likely never be a homogeneous culture, and the people who founded it knew that, and encoded laws in such a way as to use that conflict as a source of opposing-force balance.

The only way the US heals is by splitting up in multiple countries.

Graham is up to his ass in this. 20 years ago I thought he was a bigot, but one who had opinions worth listening to on national security and military affairs.

What a sad little wrinkled balloon he turned out to be. Hope his ass gets indicted too.

It’s spelled “Farve”

Thankfully not a full on trump knob slobber though… Still a piece of shit but thank God for small victories.

From the linked article…

Last year, a former Trump official testified under oath to the House January 6 select committee that plans to access voting systems in Georgia were discussed in meetings at the White House, including during an Oval Office meeting on December 18, 2020,  that included Trump.

That makes him part of the conspiracy.

He was in the room FFS.

In the 2000 election in Duval County Florida they threw out over 22,000 votes from the 4 predominately black precincts that trend hard for Dems on the north sdie if Jacksonville. Out of 14 disctricts. A machine discarded these votes and the receipts for count machines were discarded similar to other counties that rushed to discard recorded evidence.

https://www.salon.com/2000/11/13/duval/

The Secretary of State that ultimately certified the faked vote tallies was Katherine Harris, under the Governor, Jeb “Please clap” Bush, brother of Bush Jr. It was a full rat fuck scenario.

FWIW Bush Jr. was showered with abuse and had eggs thrown at him and he had to abandon the traditional walk to the Capitol at his inauguration, and he was deeply unpopular at the start of his term. Only 911 bailed him out.

The only thing more powerful than your electorate is the power of the dollar.

Think of it as one party with two major wings inside it.

Neither wing will usually go too hard on the other side because they’re just there for show.

As long as politicians appoint the judges they’ll be in their pocket to maintain their bright careers.

Trump was doing a third party run to pull votes away from the democrats and then he killed that party by calling them nazis (which they clearly weren’t)

Also, this part I’m unsure of, I think he bankrolled Stone at the time?

Point is it was a very wide net of fucking the system.

That is what they have to prove. Will have to see.

A covert operation involving coffee county, but executed poorly? I think you cracked the case!

Honestly, it was probably supposed to be covffee, but the dumbass not only tweeted it instead of texting, but also misspelled it.

Shit for a while you had the pick of the litter out there: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Arpaio

Holy shit, you’re not lying. Texas has 254, Georgia is in second place with 159:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_counties_in_Georgia