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Humorous read on the Georgia GOP'ers
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If you've ever watched or read any of the Lord of the Rings series/spinoffs. Even if you haven't, this is pretty funny. https://www.yahoo.com/news/dont-care-herschel-walker-paid-123431926.html -- Em
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Brandon crushed it. ? Heck of a speech. Fiery Joe is the best Joe. And he called out the MAGATS for what they are: violent and anti-democratic. And also whiny babies who refuse to admit when they lose. “Good manners is something they've never suffered from.” Best line of the evening! ? (About the loud protestors but also the MAGA horde in general.) Sal
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Debt Relief!
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WHOO HOO! Both kids!! 20 grand!! Cancels their debt completely!! And since they weren't going to be able to afford to pay it off, I was going to help them. Amazingly, we borrowed 40 grand in total after I got laid off, in addition to the Pell Grants! Gone!! My older daughter attributes it to "the abundance of the universe." Okay then!! Such a relief, I can't even tell you. Yay!! Thank you Biden. -- Em
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From Kerry at the Smirking Chimp: "Ever wonder how authoritarian, totalitarian, or fascist systems of government come to power? Here's a hint... it's not through persuasion. Sure, they develop all kinds of disinformation, disseminated by various propaganda outlets along the way, but convincing the most people that theirs is the way to go is not how they get to where they are going. They always - 100% of the time - use violence and intimidation as the primary means of securing, and then holding, that power. That's how authoritarianism/fascism works. That's how it's designed to work. It can't work any other way. It's something to ponder, especially if you're one who would prefer not to live under that kind of system, because it's too late once they take control to do anything about it. That's why it's important to identify, early on, who they are and what they are up to. So how does one recognize a burgeoning authoritarian or fascist movement? You might want to check to see if 'widespread disinformation' is occurring, and if 'violence and intimidation' appear to be a driving force. If so, you've likely spotted one. Right now 30-35% of the Republican Party outright desires a theocratic form of fascism over our current system of government. That's not just an opinion, and it's not hyperbole. Just ask them exactly what they want, and pay attention to what they say. Yes, you'll hear words like 'constitution' and 'freedom' and 'patriot', but these are just sounds they make to distract and provide cover. They want a theocratic form of fascism, by its very definition. And if you're not on board with that, yet find yourself caught up in it, for whatever reason... please try to extricate yourself, as millions of others have. Get out of that 'information/propaganda' silo, clear your mind, and employ your own powers of discernment. Because we need a healthy debate of contrasting opinion in this country, absent the disinformation, violence, and intimidation. That's the only way a democratic society works. That's how it's designed to work. It can't work any other way." PSal
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It used to be that there was not extreme polarizaton between the two parties. There was an underlying concensus of where we wanted to be, and how to move forward. That center does not exist anymore, and as a result there is no stability in our political system. Maybe it is a result of the internet. Maybe we are just entering a different era. But until we can arrive at a center point of gravity, so to speak, things we continue as they are now, and we will become a weak, vulnerable nation.
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Realist
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On Sun, Jul 17, 2022 at 12:10 PM, Sal Sunshine wrote: On Jul 16, 2022, at 12:07 PM, Emily Mae via groups.io <emily.mae50@...> wrote: You’re beginning to sound like you’re in a cult, dumping on anyone who doesn’t toe the party line. I'm in a cult because I believe our democracy is in serious danger and I believe we have to stay united in our vote against those in the anti-democracy movement. Those who would subvert our elections at the local, state, and federal level and put tRump and his allies in power....not for a term....for a lifetime. Those who are taking over our election infrastructure, waiting for directions from tRump. As we saw in the hearing last night, all they want is to follow their fearful leader and they did, in fact, follow his orders. Rump wanted to lead his revolution, charge up to the Capitol, and overtake the US government by force. The SS prevented this, no matter their allegiance to him and their subsequent cover-up. Thank God they didn't drive him to the Capitol. So, he did nothing for hours, waiting for his army to win, for the coup attempt to land successfully and for them to maim and kill his opponents, before he rode in and take control, like any good dictator. He knew "his people," including all those in positions of responsibility and power, would fall in line after the evil deeds were done and I believe most would have and for those that resigned, he would replace them, because they weren't "loyal" enough. They are members of a cult of personality, not me. I'm a realist. We have two parties, one of which wants to destroy our form of government and is populated by millions of deluded citizens and power-hungry officials and wannabe officials. Desperate times require desperate measures, so yes, at this point in our history, I believe we have to stay united behind the Democrats, behind our president. I think tearing down the guy and focusing on what he is doing wrong, instead of what he is doing right and what he has done to try and put this country back together, is a mistake. I think blaming Biden for not being an all-powerful dictator, able with the stroke of a pen to fix all that is wrong with this country, is a mistake. I absolutely believe in the vote and more of us need to, despite our disappointments or apathy, because without the vote, we got nothin. And, the anti-democracy party has already infiltrated our institutions and system to large extent and is doing everything in their power to take it away from us and put a would-be dictator in power, as I right this. They have a coordinated and purposeful goal and plan-in-motion and we must stay united to ensure that they lose their war against democracy. -- Em
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How very American. https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/7/4/23194354/highland-park-fourth-july-parade-gunfire Sal
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? ? But Gore’s transition from dark money to dark arts was, in part, the story of the Trump era: As the party grew increasingly unmoored from democratic processes and ethical norms, and ensconced in its own paranoia, it was not enough to rely on the familiar tools of political advocacy. The opposition had to be exposed and defeated by any means necessary. Donors—some wealthy, many not—poured tens of millions of dollars into shadowy and unorthodox projects, and such schemes took on increasing prominence in conservative circles. No place was safe from these impulses—not even America’s least-populated and least-competitive state. For a long time, politicians in deep-red Wyoming had been happy to keep their distance from Washington’s daily dramas. But recently the state GOP has come to mirror the party’s national crack-up—a tense and volatile climate of censure, threats, and purges, where the dominant Trump faction is on the warpath against anyone perceived as stepping out of line. It’s become the kind of place where Dick Cheney’s own daughter could find herself run out of the party. Gore’s efforts to target those RINOs have left lingering aftershocks. For years, she had shown how much influence one committed, wealthy individual could have on a state’s civic institutions; now she was demonstrating just how much damage someone red-pilled by Trump could do to a state’s political culture. There is something both tragic and familiar about a think-tank founder turning to the guy from Blackwater to help save the democratic process. This was the underlying delusion of the Trump era: that people with the most power in American life acted as if they had the least, and that the absence of evidence was taken as proof that something was being covered up. Trump’s movement was full of people whose worst fears drove them to empty their wallets for lost causes—from the Publix heir who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the January 6 rally, to the supporters of the fraudulent GoFundMe border wall, to the people still desperately giving money to a billionaire so he can spend it at his private club. There was never a better time in conservative politics to be a hustler, and never an easier time to be a mark. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/06/susan-gore-erik-prince-right-wing-spy-op-wyoming/
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Oh Canada!
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From Michael Moore, funny/not funny: Canada’s Fourth of July Michael MooreJul 2 Yesterday, July 1, was Canada’s 4th of July. Yes, we Americans explain things through our lens, the only lens that matters, we rule the world, we’re #1, so yes, we call it your 4th of July. You Canadians call it “Canada Day”. Whatever. It’s the day you celebrate YOUR independence from the British. But you didn’t do it our way — violent Revolution! — you had to do it your way, no killing, no death, no tossing and wasting good tea. You simply waited them out until they were sick of the cold and they just left. 80 years after our revolution. But when our Continental Congress in 1777 wrote the precursor to our Constitution — “The Articles of Confederation“ — they didn’t want to leave you, Canada, out of the new country! So they included a clause that said Canada could leave the Brits behind whenever they wanted and automatically become the 14th State of the United States of America. Thank you very much. You’re welcome! Here it is, Article XI, as written by our Founding Fathers: ARTICLE XI. Canada acceding to this confederation, and joining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of this union. But no other colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine states. Canada chose not to accept our generous offer. I wonder if maybe now they’d like to reconsider? How many Canadians yesterday on Canada Day spent time at their BBQs wishing they could strip their female citizens of their reproductive rights! And strip their environmental ministry of its authority to stop carbon polluters! Oh Canada, how on May 14th of this year you must have looked longingly across the Niagara River at Buffalo while Black people were slaughtered by one of our thousands of white supremacists with legally-purchased guns! You know your Stanley Cup now sits just miles from Columbine High School! How weak you must feel having to depend on your government which pays for every single one of your doctor and hospital bills — and you, never having to suffer the pain of bankruptcy due to medical bills, because you refuse to play by the rules of the free market system which decrees there can be no health care without a profit motive! Without the shareholders getting rich through the widespread denial of medical care! All this freeloading — no wonder you’re soft! We’ll never forget that you wouldn’t join us in invading Iraq! Share How can you live like this?! Pre-voter registering every one of your citizens on the day of their birth so that they get their voter card 18 years later to the very day?! How the hell can you suppress the vote that way! Why do you resent the way Democracy works! And now your prime minister tells every American woman that if they are unable to get an abortion in the U.S. they are welcome to come to Canada and get one for free! At least 20% of America considers this an act of war! To our Canadian neighbors — I’m sure most Americans would still love to have you as part of our Great nation. As we get ready to honor our 4th of July, what a neat celebration it would be to have you with us! We’ll teach you how to shoot, how to gerrymander, and we can help you clean up your constitution (Section 28 of the current Canadian Constitution’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms: "Notwithstanding anything in this Charter, the rights and freedoms referred to in it are guaranteed equally to male and female persons.") Think about it! Share Subscribe now Leave a comment ** Comments on posts are limited to paid subscribers — but, not to worry, anyone can send me their opinions and thoughts by writing me at mike@.... I read every one of them, though obviously I can’t respond to all. **LikeCommentShare ? 2022 Michael Moore Michael Moore, P.O. Box 470, Planetarium Station New York, NY 10024 Unsubscribe
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Wakefield
If you haven't seen this series out of Australia, it's probably one of the best things I've watched this year. Entertaining as all get-out and simply brilliant! I accessed it through Showtime via Amazon Prime. Well worth the $11 bucks. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/apr/03/wakefield-review-superbly-made-and-utterly-riveting-series-based-in-a-psych-ward Rudi Dharmalingam is absolutely superb. -- Em
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One really wonders, honestly, whether if it was one of their children or grandchildren, they'd be able to stand up. Cornyn too. And the voters keep voting them in...mass psychosis indeed. The common denominator escapes them. Yep, we need more assault rifles to arm the righteous against the wicked with assault rifles. Cruz reportedly received the most money from guns-rights donors of any candidate in the 2018 election — more than $300,000. The National Rifle Association’s annual meeting is scheduled from Friday-Sunday in Houston, with Cruz listed as joining former President Donald Trump, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other firearm firebrands at the NRA’s “Leadership Forum” Friday. -- Em
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The Ongoing Slide
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https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ I subscribe to this. She's excellent. April 17th speaks to the larger and ongoing danger/demise of democracy and the political statements by Russia and a few events demonstrating the US pivot towards authoritarianism. An interesting read. Unfortunately, my plans to do some traveling to other climes and test out options to establish a second base outside the US (given what I consider the very real possibility that our democracy will be overthrown) have been interrupted because the universe has gifted me a job. A full-time job with local government. This will help me financially, which is good. The loss of my time and flexibility to see my kids and friends and pursue other things feels like a big sacrifice. Boy, have I loved being out of the daily grind. I should stop whining as I've always known I would have to go back to work and put in another at least 5 years at a minimum. How I would do that was up in the air. I tend to throw my asks, intentions, and decision points out into the universe and see what shows up in return. The reality is I'm immensely fortunate. -- Em
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Grieving for the real and imaginary
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This is good. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/07/opinion/grief.html I think often of the trauma and grief that the terror and horror of wars—all over the world but now most visibly in Ukraine overwhelms the survivors and those of us lucky to be here. I give money and grieve quietly however, we are all affected. Hitler took advantage of people's anger and fear. So did Trump as well as hitting the gas on selling nostalgia for the imaginary. -- Em
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From Robert Reich
Agree with everything except that Trump isn’t stupid. Why Trump, Putin, Xi and other dictators make disastrous decisionsThe inverse relationship between power and accurate feedbackRobert ReichMar 21 0:00 -5:23 Listen in podcast app Here’s the paradox: The higher you rise in any hierarchy, your decisions are likely to have larger and larger consequences. Yet the higher you rise, the harder it is to get accurate feedback about your decisions. I’ve worked with several presidents. All have made big blunders. I’ve also known and written about CEOs of big corporations who have made terrible mistakes. In every case, they had flawed systems for getting useful, accurate, and reliable feedback. Donald Trump (whom I didn’t work with but watched his every move) had no reliable feedback. Why? Because he surrounded himself with toadies and sycophants who didn’t dare tell him the truth. He demanded that everyone around him confirm his preferred self-image of invincibility. His White House was filled with fawning lackeys (he fired anyone who didn’t grovel). He refused to hear bad news. He rejected the validity of negative media coverage. Subscribe now As a result, Trump made among the dumbest decisions of any American president in history -- suppressing evidence of a potential crime, asking a foreign power for help with his reelection, inciting an attack on the Capitol. Some might say that all this was inevitable; it was built into his character. But his key character flaw was his unwillingness to hear anything negative. None of his horrific acts was necessary. Trump could have accomplished any number of goals far more easily had he not kept digging himself into ever-deeper holes. He was his own worst enemy. Vladimir Putin is in a similar position. He has isolated himself and banned dissenting voices. He has placed obedient lapdogs even in the Fifth Service, which is supposed to provide him intelligence. So, like Trump, Putin has no reality check. According to a new report by a respected independent reporter with sources inside the Kremlin, the Fifth Service was “afraid of angering” Putin, so “simply told him what he wanted to hear.” As a result, Putin’s attack on Ukraine has backfired terribly — on him. He badly overestimated the Russian military and underestimated Ukraine’s capacity to resist. Instead of weakening NATO, his attack has strengthened it. And now that the world’s democracies have cut off Russia’s access to the world banking system, Russia’s foreign exchange reserves have become nearly worthless. Dictators like Putin are particularly vulnerable to inaccurate feedback. Instead of independent truth-tellers, they’re often surrounded by truth-deniers. Rather than experts and investigative journalists, their world is filled with pseudo-scientists and propaganda. In place of a free press, they have agitprop and disinformation. Or look at China’s Xi Jinping. Why would he decide to enter into a “no limits” partnership with Moscow on the eve of Putin’s disastrous military campaign? Talk about blunders. Xi’s alliance with Russia has undermined China’s reputation and aggravated concerns among its neighbors about China’s global ambitions. It’s already prompted Taiwan to strengthen its defenses and pushed other regional powers such as Australia and Japan to declare their own interests in Taiwan’s security. Trump, Putin, Xi — these men aren’t stupid. What’s stupid is their systems for making decisions. They don’t include naysayers. They have no way of eliciting, recognizing, or assessing useful criticism. All are trapped in halls of mirrors that reflect back at them what they want to see and hear. The inverse relation between how high people rise in a hierarchy and the accuracy of the feedback they receive can be overcome if a leader aggressively seeks out dissenting views. But it’s almost impossible to find dissenting views in a totalitarian system where dissent is often punished. One of the great virtues of a democracy is its multiple feedback loops – its many channels for expressing alternative viewpoints and voicing uncomfortable tr
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Well...here we are. Thank God the Wannabe Orange Oligarch is not in charge. Can you even imagine what his response to Putin's war on Ukraine would be? Something like..."Putin says that Ukrainian separatists are trying to acquire nuclear arms and therefore he had no choice but to help defend the Ukrainians against these evildoers AND I BELIEVE HIM." "Putin says that the Ukrainians want to return to Mother Russia; he is supporting the people AND I BELIEVE HIM." (Kinda like if Mexico invaded Texas in the name of patriotic repatriation of its citizens to their rightful country!) "I think it would be unfair to enact sanctions on a country with such a good and strong leader." Why didn't Putin invade Ukraine when Trump was in office? Who knows really. Maybe because it would have put his puppet Trump in a tough position; he knows what a halfwit Trump is. He goes on the offense now because part of his grand delusion of a new world order under his control is revenge and retribution by destabilizing the West, providing a distraction to heroic efforts to maintain democracy here and everywhere. After all, Crimea was invaded/annexed during Obama's presidency. I hope the world acts fast enough. He won't back down voluntarily. He has to be forced and fast. He doesn't want an off-ramp. He's threatening nuclear attack. As one activist said to Boris Johnston, "WWIII has already started, we just can't see it. A no fly zone is imperative and must be maintained." Should the West call Putin's bluff? Is it a bluff? He will not leave Ukraine, imo. He is now essentially President for life. Look at Trump! Still running free and working diligently to destroy democracy. Revenge. Let him continue his quest to burn down America from a jail cell, at the very least! He has time on his side and he knows it. He has half of Congress, judges and the judicial process, governors and legislators and soon Secretaries of State. He must be arrested and bankrupted simultaneously. These are not rational actors. They are predictable in their deluded, personality disordered selves. These articles are interesting if you haven't seen. One from Megan Stack, a journalist that worked in Russia and the other is a plea from Andriy Yermak, Presidential Office of Ukraine. ( (Probably have to have a subscription; maybe not.) In Russia, I Learned, Threats Were Always Real https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/02/opinion/russia-putin-nemtsov.html As I Write, President Zelensky Is Beside Me. Please, Help Us Show Putin the Mistake He Has Made. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/02/opinion/ukraine-russia-war-zelensky.html -- Em
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From Kyiv
https://news.sky.com/story/sky-news-teams-harrowing-account-of-their-violent-ambush-in-ukraine-this-week-12557585 Real life in Kyiv. It's a miracle they survived. -- Em
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Virtual Dome
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?Good thing I didn’t make any resolutions not to trash-talk the TMO. https://enjoytmnews.org/welcome-to-online-super-radiance-fall-2020#.Yc5etipMGhA Or go right to the source! Here’s the zoom link https://comm.tm.org/virtualdome You gotta give ‘em credit, this one is classic. Sal
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"My gentle intelligent brother is now a conspiracy theorist..."
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This is pretty good. https://www.yahoo.com/news/gentle-intelligent-brother-now-conspiracy-140000548.html -- Em
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Image Name
Sat 8:39am
Sat 8:39am